Just Buggin' Challenge and Flower Tutorial

I came across the Just Buggin' Cricut challenge blog and was thrilled to see that Robin is one of their designers... That made me want to create something for the challenge! So, since I got my Gypsy yesterday (which by the way is not working properly :() I decided to use it to complete the challenge. Here is the layout I created using the Doodlecharms cartridge:I was supposed to create a project that was springy, but I really did not have any springy pictures. So I decided to create the flower that does look springy to add to my layout... :) Here is a close-up of the flower and a tutorial to create it:

I cut out 12 scalloped hearts: 6 at 2 inches and 6 at 1 inch. I also cut out 1 circle at 2 inches.

I took each heart and folded it in half.

Then I folded each half towards the original fold.
Each heart should look like this when you unfold them:

I glued down the hearts to the circle, starting with two opposing hearts to then fill the empty spaces with the rest.

I repeated the process with the smaller hearts and adhered those on top of the original flower. (This is an optional step.)

To finish off the flower I created a center by quilling a piece of the same patterned paper I used for the base of the flower. To do this I attached the end of my paper to a quilling tool.

Then I began to wrap the paper around the tool until I had no more paper left.

I took the roll out of the quilling tool.I released the roll so that it would open up a bit. Once it did that, I glued the corner to the roll to ensure it would not continue to open up.

Finally I adhered the center unto the flower.

If you have any questions, make sure you leave me a comment...

Love in Christ,

Nana

My Butterfly Journal... a tutorial

It has been a while since I get to scrap just for the sake of creating my way, in my style. I have had to alter my work to meet the needs of many of my customers, but yesterday I got to REALLY enjoy creating a journal. I took pictures along the way, so that if you get inspired, you too would be able to create one just like it. Here is the finished product:The quote on the cover says: Like the Butterfly I Will Awaken in HIS Time. I fell in love with the Botanica paper from Graphic 45 and had no other option than to give in to the temptation of creating a journal that I can add pages to. So the final outcome of the entire album is this:

Page 1 and 2:
These pages have some of my favorite elements in them: butterflies, starfish, seashells... My favorite detail in this page is this one:I love the texture and the dimension that the starfish adds here... :)

Pages 3 and 4:Out of these pages it is a no brainer that the butterfly is my FAVORITE!! I truly believe that I experienced a metamorphosis when I met Christ as my Savior, so I tend to really identify myself with them.

I tried to make it seem as if it was ready to take off... (That is how I usually feel LOL)

Pages 5 and 6:

Once again, the starfish takes my heart away... :)



And now for the Tutorial:

To make the actual album I cut out the shape of the butterfly using the cricut and used the cutout to trace the image onto chipboard.Once I cut out the Butterfly, I drew with a pencil where I wanted the division of colors:
I did not want the butterfly to look traditional so I decided that instead of using entire sheets of paper to cover the chipboard, I should tear paper into tiny pieces and cover it that way.

I began close to the edges and then proceeded to fill in each area according to the color and the pattern I chose for that area. Notice that I left an area without covering... To cover that I used the Graphic 45 number/letter sheet that is double sided. I really liked the polka-dot pattern that was on the back of the sheet, so it turned out to be perfect to cover this area.Once I did that, I inked the butterfly with different Distress Inks and I drew the "veins" with a black pen following the design the Graphic 45 paper butterflies had. These steps you follow twice: to create the front and back cover of the album. (This is what the finished back cover looks like. Since it is meant to be a journal, I did not want the back of the album to be too bulky.) This is the finished cover and a close up of the starfish:

To cover each page, I used the cricut to cut the shape of the butterfly and Glossy accents to adhere it. Because it is a journal, and I am completely inept when it comes to writing neatly, I decided to take some pages from my other journal and tear them in order to add them to the chipboard.
I then proceeded to add the journaling page along with other embellishments and gave each page a distressed look using Distress Inks.I hope you lied my little album and the picture tutorial. I am going to try to create a slideshow with closeups of all the pages so that you can recreate the album (if interested.) Please leave me your comments telling me what you think... (they mean the world to me :)

Love in Christ,

Nana


“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return there. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. May the name of the Lord be blessed!” (Job 1:21)

Kiki-Art is looking for Design Team Members for their Spanish blog...

As many of you know, I design for an AWESOME company called Kiki-Art. They have beautiful paper and just released wonderful embellishments to go with their lines! Many of their papers are double sided, but the wonderful thing is that A LOT of their paper is glittered, or flocked!!! I love adding texture to my pages, so this is a "treat" for me because it takes a load off of me having to come up with ways to add texture.

Well, they are looking for some Hispanic designers that would help us with the creation of projects as well as keeping up with the blog. Kiki, the very talented owner, loves ALL cultures and is very curious about how scrapbooking differes from country to country. Therefore, she has made it a point to look for talented designers from ALL over the world that would be willing to contibute their talent as well as their knowledge about the scrapbooking world from their countr's point of view.

If you are interested in being part of our WONDERFUL team, please follow the instructions on this post:

Kiki Art está feliz de que poco a poco nuestro hobby sigue invadiendo la cultura de habla hispana! bien!!!!

Y como nuestra empresa sigue creciendo tambien… el blog en Español te necesita!!!

Buscamos chicas (jovenes en espiritu o en edad, todo vale) con ganas de crear, inspirar y demostrar al mundo todas las cosas hermosas que podemos hacer con papel. Ser parte de nuestro equipo es muy divertido! veni! proba!!

o ¿Cuándo?: A partir de hoy … Fecha límite para presentar sus creaciones es 26 de Febrero 2010

o ¿Dónde?: desde cualquier lugar del mundo! Queremos que nuestro equipo de diseñadoras sea tan diverso y colorido como nuestras colecciones.

o ¿Cómo?: Envíanos fotos de tres proyectos originales hechas por ti (ver abajo) y un e-mail respondiendo las siguientes preguntas, a kikiteam@kiki-art.com:

• ¿Por qué quieres ser parte del equipo de KIKI Art?

• ¿Cómo es el Scrapbooking parte de tu vida?

• ¿Tienes un blog? Por favor, envíanos la dirección. Si no tienes un blog? ¿Por qué no? ¿Te gustaría iniciar uno?

• ¿Eres parte de un equipo de diseño en la actualidad? Cual?

• ¿Eres parte de un foro de artesanías/Scrapbooking o grupo online? ¿Cuál?

• ¿Qué piensas acerca de ver tu trabajo publicado? ¿Has sido publicada alguna vez?

• ¿Cuál es tu cita favorita y por qué?

• ¿Cuál es tu lugar favorito en el mundo y por qué?

• ¿Cuál es tu color preferido?

Estos son ejemplos de proyectos que nos pueden mostrar (por favor, asegúrarse de que el tamaño de la imagen no sea más de 600 pxl):

Tarjetas (una o dos)

Diseño de una página grande 12 “x12″ (23 cm x 23 cm)

Diseño de una página pequeña 8 “x8″

Minialbum

Objeto alterado

IMPORTANTE: los proyectos realizados con productos de Kiki Art recibirán puntos extra! y sabemos que ya hay unos cuanto dando vueltas por ahi.

O ¿Cuales son las obligaciones?: una vez que hayas sido elegida como parte del equipo creativo de Kiki Art 2010 y acordado con el contrato correspondiente. Tendrás que cumplir las siguientes tareas durante 6 meses, a partir del 1ro de marzo 2010 hasta el 30 de septiembre de 2010, con opción de volver a concursar el próximo año .

• Información básica: vamos a necesitar tu biografia en Español y una foto de cuando eras niña y otra como adulto para poner en el blog/website.

• Mínimo 2 entradas de blog por mes con tu o tus obras de arte (pero no hay máximo, puedes enviar tantas como desees) … cada mes habra un tema/s para despertar la inspiración.

• Mínimo 2 proyectos de productos para pre-lanzamiento (que es sólo dos veces al año en enero y julio)

• Todos los trabajos de Kiki Art a ser publicados en los blogs,website o elementos de promocion deben ser del 75 al 100% Kiki Art en contenido de material (Kiki Art te proveera de ellos).

O ¿Qué beneficios se obtienen?

• Productos gratis e información inedita sobre los lanzamientos de cada nueva colecciónn! – Cada vez que se publique un nuevo producto podrás conocer todos los “detrás de escena” de la información y también tendras acceso a experimentar con los productos antes que nadie!

• Tu nombre, tu historia o lo que quieras compartir con el mundo se mostrara en tres idiomas diferentes (o el idioma de tu elección) para que lo disfrute todo el planeta! Las creaciones serán publicadas en Facebook, NING, nuestro sitio web, el blog y tambien puede ser objeto de talleres y clases!

• Un “blinkie” diciendo que eres miembro del equipo de Kiki Art 2010

• Si te gusta el “Scrapbooking”, el “multiculturalismo”, “las acciones sin fines de lucro” y amigos por el mundo … esta posición es para vos!

• Sorpresas … si, habrá lindas sorpresas para las personas que pertenezcan a este pequeño club muy especial!

o Los resultados:

• Se anunciarán las ganadoras el 28 de Febrero 2010!

Can't wait to see what you gals create...

Love in Christ,

Nana

A Change in Style

As I look at the picture of all of my work I am staring to realize that I have evolved as a scrapbooker. I still like making layouts, but I also LOVE mini-albums. I used to be pretty simple with my work, and now I find myself embellishing more, and using a lot more technique in my projects. Here is an album I loved making:


I had created this album for Genuinely Jane Studios and had not yet posted it anywhere. I used their cross album and intended to make more of a "multiple use" album. I think it can be used for pictures or as a journal. Here are all the pictures of the inside pages:
If you have never used one of Genuinely Jane Studios albums, you NEED to check them out! They are made out of wood and they are unbelievably fun and easy to decorate. Check their info here.

Thanks for looking!

Love in Christ,

Nana

March Classes

I still cannot believe that it has been almost a month since my last post... I have been very busy and sleep has been a costly luxury, but I finally got around to getting back into the blogging world. Here is what I have been creating:
This layout was created using my own paper piecing patterns. :) The original artwork I got from www.digiscrapkits.com, but I made my own patterns and designed the layout. To distress the cardstock I used Distress Inks along with dome Glimmer Mist. I also used lots of Distress Stickles along with some sand from Mudd Puddles.



With this layout I had lots of fun!! I absolutely LOVE being able to create my own embellishments and elements in the page. This allows me to have unique project, so I used the Technique Tuesday Tiles, some Prima Flowers, Mark Richards Glitter Domes, May Arts Ribbon, Kaisercraft Bling, and gorgeous GCD paper.

These clowns were fun to create as well. I loved making the ballons and balls with the quilling technique. The patterns for these clowns I made as well and I used Crate Paper Patterned paper. I am happy to announce that this class sold out yesterday! :)


These pictures were too precious to hide in an album, so I had to create this canvas to display in my scrapbooking room. I love the colors of the GCD and the My Little Shoebox patterned papers I used. The Flowers and other elements are from Prima.


Last, but definitely NOT least, I made these cards for the monthly card club. I wanted to feature Kiki-Art product this month at the store and the Jardin collection was just the RIGHT match for the stamps I was working with. The stamps are from Hero Arts and the ribbon is from May Arts and Prima. Every patterned paper seen is from Kiki-Art. I will be creating a tutorial on how to replicate the techniques I used and I will post it in the Spanish Kiki-Art Blog. Make sure you go there and check it out!

Well, I will be back to post some more later today... I have lots to share!

Love in christ,

Nana