Merry Christmas

It is only a year late, but I finally finished Quinny's stocking. I used a Bucilla stocking kit and mainly followed the directions.

I've made 4 other stockings using Bucilla kits and was happy with them. However, this one was different. First, I ran out of supplies. Second, the directions were terribly vague. Luckily, I had felt stocking experience so I knew what to do. A beginner would have been extremely frustrated and probably have given up. Despite all the odds, I think that his stocking turned out well.

I'm going to be taking a few weeks off of blogging so I can spend time with family, organizing my studio and working on new projects. I'll be back in January!

Have a very Merry Christmas! I'll see you again in 2010!

Mixed-Media Education

I've been waiting for months for the end of December to roll around so I could sign-up for Suzi Blu's Petit Dolls class. I'm going to learn how to do this.


I already watched the first two videos and my head is swimming with ideas and excitement.
I love it.

While I was watching, I sketched my first face on junk yellow lined paper with a pencil sans eraser and I have to admit, I'm pleasantly surprised at how she turned out. (All things considered.) As soon as my camera battery is all juiced up, I'll get some pics up.

This is going to be so much fun!

Vintage Ornaments with Shimmerz

I recently purchased the Christmas postcard kit from Crafty Secrets and had a lot of fun Shimmering them up with Shimmerz paints and spritzes and Martha Stewart glitter. This is a wonderful kit that I highly recommend to anyone who likes vintage images. I blogged about this in more detail on the Shimmerz blog.

Here are the ornaments that I made.



You can see the beautiful iridescence from Shimmerz Blingz in the close-up.


I think that this one is my favorite. Those birds and that deer just melt my heart.


I used Shimmerz Blingz on the birds to give them extra sparkle.


The tinsel around the edges is from Melissa Frances. Isn't it beautiful?


More Gold Glimmer Blingz for sparkle.


This is one of my favorites too because of the cute children.



This is what the back look like. The kit came with all those stamps. Isn't that the coolest thing?


I used silver chenille stems as hangers for most of my ornaments and while I was heating up the embossing powder around the edge of the postcard, I discovered that silver chenille melts too! It changes into a more vintage looking silver that I'm totally loving. You can see it in the picture above. This may or may not be safe so please be very careful if you decide to melt your chenille, okay? I don't want anyone to inhale toxic fumes or burn their house down.

Happy Christmas!

xoxo
Bethany

Paperclay Santa

I know you've all been dying to see what I created in my paperclay class! (I know, it has been on your minds for weeks now...giggle.) I finally finished my Santa and I must say that I'm quite proud of the little dude.

First, here is a pic of me and Jenny Hernandez of The Polka Dot Pixie. She did a marvelous job teaching the class. I give her 2 thumbs up.

I know that it appears that I am 7 feet tall. I am actually 5'10 and I happen to be wearing 3 inch heeled boots. I'm really not a giant. Really.


Here I am working on my sculpting.


And here is the finished project! Isn't he adorable? Don't you just want to hug him?


Here's a close-up of his face.


Check out his stripey socks and his cute little elf boots.


A picture of his hiney. He's got nothing to hide. The glue was still wet when I took these pictures so that is why the mica flakes look more white than usual.


I had an absolute blast making him. I've got many more paperclay people designing themselves in my brain right now. So you'll be seeing a lot more in the future...

Fingerprint Ornaments with Shimmerz

I'm in charge of the 2-3 year old Sunday School class at church and since Christmas is right around the corner, I wanted to do an easy and inexpensive ornament craft with them.

I came up with this Christmas tree.


Each "dot" is actually a finger print. Lyssie is very proud of her handiwork (or should I say fingerwork?)


If you are interested in making this craft with your sweeties here is what you'll need.

Materials

1. One 8 1/2 x 11 inch piece of white cardstock
2. Red and Green paints (I used Shimmerz royal red and celery because they are non-toxic and so pretty!)
3. Brown paint (I used acrylic.)
4. A star of some sort. (I used a brad, but a punched star would work too. Or you could even do a yellow fingerprint for a star.)
5. Ribbon for hanging
6. Pencil, eraser, hole punch and triangle template


Directions

Prep-Work
1. Cut 1 ovals out of your cardstock. I used my Creative Memories oval cutters. This made it really easy.
2. Trace a triangle very lightly in pencil (this marks the boundaries of your fingerprint tree.)
3. Paint your brown trunk.
4. Punch a hole and thread your ribbon through the top.

With the Children
1. Paint one finger with green paint and stamp it inside the triangle. Repeat until you have the look you want. You can manually stamp the child's finger, or give them more freedom to do it themselves.
2. Paint one finger with red paint and add ornament accents.
3. Add a star (if desired)
4. Write the child's name and date on the back. Erase your pencil triangle.
5. You're done! Wasn't that easy?

I had a question on my glitter ornament tutorial here. The question was how did I put the spray adhesive nozzle into the ornament. If you look at a can of spray adhesive, it has a spray nozzle that sticks up a bit, I simply aimed the spray into the ornament by placing the nozzle right into the lip of the ornament. I promise that if you buy a can of spray adhesive and an ornament, it will make sense.

I just found out that Shimmerz is featured on the Scrapbook Trends blog! They are doing a give-away so run over there and leave a comment! I hope you win! Good luck!

Fun Uses for Scallop Paper

Nikki Sivils makes some fun square scallop paper. Instead of using it as is, however, I decided to cut out the scallops out as a strip and layer them. I love how it turned out.

I did this layout for The Scrap Review using Nikki Sivils products.


Materials: Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker papers, brad and stamps; Ranger ink; American Crafts pen and thickers; Bazzil cardstock; my own mists

Here's a close-up so you can see the dimension that I achieved simply by bending the paper up.

A close-up of my journaling. I put it around the picture block so it acts as a border too.

On Bongo, I only used one scallop strip, but I stamped a cute heart on each bump. It adds some interest in an otherwise bland area.


Materials: Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker papers and stamps; colored pencil; Ranger ink; American Crafts pen and thickers; Bazzil cardstock

Here is a close-up of my scallop.


Bongo is a special layout because it documents a book that my dad wrote for my children last December. Each day he sent a new chapter via email for us to read. The kids loved it because he personalized it for them. When he came to visit for a weekend, he brought the last chapter and read it to them. Then he gave each of them a three-legged elephant stuffie. (This elephant played a major role in the story and was named Bongo.) It was really sweet to see them all huddled around him in eager anticipation as he read.

Happy Laundry

With 5 active children, I do a lot of laundry. I'd say I spend at least 5 hours in my laundry room each week. For some reason, some of my worst attitude moments are spent in this busy room. Perhaps it is due to my dislike of folding. Perhaps it is due to the fact that 5/6 of the people that I wash, dry and fold for do not thank me for my efforts. (The one that thanks me is my sweet husband, Todd.) In fact, some of those 5 people actually moan and groan when I give them a basket filled with clean clothes freshly folded for them to put away. Yes, it is true. I know you can't believe it.

When I was a child, I never moaned and groaned when I found a pile of clean clothes on my bed. And I never, ever was so lazy that I just dumped that pile on the floor for a few days then swept it up and put it into the dirty clothes pile again. Never. I was a perfect child. When I found a pile of beautiful laundry on my bed, I would first put it carefully away making sure not to ruin any of the folding that took my mother so long to do. Then I would run to her joyfully singing her praises. I would make her a cup of tea and massage her feet as she rested from her labors. Yes, that is what I would do. My mother might have a different memory of my childhood laundry escapades, but since she isn't writing this post, we'll just stick with my version, okay?

Back to my laundry room...because I have some seriously ugly thoughts in that room, I knew that I needed something happy to spruce it up. I needed a reminder of how laundry is a way for a momma to show her devotion for her family despite their protests. It is an act of love that goes unnoticed (that is until it doesn't get done because that momma is sicker than a dog or tending to a newbie.) It is really part of a higher calling and I'm grateful for that.

I made this Oh Happy Day! banner to hang over the window in my laundry room. I love the bright colors and cherries. They just make me happy even when I'm crabbily folding and folding and folding.



Materials: Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker papers, brads, stamps, breadless tags, mini-album and craft flags; acrylic paint; ribbon from Michaels and Target; American Crafts pen; Harmonie buttons; DMC floss

Believe it or not, C's jubilant smile in the picture was completely unplanned. He just happened to be in the area when I was taking pictures and asked me to take a picture of him. Sometimes the best things are totally serendipitous. In my opinion, he totally makes the project shine.

Here are close-ups of each flag.

I did this project for a review on The Scrap Review of Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker products. Boy, it was fun to work with her stuff! I love her sense of humor.

I spent the entire day Saturday at a paperclay class and had a wonderful time. As soon as I finish my Santa, I'll post more about that lovely day. In the meantime, I'm on ScrapScene again with my glitter ornament project and I just found out that I'm going to be published in Scrapbook Trends in May! Yeah!

It really is a happy day! Now, off to fold and fold and fold...

xoxo

Bethany

Back On

I got my computer back and it has been wiped clean so it will be a few more days before I'm up and running again. I've got so much to reload! Ack!

xoxo
Bethany

Off the Computer

Hello!

I will be taking my computer into the Dr. this week. If you've emailed me and I haven't responded that's why. I hope to be back with a faster computer by the end of the week. Thank you for your patience!

xoxo
Bethany

Special Delivery: Just for Fun

Last week, I just felt the need to play a bit. I had some new 7 Gypsies papers and some new Shimmerz and I wanted to do something just for the fun of it. It's been awhile since I just sat down and created something totally for me.

Special Delivery is the result. I absolutely love it.


Materials: Pattern Papers, journaling tag, flower, stickers; metal circle: 7 Gypsies, background paper: My Little Shoebox; Hambly transparency; Graphic 45 die cut tag; GCD Studios paperclip; Jenni Bowlin "Read this" sticker; Maya Road leaf; Shimmerz Spritz in Mudpie and Sapphire, Shimmerz in Gold Glimmer; Bazzil cardstock; text page; lace; Ranger ink; Sharpie pen; Stampers Anonymous Stamp; Heidi Swapp letter mask

Here is a close-up of the Spritz. I combined colors. I first spritzed with Mudpie, then while it was drying, I spritzed with Sapphire. The result is a new color. Isn't that fun? (I just posted this tip on the Shimmerz blog.)


My journaling is about Lyssie's crazy hair. It is half straight (in the front) and half curly (in the back). It is wild and free and I adore it. My father always tells me that my hair looked exactly like that when I was 2.


I hope that you had a lovely weekend! We certainly did. This Saturday was the first open Saturday we've had in months and we loved the freedom! T and I combined forces and almost completed our Christmas shopping online, T mowed the lawn and we (as in the kids, not T and I) had fun playing on the swingset and relaxing together as a family. Sometimes having nothing to do at all, is the best therapy!

Plus, thanks to my awesome brother and sister, T and I went out on a date together. It was so fun. We went out to dinner then to Borders to hang out. I hit the magazines and the mixed-media/art section while T looked at the sports section. We met up in the cafe and read to our hearts' content. (Well, not completely, but there isn't enough time in the day to read to our hearts' content...) I learned all kinds of new techniques that I'm dying to try out. Fun fun!

xoxo
Bethany

Scrap Review Giveaway

Just a quick post to let you know that my review of Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker is up on The Scrap Review. If you leave a comment before noon on Saturday, you could win a fab prize! Good luck!

I'll chat more about my projects next week. Have a great weekend!

Trouble

I did this layout a few weeks ago for The Next Step. The background is a brown paper bag that I altered a bit. You can get all the details here.


Materials: brown paper bag; 7 Gypsies paper and brads; vintage lace; silver embossing powder; Versamark pad; my own mists; house from www.scrapartist.com; Making Memories glitter; leaf stamp from Harmonie; Prima flower; Maya Road metal flower; Bazzil cardstock; Heidi Swapp crown stamp; Judikins silver embossing powder; My Little Shoebox letter sticker; American Crafts Thickers; Hambly yellow dot overlay; Autumn Leaves rubons; mushroom, apple are unknown manufacturers

Here are a few close-ups. As you can see, I added silver embossing powder to give it some extra oomph.


Some misting adds to the grunge-look.


I purchased the house from Tangie at BlissFest in Mesa, AZ. I went a little crazy with her clip-art collage sheets. I seriously love collage sheets!


The leaf stamp is from Harmonie. It may be my favorite stamp ever. I love it! I took some left-over bag and stamped onto it with green StazOn.


The little guy in this layout is such a busy boy. I almost can't keep up with him! He just learned to open the back door (he's 1 year old) so now he escapes daily. Don't let those beautiful brown eyes fool you, he's the king of trouble. hehehe. Man, I adore him!

I was published again in Scrapbooking.com! You can read my article here. It is a layout I did of E dancing.

I also appeared in Somerset Studio Gallery Winter 2009! I've got two projects in the Expressions column. Yeah! It's my dream to appear in Somerset Studio. I'm almost there...just keep submitting and I'll wear them down...hehehe.

Christmas Crafting with the Kiddos

If you are looking for a beautifully easy project to do with your children (ages 2+) I've got an idea for you.

These glittered glass ornaments are really easy, quick and gorgeous. I wish I knew how to photograph glitter better because these pics just don't do them justice.


Materials

1. Glitter in many colors. I used Martha Steward glitter that I found at Walmart. I am totally in love with Martha's glitter packs. I own every single set. Yes, every. single. one. That's how great the colors are.


I think the glitter vials are so pretty that they deserve their very own photoshoot.


You will also need...
2. Spray adhesive (I used Elmer's)
3. Clear glass ornaments (I found mine at Hobby Lobby.)
4. Various ribbons for hanging.
5. If you'd like, silver and gold snowflake stickers (I used some by Harmonie)

If you are tackling this project with wee ones, you will also need patience for a few of these...


And a broom and dust pan for a few of these...


Directions

1. Remove the metal top from the glass ornament and put it somewhere safe. So you don't lose it like we did. (ahem...) This is a job for an adult or older more careful child (8+) as it is easy to break the top while doing this.

2. Spray adhesive into the ornament. The best method for this is to place to nozzle in the ornament and spray it all around. Try to coat every surface (inside the ornament, not outside) without leaving a major puddle. This is an adult job unless you want massive sticky spots all over your workspace.

3. Dump 1 color of glitter into your ornament. Start with your lightest colored glitter. (We used up to 3 different colors in a ball. In my opinion, the best results were with 2 colors. However, flashy Zoey (my 6 y/o) would disagree.) My 8 y/o, Dani, was able to dump glitter successfully. I didn't give anyone else the option. (Did I mention that I covet my glitter?)


4. Place your thumb over the opening and shake the ornament to distribute the glitter. Everyone was able to do this step successfully as long as their thumb was big enough to cover the hole. Little Lyssie (2 y/o) had a bit of trouble because of her mini-thumb. But she still triumphed in the end.



5. Dump your second color of glitter and shake. Repeat until the entire inside of the ornament is covered in glitter.


6. When you are done, replace the cap, tie on some ribbon and enjoy the fruits of your labors!


If you have some beautiful metallic stickers, they are really impressive stuck on the outside of the ornament. These are made by Harmonie and I must say that they are absolutely exquisite. That fine detail! They are tough little buggers too. I pulled them pretty roughly by one snowflake arm without any ripping. None! I couldn't believe it. You can find the silver ones here and the gold ones here. They really add that extra oomph to this project.




I had each child make 3 ornaments for teacher gifts this year.


It was a fun project! I hope that you enjoy it too!

Happy Creating!

xoxo
Bethany