A Charming Paper Journey

Tattered TV Tonight!

2012-01-11T13:00:00.001-08:00

Here’s a sneak peek at one of the techniques used in my Tattered TV Educator Style show tonight (1/11/12) at 6:00 p.m. PST. I'll be using Tattered Angels and Prima products to make this mini album.

Just go to Tattered TV and be sure to login to Ustream so you can chat with us live too. If you missed the live show, it's recorded. And speaking of Tattered Angels….Who’s Jane?!

Playing with Glimmer Mist

2011-12-30T19:21:00.000-08:00

CHA is coming up next month, so I’ve been playing and experimenting with Tattered Angels products! I love to just play and make new discoveries (new to me anyway…I don’t get to surf the web much so maybe someone else has made the same discovery!) Usually, my discoveries are made through trial and error…something I intended to go one way and it went in a different direction and I think….hmmmm I kinda like that! One of these discoveries, I’m saving to use on a CHA project, but here’s a fun one I discovered while just “playing” because I was waiting for something to dry (which happened to be that other discovery I mentioned).

Here are the results of my play session.

Embossing using a stamp instead of a file folder. I don’t know which color glimmer mists I used because I was just playing and grabbed what was around…usually a light, medium and a dark color. If I had to guess (based on the backside of the paper which is pinkish), I may have used Pomegranite, Maple Sugar and Nougat…but don’t quote me ;) I definitely know I used Chandelier Glam…it’s my “go to” glam color when playing.

I was really liking the way this was turning out, and when I turned it over, I couldn’t decide if I liked the backside better!

Either way, I just couldn’t cover up the back by attaching it to a piece of chipboard, so instead, I attached it to a piece of acrylic, using my Chandelier Glam as the glue. If you’d like to see a “how-to” on this, I recreated the process for my monthly educator post at Tattered Angels here. This time I noted the colors used and took pictures too. One thing I learned from trying this a second time, is that I used a lot more glimmer mist the first time around. This is probably because if I don’t care for the color combo I picked up or if it is too dark, instead of stopping and starting again, I just keep adding more color or adding lighter colors until I do like it…so the paper was definitely more wet! I like the impression I got the first time as it is deeper. I’ll definitely be playing with this technique again – definitely lots of fun!

Sale!

2011-12-14T17:31:00.000-08:00

Tattered Angels Warehouse Sale has been extended!!!

The Warehouse sale was such a HUGE hit, Wendy decided to extend it for a few more days!!
Dec 20th is just around the corner...better hurry and get your kit now! It would make a great holiday gift for yourself or even for a friend.

Don't miss out on these over stuffed boxes being offered ...

Go to our website www.mytatteredangels.com for more details ...

Use code VWS1111 for free domestic shipping
or use code VWS1111int for a discount on International shipping

I just wanted to take a moment and address some of the comments we've received in regard to the boxes. The description of the sale, is literal.... "Wendy is cleaning house". This was truly a Warehouse/Garage Sale just as it is described. I want valued customers like yourself to be happy with the volume of product you receive in the box. The box contains lots of Vintage Tattered Angel Products, along with other manufacturers products collected from years gone by that we still felt had value to a consumer.

There is an image on our web site to show you an idea of what you would receive and also give you a general feel for what is included in your kit. Some of the products are not "New" packaged product, nor are we saying that they are.

As shown in the image on our website and compared to what you actually receive, these boxes have a amazing value. We included extra products that were not even listed in kit details just because we wanted to give you more bang for your buck. For example two Glimmer Screens are shown in the picture and we send 15+ screens in the largest kit giving it an extra added value of $30.00.

I have addressed the quality of packaging with my staff and have resolved any concerns about future shipments with possible damage to contents. We will certainly replace any item that was damaged, please just submit an image of damaged item so we can view damage and identify the product. We will try to replace with the same item but if its not in stock we will substitute with a similar item.

As for the paper we shipped with the kits, we added these packs as an added value, Please remember this is a warehouse sale and we are a manufacturer and not a retail store, so we sell in bulk. We have an ABUNDANCE of paper in our warehouse that we felt still had a value to a consumer instead of recycling the paper we would just send them in the kits as "give a ways" . If we were going to include them as a selling factor for the kits we would have taken the time to sort 1 sheet per paper and we would have listed the paper as various styles.

Again please accept our apology and know this is our 1st sale and we are learning many things from having this sale.

The "Values" below are based on what the total retail price of the items would be if you had purchased it all separately.

Small Kit Original Retail "Value" $100... your "Garage Sale" price $25
Medium Kit Original Retail "Value" $170... your "Garage Sale" price $50
Large Kit Original Retail "Value" $230... your "Garage Sale" price $75

Tattered Techniques...

2011-11-22T00:18:00.000-08:00

Time is sure flying by, and I've been busy-busy-busy (no blog post since September - that's just shameful!). At least I've been creating stuff, I guess I should be posting it too. I'll have to work on that part. For now, here's the latest class I taught at Scrapbook Island on Saturday. Had a wonderful group of ladies that hadn't used Tattered Angels products before, so I was happy to show them a few tricks. Here's what we created -- a Tattered Techniques Mini Album. I'll be teaching this one at the store again soon!

A Blog Hop with May Arts and Tattered Angels

2011-09-23T01:06:00.000-07:00

Tattered Angels and May Arts have joined together in a blog hop this week.

In addition to this "Hello Friend" card I posted on the Tattered Angels Educator blog, here's another card I made for the blog hop.

For this card, I used Versafine Onyx black ink on TatteredAngels’ “Notes from the Garden” stamp. I wanted a nice black image, so I pressed really hard on the stamp – a little too hard as you can see in the middle of the heart. Good thing I’m planning on cutting that part out.

I used Key Lime Pie glimmer mist to color the stamped card. I noticed when I sprayed the glimmer mist, that the ink made a bit of a resist and left areas near the stamped area uncolored, which I like. Once the card is dry (I used my heat gun), cut out the center of the heart, keeping the black outline from the stamp. I removed the little swirls at the top of the heart and then used a black pen to modify the black lines to make a continuous heart shape.

I cut around four of the flowers from the white sheer woven rosettes ribbon. I first misted the flowers with Snow Angels glimmer mist which I knew would be too light, but I wanted the flowers to have a little bit of color and be wet so that the colors would blend better when I applied the darker Cosmo Pink Glimmer Mist to the top of the flowers.

Once your flowers are dry, open your card and place dry adhesive (I used my atg gun) all over the inside of the card. Attach the misted flowers to the “inside” of the card so that they show through the heart shape you cut out. I cut one of the four flowers in half so that the entire heart area was filled with flowers. Once the flowers are arranged, close the card shut, lining up your card edges. Make sure your flowers are dry before doing this step or the glimmer mist on the flowers will bleed through to the front of your card like mine did. To fix mine, I used white chalkboard mist like “white out” and dabbed a little bit of the white chalkboard mist on to the areas and then resprayed a little Key Lime Pie over it.

Attach the folded heart card onto another card so that it opens. I stamped a “happy birthday” phrase onto glimmer misted paper, cut it out and turned it into a banner. The banner was attached diagonally across the bottom of the heart.

For the last step, I fan brushed Chandelier Glam over the entire card, including the flowers.

I love the dimension the May Arts ribbon flowers give to the card!

TATTERED ANGELS & PRIMA BLOG HOP & GIVEAWAY!

2011-09-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

September is Tattered Angels & Prima month and they’re having a blog hop and giveaway!

Here’s a peek at the project I did for the blog hop. If you want to see a picture of the entire project, you’ll have to head over to the Tattered Angels Design Team Blog to get a look, along with many other projects!

September 30^th will be my day to post step-by-step instructions for my project, including a technique to gently blend your colors on canvas flowers. So be sure to check the Tattered Angels Educator blog on the 30^th, and throughout the month of September, for lots of inspiration and “how-to” projects!

AND, get all the details HERE on how you can WIN this fun giveaway package! You have until September 14^th to enter!

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Giveaway

2011-08-12T13:39:00.000-07:00

I've been trying something a little different lately...painting furniture. Never did it before, probably because I didn't want to sand and primer, for starters. But then I discovered Annie Sloan Chalk Paints...and no sanding or priming is necessary -- just start painting! Another great discovery -- it dries QUICK! So you can get projects done fast! Below are some before and after pictures of a chair and a very cool hinged lid/bookcase/desk that I painted QUICK with Annie Sloan Chalk Paints. I put them up for sale at the Paris Flea Market last weekend…and they are gone, gone, gone! …as in SOLD! SOLD! SOLD!

Tami of Patina Decorative Finishes is having an Annie Sloan Chalk Paint giveaway – so if you want a chance to win some free samples, here’s all you have to do…but check out her blog HERE for all the details!

1. Like Patina Decorative Finishes on Facebook
2. Become a Follower of her Blog
3. Repost this contest on your Facebook wall
4. Repost this contest on your blog

Now for the projects I did...the chair:

and the desk -- I really, really loved this desk. Unfortunately, I forgot to get proper "after" pictures!

Altered Scrabble Tile

2011-06-27T13:58:00.000-07:00

Here's a video I posted on the Tattered Angels Educator Blog last month altering a scrabble tile using Glimmer Glam. I hope you give it a try!

If you'd like to purchase the components to make this altered scrabble tile (a scrabble tile, silver-plated bale, ball chain, and Eiffel Tower and Paris charms for $4.00 -price includes shipping), email me at cdel@att.net. Note: Glimmer Glam not included.

Class at Scrapbook Island...

2011-05-21T00:54:00.000-07:00

Had a great time at Scrapbook Island teaching my Tattered Angels Textured Backgrounds class.

The girls had fun digging for charms in the treasure chest....

and getting creative with Glimmer Glam! Here are bits and pieces of a few of the fabulous creations from the day.

A Trip to Colorado...

2011-05-16T00:41:00.000-07:00

Had a great time visiting with my ACP friends in Colorado Springs over the weekend.

Note to self for future travels…double-check the weather report BEFORE you get to the airport, not AFTER you’re already packed and AT the airport…last I checked, it was supposed to be in the 80s...

We had a great time catching up, eating, cropping, eating, creating, eating, and shopping…and did I mention eating?

I brought a variety of things for the girls to make a fabric card and alter bottles.

One night, everyone altered one of several spice jars for Hayley's booth. Here's mine...

and here's the spice rack full of them...not bad considering tequila was going around the table as well...

and then the next day, we decorated a bottle to take home. Here's mine...

and a group shot of some of the others.

The "Grande Mark Challenge"

2011-05-06T23:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a very long time since I've blogged, but what a great way to start blogging again by telling you about the "GrandeMark Challenge" I entered into. I just love my AccuCut machine!

I had been checking my email and watching my phone all morning before I went off to have a creative play day with a couple of friends because today was the day the winner would be announced. I entered the AccuCut challenge in all but one of the categories, hoping maybe one of my entries would win one of the $100 shopping sprees---a girl can never have too many AccuCut dies.

It was early evening by the time I returned home. I thought I had read that winners would first be notified by email or phone. I didn't receive an email before my play date, and I didn't get a phone either. Oh well. When I got home I checked my email and saw a generic email from Accucut with the subject line: "See Who Won the GrandeMark Challenge" so I opened it to see who the winners were and saw this:

So I clicked on that red "See who won!" button... and boy, was I ever surprised to see this!

WOOOOOHOOOOOO! I was the "Grande" Prize Winner!

Fabric Flower Tutorial/Video

2010-11-22T22:16:00.000-08:00

Over the last couple of months I’ve posted various projects on my blog that have included a little fabric flower—those little flowers have generated interest on how to make them. Since this is my month to hostess the monthly challenges over at ACP, (I’ve been doing vintage themed challenges and swaps), I thought it’d be a good time to share my version of how I make them.

I learned how to make this flower with a group of friends during a kind of “show and tell” flower making day at my friend Kathie’s house. It was a fun day and we learned how to make several types of flowers. Kathie told me she learned how to make this particular flower from an E-Workshop she took from Teresa McFayden. I’ve never taken one of these E-Workshops, I may have to try one!

I wonder if you’ll be as resistant to learning how to make this flower as I was. Because this flower involved hand sewing, it wasn’t one of my favorite flowers to make that day. I was pretty resistant to picking up the needle and thread – but I did try it. And after I did it, I thought, nope, not gonna make that one again --- too confusing…where to start, which sides to stitch, my thread kept knotting up, which strings to pull first? don’t pull too tight…definitely confusing for someone that already didn’t want to pick up a needle and thread! My first flower looked pretty bad and I’m pretty sure it ended up in the trash as it didn’t resemble a flower at all…more like a crumpled bundle of fabric. I thought to myself, I’ll stick with heat-gun flowers! Quick and easy.

As the months passed, Kathie kept making these large, beautiful flowers (larger than I would use on my projects…another reason I didn’t need to learn it, right?) and putting them on various fabric projects like bags and purses or making pins out of them. The more I saw them, the more I was willing to take up that needle and thread and give it a try again.

I posted the picture of this little muslin flower on my blog last month. It's the same sewn fabric flower. I remember showing the flower to Kathie, and she said I had to show her how to make it. I laughed and told her that she is the one that taught me how to make it! So you see, you can make these flowers look different depending on how large or small you make them, how tightly you pull the threads, and how you embellish them when you’re done. Adding a flower center creates a different look.

We all have different ways of learning. And, as I made more of them, I developed my own version/style that I found easier to make. So this video shows a slightly different way of making the flower than the original way I was shown. Hopefully, you won’t be as resistant to giving it a try as I was.

Supplies needed:
Needle and thread—coordinating color is preferable but not necessary

Square of fabric (4x4, 5x5 works best to begin with)
*lightweight, soft fabrics works best…think muslin, velvet, organza…or recycle clothes headed for donation. Kathie and I like looking for inexpensive velvet children clothing at yard sales and thrift stores. I’ve also made these flowers with a wide sheer (removing the wire first), fabric ribbon, died and scrunched coffee filters, napkins and paper towels. The end of the video shows samples of some of these as well.

And while making this video yesterday, I discovered an even easier version of making this flower, (easier if you’ve already been making them…but maybe not if you’re new to making these)…it involves less sewing…so to me that’s easier. Here are a couple of practice ones I did...not too bad...maybe I’ll do another video on that one too.

So, what do you think? Are you gonna give it a try?

Glimmer Glam and Glimmer Mist Textured Backgrounds

2010-10-07T15:23:00.000-07:00

Today, I posted this beach project as my monthly post for the Tattered Angels Educator’s Blog. You can see the steps for preparing the glass for this project HERE.

Here on my blog, I will show you the steps, in pictures, to make the textured background. The steps are the same for both the beach project and the halloween project pictured here. Only the colors used were different, as well as the project background. For the beach project, I used a microscope slide holder (which is several layers of chipboard pressed together). For the halloween project, I used a recycled Tattered Angels Embossed Chip Tile. I also tried this technique on regular chipboard, but it buckled in the middle. I will try using regular chipboard again, but next time, I’ll be sure the layers are completely dried before moving to the next step.

Here's how I made the textured background for the halloween cover.

Start with a Tattered Angels Chip Tile (I recycled used ones from Expo).

Use a paint brush to add Glam to the edges (be generous)....

Heat until bubbly...

Add a second glam color...and a third color if you want (which I did)

heat again until bubbly

Spray some glimmer mist on top and heat to dry quickly...

Add a couple of more glimmer mist colors that compliment your project...and heat to dry...

I got a little heavy-handed with that Fully Purple Glimmer Mist, so I added a little more Paprika Glam and heated it again. Basically, you just keep layering color until you like it...

And after that last addition of Paprika Glam, I liked it...so I stopped!

I did the same thing for the backside of the chip tile. Except, this time, I decided I didn’t need to put glam all over the chip tile, because I’ll just be covering it with a picture. So, instead, I first attached a black mat to the chip tile (and you’ll have to hold this down with your scissors or something while heating, otherwise the heat will want to lift the mat---remember that for the next time you’ve glued a paper to your project and then decide you don’t want it there…use your heat gun to get it off).

and the end result using the same layering technique..

Here are a couple of other pages from the book...

and a few close-ups...

Hope you enjoyed this and will give it a try...now go play!

Altered Tin Swap

2010-09-29T08:38:00.000-07:00

My secret sister, Joy, received the altered tin I made for her, and she likes it so I’m very happy! I don’t know about you, but I always worry that what I create for someone will be good enough, or their style, or…or…or!

And I’ve received an altered tin (and more!) from my own secret sister too. My secret sister is my friend, Lani, and she was apparently having some of those same doubting thoughts that I was, which just made me giggle. I guess we all do it to a certain extent. It was so cute to read in her card to me (and she also gave me permission to say this heehee!) “Girl, you know how much I love you, and have to know how super excited and scared I was when I got your name, you are on an inspiration to me! And yes, you can say princess said it…I tried my best girlfriend…”

Well, princess, you did an awesome job! I love the alcohol inked tin which was filled with lace. Since I’ve been working with fabric, needles and pins lately, I think I’ll keep my needles in it. And I really got spoiled and received an altered box too! And it’s ivory colored…with buttons and bling and glitter, and filled with more things that I love. As I've said before...I'm a sucker for ivory colored things and it's going to look lovely sitting in my scrapbook room! I think it will sit on my table and hold little bits and pieces of lace to use on my projects.

Here’s a picture of the altered tin and box that Lani made for me…

along with some of the goodies she sent. Oops…I included a picture of the popcorn – that wasn’t for the tin swap…that was a bingo prize. And as you can see from the half-ful bag…I loved that too…but I did have a little help with it.

Notice the little package of “Princess Posies”pictured on the right? It’s a package of blue organza type flower shapes, and I’ve never noticed those before in the scrapbooking world. I always cut my own from fabric either freehand or using my diecut machine.

If you haven’t made a heated flower before, here’s how. Just take a few layers of flower shaped, thin fabric – think organza – any thin polyster type fabric. I like to use at least six layers – and I also like to vary the size going from large at the bottom to smaller at the top. These Princess Posies came with two different sizes.

Stack them together like this -- I like to alternate the pedal shapes...

Put a brad into the center –the Princess Posies already had holes in the center. And don’t use a rhinestone brad or it will melt. Or, you can keep the pieces together by attaching a small safety pin to the back.

Put the flower onto a heat-safe surface (I use my craft mat) and then I hold it down with something (I usually grab my scissors) so that when you heat the flower, it doesn’t take off on you. I give the top of the flower a quick heat shot using my heat gun….we’re talking really quick! and you’ll also want to move the heat gun around a bit to get all sides.

Then, still holding the flower down with my scissors, I take the heat gun to the side of the flower to get to the lower flowers without reheating the top flowers I just heated. When I heat from the side, then the flower will usually spin a bit which is great because all sides get heated. I will then just take a quick shot of heat to wherever I feel it needs to be more flower shaped.

And the final results --- I added a prima bling center to it…
Thanks Lani!

My "Practice" Piece

2010-09-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I showed you this inspiration piece that I bought at a parking lot sale.

I really liked it until I started making my "practice" piece. Here's my "practice" piece...and I love it even more than my inspiration piece.

I'm not one to measure much --- I just "eyeball" things. And since I wasn't being very precise, I decided I didn't want to "practice" using some of my pretty pieces of ivory upholstery fabric, so I used muselin instead. And I'm really, really liking the muselin.

I'm keep referring to this as a "practice" piece because most everything I used on it were things I had laying out on my craft table...little bits and pieces that I had been playing with and were left over from other projects.

Little bits and pieces like the little wand I made as part of a swap, and a pink rose from my Pretty Little Things album.

and the "happy birthday" banner, also from that same swap,

a clothespin I had distressed and stamped on, a left-over sheet of music and a defective piece of shaped chipboard to insert into the pocket.

And, my first hand-stitched muselin flower -- which I thought was not too bad for a first try. And, of course, I always have charms from ACharmingplace around - so I stitched a few of those on as well.

I also didn't want to "practice" using one of my pretty pieces of lace, so I grabbed a scrap piece of doily that I had cut up and stitched seam binding to. I was originally going to use that piece of doily around the bottom of an altered tin I made for my friend Kelle (I made her a tin similar to the altered tin I posted earlier). Well, that cut up doily piece didn't work out well on the tin, as the doily was too long. So I figured it'd work great for my "practice" piece.

I love the pleated bottom (I'll make that piece of fabric a little bigger next time so I'll have more uniform pleats) and the elastic pocket to insert fun things into. The "happy birthday" banner was just something I threw on because it needed "something" on that spot, so I grabbed it and it worked for "practice". Now I'm thinking this would make a nice birthday card -- a pretty little gift card holder.

So there you have it...my "practice" inspiration piece. I think there's a mentality about saying the piece is a "practice" piece...it's not final so I feel more free to just throw stuff on. After all, it's just for practice!

I think I'll make a few more of these and use them in various ways. Fun!

An Inspiration Journey and Yard/Estate/Parking Lot Sale Finds...

2010-09-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Kathie and I went to the Tinsel and Treasures Art Show. It was so much fun, especially when you come back feeling so very inspired! So many talented ladies there.

On the way to the show, I saw a yard sale up ahead and immediately spotted something on the sidewalk that I wanted, and shouted “Stop!” to Kathie. I’m a sucker for ivory painted items…be it a wooden picture frame, or a piece of metal…like this.

I love the bird cage shape…and for $5.00, I loved it even more.

I also spotted an ivory colored tree in a very high spot at the yard sale. It was decorated in an easter theme, but that's ok--it's easily removable. I thought it would be great for displaying Kathryn’s jewelry. She wants to be a vendor at a craft faire at her school, so I thought this would be perfect for her…and perfect for me to use as well. Except one thing—looking at it while outside, up high, and then having someone else put it into Kathie’s large van, it didn’t seem quite so big…until I tried to put it into the trunk of my Mustang. Getting it home, well, that’s another story. Let’s just say when Kathie’s husband saw the tree, he was more than relieved when he heard it wasn’t taking up residence in their home. He thought my husband is a very lucky man to be getting that tree…I told him he can have visitation rights.

Here’s the tree…it stands about 4 feet high and is 3 feet wide…for $5.00. That seemed to be the magical number at that yard sale.

Kathryn has already tested it out and has some necklaces, rings and earrings on it. She likes it.

At the show, I found some very cool black ribbon – when you pull the center string, it creates a ruffle. I also bought this make and take from Dede Warren because it had fabric on it, and I’m so into fabric right now, it’s very inspirational. We stopped at an estate sale on the way back, and I picked up a few old books so I can make more…my own version...and of course, I’ll have to add a twist to it as usual.

And finally, we stopped at Room with a Past for their parking lot sale. I found this piece for $3.00. It looked so beautiful, I wanted it for inspiration. I couldn’t wait to go home and start pulling out pretty fabric and lace to recreate one. And I already knew I’d be substituting that button with a piece of vintage bling.

Well, I did start working on it, a “practice” piece…and vintage bling didn’t end up on it since it was a “practice” piece. And I’m really, really liking my “practice” piece better than this inspiration piece.

I’ll show you a picture of my "practice" piece in my next posting…I even hand-stitched a flower – and those that know me, know I don’t usually hand-stitch. Machine stitch, yes…hand-stitch, not so much. I'm just not that patient...but I’m kind of liking it now…

My MDDD Entry - Before and After Pictures

2010-09-24T14:49:00.000-07:00

In my post below, I said I was working on my MDDD (Mystery Double-Dog Dare You) Challenge but I couldn’t post my finished project. Well, the challenge is over now and I can show you what I did. It was so much fun.

Those that were ready to accept the challenge (meaning, you didn’t know what you were going to receive, but you knew you would have to alter it) received one of these in the mail. It's a small matchbox - about 3" x 4" and 3/4" deep.

I altered my matchbox and turned it into this...

The idea is to alter the object, keeping in mind the following categories that you can win in:

Who fooled the most people with their entry...
Who fooled the least people with their entry...
Voting: Person with the highest number of correct guesses.
Voting: Person with the highest number of incorrect guesses.
Voting: Favorite Entry...

We have some “super sleuths” on the board (myself included) who look at every detail in the picture to try to determine the creator’s style, and if we can’t figure it out from the creation itself, we also do a little “sleuthing”. We’ll watch their forum posts – hoping for a slip of the tongue that would give us a clue regarding their entry.

We also “sleuth” in the gallery to look at their past creations and their blogs, looking for any type of clue…the background, a reflection, the photography angle. It’s pretty crazy but definitely fun!

When the voting started, I noticed that pretty much everyone had MY entry nailed! I’m apparently not good at hiding my “style”.

Besides my entry being very detailed (which is what the other entrants said was a dead giveaway...), this usual photo angle of mine was another clue to it being my entry. I usually photograph my projects on fabric, so I switched to a "rafia" background...nope, it didn't help...they had me pegged...they are good!

They say I also like to use vintage images...which is true...

So since it seemed that many people were doing well with guessing correct, I decided to try and win the “most incorrect guesses” voting category, and I did win that category.

I also tied in the “fooled the least people with their entry” and “Favorite Entry” categories, but you can only win in one category, so the person I tied with was the winner for these categories.

Here’s what I did with mine. I turned the inside of the box into a little shadowbox by creating shelving and dividers made from folded cardstock.

I framed the inside box with charms which I patinaed (which checked another “to do” thing off my challenge list), and filled the shadowbox with a bunch of halloween do-dads.

I turned the shadowbox into an accordion book by hinging the outer shell of the matchbox to the shadowbox using Tim Holtz’s tissue tape. For the inside of the book, I actually made it more of a display sign “BOO”. I’d already spent enough time on the shadowbox portion, so I went for the easy display sign “BOO”. The spiderweb background pages (as well as the small oval frame on the shadowbox cover) are scraps from a spiderweb clear gift wrap cellophane roll.

I also put a “bottom” on the outer shell of the matchbox so that I could also insert chipboard pages into it.

And here are all the other MDDD entries.

Birthday Wishes with Glimmer Mist and Glimmer Glaze

2010-09-12T21:19:00.001-07:00

Today I'm working on my MDDD project which I can't show post yet. For a little history on that project, HERE is the "before" picture of my last MDDD project, and the after picture is HERE.

So instead, I'll share this month's Tattered Angels project that I posted on the Educator's blog.

If you want to see the step-by-step instructions I posted to make the background for this card, check out the Tattered Angels Educator blog HERE .

Altered Tin

2010-09-11T16:01:00.000-07:00

I've joined quite a few swaps recently, most are completed, just a few more left to go. I did this for the altered tin swap on ACP. We just have to alter one tin, fill it with a few crafting goodies and send it to our "secret" partner. I'm really having fun making these little glittered wands. I was originally using the Maya Road crystal stars, but when I ran out, I die cut some stars from foamcore, glittered them with German Glass Glitter, and then added a cut piece from a paperclip.

I just gessoed the tin, painted it, added some Halo Iridescent 3D Glitter-Gel from Viva Decor to it (I'm loving that stuff! You can get it at Scrapbook Island.), a few pearls, a little bling, some lace, punched a hole on the side for a rhinestone brad to open the tin...and all done!

Here's a look at some of the goodies inside for my "secret" sister.

Hellooooooo...anyone out there?

2010-09-10T16:51:00.000-07:00

It’s been so long since I’ve posted to this blog, but I’m gonna give it another shot.

I recently joined Artsy Mama’s Sweet and Sinister - Best Halloween Ever Swap. After I was assigned a swap partner, Mandy, we emailed back and forth and exchanged blog information. I teased Mandy that she needed to get to blogging because she never posted anything on her blog…I mean not one post! Of course, I told her I didn’t have room to talk since I hadn’t posted anything on my blog since March, and I needed to do the same.
Well, Mandy has decided to try blogging every day for the next six months (her blog is here) and she has been keeping it up too! So Mandy has inspired me to post again on my blog. I can’t say I’ll post something every day, but if I get something done once a week, I think that will be a great start.

Today, I'll share a funny story about a recent trip to the Niles Antique Fair with my friend Kathie.

This is a big antique fair practically around the corner from where Kathie lives. It was going to be my first time attending. I read an article Kathie sent me before the fair (to warn me to wear comfy shoes) that said that 30,000 people were expected…and the first thing I wondered was where will everyone park?

We got there early, 7 a.m. is pretty early for me which is why I had to sleep over Kathie’s house the night before. Kathie knew I'd never make it to her house "early" - she lives 25 mins. from me by freeway.

We walked the entire fair, most of it was expensive, but found some goodies, (anything for a dollar is always fabulous). One of the things I love is vintage looking lace, lacey cloth napkins, doilies etc to use in books and other altered projects. So at the fair, I found this booth that had a bunch of it. I asked a customer shopping at the booth if she knew how much the doilies were, and she told me she just grabbed a bunch, took it to the "old man" (pointing towards him) and asked him how much for the bunch. She said he was "giving it away cheap-I don't think he realizes what he has here or doesn't care." So I bring my stash to the old man, start chatting with him and he tells me he has so much of this stuff, and didn’t even bring it all with him. I show him my handful and ask him how much. He starts counting them (that lady didn't make it sound like he would count it lol! Luckily, I already had counted it and I had well over 20 pieces so I knew "my worse case" scenario already). He stopped counting after 10, and said how about $5? I said...ooooh...(sad face)...darn, I was thinking more like $2...(and as I was telling my husband this story, I was endlessly pulling out these goodies to show him, and he gasped, and said YOU DID NOT!) so the old man says, ok, how about $3? I said OK!
Here’s a picture of the bunch of doilies and lace for $3…

and my favorite find – a little mirrored dresser that sits a little over 2 feet high…have no idea where I’ll put it, but I loved it the moment I saw it…

After finishing up the fair, we started walking back to the car and there are lots and lots of garage sales going on. We thought the garage sale portion was mostly the day before. Boy, were we wrong! It was INCREDIBLE! Nearly every house was doing a garage sale! It was like trick or treating at every house on the block, except we had to pay a little for our candy!

We’re finding lots of fun stuff, and then, we find this house with stuff all over the tarp on the ground -and some stuff on the table. The stuff I wanted was on the table - craft stuff. So I find two baggies filled with little laces and crocheted pieces -- PERFECT for my scrabble tiles, altered books, etc. oh so pretty....so I ask the lady walking around in a pocketed apron, "would you take a dollar for these?" and she said, oh, those aren't mine...you'll have to ask "her" --as she points upwards towards the raised porch and there, leaning over the rail watching over everything, is a very
sweet, yet fragile looking elderly lady.

So I head over to the elderly lady, (Kathie in tow...I think she is dying to know how much I'm gonna get this little bit of treasure for) and I hold out my cupped hands filled with the two little bags of treasures,

and again, I ask: Would you take one dollar for these? and the little old lady looks in my hands and says...in the DEEPEST, LOUDEST, GRAVELIEST VOICE - EVER!....

NO!

OMG, first of all I was so SHOCKED I think my whole body jerked! I was sooooo NOT expecting that response…and I'm certain my eyes bugged out too...seriously? How could THAT voice come from that sweet little old lady?!! I just stood there...startled...and thought OMG I'VE OFFENDED HER! And then she continued again...in that same DEEP, LOUD and GRAVELY VOICE...

NO! You're not gonna pay a dollar for that! mmmmyyyy gosh! those are only PATTERNS! they aren't even a-n-y-thing! they're just little patterns! little patterns I made! Just give me five cents!

and I was still standing there...shocked, because it took a second to process that she said "five cents" I was still focused on that very harsh NO! and the tongue lashing I was certain I was gonna get for offending her! So I just stood there...frozen...my arms still outstretched and hands cupped...the only thing that turned was my head...slowly...towards Kathie... only after I finally processed that she only wanted a nickel…and I nervously, quickly, yet also stammering, said to Kathie:

KATHIE??? Do you have a nickel? Please give the lady a nickel...I don't have a nickle... (the smallest thing I had was a dollar...NO WAY was I gonna even ask the lady for change and I just KNEW that if I tried to give her a dollar and tell her to keep the change, that the Deep...Loud...Gravely and Harsh voice would return!)

And as soon as I said "KATHIE"-- Kathie quickly started fumbling and digging in her bag, as she said in a startled voice as well...ummm...yes - a nickel! I'm sure I have a nickel! as she dug into her bag...I swear it was like a scene from the Wizard of Oz...both of us trembling trying to do as commanded by that DEEP...LOUD...GRAVELY AND HARSH VOICE!
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity as I still stood there, frozen, arms outstretched, Kathie produces the nickel - holding it up in the air as if she had just produced the golden ticket. I hand the nickel over to the lady who leans over and plucks it from my hand! I immediately say THANK YOU! and we both scurry away -- and if we had tails, it'd be between our legs for sure! It wasn't until we were AT LEAST three or four houses away did we start BUSTING UP! laughing and repeating in that deep...loud...gravely and harsh voice...NO! I WON'T TAKE A DOLLAR! I WANT A NICKLE!

We left shortly thereafter…we were exhausted. As we left the very, very large neighborhood, we realized we had just touched the tip of the iceberg…the door to door garage sales went on for what seemed like miles! But we were out of both money and energy! What a fun day!

A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

2010-03-05T11:22:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything. I've been in a bit of a creative funk lately, so I've just been working on a little bit of this and a little of that, and then putting it onto a big binder ring which has been very relaxing.

Here's a picture of my next class at Scrapbook U...

Here's a peak at the Interactive Calling cards that I made as my February project for the Tattered Angels Educator blog. I have detailed instructions on how to make these on the Tattered Angels blog - HERE

And here are some pictures of a few of the other "little bit of this and that"...

Impromptu Mail Art

2010-01-04T10:07:00.000-08:00

Here’s the "mail art" I did Saturday...very last minute...so last minute that I had already sealed it and wrote the address info on it (I’ve blurred that info on the pictures), and was getting ready to put on the postage when I realized just how big and "BLAH" it looked! I’ve been playing with my glimmer mists, so any white surface just screams out, "spray me, glimmer me, make me pretty!" So I carefully unsealed the back of the envelope, grabbed three colors of glimmer mist (patina, copper and gold) and started spraying away.

I recently watched Heidi Swapp’s glimmer misting magic video (here)
where she put her glimmer mist stencil on top of the glimmer mist (instead of on top of a bare surface and then glimmer misting over the stencil), put a paper towel on top of the stencil and then brayered over the paper towel. It made the glimmer under the stencil look darker because some of the color was absorbed by the paper towel. I really love that effect.

So I pulled out my large glimmer screen scroll, placed it on top of my glimmer misted envelope -- placed a large tissue (deli tissue) on top of it instead of a paper towel (because that’s what was closest to me at the time...I told you this was impromptu!), and went to reach for my brayer which I THOUGHT I had put back into its proper spot (remember, I was cleaning earlier), but no, it wasn’t there! So I grabbed the jar of modeling paste that I had been working with earlier and used that as my "brayer". I removed the stencil...nope, it did not look like Heidi’s scroll stencil...so I tried again. I misted a little heavier, took my "brayer" to it, plus I pressed down on top of the stencil with my fingers to help make the impression. I lifted the stencil and it still did not look like Heidi’s, but I was definitely liking the effect I was getting! I could see swirls, but not so pronounced, and it gave a nice, subtle background effect (click on the image to make it larger)...I liked it...and my "tissue" paper was pretty as well :)

Jose was headed to the mall with Kathryn shortly, and he was going to take this piece of mail with him. I had promised Liz I would get it in the mail that to her that day. By now, my envelope was quite wet so I hurriedly took the heat gun and started drying it, front and back. Of course, some but not all, of the color had soaked through to the back of the envelope, so I sprayed the white spaces on the back as well and continued heating until the whole thing was dry. Then I grabbed my swirl and text stamps (by Tim Holtz) inked with Versafine Sepia and stamped the edges of the envelope. Then I stamped the bird on the branch and the crown (both from Tim Holtz’ acrylic set sold at Michaels) with Versafine Onyx Black ink. I very lightly scribbled (so it would dry quickly, especially with the help of my heat gun) Diamond Stickles on some of the swirls and on the crown tips too. I used my gold Krylon marker on the outside edges of the envelope. When I went to seal it, the back looked pretty but needed some stamping too, so I grabbed an assortment from my stamp wall and quickly stamped away -- no time for thinking...just stamp! Here’s the back of the envelope.

The whole thing took about 10 minutes -- and I finished just in time to put the stamps on and hand it to Kathryn to take to the mall for mailing. She’s so sweet...when she saw the envelope she said, "I bet that’s the prettiest envelope the post office has ever seen!"

So Liz should be receiving that envelope today—I hope she likes it. In addition to the things I needed to send to her, I also sent her a card I made and the "Smile" ATC that I posted yesterday. Liz has taken some classes from me and always sends me such sweet and inspirational emails after class. She also brings me the most amazing origami art made from money as "thank you" gifts. Here’s an origami starfish she made from a $20 bill (there’s no way I’m taking that apart!) And the paper mold fish card is adorable .

Liz told me she made the fish card a long time ago, back in the days when she was feeling creative, and now after taking a class from me, she said she was feeling creative again! That little bit of information was the greatest gift to me!

And the other two ATCs I posted yesterday...I'm going to give the "Dream" ATC to my friend Veronica...that’s "her word" that she occasionally lets me "borrow" heehee (it’s one of my favorite words too, along with Believe, Wish, and Inspire...ok, so I have many favorite words!)

I still have the "Relax" ATC, so if you’d like it, just leave me a comment, and I’ll get it to you.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-03T20:58:00.000-08:00

Once again, I’ve neglected my blog...but it’s a new year and I hope to post a little something to share with you at least weekly.

I haven’t been creating much in December. Like everyone else, I've been busy with the holidays, but then to top it off, the flu ran through our household beginning with Jose in mid-December, followed by me, and then Kathryn got the flu just before Christmas, but hers wasn’t the regular flu, she got the special H1N1 flu! We got her to the doctor very quickly, and she recovered much quicker than both Jose and I.

Now that we’re all done with the holidays, and the flu, I started some much needed cleaning of my scrapbook area, and came across something to share here --- some ATCs that I made back in October using images from The Art Life that I picked up at a not so local scrapbook store. I just cut some of the images (these old eyes needed closeup glasses for that), added dimension by layering and popping them with popdots, and added Stickles. They are finished off with a quick spritz of Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist. The "Dream" ATC (center) has a recycled background which is from a suede-feeling perfume box (click on the image to make it larger, and you can see the product writing on the bottom center) given to me by my friend, Jean. Jean knows I like boxes and containers so she's always giving me fun little doo-dads to recycle and create with.

Capturing the shimmery goodness that Glimmer Mists leave behind is kind of hard to photograph...they are so much better in real life. Here’s my best attempt at a closeup of the "Smile" ATC showing the shimmering Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist on it. Click the image to make it larger for a real closeup view.

Tomorrow...some impromptu mail art.

Interactive ATCs

2009-11-17T20:30:00.000-08:00

I finally finished my ATCs for the interactive swap I joined with the ACP girls. I changed my design about three times, before deciding on a "pull" type ATC. Next decision was a "theme" and I was drawing a blank. I finally decided to go with a "friendship" quote that popped up, but I wasn’t real happy with that decision, but that was all that was coming to me.

I took the interactive elements to Scrapbook U to finish while I helped Kelle, Marilyn and Linda work on my Home for the Holidays kit, but I just wasn’t feeling inspired with my friendship quote decision, so I had a hard time finishing them up. Then Kathie O. came to the store, I showed her my interactive ATC design and she told me she was in a ATC "house" themed swap, and that she was going to "borrow" my interactive design. Suddenly, I felt inspired too — and told her I was going to "borrow" her theme and make mine houses too! How did I not think of that idea myself? I’ve only been working on this...

my Home for the Holidays book for the past week...the book whose cover is a house...yet, the thought never crossed my mind to make my ATCs a house. So, thanks again Kathie O. for continuing to inspire me!

Here are my interactive ATCs...

When you open the front door, you see Santa working. At the bottom of the ATC, you can see the bells and snowman charm I attached to the pull string.

And when you pull the charms, here's the Santa image that comes out of the top of the house. I hope the ACP girls like them!

Charming Broomsticks

2009-10-25T19:52:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Kathie and I took a Williams & Sonoma cooking technique class, and afterwards, as you usual, we explored downtown Los Gatos for a little bit. On this trip, we discovered a wonderful little store called Vintages of Los Gatos. I love that store...they had lots of wonderful things! I even found a couple of very old photo albums – one was from the 1800s and came from Paris. I’ll be doing some sort of altered art with those–eventually.

Another little purchase I made there was the cutest little broomstick that was made by the owner — a very simple design with a "happy halloween" tag attached to it. Adorable! And, it was the last one. It was so cute, I decided to make more of my own to give to the ladies that attended my class this weekend.

Last month, when I taught the halloween haunted house class, Kathryn made some fabulous pumpkin cupcakes for me to bring for everyone in class. They were yummy! Unfortunately for me, Kathryn has been very busy with homecoming this week—so no cupcakes for this weekend’s classes.
Instead, the ladies got broomsticks!
For Saturday’s class, the "charming" broomsticks were a bit on the larger size so you can do various things with them -- maybe hang a small halloween sign or vertical banner. I also thought the larger broomstick would look nice on the haunted house we were making, and a couple of ladies, did incorporate the broom onto their house. I wish I had my camera with me - it was cute!

For today’s class, I made candy-pull wrappers, put a chocolate bar inside, and decorated the top with a vintage halloween image, attached a witch charm from ACharmingplace, and attached the broomstick. Not as yummy as the cupcakes, but still cute!

A simple card...

2009-10-24T00:02:00.000-07:00

Wow, another post in the same month! Nothing fancy, just a card for a friend using scraps of paper from my dream banner class, some Rock Candy Stickles, and a filigree charm from ACharmingplace. I made the little flower from some seam binding.

Tomorrow, I'll post some "charming" broomsticks I've made for the ladies that are taking my Eerie Halloween House/Album tomorrow.

An Altered Box

2009-10-02T11:59:00.000-07:00

I know–it’s been a while...I’m a bad blogger...
Wanted to share an altered box I made for a box swap I was in. Our little "drama queen" group drew names for this swap, and I drew Kathie O’s name. I was happy to have pulled her name because I thought it would be a little easier to figure out what she likes since we often go on "inspiration journeys" together. I know Kathie will like everything I put on her box...I know this because we both were drawn to and bought the same things while on these inspiration journeys! But I’ll bet Kathie’s shells are sitting in a box somewhere in her craft room...my shells are in a box too...one made for Ms. Kathie.
I altered a magnetic box from Michael’s like this one (although the one I altered was bigger)

and turned it into this shadow box...I hope Kathie likes it.

A couple of close ups...I added a 7 Gypsies knob...

Here's the "shadow box" portion. I made it with foam core and covered the ugly edges of it with ribbon.

When it comes to boxes...Kathie has a "foot" fettish so I had to add some feet to it (thanks Michelle for confirmation of the "foot" fettish) which are really drawer knobs...

I added a Basic Grey rubon and used Glimmer Mists and embossing powder for the background. And I just love those seahorses, but...

my absolute favorite part has to be the octopus! It makes me giggle every time I look at it. I bought the octopus (and the majority of the other shells too) from Tangerines in Dublin. Gina Gabriell, the owner of Tangerines, also makes beautiful art dolls — she even makes the eyes and sells them! I think they are amazing! I bought one of the smallest pairs she had and attached them to the octopus...Kathie loves body parts...I think eyes qualify.

"Before" and "After" Pictures of My "Thong"

2009-04-07T13:07:00.000-07:00

Remember this "before" picture of "my thong"? You know, the "weird stuff" that was sent to me for the "thong" challenge I posted about HERE?
Well, here’s the "After" picture of what I made from the "weird stuff." The industrial green and red wires, mica, tag, ball chain, wooden circles, and resistors were all incorporated into this layout.

When we do these challenges, everyone tries to disguise their "style" and anything else (like backgrounds) that might give your entry away. I haven't made a "12x12" layout in forever, so I thought now would be a good time. And it was so hard not to add distress ink to anything--which is something I always do. I also didn't want to use a picture of my own kids, so, a big thank you to my friend Ruth for letting me use the picture of her beautiful grandchildren for this challenge!

I used everything that was sent to me...and here’s what I did to the stuff.

I twisted the industrial red and green wires together and then put them through my paper crimper. They were still ugly so I colored them with alcohol ink and a gold Krylon pen and used it as a frame for the picture.

I painted the ball chain pink, formed an "L" with it and adhered it with Glossy Accents to one of the mica pieces, which I had peeled and split into three pieces.

For three of the resistors, I formed a circle with them and placed it on top of one of the wooden disks. Both disks were added to the bunch of flowers.
I added my own junk to the layout...the metal flower center is from a pair of earrings I got at an estate sale for $1.00.

I sandwiched the typed words "at first sight" between the remaining two pieces of mica and layed it on top of the tag that was sent.

The other three tan resisters were used to hang three painted baby charms from ACharmingPlace.com from the loops of that big ol’ button I received. I covered part of the button with printed twill because it was kinda ugly!

And here’s what the eleven other creative ladies did with their "thong" — so fun and so much creativity!

Sweet 16...

2009-04-05T22:43:00.000-07:00

It seems like just yesterday when my youngest was born (the one being kissed by Joey in this picture).

But my baby girl turned
Sweet 16 today.

Time sure flies!

Kathryn went from wanting a big "Lazertag" party at the beginning of the year, to wanting just three of her closest friends over for a sleep-over. They had a great time together!

Happy Birthday Kathryn!

WICKED!

2009-03-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

Kathryn and I had some WICKED fun last night with 18 other "crafty" ladies from Scrapbook U!
Monica, the owner of Scrapbook U, arranged for all of us to have dinner, then travel on BART (which was right across the street from the theater!) to see Wicked at The Orpheum Theater. It was an awesome show, and to see it with friends was especially nice. I’m ready to see it again! I doubt I will ever catch up to Monica, who has seen it eight times now!

Fabric ATC and Metal Embossed Letter

2009-03-14T23:06:00.000-07:00

Good thing I posted two things on Thursday because I didn’t get to "play" on Friday because I was prepping for class. Didn’t "play" today either because I was teaching.

Even though I didn’t get to "play", I am posting two projects I did earlier this month so I don’t get out of the habit of blogging :)

First — an ATC I made for my friend, Leah. She made me an ATC, so this is the ATC I made to trade with her. Whenever Leah is planning on taking a trip to see her girlfriends, she gets lots of ironing done for her hubby. (Iron in one hand, suitcase in the other!)

So in the hopes that she comes visit me soon, I made her this fabric ATC with a vintage image of a girl ironing. The image is covered with acrylic (that’s why there is a glare) and the edged are Stickled. Charms from ACharmingPlace were colored with alcohol inks and layered using double-sided red tape

Second -- a paper mache letter that I covered (both sides) with embossed metal and added layered charms from ACharmingPlace. Hopefully, I will play on Sunday!

Acrylic ATC and Thank You Card

2009-03-12T19:25:00.000-07:00

Don’t fall over...but this is two posts in one day!

After working on my "thong," I received inspiration today via email and snail-mail. In the mail, I received a couple of gold butterfly and flower sticker sets from Helena. She sent them to me as a little prize for answering one of her questions in bingo last month on ACP.

I made an acrylic ATC and used a Sakura Glaze pen to color in the butterfly stickers, a rub-on by Rhonna Farrer, Heidi Swapp bling, and edged the ATC with a Gold Krylon pen.

In my email today, I received Julia Andrus’s newsletter which had a couple of free downloads for some vintage bottle caps. She is also having a Spring Challenge so I used one of the downloads and made this entry. You can find both the bottle cap download and the Spring Challenge information on Julia Andrus’s website.

My Thong...

2009-03-12T10:46:00.000-07:00

Today I will be working on my "thong." Here’s a picture of the items I received in my envelope: wires, ball chain, two wooden circles, a gold embellishment, resistors, a tag and some mica.

A little history...a few years ago I started a challenge called, "Mystery Double Dog Dare" (MDDD) where I mailed those willing to take the challenge, a mystery object that they had to make something out of. The item I sent everyone was a four slot microscope slide holder. In all of our joking around, somehow the "mystery object" I mailed everyone ended up being referred to as a "thong"–and the nickname has stuck ever since. All the "thong" entries I received were very creative.

This month, Leah is hosting the MDDD at ACP, and this is the "thong" she sent everyone. So now I have to create something from all, some or just one of these items. We can do anything we want to this thong...rip it, cut it, slice it, dice it, rearrange it, turn it inside out, ink it, whatever....we get free reign.

After we alter the thong, we send a picture back to the hostess and she anonymously posts everyone’s entries. Everyone then tries to guess who made which thong...and there are various prizes for those with the most correct guesses, least correct guesses, etc. Very challenging but fun!

So that’s one of the things I’ll be working on today...and maybe something else as well...so stay tuned :)

Paint Resist ATC

2009-03-11T21:48:00.000-07:00

I spent today holding down the couch–still sick. But after dinner I decided I’d try something quick that I could post on my blog for today. I pulled out my copy of Somerset Apprentice to try Michelle Ward’s Gesso Resist. I have gesso, in fact, I think I have two bottles of it—neither of which I could quickly find. I seriously need to organize my room again.

So, instead of gesso, I substituted a Pearl Dabber by Ranger because I know the dabbers also act as a resist. When my paint stamped image was dry, I painted over it completely with some Making Memories metallic emerald paint, misted it with water, and then wiped off the paint.

Here’s the Somerset Apprentice article, the paper I started with (lower left-old basic grey paper) the Stampers Anonymous stamp I used, and under the stamp and to the right is what the paper looked like after it was stamped and painted.

I stamped one of Tim Holtz’s Natural Beauty stamps onto a transparency using Adirondack Pitch Black pigment ink, quickly heat set it, and used Glossy Accents to attach it to the ATC background. I stamped the quote (from the same stamp set) onto a piece of mica using the pitch black ink and heat set it as well. I attached the mica to the transparency with glossy accents. Alcohol inks were used to edge the mica, and I used a half of a butterfly charm and swirl charm (from ACharmingPlace.com) for an antennae.

So...that's three days in a row of blogging...I hope tomorrow will be four days in a row!

Glimmer Mist and UTEE

2009-03-10T21:04:00.001-07:00

Feeling sick today but still managed to get in some play time. I made an ATC using Glimmer Mist, UTEE, Perfect Pearls and a Paint Dabber. The last one I made like this (here), I sent it to Leah. This one I’m going to keep for myself.

The butterfly and swirl charms are from ACharmingPlace.com.
The Heart key is from Tim Holtz’s idea-ology line. I stamped into the Glimmer Mist/UTEE background with Tim Holtz’s Baroque stamp.

I just love all the texture in these things!

2009-03-09T21:26:00.001-07:00

Hard to believe that tomorrow will be three months since I last blogged. Time flies, and not all of it was having fun. But, there were definitely some fun parts, like going to CHA with my daughter and visiting with the ACP girls in Florida.

Fast forward to today...I played! I started off wanting to make some crushed mica, but when I couldn't find my pasta machine (I am sure it is lost forever in the garage), I tried to find something else to crush the mica. It was quite the experiment! FYI, a rolling pin doesn't work, neither does a hammer, and neither does a paper crimper! After putting the mica through all of the above abuse, I ended up just using my scissors on it. I was quite amused that you can actually crimp mica with a paper crimper! But it didn't crush it...that stuff is tough!

Anyway, the mica crushing experiment was pretty boring, it even looked boring after it was crushed. So I took out the alcohol inks and perfect pearls to color the mica, and things started happening...and not much of it involved the crushed mica.

Today's play included alcohol inks, mica, perfect pearls, dabber paints, pigment inks, packing tape, an old dictionary, acrylic, stamps, a paper crimper, wax paper and rolling pin, glossy cardstock, glue, a heat gun, and some water. And here's a bunch of stuff I made during my experiments today...

But THESE...were my absolute favorites! I think they'd make a fun class!
The heart, key, and dragonfly charms are from ACharmingPlace.com

Another tag done!

2008-12-10T00:22:00.000-08:00

Here's my version of Tim Holtz's 12 Days of Christmas - Day 3. I didn't have the right size fragment so I substituted a diecut piece of acrylic and edged it with a gold Krylon pen. However, I started edging it while the glossy accents was still went so it was getting my Krylon pen all gummy so I started scraping the pen against the edge of the acrylic and it made it look more like a frame. I like it! Except for the "Believe" tag, the charms are from ACharmingPlace.com. I love layering that swirl charm!

Take time to play...

2008-12-08T23:16:00.000-08:00

It’s a busy, busy week prepping for two classes this week, Raquel’s birthday, a Christmas party, a birthday crop, and at some point this week, we need to get a Christmas tree! It sure doesn’t sound like there’s much time to do any playing in the craft room with so much on the "to do" list.

But just watching Tim Holtz’s blog, makes you want to create! My friend, Leah, was feeling the same way and suggested that we have a "schedule" to get it all done. She has a busy schedule too because her family Christmas party is this weekend. So, even though she’s on the East Coast and I’m on the West Coast, we have decided to take an hour (or two) a day to coordinate some crafting together via Skype.

Today was our first day, and with both of us so busy, it was hard to coordinate being ready at the same time, not to mention the time difference, but we finally played around 10:30ish this morning. We had so much fun making our version of Tim’s Day 1 tag.

Here’s mine.

About an hour or so after we logged off Skype, Leah texted me that she had fun and can’t wait until tomorrow. I texted her back and said let’s not wait! Let’s do it again later today! So, we did and here is my version of Tim’s Day 2 tag.

By the way, in addition to crafting today, I got lots of things checked off my "to do" list too. When Jose came home, he even said "Wow, the house is clean!"

I can hardly wait to play again tomorrow!

More playing with Glimmer Mists

2008-12-07T13:54:00.001-08:00

Last night, I was thinking I would add some snow to a page in my Christmas album but I couldn't remember the exact recipe. I know I saved it somewhere, but didn't want to spend the time to look for it, so instead I thought I would go from memory. Then I remembered that I didn't have one of the ingredients (white UTEE). So, I thought, hmmm...I wonder if I could make something that resembles snow using UTEE and glimmer mists (because those glimmer mists were still sitting on my table from playing the night before).

Well, what I made did not look anything like snow unless you count the white flurry of a mess that I created all over my table (and my pants...and the floor...) with the UTEE! However, the mess that remained on the paper was looking pretty awesome even though it didn't look like snow! So, I added some of the other glimmer mist colors that were sitting on my table. I was really liking the results of this big mess (and I know how to contain it next time). The little bit of stuff that stayed on my paper had so much texture and depth and color, I thought that it would make a great ATC background since it was just the right size. But the problem was that the background was so pretty that I didn't want to cover it with anything. Aha! I'll put one of Tim Holtz's keys on it! and when I did, well, it just screamed "Leah" ! AND, I happen to owe Leah an ATC (and she's probably one of the few people I know that I would actually be willing to give this up to!) So Leah, here is your ATC, I hope you like it. If you'd rather have something different, just let me know because Kathryn thinks I should keep this one!

So here it is, my nonsnow glimmer mist mess (along with more experimenting on a Bazzill chip. Oh, and before I went to bed last night (past midnight of course), I checked Tim Holtz's blog to see what his new tag of the day would be, and guess what was on there? His snow recipe!

I love happy accidents!

Playing with Glimmer Mist

2008-12-04T21:45:00.000-08:00

Wow, it looks like I was in Portland for a long time - like two months! But no, it's just been a while since I've updated my blog. Portland was certainly fun. I need to get busy soldering stuff before I forget how.

Today, I played with Glimmer Mists, their stencils, and of course charms from ACharmingPlace.com.

I sprayed the tags with two colors of Glimmer Mist, put down the stencil and sprayed with a third color, heat set it and then stamped the tag with a script stamp.

The flowers are made from coffee filters that I sprayed with two colors of Glimmer Mist, heat set, scrunched and then folded the coffee filter in half, and then in half again and tore out the center. I was left with an "O" and then tore the "O" in half and made two flowers out of it (the two tags on the right). The tag on the left, I tore a little less out of the center of the coffee filter, so the flower is larger. The flower centers are glue dots covered with german glass glitter.

For the "Joy" tag, I sprayed glimmer mist on the chipboard letters, heat set, and then embossed them with clear embossing powder. While the embossing powder was still warm, I stamped into it with a script stamp inked with gold ink, and edged them with a gold Krylon pen.

The frames are transparencies that I edged with a gold Krylon pen, and added my favorite swirl charms.

It was fun! I'm going to work on a glimmer mist book cover next. Hopefully, it won't be another two months before I post again!

Portland bound...

2008-09-28T08:36:00.000-07:00

I’m headed to Portland, OR today to make Pretty Little Things with Sally Jean. Or, since I’m in the halloween mood, maybe a few spooky little things too!

Halloween ATCs

2008-09-23T22:38:00.000-07:00

At the birthday crop last Sunday, I brought my recipe pages to finish up for Michelle's swap. Hayley at ACharmingPlace was hostessing a Halloween ATC swap, so I also brought some halloween papers and embellishments with me. If I had time, I was going to make a few ATCs and then join Hayley's swap. I know, that's backwards...you are supposed to join the swap and THEN make the ATCs, but I wanted to see if I was going to get into making Halloween ones or not before I committed to it. Well, I got two done, and I was really feeling into it! So, I went online to join the swap but it was already full! Oh well, he who hesitates...

Well, I just couldn't stop making those little ATCs, so I ended up making ten of them. And each and every one of the ATCs has a charm on it from ACharmingPlace. I colored some of the charms with black ink and there's an arrow in there that I colored a purplish color using Primary Elements. One of my favorites is the "Boo-tiful Ghosts" ATC. On the middle and right ghost, I cut this filigree charm in half, bent it a little, and turned it into a "crown" for the ghosts. For the ghost on the left, I cut the sides off this flourish charm and used it for a crown too.

Since I missed joining the swap, I've decided I am going to use the ATCs as embellishments in a Halloween book I am going to make. I even went to Scrapbook U today and bought some new halloween papers for the book. Now all I have to do is make it!

It's nice to know you're out there...

2008-09-22T23:22:00.000-07:00

Apparently, Raquel has been watching my blog (there’s one more for your name count Raquel) and told me one day that "Joy" always comments on my blog. I told her, "Yes, Joy is a sweetheart." Whenever I go to Joy’s blog, I always leave a comment on her blog too. But the truth is, I too look at blogs and rarely comment on them. So it is really nice when someone tells me they saw "such and such" on my blog. It let’s me know someone is out there reading this thing.

Last week, one of my friends told me that she saw my dragonfly ATCs on my blog, and that one of them had that special word that she likes so I decided to make one for her too.

So tonight, I took out my Primary Elements, my transparencies, glitter and my dragonfly stamp and got ready to make those little dragonflies. Well, I went to squeeze out just a tiny little bit of the medium, but instead a WHOLE bunch came bursting out onto my craft sheet - oops! What a waste! I almost wiped it up with a papertowel to throw away, but instead decided to just throw a bunch of the primary elements into it and do a "Tim Holtz" type technique and "swooshed" a few ATC cards into the puddle on my craft sheet.

So now I have a few pretty cool backgrounds for ATCs. I just have to figure out what I am going to put onto them.

And after that, I did get these two dragonfly ATCs done for my friends that I will surprise them with...unless they come back and see this post! And I am going to send a little something to Joy too for always commenting on my blog. And for Raquel, I gave her a vegetarian lasagna.

She's Smiling!!!

2008-09-22T09:53:00.001-07:00

While I was at the birthday crop yesterday, Raquel picked up Kathryn and took her on a photo shoot at Stanford University. If you have seen my previous attempts at trying to get Kathryn to smile for her school pictures (here and here), then you must know that I am absolutely ECSTATIC that Raquel did such a fabulous job getting pictures of Kathryn...smiling!

Drama Queen Birthday Crop

2008-09-21T23:31:00.000-07:00

Today was a Drama Queen birthday crop for birthday girls Leilani and Michelle. Michelle loves cupcakes and Leilani loves owls so you can imagine some of the gifts they received. I’ve never seen so many different owls and cupcakes in my life!

It was such a fun day! And, I actually cropped instead of just gabbing all day!
I made a quick card for Leilani, did a bio page and 10 recipe pages for the swap (which was due today).

For my birthday crop, Michelle made me such a fabulous birthday cake. There is no way I could ever make her a cake anywhere near as nice, nor would I want to try! (I was so thankful that Veronica made her a delicious strawberry cake!) So instead, I made a vegetarian lasagna and made Michelle a faux cupcake (which was my birthday card to her). That cupcake was so fun to make and Michelle seemed to enjoy it too.

Here are some pictures I took as Michelle opened her cupcake. (You can click the picture for a larger view.)

I love this expression on Michelle's face when I told her I made it from a yogurt container.

Here's a closer look at the faux cupcake. When the lid is lifted, the birthday wishes dangles. The charms are from ACharmingPlace.

And here are the goodie bags that Michelle and Leilani gave all of us...including a new stamp that Michelle had signed by Tim Holtz just for her Drama Queens!

My "Old Man"

2008-09-17T23:15:00.000-07:00

Since retiring, I have been making dinner nightly, trying to cut-back on fast food and eating out. But today was one of "those days" and I just didn’t want to cook. In fact, I just wanted to have a nice big strawberry margarita! Kathryn went to a Maroon 5 concert with a friend, so it would be just Jose and I for the evening. So when Jose called to say he was on his way home from work, I told him, "We’re going out, and I’m having a margarita!" He laughed and said, "I don’t know what has happened today, but ok!"

I’m so glad we went out. It was a night filled with laughter, mostly on my part, and that was before the margarita ever arrived! The reason for the laughter...the realization that "my old man" has developed "old man" tendencies! Repetitive complaining about something that bothers him, and by-golly, he’s gonna tell you about it! What bothered him at the restaurant? The lighting!

As soon as we arrived, it started, nonstop:

"It’s so dark in here.

Why is it so dark in here?

This isn’t a romantic french restaurant, it’s The Outback! There should be a little light in here!

They could at least have a candle on the table to make a little light."

The more I giggled, the more complaints he came up with. He even looked across the way from us and saw an elderly man and commented, "I’ll bet he couldn’t see the menu either! Next time we are going to Denny’s! I can see the menu at Denny’s!"

I was giggling at hearing the continuous complaints that he couldn’t read the menu. But I nearly lost it when Jose continued to complain but this time to our waiter! He even suggested a dimmer switch to the waiter! And even asked "don’t you have a flashlight?" By this time, I was no longer giggling, but just outright laughing out loud. I couldn’t believe he was actually complaining to the waiter about the lighting! Thankfully, even the waiter thought it was funny after Jose suggested a flashlight. And I about lost it completely when the waiter produced a key chain flashlight from his pocket and handed it to Jose!

It was so ridiculous and hilarious, I had to take a picture of Jose trying to read the menu (and paying the bill) by flashlight. And when I thought it couldn’t get any funnier, Jose looks at me and laughs after I took the picture and said, "And what’s so funny? You know YOU can’t read it either!" BWAAHAHAAHA! It’s true! I couldn’t read it either, but I didn’t complain or ask for a flashlight!

Art and Wine Festival

2008-09-14T21:58:00.000-07:00

I thought I would write a little bit more about my daughter Raquel, especially since Angela told me at Stamp Club that she read my blog and thought I had two children, not three!

This year Raquel had a booth at the Santa Clara Art and Wine Festival
to promote her photography business, Life Stages Photography. She did such an awesome job. This is one of my favorite shots she took.

It was exciting to see people lining up to try on the various costumes to get their picture taken. Raquel was so organized for the event. I got these couple of pictures before my battery went dead.

Raquel sets up and takes the pictures. Jennifer (Raquel’s childhood friend) shows the customers their pictures, and if they like what they see, Jennifer collects the money. Kathryn did the computer work for the order and prints it out. Kathryn really did a great job too. She was so concentrated on her job and she kept up with the fast pace. What a great event this was.

A Day Off...

2008-08-30T22:25:00.000-07:00

I distinctly remember years ago when my father-in-law would make statements like, "Good, tomorrow is Saturday. My day off!" Or, maybe, "Monday is a holiday, I don’t have to work." I always thought it was strange that he would make those comments, and would think to myself, "But he’s retired...everyday is his day off!"

Well, now I know what my father-in-law meant as this is my first "holiday" since my "retirement." I used to look forward to nice, long, four-day holiday weekends like Labor Day. But this year...nothing. No excitement. None, whatsoever. That’s when I realized why my father-in-law made those comments. He did his usual fix-up work at home and at the triplex during the week, but when it came to the weekends and holidays, he took the day off!

So today, I took the day off too. No cleaning, no organizing, and no checking things off the "to do" list. Instead, I got a pedicure with a nice foot massage (my favorite part of the pedicure). Then I went home and played. I turned on the computer and webcam and virtually scrapped with Hayley and Leah. We worked on our ATC Swap for ACharmingPlace. The theme is dragonflies, and we only have to do six.

Here are my ATCs. I just need to sign the backs of them. I used distress inks, perfect pearls, stamps, transparencies, Luminarte Primary Elements and glitter. The dragonfly, alphabet and filigree charms are from ACharmingPlace.com.

It was a fun play day!

Now, this feels like retirement!

2008-08-27T22:23:00.000-07:00

Finally, things are settling down, deadlines are out of the way, and Kathryn is back in school.

Today, I went to our local Farmer's Market. I have wanted to go since it opened many months ago, but have only driven by every Wednesday—a day I went to work. I bought fresh rasberries, blackberries, strawberries, white nectarines, apples, zucchini, fresh flowers and, my favorite, kettle corn! It was so much fun!

After farmer's market, I drove to Palo Alto to have lunch with my daughter, Raquel. She's always so much fun and makes me laugh. I brought her some of the fresh flowers and kettle corn from Farmer's Market. I arrived in Palo Alto earlier than expected, so Raquel pointed me in the direction of a cute little stationary store I could walk to while waiting.

On the way to the store, I passed a Korean BBQ where people were sitting outside and enjoying their lunch. The food sure looked good! So when Raquel met me at the stationary store, I told her about the BBQ place I had passed, so that is where we had lunch. It turns out, Raquel is a regular customer there! It was yummy!

After lunch, I visited our local scrapbook store and picked up a "few things."

What a great retirement day! I got to do two things I couldn't do on a "work" day!

Here's a picture of Raquel with her kettle corn and flowers. When I look at the picture, it makes me giggle, because I see that she is not wearing her natural, beautiful smile (unlike Kathryn who will NOT smile). She's saying as she smiles, "Why are you taking a picture of me in the lobby...with my kettle corn?"

Finally, she says, "It's for your blog?! Isn't it?!" Well, yes it is! As I was "informed" that after performing a "search" of my blog, there were NO pictures of my first born.
Now there is :)

Someday she'll smile...

2008-08-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

Kathryn's first day of her Sophmore year. Of course, I wanted to take pictures but she still won't smile for me. And to top it off, this morning she had a tiny pimple on her forehead (seriously, you could barely see it, even up-close), so what does she do? Tries to cover it with her bangs! So, now, in addition to telling her to smile, I'm telling her to move the hair from her eyes.

I was looking at last year's "first day" pictures, and today, we pretty much had the same photo shoot conversation as last year:

"I don't wanna smile"
"UGH!"
"would you please stop already???!!!"

with bonus conversation:

"Aren't we done yet?"

"You're gonna make me late."

"I've only been standing here for five minutes..." (that's because you WON'T smile and take the hair from your eyes!)

"WHY are you taking pictures of me while I am talking???" (Because you won't smile! And maybe I'll catch one!)

"Ok - that's it, I'm done!" and she walks off....I call her back for "just one more" and I get the MEAN look lol

As I drop her off at school, I figured I would try to get one of her walking towards the school...but she saw my camera in my hand and as she got out, said, "OMG, you're gonna try to take another picture of me, aren't you? UGH" and runs off.

Oh well, not one good picture. I may have to try again when she gets home. Or, I may call in "the professionals" - my daughter Raquel. She always gets her to smile!

A Trip to the City...

2008-08-14T20:57:00.001-07:00

We went to San Francisco yesterday to get Kathryn’s hair straightened. It turned out fabulous and she is very happy! It was 8-1/2 hour process. So, while Kathryn was getting "straightened out" (just her hair was straightened, she still acts like a teenager lol), Jose and I visited his brother who has a fabulous condo next to Ghirardelli Square with beautiful views and overlooks Alcatraz Island. (The above picture is from his living room patio -- see the railing?) He took us to lunch and gave us a tour of the city: Coit Tower, Lombard Street, The Presidio, Golden Gate Bridge - it was nice for both of us to be driven around by a local and not worry about parking!

Today, Jose and I are spending a few days in Lake Tahoe. I am really enjoying this thing called "retirement"!

Here are before and after pictures of Kathryn's hair. Amazing! Just amazing!

A very busy weekend!

2008-08-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

It has been a very busy, nonstop, but very fun weekend! On Friday I drove all the way to My Daughter's Wish (that's about a 120 mile roundtrip, and you know how driving is not my favorite thing!) to take Tim Holtz's Assemblage of Flight class.

Here are my pieces. Later, I will pop off the back of the pocketwatch and add a little more dimension. My favorite tip from this class was when Tim told us how to make "super glue dots". As you can see from the picture of the pocketwatch, the wings look a bit out of place but that's because they are "flexible" because of the "super glue dots". (The wings are attached with glue dots but super glue was added on top of that!)

On Saturday, I drove back out there again for his Industrial Grunge class. I've wanted to take that class for a long time. It was so much fun! Although, in retrospect, it could have been more fun for my friend Laurie who saved me a seat next to her. I was so involved in the class and "in the zone" that I wasn't my normal social self! I will have to make that up to her! I will post pictures of the things I did in that class as soon as I find them!

And in between all the fun from the Friday and Saturday classes, I was cleaning, shopping, wrapping and prepping for the family BBQ on Sunday for my baby boy's 20th birthday!

I can't believe he's already 20...how did he go from one to 20 so quickly?!

I did it...

2008-07-30T21:52:00.000-07:00

After 23 years of working as a legal assistant for Sue, I’ve decided to retire. (not sure how long that link will work—out with the old and in with the new!)

Today was my "retirement" luncheon at A Bellagio and about 20 of my former co-workers and attorneys from those past 23 years were there. Mark (the attorney that both Sue and I worked for before she started her own practice) even drove down from Sacramento to celebrate with us - that was just the sweetest!

A few of my favorite lines from Sue’s "retirement" speech for me:

"Christine has been my right-hand man for 23 years and I have needed her! Especially since I’m left-handed AND dyslexic!"

"...we’ve been together so long it’s like we’re an old married couple."

"I blame the reason for Christine’s early retirement on one thing, and one thing alone! SCRAPBOOKING!!!"

I especially loved Sue's personal note to me, which began: "Christine, this is probably your last chance to decipher my handwriting..."

I will definitely miss everyone, but now I will be able to devote more time to the things I REALLY love to do...creating and teaching!

Left to right/front to back:
Ted and Sue
Maria, me (the retired one), and Matthew

Photo Walk and Adobe Digital Crop

2008-07-27T20:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture I took on Friday when I went on the "photo walk" in downtown San Jose with Michelle and her husband Dave.

Dave graciously let us (well, me lol) follow him around and take pictures, while Michelle asked him what settings we should have our cameras on for the particular situation. I did actually learn something from this process! I am not able to repeat it verbally, but a few more of the knobs on my camera make more sense to me. This setting was for stopping the droplets of water!

And here's a very tired looking picture of me, the digibear (every time you finish a layout, you ring the bell and get to keep the bear until the next person completes a layout), one of my digital layouts and the Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet that I won.

I was operating on about 4 hours of sleep that day, and planned on leaving early, not staying for the entire 9am-9pm crop.

And here's Veronica, Michelle and I at the end of the day of the Adobe Digital Crop. Surprisingly, the three of us stayed from start (7:30 for breakfast) to finish! It was a lot of fun!

My Birthday Crop

2008-07-20T19:46:00.000-07:00

We had a belated birthday crop for me yesterday. The Drama Queens out did themselves, especially Michelle who baked this beautiful cake. It was delicious! Drama Queen Kathie was paying me back for my "tattoo" prank and gave me a lovely birthday card with a very tattoo-faced person on it and brought me a delicious "possom pie" (it was really lemon meringue).

Inbetween all the fun, I just about finished my 9 pages for the recipe swap.

I made a pull-out recipe, a handmade paper apron, and traced a Basic Grey chipboard vine shape onto grungeboard and stamped, inked, bent and outlined it. I was hoping to distract the girls with the pretty embellishments to make up for my "easy" recipe!

And the night before the crop, I finished up the "Drama Queen" book party favors I had started in Hot Springs. I had fun making the interactive pages, layering charms, hanging pages onto the binding with charm holders (for your cell phone), making the UTEE "Drama Queen" embellishments with the stamp I found in Hot Springs, and making lots of grungeboard flowers!

Here are a few of the pages...

And here's a closer view of the UTEE "Drama Queen" embellishment. I made a bunch of these when we were in Hot Springs.

Hot Springs...

2008-07-16T12:47:00.000-07:00

Spent four great days in Hot Springs, Arkansas, scrapbooking with Leah, Joy, Chandra, Sandra and Hayley from ACharmingplace.

We always have a great time together.

I did manage to actually do a little scrapbooking too. I got started on my pages for Michelle's recipe swap and even finished a few books I will use as party favors for my birthday crop next month.

More ATC Cards

2008-06-14T12:18:00.000-07:00

The girls from ACharmingPlace were doing another friendship swap, but this time on ATC cards. I made 22 of them, but unlike my mermaid ATC cards where I used a lot of stamping techniques, this time I decided to make them more scrapbook-like and interactive. Here's one of my favorite ones, simply because it's interactive (one of my favorite things) AND because I recycled the product packing from my Basic Grey Rub-on Roller and used it as the pull-out tag information. Do you see the big pink bling on it? That is where the "hanging hole" was on the packaging. I also used one of Tim Holtz's ATC Stamps and a skeleton grungeboard element on this one. The little flower charms are from ACharmingplace.

Here's a slideshow of the other ATCs for this swap.

MERMAID ATC SWAP

2008-03-31T23:35:00.000-07:00

I joined Valerie's, Mermaid ATC swap (even though I'm not crazy about mermaids!)

I made 11 of them, all of them a little different. It was so much fun inking, stamping, spritzing, crumpling, sewing and using beeswax on cardstock, coffee filters, tissue paper, mica and anything else I could get my hands on!

This ATC happened to fit the theme for the monthly challenge on the Ranger Yahoo Group, so I posted it. They are so nice over there, I should participate and contribute more often. One of the ladies on the group asked how I made the ATC, so I will post the steps here too.

For the background paper, I used the direct to paper technique to apply milled lavendar, tattered rose and dried marigold distress inks to my white cardstock.

I sprayed the inked paper with water using my mini mister and then swished (like that technical term?!) my paper through a puddle on my craft mat (the puddle consisted of milled lavender ink directly on the mat, spritzed with water and a "z" scribble of goldenrod stickles) until fully covered.

I dried the paper with the heat gun until damp. I then crumpled it up into a small ball and re-opened it, smoothed it out, and then sprayed it with a mini mister of water that I had added a couple of dips (using the wet tubing from the bottle) of sunflower sparkle perfect pearls, covering it completely. I used the heat gun to dry it. After attaching it to my ATC chipboard,I added a very thin layer of glossy accents over the top using my finger. I typed "Believe in" onto typing paper and highlighted the words with glossy accents. I attached the shells with glossy accents too. I dangled a "Love" charm from a fishing leader.

Here's a slideshow of the other ATCs for this swap.

2008-02-04T23:05:00.000-08:00

We’re attempting to restart stamp club at Scrapbook U, a little less structured this time. Tonight was our first meeting and everyone brought different stamping projects to work on.

I decided to give Tim Holtz’s February Technique Challenge a try. It was fun using the grunge, crackle paint and distress inks!

The Real Deal...

2007-12-11T07:48:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, my room looked like this...

But here's the real deal...real life...the worse it has ever been (this one's for you Audrey)...

The result of taking classes, cropping, prepping and teaching scrapbook classes since the weekend after Thanksgiving. Throw in Joey coming home and having to clear a spot on the floor for his airbed (which is why everything is on the table), a family birthday dinner for Raquel, and then buying a Christmas tree which means moving all my class prep stuff from the dining room back to my scraproom (Joey’s gone so now that stuff is on the floor), and this is the result! I can't believe I posted this...but hey, it's the real deal!

Audrey, still want me to come over and help you organize your scrapbook room???

Heading to Seattle...

2007-11-08T08:22:00.000-08:00

Heading to Seattle tomorrow to scrap with some of the ACP (ACharmingPlace.com) girls. We always have so much fun when we are together! I always like to bring a little project for everyone to do, so this time it will be acrylic books.

Here's a picture of me drilling holes in all the acrylic books I had made at Tap Plastic. I felt so professional using Jose's BIG drill press!

Play = Discovery

2007-10-19T12:02:00.000-07:00

How sad, it hasn’t even been a week and I’ve already missed a day of being creative. But I did help a few other people get creative last night teaching my slideholder minibook class...can that count?

Today, I’m supposed to be preparing for Saturday and Sunday’s classes, but I really missed "playing" yesterday. This morning, the little gadget I set out for yesterday’s play has been calling, "play with me! play with me!" I just couldn’t ignore the calls...

I can really get used to playing everyday. You make new discoveries...like these little plastic slideholders that I’ve had for-e-v-e-r can hold a giftcard...they make cute little minibooks...maybe a cool hidden journaling spot..oh the possibilities! I also discovered a use for the rolls of calculator tape I found on sale...they fit perfectly inside these things! Another discovery, I can sandwich a clear sticker or a rub-on between two epoxy circles and attach them to this brass frame.

So, there you have it, my creative play for the morning! This was so fun, I may even create something tonight, you just never know! But I’d better get to prepping now!

Creating a mess...

2007-10-17T12:37:00.000-07:00

Does "creating" a mess count towards being creative everyday? If so, that's what I did last night, made a big ol' mess getting ready for this slide holder class on Thursday night.

But just in case it doesn't count, I pulled out the good ol' Glammer Mists again, sprayed it on a slideholder, threw a flower on it plus the soldered slide (my first attempt at soldering) I made at Creative Escape and..... tada! a cute little card that I can give to my sister...or not heehee.

Glimmer Mists

2007-10-15T23:35:00.000-07:00

Today's creation had to be quick and easy, so I sprayed some Glimmer Mists on Bazzill Chips and stamped them with the "Christmas" clear stamps by Kelly Panacci. The charms, of course, are from ACharmingPlace.com. This was definitely quick and easy. I can see making up a batch of these and using them in a Christmas album.

I am now caught up with Day 3 of what I hope will be at least 30 days of my "Do Something Creative Everyday" challenge. At least I know I'll get a few ACP challenges done this month!

Calendar Swap

2007-10-15T22:51:00.000-07:00

Sunday's creation was finishing up my calendar's pages for a calendar swap with ACP. December is the month I had, and could only use the colors white, black and red to create the pages. A big thank you to Jean and Linda for finding some of the poinsettias I need to finish up!

As for Monday's creation...I can't find my desktop! Tonight's creation may have to be something small...like Bazzill chips!

2007-10-15T22:49:00.000-07:00

The little box I found at the Japanese store was Saturday's creation. This box may be tiny, but it houses lots of fun little techniques. The bottom compartment has a minibook in it, there's a transfer technique on one of the bottom surfaces that I learned at Wishfest, and my favorite thing is all the little danglies that are revealed when you lift the lid (which was really hard to take a decent picture of).

The box handle and all the little charms are from ACharmingPlace.com. (which reminds me, I need to order more charms as they are having a 20% off sale thru Tues. October 16th. Just type in coupon code SILVER).

This box is a "trial" version so I used two sheets from my old paper stash :)
I think my next one will be a Christmas theme.

Who'd have thought...

2007-10-15T09:36:00.000-07:00

that quirky little Drama Queen "Blythe" could be inspirational?! I know, hard to believe, but it's true. (and Michelle, I'm being nice referring to Blythe as "quirky"...)

On Saturday, I received this fabulous and hilarious little thank you card in the mail from Michelle. (Michelle who hasn't updated her blog either). After a good laugh, I turned the card over and it was, of course, signed by Michelle. Her signature was inside a cute little circle stamp that said "Do Something Creative Everyday".

Feeling a bit stressed lately with various deadlines, even routine ones, I find myself not "creating" as much as I'd like to. So reading those stamped words, "Do Something Creative Everyday" really struck a cord for me. So I thought, hmmmm...that's a good idea - I shall do just that! (I know, I know, I'll probably last a month!)

So thank you Blythe/Michelle/Shelly for the inspiration. And btw, after I received that card, instead of preparing for my classes this week (which I will surely pay for later this week lol), I went out to the very fun Japanese store, Daiso, and found several fabulous boxes! I went straight home and decorated one - so fun! I'll post a picture tonight---it'll be an uncoming class.

She just LOVES me to take her picture...NOT!

2007-08-31T09:07:00.000-07:00

I had to do a slideshow to show you the usual sequence of events that I go through taking pictures of my baby....this one is complete with the typical eyes rolled up in her head, the mean "stop it" face, the "I don't wanna smile" pose, the "UGH!" sound, and of course the raised hand saying, "would you please stop already???!!!" Geez...I just wanted one nice picture of her first day of high school!

The Evolution of My Scrapbook Room

2007-08-22T22:54:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures of my "first" scrapbook room (living room/dining room) for about 7 years, and pictures of my new room (start to almost finish) now almost one year old. It's a neverending process, but hopefully I'm close to being done. There's still more slatwall to be put up and areas that need to be organized...but the room was clean (briefly!) so I took pictures. Almost every picture has a caption, but you have to click the picture to read it.

Like a kid in a candy store...

2007-04-14T07:35:00.000-07:00

We found this cute little candy store in Windsor.

They had candies I hadn't seen in a while like candy necklaces, Look bars, Chick-O-Sticks, button candy on paper, candy cigarettes, Fizzies and lots of other instant childhood memories!

My daily picture is the lollipop stand that was outside their front door.

Definitely a Memory Worth Scrapping!

2007-04-13T18:52:00.000-07:00

Our first full day of my scrappin' birthday weekend.

Last night the girls brought me a yummy cake and fun presents, and said I got to be "Princess." (But hello...no tiara??!! heehee!)

When I woke up, Kathy asked what I would like to drink. Continuing with the "Princess" concept, I kiddingly replied, "a grande Soy Chai, no water, please."

I was so surprised when she said, "sure" and headed to the fridge and pulled out a container of Starbucks-style Chai and soy milk!

I thought, "Wow!" I wonder what else she has (snicker), so I stepped-up the "Princess" act and added, "I'd also like...."

I don't even remember what it was that I asked her for, probably my usual three petite vanilla scones, but I DO remember that I went too far with my request because she gave me that big ol' beautiful Kathy smile and discreetly flipped me off lol!!! Coming from Kathy, it was quite hilarious! Definitely a memory worth scrapping, which, by-the-way, is also the name of Windsor's local scrapbook store.

I Can See Clearly Now, the Rain is Gone...

2007-04-12T20:30:00.000-07:00

All of the dark clouds have
disappeared....

It was a beautiful drive
going over the Golden Gate Bridge!

Michelle, Jean and I hit the road in Michelle’s van which was packed with our scrapping supplies, plus soda, water and tables too.

Stormy Weather...

2007-04-11T08:32:00.000-07:00

It was a busy day today trying to get ready for the long scrappin' weekend that starts tomorrow.

Michelle, Jean and I will drive up to Windsor tomorrow morning, but it sure looks like rain. I took this picture on the drive home (at a stop sign)...my windshield needs cleaning!

A Pleasant Surprise

2007-04-10T20:56:00.000-07:00

I nearly forgot to take today's picture of the day. This one makes ten days in a row.

When we got home yesterday from San Francisco, I found these beautiful purple flowers on my doorstep from a very dear friend.

A Day in the City...

2007-04-09T20:41:00.000-07:00

We spent the day in San Francisco for my birthday.

The weather was gorgeous and I got to practice taking a few pictures.

The flags waving in the wind was one of my favorites.

And a few more...

Let Them Eat Cake!

2007-04-08T18:45:00.000-07:00

Aren’t they pretty?

Raquel made both of these beautiful, four-layer cakes (carrot and chocolate marble) for our Easter/Birthday celebrations today.

They were dee-licious! And, as if that weren't enough, she also brought frosted sugar goodies, and made all the side dishes for our BBQ today.

Happy Birthday to me, Kathryn, David and Bruce!

I know it's blurry, but it's not about the deodorant...

2007-04-07T20:35:00.000-07:00

It was a PJ day for me. I’ve been thinking all day about what picture I could take that would not entail me having to get dressed and go outside.

Earlier today, Jose went grocery shopping. I asked him to buy two deodorants, one for me and one for Kathryn. We both use the same kind (and he said he knew what kind) and we both like powder scent. It turns out, he bought two deodorants, both were powder scent, but both were "Secret."

Me (showing him the deodorant). "What happened? I thought you knew what kind."
Jose: " I thought you would want the powder scent."
Me: "I do, but not that kind. Secret makes me break out."
Jose: "Oh, sorry, I’ll get you some more."
Me: "No, that’s okay. Kathryn says she needs one for school anyway. I can wait."

After Kathryn and I put away the groceries, Jose goes back to the store to get ice for tomorrow and a few other things. I go back into my room to scrap a little and am still thinking of what picture to take. I know! I’ll take a picture of my favorite little spinner caddy. So as I’m taking pictures of my scrapbook caddy, in walks Jose and says, "Look" as he proudly presents "the right kind" of deodorant AND in powder scent.

He said, "See, I could be a hand model." Baahahahahhaha! It was so cute, I had to take a picture.

So...the reason the picture is so blurry (besides the fact that he was moving and didn’t want to keep posing 'til I got it right), is because the focus is on the hands...not the deodorant!

The Kathryn Tree

2007-04-06T21:41:00.000-07:00

I got home from work very late today - just past 7pm. The sun was nearly set and I hadn’t taken my daily picture yet. Jose was mowing the lawn when I got home, so I thought I’d take a picture of the house and the freshly mown lawn. Kind of a reverse view of the scrapbook room view.

While outside, I started looking around for other pictures to take. I really want a picture of the view of the hills from the front of the house, so I took a couple of those. I didn’t like them. I’m too short. I’ll need a ladder or will have to climb up on one of the cars (definitely not a good idea). Oh, I know! I’ll wait for the Sanford and Son truck to come back home and take it from the bed of the truck.

Since yesterday was Kathryn’s birthday, I thought it was a good time to take a picture of "The Kathryn Tree." It’s called "The Kathryn Tree" because we noticed the tiny redwood tree starting to grow in our front yard around the same time I was pregnant with Kathryn. Jose had trimmed a lot branches from the redwood trees in our backyard, and set the branches in the front yard until it was time for the recycling truck to pick them up later in the week. We think that’s how the seed to "The Kathryn Tree" was planted.

So here’s a picture of "The Kathryn Tree." I took a few pictures of it from a distance, trying to get the whole tree, but there were too many parked cars cluttering up the background. I decided to take a picture from the ground up...only I had no intention of getting on the ground to take it. Come on, it’s only day 6...I’m not ready to hit the ground and lay on my back (in the dirt, no less) just to get the perfect shot! Instead, I semi-crouched down, put my hand as close to the ground as possible without actually touching it and aimed my camera upwards, hoping for the best. Well, this was the best. I figure there’s always room for improvement. I’ll take this shot again next year - and who knows, maybe I’ll even be on my back for the shot.

So, Happy 14th Birthday to "The Kathryn Tree"

Life's Uncertain, Eat Dessert First!

2007-04-05T21:58:00.000-07:00

Today's Kathryn's birthday. She wanted to shop at the mall with her friends before seeing the movie, Meet the Robinsons. We saw it in 3D so I also got a couple of pictures of them with their funny 3D glasses.

While we were there, I took this picture to use as
my "Picture a Day". I love the columns.

I've been to the Cheesecake Factory several times for dinner, but always with Kerry.

As I was taking the picture, it dawned on me that I've never actually tried their cheesecake! We're always too full after dinner and drinks. That's just wrong!

So, the next time we go, I'm eating dessert first!

The View

2007-04-04T20:15:00.000-07:00

I brought my small digital camera with me to work today so on the way home, I took a picture of the late afternoon traffic jam.

After a few snapshots, my cell phone rings and I see my son's cute face on my screen. I smile, as I know it is, "The call." The one I get once or twice a month reminding me that I forgot (or did I?) to deposit money into his account. I'd love to get a snap a picture of "the call" too.

Once off the freeway, there are a couple of views I've always enjoyed coming home. I attempted a few pictures, but it's not easy taking pictures going down hill...while driving. I'll try again when I'm a passenger.

When I got home, I dumped the pictures on the computer. Jose walks in, sees my pictures and reminds me that he trimmed the bushes in front of my scrapbook room just so I could take my daily picture.

So, here's today's picture.

The view from the chair in my scrapbook room...you can even see the little pink fastenator hanging from the slatwall bin.

Pretty in pink...

2007-04-03T16:43:00.000-07:00

This is a close-up of one of the bushes in our front yard. It's a good thing that baby takes care of itself, because I certainly didn't inherit my mama's green thumb!

Another day, another picture!

2007-04-02T21:44:00.000-07:00

Today I thought I would continue "the view" shots with a picture from my scrapbook room window. I decided against it because 1) my neighbor just pulled into their drive-way, and while their Mercedes is nice, it kinda messed up my shot, and 2) I suddenly noticed that the hedge outside my window could definitely use a haircut.

I decide to take a picture of Jose's "Sanford & Son" truck. Nope, that's not gonna work. The truck is still at his dad's house.

While I was getting a pedicure this afternoon, Jose called and asked me to pick up a bottle of wine. So that's my picture for the day.

April Fool's Day

2007-04-01T21:15:00.000-07:00

So...I’m actually doing it! I’m going to join Valerie in her quest to take a picture a day for a year. Seriously! No Joke! I really am...or, at least for the remaining 275 days of this year. I thought it was a good excuse to finally do two things I’ve been wanting to do for a while. Learn to use my camera and start a blog. Apparently, I’ve been wanting to start a blog for a long time - my user profile says I’ve been a user since November 2005!

I almost forgot to take my very first picture because Jose and I took another trip out to Ikea in search of the bookcase for my scrapbook room that was out of stock when we made the trip the day before. Such a waste of gas in his big ol’ red truck. Riding in his truck is always an adventure that begins with Jose humming the theme song to Sanford & Sons lol.

On the way back we stopped by his Dad’s house to get back the van, which means we also had to shift that big box from the truck to the van. It was supposed to be a "quick" stop. It wasn’t. We couldn't get in the house because the door lock is so old it took a whole lot of turning the key back and forth to get in. Jose had to fix it before we left...but he had no tools with him.

He finally found a very old screwdriver to take the lock off. It turns out the inside of the lock was busted. It was missing an integral piece - one of it’s little prongs which is why the key was "spinning" in the lock. The whole process felt like a MacGyver episode without the danger. Did you know that a small piece of a plastic fork tine can be used to fix a door lock? That was my idea - and it worked! So, with the lock fixed, off we went. But not before stopping at Target to meet Jean who called me during the lock incident to let me know she picked up the latest Cards book for me using a 50% off Michael's coupon. She’s sweet.

I meet Jean inside Target where I discover that they now sell Autumn Leaves Clear Stamps - including the swirls set - for only $9.99. Wow. They had lots of cool things, but I bought none of it. Did I mention the Ikea bookcase that we just bought is more than half the size of the Ikea bookcase it was replacing? I loved the big one, but my room really needed counterspace.

It was late afternoon by the time we got home. I suddenly remembered I’m supposed to take a daily picture! There was still a bit of sunlight outside. At least I knew where my new camera was, even though I haven’t used it in about three months.

I decide to take a picture of the view from my bedroom because it’s so relaxing just looking at the big redwood tree. After the truck adventure and the "MacGyver" episode, relaxing sounded good. Ordinarily, I’d just open the sliding glass door and take a picture from the room. However, the big ol’ 25 cube Ikea bookcase that I just removed from my scrapbook room is temporarily (I hope!) residing in my bedroom, blocking access to the door. So, I head outside via the living room door and stand on the step just outside my bedroom door.

I take a few pictures, portrait, landscape, zoom in-zoom out...then into the house to upload the pics to my computer to see whether or not they're blurry. Yes, I know, there’s a little screen on the back of my camera, but either it’s too small or my eyes are too old, but I can’t tell if they're blurry. I prefer to think the screen is too small.
I grab the camera cord to transfer the pictures to my camera. Open up the window to view them and they aren’t there??!! What happened? Strange, very strange. So I figure I must have done something wrong so I quickly go back out to get the picture before the sun goes down.

Ahhh, I now see why the pictures I previously took weren’t there! The sun was starting to go down so I was trying to see what ISO the camera was set at. That’s when I saw it... "Memory Full". Back into the house to dump all the pictures onto the computer and to find the manual so I can quickly reformat the card.

Done. So, back outside I go. Now it’s obvious that I’m going to need to change that ISO as the sun’s just about gone. Drats, I can’t remember how to change it! Back into the house to get that manual again. (They sure print those manuals in small type.) I finally find out how to change the setting and back outside I go...again.

So that was my first Project 365 picture of the day. I'm sure it'll be easier tomorrow. And, I don’t think it will be difficult to see an improvement in future picture taking!