Mad Tea Party Mini Album~Scraps Of Elegance July Kit Chasing Rabbits

Today I have an Acrylic and Chipboard Mini Album that I would love to share with you!!
I used the Scraps Of Elegance July Kit~Chasing Rabbits to create a little Alice In Wonderland, Mad Tea Party themed place to store your memories and keepsakes inside. 

The cover is made of acrylic and I edged it out in hand tinted German Glitter Glass then layered on papers, a paper doily and some two different trims-the cream tulle from a past kit and the pink fringed trim from my stash.

I then fussy cut out the teacups, pot and hat piece from the papers and glittered them up, and then topped it with a Tiny Treasures Champagne Dream Butterfly that you can find at Reneabouquets.com or in the Reneabouquets Etsy Shop. I then added some flowers, and formed a bobbin and seam binding closure system that I created myself a few years back and I then popped a  Divalicious Rhinestone Button from my shops onto the bobbin to add some bling!

The D-Rings have lots of tulle, laces, and hand dyed seam binding tied onto them, and the little "party" charm was created from a little cameo that I topped with one of the chipboard stickers from this month's embellishment add on.

Here you can see all the trims, depth and bobbin system up close. 

The first page features a pocket with double sided pull outs for journaling and small photos, and you can tuck little momentos and photos into the pocket as well.

The 2nd page features a photo spot, venice drop trim and a little Alice In Wonderland Die Cut that I created for and now carry in both my shops. 

Here is a view of the little pull outs.

The 3rd and 4th pages have spots for photos, a pocket watch tie on for journaling or a small photo on the back. And both pages have pockets with double sided, Drink Me-pull out tags.

Here are the tags untucked.

Pages 5 and 6 have Doilie spots for photos and/or journaling. 

The 7th page has a little hand sewn, 6 page,  booklet that unclips from the metal clip.

The  8th page has a pocket with 2 double sided tuck ins and room in the pocket for more treasures.

And here is a close up of the little booklet and tuck ins.

The backside is an acrylic piece finished out in distessed and inked matching paper.

Hope you have enjoyed my Mad Tea Party and speaking of tea, I think it is about time for my afternoon cup!! Hugs ~Renea

Bellelive Blog Tour Nomination

Hello everybody and welcome to my blog!!  Today I have something very exciting going on here at My Glitter Coated Life! I have been nominated by one of my so very FABulous scrappy friends Lisa Novogrodski (aka Raining)  to join this Bellelive Blog Tour! If you haven't ever gotten the chance to meet Lisa or check out her amazing work, you can do so here:

Lisa's Living Color Blogspot

Lisa is one of my scrappy sisters over at Scraps Of Darkness and Scraps Of Elegance, and we are also behind the scenes friends. I love Lisa's down to earth personality, and that I know I can go to here at any time and she will be there for me. Giving me open and honest advice, and I love her so much for that!! On top of being a beautiful friend, she creates beautiful art as well. She has a very feminine style and loves punches and dies and you will always see that in her work.

I love that with this blog hop, we get the opportunity to get to know new artisitacally talented bloggers that we might not get the chance to meet otherwise. To get to see their styles, and to learn about their techniques and what they are doing and working on.

OK, I was given four questions that all the participants would need to answer before they nominated three other bloggers to continue the tour. I am going to answer my questions below, and then lead you to three other talented artists, that I have selected to introduce you to.

Question One: What are you working on?

I always have a lot going on, in my scrap room so here is a sneaky of layout that I am working on for Scraps Of Elegance. The Design Team is being featured for August and I have a layout put together for and this is just a hint of what is to come in full:

And here is a Sneaky of a mini album that I am working on for Scraps Of Elegance:

I spent the weekend drawing and designing some new items for my Reneabouquets Etsy Shop and Reneabouquets.com Store, and the following is a dragonfly that I am hoping to get finished up and on this week:

Question Two: How does your work differ from others in this genre?

I have been creating since a really early age. So many people in my life were creative and artistic, and I just thought living that way was a part of life. Because I have had my lifetime of creating experiences, and exposure to so many different mediums and outlets that it would be impossible to list them all, I think that what makes my work my own, is the fact that I bring all that experience, and love of different mediums into my work. I love texture and depth and you will always see that in my pieces. I love different styles, but having grown up in the country and poor, I tend to love things that have a Shabby, rustic, worn look to them and I also bring that into my work. 

Question Three: Why do you create what you do? 

The process of creation is as necessary to me as breathing, so I create out of the need to get what is inside my head, outside my being. I also love running my Reneabouquets Etsy Shop and Reneabouquets.com store, so I create to provide items for them as well. 

Question Four: How does your creative process work?
It usually starts with some type of inspiration. I am inspired by just about anything visual, and find myself creating inside my head constantly. I then just get to work on a project and let it take shape surrounding what I had in my head. So many of my butterflies and dragonflies are inspired by my daily walks and hikes out in nature. So many of my layouts are inspired by a photograph, a piece of paper or embellishment, pieces of art or home decor.  Most of my off the page work is inspired by my love of collecting trinkets and treasures, and usually features cubbies, or places you can tuck and hide items.

Now, you get to meet my 3 super talented nominees:

Up first is my scrappy sister Karen Zueger-Brownell also known as LostCoast Scrapper. Karen is also one of my Design Team mates at Scraps Of Darkness. Karen has a very unique layering style, and she does masculine and Steampunk work that leaves me drooling. On top of being such a talented artist, she also has a super cool, hippy chic personality that is so refreshing and always makes me smile. You can check out Karen's Blog here:
Lost Coast Scrapper

When I was asked to do this blog tour, I immediately thought of Helena Johansson. Helena is one of my Swedish scrappy friends, and I have had the honor of working with her on the Scraps Of Elegance Design Team, and I love her unique style. She always comes up with the most gorgeous designs, and she scraps her children and life in just a breathtaking way.  I would also like to mention that Helena is one of the sweetest people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. You can find her inspiration here:
Wileas Scrap

OK I had a 3rd nominee lined up, but she backed out at the last minute, so I decided to just wing it, and introduce you to one my Reneabouquets Design Team members Jane Klindworth. Jane is one of the most amazingly sweet people, I have ever met. She does YouTube videos and is followed by some of the most wonderful subbies ever. Jane creates with her own flare, and her personality makes us all fall in love with her every time we watch her. 
You can check out Jane's Blog here:
Lady & The Stamp

You can check out Jane's YouTube Channel here:
Velocityvette08

Thank you so much for coming by for this blog tour! I am always grateful for your visits and hope you find lot's of inspiration from all the artists. Hugs ~Renea

Alice In Wonderland ATC & Storage Box~

I have always loved a good book with a lot of imagination, and there has never been one quite like Alice In Wonderland! When I got this month's Scraps Of Elegance Kit~Chasing Rabbits, I quickly fell in love with all the Alice themed pieces, and I am sure you will too!!

Over at the Scraps Of Darkness/Scraps Of Elegance Community Facebook Page, I host a fun bi-monthly ATC Swap and this month my swap partner is one of my In Real Life friends Tracy Mercer. Tracy knows me so well, and knows that this quote from Alice In Wonderland, best suits my mad muse side~

The Mad Hatter: "Have I gone mad?"
Alice: "I'm afraid so. You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are"

I created her an "Alice" themed ATC based on this quote as well as a sweet little wooden storage box to hold it. 

I painted the whole box with white crackle paint, then took a Prima Damask Stencil and painted over it with Textured Modeling Paste, then while the stencil was still on it, I dabbed over it with pale, pink acrylic paint to get all the YUMMY texture you see.

On the top of the box I colored and fussy cut out a "Welcome to Wonderland" piece, and put it inside of a Prima Resin frame that I also added color to. I then blinged up one of the little mushrooms from the embellishment add on, some stash flowers with some tulle and cheesecloth pieces and then added a little bottle filled with colored water. The Alice In Wonderland is actually an old Vintage book illustration, that I took and did a digital redraw in to bring out the lines and Alice's sweet face, then did some digital coloring on to enhance it, and then did some chunky glitter painting on to gussy her up. I turned her into a die cut, so that I can offer her up in my Reneabouquets Etsy Shop.  She comes in 3 different sizes to accomodate different projects, and you can find her here:

http://www.reneabouquets.com/#!scrapbook-embellishment/c1wlx

https://www.etsy.com/listing/197294097/reneabouquets-vintage-alice-scrapbook

On the inside of the box lid, I layered in some misted lace, a fusy cut and colored Alice piece from the kit papers, one of my Tiny Treasure Spun Sugar Butterflies and some flowers from a past kit.
The bottom houses my little ATC.

The ATC is the standard 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 size and features misting, glitter painted and fussy cut images, cheesecloth, hand dyed seam binding and a little metal cup charm, all surrounding the Alice quote "You would have to be half mad to dream me up." 

I hope Tracy loves her ATC and box from me, and I have loved having you join me for the details about it!! Hugs ~Renea

Collecting Family Memories With The Scraps Of Darkness June Kit~

TGIF everybody!! Before I head into the weekend, I have Pocket Journal that I would love to share with you. I created this project using the Scraps Of Darkness June Kit~Perfectly Stunning, and a pocket system that I created out of upcycled manilla file folders that I cut down and then sewed together. 

I layered lots of distressed and inked paper layers, an inked Doily, misted corrugated board, fussy cut pieces fromt he papers, and a sweet Vintage image that I purchased from Digital Collage Sheets.

The Crochet lace was from my stash, all the paper pieces, and flowers,  were from the kit.
The Tiffany Glass Butterflies and Vintage look Garden Gate Metal Key can be found in my Reneabouquets.com  Store or in my Reneabouquets Etsy Shop.

Here is a back side view.

And here is a photo of all the untucked pieces.
There is a manilla Folder piece, 6-Double Sided cards for adding photos and journaling to, and the little tickets remove from the metal clip and the hot air balloon un velcros for even more sweet spots.

Tha manilla folder opens up and there are 3 large, double sided Prima cards, and 2 small Prima cards for more journaling and photo spots. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit!! I hope you have a great weekend and that you find time to create something to collect your memories in to!! Hugs ~Renea

Happiness Is Tea Time & The Scraps Of Elegance July Kit~Chasing Rabbits

Welcome to Monday and to my blog!! Today, I would like to share a little tid bit about myself. I love Tea Time!! I don't drink coffee, but I love a cup of tea around 12:00 or so every day. I take mine with cream and honey, and my favorite tea is English Breakfast Tea. I also love to collect tea cups and tea pots, and so I was in the mood to do a little photography and I set up a really pretty display on my tea cart, using one of my tea cups, some old Vintage lace, some string pearls, a flower and a pocket watch that was one my husband, David's,  Pawpaw's pieces that were given to him by his mother. I think it turned out really romantic, and here is the original shot that I used on my layout:

And here is one that I did some Vintage color work on:

I created a layout using the Scraps Of Elegance July Kit~Chasing Rabbits and Charlotte's wonderful sketch that came with it:

To create a layout with my tea themed photo:

I wanted a really time worn look so I used a Vintage look paper from the kit on the bottom layer, then I tore, inked and grunge-punched  a contrasting damask print piece of paper for the second layer.

The lace piece is just a leftover piece in my stash that I cut around the pattern to fit how I wanted it to look.
I then did lots of layering around the photo with pieces that I cut from the kit, kit papers that I distressed and inked as well as some of the sticker pieces that were included in the kit.

The flowers were from the Floral Add on and my stash.

Here you can see the flower layering and the little pocket watch and tea cup I cut from the papers and stickers. 

Some more flower layers and paper & sticker pieces.
The resin pieces were also in the kit and I just love the sweet, Vintage look they add. 

Here you can see where I painted places on my paper with Crackle Paint and then inked over them to bring out the crackle. 

The Champagne Dreams Butterflies, and the Tim Holtz Distress Mini Inks can be found in my Reneabouquets.com Store, or in my Reneabouquets Etsy Shop.

I just love the Vintage look and the papers and elements in this kit were perfect for capturing that look and for letting me share my love of Tea Time with you! Thanks for dropping by for a cup and I hope you have a great week!! Hugs ~Renea

Chasing Rabbits With The Scraps Of Elegance July Kit~

The Mad Hatter: "Have I gone mad?"

Alice: "I'm afraid so. You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are"

We were certainly mad about Marion Smith Designs' Mad Tea Party collection, and just knew it would be perfect in one of our kits! We hope you will love it as much as we do...

I just love Alice In Wonderland, and when this Scraps Of Elegance Kit arrived at my door, I just knew I would be sliding down the Rabbit Hole with it!! The following is a Tim Holtz Configuration Book Box that I altered. I wanted to create something that was Shabby and Beautiful, but still had that whimsical "Alice" vibe to it:

I did lots of paper and book page tearing, distressing and inking  to form all the base layering. I then layered in some paper Doillies, fussy cut out the rabbit tag with the Alice Quote "If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense" and turned it into a tag with some hand dyed seam binding and a Radiance Rhinestone Pin Brooch from my Reneabouquets Etsy Shop.

I took some stash ruffled ribbon across the bottom and then added a flower from the kit and some roses from my stash. I then inked some of the little mushrooms in the Embellishment add on, adding some rhinestones to one of them. I added a clock curio knob and tied a Vintage look Metal key onto it with some more seam binding, and then popped on some of my hand crafted Water Lily Dragonflies from my Shop.

Here you can see all the paper layering and distress work that I did. The clock is fussy cut from some of the kit paper and tucked under tha layers. 

On the sides of the box I used a damask stencil and some textured modeling paste to create a gorgeous raised surface look. While the stencil was still on I dabbed it with a sponge and some pale pink acrylic paint to get the soft look.

I painted the back side with white acrylic, really letting my brush strokes show through and then stamped it with the Melissa Frances stamp in the embellishment add on.

I added a layer of paper to one side of the inside, but didn't embellish it so that the box would actually close. I wrapped the edges and taped the inside-sides of the little boxes with the decorative tape that was in the Embellishment Add on.  I then got to work with lots of little trinkets and fussy cut pieces from the kit papers.

Here is a close up shot so that you can see the details a little more closely. The "Alice" Butterfly is one that I completely designed, drew out and turned into a digital creation that I could then gussy up just for this kit. It is available in this month's kit or you can find it in my Reneabouquets Etsy Shop as well.

I hope you have enjoyed my first project wit the kit!! I enjoyed getting my "Mad" on for this project and can't wait to create some more with this amazing kit!

Hugs ~Renea

Today Was Perfect With The Scraps Of Darkness June Kit~Perfectly Stunning

Our June kit is here! We've taken the beautiful Marion Smith Designs "Nirvana" Collection, added some gorgeous papers from BoBunny's "Somewhere In Time" and Kaisercraft's "Heirloom" collections, and then added coordinating embellishments to help you create "Perfectly Stunning" layouts and projects! Don't forget to check out our June kit add ons - they all coordinate beautifully with our Main Kit, and we have the new Steampunk Gelatos in the Creativity add on kit!

The following is the super gorgeous sketch created just for the kit by our very own Charlotte Jenkins (Suepup): 

And the following layout is my take on this month's sketch and it features an old family photo of my Granny & Pawpaw with my Dad, on my Granny's lap and their other two oldest sons mingled in. 

With those blues, browns, and rusts in the papers, I was in heaven!! I took a layer of  kit paper and did some tearing to expose the background paper, 

which I stenciled with a Tim Holtz Layering Stencil-Splatters that I now carry in both my Reneabouquets.com Store and in my Reneabouquets Etsy Shop. 

I used a Chipboard Bracket Frame that I double layer misted and then two tone inked to get a really yummy faux rust look.  All the flowers were from the kit and this month's floral add on.

I misted some burlap and used it behind my photo and then ran the trim from the kit across the bottom.

I created a hot air balloon embellishment by fussy cutting the balloon parts from some of the papers, then drawing out the shapes onto some corrugated board and cutting those out. I then two tone inked the corrugated board, added ball chain to join the two pieces together, distressed and inked the balloon pieces and added them to the corrugated board pieces. I then fussy cut out the "Today" sign from some of the papers and added a Secret Garden Glitter Glass Butterfly that can be found in either of my Reneabouquets Shops, and added another flower from the add on.

The clock was fussy cut from some of the papers, and I then die cut some Tim Holtz clock hands and two tone inked them and added a pearl center. 

The "Perfect" Kaisercraft Chipboard piece can be found in the kit and I misted it, then distress embossed it, and then inked randomly with the ink in the kit and then added some shading with black ink. 

Here you can see all the dimension, texture and layering in my layout.

Perfectly Stunning is the perfect name for this kit!! Whether you like masculine, heritage, girlie grunge, or Steampunk you can take it in any direction you want so stunningly!! Thank you for dropping by!! Hugs ~Renea