Wednesday, February 25, 2009

I was a winner!

During the Valentine Blog Party, I visited over 50 blogs looking at all the wonderful art, projects and giveaways. I tried to comment on everyone's I could, just a friendly "Hey, I was here and enjoyed your blog" type of thing. You know us bloggers love comments! Well I was thrilled to find out that I won two prizes at two different blogs! Well I received my first prize in the mail over the weekend. It was a collection of Ranger goodies from Cecilia's blog:







Cecilia has some nice vintage collage images and even sent me a CD with some of her work. Very nice! Thank you, Cecilia! It was a ton of fun to be a winner!



About 2 weeks ago I received a large box in the mail. I was quite interested to find out what was inside. A very nice lady from Florida sent me a box of napkins! Perfect for Beeswax or art collage, take a look at these:



YUM!!

Thank you so much!! That was so very generous of you!!!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Mr. and Mrs. Daley

Announcing the newest Mr. and Mrs. Daley!


I posted a ton of pictures on my Facebook Page and wanted to post a few here for those not on Facebook...

Here's a photo from the Bachelorette party the night before. We stayed in, drank, played games and Nicole fixed the Unity Candle Base (it wasn't colorful enough for her, hopefully I'll find a photo of it).

I love this photo of Nicole getting her makeup done. I'm not a fabulous photographer (check out my friend Bernadette's blog for some GREAT photography) but this photo is just pleasing to me. I love that she's looking away, that the colors are a little warmer than they should be, the action of the makeup artist, Michelle's hand putting on the lipstick. This photo speaks to me... It shows her happiness, her tentativness and her it show her thinking about the now, the day, the moment.


Here are my boys all dressed and ready for pictures. They went to the ceremony but then Patrick's Parents brought them home so we could party!

During the ceremony. My Aunt Patty captured the photos with the date on them.



My boys and I... Caleb was done taking pictures by now. Can you tell? He's on the left.


I didn't personally take any good photos at the reception. I was having too much fun. And, I really can't get my camera to take good indoor low light photos. Maybe someone else in the family will have some I can post. Or you can look at them on facebook.

I wrote my Matron of Honor Speech in the wee hours of the morning of the wedding (between 12AM - 1:30AM) and everyone enjoyed it. I made many people (women AND men!) cry and laugh so I guess I did a good job. Even the bride, she needed to be escorted to the bathroom for some tissues afterwards. Oops. Well, I meant it all. I love her and I congratulate them. I'm so proud of her. And she'll always be my little sister, even if she is now Mrs. Daley.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

We have a Winner!

We survived the Wedding. Nicole and Steven are married! Yah! I've got a few photos people have sent to me, I'll try to post a few tonight.

Right now I wanted to show you the results of the Valentine Blog Party Contest!



So, it looks like number 24 won! Comment number 24 belongs to....

SDC Texas!!

SDC Texas I'm going to email you for your address. Congratulations on winning!! And thank you to everyone who commented and played along! I have another tutorial I'm working on and hope it'll be up later this week! But be sure to come back later, I'm downloading some wedding photos now.

Friday, February 20, 2009

A quick Hello!

Just a quick Hello before I must be off again. Just an update on wedding stuff...

My dress fits
The Brides Dress Fits and is pressed and ready (well almost, she dragged some of it on the ground - Yikes!)
Nails are done - although one of my toes is achy - I'm soaking it now!
Rehearsal was completed. I know my roles.
And tonight is the Bachelorette Party!

I've still got to write my Matron of Honor Speech. Yikes. Wish me luck!

I'll be back on Sunday after the wedding with the winner of the Kandi Tool. Don't forget to post a comment to be eligible to win! You have until Saturday, February 21st at Midnight EST.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Valentine Blog Party! - Look for the giveaway!

Happy Valentine's Day!!! I was going to do a little mini Card but decided that maybe now is the right time to offer something special!

But before I do that, I just wanted to update those of you asking about the wedding stuff, I put that dress on yesterday and my sister (the Bride) broke my zipper! Yup, ripped the thing right out of it's track. My Aunt tells me that the seamstress was at fault so I guess I can't really blame the bride but now, there's another fitting scheduled for Tuesday. Wish me luck!

OK, on with the blog party! Be sure to check out the little Valentine link on the left of my blog for some great giveaways and fun! In honor of Valentine's Day I'm offering a little Waxy and Metaly goodness (yes, I just made up that word!). Last night I held my first Kandi class at the Scrapbook Cupboard and the scent in the air... yummy waxy goodness. But I couldn't do that without something metal too! So, I've combined them. The best of both my worlds! And since the wedding is next Saturday, it's fitting that I'm offering the directions to this beautiful project...


You can find the directions to this project Here. But that's not all!!

I also have a Kandi Tool with a pack of Berry Assortment BeesWax I'm giving away! Yup, that's right! A brand new Hot Wax Stylus!!! And the Reds and Pinks, perfect for Valentine's Day!!!

Just leave a comment on this blog entry to be eligible! And because I'm going to be so busy with wedding stuff this week and it won't ship until Monday the 24th anyway, I might as well leave the giveaway open a while. So you have until Saturday, February 21st (my Sister's Wedding date) to leave a comment, on Sunday I'll use that Random Picker and I'll give away a Brand New Hot Wax Stylus. WOW!! What a Valentine's Gift!

Good Luck!

Friday, February 13, 2009

Coloring in that Ten Seconds Technique...

I'm usually much better at posting. Only twice in 2 weeks isn't my style. I've been busy here but it's mostly family stuff this week. My Sister is getting married next week and I'm matron of honor so later today, I learn to bustle the dress. But for now, I thought I'd show you some up close pictures of the Ten Seconds Technique that I colored in...


This is a top to the box I created here. But I really wanted to show some more details. The "Secret Treasures" I spelled out was just sanded using a sanding block. ~I've been buying my Lucky Squirrel Sanding blocks through my friend who sells TAC (The Angel Company) but I understand that now you can get them directly through Ten Seconds Studio. YAH!! While these sanding blocks last quite a while, it's always best (IMHO) to use a fresh one with the Pearl or Pink Metal. Especially the Pearl. I've noticed that using a dirty sanding block on it stains the Pearl a bit. So keep your Pearl fresh and use a clean side of the block!

Anyhow, you can see that I just sanded the letters to Secret Treasures. The Leaves and Rose were lightly sanded as well. Once I was done with the leaves, I went over them lightly with some Oregano Alcohol Ink by Ranger.

Here's what I did... I squirted a small amount of Oregano Alcohol Ink out on my Craft Mat. Then I used my H2O pen with the Ranger Blending Solution inside and I picked up some alcohol ink with the tip of the pen and brush it on. If you go lightly, you can prevent the alcohol ink from picking up the metal color (as you may have seen in the Ten Seconds Studio video).

Something to remember... if you are starting to pick up the metal color and you don't want to... STOP! and let it dry. The metal color will dry in the place you left it and then you can resume adding or taking away more alcohol ink.

Here's another tip... the wetter your H2o pen tip is with blending solution the easier it's going to be to remove the metal color. Keep it nice and juicy if you are looking to create a mirror like finish by wiping it away or keep it only slightly damp if you are coloring in with alcohol inks.

You'll notice on the leaves there's still some brown metal and it's got a nice feathery effect. I LOVE how the vein of the leaves stayed brown. This is AWESOME with leaves! Now here's a closer picture of the rose...

By the way, all these designs were using the new Kabukas from Ten Seconds Studio.

The Rose was sanded lightly but, well you can't really get into the inside of the Rose and I didn't want a brown rose on my beautiful box, so I used the H2O Pen filled with Ranger's Blending Solution and really filled the inside of the rose with solution so I could wipe away the brown color. I left whatever brown color stayed in there. You can see under the color the brown still hanging on. I thought it left a little bit of character to to the rose, especially the leaves of the rose.

I first used Wild Plum alcohol ink on my rose and decided it wasn't the right choice, so I filled in the middle with some Red Pepper Alcohol ink and blended it with the Wild Plum. I really like the results. A little 3 dimensional flower! All I need now was to add some scent. (Don't worry, I didn't!).

So while you are wiating for those Alcohol Ink pens to ship to your Local Scrapbook/Paper Arts Store, give this a try with your handy dandy H2O pen.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and I have a tutorial for all of you! A beautiful Valentine's Card, with some metal of course!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

It's Taco Tuesday... did you see??

Did you watch this weeks Taco Tuesday video over on the Ten Seconds Studio website? No? Well, why not? Here's the link: Taco Tuesday.

But!! before you go and check out Cheryl, Megan (she's hilarious!!!) and their guest for the week, Tim Holtz!, take a look at this again...

If you look closely at the video, you'll see these photos in it! Right around 8 1/2 minutes! These are photos are from the new Ten Seconds Technique I blogged about last week! Check out the post below, or you can view the tutorial here: Ten Seconds Technique
How cool is that?!


Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Ten Seconds Tutorial

OK, this technique literally takes Ten Seconds to do! I've been experimenting with the metal and came up with this cool technique. I taught it in my class last Friday and they loved it! So, here you go...

Here are the supplies you'll need...

I cut my metal using a regular paper trimmer, then I used a paper stump, the large refiner, Kabuka Number 1, Acrylic Mat and thin Mat, Plum Metal, Sanding Block, Inky Binky (or paper towels) and an H2O pen filled with Ranger's Blending Solution.

Rub the design of the Kabuka out on the metal using the paper stump...

Then refine, if you'd like:


Sanding is optional for this technique too...



So this is what it looks like before the actual technique...

Very nice. But let's add a little more contrast, huh?!

Grab your H2O Brush Pen and add blending solution. If you add Blending Solution to a pen, be sure to clearly mark it that way. You won't be able to use it for water again, small quantities of blending solution will always remain in the pen.


OK, here's the Ten Second Technique! Once you get the blending solution running in the pen (just squeeze it), rub it over a colored portion of the metal...



Then rub the area with the Inky Binky (or paper towel)...


And Viola!

Take a look, it comes right off!



Now, just think about the possibilities...

You can get into those recessed areas or even create a nice smooth mirror-like finish. You can even take some of the color, swirl it around and let it dry. This creates a nice patterned look!

Remember, if your H2O pen gets colorful, run it off on the paper towel to clean it. The H2O pen is nice because it's got a nice thin point to get into some of the smaller areas.



So here's a look at the project after the technique...

And a closer look...



Isn't that nice! A nice glossy finish with a hint of color and some shading created by the original sanding.

Now, take a look at this card I created for an upcoming class... Can you see where I used this technique?


So, if you try it, I'd love to see what you came up with. Don't worry, it'll only take you 10 Seconds!

Monday, February 2, 2009

Shop Hop Pics

On Saturday a bunch of us went to 5 different stores on the North Shore. Absolutely Everything, Wholly Scrap, The Paper Tree, Ink About It and Scrapbookers Dream in that order.

At every store I took some candid shots and then at each store we took a group shot. While the group shot didn't always get taken with my camera, I still have a bunch of photos to share...





















Thanks, ladies for a great time!!
EDITED! I forgot that I told the ladies in my ride that I would share some of the quotes for the day. Here they are:

Wicked Cheesy
The Garmin is wrong
Here's a buck for the Toll... again
Where's the ding, there's no ding!
Make a U Turn!
Ramp Right
I want an aggressive Garmin, one that will tell it's cousin the missile
satellite to shoot a laser on the ground in front of your car.
Let's go for Ice Cream, oh, it's closed.
Oh that class was today. Ahhh... no it wasn't, we have the
teacher!
Do you know the Muffin Man...

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