Paper Secrets 3

Good day,

Another layout for the challenge over at Paper Secrets.  As you know I am entering a contest over there and each week we are given an assignment for a layout.  I really don't care if I win the contest, it's just helping me to do more layouts that I should have done a long time ago.  If you participate and follow the guidelines you advance to the next week.  We started with 27 and 22 moved onto this week.  I will keep updating you as I go along.  Who knows, I might not be able to participate one week and then I am out, but until then, I am scrapping my butt off, (they used a different word, but my blog is family friendly...hehehe).

This week's sketch:

We were to use 5 of the following 10 items
ribbon
glitter/stickles/microbeads
3+flowers
rubons
3+ photo corners
border punch
stamping
altered or raw chipboard
mist
bling or pearls

These are pictures of  me and Bella when I went and stayed with my DD and family for 3 weeks in Colorado after she was born.  She was 2 weeks old in these pictures.  I swear she was smiling in that picture.  Let me know what you think of my layout.  I love comments.

Oh wait, tomorrow is a start of a special three day post, make sure you come back.  There might even be blog candy involved.

Bathroom Accessories

Good Morning all-

This is just a quick post showing some vinyl work.  My hubby bought this water pitcher and bowl for me a long time ago and I just love it.  My bathroom is accessorized in blue and it fit just perfect.  I used to have some soap and toothbrush holders, but they were made of plastic and got to be really yucky.  Last week one day I was at my favorite store...(the Dollar Tree) and I found this soap dispenser and toothbrush holder that matched the light blue of my water pitcher...WOWzer.  They were just plain so this is what I did to dress them up. 

I cut the rose in SCAL out of vinyl and layered the pieces onto the accessories and now I have an almost perfect matching set.  It really looks better in real life, but use your imagination.  And all of this for $3...ha.

Thanks for looking and remember, I do like comments.  If you are having a hard time leaving one, with blogger's issues lately.  Try not staying signed into blogger.  You can also sign in with your name and URL, I know that has worked for me on other blogs.  Or just post as anonymous but put your name somewhere in the comment with your blog addy so I can come and say "hi" back.

Have a great day!!!

Simply Sundays "Banners and Pennants"

Good day everyone,

***if you are looking for my Lasting Memories post, please scroll down***

So how is everyone this beautiful Sunday? I am in such a great mood today...let me tell you why. Most of you know that I have been on the Getting Cricky Design Team along with Kathy, but as of last week I am now Kristal's DT-Coordinator. Now you may ask, what is that? Well, I really don't know...hahaha. Just kidding!!! I help her with some of her decision making like: WE HAVE A FULL DESIGN TEAM NOW

Here is a line up of all the girls:





I am so pleased with our selection, (although Kristal did make the final decision, I just gave suggestions).  Please, when you get a chance, go visit each one of them and maybe give a congratulations to them.  Most of them have already worked very hard.  We split the group in half and every other week they will rotate out.    As you know, Kristal has one of the best and most generous blogs around and we are so fortunate to be working with her.  Thanks Kristal for all you do...
Okay, so now onto my project...let me first tell you that I am way out of my league with these girls now!  The one perk of being the DT-Coordinator is that I get to see all of their entries before anyone else does and as I do really like my project, these girls put me to shame...seriously.

I made a photo holder for my hubby's desk at work for Father's Day...only he already saw it and already wants to take it to work now.  Guess I have to figure something else out for him...
I purchased these photo holder cubes at Michaels in the dollar bin.  I didn't really care for the yellow acrylic, but I knew I could alter it...paint.

I painted both of the cubes in a dark brown acrylic.  I also painted the silver metal springs to make it a bit aged looking.  I did have to give the cubes a 2nd coat though.

These are the banner pieces.  If you missed my post on how I made them you can see it here.  I did take out the brads and used twine I made myself to look like baker's twine.

Here is a short tutorial on how I made the faux baker's twine, but you can see how Lindsay over at Thefrugalcrafter made it.  I love learning from her.
First, tape your twine onto a piece of chipboard.

Then I used my Bic markers to color the twine.

Easy and I can make as much or as little as I need.  It may not be the real thing, but honestly, do you think hubby cares that I didn't use real baker's twine?

After all the altering, making and tying this is what all these little pieces together make:

Now, my plan is to take a picture of all three of our kids, if I can get them all to the house at one time and sit still for 5 minutes, and place it between the two clips and hubby will have a great photo holder.

I hope I've inspired you to not only make a banner, but make one completely from scratch.  Make your own embellishments to go along with your creation.

Please make sure you go over to Getting Cricky and link up with your own banner. 

Also, remember, Kristal will be showcasing her new Stamp Designs this Thursday.  Please come back here to get a preview or over to her site.  One of the other perks of being her Design Team Coordinator is that I get to see most everything before anyone else does and I am so over the top thrilled with how they turned out.  She did an amazing job.  Now, I am ordering all of them and I might even have a give away on preview day...hmmmm.  Does that intrigue you?

Lasting Memories Challenge #40 "Paper Piecing"

Good morning and welcome to another Lasting Memories challenge.  It's all about Paper Piecing!!!  Now I actually do alot of paper piecing in my cards and layouts, so this was a no brainer...the only problem I had was which pictures to scrap.  Hehehe.  Since Miss Bella has come into my life I can't get enough of taking pictures.  I bet I already have more pictures of her than I do of all thjree of my kids.  I love being a grandma...(well, oma to her.  Which by the way she still won't say.  I don't think she's ever gonna call me that!!!)  Anyway...we've had such icky weather here...definately not been a good spring.  One day it's 78 degrees, the next day it's raining and cold.  We did have a couple of nice days a couple of weeks ago and decided to take in some ball playing with the dog.  Bella loves throwing the ball for Sandi, but she just can't throw it far enough yet.  Then they both look at the ball wondering who's gonna get it...

So I took these pictures in the front yard of the two of them playing.  It's very rare that I scrap my dog and I am glad I had these to work with.

I had won this Dog cut file and I can't even tell you where, so if it looks familiar or it's yours, please let me know and I will for sure post a link.  I have got to start writing this stuff down...oh yeah, I am working on another project to help me remember these sort of things...hehehe, but that's for another day.  Back to where I was going with the original thought.  I inked around all the pieces and dotted some spots to his nose.  Then I welded a bunch of bones together in SCAL and created the frame.  I also cut the bones out individually and popdotted them onto the frame for dimension after inking the edges.  Love it...

I also cut the title out using the Child's Year cartridge and the "play" word.  I used the regular font to cut "ball" and added glitter to match the background paper. 

The next picture I just matted onto some black cardstock and added a swirly of glitter to that also.

Now the fun part of this layout:  The butterflies I cut using the Gypsy Wanderings file and a tutorial Penny Duncan showed.  First I cut three of them out of cardstock and then I cut three out of the cart clear packaging.  I love recycling items and this was so awesome.  I used my deepcut blade and mulitcut it 3 times.  I probably could have done 4 or 5 as I did have to use my exacto knife a couple of times for minor cuts.  I then used my alcohol inks in Stream, Eggplant and Wild Plum and inked the clear packaging.  This was a really cool affect.  I used my Martha Stewart Score board and scored along the body on each side so that the wings popped up a bit.  I colored my rhinestones with my Bic markers to match and then used my glue dots to adhere them to the body of the butterflies.  I then glued the clear bodies to the paper cuts and viola...flying butterflies.  I just love how much dimension they add to the page.

I really love the look of these butterflies. 
They look nice in the pictures, but honestly in real life they look MARVELOUS!!!

I really hope I've given you some inspiration to creating a layout with paper piecing.  It is one of my favorite techniques and I can't wait to see what you come up with.  Head on over to Lasting Memories and link up for a chance to be either featured or make the Top 3.  It's so much fun creating your scrapbook pages.  Also, everyone is so super talented over there, so check out some of the other designers and get more inspiration.

Don't forget to come back this afternoon for Simply Sundays challenge at Getting Cricky for another post.  I can't wait to share that with you either.

Bottle Swap Hop

Good morning crafters

Today I was supposed to participate in a Bottle Swap Hop, but not enough ladies wanted to participate.  The idea came from Tanya  for this bottle swap and I know she posted something yesterday, so please go over there and check out her creation. So now you may be asking what is a bottle swap, well I will tell you...hehehehe, basically what you do is fill a 1 liter bottle with embellishments, stash products that you no longer want or need.  Here is the bottle I sent and its contents:

Just cut a door in your bottle leaving one side attached yet...fill your bottle and then tape it shut.  I then put the label directly over the door part as a second seal and I also taped around the lid.  The girl at the post office did look at me kinda strange, but didn't ask too many questions.  Hey, it's kinda recycling in a way...hahaha.  My bottle went to Christy and I don't believe she posted anything from the bottle swap but you might find some other interesting things over there.

This is what I received in the swap:

Anyway, we then decided to make a few things from items in our bottle swap and have a hop.  Sounded like fun to me but again, we didn't have enough participants, but here is what I did:

Okay, I have had a real hectic last couple of weeks and it doesn't look like it is slowing down anytime soon either.  I am not complaining, (well maybe just a little, I did have a revelation last night though, so things are looking up a bit), I just need to slow down a little and quit saying "YES" to everyone...but I don't think "NO" is in my vocabulary.  Hahaha, I can type it though, just can't say it.  Tanya did spoil me though, I got a lot of cool things:  a really cool piece of fabric, some twine, stickers, glue, keys, 3D sticker people, a mothergoose stamp.  I hope I didn't forget anything and then the ultimate best item in my box (yes, she sent a box because the stamp would not have fit in the bottle) this awesome iron on crown:

I knew immediately I wanted to use it for something for Miss Bella...do you think it's been all about Miss Bella lately?  Sure seems like I either scrap, blog or just do for her alot.  Hey, she is my first granddaughter, I better be able to spoil her.  Anyway, back to my project.  A couple of weeks ago my DD and I went rummage saling...love rummaging because you can find all kinds of things to repurpose or whatever...I am always looking to redo something.  I found one of those childrens canvas chairs and it was PINK, yeah!!!  I bought it for $1, not bad huh?  It was in great condition, no tears or stains.  Well, Miss Bella needs a chair for when we go camping this summer...hahaha.  Immediately I thought of that crown I had gotten in my swap.  Then online I went to buy some iron on vinyl.  I got some off of ebay, but I'm not sure it was the best priced but I wanted it NOW and didn't have time to do much research.  So, if any of you use iron on vinyl and you can tell me where the best priced stuff is, please email me or leave me a message in the comments section.  Thank you in advance. 

So I used my SCAL and cut the iron on vinyl with Bella's name in the baby pirate font.  I love this font...I am waiting for some black iron on vinyl to finish the name, but this will do for now.  I cut it at 8 inches by 1.84 inches.  DO NOT forget that when you cut iron on vinyl you mirror image your words, otherwise it will be backwards...here is a screen shot:

I then ironed it onto the canvas chair and I am so pleased with it. 

Miss Bella loves her chair also, eventhough you can't tell by the look on her face...

So the total cost for this personalized chair was $6.00, I love frugal. 

I hope you enjoyed my creation though

Downer and Getting Cricky uplifting

Good evening,


Disclaimer:  if you have no desire to hear me whine, DO NOT read this!!!  You've been warned
Do you ever have one of those days where you just feel so down? You don't really have a reason but you feel somewhat amiss? I've been having those days alot lately. My DD and her family have finally moved out after what was supposed to be two months that turned into seven. Now, before I go on, I have to admit I was the one that wanted them to move back from Colorado. I missed seeing my granddaughter grow up and I did miss my DD terribly. We had our ups and downs when she was a teenager, like every mother and daughter do. There were times where I wished she wasn't here, (such a bad thought), but it's the truth. There were times when I just didn't want to hear her complaining or whining or just being downright hurtful but, she was my daughter afterall and we, as mothers, are suppose to love unconditionally, right? Ugh, I remember times when we would have an argument and I would hear some hurtful things come out of her mouth...I would just break down and cry. Asking God why she was so mean and never got an answer, or at least I didn't think I got one. I would call my own mother and ask her "did I ever treat you that way?" She assured me that I may not have said or done those particular things, but that I had had my own bad times...Really? I guess we don't see our own faults most of the time.When she left home after graduation I was somewhat relieved to see her go. I figured time apart would do us some good...after all she was only moving across the State, not more than six hours away. I could go visit or she could come here for long weekends. After about eight months and a handful of visits, she decided to move to Colorado for whatever reason. Ugh, that was ssooo far away and it hurt. We had begun to build a "friendship" rather than a mother/daughter relationship and I was happy with the time we spent together. Now she was moving 16 hours away and I couldn't just say, "I'm coming out for the weekend, or do you wanna come home for such and such holiday?." While she was out in Colorado she met her now husband. They came once for a visit and he seemed like a nice enough guy.  I didn't know much about him, but if she loved him that was good enough for me.  We talked for hours on the phone, texted back and forth or sent email to each other and again, our "friendship" seemed to grow more and more.  When she called me the day before Mother's day to tell me that I was going to be a grandma I broke.  She was so young, but what was done was done.  I told her that of all things, she DID NOT have to get married because she was pregnant!  She assured me that was not part of her plan.  This was unexpectant, but marriage was not in her vocabulary.  A few days later she called to tell me that Mike had proposed and she accepted.  Ugh, didn't I just say that you DIDN'T have to get married?  Mike called us the next day and told us that he had already bought the ring and was going to propose when they came home for her dad's birthday the following month...Well, ok then, but wait...make it a long engagement, make sure this is really what you guys want and not just for the baby.  Don't get married before the baby, let's have a real wedding, etc.  And they did...Miss Bella was born on December 31st of 2009 and they got married June 26th of 2010.  Wow, almost a year already...This past October my DD had come home with her family to surprise me for my birthday...again, we were still "friends".  I was so elated and surprised.  I couldn't believe they would want to make that 16 hour drive for a couple of days.  When it was time to go, she asked if I would like for them to move back to S. Dakota...well, duh, what do you think?  So we made plans to help them move back here.  Shortly before Thanksgiving she and Miss Bella came and her husband came shortly before Christmas.  The plan was she was going to look for work and they should have their own place by February.  Her husband got a job transfer here and was promised all sorts of things...too bad those promises weren't kept.  Well, when you put two families in one house, you can imagine, if you haven't gone through it yourself, that times can become strained.  Tempers can flair and our "friendship" went out the window.  The last few months have been a strain on the entire family, theirs and ours.  Moving day finally came and I was soooo happy.  I wanted to dance in the street...so why am I so down?  You tell me...I've been looking for that answer everywhere, so if you can put your finger on it, I would truly love to hear it. 

Tonight I needed to finish up some blog work and jumped over to Getting Cricky just to see if she had blogged today.  I do go over there every day at least once, but I hadn't had a chance all day.  Well...she had the most inspirational message out there...I swear she hears me when I am not even talking to her.  She and I talk quite a bit, but she has no idea that I am feeling like this right now.  The following is just a small exert from her post, but it is exactly what I needed to hear:

Pulled from Getting Cricky:  "Getting lots of things, a new house, a new car, the best phone, every craft supply you can think of....none of it will make you happy until you SERVE others and awaken your heart. Take 5 minutes. Find a mirror and look very deeply at yourself. Go ahead, your brain will tell you--look at this...you are so fat, you are so old, your nose is crooked, if only you go back to the GLORY days.


NOW...open your heart. Say to your BRAIN. Thes are the GLORY days--THESE are the best days of my Life. I will never be younger, smarter, or better than I am right now. I'm taking control now. Say to your heart: MY HEART...I'm sorry I've let you go dormant. NO more my precious heart, ARISE my dear heart, AWAKEN, and LEAD me. You will feel a tingle--that is your heart awakening.

Then say a prayer asking God to show you favor, to awaken your heart, to expand your boundaries and you will use it ALL to God's glory, and then ask him to open your eyes. Open my eyes Lord to the speed of Life. Open my eyes Lord to see others in my life who need my SERVICE. Help me to SERVE today Lord, and stir my heart.

Take note; today will be very different my precious friend. The old days are over; the new days are here. Your heart is awakening, and Life is going to look a little different when you step outside, look around, and notice others and ways to serve.

Be fore-warned--it will not be easy. There are many who will not appreicate your service, but there are many that will. Make it in YOUR heart to do this for YOU, for your precious heavenly Father."

Now she is also giving away some blog candy, but please don't just go over there to try to win it, go there to read her words and absorb them.  I think she might just be that angel sent to watch over us ... or just me...hehehehe

Now I don't know exactly what I am going to do yet, but it will come to me.  He has a plan for me and when it comes I will know.  Please go over to Kristal's blog if you haven't yet and leave her some love.  She helps so many without even knowing it...I am so glad that I found her.  Actually I truly believe she was sent to me somehow.  There are many things you don't know about me and this is just a tiny fraction of my heart on my sleeve, but I just needed to divulge.  I'm sorry if I bored you, or if you think I am throwing myself a pity party.  Actually, this is more of a healing for me.  Thanks to those of you that stayed with me this long and I hope I have not lost face with you.

Festive Friday 5-27

Good Morning all -

Welcome to another edition of Festive Fridays. If you are new to us, sit back, grab a cup of coffee, relax and enjoy some wonderful Christmas Cards. Yes, I did say Christmas...Festive Fridays will be every other Friday with samples of Christmas cards. This way, you can be making your cards all year long and you will avoid the mad rush when you could be enjoying the Christmas Season. You should have just come from Debbie. If you stumbled upon this post you can go back to Terri and start at the beginning. There is also a complete list of the Festive Friday hop on the left sidebar under the Festive Fridays blinkie in case you get lost along the way.

This week I am featuring a super simple 5 x 5 card.  I love making these gate cards.

I cut a swirly christmas tree in my SCAL at 4.75 high out of chipboard.  Then I adhered this gorgeous green paper to both sides and glued half of it to the left side of the card.  I just love this paper, don't you?  I did ink around it in dark green to give it some dimension.  I also created alot of layers to the front.  I stamped the sentiment to the top left corner and added some bling to the top right.  I'm not sure why the picture isn't that good, but the rhinestones are very green.

The inside has also alot of layers also.  I used the same green paper as the tree and added a lot of blocked layers.  The sentiment came in a pack of papers and cutouts.  I like how it all came together very easily.  I left a journaling block on the bottom so that I can write a personal note and also layered it.

Very easy, peasy, but it works well if you need alot of them fast.

Blogger was being a bugger last time we had Festive Friday's so if you missed my card from last time, you can view the post here and this is a preview of the card.  This is my favorite card so far and I have been commissioned to do a pack of 10...wow!!!  I better get going on them, hehehehe.

Well, your next stop is Angela and I hope that I have inspired you a little to start making some Christmas cards.  I will see you back here in 2 weeks for some more.

PaperClay "Make your own embellishment"

Good morning

As you know I am a designer over at Creative Paperclay and loving it.  It's so much fun to create your own embellishments for your scrapbooking or card making.  I needed some banner style embellishments for a card I am making for my dad for father's day.  I know you can buy stickers and chipboard items, but why buy them when you can make your own.  Again, this was so much fun to make and I already have a few more ideas for next time.

Okay, so this is how I started:

I used a cookie cutter I got from Michaels in a multi pack and cut the triangles out. 

Kinda reminds me of making sugar cookies...hmmm, nummy.

I forgot to take a picture of piercing the holes in the corners of the triangles. 

I used an awl, but you could use a pin or a paperpiercer also.  Just make sure you make the

holes big enough for whatever you are going to insert into them. 

Then I used a damp towel and gave the clay pieces a little texture. 

I want these pieces to look a bit antiqued.

I used some walnut ink to antique the paperclay pieces once they were dry. 

It took about 2 days for them to dry, but I blame that on the humidity we are having here.

I just dabbed it directly onto the paperclay piece and then used a rag to wipe it off a bit.

See, already looking antiqued

Here is a closeup of one of the paperclay pieces.

See how it looks like leather?

I inserted copper colored brads into the holes and snipped the ends off,

because the extended past the edges.

I added some dimensional letter stickers to the paperclay and

there are my very own embellishments for a card.

I hope you liked my tutorial and can't wait to see you here again in about 3 weeks for another Creative Paperclay idea.  Remember, you can purchase Creative Paperclay at Michaels, Joanne's or even online here.

Paper Scraps 2

Good morning

Here is my layout for the PaperSecrets challenge that I am in.  Each week we get a new challenge and if you submit a layout you continue onto the next week.  The last person that's still in gets a prize.  I don't even know or care what the prize is, I am just having fun doing these layouts.  So far they have been about sketches.  I'm not much of a sketch person, or I should say I haven't been a fan of them, but I am having a blast.  It really gets me to think...and it also gets me to do some more layouts.
Here is the sketch:

Here is my layout:

We had to use 5 of the 10 things listed:
tape
3+buttons
3+flowers
rubons
3+ photo corners
3+brads

stamping

altered or raw chipboard

mist

dry or heat embossing

and this is what I used:

Chipboard altered for word "Oma"

rubons - butterflies

embossed - DID IT!

flowers
Misted the tag

Lasting Memories Challenge #39 "We're Going Floral"

Happy Sunday

My favorite day of the week for sure.  Today I am back with another layout for Lasting Memories.  I so totally love being on their Design Team and everyone is so helpful and inspirational.  This week our theme is "We're Going Floral".  Well I have to say that I am a bit sick of flowers lately, hehehe.  I think I've done about 4 or 5 layouts now that have had nothing but flowers in them and I really didn't think I could do another one...but this challenge called for em.  Whether you choose to use flowers ON your layout or use a garden photo, it's up to you as long as we see flowers, is what the challenge criterias are.  I went through my folder of  pictures that I have wanted to scrap and found these.  Now, I really didn't have a floral layout planned for these pictures, but this is what I came up with.  I hope my son doesn't think it's too girlie.  LOL

I also entered this layout in a challenge over at Paper Secrets called "Scrap Your Ass Off".  Now the reason for this challenge is to do 1 layout a week for however long it lasts.  If you do NOT participate 1 week, you are OUT of the challenges.  The last person to be left wins a prize.  Now, I am totally hoping to keep participating and even if I don't WIN, I've gotten some of my pages done at least.  I don't think I will be doing my layouts for multiple challenges, but this week it just fit, and it called for flowers too.  Hehehe

The challenge was a sketch

plus these items

ribbon 

3+buttons

3+flowers

rubons

3+ photo corners

3+brads

stamping

altered or raw chipboard

mist

dry or heat embossing

Wow, huh?  Well, it was a challenge for sure.  I hope you've felt a bit inspired by all of this and hope to see you again next Sunday.  Remember, next Sunday is also a new Simply Sunday challenge at Getting Cricky.  I can't wait to SHOW off what I made as inspiration...it's sooooo cool.