Cut a Rug

OK so maybe don't cut a rug, but this week at Frosted Designs we are cutting up photos and pictures.  I love the look of creating mosaics and blocks with photos but it often a technique I forget to use.  I was excited to create a layout for this week's challenge and really had fun with this.  Head on over to Frosted Designs to see the other projects created by the design team this week.  Seriously the ladies outdid themselves this week and there is some great inspiration over there.

I cut my photo to look like a window pane so it emphasized the main portion of the photo.  Other than cutting up the photo I did a lot of wet distressing.  This may be one of my new favorite techniques!  It is so fun and I love the dimensional effect that it gives.  A lot of inspiration for this layout came from the Swirlydoos blog post demonstrating wet distressing.

So much work so little time

Once again things here have been pretty crazy.  I haven't had much time to update my blog.  Heck I have barely had enough time to even get any crafting done in the first place.  So that means that I have quite a few projects that I need to post.  We'll start with the most recent and work our way backwards.  That is because this most recent one is a challenge that is still going on over at Frosted Designs.  This week you are challenged to make a back to school project.  For my project I created an altered lunch box for my niece.  Her birthday is right around the beginning of the school year so I thought it would make a great birthday present.

The next project was for our celebrate life challenge at Frosted Designs a few weeks ago.  You were basically supposed to somehow celebrate life in your project.  I interpreted this challenge by scrapping a layout about one of my passions in life.  I LOVE to food.  I love to cook, eat and learn about food.  It is something that I spend a lot of time reading about, thinking about and dreaming about.

And Finally This layout isn't for a challenge at Frosted Designs.  It is just something that I thought was WAY too cute to not share.  This is a layout about my sister's dog (the big one) and my dog (the little one).  They are different in almost every way.  Mine is old, hers is young.  Mine is high strung, hers is mellow.  Besides all their differences they have the best time playing together.  My sister took this photo of the two of them after a long day of playing together.  We like to call them the "twins"

Capturing Mountains

I recently did a swap on a non-crafting related message board that I belong to.  The swap was to exchange local goodies to help someone learn about your area of the country.  Most people were sending food related items in their swap, but I was having some difficulty coming up with anything for Colorado.  We don't really have a local food unless you want to count Rocky Mountain Oysters and I wasn't too keen on sending those to my unsuspecting swap buddy.  That would just be kind of cruel.  I did end up sending some food from local all natural food companies here in Colorado, but I didn't think that was enough.  One thing that Colorado is really know for is our gorgeous mountains.  We are VERY proud of our mountains and pretty much think that they make Colorado on of the prettiest places on Earth.  So I wanted to send something that represented the mountains, but not just a photo or a rock.  What's a girl to do?  I finally figured it out... Why not make a set of blank cards with a mountain theme and some natural hand made papers.  So I set to work.  I had some hand made paper that I have had sitting around for years that I broke out and I also broke out my Bosskut Gazelle to cut out some leaves and mountain shapes.  I decided the best thing to do to make the mountains was to create a stencil with my Gazzelle and spray them on with Glimmer Mist.  I am really happy with how they turned out and I hope my swap buddy enjoys the cards.

Bursting into Song

This week at Frosted Designs the challenge is super awesome!  Why is it so awesome you ask...well because I am hosting it and I came up with it.  So this week I challenge you to use some song lyrics on your layout card or project.  Let us know the artist too so we can get to know some great new music.

For my layout I used Sarah Mclachlan's song "Loving You is Easy".  The lyrics say "loving you is easy, loving you is wonderous, shout it from the rooftops"  I have really been enjoying this song on her new album so when I went to scrap this photo of my husband I felt it was a perfect fit.

Border Punches

Border Punches are so much fun and add a really great element to a layout, card or project.  I only have two right now, but I sure do use the heck out of them.  This week at Frosted Designs we are challenging you to bust out those border punches for your project this week.  Head on over and see what the rest of the design team has done.

For my layout I used the Fiskars Effervescence punch.  This is a layout about my grandma's 80th birthday party.  We threw her a surprise party and had a weekend full of celebration with family from out of state.  Notice the banner in the picture on the left....I made that for her.  It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.