ABAC?!?!

This week it is ABAC over at Hand Stamped Sentiments...Anything But A Card.  Now, since I'm not much of a card designer I was okay with this until I looked closer...

 

...I'm not much of a jewelry person either.  So I opted for the wearable art--and that's even a stretch.  My girls have a ton of headbands.  (If that basket wasn't such a heap of a mess, I would have taken a picture.)  I decided to take out a cheap white headband and jazz it up Stampin' Up style.  Take a look--



This was so super easy to do I'm almost embarrassed after seeing a few of the other designer's projects when uploading mine  :/  I took out my new favorite print of Stampin' Up fabric--and just wait to June 1st-more fun patterns coming--and my 3" circle die.  Using the Big Shot I cut 8 circles out, 4 at a time, and then folded each circle into fourths.  (Maybe I should have more photos, if you have questions send me and e-mail and I'd be happy to help!)  I took out my trusty glue gun and added them to a piece of felt cut into a smaller circle.  From there I just layered them on and finished with a Real Red button...which I also hot glued on :) Easy Peasy and so much cuter than that plain headband.  Here's my (reluctant) model...I dragged her away from friends and a pool...

Be sure to go see what the other designers have come up with!  I can't wait to read the details of their projects after seeing some peeks.

Inspiration: MAN CAVE

I love the image for this weeks challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments!



Now this is a man cave my brothers would have.... my husband not so much.  I tease that I know more about sports than he does.  I took a picture of what is in his man cave--

Yep, I can still see his face and hear him buttering me up after shooting this one.  He built the surround around our fireplace which has this nook and a ceiling spot light...little did I know years down the road he'd have a mount for the "shrine."  Now for those of you who have no idea why you'd mount a pheasant, this one has a very long tail feather.  Poor grandpa lost his life that day.  So needless to say, I used our man cave for my inspiration and came up with this--

Our girls LOVE to go out with him, carry their pretend shotguns, and "hunt."  These are a few from him and Kendall out last Thanksgiving weekend.

Here is the left side.  My challenge was to make this "manly" so I decided to do a few things differently.  I've seen more and more projects that have incorporated canvas, even noticing 12 X 12 sheets of it at local scrap stores.  I cut a couple 11 X 11 squares from a yard I picked up at the fabric shop and layered it onto Sahara Sand card stock. This stuff was called duck cloth and is much heavier.  It looked too pretty so I had to fray the edges.

I also want to add some more "manly" materials so I cut the 'hunter' out of cork with the Simple Letters dies.  I found some orange felt and used the retired Hearts and Brackets die to cut the heart and pinned it on with a metal T pin.

I had these tags--probably from 8 years ago when I started scrapping.  They were bright white so I laid them on my Crumb Cake ink pad to mess them up. ...may be a reason to keep my old linen ink pads around!  I also didn't like the white circle so I punched a new one from Soft Suede card stock.I used the threads I pulled and some hemp twine to tie off the tag.

Here is the right side of the layout--

Hard to see, but my favorite picture of them is on the bottom.  They are holding hands as they walk through the field....such a great Daddy!

And a little bit of stamping--

I used the set Autumn Days, borrowed from my friend Sara, also retiring.  I used my ink pads and blender pen to color the pheasant and stamp.  I masked it off and stamped the weeds in Crumb Cake and stamped off Suede...except for one.  Oops--wasn't going to redo.  You can also see in the lower corner, I put a couple of staples in each picture...more metal.

So there!  My man cave inspiration.  I'd love to see what you come up with using your own man cave.  Link up with us at Hand Stamped Sentiments.

Resisting Smiles

This week is technique week at Hand Stamped Sentiments...and bonus it's one I know--though not used often as I have an aversion to embossing powder mess.  Take a look:



This technique adds a wow factor to your project, here's what I cam up with:

These are pictures of one of my brothers with my youngest daughter taken this past November.  He knows I want the perfect picture and has taught them to make "mean faces."  These are three consecutive pictures I took trying to get the bottom one. 

I took the Cajun Craze color from the pictures.  This is probably my third least used color (behind Burgundy and Artichoke...I'm not a regal girl) but after doing this layout, it sort of grew on me.  The next layer I originally cut down a piece of Vanilla but thought it was too plain so I traded it for First Edition DSP which pulled out the black from the pictures.  The three big banners is where the embossing resist came in.  I took a piece of Whisper White 8.5 X 11 card stock and stamped it with the Delicate Doilies set with VersaMark.  To make it easier, I put all four stamps from the set onto the largest clear block.  Once I had it all stamped, I poured on White embossing powder.  After I heat set it, I took out my Cajun ink pad and sponged on ink, wiped it down to get any excess ink off, and cut it into 3 banners. 

Because I didn't have nearly enough powder on my stamping area (kidding), I decided to emboss resist my title also.  Up close, this really looks like letter stickers.  Must remember the look is worth the mess!  I added the doily behind to keep with my doily/banner layout...and I haven't used it nearly enough.  I added a Cajun button with a bit of Cajun threads pulled from the 1 1/4" ribbon, tossed on a pearl, and finished! 

Now hop on over and check out the rest of the team's creations.  I'm sure they have come up with some amazing eye candy!  I'm honored to be among this group every time I check them out every Tuesday morning.

In the Nick of Time

I was blog stalking my fellow HSS design team member Mindy Backes the other day and I came across a posting of a new challenge blog she tested out called Dynamic Duos.  The best part...it's a color challenge blog.  Now I'm partial to HSS, but how can I not participate in a color challenge...especially this one.  My favorite colors (let's not talk about how they will leave us next year...)  Take a look:



So here is a page I came up with:

When I have pictures in different sizes, I tend to go to a block layout.  I never tire of this look.  Here's a few more closer up photos:

The fish are from a set that is now retired...that I'm borrowing (thanks Sara!)  I thought the background DSP looked like fish scales so here looked like the perfect spot for them!  I stamped on the colored card stock but didn't want my fish to have colored eyes and teeth so I took out my white gel pen and colored them in.  I little bit of bakers twine so they look caught...and you know how I love banners!

A little tag with a phrase from Fabulous Phrases tied on with Lucky Limeade bakers twine.

Top left block is retired DSP and I added a couple of pearled butterflies.

Lower left block is from the "kitchen" DSP-sorry name evades me right now- with some retired ribbon and brad.








Now to quick link this up!  SO excited that Mindy (unknowingly) introduced me to it, and I'm sure I'll be playing often! (Sorry for the gaps in the posting-Blogger and I are not getting along today!) :)