Dare #69#: Love at first sight

Cardstock: Bazzill
Patterned papers: SEI, Creative Imaginations
Chipboard heart & rub-ons: BasicGrey
Chipboard letters: Heidi Swapp (L) and Basic Grey
Eyelets: Fiskars
Other: White gel pen, inks (Colorbox, Distress Ink Ranger)
TFL!

This is for Dare #69: "Love at first sight"

In fact what I really wanted to tell was my love at first sight when I met my husband for the very first time hundreds of years ago, but I haven´t got any good picture from that time, so I´ve had to make a little detour to tell it… but the story is there.

And the LO about it...

Cardstock: Bazzill
Papers: Basic Grey, SEI & Fancy Pants
Rubbons: Fancy Pants, American Crafts
Tab: SEI

Brads: SEI, MakingMemories

Others: Felt circles, ribbon

TFL!

I said I was going to do something with that and here it is. I had too many pictures to fit in one page, so I decided to do 3 pages, in fact a "3 pages 8.5 x 11 layout" in a 12x12 one.
Now I´m preparing another projects with this past weekend "crop"...

Step 2: Felt "jewels"

As promised I show you what I´ve done with those felt balls from last weekend...

Well, this time I´ve made a long necklace, a shorter one and a pair of earrings. For the blue and green one, I´ve mix the felt beads with some other polymeric-clay beads I also made myself sometime ago (green and blue) and some silver and crystal beads I bought, ribbons and silver chain. The pink one was made cutting some felt flowers and using colored cords and the earrings, cutting little felt leaves and crystal beads.
I´ve been asked to explain a bit more how I did the beads. These are the basic steps:

1) Take a small amount of wool and fray it. 2) Give a rounded shape but not pressing it. 3) Moisten your hands with hot water and mild soap, take the ball and begin rounding it for 3-5 minutes at least. Don´t press too much at first!! (this is important). 4) When you feel the ball becomes more tough and compact you can begin to press firmly a bit more. 5) When you see is strong enough, then pour some boiling water over it or introduce it into boiling water a little while (you can put it in a colander and wait until you have all the balls done to do this). 6) Let them dry.

You can see photos for these steps here. And more related photos at flickr.
I´m thinking of doing some scrapbook layout about this…

OLW Challenge #3#: MY

Cardstock: Bazzill
Pp´s: KI Memories, Basic Grey
Letter stickers: American Crafts
Rub-ons: Fancy Pants
Blings: Heidi Swapp
Others: Ribbon, Distress Ink, Watermark Ink, stamp
TFL!

This is for the One Little Word 3rd challenge. The word this time is "MY". There could be so many "my" something...but I had to choose and chocolate is something (not only mine) which is almost everyday in My life (although it´s not the most important, of course). I could say much more about chocolate, but I would need a whole page only to journal, so I tried to say it with just one picture and a few words.

I embossed with watermark a part of the cardstock but I´m afraid it can´t be seen quite right. The journaling says:

"No matter what happens I take everyday a bit of dark dark chocolate. Maybe it is a drug (as it is said) but I prefer to believe in those scientific researches that say it is so healthy. In fact, I feel very healthy when I taste it..."

Thank you girls from OLW for these challenges.

Felt beads and more

This rainy weekend I´ve taken a “scrapping-break”, I´ve got these skeins of wool back and I´ve made all these felt beads. It´s easy and funny, but a lot of time is required (and time is something I feel I can never get enough…). Just the wool (most important), soap and hot water and…round & round:

The next step will be to gather with some other beads I have and assemble them in a necklace, or a pair of earrings… I will show you the result (only if it´s worth).

Plans for this weekend included walks, sun and open air, but the weather betrayed us and had to stay at home most of the time. Anyway, it has been quite creatively productive. I also made this, just for fun. It´s a “second LO” for OLW, using the first word GO, not for the challenge obviously but for me because I want to try to do all the Lo´s for these challenges in a 8,5X11 format, and made a kind of “all about me” album with those words. And I felt like trying Ali´s technique using diamond glaze and painting over it. As I had not diamond glaze I used Gloo (KI Memories), Adirondack dabbers from Ranger, a few brads and some paper scraps from SEI and Basic Grey. I had a “little accident” with Gloo as my daughter was playing around me (see “for”) and I´m not very happy with the LO, but I liked trying it.

TFL!

AEzine 20 Challenge

Cardstocks: Bazzill
Pp´s: BasicGrey, SEI
Brads: SEI, Heidi Swapp
Rub-on: Fancy Pants
Foam letters: American Crafts
Letter stickers: KI Memories
Felt flowers
TFL!

I´ve made this for Ali´s AeZine 20:
“In honor of issue number twenty this week the challenge is all about creating something that features 20 things. It could be a layout about your 20 favorite things, 20 favorite memories, 20 favorite foods, just 20 of something”
I could have made at least half a dozen “20 of something” LO´s (and sure I will do), but I felt like doing something like this. Besides I have tried to use more than one of her tips: white cardstock foundation, mix up page sizes, square and circle punches... and I have decided that, when I finish a layout, that´s all, it´s finished and go for the next one!

Photographing the photographer

Pp: ScenicRoute

Cardstock: Papicolor

Minibrads: MakingMemories

Rub-ons & letter stickers: BasicGrey

Chipoboard circle: ScenicRoute

Fonts: big fish esemble, chocolate bleu

Other: foam letters, color staples.

I don´t know how many times I´ve gone over this LO, just to add some more accents and didn´t know which ones, but since I read last AeZine 20 (tip 11), I decided "let it go!, maybe it´s OK as it is and it doesn´t need anymore", I think the photo is strong enough and I´m telling the story I wanted to tell, so here it is.

TFL!

Searching Simplicity

SIMPLIFY: This is my personal challenge for this year and right now. Find beauty in simplicity, try to remove useless stuff from my life. I need space, light, time, meaningful and spiritual readings and functional stuff, minimalism zen. It seems to be easy and… simple? Not at all. My other side wants color, fun, some trashy readings like mags, a bit of a mess (uuugh!) for inspiration. How to combine them? That is the real challenge!!!

I don´t want to live exactly as a monk (maybe I should…) but I want to surround myself only with those things and people I really need and I really love, quality better than quantity. I wish I could reflect it in my work too, in my style if I find it sometime (I don´t think I have a style yet…)

Let´s see!

Dare #68# Challenge

Cardstock: Bazzill
Pp´s: Scenic Route, Rouge de Garance
Chipboard alphabet: Heidi Swapp
Chipboard accent: Scenic Route
Inks: Colorbox, DistressInk Ranger
Rub-on: BasicGrey
Others: White gel pen, brown pen, “blings”, ribbon and green string.

I´ve made this LO for this week challenge Dare#68#: Scrap a self-portrait without make up and undone hair... Well, I took the photo this morning, in fact right before going to the hairdresser´s which I visited last time about three months ago, that means...I needed it! I usually wear a ponytail or a hair pin and only a bit of make-up, but there´s a minimum..., anyway I´ve faced up this challenge and here it is.
TFL!

One Little Word Challenge: STOP

Papers and rub-ons: BasicGrey
Butterfly mask: Heidi Swap
Eyelets: Fiskars
Inks: KI Memories, DistressInk (Ranger), Colorbox
Font: 2peas goofball

I´ve made this for the One Little Word challenge #2#: STOP

TFL!

Welcome!!!

Welcome!!!
Here it is, my very first blog and my very first entry, wow! it has not been so hard.
I´m going to write here in English (although is not my native language) just to practice and learn, so sorry for all my mistakes and I´ll be grateful if anybody wants to correct my biggest ones...

Some months ago, I think it was around Christmas, I was searching podcasts for watching on my brand new iPod, thinking it would be a very funny and enjoyable way to improve my English and, searching for something related to design, I found one which was about "scrapbooking", something I had never heard before (now I´ve realized that here in Spain it almost doesn´t exists) and that I though it was a kind of graphic designed pages with photos or something like that, at first I didn´t know quite well what it was but don´t know why I found it attractive because I love photography. Then I surfed the web and found Ali Edwards´s blog, and then Two Peas in a Bucket and so on... and wow! that was fantastic, joining photography, journaling, paper and Art all in one, that was for me! So this is more or less how I´ve become a scrapbooking addict. Besides, I´m learning english (which was my first intention), new expressions and slang and I´m making a real effort not only to understand (something that I´ve accomplished quite well) but to write as correct as possible too, and best of all I´ve discovered "my hobby", I´m enjoying it so much... I don´t know if it is the newbie excitement (everything is new for me!) but the true is that actually I´m loving it (and I wish I will do for a long time...).
Now I´m also new in galleries, challenges, forums and blogging, something that never before interested me because I´m a quite shy person, but PJ told me about the "therapeutic" effect of scrapbooking in many aspects, I´ve been thinking about it and she´s right, so I´m going to try.

Well, this is what I´ve made (in "scrapping" terms) last week. This was my scrapbooking LO for "The Dares" Challenge #67#: "What era are you?". I chose the Sixties and here it is

Patterned papers: SEI

Stamps: MakingMemories, Heidi Swapp, KIMemories, CherryArte

Flowers: BasicGrey (Chipboard) and Heidi Swapp (Acrylic)

Minibrads: MakingMemories

Inks: Tsukineko, KI Memories

Journaling card: JSprague´s Beautifulofyou digikit

Others: Ribbons, buttons

It was my first 8.5x11 layout and my first "2 pages" layout as well, and great! I´ve loved it, although I like the square format, this one works nice and it´s very funny to try different ways...I´m still learning and want to learn more.

I´m very grateful to Ali Edwards, Noell and her Papperclipping podcast, PJ, Kristina Contes and some others that have showed me the best and most creative side of scrapbooking (not only the commercial one) and have provoked my interest.

All for today!