Guest designer for April: Tracey Sabella

I am so excited to be here as Zeus and Zoe's first Guest Designer. I was delighted to receive the amazing package of delightful trims, embellishments and paper crafting products to work with. I'll share a little about myself and then my projects.

I've been married to my wonderful husband, Gary, for 30 years. We have four wonderful children and with two recent weddings are happy to see our family grow. I started scrapbooking in 2007, and it didn't take long for me to realize that I had found an amazing creative outlet. I love to learn new techniques and have fun sharing what I learn on my blog, Garden of Grace. As you will see in the projects I've created for you today, I enjoy deconstructing and giving items a fresh "new" look. 

My first project to share with you today is for our Zeus and Zoe April challenge, "Life as it Is Now," about me as an individual. One more thing - buttons are a requirement. Be sure to check out the Zeus and Zoe Etsy Shop for fabulous buttons and more. For all the challenge details and rules check out Sandi's challenge here.

"Best of Days"

This page represents my changing role in life. I home educated for 19 years until our youngest entered our local high school for her final two years. She graduates next month. Our children are stepping out and creating lives of their own. You could say my life has changed dramatically over the past two years. I've chosen to embrace the change. No moping empty nester here. I've hand written my thoughts about these changes on a tag attached to the back of my layout. The photo was taken at our daughter's wedding last October, and the butterflies represent the wings of change. 

A package of Prima Ruby Violet trinkets including a flower was included in my package. The star focal flower of this layout was created by pulling that flower apart. I painted the fabric portion and tucked a smaller Prima flower into the center. I rubbed with distress ink to achieve the vintage look. I placed Zeus and Zoe buttons here and there into my clusters. The other smaller flowers are from my stash. 

Moving to the other corner of the photo you can see the fabulous battenburg lace doily is the one thing I left untouched, allowing this gorgeous white lace to frame my photo. One of my goodies was a selection of vintage lace pieces. These two sweet butterflies were bright orange. I simply gessoed and inked them and adore how sweet they look "fluttering" on both ends of this cluster. The background leaves were stenciled using molding paste and a Dylusions stencil. 

When I saw this gorgeous medallion, it begged a prominent place on my page. Of course I did a bit of altering. It started out with a glittery hot pink resin center and coordinating heart dangle. I adored the large clear crystal and left it in place. The heart was replaced with the butterfly while the center was painted with Lumiere paint and dotted with little beads from my stash. 

I happened to have a perfect stencil in my stash used to add molding paste behind the medallion. Once dry, I misted with the Lindsy's Stamp Gang Aloha Avocado mist included in my package. I let it pool and drip down the page. Finally, I inked the molding paste with distress inks for more depth. 

Aren't these lace pieces simply gorgeous?? They started life in bold bright colors which masked the gorgeous design. A couple coats of gesso and some inking brought out their amazing beauty. I also touched the brown lace and daisy with a bit of gesso. The little metal butterfly beads were alcohol inked with several shades of green and gold. The two chipboard butterflies are from my stash and brushed with Lumiere paint. 

One more close-up of the clusters around this photo of "Me." The larger metal butterfly charm in the corner is also from my package.

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My second project to share with you is a card I created for my sister. She has been dreaming of owning her own home and has held on to her hope and faith as she saw several deal fall through after being told her offers had been accepted. This time it looks like the deal will go through and this will be the card included with her house warming gift. 

"Hope Is the Thing"

Close-Ups:

I deconstructed the May Arts Velvet Ribbon with Crochet Lace. The velvet created a gorgeous base for my layered flower, and the lace looks so pretty here. The pink resin rose and chandelier beads came glued and wired together as a single flower. Now separated, I used the wire to attach and dangle the beads and placed the resin piece in my flower cluster after highlighting the edges with a bit of metallic brown paint.

This view shows off the gorgeous lace flower. In addition to the gesso and inking, I added some sparkly seed beads to the center.

The gold cording had been woven into a lace with blue sequins. You guessed it. I pulled it apart and tied on these sweet tree charms that I altered by dabbing on brown metallic paint. The daisy stick pin was also dabbed with paint. The layered flower was created with a variety of Zeus and Zoe pieces - all but the inked paper daisy layer.

My package included this fabulous TPC Vintage Birdcage stamp set. The sentiment couldn't be more perfect to describe the enduring hope my sister has embraced on this journey to find a home. I used Truffle Mixed Media Inx to stamp and heat emboss with clear embossing powder, then fussy cut around the image. I colored by spritzing with the Lindsy's Stamp Gang mist and a bit of distress ink on the edges. The bird and cage were also part of this set. I stamped and heat embossed these images onto watercolor paper then lightly inked over the white background and fussy cut.

Nearly all the products used on this card are from Zeus and Zoe, such a great source of gorgeous and unique products!

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Here are the amazing prizes up for grabs when you link your project about you in the upper right side bar. Don't forget to read the "Life as it Is Now" Challenge details and rules here.

The winner of this challenge will receive this fabulous prize package sponsored by Zeus and Zoe. As  you can see it is full of amazing products from an entire set of Lindsey's Stamp Gang Magicals to flowers, buttons, stick pins, stamps and more.

And a random winner will be selected to win this lovely May Arts lace and ribbon:

I hope I've inspired you to take on the challenge of creating a project about yourself. I know we're usually the one behind the camera, but each of you have a special story to tell about where you are in life, and I'd love to see those stories told here.

Have a wonderful day creating memories that will last!