January, 2014 | Copic in the Craftroom

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Michelle

Haiku

Over at Get It Scrapped we have done several monthly challenges in the forums with photographing day to day lives being the central theme. We were all a little overwhelmed in November so we decided to keep it a little simpler and only try for 4 photos but to add some thought we added the challenge or writing a Haiku poem to go with each. Doris gave us lots of links to help us get started in the forums and then Debbie upped the anti by throwing out the challenge of getting a few on layouts.

I have to say the beauty of all of the Creative Team members work shines through! Each is stunningly beautiful and heartfelt even the silly ones. It is a challenge worth taking yourself! Here is my contribution, you might recognize the photo and Haiku from an earlier post!

Glorious Red by Michelle Houghton | Supplies: card stock; Bazzill Swiss Dots, patterned paper and chipboard; Farmhouse Paper Company, leaves; Prima, sticker letters; October Afternoon and My Minds Eye, Washi tape and wire; unknown

I had wonderful time keeping this layout as simple as possible and really wanted to pick just the right accents. The photo is the star and I wanted it to remain that way so a lot of white space and then colors that are similar to the photo itself. The contrast of the red leaves against the bright blue sky are a perfect match so why not continue it in small doses?! I did run into an issue with my sticker letters. I wanted to write the entire Haiku in the small letters but none of my sets had enough “e”s Even when I decided to split to red and black. So as usual I cheated! In the red there are upside down 3’s creating the “e”s and in the black there are at least 2 “E”s that used to be “F”s I have learned the I can scratch into sticker letters to create extra arms and pieces to letters. The base of the sticker is white so if I am careful I can make new letters. 🙂

Make sure to look at the other Haiku inspiration HERE!

Happy Tuesday!

Posted on January 27, 2014 by Michelle — 2 Comments

CHA Copic

So this is the last I will say on CHA at least for now 🙂 I did get to see several very wonderful friends including the team from Copic of course that is what I did not get photos of BOOOO! How did I manage that?! I did say hello to Dina Wakely, Emily Pitts and Taylor of Taylored Expressions. I had a blast wandering the show floor and seeing some of the new products coming out. I made a few fun make and takes and rely did love the classes that I took. Remember if you are looking for more CHA goodness check out the article at Get It Scrapped for an excellent round up of info! HERE

I have shared the Ranger classes and the Kuretake class but figured I better show you what I learned from Copic as well. I took the airbrush class from Colleen and made 5 wonderful cards. All 5 use the Copic airbrush system and were a lot of fun to create!

I also got to see the first 2/3rds of Marianne’s new class Tracing Memories. The concept is taking a photograph, turning it into a digital black and white image and adding color with your Copics. The effect is amazing! I started my first image and then watched the other students continue on theirs. Both beginners and advanced Copic artist would enjoy this. It is very soothing! No guess work on darks and lights. You have the original beside you and the black and white image shows you the way!

Of course in the midst of all of this I was blessed to see my beautiful Sister in-law and her wonderful husband. It was truly a joy to see both of them and spend an entire day just being with them in California.

We’ll see what happens next year!

Happy Monday!

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Michelle

Sprinkling

Another layout for Get It Scrapped! This time we were all “sprinkling” our layouts. We created a trail of embellishments in a sprinkling formation. It is a fun technique that can take a little time but is worth the efforts. Check all the layouts out HERE

Sara’s B-Day by Michelle Houghton | Supplies: cardstock and chipboard letters; American Crafts, patterned paper, doilies, flowers and brads; SEI, ink: Sharpie

This is one of those quick and easy layouts. I used product from one line, SEI, with touches from my stash. The brads are ones I have had forever, you know the kind you find and think ooooh so pretty I just know I will use these right up! Then you take them to every crop and pull them out as possible accent on numerous layouts and never use them. He He. Yep these are THOSE brads. So I was thrilled to have an opportunity to use so many of them. The sprinkling became my primary embellishment so the layout just did not need much more. I love how the mimic the sprinkles that Sara added to her cupcake. 🙂

We had gotten the cupcake at the bookstore when we found out at the check out that she could be a kids club member and get a treat on her birthday. It was in fact her birthday that very day, that was why Grandma and I had taken her to the bookstore, and they made a special exception for Sara so she could go straight to the Starbucks counter and get her treat that very day. She picked a vanilla cupcake and decided when we got home that it needed sprinkles and Grandma decided it needed candles too. So it became a mini birthday cake surprise 🙂

Yep a perfect day and a fun layout to remember it by!

Happy Saturday!

Posted on January 23, 2014 by Michelle

Abstract Faces

I missed a lot in the past few weeks so I am still just catching up. I am rounding up two more small groups of photos from CHA but in the mean time here is a layout that was part of an article over at Get It Scrapped. We were going artistic and creating abstract faces to include on our layouts. I am blown away by the creations and variety of the entire Creative Team. You will want to check them all out HERE!

My Christmas Angels by Michelle Houghton | Supplies: card stock; American Crafts, watercolor paper; Strathmore, foil; Mona Lisa, oil pastels; Portfolio Series, sticker letters; American Crafts, My Minds Eye and Making Memories, tree; Making Memories, feathers; unknown

The faces that I created are on a layer of watercolor paper. I marked where I wanted my photo to sit then worked with oil pastels to create the two faces hovering over the photo. I tend to work very thickly with oil pastels, blending them on the page as if they were paints. My daughters think they were intentionally done to look like the two of them and although there are similarities they are un-intentional. I added gold foil where I knew it would create a frame for my photo and then added my photo and letters. (If you would like to see more about working with gold foil take a peek HERE) The feathers were a complete accident, I found one floating through my office, I am sure it had escaped the girl’s craft closet and was lying quietly on the floor. I decided way to perfect for my theme and found two more small feathers to go with the original and tucked them all in.

Well back to my writing, still on a mission to get caught up!

Happy Friday! Stay warm!

Posted on January 23, 2014January 22, 2014 by Michelle

Loving on Grandmas

Taking a little break from the CHA chatter. I got to participate in another podcast with Debbie Hodge this past week, this time we were gabbing about photos of Grandmas. All of us shared a photo and stories from not only those photos but about Grandmas in general. We talked about how we might like to scrap the photos or have scrapped them and the stories we don’t want to forget to tell. Check out the podcast HERE. In honor I pulled out two older layouts that I made of my Grandma. Both were done a few years back so I no longer have supply lists so I apologize.

This layout shares all sorts of little tidbits about my Grandma. Each of the envelopes opens to reveal a small story, a memory.

Gram was always “big Gram” to us. Not because of her size which I would guess most would assume, in fact that is what I believed for much of my childhood. But because I dubbed her that in my toddlerhood. This layout shares the story of her naming 🙂

Happy Grandma scrapping and have a great Thursday!