October True XOXO Challenge Layout

I admit I've been trying to adjust to the new Fall schedule. This school year, Riley has more activities than ever. I just read through a book I got at the library about tantrums and all things normal with kids. I really didn't feel anything helped because Riley truly is a great kid. But the interesting thing is that it suggested that a child should not have more than TWO extracurricular activities. Do you agree with this? If she only had two...look at what we'd be missing. I know some parents (personally know they) fill up every hour of every day with an activity so they don't need to pay extra for childcare. Some don't care to spend time with their children either. I actually spend time with Riley talking about and teaching her more about her activities. It's easy because I danced professionally. But again, I've gotten sucked up in the chauffeuring and I feel like I only prepare lunches and snacks which has not left any time to scrapbook. I don't even take photos anymore because I am always in the car.

I did manage to get my layout done for the True XOXO Instagram challenge.  

I spent quite a few hours on this but I actually didn't change the cardstock too much from it's original state. I used PanPastels to do a little bit of extra shading around the edges of all of the elements. The ribbon is from May Arts...it's velvet. I haven't played around too much with the PanPastels since I got them back in June. But I have another challege coming up and needed yellow chevron. I didn't have paper with a chevron patter nor did I want to diecut anything at 3am. So here came my thought about changing the color of the ribbon.

I used the sponge applicator and swiped it across the ribbon. Easy as that. Seriously! Then I sprayed it with fixative. Yes, I did that too in the middle of the night indoors. I don't have an iPhone and I know I've played around with various photo apps. My phone doesn't compare to my camera so I used Lightroom to edit my photo. After about three Presets, I had an over saturated photo that is an Instagram wannabe. I added a white box behind the image (as a layer in Photoshop Elements) and gave that a shadow. Once I was done with my coloring, I created my own sparkly mist out of Ranger Perfect Pearls and water. This layout is full of color and sparkle in person. There are also gold ring stickers by Starform which I ordered through Glitter Ritz/Elizabeth Craft.

I had so much fun just shading in the colors that I want the new musical costumes to use PanPastels too. Okay that would be way too expensive, but I can just imagine the possibilities. Have I mentioned that this year's musical is going to be The Lion King? Yes, you may lose me again when I begin designing costumes but this time my friend says I have to take you along for the ride in my costume making process.

August is here!

And so is the new Sampler kit. Here was the first project I created from the kit. I had a bracelet bender and blanks from years ago when I did polymer clay. I recently found all the blanks so I decide I would make Riley a bracelet. The thing I liked least about the blanks is that it's a 1" rectangular shape with sharp corners so I decided I was putting the Chomper up to a challenge to round the corners. It took a little muscle but I got all four corners done. At first I thought it was going to break but after I did one, I had to do the other three whether it was going to break the tool or not. It's kind of like a haircut. . . you start it so you really have to finish it.

I next colored the sides and back with the alcohol pen that came in last month's kit. It wasn't the coverage I got so as you can see I covered that with fabric. Then I bent the bracelet into shape. I took a tiny piece of Echo Park paper and layered it with the diagonal stripe. Using Diamond Glaze instead of resin because of the time involved, I painted four layers on and dried each with the heat gun. Yes. . . impatient but it was QUICK. Then I took a little more Diamond Glaze and mixed in Perfect Pearls. Probably two more layers later, I was ready to glue on the bling. The final part was the white ribbon (again, July kit) and cut it in half and glued it to the bracelet. Then I took a scrap of the left over Dorothy costume fabric and glued it to the inside of the blank. And now I have a 5 year old that will not part with her bracelet. All in all, this took me less than a half hour and I just may make a few more.

Roses and a cupcake inspired by SEI

Lack of sleep has led me down the path of forgetfulness. Here are additional magnets I made for the SEI magnet challenge.

The first two (actually I made 6) are roses from the Twitterpatted line.The top flower had been inked, sprayed with four colors of Glimmer Mist, and a dab of Perfect Pearls. The second is just inked and Glimmer Mist. I used 1/2" circular magnets at the base. Funny how a girl who doesn't make magnets accumulates all this stuff. These are about 3" wide.

The final one is a polymer clay cupcake. Can you believe that my hands have touched clay again after almost 5 years? I conditioned 30 pounds of Fimo the other day in the food processor (no. . . it's dedicated to clay so don't worry). Yes I was that serious about clay way back then and there's probably 100+ more pounds of Kato, Premo and Fimo clay waiting. But now that I have Riley there's a need for cute stuff and I've never done cute. . . it's always been Asian jewelry inspired. Anyhow. . . a cupcake wrapped in Chick-a-dee paper. . . figured the dots went well with the sprinkles. You can't tell by the image (especially because you cannot see any yellow in the design of the paper)  but the colors are true to the paper. The cupcake is about 2" tall. Oh by the way the magnet is on the back side of the cupcake which you don't see. . . I made the cupcake as a whole and sliced about 1/3 off the back to make it flat.