Pink Hello Kitty

Wedding Dreams, Dresses, And Invitations

So this is what has been consuming my life the last few days!  Seems a little strange because it has been a very long time since I have been part of helping with a wedding!  What fun Janny and I are having helping our friend Anna in making the invitations, looking for dresses, and helping her make it the sweetest day of her life!  She is getting married in Hawaii and then having a small reception when they return from the Island.  We have been getting together in the evenings, hanging out, eating dinner, watching Biggest Loser, and creating these beautiful invitations! I used the new Shimmerz VIBEZ in "Penny Pincher" and it turned out beautiful!! To see the completed project check out my Crafty Blog Here!  

Happy New Year!

"Ham & Beans in the crock pot, fire in the woodstove, fresh hot coffee, reading a new Somerset Magazine in my PJ's...beautiful way to start off the New Year...just missing Bryan to make it a PERFECT start..."

That was my Facebook Status Update for today.  I am staying in my jammies, listening to my George Winston, and have committed to enjoying the entire day at home not working, just playing.  The smells, the warmth, the inspiration from the magazines I am flipping through, and the blogs I am perusing.  I have a piece of notebook paper out and I am seriously just writing whatever comes to my brain.  I have written lists and lists of things that are catching my eye and inspiring me...things I want to try, things I want to finish...that is what I LOVE about the New Year!  The possibilities seem endless!  The sun is peeking through the clouds right now as I am sitting on the sofa with my laptop next to the fire.  How BEAUTIFUL!! How ENERGIZING!  How INSPIRING! 

A few weeks ago I started something new.  I started a new craft blog.  I didn't really ever think I did enough to warrant a separate blog for that, but as I was creating all of the handmade gifts for Christmas, cooking for the birthdays and holidays, and guest designing for Shimmerz Paints, I realized that even though creating is a part of me and my life, I didn't want to overload my blog with all these photos and instructions, because I honestly do write on this blog for my family and children.  But now I am really glad I did it!  Not only is it a good resource for my friends who are always asking about recipes and instructions, it is helping me do something I have wanted to do for a very long time, create everyday!  I am so excited to have a "reason" for creating, and documenting it is super fun too!  I hope it helps inspire people in new ways, as it has already started inspiring me to step outside of my comfort zone, (I created my very first piece of Soldered Jewelry for somebody very special) and do things I would not normally try.  Check it out and I hope you like it!

I miss Bryan but he will be home tomorrow and I know he would be smiling while reading this, imagining his cutie pie children all enjoying the quiet and doing their own thing as well.  I love you, Bryan!  Happy New Year!  Be safe and we will be together tomorrow!  Thank you for working so hard for our family!

Happy New Year to everyone!!  I hope you are enjoying your brand new beautiful day of the New Year as much as we are here at the Simpson household!

Finished!

Here is a closer look at the collage piece I made for the photo holder from last night's post.  I started with a 15 cent washer from the hardware store.  I covered the surface with Mod Podge, then dumped a chunky glitter onto it.  I then applied my beads, flowers, etc.  You can either use hot glue or epoxy.  I am impatient so hot glue is better for me because it dries faster, although I hear epoxy is a far better product, (I am new at this collage stuff!!)

 

Here it is in detail on the actual piece.  I am very pleased and you can use all kinds of JUNK! YAY! I love junk!!  The flower has Shimmerz too.

The coolest thing for me about creating is after I am 'finished' with a project, I am actually rarely 'finished'!  After taking the photos and posting last night I woke up and had a brainstorm!  The piece looked 'unfinished' and I remembered I had an old gold frame in my 'craft junk stash' so I grabbed it, and it was an 8x10 so the acrylic fit right in.  Bryan gave me the little metal pieces (called Glazier's Points) to hold it in place without the glass or backing.  The inner part of the gold frame is painted with Shimmerz Gold Glimmer for additional sparkle.  Now THIS is a finished project!  I am very happy with how it turned out!

Exciting 'Newz'

As many of you know, last month was Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and most people who read my blog know that I created a couple of bras for a local auction to benefit breast cancer research, and to fund mammograms for those who have no insurance along with grants.  You can see those bras here and here.   They both sold in the auction for a fair amount of money and I was very proud to have done them.  One of my friends, Stacey saw the bra on my Facebook account.  She also happens to own a business called Shimmerz that manufactures a product that I love so much, and coincidentally used to carry in the store I had.  When she saw it I told her that I had used some of her product on the bras.  She was so surprised and said I should enter the contest they were doing for the month of October to honor Breast Cancer too.  Again, I was pretty proud of the bras, and I am okay with putting pictures on my Facebook and personal blog because I know really only my close friends and family read it.  But seriously, to put it next to a bunch of AMAZING things created by amazingly talented women scared me a little.  But I did it, I entered the one I thought was best of the two, then forgot about it!  Last week I got an email telling me I had won!!  WHAT???  I never win anything ever, and I have NEVER submitted any of my work because I am so intimidated.  I was pretty excited, but I am even more excited that she and her Design Team Coordinator asked me to guest design for about a month or so.  I have been really brainstorming, and it is actually a really good time for me because I am making so many things for Christmas!  I hope she likes what I come up with.  One of my other good friends, Lori is one of their Education Team Members, and has been doing classes out of her home, which I have gone to.  It has been really awesome to get back into using a product that I absolutely LOVED, and LOVED to sell when I had my store!  I am posting a couple of pictures.  The first one is of a page that I actually had in my store, and had used this product on.  I pulled it out and even touched it up with some more Shimmerz.  The second is a piece of acrylic that I altered and painted.  I will try to highlight some of the techniques I used under the photos, so keep reading!!

 

This is not one of my best pages ever, but that doesn't really mater because I am posting it for the technique lesson.  You can click on the image to enlarge it and see detail also.  This is a black and white 8x10 photo that I printed DIRECTLY onto Bazzil (any canvas or other texture cardstock will do.)  I painted with Shimmerz Royal Red DIRECTLY onto the photo so that I could detail her red sash only.  I used the same color to paint the torn edges of the red cardstock frame, and stamped image.  I used Blingz Pixie Dust on top of the canvas fabric 'wish' tag, as well as the metal 'wonder' tag.  I used Blingz Gold Glimmer for the edges of the floral background paper.

For this Holiday Photo Holder, I took an 8x10 piece of acrylic for my background surface.  I took a roll of masking tape and began taping strips randomly onto acrylic to add texture when I painted the red and green acrylic paints.  After that, I used Shimmerz Mossy Stone, and Shimmerz Royal Red to paint over the tops of their like paint colors so the background is very sparkly!  The other color I used was Blingz Gold Glimmer on my poinsettias.  You can also click on this image to enlarge for detail, and you will see that I covered every possible surface using those 3 colors through out the whole project.  A tip I would like to point out is that I placed the photo corners permanently, but the photo can be popped right out and replaced every year when I take it out for the Christmas Holiday. And PS: The embellishment in the bottom right corner is a mini collage piece that I created myself using a round metal washer as my surface.  I used Shimmerz on it as well! 

All of the Shimmerz Products can be purchased right here for your convenience, but hopefully you will be able to purchase it here in Boise soon! 

Keep checking back for updated projects coming soon!  If you have any questions shoot me an email!