I Am Blessed - Sketchabilities Sketch No. 130

Dear all,

I can't believe it's the end of the year already.... to make it more merrier, would like to share you, even though will be the last share from year 2014, the new sketch from Sketchabilities Skecth No. 130

Here's my layout for that...

To be honest, I've been struggling weeks just to figure it out what kind of paper I will use. Cause I would like still to use some paper that reminds me more of holiday feeling. I don't feel like buying one since I have a lot of paper I bought and end up never use it... so somehow I dig my own stash and found this old paper from Cosmo Cricket - Odds and Ends Collection I've never touched. I did some gesso in some parts that I would like to put my photo and embellishments(which is the left corner). Then I did some stamps from Prima - Finnabair - Vintage Vanity No.4. I really love this stamp. I always think that, this stamp makes my pages more beautiful (lol, silly me). Anyway, I splattered some black ink and a little bit red Acrylic Metal Ink from Viva Decor - Maya Gold - Fire Red.

All the chipboards, I colored them black and rubbed with Viva Decor - Inka Gold - Fire Red and for the flowers and title I added some Stickles - Crystal. At the end I distressed the paper with Distress Ink - Walnut Stain.

I chose the title "I am Blessed" because that's what I feel for having them as part of my life. 

I am truly blessed....  And I wish you all have a wonderful New Year...!!!

Hugs, Merry

Christmas is... - CSI Case File No.150

Hi Friends,
Merry Christmas to you all!!!! Hope you enjoy your time with your family and friends...this is the last case for the year 2014 from CSI (Color Stories Inspiration), it's the Case File no. 150

Here's my layout for that...

The color Scheme : Bright Red, Cream/Off-White, Grass Green, Black and Cadet Blue.

The Evidence : Swiss Dots, Arrows, Holiday Accents, String, Heat Embossing, Branches and Label.

The Testimony : The topic was our last year Christmas Eve and I wrote my journal in a how to/ direction format.

The paper was from My Mind's Eye - I Believe and Holly Jolly Collection. 

I'm not a "clean and simple" layout person. I thought at first I want to do it with this layout, but always thinking that something missing. So like always, I did some gesso here and there, some stamping and heat embossing the

background so it's more me. Since I thought I wanna write the journal in a how to/direction format, I created my scene as well like I wanted it to look like a how to/direction format way... So, the journal which is on the back of the page said,"Christmas is Festive/Decoration ➛ Tradition ➛ Family ➛25 December, Festive/Decoration ➛ To be home ➛ Family ➛ 25 Dec, Festive/Decoration ➛ To be home ➛ Peace, Joy, Love ➛ Believe ➛ Presents ➛ 25 Dec or The List ➛ Presents ➛25 Dec. Whatever it is for you, for me is our Savior was born to save us..." We'll see us next year everyone with the new cases from CSI... and I really wish you have a great new year...!! Hugs, Merry.

Dream Big Dreams - Sketchabilities Sketch No.129

Hi all...

What do you love about December? What I love about it is christmas' feeling... the cold weather, the people that shop for christmas gifts, the music all around the shopping malls, the food they sell on christmas market, christmas market itself, I guess everything make the month so joyful! Anyway, let's join the new sketch from Sketchabilities with Sketch No. 129 to fill your month more with a magical feeling of Christmas....

Here's my layout for that....

The paper is from Kaiser Craft - 75 Collection. I prepared the background on the left side (where I want to put my photo) and on the top right, with a little bit of gesso and some masking.

Then I stamped some music note with Versa Mark and used black embossing powder to create more texture for my background. I splatter some white ink around my page. Once I'm happy, I sprayed Dylusions Ink Spray - Crushed Grape and Funky Fuchsia. The color that I wanted to use was there, but still it wasn't like what I expected. I needed a little bit stronger purple. So, to add just a bit of more , I used Cosmic Shimmer H2O - Violet Purple. Here's more details....

Once I was happy with all the colors, I glued everything and started to put some glitter all over the flowers and chipboards to make them more glittery like in a dream... just to match the title.

Hope you like what I did... and thank you for stopping by.

Have a great day!!!

Hugs,

Merry

Warm - CSI Case File No.149

Hi scrappers,

today is soooo cold, I love cold but I don't really enjoy the weather when it's wet, cold and windy. I was almost blown away on my way home this afternoon...lol. Well, to warm you up a little in this cold weather (at least some of you who live in Europe), here's the new challenge from CSI (Colors, Stories, Inspiration) with Case File No.149. Here's the moodboard....

I really love the colors this time. Really make you feel like warm and cozy kinda feel eventhough outside is cold and wet. Well, here's my layout....

The Color Scheme : Grayish Midnight Blue, Lime Green, Light Blue, Teal Blue and Bright Yellow.

The Evidence : Stars, Polka Dots, Button, Swirls, Mix Media Background, Tree/Twigs and String.

The Testimony : I used inspiration word "warm" - Hold on to whatever keeps you warm inside. The photo was taken 2 years ago. It was the night before Christmas. My baby was 3 months old. We were very proud of having her. All we wanted to do was just to hold her tight, as she's such a precious gift. She makes us warm, whenever we're near her, we know that we are blessed. 

Here's details about my background: I prepared the background with Gesso and Structure Paste. Since I wanna make more like 'holiday feeling' I mixed the Paste with fine glitter from Martha Stewart. I sprayed the top part with Maya Gold Paint - Ice Blue and the bottom part with Dylusions Ink Spray - Lemon Zest. Painted all my chipboards in black and again added some more fine glitter. Stamped lots of leaves and painted them with my Caran Dache watercolor pencils. Added some midnight blue glitter to the stars and then covered them with Glossy Accent from Rangers.

And I hope you hold on to whatever keeps you warm inside as well...

Hugs,

Merry

Mariska Van Der Veer

Hi all,
we would like to present the creation of a talented lady name Mariska van der Veer, she's from Holland. We met her through Lo Shakerato Alberto. Once we saw what she's created, we just have to fall in love with her creation... here is one of her creation

Such a gorgeous card!!! Do you want to know how she made it? Then you should definitely check out her creation in her blog here. Don't forget to stop by!!!

Hugs, 

Linda and Merry

Love Beyond Words - CSI Special Case File No. S365-10

Hi there...
it's started to get colder here in Germany.... how I love this kind of whether. But somehow, the three of us got a little bit of the cold. Hopefully will be gone soon. Anyway, the holiday seasons' feeling is here. The Christmas Market in our city is there to see. How exciting... believe it or not, christmas is just a few weeks to come and here is the new challenge from CSI (Color Stories Inspiration) with Special Case No. S365-10 to start the holidays feeling....

Here's my layout...

The color scheme : Black, Off-White, Coral/Salmon, Taupe and Green.

The Evidence : Distressing, Metal, Flowers and Leaves, Bricks, Tags, Cursive Font, Chalk(Pastel) and something powdery - Glitter.

The Testimony : I handwrite my journaling on a tag.

"To love is Nothing...

To be loved is Something...

But to be loved by the person you love is Everything...

And that I would say is Love Beyond Words...

I love you both!"

The paper I used is My Mind's Eye - Chalk Studio 2. Since I thought I wanna use the photo from my husband and my baby, I thought the background would be perfect. So, I did a little bit of gesso to calm the background's writings (so somehow the photo would stand still even though the background was already bold). I cut some papers, layered them behind my photo. I waited until every layers fitted with each others, then I stapled them together to make it easier for me... but I didn't glue them to my layout, not yet. 

I cut my flowers with Spellbinders Donna Salazar, distressed them all with Distress Ink - Antique Linen, traced the line and added different kind of half pearls. For the leaves I used Inkadinkado Stamp - Fossil Leaves, chalked it with Rembrandt Soft Pastels and then just rubbed it with my hand to create a distress looked. Once everything ready and before I glued everything, I stamped my background again with Prima Marketing Stamp - Finnabair, Vintage Vanity No.4. Once all glued, I chalked the edges from my layout with soft pastels again.

Hope you like what I did, and please don't forget to come back again...

Hugs,

Merry

Christmas Wreaths

Hi...

how are you all? Have I mention that Pinterest is my favorite site? Especially comes to Christmas, when you feel like decorating your house but you kinda tired of buying the same stuffs from outside. First of all they cost sometimes a lot of money and second you need those money to buy more presents at the end of the month. So instead of buying it, I decided to make my own wreaths. The idea I got it here.

And here's my wreaths...

I have used the paper from Prima Marketing - North Country Collection and some green cardstock paper. I cut all of them (the branches and the stars) using my Silhouette. The exact method I've followed from the step-by-step photo on the link above. 

I added some branches to make it more real, and small bells on the top. 

Voila, ready to hang at my door...

Hugs, 

Linda

Really Winter Wonderland

Dear friends....

I can't believe Christmas is coming!!! All the ornaments are up.. Christmas tree checked, candies and chocolates checked only a few presents to buy, and I am ready!! The last month of the year comes with a new challenge from 123 Challenge Blog. Check it out!

And here's my layout for that

The photo was taken last winter 2013. It was very cold, really snowing outside but still it was a great day for my daughther as she started to realized a lot. What a great time for my parents-in-law as well to be a grandparents. It wasn't easy to take a picture of her nowadays, but somehow, I managed to get this one perfectly... :)

I thought I made it simple this time. I colored all of my chipboard with black acrylic paint. And then rubbed some Inka Gold - Platinum and Magenta (as I thought the color Magenta was the closest color to match our challenge color Watermelon).  I tried to centre everything in the middle. Some layers and tucked journal tag behind the photo.

Last June, my sister Linda gave me some small glitter tree for accessories. To be honest I really hate glitter as I tend to mess my stuff up instead of making something good about them. But somehow I got the idea of cutting them in small pieces and added to the small gap that I still have in between the chipboards, photo and my background. I covered this glitter tree with Modge Podge to prevent the glitter fell of and ruining my layout. Last but not least, I used Shimmer Cosmic H2O - Ruby Red and splattered around the background to create more watermelon looked. 

Thank you for stopping by to leave a nice comment for me.

Hope to see you again and I hope you have the season feeling this whole month...

Hugs,

Merry

Live Every Moment - Sketchabilities Sketch No.128

Hi,

this is my second layout I have for this November for Sketchabilities with sketch no. 128 below...

here's my layout for that

I think I always have to struggle a lot comes to red color. I'm not really good at it. But, if come to adjust it with black, I always like the results coming out of it. Quite bold, but still I like it.

here's more detail....

 For the background, after creating some Masking Tape to mark where my photo and embellishment should go, I did some gesso first... then I sprayed it with Dylusions Ink Spray - Bubblegum Pink, Cherry Blossom, Postbox Red, Black Marble and a little bit of Lemon Zest. A few stamping done with Prima - Finnabair and Distressed Crackle Stamp from Creative Embellishments. After all the chipboards and flowers placed and glued, I used Inka Gold Paint - Magenta to add more stronger red-ish look for my background. Then I did a some gesso in every edge of the flowers and chipboards.
And here's our sponsor for this challenge

Creative Embellishments is a new family owned company that was created by Michael and Nicolle Kramer. We are a husband and wife team who design and manufacture unique, high quality  chipboard and wood products. It is our mission is to offer fun and inspiring products to bring out your inner creativity that you can add to any project. In the near  future we will be expanding into other mediums such as rubber/acrylic stamps and acrylic embellishments. 

  

Creative Embellishments is offering up a $20.00 gift card to their online store.  In order to Qualify for this Gift Certificate you will need to complete the sketch below and link using our linky system, by the due date December 13th. 

Hope you all like what I made and thank you for stopping by, but don't forget to check the other Design Team Member, they have amazing layout as well to see.

Hugs,

Merry

Tea Of Love - CSI Case File No.148

Hi there....
this week CSI (Color Stories Inspiration) has a new file No. 148. To be honest, I love all the case file they have, but somehow this week is my favourite...!!! Here's the moodboard....

Here's my layout...

The Color Scheme: Grayish Green, Light Lemony Yellow, Light Coral, White and Celadon Green.

The Evidence: Teacup Accent, Flowers, Birds, Watercolor, Tag, Staples, String and Pen Work.

The Testimony: I wrote my journaling as a recipe, here's the close up look....

So, straight away when I saw the case file, I remembered that one time I've watched a video in Youtube made by Vicky Papaioannou (here's the video) about stacking cups as well and I thought I would love to do it similar. But in the beginning, I was struggling with what photos would made my layout perfect. Somehow, my sister (Linda), she sent me some photos of my baby (well, she's no longer baby anymore but still, I like calling her my baby) last September, and I thought the picture of her together with her cousins would make this layout looked great. I cut all the pictures and pretended that they're little mouse, fighting for some "love".

I was looking at the recipe quote and found this recipe which I thought as well would be perfect for the journal. I added a few ingredients myself, you could see the ingredients on the picture above (on every small tags hanging on the cups).

If you don't know what paper to use, then I suggested that you try with white paper. That always work best for me. So like always, I prepared my background with some gesso and Dylusions Ink Spray - Squeezed Orange and Black Marble. I added some masking... so my page didn't look so empty. I started to draw 4 cups in different kind of pattern papers, cut them and colored them with Caran d'Ache watercolor pencil (it's one of my treasure).

I distressed the edges with Distress Ink-Tea Dye and used this as well to create a teacup accent around my page. For the chipboards, the easiest way and still the nice way, I always color them in black and put some Inka Gold from Viva Decor, and this time I used Old Gold. Comes out perfect, as always...

Hopefully, I gave you all the details you need... if not, just let me know and will gladly to help you out.

Thank you for stopping by and hope to see you again...

Hugs,

Merry

Yvonne Yam - Do More With Less

Dear all....
Have you ever heard of Do More With Less? It's belong to a talented lady called Yvonne Yam. She's from Singapore. Her works are gorgeous. And you know what... she's our guest designer of November 2014.... Yeaaayyyy!!! Here is her canvas project using our chipboards....

How amazing is that! Look how she did the flower clusters and what cutie pies on the pictures... How much details and how much love she'd put in the layout! WOW!

If you would like to see more details or more of her wonderful works, you should definitely check her out HERE. 

Thank you again for stopping by and please don't forget to leave her nice comments....

Hugs,

Merry and Linda

Cherish - Sketchabilities Sketch No.127

Dear all,

how exciting to be part of Sketchabilities Design Team!!! This month is my first month to inspired you with the first sketch (no.127)......

and here's my layout for that....

I thought I wanna use these three photos anyway when I printed them. But I didn't know for what kind of layout until I've seen the sketch above. Such a perfect coincidence. These photos were taken last June in Indonesia. We were having holiday in my country for a month. She is my cutie pie. I would say she's my everything. Every second I thanked God that I have her.

So, here's the steps... I created a circle of gesso at the back of my photos and then masking it with circle form. Then I did a lot of stamping to create a stronger look around the photos using Prima-Finnabair (Vintage Vanity Collection-Threading), Prima-Finnabair (Vintage Vanity Collection No.4) and Prima-Create Memories. Here's more details..

I thought, if I made a little bit of an accent with the color, then the 'turkish' background paper will stand out even more, so I decided to add some Cosmic Shimmer H2O - Blue Lilac a little bit here and there...

I love flowers to be honest, but always at the end of a finished layouts, I'm having trouble storing my layouts because of the thick flowers I've used. Somehow, I got inspired by Anna Rogalska, she used her flower's photo into her layout. So I did the same and I love the result. :)

Would like to join the challenge that Scraps N Pieces made for November with the theme below

Thank you for stoping by and please don't be shy to leave any comments or even critics... would love to hear from you :)

Hugs,

Merry