~A Bit More Scraps of Darkness~

Over at Scraps of Darkness, there is a challenge going on right now that is based on Shakespeare's "Midnight Summer's Eve." I chose to enter this layout which features items from the August SOD kit, Midnight Garden and a few pieces of Dusty Attic that I added. I finally got to use one of the fairies!!

Gabrielle P, one of my fellow DT members from Dusty Attic, hand painted her fairy and I LOVED it, so I had to do the same, or at least try lol.

I haven't seen these mushrooms get used very often and they are so dang cute. These come in a pack of four, with two big ones and two small ones. I used marker to color the mushroom tops red and liquid pearls for the bases.

These flowers, except for the brown one, were originally a salmon color. I used a blue smooch spritz on them and I love how they turned out. For the brown flower I used a more silver toned color.

Just a quick note to let you all know that I am doing another blog giveaway starting September 10th!! Instead of just one chance to win, you will get three chances!!! Don't miss it!!

Thanks for stopping by and God Bless!!

WINNER of My DUSTY ATTIC Giveaway

It's that time!! I'm posting to announce the winner of my Dusty Attic blog giveaway!! And the WINNER is........

Kygirlnfla

Kygirlnfla said..... Fabulous Giveaway...I've been drooling over these Dusty Attic chippies for awhile now! I luv the Fairies the best...I think...such a hard decision really!!! Mandy, you have a wonderful blog, gallery and Etsy shop....way to Go, and good luck with becoming a professional photographer...you do have an eye for it for sure!

August 3, 2010 3:54 AM

Kygirlnfla, shoot me an email to FSOLprizes@yahoo.com with your mailing address so I can send off your goodies!!!

Announcing the Dusty Attic Winner Tomorrow

Don't forget to get your entries in for the Dusty Attic blog candy. I will be picking a winner tomorrow and announcing it here on my blog first thing!!

~Woven Flower Tutorial~

Here is my tutorial on the woven ribbon flower I did on my SOD layout called "My Girl". I used a strip of mesh on the layout flower, but it is easier to show you the tutorial with using a strip of ribbon I had from my stash. There seems like a lot of steps to this, but it's actually pretty fast moving and easy to do. You can choose a die of your chose as long as the petals are wide. I used a die I had on hand, but this can also work with the six point flower from the Tim Holtz tattered flower die. Here's what you will need:

1. Large and Small Flowers Similar to The Ones in the Pic
2. Approx 2 Feet of Ribbon (Sizes vary with flower sizes so this should give you plenty to work with)
3. Exacto Knife
4. Adhesive
5. Ink, Stickles, Centerpiece Decoration

Use your exacto knife to cut slits in the tip of each petal, but don't go to close to the edge. You can cut a center out or use a standard hole punch, like I did. It doesn't have to be pretty, just big enough to allow multiple sections of ribbon through. Box 4 shows how to start your ribbon and about how much to leave on the starting end.

Here is the basic steps to weave the ribbon onto your flower. Follow these pictured steps until you get all the way around your flower. This is what you should be left with, once you finish weaving the ribbon. I used glossy accents and ran a small strip on the back of my exposed pedal and pressed down until it stayed. I cut the end of my ribbon that I wove and left enough to glue down as well as shown in the pictures.

I forgot to ink my edges in the beginning so I just did them now. I used cats eye chalk because it fits into the tight spots way easier.

Now take some adhesive and glue down your smaller center flower. Decorate your center with an item or items of your choice.

I used stickles along the tips of both the large and small petals.

So this is a finished Woven Ribbon Flower. Hope you enjoyed the tutorial!!

Thanks for stopping by and God Bless!!

~Scraps of Darkness August Kit Reveal~

It's reveal day!! Time to show you the August kit from Scraps of Darkness kit club called Midnight Garden. This was a really fun and versatile kit and I was able to go a few different directions with it. To start the party, I posted the August sketch and my matching layout.

This is me and those aren't my real lashes lol. I photoshopped some on for fun!! I created this to enter in the August Dark Side challenge over at scrapbook.com.

There are some gorgeous florals this month, including these really cool red cat tails.

Tip: It's always good to create close to the pic clusters of embellies. Draws the attention to the right places.

Here is a favorite pic of mine. This is Brooky. I did add a few of my own items, such as the die cut vine, white cardstock and Dusty Attic butterfly. The rest is SOD goodies!!

I used the Tim Holtz tattered flower die for the layered flower. I hand cut the leaves from red cardstock and inked and stickled the butterfly.

Tip: Inking the edges of your paper flowers always brings out more detail.

Here is where you will start seeing the versatility of this awesome kit. This is a pic of my daughter, Rylee. I all SOD items except for the Dusty Attic birds on a branch chippie.

To create the chippie I just brushed brown ink over it and stickled the leaves and painted the birds.

I am loving the new Petaloo that came out during the summer CHA. I would love to DT for them lol. Wouldn't we all though :)

Tip: Going around the edges of the petals with stickles just adds that umph to your flowers!!

This is my sweet Brooky again. The photo in the layout is purposely overexposed so the pic of the entire layout has the same feel. Sorry about that. I used SOD for everything except another die cut vine and the Maya Road chippie below the photo. I just noticed how my circle looks lopsided lol. Oh well, that's what I get for not hand distressing it. (Used my Zutter)

I cut the flowers from some of the pattern paper and outlined with stickles along with sections of the vine.

Butterflies are always an easy fill embellishment for those places that you are wondering what to do with. I just cut these using some of the patterned paper from the kit and added a bit of stickles. Really easy to do.

Tip: An old rule of thumb is to use sets of 3 when placing embellies. I don't always follow it though.

I am going to be doing a tutorial for this flower I made, so check back for it it next week some time :)

Well that's it for now!! Thanks for stopping by and God Bless!!

~Dusty Meets Grunge~

I feel like it's been forever since I've done a good ole grunge page!! I get dirty with my others, but there is nothing like the sticky dyed fingers you get when you do a grunge page. I just created this page of Brooky for the August Round Robin challenge over at Swirlydoos. I used a spotlight kit that was filled Bo Bunny, Mamma-razzi products. YUM!! I added one of my fave Dusty Attic pieces, the chicken wire, and some of my fave Tim Holtz items as well, like his fragments, various inks, and some bits and pieces from his Lost and Found paper pack. I call it TuF, for Brooky's strong will, tough attitude and major indepedence; such as, "I can wipe myself Mom!" Ya, she calls me Mom and she's three. Dad gets Daddy and I get Mom!! Here's a couple close ups.
TIP: If you use a 1" circle punch it will fill the center of a standard bottle cap perfectly and the Tim Holtz Lost and Found line has perfectly sized images of bottle caps, so that's what I punched.
I used rust colored alcohol ink on the page and edges of these photos.
TIP: Use matte paper if you want to grunge up a photo. You can pretty much use anything on it!

Thanks for Stopping by and God Bless!!

~Page Maps~

I'm tooting a little.... Becky from Page Maps teamed up with the DT from Dusty Attic and we did a whole spread of her awesome sketches for her August newsletter! They all turned out awesome and I was so excited to see mine was caught by Becky's eye!! YAY!! Here is the sketch and my take on it.

The journaling reads: "This is my cowgirl way of life. A cute had and a real life cowboy for a hubby. This is as much cowgirl as I get." My 13 year old daughter, Rylee, took this pic of me. She is getting so good at photography.

Don't forget to check out Page Maps and download the newsletter!! CLICK HERE