scrappassion

Anna (Finnabair)'s workshops in Rome

I had the pleasure and privilege to attend one of Anna's workshops today and I will be attending the second one tomorrow.

She is as sweet as she is talented. We made a layout today and I'm extremely happy with mine.

 

This is it in its early stages:

 

And this is how it turned out.

Love it!

Here are a couple of shots of Anna and one of Barbara, the host of this event and the owner of Timbroscrapmania, the best online store in Italy. A million thanks to Barbara for having invited Anna to Italy and given us the opportunity to learn from one of the BEST in the industry.

The mojo is back, part 3

And on we go.

This is my take on Amy Tangerine's Stitched Words challenge:

Just love how this turned out.  I hand stitched the title and around the 2 stars. The light blue star has faux stitching. I used a brick stencil, splashed some cobalt and dark grey ink, stamped yet another star with Dina Wakley's new stamps (yummy!!!) and added some paper and text strips. Love this shot of Andrea which I took in early October.

 

Sharmaine's Jams & Jellies challenge was based on different color palettes. I chose this one:

 

We had to use at leas 4 of the colors + we were allowed to use white, kraft or black.

Here's my page about my splendid sandals. They are so comfy I can wear them all day.

My background paper is off white but it looks almost cream...

 

And then to Julie Fei Fan Balzer's Hand written challenge which I absolutely loved.

I've wanted to try the wire flower ever since I first saw Donna Downey use it. This was the perfect time: I wrote inside the petal in Italian "m'ama, non m'ama" which means "he loves me, he loves me not" and luckily for me, there was an uneven number of petals so the result was that he loves me  

I made this on heavy watercolor paper which takes well different media without warping. I used gesso, book paper, watered down acrylic paint and mists, a stencil with Distress Ink, a background stamp with Archival Ink (love the new Plum) and some washi tape, random rub-ons and Jenni Bowlin's cute little butterflies.

 

The mojo is back, part 2

The next challenge I tackled was Alissa's decoupage challenge. I mod podged (it's not a verb, I know) some phone book papers on my background paper, painted, used a Crafter's Wordshop stencil with Distress Ink, splashed some color, attached my photo, stitched through my title and around the edges and broke into tears doing the journaling.

The photo is of Andrea taken a year ago right before I flew to Finland to be with my mom for the week that turned out to be her last one. The journaling says: "We took this photo of you right before I left. You wanted Mummu (Grandma) to see a happy picture of you. Actually you look a little bit like an elf with that red and grey sweater of yours. Mummu was happy to see your photo and longed to embrace you once more before she left. Know that she loved you to pieces."

 

Danielle's Clothing challenge consisted in using a piece of clothing (she gave 3 options) as your inspiration and make a holiday card.

I was inspired by this garment:

 

and this is my card:

I made a template and used various shades of green of Distress Inks applied with a blending tool. I thought this was quite a cool challenge because I hardly ever do cards.

Lisa's Home Baked challenge was next. 

You need to add the following ingredients to your LO:

FLOUR - Something white
SUGAR - Something that sparkles
BERRIES - Something red or pink
AND LET IT RISE - Add some texture

and we had to answer at least three different questions about us (she gave a list).

white: gesso

sparkle: on the rim of the round stamp and at the center of my home made paper flower there's some sparkle. Below some detailed shots.

red or pink: the background paper

texture: gesso, gauze, some punched out paper gessoed onto the background, random stitching

journaling: a list of things about me and my faves

So far this is my favorite layout. 

   

 

I used one of the graffiti backgrounds for Emily's Knit and Crocher challenge. The requirements were to use holes, a grid and some yarn or twine on the layout.

Here's mine:

I used a stencil for the grid and the circles (and added some modeling paste with another stencil) and then stapled some yellow and orange twine onto the background. I love how this turned out.

 

to be continued...

 

 

7 DOTS STUDIO

A new company 7 DOTS STUDIO is born! It's a Polish company owned by Tusia. The designers of the beautiful new lines of papers are Anna Iwanowska-Pietkiewicz and Anna Dabrowska-Pekocka also known as Finnabair on the internet and in the scrapbooking/mixed media world.

 

Elise Rebel designed by Anna Iwanowska-Pietkiewicz

 

Dreamer designed by Anna Dąbrowska-Pękocka

I'll be one of the lucky ones to be able to participate in Finnabair's scrapbooking/mixed media classes organized by Barbara - Timbroscrapmania in Rome at the beginning of December (there might be a couple of spots left) and I really hope that Barbara will have these beautiful papers in her store by then.

Just head to the 7 DOTS STUDIO's blog to participate in their blog candy!

Altered album cover

I'm back! I took a long break from blogging due to a vacation, having all my kids at home at the same time and a lovely crafting cruise in the Caribbean.

I haven't scrapped or done any kind of crafting for a loooong time (other than during the cruise but I'll get to that in the next post) but last night I altered my stencil/mask album. Got the idea of putting my stencils in a 12" x 12" album inside page protectors from Julie Balzer . Thanks Julie ;)

I played with my new stencils from Crafter's Workshop and with some gesso, acrylic paint, Colorwash, Distress inks and Faber-Castell's Gelatos (yummy!).

In my next post I'll post some pictures of our cruise and then I guess I'll go backwards with the photos: family together Aug-Sept and then from our vacation in Finland in July.

But here's the altered cover of my new stencil album.

PS. It's good to be back :)

 

 

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

Beautiful new day

is the title of my layout for CCG#197. Loved the color combo and just happened to have the right photo. Andrea took this a couple of weeks ago (I've used it closely cropped in another layout) and my top with red and pink matched the colors of the combo perfectly.

The Designer's challenge was to focus on technique. We were to enhance the photo adding a digital frame or text. I added a text (House of 3) which is also the title of my layout.

I masked and misted, used a selfmade foam stamp (heart). Just recently I saw somebody use one similar, I think it might be Donna Downey's but I'm not sure, and since I didn't have time to place an order and wait for it to arrive, I made my own. I glued book pages and gessoed them with a hint of a cream acrylic (the gesso was too white). I stamped with acrylics the tiny dots, sanded and stitched the edges of the pp  and the border strip, glued the twine and flicked some Studio Calico mist. I also used Distress Stain on Tim's tissue tape.

Due to some personal and not so personal events that have touched my life lately, I'm really cherishing every minute of my life with my loved ones and trying to live to the fullest every day without too many regrets.

 

Another happy note: I was featured at OUAS for June 1st challenge. What an honor!

School's Out For Summer

This week's color combo at CCG #196 was delicious, beachy and also romantic.

I had all these beach photos in mind and actually wanted to use one of me and Hubs, but I just kept hearing Alice Cooper's "School's Out For Summer" in my head over and over again! So I caved in.

Fortunately I had taken a photo of Andrea the last day of school but his T-shirt was purple! Well, I converted it to black and white and started working on the layout.
Isn't it always so that when you are in a hurry, the problems start piling up?

I had gessoed the white background paper very lightly but with some nice puffy strokes of gesso. When I went to mist the brick mask I encountered some problems: those of you who are familiar with Glimmer mist and gesso, know that the mist tends to pool and not really soak into the paper if it's been primed. I had forgotten about this so my brick wall turned out very odd looking :(
I saved the situation adding some gauze and paint. I used the paint very generously covering two sides of my photo with it (inspired by Solange).
BTW before I went to "construct" the brick wall, I had already used Distress Stains on the number mask (which is an old KI Memories lace paper).
The rest of the layout came together without other major problems:)

I stitched around the layout and on top of the word "summer", made some stitching in the corners - they're supposed to resemble the tic-tac-toe grid (artistic freedom in use here), and the numbers of course refer to math, and the brick wall to the school building.

I also used my EK Success border punch which gives a look that a page has been torn from a notebook.

Andrea really does NOT look happy, but it's because at 13 going on 18 you just have to look  so COOL!
Finished the layout with black paint splatters (I use a thin flexible plastic wire which I just dip directly in the paint bottle and then "knock" on it with my finger - this tip is from Lindy who uses a thin twig I believe).

Without further ado (well, about time!) here's the layout:

And here are some closeup shots mostly of the texture.

 

 

 

Scrap for Help

I wrote about this blog Scrap for Help last week. They have tips, tutorials and step by steps there and they also have a monthly challenge. You can read about the June challenge here.

Practically the requirements were to scrap about

1. love/sentiment (in Brazil Valentine's Day is June 12)

2. use bubble wrap

3. use flags/banners/pennants

 

This is my page for the challenge. I used a photo taken by Andrea a week ago at the Strawberry Fair. I edited it and cropped it closely and thought it was perfect for this challenge as well as the quote that I used as my journaling.

Scrap for Help is a blog where the use of recycled materials is encouraged. Can you guess what my background is made of?

It's a paper towel I had been using to wipe my craft mat and blot the excess mist and ink from my layouts during these past weeks.

Here's a photo of the paper towel (this is another one, but you get the idea. I had already glued the one that I used to the kraft paper).

 

I used Mod Podge to glue it on the kraft paper 

 

and after it had dried I stamped on it with bubble wrap and white acrylic paint and machine stitched a crooked square on it.

  I just love how it turned out. The colors (too yellow on the photo above - used a wrong WB setting) are perfect for my photo.

Here are some closeups of the finished layout.

I used some scraps from a previous layouts and made the acrylic heart from a packaging

 

I made the banner and distressed the borders with a sanding paper and put some stickles, but it's really hard to see.

 

Just a closeup of the texture

 

The quote is printed on cardstock which I cut into strips, inked the edges and attached with foam squares to give dimension.

As always your comments are VERY MUCH APPRECIATED.

TCR#61 + CCG#195 + Sketchy Thursdays

I have two layouts to show today. The first one is for TCR#61. Loved this week's His Room color palette.

This is my take. I actually followed the sketch quite closely.

 
 This is Franco walking down the Whiritoa Beach in Coromandel, NZ this past Christmas. I just looooved that place. Actually I loved all of New Zealand and I really hope to go back there one day.

I used gesso, paint strokes and splatters, a chicken wire (thanks Hubs), machine stitching, a clock from Tim Holtz's Lost and Found paper stack mounted on chipboard with a game spinner as the clock hand, Tim's film strip and adage ticket, a plain chipboard butterfly and a few odd buttons.

closeups

 

 

 

 

 

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This is the Inspiration Board #195 for CCG.

I didn't have any hot air balloons but as soon as I saw the image I knew which photo I wanted to use.

When I was in Athens at the beginning of April, we went to visit the Plaka, the oldest part of Athens. It is full of colors, shops, tiny traditional restaurants and cafés and you can stroll along the narrow streets for hours just looking at different things.

I had to take a photo of these colorful wine jars hanging on strings outside the shop window. 

I used this week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch  for my layout.

Misting, stamping, hand stitching around the circle, rub-on stitches

stamping and hand stitching

the looped string mimics the strings the jars were hanging from. I also colored the red and blue letters of the title since I only had green and white Thickers.

 

a detail of the title where I used some ANCIENT (Lil Davis??) alphabet stickers

 

Now I'm off to do other challenges :)