7 Photo Page

And for our final process video of 2014...

We are using 7 photos on one single page layout!

I really hadn't planned this page when I cropped and printed these photos.  Fortunately they lined up almost perfectly for a collage.  In place of the paper strip in the sketch, I used some die cuts from the Silhouette.

To mimic the hydrangeas in some of the photos, I cut some flowers on the Silhouette in white on white pattern paper.  The centers are Perfect Pearls.

Lemonade Stand from Bo Bunny is a really bright collection; however this one muted paper made a good background and went with the soft, serene look I wanted to capture.

Here's the process video at YouTube:


And here is the sketch:

This will be part of the 2014 Sketchbook available in just a few days.  I'll let you know here on the blog and via my mailing list.  You can sign up for the newsletter/mailing list on the blog's sidebar.

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Card Swap

Never has going to the mailbox been so much fun!!!

This holiday season I participated in a card swap on one of the message boards.  The relaxed rules allowed us to send as many or as few cards as we liked. They could be handmade or store bought.  There were over 80 names I think by the end.  I did 30 something cards.  I haven't counted how many of these are from the swap but I'm sure I received more than 30 in return.

They are gorgeous, creative, fun cards filled with the love of the makers/senders.  I plan to do a page on this event later one but just wanted to share my holiday spirit.

Thanks so much to everyone who sent me a card this year!  Every card brought a smile when I opened them and again when I put them up and I'm sure again when I go through them at the end of the season.

Wrapping Up and Starting Fresh

I always say that Christmas is my favorite holiday.  I do love Christmas.

I'm starting to think though that there is really another holiday that is my absolute favorite - New Years.  Now we don't do anything special at all for New Years Eve.  I've stayed up only a handful of times.  To great the new millennium, we actually set an alarm for a few minutes to midnight, got back up and rang in 2000!  I'm just not a night owl.

What I love about the New Year is the chance to reflect and make plans.  Last year I did a whole series of blog posts on the new year.  I thought I'd share the links again:

A week of endings and beginnings - Prompts for reflecting on the current year.  I promise you doing this exercise will give you a real boost.  You have accomplished even more than you think.

Accomplishments Page and Video - Creating a page from answers to the prompts

New Year's Resolutions - How to make resolutions that stick.  I finally figured out a few years ago how to make a resolution and keep it all year long!

A dream or a wish?  -  The difference between goals and objectives and how to use them to help you.

2014 Next Steps (layout with video) - A way to organize your plans in a booklet on a scrapbooking page. It makes a great reference throughout the year.

I'm reflecting on 2014 - what worked, what didn't, what I accomplished, what is in process.   Sometimes it is perfectly okay to discard an idea or plan.  I'm also starting to think of what I want to accomplish in 2015.

There will be some scrapbook layouts on this in the new year.   If you want to follow along with you own layout, be sure to get some photos of yourself for the pages.  The holidays are a great time to get someone to take your photo or of course you can do a selfie.

I hope you are having a safe and happy holiday season!

Thrift Store Finds

One person's trash can truly be another's treasure.

I found some brand new and slightly used Stampin' Up! goodies at the Goodwill.  Also, I've been to a repurposing warehouse in our area run by one of the missions.  They sell creative things people make by repurposing fabric, wood, old furniture, nuts and bolts, pretty much anything you can think of. In the back are things you can purchase for your own projects. I share a few of these in the video.



There will be one more process video with sketch this month.  Soon the 2014 Sketchbook with 52 sketches will be available.  Hope you are having a wonderful holiday season!

Wedding card and gift

I went to a cousin's wedding a couple of weeks ago.  I could tell from the invitation they were going for a country theme.  There was an image of a mason jar with a daisy in it so I lifted the idea for her card.  The jar is an image from the Silhouette store and I put the inside in vellum.

The wedding was a perfect blend of theme and tradition.  The bride wore a traditional but not fussy ivory gown. The bridesmaids wore red satin knee length dresses paired with cowboy boots.  They carried a mason jar with a lit candle inside and a sprig of greenery and a pine cone on the outside.  The groomsmen had on red shirts, ties and black pants and probably boots though I didn't notice.  The Christmas tree covered with Chrismons and one altar arrangement were her flowers.  The programs were printed on kraft paper and reminded me of a placard for a old country store with each item typed into a box in varying fonts. We didn't go to the reception as it was quite a drive away but I'm sure it was also tasteful and fun.  I do love a unique take on a traditional wedding.

Using the colors from the invitation as a cue, I did this canvas for them as a gift.

They can add their own wedding photo.

Congratulations, Samantha and Dustin!  We wish you much happiness.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Using PL cards as anchors for embellishments

I'm not one on the forefront of trends.  You might call me a late adopter.  I just bought my first Project Life cards.

I have looked a them before.  I knew I didn't want to do the whole system but I liked some of the cards I was seeing I just never liked them enough to get a big kit or even a pack like they have a Michaels.  I found these from WR Memorykeepers the other day at Walmart and really liked the colors and designs.  Plus there were only 18 in the pack for $1.77.  Easy and cheap enough to experiment with.

For the layout, I used photos of my husband's family from his visit back home in June.  He sees his sister at least once a year and this year got to see quite a bit of the rest of the family. He will handwrite in the names.

The cards anchor each of the embellishment groups.  More detail is in this YouTube video:



And here is the sketch.  It is actually a 2 pager and I just used one page for this layout.

I'm hard at work on my 2014 Sketchbook which I plan to have out in early January.  I have one more process video for this year coming up next week.  We may sneak in a shopping video or something else too before the year winds down.

Thanks for visiting!

For a boy and a girl (and shop video)

One thing I'm learning about making canvases that serve as photo frames, it is really tough to do one for both a boy and a girl together.  I had a request to make one for a gift that would have a photo of a little girl about 1 year old and a boy about 4 or 5 years old.  Pink and blue was the suggested color combo and she wanted the design to completely wrap the canvas.

I used the children's initials. The little girl's part was easy, some flowers and rhinestones, jewels buttons, and lace. Piece of cake.

A boy is much tougher for me.  Adding some citron green would keep the pink from overtaking things I reasoned.  I also used some Tim Holtz gears.  The little boy's grandfather is a mechanic and I'd been asked to incorporate a car.  Stampin' Up!'s Loads of Love has a truck that I stamped at the top of the frame.   I kind of wish I hadn't colored it in, but I needed a bit more blue.

Adding the flair was a last minute decision. That and the little boy and girl in the key are my favorite embellishments here.  There is also sheet music from "It's a small world."

My understanding is that the grandmother who will use the canvas was delighted.  Personally I think next time I would do a multicolor one with a lot of white space in the background.

Over the weekend, I made a video of my work area and my canvases currently in my Etsy shop. There is a multcolor one with lots of white space.



My shop is Lovely Layers Art. 

Thanks for stopping by today!  I have a scrapbooking process video for you tomorrow or Wednesday.

Good Fishing

When my husband goes to see his grandson each summer, they fish - a lot!  I always ask if they caught anything and he quickly explains that they are about the 'fishing experience.'  In other words, no, they don't catch anything.

So imagine my surprise when about 10 minutes into his fishing at a local lake when he is already catching something. I had to scramble for my camera.  We thought it was a catch and release pond but later found out it wasn't so next time he will take a cooler.

This is one of my favorite layouts of the year.  I like the photos on the diagonal and the Silhouette die cut.  This month's focus is on using my electronic die cutter. It is the biggest single investment in my craft room and I want to put it to even more use.

I used some ink on some of the edges of the trees and waves.

The papers are from a My Mind's Eye 6x6 pad called Jubilee that I've had for months.  I love the colors.

Here is the Process Video on YouTube:



And here is the sketch:

This will be part of my 2014 Sketchbook available in early January.  The December newsletter goes out later this week. Sign up on the sidebar.

 Thanks for visiting today!

Photo Canvases

I've been playing with using photos on canvases.  I did these for friends.  (The girls are adorable but they are not mine to share photos of.)  The photos are regular prints from Walmart that I painted over with Mod Podge.


I added lots of lace, flowers and gems.

The book paper is from a 1950's sewing book.  It is filled with illustrations and just a couple with little girls.

I struggled more with the small canvas than the larger one.  I had this idea of what I wanted to do but I put the photo a little too far in the corner for it to work so I used more flowers and buttons.  The children's mother was very pleased with it.

Light modeling paste is one of my favorite mediums.  It is like marshmallow fluff in consistency.  I usually color it with ink refills or sometimes highly pigmented paint.  Sometimes I leave it white as I did with the alpha stencil design.  I snuck in a few Studio Calico butterflies as well on the large canvas.

These were such fun to do.  I have another one on my table in process.  It is a commission and I've been asked to cover the entire back base rather than leave the white areas.  Just a different look.

Thanks for stopping by!  Visit me at my Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/LovelyLayersArt

Cooking on Tuesday

A simple 4 square grid took me a bit longer than I expected.  I played awhile on this page.  The subject is a day-to-day one this year as I have been doing some cooking for my parents once a week.

The papers are from October Afternoon's Public Library. The B sides are very homey.  Originally I was going to use an ivory background but changed to a warm woodgrain from Crate Paper that really makes those patterns pop.

This month my YouTube videos will feature die cutting.  The 'shelf' is cut on the Silhouette.  I started as a one color image but I cut a bunch of them and paper pieced with a little stamping and rub-ons thrown in.

Here's the video at YouTube:


And here is the sketch:

There is a reference early on to my newsletter. You can sign up for the free newsletter on the sidebar of the blog.  I'll send out one for December in a couple of weeks.

Oh and since it is Tuesday, lunch for 4 is simmering away in the crock pot.  Thanks for stopping by today!