~~~Shabby Ambition~~~

Well here are 5 layouts I created for Swirlydoos August kit Shabby Ambition. The papers are just beautiful!! Creative Imaginations really outdid themselves with their beloved line. And Krissy once again put together the prettiest main kit with all the prettiest add ons...Swirlydoos is up and running again in true style. There are quite a few upgraded changes to the site that you are going to love!! We will be doing our very own video tutorials in the near future. The forum for that is already up and waiting. We have fantastic plans for that part of the forum. We are in the process of getting all those lost tutorials back up on the site. Thank You Sue Gray for saving all of them. Makes it so much easier!! You rock!! There is so much talent outside of the Design Team...Those Swirly Subscribers are truly wonderful artists and contribute so much to our scrappy community. Love to you all!!!

"The Magic Of Fireflies"
Here is the LO that I used my digi Lo for. The title is courtesy of one of my Swirly sisters Lisa(lisanovo). Thank you Lisa, perfect title. The gorgeous Vine was created by My Swirly Design Team sister, Angelica, for the kits Embellie add on for this months Shabby Ambition. She sells them in her Etsy shop. Gorgeous!!





"ABUELITA"
My sweet sweet grandmother who we affectionately call Abuelita. She will be 97 soon. I fell in love with the trim that came in the embellie kit this month. I found organza in my stash of colors that matched perfectly. So I created yet another flower following my own tutorial for Burned Organza Flowers. This time I used the Alterations Tattered Flowers die to get this version.





"DELIGHT"
The photo is my daughter on her 15th birthday. Hard to believe she will be going away to attend Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Portland in about 45 days...yes I am counting... I did lots of punching, ribbon weaving (another lost tutorial that will be back up soon) and butterflies from a file I shared and created for this kit. I punched strips from my Moroccan Lace punch, slightly dampened the strips and manipulated them around the circle and glued them down. Easy. The vines are a Sizzix Sizzlets die from a set of 3.






I created this layout using the fabulous August kitShabby Ambition from Swirlydoos. The corner flourish and the purple vine came from my wonderful scrappy friend Faye (Elitescrap). Her family owns 3 Tails Craft & Cards in Australia and she sent me the most awesome products to work with. They have the most beautiful diecuts. I made the Retro Camelot Flowers and layered more flowers underneath. The photo of the bride blowing bubbles was captured in a candid moment at a wedding I shot a few years ago. I gave her fairy wings in Photoshop.
"Wedding Bubbles"


Wet the corner of the paper a little and manipulated it to form the gathered shape and made a rose with my Retro punch and leaves with my MS rose leaf punch and tucked it into the gathered paper.


Just wove some May Arts vine ribbon through the Alterations birdcage die and added the sweet flowers from the kit. Painted and highlighted in gold Lumiere paint.


I created the Retro Camelot flowers for this LO then just added extra layers of flowers underneath. The big one is from my Tattered Flowers die, the smaller ones are the larger Retro punch. Then I just stickled them.




"Sun Kissed"
Just love the Beloved Papers in the August Swirlydoos kit. I created the burned Organza Flower using my original tutorial, but I used the Alterations Tattered flowers die instead of free hand cutting for the flower shapes. This created a fluffy full bloom. Love the Websters Bloomers in the kit. The butterflies were hand picked to match the kit.And I will post them here as well.I just Rock Candy Sticled them.






Here are the butterflies to match the kit.

Retro Camelot Flower Tutorial

I always try to do a flower tutorial for each Swirlydoos kit that comes out, and with the debut of the yet to be seen August kit, here is the new flower tutorial. Totally inspired by Prima's Camelot flowers, I developed these using 2 simple punches. 2 sizes of the Retro Punch. Hope you enjoy making these as I had. They are simple.

Product List

Large Retro punch or 5-6 petal punch
Small Retro punch or 5-6 petal punch
leaf punch in proportion to your flowrs
Thin handle paintbrush or wood skewer stick
Adhesive of your choice
ink
water spray bottle



Step 1.
Punch 2-3 flowers from the large punch and give them a quick spritz of water. do not soak.



Step 2.
Using the thin handle of the paintbrush, curl the edges of one side of the petals. You can also scrunch the flower slightly to give it texture before you curl the petals. Let dry.



Step 3.
Glue one flower layer over the other, staggering the petals.



Step 4.
Using your favorite tiny rose tutorial make a small rose for the middle of the flower. I used 2 flower layers for the tight middle, and 2 more layers for the outside curled petals.



Step 5.
Your small rose should fit nice and snug in the larger flower.



Step 6.
Ink your flower edges.



Step 7.
Glue your rose onto your flower layers.



Step 8.
Punch out or hand cut 4 leaves for each flower.



Step 9.
Fold and sharply crease the leaves right sides together.



Step 10.
Using your skewer or paintbrush handle, roll your leaves around it tightly.



Step 11.
Now fold back the leaves the opposite way and pinch the underside (wrong) side at the top part of the leave to give it dimension.



Step 12.
Glue 2 leaves together at the base staggering slightly.



Step 13.
Glue the leaf clusters to the underside of the flower in any way you like. I did opposite ends in this tute. Make sure you like how much is showing on the right side of the flower.



Your flowers are done...Show me what you can do!!

Sugared Letters Tutorial

I am always on the lookout to create tutorials for Swirlydoos. Well, I have a few Prima sugared letters left, and I really love them. I cant find them anywhere. I'm wondering if they even make them anymore. I would love for them to come in different colors. So I figured, they are easy enough to make. So here you go.


Product List.
1. Unfinished Chipboard letters
2. Acrylic paint in a light based color. Pastels work best.
3. Paint brush or dabber.
4. Rock Candy Stickles or Glossy Accents
5. Ink
5. Word stamps
6. Diamond Dust


Step 1.
Paint your letters using an even coat of paint. You may give it a second coat. Dry thoroughly.


Step2.
Ink your stamp generously and lightly stamp your painted letters, being careful not to move the stamp around or rock it, as that will smudge your letters. Let dry thoroughly. If you like, you could take a dab of acrylic paint and use it like a wash over the stamped letters in random spots to give them a worn faded look.


Step3.
Using Rock Candy Stickles ot glossy accents, paint your finished letter and while the stickles is still wet, dip it in the Diamond Dust lightly.


Step 4.
You may use a spray fixative to set your Diamond Dust. Make sure it is glossy and doesn't yellow. This step is optional. Have fun making letters to perfectly match your LO's.

Happy To Be Me...

Doing the last few LO's from the July kit before the August kit arrives at my doorstep!! My daughter was fooling around with her computer webcam in the dark, and this is the photo she came up with. I love it...At almost 19 years old, the girl is happy with herself. Try's to let life trials and tribulations slide on by with out difficulty. I did some stitching on the LO using a beige thread in the bobbin and brown on top. Used my Zutter Distresser for the page edges. And I stamped the border of my cardstock with my IOD Build a Frame stamps. I used a Jenni Bowlin vintage word paper that is from my own stash. The butterflies are some of the ones that I shared at Swirlydoos. I am constantly updating the butterfly thread with new images. I just rock candy stickle them. I used a border punch from EK Success and punched strips, then cut each scallop from the strip and glued the pieces around the circle. Here are some closeups of the LO. TFL...



Sometimes, when I create the butterfly files, they do not have antennae. So while I am cutting out the butterfly, I cut antennae along with it in a random shape. Then I color them with a black sharpie marker.



I made the tiny roses and will be posting a tutorial in the near future. The leaves were punched using a Martha Stewart leaf punch. Then inked, folded and rolled to get a more realistic look.



I created the large flowers using my Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers die. Then I used the Prima flowers in the kit for the middles. I then used rock Candy Stickles and Diamond Dust to match the Prima roses. I painted the Dusty Attic Chipboard flourish with brown acrylic paint and attached some Prima E Line pearls. The smaller blue flowers are punched cardstock with Paper Shapers Retro punch,then inked and drew the brown pattern on them taking a tip from Gabriellep.

The House That Built Me

This LO was done with Swirlydoos July "Summer Serenity" kit. My niece took a trip to New York, and I asked her to go by the house I grew up in and take a snapshot...The journaling comes from a Miranda Lambert Song..."The House That Built Me". The house looks soooo different from when I lived there. The beautiful shutters and window boxes that my mom filled with the most beautiful flowers is gone. It looks so plain. A little run down. But it looks like the people who live in there are happy, the color of the house tells me so. But it did bring back the best memories seeing it for the first time in 15 years. I just had to do a page on it. I used my Prima, Iron Orchid Build a Frame Stamp set to stamp the borders of the paper. I have had them since they first came out, used them a couple of times on my early days LO's, when I should be using them all the time!! Love them to dress up papers!! The print paper is from my personal stash. It is Jennie Bowlin paper. TFL...



The branch was cut from cardstock that I traced a Dusty Attic chipboard design on. I added some punched Martha Stewart leaves. The butterfly is from my personal stash that I shared over at Swirlydoos, just rubbed some Rock Candy Stickles on them.


The fence is from Dusty Attic. I used Tim Holtz Rusted technique on it. I had a tutorial at Swirlydoos, but when we were hacked, it was lost...I used some of my May Arts Ribbon throught the fence and added some Wild Orchid tiny roses.


The Prima Flowers are from the kit. I hand cut the leaves, used my deco scissors to cut them out, folded, inked and curled them for a more realistic look.


Just another closeup.