The Papered Peacock

Together

Like most Moms, I have tons of pictures of different events and I'm not in a single one of them. So, when I get a series of pictures and I'm in them, it always makes me happy. It's not that someone else won't take pictures for me if I ask, I just forget to ask. I'm trying to remember more and more though, because when my kids look through our albums later, I want to be included in the memories, not just the recorder for everyone else.

These pictures were snapped while we were on vacation in Orlando at the Cheesecake Factory (my FAVORITE restaurant) and we were waiting for our food. They were just simple, quick pictures, but they really captured a happy moment in our lives.

 

The journaling . . .

 
Sometimes on a page I tend to journal quickly around the pictures, date it, and call it a day, but I always love my pages a little bit more when I sit down and write or type out a little  bit more about the page than just the essentials.

My memory is awful, so it keeps details fresh about the pictures that I may forget to relate to my kids when they are flipping through and looking at everything! :) 

Scary! (NOT)

I normally am a traditional scrapbooker that likes to stick to my paper, embellishments, and glue stick, but every once in awhile I'll go digital.

Normally, I find myself leaning that way when I'm making cards. I tend to go to Adobe Photoshop Elements before I buy a traditional card. That's how this layout came about. I made the orange part as a card to send out to the family for Halloween of 2008, then I blew up the card to an 8 by 10 and made a traditional layout for our scrapbook.

 
Pages like this are fun, because they look so detailed, but actually it came together really fast! The scrapbooking part at least. I don't count the time making the card part, because it's a different project in my mind.

Here's the detail on the bottom part a little closer up . . .

 
So, there's a little idea to make your digital card-creating transfer into another pretty keepsake you can display!

Painting and Peacocks

I've got two projects to share today.

I'll start with my peacock picture for my daughter's room. This one has been a work in progress for a long time! I started it last spring and it got put to the side until yesterday when I finally picked it up to add the finishing touches. Here it is:

 

It was hard to get a good picture of it, because so much of it is shiny or glittery. haha I kept getting reflections off of things.

I started with a canvas background, painted it out, and the peacock is from Uppercase Living. The flowers and bird stickers are all layered and pop out from the canvas.

If you haven't looked at the cool sayings and art you can get from Uppercase Living you need to check it out! I've got quite a few things throughout my house from them.

Anyway, back to the picture . . . after the peacock was applied, I raided the scrapbook supplies and grabbed my mod podge and went to town with the papers, felt strips, sparkles, and stickers. I'm still debating adding a few more jewels to the accent the felt strips (I have a hard time stopping with jewels), but for now, it's going on the wall.  I may pull it down and work on it some more in a few weeks. :)

My other project was a painting. This is actually the very first painting I've ever done with only paint! haha I usually do mixed media on my art, but I liked this one just as it is.

Although, my daughter (the glitter queen) said I need to add glitter to outline the calla lily.

 
This one is also going in my daughter's room. Something about it reminded me of her, so it will be hers.

Hope you all have a fun weekend planned! I'm going to an all day crop on Saturday, so today is about planning out what to take.

If I don't, I'll take the whole scrapbook room with me!

Today's post is brought to you by the letter M and the letter L.

Altered Art.

One of my favorite things to do . . . take something ordinary and turn it into a piece of art you want to display in your house. 

I recently bought a printing press drawer to turn into a huge piece of wall art. I had been eyeing them in some of the magazines and scrapbooking stores, but they didn't really interest me until lately. So, when I ran across one in our local consignment shop, I decided it's coming home with me. I think this Saturday I'm going to tackle it, so wish me luck!

The letters I have on this post today were done for two of my nieces. I tied them to their Christmas presents last year instead of gift tags.

 
I raided my scrapbooking paper scrap box to cover them and added some rub-ons, ribbons, and embellishments.

 
The letters were wooden letters I bought at Walmart, painted out black, and covered. I used a layer of Mod Podge to protect the papers and give them more durability.

These look pretty sitting on a shelf in a room, hanging on the wall, or tucked in a bookcase.

Hopefully after this Saturday, I'll have some pictures to add on here of my first attempt at altering my printing press drawer.

Absolutely Kissable

How about seeing a page with a lot of paper piecing?

This is another one of my son I made with primarily a Basic Grey paper pack and some K and Company embellishments.

I was inspired to try it from seeing a page someone had made in one of the magazines I subscribe to where they did this technique of layered paper stripes coming off a sun.  They had made the sun with a picture in the middle of it and the rays came off of it to form the background of the rest of the page. It was very striking!  So, I changed it a little to showcase one of my favorite pictures of my son.

 

Here are a couple of shots to show the texture of the page and the embellishment section:

 
 
I had fun doing the embellishments! I love swirls, different textures, glitter, sparkle, all of that!

The journaling on this page was from two different perspectives. I wrote what I felt everytime I looked at this picture, then Noah came over to see what I was working on and I got his take on what he thought when he looked at this picture.

A ghost? Really?

That's our Noah!

My Sweetie

I had to put this page on here first, because it was my very first page ever published in a national magazine. It's my little man at 10 months old, Noah.

 
This was in the May/June 2009 issue of Memory Makers.

Here's a few more pics so you can get an idea of the texture on the page and some of the embellishments:

 
 
I did a lot of inking on this page and my accents were combinations of chipboard, felt, gems, and layered stickers. I think most of it was K & Company lines, with some Basic Grey rub-ons, Prima jewels, and Tim Holtz ink.

And finally the definition sticker:

 
I really didn't need to journal as much as I normally do on a page because that definition really captured the sentiment of the picture.

And now I'm off to bed. I couldn't end my first day with a new blog and not have a post with some pictures up on it. :) Please come back and visit me again!

Welcome!

So glad you found The Papered Peacock and stopped by for a visit!

This is a blog devoted to scrapbooking, papercrafting, handmade items, painting, and items that inspire me to make something. I love creativity in all forms and hope to help others get a dose of inspiration and make something beautiful for themselves.

I'm still getting the blog technical aspects figured out, but I hope to be posting regularly on here very soon. Please come back and visit me and leave a comment if you see something you like or want more of.

Thanks again for stopping by!