Faithbooking Sisters New Challenge

Have you ever wondered how to draw closer to God in all areas of your life?  Well, Faithbooking allows you to have a creative way to worship our Lord and pass on your beliefs and convictions to future generations. 
They are having a My Lifetime Story Challenge at Faith Sisters.  Head on over there and sign up.  There is only about a week before the challenge starts.  Have fun!

Shimmy, Shimmy, Shake, Shake!

WOW! People, in the last week there has been 170+ earthquakes down here in So Cal!  In my area alone the large ones have been as follows.  3.5, 5.8, 4.9, 3.4, 4.0, 3.0, 3.2, and 3.2 as well as many under 3.0!  I am proud to say that my craft room did not sustain any visible damage and all of the storage shelves I have installed did not fall (this time)!  The 5.8 was the one that scared the glue out of me!  I grabbed my DD and started praying as I ran downstairs!  Called MIL and checked on them. The pool water sloshed out, she said!  Well this is the biggest set I've seen in a while!  Hope they're done for a while.  Too nerve wracking for this girl!  Back to scrapping I go!

Want to Save Some Money on Cricut Carts

I just went to Oh My Crafts and got the pre-order threesome for the next Holidays, Love Struck, Easter, and Mother's Day.  They had them for sale as a three pack and then I typed in HOLIDAYS for the coupon code and with shipping I only paid about $20 per cartridge.  They usually go for $24.99 plus tax/and or shipping!  So that is my Birthday Present, early, from my DH.  Remember my Birthday is January 7th!  Come by and wish me a Happy Birthday and be entered in a contest to win this:

I designed this set and hand-assembled the glass and crystal beads.  It is a beautiful bracelet and earrings set.  This picture does not do it justice.  If you would like to look at my other sets go on over to my other blog,  Patriot Beads.  I have an Etsy store link on that blog as well.  

Don't forget to go to If It's Groovy and check back here, too, for an incredible Birthday Bash that is going to last January 4th through January 10th, 2010.

I hope that you all had a great Christmas and Hanukkah so far.  I have really enjoyed myself, my family and celebrating my Savior's Birthday! 

Remember to take a minute and leave comments!  Tell you friends about this blog.  If I get a larger following I want to start monthly challenges and offer prizes.  Help me scrapbooking and craft addicts, you're my only hope! (Borrowed from Star Wars)

Regarding Experiment!

Okay chickies, the alcohol ink experiment went as expected.  I made some great ink, however; when trying to dye non-porous acrylic discs, I am going to save up my money and get the real deal at the craft store.  I am going to try coloring the bottom with a marker and see how that looks, too!  The inks I made with the food coloring gel and  iso.alcohol did not turn out great due to the alcohol not being the highest concentration.  I hear you can get 99% at Costco.  Here are the photos of the two colors that came out half decent.

Experiment - Mwah Haa Haa Haaaaa! Okay, it's just skittles again!

Okay, as I sit in my little, tiny, corner of the States, I don't get to meet a lot of cutting edge scrapartists who might direct me to the latest and greatest, this and that!   I rely heavily on the internet to bring me inspiration and new techniques.  I have been hearing for some time about "skittles" not "stickles", which by the way I haven't used yet!  That will be another story!
I looked up these skittles on forums and such, but couldn't get a lot of information on them. Turns out they are called Dew Drops as well and who knows how many other names.   So here's what I think they are after much searching, mind you I may be years behind what all of you already know.  They are clear, little, 1/4 in plastic cabochon-like pieces that are either sold in the florist supplies, like the ones I got, or they are precolored and sold in packages at craft stores.  I have yet to see them sold in packages at my craft store.  Here are some links My Pink Stamper    Your Memories Here    Alcohol Ink Reference Guide   Alcohol Ink Techniques  Technique Details    Pezadoodle   Rubber Stamp Chat   Home Made Inks  Mel Stampz    Alcohol Ink  The Robin's Nest  The Scrapbook Hut   The Frugal Crafter

Here's where I actually get to do the experimenting.  I have heard that you can color them with food coloring as well.  I have a ton of gel food coloring not being used and it is getting old.  I bought a bag of the clear florist cabochons and I will see what I can make.  So I am going to see what I can use for a fixative or maybe the plastic will absorb the color.  Wish me luck and if you have any hints or advice with this method, let me know!!!
P.S. I heard  this works for the ink:
One package of Rit dye (Powder)
Baby food jar
Rubbing alcohol
Put dye in jar, and add rubbing alcohol to the top of the jar - shake well.

Scrapbook Page for a 12 x 12 Shadow Box

I have never made a layout for a shadow box before.  I really leaped before I should have, because I am not sure if I will find a frame for this layout I did of my aunt who is having her birthday, January 2nd.  I used all kinds of techniques on this baby.

 

 

 

 

No Santa Picture This Year; Last Year's Pic

Well, my little darling got all dolled up to see Santa this year.  We got all the way down to the Mall and over to Santa and she just couldn't muster enough bravery to sit on his lap.  He was very sweet and tried to talk to her but she buried her face in my lap instead.  We walked around a little, and tried again, but she wasn't having any of it.  "Christmas," we told her, "is about Jesus anyway.  If you don't want to sit with Santa, we don't care, we love you anyway!"  She was happy just to hold our hands and be loving to us the rest of the day.  I have some pictures of her and the layout I did of her picture from last year.  I just finished the LO tonight.

 

 

She did not look that happy this year!  Sweet little dolly!  We'll try next year!

Christmas In A Small Town

This year my husband took off work to go with my daughter and I to Christmas In A Small Town, hosted in Imperial, CA.  There were all kinds of crafts, vendors, and food. 

I scanned the area for things to add into scrap supplies and bead supplies.  I found a man selling a stack of vintage paperback children's books.  The printing date on the books, to name a few, was 1950 and 1975! 

I wanted to direct you to Groovy Deb's post about how she used images from a book like this.  I will be keeping a few of these books for myself and I thought that as time goes by, I would also give the rest away as blog challenge prizes. 

Here's a preview of what they look like.

 

 

 

 

 

Joys of The Season Challenge

Over at Bitten By The Bug they are having a challenge using the ribbon form (Rbbnfrm) used on page 65 of the Joys of the Season Handbook.  I decided to make a Christmas Tree ornament.  I used the bird from Home Accents and a pear from Joys of the Season.  The paper is K and Company from a year or two ago by Brenda Walton called "Peppermint Twist".  I had the whole pad of 50 or so papers and just love the designs and colors.  For the sparkles I used Martha Stewart glitter and also some little flat rhinestones.  I glitter embossed the bird and then sprayed the whole thing with a matte craft sealer so that the glitter would not come flying off everywhere!  To give the ornament a little bit of a classy look, I added a pink, twisty, faceted, glass bead capped with two seed beads for some sparkle. The theme for the ornament is "A Partridge in a Pear Tree"

Christmas in a Small Town

Last year I took my daughter to Christmas in a Small Town, which is hosted in Imperial, CA.  She got to have her picture taken with this sweet little pony.  If it were up to me...I would get some land in Montana and get her a miniature horse to ride!
This LO is featured at If It's Groovy and it was done in 30 minutes.

Making Cookies

My mom, Bead Bum, and my daughter, made CCCs (chocolate chip cookies) while my mom and dad were visiting.  My daughter sampled the recipe at ever step of the way.  I used my Cricut Expression and the From My Kitchen cart for the wording.  The paper is My Mind's Eye and the stickers are chipboard from Creative Imaginations.

This LO is featured at If It's Groovy for their Home For The Holidays challenge for Dollbabies.

Not Totally Burned by Black Friday

Sorry I am posting my pirate booty a little late.  I have been so bogged down with decorating and switching out seasonal clothes!  I wanted to share pictures of  my little red jewel that I got on Black Friday this year.  It came with Plantin Schoolbook and Serenade.  Both are wonderful carts.  I took the picture of the side of the box to show you what is on the Serenade cart. 

A message from me.

My mother, Bead Bum, sent me a really neat voice recorder box and a 12 x 12 scrapbook frame for Christmas last year.  I made a LO of my daughter and also embellished the voice recorder.  I attached the voice recorder with one side of a magnet to the LO which had the other side of the magnet.  This way I am able to remove it and change the message. 
I used K and Company paper and matching embellishments.

A day late and a dollar short......

Do you ever feel like you are the last person to learn a really popular technique or to complete a very well known project?
I finally attempted to do an Altoid tin.  I made a mini photo album, for my husband's mother, of my daughter.  Here's what I came up with. I found the tutorial for this tin on youtube.com and I started with this video.

New Inspiration Blog Award Recipient

A while ago I received my first blog award and it really made me think.  Right away I wanted to create an award all on my own that would be a gift from me to the people our there who inspire me in the paper crafting world.  Please read this post for details on the award.

This month I am handing out the award to Groovy Debbie and the blog If It's Groovy.  I am inspired by this blog because it touches on many of the areas of paper crafting that really interest me. Scrapbooking, Card-Making, Altered Art, Mini-Albums, Faithbooking, Sketches and much more.  I really enjoy how Debbie and the team look for ways to bring pieces of our world right into our homes and hearts with the paper crafting techniques they discover.  I really like the kind and personable feel I get from Debbie and the DT.  This is why I also was interested in being a DT member and why each day the opportunity to share myself with strangers becomes more and more like a ministry to God's children than just a fun way to spend my time.  My confidence has grown.  I have even more focus and purpose in my scrapbooking and paper crafting.  I am feeling more refreshed and more creative with my daughter who wants to do everything mommy does.  I am even excited and confident that I can host my own challenges on my blog, where I thought that was impossible before.  Sometimes I just need a little nod in my direction and that's what I got and at the right time, too!

It's My Birthday and I'll Crop If I Want To!

If It's Groovy is having it's 1st Birthday in January!  I am so excited to be a part of this and I'll tell you why! There is going to be a whole week of online cropping and challenges!  Design Team Members from IIG, including me, are going to be hosting our own Groovy Birthday Bash Challenges in celebration of this awesome event.  There will be prizes!  You will want to make sure that you stop by my blog, (I'll let you know the dates very soon) complete my challenge and enter to win some vintage ephemera and groovy paper pieces that you can alter or add to layouts!
Please let all your friends know and post this announcement on any message boards or forums at your favorite hangouts!!!

I am also having a birthday, January 7th! Make sure you stop by my blog that day and leave me a comment to enter a contest to win a beautiful jewelry ensemble that I designed and assembled myself.  The ensemble is titled, "Have a Groovy Birthday!"  So on January 7th, have a piece of cake on me! You know, those nice pieces they sell over by your grocery store's bakery!  Hee Hee!  Just remember to check your face in the mirror so the family doesn't suspect anything!