April Showers Bring Many Flowers

Now that California has finally gotten a considerable amount of rain

my garden is in full bloom! Sadly, this is the only Iris plant of mine to 

produce flowers so far, but I'll gladly take what I can get.

In keeping with the flowery theme, the new challenge at Aurora Wings is

Say it with Flowers.

You really can't go wrong there. Mitzi's artwork is full of delicious

flowers of all kinds. Take your pick!    

Since I am still working on the wedding album for my Aunt and Uncle, 

I decided to go with the new hibiscus set available in the Aurora Wings Etsy shop. 

It's almost like Mitzi created these gorgeous flowers especially for this Hawaiian wedding.

They are perfect!  

This border design is probably my favorite of the four images

offered in this set.  

How cool to have a ukulele player and a conch blowing officiant

presiding over your wedding! Can't get much more Hawaiian than that. 

This cluster of three hibiscus is just what this page needed.

Honestly, the hardest part of coloring these flowers was choosing

the color scheme. There were so many options, but I tried to stay true

to the Hawaiian Hibiscus colors. I started off with a hot pink flower with a bright

yellow edge, but was unable to get the blend to work. I'm kind of glad now,

as I'm not sure that combo would have worked well with these photos.

Everything happens for a reason, right?    

Thanks for stopping by today.

I hope you'll take a moment to drop by the Aurora Wings challenge blog

and check out the flowery feast the DT have created featuring various

flower inspired projects showcasing Mitzi's gorgeous images. 

Mahalo!

Still pluggin' away...

Yup, I'm still working on the wedding album I started last year

for my Aunt and Uncle.

Slow and steady wins the race, right? 

I should have this album finished by their third anniversary if

I keep at it. That's September of this year. 

I had better not put it away or I'll forget I'm working on it, again. 

It's a good thing the new challenge at the Aurora Wings Challenge blog is

Anything Goes.

In keeping with the Hawaiian/ocean theme I have used the adorable

Sea Turtle Kiss image from Aurora Wings.

I decided to crop the image to keep it small enough to fit into the layout,

and large enough to color it well with my aging eyeballs.

Reader glasses are my saving grace when it comes to coloring images

these days.

Using the same image, I separated the sea turtles and used them 

by themselves for added interest and to make the two pages cohesive.

I added lots of circle punches to give the feeling of bubbles, and some

branch die cuts to mimic coral. I have been collecting a TON of

charms and brads and schtuff for this project, and I finally managed to 

work in one of the fish charms as a cute dangle from the sentiment tag.

I'm trying to keep the dimensions to a minimum or the book will never 

close properly.

That's going to do it for me today. 

I hope you'll pop by the challenge blog and check out all of the 

incredible inspiration pieces my DT sisters have created for this

new Anything Goes challenge.  

  

Fancy Fishes

The Aurora Wings challenges are back after a month off, and the theme is 

Anything Goes.  

I chose to work with these fabulous fancy goldfish images, as I thought they'd

be perfect for the wedding album I am (still) working on. 

I colored the fish using Copics in my favorite colors, blue green and purple.

I like the contrast they provide against the handmade background paper.

I used kraft card stock and sprayed and speckled the paper to resemble a sandy beach.

I am using the same background throughout the album to help tie everything together.   

I added some TH word thinlits, and a Memory box die for the greenery. 

I also punched a bunch of shimmery ivory circles in varying sizes for bubbles.

Be sure to drop by the AW challenge blog to see all the other gorgeous

samples spotlighting Mitzi's incredible artwork.

Under the Sea Dream Wedding

My Aunt and Uncle were married on the beach in Hawaii.

My Aunt had a hard bound book of their wedding photos created 

online from Walmart. While she was happily showing around her wedding book

it began to fall apart. She had only had it a few weeks. This made me sad.

So I immediately went on her face book page and started downloading

her wedding pictures. I ordered prints online from Costco, and am now

ready to begin creating their new wedding album. 

Now it just so happens to be the start of a new challenge at Aurora Wings,

and the theme is: Dream Wedding.

I'm pretty sure that a wedding on the beach in Hawaii is a dream wedding.

I'd like to have a vow renewal (next year is 20 years) on the beach somewhere.

Just me and my husband, and the officiant. No one else. No shoes either.

A girl can dream...   

I decided to use this adorable Aurora Wings image called,

"The Gift". Seems perfect for the very first page of the

wedding album. I colored the cute Mer-couple using Copics.

I went with vivid hues since I love using bright colors on

fantasy images. No rules. I love it. 

I've been collecting beach themed dies and embellishments for this project.

I used some TH distress inks and paint to color the TH sand dollar

and seahorse die cuts. I used Frantage on the "love" die cut to make 

it fancy, and stand out against the sand dollar. Added the starfish brad 

and the gold dew drops for more interest. And cheesecloth. Ya gotta have cheesecloth

for many uses, but especially for an ocean netting embellishment.    

I popped a teeny half pearl in the clam shell. It fit perfectly.

I also Stickled bubbles using crystal Stickles, along with punched circles of glittered

and pearlized papers to represent bubbles, too.

I think I got my point across. Gotta have lots of bubbles.

  

And here it is! I am liking where this is going. 

Mitzi has a bunch of other ocean/sea inspired images that will be just

perfect for the rest of this album. I'll be sure to share my progress.

I hope to have this done by their anniversary in September.

Thanks for dropping by. Be sure to check out all the other

wonderful inspiration samples on the Aurora Wings challenge blog.

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges:

    Going Grey with Scrap-Creations - Anything Goes

Inky Chicks - Pearls

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes 

All Crafts Challenge - Anything Goes

Not Just Cards - Anything Goes