An Obsession...er... WarCraft Paladin

OK this is a hard one for me to post. I have something to say about myself now...
"Hello my name is Gracenstar...er... Grace and I am a closet gamer" There I said it. (Gracenstar is my character's name). Now let me answer some questions before you even have to ask...

• Yes, I went to a Geek fest convention about video games ....
• Yes, I dressed up as the main character I play... and competed in a contest in front of 13,000 people *yikes* (but I made the crowd explode as I bubble hearthed off stage... you would need to play WoW to understand.)
• Yes, I have played now for years... I even leaded groups of people to their deaths online... umm... I mean to kill the Bosses so we can get gear for our characters...lol.
• Yes, I actually am admitting this is part of my life and and I am entering this into two contests... * Breathe Grace ... it is OK... they will still like you* - and I got overly excited lifting this secret off of my shoulders and posted it in all the challenges I am in to "share"... I am crazy... hehe.

Well Enough about exposing my deep dark secrets... lol. Lets get down to the details.
First I think this qualify s as a Hybrid LO. I did most of the BG design work on the computer on a 12 x 12 word document...lol. Well counts as digital right? Anyway this is the most I have ever done for one LO on the computer. Though I am a huge fan and on most of my LOs you can find some little thing from the wonderful inviention called... a PC.
The Background:
Started with a plain black CS paper and took the gold paint I used on my costume and lightly brushed it over the top and bottom. The Ribbons were layered on with the same goldenrod CS paper I used in creating the crown (helm) for the Paladin costume. The Background picture is one of my favorite spots in the game... Nagrand at Night. I took the screen shot of it a long time ago and had it as my Computer wallpaper for a bit and now I got to use it here. The nice thing about printing this is I was able to add the word Obsessed and all my journaling in on the computer and then print it out and stickle the title "Obsessed". I then took a silver pen and colored the white boarder around this layer and used a black fine point pen to doodle on the corners and make mitered corners.
The Photos:
Here I used a photo we got taken at the Blizzcon Convention as my main photo. I love using word rub-ons on my negative space of my photos so ... you guessed it here it is. This time with a bit of bling. I also did the silver and black over the white boarder here. It created a "metal" looking frame like the three Tag Pics at the bottom. These I stickled the edges and placed a single bling on the upper right corner. I used two shades of blue. The small pics are as fallows left to right: My face in Tyrael's body from Diablo, Me on the Lych King's Ice Throne with the Frostmorne and his helm at my feet, and finally this is an in progress pic of my shoulders for the costume.
The Embellishments:
I will start with the sword since that is the main one... I backed it with the blue ribbon I used through out my costume and took the image of the sword from my Wrath Collectors Edition Art book. I then scanned, stretched and printed it up onto a gunmetal grey paper. I took my black pen and a blue and brown marker and doodled and colored all over it. I finished it off with silver stickles and light blue bling in the eyes of the skull. The flowers are Prima except the red on that is silk from Walmart's Christmas line. I took my stickles and accented all the flowers and used bling brads in the centers of some and sticky bling on the one folded in half. The black flourishes are from the Cricut home accents carriage. I added silver ink and stickles to them.
I entered it into the fallowing Scrapbook.com challenges and here is the criteria:
The Feb BOM Obsessed challenge and The ABC {xyz}:
X- 10 - list ten things about you
Y - you and only you in the pic
Z - Zany something about this LO needs to be Zany... UMMMM... let me see.... ME DRESSED UP AS A FANTASY CHARACTER...lol

TFL!I hope you had a good laugh... lol.

~ Grace ~

My first Design Team! The Layout is "A Fun 5th"

I am so excited that Liz from The Scrappiest Blog has announced the Design Team positions. It has been something I have wanted to share with you all yet I have not been able to say a word! The suspense has been killing me. Thank you Liz for not waiting till March 1st... LOL. Well I am very excited to see my Design Team members who are the fallowing:

• Renee Griffith
• Melita Chow
• Melissa Ferguson
• Darlene D'Eon

Well lets get down to the challenge here. The Scrappiest Blog is a sketch blog. I will be challenged to come up with two Layouts a month with the Sketch that Liz provides. Here is the first one:
If you know me you know how much I love a good scrapbooking challenge. This was it for me! I usually use Asymmetrical layout designs and this one being symmetrical posed quiet an obstacle to cross. Here is the ... drum roll please ... first Design Team Layout!
I have been wanting to scrap these photos for a very long time. I love the color combo the provide and the way my son is looking at the camera in the picture on the left is ... well ... uniquely him. These were taken on the day of his 5th birthday party. We created Knights of Vacaville theme. His invitations were hear ye hear ye type wording printed on parchment and rolled into scrolls. The same parchment I used in the harlequin pattern BG paper. But now I am getting ahead of myself. So lets begin shall we.
The Background:
The Background patterned paper is a very old paper from my stash. I edged this with a thick gold marker just to finish off the edges... I don't usually use stripes because I don't like the edges that allow the stripes to lead your eyes off the page. Then I added some black corner boarders with gold doodles to really frame the Layout. The parchment Harlequin pattern I created by measuring out the diamonds and creating a template to match. Then I used the template to mask the alternating diamonds with a brown chalk.
The Photos:
The red and gold paper used for the mat of the photo with "The Look" is red rice paper with a gold embossing on it (purchased that way). The pic on the right was printed on vellum to give it a sheerness and to create an asymmetrical depth and weight while maintaining a symmetrical shapes. This was the hard part for me.
The title and journaling:
The center title "A Fun 5th" was created with chipboard inked in gold, a harlequin stamp inked in brown on the yellow parchment and these fabulous adhesive rub-ons that you use foil on top of it to adhere the foil in the rub on design. I love the way this turned out.
The journal box is unusual for me I love to incorporate the journaling into the design of my Layout not in a box. So This took me a while to get right. I inked the small harlequin stamp with versa mark and did a watermark pattern on the Tan color. Then journaled over the top. I finished it off with a bracket lined with gold and tipped with some bling.
The Embellishments:
Ribbons, ribbons and more ribbons. This is how the layers of ribbons were created... hehe simple but I do love how I got a rub-on to stick to the red suede ribbon. I learned something new today about rub-ons. LOL.
The flowers are made by Prima and I love these. I have started to collect them in every color. In this LO you can see the Tan and white sets. They are centered with black brads.
The bracket and the black architectural piece are both cricut images topped off with my favorite pen the Zig Painty gold/silver oil paint pen.

I hope you have enjoyed looking this LO as much as I have making it. I hope it or this sketch inspires you. Thanks for looking and Happy Scrapping!

~ Grace ~

The Hubbys Valentine's Day Card

I love you all through February,
Not just on Valentine’s Day;
I cherish you when flowers of spring
appear in the midst of May.
I adore you in the summer,
When the air is filled with heat;
Without you in my life each day,
I wouldn’t be complete.
I treasure you in fall,
When leaves are turning gold;
I loved you when you were younger;
I’ll love you when you’re old.
I prize you in the winter,
When colder days are here;
I love you, love you all the time,
Every minute of the year.
So I’ll give to you this Valentine,
But I want to let you know,
It’s not just today, but always,
That I will love you so.

I made this for my Hubby for Valentines day 2009. I love how it turned out. It is a quad fold in an off set accordion style... if that means anything...lol. Hopefully the pics explain it a bit better. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for viewing.

~ Grace ~

A Volunteer's Heart

A Volunteer's Heart Home or Abroad was created for my Hubby's Military album. This pic was taken one day of their volunteer time. This day was spent at a local school. They built a fence around the school yard to keep the cows out. I love this pic because no matter what part of the world you are in there is always a class clown... see the boy on the far right.
Details:
This was created for a scrap lift challenge on Scrapbook.com. The layers on the BG paper have all been distressed with a brown ink or green ink. The arrow and the bracket was inked and then stickled with a spring green color. The title HEART was inked with brown and then stickled with the walnut stain. The paper ribbon was created by using a fiskars paper punch and then hand trimming the inside edge along the rope shape. The Soldier stamp is Stampin' Up's Godspeed set and colored with coordinating greens and browns then select items are stickled. The metal hardware is Stampin' Up Hodge podge. The Journal box reads:
"Many hands Make light work" Heath and his coworkers helped build a fence around a small local school to keep the cows out. Kyrgystan 2007.
Thanks for looking I hope you enjoyed it.

Hula Kids

I love these pic of my darling daughter and son. These were taken just moments after they opened their presents from their father. He brought my daughter the outfit and my son the ukulele. I love how much Hula attitude my daughter has while dancing to a CD I received by IZ (songs in my play list). My son is always so serious lately when I take his pic... must be a phase.
Details:
Background paper:
I started with a paper from Memory Stor Used my light brown ink and light blue ink on top of the Tim Holtz mask. On the bottom I also used my distressed stickles walnut stain to create a lightly sandy bottom.
The Tree:
This was created out of textured brown paper. I cut a long curve with the tree base and then folded it every 1/2" or so to create the "layers" look up the trunk. The Palm leaves were created out of silk leaves from a Christmas poinsettia.
The Hibiscus:
This was created by enlarging a clip art image and cutting out each petal and distressed and stickled the petals. The center was created with a prima flower and a grouping of rub-ons. Then a yellow irridecent stickles ontop of that.
I used Stamping up buttons throughout and rub-ons. I used a verioity of ribbons and fibers on each photo. Of course the flower cluster is all Prima with stampin up brads. Thanks for reading and viewing this post. I hope you have a great day and please feel free to comment if you liked anything in this post.
Update: 3rd place in the weekly ABC challenge.