Two more layouts

Unbelievable! “My” baby girl is 2!  Briar is my god-daughter and very special to me as I was there at her birth.  It was an amazing experience that I will treasure till the end of my days.

Her Mum, Kelly, invited me to the family dinner on the night of her actual birthday.  Family gatherings there are always full of fun, noise and laughter and kids galore!!  I never fail to feel included.  Thanks for that Kelly (and extended family), love you!.

I just had to do a layout of James being at his domestic best, lol! 

The hidden journaling reads:  James does his own ironing these days although why he always leaves it till he runs out of shirts, I will never know!

Actually – Mum has been known to do a fair number of his shirts every time she is here to stay – Bless you Mum xoxo

Thanks for stopping in again so soon.  I really appreciate the comments you leave.

Cheers, Esther

Layout catch-up

It’s been a while since I posted up some layouts so I thought I would do a catch-up.

Back in April this year my daughter graduated from the University of Canterbury with double degrees.  One in Law and one in Science, Majoring in Geology.  She did all this in one year less than it should of taken!  I am so proud of her!  She is clever, hard working and simply beautiful, inside and out!

I used the Sketch challenge at Scrapbook Dreams for this one.  The Graduation Mortarboard is a file from the Silhouette America shop.  She wears the law graduation colours as this was the ceremony she chose to attend.

A couple of weeks later she was Admitted to the Bar at a ceremony in Dunedin.  I didn’t get to that one as she didn’t want to make a big deal of it.  She has no real intention of practicing as a lawyer and has taken a post-grad position with a gold mining company as a Geologist.

I received this photo via phone and because it was naturally a bit grainy, I changed it to sepia and came up with this layout, which I really love.

I should have posted these ages ago but wanted to check that it was ok with her to do that and I just kept forgetting to ask.

Love ya Tas!  xoxo

Thanks for popping in to take a look.

Cheers, Esther

Dragons Dream TIO – Considering Steampunk

I do love steampunk, I’m just not so good at producing it.  I am happy with my outcomes overall but there is just something not quite steampunk-ish enough happening.
Oh, well …..
This fortnight’s recipe at Dragons Dream Tag It On is : “Fantasy, Inventions and Victoriana” and this is the tag I came up with.

Far more Victoriana than anything else.  My stamped image of “Mrs Walker” is coloured with Aged Mahogany and Victorian Velvet (naturally) as is the hand-made flower. I used various other stamps from my collection, adding the wing to the dress form.  I used distress markers to colour this too.  I am enjoying having a play with the markers to work out the best ways to use them.  I added clear dimensional product to the gear stamps, wee bird and the crowns and popped an automotive fuse into the flower.

Thanks so much for all your lovely comments on my past posts!!  Boy they give me a warm, fuzzy feeling.
Happing crafting.
Esther

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2012 - July

Wow another month and another technique I haven’t tried before.  What Fun!

You can check out Tim’s inspirational tag here.

The first tag to be linked was from a very talented lady from the same city I live in and , justifiably, a great on-line fuss has been made!  Yay for Upper Hutt to be in the spotlight. That just doesn’t happen in the WWW of crafting!  Please check out Debi Ryan’s tag, It’s fantastic!

This is my tag, using the Alcohol Ink Splatter Technique:

I love the way this turned out and that I chose Tim’s cityscape stamp for the image.  I am reminded of two things really – a city at sunset and the despair of the wildfires that are affecting parts of the USA right now.  My hearts go out to those areas!  Fire is probably my greatest fear, if I am honest about it.

Like many others, I didn’t have compressed air so out came a trusty straw. I also didn’t have the type of glossy paper Tim used so I actually used photo paper.  I finished the tag off with a type charm and some of the scrap punched out to put in it and found fibres in my stash that matched perfectly.

Dragons Dream TIO – Don’t Fear

This fortnight at Dragons Dream Tag It On the requirements were : A Scary Image, A Crowd of Purple and Textures....  and of course, at least one stamped image.

I have purchased a Silhouette Cameo and wanted to see if it would cut Grunge Paper – it does!!!  So I cut my tag, cut/tore a hole in it and used one of Tim Holtz’s stamps for the eye.

I ran the tag (sprayed with Adirondack Colourwash in Wild Plum) through the cuttlebug with a texture fade embossing folder and highlighted some of the raised area with embossing powder mixed with eyeshadow for glimmer.  I coloured the image with Distress Ink Markers adding fine red blood vessels.  The piece of chain was also cut on the Cameo and has rusting powder on it to give it a more industrial look and 3 of Tim’s brads just finish it off along with the blood-red teardrop gems.

Thanks for stopping in to take a “peep”.

Cheers, Esther  xoxo