We spent a fantastic 3 weeks August and September travelling through Idaho and Washington (to get to Oregon and tick off something from my bucket list). I'm trying to incorporate my holiday pictures into the Scrappy Lady weekly challenges (and believe me, it IS a challenge). I have a tough time cropping scenery pictures. We collected so many tourist and travel pamphlets throughout Oregon so I decided I'd use some of them for journaling as I know they can say it much better than I can.
This picture was taken last week:
and this one was taken today (after a couple days of melting - Sunday night was our first snowfall of the season):
The Fall layout started out with a 12 x 12 white cardstock which I sprayed with three earth tone Smooch Spritz's (blended) and stamped a few Stampendous leaves using Dew Drop's Brilliance Cosmic Copper (my newest favourite pigment ink). The flowers were made with an EK Success punch out of bright yellow cardstock which I inked with various Tim Holz Distress Inks and curled the leaves around a thin paint brush handle. BUT, what is most fun, are the centres of my flowers. These are seeds taken from that tree and inked with copper and red pigment inks. The two flourishes are Dusty Attic chipboard, also inked with Cosmic Copper and a burgundy Recollections Ink pad. The mini vines (DA 0370) http://thedustyat.cart.net.au/store/laser-cuts/ peaking out of the fibre in the bottom left corner were inked with Dew Drop's Brilian Pearescent Ivy and Lime. I used a Spellbinders embossing folder on one-half of the background leaf paper.
This darn cold is getting the better of me. Finally, I have gotten a layout done - Challenge 40 of the Scrappy Ladies weekly challenges... I am soooo behind!
I haven't followed the sketch to the "t" but pretty close. "100% Boy" is Dusty Attic DA0026. I usually gesso them before I ink or paint them but decided this time to apply ink to the unfinished chippie. Without gesso, the chippies tend to absorb too much ink. I used Smooch Spritz (water-based acrylic paints, rich with mica particles for shimmer) "wood stain" and another that looks orange/red in the glass bottle... unfortunately I tore the label and only have half the name! (...a Party). Because I wanted to use dark brown on the layout I decided that the chippie was still too dark so I distressed the edges with Dew Drop Brilliance's Cosmic Copper. These pictures look very dark but the chippie really does stand out now.
Speaking of not being very tech savvy when it comes to blogs, I have never had a Follow Me button and decided yesterday to try to add one. My blog has always been more like a "dear diary" and I feel foolish adding a follow link, especially when there are no followers. For what its worth, I learned how to add it.
As I'm prone to do, I've been surfing my blogs and finding more awesome blogs to see others gorgeous layouts, tips, and how-to videos. And look what I found! A very cool site you will want to see. Check out Bearly Mine Crafts at http://bearlymine.blogspot.co.uk/. I've just started my tour through the site but decided to stop and add the link here. I'm fairly new and inexperienced at blog layouts...when I add things they don't always show up where I want them to! The blog candy contest picture I want you to see ended up at the bottom of my page instead of in the right column, so here it is again ... don't wait too long, the web site is great and the contest ends November 30th!
You can't really tell here, but the black fingernails have an orange sparkle applied over top. I asked Cheryl if she could paint a spiderweb. Apparently the black gel runs worse than all the other colours so she suggested we only do the ring fingers. I think she did a great job!
Cody asked that family photos be done while everyone in his family was home for Thanksgiving and I was asked to do the honours. Wish it hadn't been so windy on Sunday(and that Karen hadn't chose the dimly lit kitchen to pose for pictures).
Karen and Ross with their grandchildren. Millie will be a big sister in March, 2013:
There must have been 8 or 9 takes of this photo. This is the one with the most smiles (and majority paying attention):
Millie, Matea, Karen, me, Ross and Larry
Dorothy and Colten (sitting)
Great Grandma with Emilia, Colten and Matea:
Three generations (Grandma Karen):
