Friday, January 22, 2016

Winter Wonderland Blog Hop

Welcome to the
http://scrapsbygracie.blogspot.com/2016/01/winter-wonderland-blog-hop.html
 
Today's hop is filled with winter (not holiday) themed projects.

Today's hop sponsored by
http://creativitygrowshere.com/classes
Catherine is giving away a class of the winner's choice from her great offerings
at Creativity Grows Here.

To enter the drawing just leave a comment on each of the blogs in today's hop. (And you're going to love her classes! Even if you don't win... you should check her out! Her stuff is AWESOME!) The winner will be announced on ScrapsByGracie.blogspot.com on Saturday, 1/30/16.

Now on with today's project...

I don't know if you know... but I'm having an affair. (*GASP!*) Yep! A love affair with a cold (snow)man. And I love to watch him be "Frozen". Are you getting it yet?

Yeppers! I'm in love with Olaf! Yeah... I know he's kind of last year (or two years ago, or whenever...) but I love him. He's cute. He's adorable. He's utterly oblivious to anything negative. What a positive inspiration for anyone! And since he's related to snow... He's just perfect for this Winter Wonderland Blog Hop!

Months and months ago, in a little social media platform not very far away... in a land called "Twitter," I participated in a Cricut Twitter Party! Short story... You "tweet" (answer questions) throughout the "party" using the hashtag (pound sign... [#] to us older folk) ha! even BlogSpot is showing the spelling of "hashtag" as incorrect. I know you can't see the red underline, but I sure do! Well, they sometimes hand out prizes, and... I WON! I won a digital cartridge... FROZEN!

And since then I've been playing with Olaf online placing Olaf in different designs of cards and layouts and just saved them, having no occasion to actually use him... until now.

So I got out my Handy Dandy Cricut Explore Air... and cut Olaf. And then began to glue him, making sure I glued the wrong side because we all know I've NEVER ever glued the incorrect side... the right side in a very fine line. I used some glue I've used before... it seems to work just fine.
 
Um... Is something missing? Perhaps...
... a tooth? And there it was... attached to the inside of his mouth. Oopsie! It's best to make sure you don't throw anything away until your character with itty bitty teeny tiny parts is put together, as it's extremely hard to dig through a trash receptacle full of itty bitty teeny tiny scraps to find that itty bitty teeny tiny part you may or may not have thrown away. True story.
Basically, I just put him all together on top of a pretty cut-out card... With the word "Summer" in a flourish behind him... [Insert scratched record sound here!] Wait! What!!!! I can't do that! It's a "Winter" wonderland... Not a "Summer" wonderland... Ugh.
No... I still have not cleaned or organized the craft room... I couldn't find all the bits and pieces to this really cool set of PEGZ stamps I have. (I was going to stamp out "Can't wait 'til..." on the front and move my "Summer!" to the inside...) so... I looked around and dug... and dug... and found this! Still in the brown box it was delivered in. And when I opened it and saw the receipt... I was horrified! The date? 10/14/2014! It's been in my possession for over a year and never been touched. Ugh!
One thing I didn't know... that it came with 3 Spectrum Noir pens... So I didn't have to search for those...
And because I've never worked with airbrush at all... I practiced a bit, to see what I was maybe going to do... It was kinda fun... and I was dying to take it to the walls of my room! No... I'm not a tagger...
I think I'd gotten the hang of it, so... I brushed on "Snow"... then loved playing with it so much...
... I added a couple of brushes of more ink along the edges. LOVE that look! My writing doesn't look too shabby either!
I put Olaf back on top of his card! He refused to stay down YES! There is glue on him! So...
I rolled over him! Place a clear plastic piece (so you can see what you're doing) over your item to glue down, and brayer it! (I do this with my Cricut and other mats, too...) Then just blot the excess glue that squeegees out... and you're good to go!
See? Much better...
He didn't seem quite complete, so I tickled him all over Stickled him in key spots...
And now he's awesome!

Up next is Holli! She always has something fabulous to share!

Thanks for stopping by! I sure hope you enjoy our Winter Wonderland today. I sure enjoyed him making an Olaf card. Don't forget to comment (and if you comment on all of the hoppers today, you are eligible to win a class from Catherin Pooler [I know I'd LOVE it!]) and come back and see me sometime! Have a brilliant weekend!

Today's line-up:
Theresa ~ scrapsbygracie.blogspot.com <== To start at the beginning (or missed something)
Connie ~ conniecancrop.blogspot.com
Jessica ~ craftinandstampin.blogspot.com
Alicia ~ goldengoddessdesigns.blogspot.com
Sarah ~ sarahbiswabic.blogspot.com
Anita ~ Scrappyhappymommy.blogspot.ca
Angela ~ crazy3monkeys.blogspot.com
Miranda ~ nanasscrapspot.com
Haidee ~ created2bunique.blogspot.com
Kim ~ katydidcards.com
Lisa F ~ lisaslittlerascals.blogspot.com <==== You are HERE!
Holli ~ sunflowerholli.blogspot.com<===== Next Stop!
Card A Day Challenge DT ~ cardadaychallenge.blogspot.com
Jearise ~ lorbysworld.blogspot.com

Friday, January 15, 2016

Woodland Critters Blog Hop



Welcome to the Woodland Critters Blog Hop
We are so happy you are joining us for this fun filled hop full of furry and feathery creatures from the forest. 

You should have arrived from Holli but if you need to start at the beginning, Connie Can Crop is the first stop in this hop. This is a one day blog hop and we appreciate your leaving a comment for all of these talented crafters.



Our sponsor for this hop is also Connie Can Crop.


She has reached in to her crafty shop, Connie's Crafty Cart and decided to give away an awesome stamp set by Martha Stewart.


Please visit her shop HERE 
you can find her on facebook HERE 


What do you need to do to win? Easy... become  a follower of each of the fabulous blogs in this hop and leave each of them a comment letting them know what you like best about their projects.


You will have until 10 pm Sunday to finish the hop and leave your comments.

Winner will be announced on Wednesday 1/20/16 here at Connie Can Crop.

Be sure to follow everyone and leave a comment along the way!


Now it's time for mine! Woohoo! I brought a little stinker to the action... He's a little cutey skunk that I got off a cart I own. Then I cut out "Valentine, You're a breath of fresh air"

I decided to do a Valentine, so I'd be done WAY before the day...

See how well the Explore cuts?
I didn't really like the gray... So went with my fave... And colored it in blue. 


The nose covered it in a cute pearl (don't think the hubs will notice, though)...
I started with a blue card and ripped it right off. Too much blue. (Never!!!! But I knew someone else might think so...) so I opted for the craft and clipped all the edges with an Angle Corner Chomper. 


And then I just had to put that little fool on a Wobble. (They're just too fun!)
*Note to self* Don't lose your patience. WAIT for the letters to go through. Overlapping letters don't get adhesive on them. Duh!
All done and ready for next month! 
What would YOU do with a stinky little critter?
 Up next is Barbara!

Here's our line up in case you get lost.


Enclade Miranda- www.nanasscrapspot.com




Sunday, January 10, 2016

I did a layout... It's About ME! (*gasp*) - (AKA:It'sFinally "Tomorrow", and I Promised my "DUH!" moment)

Howdy there! If you've come here today because I promised you something yesterday, then you're in luck, because I followed through! You came back to the right place, because I'm here! with lots of little goodies/nuggets to find.

I've slacked a lot in the scrapbooking department. I never scrapbook about myself. I mean NEVER. I don't really want to see pictures of myself. I don't really have that many pictures of myself... Like most of you, I'm the one with the camera (or the phone) out and I slink away when others have one out and/or put on a fake smiley over-exaggerated face or sometimes a funny face. Whatever the reason, I'm going to totally rationalize it, so you'll never win because I'm the one who always wins here the pics just don't get out there.

Let me give you just a tad of background... Many of you may have seen my post from yesterday. In that post, I was supposed to make a card. A "technique" card. An emboss-resist technique card. We were even given four (4... Count them... 1, 2, 3... 4!) different links to watch videos of people making... you guessed it! CARDS! Did I make one... Nope... Well, not at first anyway... Somehow, someway, I missed that key word. CARD. And so... I made a layout. New Year... New Me... Stepping out of my box/comfort zone... "Shheeee... I'll make a layout about ME! and my Journey... that I actually planned for and was going to start on January 4th, 2016." layout. Yep. I did. I worked hard on it.

I had issues with PicStitch (an app on my phone). I would choose 9 photos and then begin placing them. Placed the first one yay, me!... And *whoosh!* when I clicked back to place the next one... or edited one, ALL. of. the. other. pictures. were. gone. And I kept trying... You know how apps get, right? They have lots of teeny-tiny little gremlin bugs within them that are laughing at you every flippin' time something wrong happens until finally... you get it right. And finally, I got it right... or as close as I was going to get it.
If you look closely, you'll see... in each little box, I've added text or a drawing. I'm so proud of myself. (*pats "self" on back*) This is me. Untouched. Unfiltered. RAW. Okay... not that dramatic, and I didn't shoot in RAW, sorry if you photo-peeps mistook that... About my journey hopefully this one will stick and I'll actually finish it because I did invest money in myself... and the beginning of a scrapbook about myself. My children do deserve to know or remember more about me not that I haven't told them all of this stuff a thousand times or more, but one day... when I'm unable to tell the stories any more, there will be stories in my personal about me! scrapbook, for them to either read to me in my demented state... let's face it, we all might be there some day or to read and share it with other family members one day. (We all should do this... keep family histories alive!)

Anyway... I wanted them to see that each of us try things. And we have to work for what we want. And work... HARD!

And so... I began a layout to go with it. Working steadily... diligently... playing with Photoshop Elements because you just know the dang pic won't print in the right size without things getting cut off here and there, I know... I tried. It took me 3 printings to finally put it through Photoshop and resize the dang thing and getting it printed. Sorry... totally flaked on taking a screen shot of that. I know you were totally waiting to see a screen shot of Photoshop, huh? Yep. Thought so...

Since I was beginning my journey, what better paper to use than something similar to a notebook page, right? Right!
And if you read yesterday's post, you should hopefully remember we were doing the emboss-resist technique...

And then... I stamped the "2016" and "New Year New Me" stamps in clear embossing ink:

And sprinkled clear embossing powder ALL OVER IT!
And it came out like this kinds dingy and gross-looking and definitely not clear-looking...
That's what you get for using a pad that looks like this: (Clean your stamps as you go, people!) Yes... that's all kind of ink and glitter and... who the heck even knows!!??!!
I sponged one of my favorite Distress Inks all over it... Not so hot...
So, I tried spraying a mist of water on it...
No help.

And I moved on... to another sheet of paper. Don't fret! I did not waste that paper... I now use it as a mat for whatever I'm pouring embossing powder over... it still curves and funnels beautifully!!!

But in the meantime... SQUIRREL!!! Did I ever tell you I have just a touch of ADHD? Hmmm... well, combine that with a little OCD, and... you've got... ME! I was getting fed up with trying to find inks because you know that since the holidays and all came directly after the handy dandy hubs completed the new craftroom and I haven't had time to organize it... STILL! Doing all this resist stuff requires INK. And so... in the midst of all this layout-making, I built this cart it was so hard, I still feel like I'm sweating from the workout, moved this whole big box of inks into the cart, and totally felt better. Breathe...
Back to my layout-making... and this time since the last stamp pad obviously had residual ink from uncleaned stamps, I went with the "tinted" dries-clear embossing ink, which looked like THIS:

yeah I know... looks much worse than the first stamp pad, but I was willing to try. Guess I'm going to have to go SHOPPING for some new embossing ink pads, huh. What a... BUMMER! Ha!
and stamped the same two stamps on the new paper...
and applied my heat-embossing tool to it, then used bright sunshine-y yellow on it to make it more positive and hopeful.
Wasn't quite happy with it... so I misted it with water. After misting it with water, it tore just a tad which is totally what I'd intended but not intended to do. You follow me? Me neither! Notebooks need to look worn-ish, right?
On some YouTuber's video, somewhere... someone had said to mist the bottom as well as the top, so that it dries more evenly and doesn't curl. Well... you see how that all worked out...
On to my next stamp... "I CAN" because I can! Because I really truly can! because I'm really trying to have faith in myself that this time is the time and I will succeed because... Did you guess it? I CAN! I brushed it with some green is for "GO!", don't you know? watercolor markers (see the beading on top of the embossing?),
and brushed it off with a wipe.
I did a bit of doodling and some writing... and called it a day! YAY! ME!!!
complete finished layout... (please note... AHEAD OF SCHEDULE!)
And then... I went to post it for the Card Technique Challenge. remember... if you're following this, for some oddball reason, I hadn't been seeing/reading the CARD word As I was reading the pasting job of the "write-up" because some of us don't use the write-ups word for word and we tweak them as we see fit, the word "CARD" kept jumping out at me!!!! Whole. E. Shhhhh... ute! No flippin' way! I was WAY ahead of the game for once and had to start all. over. again. (See yesterday's post to see what I ended up doing as a last-minute card. I actually think it turned out pretty well. And then... of course I think... Otherwise I wouldn't be alive, right? Right.

By the way... In case you missed it... the above paragraph was my totally "DUH!" moment...
----------------------------------------------------

The back story behind the layout?

Full honesty here, folks. No jokes. Some of us have struggled most of our lives with weight. Whether we're too heavy (like me) or too light (like lots of other people). If you happen to have never had to deal with either of these problems, in ANY extreme, please consider yourself very lucky. Have a heart, since there's no way you could possibly understand, and do not judge.

So... in my goal to be healthier (this started WAY before "New Year Resolution" stuff...), I committed to a 90-Day Shred Challenge. I have a friend who kinda talked me into it... who is an "It Works!" distributor. I've watched her shrink and be much healthier. And I know her... so, I've actually been watching it work for her. I'd already cut way back on my portion sizes, added more salads, but down (pretty much cut out) my beloved Coca-Cola, and upped my consumption of water. On my own, I'd already lost 10 pounds. But I had (still have) a lot more to go. Enter my friend, who offered me support and just to try the 90-day challenge... I said yes.

I'm here, 5 days after the challenge started. I have not added exercise yet, but yet... I'm down 4 more pounds, feeling fully satisfied, and not craving a thing! Yay me! and just so you know... writing all this about myself and doing a layout of ME is a complete challenge on it's own. Had to up my game and step out of the "self" box.

Please feel free to share your struggle(s), challenge(s) and even your own "DUH!" moment(s) in the comment section. I'd love to hear from you and get to know YOU a little better, too!

Friday, January 8, 2016

A Year of Card Techniques - (January) Emboss Resist

Welcome to
http://scrapsbygracie.blogspot.com/2015/12/january-technique-blog-hop.html

This is the first in a year long series of monthly blog hops focusing on techniques for card makers.
Each month we'll feature a different technique or fold or product. We've assembled a team of card makers who range from new to advanced so you'll get a great variety of cards and ideas.

This month we will be focusing on emboss resist techniques and WOW have we got
some cool cards for you today. We really love feedback so please leave a comment on each of the blogs in today's hop. Each comment on the 12 hops throughout the year will be entered into a prize drawing for a $25 Blitsy.com gift certificate at the end of the year.

Now on with the projects.

First of all... you all know... I'M A DORK!!!! I totally did a whole 'nother project (layout), which was totally out of my box... It was a layout about ME! I took a lot of time, sweat and tears doing this... (and I'll post it all tomorrow [Sunday] so I can still share it). My brain was on post-holiday overload, and I was simply thinking the resist... on anything paper. Actually, I was trying to think of what other media forms I could do it on as well... but I must digress at this point and let you get on with the actual purpose of this post...

Since the original project I did see above was totally NOT ok for this, I still decided to go with the same theme. Short story (you'll get the long story tomorrow... I promise...)... I joined a 90-day challenge and invested my own $$$. Since I spent $$$, I totally believe I'll do it, because I'm a total cheapskate I'm a penny-pincher and live on the cheap very frugally. So... I did this super quickie card for my distributor of It Works! (Zeni!)

I went with a "Snowflake" opaque pigment ink by Martha Stewart as my clear embossing inks were a little less than what I would like, see tomorrow's post and stamped "2016" and "Dream Big" (in a set a won from the 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop from Jessi! Thank you, Jessi!) and added clear embossing powder...


Then used my trust heating tool...

Blended a pretty (and sunny!) yellow ink all around the edges. (This is supposed to be inspirational and uplifting... hint... hint...)

Then brushed on my SUPER POSITIVE watercolor pens... (see the beading over the resist?)


And brushed it off with a handy wipe.

Voila!

Things I might want to remember in the future. Use Watercolor Paper when using water and watercolors... Duh... Be sure to swipe and wipe in other words: CLEAN as I go... otherwise you get residual ink on the card... Duh.

And with that... be sure to come back tomorrow to get my whole "DUH!" moment and my layout. (It's about ME! and I've never EVER done one! until now...)

Up next is Jearise!

I sure hope you see how really easy it emboss resist is to do. Try one, it's kind of addicting! You can't "resist"! Yes... that pun was intended...

Here's today's line-up in case you get lost along the way
Theresa
Kim
Claudia
Denise
Debbie
Sharon
Lisa
Jearise