2013- One for the books~

It has been one action-packed fun-filled year, so far! Well, half of that is true. In the past nine months :) we sold our house, bought not one, but two condo dwellings, moved, painted, and in the middle of all that, I had minimally-invasive open heart surgery. That took a big chunk of time out of my year and so I'm left with basically getting ready for the holidays and trying to get my stamina back. It's all good!

In order to stay somewhat sane, I enrolled in a purely for fun, whimsical online art journal class called "Mermaid Circus" given by Jane Davenport and Teesha Moore. I didn't expect to have as much fun and learn as much as I did!

After the live class was over, some of us decided to participate in a round robin journal swap in which we each create a couple of pages in each other's handmade journals each month for 13 months. Below is my work for the first journal in the swap. It was completely liberating and a lot of fun~

The background is acrylic paint and the lettering is a stencil with gesso then ink layered on top of that. The girl is painted in acrylics with details in Prismacolor pencils. A few stamps, rub-ons, washi tape, and collaged bird complete the spread.

Final layouts for C'est Magnifique Kit Club

It is with mixed emotions that I say good-bye to C'est Magnifique as a design team member. Leslie and Valerie and all the rest of the design team have been such a delight to work with and I'm truly honored that I was asked to join them to begin with. I first got into scrapbooking seriously a little over a year ago and I've had the best time with it since, but now I feel like I've had my run with it and that it's time for me to take my creative curiosity in other directions. So, I don't feel like I'm leaving entirely, just taking a different path. 

With that being said, I'd like to show you my final two layouts for C'est Magnifique Kit Club.

"Beauty" 

The first is of my lovely niece who is a wonderful artist in her own right. I see great things ahead for her and she is as sweet and beautiful as she is talented. I made the larger flower on the left from some of the Ruby Rock-It patterened paper and used a Martha Stewart stencil with a blue Pan Pastel and outlined with a black Sharpie.

"Beautiful Family"

The couple from my "Dream" layout with their two young boys...I loved all the shades of blue in these flowers and this photo just happened to coordinate perfectly. Again, a Martha Stewart was used for my texture paste design and my favorite colors of Tattered Angels glimmer mist. The piece across the bottom was cut with a 12 inch Spellbinders dies and used as a stencil for more glimmer mists in two shades. 

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and hopefully will have other projects to show in the coming year. Until then, au revoir!

C'est Magnifique January 2013 Kit Reveal

It's time now to reveal the first kit of the new year! It features paper from the Mother Nature Collection by Ruby Rock-it.  We call this kit "Flights of Fancy".  We have a few kits remaining, as well as a couple Add-ons.  You can find them here in our online store.

A couple of layouts I created with this kit, plus some of the items from the flower and embellishment add-ons-

“Brad & Sarah”

One of my cousins went on a cross-country road trip with his girlfriend this past summer, and came back with her as his fiancee. They look very happy in this photo and like they had a wonderful time~ I brushed some cream colored paint onto the raised areas of this embossed Ruby Rock-it paper from their “Mother Nature” collection and highlighted some of the flowers with the same paint.

“A Forever kind of Love” 

My oldest brother and his wife in one of my favorites photos of them~ I used the Prima Chalk Edger in the kit to color the main part of the Leaky Shed chipboard clock and then embossed the trim and hands of the clock with silver embossing powder to bring out the detail. I liked the contrast of the matte gray against the shiny silver. on the Kaisercraft wooden flourish bird bath, I first painted it white, then used a stamp with the ink from the kit to embellish and shade parts of it to make it look a bit more dimensional. 

We'll be revealing the rest of our layouts throughout this week, so make sure to check in at the C'est Magnifique blog to see more layouts from the rest of the design team with a special reveal from our fabulous guest designer!

"Dream" C'est Magnifique January Kit

A photo taken near the time this young couple was married was the inspiration for this layout. I chose to bring out the golds and pinks of her hair and skin with the beautiful flowers from Prima and Making Memories.

Flower Add-On:
Prima: Firefly: Stone
Making Memories: Pink Dot & Lace Flower: Millinery

Embellishment Add-On:
Prima: Vintage Trinkets: Fairy Belle
Pink Paislee: Collage Cards: Spring Jubilee
Kaisercraft: Rub-ons: After Five Collection Quotes

Paper and Add-ons C'est Magnifique January Kit

I can now share part of the first kit of the new year~ Wow, I can't believe it's almost 2013. It seems that I was just saying that about 2012! Without further ado, here are the papers, flowers and embellishments for this kit. These are available to be purchased separately in the online store.

The papers are the "Mother Nature" collection from Ruby Rock-It in Australia.

The flowers include blooms from Prima and Making Memories.

Embellishments are also included from Ruby Rock-It, Prima, Kaisercraft, Scrap FX, and Pink Paislee. Stay tuned for one of my layouts for a sneak peek from this fabulous kit! The full kit and all the design team layouts will be revealed on the 26th of December.

C'est Magnfique Bits & Pieces Giveaway

It's that time again: the Bits & Pieces Giveaway @ C'est Magnifique! Leslie is offering the bits and pieces from her December kit to one of our lucky blog readers.

This giveaway will include full and partial sheets of the paper we are featuring in this month's kit, the Silent Night collection from Pion Designs, as well as embellishments from the kit, the flower add-on, and the embellishment add-on.

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO ENTER OUR GIVEAWAY:

1.  You must be a follower of the C'est Magnifique blog.  If you do not already follow us, just click on the 

"Join this site" button on the left sidebar and you'll be all set.  

The winner of this challenge must be a follower of our blog.

2.  Use the Inlinkz tool at the bottom of the post.

3.  We are giving you a chance to enter our giveaway twice!  Share this post on your blog (in a blog post, not your sidebar) and you can enter your name again using the Inlinkz tool (just be sure to add the link to your blog post).   

The contest will close at midnight, December 12.  

The winner, selected by a random draw, will be announced December 13.  

Good luck to all of you!