Swirlydoos July Kit Blog Hop featuring "Paper Dolls"

                  Welcome to Swirlydoos' July Kit Reveal Blog Hop 

                                      Block Party!!

If you came here from Heidi '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 !!

I just love my Martha Stewart punches and Crochet Lace is one of my faves.  I did a little machine sewing around the page and added a bit of gesso for texture.

 The flowers were created with Spellbinders Grand Peonies Die and layered, then the sweet roses in the kit were added to the middle. I touched the edges of the petals with gesso and added some Stickles. I can do a quick tutorial within the next couple of days.

The butterflies are a file I created a while back for another kit, but they worked so well with this kit. You can find the ones that match the papers in this current kit  HERE in the Swirlydoos forum.

 

The sweet vine is from Cheery Lynn Designs. I just adore it! The tiny flowers were created using the smallest Retro Punch and about 4 -5 layers. Then the middle is a dot of liquid pearls.

Just a closer look at the flowers.

 This next layout I had a lot of fun doing. I wanted a muted beachy feel to it and remembered a Miss Paper Arts Class that Stacey Young did, and wanted to give it a try. I changed it up slightly with the masking and flowers, but the basic design and techniques are what I followed from Staceys wonderful tutorial.And with 67 bottles of Glimmer Mist in my arsenal, I really should start using them more often!! I covered the parts where I used the texture paste, but it is peeking out here and there. I also discovered that if you splat a drop of Glimmer Mist in your page then blow it in different directions using a straw, you get AMAZING splats!!

The flowers are from the Flower add on kit and I stamped the Spellbinders Foliage leaves with the coordinating Heartfelt Creations Leaf Medley PreCut Set from the  Botanical Collection Stamp set.

Living in Florida gives me the benefit of shell collecting on the beach. I have quite the collection and now I have found a new way to use them in mixed media art.

 I love the Tattered Banners for title work .I added the tiny letters that I created in Photoshop.

The touch of hemp around the photo and trailing off  to the side gives the illusion of being wind swept.

The little birdbath  with the birds are just darling. I placed one of the birds in little Nikki's hand,

You have until midnight, eastern time, on Monday, July 9th to complete the hop. Winners will be announced on the Swirlydoos Blog on July 10th.  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 REALLY 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, tell us the QUESTION that was created with all of the special words you collected, and  THEN ANSWER it!!    Can't wait to hear from you.

My special word is : YOU

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

June Zva Blog Hop Winners Announcement!!

June Zva Blog Hop Winners Announced

We’d like to congratulate the following SIX ladies who joined us on the blogs listed below and won a prize from our June Blog Hop!
From Zva’s blog:
julie e says: 
June 25, 2012 at 9:08 am (Edit)

Posted a link to the blog hop on facebook. (and asked to her lss to carry Zva– thank you Julie!)
From Lisa Somerville’s blog:
Kathy said…
Beautiful card, and the black base really sets it off!
June 25, 2012 9:14 PM
From Karen Shady’s blog:

luv46kdzJune 26, 2012 3:38 PM said:

What a beautiful lay out

Paula
Form Andrea Ewen’s blog:

Gerrie Johnnic June 25, 2012 9:14 PM said:

Very classy! So pretty for any occasion…smilin’

From Lisa Gregory’s blog: Congrats Bonnie!!!
Bonnie in SC said…
There are so many lovely techniques here, I don’t know where to start. I want to do them all.
June 25, 2012 3:23 PM
From Jolanda Meur’s blog:
Sherry said…
Wow I love this photo hanger — very pretty!
25 juni 2012 21:39
Each winner will receive a Zva prize package worth $30.00. Congrats winners!

Winners, please email our design team coordinator, Windy Robinson at windyrobinson@gmail.com to claim your prize!
Have a great Wednesday!
Sincerely,
Zva Creative

¨Zva Creative June DT Blog Hop!

 ZvaCreative and our talented Design Team welcome you to our June blog hop!

The Blog Hop begins at Zva Creative's blog! 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 of the participating blogs there (in case there is a glitch along the way).  

As you know, Zva Creative 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 will be sharing 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 used my Swirlydoos June kit Antiquities to create this layout. With the addition of the beautiful flowers and bling from Zva Creative, how could you go wrong. Everything but the Zva products on this layout is in the main and embellishment kits, with the exception of the doily behind the pic. Krissy does a bang up job in creating these wonderful kits!! She sure knows how to coordinate beautiful product.

I nestled the beautiful Zva Blue roses among my hand made flowers. The large one is 1.5" graceful roses -Blue -[FL-04CA-133]   The smaller ones are mini rose (144 stems) -1/2" or 12mm - soft blue [FLBK-03CB-109

The tiny buds are Elegant Rose Buds  1/4w x3/8h" or 6wx10h mm-Soft Blue[FLBK-03CB-149

For the handmade flowers I used Spellbinders Grand Peony die to create them. A single layer. I topped them off with the gorgeous gold netting trim from "Antiquities" and placed one of the wonderful Bo Bunny brads in the middle. Then I used the gold Distress Crackle paint to kiss the edges of the petals.

 This is a sneak of a line Zva Creative will be unveiling at CHA next month!! Zva sent me samples of 3 colors to work with. The blue is just stunning. I don't have a product number yet for them as they haven't been released, but you're going to love the new line!! If you are familiar with Zva Bling, you know just how much it makes your projects pop off the page!!

Just a closer look at the beautiful blue flourish. I created a File of the Butterflies for Swirlydoos for one of our past kits and you can find them by clicking on the link. I added some sparkly Stickles in Icicle to the wings, then covered it with Glossy Accents.I always cut out antennae while I'm cutting out the butterfly, then color them with a black Sharpie, but you could use wire to create them. The doily in the back ground is from Wiltons. You know, the kind you use for cakes!! I have had 4 bottles of Walnut ink that I never use, well I broke out one bottle, and I love the chocolate color effect..Gorgeous.

Just another closeup of  the flowers, The Zva tiny roses and buds are perfect to fill in your floral sprays. They add the perfect touch. The leaves were stamped on card stock from the Swirlydoos add on Card Stock kit using one of all time fave Heartfelt Creations stamps. I think the stamp is retired now...I cut the leaves out, sprayed them with Glimmer Mist in Olive Vine and touched them up a bit with Suede. I wrinkled distress them a bit while slightly damp for texture.

 The letters are actually stickers from the embellishment kit. I have a great tutorial on how to make them look like real scrabble tiles.The little tiles were perfect for journaling.

 Here is a close up of the butterfly and flower.

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 ZvaCreative 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, June 25th and runs through midnight US Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, June 26th. 

The 5 winners will be announced on Wednesday, June27th on Zva Creative's blog. We will do our best to notify each winner, but it's best if you can pop in to Zva's blog on Wednesday.

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 and leave a comment there to tell us that you made it there!

 The blog hop begins here at Zva Creative's blog. Your next stop is the very talented Robin Shakoor's Blog... Enjoy!

Thank you for joining us!

P.S. Mark your calendar to join us again on July 30th for our next blog Hop. 

In case you miss the order of the hop. Here it is.

Zva is linking to Tara Orr

Tara is linking to: Jolanda Meurs

Jolanda is linking to: Karen Shady

Karen is linking to: Andrea Ewen

Andrea islinking to: Carole Maurin

Carole is linking to: Lisa Gregory

Lisa is linking to: Robin Shakoor

Robin is linking to: LisaSomerville

Lisa is linking to: Nicole Martel

Nicole is linking to: Susan Lui

Susan is linking to: ChristinGrønnslett

Christin islinking to: Windy Robinson

FabScraps "The Victoria Collection"

 The Victoria Collection is Fabscraps latest design. It is beautiful and whimsical. If you are going to CHA next month, be sure to stop by the booth and say hello!! FabScraps will be at Booth 1517. I hope to meet a lot more of you this year!!
FabScraps is the biggest manufacturer of beautiful scrapping products in South Africa. I feel fortunate to be a part of the wonderful Design Team and to work with such beautiful products. A wonderful part of the paper collections is FabScraps also has a whole line of coordinating chip board to match. The Chip board albums are beautiful. Come back soon to see what I do with one of them. FabScraps will be unveiling 2 new collections at CHA and all I can say is GORG!!! Think about those photo's of trips to the sea....Oh my...

 The background paper for this layout is C49 003 from the Victoria collection. I paired it with a C49 001 for my accent color. I punched the outer edges with the Martha Stewart punch around the page set. I layered an 8x8 piece of the same background paper design from the Victoria mini paper collection pack and adhered it to the middle. The decorative piece under the photo's is a Martha Stewart Deep edge punch, punched from a strip of   C49 001 paper. I punched both sides lining up the design to get the decorative strip.  

 I created the blue flowers using Heartfelt Creations Botanical Florals stamps with the Spellbinders Rose Creations die. I sprayed Bahama Blue Glimmer Mist and wrinkle distressed them before layering. Then I used Spellbinders Bitty Blossoms with C49 001 to create the smaller flowers in the middle of the layered blue flowers. The result is a beautiful full fantasy rose.

 The leafy vines are from the CottageCutz Leafy Foliage die.
I also used the Tattered Pinecone die from Sizzix for additional fill in foliage. 

 Here is a closeup of the flowers. They could have been easily stamped onto more FabScraps paper, but I didn't want to cut it all up because I am using the blue collection   for another layout...

 The beautiful chip board piece for my title "My Girl" DC49 018  was painted with Lumiere Paint. The butterflies were punched with Martha Stewart punches in 2 different designs and layered.

Be sure to head on over to the FabScraps Blog to see more fabulous designs from the DT. And some new sneak peak layouts from the upcoming new collections!!

Blog Hop in Memory of Lisa Lynne Wright...I will miss you...

This is very sad time for crafters who know Lisa Lynne Wright. I served with Lisa on the Heartfelt Creations Design Team during my 2 terms, and just learned this week that our sweet Lisa left this world and on to another place....Heaven.... This is a blog hop in honor of Lisa, and although it was such short notice for me  to create a project for this hop, I would love to share my words that I sent to Lisa's husband Joe, in the hopes that my words would be of some comfort to him. I will send my card after. Although I only knew Lisa from being Online friends and co designers, I felt I knew her for a long time. Her words of encouragement, and her sweet comments on  my work, were always kind, genuine and the sweetest. The crafting world has lost a beautiful, loving, very talented artist. I am grateful our paths crossed in this industry, and I will miss her so...God Speed my friend...

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says, "There, she is gone."
"Gone where?"
Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side, and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, "There, she is gone!" there are other eyes watching her coming, and there are other voices ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!"    Amen


Your next stop is Glenda's Blog 

Technique Tuesday and Zva Creative Joint Blog Hop { featuring Swirlydoos}

Today I’m teaming up with some of my fellow design team members from Zva Creative and designers from Technique Tuesday to share a new project using Zva’s beautiful crystals and Technique Tuesday’s stamps. Technique Tuesday is a manufacturer of top-quality clear stamps, Technique Tiles and other innovative products for paper crafters and scrapbookers. I have been a fan of Technique Tuesdays stamps for a very long time and was delighted we got the opportunity to hop together. 

The photo in the layout is my grandmother who just celebrated her 97th birthday. The new chapter in her life is living in an assisted living facility. Every day is a new day for her and she loves it. She loves flowers and I only thought it fitting to cover the layout in different roses. Her favorite flower.

I have used SWIRLYDOO's gorgeous June kit "Antiquities" to create this layout while adding flowers and leaves from Zva Creative and stamped images from Technique Tuesday. The beauty of Swirlydoos kits are they are packed with wonderful embellies and flowers, but you can always add from your own stash as I have in this layout.

The white flowers are Zva Creative  2.5" Dual- Flowers - White & Dusky Pink -[FL-04CA-128]. 
The beautiful leafy vine is the Zva Creative  8" Branch w leaves -[FL-04CA-109].

 The beautiful set of flourishes is  Flickering - Iridescent Crystal -[CR-05CA-126]. 
The  pair of crystals is perfect to frame photo's.

This is just a closeup of the floral cluster in the corner of the layout. I have paired Zva's flowers and leaves 36pc leaves #I - 1.5" -[FL-04CA-111]  with my handmade flowers. For the solid roses I used the Tim Holtz Tattered Pinecone die by Sizzix. The other blue flowers were done with  the Spellbinders Grand Peony die. I layered them then topped them with Zva Creative large Pearl brads. Pearl Brads (1/2")[BRBK-02CA-103]

The Zva Creative white flowers are 2.5" Dual- Flowers - White & Dusky Pink -[FL-04CA-128].
The pretty little butterflies are from the Take Flight set from Technique Tuesday. I stamped them on white card stock, cut them out and colored them with Zig Markers, then covered them with Rock Candy Stickles.

 This is just another closeup of the corner cluster of flowers and leaves.

Have fun on the hop and be sure to leave our designers lots of love and comments along the way because both Techinque Tuesday and Zva Creative will be giving out prizes to random winners!

Technique Tuesday will give away a $25 gift certificate to TechniqueTuesday.com to one lucky blog hopper chosen at random. That winner will be announced on the Technique Tuesday blog.

Zva Creative will be selecting one lucky winner who comment along the blog hop to win a Zva prize package worth $30.  All comments must be received by 11:59pm on Tuesday, June 19^th. Winners will be announced on Zva’s blog on Wednesday, June 20^th at 9 am EST. 

Technique Tuesday is a manufacturer of top-quality clear stamps, Technique Tiles and other innovative products for paper crafters and scrapbookers. Visit our web site and blog http://techniquetuesday.typepad.com/ to see our products and find even more ideas for using them.

Zva Creative produces many beautiful color groupings of high quality pearls, flowers and crystal embellishments that can be used on scrapbooking, card making and mixed media projects. You can visit Zva’s gallery or blog for many great project ideas and find a list of stores and online retailers that sell Zva HERE.

Here is a list of all of the Designers participating in this wonderful hop.

 If you started at the beginning, then your next stop is at the very talented Ashley Harris's blog.

Andrea Ewen http://www.ewenstyle.com/

Jaclyn Miller  http://designsbyjax.blogspot.com/

Lisa Gregory http://what-a-beautiful-mess.blogspot.com/

Ashley Harris http://ashleyharris.typepad.com/

Nicole Martel http://nicolemartel.blogspot.com/

Daniela Dobson http://danieladobson.blogspot.com/

Windy Robinson http://windyrobinson.blogspot.com/

Kris Chirhart http://purplenightowl.blogspot.com/

Robin Shakoor http://robinshakoor.blogspot.com/

Laura O'Donnell http://itsallrosie.blogspot.com/

Lisa Somerville http://www.lisasomerville.com/

Sharyn Tormanen http://sharyntormanen.typepad.com/

Teri Anderson http://terisplace.wordpress.com/

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

 If you came here from Vicky Alberto '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 a very special guest joining in the fun and offering a prize!!

 "ANTIQUITIES" 

is the name of the fabulous June kit.  

This first layout show a photo of my daughter hanging out at the beach. Now that school is over until she starts her 12 week externship, and all she has right now is her fabulous job, she has lightened her load a bit and relaxing for once. I found the journaling on Pinterest. When I read it, I thought about her...

  I created the roses using the Tattered PInecone Die by Sizzix. Funny how I haven't made 1 pine cone yet. It sure makes pretty little roses!! The leaf die is also new. It is from CottageCutz. I die cut using card stock from the add on kit and sprayed it with Glimmer Mist in Olive Vine. I found another great flower die at Amazon for the layers beneath the Kaiser Craft flower. It has 6 sizes. Love adding to my flower die arsenal.

Just another part of the layout showing the flowers and vines.

Here is the journaling. I just love Pinterest for so many reasons. One being all of the quotes I collect! They are great for journaling. One thing I always have trouble with.

Love those little Pinecone roses!! While the Glimmer Mist was still a little damp on the leafy vine, I wrinkled them a little for added texture.

This next layout shows a photo of my husband and Gabbie when she was almost 2 years old. This kit is so versatile. It is perfect to scrap the men in your life. I just don't do that enough. That's because neither my son or husband will sit long enough for pictures. I used my post card edge tutorial for the background of my layout.

The Flower add on kit has the best selection of flowers! I took some of the sweet loose rose buds and wrapped a few of them around the Prima vine. I then tucked 2 more to the side of the larger Prima bloom. The small vines are pieces of the full  die cut from Cheery Lynn designs

Just a closer look at the floral cluster. 

I backed the pop out sticker tags with paper, punched a hole on the tops, studded it with an eyelet using my Cropadile and strung the ribbon from the kit through the holes. 

 

You can find a few butterfly files that I specifically created for this kit in the forums at Swirlydoos. Just go  HERE. 

 

The teeny Tiny little lettters are wonderful for adding teeny tiny little notes. 

 

You have until midnight, eastern time, on Sunday, June 10th to complete the hop. Winners will be announced on the Swirlydoos Blog on June 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 REALLY 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 : Frown

The party continues over at the fabulous Irene Tan's Blog. Have fun!

Zva Creative featuring Swirlydoos Round Robin Challenge

 Zva Creative has so much beautiful bling to make your projects shine. Sometimes my layouts appear a little naked without them!! I love tucking the pearl flourishes here and there on my layout to fill the empty areas. It brings the whole layout together. You can visit the  Zva Creative  home page and dont forget to visit  the BLOG for more creativity!!
I also did this layout for the  June Swirlydoos Round Robin Challenge. It gives everyone an opportunity to lift or put a twist on the leaders layout. This month, I am up first. Oh the pressure!!

I used the Swirlydoos may kit "So Chic", created my own flowers and added Zva's beautiful pearls and a couple of flowers and leaves.
The photo of Gabbie was taken at church. Church is where we lighten our hearts and leave our burdens behind. I chose to use a quote about TIME to convey this sentiment. It is one of the themes in the round Robin Challenge this month.

 I love all of my flower dies and punches. And I love to mix and match them all. I haven't done a flower tutorial in a while. I think I shall do one this month.  The Dusty Attic circle framing the photo was from a Special Order at Swirlydoos. I have quite the collection. I need to start using the pieces I have. I painted it with Picket Fence distress crackle paint, then after it dried, I rubbed it with a little brown chalk ink to enhance the cracks. The flowers were made from a combo of  Sizzix  Tim Holtz Tattered Florals, Pine cone and  Spellbinders dies. I used Prima's Gate mask with crackle paint peeking out the side.
.

The beautiful pearl pieces around the layout are all from the same package. It is the
Imagine - White Pearl -[CR-05CA-111] I love the bits and pieces tucked here and there.
The Zva Creative flowers are 1.5" graceful roses -Brown -[FL-04CA-138] They look a little on the purple side, but still gorgeous.

 More pieces from the  Imagine - White Pearl - [CR-05CA-111].
The beautiful leaves are   36pc leaves #I - 1.5" -[FL-04CA-111]
 I punched the middle paper using a Martha Stewart Deep Edge Punch.

 Here is a close up of the flowers I created. I mixed the patterned paper with card stock. I spritzed the layers using Tim Holtz Tiny Mister to damped slightly before wrinkle distressing and curling the petals.

The title word TIME  is the  Sizzix Tim Holtz  Vintage Market die. The small letters were created a s a file in Photoshop, printed up on a 5x7 piece of card stock and cut apart.