Welcome to our Blog Hop!!

The exiting design team at Zeus and Zoe is leaving with a trail of pretty blooms. Of the handmade variety. Come join us for an amazing blog hop where you can learn how to make pretty blooms and win some amazing prizes along the way!

There are 6 fabulous RAKs to be won. All you need to do is leave some love at every stop along the hop. You have until 11.59pm EST on Wednesday 31 July to leave your comments for your chance to win! Winners will be announced on the Zeus and Zoe blog on 2 August.

1. DANA

Dana Tatar 

2. DENISE

Denise van Deventer

3. MARIVIC

Marivic Clifton

4. NORMA

Norma Gomez

5. RIIKKA

Riikka Kovasin

6. YVONNE

Yvonne Yam

7. ZEUS AND ZOE

http://zeusandzoe.blogspot.com/2013/07/welcome-to-our-blog-hop.html

Such Angels - Layout

Hello Everyone

The week is steadily moving along and hope that at the half way mark you are still doing okay! ;-)

Denise here to share a layout with you today, using Donna Salazar Designs papers and the Zeus and Zoe DT kit. I must admit that I really loved working with the Donna Salazar papers, they were thick and beautiful!
It was my first time working with Donna's papers and I would certainly recommend them! ;-) The aplha chipboard stickers were gorgeous too!

So here is the page that I created.

I first used a Prima stencil for the background painting, and then outlined the painting with a brown marker. I added some splats and then added the paper circles, stamping, chipboards and flowers, kitty cat and buttons.

This photo is of my 3 neices, being flower girls at another cousins wedding! They really looked so beautiful and were truly little angels!

You can find Donna Salazar Designs on this link and the super Zeus and Zoe etsy goodies here.

We hope that you will play along with our challenge this month My Favourite Things, you still have time until the 30th June. There are super goodies to be won.

Hope to see you back soon!
Denise x

June Challenge - My Favourite Things

Hello Everyone! 

Denise and Norma here to bring you the June Challenge!!  This month's challenge is inspired by the lyrics of Julie Andrews song " My Favorite Things"

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens

Brown paper packages tied up with strings

These are a few of my favorite things!

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels

Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles

Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings

These are a few of my favorite things!

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes

Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eye lashes

Silver white winters that melt into spring

These are a few of my favorite things!

When the dog bites, when the bee stings

When I'm feeling sad,

I simply remember

my favorite things

and then I don't feel so bad!

We all have those favorite little things that we just can't help gravitating to and maybe even collecting.  So this month we want to see projects highlighting YOUR very favorite things and to kick things off, we've put together a couple of boards to share the things that we love!

For me (Denise) personally, my favourite things that come to mind are: my shoes, my morning cup of coffee, my flowers in the garden, comfort winter food eg. soup or a beautifully decadent cupcake. So here is my board for some inspiration.

Now anybody that really knows me, really knows that I have quite a shoe collection! ;-) I love a beautiful pair of shoes and my Dad asks me regularly if I am wearing a new pair! So my layout had to simply be about this little love of mine. The sentiment I chose specifically because it is absolutely spot on! ;-)

So here is my page for this challenge.

I used the wonderful papers by Donna Salazar, the die-cuts, as well as the chipboard alpha's. I did some gesso stencilling on the background and also added texture to Scrap FX chipboards with Kwik crackle.

Aren't these shoes just to die for?!

Norma also here to share some of my little obsessions with you, lol.  I absolutely  love everything on my board with my top pick being the beach.  The beach photo on my board is my family's favorite summer getaway here in beautiful Texas.  I added pics of bracelets, lanterns, storage crates and pink orchids because I collect all of these things.  I love, love, love orchids and have them all over my home but they have to be pink (you know how I love color, lol).  I'm also obsessed with storage containers and lanterns.  They're all over my home too.  Oh and bracelets, don't even get me started!  The funny thing is that I tend to always buy them in beautiful shades of turquoise, browns and silver just like in the photo.  One of my other loves is architecture and design, I enjoy taking photos of old buildings with loads of character like gorgeous detailed doors and worn wrought iron and you know my board would not be complete without my paint brushes.  They transport me to my happy place!

Since my all time favorite thing is the beach, I thought I'd do an ocean inspired project.  I also wanted to do my favorite kind of project (mixed media) and use my favorite blue/green colors.  So this is what I came up with:

Ever since I was a little girl, I've loved painting and been completely mesmerized by the sea.  I looked forward to Saturday mornings so I could watch two of my favorite shows on public television: The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross and The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.  So my goal was bring those two worlds together in this piece.

I began by applying molding paste, patterned papers from my Zeus and Zoe kit and swirls with a 3-D writer.  Once that was dry, I added layers of paint in my favorite shades of blue and began building my cluster of  treasure that I'm sure my mermaid has been collecting for some time ;D.  Most of the found objects I used are from my Zeus and Zoe kit but a few are from my stash of goodness.  Next I applied a layer of gesso over all the little bits.  Once the gesso was dry, I spritzed various colors of Dylusions sprinkled with blue/green PearlEx for shimmer.

I love including a positive message in my artwork so I chose to use, "You can never cross the ocean unless you have the COURAGE to lose sight of the shore".  I truly love the way this project turned out and I hope I've inspired you today.

Now it's your turn!! We would love to see your interpretation of this month's challenge "My Favorite Things"! Whether it's a project using your "favorite" materials or it's about your "favorite" things; if you love it and it's your "favorite" share it!!

This month we are fortunate to have the talented Donna Salazar sharing her wonderful products with us as well as Couture Creations. Each has sent a beautiful assortment of items for our challenge winners.

The Main Prize is sponsored by: Donna Salazar, http://donnasalazar.typepad.com/, and she even autographed it!  How cool is that!!

Donna Salazar is a wife, mom, grandma, artist, designer, teacher and kid at heart. Her playful nature tends to come across in her products and classes because she believes that art should be fun. Donna is known for blending contrasting elements to create what she calls her “Girlie Grunge” look. Donna's style is especially appealing to mixed media artists, however her love of flowers and all things sparkly seems to appeal to crafters of all types and styles. 

Donna is a licensed designer and has product lines with 5 different companies: Clearsnap, GCD Studios, Spellbinders, Want2Scrap and Zutter. Donna offers free video tutorials, e-classes and a LIVE webshow, called Tuesday Tutorials, where she gives away lots of prizes from her partner companies and/or original artwork created during the show!

Random Prize:

Couture Creations

http://couturecreations.com.au

An Australian owned and loved brand, Couture Creations is the culmination of 20 years experience in the scrapbooking industry. From its final inception in 2010, Couture Creations has been devoted to producing expertly designed, high quality products overseen by veteran designers and crafters for a result that is both simple and elegant.

Couture Creations is part of Artdeco Creations growing collection of quality craft brands available worldwide. Distributed through a network of the best industry representatives in scrapbooking and craft internationally, Artdeco Creations has the ability to test and meet global expectations for quality and precision beyond local trends and markets.

Also included in the Random Winner Prize Pack is this 6x6 paper pack from Donna Salazar:

You have until the 30th June.

Layout and Card

Hello Everyone

Happy Friday! I am sure that you are looking forward to the weekend, as much as I am! Roll on weekend!

I hope you have been checking all the wonderful projects for May. There has really been some super inspiration from the DT.

Denise here today, I have a page and a card to share with you. Let's start with my layout.

This page is about me and only "Denise".  This is not about me the mother of Joe, or the wife to Johann, this is just about me! Sometimes I have to remind myself that there is a Denise and not just a mother and wife, and that Denise needs to exist also. So this page is to remind me to care for myself too, because if I don't nurture myself, then I will almost certainly just fade away! Do you sometimes feel like that too?

I used the beautiful trim from May Arts, it really is so versatile.

I really experimented with my background and first applied a thin layer of gesso. Then I stuck down some of the wonderful oldsie pages from the Zeus and Zoe kit, and then spritzed with 3 different colours over it. On top of that I threw course salt and allowed it all to dry.  Once dry, I removed all the salt and was left with a wonderful palette to work with. Maybe give this a try sometime...

For my second little project, I created a card using Couture Creations.

I used an embossing folder as well as a diecut. Here is a close-up for good measure.

Thanks for joining me today and don't forget to enter the May Challenge for your chance to win prizes from May Arts and Couture Creations!

Have a great Friday and weekend!!