Quick Tip Tuesday: I forgot to ink the edges!

Have you ever been happily cruising through constructing a layout only to realize you wished you'd inked those edges BEFORE you adhered your page together? Okay, well maybe not but I just did! Not only had I adhered my page together I had adhered it with my sewing machine! I can get just about any adhesive to release but I draw the line at clipping a jillion little stitches. For a second I thought I was sunk but then the little light bulb of inspiration went off. I simply used a piece some old packaging, slid it carefully under my edge and used my ink blending tool to apply the ink to the edges of my already adhered layers. Quick and easy. And for those of you looking for the follow-up to my twisted flower tutorial...it is on a snow-day delay...

 

Challenges and Awards!

 

There's a challenge this week over at Let's Scrap! 

Here's the scoop: 

Make a Wall Hanging -but there are some strings attached -get it?

You must:

1. Choose a card sketch from the site ( I used LSC104)

2. Use a LOVE theme, does not have to be Valentine's but LOVE should be oozing from it! :0)

3. Use at least 5 different patterned papers

4. At least 1 item must be cut out from a patterned paper ( I cut out the big hearts)

5. At least 1 item must be popped up ( I have lots of that going on!!)

6. Bling... a little or lot, just something that sparkles

The prize is this sweet assortment of Cosmo Cricket goodies!!!

 

~Come and join us, we'd love to have you~

*******************

AND

Thanks Tammy, for the blog award!!!

~Tammy, a fellow design team member over at Let's Scrap sent me this cute blog award~ 

This award focuses on sharing ten happy things in our lives!

Ten things that make me happy:

1. Family, first and foremost

2. Warm baths

3. Coffee

4. Sunshine

5. Great layouts

6. Good Eats (the show)

7. Great Friends

8. Happy Children

9. A Clean House

10. A purring kitty on my lap

And now it is my turn to pass the award along to 5 friends!

These girls have fantastic blogs and fabulous ideas!!!

Enjoy and thanks again Tammy!!!

Luzma

Dawn

Debbie 

Suzanne

Aymee

Let's Scrap some more!

 

Here it is, my first "official" design team layout over at Let's Scrap. 

It is based the second side of this week's  INCREDIBLE sketch:

Aren't Cheri's sketches just so, so pretty all on their own? 

Come on over and play along. Cheri puts out double sided sketches but as you see, I only did one side of the sketch. Totally okay! At Let's Scrap you choose whether you want to do one or both sides of the sketch. 

On my layout, I used some jute to hold my Sizzix cut felt tag in place. I had lots of fun glimmermisting the tag so it would look like shimmering sand. Then, I proceeded to cover it all up with the shell trim and journaling. I know, you can see it AT ALL in the photo. It does look pretty neat IRL. Ah well, I'll try that again another time. These pictures of my youngest daughter just make me giggle, all dressed up and playing with dirty old driftwood. Girls.

 

Here I tied some teeny tiny little beads on the ends of the floss bow. 

I love how it came out, guess I'll be doing more of it~

  

{I did actually do the other side back for DT call}

Remember this one:

Hope to see you over at Let's Scrap!!!

Tuesday's Tips & Techniques: Twisted Fabric Flower

Have you seen all those adorable twisted fabric flowers out there? You know, the ones with the BIG price tag? Well, here is how to make them for a few cents a piece. It's so easy even a nine year old can do it! 

Step One -Collect your supplies:

Scrap of fabric

Circle punch

Scrap of cardstock

STRONG adhesive (a glue gun would be good here too)

 

And to embellish it I used: 

Self-Adhesive pearls 

First, put lots of adhesive on a small cardstock circle. I used an inch diameter circle for mine.

  

I do mean LOTS, cover that entire surface!

  

Next hold out your strip of fabric. My assistant {read: nine year old} has a piece of pink tulle. Goes well with her dancer personality;)

  

Stick one end to the middle of your circle and begin twisting your fabric strip and stick it down to your circle as you go around...does that even make any sense? Here is a picture:

  

Just keep twisting, turning and sticking until you fill up your circle.

  

Trim any excess and embellish!

  

I put my flower on a Valentine card that I made just last night.

 

As you can imagine, the embellishing possibilities are endless! Think: vintage jewelry, buttons, rhinestones... 

And just in case you need a few more pictures...my lovely assistant made one more flower from a scrap of muslin. I love the muslin flowers, they go great on distressed layouts and are so much fun to alter. But that's for another Tuesday.

  

Hold and begin twisting the fabric

  

Stick end of strip to center of circle that is COVERED in glue

  

Keep going around, twisting and sticking

  

Trim any excess fabric

  

Embellish as desired.

Snow Fun AGAIN! And not so much fun too~

 

Home Sweet Home

Two days after the BIG STORM

The sun is finally out again, maybe something, anything will melt today!

We got about 6-8 inches of snow Friday but very late Friday night we got some freezing rain on top of it. That shrank our beautiful snow and capped it with a hard layer of ice making it impossible to make a snowman, or a even snow angel:

 

I did get some cute shots of the kids!!! 

 

 

And then we went out to play:

  

Baby bear opted for wheels instead of a sled

  

But we did get him to at least try going down the hill, once:

  

I don't care if he liked it or not. I did not like it for him! Not one little bit.

  

Daddy Bear had lots of fun. Head first. What is he thinking?!?!

  

Looks like he is thinking it's fun!

They even went sledding in the DARK!

I tried to take some pictures to prove it...

 

But that didn't work out too well. 

NOW for the not so much fun part.

As the storm hit, our heater hit the road. Could the timing be ANY worse? 

By the time the new unit arrived, there was too much snow to dolly it up our front slope...thank goodness for wonderful neighbors!!! They rushed up off their sleds and man-carried it up our front yard and into the backyard. Thanks a million guys!

  

  

Hot chocolate and new heat, the best part of the day!

 

Sketch Crazy!

 

This bright and cheery layout is based on a Pagemap by Becky Fleck. I used Bo Bunny papers, stickers and ribbon along with a few MS punches, various trims and a Prima vine. And lots of stitching of course, I even hand stitched the vine to the page~ Gotta say, I'm not happy with this one, not sure what it is but I just feel like something is off...

Here is the Pagemap:

 

And this is based on a Sassy sketch. I just LOVE these photos of the kids looking through that window! I did TONS of distressing and stitching on this layout. And that lace ~ it is vintage, I got it from Jenni Bowlin back at Vintagefest. The black flower is a Prima and the stars and pin are Maya Road. Here's the sketch:

And finally, a couple sneaks for Let's Scrap:

  

The big reveal is February 3rd! 

School's are all closed here today in anticipation of a WHOPPER of a snowstorm. So guess what I'll be posting tomorrow~~~