Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Swirlydoos Second reveal for "Mon Doux"

For the last day of the month, I leave you with this LO I did with Swirlydoos February "Mon Doux" kit. I am anxiously awaiting the March kit...Oh so exciting when my kits come!! Filled with lovely scrappy goodness as always.

Once again, I developed a file using small letters for my journaling. I then cut them apart and inked the edges. The Butterflies can be found at Swirlydoos. But please only use them for your personal use. I was told that my butterfly files were found on another site as thier own creations and that made me a little sad. I work very hard to create them in Photoshop, color correcting, resizing, and putting the files together. I create them exclusively for Swirlydoos each month to match each kit. You can copy them, create your own folders by collecting them, I just ask that you don't redistribute them for other sites. You can always ask me if you would like to share them somewhere else, just ask. Thank You...
Just print them up, cut them out and rub on some Rock Candy Stickles on them . These butterflies I printed on glossy photo paper.

The vine is a Spellbinders Borderabilities Die. I crunched and inked it up a bit for dimension. I have the most beautiful crystals from The Paper Studio. I have sets in 5 different colors. That is what I used for the middles of my Jewelled Cloisionne Flowers.
I used Heartfelt Creations Innoscents Flowers stamps for the design. I have an awesome tutorial coming soon to get the most out of your leaf and flower stamps.

The sweet birdcage is from Kaisercraft and I left it in it's natural state and added some jewels to it. That's all it really needed. Go visit the Swirlydoos Gallery to see more beautiful creations, and then head on over to the forums for tons of tutorials, tips, tricks, techniques and a lot of fun!!

The Font of these letters is Typenoksidi. Just print the letters up on any size paper. I like to use 100lb paper and print up a 5 x 7 size. Cut in vertical strips, then just snip your letters apart.

Zva Blog Hop Winners!!

We'd like to congratulate the following FIVE ladies who won a prize from our design team member's blogs on February's Blog Hop! Their names will be found on the following blogs:

Tara Orr

Susan Lui

Lisa Somerville

Karen Shady

Lisa Gregory (me)





One winner from each of the 5 blogs will receive a Zva prize package worth $30.00. Congrats winners!
Congrats Lizzy!!!! You have won a beautiful prize pack from Zva Creative!!! I used Random number generator to choose my winner!! Contact me so that we can get your Zva products out to you!!

Monday, February 27, 2012

Zva Creative February DT Blog Hop!

Zva Creative and our talented Design Team welcome you to join us for our February Blog Hop! We are happy to have you join us today today!

The Blog Hop begins at Zva Creative's NEW blog! Be sure head on over if you'd like to start from the top of the hop. You will also find a complete list of all the participating blogs there (in case there is a glitch along the way).

As you know, Zva offers many beautiful color groupings for pearls, flowers and crystals. We want to make sure that they shine bright for you, so each designer was asked to share a creation using a specific color or color combination on their blog hop project. If you like what you see you can find a list of stores and online retailers that sell Zva HERE.

I did a tutorial on the handmade Jewelled Cloisonne Flowers. I added a couple of pieces of gauze dyed with Glimmer Mist underneath the flowers. I love the way Felicity Wilson journals on her pages, so I took one of her journaling ideas and tried it on this LO. I am sooo bad at journaling. But it tells a story on how my daughter left home at 17 years old to attend college 3000 miles from home...She just did it!! She surprised even herself that she did it!! And what an adventure she had. But she had to let go of her doubts and fears, and replace it with determination and perseverance. Now she will be graduating in a couple of months.

Just a closeup of the tiny letters I used. I will post the file I created for the letters. I love the font as it looks like a typewriter. I printed them on a 5x7 piece of white card stock, cut them apart and edged them in blue chalk ink.

The middles of the handmade flowers are the Basic Line Crystals in Chocolate CRW-03CB-159 . I used 3 in the larger flowers and 1 in the smaller flowers. The leaves are Zva FL-04CA-111 They are 1.5 inches each.
The beautiful corner piece is Glory - Night blue/Soft blue Crystal/Pearl CRB-04CA-103. I LOVE this piece and the color is so beautiful in real life. Like little sapphires.


If you would like to play along with our design team, just follow along the blog path. I am linking to one of the Zva designers and that designer is linking to the next and so on. Be prepared to be inspired along the way!

Hidden on FIVE of the designer's blogs is a Zva Creative prize package! Winners will be randomly chosen after the hop is over, so it's important to leave a comment on as many blogs as you can along the way.

The Blog Hop starts today, February 27th and runs through 11:59pm US Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, February 28th.

The 5 winners will be announced on Wednesday, February 1st on each of the five winning blogs. The full list of where our winners will be posted will be found on Zva's blog as well. We will do our best to notify each winner, but it's best if you can pop in to all of the blogs once again on Wednesday... plus, you never know what kind of inspirational creation that you may find there.

All you need to do is leave a comment on this Blog Hop post... you do not need to leave a comment on each and every designer's blog post to qualify. However, the more times you comment along the blog hop path, the more chances you will have to win.

We also thought it would be more fun to add even more chances to win our blog hop prize! To increase your chances of winning:

* Comment to let us know that you posted on Facebook or "tweeted" about our hop (link to any of the blog hop posts)

* Comment to let us know that you asked your local store to carry Zva creative products. If they already do, that's fantastic, maybe you can suggest other products that they don't carry.

* Comment to let us know that your "liked" our new page on Facebook or that you have started following Zva on Twitter.

The blog hop begins here at Zva Creative's NEW blog. Your next stop is Robin Shakoor Enjoy!

Thank you for joining us!

P.S. Mark your calendar to join us again on March 26th for our next Zva blog hop!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Swirlydoos Guest Design for Once Upon a Sketch featuring Zva Creative

This month, Swirlydoos is a proud sponsoative flowers and Once Upon A Sketch. So, for your chance to win some very nice prizes, including a Swirlydoos Main kit, head on over to OUAS and join in on the fun using this weeks challenge and gorgeous sketch. I have used Zva Creative Flowers and crystal flourishes along with my own hand made flowers. The Journalling criteria/theme: is HOLIDAYS/VACATION. One of my fave vacations is a scrapbook retreat that Krissy (owner of Swirlydoos) sponsors called Swirly Camp. For the last 2 years we have stayed in a luxury Log Cabin tucked away in the mountains of Baily Colorado, with 15 of our very best scrapping buddies and scrapped dusk till dawn. Cooked, ate, slept and scrapped. Scrapping Heaven I tell you. We laughed till we cried till the wee hours of the morning. I look forward to our "holiday" every year now!! The photo's on the LO are of me in the snow the first year and a side view of the cabin. The layout was done with last months Swirlydoos kit.

The orange flowers are flowers I created using the Rose creations die from Spellbinders. The floral arrangement is enhanced by the beautiful blue roses, buds and leaves from Zva Creative.

I took one pack of the crystal flourishes and cut them in half. I used half of the flourish in this view of the LO. I used my Decorative Corner punch for the circle frame.

I used the other half od the flourish for this part of the LO. I also painted my chipboard letters with Lumiere paint and added tiny letter stickers from my stash

The large Blue flower, leaves and the smaller blue flowers are Zva Creative. I just love the frosted look of the flower that enhances my wintery theme of the LO.

Joint the fun at OUAS and try your own version of the sketch. Then head on over to Swirlydoos fr plenty of tutorials and inspiration, and visit Zva Creative to see more beautiful flowers and BLING and learn where your Zva Creative retailers are!! And visit the Zva Blog for more inspirations and details.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

4 year Blogversary and a Giveaway!!

Well.....Today, I have been blogging for 4 years...Sooooo.....I think I should have a little Blogversary giveaway. Just a few of my favorite things. I love mini's, I love canvas art, and I love warm colors.
I have all of these intentions of doing lots of little mini's, but never seem to get to it. So as I was die cutting some great Tim Holtz Dies, I got the itch again. I thought of including a few packages of these wonderful diecuts to make some little mini album kits to include in my giveaway. Then add in a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I worked this "kit" that I create around some beautiful papers I just purchased from The Paper Trunk. Although retired now, I still have a complete set to give away. I found coordinating embellies to go with the papers, some lace, buttons, ribbon, flowers and diamond dust. I added some grunge board, glassine paper and a 12x12 canvas. I threw in a 6x6 paper pack from Basic Grey, Motifica, another retired pattern, but an alltime fave for me. So here is a list of what is in the "kit"...

6 papers from paper Trunk Batik Collection (retired)
12x12 Canvas
3 sheets of Grunge Board in Swirls, Harlequin and Dots design
2 pieces of Glassine paper
6x6 paper pack of basic Grey Motifica design (retired)
4 paper lace doilies in different sizes and shapes
bag of coordinating assorted buttons
baggie of Diamond Dust
pack of Zva self adhesive crystals
pack of Kaisercraft wooden butterflies
Bag of assorted florals and leaves
Card of 10 different ribbons and lace which includes seam binding to color yourself
1 pack of Rhinestone hatpins
Urban Rhapsody Naked Chipboard Tag Pad
Colorbok Butterfly Chipboard Book
Tim Holtz Vintage Valise chipboard mini kit
Tim Holtz Tiny Tags and Tabs chipboard mini kit
Tim Holtz Tags and Bookplates chipboard mini kit

Create a canvas, a layout, or some mini's...It's just a little something I put together to say Thank You. Thank you for following me, for inspiring me and just keeping this wonderful addiction..ummm..I mean hobby, a wonderful part of my life!!







These are the dies I used to create the chipboard kits for the mini's . You can follow or be inspired by the many tutorials on the web for design ideas. Or just visit Tim's Blog for the Ultimate experience!! And now he has created the 12 Tags of 2012!!! Imagine a mini using some of his designs!! Yummy!
To win this kit, Just leave me a comment, and follow my blog. To double your chances and be able to leave me 2 comments, in the second comment, let me know that you placed this giveaway in your sidebar on your blog, and to TRIPLE your chances, just leave me a 3rd comment that you mentioned this giveaway on Facebook...That's 3 chances to win a little piece of my stash...Do all 3??? I'll throw in some extra's!! Hell, every once in a while, I'll add more stash to the kit till giveaway time.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Jewelled Cloisonne Flower Tutorial

PRODUCT LIST:
Any simple flower stamp in your stash I used Heartfelt Creations Innocents Stamp set
White Card stock
Black ink
non stick craft mat
rhinestones
scissors
Glossy Accents or Crystal Lacquer
Lumiere paint or smooch paint in Gold metallic
small paint brush
Glimmer Mist or any color spray in metallic/glittery colors

Stamp your flowers on the white card stock.

Cut out or die cut your flowers. Heartfelt Creations has a lot of flower designs that coordinate with Spellbinders dies.
Place the flowers on a non stick craft mat and spray your flowers with your choice of colors. I can't wait to get my complete set of Tim Holtz Distress Markers to color these flowers in the future. If you are a subscriber to Swirlydoos, Krissy opened a special order for these markers. I ordered the whole barrel!! Every Color!

Once your flowers are dry, paint them with Glossy Accents or Crystal Lacquer. You could use Glossy Mod Podge but may need a couple of coats for good shine.

Once your medium is dry, using a thin brush, paint your edges of the petals with gold metallic paint. The Lumiere Paint really looks like gold. You could slightly brush a few lines from the middle of your flower outward following the lines of your stamped image if any.

Using different shaped small rhinestones, glue them to the middles of the flowers.

Here are your finished flowers. I have placed them on a Spellbinders die cut vine.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Saturday, February 11, 2012

February SwirlyHues and Swirla-a-Palooza

New SwirlyHues Storyboard and Swirl-a-palooza!

The beautiful thing about SwirlyHues is that it is open to EVERYONE!!
February's SwirlyHues Storyboard and Challenge.
This month's hostess is the divinely gorgeous Angelica.
Take a look at what she has chosen for this month's story.





Then SWIRL-A-PALOOZA..................

We have a little get together coming up next weekend and it's called
SWIRL-A-PALOOZA!!!! OK, OK....so maybe it's not sooooo little. *wink* There will be challenges, a game, tutorials and lots of fun.

Stay tuned to the Swirlydoos BLOG for more details about the theme and the schedule.
All I can tell you is that you DO NOT want to miss this!!!!


SwirlyHues Rules:

1) Must stick to the hues provided. You may add black or white, but it can NOT be more than 5% of your total page and can NOT be a main element.
2) You must interpret the sketch provided.
3) Now for the Swirly-fying element – you MUST use one of our tutorials on your page. Here is a LINK to our tutorials. It is really to our forum. Just scroll down. Our tutorials are separated by category. You can choose anything your beautiful, creative heart desires.
4) Create a post on your blog for your SwirlyHues entry.
5) If you have a blog, please use our link in the right hand side bar to upload your challenge entry. (look underneath the SwirlyHues links) to your blog page with this challenge, not just your blog in general. If you DO NOT have a blog, you can still use the link to the right and link us to your online gallery page! OR, you can upload your gorgeous creation to the SwirlyHues album in our gallery no later than midnight eastern time on March 10th. Click HERE to get there. You will need to register to upload photos. It's free! Use the following format to name your item: SH Feb 2012 (insert your project name here). Your photos can be no larger than 600x600. In the description please tell us what tutorial you used. If you don't have a blog, just let us know that.
6) 2 winners will be chosen; 1st and 2nd place. Each winner will receive one of our highly coveted blog badges (see the right-side bar). Winners will be posted to the Swirlydoos blog on the 13th of the month (unless otherwise noted), as well as our Facebook page. Check back here to see your name and then contact LisaV at Lisa@Swirlydoos.com She will make sure you get your blog badge and then we'll add you to our blog for the month! Superstahhhhhh *strike a pose*
7) The next challenge will be uploaded to our blog on March 10th!


Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Welcome to Swirlydoos' February Blog Hop Block Party!!

Welcome to Swirlydoos February Kit Reveal Blog Hop BLOCK PARTY!!! If you came here from Kaisercraft's blog, then you are on the right track. If not, go back to Swirlydoos' blog and start from there. We have some amazing projects for you to see today and as a bonus we have 2 manufacturer blogs that are joining in the fun!! There are 3 prize packs up for grabs so make sure to follow along and have fun!!I just love the papers in the February Bonjour Mon Doux kit. The colors are just fabulous. And if you add inks and mists, you can warm them up further. I used distress ink in Tea Dye and a Prima mask to ink the background. I did some paper tearing and distressing.

The tiny vines are a Sizzix Sizzlets die.

I tore and folded back the corner, laced some eyelets and tucked some flowers in the corner.

The butterflies can be found at Swirlydoos. I create files for every kit. I will post a super fast tutorial on Friday on how I bling them out. I left the bird cage natural as I love the look of the wood.

I did a newborn photoshoot a couple of months ago and this is one of the photo's. Little Abigail was a dream to work with. She looks like a bug snug in a rug. I couldn't resist the title.

I used my Alterations Tattered Banners for the title and created a letter file in Photoshop for the tiny letters. You can download the letters at the end of this post. I printed them on a 3.5 x 5 inch piece of card stock to get the smaller letters.

Once again I left the birdcage natural. I layered some of the flowers from the main kit and the add on flower kit to create some of the flowers.

Just a closeup of the flowers.

Krissy accidentally switched the vines for the DT and subscribers kit last month, so this vine was in last months kit for the subscribers, and we got the vine that the subscribers are getting in this kit. No problems though, as both are beautiful, blue and match perfectly!!

My daughter will be graduating from Le Cordon Bleu Academy of Culinary Arts in a couple of months. Then she will start her 12 week externship. We are all very excited. She has had a worldwind life these last 2 years. From Portland Oregon, Vancouver Washington to landing a job at Disney World in Orlando Florida. Some ups and downs, some heartache and heartbreak, but she rose above it all. She works days at The Rose and Crown in Epcot, and goes to school afterward. She tells me she is always in uniform. The chef coat never comes off. Thus the title and theme of this next LO. And let me tell ya!! This girl can cook!!! There is always a gourmet dinner when she comes home to visit. She is only 2 hours away, and we love having her back in Florida!
This is my interpretation for February's SwirlyHues Challenge posted above.

The flowers are from my Swirly Hibiscus Tutorial. I added a Prima flower in the middle.


I adorned my Alterations dress form with lace and bling from the kit. Then I added the beautiful Melissa Frances resin wings to symbolize flight from the past. Gabrielle has really grown since she left home for college. She really did grow wings.

Once again I printed up the tiny letters on a piece of scrap patterned paper to create the title.



You have until midnight, eastern time, on February 10th to complete the hop. Winners will be announced on the Swirlydoos Blog on February 11th. In order to qualify to win here is what you need to do:
1: Visit all of the blogs and leave a comment on each. This way we know you were there. Become a follower if you're not already. Take your time. There are beautiful things to see along the way.
2: Before you leave each blog, look for the “special” words and write it down.
Once you have visited all the blogs and collected all the special words, they will create a sentence.
3: Finally, go back to the Swirlydoos blog and leave a comment letting us know how much fun you had AND tell us the sentence that was created with all of the special words you collected.


My special word is : life

The party continues over at the talented Tiffany Morgan's blog. Have fun!

And stay tuned to Swirlydoos as there will be more reveals until the end of this month!!