Inspiring Stories

Recently I spent some time in Austin, Texas for a little scrappy retreat with some fellow Tallyscrappers. I met 28 other fabulous women. I got to know some better than others and am still learning lots about most! When I clicked on today's Gutter Girlz post I was excited to learn more about Staci Compher. She sat at the table behind me & was a total doll but I had NO IDEA what an amazing journey she has been thru. I knew she was well published & that her lo's rawked (so it's only natural that she did too!) but when I read today's interview I was even more amazed. It also just gave me a totally different glimpse into my own mother for Staci's story & my mom's had some similiar situations happen. But you won't read about it here. You can, however, read about it HERE @ the Gutter Girlz Blog.

I've got pics to edit from my trip today & hope to be back with some for you all to see tomorrow.
Ciao!

Rosette Tutorial

So I did this lo a few months ago and have had a lot of people ask how I made my flowers so I've created a tutorial. It's also up at Tallyscrappers on the blog as well.



First you'll need some kind of circle cutter, glue, scissors, and some type of tool to wrap the paper around like a quilling tool or I used my round BG file.


First you'll cut a circle out of your desired paper


Next you'll take your scissors and cut the circle into a spiral


You'll cut the center out so that you have a base to glue the flower onto later.


Now taking your quilling tool and start from the center and roll the paper onto the tool. It's not going to be flat. The top is going to flare out a bit. Also if you want the edges to be rough you'll need to distress before you wrap.


Once wrapped and you determine the size of the flower (tighter wrap means smaller flower. Loser wrap means bigger flower) you'll want to add a dot of glue to the end so the size stays.


Next you'll want to add a generous amount of glue to the center circle you cut out and then add the bottom of the flower to the glue.


And now your flower is finished. You can make any size flower and you can make your base any size as well as in the examples below.



Another way to mix it up is to use a deckle edge scissors or cutter (I used a Martha Stewart deckle edge cutter) or you can even tear your circle into the spiral.


Please excuse my bad photos. No good light in this house at night when I took these. If you decide to try these then I'd love to see them so leave me a link to your finished lo so I can give you some love! Hope to see your creations soon and feel free to ask if you have any questions!

Get in the GUTTER!

It's all about ME! That's the title prompt for today's Gutter Girlz Challenge. The song is You're So Vain by Carly Simon and the tech. is foil. Kinda fitting for me huh? LOL Ok so I admit, sometimes (ok most of the time) I'm pretty self-involved. But who isn't these days? And if I'm not then who is going to worry or take care of me? No one so I best be taking care of myself. You know AA teaches us to think about ourselves less often and to be of service to others but to also learn to take care of ourselves and stop waiting for someone else to save us and to also surrender to God & let Him run the controls. It can be quite confusing at times as I'm sure you can see! lol


If you like ads then head over toh Scrapperie and check out todays Ad Challenge. Scrapperies has been having daily challenges now with some fun inspiration to get your creative juices flowing. This is my example & the girls belong to my cousin and her new husband. It was so cute to see them all dressed up and climbing all over the banister.


Last weeks Ad challenge at Scrapperie.


I'm off to Texas next week and the 4th is upon us. Lots to do, lots to do!

Wreck This Journal Part 1

Usually we spend a lot of time trying to make our art pretty or pleasing to the eye or sending the right message or whatever, so when I saw @starshyne on Twitter talking about her next group project and it was Wrecking This Journal by Keri Smith I just knew I had to play along. Even more so when I discovered several TallyScrapper sisters were interested also. This started a couple of weeks ago but this is my first post. I really need to get busy and do more wrecking for sure. And my idea of wrecking I realize needs to go a bit farther. I was thinking that in the end I would want to keep the book but I think that is not going with the theme of the project so be prepared to see lots more photos of me DESTROYING this book! hehe How often do you get creative license to destroy something? So this is the beginning. Can't wait to see what the end will look like. If you'd like to join it's not to late. Just click on the link up there, sign up, grab a book and start wrecking. It's fun times I swear.
So my fist page I wrecked was sticking my pencil through this page:


I love the look of coffee stains but after my first pouring I wasn't impressed. Of course I thought it needed MORE! I was much happier with the second or third pouring/splatters. Much more visually pleasing. I need to use coffee stains more that's for sure.




Ok this page got me started by the lines but I'm thinking I'm suppose to WRECK this journal, not treat it nicely in any way SO this is just stage one. There will be more tearing. LOTS more tearing!


You spin me round round baby round round like a record baby round round round round.


It is going to take a LOT of fruit to cover these 2 pages in fruit stickers! Her's what we have so far though.


I'm having fun with this page. I've been wanting to do this thing with some canvases for a while now so there will definately be more spilling on this page. I wanted to show you what the first couple of coats looked like though.


I'm thinking now that I stopped that maybe I should have kept going on this continous line until the page was covered. Oh well. There will be much more wrecking before this is all said and done!

I used some hand scrapping tools to scratch up the surface of this page. Thank you Tonic & Tim Holtz! I used my distressor and then my piercing tool.

This page wanted my name written several different ways.


It took a nice dip in the pool on a hot summer day last Thursday. I see more water sports in her future.


Then we layed out and worked on our tan while getting a little makeup in the form of doodling. We were still a bit wet though and really needed to dry first.


The book and me are off to the pool again today. Check back often to see new pics.

Exciting News!

WOO HOO!!! I'm so excited to tell you that I made the Gutter Girlz Design Team!!! I couldn't be more excited. It's just up my ally with being who you are and saying what you feel without worries about if it's proper or pc or normal scrapping. I'm a firm believer in scrapping for YOURSELF, not what other's think (although we all know secretly we want approval). This is a group that 'thinks' like me. I know it will push my creating to the next level because there are some seriously talented girls there. It's certainly an honor to be choosen. Here is my first lo for my first challenge. The title was 'You say Bitch like that's a BAD thing', Song is 'Bitch' by Meredith Brooks and the tech. was to use Black. You can check out the other girls lo's HERE! Join in and you could be picked as Guest Designer for next month or even win a fabulous prize!

Do the Zoo!

Sometime last month I spent some time at our local zoo with my friend Patti and her gandson Dylan. Dylan just turned 1 year old a couple of weeks ago so I made this mini album of the zoo pics for her for his birthday. She's pretty crazy about her first grandson and she can't wait to get her hands on this album. But she has to wait because it's going to be a class at Chasing Rainbows on June 20th. If you live in the area give them a call and sign up! These Sassafrass Lass Jungle Bungle papers are perfect for those zoo pics.

























~TFL!

Bringing Back the Side Pony

It's been a busy busy month! As usual I need to get better with the blogging so I figured I'd start at the beginning of the month with some pics from National Scrapbook Weekend. It was a blast once again. Lots of laughs, shopping, eating and even some SCRAPPING!!! Of course things got a little crazy too, especially late Friday night when I decided to try to bring back the side ponytail. Now you know I look H-O-T! And I even have some roots showin' gf! Don't I look great do my cheer jumps. So without further a-do, here are some pics of me and girls for your viewing pleasure.