scrappassion

Hello March!

This March has started out gorgeously, warm and sunny. Let's hope it will continue the same.

I have two layouts to show. One is for TCR #100 and the other is for a Norwegian sketch challenge blog Skissedilla.

 

This is TCR color palette#100

and this is my layout

This is a photo of me and Franco back in 94 when we spent Christmas in Finland at my Mom's. Lovely memories.

 

The second layout is for Skissedilla. This is the first time I play there. This is the sketch #153

I followed the sketch but moved the main accent=the hat and the weed to the right and replaced them with a huge number 12 for Andrea's 12th birthday

 

Sketchy Thursdays challenge

edited: I was chosen as Sketchy Thursday's fave with this layout!  *happy face*

Here's this week's Sketchy Thursdays' sketch 

and here's my layout.

Some gesso, use of stencil with mist, splashes of paint and some stitching. 

When...

I just finished this layout for OUAS (Once Upon A... Sketch) challenge blog where the sketch was this

When did my lil boy become a teenager?

The photos were taken in April. I swear in January Andrea was still shorter than me. It's almost as if he changed overnight. Incredible...

 

I started the layout using stencils and modeling paste on blue cardstock to give it some texture and roughness and then I painted strokes of red acrylic paint. I made the bracket and put some twine around it and a couple of eyelets for a masculine touch.

 

I added the washer and a piece of a measuring tape.

 

The clock is Tim Holtz's stamp. I used Distress Ink Black Soot and put clear embossing powder on it (it doesn't show in the pictures, not even in the closeup). The measuring tape and the clock of course show the time and the growth.

I mounted the photos on a piece of Fancy Pants pink paper with flowers to show that Andrea also has a softer and more affectionate side to him. It's not all  Mom-you-don't-get-it. LOL.

I stitched around the various papers and across the title. Finally I added my printed journaling

March 2011

This layout is for Sketchy Thursday's challenge. It's about me and dear hubs. We've been married for 29 years and it just keeps getting better and better. I feel so blessed.

A lot of paints, stamping, misting and stitching + handmade flowers.

some details

multiple layers of paint, stamping, misting and stitching

About a boy - and me

Two layouts for two challenges. The first one is for Sketchalicious #15 

Here's my interpretation:

The background paper is Basic Grey which is already somewhat distressed but I created more layers and texture by adding paint, mist, ink (both with bubble wrap and with stamps), rub-ons and stitching. Love how this turned out. The title is cut from the acetate backing sheets of various stamps.

some details:

  

The second is about me @ 53. It's for The Studio's challenge.

I used a fun technique for the background: I tore open a brown paper bag, the thin type, and glued it on my background paper (you can use cardstock or a sheet of a patterned paper that you don't like). I used Mod Podge but any découpage glue or even a glue stick will do.  

Then I started playing with acrylic paints. First I spread the cream color with an old credit card. When that was dry (I put a sheet of wax paper and 2-3 albums on top as soon as the paint is somewhat dry to avoid the warping of the paper) I added a layer of the "ancient" Lil Davis metallic copper paint. It's yummy. I felt it needed another color, so I put just a little bit of the tan paint.

Then I stamped randomly on the background with Sepia Archival Ink using Sir Tim's stamps. I added a recent photo of me, some book paper, the tickets, the envelope (inside are some thoughts about how I feel right now), rub-ons, the title, two strips of lace which I had sprayed partially with Coffee Shop Glimmer mist and then I sewed the whole layout on a second (unused and ugly) cardstock since it kept warping a little bit on the corners.

A couple of details:

  

"Pagerize This Challenge" + other goodies

Among other fun challenges, at Scrap Our Stash there is a Pagerize This Challenge which is a sort of scraplifting challenge. 

I won Joni's Pagerize This Challenge with this layout.

It's a layout in grid form about my American sisters and Mom who came to visit us in 2004. I used Glimmer mists, Glimmer Glaze (on the birdie) and Glimmer Glam (on the leaves die-cut) and Wendy Vecchi's background stamps. I also made my first Rosette with Tim's alteration die. Loved that! The journaling is written on a Prima Marketing packaging.

And now it's my turn to provide a page for the other readers to "pagerize". Here is the one I've chosen.

I submitted my page for Joni's challenge last weekend while I was watching the news on Japan's earthquake and tsunami. Many of you may not know that my daughter Valentina was living and studying in Tokyo when the earthquake hit. By Monday we were convinced that it was best that she returned home. She arrived on Wednesday after having spent long and exhausting hours first at Narita airport and then on the plane. To make a long story short, we are just enormously grateful that she's back home. The previous post was about a layout I made after she got home.

Now that we can breathe again, and life is returning normal here in our household, I've done some layouts for various challenges.

 

This is for The Color Room's color palette #50. There's also a blog hop going on there. So many beautiful projects for everyone to enjoy and take inspiration from.

Loved playing with gesso and paints and stamps and inks and mists (used everything I had to get the right colors!). And of course I used my sewing machine.

 

This next layout is for Cocoa Daisy's March sketch/lift challenge.

Also here I played with mists and Distress inks + my sewing machine. And with some paint.

 

On the Italian blog Scrappando Carta e Ricordi the challenge for March is to do a layout with a big title, using a border punch and hand written journaling. The theme is Food and/or Beverages. This is my page.

I really don't get Fried chicken and Waffles for breakfast but maybe it's just me:)

 

 

Because you are mine

I had such a blast doing this layout. I'm in love with canvas and all the different medias you can use on it: paint, gesso, alcohol inks, stamping, stitching, misting. Endless possibilities. And it doesn't warp like cardstock sometimes does.

Here's the layout about my sweet kids (well, they are sweet... most of the time, LOL) who I love dearly.

I'm participating in the following challenges:

The Creative Type where the challenge is Love songs + something musical on the page. I used Nat King Cole's "Because you're mine" in my journaling and stamped musical notes with Staz-On Dove (grey) on the bottom of my page.

Beary Sweet Challenge #20: the theme is Winter Blues and your project can be inspired by the terms winter, winter blues or blue or by something you do to chase away the blues. I scrapbook when I'm feeling low.

Harmonie's Feb challenge: you have to use 3 or more photos on your layout.

Scrap Our Stash Feb challenge : the theme is love. 

Sketches in Thyme Open challenge # 4 : the layout has to be based on a sketch. I used Sketchy Thursday's sketch 

 

Yet another sketch challenge

This is once again for Sketchy Thursday's challenge.

I had these photos of Andrea and Valentina and found them perfect for this sketch.

I used Nathalie Kalbach's paper for VIP Sultane to back my photos + a Studio 490 background stamp. I sprayed with glimmer mist and colorwash and stitched around the background paper. The words that compose the title are also from Nathalie's paper. The ampersand is Making Memories.

These photos were taken a year ago when Andrea turned 12 and was already as tall as Valentina. Now he's outgrown me too...

Two birds with one stone

This layout that I've created this morning is for two challenges: for the Italian sketch blog  Sketchalicious challenge #12, and for The Studio where the challenge is to use a color palette and a love theme.

The sketch is this

and the color palette is this

And here's my layout

Oh, why do our kids have to grow up? What's there not to love about this sweet lil' guy? So cute at two. Not that he's not cute anymore at 13, he is, but not so sweet or at least not all the time *sigh*

Once again I managed to use some pieces of my old stash: the Little Yellow Bicycle epoxy sticker, Making Memories rub-ons - still the best ones around, and WeRMemory Keepers' snaps.

In a creative mood

After a couple of months' break I've been scrapbooking... and taking photos... and planning... and printing sketches...and just being happy in my messy scraproom.

Here's my layout following Sketchy Thursday's sketch for this week:

The title "Noi 4" means "The 4 of us" . They were the years BEFORE Andrea. In fact in the journaling I say that we were perfectly happy then and we didn't feel as if there was something missing, but now we couldn't imagine our lives without him.

Did a bit of splashing with glimmer mists and some stitching.  I made the canvas flower by using Tim Holtz's floral alteration die and then glimmer misting the various flowers with Black Cherry which is darker IRL - having brightened the layout because the white background was too dark, all the colors became a tad too bright. Well, I guess I really need that editing class I signed up for...