Dirty Scraps Challenge #4 Reveal - I of tha beholder

The new Challenge is now posted at Dirty Scraps. This one really got me to dig deep. Probably deeper than I ever have before and I know it's a lot to take in all at once, but it is my life. Or rather it was a part of my life that helped form me into the person I now am today. I am putting this all out there for the sheer fact that I want it to be known that one can overcome their past and create something better for themselves if they have the courage, the will power, and most of all the heart to want something more.

Dirty Scraps Challenge #4:In Your Eyes-

When I talk to the people I love or friends I often ask myself "Who are they looking at? What glasses are they using?" It's amazing how much less/more critical we would be on ourselves if we saw what others saw. So this challenge is to Scrap a page through someone else's eyes. Either how someone see YOU (ask them or journal words they have used before) Or scrap a page about how you see someone else. I mean how you REALLY see them. Why they see you that way? Why you see them that way? Think about it and reflect, it might give you some new insight or even compassion (for others or yourself).

Now go get dirty!

I chose to scrap this page about how I see my father. Now don't get me wrong, I do love the man...he is my father and it's a love that most of the time I do not understand myself, but I have only wanted more for the man than he has given himself.

Dear Father…my dad…the man I am supposed to look up to, the man I am supposed to come to with my problems, the man who is supposed to make my life better with wise gentle words and daddy hugs. We all know that Daddy hugs make everything better in life. At least that’s what my own children tell me. But I will never know that for myself, will I? I do look up to you dad but not in the way a daughter should. I look up to you as an example. An example of what not to do and of whom not to be. You impacted my life on so many levels with your harsh words, your brass personality, your seemingly common failures, and your abandonment. I will never in my life allow something to control my life like you have. I will never allow a drink to be more important to myself than my very own children. A six pack of beer or dinner for my family?! Are you freaking kidding me? For most people it would be a very easy question to answer, but I guess for you it was too….you always chose that damn beer. You say you have your reasons for drinking, well dad your reasons for drinking are the same as my reasons for sitting on a toilet….SHIT. As I was growing up I tried to put on my daddy blinders and pretend that everything was ok, life was normal, and I always had the help of my big brother to make me happy, to make all of us kids happy. He is only one year older than I am and was more of a father to me than you have or will ever be. Who was around to build the tree houses, to hang a ghetto rigged basketball hoop, to push us on the swing he made. Who was it that rode his bicycle to the store to get food, who went to work at the age of 15 so he could pay our rent, who loved his family that much to sacrificed being a normal child himself?! It sure the hell wasn’t you. You were too busy sitting back nursing your beer and wondering why your family was so mean to you. We were your pretty little trophies that you liked to show off whenever we went anywhere and if we ever spoke out of place we knew that we would get the belt when we got home. Sure we were pretty little kids, but we lived in fear. Fear that if we did anything to upset ‘dear old dad’ that we would get it. When we were older and able to stick up for ourselves better you resorted to not spanking us, but verbal abuse. Which in my opinion is much worse. You made your daughters feel like the worst girls in the world…why? Because we were getting older and we were dating. You hated that. You called me every single name in the vulgar dictionary. And you wondered why at the age of 16 I was gone. I couldn’t deal with you any longer. You are my worst nightmare, and probably always will be. I know what a father should be; my children have experienced that for themselves because they have a wonderful father who loves them unconditionally. A father that you hate of course. I just want you to know dad, that you hurt people. You hurt me, and you are now hurting your grandchildren. But the saddest part of it all is the fact that you have hurt yourself the most because you will never experience the love a father should, and that is truly a disservice unto yourself. The one good thing I did learn from you was to find something you love and never let go of it. For you it was your alcohol, and for me it is life. My life, my children, myself. So thank you for that. Good Bye ‘Dad’.

PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

I like making lists - MOSD Feb. Project

This month MOSD has been focusing on 'love' as our overall theme so I decided to create a project based around something I love....no it's not your typical object of affection, but I have a huge love for creating lists. I will create a list for everything and anything. I guess you could call it more like an obsession! Yes, it's that bad. So for my MOSD project I created a notebook for myself to keep all my lists in one place. (I am also known for loosing these precious lists I create.)

MOSD has some of the most amazing Perfectly shaped Build a Book pages imaginable. For this book I used 5 Perfectly Shaped - Tabbed pages. This gave me the exact look I was going for, and will hopefully keep me a little more organized as well! And as always I used MOSD Spiral Rings to hold the book together. I don't know if I could live without those rings!
I simply cut the tabs off in the appropriate places so the pages layered effectively. This was so easy...just used my Xacto knife and we were good to go!
I cut regular copy paper to size and added it in between the chipboard pages. Which is another reason that MOSD Spiral Rings are a plus - I can always go back and replace my paper at anytime. Love it!


I used JuJu Bee's JAN kit for this project as well. There are still some available in the store if you would like to chem them out!!

PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

Candy Shoppe Designs - Recipe for Love Challenge Reveal

The new challenge is now up at Candy Shoppe Designs. This one is all about creating your recipe for love using a shopping list per say. All you have to do is create a project using this list and let your imagination run wild!

-picture(s) of your loved one
-any type of doily - even the paper kind
-flowers *to taste
-hearts*to taste
-lace
-the colors pink & red *even a pinch will do!

Here is the LO I created using the shopping list:

I chose to go all out and create a Valentine's Day LO using a picture of myself and the DH. The Doily was used to create my flower and there are hearts all over the place. For the lace I chose to outline my title area and there is pink and red splattered throughout the entire LO. I think this is the perfect recipe for love. Me + Hubby :) What I love most about this LO is that paper die cut of the man and woman. I have been holding onto that die for over 10 years!! The DH had given me a card and that was on the cover...so I cut it out and was waiting for the perfect time to use it. And what better time than on a LO representing our love?!

If you get a chance to play along this round then I would love to see what you create using this recipe. I always love to see what others do using the same guidelines - you ladies are so creative and blow my mind with your talents!! Oh, I almost forgot to mention the prize. Generations Crafting along with Candy Shoppe Designs has put together a beautiful kit that is up for grabs. So head on over and check it out!

PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

Dirty Scraps Challenge #3 & Candy Shoppe Updates

The new Challenge is now up at Dirty Scraps. As usual Pinky has came up with a wonderful subject matter for this one. Check it out!!
Dirty Scraps Challenge #3Broken, that's the key word for this week...we all have broken relationships, whether it be an ex boyfriend, an ex husband/wife, a broken relationship with a friend, or even God. So this week's challenge is to scrap a broken relationship. Heck you could have broken off your relationship with cigarettes, or Dr. Pepper! LOL Make the challenge work for YOU, after all its' YOUR book and YOUR page, just get down and deep or have fun and make it light~Now go get DIRTY! How fun does that sound?! Team Raw is up for this one, so I haven't completed a LO yet, but I intend to! If you would like to see some amazing inspiration on this challenge then please head on over to the Dirty Scrap blog and check out what the DT has created.
Candy Shoppe Designs is having little giveaways on the blog. Lynnette has decided to do random drawings for the Sweetheart followers once we hit 300, 325, 350...and so on. So if you aren't currently a follower then head on over for a chance to win some awesome prizes.
Also the current challenge "Cupid's Arrow" is still going on. All you have to do is create a current project displaying an arrow. Make sure to link it to the post here for yet another chance at winning some amazing candy!! Hope to see you join us in these amazing challenges!!
PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

2 Zipper Flowers - Tutorial

As promised I have a new tutorial for you fabulous bloggie friends based on creating a few flowers using zippers. I got my initial idea for these when I bought my DD a pair of shoes with a huge Zipper flower on the toe.....and after that I kept seeing Zipper flowers everywhere (or maybe that was just in my mind). So I set out to create an easy tutorial on how I created mine...and I am still playing around with the idea for more, so be warned...there may be another installment to this tutorial :)

Supplies Needed:

*Zipper - 18in long

*Needle & thread

*Scissors

First what we need to do is cut the Zipper pull and the end stopper off the zipper. That's where a good pair of scissors are needed. I used my Tim Holtz Tonic ones because they will cut through anything (including metal) and stay sharp! Love them!!
After you cut the Zipper pull and stopper off the zipper you will have cut off about 1inch leaving a 17inch Zipper area to work with.
Then simply use a running stitch up the entire side of the zipper on the fabric area.
After you complete the stitch up the side of the zipper just pull the thread to create a tight gather. The zipper will begin to twist into a circle. Make sure to leave the needle and thread on the zipper. We do not want to cut this off because we will be using it :)
Take those circle twists and start arranging them. You will want to take the very end of the zipper and just tuck it under. Use that as your starting point and wrap the zipper around until you get a look that is pleasing to you.

Once you get a desired look simply take your thread and hand stitch the zipper together to create a solid flower. This works best if you start in the back and bring the stitches all the way through to the center.

And there we have it - our Zipper flower. These look pretty awesome as is, but if you want to add something to the center - that looks sweet as well!

We are using the same exact Supplies for this flower as in the previous one. And it starts out the same as well. We need to cut both ends off the Zipper giving us about a 17inch piece to work with. The first thing we are going to do for this flower is cut the Zipper. We need 5 pieces of 2.5inch zipper. These will be the petals. There will be a little left over after we cut these 5 pieces - we want to save that and cut it down to 3 inches. This piece will be the center of the flower.

Next we want to start creating our petals. To do this simply take one of the 2.5inch pieces of zipper and bend it like shown.

Using our needle and thread simply tack the two ends together. We don't want those babies coming apart!!

Repeat this process until you have all 5 petals complete.

Next we are going to start forming our flower. To do this slightly overlap the petals and stitch them into place where one petal touches the other. This forms a really solid base.

And here is what our flower base looks like after we have stitched all 5 petals together.

Next we are going to create the center of the flower using the 3inch piece of zipper. Add a Running stitch to the fabric area the lenght of the zipper.Then simply gather the stitch to form a circle. Tack this circle together with your thread.

And then add tack it down it down to the center of your flower base!!

And there we have it folks, another Zipper flower completed!

PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

Fortune Cookie Tutorial

Today I am going to show you how I created these felt fortune cookies. They are so simple and adorable, not to mention they make the cutest gift for someone special! We made them for teacher's gifts for Valentines Day, but they would be great for any time of the year. First off I found the Chinese take out box pattern here. This is a small box that fits 2 cookies perfectly.

Supplies Needed:

*Felt of desired color

*Glue Gun

*Scissors

*Quotes 'fortunes'
First what we need to do is draw a 4" circle onto the felt. I used a sharpie because it works beautifully!
Cut out the circles. When doing this cut just inside your drawn circle. This eleviates any marker to show.
Lay your 'fortune' on the felt and using your glue gun add a thin line of glue leaving about half an inch on each side. This allows room for the fortune to be pulled out!
Then just fold over and let the glue set.

Next we need to flatten out the top of the felt. Using your finger just push it down to create a dent..lip..heck just flatten that baby ;)

Add a bead, ok a glob of hot glue onto one side of your 'dent'.

Then just fold it together and allow to dry. Warning from experience: Hot glue takes a little longer to dry on felt than it normally would. I don't know why, I am sure there is an awesome reason....I just know it's frusterating at times. (meaning I'm impatient)

And this is what they look like completed. And those fortunes just pull right out!

Wouldn't these make the cutest little gift?! I love how you can totally personalize your fortunes depending on the person. There are also many sites that have fortune cookie quotes if you would rather. Thanks so much for stopping in to visit me today. I hope to have a few more tutorials up soon!!!

PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

Candy Shoppe Designs Reveal - Cupids Arrow

The new Challenge is up at Candy Shoppe Designs. This challenge is for the single ladies ;) We were sent out on a mission by the lead Lollipop girl Lynnette to find some of Cupids arrows just for you and use them on a LO. Now that our mission is complete we are hoping you can use these arrows for inspiration!! The challenge is going on now through Feb 14th, so plenty of time to get your project in for a chance to win a fabulous piece of Blog Candy!

I found an arrow!!! This LO is all about my DD Kyrsten and her new found 'love' at school. Mind you she is only 5 years old, but seriously....how could you not love a boy when he tells you this:
"Tomax says I'm beautiful and he wants to marry me when we get all big and stuff like mommies and daddies. He's gonna be an Army man like daddies are and we are going to live happily ever after."
It just melted my mommy heart to hear that. All I could think about after her telling me this was the Reba Mcentire song 'She's in love with the boy' which I used as my title!

Oh, and I would like to introduce you to a wonderful new sketch artist I have recently discovered. She made this exclusive sketch just for me to use (although she did say that if anyone else wanted to use it that would be ok too) She is a wonderful person, about 50lbs, blonde hair, blue eyes...ok, ok, it's my daughter ;) She has decided that since I love sketches so much she would create some for me, and I think that is a brilliant idea!

So here you have it, Kayla's very first sketch:

PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

February Full reveal for JuJu Bee's!!

The day is here! I am so excited to share with you the full reveal of JuJu Bee's February kit. This kit is absolutely delicious and jam packed full of amazing product featuring Pink Paislee Cupid line! Check it out:

And here is what I have created with this kit so far and I have barely put a dent into it! Gotta love that :)

If you would like to get your pretty little hands on one of these fabulous kits then head on over to JuJu Bee's and rab one before they are sold out! This is seriously one kit that you do not want to miss!!

PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways