Welcome to Swirlydoos' January Blog Hop Block Party!!

Happy New Year and welcome to Swirlydoos January Kit Reveal Blog Hop BLOCK PARTY!!! If you came here from Lisa Gregory's blog, then you are on the right track. If not, go back to Swirlydoos' blog and start from there. We have some amazing projects for you to see today and as a bonus we have 4 manufacturer blogs that are joining in the fun!! There are 5 prize packs up for grabs so make sure to follow along and have fun!!?

I have three layouts to share with you today for the Mystical Winter kit.

Here is the first one, based on this month's sketch:

"All That Glitters is Snow"

(Photo of me and my daughter)

I distressed the background paper with my fingernail- I find that I have a lot more control than with an edge distresser. I matted the photo using two pieces of white paper that I cut in a wavy pattern, then distressed and finished it off with some gray chalk ink.

"Sledding Beauties"

(Photo of my mother-in-law and her sister)

I was so excited to get my hands on this photo that sits on the dresser in my in-laws' guest bedroom- it is so sweet, and goes perfectly with the Bo Bunny papers in the kit.

I started out by heavily distressing the background paper, then using distress inks around the rips and tears, then I randomly stamped snowflakes using the stamp set that comes in the main kit. The brown border on the blue paper is cut from the Tim Holtz Vintage Lace die. I sewed it on the paper for added dimension. The white snowflakes are Dusty Attic that I painted, then dusted with Fairy Dust Glitter. Here's a close-up:

"Wonderland"

(Photo of my and my son)
I created this layout as an example for the Swirlyhues challenge. I had a lot of fun with these colors, but it was challenging not to add more shades of blue! In fact, at first I sprayed the doily with "Midnight Blue" Glimmer Mist that came in the "Bling" add on kit, but it was too light. I saved it by remisting it with "Bell Bottom Jeans" GM, and it matched perfectly! For the punched background, I used a Martha Stewart punch, then matted it on white paper. For added dimension, I then took scissors to the edge of the white paper and "dipped in" to make it curve around the snowflakes. I lightly touched the brown blooms with white paint. Here's a close up:

You have until midnight, eastern time, on January 15th to complete the hop. In order to qualify to win here is what you need to do:

1: Visit all of the blogs and leave a comment on each. This way we know you were there. Become a follower if you're not already. Take your time. There are beautiful things to see along the way.

2: Before you leave each blog, look for the “special” words and write it down.

Once you have visited all the blogs and collected all the special words, they will create a sentence.

3: Finally, go back here to the Swirlydoos blog and leave a comment letting us know how much fun you had AND tell us the sentence that was created with all of the special words you collected.

My special word is "themselves".

The party continues over at Paulien's blog. Have fun!