A LO and a request...

In the world of scrapping, there are companies that make scrapping products. (duh, bear with my lame-o-ness). Then there are kit companies that put together those products so you get a taste of everything. A Million Memories is one of those kit companies. I would like you to cross your fingers for me, because I just submitted an application to be a part of their design team (scream!). If you take the time to see their kits, uuugh :sigh:. They put together yumminess after yumminess. I am so happy I will be having more than just one room for all my belongings so I can expand! Even if I don't get the position (although, you will be hoping like I am) I'm still getting those kits! But you should really look at their blog. They have some really gorgeous stuff going on there...

Now that my request is over, and my title followed backwards, I have a LO to share. I already posted a close-up of it a few posts ago, so you'll have an idea of what it is.



So this LO is foreign territory for me. Why? Well look at it! The design is so not me! (well, actually, now it might be me...) But I wanted to try something new, like always, and figured a different style might be it. I had purchased these papers, and they are more vintage-y, something I'm not used to.

Then I figured, what's more vintage-y than torn up paper and distressing? So I tore up the paper and disdtressed the edges. (See the bottom paper? I used a dry bursh with some white paint barely on there and brushed it across. I also did some white piant smudges on the cardstock, see the right corner and the left above the green swirl? But those white blotches all over the paper are actually product of my nail file going across the paper which happens to be white cored. I love my nail file for scrappyness). (That was pretty big to be put into parenthesis no? Did I spell that right Lisa?!)

What else did I do... Oh, yea. (Notice how no one really spells it "yeaH" anymore? Why is that?) This is where the Flower Fluffery came from. Again, it was all an attempt at using more embellishments on a page like some of the other divas of scrapbooking. I hope it was not a fail. (I forgot what the journaling says and I don't want to get off my bed to look for the LO. sorry)

Hmmm. Well the cardstock is DCWV, hence the white core. The patterned paper is from the Recollections collection at Michaels.(again, no compensation for dropping any names...)

Well... I'm tired. I hope that you have enjoyed this LO. If anyone has any inspirations, please feel free to share. Hopefully I can post once more before the New Year and my vacation (woohoo!)

greatfully yours,

(that one's for you Lisa)

*Bean*

(I need to make a real signature thingy)

(this has been a message from the Parenthesis Group.)

(No such group exists to my knowledge)

(o.k., now I'm just going for a laugh. any takers? no? eh, well I tried...)

(hm? wait, I thought I had a taker back there. No? :crickets: Oh well..... Off to bed....)

( )

Winter Wonderland

In honor of this blizzard, I would like to share a LO commemorating a long ago blizzard. I say long ago, because I can't remember when this picture is from. Shame on me! I thought that was the whole point of scrappin'. Boo. On to the LO!

(you might be wondering why so large. even if you're not, I just wanted to make sure you saw the details)

I can't be credited with the original idea for this. Of course it comes from those lovely challenges on scrapbook.com. Boy did this challenge try my patience. But after I argued with myself for a little while, I decided to approach this LO like any other. Even if I used nothing more than white paper, I knew I had to make everything seem individual.

Do you see those embossed snowflakes? (due to it's whiteness, I couldn't manage a decent picture. I am sorry) Well they aren't really embossed. I had bought some snowflake chipboard that I had kept the negative. So I laid it down on the paper and smeared some white paint and liquid glue to fill in. I then sprinkled some diamond dust (irridescent) to make it shimmer. It looks so much better in real life.
(o.k. so I started feeling bad about not having a picture, I stopped and took one. I hope you like)

(it's very sparkly)

O.k. A few things. First the background paper I thought would stand out nicely if I distressed it a bit. Just some hand crumpling to create shadows. and of course some tearing. The chipboard letters were painted white. It took 3 coats. The last coat I mixed with some more liquid glue where I then proceeded to act like a glitter fairy. I made a pleated rose that you can find as my first post ever. I used a snowflake to stand in for leaves (bottom flower). The middle of the negative "H" was filled with some 8.0 seed beads. And to top it all off, some rhinestones on the "S". My great idea to write in white ink was the only failure. But we all learn. (it was supposed to say "all is quiet, all is bright" cute huh?)

There you have it. I think. If not, don't hesitate to ask.

Whited Out,
-Bean
p.s. I would like to thank the 2 people that seem to know me so well. PDRNC for my wonderful Basic Grey stack that was on my wishlist ForEverS, and the woman that got me these:

(they are the buttons that stole Christmas).

-Bean <3

'ello!

I need to set up a blog schedule. I suck & I'm sorry. But I do have something kind of cute for you today! I won't claim ownership of the idea because I'm most likely not the first to have done this. Although I can say, I haven't seeeeen it. But enough chatter, on to the fun stuff! (although, sometimes my chatter can be quiet entertaining. but i'm letting my nail polish dry).

This is how I start out a flower. Why? Because I haven't gone shopping, and taking out my cricut for one teeny little flower would annoy me.

Now divide into 5 (fairly) equal parts. I'm not perfect, and neither is this flower.

Start from the middle and draw a petal. Turn your paper for every petal, it helps them be of (fairly) equal size.

(like I said, I'm not perfect)

Now cut that bad boy out and grab:
-a glue stick (you want something thicker than liquid, not so smudgey)
-embroidery floss (I'm not using the high quality stuff, save if for your cross stitching)
-le button (because I want to re-learn french)
-a brad (for later use)

For the Flower Fluffery:

Take a glop of glue and smack it down on the middle of the flower. (is it in the middle? or on the middle, I had an issue)

(oh, and I won't give you a required amount of embroidery floss. it's going to depend on how much you want to fluff it up) (am I being to elusive with what we are doing?)

Begin with a loop, making sure to press the floss into the glue

Wherever the string lands, that is where you will make your next loop.

Don't argue with the string. It will fall where it wants, and that is where you will contine making loops. Eventually you will be turning the flower and getting loops in all directions.

You may or may not need more glue. It all depends on how much you salt your food. O.k., no, it doesn't, but you may have a heavier hand than some...

Grab le button and squish it on top of your loops (this is assuming you are satisfied with how many loops you have. If you're not, keep going. We can wait.........)

yay! you're done! (the making of the flower is unnecessary if you have your own flowers you want to use. & don't feel shy doing this on the back of your flower. I did. But that you'll see later)

For method with a brad of the Flower Fluffery:

Say hello to your brad. "Hi". (make sure to pick a color you want on your LO). This is a regular sized brad. I bought it from Oriental Trading. (Disclaimer, I ain't get no cash for that one).

Pull the brad legs apart. (diiirty!)

Pick up your floss and hold between your thumb and middle finger. (I'm a righty, so I picked it up with my left. It'll make sense in a minute.)

(pretty nail polish not necessary) (nor are the paint smudges on your fingers)

Do you see how the floss hangs? Cross it over to the right and bring it up and left, over your pointer finger, like this:

Cross through the middle to the right, and under your middle finger (this is why it's on the left, lots of right hand labor intensiveness).

Repeat these steps a few times

Now grab your brad, and slip the floss between the legs:

Hold the legs together and use your right hand to pull the floss off your fingers. Any other way will risk the unraveling of your floss. Once the floss is off, you can easily close the brad, making sure the floss is under the closure. Just take a look at another brad. You can use a pen to poke down the sides.

Gently pull apart the floss and attach to a flower.

I did this tutorial AFTER I made a page. I had needed a way to make the flowers I used a bit more...noticeable. So I sat for a bit, working on other stuff, when this idea came to my head. I haven't taken a good picture of my full layout, so here's a close up.

Thanks for stopping by! You are greatly appreciated.

-Bean