It's Official.

I am a dot com. So this is the very last post I'll make on this blog.

Click here to go to the new one.

P.S. I'm losing all of my followers. Show me some love, wouldja?

A Quick Card

Well, I don't know about you, but I had a great three-day weekend! We went to a wedding on Saturday, to the Alameda Antique Fair on Sunday, and P.F. Chang's in Walnut Creek last night for dinner. YUM! We had a busy weekend, but I still found some time to make a quick little birthday card to show you today.

I made this for my sister-in-law's birthday. It is on a 6x6 base, rather than being a standard folding card.  I used a couple of bits and pieces from the NoelMignon.com Study Hall kit, along with a bunch of scraps from my own stash.

I sewed the top flap to the base so that it would make a little flip-up front to hide this tag (which eventually got a Starbucks card stuck to it) and then I tied a 2' piece of twine to the tag and wrapped it around the whole card to secure everything together.

Here's a little closeup of the front. How much do I loooove those Jenni Bowlin banner stickers? Um, a LOT. And the twine is by Creative Impressions - I get asked that a lot, and I really love theirs!

So that's all for today. I hope you all had a great weekend and got to catch up on some much-needed good times! Now I'm off to take a nap - I'm BEAT!!

My new favorite layout.

Let's be honest. I don't always like what I make. I should - I mean, if you're going to go to the trouble of making something, you ought to love it, right? But, no, sometimes I'm crafting just for obligation sake.

But not this time. This time, though this was for a specific challenge, I used product that I loved, photos that I love, and I even mixed things up with a little bit of digital play.

The background is a piece of Crate Paper from one of my noelmignon.com kits (I can't remember which one, of course) that I punched with a Martha Stewart edge/corner punch. Then I dripped a little white ink onto the page just to give it a little more aged look.



All of the paper on the page is by Simple Stories - the 100 Days of Summer line. AND I AM IN LOVE WITH IT. Period. The end. My favorite line. At least for the next few days, until I've used it to death and am sick of it.



And then I grabbed one of the little wooded fences and inked it up. LOVE this simple little technique - and it works so well with this kind of paper.



It is at this point that I must confess that I made this page up with absolutely no idea of the photos that would be going on it. So, when I got to the point that I HAD to add photos to it, I realized that my printer was completely out of ink and I was, in fact, screwed. It is at this point that I must also confess to being in a sadly embarrassing state of general appearance and that no amount of money could have made me do anything about it in order to leave the house, drive the 12 miles to Staples and get ink.

So I improvised.

I photographed the layout, uploaded it to Photoshop (I use CS3) and put my photos into the layout. I just traced around the summer banner and made it a new layer via copy, and put it over the photo so that it looked like I actually had a photo under the banner "for reals." And not for fakes. Fakes are bad.

Then I typed in a bit of journaling and voila!



It was actually kind of a nice change of pace, this little hybrid venture of mine, and I love the outcome!

So that's it for me today!
Happy scrappin'!

Winner Winner!!!

Hey y'all (in my best Paula voice) it's time to pick a winner! But first, I just wanted to thank you all for all of your sweet and encouraging words, and for those of you who donated actual dollars, THANK YOU!! It really means so much to me and my family to have your support. This has been a hell of a last two years for us, and we're are excited to see what the future holds for Kate and having this kind of support really helps!

SO

I have entered everyone into a totally random drawing and we had many entries!

BUT

There can only be one winner for this hunka hunka burning kit!



And she is (drumroll please...)

Jeanie Kowalczyk!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAY Jeanie!
Now, some of you may be saying, "Um, I don't see a comment from her!" And you would be right. And the answer to that is the following: My mom called and tearily says, "Jeanie just donated $100 because of your blog post. And she tried to comment, but she couldn't login. And well, just do it for her!" And so I did.

So there you go.

Thanks so much Jeanie for all your support! You'll be getting your package veeeery soon!!

And for those of you who didn't win something this week, I will be keeping your entries and carrying them over to the next Freebie Friday that will be going up next Friday, September 2. The walk isn't until September 17, so if you didn't get a chance to facebook, tweet, or repost this on your blog, there is still time! And if you want to donate to this friggin' awesome cause, just click here to go to our team page. No amount is too small and it is all VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!

AND ALSO

The new kit from Noel Mignon is available for preorder and there are only a few left!



She is also doing a shipping special this month for all domestic orders - buy two kits and get free shipping, or spend over $100 in the shop and get free shipping! Purty sweet, I think! Be sure to go to the shop to get yours today before they are all sold out!

Have a greaaaaat weekend everybody!!!

Scrap Happy!

Heya!

So remember last week when I was trying to figure out how to use up all those scraps? Well, I figured out one really great way!

Make a mini album! This one is 3x5 - the perfect size to use up lots of little pieces. I used mostly the Salt Water Taffy and Mary Ellen kits for this one.



I started by making the bases for all the pages the same size, and stitched most of them so that they would have a feeling of continuity that is really important, especially when working with something small.



There's lots of layering on this mini, trying to use up some really small pieces, tucking them in here and there. I LOVE this antique brass butterfly from Making Memories!



Don't be afraid to add some inks and sprays to these layouts, too.



This is a great way to use up lots of those leftover stickers, too! Just run them off of the edge of the page, and trim them down.



You can also run small pieces through your Cricut and cut out some really cool shapes like this bumble bee or the little doily below.



Teeny tiny ephemera pieces add a little dimension to pages, too.



Mini banners are a great way to add a little pop to your pages, too, like this one I made using the Lily Bee stickers and then stitching across them. I must confess that I also have tons of almost empty bobbins, so I even used up all of them in an effort to declutter - I KNOW. It's a little crazy, but it works, and nobody ever sees the bottom thread...



Small pieces also make good frames.



Punch out shapes from teeny scraps like the butterfly below.



So grab your pile of scraps and get busy! It was such a fun little project to make, and didn't take much time, either!

Happy scrappin'!
Britt

A little carrot.

For those of you who read Wednesday's post, you know that the walk for Crohn's is veeerrrrrry important to me. So important that I'm willing to bribe you to get your support. Yep, I'll say it. I'm not above it.

In order to gain said support, I am reviving Freebie Friday. Yep. I am.

Here's what's up for grabs:



Yep, that's a whole ton of Graphic 45, including Le Cirque, Curtain Call and ABC Primer, and some Staples. Jenni Bowlin Haven papers, stamps, stickers, rubon, Bingo cards,chipboard and buttons. A really cool 6x12 album by Clear Scraps, some Anna Griffin diecut papers, stickers and chipboard alphas, Petaloo flowers, lots of ribbon, vintage book pages, Mark Richards jeweled alphas and nail heads, some cute stick pins, fabric, baker's twine, mini clothes pins, vintage ephemera, Bingo numbers, and a whole mess of other "stuff" that I couldn't include in the picture. It's easily over $100 in product. I actually cringed at a few things I put in there that I reeeaaaallly had a hard time parting with.

In order to win this sweet little stash of happy you must do the following to earn entries:

1. Link up this post on Facebook. (1 entry)

2. Tweet about it. (1 entry)

3. Blog about it and include the link to the donation page. It doesn't matter if it's my page or not - anyone on Team Lejeune will work! (3 entries)

4. If you personally donate, let me know. (5 entries) And a great big online hug. Unless of course you live near me, and then I will deliver one personally.

5. Sign up to participate in the walk. (5 entries) Seriously, if you live in the Central Valley, CA sign up! It's going to be a great event and it will mean so much to me and my family to have your support.

So that's the deal this week. We'll see how it goes, and I'll announce a winner next week. If we do well, I just might have another fun game to play that will score you even more stuff!

Have a great weekend!!

Take Steps

**Scroll to the bottom of the page to turn off the music!**



Crohn's Disease is seriously the shittiest thing in the world. Pun intended. It is probably one of the least publicized and most life-altering thing to have. It's like the gateway disease. Once you have it, you start on all these medications that just lead to other problems, like arthritis, liver & kidney disease, and even leukemia. And my sister Kate has it.

I can't even begin to tell you how upside down her world has turned in the last two and a half years. She went from just fine to 30 days in the hospital, bleeding, vomiting, shitting in total pain and humiliation, with no privacy and very few understanding or compassionate nurses and doctors to help. And at the end of all of that there was still no cure for it, just a handful of drugs to take 18 times a day and a "we'll see."

Have you ever take Prednisone? How about Flagil? Asacol? Reglan? Protonix? Well imagine being on them for over two years (and a ton of other, far more expensive ones too) and waking up to find that the prednisone has weakened your bones to the point of arthritis, leaving you constantly fatigued, and that the flagil has caused peripheral neuropathy, which is just a fancy way of saying that your limbs are in a constant state of that fallen-asleep numb feeling and your brain just isn't cooperating the way it's supposed to. How about taking a $1000+ a month medication that has no generic version, and finding that 8 of nine of them have passed through you whole. Not exactly encouraging, is it?

And then on top of that having everyone on the planet tell you that you'd get better if you'd just make better food choices. Which is the biggest pile of you know what because, um, 'scuse me, but don't you think if there was a menu called the "Get rid of Crohn's by eating this" menu that surely everyone would stick to it? Because I can promise you, if it meant not living with a toilet tethered to your ankle, you would. And if anyone is motivated to get better, it's someone who has to visit Uncle John 20 times a day.

So after two and a half years of fighting for care, from a doctor who's recently revealed himself to be the biggest shithead of them all, she is starting over. And she's not alone. My mom has been very involved from the beginning - Kate's best advocate. Kate's boyfriend Thomas reaaaaaalllllly loves her and is totally there for her. And I am three hours away researching and blogging about it. And can I just say, that if I were her, I wouldn't be half as sane. And positive. And humorous. And that, I think, deserves a metal.

Or at least a donation for the Take Steps Be Heard walk. That's right, we're walking for Crohn's on September 17th, and we need your support! This is really the underdog of diseases, and every dollar helps to find better meds, create better resources, treat so many people who have been diagnosed with Crohn's, just like my sis, and to hopefully find a cure.

Donate HERE.



Thanks for all your support!
HUGS!

Cards and Tags and Tags and Cards

Heya everybody!

Hope you all had a great weekend! We had a whirlwind followed up now by a bit of a crash and burn. It started early Friday morning with driving to San Jose so that Eric could help a friend with his race car, which meant that Brittny would have been sitting with nothing to do, except that she knows the very best scrappy lady in all of San Jose! My good Kiwi friend Shell is the owner of Scrapgrlz, and has always put on great retreats, but has also recently opened up a shop! You can shop, crop, and trust me, you will eventually drop! I was finally able to make it over there on Friday to see it, and OMG it is fantastic! Lots of goodies to buy, space to crop, and tools to play with, too! You have to go check it out! And be sure to stop by her online shop if you're not in the area - she has great deals and does lots of giveaways on her blog!

So after I saw the shop, I headed back to the land of the race car, obviously with lunch for the hungry men, and slaved in the sweltering heat for hours and hours and hours. Okay, it was maybe two hours, and it wasn't exactly sweltering. But it was hot! And I was wearing pink. And the mere thought of a grease stain on my frilly pink top was enough to make me perma-cranky.

After the boys finished on the car and got it all loaded into the trailer, we headed to Fresno to my Mamala's house to drop me off for the weekend. YAY! The boys continued on down to Bakersfield to do their manly car racing business, and I got to stay and have fun with my mom. We went to see Crazy Stupid Love, and wowee wow wow - it was SUCH A GOOD MOVIE!! Seriously, you HAVE to go see it. I crazy stupid LOVED it!

Flash to late Friday night. Eric calls to say that his friend ran his car into the wall, and they are officially done racing for the weekend. Wow. Okkkaaaaaaaaay. So the nice, blissful day and a half that I had planned with Mamala changed into a nice blissful 18 hours because home the boys came!

But all was not lost, no sir. This just meant that Eric and my sis's boyf could repair my mom's fence a day earlier than he planned, and wouldn't have to take a day off of work after all. BUT the minor repairs turned into a total recall, and not even humpty dumpty could have survived this one. But never fear, they are total fencing geniuses and got it up in record time. Ha ha Kate, I know, I know, "that's what she said." By Sunday afternoon it was all done, so Eric did a little tree pruning and we were on our way home!

And can I say, it's good to be home? I spent a few hours yesterday working on my scrap pile which seems like it grows exponentially overnight, and I can never get a hold on it. I made a few cards and am going to be butterfly punching, accordion folding, and whirligiging the sweet bejesus out of that pile until it is under control!

Here's a few little things I made:



I used a combination of my Mary Ellen and Salt Water Taffy kits for this one. It's hard to tell, but it is actually an A2 size card. I cut the scalloped paper to hang over the top and right side of the card.



A couple of tags I made using some more of my past Noel Mignon kits. LOVE that Crate Paper Restoration flower paper. I'm a fussy cutter and proud!



I got the idea for this little tag from Gretchen's cards she did last week. Love the little sideways pennants!

That's all for today - happy scrapping!

31 days to create

This is another of my submissions for the American Crafts Design Team. It's a handmade journal for a month of reflection/craftiness/experiments/journaling. I would say art journal, but it seems that everyone is doing an art journal now. So it's the un-art journal.



I used some Thickers and a few paints to get this look.



The inside of the journal is full of blank, numbered pages , lined with super cute American Crafts papers.

Wanna make your own? Here's how:



Start with a couple of pack of chipboard Thickers and two pieces of chipboard. I cut mine to 5x7, but you can do whatever size works for you.



Fill up the front of one of the pieces of chipboard with lots of Thickers. Be sure to leave space for ring holes.



Cover the front of the cover with a good coat of Gesso. I used white, but you could use black, too.



Choose a color of paint you like, or mix two colors together. I prefer Studio Acrylics, but any old paint is fine.



Be sure to mix enough for two coats.



After the first color is dry, choose and coat with a second color.



After the second color is dry, use sand paper or a file to rub off some of the layers of paint.



Now you can see the layers of exposed color.



Cover it with a gel medium like Mod Podge. I usually use Studio Gel Gloss Medium, but this Mod Podge has sparkles in it, and how can I possibly say no to sparkles? Use a heat tool to get it quickly, completely dry.



Use Ink Gold by Viva Decor to dirty up the cover. I used the charcoal color, and smoothed it on with a foam sponge. If you get it on too heavy, just use a little water to take some off.



I took it easy on the backside.

So that's all there is to it! Try it out for yourself and let me know how it goes!

Happy Tuesday!

A Little AC Love

Here's a couple of layouts I made for the American Crafts Design Team call.
Fingers crossed - this would be soooo exciting. I can't even imagine being able to work with some of the amazing designers on this team - what an awesome group of gals!



How much do you LOVE those flowers?! I jazzed them up a little with a Viva Decor Glitter Liner.



Supplies:
American Grafts: City Park-Hyde Park; Dear Lizzy- Flowering Fields & Friendly Fern; Dear Lizzy Enchanted- Gentle Badger.
Bazzill: Bazzill White Cardstock
Viva Decor: Cream Pearl Pen, Holo Glitter Liner
TPC: Scalloped Kraft Card
Butterflies from Paradise Scrapbook Boutique!




LOVE this layout. Such a great photo of a family friend's boys. I used some "vintage" AC Teen line - love those cut out paper airplanes!



I used a black Pearl Pen from Viva Decor to make the little dashed swirlies coming off the planes.



And a little Scrap Dots from Helmar lifted those Thickers right up in the air!

Supplies:
American Crafts: City Park- Mountain Park, Golden Gate Park; Dear Lizzy Enchanted- Charmin Collin; Teen- Detention. Aqua Patchwork Thickers and Charcoal Lullaby Thickers.
Viva Decor: Black Pearl Pen
Jenni Bowlin: Bingo Card
Echo Park: Country Drive- Clover Meadow
Lily Bee: Happily Lost sticker

Well, that's all for now, peeps! Happy Monday!

As Promised

This weekend I sat down at my computer to bog and just thought....bleh. Ever get to that point where something you look at every single day is suddenly just so ugly you can't take it another second? Yeah, that's where I was at. So I'm experimenting with some things like buttons, solid color versus patterned background, two columns versus three?

And the first thing I decided to change was my Blog Title. And I thought, "Why not make my own?" I mean, I have this beyond awesome Salt Water Taffy kit from NoelMignon.com and I thought it would be fun to take it step by step so I could share how to go about this with you all who might want to build your own blog title too!

Here's my first attempt, and oddly, I love it! I think this will be a fun thing to rotate on a regular basis. It's certainly one of a kind!

So here we go!

It's important to remember that you can make your title any size you like, but I used a 12"wide x 4.5" tall base. Obviously, we are going to be scaling this down in Photoshop when we're finished designing the actual title, but starting with the standard 12" papers will make things much easier to construct, otherwise your patterned papers will wind up looking over-sized.

Step 1: Choose your supplies



Here are the supplies I used from the Salt Water Taffy kit:
Zing! Embossing Powder in Mustard
Jenni Bowlin Butterfly Acrylic Stamp
Washi Tape
Echo Park Country Drive 'Bee's Knees' paper
We R Travel Light Tag
Hambly 'Birds on a Wire' Overlay
MME Lime Twist 'Happy Go Lucky - Togetherness' paper
MME Lime Twist 'Life of the Party - Bloom' paper
MME Life of the Party 'Be You' Accessories Sheet

Extras from my own stash:
Versamark pad
Ranger Heat Tool
Sewing machine
Glossy Accents
Glue Dots
Foam Dots
Pumice Stone Distress Ink
Finger Dauber
Chipboard

Step 2: Trim your papers to size



Once you've decided on the papers you want to use, cut the primary piece to 12"x 4", the bottom piece to 12"x1", and cut one length of birdies out of the Hambly overlay.



Cut scallops onto the bottom edge of the blue woodgrain strip. You can draw them first if you need a guide.



Trim closely around the edge of the birdies so that this strip looks a little cleaner.

Step 3: Stick it down



Glue down the strip of birdies to the honeycomb paper so that the left side sits higher than the right side.

Step 4: Washi Tape



Find the Washi Tape in your kit and run a strip of it along the seam between the honeycomb paper and the woodgrain paper.



Run another length of tape on top of the first so that it looks like the photo below.



Smash down the loops you left.



Stitch down the center of the tape with a sewing machine.



After you're finished stitching, flip up the top and bottom edges of the washi tape and de-stick using some corn starch or baby powder.



Step 5: Stamping



Grab your supplies - the Jenni Bowlin stamp and Zing! embossing powder from your kit as well as some Versamark ink and a heat tool.



Lay down a piece of paper to catch the embossing powder and stamp the left side of the paper, so that the stamp goes off the edge a bit. Sprinkle on a generous amount of embossing powder so that it completely covers the stamped butterfly.



Shake off the excess onto the paper beneath and pour it back into the jar.



Heat set the embossing powder. I used to use the purple Marvy embossing gun, and that's fine. BUT NOOOOOOOW I use the Ranger heat tool and O. M. G. it's amazing. You don't realize how loud your gun is until you use the Ranger one. It's soooo quiet.

Step 6: Inking



Use Pumice Stone Distress Ink and a finger dauber to rub on a little bit of ink over the stamp, and right around the edges. It might look a little rough at first, but keeping rubbing the ink in, and you will end up with a shadowy result that really pops off the page!

Step 7: So far...



This is what you should have so far.

Step 8: The tag



Grab one of the tags from your kit and put a few foam dots on the back. Stick down to the left side of the piece, over the washi tape. Glue the twine into place with a little gob of Glossy Accents.

Step 9: Make the whirligig



Cut a 1.5" square out of the MME paper. You don't have to draw the lines and dot if you are comfortable making whirligigs, but if you're new at it, you might find it helpful when cutting.



Fold over every other wing and glue to the center of the square.



Glue a little button over the center of the whirligig to hide the ends you just glued.
Put a couple glue dots on the back of it, and stick to the top left of the tag.



Step 10: The Sticker



Cut the sticker in half.



Stick it to the top right of the piece.



Stitch over the sticker with a sewing machine.

Step 11: Measure for chipboard

When you get to this point, you are finished. BUT you probably have some waves in the paper from embossing, so we'll need to mount the whole thing onto a piece of chipboard to flatten it out.



Measure the total height of the piece.



Cut the chipboard and then mount the finished piece on top of it.

Step 12: The finished product!



Once you finish the background, you are ready to photograph it for editing. Make sure you put the piece flat on a debris-free surface and get as straight of a photo as possible. Try to avoid using the flash on your camera as it will cast a glare on the overlay.

Open your photo in Photoshop (I use CS3, but most people use Elements. I say use what you're comfortable with.) and make any changes to brightness or contrast that you want. Lasso the background of the picture and delete. Once the background is gone, crop the whole thing down so that it just includes what you want to see. Resize the image to be about 5" wide at 150 dpi, then save the image as a PNG file so that there is no white background - just the image you want to see. From there, go into your blog and change the title to this image.

Lots of steps, but all in all, fairly easy!
Have fun and if you have any questions at all, just let me know!