Party Decorations & a new Challenge!

Hello everyone!! I hope you enjoyed your weekend!!  Mine, as you will see was VERY busy!! I went camping for 3 days with my family and got back Friday... then I turned around Saturday and hosted a surprise party for one of my best friends! And believe it or not, even with 70 people at the party, no one spilled the beans and she was surprised!! If you know Myra, you would realize what a major feat that was!! In fact, here is a picture of the birthday girl when everyone yelled surpise!!

She is going to kill me when she sees this on here!! Oh well... Love you Myra!!  :)  So, since I was kind of pressed for time, I decided to combine her party decorations with our new challenge at Practical Scrappers!! This week the challenge is EMBOSSING!! You can heat emboss (like I did) or use your Cuttlebug or any other machine you have to emboss!! Easy Peasy!!

As you can see on my birthday banner (the entire banner is in the picture at the top of the post!) I heat embossed the brown triangles with a clear ink and clear embossing powder. I thought that the brown by itself was too plain, but using patterned paper would be too busy! Doesn't it add a nice elegant look to the banner?! I used my Gypsy to design the banner and the font is Gypsy Wanderings.

And these were the centerpieces on all the tables. Since Myra's husband specifically requested that I stay away for black and all the negatives to having 40 signs hanging everywhere, I decided on the subtle brown with the green, purple and blue. Which, btw, whe LOVED the color scheme!! Yay!!

 Here is a close up of the butterfly on the candle. It doesn't show up really well in the photo, but the wings were also embossed with the same thing I embossed the banner with!!  The butterfly is from the Indie Art cart.

And here is a LO I did for her album using the sketch from A Crafty Little Place! The sketch was fun to play with... go over and check it out... you have until the 14th to submit your LO! And while you are there, be sure to check out the fabulous sale they are having to get ready for CHA... you can find it by clicking HERE!!

Well.... I love to throw a party but I have to admit, I am glad to have this one behind me!! Now maybe I can take the next few days to stop by all the blogs I neglected all last week!! And then, I might actually get some time to get my scrapbooking done!! LOL!!

Be sure to stop over at the Practical Scrappers blog to see what fabulous things the design team came up with!! They really are amazing!! And while you are there, please take a minute to answer the poll you will find in the sidebar!! Thanks for stopping by and as always, thank you for the wonderful comments you leave for me!! I really do appreciate them!! Have a great week!!

Barb  :)

Think Spring...

Are you all as ready for spring as I am?!!! At Frosted Designs this week, it's all about SPRING!!!! So, create some LOs/cards/projects with flowers and link them up at FD! We would love to see what you create! And while you are there, check out my design team sisters.... they are so amazing and so talented!! I get so many ideas from them!! Hopefully you will too!

Have any of you seen Alice in Wonderland yet? Silly question... of course you have!!! Well.. I went with my daughters (18 & 20) and their friend. The movie was great and we enjoyed it, but the best part of going with them came at the credits. As they were sitting there chatting, they became completely mesmorized by the screen. As the credits are rolling, there is this dark garden gate that continues to change as vines grow, flowers bloom and the whole screen is turned into a beautiful garden! (At least this is the way I remember it!) But the girls were so fascinated by the changing flowers and colors, it really caught my eye and was the inspiration behind this LO! That is why I had to include a little blue caterpillar and mushrooms!! LOL!!

I don't know if you remember my family LO from techinique week at Frosted Designs, (you can find it by clicking HERE) but I had some flowers I had made from coffee filters and Glimmer Mist. Well, I made too many circles but kept them. Which was good because I pulled them out for the LO!! The flowers on here are those same circles. I spiral cut them, rolled them up and glued them. When they dried, I added a little liquid pearl to the petals and there you go!! A totally different flower for this LO!! I also used a punch to cut some of the smaller flowers with the rhinestones in the middle.

The vines and leaves were all cut by hand using felt as were the mushrooms. I thought the mushrooms needed a little more decoration so I added a lot of stickles!! I love the way they turned out!! The dragonflies have stickles and seed beads added to them for a little extra bling! The gate was welded together using my gypsy. Oh... and I guess I should give you a little info about the photo... I had Lauren at the zoo last summer and they were doing face painting! She insisted on a very large pink butterfly! When we got home, she insisted on putting on this fairy outfit and then going outside for a photo shoot! She was seriously cracking me up, but I did get some great photos!! They are only young once.... right?!!!!

Supplies used:

Cricut Carts: Easter, Gypsy Wanderings, Home Decor, Jasmine, Walk in my Garden

Papers: DCWV Pocket Full of Posies Stack, Shimmer stack

Stickles: just about every color

Glimmer Mist: Marshmallow (On the background for added sparkle!)

Misc. Fiber, Rhinestones, and Brads

Martha Stewart border punch 

Cuttlebug for photo mat

Technique Challenge - Frosted Designs

Well, it's Friday! And that means another challenge at Frosted Designs! This week the challenge was to share a technique. I love this!! I chose to do masking and Glimmer Mist because it seems to be my new thing to play with. I have used it on several LOs lately and love it!! It can give you the distressed, grunge look or the bright and cheery look I used today!! For this LO, I decided to keep the masking design simple so that it would be easy to explain on here!

So... begin by using a mask you have bought (usually plastic) or cut one out with your cricut machine like I did. Personally I like to cut my own because 1. it's cheaper and 2. I can control the shape better. I originally cut my shape so that it would fit on the 12 x 12 paper that I would spray with Glimmer Mist all the way around. However, after spraying it with glimmer mist, I changed my mind (go figure!) and decided I only wanted to color one side of the paper! So, instead of recutting a new piece, I decided to cut and piece together the orginal mask to the new shape I liked! It worked great... it just looks a little silly in the pictures!!  LOL!! So, lay the shape over the part of the paper you want to remain white (or not misted). Be sure to use something to protect your surface such as wax paper or a work mat because the Glimmer Mist will stain!! Once you have your mask where you want it, spray on the glimmer mist. The more you spray, the better the coverage and darker the shade. But be careful, if you spray too much at one time, you start to get big dark dots. If you like that its fine, if not, spray one layer, let dry and then spray again! When you have the color you want, remove your mask. I know some people like to use repositionable tape to hold the mask in place, for one this simple, it is just as easy for me to push down on the mask while spraying... And as a bonus, I get bright colorful fingers!!  heehee!!

Once the mist was dry, I was able to start adding all of the embellishments and pictures that I wanted. I used a glaze pen to draw the purple lines along the border of the pink and white. I thought the white was a little too white so I added a couple spritzes of glimmer mist to the white background... much better!! (I have a really hard time with too much white space... I really need to work on this!!) And when I found the lace I wanted, but it was in the wrong color, I Glimmer Misted that to match the rest of the LO!! I love this stuff!!

The flowers were a new creation for me!! I started out with coffee filters... (talk to any teacher and you will know that you can do just about any kind of art project with a coffee filter!!  I started by cutting the filters into different size circles. I did not want perfectly round circles so I just free handed it. After they were all cut out, I layed them out on wax paper and sprayed them with 3 different colors. I didn't mix colors this time... but I am thinking it would be cool to try next time!! After the circles were dry, I put a drop of glue in the center of two different sized circles, sat the smaller circle on top and pinched from the bottom for just a bit!! Gave it a few more minutes to dry and topped it with a button!! That's it!! Super simple but I really love the way they turned out... I can see all kinds of possibilities with these and they are sooooo cheap to make!! I will certainly be playing around with this more! I also love how sparklely they are. The smaller pictures show the shine a little better!!

A few pointer when working with Glimmer Mist...

1. Use thicker cardstock. I used a thin sheet of cardstock and when I sprayed it, the paper began to "bubble" a bit.... that is why I ended up mounting this LO on a solid sheet of cardstock that was a little more sturdy.

2. Shake the Glimmer Mist really well before EVERY use!

3. Keep the lid on while shaking it.... I didn't and little drops of Glimmer Mist went flying...right onto my light shirt I was wearing!! I hate it when that happens!

Supplies used on this LO

Cricut: Gypsy Wanderings for the title, Accent Essentials for the mask

Papers: DCWV

Cuttlebug

Stickles: Lavender

Glimmer Mist: Key Lime Pie, Bubble Gum, Fully Purple

Beads: my 7 year olds supply!!  :)  Don't tell her!!

Thank you for stopping by and looking! And thank you to all my dear, sweet blog friends who show me so much blog love... your comments always brighten my day!!