Zva Creative April Blog Hop!!

Zva Creative http://www.zvacreative.com/index.html and our talented Design Team welcome you to join us for our April Blog Hop! We are happy to have you join us and hope you enjoy all that we have to share with you along the way!
The Blog Hop begins at Zva Creative's NEW blog
http://www.zvacreative.com/wordpress/ ! Be sure head on over to check
it out! Leave a comment there for a chance to win an extra prize package
just for visiting the blog and telling us that you stopped by! 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 http://www.zvacreative.com/retaillocator.html .

The photo in this layout is my Grandmother who just turned 97 years old. The photo was taken 2 months ago when I went to visit her. She is always happy and smiling and laughs at everything. I guess that is her secret to longevity..Dont worry, be happy...This layout features Swirlydoos April Kit
Whispers Of Spring. I just love the sweet rosy tones in the Prima Almanac papers!! The whole kit is just lucious. Adding the Zva was just the icing on the cake!!




The delicate swirls of the pearls were a perfect touch to this layout of my grandmother. She is someone I cherish and adore. I am grateful that in 2012, she is still with us.

The gorgeous corner cluster pearl flourishes are Flickering - White Pearl -[CR-05CA-133]. They are so perfect to frame those special photo's, or hang out in a corner.

One of my favorite dies is the Spellbinders Rose Creations die designed by Donna Salazar. I love this die. I sprayed some beige card stock with Glimmer mist and Lindy's Stamp Gang spray, then inked the edges with a rosey colored chalk ink. I layered a few sizes then topped the middle with the gorgeous Zva Creative  Pearl Brads (1/2") [BRBK-02CA-103]. They are awesome for flower middles!!

The  outer edges of the layout were punched with Martha Stewarts punch all around the page set in Crochet Flower. I love these punches!! There are so many possibilities for using them. I have some great card ideas in my head right now!! The vines are one of my fave from Cheery Lynne Designs. The butterflies are a file I created from scanning the butterflies from one of the beautiful Prima papers in the Swirlydoos kit this month.

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, April 30th and runs through midnight US
Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, May 1st.

 The 5 winners will be announced on Wednesday, May 2nd on each of the
 five winning blogs. The full list will be found on Zva's blog
 http://www.zvacreative.com/wordpress/ 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 your Facebook page about our
 hop (link to any of the blog hop posts)

 * Comment to let us know that you "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.

*Hop over to Zva's blog http://www.zvacreative.com/wordpress/ and
 leave a comment there to tell us that you made it there!

The blog hop begins here at Zva Creative's blog
 http://www.zvacreative.com/wordpress/ . Your next stop is the very talented Tara Orr http://eachmoment-onlyonce.blogspot.com
 Enjoy!

Thank you for joining us!

 P.S. Mark your calendar to join us again on May 28th for our next Zva blog hop!

FabScraps Rustic Collection***Birds Of A Feather***

This is another layout done with FabScraps Rustic Collection. The colors are so earthy and reflect the beautiful rustic colors around us. I live in a subdivision that is also a Bird Sanctuary. There are many types of birds. There is a gorgeous owl that lives in the woods behind our home, and the Perigrine Falcons are gorgeous when perched on our rail on our Gazebo. You may see me use a lot of our nature photo's with this collection. I have plenty of photo's of the wild life in our yard. Fabscraps has a wonderful collection of chipboard to match the collection. I used the Birds Of  Feather for my title. Come visit the brand new FabScraps Blog and grow with us. You are sure to be inspired.

The flower with the rhinestone was created using the Rustic Flowers collection. Just pop them out of the page and distress and layer to your liking. The flower above it was created with the Sizzix Tim Holtz Tattered Pinecone die and a McGill Floriano punch using scraps from the paper.  The leaves were created with Sizzix Tim Holtz Tattered Leaves Die. I inked the middle and edges of the leaves and crumpled them slightly for texture.

 The chipboard title was painted with Lumiere Paint and when dry, I inked the edges with Chalk ink. The journaling was done on a piece of FabScraps Rustic Journal collection. I just cut the journaling card down to size. I journaled using  Zig Pen.

These are the flowers in the top left hand corner using the same techniques as described before.

These are the flowers and leaves on the bottom right hand part of the layout.

Products Used:
Rustic Collection C48 008 2 papers
MC48 001 Die Cut Journal Book
MC DC07 Rustic Flowers
Chalk Ink Chestnut Roan
Martha Stewart Wild Flowers punch around the page set
Rhinestones
Sizzix Tim Holts Tattered Pinecone Die
Sizzix Tim Holtz Tattered Leaves Die
McGill Floriano Punch
Lumiere Paint
12x12 Green card stock.

Directions:

Fabscraps New Collection..".The Rustic Collection"

Finally!! The new Collections from Fabscraps has arrived!! And let me just say they are Fabulicious!!! The first collection I created with is the Rustic Collection. The colors in these papers I used for this layout "The Great Outdoors", reminded me of camping in the great outdoors. The greens of the forest and the blues of the waters reminds me of everything in nature that surrounds us. The photo is my daughter out on a World Wide Photo Walk with me. Scott Kelby was our leader and we went hunting around Down town Safety Harbor (where he lives) for some fabulous photo opportunities. At the end of this post, you can read about the process of how I created this layout. And dont forget to visit and join the very new  Fabscraps Blog. I promise, you are going to love what the Fabulicious Design Squad  is creating with 2 new collections. The C48 Rustic and C49 Victoria Collections.

Products used:2 pieces of C48 002 from the Rustic Collection C48
MC48 001 Die Cut Journal Book (pocket envelope)
MC DC07 Rustic Flowers
DC48 015The Great Outdoors-word
Glimmer Mist
Tim Holtz Tattered Pinecone Die
Martha Stewart leaf punch
Retro Daisy Punch
Rhinestones
Lumiere paint(metallic)
dark ink pad (charcoal)
Martha Stewart edge punch
Martha Stewart Punch Around The Punch Page, Floral Crochet and Wild Flowers.
Seam Binding

INSTRUCTIONS
Cut one paper C48 002 down to 10x10 and punch around the page.
Take the other paper and using a corner punch, just punch the corners.
Using a tape runner, adhere the 10x10 piece to the 12x12 piece as shown. Remove excess paper from the backside of the LO as you will use this excess for some of the flowers. To prepare the flowers, punch out the Rustic flowers as well as the swirl flourishes. Turn the flowers to the wrong side and spray them using a coordinating color. While the petals are damp, scrunch and twist then slightly to create dimension. After they have dried, layer the flowers and place a small punched out flower and rhinestone in the middle of each flower. Each flower has 3 layers. Using the excess paper, die cut 6 spiral flowers from the Tattered Pinecone die and a couple of the leaves from the same die. With the scraps, punch the little leaves and tiny flowers. Ink, roll and fold distress the leaves for dimension. Ink distress all of the edges of leaves and flowers. Prepare your spiral roses and set aside. To prepare the tag, punch out and edge distress with ink. Use coordinating color Glimmer Mist spray to color seam binding and when dry, thread it through the tag hole. Add the tickets and a punched out flourish. (you can now journal in the back of the tag.) Put pocket for tag together. Add 3 of the pinecone roses, with coordinating leaves a flourish and 3 tiny flowers as shown to cover of pocket. Punch out a Medallion and cut in hallf. Tuck the Medallion half to each opposite outside corner of inside punched paper. Adhere some tiny flowers around the outside of the halved Medallions. Prepare your word chippie with paint in coordinating colors. Use strips of a decorative edge punch to mat your photo. Adhere Photo to background, place pocket and tag to side of photo and arrange your word chippie and flowers to the page as shown. Tuck in leaves around the flowers

ZVA Creative featuring SwirlyHues.

It has been a little while since I blogged a new layout. I have been hard at work and just cant reveal all I have completed!! But here is a Zva Creative LO that I totally enjoyed creating using Swirlydoos Whispers Of Spring kit. I used the colors for Aprils SwirlyHues. Zva Creative has so many new beautiful products in their new line. I am so fortunate to be a part of the Zva Design Team and get to work with them. If you are going to CHA this July, let me know. I would love to meet you!! Chicago is going to be a blast!!!

A photo of my DH when he was 19 years old. One of our first getaways.Camping at Cedar Pointe State Park on Long Island in the Hamptons. I remember that weekend like it was yesterday. He was soaking up the sun on the beach. Of course I always had a camera in my hand..I snapped this wonderful photo.  We went so many times after that...    

                                  

The gorgeous Zva  2.5" Dual- Flowers - White & Dusky Pink -

[FL-04CA-128] are paired with  Sizzix Tattered Pinecone roses I created using the add on card stock from the kit, and touched with a rose chalk ink. . I used Donna Salazars Spellbinders Rose Creations die to enhance one of the smaller roses. They work perfectly together.

 A file for the butterflies can be found at Swirlydoos HERE.I created 2 files using the butterflies from the gorgeous Prima paper in the kit. My fave way to enhance the butterflies is to cut antennae into the butterflies while cutting them out, use black marker to color them, then cover the whole butterfly with Rock Candy Stickles. Bend up the wings for dimension and glue only the body part down to your paper.

 Here is the white flower from the Zva 2.5" Dual- Flowers - White & Dusky Pink -
[FL-04CA-128] pack. The leaves are Zva's 36pc leaves #I - 1.5" -[FL-04CA-111]. I really adore the cute wooden Prima clock faces from the Whispers Embellishment Collection. I left them raw.

Here is closer view of the wonderful wooden Post Card included in the Whispers Embellishment Collection. I added the Prima tile where the stamp should be. I just inked the edges of the post card with rose chalk ink.

The beautiful pearl flourishes are Zva's Leaved branch Pearl (A) - Olive -[PEB-03CB-102]. I used 2 packs. The edges of my background paper was inked softly using a Prima mask. The middle strip of pink card stock was punched with the EK Success Scroll Pattern  punch.

Here is your SwirlyHues Palette. Just click on the picture to join in on the fun.

***Zva Creative***featuring Swirlydoos

I absolutely just love the way a little bling goes a long way to beautify your layouts. Zva Pearls, and Crystals do just that for my layouts. While I stalk the Post Man for more Zva Bling and flowers, I decided to create a layout using what I still have in my beautiful stash. You know how much I love creating my own flowers, well using Zva's gorgeous velvety leaves compliments them beautifuly. And the smaller flowers are a beautiful fill in.

I used Swirlydoos March kit "French Quarter" to showcase my Zva product. They appear to go hand in hand. Then again, Zva goes with just about any product you use!! It is just that versatile.

The photo was taken years ago. My son and daughter always hung out with dad in the garage when he was working on his Hotrods. So, my husband would drag out a piece of a car, give the kids tools to work with, and they would pretend to be dad's workers. While Steve was busy working on serious stuff, the kids stayed out of his hair and out of his way while they worked on their project. It always worked. My husband learned how to keep the kids busy while I was in school or work. In the photo, my daughters hands, face, and cloths are filthy...The kids were working on a car. My little Grease Monkeys!!
This is a closeup of one of the floral clusters. There was a beautiful sparkly piece of paper in the Swirlydoos April kit Whispers of Spring. I used it to create the larger flowers using my Tim Holtz Tattered florals die. The smaller roses were created using the tim Holtz Tattered pInecone die. The beautiful Zva leaves are 36pc leaves #I - 2" [FL-04CA-110] and 36pc leaves #II - 1.5" [FL-04CA-114]. The tiny green roses are mini rose -1/2" or 12mm - Olive[FLBK-03CB-106] and the white ones are mini rose -1/2" or 12mm - White[FLBK-03CB-101]. The reason the green ones appear smaller, is because Gabbies cat likes to chew on flowers!! So they got a little wet. but I love how they looked like when they dried. Like little dried flowers.

The beautiful Fantasia pearls come in a set of 2. I used the Taupe/Chocolate Pearl [CRS-04CA-119] to frame my photo. I usually curl the wire stems for the tiny roses around the thin handle of a paint brush to create the tendrils.
Fantasia - Taupe/Chocolate Pearl - Unit of 6 Pkgs[CRS-04CA-119]Fantasia - Taupe/Chocolate Pearl - Unit of 6 Pkgs[CRS-04CA-119]Fantasia - Taupe/Chocolate Pearl - Unit of 6 Pkgs[CRS-04CA-119]

The butterflies are from files I created and can be found at Swirlydoos in the Images and Graphics section.

This next Zva pearl flourish is also a double pack. "Ice & Fire" Pearl - White -[PE-03CA-106]. I used one peice from the set.
"Ice & Fire" Pearl - White - Unit of 6 Pkgs[PE-03CA-106]

Swirlydoos' April Kit Reveal Blog Hop Block Party

Welcome to Swirlydoos' April Kit Reveal Blog Hop Block Party!!

If you came here from Rae Moses'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 Petaloo joining in the fun and offering a prize!! There are 2 prize packs up for grabs so make sure to follow along and have fun!!

Here are my layouts created from the newest kit, "Whispers Of Spring".

This 1st LO is of my daughter. She came home for the weekend a couple of weeks ago, and we did a quick impromtu photo shoot on our yard. I used my Spellbinders Persian Accents die for the frame around the inside of the LO. The pattern is so delicate and intricate, so it softens the hard black and neutral color.

I made the flowers using the Tim Holtz Tattered Floral die, then topping it with a couple of McGill punch star bursts and a pearl.
I adorned one of the diecut punchouts with an initial, a butterfly and some small flowers and leaves.
Here is acloseup of the beautiful diecut trim.
And a closeup of the flower. I love the Prima vine in the flower add on.

This next LO is of my son and husband. I snapped these photo's of them on one of our family vacations. I call them The Boys Of Summer.

I created the smaller brown oses with my Tim Holtz Pinecone die. It really makes the swetest flowers. I printed up the leafy swirls and fussy cut them. The tendrils are a pain to cut, but so worth it. I will post them at the botttom of my post. This size was printed on a 4x6 piece of white card stock. I created the large orange flower and added the Petaloo flower to the center. I tucked some of the wonderful wooden clocks here and there.
Here is a closeup of the Title.

I did a hospital photo shoot not to long ago and this is one of the shots. For the background paper, I used an EK success deep edge punc on the sides and a Martha Stewart Punch All Over punch for the 4 corners. Gives this LO a girlie lacey feel to it.

Once again, I used the Tim Holtz Tattered Pinecone die for the sweet pink tea roses and tucked in some of the pink bud kit flowers for a filler. The leaf clusters is a Spellbinders leave die that was stamped with a Heartfelt Creations stamp. I then sprayed it with some Glimmer Mist and touched a bit of pink Glimmer Mist onto the leaves when they were still damp with the green color. It bleeds slightly giving you a beautiful muted color on the leaves.
Here is a closeup of the small roses I created and the larger one was die cut from the Tattered Florals die and topped with the Tattered Pinecone flower. I love Sizzix and Tim Holtz Alterations dies just as much as my Spellbinders dies.
Just another angle of the floral cluster. The butterflies were scanned from the kit paper and I created a butterfly file which can be found at Swirlydoos under the images and graphics section.

Just another closeup of the larger floral cluster. The little acrylic flowers are so darn sweet!!

I hope you enjoyed these LO's. Stay tuned for more layouts from my second reveal throughout the month.

You have until midnight, eastern time, on April 11th to complete the hop. Winners will be announced on the Swirlydoos Blog on April 12th. 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 QUESTION.
3: Finally, go back to the Swirlydoos blog and leave a comment letting us know how much fun you had AND tell us the QUESTION that was created with all of the special words you collected AND GIVE US YOUR ANSWERS.

My special word is : LEAST

The party continues over at Vicky Alberto's blog. Have fun!