Erin Reed - April DT Reveal

I wanted to play with my chipboard this month, use them in a variety of different ways on different types of layouts.  I played with simple, girly, and grunge/steampunk for a bit of fun.

**Good Luck**

In March of 2011 Morgan was playing in the backyard and found a four leaf clover.  He was so excited, he could not believe, nor I, that he first found one and second that he found it within 15 minutes of hunting right in our own backyard.  So cool!  I used the wonderful Graphic 45 Place in Time paper pad with the March selection of papers. There are so many cool items in the paper pad, the word strips, postage stamps, graphics, and tags I just used a few other embellishments to finish of the page.

I did not preserve the clover very well, I just let it air dry, so all the color was lost.  I coated it with glossy accents to prevent it from tearing, but it did not look very pretty so I just glued it to a tag, placed a flower on the end as a pull out holder, and tucked in under the picture.  Here you can also see I used the chalk ink to coat the edges of all the papers and the photo in my layout, it helps soften the look of everything.

Here you can see a resin bird and the beautiful Memory Maze chipboard mini birdcage, I thought they looked wonderful together.

I used Gelatos in brown and dark green and water to color the "Good Luck" chipboard from Memory Maze.

Memory Maze Supplies

"Good Luck" - Product ID : C0006

Mini Bird cage - Product ID : C0170

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**Live**

 Every year we go to an event called Burgers and Butterflies to remember our babies that we have lost.  My family goes to remember our daughter Kristen.  In this picture is my son Brandon when he was 2 years old holding one of the butterflies we set loose to help us remember our precious "butterflies" that are not longer with us.

The phrase says "Once upon a time... their lived a little girl, a precious angel that lives with the butterflies, and with the touch of a child's hand we remember her, so my wish for you .....LIVE"

I used the single word "live" as my title to help us remember to live for every moment of every day, life is to short.  I painted the "live" chippy with black acrylic paint, and then painted the vintage corner under it with gold metallic paint.

Memory Maze Supplies

"live" - Product ID : G0179

Vintage Corner - Product ID : C0139

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**Army Strong**

My husband is serving in Kabul, Afghanistan at Camp Phoenix as part of Task Force Centurion for the US Army.  He deployed in September 2012 and is still there, with his return date to be in June (I am so excited to have him home!!).  We miss him so much.  With this picture he sent us (rather to my oldest son for a school project) I thought it deserved a grungy layout to go with the colors of the army and also with how dirty he says everything including the air over there is.  We can't wait for you to come come Captain Reed.

I used lots of paint, mists, gelatos, inks, gesso, time, and glue to create this layout.  I used various metals, found objects and wonderful chippies.  Here are 2 square buckles, a little angel, and the back small wheel and handle bar of a penny farthing bicycle (pictures below so you can find them in my grunge)

 

Here I used the front wheel of the Penny Farthing Bicycle, another small angel, another square buckle, and the word "Best" from "best wishes".

 

Memory Maze Supplies

Penny Farthing - Product ID : C0127

"Best Wishes" - Product ID : C0015

Buckle Square Medium - Product ID : C0042

Angel 3 - Product ID : C0165

Enjoy!!