Giveaway WINNER - Carol

Let me just say that I am overwhelmed at the thoughtful words everyone always leaves for me on this blog and thanks again for all the sweet comments for my giveaway post. The winner of this prize is... lucky #10 - Carol!

CONGRATS!!!

Please e-mail me your mailing address (and full name :) to vickya@shaw.ca

Meg's Garden DT!

I came across an Australian company, Meg's Garden, through a friend of mine Eila Sandberg (and they were recently the sponsor for The Color Room too). I was pleasantly surprised last night to hear that I had made their Design Team... now for the kicker - check out the rest of the new DT members that were announced today (joining an already awesome team). I am beyond excited to be designing with them - congrats to these talented ladies!

Eila Sandberg from Sweden

http://dollopsofscrap.blogspot.com.au

Heather Jacob from Australia

http://heatherartandlife.blogspot.com.au

Yuka Hino from Japan

http://nsnlso.blogspot.com

Gabrielle Pollacco from Canada

http://gabriellepollacco.blogspot.com

Cathy Cafun from Australia

http://cathycafun.blogspot.com

Here is just a little sample of a few of their paper collections:

Returning DT members:

Adriana Bolton (Australia)

Denise Ann Boddey (Australia)

Gayle Price (Australia)

Sandie Edwards (Australia)

Be sure to check out Meg's Garden Blog to follow the upcoming DT work!

Parisian Card (Guest design for OUAS)

The Swirlydoos Design Team is guest designing for the Once Upon A Sketch challenge site this month. The sponsored prize is a KIT!

I created a card with Nadia's beautiful sketch. Because, I was given the sketch before my first Swirlydoos kit arrived, I simply used some gorgeous Pion Design vintage image and papers (From my Heart 2 6x6 size) and Green Tara embellies. The challenge theme is Holiday/Vacation. This card was actually my Valentine's card to my hubby - the papers remind me of our trip to Paris (before having kids :) and the journaling inside is a famous quote from the movie Casablanca "We'll always have Paris".

More Swirlydoos Feb Kit Projects

I just can't believe how much product the Swirlydoos main kit (Feb - Mon Doux) and flower add-on provides. Here is my FIFTH layout with this kit plus a card too! Granted, now I am down to one sheet of paper and a few flowers left, LOL. But... wow 6 projects in total is GREAT value!

OK, so on to my layout... these are my boys when they were babies. Admit it... we all get those Wal-Mart photos at least once when we have a baby and don't know what to do with them. Well, I decided to make the best of it because they both did look so cute! I cut up the Kaiser die cut to use as a background and cut out the square frame from it too. This kit had beautiful little white flowers and blue crystal gems so I made some large flowers to compliment.

Here is a close-up of my handmade flowers. See my Soft Petal Flower Tutorial to make your own!

Lastly a sweet little flap card. The floral print was just too pretty to pass-up making something with that half sheet of paper. And that gorgeous lace/pearl trim was a perfect fit. For another flap card idea, see my purse card instructions.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Darling layout (Pion Design/Green Tara)

Happy Family Day! (for Canadian folks like me :)

With the long weekend... I had a little time to play and was so inspired by TCR palette #98. I rarely scrap with purple but I loved the combo with the sage green and navy.

This is my daughter at 2 years old - just being her cute little darling self. I used a mix of Pion Design papers from the Studio of Memories and For Father collections then added a garden of purple and lavender Green Tara flowers (gardenias, apple blossoms, roses and cherry blossoms). The crochet doily was bought last year at Michael's and I polished it off with a Dusty Attic chipboard piece.

Here is a close-up of the flowers and navy ZVA bling:

I painted the chipboard with white crackle paint and used chalk ink to add the color.

Here is the gorgeous palette for this week:

I'll be back tomorrow with a few Swirlydoos projects!

Peony Flower Tutorial

Here is a fun and easy flower tutorial to make a peony flower. No difficult techniques or fancy tools/products required!



What you'll need to create this flower is:

-- white cardstock (the cheap stuff from Michael's is just fine!)
-- chalk ink color of choice (I used pink)
-- 6 scallop hearts using a punch or die (your choice of size - depending on the flower size you want to achieve). My punch is 2.5 inches = 3.5 inch flower once done!
-- 2 scallop circles using a punch or die (about half or 2/3 of the size of the heart size you use - mine is 1.5 inches). You could alternatively use a small flower punch.
-- water mister
-- brad (you will not see it so don't use a decorative one)
-- tweezers
-- paper piercer or anything to poke a small hole through 8 paper layers


NOTE: Since you need to crumple up the hearts anyways, you can always fold paper in half and cut some out with deco scissors if you don't have a die or punch. I think this would lend to an even shabbier look since the hearts wouldn't be exactly the same size. OR, this may be pretty using an Oval scallop punch (but you may need 8 to get the same effect as the 6 hearts I used).

STEP 1 - Ink your hearts and circles (or flowers) - you do not need to blend the ink.



STEP 2 - Cut a slit a every second circle scallop "valley". You may end up with odd number as I have so for the last one cut in the middle of one of the "mountains". Skip this step if using a flower punch.



STEP 3 - Water mist all of the hearts and circles and stack 4 hearts like this:



STEP 4 - Add 2 more hearts but place them a little closer to the middle than the first 4.



STEP 5 - Add your 2 circles to the pile and mist a little more



STEP 6 - Poke a hole with your paper piercer, secure the brad in the middle and start scrunching the circles toward the centre in to a tight paper wad - for nice creasing.



STEP 7 - Do the same with one heart at a time and give the entire thing a good tight squeeze. Let it sit like that for a few minutes. If your flower is very wet, you may need to let it sit for a while. You want the petals to be barely damp so that when you open it up, they curl back well instead of flatten out.



STEP 8 - Carefully pull back the hearts tips a bit and shape curved down like this:



STEP 9 - Using your tweezers, twist/shape the centre as desired. Let it dry overnight or speed things up with a heat tool until completely hardened.



DONE! That's it. No complicated tool or techniques!

Here is a variation from a past project, using only the large hearts with patterned paper and a bunch of berries instead of the circles. This worked better for a Fall layout about my boys.

Thanks for stopping by -  let me know what you think of these flowers!

Swirl-A-Palooza!

Say what? Swirlydoos is hosting a fantastic open house event this weekend on their Forum that ANYONE can participate in. What is it? The design team has put together a fantastic line-up of tutorials and challenges for this open crop event. Come join us and find out how to make the large Peony flower on my layout below! Check out the sneaks and events here:
http://www.swirlydoos.com/sd_plugins/forum/forum_viewforum.php?67

This is another project I made with the Swirlydoos February kit. It is me exactly 10 years ago! I added a bit of Dusty Attic chipboard and pink BG lace paper from my stash to create the picture frame and the bit peeking out in the corner of the layout.

Here is a close up of my handmade flower I will be doing a tutorial on. You'll be surprised how fast and easy this flower is to create - and without fancy tools!

See you at the event this weekend, Saturday Feb 18th - starting at 10 am EST. You won't want to miss it!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway while you're here!

A few Pion Design/Green Tara Cards

In the spirit of "love" month I made some cards with the new Pion Design "From my Heart 2" 6x6 collection and so many beautiful Green Tara embellishments - especially roses!

For this first card, I used a scallop heart punch to create the folded heart puffy effect. I wove baker's twine around the heart doily.



This second card is more suited for a baby shower or young girl. I used rosette and twisted organza trim to make the butterfly.



Green Tara Products Used:

9mm Twisted Organza Pearl Antique Pink Ivory 20m Roll
CODE: RB6715API

9mm Twisted Organza Pearl White 20m Roll
CODE: RB6715Wh

38mm Organza Rosette White 10m Roll
CODE: RBD50Wh

2cm Rose Pale Pink
CODE: FDR009PP

3cm White Roses
CODE: FDR024Wh

3 Flower Sprays Cream
CODE: PFSTC

Spread the love GIVEAWAY!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone! On February 25th, I will officially have been blogging for 2 years. So, to celebrate and thank all my wonderful followers (I still can't believe there are 800 of you!)... I am giving away some blog candy. I have put together a blue themed "fight the winter blues" kit.

With Jenny's blessing at Pion Design, I have included some "studio of memories"papers (12x12 and 6x6 sheets) and Pion Design vintage image sheets and coordinated them with some of my favorite MME "bella bella" papers. You'll also find some Dusty Attic chipboard from my Etsy shop, tons of fun flowers, 3 bottles of Stickles, bling, a Prima stamp and some fabric titles. I hope you like it!


TO WIN:
Follow this blog a leave a comment at the bottom of this post in the comments  = ONE entry into the draw.


BONUS "spread the love" ENTRY:
Write a short blog post (or Facebook post if you don't blog) about my giveaway with a LINK back to this giveaway. Then, leave me a second comment with a link to your post here (again in the comments at the bottom of my post) = your SECOND entry for a chance to win the draw.


DRAW DATE:
You have until Feb 29th to enter - lucky leap year day!


Good luck to everyone who enters and most of all thank you for your continued support - I really appreciate it. I'll be back later this week to share some projects and a brand new flower tutorial too!

Swirlydoos February Kit Reveal Blog Hop

Welcome to Swirlydoos February Kit Reveal Blog Hop BLOCK PARTY!

If you came here from Paulien's beautiful reveal, then you are on the right track. If not, go back to Swirlydoos' blog and start from there. We have some amazing projects for you to see today and as a bonus we have 2 manufacturer blogs that are joining in the fun! There are 3 prize packs up for grabs so make sure to follow along and have fun! The "Bonjour Mon Doux" kit featuring Kaisercraft's "sweet nothings" collections will not disappoint!

I am so excited to be revealing my first projects on this design team! For my first layout, "True Beauty", this is my daughter when she was one - her first Easter. I was inspired by TCR palette #96 for this layout. I have been dying to play with this gorgeous Kaisercraft collection and Swirlydoos kit and flower add-on was all so amazingly well coordinated and made these projects such a breeze to complete! I love the lace/pearl trim in the kit! Click on image to enlarge.



Here is a close-up of the pretty flowers from the add-on kit. Click on image to enlarge.


For my second project "those eyes", I used the beautiful kit sketch as inspiration. This is a picture of my son's sparkling brown eyes. I paired the Kaisercraft papers with this fantastic teal FabScraps one from the kit. I added a fabulous Dusty Attic chipboard piece from my stash to add depth and pair well with the wood feel of the paper. Click on image to enlarge.


Don't you love that teal flower branch and those cute white flowers with crystals. Those are in the main kit!!! Click on image to enlarge.

For my last layout for today, "giggle", this is me at a year old. Since pink is my favorite color to scrap, this paper collection suited me just fine. I added some Dusty Attic chipboard flourishes from my stash to add more brown and interest to this page. Click on image to enlarge.

Here is a close-up of the more beautiful flowers in the add-on kit. Click on image to enlarge.


You have until midnight, eastern time, on February 10th to complete the hop. Winners will be announced on the Swirlydoos Blog on February 11th. In order to qualify to win here is what you need to do:

1: Visit all of the blogs and leave a comment on each. This way we know you were there. Become a follower if you're not already. Take your time. There are beautiful things to see along the way.

2: Before you leave each blog, look for the “special” words and write it down. Once you have visited all the blogs and collected all the special words, they will create a sentence.

3: Finally, go back to the Swirlydoos blog and leave a comment letting us know how much fun you had AND tell us the sentence that was created with all of the special words you collected.

My special word is :

(yet)

The party now concludes over at the Swirlydoos blog. Hope you had fun!

BTW - I will be revealing 2 more projects made with this beautiful Swirlydoos kit in the coming weeks - so stay tuned!

And... I haven't forgotten about the blog candy I promised - been down with a cold and working on this reveal so I will post it for Valentine's Day :)

Valentine's Display (Pion Design/Green Tara)

Kismet/Fate? Do you believe in it? Well, I was almost done this layout for Valentine's when TCR palette #95 revealed with the same colors I chose. This is the second time this has happened in the last 2 months - seriously! It is no secret that I am so IN LOVE with the Pion Design "From My Heart 2" collection. I had this layout idea with layered hearts (Royal Lace doilies from Michael's) and a lace border in my head but I couldn't find the right pictures. So... I made it into a display instead to put on my fireplace mantle for February - love month :) Oh this collection has such a glorious Romantic/Parisian feel to it! The beautiful vintage images I used are also from Pion Design and all of the embellishments are Green Tara products (flowers, lace and sprays).

Here is a close up of the flowers I made by simply layering Green Tara white petals and silk flowers (with crystal centers!). Oh I just love those crystal flowers and the pearl sprays too. Product codes are listed at the bottom of this post.

Here is the gorgeous TCR palette for this week:

I don't usually really like my own work - always find flaws but... I do love this one, LOL. It's just so me and suits my house decor perfectly. Thanks for stopping by! I will be back next week with a giveaway to celebrate my 2-year blog anniversary so stay tuned (it may just have a little Pion Design and Dusty Attic in it, wink :)

 Green Tara Products:

1cm Off White Lace
CODE: L3077OW

2.8cm White Lace
CODE: L2901W

3cm White Roses
CODE: FDR024Wh

2cm Rose Cream
CODE: FDR009C

Silk Flowers with Swarovski Crystal Centres Ivory
CODE: SDIvL

5cm Petals, White
CODE: PFLP02

6cm Petals, White
CODE: 022Wh

20cm Silver/Pearl Spray
CODE: XP0616

New Dusty Attic in my shop!

Just a head's up that last night I re-stocked and had 112 styles of chipboard my shop (http://www.etsy.com/shop/vickyalberto), ranging in quantities depending on popularity. I woke up this morning and there are only 87 styles left. They are selling FAST!

Check out just a few of my favorite new pretties I added...