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Ginny Hickmott is hosting the SGC challenge for June, using "The Great Outdoors" as a theme and a Bingo board for the twists. http://www.swirlydoos.com/forums/topic/june-sgc-the-great-outdoors/ I've picked the third row going down: Hessian (aka burlap), The Sun/Yellow, Chipboard and Garden Architecture.

I decided to use the OTP addition to the May Swirlydoos kit - a four piece wall hanging by Darice.

I covered all of the pieces with a sheet of Romance paper from the Kaisercraft Always & Forever collection, attached them together with the jute rope that came with the project,  then matted the pictures with burlap (1st twist). I then embellished them with Jillibean Soup word icons from the Embellishment add-on and a daisy that I colored with yellow mist 2nd twist).

Meanwhile, inspired by Jan Penny's take on this piece, I altered some chipboard letters with the Prima Rust Pastes that came in the Tech add-on. (Warning! this is very, very addictive!). Once they were dry, I dabbed them very lightly with a bit of teal calk ink here and there and adhered them to the large section (3rd twist). A few metal pieces from my stash and a bit of the chicken wire that came in the Embellishment add-on (4th twist) and I was done.

Herding Cats

It seemed like a good idea: getting a photo of the cousins together in my parents' back yard should be simple. Kathy would get them situated and I'd aim and click the shutter and we'd have an image on film that I could get developed when I got back home to Staten Island.

Obviously, we didn't realize that herding cats would be easier! Baby Lisa needed to be held, so Judy had to step in and be part of the group. Somehow, Bill decided that it would be funny to hide behind his aunt just as I took the picture. Okay; wind the film and try again. Ready, aim, click and Mike had decided to wander off. One more try, this time without Judy; let's see if Bill can keep Lisa in check. Well, he could - by hiding his own face. And I seem to have given up - I can't remember if I had run out of film or if was just that my sisters and I were laughing too hard to go on.

This is my entry in this month's Sketch Challenge at Swirlydoos, using the beautiful Peach Blossom kit, a bit of drywall tape and varied flowers from my stash. The butterflies were made by fussy cutting images that I made with a Finnabair stamp; the beautiful vines were cut on my Cameo and colored with Prima chalk edgers and Color Blooms.

A Dog's Life

I decided to have as much fun creating this page as my niece's dog - the incredible Mookie Wilson - is having under the sprayer.

Lots of layers here - stenciling and stamping on the background, scraps and packaging, drywall tape and a tag from a shirt behind the photo, and flowers and buttons and bobs from my stash.

The paper itself, along with the wooden words, are part of the Peach Blossom kit from Swirlydoos.

And yes, there is a butterfly - this is my entry in this month's All That Flutters Challenge!

What I Did at Swirly Camp

Swirlydoos Camp - a long weekend of creating and chatting lubricated by a bit of wine - has been a tradition since 2010, when Krissy Mosbarger hosted our first retreat in Bailey, Co.

What is not a tradition is the venue; we've met up in Illinois and Michigan and last year we traveled to Louisiana for an evening in New Orleans and then on to Camp at the Lazy Lucy in Lafayette.

Lazy Lucy was so perfect that Krissy arranged for us to meet there again this year and so I flew down on June 7 for an evening and morning of great food, music and sight-seeing with the other ladies before making the 2 hour trek to Camp for 5 days and 4 nights of fun.

I actually got a lot done: 6 layouts, a wall hanging and (best of all) this year's Camp Project: Kim Heard's tutorial on a Finnabair-style canvas.

Of course, there was a bit of shopping - what would Swirly Camp be without shopping? Donna Lanclos, the Lazy Lucy owner took us to a vintage store owned by a lady who had inherited some wonderful stuff.  I bought a couple of post cards, a necklace that I've pulled apart to use the beads and trinkets, some great music paper and best of all, a couple of doilies. I used a few of my haul right away, but the rest is now being lovingly hoarded.

Some of the layouts were created for Challenges and I'll be posting them separately, but I'd like to share the rest of my work, starting with that canvas.

The highlight of Swirly Camp is The Project and this year, Education Director Kim Heard outdid herself, teaching us how to make a Finnabair-style self portrait on canvas.

After gluing down squares of paper (Prima's Salvage District) in this case onto black canvas, we evenly spread heavy body gel over the surface and went to work creating grooves with Prima's new texture brushes and letting it all dry.

Then came the fun: fussy cutting our selfies, adhering them to the canvas and then adorning them with lace, zipper parts, metal pieces, buttons, flowers, art stones, beads, whatever our hearts desired. Next, we covered "us" with a paper towel and misted the entire surface with colored mica sprays. When all was dry, we selected several colors of the new Prima Opal Magic acrylics and painted all of the embellishments. I wish you could see this in person - the colors are indeed magic, changing with ever change of light and direction.

 

The Always & Forever collection from Kaisercraft makes a perfect background for this picture of my great-grandparents, Jane and John McCormick.

The main sheet, Romance, along with the bit of Admire that I used as the bottom matting piece give this page an old-fashioned look. The script of Commitment contains perfect phrases to surround the photo; in fact, I've taken my title, "A True Love" from the words at the top.

I used one of my favorite stencils, Text by 13 Arts, and a mixture of modeling paste and Prima La Chapeliere Artisan Powder in the background.

A big thank you to Andie Templeton for the flowers that embellish this photo so well!!!

 I found this sweet girl on Pinterest some time ago and I decided that it was time that I scrapped her image.

The background paper and the strip of color are from the Kaisercraft Always & Forever collection, part of the May 2016 Peach Blossom kit from Swirlydoos. Also included in that package is the Déjà Vu Dangle chipboard from Blue Fern Studios that I colored with Prima's Color Bloom mist in Empress Gold.

The music paper and all of the dangles are from the vintage shop that I spoke about. Best of all are the small bits of lace from Andie Templeton and the metal trinket from Donna Lanclos; thank you, ladies! 

The sun-burned couple you see are my son and daughter-in-law in Aruba in 2007.

I used more of the Kaisercraft Always & Forever collection, Promise, from the Swirlydoos Peach Blossom kit, along with the Prima Tu es Tres Belle flowers which I confess to pulling apart so I could used the lovely lace on its own.

The Prima Antique Cloche in the corner was included in the Embellishment Add-On.

The burlap, flowers and metal pieces were taken from my stash.

I wanted to get one more layout done before packing up for the trip home and so I kept this one featuring my grandsons playing with Mom's I Pad fairly simple, using a piece of packaging with the front ripped off and layers of circles and banners and gears, along with a sole metal piece to embellish these cuties.

True Harmony

The Swirlydoos Round Robin for June is all about the Dads in our lives and I've chosen to scrap this photo from Summer 1951 of my father with my sister Jean, my brother Jack and me (I'm the one facing the camera).

I'm on Team 1 this month, following Rae Moses' and Kim Heard's gorgeous designs. Like Kim, I've selected some Blue Fern Studios papers from my stash - in this case several pages from the Love Story collection. I've copied Rae's punched layer using the Martha Stewart Cherish PAP set; however, I lack her patience and have not included her faux stitching. Also from my stash is the Blue Fern Roman Clock chipboard that I altered with Ranger Antiquities embossing powder in Cement and Chinese Red. The distressed strips down the side are the trimmings from my punched piece. I've also used some of that amazing Prima lace trim and I carried out the pearls by placing them in my flowers. Alas, I don't have anything as good as Kim's adorable cherub, but my Prima resin fairy seems to fit perfectly here.