back to work!

now that school is out, and the end of year craziness is done, it's time to get back to work. things have been busy at the gypsy camp - design team projects for june, and teaching my first class at scrapbook island. it's very exciting!

for the june design team project, i was given a special request - make something for father's day using the very groovy cosmo cricket "social club" product line AND these super girlie frilly embellishments from Prima by Marion Smith.

my response? "um...sure! no problem!"
my husband's reaction? "you need to make something that men will want to make? good luck!" - LOL

and actually it was a pretty good design challenge - how to take very feminine items and turn them into something that makes sense for a dad. first up, page layouts with an old-fashioned feel. tomorrow? a minibook that's all about why i'm so glad ur my dad. full of contrasting textures and rich colors, this manly spread makes a great layout to highlight that romantic man in your life.



special feature here is the corragated banner across the middle of the layout. i used pieces from a shipping carton and peeled off the top layer, exposing the ridges and leaving some fragments. a happy accident left a long narrow fragment that was the perfect place for "my tweetie".

the block letters are curtesy of tim holtz. the master of distress, the letters are chipboard squares and letters, acrylic paint, distress ink and glossy accents - thanks tim!



the "oh-so-girlie" embellishments by Marion Smith got a new treatment here. by taking pieces apart and attaching new metal treats, i created the watch chain. and i believe you can never have too many places to attach small photos, journaling, and keepsakes so i turned the clips into memorablia holders on both pages of the layout.



and my special treat of the month - create the look of corragated patinaed metal using cardboard and glimmer mist. take cardboard and peel off the top layer exposing the ridges. the mist with tuorquoise glimmermist, and follow up immediately with copper glimmer mist. the result is a copper patina look that transforms ordinary cardboard into a metal scrap! use them by themselves as accent pieces, or add a cropped photo on top and turn them into a photo matte.



stay tuned tomorrow for a mad men-inspired minibook all about dad!