Fridays usually make me happy... but today I am really happy!!! I have two challenges I am going to share with you!! First....I am a Guest Designer at Stuck on U Sketches!! This is one of my all time favorite challenge blogs and I was so honored when they picked me to be a guest designer.... but then I was a little freaked out... have you seen what those 4 amazing ladies do every week?!!! How in the world was I going to keep up with that?!!!!!! Well... I did the best I could... I hope you like my LO!! (Click on the photo for a better view!!!)
The challenge this week is this sketch from Pagemaps.... The pictures are from our Cruise where one of our stops was San Juan. I loved the arcitecture and wanted my LO to reflect that. I had so much fun cutting, layering, distressing and creating on this one!!
I love Tim Holtz and all of his fabulous metal embellishments and I love the grungy kind of look I can achieve by using his products!! The Lock is from his line and so is the compass mask. The masking in the upper left corner was done by laying the mask down and spraying the paper with Glimmer Mist. Then I lifted the mask while it was still wet and flipped it over and laid it on the bottom right corner of the LO to get the other compass!! I love to use this technique!! 
After the Glimmer Mist dried, I stamped a travel quote on top. The quote says... The Earth belongs to anyone who stops for a moment, gazes, and goes on his way. I started out by stamping it with a brown ink but it was not showing up as well as I would have liked so I went over it by hand with a black gel pen! Most of the other metal embellishments are from Spare Parts, K & Company and 7 Gypsies. The stamp is from Cloud 9! 
My daughter thought I was crazy when I started glueing on the rocks that are under her playset outside!! I loved the natural look it gave it and then I mixed in a few brads to get the metal tied in!! 
This is a close up of one of the sides where I layered patterned paper, then layered more patterned paper, distressed some satin ribbon (It was just looking too shiny and perfect for the LO!!) I inked a few edges, added some brads and fiber and that was it!! The paper used on the LO is from Me & My Big Ideas!! The letters are from Thickers and Cosmo Cricket!!Now you need to head over to SOUS to check out what the other ladies did with this sketch... you will really be glad you did!!!
Now.... On to my FROSTED DESIGNS CHALLENGE!! This week the challenge is so much fun everyone is going to want to play along!! We are challenging you to find things around your house that you would not normally use on a layout, card or altered project!!! How fun is this?!! At first I was kind of stumped, but once the wheels started turning.... Look Out!!!! LOL!! 
Most of the embellishments on this page are things I normally would have thrown away!! This has me looking at my trash in a whole new way!! Heehee!!! The large cardboard circles are actually the tops of the ribbon spools. Once the spool was empty, I tore off the top and the bottom and then save the middle circular part. I painted the spool circles in different colors that coordinated with my layout. When they were dry I ran them through my Cuttlebug with some of the folders I already had... and I treated myself to some of the new Tim Holtz embossing folders!! They are just way tooo cool to pass up!! Then I inked them up and on a few of them, I wrapped some old jewelry wire I had laying around!
The circle the big M is on is a plastic circle that was in some type of packaging that I had saved a really long time ago!! At the time I thought it could make a great embellishment at some point.... guess I was right!! On this circle I painted the back with white paint and inked the edges and added a rub on M!! It was looking too neat and tidy so I decided to scratch off some of the white paint!! So much better... don't you think?!! LOL!!! 
This was the hardest part of the LO!! I took the wire from an old notebook and made Matt's name. This wire was sooooo think and really hard to bend!! I know the name is not perfect, but I kind of like the way it turned out!! In the corner of this picture you can also see the gray duct tape that I ran through the Cuttlebug to get the stars embossed and then inked it up so the stars would show up better!! I also used a black twisty tie in the bottom right corner with the orange brads!! So..... how is that for recycling?!! I was so excited when I realized how many products I could use that I normally would have thrown away!! Now.... get over to Frosted Designs... I was blown away by the Design Teams projects this week!! You can also get to know our designer Joni a little better since this is her challenge she is presenting!! Thanks Joni for all the hard work you put into this one!! And while I am giving shout outs... I have to share a new blog friend with you... her name is Susan and I actually stole this LO idea from her!! It really is a challenge over at Sassy Lil Sketches but the LO Susan did caught my eye and made me want to play along!! You can find her LO by clicking HERE!!! This LO also qualifies for the embossing challenge at The Cuttlebug Spot!!
And finally, don't forget... every time you link up a project at Frosted Designs this week, you have your name in a drawing for the June Prize Package which include the new Freshly Picked Cricut cartridge... you can't win if you don't play!!! Sorry for my super long post today, but both projects were so much fun I really wanted to share the details with all of you!! And thank you for all the kind comments all of you leave me... I love hearing what you think about my layouts!!! Have a great weekend!!! Barb :)
