December Crazy Daisy layouts

I say it every month, but Kimberly & Jennifer have outdone themselves once again!

The December Crazy Daisy Kit Co. is fantastic and I have a couple of layouts to share.

And you must get over to the Crazy Daisy blog and see what guest designer {and photog extraordinaire} Becky Novacek has put together with the December kit.

I promise you will truly be inspired!

Jenifer and Kimberly have some special offers for teh month too, so get it on the deals while you can.  Keep in mind there will not be a kit in January, but I'm sure they'll be back in February with more lovliness! :)

so thankful

I'm not a big card maker, except for the cards I'm selling in my Etsy, but I decided to whip this one up with my November Crazy Daisy Kit Co. I sent this one to my Granny to let her know just how thankful I am for her. 

Had to join the bandwagon of thankfulness on the blogisphere:

• my faith in Jesus Christ
• the power of prayer
• my family
• my friends - online & IRL
  
• my job 
• my church family
  
• my God given talents
• my Angus dog
• my camera and love of photography
• the freedom of speech that this blog allows - nobody to correct my spelling, punctuation or use of abbreviations.
• my design team work with Crazy Daisy Kit Co. - it has been such a blessing & a treat!
• water
• my health 
• food to eat & a roof over my head
  
• my love of food (sometimes too much) ;)
• all of the inspiration that is right here at my fingertips on the world wide web.  

So thankful for so much.  

Best wishes to you and yours.

Doing it Accordian style!

So each month I say it, but I truly love this month's Crazy Daisy Kit!

Take this mini accordian album by Bazzill for instance:

I made this for a little gift for my great friend Nancy.  She and Alex began this Fall/Halloween gathering a few years ago adn it has now grown into a fun annual tradition that is one of my favorite events.

I made the album and included photos through the years:

Get yours while you can! 

Crazy Daisy Kit Co.

finally a full peek

I realize I never posted the full layouts I did for November's Crazy Daisy Kit.

Love the colors and patterns in this month!

This is an 8.5x11 using a a self portrait from a few weeks ago during our very short peak fall foliage time:

This is a layout about Jake's obsession with the Wii!

More later!

November Sneak Peek

Just wanted to post a couple of sneaks from some layouts I completed this weekend with my November Crazy Daisy Kit Co. kit.

I love all the orange, gray and blue that is in this one!

Get in on this one, it is lovely!

Crazy Daisy Kit Co.

Wheeeeee! December Daily time.

Ali Edwards has already started posting about the December Daily 2009!
I'm so excited to do this project again!

I hope you will join me.
Here is her post to help get you started:
Ali: December Daily

Need more inspiration?

credits here:

1. december eight, 2. Day3 copy, 3. December Daily {25 inside}, 4. December Daily - Day 3 - Page 2, 5. December Daily {3}, 6. xmas diary, 7. December Daily – Finished!, 8. December daily, cover, 9. christmas diary1, 10. December Daily - door decor, 11. day 29 back, 12. December Daily Album: Day 24, 13. December Daily Album: Day 24, 14. Christmas tree, 15. dec-20, 16. 11, 17. December Daily - Day 20 - Page 2, 18. Day 9 Page 1, 19. December Daily Album: Day 21, 20. December Daily Album: Day 18, 21. album , 22. my book, so far..., 23. December 10, 24. Day 15, 25. Day 10 - page 1

Here is mine from last year: Dec Daily 2008

Merry Christmas!!!! (don't be a hater....the stores are already putting the stuff out ya know!)

gesso+paint+rag tutorial

The thing about keeping a blog is keeping up with things in a timely manner.
Problem is, I have not had much time lately to keep things updated!

So bear with me please!

We had another horseshow last weekend: Ark-Mo Show of Champions.
Good & muddy times!
More on that later.

I want to post this fun tutorial that I put together with my September mini album from Crazy Daisy Kit Co. That album is awesome. I am working on the inside pages as a year end wrap up for Alex's 2009 horseshow season.

The album has a variety of pages inside including envelopes, folders, transparencies, and tabbed pages. The cover was plain kraft so I thought it was perfect for this great technique I learned and altered from the wonderfully brilliant & talented Brazilian artist, Lucy Folch during SIStv's National Scrapbooking Day blog party back in the Spring. She has such innovative ideas and I am always awed by her art.

I have modified mine a little but I must credit Lucy with the basic gesso - paint - rag technique.

So without further adieu:
Here is the Making Memories kraft album included in the September kit, but you can also do this on a heavy chipboard or cardboard.
The key to this technique is pre-planning the layout.
Gather some chipboard pieces and any other items that you want to include on the layout and place them where you want them.
I used the cute paisley pieces in the kit, along with some other pieces from my stash. Since this is going to be an album for Alex's end of season horse shows for this year,I wanted to use the horse piece I had from Martha Stewart, but I peeled off the slick pattern from the top so my gesso will adhere. I put the horse on the back of the album.
Next, since I want to add some pieces of patterned paper to my finished project, I need to measure and cut those out before adhering my chipboard. I also made a quick sketch of my layout and numbered my pieces to correspond with my cutout paper for easy placement later.
Once I have my layout how I want it, I start gluing down all my chipboard pieces. I did not glue the word "ALEX" down yet because I want to use those awesome 7Gypsies letters as they are. After the glue is dried completely, cover the entire project in gesso. Get it in every crevice and corner of the chipboard pieces. I use a smaller dry brush to get any excess out of those same crevices and corners.
Now let the gesso dry completely while picking out four or five colors of acrylic paint to coordinate with the paper and other pieces.
This is the really fun and messy part of the project - let your creativity run wild!
You will need to use a thin consistency with the paint, you may want to experiment on a scrap piece of chipboard or cardboard first. I began on one side and worked with a color then switched to my next color and so on to blend each color together. Just keep working with the paint until satisfied. Don't worry, it won't be perfect!
Next take an old rag while the paint is still wet and wipe and dab the project to remove some of the paint. If you remove more than you want, just add more paint. If the paint gets too dry, wet your rag - this method is mistake proof!When you are happy with how it looks, let this part of the project dry. You might want to add some glimmer mist or another mist of choice to jazz it up.Once dry, you can add on everything else. I distressed my pattern paper and glued it down. I also distressed my chipboard letters with a small emery board and some paint and glued those down.
As an afterthought I decided to use the Stickles that were included in my kit, and I love how they look on this project!
Once that dried, I got my Sharpie out and outlined, added a photo in middle and used some Ranger Glossy Accent that I had in my stash on the word "ALEX" so it would have some shine to match where I used the Stickles.

The album is now finished and ready for my pages to be done inside!

Well hello there!

So again, I have been crazy busy and therefore MIA from the old blog! I have good reason between work and horse shows.
Last weekend we were at the Arkansas State Horse Show in Little Rock. Alex did pretty well this year. The high point of her competition was winning a 2nd in Ladies Gaited. The low point was probably when she came off her horse for a brief moment during barrels. OOPs!

Here are some shots from the weekend:She placed in Junior Flags on her friend Miranda's horse, and placed in Keyhole on her Dad's roping horse. Her horse, Hippy is still injured, but will have several months to rest up for next year. We are just praying he will fully recover and once again be sound!

There are some great pictures over at Maumelle Sports. You just have to go to her events and look through the shots.

I spent this weekend resting up...work has been crazy and I've been putting in extra hours because of classes I'm teaching.

I did get some scrapbooking in which is always a good thing!
I had been planning on putting together a tutorial for a gesso and paint technique that I learned from the uber-talented Lucy Folch during National Scrapbook Day. I finally had the opportunity to do it with the Making Memories album that came in the Crazy Daisy Kit Co. September kit.
More on that later!

In the meantime, there are a few kits left I'm told, so get them while the getting's good! Crazy Daisy September kit

Here is one more I put together with this kit over the weekend:
(Yes, that is me) :)
And I played in my art journal a little and even did the Point Blank Period challenge:

Have a lovely week!