A missing post & several new things!!

Well, it seems that blogger is haunting me again... I had my Frosted Designs post up from last Friday and now it's missing, gone, vanished...??

So, let's just start there:
FROSTED DESIGNS  Fabulous Friday challenge (from 5/18) was "quilting"... so I machine stitched the paper along the bottom of this... attached it... and yes, this is a CANVAS...not a sb page.
(It's a friend at work's Granddaughter's graduation pics) - I'm going to add the date in that little sticker, but I didn't know if they wanted me to put 2011 or 2012..so it' wasn't done when I took the photo.

Ok..so now on to NEW STUFF:

Today is the first time that MY TEAM is posting over at the new THNKING THROUGH DESIGN blog..

This blog is really cool... we have a "thought" and share info about it...

Like this week is HANDSTITCHING...

Then all the girls share their project and THE THOUGHT PROCESS of the creation!!

And the whole point of the blog is to support and uplift and encourage other scrappers!!

Here's my "thought" about Handstitching and my layout:

I approached this *thought with the intention to combine handstitching with machine stitching.  I wanted to have a muted background so I began with canvas and using a 5x7 frame as a mask, misted the canvas.  I then machine stitched a clean simple border accent.  I created my scroll and title patterns with templates and handstitched in the unmisted areas so my nice bright colors would really stand out.  I found the balloon transparancy and thought that looked fun above the airy scroll pattern.   I was pleased at how the contrast of muted and bright colors along with the contrast of the machine and hand stitching helps convey the message of laughter and fun.

And today is also challenge posting day at SKETCHES IN THYME

I turned the above 2 page sketch into a single pager:

And a couple that I've done for MEMORABLE SEASONS

using my DT kit that had Jillibean Soup Neopolitan Bean Bisque

(challenge -- scrap a photo of yourself) -- and i used up most of my scraps on this one!!

And...This one is my challenge..

I started out by copying a technique I saw at Cosmo Cricket, where she ironed on the tissue/dress paper to with plastic wrap.  I didn't "love" this background paper, so I thought "less of it" would be better!! I wasn't thrilled with how it turned out...so I just played with it a bit...getting messy in the process!!  And I'm ok with the result now.  (This is Joseph after playing a very physical basketball game...and he was crying cuz I was taking pics and the sun was in his eyes, not cuz the bruises hurt...but it looks good, huh?)

Thanks for coming by...

we're on vacation next week...

I'll have 1 blog post scheduled while we're gone, but otherwise I'll be enjoying Legoland.