In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month

This paper bra made with a foiled paper by Marah Johnson for Creative Imaginations, is for Breast Caner Awareness Month.  I created this for two of my aunts and my dear friend, Di J.(one of the Women Who Do Lunch Bunch) and all other women who are breast cancer survivors.  For details on construction and more photos. please click HERE.

As always, I so appreciate you reading my blog and any comments you would like to leave either here or on the CI blog for my projects.  Many thanks and Happy Halloween.

Gecko Galz Tricks and Treats Blog Hop

GECKO GALZ TRICKS AND TREATS BLOG HOP

Welcome to the 2^nd Annual Gecko Galz Tricks and Treats Blog Hop

 I am the next stop on your “hop” welcome to my blog! If you started here you might want to go back and start at the begining at the Gecko Galz blog so you won’t miss anything!  

We have 15 AMAZING blogs for you to visit this weekend, each with some gorgeous projects created using the Gecko Galz collage images, that we are giving you for FREE! Each blog you visit will have a free Gecko Galz Collage sheet for you to download, mine is "Picture Perfect". Also make sure you collect all the secret words on each blog so at the end of the hop you can enter to win our wonderful treat.  So sit back, relax, take your time and enjoy the hop!

We have FOUR amazing prizes up for grabs:

• First is the ephemera collections for each month for an entire year. That is 60 different sets! This is a $120 value
• Second prize is a $50 shopping spree at the Gecko Galz website….you pick it and we send it!
• Third prize is one free digital collage set each month for an entire year, you get to pick the collage sheet you want each month and we send it off to you! This is a $24 value
• And our Grand Prize ONE FULL YEAR of Gecko Galz  COLLECTIONS!!! That will be 1 paper pack, 1 digital stamp set, and 5 collage sets for the entire year! This is a prize worth $240

Read on to learn how you can win!

First of all, you will need to visit all 15 blogs and leave a comment on each blog :) **This is important so we know you have been to all the blogs **. Collect all eleven words and at the end of the blog on the Fripperies and Butterflies site there will be a link to the Gecko Galz website where you will email us the phrase the words make up. This enters you in the contest. On October 31^st we will randomly draw the 4 winners and email each of you, then we will post the winning names on our website and on the Gecko Galz blog site.

For an extra chance to win make a purchase from the Gecko Galz site and your name goes in again for a better chance of winning (each purchase you make that weekend gives you another chance to win) 

Finally, we are having one more give away! If you post our Gecko Galz badge (found on the Gecko Galz Blog) on your blog or website you will be entered to win a Gecko Store Gift Certificate worth $25 - super easy right?  Just post a link to your blog on the Gecko Galz Blog so we can come visit :).

My Secret Word is;

TO

Now go to the next site and collect the next word plus your next FREE collage sheet.

 Here is the Blog Hop Rotation 

 Carol Salisbury

Hazel Harler

Starr Timmons

Barbara Bird

Joan Lindle

Penny Walker

Sherri Levington

Debi Ryan

Heather Hudson

Sharron Rogers

Gerri Herbst

Jules Eickmeier

Helene Huber

Leanne Seed

Please enjoy this free Gecko Galz Collage sheet “School Time”

As well as the samples I have made using the images

Have a great day

Here is the free collage page from Gecko Galz.  To get a wonderful downloadable copy of this, please go to this link.

 I loved using the images from this collage sheet and created the following projects.  The colors are beautifully vintage and have so many possibilities.

The first project I created was this simple tag.  I dyed the tag with Luminarte's Twinkling H20s in rose gold and then used white rub ons with the alphabet from Basic Grey and added a flower for interest.

The next project I created was a bit more elaborate.  I scanned one of the images and printed it out onto canvas paper.  I wanted some texture to the image.  That is what I love about Gecko Galz' products.  You can print the images and the papers onto any medium you wish which provides far more options.  I used an old time card that I further distressed, a journal page by Bo Bunny , a clock die cut from 7Gypsies, a rub on of the A+ etc. by Basic Grey and added a tiny pencil with the teacher image.

The third project I did with this School Days Collage sheet is this very simply card.  This one took less than ten minutes to construct and yet, it is probably my all time favorite of any cards I have made recently.  The look on the little guys face says it all.  The peek a boo card and the window frame are premade and I did the journaling on my computer.  What a great cheer up card for a friend who is feeling blue.

My final project is a gift for my daughter who is a first grade teacher.  At her school the staff is required to wear a plastic clip on ID on a lanyard.  I created this long necklace with the old fashioned pen points and the perfect "school days" images as a new lanyard for her badge.  Hope she likes it.

Hope you enjoy the blog hop and have fun.    Your next stop is Helen Huber

Check it out!

Head on over and take a gander at the new Creative Imaginations website...it is so cool and with tons of new goodies.  How can you resist this sale? 

Bliss, pure Bliss

I have purchased an old ceiling tile today and an rusty, distressed vintage door lock at Architectural Salvage, a new store here in Tarpon Springs.  (see my daily blog www.postingfromparadise.blogspot.com for pictures) and could not wait to get home to play. 

I don't know how others design but I am a 'gatherer'.  I have a vague idea in my mind of where I want to go with something like this tile and the door knob case and lock and then I begin to gather things from my stash.  I have an ephemera drawer that contains a plethora of accumulated "trash" for lack of a better word. These are things I saw, liked, and bought.  Kind of like "I came, I saw, I conquered" or rather I could not resist.

My next step is to sit back and let the piece...in this case, the lock and tile...'speak' to me.  My husband, the practical one in the family, said, where are you going to put this? are you making this for a gift? Ummmmmmmm...what do you mean where and why?  This is just because...ya know?

So my first step was this

Please forgive the color difference...had to turn off the camera flash. 

and then moved on to more gathering like this

Now that photo is more accurate, colorwise.  So, where am I now...still processing and gathering.  I want to distress and soften the color on the 7 Gypsy shadow box and dye some of the lace a tad bit more vintage and add a bit more green tints to incorporate the door handle.  I'm going to let this simmer a bit and will keep posting updates til I am done.  I am now thinking perhaps a picture of me, my daughter and my granddaughter in mini at different places as the tiny framed pic at the upper left is of my mother.  She would love the multi generational thing.

Creative Imaginations and Luminarte= Bootiful Fun

We're having another couple or two over for dinner soon before we go to the Haunted Forrest up the street in one of our city parks.  I wanted to make something special for a center piece for the table and, thanks to the lovely Marah Johnson papers for Creative Imaginations and Luminarte products, I am so happy with how this turned out.

For more details about the products I used and I made this centerpiece, please head on over to Creative Imaginations blog and check it out.  All comments here or there are greatly appreciated.

Hampton Arts and 7 Gypsies and me

I took the Hampton Arts Shadow box class last weekend at the Collins Group event in Orlando and fell in love.  I took several photos of the one of the three samples that I loved the best and then, once I got home, promptly lost the pictures I had taken.  I started the project at the class and we were encouraged to do our own thing...and boy! did I ever...lol

So here is the lovely sample I selected to emulate of the three

And here is my 'winging' it version that I finished today up at Posh Scraps.

I plan on taking one of my favorite pictures of my sweetie pie, Leighton Kaye, printing it in sepia on canvas paper and using my H20s to add a bit of color to the photo.  Then I will place it to the right just under the little framed piece of burlap. 

The stamps I used are from Hampton Arts and they are simply amazing.  The papers and the shadow box are 7 Gypsies.  The burlap comes from Canvas Corp.  I love how all the companies combined products to give us the best experience ever.

So, while mine is not what I started out for it to be...it is mine  and I am a happy camper.  To see this up close and personal, you can go to Posh Scraps in Palm Harbor, Fl, my favorite scrapbook store!

As always, thanks for looking and please leave comments, thoughts and ideas.  Thanks.

Gecko Galz HUGE blog hop

coming on Oct 26th.  You do not want to miss it.  Seriously.  and it will all start at Gecko Galz blog.  Check it out! 

Works in Progress

I attended the charity event here in Tampa, Krop for Kids , which benefits a multitude of abandoned, abused and neglected children. This is my second year for the crop and am eternally indebted to my gal pals, Jacqui and Di for convincing me to attend.

I spent a lot of time catching up with old and new friends but did manage to produce a frame and a layout for Posh Scraps with some product the owner, Michele, gave me to see if I liked and five other layouts.

Here are the two I did for Michele

A

 This one is my all time favorite (see layout below).  For the one above, I should have taken out the acrylic piece over the photo before I took the pic.  I also want to sub a pic of Leighton and I for this one as I think that the frame is a bit too foo foo for the twins and besides my sports bra was obviously failing me! lol

and these other ones need some work but I am posting them as "before"s and will post the "after"s when I finish and correct them.  Art is a work in progress...right?

Got to the crop with this photo and had no idea where I had taken it.  I knew it was from our Med Cruise and probably Italy somewhere.  E and I have since googled the partial words and found out this was the entrance to Messina  and E also found the source of the inscription...so, will add that.

So, on thi next one, I forgot the "h" in Villefranche...have an "h" and will fix ASAP

Now, moving on to our last night in Barcelona and the magnificent and oh so romantic hotel Jo Frazier found us on the Rambla ...so now I am missing an "l"...oh Janet Miller, can you please send me an "l"?

And this one...need to straighten out the "explore" sticker on the bottom right.  Easy Peasy on that one.  Ummmmmmmm done!

and the last one is not even close to even being here.  My handwriting went wacko and the picture needs to be larger and and and so I am not even posting that one.

Everyone posts their best work and I have done two of those but I also think we should post our work in progress as we can all learn from each other .

thanks for looking and all comments and suggestions 

are gratefully appreciated