Show & Tell - Cherish butterfly tag

Today I turn 36 (I think), lol. Some times I’m off by a year. I have several friends who share June birthdays with me. I enjoy swapping cards with my crafty friends. I made this “Cherish butterfly tag” and tucked it into a card for one of my Fisk-A-Teer friends in Canada.

I hope she likes it. Happy Birthday to all you fellow twins! I decided to take a peek at my horoscope today. I actually used to to be an avid horoscope reader when I was younger. I would get those mini horoscope scrolls from the gas station (my dad called them horrible-scopes). Here’s what Horoscope.com has to say about being born today.

“Celebrate in style on your birthday in preparation for great things to come. As your own personal new year sets in, you will be offered a number of appealing opportunities to choose from. Love, work and travel top the list, and your own problem may be choosing just a few from so many exciting options. Try to remember what is really important to you, and what you value in life above all else. By September, you should have a clear idea of what direction to take, as your life moves forward in a completely different direction than you might have expected. Fall is your transition time, as you make the leap from one reality to the next. Go more slowly then, but do go.”

For my b-day celebrating I’ve got a dim sum lunch planned with my honey and Nika. Then a little crafty shopping. Tonight Vlad’s mom is having a family dinner party for me (home cooked Russian food)…yay!! I hope you have a fabulous day today. Big hugs & kisses!! XOXO

Friday Freebie - Doodle fun & paisley brushes

Check out all this doodle fun and lovely paisley brushes from The Scrappin Cop.

Get the Friday Freebies

• Doodle Alpha
• Doodle Frames
• Doodle Brackets
• Paisley Brushes

Be sure to browse through all The Scrappin Cop’s freebies here. Lots of good stuff. Some adorable animal characters that would be great for kids projects or to print coloring pages. I love this school journal/envelope download. Oh and some nice wood tiles too. That’s just a sampling of all the unique and interesting freebies you’ll find. Hope you have a fun and crafty weekend! XOXO

How to get started art journaling

I’ve been wanting to start an art journal for a while but wasn’t really sure how to go about it. I found my way to Sarah Whitmire’s Soul Journaling site. She has a FREE online Soul Journaling workshop and a wonderful yahoo group dedicated to art journaling! I have finally started my very 1st art journal. Take a look…I’m following the prompts in Sarah’s fun and easy tutorials. Here’s what my 1st page started as.

Here’s the next step of  me painting over my journaling. I still need to add more and finish it. That’s the beauty of a journal. Always a work in progress and I can flip around and come back to when ever.

This is how pages 2 and 3 started.

This is page 3 after the fun scavenger hunt. This page still needs some doodling before it’s complete.

I’ll share more of my pages as I go along. This is such a great way to try out new techniques, play and just be free to create.

You can access all of Sarah’s Soul Journaling prompts here. She really makes getting started so easy and fun. If you are interested in art journaling be sure to join the Soul Journaling Yahoo group too. Thanks for stopping by today! XOXO

Friday Freebie - 5 awesome kits with gorgeous papers!

Happy Friday! I’ve been having a great crafty week. Working on a few different collage pieces and I started an art journal! I’ll share pics soon. For today’s freebie find I thought I would list all the loveliness I’ve been downloading this past week. There’s been some really good ones.

Lovely Lady mini kit - I love the colors in this kit. The papers are oh so pretty too!

High Key sampler - Very unique collage-looking papers in this sampler. The papers are stunning.

Date Rub-ons - These date rub-ons are so versatile. Always good to have stuff like this in your digi collection.

Tulip Time kit - More unique-looking papers in this collection. It’s hard to see in the preview some of these papers have music sheets oh so slightly layered into them. Very cool!

June 1st freebie -These papers are so pretty. I really like this designer’s style. Joyce Paul has some gorgeous kits.

Hope you have a fun and crafty weekend! XOXO

One Minute Muse

I’ve been sick this past week and spending a lot of time online. Catching up on blog reading and surfing around on YouTube. I stumbled upon the One Minute Muse and so glad I did! These video tutorials have really amazing techniques for making backgrounds. She uses a lot common things from around the house and all of the videos are about a minute! Here’s a sampling of some of the things she uses in her cool techniques. Lots of unique ideas for mixed media, collage and art journals!

• Shaving cream
• Jet dry
• Salt
• Crayons
• Tissue paper
• Rubbing alcohol

I’ve been so inspired watching these tutorials. You can see a sampling of the One Minute Muse’s videos on YouTube. Better yet you can access all the fabulous techniques on the Muse website. If you sign-up before before May 31st it’s free to be a member (after the 31st there’s a fee). You’ll want to check this out, really good stuff!!

Kids CD winner!

The winner of the new CD from the Brian Waite Band goes to comment #11

Congratulations *** Brenda *** and thank you to everyone who entered.

Inchie collage on wood

I’ve had this inchie collage project waiting to be finished for some time now. I finally got around to completing it this weekend. I’m really happy with how it came out.

These inchies are from the 2008 Fisk-a-Teer Christmas inchie swap I participated in. I knew that I wanted to display them all together in a type of collage. While poking around in my husband’s wood shop I found the perfect scrap block of wood. My honey finished off the edges of wood for me by rounding them out and off I went. First I painted a few coatings of gesso on the wood surface to prep it for the collage. Next I used a blending tool to rub antique linen distress ink around the edges. I also used a willow acrylic paint dabber to go over the edges too. For the background paper I traced the wood block onto the back of my paper and cut out. I also used a corner rounder on the edges. To apply the paper I painted on a generous amount of gel medium and placed the paper onto the block of wood. I used a brayer to make sure there was no gaps between the paper and wood block. Gel medium was used to apply the inchies and embellishments. For the metal hardware I used Zip Dry glue. I also sanded the edges of the paper and glued the silver tinsel ribbon with Zip Dry. Thanks for checking out my project! XOXO

Products used

• Wood block 5 ¼” x 5 ¼” & 1 ½” thick {scrap wood from my husbands work shop}
• Paper {Cosmo Cricket}
• Stickers {K & Company & Stampendous}
• Flower & half pearl {Prima & Stampin Up!}
• Scrap music paper {left over from a previous project, made with Crafty Secrets stamp}
• Dream sticker {left over from another project made with Dymo label maker}
• Antique brass hardware {Stampin Up!}
• Tinsel ribbon {purchased at Michaels}
• Adhesives {Golden Regular Gel Medium & Zip Dry}
• Gesso {Golden}
• Ink {Ranger}

Friday Freebie - a scrappy mag for you!

Happy Friday and Happy Memorial Day weekend to all my fellow US friends! Since all the scrappy mags seem to be shutting down the presses lately. I thought I would remind everyone about a really great free scrapbooking magazine that you can download. I’ve done this as a freebie find before, but it’s been a while. This is the same high-quality magazine you would find in print. Scrapbook & Cards Today is a Canadian publication that comes out every quarter. Tips, challenges, products galore, and lots of inspiring ideas.

Get the Friday Freebie

You can also download all the their previous issues too, here.

Have a great weekend everyone! XOXO

Hip kid-friendly tunes & a give-away!

I’m always on the lookout for creative and unique music for little Nika to listen to. She loves to dance and sing. We’ve been rockin out to our latest discovery from the Brian Waite Band “20,000 Volts Under the Sea“. I just love it! I never knew kids music could be so hip. Even my honey was surprised to know it was a kids CD. Really fun songs and definitely not your typical kid tunes. 

There’s a a great rock base with a wonderful blend of funk, blues, and even reggae. It’s not often a band can accomplish several styles of music well and these guys go even further by combining these styles into a playful and fun collection of songs.

This dad trio writes, plays and performs all their own stuff. You can download free samples of their music here.

** Give-away **
I have one extra CD to give one of you! Just leave a comment on this post. For fun tell me about the special little someone you’re going to share these rockin tunes with. I’ll leave comments open until Thursday 5/28 and pick a random winner. Please only one comment per person, open to US mailing addresses.

Check out how fun these guys are in concert! I’m totally going to take Nika to see them this summer

For those of you in the NW here’s where you can find them…

Friday, July 17th @ 12-1pm and 1:30-2:30pm
King County Fair
Enumclaw Expo Center - Main Stage, Enumclaw, WA

Wednesday, July 22nd @ 10-11am
Kirkland Family Concert
Marina Park, Kirkland, WA

Thursday, July 30th @ 10-11am
Everett Family Concert
Thornton A. Sullivan Park, Everett, WA

Sunday, November 8th @ 11am - 12pm
The Buddy Club Children’s Show
Randall Museum, San Francisco, CA
Tickets call 510-236-SHOW

Hope you are having a fabulous day. Check back tomorrow for Friday’s Freebie, it’s a good one! XOXO

Mixed media goodness

Look what I got in the mail this weekend! I’m so excited to play with the new Claudine Hellmuth Studio paints and sticky back canvas. I signed up for Claudine’s online mixed-media class “Home is where the art is” at Scrap in Style. The class starts today and looks super fun. We’ll be learning 3 techniques a day over the next 5 days and then assembling all of them into this cute wall hanging, shown in the image below.

I purchased the Claudine Hellmuth Studio products from Stampington & Company. I didn’t have any luck trying to find them locally. I called all the local craft and stamp stores and checked Michaels too. I’m so glad I purchased them online as I wouldn’t have discovered my new favorite mag! Am I the only one that didn’t know how cool Somerset Studio is…where have I been and why didn’t you tell me about it? I just got the May/June issue and totally loving it. It’s filled with eye-candy galore, techniques, tons of info and just all kinds of mixed-media goodness.

You can take a peek inside the current issue here. It’s truely a beautifuly done magazine. It’s on the spendy side, but I say definately worth it. If you like collage, stamping, and mixed-media you will love it. With the 2 year subscription you get a free vintage clip art CD with over 500 images too! I figured with all the other mags shutting down the presses this was a justified purchase, lol. Hope you have a wonderful week. Chat you later! XOXO

Friday Freebie - Journaling & Title Fonts

Check out this cool font I just downloaded from Creating Keepsakes. They are going to be having a free font download every Friday! Shown in the image is today’s free font, ckJacque. Perfect for titles and journaling!

Just in case you haven’t stopped by Ali’s blog yet. She also has a free download for the document your weekend challenge. I used Ali’s “Saturday” word image on the photo below. I took this today while we were at the Issaquah Farmers Market. Nika and I love going to the local Farmers Markets!

Get the Friday Freebies

• CK Jacque Font
• Ali Edwards Weekend Freebie

Paper Casting with Toilet Paper…really!

Yes, I’ve been playing with toilet paper and look what I made! It took maybe 5 minutes not counting the drying time. My friend Michelle had a blog post about paper casting recently which led me to this tutorial here. I had to try it and it really worked and was so easy.

For mine I used our household toilet paper (the Costco Kirkland brand) and tore off 10 squares. I wasn’t fancy about my process, I took the 10 squares and let water drip on them from the sink faucet. I wanted the paper good and wet. Once soaked I put them on the counter and stamped the butterfly image (use a good amount of pressure when stamping). Next I flipped over the soggy TP stack with the stamp still squished in it. I used a hand towel to put more pressure onto it and also to start soaking up the water. I found using a paper towel to soak it up didn’t pull out the water as well as an actual towel. Next I used my fingers to squish down on the image some more and then removed the stamp. I left the paper cast to dry overnight. It turned out great! To finish it one off I used Key Lime Pie Glimmer Mist and some Lime Green and Magenta Stickles.

I think this would be a fun project to do with kids. Toliet paper and water…fun and easy! XOXO

Show & Tell - Mini Ephemera Altered Houses

I’ve had this super cute “Funky Little Ephemeriffic House Charm Kit” for a while. I finally got around to putting them together over the weekend. This was a fun project to make. Here’s some photos of my completed house charms.

I purchased this kit from Ha! Designs and highly recommend it. For $12 you get everything you need to make 4 house charms. The kit comes with a bunch of great ephemera to play with. The roofs even come pre-drilled for the screws too. Check out Heather’s Etsy shop lots of fun stuff. She also has a shop with really cool vintage art supplies too!

The Tulip Festival

We went to the Tulip Festival in Mount Vernon Washington a couple weeks ago and had the best time. I’ve always wanted to go and so glad we did. I had no idea how amazing all the flowers would be. Over 1,500 acres of tulips and daffodils everywhere. Spring goodness at it’s best! Here’s some pics from our trip.

We also made a stop in La Conner to one of the cutest stores ever, Bunnies by the Bay. Nika’s cherished little Nay-Nay bunnies are made here. This store is filled with delightful baby things. Lots of softies, baby clothes and just the most adorable things imaginable. Check out all of this scrappy loveliness they had too. Some really gorgeous altered books, wall hangings, and tags.

The Tulip Festival takes place during the month of April every year. It’s about an hour drive north of Seattle. The neighboring towns of La Conner and Anacortes have lots to see and do too. We’re already planning another trip as there was so many places to explore. A really great place to visit. Thanks for stopping by today!

Friday Freebie - moms day digi kits

Here’s a couple kits I found that looked pretty enough for your moms day projects. See last weeks freebie for some free moms day vintage images too!

Get the Friday Freebies

• Crush mini kit
• Feels Like Home

The Crush mini kit is designed by LaWanna Desjardin for the Shutterfly Celebrations Blog. Feels Like Home is designed by Sarah Bennett.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and a very Happy Mothers Day! XOXO