Back at the Ranch Layout: in Hawaii

Ran across this palm tree chippy the other day looking for something else, so I had a little play with my mists & ink, which then inspired making this page. I wanted to use it with some very special photos from Hawaii and 4-Wheeling at the Kualoa Ranch. I mean we could have ridden horses, been driven around on side by sides, etc. but it was nicer driving your own machine.

I decided to go with a little pile of things, from a couple of journaling pieces that kind of overlap that lovely chippy palm to a photo pile.

Instead of taking a photo together, we took one of each other. Take a peek at that lovely background! That ranch has been the backdrop to many movies! In fact the last Jurassic Park complete with Chris Pratt was recently filmed there. They asked when we got there if he was a relative of ours...of course he is!

I'll be back next week with another layout from that ranch. Lots of good photo opportunities!

# Dear Me: In Her Eyes Collaboration Piece

Had a nice little play this past weekend with some vintage pieces, modge podge, and a really cool light bulb! I'm participating in an artist collaboration where we're making a piece of art based on some journal pages. I really enjoyed reading the thoughts of a lady from the 1920's who seemed to have quite the active social calendar.

The one in particular that inspired this piece is this page. The part that I read that really got me was:

Jack ask me to marry him it blame near took my breath. Dear me what troubles + I'm too dumb to even realize whether I love him or not but let him wait until June for an answer. 

This journal from seems to contain quite a bit of drama! These days something like this would be splashed all over social media, hence the little yellow title up in the right hand corner which is # Dear Me. I went with some pretty little flowers as the writer seemed to have a lot of dances she was attending & other social events.

The reason I made an angel was because the person who wrote the journal would be well over 100! The flowers were from THE CUTTING CAFE and were something I made in preparation for this piece. Love how they turned out!

I'm really enjoying this piece! It's always nice to play along with a Tina Walker challenge! I'm always pleased at how my project evolves!

If you are interested in looking at other pages, click through below:

Tracey

Tina

Hope your Friday is fantastic! 

A Spicy Spice Rack Rehab

As soon as I put some little molding on this spice rack that I rehabbed, I knew it was going to shape up nicely. Do you remember what it looked like before? It's pretty terrible...so be prepared!

It's pretty much only fit for the garbage looking like this!

I added a LOT of molding with a little air brad nailer. It's funny how that pretty much fixes everything! It was just so plain! Got to try out the new saw in the garage too! That bad boy could chop your fingers off if you aren't careful! I used up a can of spray paint I had too. I really love this color. It's adding splashes of turquoise through out my office.

I added a couple of little paints & mists on the shelves and it works perfectly! Check out those pink glass knobs! LOVE THEM!!! I'll be working on the perfect spot for it's location in my office soon. Art supplies always are outgrowing their space!

And while I was taking this photo...I got a little too much help!

THANKS Maya! It's not a treat rack!

Have a great Tuesday! I'll be back on Friday with a project that has a cool story behind it's creation!

A Pocket Full of Posies

As I type this, I am watching snowflakes fall. We are really past due for Spring in these parts. Can you see why I opted to make some flowers? Not to mention that they are really fun. I used one sheet of paper for the blooms that had a lot of different colors...so pretty. I used a file from THE CUTTING CAFE called Paper Flower Template and Cutting File. If you are scared about making flowers, don't be. Regina has a video you can watch to show you how it's done.

A little glitter glue and some vintage glitter and these blooms sparkle. So pretty! I'm saving them for a very special project I've got coming up. I'm working on an artist collaboration project called Through Her Eyes based on some prompts from a vintage journal. Since I've also got my own vintage scrapbook pieces too, I imagine those will also get included. So far this is what I've laid out.

A vintage angel with dresden wings and a pair of very old scissors. I've just got to come up with a plan to assemble. Very likely this will involve a dowel!

Tested out my pieces with my new flowers! Just the right about of vintage pop! So much fun!

Hope your Friday is Fantastic!

Spice Up the Spice Rack

Ran across this spice rack at the ReStore. My little collection of paints & mists keep growing and I was looking for more room. I also haven't spent any time with a sander recently and I'm looking forward to a very small woodworking project this next weekend. 

I grabbed a couple of pieces of molding from the stash to play with. I am looking for something that I can add a little detail with. Also, it's pretty flimsy so some extra wood might help stabilize it. 

Also rummaged around for some different knobs. Not sure if these are keepers, but they are definitely an option. NOT keeping those little round wood things...yuck! Might also add some wood flowers...stay tuned! 

I'm back Saturday with a new post for THE CUTTING CAFE! Currently my project is drying...and might involve some glitter!!!

See you then!

Aloha Stadium Layout from the Hawaii Trip

Visiting this open air market at the Aloha Stadium was so much fun! I don't recall spending a lot of money, but we saw a lot of cool things. One of my favorite of course were the air plants & bonsai trees. THE MAN enjoyed the Chinese kids and the dragon who was collecting money. That's the middle photo.

I used a lot of banners and a white background to get the colors in the photos to pop. I've been carefully using up the ticket stubs & plane tickets I've been saving, so I was happy to include a few more on this page.

I've been using a lot of photo collages for the trip pages. This one is no different. There weren't a lot of good photos so I did a lot of cropping to just illustrate a few of the things we saw. Three photos in a strip worked really well.

Tomorrow I'm back with a vintage spice rack that I'm planning on sanding and spray painting. I ran out of weekend so it will have to wait until the next!

A Shabby Little Box

Spring isn't coming gracefully here in NY. It's fighting tooth and nail. In fact, I'm really surprised that it wasn't snowing when I took this photo. It's certainly cold enough. I had to content myself with making this pretty little shabby box. It was inspired by the houndstooth paper I dug out and that I happened to have a box handy that needed a makeover.

The washi cloth tape worked really well on the edges of the box and then I dry brushed white & gold paint on for an extra shabby look.

It's pretty adorable, if I do say so myself. It will make a nice gift box at some point but for now it's making me happy because we don't have any spring flowers here yet!

Happy Monday!

Two Page Spread: This is Our Story of the Koko Crater Botanical Garden

I must admit that I built most of this page while watching A Series of Unfortunate Events & talking on the phone. See, I kinda didn't leave myself too much time to get creative this weekend. Wasn't any body's fault, but I also wasn't feeling very creative. Plus, the desk was clean. Time to do something easy...

I pulled out a scrapbook kit complete with layout instructions for the Close to My Heart Chelsea Workshop. There were cutting instructions as well, but that seemed a little...well too taxing. Found a cool two pager which would work with my photos. It seemed a bit plain for me, but I figured I could remedy that with some well placed splatters and some flowers.

I started with both pages side by side and laid it out in a similar fashion, minus the measuring. Then had to switch up some paper to make it more colorful. THEN, because cutting small squares and photos seemed kinda hard for a Sunday, I made a photo mosaic & printed the photos out
in big pieces.

These layouts are pretty flat, but this is a really good thing trying to keep the bulk down in the albums!

Just a couple of paper flowers and some foliage cut out with the Big Shot completed the page. Pretty simple, but a nice way to get a lot of photos on a page, which is necessary with a trip.

Well, I'm off. It's Tuesday and that's always a busy day!

Little Pretties

In an attempt to clean my desk, I decided to make some cards to use up some scraps. In about ten minutes, I had thrown together these two cards and was looking around for something else little to make. Kinda like when you have a little snack but you're still hungry and you need another little snack.

I then grabbed this little kraft box and glued on some paper. A big flower, a little stamp and some glitter glue and my daughter had a gift box for her friend. Started looking around for another little project since I wasn't quite ready to tackle something big....ah yes...

I am thinking this little Eiffel tower was a Christmas decoration at one point. I added some additional glitter in pink (why not more??) and then some dyed seam binding & that poppy! Love the black leaves against the pink & gold glitter.

Turns out all these little craft projects were appetizers! I went on to create a two page spread after that! Stop back in tomorrow and I'll be sharing it with you!

@ The Bay Layout for THE CUTTING CAFE

Happy Saturday Morning! Just popping in to show you the latest layout I've made from our trip to Hawaii! Regina over at THE CUTTING CAFE wanted us to create a little note book from one of her shaped files. I ran with a rainbow!

Here's the very pretty outside! I used it for my title for my page. We snorkeled at Hanauma Bay State Park and it was a very special experience. I loved every minute of swimming among the beautiful rainbow fishes! I thought using a rainbow would work the best to remind me of this day.

The other thing I can use is this hidden journaling spot! See the graph paper I used? I thought that was fun! I'll use this area to write up how I felt snorkeling (a little scared, I won't lie) and how cool it was.

This rainbow shaped card is fun! Download it here yourself! Hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Sparkly Bits Bracelet

I'm really excited about a new bracelet I just made! It didn't take me much time and the big dichroic glass pieces are upcycled from earrings that I found at the ReStore. It really was just a bunch of pretty little gems on jump rings and an silver bracelet I found at Michaels.

It's really pretty in the sun and layers up nice with some other sparkly bracelets. Makes my inner crow happy!

It's so pretty! I've been wearing it this week and have been really enjoying it!

Happy Hump Day!

Remember Pearl Harbor Double Page Layout

Oh my, it was such an emotional day when we went to Pearl Harbor while visiting Hawaii. We got a passport ticket so got to also see the Battleship Missouri and the Bowfin Sub. It also included a trip to the Pacific Aviation Museum. The actual Pearl Harbor Monument was too sad for me to take photos of.

THE MAN got a photo of the turret of the USS Arizona and the swirling oil that slowly seeps from the ship below water. That photo is directly above my title which is a cutout photo of a pin that I blew up for a title. The oil is a very minor amount that seeps from the ship but creates rainbows across the water. Our day started very early as we were the first tour.

I enjoyed the Battleship Missouri quite a bit more. It was very interesting to see how one could live on a ship. The Missouri was just retired in 1992 but was the site of the surrender of Japan, which is what that big round metal piece says on the bottom right.

One of my favorite things to do on trip pages is to use memorabilia. I also like to take cool photos to use as titles. That gray & blue ship image on the bottom is from a garbage can. ;-)

Those poppy flowers really make me happy as does that plane washi tape. The double pager went together pretty easy by using those big photo collages.

Happy Monday!

A Little Eastering

Just hopping by to wish you a Happy Easter! I made this little crystal egg into a small keepsake container with a candle stick bottom. Check out the pieces I started with here. Just a little spray paint on the glass candlestick bottom and some hot glued blooms and it's all pretty!

See? The top comes off! Perhaps you can stash your Cadbury egg inside if you are keeping one safe from the kiddos!

Hope your Holiday is epic!