Twelve Tags of Christmas - Day 4

I originally wanted to make the wings side by side, but I couldn't figure out a way to make a whole angel without making it look to cartooney. So, I went the abstract route, stacking them. Hot glue does work great for the grungeboard, as Tim suggested in his post. I had a ton of fun layering the distress inks on the background and adding some white snowflakes with a stamp and gesso.

Twelve Tags of Christmas - Day 3

Since I didn't have a big word stamp and reinkers (although I have tried this technique in the past), or the matching embossing folders, I used some winter stamps I had, and then used clear UTEE over the words by restamping with Versamark Ink.

Twelve Tags of Christmas - Day 2

Twelve Tags of Christmas - Day 1

If you haven't checked out Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas series, you should! Better yet, get yourself a cup of tea and check out the past years' versions too, since this is the fifth year he's done it.

This is my interpretation of Tag 1. While I did not have his pinecone die, I used a very similar item from the Cricut Flower Shoppe cartridge to get the same effect.

Gel manicure experimentation

I have terrible nails. They look nice if I can grow them out, but the only way for me to grow them out is to not do anything with my hands, which is just not possible. My nails are thin and flexible, and prone to splitting and chipping. I never bother getting a manicure because inevitably the polish is chipped in a by day 2 or so. On Monday July 25^th, I got a gel manicure. It’s basically the same as a regular manicure, except that the “polish” is a gel that is cured under UV light, resulting in a harder, thicker coating. I had been thinking about doing something about my nails because I love the look of medium length nails. I talked with the tech and she recommended a gel manicure because I have “beautiful nails”, and I went for it. I sprung for the French manicure so that if I did get chips, it wouldn’t look as obvious.

On T+4 days since the manicure (shown in pic below), there is no difference from day 1. No chips, nice and glossy. So far since the manicure I’ve washed my hands about a bazillion times, worked with craft paint every day, typed every day, made blueberry jam on Tuesday, and mowed the lawn. The real test will come tomorrow when I change the brake pads and rotors on my car. I’ll have to take before and after pics to see how the nails hold up.

Restoring my Soul

Today marks the halfway point of the 6-week Soul Restoration class I'm taking. It's been pretty awesome so far. I don't want to share too much detail, first because it's quite personal, but also I don't want to spoil the fun for anyone who wants to take this class. I thought I'd blog a bit about the class and my thoughts about it.

I totally love the process that Melody has put together for the class. So far things have seemed to right in the order they're supposed to go in. It's much like major housecleaning, except for the soul. The "therapy" includes a lot of mixed media art, but don't be afraid if you're not an artist. Collage work is naturally imperfect, and it can be as simple or as complex as you want.

I've uncovered some great things about myself so far, particularly during Week 3, and the class has helped me to remember a lot of the good things in my life that I had forgotten about. The journaling prompts have been fabulous, and I've been having a ton of fun just writing.

They will be having another session of Soul Restoration starting in April and a follow-on course for graduates in June. For more information on these classes, check out the Brave Girls website.

Real Housewives + Scrapbooking = Who Does That Crop

My friend Carol over at the Boston Area Scrap Fanatics is throwing one heck of a crop concept, check this out if you're interested:

From joke, to dare, to REALITY

BostonAreaScrapFanatics brings you one of the most unique and exciting scrapping adventures of our time!

A weekend-long even centered around those "fab-u-lous" Real Housewives of New Jersey and our passion for scrapbooking.

You've seen it on the screen, now experience it in 'reality.'

Our adventure begins with a day-long crop in the elegant ballroom of "The Brownstone" and it continues with an additional 24 hour crop at the Totowa Holiday Inn, complete with late-night pizza from Joe and Teresa's pizzeria!

That's a total of 35 non-stop cropping hours with food, games, prizes, make and takes and on-site vendors. What's so special you ask? We've lined up Posche Boutique, The Chateau Salon, and The Skinny Italian just for you.

"Who does that"? We do!

For more information and to register go to: www.bostonscrapfanatics.com and click on "Who Does That Crop" at the top of the page.

Happy New Year 2011!

It's a new year once again, and of course it's that time of hope and planning and resolutions. I hate resolutions because I am terrible at keeping them. I do of course have some resolutions in mind, but I'm thinking of ways to make them stick, mostly by treating them as measurable goals and breaking them into manageable chunks.

One thing I really want to do more of this year is scrap. This was sort of an off-crafting year for me, and while I did get some things done, I think it's important to me to scrap more regularly. As I posted last week, I'm taking the Soul Restoration class starting in a couple of weeks and that should be a great kick in the crafty pants. The boys got me some school-themed embellishments and stamps so I can get to work on the stack of school stuff I want to scrap. And one of my goals for this year is to clear out my bin of unfinished scrap projects. I'll either finish them or toss them. I have some non-scrap related crafting projects on my radar as well: finish the dress that I cut all the pieces for months ago, make the laptop case I bought the materials for months ago, etc. I also have personal goals and business goals that I want to achieve too.

So I wish you a happy and productive new year too!