Altered Ballerina Dressform

I finally get the chance to sit down and share with you the projects I created for the Lindy's Stamp Gang Booth for CHA 2012. I had a lot of fun making all that I made, but I'm sure I'll make several posts about all them, because there is just too much info to share.

First off, the booth had a Springtime in Paris Theme, which all the the designers tried to follow for all the projects made. It is a super fun theme, and with all the variety of Lindy's Stamp Gang products available, even more fun to create. I wanted to provide something to display some of my pieces, and when I saw this dress-form I knew I had to use it. It would display all the themed tags I would make for the booth. This is what it looked like when I purchased it.

For some reason I did not what to keep it black. Black just does not seem very "springy" to me lol. I decided I would paint the whole thing ivory, and lighten things up a bit.

After that, I knew I had to dress it and brighten it up, so I took some of my favorite Making Memories Rosette Trim and gave it some fine garments lol. I also used some gorgeous trim for the straps and waist accent, which I received from my friend Dale. She got it while on a trip to Norway, and I knew I wanted to use it for a special project such as this. I added some coordinating trim to the skirt and waist, and this is what it ended up looking like.

Of course, it was not finished yet. I had to glimmer it up with some gorgeous Scrintilating Silver Glitz Spritz from Lindy's Stamp Gang, and that just made it look just right. Take a close look at the shimmer on this baby.

The picture definitely does not do it justice, but if you were able to stop by the booth and see it at CHA, you know that it sparkled like no other. It was perfect to display the tags I created for the booth, and this is how they hung from it:

I will post all the tags I made with details of all I used on the next posts, as well as the other projects that I also made for the booth. You don't want to miss them. Stay tuned!

Love At First Sight

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I hope your day is full of love, friends and family. After all aren't those some of the best things in life?

Today was the perfect day to share this layout with you. It depicts the love my Emily has for animals, and her attachment to one of our family member's dog. I made it using the February Designer Kit from The Paper Niche. There is a mix of paper collections on this layout, and considering I whipped this puppy up in very little time due to deadlines, and how life busy can get, plus the fact I had NO mojo at the time, I think it turned out kind a cute after all.

I used my Lindy's Stamp Gang Sprays to color the mulberry paper flower, as well as the super bold Pink Paislee wooden letters that were included in the kit. For the flower I used my Starburst in the Rudolph's Nose Red, and for the letters I used my Starburst in the Tiffany's Blue. As always, I'm always pleased with the amount of shimmer my Starbursts leave on my projects.

The cute heart pins are Maya Road, and the bling is from Eva creative. I fuzzy cut the heart rows and the banners from some of the design paper, just to add more color to the page.

For the first time in a while, I included journaling in my own handwriting. I mostly refrain from that because I don't have the neatest penmanship, but It's good to include it sometimes, because it's part of the memory...when my daughter looks back at this when I'm gone, she'll see my handwriting there, not just something I typed on my computer. Just because of that, I'll use it from time to time...for the most part though, expect computer font on my layouts lol.

I hope you enjoyed today's project and have a great Valentine's!

More Playing With Glitter

Like I described on my previous post, I'm just hooked on micro fine glitter, after my encounter with the Burnished Velvet Technique.  I used different colored glitters, and some of my punches, in order to use the glitter differently on these cards. 

On this first card I used a Fiscars heart punch, as well as a postage border punch of the same brand. Love the little glitter accents. I apologize for the lighting on the pictures, but with the changing weather around here lately, it's been hard to take a decent picture, plus my lovely daughter broke my home-made light box, and I haven't had a chance to fix it yet.

 On this next one, I wanted a more masculine card, and I made a glitter striped pattern.

On this last card I used the same two punches as on the first card on this post, but added a few more colors of glitter for a little variation and a different look.

 Can you see how flat the glitter lays flat, and how it does not overpower the whole card? And let me tell you that's a lot of glitter there!

I enjoyed working on these cards, their simplicity, and their glittery touches make me happy. The Uncommon Collection by Authentique, which is the one I use for all these cards, was just great for Valentine's Day, and the labels die set from My Favorite Things which I used on all the sentiment pieces of these cards, is one of my favorites at the moment. What do you think of glitter now?

Burnished Velvet Butterfly and Copics!

I'm excited to say that glitter does not have to be flashy. It can also be elegant! What??? Yes, I've just come across this great technique using micro fine glitter that dazzles! Check this card out:

The main accent, which is the butterfly is ALL GLITTER and it's not flashy at ALL! The picture does not do it justice, but take a closer look:

Can you see that? It's incredibly flat, oh and if you could feel it! Soft as velvet!
I learned about this product through my online friend Ceecee who is super talented and super sweet. She took a class in Canada (where she lives), and shared what she learned on her YouTube channel with me. I completely fell in love with the product, and had to give it a try. Let me tell you, I LOVE the finished look this micro fine glitter gives.

I did my research and found out about it, and it's different uses, as well as the different products you can use in conjunction to it. Totally love this because it's simple, but gives such a nice finished look to your projects. You see, the reason why the technique is called the burnished velvet technique, is because you need to burnish the glitter onto a sticky surface until the glitter stays put and feels like pure velvet. The glitter is so fine that it lays flat on your projects and reflects light beautifully. Here's another version of this card.

These cards were made using just one translucent color glitter and what gave the glitter the variation in color were Copic Markers, my favorite! I used design paper by Authentique- the Uncommon Collection, which I am hooked on using right now, and some peel off's by Elizabeth Craft Designs. It was super easy and I just couldn't stop there. I purchased a few other colored micro fine glitters, and have gone to town trying stuff. You previously saw my glittered owl card I shared, and that was just one of the things I made. I will be sharing the rest of the cards soon. Until then!
P.S.New items added to the store today check it out

http://blitsy.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/8250/ 

Picks for 2011

Just a little video of my favorites and must haves for 2011. Do you have any favorites?
Enjoy!

U and I

February is all about Valentine's day, and so is the February Design Kit that the Paper Niche offers to the public. I wanted to share my first layout with the kit.

 I used the jute rope to make a heart shape on my layout, and grouped all my elements on it. Clustering is one of my favorite things to do lately. The bold wooden letters by Pink Paislee where sprayed with some of my Cactus Gold Glitz Spritz from Lindy's Stamp Gang and embossed with King Midas Gold embossing powder from the same company. I just sprinkled the embossing on the letters while they were still wet from the Glitz spray. I only wanted some touches of the embossing powder, and for it not to cover the entire letters, for a slight distressed look.

 Most of the flowers were Prima, except one small one which was a plain white mulberry paper flower.  I treated this flower the same way as the letters on the title (I used the same products), in order to make it match the colors I was using on the layout.

  I love clustering items on my layouts, and this time I did it on a heart, just around Valentine's Day! I have no clue what I'll get my honey this year and I'm kind of stressing out about it. Any suggestions?

New new new!

After looking and drooling over all that's coming out at CHA, I can't help but get excited over a few things that I can't wait to get my hands on. First off, Ranger's new Distress Markers. Can you say fabulous? If you love distress inks as much as I do, you'll love these. At first I wasn't too keen on the idea of water based markers (I guess I love my Copics too much lol), but after seeing the demo on them, I am convinced that these are a must have for any stamper. You can watch a demo by Tim Holtz by clicking HERE.

                                                        

You know me and my love for My Mind's Eye, and well, this time they did not disappoint. I'm in love with ALL of their new lines once again. ALL of them!

I also was intrigued by some of the new Prima. The Printery 2 (Almanac Collection) and Song Bird look gorgeous!

And don't mind me saying, but I think some of  Prima's New Fairybelle paper looks very similar to the popular Butterfly Garden Collection that was discontinued by Pink Paislee. It's beautiful!

Talking about Pink Paislee, I love their new London Market Collection!

There were many other interesting and beautiful lines at CHA, but of course I can't fit all of the ones I loved on this post. Just wanted to share a few, but now I'm curious, what are you excited about getting from all the new releases?

CHA was fun

CHA was a blast and I had the opportunity to meet many of the artists I've met through the internet. It was such a fun experience! It's sad though, that on my last day there I lost my video camera, so over half hour of video got lost, which I hoped to share with you. Now I'm on the search to purchase a new one, so pictures is all I have to show for the end of this trip. I picked a few of the many I took. It really was a nice time.

 This next one is the Lindy's Stamp Gang (LSG) Booth, where I demoed product at the show.

This is me and Diane, Graphic 45 head designer and owner. Their booth was fabulous, and everyone was dresses to match. So super cool.

This is the lovely Teresa Collins who is such a sweet lady. Loved meeting her! She was so nice to all of us and we ended up on her blog that day! She called us "The Queens of YouTube". She's so funny, and pretty too!

 And of course I had to take a picture with the man, Tim Holtz. He is just awesome! Love him!

This is me and Heidi Swapp. The girl does not age! Her husband is super sweet too.

Melissa Frances and I. She is soo super nice and her booth was gorgeous. Just gorgeous stuff!

 This next picture was the one featured on the Teresa Collins Blog. So cool we made it there!

 These next ones are me and some of the Lindy's Stamp Gang Design Team. We had a great time together at CHA.

This last picture is me and the LSG girls, Tracey (owner) and Kim, who take care of all your LSG needs. They were great, and we all had a fun experience together. Good times!!!
BTW, Tim Holtz Alterations added to the site for sale today. Check it out http://blitsy.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/8250/

Handmade Burlap Treat Bag

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and lots of chocolate is given out that day. I thought I'd make a cute little treat bag just for that. I apologize in advance for the bad lighting in the picture today, but I had to take this one inside my hotel room while at CHA, and well, the lighting in there was terrible. I gave one of these to each one of the ladies that worked in the Lindy's Stamp Gang Booth at CHA. Inside the bag where some yummy Valentine's day themed M&Ms.

It was very simple to create, but it did require quite a bit of steps. I used some burlap fabric I bought a Joann's, Tim Holtz's Sewing Room die, Sizzix's Card Ornate XL Die, Stampin up's Top Note Die, a Quickutz Labels Die, a TPC Studio Stamp set, some lace, seam binding, carstock and an iamroses mini rose.
I used crackle medium on the dress form, which I painted using Making Memories Acrylic Paint in the color Butterscotch.  I sprayed some Lindy's Stamp Gang Scintilating Silver Glitz Spritz on the mini rose. The seam binding was from Martha Stewart, and the design paper I used is from the My Mind's Eye Laundry Collection. To seal the burlap together, I used my trusty hot glue gun, and in a few minutes I had a super cute treat bag. Closed it with velcro  on the top and added a sentiment to the front, which I stamped in Chestnut Roan Colobox Chalk ink, using the TPC Studio Sewing themed stamp set I bought at Joann's.

Again, I'm so sorry for the bad lighting on this picture, but I just had no time before I needed to hand these out. I did make a video about it, which might give you a better idea of the colors and how the bag opens and closes. You can watch that below. Hope you enjoyed!

Giveaway!

Hi everyone, and hello February! I'm back from CHA, and announcing today a giveaway I'll be having here on the blog. You will get all this if you win:

Super fun products I'd love to share with you. I made a video detailing all the rules you need to follow in order be eligible to win, as well as all that you will get when you win.  Please watch it and pay attention because only the ones who follow the 3 requirements, will be entered in the drawing. The winner will be  announced here on the blog at the beginning of March. Watch the video below, follow the instructions, and good luck!