Jelly Bean Belly...

Another week and I did meet my goal. You can view my page for the chipboard challenge over at Swirlydoos.com.  However, instead of posting everything to both that site and my blog, I have decided to share a little more Scrappy goddess today. While I was pregnant with Colin, back in 2001, my loving hubby decided he wanted pictures of my belly. Being the loving hubby that he is, he did not quite notice that he was getting more than my naked belly...if you know what I mean! Suffice to say, I ended up with these gorgeous black and white film photographs of my pornographic pregnant body. I was dying to scrap them but how was I gonna keep the girls out of the photos? 

This was my second attempt at using cardboard. I LOVE it! I loved the corrugation and the layers of paint and glimmer mist and stamping...This page was a blast. I was actually inspired by a lady's shirt when she came into my office. Teal, lime green, black, and white. And of course...covered in swirls. I took a picture of just her shirt with my phone. I think she thought I was crazy.

 These are chipboard letters that I've had for years. I won these seed beads at an auction and loved them but was clueless how to use them. I used 3M spray adhesive to attach them and then sprayed it to keep them in place. 

 This is another view of the letters. You can also see the paint on the pictures. The paint and strategic placement is how I made up for the indiscrete photos:)

 This is a piece that I found at Joanne's in the jewelry section on sale. I loved these things and to me they were corner pieces. 

This is most favoritist part of this whole page. I love these giant grommets which I picked up in a discount bin. I used glimmer mist on the piece of guaze and attached rhinestones.  The little black piece is actually a magnetic hidden journaling thingy. Watch this...

TADA!

 I used it to write the story of how my 3 year old son, Roman, told my in-laws that they were going to be grandparents. It's still my father-in-law's favorite story. 

Nathan and I were living together but not married. We were both in college and broke as a joke. He had just gotten out of a 2.5 year engagement and his parents were a little skeptical of me. Needless to say pregnancy was not the best thing at this point in time. My loving hubby (boyfriend at the time) and his 2 brothers excused themselves from dinner to hang out in the garage,  so it was only my in-laws, Roman, and myself still sitting at the table when Roman blurts out..."my baby brother is just a jelly bean in my mommy's tummy right now!"  I wanted to die. I just stared across the table at my father-in-law (who resembles Grizzly Adams, owns a very large assortment of guns, and loves nothing more than riding his motorcycle) in complete horror. The blood drained from my face and I thought I was going to choke on my food. Roman was smiling happily and continued to discuss what life as a big brother was going to be like. At that point my father-in-law started laughing because of how panic stricken I was. Needless to say we are one big happy family now and of all people...Colin most resembles my father in law.

Faces of Sue

Here is my latest and greatest...Faces of Sue. This LO was made with the April Swirlydoos kit Bella Volo. Isn't it fantastic. I am absolutely in love with these uber romantic papers from Bo Bunny. Anyone who knows me KNOWS I am not the romatic like type...but I'm growing. My goal for this month is to complete 3-4 layouts and to blog at least once a week. Here's to the start of a great month.

 Here is a closeup of some more hinges that I made. Also you can see where I wrapped the crystals branches around to fasten them.

 This is a closeup of a rosette that I made. My belly dance instructor had a giant bag of tiny silk scraps from her sewing of veils and skirts. Most of them are less than an inch wide. I have been dying to use them but had no idea how to use them for so long. I am so excited. I may even begin to make multi colored rosettes.  OOOOOO....hmmmmm.....

 Can anyone say Martha Stewart deep edge punch?! OMG I love this thing. Originally I had used a paper bleaching technique with this word stamp on the edges but I was a punching re re and it looked awful. I didn't get anything to line up right. I didn't feel like turning on the iron and doing the paper bleaching all over again when opaque Staz on ink would give the same type of feel. I also sprayed the edge with Tattered Angels glimmer mist in the color coffee. It's very beautiful up close but doesn't come through on the picture real well. Also, getting better with the water distressing technique. Although you have to let go and let it form on it's own, you also can kind of control what the outcome looks like if you have a general idea. I'm getting to the point where I can first have a plan with it and that's just got me all kinds of happy. If you haven't tried it, check out the tutorial on Swirlydoos and give it a go. You may be pleasantly surprised with what you come up with.

 This pic shows so much. The swirly chip board underneath is by Mya Road. I  didn't have the right color peach so I mixed a peach and pink together to make it a tad more salmon. The color was perfect. I then used about 6 layers of UTEE(ultra thick embossing enamel) to give it the shiny raised texture. I tried to crackle it but apparently I would have had to add more because it just bent and flexed all over the place. It looked just a little to bright so I grunged it up a bit with some Tim Holtz distress ink in antique linen. The green butterfly is done with liquid glass, some black stickles on the black areas and cut pearls from a long thread out of the dollar bin at Joann's. I have about 8 yards of these little pearls on a strand. It's great because you can cut them to use individually (as you see here) or keep the strand as a whole (which is coming soon. I had a fabulous epiphany this week and then topped it off with another last night for a future layout...coming soon)

 The letters were included with this month's kit. They just felt so plain. The paint is Ranger Liquid Pearls in Bisque. It really dressed up the letters and made them that much more romantic.

 This is my favorite picture from this series. It's also a close up of the flower. The flower is actually from the Pagoda Cricut cartridge. It's a spiky 5 petal flower. I cut the petals apart and then cut them in half. I rolled them and inked the edges with dark brown pigment ink. I then sprayed the flower with TA glimmer mist in patina. For a tutorial on the flower you can head over to Swirlydoos. Yeah, I totally stole that technique;)

Last I just wanted to showcase the liquid pearls on the peach  butterfly. If this photo makes you swimmy in the head it's because I too the photo sideways to get the right lighting on the butterfly and then rotated the photo in the computer. Sorry. I love this close up because you get a little bit of all the page elements all at once.

Personally I am mimicking the techniques and layouts at Swirlydoos in order to incorporate them into my own style. Since this is only my second layout it is still very Swirlydoos and not a whole lot of Scrappygoddess. The only way I can learn and be effective is through critique. Please feel free to leave comments about what you like, what you don't like, and what you think needs to be done differently. Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Thanks for looking.

Where I create

Tonight's blog is pictures of my scraproom. Ah yes...that coveted secluded corner of heaven that you can call yours and just yours alone. Cram packed with all of the wonderful goodies, sparklies, and scrappystuff that has been hoarded for years and years.
Mind you, this is still under construction but it has come far enough in the last year where I feel I can share with pride.  Unfortunately with the flash on the camera the color washed out and looses it's warm inviting feel. But please feel free to use your imaginations.

 I get most of my decorating stuff at Hobby Lobby when they are running a sale. Fabulous!!! I did the header over my window with my cricut. It says "inspire" It was my first attempt with the vinyl. Can anyone say youtube? The color on the walls is Pittsburgh Paint Canyon Blue. It's actually a very dark blue...not the robin's egg color that is showing up in these pictures.

This is a closeup of my clip-it-up. As I was designing this room I realized that my biggest problem was out of site, out of mind. So I use the clip it up for all of my miscellaneous items that I want to use but aren't likely to. I'm big into paint and sprays so I'm always reaching for those. But the little sticker and such and tend to forget about. 

 The sides of my desk are cut away cubbies. I love having items within easy reach.

 All of my printed photos are in the boxes. The tool bag is my most ingenious idea EVER! I keep this handy little thing packed with all the must have tools. See the white circle beside it? That is a lazy susan and the tote fits perfectly on it. Whenever I come in to scrap I grab the base and the tote and put them up on the corner of my desk. If I'm off to a crop...I never have to worry about the basics. They are always ready to go. Take my little lazy susan and voila! Everything within reach no matter where you are and with minimal use of your cropping space.

Behind my desk on the lower shelves of the cubes I have all of my publications, albums and my 2 bags of scrap paper so everything is in easy reach.

I took this picture to simply show the transition between the 2 sides of the room. On top of the little carts are my sprays and masks and little jars of some chochkys that wouldn't fit elsewhere. 

 This side looks bare, I know. I plan to do white corner shelves from the desk up to the ceiling. At that point I will have to find a new place for my dress form. This was one of those MUST HAVES. The two pieces of furniture that you see were sold super cheap to me by one of my GF's. They were a golden oak color and the top of desk was pretty beat up. I sanded, stained, and poly-urithained all three pieces. (the third piece holds my cricut.  Um...love my MAC and my large format printer.

I would love to say that I was thrifty and purchased this frame at Goodwill or something...but no. I was stupid and bought it at Joanne's during a sale. The corkboard is quilted and I made the buttons myself. Another piece of advice...double up the roll up cork. One roll was not enough to do a double layer over the entire thing and the pushpins don't have enough to grab onto through the quilt batting. I had enough to double in the center and they tend to hold nice there. Oh well...live and learn.

 Here is my cricut station. My desk faces this. The cabinets and cubes were custom hung by hubby. The cubes were purchased from Oriental Trading and are super flimsy. They were never meant to hang and would have fallen apart. Hubby has a giant metal ledge mounted to the wall in the back, and then a giant piece of re-rod that in the front and bolted to the two cabinets. The sides of the cubes are attached to the cabinet and each other. I hid the re-rod with a piece of discount trim from Home Depot. He keeps asking if the thing feels like it's going to fall and I just laugh. I could probably dance on top of the thing and it would hold me. It's going NO WHERE.

Just a perspective photo with the center of the room. LOVE my chandelier. Also made the corkboards on the front of the cabinets and mounted them with adhesive.

Inside the dresser are my inks...

punches, brads, and gypsy. I also keep all my cartridges in the second drawer and a bunch of computer supplies like DVD's, CD's, and my gypsy plugs and cords. 

If you are planning your own room I strongly recommend going online and saving pictures of what you like and don't like. Get ideas of what you want to do where. Thanks for looking. Happy scrapping!!