Currently....

Image by Saturated Canary, Enjoy the Rain

Colored with Neocolor II watercolor crayons

Loving - Lazy summer days! Sleeping in, swimming, hanging with the kiddos, watching the hummingbirds and dragonflies zip around the backyard.

Reading - How to Bake a Perfect Life by Barbara O'Neal, it's just an easy summer read :)

Eating - Angelcots, heavenly white apricots. I can't stop eating them!

Drinking - When I'm not drinking coffee....Passion Tea Lemonade, delish!

Anticipating - Family vacation! Can't wait to spend a few days with the whole family hanging out at the beach laughing and eating to much!

Listening - Jack Johnson, I Got You. I can't wait for the whole album to be released in September. 

Watching - Movies, tons of them! Thank goodness for Netflix and $5.00 movie days at our local theatre! Every Monday my daughter have "Classic Movie Monday" at home. Audrey Hepburn movies have been our favorite lately :)

Planning - Starting to think about holiday crafts! It's only a few months away! Yikes!

Creating - I haven't been creating a whole lot these days. I have just been spending my time coloring my favorite digi images. I have been enjoying my new Neocolor II watercolor crayons. At least I will have some colored digis ready when when I need them :)

Hoping - I'm hoping for another summer storm to pass through. We love swimming in the rain....

Image by Dilly Beans, Mermaid Framed

Colored with Neocolor II watercolor crayons

Thanks for stopping by! I'd love to hear what you are currently up to!

Hugs!

Birthday 'Stache Bash!!

Hello from sunny and HOT California! We hit 108 degrees yesterday! A new record! Thank goodness today is much cooler :)

I recently have had several searches and comments on my 'Stache Bash Invites blog post from January, so I thought that some of you may like to see the rest of the party 'stache fun I created for my daughters 11th birthday. I apologize in advance because this post is a bit long! Hopefully I can remember exactly what went into each creation, its been a few months. If you have a question on anything you see here please, please feel free to ask and I will do my best to remember. I will add links at the bottom of the post for some of the items I used.

 These are the cupcake toppers I created. The adorable girl image is a digi stamp from Saturated Canary, her name is Starla. The cute mustaches are also digi stamps from Angie Delarie. When creating Starla I let my daughter color her hair and clothes on the computer using the Paint program and then printed them out. I then finished coloring her with my Copic markers and added some Stickles Glitter Glue to her hair. The mustaches came pre-colored so all I had to do was print them out and add a bit of Stickles Glitter Glue. I used Spellbinders Nestabilities Big Scalloped Circles and my Cuttlebug to cut out and emboss the edges of each cupcake topper. I also misted each one with a fine glitter mist. I then used my hot glue gun to glue each topper to a black coffee stir stick that I had pre-cut in half so they weren't to tall.

 I spent too much time creating the cupcake toppers so I decided to just order the cupcakes from my local bakery! Gotta cut corners where you can! :)

I found a mustache sandwich cutter at one of my local stores and decided to use it as a cookie cutter instead. We whipped up some sugar cookie dough and added a TON of pink sprinkles! 

I had searched EVERYWHERE for some mustache streamers and couldn't find any so I decided to make my own. I purchased regular streamers in black and white and then glued a piece of ribbon down the middle of the streamers. I bought a 2 inch mustache punch from Hobby Lobby and punched out a TON of mustaches with pink, white and black card stock. I then used glue dots to adhere the pink mustaches down the center of the streamers. I used the extras mustaches as confetti for decoration on the food table.

What's a 'Stache Bash without mustache straws! I printed out some extra mustache digi stamps by Angie Delarie and used a hole punch to add a hole for the pink straws to fit through and PRESTO! 

Fun, adorable, and girly mustache straws!

 My daughter and I decided it would be fun for her and her girlfriends to have 'stache sticks for them to use in photos and also thought it would be a cool take home gift for her friends. I found some black and clear glittery party straws at Hobby Lobby for the sticks. I tied some fabric ribbon and some pink curling ribbon around the sticks. I then printed out some more girly mustache Angie Delarie digi stamps and cut them out. When each girl arrived we had them pick out a stick and a mustache and then I used the hot glue gun to adhere them. These came in handy for the photo booth!  

Below is a picture after they were assembled.

 I thought it would be fun to surprise my daughter with a poster size picture of herself for a game of Pin the Mustache on McKenzie! I had her dress up in her dads clothes and hat so I could take a picture, but didn't tell her why :) 

I ordered the picture, poster size, from Costco. Amazingly inexpensive!

I used my mustache punch to make the mustaches in various colors for the girls to use. They had a blast playing the game. They played several times throughout the night. I'm sure it added a level of fun having a huge print of their friend to use for the game! Lots of laughs were had during the game!

 With a little nudge from Pinterest I decided it would be great fun to have a photo booth area set up for the girls to take some group shots. I lined a wall with black, pink, and white balloons. Hubby helped me string each line of balloons with a needle and heavy duty thread so they would hang straight and somewhat even! It worked well, but we still had to add a little scotch tape in the center where it would start to sag.

 I wanted a frame for the girls to use as a prop in the photo booth. I really wanted a huge, vintage looking, white frame for them to use, but couldn't find one at our local thrift shops. I was running out of time so I purchased a cheap $5 frame from Walmart, took out the glass and added some of the mustache punch outs instead. 

Here are some of the photos taken in our custom photo booth :)

I also provided a bag of props for the girls to use during the photo shoot!

 The giant pink mustache below was found at Party City :)

Thanks for looking! I hope this inspires you to have your own Stache Bash! It was great fun! 

Below are links for some of the items used :) 

Please let me know if you have any questions! 

You can find the link to my blog post about the 'Stache Bash invites shown above here

You can find the Saturated Canary Digital Stamp Starla here

You can find Angie Delarie Digital Stamps here

Rachael Ray Mustache Themed Food Labels for the table here

Weird is a Side-Effect of Awesome!

I saw this quote somewhere in the world of Pinterest and I fell in love with it. I just knew I had to add it to my art journal! 

The background was created with various spray inks and stencils. I just wanted to get a feel for the different sprays I have been collecting. I used some homemade sprays, Heidi Swapp sprays, and Dylusion sprays. I then added a layer of stamps for a little texture. I stenciled in the quote with an old lettering stencil from my scrapbooking days and then painted the letters in with some Bombay India Ink. The adorable owl is a stamp that I picked up from Typo.

Thanks for looking! Hugs!

Garden 2013

Thanks to my son I was able to do a little gardening this year! I was afraid we were going to have to do without flowers and veggies this year!! I am thankful for my strong young teenage boy. I think he may have even enjoyed gardening a bit!! It was a good day :)

Do it today....

This is a journal page I created in early May. It is a reminder to love, create, and smile everyday. I need a little reminder every now and then :)

The background was created with some cheap craft acrylic paints. The poppy stamp is from Donna Downey's Poppies and Peonies Collection. The butterflies were cut from a wallpaper border I picked up on a clearance table at Walmart. The faint circles you see are from stamping with the end of a wine cork :)

I know I'm not covering everything I did to this page, so if you have any question please feel free to ask!

Remember to find time to love, create, and smile friends!

Hugs!

Summer Love

The last few months I have submerged myself into the colorful world of art journaling. 

I. Am. In. Love. 

I think I have found my true crafty passion. I love everything about art journaling. It gives me a type of freedom in my creativeness I have never experienced before. I love all the different mediums and experimenting with them. However, I was really starting to miss my favorite Saturated Canary digi images and my beloved Copic markers! 

Then it hit me...DUH! 

I can totally color my images and add them to the journal! I'm a little slow these days! Lol

The background was created with Pan Pastels (Yellow Ochre, Magenta, Orange, and Permanent Red Tint) and 2 Heidi Swap 12x12 stencils (Sunshine & Tiny Heart). 

The Saturated Canary image is Cali Girl and she is colored with Copic markers. I finished this page just in time to enter it in the Saturated Canary challenge #44 Hair that is different... 

link----> http://saturatedcanarychallenge.blogspot.com/2013/05/challenge-44-hair-thats-different.html

The tag started out as a white canvas tag that I treated with some canary yellow craft paint. I also added a little bit of my yellow Twinkling H20 watercolor to make it shimmer (hard to see in photo). I hand wrote i love summer with a white paint pen.

The big heart is a cardboard piece by Maya Road treated with Faber Castell Gelatos. The smaller hearts from the stencil were treated with some Stickles (fruit punch) for a little sparkle.

The butterfly I found at Ikea of all places! lol I am always on the lookout where ever I go! You never know when you might find an item that can be used in your crafts! I just recently bought a roll of camera gaff tape at the Sony production lot for my art journal! The cashier looked at me like I was nuts :) 

I took this picture to show the stencil process.

I hope you enjoyed my summer journal page. I am so glad that the warmer weather is finally upon us. I guess I have finally turned into a true Cali girl! It took me almost 20 years, but finally my heart belongs to Cali! lol 

((Hugs))

Keeping my sanity with an art journal!

So I have been housebound and laid up the last month because of a couple of herniated discs in my lower back. This has given me a lot of time to search Pinterest and watch art journal how to videos via YouTube. I have always admired people who could art journal and I have always wanted to try, but wasn't sure how to start. I have learned so much during this not so convenient down time! Lol Not to mention the inspiration I have received from other artists! There are so many talented artists out there and I'm so grateful that they share their experience and work with us via YouTube, blogs and on the various social media websites!

Now comes the fun part! I have been playing like crazy! Every chance I get I disappear into my studio, pain permitting. I am having a blast finding my own style and technique. There are so many wonderful products to try! What a journey I am on......

Here is my first completed art/inspiration journal. I hope you enjoy my pages and that you find a little inspiration of your own.

 

This is the cover of the journal. There are several layers. I used Tim Holtz tissue paper, Pan Pastels, and Faber Castell Gelatos. I used Tim Holtz Grungeboard letters to spell out art. They are colored with the Gelatos as well. The edges are covered with washi tape.

This is the book I started with. It is just a cheap little book made for scrapbooking. I didn't want to buy a mixed media journal until I played a little and was positive I was going to enjoy the whole art journal process. It is now my passion.

Close up of cover

The small hearts are chipboard covered in Gelatos.

This is the inside cover and the first page. I adhered more Tim Holtz tissue paper to the inside cover. I will add more to it when inspiration strikes. I'm not sure what to do there... maybe some actual journaling! lol

I covered the first page in white gesso and then painted it with cheap craft paint. I used modeling paste through a circle stencil, swirly stamps, heart punch outs, and Gelatos to add color to the modeling paste.

I'm not sure what to say about this page! When I had the first couple of layers down I really disliked it so I just kept adding more and more layers! lol Now I'm not sure what I think of it, but that's ok because I learned a lot about different products from this page. I started out with a layer of gesso and plain white tissue paper. I then added lots of splatters with Twinkling H20's (LOVE this product!), acrylic paint, bubble wrap dipped in paint, heart punch outs, heart stencil, and Bombay india inks. There are probably more products on there, but I cant remember because I keep going back and adding to it trying to fix it! lol

I love the color of this page. I used various Dylusion spray inks and then wiped it down with a paper towel and it left me with a soft mix of colors. The heart flowers were made with a stamp and heart punch outs from a dictionary. I then covered the hearts with a mix of the Twinkling H20's. I also used modeling paste through a circle stencil and stamps for the hanging twigs and bird.

On this page I started out by covering the page with a butterfly napkin I found at Tuesday Morning using Collage Pauge by Traci Bautista. I also added the paper doilies to the corners using this Collage Pauge. I watered down white gesso for the drip affect and Bombay india ink for the splatter drops. Once again I used modeling paste for the circles and the clouds are from a punch.

I had so much fun with this page. I had no idea what I was going to do when I started. I just started by laying down a few of my favorite paint colors. I used a very cool pebble stencil that I found at Michaels by Folk Art. Its hard to see, but I used the end of a wine cork dipped in black paint for a little bit of texture. There are also a few drops of Bombay india ink, washi tape and an alphabet stamp by Stampabilites found at Hobby Lobby.

This was another page that I didn't like in the beginning, but now I LOVE it! I started out by laying down white gesso and then I covered the page in drywall joint tape that I found at Ace Hardware. I added the flowers that I fussy cut from some junk mail and then added several layers of Dylusion spray inks and acrylic paint. The feathers were created with modeling paste and a stencil designed by the fabulous Julie Fei Fan Balzer called Peacock Feathers. While I was waiting for the modeling paste to dry an amazing thing happened! The modeling paste absorbed the color from underneath it. I had no idea this would happen! I LOVE the way it turned out! I completely left it alone after this point. What you see is exactly how the modeling paste absorbed the color! Gorgeous!

Close up of feathers

This page makes me laugh :) I have been taking some VERY strong pain meds for my back. One day I told my hubby that it made me feel floppy and he laughed and told me I should put that in my journal. So I did :)

I started by covering the pages in black gesso (which I love!) and then used modeling paste and the circle stencil to add some texture. I used the Twinkling H20's for the drips that also ran over the modeling paste. I stamped the hearts and funny face with some white pigment ink. Easy Peasy Fun!

I love tea and have been drinking TONS of it lately since I can't mix my beloved nightly glass of red wine with my pain meds. As you can see Tazo Calm is one of my favs so it had to be put in the journal! I started these pages with a layer of black gesso and some acrylic paint. I layered the tea bag wrappers, white doilies, and scrap pieces of white lace with Collage Pauge. The two tea sayings are from a 12x12 paper pad by The Paper Studio. I also used a little bit of lace tape in the corners.

My last page is also one of my favorites so far. It was an easy and relaxing page. I covered the page in white gesso and applied a few different blue acrylic paints with a foam brush. I then used a palette knife to apply some gorgeous gray acrylic paint. The swirls you see are from a swirly stamp using black ink and traced with a white gel pen. I covered a phone book page with orange, green, and gray acrylic paint and then punched out the clouds. I also used this phone book page with Tim Holtz Umbrella Man die. I outlined the clouds and Umbrella Man with a black Faber Castell Big Pitt Artist Pen and a white gel pen. The stamp is also from Tim Holtz. 

Close up of Umbrella man. The light blue circles you see are from a stencil using a light blue acrylic paint.

If you made it to the end I thank you for looking! I hope you enjoyed the pages as much as I enjoyed making them! This is definitely my new passion! I have always enjoyed being crafty, but I feel like I have found my truest of trues! 

Gentle Hugs!

Happy journaling!

If you have any questions about any of the pages please please feel free to ask!

Birthday 'Stache Bash Invites

Hi crafty peeps! I hope everyone is having a great start to the new year! 

My daughter turns 11 years old this month. I can hardly believe the teen years are almost upon us! Where does the time go?!?!?!

She decided months ago that she wanted to have a mustache themed sleepover party this year. Fun right?!?! We have a whole night of fun planned for a 'staching good time (sorry...couldn't help myself!) LOL

These are the birthday invitations I made using Angie Delarie's digi stamp set, Manlie Mustache. The link to her etsy page will be listed at the bottom of this post. Check out her stamps, they are so fun to play with!

Some of Angie's stamps come pre-colored, which normally I would never use because I LOVE to color digis myself with Copics, but for the sake of time I decided to use the pre-colored image. It helped that they were already colored the same colors my daughter selected for the party! 

My daughter wanted to help with the invites so I had her layer washi tape on the top and bottom of the card. The pink washi tapes can be found at Michael's and the black heart washi I picked up at Typo. 

After cutting out the Manlie's and extra mustaches, I inked the edges with some black Tim Holtz Distress Ink and added some Stickles to add a bit of sparkle since it IS a girls party afterall! lol

I stuck them down with some 3D adhesive squares to make the images pop a little more.

My husband thought it would be fun if the girls had to show up wearing mustaches, so I picked up these self stick 'staches from Party City. I just hope the girls remember to bring them! 

Thanks for stopping by!! Stay tuned for some more birthday 'stache crafts!!

Hugs,

Christy

You can find Angie Delarie stamps here ---->  http://www.etsy.com/shop/angiedelarie

P.S.

I just want to shout out a thank you to my big brother for taking the time to create an awesome watermark for me to use on my blog photos! I LOVE it! Thanks big brother!