SWIRLYDOOS April Kit...Park Avenue

The Swirlydoos April kit is out. "Park Avenue". It is wonderful!!! I am not to good with keeping flowers "out" of my LO's, and when I decided to do a LO of my husband, I was stumped...No Flowers???!!! Noooooo..I had to, so there went my quest to develop Manly Flowers... Any such thing??? Well you be the judge. I did lots of sewing also and distressing to grunge it up a bit. I used my TH distresser wheel like a mad woman!! The papers are Robin's Nest Love is in the air - Embrace Life line, and some card stock from the add on card stock pack.







I have also been doing a lot of sewing on my LO's lately. Inspired by all of the baby LO's in the gallery lately, I had to do one also...The baby is precious Alex..His mommy didnt mind me sharing his picture for this LO. It was a newborn photoshoot I did a couple of months ago. The butterflies I shared with you over at Swirlydoos and the back round paper was hand cut from paper with a template I created using Basic Greys diecut shaped paper. Then with SCAL, I was able to create all different sizes. It will be sooo easy to cut with my Cricut Expression. This is my new favorite shape at the moment!! I cut the title with my Cricut and hand cut the vines I also shared over at Swirlydoos. My sewing machine has been working overtime lately. Inspired by Primas's stitched papers.





A bathroom self portrait!!! LOL...I did Glimmer misting to the flowers and butterflies,created their bodies of crystal beads and jewelry wire, hand cut the vines and did my own Faux swirls with 3D puffy paint. Used Gabriellep's paper ruffle technique. My 3 rules in life...Live, Laugh, and Love...





This page was done using Beggahuna's Park Avenue sketch for the April Kit kit. The photo is my sister Laurie who is a first time grandmother and loving every precious moment of it!! She loooves her little Nikki. Did some sewing on the page and the butterflies are some that I shared over at Swirlydoos. Dressed the Prima flowers with Stickles Rock Candy, Shimmerz paint and Martha Stewart micro beads.

IF I COULD SAVE TIME

OK, Here is mine for the challenge "March SGC Deux" that Manda (Manda_K) started at Swirlydoos..You had to use your misting dying skills any way you could...I Glimmer Misted in Watermelon. the cardboard, the flowers ,and my journaling card. I started with a piece of cardboard which I painted with Gesso, then while it was still slightly damp, I misted with GM. It bled slightly but beautifully. Then when it was completely dry, I GM'd some more. Then I used TH crackle paint in a few spots in Green. I used the butterflies I shared with you in the new butterfly thread at Swirlydoos, I used the Prima flowers that I enhanced with Rock Candy Stickles and Marth Stewart Microbeads, I made the big Faux Prima Romani Rose flower in the corner twisting strips of white gauze rolling them and glue it to circles of cardstock, then just formed a rose shape in the center, glued on some pearls and sprayed with Glimmer Mist!! I didn't know what direction this LO was taking, but as always it seemed to come together...Now I can start on my Swirlydoos April DT LO's!!!!

BUTTERFLIES

Besides loving flowers...I loooove butterflies for scrapbook pages. I am always looking for new images to add to my butterfly arsenal. I will be putting together groups of butterfly images and have started a new thread at Swirlydoos in the Tips, Tricks & Techniques section. Click here. http://www.swirlydoos.com/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?59411 Keep checking back for new images along with tips on enhancing their beauty. Here is one of my first postings. This is the Blue collection.Down load the file, print it up, cut them out, and use them as you wish!! Have fun with butterflies. My favorite treatment to enhance them is to paint on Rock Candy Stickles,crackle paint, glossy medium or any clear medium, and it will bring out the vivid colors in the print..You can also further enhance them with glitter, pearls, puffy paint, pearlex powders, etc. Enjoy!!

Dressed up Hydrangeas

I love the packages of Prima hydrangeas we got in a couple of our Swirlydoo kits...The little flower is so beautiful..Well it got me thinking..Can they get any cuter!!?? Well I started fooling around with the flowers while I was doing Manda's challenge LO...And this is what I came up with.

Paint the whole flower with Rock Candy Stickles...Then while the flower is still wet, just dip the very edges into Martha Stewarts micro beads...Now you have these beautiful little gems...And on my next day off (Wednesday..poo) I am going to go buy some of those great sugar crystals!! Some of the new Prima flowers comes with this already on them...They sparkle so beautifully. But I love the micro beads. The package I bought has so many yummy colors!!. I will create a tutorial with a variety of styles. Now go forth and stickle and dip!!

TINY DANCER

There is a Round Robin Challenge going on for the month of March at Swirlydoos. I was first up and 3 others will lift this LO. You had to do a twist..To scrap something on the LO that you have never done before.
I loved the polished stone technique that Gabriellep did in a tutorial she created...I on the other hand don't always have time to devote to the fine details of a LO. (My 40 hour work week gets in the way) So, I Googled images of Gems , saved some photo's of a few I really liked, extracted the image in Photoshop CS3, tweaked the color and details and printed them up on glossy photo paper and detailed highlights with a white gel pen. Walla!!! Faux Gems!!! I then outlined them with bronze puffy paint. So that is my twist of something I have never done before...Faux Gems. The photo is my nephews daughter Nikki, on a visit to my home with her Grandma (my little sissy)...She loves to dance, and this was her adorable pajama tutu..

SHADES

This is a Design Team LO for Swirlydoos using the March kit Butterfly Whispers. This one I used the add on cardstock and some of the left over paper and a couple of Prima flowers I won on their blog...I love Anna Debrowska-Pekocka's style. You may know her as "finnabair". This LO was done heavily influenced by her work...You must visit her gallery as she is sooo talented. Go check out her work. I was honored to be asked last year to have some of my work shown on Craftowo a wonderful blog out if Poland that Ana contributes to. My work was featured along with Robin (Robinzberdz),Irene (Scrapperlicious),Anna herself,Fryne, Theresa(catz),and Tim Holtz himself...That was a lot of talent to be represented with...Go check out each one of the blogs...Love them all!!! To work along side Irene and Robin at Swirlydoos is just a blast!!
Thank you Anna for your amazing art!! The photo is my DD wearing one of her fave pair of Chanel sunglasses.

This was the perfect Lo for a contest at Couture Cardstock site..You had to use pop dots or dimensional adhesive to create dimension on your project...I used them under the leaves and letters...