AC Bailey National Scrapbooking Day Blog Hop Stop

Just feast your eyes on the ACBailey Goodies Kit of the Month for May and Welcome to AC Bailey's FIRST ever blog hop! Do we have a treat for YOU! This is an awesome opportunity for you to meet all the AC Bailey Design Team members, learn lots of (hopefully) new ideas and techniques, gain some inspiration and maybe even win some prizes along the way! Here is how this works, if you are already on my site via a link you already know this, but for those of you popping in here mid-stream, let me explain.
The FIRST post or START to this Blog Hop is on the AC Bailey blog . There you will find the instructions, along with all the "fine print" details. Starting with that post, proceed to the next DT member's blog whose link will be at the end of the post. Be sure to leave a comment on each blog you visit, because at every site there will be a random name drawn from all who post and one lucky gal on EACH blog will win a SUPER prize. Once you have visited the designer's blog , click on the link in her post to take you to the next designer and so on and so on. Then, when you are finished visiting all the blogs, maybe learning a new technique or two, and you want to win even more prizes, create a layout or project using three or more of the ideas you saw demo'd on the blogs and post that layout in the gallery in the NSD layout folder (under Scrap Stimulus Contest) section and then post how much fun you had and a link to your layout on the special NSD thread in the Scrap Stimulus Contest section of the forum! We will then draw one lucky winner form all those posting qualifying layouts and THAT lucky "rabbit" will win that gorgeous May AC Bailey Goodies KOTM, which has Marks Paper, Chatterbox, Prima Butterflies and Flower, and Maya Road ribbons - plus more !! It COULD be you, all you need to do is PLAY! It is a lot easier than this sound, try it! You will enjoy it and don't worry- we will have instructions for you all the way through this and we will be available off and on all weekend on the forum so if you get stuck yell out and we can help you-easy and FUN - and PRIZES! What more could you ask for??? Layouts and project needs to be uploaded to the AC Bailey site by midnight May 3rd.

First, a bit about me.. My name is Dee and I have been a member of the Design Team since September of 2008. I live on beautiful Long Island, in New York. In "real life" I am a counselor and college professor, but the job I love most is being on the Design Team. It's wonderful being a included in such a fun and talented bunch of ladies. I have been a member of the AC Bailey forum since June of 2007 and I became a Consultant in August 2008, leaving a previous company because AC Bailey was so fantastic I had to be part of it. I love the forum - it is chock full of wonderful ideas, support, great gals and fun without the drama of many scrapbooking forums out there. The products that are selected for the e-store are the latest and greatest and every first of the month is FREE shipping day - just doesn't get better than that! Since I love to alter, I adore the Kaiser products although there has probably never been a paper line that I didn't love, love BoBunny...oh! and I love Stickles....and Prima flowers....I could go on and on!

I recently got into Ranger Distress paints - at first because I always need to have all the new stuff, but then because I just loved using it. Using paint is a great way to frame a photo , tone down a busy background paper, and custom color your chipboard alphas, especially if you have different colors. I am showing you two layouts because after I put one together, thinking I could kill two birds with one stone, it seemed to be overkill with Distressed Alphas alongside the Distress Paint, so I pulled the photos off and created another using the same design but then, I hated to waste that yummy October Afternoon paper, so I improvised and created another layout changing the design just enough :). One of the very cool things with the Distress Paint is that it crackles when it dries leaving a really nice dimensional distressed crackled finish. On the first layout, "Aunt J" I painted the chipboard with pink and when dry I painted them again with yellow - after the paint crackled, you could see the pink though the cracks. The thicker you apply the paint, the more cracks you will get! A wonderful way to add dimension to your layouts! This is a layout of my daughter Jami with her nieces and nephews.....I used Basic Grey Urban Prairie papers and die cuts, along with some matching chipboard and undressed alphas. I blinged up the butterflies with Stickles and also used the Fiskars Threading Water punch to create a scalloped edge on one of the papers. On the second layout, I used the Distress Crackle Paint as a frame - this is a great way to be able to use patterned paper as a background and give the page dimension too. On the second layout I used paint as part of the background color - this can give your page some dimension and interest and is a great way to be able to use a really patterned paper for your background without losing your photo. Sometimes paint can buckle your paper a bit, but all you need to do is mist the back of the paper with plain water and cover with a heavy object and let it dry - paper will come out smooth as the day you bought it. I also used ink over this paint when it dried to really accentuate the cracks. You can use ink that is the same color as the paint or can used a coordinating color and change the look completely!
This second layout, Tri Swim is a photo of another one of my daughters coming out of the water after doing the swim leg of a
Triathlon. This layout didn't come out too badly considering I basically tore it to pieces and salvaged it and by adding the circle and a vertical photo, you hardly even know it is virtually the same design!
I'm hoping that you'll take some time and try using some Distress Paints when you design your next layout - it's alot of fun and easy to do and very rewarding as you watch the paint dry and crackle before your eyes! Thanks for visiting my blog. I hope you enjoyed learning a bit about Distress Paint and will stop by often. I'd love for you to hop on over to my friend Connie's blog and see what she's got going on over there. Don't forget to post a comment here first so I know you were here and you'll be eligible for the drawing.
Just click the link http://craftygoodies.blogspot.com/
Happy National Scrapbooking Day!!