Feel good Friday layout. I'm posting it early just because I can. Just one request -for those who feel they have the right to teach the layouts off this blog and not credit me for my work, well good on you. I am glad to see you are not faced with the moral dilemma of using other people's work and passing it off as your own. And if you don't feel that I deserve the credit that is fine too. I just find it sad that when people inspire others to do similar work or projects they can't even give the person credit. Again, there's a ray of sun that is worth shining on me too. On a lighter note - I enjoyed this layout. The patterned papers were chosen for their beauty and the fact that they picked up the colours in the photos perfectly. The journaling was printed on Japanese paper with gold leaf potpourri flecks in them - just love that paper too much! The black square is stamped and then coloured with perfect pearls(not clearly visible here) to add a touch of bling.

Hope you have a wonderful day, and count your blessings no matter how small!

Supplies: Cardstock Bazzill Basics. Patterned paper K&Co, Webster's pages, 7Gypsies & Basic Grey. Metal Frames Tim Holtz. Sticker 7Gypsies. Stamp Inkadinkado. Perfect Pearls Ranger Industries. Other Embroidery thread.

One of my favourite things to do is to recycle and re-purpose packaging. These cards were all made using packaging from a Prima scrapbooking kit. The front of the kit includes a visual of the paper inside as well as sample pages of what could possible be made using the paper. I took the 'cover sheet' and used my circle cutter to cut a few circles from it - I did pick the areas that I liked the most, then combined these circles with a few Cuttlebugged butterflies and other embellishments. The cards are quick and easy to make plus I got additional mileage out of my product packaging.

The single most important thing to me about packaging is that the designers spent years developing and perfecting their skills of putting colour schemes and designs together that work.

It's the perfect platform for anyone to learn from - to get great colour combinations for your projects as well as putting patterns and designs together. So I encourage you to look at professionally designed products with a new eye of learning - let it inspire you to use better colour combinations in your cards and layouts.

The Cuttlebugged butterflies as cut from different patterned papers and then sewn together using a sewing machine. Each butterfly is at a different angle so that you could see a bit of all of them. This adds dimension to the butterflies and to your card. Their wings are easily bent upwards while the sewing holds them in place.

Supplies: Cardstock Bazzill Basics. Patterned paper Prima. Other Book paper, buttons, diamantes and brads.

so its been a while since i have been here blogging. you now the feeling when life gets in the way of creativity and other stuff get precedence...well that's where I've been - dealing with life,

and I've been working...so it hasn't all been bad.

for starters i cleaned and washed and scrubbed this set of drawers. they are drawers that my late father used in his medical practise - they held the stuff to put stitches in wounds....does this even make sense. oh well, i have great sentiment over these little drawers and so i finally got a set out of my mom to use. i am still not sure how i want to decorate them or what to put in them. i have managed to get some kind of system of storage that works for me and now i have these...decisions decisions.

i will let you know as they progress and post some pictures once it is done.

as far as Misha goes....our pregnant mommy who survived 2 snake bites, anti-venom, a night in doggy hospital...she is doing fine. she had her babies last week Thursday during the afternoon and the evening. by 2 pm in the afternoon there were 2 puppies, by 6 there were 6 puppies and the following morning at breakfast.....there were 12!!

they are truly adorable - healthy happy and growing rapidly! mmmm 12 puppies that you just want to snuggle up to. so there's your evidence of the true power of prayer,

the grace of God and a smart mommy dog who really loves her babies.
as for daddy Labrador...well he roams the yard like a true guard dog for the first time in his life. at least she got him off his butt to start doing something.

i will post some pics soon.

have a wonderful creative weekend.

This layout is about how my mom used to dress me and my sister when we were growing up. It was mostly the same pattern with a slight twist for me and a different colour. Can you see the rebel in me from a young age on? Well yes I am not very proud about my dress sense or hairstyle back then but then again what do parents know anyhow. The dress up theme called for some dress making stamps and the set by Crafty Secrets is simply stunning. Because the photos were really discoloured i scanned them and turned them to sepia.

The title is made using colourwash from Ranger and embossing - a really fun technique.

This was such a fun layout to do for Friday's class. You now the days when you search for photos to scrap and yet there is still a whole box full that needs to be done. Well these 2 just happened to pop out onto the table and there you have it. No huge life-changing philosophy apart from scrapping photos and getting them out of the box, and yet there's a story behind these 2 photos.

I used 2 pieces of patterned paper, some brown off-cuts and 2 pieces of cardstock for the background. The black strips along the edges of the red patterned paper is sewing with beads. And yes even though you may think it takes forever to do it really doesn't - and the effect is stunning. The butterfly is coloured with some glimmer mist (home made) and then cuttle bugged on the one side with an embossing folder for some dimension. The spots are...well holes punched with different sized hole punches for a stunning effect. I use old sticker letters for my title but gave them new life with a layer of paint.