Inspiration Canvas Class w/Jennifer & Shari

I'm not going to bore you with all the details, but here are a few pics from my class yesterday with Jennifer McGuire & Shari Carroll.

It was loads of fun and very very inky. I should have taken a picture of my hands when we were done! My Club Scrap friend Erin joined me (her driving down from Findlay, OH on a lucky whim!). Me driving up from Cincinnati to meet in Kettering Ohio at a delightful scrapbook store called Simply Scrapbooks.

Quick collage of pics from the day:

The finished canvas in the lower right is not my own. It's Jennifer's sample. All of my individual hearts are done, but I absentmindedly forgot the actual canvas, so I need to see if the store can send it to me :(. I may just use a canvas I have on hand and I'll post my completed project soon i hope.

Happy Memorial Day

Grungy Monday & Squirrely Challenge - Free Standing Pop Up Card & Winner announced

Here's my submission for Nancy's Squirrely Challenge; yes, i finally re-joined the group!

Papers, Stamps & Fibers are from the Club Scrap kit called Castaway, except the beads which are from Into The Wild-which is no longer available :( . You can't really see it, but i put a drop of liquid pearls in pearl for the oyster shell's pearl. Followed tutorial on Splitcoast stampers for the paper engineering and Studio L3's Grungy Monday 08 technique shown here by T!m Holtz.

I may also use this for my GM submission as well. Undecided since it breaks from my norm of 8x8 page w/song inspiration. just rambing here...pay no attention.**UPDATE** I have decided to also make this my GM submission since time is running short and I'll be gone all day taking a class in Dayton from Jennifer Mcguire and Shari Carroll and I'm going to use this as my THANK YOU to one of them!! Omigosh, you can imagine my excitement!

Lastly, I wanted to announce the winner of my contest for the Club Scrap Die Cutters Blog Hop. The correct number of Butterflies used was 93, so Myska wins with this comment:

myska said...

I think all 94 of those purple butterflies are gorgeous! Enjoy your class!

May 22, 2011 10:30 AM

Myska, please contact me with your mailing address and I'll send you a Club Scrap paper pack!

Grungy Monday 7 - We Didn't Start The Fire

It has been an extremely crazy week with many demands of my time, so I’m thankful that Miss Linda offered us an easy technique by T!m to follow for our Grungy Monday 07 submission. My 8x8 technique journal page features photos I took last year while these amazing murals were plastered all over Cincinnati. These are works of art by Shepard Fairey (use google images….I’m sure you’ll see something very familiar). For whatever reason, I think of the Billy Joel song “We Didn’t Start The Fire” when I look at his work. It’s what I like to call “in your face” art and it appeals to me J. Materials used: Club Scrap: white from Comics kit, red from County Fair kit. American Crafts: metal photo corners Fiskars punch: small tulips Distress Inks: Barn Door, Black Soot, Pumice “We Didn’t Start The Fire” Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe Rosenbergs, H-Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom Brando, "The King and I", and "The Catcher in the Rye" Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye CHORUS We didn't start the fire It was always burning Since the world's been turning We didn't start the fire No we didn't light it But we tried to fight it Josef Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez CHORUS Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac Sputnik, Zhou Enlai, Bridge On The River Kwai Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California Baseball, Starkweather homicide, Children of Thalidomide Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo CHORUS Hemingway, Eichmann, Stranger in a Strange Land, Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say CHORUS Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal suicide Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore

Club Scrap Die Cutter's Blog Hop

Welcome and thanks for “hopping” by!!

Me and my gal pals at Club Scrap have decided once again to share the love of this incredible company and their AMAZING papers and kits. The theme for this blog hop is to use our die cutting tool of choice along with Club Scrap papers.

Anyone who’s ever been to my blog before knows I have mad love for my Silhouette SD. I honestly don’t know how I got through life without it. Ok, that may be stretching it a bit, but it is a huge part of almost every card, layout or art piece I do. So, it should be no surprise that I have cut all of my butterflies (including the LARGE one) on it. I also have mad love for Jennifer McGuire and my butterfly wall hanging pays homage to her heart wall hanging that she did for CHA earlier in the year. If I have the nerve, I may take mine with me to show her in person when I take a class from her next weekend (SO excited!). My last mad love is for the color of PURPLE. It exists everywhere in my life.

I’ve cut 5 different sized butterflies all out of Club Scrap purples (and spayed with glimmer mist) from the following kits:

Be Still - Blossom – Common Threads – Destinations – Milestones - Papillon

Raku – Retro – Sonoma - Time & Space – Written Word

Additional Club Scrap materials:
Background paper is from Musical Interlude
Sentiment Stamp is from Papillon (seriously my most favorite kit EVER!)
Large Butterfly is cut from an Art Deco grey (sadly, none of that left to link to, sorry)
Clothespins are from Natural ResourcesOther: Special thanks to Nancy for the purple lace around the outside of the 11x14 canvas.
Also submitting this for the Flutter By Wednesday Challenge #155 & Simon Says Stamp Challenge Sparkle & Shine

***If you care to venture a guess at how many cut butterflies were used on this piece; do so in your comment. I’ll be awarding a Club Scrap paper pack to the closest one***

Once again, thank you for hopping by. Your next stop will be real treat indeed and she also happens to be the best sister I know! That’s right; you’ll be visiting my sister Jen and just wait til you see what she has in store.

http://www.pagesofpictures.com/
http://chrissiecreations.blogspot.com/ YOU ARE HERE
http://scraphappysistersink.blogspot.com/
http://www.capecodscrapper.blogspot.com/
http://www.creatingwithconnie.blogspot.com/
http://orezonia.blogspot.com/
http://squirrelyart.blogspot.com/
http://wbellino.blogspot.com/
http://craftchaos.blogspot.com/

Club Scrap Blog Hop on May 21

Please stop by On May 21. I will be joining up with some of my Club Scrap friends taking part in a Blog Hop featuring die cut machines and Club Scrap products. You should see lots of great cards, layouts and projects and get some inspiration on how to use your Club Scrap papers with various machines. (Silhouette, Cricut, Cuttlebug, Big Shot etc.)

Grungy Monday 6 - Vincent

My crafting mojo was non-existent this week, but I still wanted to accept Linda's challenge to follow Tim’s paint dabber resist technique like he did here. My inspiration song is Vincent (Starry Starry Night) by Don McLean which has such amazingly beautiful imagery in its lyrics

Starry starry night, paint your palette blue and grey Look out on a summer's day with eyes that know the darkness in my soul Shadows on the hills, sketch the trees and the daffodils Catch the breeze and the winter chills, in colors on the snowy linen land Now I understand what you tried to say to me How you suffered for you sanity How you tried to set them free They would not listen they did not know how, perhaps they'll listen now Starry starry night, flaming flowers that brightly blaze Swirling clouds in violet haze reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue Colors changing hue, morning fields of amber grain Weathered faces lined in pain are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand.

For they could not love you, but still your love was true And when no hope was left in sight, on that starry starry night You took your life as lovers often do, But I could have told you, Vincent, This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you Starry, starry night, portraits hung in empty halls Frameless heads on nameless walls with eyes that watch the world and can't forget. Like the stranger that you've met, the ragged man in ragged clothes The silver thorn of bloody rose, lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow Now I think I know what you tried to say to me How you suffered for you sanity How you tried to set them free They would not listen they're not listening still perhaps they never will.

I’m almost sorry I went with this beautiful song as I really don’t feel I did it justice. I’ve loosely followed his work of art with my own spin. I’ve been wanting to add this daffodil flower idea I found here, so I figured I wouldn’t find another song that mentioned them, so I’ll go with it. That led me to start thinking that maybe I’ll use this as my Bloomin’ Diary (another project I’ll esplain some other time. I actually made a “real” artist trading card!! I just created this little guy in Photoshop and printed it onto a Club Scrap white. Very happy with that one element…the rest, not so much.

Paper is from the following Club Scrap Kits: Weekender, Poetic, Autumn Splendor, white (?) but is definitely Club Scrap.
Distress Inks: stormy sky, mustard seed, weathered wood, black soot
Other: pearlescent watercolors, Silver paint dabber, Sparkle stamp from Club Scrap..

Feelin blessed 2 have shared a perfect mother's day with Mom

I love you Mom, Happy Mother's Day

If I could I’d give you diamonds for each tear you cried for me.

If I could I’d give you sapphires for each truth you’ve helped me see.

If I could I’d give you rubies for the heartache that you’ve known.

If I could I’d give you pearls for the wisdom that you’ve shown.

Then you’d have a treasure that would mount up to the skies,

and would almost match the sparkle in your kind and loving eyes.

But, I have no pearls or diamonds, as I'm sure you're well aware.

So I'll give you gifts more precious; my devotion, love and care.

Squirrely Challenge - Pinwheels

I am a big fan of all things patriotic and when I found this card online, i knew i wanted to copy it and use it for my Squirrely challenge and a sketch challenge over at Club Scrap . The maker of this inspirational card is a a military wife and makes the most beautiful cards for OWH which I've been meaning to do for the longest time. Hopefully this will kickstart me on that journey.

Shimmery blue - Solstice
Shimmery red - Ornamental
Black (base) – Expressions
Plaid – unknown (not club scrap
Center of flower and stem cut with Silhouette

My 2^nd pinwheel is another shameless copy of anothers art! This card by a fellow Club Scrapper, Diana (thank you for the inspiration!!). When I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for my Mom who has an entire bathroom decorated with this happy little Kokopelli dude.

All paper and the ribbon is from Club Scrap’s Adobe kit. I even traced the Kokopelli from the kit in my Silhouette software and cut him out. He’s inked with vintage photo distress ink and then given a shine by Copper Memories Mist.

Zindorf birds

This was going to be my Mom's day card until i found new inspiration (which i'll explain later) and is another shameless CASE from the amazingly talented Michelle Zindorf.

Papers are all Club Scrap: Card base is Apothecary, but the rest is from POP's and I'm not sure of it's origin really. The 4 corner squares, the frame and the focal piece all started as a smooth CS white before they got the Distress ink treatment. The black shimmer is from Concrete Jungle.

Grungy Monday 05 - Run For The Roses

The latest challenge(#05) at Studio L3’s Grungy Monday was to use T!m’s niche technique so wonderfully demonstrated here. Since I’m doing all of mine as 8x8 scrapbook pages, I opted not to use foamcore and instead just used layers of thick stock and dimensional adhesive in between to create the look of depth. I hope that’s ok! My niche was cut on my Silhouette in the shape of the state of Kentucky and then filled with Roses!

I am a Kentuckian by birth and that means something very special to me. I truly love my home state and hope to someday soon move back across the Ohio River to once again be home. Kentuckians are also very proud of our thoroughbred horses and the Kentucky Derby. Every year on the 1^st Saturday in May, millions watch “the most exciting two minutes in sports” known as the Kentucky Derby. It’s a one and a quarter mile long “Run For The Roses” at Churchill Downs racetrack in Louisville Kentucky.

I couldn’t imagine a more fitting song inspiration than Dan Fogelberg’s Run For The Roses.

Born in the Valley And raised in the trees Of Western Kentucky On wobbly knees With mama beside you To help you along You'll soon be a growing up strong. All the long, lazy mornings In pastures of green The sun on your withers The wind in your mane Could never prepare you For what lies ahead The run for the roses so red – From sire to sire It's born in the blood The fire of a mare And the strength of a stud It's breeding and it's training And it's something unknown That drives you and carries You home.

And it's run for the roses As fast as you can Your fate is delivered Your moment's at hand It's the chance of a lifetime In a lifetime of chance And it's high time you joined In the dance It's high time you joined In the dance --

It brings a tear to my eye every time and even more so now that my Dad is gone…he loved horseracing and collected Derby memorabilia. Ok, enough of that emotional stuff….I’ve not used a single rubber stamp on this creation I’m embarrassed to say. The images are from art by Trish Biddle (amazing stuff) and even the racing program page that I made into a background was printed from google images; as was the bottle of Woodford reserve w/mint Julep. The base paper and mini roses are from Club Scrap’s April kit called Welcome. The background is a Claudine Hellmuth technique, although I think T!m also has demo’d it too.

I also want to shout out a thanks to Nancy at Squirrely Art for the lace that I used around the outside. She sent it to me some time ago and I've been waiting for just the right way to use some of it! Thanks Nancy!