Prima layout and paper rose flower tutorial

Hi there! As you can probably tell from looking at my layouts, I have a "thing" for flowers.  I love Prima flowers (of course!), but I also like to make paper roses. Earlier this year I was asked to make a layout with these paper roses for Scrapbooking m.m., the beautiful Swedish magazine.  This layout was published in the May/June issue.  It features a picture of me and my sweet hubby on our wedding day:

Almost everything on this page is Prima.  I used Shimmerz Spritz to color the lace and I painted the Prima patterned paper with a bit of Shimmerz paint to make the colors really pop. 

Here's a close-up of the paper roses:

The editor asked me to put together a step-by-step tutorial for the magazine article, so I thought I would share the tutorial here too.  But first, I have to give credit where credit is due.  I know there are different versions of this rose tutorial on the internet, but I first learned how to make them from a tutorial I saw on Maria's blog (I tweaked my version slightly).  We made sure to credit Maria in the magazine article too.   Thank you, Maria!

Here's the "how to":

1. Punch out three flowers using a 6-petal flower punch.  Of course you can also use a die-cutting machine to cut your flowers.  Fold them along the petal lines as shown.

2. On the first flower, cut a slit down the side of one petal to the center (do not cut off any petals on this one). On the second flower, cut off two petals, and on the third one cut off two petals. Optional: ink the edges of the petals.

3. Fold the flowers into a cone shape and snip off the bottom point so that your flowers won’t be so bulky.

4. Put a little glue onto one of the petals of each of the three flowers and glue one petal over the other as shown.

5. Now you will have the first three outside layers of your rose.

6. Using the handle of a paintbrush, curl the edges of the petals back. For a tighter curl, you can use a toothpick.

7. Your layers should look like this:

8. Stack the three layers in order of size with the biggest one on the bottom, and adhere the layers to each other with glue. Now you are ready to make two inside petal layers.

9. For the second-to-the-last layer, take your 2-petal piece and curl the petals back with the paintbrush handle (or toothpick) like you did with the big petals. Wrap it around itself in the shape of an ice cream cone. Leave it somewhat loose because you are going to be inserting the final petal in the middle. Cut off the bottom point.

10. For the final inside petal, take the one petal piece and curl back the edge, then wrap it around itself tightly.

11. Snip off the edge, and insert it into the 2-petal piece you just completed. Add these final pieces to the center of your rose, adhering them in place with a dab of glue.And there you go . . . a beautiful rose!!!

Give it a try!!

Family Photo Shoot

A few years ago we found the most amazing photographer here in Los Angeles, Melissa Walker-Scott with Lullaby Photography.   Every summer we schedule a family photo shoot with Melissa, and the results are always fantastic.  Melissa knows how to work magic with her camera! Here are some of the pictures from our photo shoot a couple weekends ago:

Melissa doesn't mind if I bring my camera and shoot some photos along with her (though mine never turn out nearly as good as hers).  Here are a couple I took with my camera:

 

Melissa took many more fantastic photos that day, so I'll definitely have lots of great pictures to scrap in the coming months.  Thanks Melissa!!

Time is flying by . . .

Lately I've been thinking a lot about how fast time is passing and things are changing.   My girls are getting older, my parents are getting older, and of course I'm get older too.  I sometimes wish I could freeze time for a little while and keep everything just the way it is.  Or better yet, go back a few years to when my girls were really little . . . like 2, 3, 4 and 5 years old.  I REALLY miss those days, and I'm having a hard time just being in the present.  Do you ever go through that?

I've been in a cleaning frenzy lately, trying to clear out some of the things we don't use anymore and bag them up to give to Goodwill.  Yesterday the girls and I went through some of their toy boxes.  I had a harder time giving things away than they did.  I didn't want to let go of the little girl things like the Pretty Pretty Princess game, the big floor puzzles, etc., even though they hadn't played with them in a long time.  So we decided not to give certain things away until we were ALL ready to let go.  And you know what?  The girls and I broke out that Pretty Pretty Princess game yesterday afternoon and we sat and played it again and again for over an hour.  My youngest daughter and I even dressed up in "princess clothes" while we played!  Hehehehe.  And then we put together a big floor puzzle.  When I woke up the this morning, the girls were already awake and they were playing the Pretty Pretty Princess game together.  I'm so glad they aren't ready to grow up quite yet!

My longing for the toddler/little girl days isn't helped by the fact that I don't scrapbook in chronological order, so I'm often stumbling upon baby and toddler picture I still need to scrap.  Here's a Prima layout I did recently of my older daughter, Rebecca, on her 2nd birthday:   

I can't believe the little girl in this picture is already 8 years old (going on 16 . . . ugh!).

Here's a question for those of you with kids (young or old):  Do you sometimes have a hard time watching them grow up, or are you able to just sit back and enjoy every year as they come?

Summer layouts

Happy Monday!  I have a couple layouts to share today. These were both published in the July/August  issue of Scrapbooks, Etc.  I tend to scrap more simple pages when I do them for magazine submissions and assignments. 

Just a quick post for today, but I'll be back again later this week.

New Prima -- Jack and Jill

It just dawned on me that the summer is half over.  Where did the time go??  Between balancing work and other obligations, I haven't had a chance to do many of the fun things I planned to do with my girls.  We still have a lot of unchecked items on our list of "Fun things to do during the summer," so we better get cracking!   I think we're going to see Beezus and Ramona today or tomorrow.  I used to love the Beverly Cleary books when I was a kid, so I'm looking forward to seeing the movie. 

Here's one of the layouts I made for the Prima booth at CHA.  I'm having a ball with all these new products!  I used the new Jack and Jill line and some of the new crystals, alphas, branches, pebbles and flowers (with a few older flowers mixed in).

Have a great day!!

New Shimmerz -- CHA projects

I have a couple Shimmerz CHA projects to share today.  Shimmerz is sharing a booth with Glitz, so I got to work with some of the beautiful Glitz papers and products.  Here's a layout featuring my magical fairy princess daughter:

I dusted off my trusty Cricut and used it to cut a large leaf pattern from a 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock, then I used that leaf die-cut as a mask with a mix of Shimmerz' Olive Branch Spritz and Hermit the Frog Vibez:

I used the new Pop Art Pink Vibez to color the gauze and the new Peas-B-Mine Shimmerz paint to color the leaves:

I used a variety of other Shimmerz colors (Ruby, Sapphire, Pink and Magenta) to color the Prima flowers.

Here's a card I made using Glitz stamps and a variety of Shimmerz sprays and paints, including the new Blue By You on one of the flowers and the new Peas-B-Mine on the leaves:

That's it for today!!

Precious

I have a ton of layouts and projects I haven't posted yet, so I'm trying to play catch-up. I think I've set a new record for myself for the most projects created in a few weeks' time, and I still have a busy scrapping week ahead of me. It's been crazy, but fun!! Here's a Prima layout I did based on Prima's July Build-a-Page sketch:

And here's a little card I created for the Prima booth at CHA using some of their NEW crystals, flowers and Donna Downey canvas paper (the little bird house), and stamps:

I'll be posting a lot more projects in the coming weeks (including a dozen or so projects I made for CHA), so please come back and visit!

Lily Bee

Lily Bee has three fabulous new collections coming out for CHA!  Check them out here: New Lily Bee collections.  Aren't they great?!!?   I can't wait to play with them!

Here's a layout I did with Lily Bee's Hello Sunshine line:

One of my favorite things to do on my layouts is crochet. On this layout I crocheted around the edge of the paper and the outer cardstock. 

The Lily Bee rub-on sentiments are perfect for so many layouts.  In fact, I used one of the rub-ons as my title on this page.  For a slightly different twist, I used the rub-on on a piece of thick fabric:

I added a little bit of crocheted trim underneath the title fabric piece. I cut that trim from a vintage cloth napkin that I found at my local flea market, then I colored it with Shimmerz -- a combo of Eucalyptus Spritz and Jeni B Bleu Vibez.

Lastly, I stacked a few of the Lily Bee chipboard pieces.  I flipped over the middle chipboard piece and added glitter to the sticky side. I colored the Prima flowers with a variety of Shimmerz colors:

 Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Happy Friday!

I just mailed off a big box filled with Prima projects that I made for CHA next weekend. I had SO much fun working with all the new Prima CHA goodies! I think I can start posting my projects soon.

In the meantime, here's a layout I did that was published in the March/April issue of Scrapbooking m.m., a fabulous Swedish scrapbooking magazine:

I did this for an article on using mini frames on your pages. I printed out dictionary definitions for words that describe what I think is going through my daughter's mind in these photos -- believe, dream, imagine and wonder. I used the mini chipboard frames to frame the definitions.

I colored strips of burlap with Shimmerz Spritz, then I tucked the strips behind the patterned paper.  I made the leaves out of polymer clay.

Have a wonderful weekend!!

A few oldies but goodies to share

I've been busy working away on projects for CHA, but I can't share those projects just yet.  In the meantime, here are some of my older layouts that I don't think I've posted here before. These are a few of my layouts that have appeared in Creating Keepsakes in the recent months:

I used the selective color tool in Photoshop to turn everything in the photos black and white except for the purple and green coffee cup I'm holding.   On this page about my morning coffee fix (I can't start my day without it!!) I went with a kitchen/coffee theme and used a bunch of non-scrapbooking items.  Sometimes it's fun to throw caution to wind when it comes to the whole lignin and acid free rules of scrapbooking.  Here are the kitchen and coffee items I used: 

*Coffee filters -- I cut and punched flowers from coffee filters. I sprayed and painted them with Shimmerz paint and Spritz, then I layered the flowers on top of each other.
*Cheesecloth -- I cut out flower shapes and added them to my coffee filter flowers
*Plastic coffee can lid -- I punched flowers and cut out leaves from the plastic lids, then I colored the plastic with alcohol ink and Staz-On ink.
*Instant coffee -- I mixed a little instant coffee with gesso and painted around the edges of the photos. The plain white gesso was a little too stark for my Photoshopped photos so the coffee grounds helped tone down the color a bit.
*Twine from our kitchen junk drawer -- I hand-stitched the twine around the border of the layout, then I painted it with Shimmerz for a little sparkle.
*Cardboard coffee cup/jacket insulator from Peet's Coffee (the BEST coffee around, in my opinion) -- I punched a couple little butterflies out of the cardboard, then I added some Stickles and pearls.

But I was a good girl and only used scrapbook safe (I think) products on this one:

 

And here's a wedding layout I did a while back (it appeared in the June issue of CK):

Have a great weekend!

Happy almost 4th of July!

The long 4th of July weekend is almost here.  We're looking forward to going swimming and having a barbecue at my parents' house on the 4th, and maybe we'll watch some fireworks at night.

Here's a little scrapbook share for the day.  This layout was published in the June issue of Scrapbooks, Etc.  It features pictures of my older daughter blowing bubbles in our backyard.  You might have seen the layout I posted a couple weeks ago here with photos of my younger daughter blowing bubbles (a couple posts down).  I gotta give my girls equal billing!

This layout was included in an article on creative uses for adhesive.  I used clear liquid adhesive and alcohol ink to create the bubbles:

Here's the technique:  I first painted a chipboard circle with gesso (white paint would be fine too). Then I coated it with clear dimensional adhesive (Diamond Glaze), and I immediately added a few drops of two colors of alcohol ink. I used a paintbrush to swirl the colors around until I got a marbled effect. I used different colors and amounts of alcohol ink on each bubble so that they were slightly different from one another (because no two bubbles are alike, right?  Or does that only apply to snowflakes?  But I digress).

On another note, I took the girls to the Los Angeles Zoo yesterday.  Here are a few of the highlights:

 

And a picture of my two little monkeys (as I affectionately call them):

For all of you in the US, have a wonderful 4th of July!!