children | Distressed Scrapper

Bright Future – dt layout for Creative Embellishments

01 Jan 2014 1 Comment

by dlwidder in Scrapbook Layouts Tags: 12x12 single page single photo layout, 2014, children, Creative Embellishments, dreams, hopes, laser cut chipboard, masking, Prima flowers, stamping, stars, stenciling, wishes

Ready for something new and twice the chances to win a $20 gc to the Creative Embellishments store? Well, CE is ringing in the New Year with just that! Not only are they having a January blog challenge, but they’ve added a wonderful new facebook challenge too! 😀 I’ll share details on how to enter the facebook challenge towards the end of this post.

For the Creative Embellishments January Blog Challenge, there is an inspiration image and the twist is this topic: wishes, hopes and dreams for 2014. Link up your project (new as of Jan 1, 2014) to the January InLinkz widget on the CE blog to enter! 😀 Here’s the inspiration image for Jan:

For my example, I chose a photo of 2 of my children taken on the day I pulled them out of the local brick and mortar school after enrolling them into an online cyber school. This was done primarily to improve the quality of their education as well as removing them from an undesirable environment at school. My take on the challenge reflects my dream for a brighter future for my children. 😀 I was also inspired by the Monday Mojo sketch at Flying Unicorn. Here’s what I came up with (the background is actually a deep purple, but photographed as blue):

Close up of the title cluster:

Close up of the flourish and lamp post:

Materials:

Creative Embellishments Out of This World Frame
CE Lamp Post
CE Steampunk Clock
CE Steampunk mini timepiece
CE Square Scalloped Frame
CE Flourish set #14
CE Stars Wood Cuts
CE Geek/Chic Glasses Wood Cuts
CE Grunge Music Note Sheet Stamp
AC cardstock
Heidi Swapp stencil
Art Anthology Sorbet and Velvet
Stazon white ink pad
Martha Stewart around the page punch
Acrylic paint
Distress paint
Webster’s Pages alpha stickers
Prima flowers

***FACEBOOK CHALLENGE*** share any new project (as of January 1, 2014 using at least 1 CE product) on the Creative Embellishments FACEBOOK Page by uploading your project image to their timeline with >> #CEJAN14 << to the post. This is so they can easily find your project when randomly drawing a winner. The prize is a $20.00 gift voucher to the CE store. Every Friday they will also feature customer projects using their products on the CE blog, so please share away! 😀

***Don’t forget! CE is also currently having a DT call, so be sure to check out their blog on how to apply! They’re a great company to design for and the perks are amazing!***

The CE January Special:

You Light Up My World – layout for Creative Embellishments

01 Nov 2013 1 Comment

by dlwidder in Scrapbook Layouts Tags: 12x12 single page multi-photo layout, Challenge, children, chipboard, Creative Embellishments, Family Traditions, Halloween, inspiration photo, masking, modeling paste, stencil, thankful, Thanksgiving, Webter's Pages, wood

Wow! I cannot believe it’s November already! October just flew by and the kids had a blast trick-or-treating. 😀 Anyway, a new month means a new challenge at Creative Embellishments and this month, Nicolle has selected a gorgeous inspiration photo with a theme of gratitude or thankfulness. Use the image any way it inspires you, just be sure to include a sentiment, journaling, title etc that reflects this month’s theme in honor of Thanksgiving. The challenge is open to everyone, everywhere and you can choose to create a card, tag, layout, canvas, mini-album, altered piece…anything your heart desires. 😀

For my take on the challenge, I created a layout of my kids in their costumes from last year. They were getting ready to go trick-or-treating in their grandmother’s neighborhood and got tired of posing for pics. Christian was getting distracted and kept watching other people, cars going, by…anything BUT the camera. lol Alex decided to take a breather by resting his weary arms on M&M’s heads. Nice huh? Anyway, I liked how these pics showed their camaraderie and silliness so I chose these pics to show what I’m thankful for. I adore how much they love one another and they, along with Larry, truly are the light in my life.

I combined my dt challenge with the current sketch and title prompt (lyrics from What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction) at Scrap and Music. Here’s what I came up with:

Here’s a close up of the cluster at the top of my page. I altered the leaves using acrylic paint and used chalk ink to bring out the intricate design on the heart piece:

This close up shows the other 2 clusters towards the bottom of my page:

Materials:

Creative Embellishments Hearts Wood Cuts
CE Autumn Leaves Wood Cuts
CE chipboard Pumpkin Border
Webster’s Pages Family Traditions papers
Elle’s Studio cut out
Pink Paislee cushies alphas
Prima mask and chalk ink
Modeling paste
acrylic paint

The CE November challenge inspiration photo:

Scrap and Music sketch (use along w/lyrics from What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction for your title):

Be sure to check out the Creative Embellishments Halloween sale! All Halloween themed items are 20% off storewide NOW through Sunday, November 3rd at midnight eastern. TFL!

Caught in my Web – dt layout for Creative Embellishments

24 Oct 2013 3 Comments

by dlwidder in Scrapbook Layouts Tags: 12x12 single page single photo layout, cheesecloth, children, costumes, Creative Embellishments, Halloween Graphic 45, Happy Haunting, laser cut chipboard, spiders, stickles, web, webbing, wood

It’s Thursday, so I’m up on the Creative Embellishments blog sharing this layout. Hope you can stop by and check it out! 🙂 This week I created a Halloween themed layout using a lot of gorgeous Creative Embellishments chipboard and wood pieces. I adore working with their fabulously intricate designs…so much FUN!…and have been amazed by the new designs being added each week! Did you know new pieces are added almost every day?

I’m actually backlogged on a few years worth of Halloween pics and was thrilled to see the variety of titles and designs Nicolle and Mike have been coming up with. This particular Halloween, I just had the 3 youngest kids with me and Larry was running late at work. He ended up joining us further down the street which was another fun surprise for the kids since they weren’t expecting him to catch up with us. 😀 Here’s what I came up with combining the CE designs with a sketch from Purple Pumpkin.

Here’s a close up of the web and spider piece from the Caught in my Web set. I altered it by dabbing it with white distress stain, then coating the web parts with stickles and filling in the spider with a Pitt big brush marker:

I altered the Spider Web Flourish Border the same way, but applied Art Anthology dimensional crystal to the flourishes with a brush. Instead of using a sweeping motion, I created more interest by dabbing it with the tip of the flat brush to create peaks:

Here’s a close up of the cluster I created by snipping a section off of the Web Panel and layering it with wood cuts. I used 2 of the Autumn Leaves and a Pumpkin. I altered the leaves using acrylic paint and the pumpkin using a mixture of acrylic paint and Art Anthology dimensional crystal:

The title piece was altered using distress stain and I applied stickles only to the words Caught and Web. The bats were altered with black acrylic paint which was dabbed on thickly with the side of my brush to give them a bit of texture:

Materials:

Creative Embellishments Caught in my Web chipboard set
CE Spider Web Flourish Border
CE Web Panel
CE Autumn Leaves Wood Cuts
CE Pumpkins Wood Cuts
CE Going Batty Wood Cuts
American Crafts cardstock
Graphic 45 Happy Haunting patterned paper
Krylon webbing
May Arts trim
cheesecloth from my stash
Tim Holtz distress stain and stickles
Art Anthology Dimensional crystal
acrylic paint
Pitt big brush marker
Tim Holtz die

The wonderful October Purple Pumpkins sketch I worked with:

TFL! If you’d like to play along w/the Purple Pumpkins sketch challenge, CLICK HERE!

Scrapbook Challenges Summer Event Layouts

05 Aug 2011 1 Comment

by dlwidder in Scrapbook Layouts Tags: 12x12 single page layouts, alpha stickers, boy, brothers, children, Cosmo Cricket, fussy cutting, journaling, Life Documented, mist, shimmer mist, Simple Stories, sketches, Tattered Angels

Still playing catch up…these next layouts were also from Scrapbook Challenges’ Sizzling Summer event full of fab sketches. 😀 These were the next two layouts I completed last month and again, I went with very different styles for them. I muddled this one up a bit, so here’s what I posted about it in the forum: “Okay, before everyone just thinks I’m a mist-loving freak…it was totally accidental. I brilliantly decided to add the misting that I’d forgotten at the beginning, AFTER everything else was done. Well, my mister was clogged, so I poured it into an empty one that apparently works waaay too well. Therefore the huge splotch over the photos, so the rest is over done in order to blend that mess in better and I had to keep masking off different areas as I went, so you can see the results of that attempt to salvage my project too. lol So, the title of my piece should be “When misting runs wild” but it’s actually called “Unique”. The journaling reads, “The two of you are so different, I think it’s funny that you always used to compare your work! March 2004″…and here’s the result of the faulty misting:

Again, no detailed list of materials on this post, but contact me if you have any questions. Cosmo Cricket 6×6 papers, tattered angels mist, Webster’s Pages storyteller alphas. This is the sketch I used for my layout:

The second one I’m sharing today is very CAS and shows my silly guy asking me to take pics of whatever happens to be in his hand whenever I take his picture. This was a regular occurance for a couple of years, so I figured I would document it. 😀