Real Pirate Treasure

Glitter hearts, rhinestones and doilies on a boy page you might ask?
Well when paired with some grungier items and a sharpie pen, anything goes on boy pages.
Here's an example of a page I did during a Pirate themed crop for Lucky 7 Factory.  



My background texture is layered on this great chevron paper from the Lucky 7 Factory -Douce Melodie collection. I added some alphabet script, inked pebbles, ink splats and sharpie x's.




I layered some new stuff like Simple Stories- Snap papers and die cut Kraft doilies with recycled items like the bingo sheet and postage stamp.



I love getting to throw on random bits from my desk drawer, and have them find a home.

Materials:
cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper
PP: Simple Stories,Lucky 7 Factory, recycled
chipboard: Scrapworks, Maya Road
rub-On tape: Kiki Art
Letters: Simple Stories
Rhinestones: Prima Marketing
Die cuts: Kaiser Craft, Cricut( doilies) and unknown ( clock)
Template: Crafter's Workshop
Ink: Joanne's Essentials, Tim Holtz Distress Ink, Memory Essentials
Stamp: Memory Essentials
Sharpie marker
Staples

All held together by Helmar Professional Acid Free Glue

All about the Seafood- Sketch 153

This summer, we packed up the mini man with all three human kids(plus the large furry one), and drove east until we hit my brother's house. We had a week full of fun outings and activities. Unfortunately, our days had to be worked around the little one's afternoon nap, and so we stuck to things we could accomplish before lunchtime. 

Based on LCOM sketch #153 by Kimberly Figures

To make a long story short, that's how it came to be that we drove for over two hours one morning ( troublesome GPS) only to have lunch in St. Andrews By-The-Sea and then head back to home base. I love this tourist town, and everything about it. The family was happy to visit The Gables restauraunt this day, and feast on some seafood, before returning to sight see a bit later in the week.

Materials used:
PP: My Mind's Eye
Die Cuts: Kaisercraft
Tape: Love My Tapes, De Serres, My Mind's Eye
Chipboard: Maya Road, Pink Paislee
Twine: Karen Foster
Ink: Momento, Tim Holtz Distress Stains
Stamp: Hero Arts
Glue: Helmar Professional Acid Free Glue, Helmar Premium Craft Glue
 Tim Holtz mini staples
( to see more amazing projects made with Helmar, check out the blog!)

From The Depths of The Toolbox

My husband has been searching for a tool caddy full of tools for about 2 years now. He assumed it got taken ( mistakenly, or not so mistakenly) by a contractor during our basement renovations. Not only did I find the caddy full of tools in the depths of our large standing toolbox tonight, I also found a mighty cool scrapbooking embellishment...

Introducing the tile spacer:

I love how the "o"s of the Pink Paislee resist-able paper play off the "x"s created by the tile spacers.

Materials: Bazzill Basics Cardstock

Pink Paislee 8x8 Resist-able papers

Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist

Tim Holtz Distress Stain

Making Memories tag

October Afternoon button

Bella Blvd. Buttons

American Crafts Thickers

Mr Huey's Color Mist (white)

Hole punches

Helmar Professional Acid Free Glue ( for the paper and photo)

Helmar Premium Craft Glue ( for all embellishments)

Who knows what treasure I'll find on my next hunt for innovative scrapbooking supplies!

( check out what items my fellow design team members at Practical Scrappers used for their Frugal Finds projects).

Still getting gluey

It's been quiet here lately. I've been taking as much as a break as I can from my craft room and blog to do absolutely nothing...well ok not nothing. As soon as my little boys heads hit their pillows, and dinner dishes are cleared, I head for the bath or the couch, and usually don't have the energy to move until bedtime. I have to keep reminding myself that even though it looks like I'm just being a bump on a log, that my body is working extra hard creating this baby, and caring for the boys during the day is using up all added energy reserves. thanks to Friday night crops with the girls, and a few assignments to give me a nudge, I'm managing to stay a bit productive though.

This week Helmar and Want2Scrap have teamed up, and there should be some fun projects up on the Helmar blog. I worked with papers from Susan K. Weckesser. Just the splash of color I've needed after being so focused on neutrals lately.

I had forgotten about the day I armed the boys with a full counter of blank paper, and some new glitter paints. They really amaze me when they are painting or working with playdoh. There's very little focus on what they are creating. They just have fun with whatever medium they have, and love to try out all the colours. Ethan's getting good at creating creatures and people from imagination, but It's still pretty much about the paint for him.

I've discovered that my preferred liquid glue for paper is Helmar's Acid Free Glue. I'm learning to deal with the permanence of the bond, and not trying to peel things apart anymore. For a girl who glues before thinking, that's a big deal. I used Helmar's Premium Craft Glue for the felt pieces, and Zapdots foam spacers to raise the house.

Now that we're 15 weeks into baking this bun, I should have more energy coming to me, and hopefully that means more playing with paper and glue.

Erin