Live. Teach. Create.

Yes, that’s my crazy workspace! There isn’t much of it but it is mine and I like it. You can see remnants of my painting from this weekend in the red cup of water with paintbrushes and my big white envelope from the mail that I was using as a palette. So fun! There is a random sampling of paints that I used this weekend as well as tools. I ended up creating a lot of tags and can’t wait to share one with you today. I even have a tutorial coming up that I created this weekend.

To the right of my table is my crate that I shared yesterday. You can see it’s a bit more full now. On top of it is my spreadsheet that I created this weekend with all of the layouts for my 2012 album that have happened so far and then I went backwards in 2011. I have a column to mark off when they are done and then a column for extra notes. Let me say, I am TOTALLY LOVING this! I love how I can bounce around but I know what order they are coming in and then I can also somewhat match them up and know when something will take 2 pages versus 1 page in my scrapbook! OCD and Anal- probably but it works!

Now onto the fun stuff! This weekend I was looking at a new blog commenters blog and she had just posted a layout that she created with the following sketch from The Studio Challenges Blog. I was enamored and knew that I had to use it this weekend for another Start to Finish Layout!

The process was to start with a light teal piece of cardstock and paint black circles over the sheet as the sketch shows. I then used white and black paint to splatter across the page. LOVING IT! I had paint EVERYWHERE and it was totally fun!

Next, I punched some 1″ circles from of the papers I was using and adhered them in random spots on the layout to add interest. Now for finishing it up.

I grabbed a #8 tag and inked it up with Brushed Corduroy, Weathered Wood, and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks. I then used some teal paint to paint hearts in random spots. I then spatter painted with hot pink and black. Once the hearts had dried, I used my Uniball Signo White Pen to create some doodling on the hearts as well as my Black Letraset marker. I journaled in the same Letraset marker. LOVE how thick it is and how it pops!

The photo is mounted on the same cardstock as I used for the 1″ circles and the scalloped border at the top. It is part of the My Minds Eye Love Me Collection. I tied the photo off with Pink Sorbey twine from The Twinery. The piece behind the tag is from Tim Holtz Kraft Resist and I used Broken China Distress Stain on it to blend it in.

After I added the American Crafts letter for the title, I went over and spatter painted MORE hot pink over the white and top part of the layout.

So in love of this layout and can’t wait to create more! Thank you for letting me play along with this sketch.

I am always in need of Birthday cards for one person or another and so this past week when Hambo Digital Stamps released the Dragon {I crack myself up!}, I totally had to use the birthday phrase!

I pulled out the Sketch for You to Try from my stack of challenges that I have printed out and was going to make it work. I colored in the Dragon with BG10, BG11, BG13, BG15 and BG18 which I actually pulled for the My Minds Eye wood plank paper in the background. I made him act as my “circle” so that he would be the feature with some twine tied behind him for interest.

The next challenge was the three circles. I decided to pull out three white buttons and tie them off with Caribbean Twine from The Twinery. I did adapt them to pull them near the top to create a balance when I added the sentiment near the bottom of the card.

Next up was the inside. I wanted it simple but to match the outside as well. I can’t leave a dark card empty on the inside otherwise it is hard to write in.