Gwen

Glue on my fingers

I forgot how fun it can be to really get your hands dirty... tonight I smeared oil pastels with my fingers and then painted and decoupaged with Mod Podge and as I sat waiting for my photos to transfer off my camera, I also remembered how it's kind of cool to sit and peel glue off your fingers.  I'm not sure exactly why I moved so completely away from doing this kind of thing, but I'm really glad I challenged myself by signing up for this paint and ink technique class.  I've only done two of the techniques so far, but I'm having so much fun!  Not to mention using art supplies I've had tucked away for years...

Tonight I chose to do a project that used oil pastels and watercolors.  I've always loved collage and art journaling and this seemed like the perfect technique to try and go in that direction.  Here's what I came up with after following the instructions and Julie's video:

And a side view...

 

At this point I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do next, but then I looked up and saw two papier-mâché birds that I made a while ago as an experiment just sitting on the top of a bucket and the idea for a finished piece just popped into my head.  So... I mounted the background on a thin sheet of chipboard and then pulled out stamps, ink and paint. I also grabbed an old phone book, a butterfly punch and some Mod Podge to kick it up a notch.  I guess it's kind of a 3D art journal page... lol.  Voila!

 

And a few closer shots of the birds... (click to see it bigger)

 

I really like how this turned out... I think I might need to go get a frame!  The downside to this is the fact that it's now almost 2:30am.  lol.  I think I might have to resort to a Mountain Dew before class tomorrow night ;D

Playing with paint

I probably should have considered the fact that I just signed up for a messy scrapbook class before I splurged on a manicure at the spa, but after a few hours of playing with paint last night it held up surprisingly well!  I tried one of the techniques from my Technique-a-Palooza class with paints and aluminum foil and it was a lot of fun!  I've moved away from doing lots of involved techniques and that kind of thing over the last year or so and I had forgotten how much I loved it.

Here's what I did... first, I made some fun butterflies using the technique from Julie's lesson:

 

And a close-up...

 

And then I took it a step further with a little bling and some edging with my Copics to add a little definition:

 

At that point I was going to stop for the night, but an idea for a layout popped into my head and I just *had* to follow through and do it.

 

I decided that since I had my paint out anyway, I might as well play just a little more and distress the background a bit.

I'm looking forward to doing more playing with all these fun new techniques :)

All hail the birthday weekend!

Yup, it was my birthday this weekend... the big 3-5.  A while ago my mom called me and complained that everything on my wish list was boring (she says that every time...lol) so I told her that she should just come and see me instead.  Incredibly, it worked out that she was able to do just that, so I took Friday and today off work and we just played non-stop.  She arrived Friday morning (which was my actual birthday) and we took off running.  We went down to Provo and had lunch at Kneader's, stopped by my office to see the Halloween decorating I had helped with before I left (Halloween is a BIG deal at our office.  Our department won "best use of smell..."  I need to ask some questions when I go back tomorrow.  lol).  Then we went to Deseret Book, the BYU bookstore, the Quilted Bear and picked up cupcakes at Sweet Tooth Fairy to use as my birthday cake.  Finally, we topped it off with dinner at The Brick Oven and went home to have cake and watch The Proposal.  Super fun birthday!

Saturday we went to Gardner Village and had manicures at the spa, ate lunch at Archibald's (um... HELLO fried avocado and fried green tomatos! Soooo delicious) and then shopped at all the fun boutiques.  Then we went to the movies and saw Cirque du Freak: The Vampires Apprentice which was actually pretty good.  We proceeded to make Nicole jealous with dinner at Ruby River (and I now have enough leftovers in my fridge from this weekend to feed me for a week!)

Sunday was our relaxing day.  Mom read the new Dan Brown while I did a little scrapbooking - nothing to share, though, since it's for a gift.  I finished it and took pictures, though, so I'll post it eventually :)  We also drove out to see the Draper Temple since mom hadn't seen it yet.  And then, I got her totally hooked on Arrested Development.  Guess what we'll be watching when I go home for Christmas!  lol.

This morning we shopped.  More.  We're a bad influence on each other while shopping and always have been, but it was so fun!  We went to Tai Pan Trading and drooled over their Christmas displays and found new ways to stretch mom's suitcase weight limit to the max.  A few more stores and lunch at Weinerschnitzel (which is totally nostalgic... we ate their all the time in Colorado when I was a little girl).  Then we went home to ooh and ahh over our goodies and I put together a new arrangement with a great Venetian mask I found on clearance and some silk floral stems.  Then it was time to go to the airport.  Mom's winging her way back to Virginia as we speak and I already miss having her here.  It was so much fun! 

And now for a little overview of the weekend in pictures:

 

And the Venetian mask arrangement... it's quite stunning in real life (if I do say so myself!)  I used a mix of purple and gold plastic jewels in the base of the vase to keep everything together. 

 

And now I think it's time to play before I have to get back to real life tomorrow... as a birthday present to myself I signed up for Julie's Technique-a-Palooza: Paint & Ink class.  I thought it would be a great way to learn some new techniques and play with some different mediums to jump start my scrap mojo.  I joined in late so now I'm trying to decide where to jump in.  Eventually I want to do it all... so with that, I'm off to get my hands dirty!

P.S. - I just wanted to throw out a big THANK YOU to everyone for the birthday calls, texts, emails and Facebook notes.  It was a great day and wonderful to be remembered :)

Fun with glitter!

Time for a little weekend recap.  On second thought, it wasn't all that interesting... lol.  I came down with a virus last week so I spent the weekend resting up so I'll be ready to play when my mom comes out next weekend for my birthday.  I can't wait!  In the meantime... here's a snapshot of my weekend.  The fall weather is perfect for cuddling up with my favorite blanket and a hot glass of apple tea to go with my studying (my last accounting class is tomorrow... can't wait to be done!)

 

And of course I had to play in the attic a bit... it's getting to be the time of year where I start to work on a lot of projects to give as gifts (I love that my family actually wants and requests scrapbooky presents!)  Our family has 3 November birthdays and then Christmas right afterward so I figured with my schedule I'd better jump on it!  Here's a little sneaky peak of a project that's in the works (I'll share the whole thing after it's been opened by the intended recipient):

 

As you can see, this is where the glitter came in.  I painted some chipboard flowers with crackle paint and then coated the edges in glitter.  Then I misted a white paper flower with Glimmer Mist and added some glitter and layered it on top.  I also made some more fun jeweled leaves.  I think I'm addicted.  Exhibit B:  the layout I did tonight:

(Sorry for the blur... scanning anything lumpy sucks but the lighting is too bad for photos.)  I knew as soon as I saw these pictures that Erin posted earlier today that they had to become a layout and they were just perfect for this fun contest from Ella Publishing.  I downloaded their latest book last week (20 Simple Secrets of Happy Scrapbookers) and it's really inspiring - I love flipping through it!  

So, since I've posted about the jeweled leaves a few times, I thought I'd throw together a quick little tutorial for anyone interested.  I used to do these all the time when I was teaching but I've gotten out of the habit... hopefully this is helpful to someone :) (It's in an image so you can right-click and save if you want to).

Whew!  Long post tonight.  So that's it... time to hit the sack so I don't get sick again from too little sleep.

Flying with Aladdin

Tonight was nice and relaxing... a much needed break!  My study group met until 2am on Monday night to get ready for our group project and presentation in Accounting last night.  It went pretty well and we're all quite glad it's done!  So tonight I kicked back and watched the Avs play and then came up to the attic to do a quick layout.

Back to Disney tonight... I love these pictures of Adorable-Niece-Eraleigh from the Aladdin ride.  It was so much fun to be there with her because she just enjoyed everything - even in the rain!

 

I can't believe how fast this week is going... I'm not entirely sure how we got to Thursday so quickly, but I'm not complaining!

A little inspiration

This has definitely been a weekend for relaxing... last week was busy!  Busy at work, busy at school and a few trips to the dentist definitely wore me out.  The dry socket from my extraction is healing... I found out that I lost the blood clot because of a bone spur that worked its way through the opening.  Nice!  And now, I'll stop grossing everyone out :)

Yesterday I went to check out a nearby scrapbook store that I'd never been to... I knew it was there, Melody used to live nearby but I'd never checked it out.  Heidi taught there recently, though, and posted about it on her blog so I thought I'd swing by.  It's huge!  but they have a ton of stuff that was new when I was working at Scrapbooks Plus 5+ years ago and not a lot that's new, so good for my checkbook.  I did find a few fun things, though, and found out that Heidi will be teaching there frequently so I'll have to watch out for that.  Also, Marah Johnson is scheduled to come next month so I signed up for 2 classes from her - they look like they'll be a lot of fun and they're very technique and tool heavy so I thought it would be something to inspire me to break out of my box more.  I hope enough people sign up that the classes go on... I'm really looking forward to them!

Speaking of inspiration, Prima posted another fun product collage this weekend... I'm drooling over the colors.

 

See what I mean?  Totally drool worthy.  In fact, I decided to pull out some similar products from my stash and use them on a layout right away... I pulled out my Glimmer Mists and a glimmer screen to play with as well - still trying to break out of my box and try new things while at the same time, keep plenty of pictures on the page and tell the story.  It's a fun challenge :)  Here's what I came up with...

 

Yes, as a matter of fact I DID take a few hundred pictures during the visit to the Great Wall!  lol.  I can't help it, it was such an awesome trip I want to scrap tons of them... one or two layouts just isn't cutting it.  The pink flowers are actually from a jar of white ones and I misted them with Glimmer Mist.  I took a single Say it in Crystals element and cut it into pieces... another challenge I've been enjoying... using bits and pieces of embellishments to stretch them out and get more for my money.  Also some old school Basic Grey and some 7 Gypsies masking tape.

Oh - and the lovely lady in the pictures with me?  That's Emily who lives in a simply gorgeous part of England - the Cotswolds... we're going to be roomies in Peru and I'm looking forward to seeing her again!

So that's it for now... time to head down and make dinner!

Water baby

I was so excited when Erin posted these pictures of Adorable-Niece-Eraleigh... I've been wanting to see them since they were taken this summer and all the cuteness was described over the phone.  I just can't get over the "fierce" look that she sometimes gets when she smiles.  The cute little pink polka dot bathing suit just ups the adorable factor.

 

I had fun playing a bit and stepping outside of my box, even if just a little.  Lately, anything that doesn't have a white or kraft background AND has tilted pictures AND stamping (let alone embossing!) is pretty crazy for me, and I did all of that tonight!  I dug into both the stash and the scrap bin, finding all kinds of things that seemed to work well for this.  You'll have to ignore the bottom of the scan, it popped up the tag and puffy letter and I was too lazy to re-scan... it's flat in real life.

And now once again, I've stayed up way later than I had intended (you know how it is when you get on a roll, right?) and I'm going to be a zombie tomorrow at work and in class.  Oh well, sleeping is what weekends are for :)

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Thursday AM update... I jinxed myself when I said my dental issues had been concluded.  Guess who has the beginnings of an infection!  I know, the fun never ends.  At least I recognized the symptoms immediately and called about it... they called in more meds and I just picked them up and started on them and I have to go back to see the dentist tomorrow morning to check on some other weirdness.  I think there's going to need to be a layout to document all the crazy! 

Ouch! The conclusion.

Today was the last of the three dreaded dental appointments... I have a beautiful new crown and I'm minus one sideways wisdom tooth!  Today was probably the worst of the three... getting the tooth out was a bit challenging because it was sideways, but it's out!  My dentist started to tell me what he was going to have to do to get it out and I told him not to give me any details until it was done... even on laughing gas, that was going to freak me out.  On the whole, I'd rather have the root canal again than go through today's fun and excitement, but it's done and I'm relieved.  Now I just have to keep working on getting the swelling down and keeping it clean until it heals.  Love the salt water rinses!  Mmm...

Aside from that, I finished up a layout that I started last night; the back side to my last layout in the divided page protector.  These kinds of pages are deceptively simple - at least for someone like me who can't stand to just put in the pictures and call it good.  Still fun, though.  And yes, another Great Wall layout - no journaling this time since at this point I've covered most of it... lol.

And now, I'm off to kill the last bit of time before my final medication dosage for the night.  Whatever I end up doing, I'm pretty sure it's going to involve an ice pack ;)

Taking a shortcut

So I stopped by the mall on my way home from work today... I got to the point where I couldn't go any longer without a new bottle of moisturizer so I headed to the Macy's Estee Lauder counter.  Of course, Archivers just happens to be right there as well, so I stopped in on the way.  They had a sample album out on the counter showing how to do a quick and easy scrapbook using divided page protectors.  I'd seen the idea before, but having an actual album there in front of me sold me.  The fact that the page protectors were all on sale didn't hurt!  I picked up a couple just to see how I like them and ended up doing a quick layout tonight.  I also had a coupon for 100 free 4x6 prints from Shutterfly that was about to expire, so I uploaded a bunch from China and I got them last week... it works out great with the page protectors.  Here's my first stab...

 

Since the layout came together so quickly, I had a chance to do a little bit of playing on my embellishments.  I saw these awesome Prima leaves on Two Peas but I couldn't justify $4 right now for just a few leaves, no matter how beautiful.  But!  They gave me an idea.  I have quite a few skeleton leaves from years ago plus some microbeads, glitter and jewels.  Why not make my own?  So that's what I did here.  I just put the leaves on a piece of non-stick paper and laid them in a bead tray and then coated the areas I wanted to cover with Mod Podge.  Then I sprinkled on microbeads and chunky glitter and let them dry.  I really love the result!  I'll have to try it again with jewels and other goodies.

So that's it!  My Accounting final is next week (the day after I get my final crown and wisdom tooth extraction.  Whose bright idea was that?) so my study group is meeting for a 6-hour marathon session tomorrow and then some of the spouses are joining us and we're all going out for pizza.  Should be fun!  Er... sort of.  lol.

Your eyes do not deceive you...

... I'm actually posting a layout in the middle of the week!  I know, it was starting to seem like that might not happen until I finish school in another 21.5 months.  lol.  Tonight, however, I decided to take a little break from homework and do some playing.  I've been meaning to do another layout from China for a while since it's now been over a year since my trip.  Time certainly flies!  This is from the day of our Hutong tour when we went shopping in Ho Hai after the rickshaw ride.  We found this little shop selling Chinese papercuttings and it was like a scrapbooker stampede!

 

I mounted one of the papercuttings I bought with mod podge and stamped the corner with a chop to make it look like the wall hangings they were selling.  Those papercuttings are seriously cool!  I have a little stack of them and I need to use them more.

And with that, back to homework!