My favorite things...A day at the beach...

Hi there everyone,

What a week...
I've made several layouts for that album I'm working on and it is so much fun!!!
Seeing pictures of my grandkids when they were babies is just PRICELESS!!!
It's hard to even stop looking at pictures and deciding what to scrap. I can't include all the pics just because they're so cute, I have to pick important events. But, for me, that is the hardest part. I ooh and aah and procrastinate. Finally, I have to just make myself stop, decide and get on with it.

This layout I am showing today is the last one I made, because one of my favorite challenge sites is "Scrapping Every Day Miracles" and their new one for July is to scrap about "favorite things". That was great because I wanted to include these pictures in the album and they represent my very favorite things...family & beach. There is nothing I like better than to be with my family AND be at the beach.  I always tell people that when I get to heaven, God will have a place for me by the ocean. I can really see it...a nice open cottage...lots of windows...a beach, an adirondack chair, a pretty white large shawl and a paint canvas with brushes and paints. (I don't have the talent to paint here on earth...but it's one of the gifts I want in heaven).  Daydreaming again....what's your dream????
http://scrappingeverydaymiracles.blogspot.no/  favorite things and an office supply item. Mine is the star paperclip.

Okay, on to my layout...
I have to tell you that this is a lift from a layout I saw on someone's blog a long time ago. I printed it out and have used it several times since. It's such a different layout and I've liked it every time I've had the chance to do it. This one is the beach, but it would be really good in snow too...

The pictures were taken in 1995 with our middle daughter and her three youngsters. The baby at the top is baby Rachel. That skinny guy in the middle is my hubby. That layout was perfect. You have to cut the pics up really narrow and that brings the images to the front focus.  So, as I am sure you can tell, I am happy with the outcome.

So here's the other challenges I am entering:
http://wordartwednesday.blogspot.com/anything goes...
         fun with family and grandchildren
http://countryviewchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/summer sizzle
         what's more sizzling than a day at the beach with little people!!!
http://dutchdare-cardchallenges.blogspot.com/summer pictures and colors
         It's hard to see on the photo, but I used white pearl paint to stencil circles         on the background and also stamped quite a few dragonflies around the tiles.
 http://www.hidinginmycraftroom.com/ freestyle...anything goes.

That's it for today.
Have a very blessed day...

Elena
 

A card for my hubby,

Hello peeps in blogland,

We are having such wonderful weather here in Michigan.
I look forward to spring and summer so much. Everything turns that beautiful bright green...flowers of every kind start to pop out all at once...and there it is!!!
That long awaited spring with the feel of fresh, warm breeze. It seems to wash everything clean
and make us feel like everything is better.
I wish it would last forever, but that wouldn't work because we probably would get tired of it.
I would sure like to try it though.

I have been quite ill lately and have not kept up with things very well. I get migraines and the last few weeks have been really tough. Hard to be creative when you just want to crawl into bed and stay there.

I did get some stuff done though and will be sharing it as I get better.
Mostly, I made cards for family and our church shut-ins.
I can honestly say I am really tired of working on cards.
Last night and this morning I went back to working on a layout and put another page together for my daughter's book. It was so fun to get back to a layout. And it's fun too because of the pictures and the memories that come up.

But today I am sharing a card I made for my hubby.
It's very simple, but that's all that I could come up with.
It also fits really well with a challenge I saw just as I was making the card.
Here it is:

The challenge is at http://musecardclub.blogspot.com.au/
We are given an inspiration card and need to create a card using any of the elements for inspiration.
My card uses the color blue and also the chevron design. I was already thinking of the chevron before I even saw the challenge so I was very happy to be able to join that challenge site and play along for the first time.

I am also entering the challenge at http://dutchdare-cardchallenges.blogspot.com/
Dutch Dare is asking for anything that begins with "B"....in my card that is BLUE & BROWN

The card really doesn't need any explanation. It's pretty straightforward and simple.
Actually, I am not a big fan of plain and simple cards. That seems to be the rage right now and some are really beautiful and I am trying my hand at them too. But I tend to like more "stuff" on my cards and pages. Plain and simple always makes me feel like I'm not finished. Something should be added to all that white space.

That's what's so great about this craft...Anything and everything is wonderful as long as you love what you are doing!!!

Be blessed and have a great week,

Elena

Hello again....

Well, almost two months went by since I blogged, I just can't believe it.
I never stopped creating, I just procrastinate about posting it!!!
I'm working on that!!!

There are two crafty projects that I am working on right now.
One is to make cards for our church shut-ins, the other is an album for our daughter's 25th wedding anniversary. I love both of these projects so much!!! I tend to enjoy layouts a little more than cards, but both are great. And I like it because it shifts your thinking. Smaller projects just work differently than a large piece with several pictures on it.
YES...crafting is good, fulfilling, energizes our lives AND gives much joy to the receiver.
Like Hallmark says, "When you care enough to send (or give) your very best"...and our very best is a piece of ourselves...our very inner being. That is a gift beyond compare.

So, in this post I am going to share a page from the album. It's 4 pictures of our daughter's oldest kids when they were babies. Luke was first and Bekah came 14 months later. These pics are so adorable!!! It's really a special privilege to be a grandparent and see a second generation grow and become adults. Both of these kids are now in college and doing very well.

So here's the pic:

Right away I wanted to do a scalloped side border, but I didn't want it to go all the way around, and I wanted it to look like it was sticking out of the top page. I cut the turquoise sheet at an angle on the two corners and folded it over the scallops. Looks really good...I like it!

I am very bad at journaling and I really wanted to say something about those pictures. So I cut tiny tags in yellow and attached them to the appropriate picture. I am sure it could have been done more creatively, I've gotta work on that!! The picture where Bekah is kind of laying is so CUTE!! I have loved that ever since we took it. She is really skinny now so I can show it in the album without em-barrasing her, but she was a little chub and every time we tried to sit her up (she was only about 3 months old!) she would fall back in this sprawled out position that just brought so much laughter, we would all be in tears. The little tag says "I could get a bite...if I could just sit up!!!"

The dragonfly is sitting on a circle medallion from Memory Box. Their products are among the
 best !! Their dies are so thin and delicate and look beautiful on anything!

I am entering this into the http://littletangles.blogspot.com/
     Their challenge is to use pick two colors from aqua, yellow & coral. I picked the aqua &
     yellow.
Also entering the http://wordartwednesday.blogspot.com/
     Their challenge is "Anything goes". Their Scripture is "children are a gift from the Lord".

Thank you so much for stopping by.
I love to read other designers' blogs...hope you enjoy looking at mine too!
Leave me a comment, please...I love to hear from you.

Bunches of hugs,
Elena

Hi, welcome to my little space of creativity...

Today I am playing at a challenge site that I have not had an opportunity to participate in before.
http://www.runwayinspired.blogspot.com/ I have seen this "Runway Inspired" challenge for a couple of months now but never had the right project to enter with.

I LOVE the idea of a beautiful dress or outfit and then creating something that would complement it. Their DTs come up with some great stuff and there's been a couple cards in the past that I thought were outstanding.

This time it's a young looking outfit made up of a white Tshirt with a design on the chest and black/white striped sleeves coming out from under it. A Bright yellow (looks like leather) short skirt, yellow high heels and a pink purse. There is pink in the design on the chest too.
It was love at first sight!!! I immediately saw one of my granddaughters in those colors and I knew I could do it this time.

I had so much fun with this. I made a bookmark tag and I truly think it looks like her. She is a diva, loves glitz and shiny things...but yet is quite modest and doesn't want anything too outlandish. I hope she loves it like I do.

Hope you like it too. Here it is:

http://www.runwayinspired.blogspot.com/

 I also found another challenge that I could enter:
http://craftyribbonschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/


Well, what do you think?
Leave me a comment to let me know.
Not too much to go into detail about. Everything is from stash that's been hanging around. That black and gray striped piece is from a chipboard flourish that I got long ago and never could find a use for the negative piece. Doesn't it look great there though???

Thanks for visiting,
Elena

Our daughter's 21st Annivversary...

Our daughter was married on leap day 21 years ago. She was so excited about doing that and still enjoys it very much. We always laugh about how many years (counting only the leap years, of course); being one of a few who can choose between two days 3 years out of four; etc. Their wedding was even covered in our city newspaper as one of a handful who chose to get married on that day.

So I made this card as a "not the traditional" anniversary card. Leap day is not traditional so I thought they needed something out of the ordinary. I love the heart cut-out. It is a Dazzles heart from "Hot off the Press". Dazzles come on a lift-off sheet and are the basic design outline, plus a cut-out design on the inside. They are really beautiful and you can put them on anything, beautiful paper, fabric, or like in this case, a painted transparency.

Two years ago, Tim Holtz did his "Chemistry 101" class...all about alcohol inks. It was really fun to learn and I did a bunch of layering colors on transparencies. I kept the pieces and use them once in a while for embellies. Those transparencies took the color really well and came out very richly colored.

The heart is layered on a TWINCHIE (2x2 inch) and has a gold key attached at the bottom. (Key to my heart...get it? (hee hee). The black twinchie was embossed with clear UTEE and came out quite thick. I bent it back and forth to get it to crack in places. It's difficult to see because the heart covered most of it, but it's visible when you look closely.

The paper was a pretty flowered piece that I distressed with Distress color (burlap brown) and I added some pink dots. After looking at it though, I wish I had put on some small hearts...

That beautiful lace is from Frilly & Funky...she has the most beautiful lace at a wonderful price.

Here's the pics:

I am entering this card in these two challenges:
http://stampendousblog.wordpress.com/
http://twinchie-twinchiehotmaillive.blogspot.com/

That's it for me today.
The whole country has had a lot of bad weather this February...
I'm looking for a much better March...SUN!!! YES!!!!

Blessings,
e

Have you made your heart sing today?

I don't see too much Iris folding on the blogs right now.
I'm sure it was popular at different times, but a friend and I went to a card class and she had us try this technique. It was really a lot of fun!!! 
I was kind of surprised that I liked it because, while it looked kind of interesting, I never thought about actually using it on a card. The teacher had several patterns for us to choose from and that boot was just calling my name...I knew I'd find a use for it.

I got home and I realized that it would soon be my granddaughter's 17th Birthday and the boot would be PERFECT!!! So I made a tag that she could use for a bookmark and I really like the way it turned out.
My big mistake was that I did not have any gesso to prep the paper before I painted it that blue color.
The acrylic paint made the card wetter than I thought, and because of the bulk of the folded paper underneath it stayed wet for a long time.

So, I learned a lot:
       Don't use acrylic paint unless you use gesso first.
       Prepare the front piece BEFORE you adhere it to the folds.
       Prepare the back BEFORE you adhere it to the front.
       In other words, do everything seperately first. Much easier that way.

And here's the pics:

 Isn't that boot great??? The colors turned out so perfect!
The top and the heel of the boot are cut in a single piece of a black glittery sort of paper.
Very cool looking. The rest of the papers are just pieces left over from other projects.
I guess that's the great thing about this Iris folding. You really do get to use up some of those papers that were just too good to throw away. Also, when the paper is folded it brings out different parts of the papers
and looks completely different.

And I LOVE this little statement I found on Pinterest.
So cool! So right for her...but really, so right for EVERYBODY!!!

I've been thinking a lot about this little statement.
To "EVERY DAY DO SOMETHING THAT MAKES YOUR HEART SING"....
Which means that most of the time we will do something to either treat ourselves to something lovely,
or treat someone else to something lovely (a smile or a hug perhaps???)
Most of the time, our heart sings when we have made someone else happy or lightened their load in some way. As we well know though, sometimes we're the ones who need something wonderful to happen. So it's okay to do something to pamper or give ourselves a break.

Take the time, right now, to love on someone who's with you,
     and love on yourself too.

I did find a couple of challenges to enter this tag in:
http://www.frosteddesigns.blogspot.com/2013/02/challenge-be-bold.html
http://justusgirlschallenge.blogspot.com/ picture inspiration...my inspiration was the blue, brown & maze

Blessings,
e

I WON...continued

I am making this a separate post so that the first one doesn't get too lengthy and I can give proper attention to both companies that blessed me with such wonderful prizes.

So now, on to the next win.
This one is from "Heartfelt Creations".
I knew Heartfelt from the dies that they make (i LOVE dies)...but this time they were featuring two separate collections. It included the paper, cut out labels for cards and layouts, stamps AND a beautiful new die.

See it here:

This collection is "Countryside Evening Collection" It is absolutely gorgeous.
I didn't know what a "collection" is...never having gotten one before. But WOW!!!
All you need to add is imagination and embellies!

The paper is double sided and goes perfectly with the stamps. The colors are kind of earthy, some are dark and moody...just like an evening in the country. It will be great with mixed medium...but I don't care much for the messy kind and I can see this more in the vintage elegant Graphic 45 kind.
I really love it!!!

And how about that DIE???? I was already saving to buy that because I watched a video one of their designers did using that die to make half circles and full doily circles. The two are different sizes and different in design so you actually have two different sized doilies or half circles OR corners, of course!!!!

Oh my....now it's time to go and create something!!!

Hope this inspires you to participate in some blog hops (or wherever they are giving something away) and
leave me a note telling me about YOUR win!!!

Many blessings,

Elena