Butterfly Images

For those of you who will be receiving the Swirlydoos June kit, these butterflies will go beautifully!! Cant show the kit as it hasn't been revealed yet, but when I tell you it is gorgeous...Believe me!! Enjoy the butterflies. I print them up on a 5 x 7 piece of cream colored cardstock, cut them out, and Stickle them with Rock Candy for old fashioned glitz...Just adding a little bit of diamond dust to the edges gives them an exquisite beauty. Try it, and for more of my images check out Swirlydoos at this link!!

http://www.swirlydoos.com/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?59411.0

Vacation

Sorry for neglecting my blog...I am on Vacation and will not be back until May 26th...I have lots new ideas and tutorials when I get back!!

50 Years

I thought the papers in the May kit La Vie En Rose from Swirlydoos was perfect for me parents wedding pictures, but also for this LO which has the photo of their 50th wedding anniversary formal portrait. I made the green and red flowers and distressed them with Color Box Merlot chalk ink. A tutorial will follow soon. I made the vines and used Prima flowers and leaves. The music sheet paper is an antique music book that I got on Ebay last year. It is a large sheet book almost 12 x 12. The corner treatment was inspired by my blogger friend, Yuka Hino from Japan.. You need to check out her blog, her work is totally gorgeous!! I just noticed my heart isn't hanging down..oh well..It got stuck sideways!! I used a Tim Holtz book plate and the small journal card came in the kit. I just love the Bo Bunny Chunky Charms. We have gotten them a couple of times before in our kits in different colors!! Love em!! I left this one black and sprayed it with some Shimmerz in Before Dawn also from the La vie en Rose Embellishment Add On. My LO's from the kit were not revealed until after reveal day because we were at Swirly Camp in the Rocky Mountains!! I opted to have my kit for Camp...

Beautiful Melody

This is a Design Team LO for Swirlydoos, using the May kit "Le Vie en Rose". Because of Swirlydoos camp and my work schedule, I wasn't able to make reveal day in time. I opted to take my kit to camp!!. This was also done for Tina's SGC Challenge May ~ Distress and Layers challenge. 5 or more distressed layers and a hand made rose as the twist. Tina used my coffee filter Rose tutorial at Swirlydoos, and perfected a distressed technique in altering the flower even further..more realistic, more beautiful!! The leaves were cut from a Sizzix die and embossed with my Cuttlebug and folder. Then they were inked and rolled for a more realistic look. The book page in my photo mat came from a book that my friend at work found for me on one of her many garage sale haunts...Swiss Family Robinson. The copyright??? 1899...Almost sacrilege to tear out pages, but they are so weathered and beautiful..Thanks Robin, for the wonderful find!!!! Love Martha's Deco Scallop punch!! I used Coordinations cardstock, then embossed and sanded to bring out the red under the black..Love that paper!! Used Gabriellep's scallop edge technique, but Robins run it under the water technique to soften paper. This was a great kit to work with, I have much more to use!!

EXCLUSIVE SWIRLYDOOS WINTER CHA MAKE N TAKE

I did this flower tutorial back in January for Swirlydoos. I have had requests for it on my blog.OK...Since we couldnt go to CHA, and we missed out on all the fun of make n takes..I devised my own version just for us...I cant provide you with the materials, but I can provide you with instructions and a beautiful leaf pattern to down load The flower was inspired by Ilina Crouse who is a creative stamper, cardmaker and scrapbooker. I just added the leaves, which you could just use alone as an embellishment. I used them a lot in my February LO's. So here it is...What do you think!! I love my paper crimper!!


1. 12 x 12 paper..Thinner is best, cardstock is hard to work with for this project
2. 2 inch circle punch (or cut out yourself)
3. 1 sheet of cardstock
4. Decorative edge punch or Deco scissors
5. Paper crimper
6. Double sided tape (I use my ATG gun) Tape runner
7. Flower centers of your choice




Step 1

Cut 2 strips of paper 12 x 1 inch each
Punch or cut out your 2 inch circle
Edge punch or Deco cut one edge of the strips.

Then run the strips through the paper crimper.




With your adhesive tape runner, cover one side of your 2 inch circle.



Starting with one end of the paper strip, start adhering the paper around the circle making little pleats along the way as you wind it around.



It will look like this when you are done with the first layer. You may have to tuck in the end of the strip for neatness.



Starting with the second strip of paper, repeat the step again of winding it around the circle closer to the middle for your second flower layer.



Once again, you may have to tuck under the end of the strip to tie up loose ends. It should look like this.



Add a flower center, buttons, smaller flowers. beads, glittered centers. What ever you want. Make it your own. The rose in the center of flower 2 was made using the tutorial I just finished, that will be in the tutorial section soon. You can ink, stickle glitter, crackle or anything your creative swirly heart desires to make the flower your own...


Just save the leafy vine pictures to your computer, then print them up on 4 x 6 beige cardstock. The 3 colors provided were custom made by me to coordinate with the February papers in the kit. I hand cut them which took a little time, but so well worth the effort. I probably could have made an SVG file and cut it with my Cricut, but I think some of the stems are too fine. You can try though...

I hope you enjoy this mini Swirlydoos Make n Take!!




AND THE LEAVES...Just copy, print, cut out...

1960

This is a Camp Swirlydoos LO. We were all given a whole pack of G45 papers that were absolutely gorgeous!! I had not had the desire to work with the papers before and I learned to loooove them!!. Did some Zutter Distressing on this one. This is another LO using my parents wedding picture. The smaller one in the frame was taken at their engagement the year before. they just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Still so much in love after all these years..Steve and I are half way there!! Just as a side note, I accidentally spilled a half can of Pepsi on half the LO when I went to turn a round to talk to someone...Love you Rae!! lol...oh my, did we all run to the sink to rinse it off...You know what?? It distressed it even more beautifully!! Thank You Rae!! lol..!! I don't recommend Pepsi though!! lol...It was saved!! Funny though, Robin (robinzberdz) had just given us a lesson in distressing paper by running the edges under water...So the running joke was to upstage her with Pepsi...DON'T DO IT!!! lol... Camp in the Rocky Mountains must have made us all a little woozy...But so much fun!!

Do Not Disturb

My Swirlydoos Design Team May Reveals are a little late due to Swirly camp!! But here is the first one from "Le Vie En Rose" May kit..I thought the gorgeous Creative Imaginations Melody papers were perfect for my parents wedding pictures..They were wed on Valentines Day. I am redoing the tag, my marker bled and I am not happy about that... It was the first time using the Zutter Distresser and I am in love!!! The girls made me do it..I was resistant knowing that if I liked it that I would just have to, as Bonnie would say "moost" have it!!!!! Thanks Swirly girlfriends, now I gotta have one too!!! Thanks Rae and Meg for bringing them to camp!!

SERENITY

This LO was done at Swirlydoos Camp...We had a blast in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado!! Everything in this LO is leftover Swirlydoos product from past kits except for the green ribbon I used to weave in the paper. That was courtesy of Swirlydoos Camp supplies!! The LO is for the May Round Robin Challenge at Swirlydoos, I was up first again...Oh the pressure... The twist was to have a handmade embellie..Mine were the flowers and leaves. A tutorial for them will be up on my blog this week. I made my own backround paper with the fabulous Glimmer Screens we received in one of the add on kits at Swirlydoos this month, we also got the matching stamps. TFL...

Swirly Camp Girls!!

Here we are all together on the last day!! Hated to say goodbye!!

Rocky Mountain Snow

The Rocky Mountains graced us with plenty of snow today...it has been 15 years since I have seen the snow...It was beautiful!!

Scrapping Heaven!!!!

Sorry that I have been a bad blogger lately...I am on VACATION!!!!! Not just your ordinary pack your bags and get out of Dodge vacation, but I am in the fabulous Rocky Mountains right outside of Baily, Colorado...Me and 12 other fabulous Swirlydoo Princess's are having a blast!!I bought my trusty assistant along, my fab daughter!! Our plane touched down at Denver International Airport on Wednesday,Krissy picked up Gabbie and I at the airport and took us back to her gorgeous home where we unpacked, got familiar with the family, and we were headed out the door to go to Sams club to shop for the weekend!! After all our wonderful scrap retreat is from Thursday to Sunday.Needless to say we were shopping for about 2 hours and it was fun...Got home, unloaded the truck full of groceries!! I'll tell you the weather was gorgeous...70's..Yesterday morning, Kathi, Kathy, Tina, and Meg arrived..Then we packed up and headed out to the cabin, the higher we got into the mountains, the more it snowed..It was a beautiful sight..What a fabulous place!!! We all settled in and then it was time to go to the airport to pick up Shelly, Rae and Manda!!! Krissy did a lot of driving yesterday..But with her Hummer she could brave every weather condition in the mountains..They finally arrived!! Some of the girls were already up in the scrapping barn, scrapping, while I was making dinner in the Fabulous fully equipped gourmet kitchen!! Love it!!! It was Italian night,spaghetti and meatballs, salad, garlic bread, and nobody had room for dessert...Then off to the scrapping barn where we scrapped till the wee hours of the morning!!! Krissy has got to be the most generous wonderful fearless leader of all!!! She is truly our Swirly Queen...The goodies bags, and what she provided for us as far as scrapping products is a scrappers dream!!! It was one goody after another!!! Let the games begin!!!! So take a look at where we are...More pics to come!!! One more Swirlydoos Princess to arrive today!! Jan!!!! Then we will all be here...

Just Be Me

This LO was done in between my Design Team assignments at Swirlydoos. Although the embellies came from past kits and the gold organza flower is one that I did in a tutorial on my blog for a series of fabric flowers I am doing for Swirlydoos. The leaves are a future tutorial in the works. The elegant scroll frame is from Scrap Girls. I am always collecting digi kits for their elements!! This one is divine...I printed it on a light patterned paper and further enhanced it by painting it with a small paint brush and Glimmer Mist. I used a few different colors then went over it with Perfect Pearls powder to give it shimmer. I painted the chip board letters with Luminart paint...Loooove that paint!! The paper is K and Company new Susan Winget Nature 12x12 Designer Paper Pad. The paper is to die for!! Love it!! The photo is my daughter a couple of summers ago on one of our excursions to downtown Safety Harbor. Just love the charm of that town...

Ribbon Flowers

These Flowers are just to easy to make. I have reels and reels of all kinds of ribbon.I invested in a couple of very well written books on ribbon work.These flowers are the first in a series I will be doing for Swirlydoos. So get your ribbon on, here we go...



~~~Ribbon Flower Supply List~~~
Ribbon 1 - 1.5 inch ribbon works best. Gross grain, satin, silk, polyester, organza.
(note: if you buy wired ribbon, you could pull out the wire with a pair of needle nose pliers. Cut you ribbon first, then remove the wires.)
Needle and thread. Heavy duty thread works best
scissors
buttons, brads, small flowers, pearls, seed beads.



***Step 1***

Cut (5) 3 - 3.5 inch lengths of ribbon. The wider ribbon looks best cut in 3.5 inch lengths and the narrower ribbon looks best cut in 3 inch lengths.



***Step 2***

Find the middle point of your ribbon by folding the ribbon in half meeting the cut ends together. Crease the fold, open the ribbon and fold length wise as shown wrong sides together. With your needle and thread. Sew a few tiny whip stitches where you marked the crease to hold the fold together. Knot the thread and snip close to knot. Repeat until all 5 are done.



***Step 3***

The fold is not shown, but take your ribbon piece and with wrong sides together, fold over in half until your cut ends meet evenly. You should see your petal shape as in the photo. Finger crease the top. With your needle and thread, sew a running stitch along the cut ends, stitch together all the way across as shown. Pulling the thread through.



***Step 4***

Repeat step 3 until all 5 petals are strung side by side on your knotted thread.



***Step5***

Carefully pull and gather your petals on the thread. When you are satisfied with the arrangement attach the first petal to the last petal and whip stitch them together and knot it.




You are now ready to attach any middle you want. You could even make tiny ribbon flowers and layer them for the middle. Here are some different flowers I created. Have fun with ribbon...And how beautiful would a layout be if you wove your ribbon across your page and end it with a ribbon flower. Now I am off to create that Layout!!

New Diggs, New color theme!!!

Inspired by the piece of K and Company scrapbook paper that I used as a backdrop for my Sheer Blooms II tutorial post, I am in the middle of putting the finishing touches on painting my new scrapbook room. I am trading rooms with my sweet daughter who wants a smaller bedroom..Yay!!!!Although 13 x 14 is not small. That gives me the bigger room with 2 huge picture windows and lots of light!!! 15 x 18...I think once I get all of my furniture in the room, A trip to Ikea is my next shopping excursion....Good bye old beautiful room....Hello Fresh and Funky...Sour Lime...With a touch of turquoise and rose...And my black furniture....Smooth....Here are the before pictures, and Gabbie painting the new room for me..Isn't she the sweetest??? And a photo of the new color scheme...

SHEER BLOOMS II TUTORIAL

So I couldn't get enough of Organza flowers, I had to create more. So I have decided to create a series of fabric flower tutorials for your scrapbook pages. Of course for you seamstresses, they would look beautiful on garments and head bands as well. So here I give you Sheer Blooms II.



~~~Supply List~~~

Sheer Organza Fabric or fabric of your choice
Scissors
needle and thread (I strand 2 threads together for strength)
buttons, pearls, sequins, brads, tiny flowers, ect...



~~~Step 1~~~

Cut 5 circles out of your Organza. I used a jar lid as my template. It was 3 inches wide, but you can use any size. You can use any type fabric. Cottons work beautifully. So do silks and satins.



~~~Step 2~~~

Fold your circle in half, wrong side together, right side out.



~~~Step 3~~~

Take your half circle and fold in half again point to point. You should have a cone shape. Note: If you are using cotton fabric, you could press the piece at this point to give you a nice sharp petal. I like the fullness of the Organza so I only finger press the crease lightly.



~~~Step 4~~~

Sew a running stitch along the open curved side of your quarter folded circle as shown.



~~~Step 5~~~

Take your next quartered circle and repeat the sewing, stringing it on the same thread.




~~~Step 6~~~

Repeat until all 5 petals are strung on the thread then pull to gather as shown.



~~~Step 7~~~

Now join your 2 end petals together and knot and fasten the thread.



Now you are ready to add what ever centers you want. I was inspired by Primas centers and created the small beaded center on the bottom right flowers by stringing glass beads in a pattern on wire and twisting into petal shapes and adding a larger pearl in the center. And how pretty would these look if you sewed on some sequins to the tips of the petals. I will work on that idea for one of my next LO's.Hope you like these flowers as well...