Adventures in Glass Beadmaking with Janice Peacock

Earlier this month I wrote about how I started making glass beads. If you missed that post, here’s a link: https://theselfrescueprincess.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/glass-bead-making-with-janice-peacock/

Today I want to write about the glass beads that I’ve been making in recent years, most of which look like small masks. If you’ve not watched the video on how to make a glass bead, here it is: link

When I make a glass bead, I melt long slender rods of colored glass in my torch, which runs on oxygen and propane and achieves temperatures in excess of 2000 degrees. Since I can’t touch the glass while it’s molten, I use tools to sculpt it in the flame. Many of the tool are things you’d find around your house (especially if you like scrapbooking): an Xacto knife, scissors, and tweezers. People often ask me if I get burned when I work in my studio making beads. Yes, I do, but usually those burns are mild—about what you’d expect if you touched a hot pan in the oven.

I’ve written and published two murder mysteries about a glass beadmaker named Jax O’Connell. The first is High Strung (Booktrope, 2015) and the second is A Bead in the Hand (Booktrope, 2015), both of which are available at all the major retailers. In the first book Jax becomes an amateur sleuth after she finds a dead body behind a bead store in Seattle.

Jax and I have some things in common—we are both glass beadmakers and are women of a certain age. But in most other ways we are different—for instance, Jax is fictional and I am not. Jax’s beads are made with bright colors and happy patterns. My beads, on the other hand, are fairly somber in color and look like they are old—like relics from an archeological dig or flotsam that has washed ashore. Jax is a relative newbie to the world of beads. Me? I’ve been creating lampworked beads for nearly 25 years.

In case you are curious: The word “lampworking” comes from a few hundred years ago when beadmakers didn’t have high tech torches and fuels like oxygen and propane. Instead, artisans used oil lamps and bellows to create flames that were hot enough to melt glass.

A lot of the beads I make look like small masks or stylized faces. I have several books about African masks that I like to look at for inspiration as well as a collection of masks from around the world. The faces I create are both human and animal forms. Typically, the eyes on the masks are closed. The closed eyes give these beads a peaceful feeling, and these days we can all use a little peace and tranquility in our lives.

I love making beads, and even though my time is now split between glass beadmaking and writing about a fictional glass beadmaker, I know that I’ll never give up the fun and excitement of lighting up my torch and melting glass.

You can see more of my glass work at http://www.janicepeacockglass.com and read about the books in the Glass Bead Mystery Series at http://www.janicepeacock.com.

Janice Peacock
Glass Artist and Author

You can find me in all sorts of places on social media:
Facebook.com/JanicePeacockAuthor
Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest: JanPeac
Blog.janicepeacock.com

National Craft Month: Cropped to Death Excerpt

I had hoped to have a crafting blog post ready for today but it’s been hectic at the office this week and my hours work hours needing shifting around, so I didn’t have time to finish making my project. This month, I’ve celebrating National Craft Month by alternating between different hobbies: scrapbooking, crocheting, and coloring. I had thought about chatting about my experience with making a photo book through Shutterfly, but as we don’t have the book yet (and I did a scrapbooking post last week) I thought it better to wait.

Since Cropped to Death is currently on sale for 99 cents for the Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and iBooks, I thought I’d share an excerpt of Faith preparing for a beginning scrapbooking class–and she gets interrupted.

Excerpt: 

I headed into the paper racks, weaving through the reds and yellows to reach the browns. The hues ranged from sand to a brown so dark it could pass for black. What shade and texture should I use tonight?

A smoother paper worked better for beginners, as it was easier for tearing and for making other embellishments, but I had no idea the skill level of the women signed up for the contest class and mini crop. A texture cardstock added an extra dimension to the work and gave the beginning layout a little edge. If using it for a border, tearing the texture paper added a nice jagged effect with feathering detail.

Maybe a sheet of both styles using a monochromatic scheme. That worked. A deeper beige mixed with a sand almost white shade. Neutrals worked well with any photos. I’d take a look at the students’ pictures when they arrived and pull complementary colors showcased in the photos.

Time to pick embellishments. I gathered up sheets of letter stickers in a variety of fonts and colors for the layout titles. I stopped in front of the clear stamps and picked out an alphabet set. I’d buy the stamps and share them tonight with the class. Hopefully, they’d love them so much, the two attendees would want a set for themselves. To save some money, I’d go with standard neutral paint colors. If the croppers wanted a hue with a little more pop, they could purchase it.

The bell above the door jangled. I took the items out of the basket and arranged them in piles on the tables. Before the crop started, I wanted to check on the amount of choices offered for the class participants. I snapped my fingers. Items for the prize basket.

A shadow fell over me. I jerked upright, and the wind whooshed in my ears even though I was inside. This fear issue was getting annoying. I hated feeling vulnerable. Taking in a deep breath, my heart rate slowed to normal as I realized a new customer, not a stalker, entered into the store.

A dark-haired woman in her late teens hovered behind me. Two splotches of red bloomed on her cheeks and she stammered. “I was wondering if. Well, if you could…would you mind…”

I smiled and waved my hand over the products on the table. “It’s not too late to sign up for the crop tonight.”

She pushed a piece of paper toward me. “I was wondering if…”

I held my pleasant smile and waited.

“If I could… like… get…”

The smile strained my cheeks.

“Your autograph.”

“My what?” I kept my reaction in check, uncertain if amusement or anger was more appropriate.

“Aren’t you the owners’ granddaughter? The one mentioned in the paper?”

I went with anger. Before the scolding exploded from my mouth, the young woman turned and fled out the door. Why couldn’t the store reach celebrity status because of our awesome customer service rather than because of murder?

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend, and is able to enjoy their families and their hobbies.

 

National Craft Month: Fatal Brushstroke Excerpt

I hope everyone is enjoying National Craft Month as much as I am. Currently, I’m reading A Body in the Landscape by Larissa Reinhart, and this weekend I enjoyed three days of cropping at a local crop retreat sponsored by the Rotary Club. I was able to complete my daughter’s scrapbook album (a mix of pocket scrapbooking and traditional layouts) and also uploaded a bunch of pictures to Shutterfly and had them printed. I have two crops coming up in April and didn’t want to run out of photos to scrap at the events.

To continue with my monthly celebration of National Craft month is an brief excerpt from Fatal Brushstroke by Sybil Johnson.

Excerpt: 

At home, too wired to sleep yet too tired to work, Rory pulled out the project Nora had given her and spread it out on the empty half of the kitchen table. Before painting on the final product, she wanted to practice the strokes spelling out Samantha’s name. She considered several styles of brush lettering, settling on one that was at the least elaborate end of the spectrum.

Rory drew guidelines on practice paper with a soft pencil, then loaded a flat brush with a fifty-fifty mixture of black acrylic paint and water. After painting the three strokes necessary to produce a capital S, she reviewed her work. She hadn’t lifted her brush quickly enough at the end of each stroke to produce the sharp edges she desired. She tried again, this time writing the full name several times, concentrating on correcting the strokes and keeping the spacing between the letters consistent. After covering two pages with the name, she gave up for the evening, still unhappy with the result. Her hands were too shaky from lack of sleep to produce the letters to her satisfaction.

Blurb:

A dead body in her garden and a homicide detective on her doorstep…

Computer programmer and tole painting enthusiast Aurora (Rory) Anderson doesn’t envision finding either when she steps outside to investigate the frenzied yipping coming from her own backyard. After all, she lives in Vista Beach, a quiet California beach community where violent crime is rare and murder even rarer.

Suspicion falls on Rory when the body buried in her flowerbed turns out to be someone she knows—her tole painting teacher, Hester Bouquet. Just two weeks before, Rory attended one of Hester’s weekend seminars, an unpleasant experience she vowed never to repeat. As evidence piles up against Rory, she embarks on a quest to identify the killer and clear her name. Can Rory unearth the truth before she encounters her own brush with death?

Right now, Fatal Brushstroke is on sale for 99 cents, and I don’t know how long the sale will last.

 

 

Scrapbooking With the Project Life App

On Facebook one night, I saw an ad for the Becky Higgins Project Life App and considered it for just a moment before deciding it wasn’t something for me. Yes, I did take some photos on my phone but not enough to purchase an app for making layouts. Though, the app was only $2.99 so not a huge investment. The next evening after work, I wanted to do some crafting (March is National Crafting Month) but was too tired to want to drag out my paper scrapbooking goodies, nor did I feel like traversing downstairs to get yarn for a new crocheting project. What was I to do?

The Project Life App was my answer. It wasn’t that much and I could do some scrapbooking without leaving the comfy recliner (I was really feeling lazy), and I could make some of my pictures into pretty layouts and share on Facebook and Instagram. There were some photos I’d love to have in layout form but don’t want to traditionally scrapbook (another way of saying not having to print them out), and some of those layouts wouldn’t “fit” in any of our scrapbooks.

I purchased the Becky Higgins Project Life app and started creating. I fell in love! The app includes some layout styles (you can purchase more) and also some kits. There were enough options that I wouldn’t have had to purchase more kits but I need some specific kits for pictures (who am I kidding I love scrapbooking goodies even virtual one)  so picked up a few extras.

I’be made 10 layouts so far and find the process relaxing and it’s becoming my go-to method of relaxing at night. I’ve enjoyed browsing through my phone’s photo gallery and “remembering” events that had taken place. The first day in using the app, I was a little disappointed I couldn’t change the font but discovered the other day there was. When I typed in my journaling, I decided to hit the little up arrow and font choices popped up, including changing the color of the journaling. And if I hit the capital A, I could increase or decrease the size of the font. I was loving the app even more.

I’m hoping there will be some new font styles that can be purchased because I’d love a swirly cursive font.

Decorative Painting with Sybil Johnson

What is decorative painting? I get that question a lot. You may be more familiar with the term tole painting. Traditionally, tole painting is applied to the art of painting on tin but, when I started taking classes, it was used in a broader sense to mean the decoration of objects using various painting strokes and techniques using acrylic paints. These days the term decorative painting is more commonly used though some people still use the two terms interchangeably. Wood is the most common surface to paint on, but tin, fabric and other surfaces are also available.

I started my decorative painting journey in the early 90s when a group of us at work gathered in a conference room at lunchtime and worked on all kinds of projects. The experienced painter in the group taught us newbies the basics. We learned how to read a pattern, prep various types of surfaces from wood to tin to fabric, transfer the design using a stylus and graphite paper, basecoat and paint the project and, finally, varnish the finished piece. Over several years, we painted ornaments, cookie jar lids, sweatshirts, and a host of other projects.

Now I largely paint by myself, but every year I attend the Creative Painting convention in Las Vegas. I recently returned from what is around my 15th year at the convention (I lost track after about ten) where I took some classes and prowled the trade show floor looking for new patterns and supplies to buy.

I thought I’d share some pictures of a typical class so you could get an idea what one is like. Classes are held in hotel ballrooms. The size of the room depends on the number of students. Some special events have as many as 100. The fabric painting class I’ll be showing you was on the smaller end with about 20. Here’s our classroom.

Here’s my little area of the room. Brushes, water basin, palette paper and other supplies waiting for class to begin. 

 

Each of the students was given a pattern packet designed by the instructor, Mary Ribet. Inside was a photo of the finished project (always good to see what you’re shooting for, right?), a line drawing of the pattern, and written instructions for each step. 

We had the choice of painting on a t-shirt or tote bag. I chose the t-shirt. We used So Soft paints by DecoArt, which are specifically designed for painting on fabric. Here’s the piece with the pattern on the fabric and the bird partly done.

The instructor went through each step, giving advice as we went along. The final step involved using a stencil to make leaves. Here’s my finished piece.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my brief tour of a class. Decorative painting is great fun. There are so many interesting pattern books and packets out there to paint and conventions to attend.

When I decided to write mysteries, I chose to write a cozy set in the world of decorative painting. First, because I love reading cozies, but also because no one had chosen to write a series involving the craft I love. There are ones that feature crocheting, knitting, scrapbooking, etc., but none in the decorative painting field. Two books in the Aurora Anderson Mystery Series have been published so far by Henery Press—Fatal Brushstroke and Paint the Town Dead. The latter is set at a fictional painting convention similar to the one I recently attended. Right now, I’m busy working on the third book in the series.

Visit me at my website, www.authorsybiljohnson.com www.authorsybiljohnson.com, to learn more about me and my books. I also have a number of links to decorative painting related sites including conventions, tutorials on getting started, and places to buy supplies.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sybiljohnsonauthor

Twitter: www.twitter.com/sybiljohnson19

SRP Review: Hippie Homesteaders: Arts, Crafts, Music and Living on the Land in West Virginia by Carter Taylor Seaton

Hippie Homesteaders takes the reader to West Virginia, introducing them to craftspeople who made their home in the Mountain State in order to live off land and their artistic skills. It filled me with pride to learn how the government of the state of WV encouraged and supported crafters. Crafting is highly respected as it’s a  way to continue and respect traditions of the past, and to bring them into the future. Tamarack is a center that connects WV crafters with travelers so the artisans have an outlet showcase their talents for new buyers and fans.

This book gives a snapshot of the lives of many crafters who came to WV in order to earn a living with their art, and sometimes coming to the state to learn an art to support themselves. The artists found themselves accepted in their new state and given opportunities to perfect their craft. I loved getting a peek into the lives of these artists and their struggles and determination to live off the land and their crafting abilities. The artist community is a tight knit group and its was wonderful to read how they helped each other.

The Internet has made it possible for the artists (painters, potters, beaders, quilters, weavers, etc.) to reach more buyers and allows them to grow their income, and introduce those outside of the state to the unique handcrafted wares produced in the state of West Virginia.

The can-and-will do spirit of the crafters showcased in the book was a huge encouragement to me and restored some of that same attitude in me. I can’t wait to get back to my writing…and I’m also itching to get some more crafting of my own done.

 

 

Crafting Excerpt from Hijack in Abstract by Larissa Reinhart

 

Portraits: Making the Art Patron Happy with Cherry Tucker (and Larissa Reinhart)

My character Cherry Tucker would love National Craft Month. Although she’s a classically trained portrait artist, she also DIYs her clothes into works of art and likes to paint furniture (and anything else she can paint, embellish, or bedazzle).

Unfortunately, in her mysteries, she’s often too busy chasing down murderers and thieves to paint much. At least on the page. Off the page, when you’re not reading, she’s always painting, embellishing, and bedazzling. However, one of my favorite on-the-page painting scenes takes place in her third mystery, Hijack in Abstract. She’s been hired by a wealthy, Atlanta immigration lawyer to paint his portrait. She doesn’t think much of Rupert, but that never stops her from doing her job.

As she always says, “Always make the art patron happy. Even when you’ve found a dead man earlier that day.”

Hijack in Abstract, A Cherry Tucker Mystery #3

I returned to Rupert’s office. He had finished his phone call and paced before the Christmas tree.

“Where have you been, darling?” he asked. “I have some free time now. Let’s begin.”

“I’m going to start with some quick sketches,” I said, hurrying to the Christmas tree. “I’ll work at my easel. Feel free to talk and try different positions. Would you like to be seated or standing?”

Rupert turned to examine the Christmas tree. “Sitting will be more comfortable, but I will have better lines if I stand. Don’t you agree? And sitting might appear aggrandizing. Like I’m a king on a throne.”

I looked up at him from my squat before my tackle box. Rupert put a lot more thought into posing than anyone I ever met. “Whatever you want to do is fine with me. We can try both and you can look at my sketches before you decide.”

He strode to his desk and picked up his phone. “Miss David? Can you get the full length mirror from my dressing room and bring it in here?”

This was probably why Miss David hated me. My appearance caused her more work. A butler’s job is never done.

Grabbing a good piece of charcoal and my sketch pad, I placed both on my easel and set to work sketching Rupert as he fretted about his pose. I concentrated on getting his relative proportions before worrying about detail and composition. The head is amazingly symmetrical. Pupils are your center. You can actually draw a line from pupil to pupil and use that line to make a perfect square to help find the lines for the mouth and nose.

I find that aspect of the human face amazing. And I don’t even like geometry.

Once you understand the shape of a face, drawing becomes much simpler. However, everyone but super models have quirks to their symmetry. Those small faults had to be noted, too, without drawing too much attention to them. People with a crooked nose don’t want to see a crooked nose in their portrait. But the painting still has to honestly reflect their face. Tricky.

As I told Miss David, in order for a portrait to look realistic, it needs the personality of the sitter. Portraits are all about nuance, not geometry. A tilt to the head, an uplift at the corner of the mouth, or a slant in an eye’s gaze makes all the difference. Otherwise you end up with a robot face.

Or a paint by number project by Shawna Branson.

Miss David returned with the mirror. We set it up next to my easel so Rupert could pose himself as Father Businessman Christmas or whatever look he was going for. He tried standing, leaning, and sitting, then settled on standing.

“So how long has Miss David worked for you?” I waited to ask that question until she had left the room. The less Miss David talked, the more I wanted to know.

“A few years,” he picked a piece of lint off his suit jacket. “Do you think I should wear a black or blue suit?”

“Blue. It’ll pull out some of the colors from the tree decorations and work better with the undertones in your skin.”

I flipped a page in my sketchbook and worked on a close up of his small, bushy mustache. It would not do to have him looking like Hitler.

 

A 2015 Georgia Author of the Year Best Mystery finalist, Larissa writes the Cherry Tucker Mystery series. The first in the series, PORTRAIT OF A DEAD GUY (2012), is a 2012 Daphne du Maurier finalist, 2012 The Emily finalist, and 2011 Dixie Kane Memorial winner. The sixth mystery, A COMPOSITION IN MURDER, is expected to release in 2016. Her family and Cairn Terrier, Biscuit, now live in Nagoya, Japan, but still call Georgia home. Visit her website, LarissaReinhart.com, find her chatting on Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads  or join her Facebook street team, The Mystery Minions.

Glass Bead Making with Janice Peacock

In 1992 I learned to make glass beads after a disappointing trip to a bead shop.  I was making a chain bracelet with different beads hanging off each link, charm bracelet-style.  I had figured out exactly what I wanted the bracelet to look like, but unfortunately the bead store didn’t have what I wanted.  I had particular shapes and styles in mind, and as I looked at the beads I’d purchased I wondered to myself:  Who makes these beads?  How do you make beads?  And that’s how it all started—I wanted to make glass beads, but had no idea where to start.

For those of us old enough to remember, there was no Google in 1992. The only way to research something was using an old-fashioned telephone or mail, and I don’t mean email.  So, I started making phone calls.  The first place I found that worked with glass told me I needed a furnace that could melt hundreds of pounds of glass at a time and would need to run 24×7 at a cost of several hundred dollars a month.  This was definitely not an option for me.  The next people I found said I could learn glass fusing from them, but I didn’t want to make flat things like plates and tiles.  I wanted colorful round beads with holes in them. After a long search I found the perfect class.

It was at Dan Fenton’s studio in Oakland, California, not far from where I live.  There was a two day workshop with a glass bead maker named Brian Kirkvliet, and they had one spot left in class.  So, I signed up.  The first time I saw the teacher light the torch and melt glass, I knew that this was what I wanted to do.  And twenty-four years later it is still a passion of mine. In the many years since I melted my first glass rod, I’ve made and sold hundreds, if not thousands, of beads and participated in many exhibitions and gallery shows. Working with glass beads has been a life-changing experience. In fact, it is such a part of who I am, I can’t imagine a life without glass bead making.

The process of creating glass beads is called lampworking or sometimes called flameworking.  I’ve created a short video of me making a glass bead so you can see what it is all about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc_PkahjQpM

Since the video doesn’t show me working at my torch, I thought I’d include this picture as well. It’s a little different than the mild-mannered author headshots of me you’ll see around the web these days. 

When I first decided to write a murder mystery, I wanted to take the advice of many authors before me and “write what I know.” I knew glass bead making and knew many of the unusual and funny real-life characters that inhabit the bead world. I’ve always loved mysteries and have had a special fondness for cozy mysteries. So, it was easy to figure out what I wanted to write, and that’s how the Glass Bead Mysteries started.  Two books—High Strung and A Bead in the Hand—and a short story—Be Still My Beading Heart—were published by Booktrope in the last few months. The books have been well received and are available in paperback and eBook formats on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes. I’m busy working on the next book in the series—Off the Beadin’ Path—which will be released in Summer 2016.

I enjoy sharing my love of glass beads with everyone who reads my books and I hope you’ll join Jax O’Connell and her friends as they search for clues, one bead at a time.

Here’s the finished bead I made in my demo.

You can see pictures of my beads and larger glass sculptures at www.janicepeacockglass.com and learn about my books at www.janicepeacock.com

You can find me in all sorts of places on social media:

Janice Peacock

Glass Artist and Author

janice.e.peacock@gmail.com

 

www.janicepeacock.com

www.janicepeacockglass.com

Facebook.com/JanicePeacockAuthor

Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest: JanPeac

 

Celebrating National Craft Month

During March, we’re celebrating National Craft Month on the Self-Rescue Princess (along with doing an interview or two). There will be posts from authors about their crafting projects, excerpts from novels featuring crafting moments, and reviews of crafting books.

I love crafting. When I was a little girl, I sewed Barbie clothes by hand and spent hours coloring, imaging I was actually painting a masterpiece. The first baby quilt I ever made was also handsewn. I was stationed in Germany and brought the fabric at the large Post Exchange at a nearby Barracks. It was green with rocking horses on it. There weren’t many options so I picked the fabric I thought would work for a boy or girl (I had a girl!). I didn’t have a sewing machine, as sewing hadn’t been something I had thought about doing for a long time, but I had a need to make my baby her first blanket. Baby quilts have now become one of my favorite items to make.

Over the years, I’ve tried my hand at my crafts: cross-stitch, costuming bears (hot gluing strips of silk and lace onto articulated bears), beading, sewing, scrapbooking, paper cut/die cutting creations, and quilting. Last year, I added crocheting to my list of crafty endeavors. I still sew, quilt, scrapbook, paper cuts, and crochet. Occasionally, I’ll make a card or two but don’t do it as often, and I only make cards for specific occasions rather than because I’m in the mood to craft.

When I’m itching to craft, but not up to working on a particular project, I’ll pull out my paper, fire up the laptop and get my die cutting machines humming so I can make “cuts”. I find the process relaxing, and I get to embellish. There’s nothing quite as fun as getting out glitter, chalk, and pens to make my paper creations come to life.

I’d love to see some of your creations so please feel free to share some of your projects in the comment section. Let’s inspire each other to craft more in March.

Incoporating Your Style Into a Scraplift

Some scraplifting advice from Faith Hunter from the Scrap This Mystery series. 

How to Tweak a Scraplift to Fit Your Style 

When scraplifting a design, remember pages are to showcase your memories for you and your loved ones enjoyment, not to submit to contests or as a means to get on a design team.

Scraplifting helps croppers find a way out of the too familiar scenario of scrapbooker’s block. That frustrating place where you have stunning photos, galore of fantastic supplies, but no idea on how to use any of the awesomeness at your fingertips. Designers, and hobbyists who post their layouts, love to see how their designs
inspired others so feel free to share your pages on messages boards. Just remember to credit the scrapper who inspired you or at least mention the design is a scraplift.

1. Play with the elements of the design. Instead of placing all the embellishments, pattern paper, cardstock, and photos in the exact position as in the inspiration layout, move them around. Place the title at the bottom of the page. Line the strip of photos on the opposite side or place it horizontal instead of vertical. 

To duplicate the look of the torn photo, two photos are used.

 

2. Add a twist. Instead of following the design down to the last brad, substitute a product you love for one the designer used. Add in an extra photo or a larger photo than on the inspiration page. Exchange the strips of pattern paper for cardstock. Washi tape instead of ribbon.

3. Don’t be afraid to eliminate. If your style is more minimalist, don’t think you have to keep embellishment clusters or use all the techniques showed on the page. Remove some of the clusters. Take out one or two of the techniques from the inspiration page. Strip the layout down to the basic design. Only use the parts that help you create a page pleasing to your eye.

4. Control the Chaos. If you like a linear style, and would love to incorporate some element from a less structured design, use the technique in a more “organized” method. Do your splatter in a line instead of free form. Make embellishment clusters with lines, squares, rectangles, and any other shapes that have strong lines.

5. Shop your stash. An inspiration layout is not a recipe that has to be followed. Use what you have on hand, product that caught your eye, instead of purchasing the exact products the designer used. Using the items you love will show your style. Do you have a preference for bold colors over pastels? Whimsical designs instead of geometric shapes? Let your layouts showcase your inner designer by using the scrapping goodies already filling your scrapbooking studio and cropping totes. (I can’t believe I’m sharing this one.) 

I separated one tag and created three elements for the page.

The top portion of the tag was placed on the photo mat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And remember every page you make is beautiful, a work of heart. Don’t worry about following trends, what is deemed hot by the scrapbooking Divas, and compare your page as lacking if it doesn’t look like the layouts published. Your love of scrapbooking makes them beautiful. Each and every one. Enjoy your hobby! No matter what Darlene says, it’s not a competition.

Here’s one of Christina’s scraplifts:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the inspiration for the scraplift: