Makeup to mud in 3 seconds flat

hula boys

So as I was talking to a friend today, I mentioned that my blog has felt so dreary lately. I'm so sorry, our lives have overwhelmed us with circumstances that are not preventable. On Friday, Jim's gramma died. Yes, I know, what is going on in our lives? So much sadness lately. I do wish that we had known her better though. She has lived in the Moose Jaw area her whole life and I really felt bad for Jim that he wasn't able to make that close connection with his grandparents that I have been able to with mine, we only seemed to see her at "occasions or holidays". Still it doesn't make it easier. She had a very long life too. I finished off letters for my gramma that she had been writing to friends. That is so my gramma, making sure that she thanks people for everything they have done for her and their friendship over the years. It was beautiful reading and writing them for her. Today wasn't the best of days for her and she actually said her goodbyes to me for the first time since she fell sick, and again I burst out crying with her. It's crazy how much emotion we are all going through right now. But then again, when you love people so intensely, every moment you just want to savour forever. 

So I haven't even had a minute to think up a contest so I will do that for tomorrow, the weekend just came and left so fast. Promise!! but I'll show you some funny pics to lighten our mood. Here's our crazy boys!

see how sexy I am dad!

This week we brought home a coconut, and with no prompting Riley did this on his own, telling us this is how girls wear them. What is this kid exposed to? well, the next 20 minutes were non stop gigggling and posing and well the tears of laughter were flowing. I cannot wait to scrap these pics!

Okay, see you tomorrow. Hopefully, it will be a slow day, only our photo shoot tomorrow. So hopefully I can blog blog blog.

sporatic posting...sorry

hi everyone, sorry I went MIA there. The time has really flown by for us this past few days. We spent Easter with gramma & grampa Elliott and it was great to see them in such great health. We totally did a purging of ol clothes, built a new laundry pantry area and started actually putting it to use, so that is getting to be cool. Jim has pursued his woodworking more, or at least trying out these funky new tools he has purchased. He's actually getting to be pretty cool witht the router. I truly feel like we have been trying to get a year's worth of things done in a week.  Riley has no school this week, so I have been coming up with fun things to do with the kids which has been exciting. We have spent almost every single day with my gramma Elian, which has been good but a little sad still as the inevitable is on the door step.  And since this week is the spring break, my parents and uncle/aunts have been going through gramma & grampa's things trying to find homes for them. Gramma is still able to put a little input into who she wants to have this stuff so Jim & I have tried to help out my parents & family where we can (which hasn't been much as I'm a little useless for lifting in my state, thank goodness Jimmy is strong). My grampa had a library of books that are amazing and I've spent the last couple of days trying to figure out what books I want to keep for myself and our kids, and since I am the only person that sews in this family, I get to go through hundreds of materials to select, so I have spent hours looking at that. I'm so proud of what my grandparents achieved in their lifetime. In the last couple of years, my gramma made over 100 quilt tops for needy and unfortunate children overseas, so all the material left is going to be given so those cool ladies that she did this with can continue this amazing gift of giving. It's funny, but when you start having to pack items of your loved ones, the memories & tears flow. We've come across so many awesome photographs that have given us some crazy laughs and I can't wait to have some fun with those. No one wanted any of the ephemera of papers that my granpda kept so I am tickled pink!!!!! He kept all his papers for how much he bought a tractor for in 1940 something, what a pig went for, etc, etc. All the old ledger papers, I cannot wait! Last night Jim & I were just looking at one bag I brought home and I am totally going to scrapbook the envelopes as they are amazing. I don't think my grandparents ever threw anything out. Which is cool, but also a little time consuming. I realized that I am so much more like the 2 of them then I could ever have imagined. So as we have just begun this task, I will not be at home much this week, so I have to apologize as this week will be a lack of blogging. I love my family, I want every minute I can have with my gramma, and I am going to try and help where I can.  So as a fore warning, I will resume my usual blogging next Monday, as school resumes and we all must return to the usual state fo affairs. So this is my plan for next week. I have quite a few quilting examples to show you based on that sketch (cool!!!!), I will talk about my big 25 000 people contest, show more scrapbook layouts, we have a big photo shoot on Tuesday that we are pretty excited for as I was asked to get new head shots and a new family shot for work. The timing is a little off for a family shoot as we are having another baby in a couple months, but oh well. The more photo shoots the better. What else can I tell you about? hmm, pregnancy brain. I did take quite a few funny pics this week so if I do find the energy at night I will post some of them this week. But otherwise, I will be back with avengence next week. I was asked to show a specific demo too, so I will do that next week as well.Okay, I hope all of you had a fabulous Easter weekend. cheers! also, I've notice that my email has hit a huge number, if it's important please phone as I have only been in and out of the house for minutes at a time. So I probably won't get to all the emails till next week. sorry.

inspired layout & my little boy making us proud.

*****edited**** my friend Janine Wahl for Prima has a really cool step by step pics of how to use watercolour pencils. Go check it out. Her heritage layout is pretty darn cool too. ******

Here's my layout Jessi inspired me to do: (sorry the colours are so off, I might try to retake it again in natural light.)

Jager learned this new trick all by himself...

we are so proud.

So at my ultrasound, I found out either we are having a big baby or our dates are actually 10 days earlier than we were told. I'm hoping for the latter reason. But little baby wouldn't let us know what sex he/she is. So we are actually going to have to wait and be surprised. I think this time might kill Jim & I.

well, I had a flat tire today, went visiting my gramma, detailed my van...now we have company coming. Must go.

******edited****** I have to say though that I have been sent some pretty outstanding product to work with this week! 4 boxes! And since I'm almost at 25000 people visiting I'm going to celebrate. After Easter I'll share a new contest and give away stuff! ******* 

also on another note, for work I've been given a huge package of that Core d'inations cardstock! hello, can you say yummy??? I'm pretty pumped to create some cool stuff with that, so hopefully I'll get in a little scrapping this weekend and have something to show you next week!

Perfect Pearls & embossing demos

okay so today's post is filled with pictures! So exciting.

But first thing I want to discuss that the STIX 2 blog is up and running showing lot's and lot's of examples and cool ladies! go check them out!

STIX 2 BLOG

Okay, so last week I was discussing the Perfect Pearls, and Anam asked me if I had seen what Tim Holtz has done with them. Well was I in the dark. I think the guy is a master genius when it comes to altered art but I have not checked his blog out for a really long time. Yes I know, where have I been????? Well after some serious "learning" time there, I left so super inspired. He shows right now how to demos with the distress ink reinkers & perfect pearls. I tried this out, works like a gem. I won't show any examples since you can go to his blog and watch some beautiful projects take place. go here. But I decided to try the similar technique with the alcohol inks since I now had them out and was playing with them. I LOVE alcohol inks and the more cool techniques to use them with ...the better. So I mixed up 2 little batches of perfect pearls with the coordinating colour of alcohol inks. In this case, I went with a blue & a green. They glistened so awesome! Then I decided to work on glass (you know the little specimen glass we used to use in Chem class.) I painted in random shapes and blotches all over the glass.

Then I added some gold alcohol ink to just add a little more bling.

This side I'm working with has now begun to become a little thick. Let completely dry. When dry, flip it over. This is the actual surface that I am going to decorate.

The reason for this is, I intend to stamp and image on the glass and if the texture is quite bumpy (which it will be on the back side) then the stamped image won't be clear. So pick out a stamp, use a pigment ink (which means it will stay wet and workable for a while)

 

I sprinkled UTEE, (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) This does come in small sizes but this is what they had sent me to work with, and I don't have a small jar to take a picture of. UTEE makes the image you stamped become raised and glossy, giving some excellent dimension! Love it!

 

    

I really like working on these glass slides because you can work on 2 surface areas to create one look. I love how the perfect pearl colours shine through behind the stamped image.

There is quite a bit of more fun you can have with UTEE. I took a random piece of scrap paper and stamped it with pigment ink again.

Stamp all over the entire surface area.Then sprinkle with UTEE. Heat it up completely, sprinkle with UTEE again. Repeat this process until you have a nice thick pool of embossing powder melted and built up. Now this next step I couldn't show you as you HAVE to work FAST! Immediately after heating your final time, stamp and image into the wet UTEE. Hold for 3-5 seconds, pressing absolutely evenly. Then lift up the stamp, you will see a negative impression now in the UTEE. It will still be a little warm so sprinkle some DRY perfect pearls in the image. total randomness. It will look like you just wrecked the piece because it will be a splatter of dust. Heat the image again not too intensely, just till the Utee warms and you will see the Perfect Pearls starting to create a beautiful image within the depressed areas.

Because I have been working with black ink, you will see this happen quicker than any other colour. Then to finish it off for me, I re-stamped the whole image again just with the black stamp pad.

The reason for this is I really want the intensity of the contrast of colour and blackness. Go ahead, try this out. It will become a fun day, playing with your ink pads, perfect pearls & UTEE.

Okay, I've talked too much today. Tomorrow I have my check up appointment, I will show you my layout that Jessi Lute inspired me to do, I will talk about my ultrasound I had yesterday and possibly show you some "quilting layouts" I have received some examples to show you.(I might hold these to show all on the same day! we'll see)

Answering requests...

****edited**** okay so this is a combined post with what I wrote last night but I added more stuff & pics! I just felt that this was the post for everything to be written in.

The craft show this weekend was fantastic. I met some outstanding quilters & they have INSPIRED me. I couldn't stop thinking about you guys today! And so Louise, I accept your challenge. Wall to wall of examples, patterns & colours.

isn't that neat colours? the lime with the brown and a hint of pink.

I like how quilts tell a story.

this is one of the programmable images. I thought it was so elegant!

Okay, I was asked quite a bit how to carry over sewing, embroidery & the quilting theme into scrapbooking many many times this weekend. I've always sewed on my pages and have received grief for it. But I love the look. I've just never taken it very far. But after this show, I want to try more unique patterns and stitches! And I'm up for the challenge ... So I thought to myself, first off, the sketch/theme needs to be very basic. Don't start with complicated sewing techniques. And I want this to be for the average person who isn't familiar with sewing, and especially sewing on pages. So I did a little research for simple basic pages  & tips to start with. Here's what I came up with:

Tip #1: learn how your sewing machine works. I had a chance to meet the "big wigs" in the sewing machine industry. They all agreed that sewing on paper DOES NOT affect the machine. Instead sample out what "tension" works with your medium (in this case paper).

Tip #2: Then make sure you have a nice size needle. Ones that are too big are going to just rip your page.

Tip #3: Pick out an appropriate weight of paper to use. If the paper is too thin, it will just rip so if you really want to sew on that paper than back it with a thicker cardstock. The thicker medium allows it to be guided through the machine much easier.

*****edited****

heres Anam's tips: (this girl has it going on! thanks for additional advice!)

1 - use gutterman thread.  it slides through the paper easier
2 - vaccuum your sewing machine every so often to get rid of the paper dust - epsecially in the bobbin holder part
3 - user gutterman invisable thread in your bobbin - then you only have to change the top thread for each layout :)
4 - i use size 14 or 16 needles
5 - drop the feed feet on your machine to help with corners and swirls.
6 - experiment on scrap and basically just play.

************************

So this is my challenge to everyone out there and myself. Lets try  to do some pages this week that involve sewing. If you would like to send me them, I'd love to post them. your choice!

But to get you started with a simple sketch that we can follow, I chose this one. It has so much room for personal interpretation.

This is a great site for Beginner Scrapbookers (heck all scrapbookers, often I look here out of interest!) 

For this sketch, let's fill in some of those squares with pictures and maybe fabric???then step it up with some fun embellishments. Sounds cool hey?

I'll show my layout for this at the end of the week.

****** Kate, I was also led to believe that fancier sewing machines would break if you used paper with them. At the Husquarvna (sp?), Brother, and so many more sewing machine brand booths, they aproached us about what they've done on paper. They were quick to offer to do examples on their super pricey machines too! The one booth had programmable sewing machines that started at around $2000, and they told me so many things that they do with paper! So don't get frustrated, just make sure you take all the care you would with different material types like lycra or silk, as the tension definitely needs to be changed for those!**********

Kelli, sorry I didn't get your email before I left, it would've been fun to see you there!

I'm back from Edmonton!

Long weekend! But outrageuosly fun!!!!!

I left here, a little down from all the sadness I've had lately in our lives. So I was glad to get a quick "Retreat" to a new environment.  And it was WONDERFUL!!!!!! I was actually taken back by the enormous respsonse the Edmonton Craft show gets! Possibly because the Sports & Leisure show was going on next door. who knows. but for me, I have never been in an area where I've had the opportunity to see so many different crafts, quilting, knitting, embroidery, stitching, and the colours!!!! WOW!

But the best ever was getting to know the Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine creators better: Jackie Ludlage & Katharina Doyle. We laughed, shared stories and met so many new wonderful scrapbookers. I was honoured to even get to go out with them and watch Jackie's daughter dance competively. Which was great!

So I can't show any pics on my blog today, we had a little fire in our furnace this weekend and so I'm waiting for the furnace guys to come and repair or replace our New furnace motor! Yes I said new, we just it replaced last month!!!! And to think it could've burnt down my scrap room, er I mean my house! LOL! Anyways it wasn't that serious, just faulty.

So I will show you all my pics from the weekend, my new layouts, more demos (I took new pics) and hopefully I can tell you some exciting news. See you later! 

exciting weekend coming up!

so, I didn't even get my act together to show you my demos before I leave. sorry. I had so much trouble trying to upload them this week, that I had to do some new ones. And when I get back I am going to try the Perfect Pearls with Alcohol ink, and I will show you how it turns out. I love alcohol ink!!!!

But I am off right now to Edmonton for the weekend. I am working in the fabulous Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine booth with Katharina Doyle for the craft show event. I'm pretty excited!  It's some pretty long days but I'm sure there are going to be the coolest scrapbookers coming by for a visit! Make sure you come and say hi if you are in the area. And I hope that I get the chance to take some cool pics of new things out there.

and secretly I wish Jim was coming, but I'm so pumped for a few nights of undisturbed sleep, no cooking, cleaning, no responsibilites (except for scrapbooking...which is fun!!) and I'm going to squeeze in some time to hit my fav stores! woo hoo! and yes I will be the crazy girl, singing my heart out loudly in the minivan on the Yellowhead. With no one telling me to be quiet, I can't wait to get in the groove!

Okay, see you next week everyone!

Perfect Pearls/ Pearlex Powder

So I am going to show you some new demos. I always like experimenting with the latest rage. My mom had picked me up Glitter Mist from Tattered Angels as a prezzie and I did have fun with it, but there is unbelievable waste for $7.99. I had used almost half a bottle trying to get the right amount of dimension and sparkles on my chipboard piece. So then I thought, well this just isn't very cost effective. I would have to save this awesome mist for special projects. Then I was thinking what could compare to get that textured glitter look? embossing maybe?

I was lucky enough to have been able to sit in on Jill's make n take on the ship where she showed how to make the most of Perfect Pearls. This is just a tiny little bottle of fine fine sparkles.

I have been using these for years just as a powder to rub onto anything and make it shine, however it does appear very light when you use it this way. So Jill had showed us to mix water with it. Worked great!!!!

see how well a glittered colour was made. I was impressed! I had NEVER tried this ever. So knowing that I had an idea of a project in mind, I started combining a few colours and came up with a likeable copper.

I thought to myself that this wash is great but, I wanted more. I wanted texture, so why couldn't the same concept be created with Glossy Accents? So I gave it a go.

so I found out that Glossy accents allowed the colour to stay very rich and opaque. So it completely depends on the goal you are looking for.a fine hint- leave as a powder, a translucent glow- add water, an opaque rich colour- add a dimensional glaze. I like contrast too so I built up a few different coloured layers on my chipboard.

  then I thought that why not use this concept on something that is hard to change looks.

doesn't this look cool on the ghost letters by Heidi Swapp? and it is permanent.  now I can't wait to use these samples.

see you later, hope you enjoyed a little cost effective tip. thanks Jill!

this is a test...

okay so I got a few helpful hints about why I couldn't upload my series of pics. so I am going to try posting a pic from a day I know did work, to see if it is the way I took the pics or just typepad, because I might've had my camera on a different setting which would make sense as I just took a photography class and tried new things to do, ... this is still such a learning curve for me. Ei yi yi...

okay so I took this one months ago , funny comedian!

So I'll try my new pics.

okay, quietly muttering to myself. it didn't work. okay, I will have to redo them or convert them. I'm too tired to follow the steps tonight I'll try again tomorrow.

Oh and someone just reminded me today, I only have 98 days to go in my pregnancy. crazy hey?

Also thank you for all the kindness, calls & cards I've received about my grandma. This past weekend was the hardest for me seeing her very weak. But I'm so glad that we stilll get the chance to visit with her and have a great reminiscing time. So my wish to you...go and ask every question that you want to know from a loved one. find out those little quirks and document them. One day you might not be able to ask anymore. For me, I've been trying to savour all the memories of my grandpa to paper and yet now I'm focusing on asking gramma things before I no longer have that opportunity.  Oh and I have so much cool news too, okay, tomorrow it will have to be. It's 1:30 am and I was in the middle of washing dishes, got to go finish before I go to sleep!

having posting problems!!!

ok, so is typepad just having a bad day today or what? I've tried now 3 times to post and it kees jamming on me. Anam, you are my computer guru? any ideas? ok, I'll try to post my step by step demos later tonight if not I guess tomorrow.