Trip to Maine

I have slowly, but surely begun work on our vacation trip to Maine from this past August.  Vacation might be the wrong word for the trip..we flew in Friday night for a friend's wedding party and we were supposed to fly out Sunday early in the morning and be back to Denver by noon.  We ended up getting stuck in the Portland airport until nearly 3 in the afternoon and didn't get back to Denver till late.  Oh well.  The little jaunt was worth it as it was my first trip to Maine (it is beautiful by the way) and we got to see one of my husband's best friends at her wedding party.  It was a fun trip even if it was extremely short.

Need for an Update!

It has been WAY too long since I have updated my blog.  See what happens when I am left to my own devices and have no design team work to show off?  I get lazy.  Geesh...At least I haven't been lazy on the scrapping front.  Between the month of March LOADED with birthdays and two crops in two weeks I have been actually pretty productive.  Just horrible about actually getting anything up online.  Well that changes now!  I would like to share a few projects and as long as the ladies at Frosted Designs don't mind I want to go ahead and enter one of their challenges too.  What can I say?  I just can't stay away from that blog. 

First up for my Frosted Design challenge entry I made this card for a cousin's birthday.  I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.

 

Next on to a few layouts.  The first is a layout about when my husband and I "camped" out on a friend's property after a BBQ.  We had a great time and these photos are of us enjoying some wine when we went out to find a place to pitch our tent before it got too dark.

 

This next one is from our trip to Texas this past summer.  We stayed with a friend for a few days and one day we spent the entire time lounging around their pool.  It was wonderful.  I would also like to brag that this is the first time I have had my photo taken in a swimsuit that I actually liked the photo.  Losing 60 lbs. can do a world of good for your confidence.  

Exciting News

I have some really exciting news to announce.  I have been accepted on as a new design team member for the wonderful product line Crafting Jewish Style.  I admit that when I decided to leave Frosted Designs about a month ago the thought of joining another design team didn't really enter my mind.  I mean sure it was a thought for the future, but for the time being I was hoping for a break and I really wanted to do some scrapping just for me.  When I saw the design team call for Crafting Jewish Style I just couldn't resist.  It was definitely something that caught my eye and I felt like it was a great way to really challenge myself to include my religion and my heritage in my scrapping.  It is something I don't do enough. I really can't wait to get started crafting with their awesome products.  They are SO pretty and I admit it is great to have some patterned paper that is geared to Jewish scrappers.  Head on over in the coming months to see some wonderful layouts, great sketches and inspiration for both Jewish and non-Jewish scrappers alike. 

A Tutorial and a Goodbye

With great sadness I want to announce that this will be my final project as a Design Team Member for Frosted Designs.  I have been on the design team at Frosted Designs since it began all the way back in Fall of 2009.  It has was my first design team and I tell you it has been one heck of a time designing for them.  It is a wonderful challenge blog and I have had the privilege to work with some other amazing paper crafters. 

I made the decision to step down from the design team because I felt like it was time for a change and that I needed to branch out and try some new things.  I must admit that a big part of me is sad and feels like I am leaving my home, but another part of me is excited for new opportunities in the future.  I wish Barb, Diana and all the other wonderful ladies at Frosted Designs all the best and I certainly hope they don't mind if I stop by to play along with their challenges every now and then.

Now on to more exciting things.  We have a tutorial that I created for you over at Frosted Designs this week!     

This week at Frosted Design we are showing you how to make wet distressed flowers.  These are incredibly easy and take no special punches or equipment to make.  You can see the finished product in the layout above.  To make these flowers you will need:

scissors
scraps of patterned paper or cardstock
distress ink
mini mister or other spray bottle of water (not pictured)
adhesive - I prefer Zip Dry Glue
Gem, brads or other flower center

Step 1)  Take your patterned paper or cardstock and cut out a rough circle with a wavy edge a little bit bigger than you want your finished flower to be.  It doesn't have to be a perfect circle, nor does the edge need to be perfect.

2)  Cut out increasingly smaller circles just like you did with the first.  Depending on the size of the flower you want depends on the number of layers you will want.  I tend to stick with either 5 layers for larger flowers and 3 layers for smaller flowers.

3)  Take your scissors and cut small triangles evenly spaced around the circles to create petals.  I usually do 8 triangles on larger circles and 4-6 on the smaller ones.

4)  Ink the edges of all your flowers with Distress inks.  It is important to use Distress inks as they will run and look more like natural coloring when you get them wet.

5) Using a Mini Mister or other spray bottle filled with water spray your flowers fairly liberally till the paper is fairly wet, but not soaked.  You want it to be pliable, but also able to retain its shape.

6)  Using your fingers smoosh the petals so the stand up and are scrunched.  You don' have to make all the petals do the same thing.  Some can be turned more under while some may be turned up and others just smooshed.  Let the flowers dry.

 

7)  Put a small dab of glue in the center of each layer and glue the layers together with the largest on bottom and the smallest on top.

8) Affix a gen or a brad in the center and your flower is ready for your next project.