Life Is An Adventure

This Scraps Of Darkness layout features some photos I took of my son Draven back in 2004, around the lake at our house.

I based this layout on a Page Maps Sketch that is being used by Paper Secrets for their June Challenge. My base layer is a kit pp by Bo Bunny. I did some machine stitching, then cut a second layer from some BB pp, I distressed, stained and machine stitched it. The third layer behind the photo is a kit BB pp that I cut, distressed, inked and machine sewed. I took the photos of my son, distressed the edges and stained them.  I machine sewed the edges of the larger pic, and did some eyelet setting on the smaller one, adding the "explore" BB Sticker, layered onto pp with foam dots and popped in some eyelets.

I made a paper strip from some cardstock from the June add on, distressed, inked, and attatched one of the kit BB sticker borders down the middle. I took a Tim Holtz Word Stick and embossed it with distress powder from the color add on, popped it onto one of the little BB stickers, took a piece of rope and attatched the stick to one of the kit BB Trinkets and attatched it with foam tape.

I took different strips of  the BB pp's and distressed and stained the edges, ran another one of those sticker boarders down the top strip. Took some of the kit BB decorative stickers placed them on pp's and cut them out stacking them and attatching them with foam tape for dimension.

I took a Dusty Attic Lizard, painted it with Distress Paint that was in the color add on, dried it with a heat gun and then "tatoo'ed him with Rub Ons, and attatched him to the corner of the photo.

I took an Art Parts Chipboard branch, painted it with T.A. Glam then embossed it with some of the embossing powder in the color add on. I cut out a BB Cutout, set some eyelets into it. Took some Chipboard flowers and embossed them with multiple layers of the add on embossing powder. Popped in a TH button and a brad into the centers. 

When I glued the BB cutout piece, I glued it so that I could slide in some hidden journaling containing the date and place.  I created it using another BB Cutout. I then set an eyelet and put some rope through to have a handle with which to pull out the journaling.

Life is an adventure! I am sure glad to have friends like you to share this end of it with! ~Renea

It's A Jungle Out There

The following layout is one that I created  with the June, Scraps Of Darkness kit for  Sketch 87 over at Little Shop of Sketches. One of our Scraps Of Darkness members, Ashley (AKA Ashleyvanetten) just made DT over there and I wanted to join her and kick of her new assignment, by doing my take on the sketch.

For the background layers, I used black cardstock, a piece of kit Bo Bunny pp, and a piece of olive cardstock from the add on. I distressed and stained the edges with the stains from the color add on.

I then cut a circle from some more of that BB pp, distressed the edges, stained them, then did some machine sewing around the edge. I took 3 photos of my son Draven and his little dog Jack that I had taken at the lake at our house, distressed the edges and inked them. I then took some wood pieces from my stash broke them and inked them with the stain from the color add on and tied them together with rafia to make a corner piece for the middle pic.

I took a piece of cardstock from the add on distressed the edges and stained them. Added a sticker from the BB Sticker page, and stickled it with the distress stickles from the kit.  I glitter glamed a piece of the Chipboard from the color add on and then popped a flower from the Romance add on onto it. I took my Crop A Dile and applied eyelets randomly to the bottom corner.

I took one of the journaling stickers from the BB sticker page, distressed, and stained the edges. I broke some more of those wood pieces off and colored them with glitter glam and attatched the sticker to them to make a sign. I then took little pieces of  pp strips that were left overs from previous layouts, inked and stained the edges, rolled them up and tied rope and rafia around them, and glued them to the sign.

For the top right hand corner, I cut pieces of rope from my stash, in graduating pieces and attatched them. I glammed a piece of  the Romance Add On  Prima trinkets then attatched it on top of the rope. I took one of the kit BB trinkets and strung rafia pieces through the holes and popped that on top. For the finishing touch, I splatter painted the edges of the olive cardstock for added texture and interest.

Thanks for stalking through the Jungle of my mind, and remember, when you need a creative boost, find a good sketch and get creative! ~Renea

Soul Kiss

This is a layout that I created with the June Scraps Of Darkness Kit. I created it for the Dark Side Challenge that Celina, our Mistress Of Mayhem, is hosting. The challenge was "Wedding Bell Blues". We could scrap either a layout using blue or a wedding themed layout. Mine is a layout featuring my sister in law's wedding day. 

I started with a piece of the cardstock add on that I distressed and stained the edges on. I then stamped the top and bottom . I cut the second layer from the kit Bo Bunny pp, using a template, then distressed and inked it's edges. I then took a 3rd piece from the BB pp and cut a circle then cut the middle out and inked and distressed all the edges, staggering the circle and added some bling.

 To add interest to the white space on the photo, I applied some Bo Bunny Rub Ons from my stash.

I used the the Prima Vine, that I stickled the edges on,  and some of the flowers from the Romance Add on as well as a few flowers from my stash to create the flower layer.

 I took a Prima metal trinket, from the same add on and embossed it with some of the embossing powder from the color add on. I then added the Prima trim from the Romance Add On.

I took a Dusty Attic Ornate Frame, embossed it with the powder from the color add on, and then took some of the distress paint from the same add on and spot brushed the DA. I then took a flower from the Romance Add On and a couple from my stash and added them to the DA.

I used some SM chipboard from the Scraps Of Darkness store, and did the same technique I used on the Dusty Attic piece then popped on some smaller flowers and centers from my stash. For the final touches, I stickled some butterflies I printed onto cardstock and cut out the journaling and distressed and stained it's edges and popped all of them on. The journaling is a Judy Garland quote that reads " For it was not into my ear you whispered, but my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul."

Thanks for the visit!! I appreciate you! ~Renea

Scraps Of Darkness June Kit-Welcome To The Jungle

It's reveal time at Scraps Of Darkness, and if you didn't climb on board for this month, you are going to be broken hearted! This months kit is called "Welcome To The Jungle". You will be blown away when you see the, nothing short of fabulous, kit that is in store for you this month. The kit features the gorgeous and versatile, Zoology Papers by Bo Bunny. These papers feature the earth tones that I absolutely love. You will be limited only by your imagination when you team these papers with the gorgeous flowers in our Flora and Fauna add on or the stunning Tim Holtz Stains, Ink & Paint, in the color add on. Any way you slice it, this months extra's are to die for. The Main Kit; includes 10 sheets of premium patterned paper, as well as embellishments that will coordinate with those papers, along with new sketch each month, specially designed by Suepup for that kit.

Shoot For The Moon

This layout was created using the Scraps Of Darkness, June Kit-Welcome To The Jungle. The title got me to thinking about the Guns & Roses song "Welcome To The Jungle" and that whole big city element and the result inside my head was this layout featuring a photo of my DS, Draven when he was about 2 years old. I started with a piece of the fabulous Bo Bunny Zebra print kit pp. I then took a piece of black cardstock from my stash, distressed the edges with my Zutter and then took a wet paper towel and rubbed places around the edges to get that really worn look. I then took some silver metallic thread and did the machine sewing around the edges. Next, I cut the strip for the center, distressed and inked the edges.

The piece behind the photo was distressed, inked and sewn with the same silver thread. I took the photo of my son into my Photo Draw application and edged the edges of the photo out to give it that moody look, and used a LaBlanche Crow stamp, from the S.O.D. store, along with some TH distress ink to create the crow, which I then fussy cut out, and popped on the corner of the photo.

I drew out a city scape in Photo Draw, sized it to the size that I needed, printed 2 copies onto cardstock. I then colored my city with a black Sharpie and a Metallic Prang paint pen. I randomly cut out buildings from my second city and used foam dots to adhere them on top of the first city to add dimension.

I took a piece of the kit pp and cut out a full moon (thought it was so cool that the animal print looked like moon craters). I distressed and inked the edges and then adhered with foam dots for dimension. I drew out stars onto some chipboard cut them out, inked and UTEE'd them for distress, and then popped them on with foam dots.

For the bottom part, I cut out different sizes of chipboard stars, and arranged them in a collage. I then used gel medium to gunk them up, let that dry, then painted them with black acrylic paint. My own twist on the found art style Finnabair uses. For the finishing touch I printed my sentiment to my son, "Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.", onto white cardstock, cut it out, inked and distressed the edges and added it to the layout.

I really loved how this layout turned out. I love masculine layouts-they show that other side of my personality that is rough and gritty. I hope that you will try one of these techniques and discover a whole other side of yourself! ~Renea

Little Earthquakes

I created this layout for my Stalker Challenge over at Scraps Of Darkness using the June Kit, and the June Dusty Attic Sketch.  The challenge is to scrap a person (famous or non famous), poem, book, movie, or song that got you through a rough time in your life. I chose to scrap Tori Amos and her album "Little Earthquakes". This album came out at a time in my life where I was struggling to break from my past, and finally learn to love myself. Every song seemed to be written about the girl that I was, and the person I longed to be. Little Earthquakes represented the constant tremors that had run through my life, and threatened to break apart my very existence. Tori is an amazing artist, who was the front runner for all those piano playing gals who came after her. She blazed the way for a whole new genre of female artists, and healed my heart in so many ways as well. This is my tribute to her fabulousness.

The base layer is a piece of the kit Bo Bunny pp that I distressed, stained and machine sewed. I then took a Dusty Attic Bracket frame, and painted it with some Tim Holtz distress paint, heated it up with a heat gun to get that deep crackled look, and then filled in the cracks by rubbing some of the kit distress stickles into them and then wiping the excess off.

For the layer behind the photo, I used a piece of  cardstock from the add on, some Lindy's mist , and a dusty attic piece to create the masking. I then gathered  a piece of trim from the kit and  took a Prima metal trinket from the kit and embossed it with some TH distress embossing powder from the color add on, and made the side piece. The dragonflies were from the kit and I painted some transparency with micas to simulate dragonfly wings, painted the dragonflies with micas and attatched them to the transparency and fussy cut them out, placing them on the photo to bring dimension to the one's in the photo.

I created the flower layer with the Petaloo flowers from the Flora & Fauna add on.

  Crafysprinkles amazingly beautiful stick pin, and some flourishes that I cut out with my Sizzix from the BB pps and stickled.

I took 2 Dusty Attic Flourishes, painted them with Black Acrylic paint, then added accents with Tulip Puff Paint that I heated up and got puffy then added stickles to. I punched out the circles with a Fiskar's circle punch then printed some of the song lyrics onto transparency and attatched everything.

The last step was putting Tori's name at the bottom with the kit alpha stickers.

I hope that you will come join me for this challenge over at Scraps Of Darkness for your chance to win your choice of  a Sizzix Flourish Die (cuts 3 different flourishes including the one in my layout), or  a $10.00 gift card for the Scraps of Darkness store.

Thanks for visiting!! ~Renea

Wish

I just can't get enough of this Scraps Of Darkness, June Kit! I love getting to scrap photos of my son, and these pps where just perfect for it. The base layer is a piece of kit pp that I deep distressed, and stained the edges with the stain from the color add on. For the frame piece, I cut the middle from a piece of the cardstock add on, distressed the outside and inside edges and stained them. I then took the middle piece of the cardstock, shaved an inch from 2 sides, then distressed and stained the edges. When I attatched these pieces, I used foam tape to add dimension to my layout.

 I centered my photo where I wanted it, and then took some Tim Holts Fragments and created an arangement and marked where I wanted them to go. I then took animal and print images from the kit Bo Bunny pps , tore the edges and inked them. Attached them with Glossy Accents Glue and then painted the edges of the fragments with Tattered Angels Glam. I then glued them in place.

 Next I took some Dusty Attic Chicken Wire and cut it to fit the corners. I then painted it with crackle paint from the color add on. I used 2 Dusty Attic Ornate Corners , that I Glammed and then spot painted with the same crackle paint and popped them onto the corners.

I stamped with a Glitz Distress stamp to take up some of the "white" space, and then took some burlap and ruffed it up placed it at 2 of the photo corners for texture.  Took some trim pieces from the kit and added them below the stamping at each end.

To add a pop of color and texture, I added a Prima flower from the Flora & Fauna add on, and tucked it under the photo. I then used some Rub Ons to add interest and the title to the photo.

If you have some masculine photos you are needing to scrap, you can't go wrong with this months kit! Thanks for letting me share my masculine work with you!  ~Renea

Renji

This month's Scraps Of Darkness sketch was created by Charlotte (a.k.a. Suepup), and as always, it was so beautiful and inspiring. The following is my interpretation of that sketch, and features Renji, the sweet baby snow leopard who was born at our local zoo, The Chattanooga Zoo, just a few months ago. I swear he is just the cutest thing, getting weighed in, sitting inside that bowl-Anyone for a cup of snow leopard?

The photo is courtesy of the Chattanooga Zoo.

I started with a piece of the kit paper, cut a second piece, distressed and stained it with some of the color add on TH stain. I cut a 3rd layer from the card stock add on and punched the ends, then used a Tattered Angels mask and misted it. The layer behind the photo was a cutout from one of the pps and then I punched a square piece of kit pp and used another cut out for the title work.

 The title work was created from the combo sticker sheet inclued with the kit.

I added some wavy leopard ribbon from my stash.  Then took a Dusty Attic Baroque Frame from my stash, painted it with white acrylic paint, then stamped it with a T.A. clear stamp and TH Distress Ink.

I added a Prima Vine from the Flora & Fauna add on that I UTEED and Stickled. I then used some more of  the stickers (the round pieces) that I stickled (included in the kit)  and placed in the vine and corner of the layout.

I took some of the words on the sticker sheet and layered them on some of the colored stickers and added stash bling, and attatched them around the photo. I took one of the BB Trinkets from the kit and laced it with some stash trim and popped it in the corner of the photo.

I took some of the pp strips and water distressed them and placed them in the corner and popped on one of those cutout circles. I used 2 of the Chipboard flowers from the kit, that I painted with the TH distress paint from the color add on and made the centers from 2 stash brads. For the finishing touch I took some butterflies that I had printed onto cardstock, stickled them and attatched them in 3 different places.

Hope you enjoyed the layout of Renji! He was just so sweet, I couldn't help but scrap him!! ~Renea

You Are Amazing Card

This was just a quick easy card I made to give to one of my friends, Michelle, who is constantly helping me out when I need her.  She is amazing!

I started with cream cardstock that I cut to size and misted with Lindy's Gossamer Gold Mist, distressed the edges and inked. I then stamped the bottom with a flouish stamp and Sage Green T.H. Distress Ink. I cut another piece of pp and distessed and inked the edges and adhered it to the top. I rubbed on some Prima Felt Rubons, added a button I had in my stash with amazing already on it. Used some Glitz  mini alphas for the first part of the sentiment and popped on a Prima Mountain Lily Sunflower vine.

For the inside, I repeated the strip process for the top and bottom piece and left the middle blank, so that I could write Michelle some personal words.

I hope she likes it and I hope it lets her know, what a wonderful part of my life she is. I hope you have someone amazing like Michelle in your life! Don't forget to let them know how much they are loved!!

~Renea

Altered Art-Memory Box

Every since I saw Lisa V (aka Lvalent3) do a gorgeous altered shelf,  I made a promise that I would do an altered project this year. I finally decided on a keepsake box of my Granny, who meant the world to me and passed away last summer. I included lot's of butterflies and the color green, because they were her favorites.

I started with a paper mache box I found at a local craft store (on sale of course). I first painted the whole outside and inside of the box with a creamy gold acrylic paint. I stamped the bottom part of the box using a Prima stamp and Tim Holtz Vintage Distress Ink. Next I painted the top part of the box with Tim Holtz Crackle Antique Linen Paint-heated it up with a heat gun to get those deep distressed crackles that I love, then went over it with Tim Holtz Rusy Hinge Distress Ink. I cut some Glitz PP to fit the top of the box, deep distressed it with my Zutter and inked it with the TH Vintage Photo Ink. The next layer was some layering paper made by Glitz that I cut to size distress, inked and machine sewed. I then cut one of my favorite photos of my Granny into an oval distressed and inked the edges and positioned it on the layering paper.

I created a bow using one of Lisa G's (starsailor's) incredible techniques of dying seam binding, and then placing a Bo Bunny Gabrielle cameo onto the center. I then gussied up a piece of Dusty Attic with some T.A. Glitter Glam, made a flower layer using it, along with the bow and some Petaloo Flowers.

I rubbed some glitter butterfly rubons onto cardstock cut them out, applied Stickles and some bling and for the large butterfly, made a butterfly trail from a piece of leftover Prima Pearls Swirl.

I cut out some journaling that I printed onto cardstock, distressed and inked. The journaling reads:
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."

On the inside I printed out a poem I had given to my Granny for her birthday that year, and that she had requested that I read at her funeral. The following are the words:

I Want To Be Like Her
To My Grandmother
Love, Renea  

The world they may not think so, but to me she is a queen
Whether in her youth or old age, true beauty through her I have seen
I hear her talk of her Jesus with such love in her voice
Between the things of this world and His ways, she has made her choice

She does not wear her faith around her neck like a talisman
Instead she covers her life in the blood of the Lamb, according to His plan
Oh, I want a heart like hers where love it has no bounds
One that beats for joy over the relationship with her Jesus she has found

The world, it may not think so, but to me she is the greatest soldier on Earth
Whether in her youth or old age, through her true strength I have observed
She has known some hard times, some so tough others would have given up
But she knew for her character to grow she must take from Him her cup

No, she is not perfect, not without sin
But she knows that face down on the floor is where true forgiveness begins
Oh, I want to have strength like hers that doesn’t come from muscle or bone
The kind that comes from the knowledge, that through surrender she will find her way home

The world it may not think so, but to me she is a star
Whether in her youth or old age, no truer faith have I seen so far
She has known great sorrow more than some could bear
But she knew that help would come, when before her King she went on her knees in prayer

Even when things did not go her way and life seemed so unfair
She would just bow her head and turn her troubles over to her Savior’s care
Oh, I want a faith like hers that radiates through her life
The kind that comes from knowing that she has a Savior who shelters her,
no matter what her strife

I distressed the edges and inked them, stamped with some Prima Clear Stamps and T.H. Vintage Photo ink-added some bling. I popped on some flowers for color and stamped to accent them.

For the bottom of the inside, I printed out my Granny's obituary onto cardstock, distressed and inked the edges and then stamped the corners and added bling. For the final step I painted some T.H. Foundations Metal Feet with T.A. Glitter Glam and glued them to the bottom corners.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my first attempt at altering. I think it turned out to be a beautiful tribute to my Granny. I really enjoyed creating something different, and I urge each of you to do the same!  ~Renea