Ms. Ruin's Playthings


"The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates." -Oscar Wilde

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Happy Birthday to you!

Here are some more pictures from my photo shoot on Saturday with the very lovely and adorable Lainey!




This is my absolute favorite --party for two in Wonderland!

Heart for Art

When I saw this paper by Bo Bunny I absolutely fell in love with it.  I cannot wait to get the entire stack!  Because I need more paper??  Anyway, for this layout I used Weekend Market Antique as the mat for my self-portrait and the backside of Weekend Market Rulers as the 12x12 base.  Both are shown below from left to right...

This Vintage Daisy is by Maya Road in Mauve.  Just lovely.  And you kind of get the illusion that I'm wearing it in my hair, which is what I was going for.

I mentioned in an earlier post that Maya Road has lots of "little things" that allow me to make clusters of goodness.  So here is the cluster I made for this page using one of the Vintage Wood Doilies which I painted gold, kraft tickets, Vintage Wood Bird which I painted black, an Organza Primrose in Cream and the word "heart" is also chipboard.  The buttons on the tickets are from the Farmhouse line by October Afternoon.

Here is a closer look at the word heart and my little bird friend.  I used Gold Fine Glass Glitter for this.  Isn't it beautiful?

My journaling is a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson which reads "In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can inspire."  Such a true quote, so very true for this artist.  ::big smile::

I have about four more layouts to create tonight and tomorrow night so I'll have those for show and tell at some point.  Thanks for looking at my work! 

Get your scissors ready!


As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am an intricate cutter and there's lots of cutting involved in this layout.  These papers are also by American Crafts from the Amy Tangerine line.  The papers I used were Sienna Spirit as the 12x12 base and Paige's Portraits for embellishing...both shown below from left to right.


I created my own frame around this 5x7 by cutting out the half circle/swirly designs from one side of Paige's Portraits.


I then cut several frames out from Paige's Portraits and used them to embellish the page.  I put pictures in or behind some of them.


I also added these gorgeous glittery thickers by American Crafts.


And I thought this cute little owl would look good in a frame too.

Thanks for looking!

Birthday Layout

In this layout I used new paper by American Crafts –this set by Amy Tangerine.  I know you’re wondering which ones so for your information, I used Gaby’s Gallery to mat the photo and Indigo Inspiration as the 12x12 base (paper shown below from left to right).  Aren’t these super fun colors!

The embellishments in the kits I received were not packaged so I’m not sure who makes this beautiful flower –likely Prima.  As for the number two, I took a piece of chipboard, covered it with Gaby’s Gallery and then wrapped this fuzzy string around it.  Again, not sure who makes that either.

I have to make at least ONE thing pop on my page so I pop dotted these clouds.


And finally I added this little die cut tag which I believe is part of this new line.  These flowers are likely by Prima.  Notice I also put lace trim on the edge of Bryn’s dress.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a very simple scrapbooker.  But I really dig the way this page turned out –hope you like it too!

Layout Madness

One of the perks of being on a design team is that you get to play with the latest lines of paper and embellishments before they arrive in store.  In the next few posts you will see some of the new paper lines from BoBunny and American Crafts as well as flowers by Prima, and lots of loveliness from Maya Road.  All of the material used in these layouts is/will be available at The Crafty Scrapper.  

This first layout features my very handsome five year old nephew, Anthony.  He’s a looker, isn’t he?  In this layout I used the following papers by Bo Bunny:  Weekend Market Dot, Weekend Market Vintage Labels, and Weekend Market Stripe (shown below from left to right).


So here is the layout...


I used the Weekend Market Vintage Labels backside as the base –leaving it at 12x12.  I then  used Weekend Market Dot as an oversized mat.  Since Anthony’s photo is an 8x10, I wanted a large mat, otherwise the picture would swallow the entire layout –a large mat diffuses attention from the size of the picture.


I’m sort of an intricate cutter, you will see in my layouts that I cut a lot of paper in detail and use it to embellish.  That’s exactly what I did with the Weekend Market Stripe Paper.  I used the backside which had a beautiful edge on it with all sorts of delicate looking flowers and scroll work.  I cut that portion out of the paper and used it as an edge on my layout.  To give it some dimension, I used pop dots rather than just adhering it down flat. 

Here’s a close up of the embellishments.  The great thing about Maya Road is that they have so much “tiny” stuff that you can cluster together and make beautiful little islands of loveliness on your projects.  That’s what I did here.  The piece of chipboard on the edge of the envelope was distressed using Broken China distress ink and then I stamped over it with a script stamp by Tim Holtz.



Thanks for looking –lots more to come!

Monday, February 27, 2012

Happy 2nd Birthday

My sweet girl Bryn is turning 2 years old this weekend.  Gosh, I can't believe it.  It seems like just yesterday I was standing in Nicole's hospital room holding her for the first time.  This sweet girl may not be related to me by blood, but she is a big huge part of my life and one the many blessings that I have received.  Happy Birthday, baby.  Tia loves you!



New Items have arrived!

I have a bunch of new playthings in my Etsy Shop that I know so many of you will like too.  Click on the pictures to view full details plus additional pictures of each item.  Thanks
for looking!




















































Hey Mister DJ, put a record on

...I wanna dance with my baby.  Bought tickets today to see Madonna on October 20th.  Why does that date ring a bell?  Anyway, I will be able to take this off of my bucketlist on 10/21.  I cannot wait to dance my ass off on this night.  It's going to be electric!



Sunday, February 26, 2012

Little Lainey

I had such a fun shoot today with Ms. Lainey for her very first birthday.  She is always such a fun and easy baby to work with, I can appreciate that!  I wish I could stay up all night to edit these, but I got three hours of sleep overnight and I really can't think anymore, much less command my mouse to keep clicking around in photoshop.  For now I will leave you with this sneak peek from today's whimsy party.  :)

She can have her cake and eat it too --it's allowed.

Totally precious.

Armed & Dangerous

Paper beware!  Well, it's 12:50am on what is now Sunday and I am WIDE awake.  I've been drinking energy waters all day and I just switched over to the hard core stuff --a shot of five hour energy.  It's finally here, crunch time has arrived and my time to accomplish so much is running short.  Tick, tick, tick...I can hear the clock pounding in my skull.  Arg!  Just needed a break from cutting paper, yanno!

<-----THIS WOMAN IS NUMB TO SLEEP AND TIREDNESS.  I don't feel anything?  Or maybe I've exhausted myself and don't know that I'm tired?  Oh my, now I'm delusional.  HAHAHAHA.  Ehhh, like my mom says "I'll sleep when I'm dead!"  So long as I get a few hours of rest before my 2pm photo shoot then it's all good.  I think.

Well, back to it!

Posted via iPad.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Week 7

Day 43 (02.12.12)
Prompt
: Deviated from Prompt
Commentary: What do you spy with your little eye?
Camera: Nikon D90

Day 44 (02.13.12)
Prompt
: Deviated from Prompt
Commentary: Shut up and drive!
Camera: Nikon D90

Day 45 (02.14.12)
Prompt
: My Valentine
Commentary: 24 White & Red Roses from my Valentine. ♥
Camera: Motorolla Droid X

Day 46 (02.15.12)
Prompt
: Deviated from Prompt
Commentary: The Historic Villa de Cortez in my hometown of Weslaco, Texas.
Camera: Nikon D90

Day 47 (02.16.12)
Prompt
: Deviated from Prompt
Commentary: A face you don't see often...my baby sister and one of my best friends, Sel. This picture was taken over Christmas.
Camera: Nikon D90

Day 48 (02.17.12)
Prompt
: Deviated from Prompt
Commentary: It's true, all Catholic-Hispanic homes have a shrine to La Virgen de Guadalupe. This one is at my parent's home. :)
Camera: Nikon D90

Day 49 (02.18.12)
Prompt
: Deviated from Prompt
Commentary: A doggie treat from Sprinkles for Yeller. Thanks, Deb!
Camera: Nikon P500