Miss Fiona's Traveling Trunk

 Many thanks to Alice, a very talented artist that I met through Posh Scraps, for selling me this amazing cigar box.  It measures 6x6x5 and has a beautiful map on the top, a seal and ribbon above the tiny gold closure and....

 inside are four tiny pull out drawers.  She had originally asked what I would do with this box and my mind went into over drive.  When she offered it to me, I was ecstatic and kept making notes all during the garage sale on plans and ideas.

 In my youth, I read Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad several times.  I would envision packing the trunks with long lovely dresses, gloves, shoes, frothy underthings , jewelry and more.  When I finally went to Europe for the first time, I had one suitcase and a carry on, hardly the vision of my day dreams.

I have some lace hankies that belonged to my grandmother and aunt that would make lovely things to pack into what I am now calling Miss Fiona's traveling trunk, tiny charms of shoes and purses and the perfect papers to line the drawers and soft pretty print tissue for other "necessities".  Miss Fiona is going on her Grand Tour in style.

Alice also sold me 7 other cigar boxes of the most beautiful wood that I will be turning into a class called "Summer Dreams" coming soon to Posh at the middle to end of June.  More details to follow.

Upcoming classes I will be teaching at Posh Scraps 

Sat. May 12 10am-noon:  Photo Transfers techniques class  $10.00

Sat. May 26th. 10 am-noon: Foils and leafing technique class $10.00
Sat. May 26th 1-3pm:  Sweet Treasures  $28.00 (photo to follow tomorrow) Project is currently on
                                      display at Posh Scraps in Palm Harbor Fl.
You can call the store at 727-784-2928 for more details or to make your reservations.

A big thanks

To Craft Corners for selecting my blog along with a few others to be "Best of the Blog" for today.  This was a lovely thing for me and the icing on a great day...again, Thanks!

Creative Imaginations Seaside papers and LuminArte Twinkling H20s

 I have used up every scrap of the Creative Imaginations Seaside papers that Michele at Posh Scraps gave me for design samples for the store.  I have long been a Christine Adolph fan having discovered her first through Somerset publications.  I own tons of her amazing stamps and her paper lines now at CI are some of my favorites.

Since I already had my LuninArte Twinkling H20s out from the ribbon dying experiment from a day or two ago, I decided to play with them and the papers.  This 3D tri fold card is the result.  While I loved the Seaside Collection as it was, I think the judicious application of the H20s just kicks it up a notch for a card or for embellishments on a layout.

I did a demo this past weekend at Dee's Cheeky Chics Spring Fling with another of this same paper and used another watercolor medium which I also love.  The pearlescent watercolors were soft and I will continue to love them but, for that extra pizazz,H20s.

You can view this card and the other samples I made with these papers at Posh Scraps.  I will be dropping this card off tomorrow afternoon and picking up some more of the pretty papers from this line.  Every girl in Paradise needs some Seaside sensations for her layouts, right?

Sneak Peek of my Sweet Treasures class

I am teaching this class for Posh Scraps at the upcoming CheekyChics Scrapbooking "Creative Expression Getaway" in Sebring, Fl. June 14-17th.    Dee  will be putting the full Monty of my class on her blog and facebook site before too long.  The cost of my class is $28.00.  To find out more about the crop and the other instructors (2 huge nationally known names and several of us locals) check out the Cheeky Chics . 

Don't forget the huge garage sale at Posh Scraps this coming Sat. and we are having a big National Scrapbook Day Celebration on May5.  Call the store at 727-784-2928 for details and to make your reservation.  We've got lots of fun things planned and I can't wait.

LuminArte H20s Color Dyed Ribbon

My favorite ribbons are the French dyed silk but they are hard to come by and, when I can get them, I can not always find the right color combinations for my projects.  I have been making my own faux "French dyed" with another color medium.  Today in the class I taught at Posh Scraps ("To Dye For") one of my students asked if we could use H20s by LuminArte to get the same results.  I had no answer.  Now I do!   YES! and the results are even more brilliant and the colors blend more easily.

First, I mixed some of the H20 (Snap Dragon) in its pot and added that to about an 1/8 to a 1/4 cup of water.  Add more water to attain a lighter color and less to achieve a darker one.  I use sateen ribbon as creme or white silk is hard to find where I live.  I submerged the length of ribbon into the mixture and allowed it to set for three to five minutes.  Just before I removed the ribbon, I flicked some more of the H20 straight from the pot on the top of the water.  I raised the ribbon up catching the swirls and set the ribbon on a paper towel.

 Before the ribbon was completely dry, I mixed another color (Key Lime) in its pot.  With a blunt edged paint brush, I edged the ribbon allowing the color to flow into the purple. 

 For this ribbon, I used my fingers to apply the second color by dabbing my finger tips into the mixed H20 pot and 'pinching' the ribbon from both sides.  Most people prefer to use rubber or vinyl gloves but I like the colors that are pulled out with the oils on my finger tips.

 The sky is the limit.   Now, what are you waiting for...go dye some ribbons!

PAINT IT! from Creative Imaginations...layout for Posh Scraps!

Yesterday, after playing with coloring agents, I got to wondering how a color blocked layout would look. Today, at my daughter's house, one of my grandson's pointed out the window at this amazing Tiger butterfly. I took the picture (ok...several pictures) and knew just what I wanted to do.

I used 3 different sized envelopes to form my color blocks. I lightly penciled them in position, removed the envelopes and began to ink and color.

And what you don't see from the flat photo of the layout is the detail that paper delivers when inked or painted or...well, just see my post below on what coloring agents worked for me and what did not.
So, many thanks to Creative Imaginations for creating this marvelous paper and to Michele, at Posh Scraps for handing these papers to me and asking for some store displays.

Paint It! papers by Creative Imaginations (at Posh today)

Michele, the owner of Posh Scraps in Palm Harbor Fl. gave me some of the PAINT IT! papers by Creative Imaginations to play with today. Samples, layouts and demos sell product and this one practically sells itself. While it is designed to be used with Luminarte paints, I tried out a few other colorings with mixed results. Here are my efforts and my ratings.
While I adore TH's Stains, this is not a good match. The keys do not show and the residue of the stains flaked off in sections. I'll keep using my Stains but not on this paper.

My next coloring agent were the Pearlscent Watercolor paints by Yasutomo. I love the look of them everywhere and they even turned out pretty on the paper but failed to pick up the 'hidden' keys in the design which is the purpose of this paper.
The paper product states "Paint It! with Luminarte so, of course, this is the premiere product to use. I have been a huge fan of these paints going way back and the metallic is so pretty...and VOILA! there are the keys.
I used a Tombow Dual Brush on the one above and LOVED it. I had tons of control and could go back over and over to darken if I wished. This is a winner too! I am sure other brush markers would work well also. I know Prang makes some metallic ones that are beautiful.
I learned about Lyra Aquacolor crayons from Regina at Owl and the Pussycat Stamp Art Store in Ft. Myers, Fl when we first moved there in 2001. I still have my original 12 and they look almost as good at the day I got them. On the Paint It! paper, they appear subtle and the color can be made darker or lighter depending on the amount of water one uses to apply them. I would use these on the paper as I like the soft look.
Chalk Inks worked amazingly on the Paint It! paper. I heat set the ink and the paper stood up well under heat from the gun.
I painted on the Glimmer Mist rather than spritzed it. I feel I have more control over the glimmer this way. I love the sparkle it gave the paper and the degrees of color coverage on the keys.
This metallic ink by Tsukinneko was also a winner and heat setting it just brings out more of the glam.
And my final winner is T. H's Distress Inks. They give a soft matte finish to the paper and yet the keys show beautifully.

I would love to see what color products you use on this paper that has so many uses. My sampler will be up at Posh Scraps and Michele got in a wide variety of the papers...this is just one of the beautiful patterns. And Michele has a surprise coming in May so save May 16th.

Printing on Canvas

Some photos just call for canvas as opposed to glossy or matte photo paper. The photo below is the original taken by Adrianna Davies who owns Angel Lights Photography here in the Tampa, Fl. area. She did a wonderful job doing a photo shoot with my grand daughter, Leighton Kay and me.
I bought these papers today at Posh Scraps and my fingers were itching to match the photos to the papers. These are from Prima's Nature's Garden Collection by Jodie Lee.

The first thing I did was to download the photos into Picasa on my laptop. When I realized the photo colors would not work with the papers (yes! I often scrap in reverse!), I first changed the photo to sepia and then sharpened it and finally hit the "warmify" button to give it more of a soft vintagy color.
I use Canva-Paper which can be purchased at most art and hobby stores. It is thick and carries ink well. I sharpen the photo because the canvas paper tends to absorb ink. I allow the photo to sit for about an hour as the ink is so wet on the paper until that time that it easily smears.

I do not change the settings on my photo printer. Once I print the photo onto the canvas paper and allow the ink to set up, I use soft tipped artists' pencils to enhance the areas of the photo I wish to emphasize. In this photo, I used blue to add that back to Leighton's eyes and a pink to detail the dress and pull out the petals in the flower on her headband.



I know these steps can be done in photo shop but I prefer the good ol' fashioned hands on.