What if the world were powered by Steam?

This is the premise of steampunk. If you've never looked into it...google it! Steampunk is this strange combination of old west and modern cyborg wrapped together with a small bit of shabby chic. There is an entire subculture out there of steampunk.
Graphic 45 designed this lovely steampunk paper that I just had to have. One of my many acquisitions from the Mega meet. I adore it and I had a blast making this page.  This picture is about 6 years old. Nathan and I went on marriage revival vacation to Mackinaw and Tahquamenon and I am STILL scrapping those pictures. I wanted this one to be special because we don't have a lot of he and I together.

 For my birthday/mother's day/National Scrapbooking month;) I got a big shot die cutter along with the hardware findings and gears. I'm aging everything I do now! I love rusty hinges and rusty gears all over my pages. 

 The girl with the wings was so intriguing. She was in the center of this giant page and you just didn't want to cover her up...so I cut her out instead! She added a gorgeous element to my page that I otherwise would not have been able to achieve. I also used one of my gears as a mask for my sprays to just add a little something. The crown is a sticker from a Swirlydoos kit that was actually black and white. My new motto? Just add spray.

 Here is close up of the gears. I used layers and layers of foam to  create a multi-dimensional accent.

The bird is sprayed with mist as well as the roses. The roses are a piece of material purchased from Monamigabby.com  They come in different colors but I bought white so I could customize mine. (DUH!) The '06 stands for the year and the 4 inside the key represents the number of kids at that time. Silly, I know.

 The best part about this paper pack is all the different paper elements that were there to cut and layer all over the page. There are little bits peeking out here and there all over the page. These are the most fun to create.

 Here is a closeup of the bird cage. One of my most favoritest toys. If you look close you can see a blackbird on the girl's arm which is inside the cage. 

 These are some of my rosettes made with the scraps of silk from my belly dance teacher. They are ending up on almost every page I do now! I love these. 

Here's a closeup of the fussy cutting and also some little elements peeking out from behind her. 

I can't wait to do another page with this paper pack. This was just so much fun.   Happy memorial day everyone. Thanks for stopping by.

Of NSD, Megameet, and Kathy Vanzeeland?!

Happy National Scrapbooking day! (Yesterday) I have to admit...I had NO CLUE what NSD was and I saw it posted EVERYWHERE!!  By the time I finally figured it out, I had to work on my mother's day gifts and so I was not able to participate in any of the wonderful goings on that were taking place all over the web in honor of NSD. However, the day before I did attend the Novi Mi Megameet where I got to see all sorts of inspiring work, meet wonderful artists, and of course spend oodles of money on all sorts of scrappy mooost haves! Not only that but I got to spend the day with one of my scrappy girls who is just a really dear friend. I always have such a wonderful time with her. Love you sweetie.

This is a quick photo opp with myself and my foyer mirror before the mega meet. I have no pics of myself since 90% of the time I am behind the camera and I thought that I just looked cute that day. Also, Megameet has kind of become a tradition with my GF and myself over the years and I really wanted pics with her, but we got so busy and had such a good time that it just didn't happen.  We said we would recreate the day for pics.  HA!  I don't think my pocket book could handle a recreation of that day for another year!

 



Today is mother's day. Happy mother's day to all of the wonderful mother's out there. Scrappy, belly, or otherwise. I personally know some really great mother's who are all and both. Personally I have 3 mother's plus 2 grandmother's. This morning I realized that I never called my grandma Betsy on mother's day. She died one year ago on the 4th of May. Although she was my father's step mom, and not natural mother, she was so much of a mother to my father and a grandmother to me and my siblings. When I was a child she would send us cards for EVERY holiday under the sun. There was never money in them, it wasn't about that. It was the fact that as a child you never get mail. Receiving mail is exciting even now. Think of how happy you are when you get your most recent publication, or when you receive that Ebay package in the mailbox that you have been waiting for. Now multiply that by 10! Remember that? Remember how excited you were that someone sent something to YOU as a kid!? My grandma Betsy did. Every holiday there was a card. I still have quite a few from her but I wish I had them all. Grandma Betsy, I miss you. You were a wonderful mother and grandmother.

So being at Megameet on Friday I got to see all this inspirational pretty stuff. I have to say, when it comes to Kathy VanZeeland purses I ADORE the hanging charm chains with the crystals at the bottom. What on Earth do Kathy VanZeeland purses have to do with mother's day and Megameet, you may be asking. Well, Darcie's (out of Ohio) had their latest and greatest thing...charm jewelry. Ok, no big deal right? They pre-printed little paper pieces and adhered them to pre-cut acrylic and assembled them with various metal Ideology charms from the Tim Holtz line and voila.  I decided I could do that...Andiepants style. I decided the Ideology stuff was too expensive and I could do the whole thing cheaper at Michael's. Here's what I came up with...

 I did purchase the little paper charms from Darcie's just cuz they were so stinkin' cute. I fussy cut them out and covered them with glossy accents. I then put a piece of transparency over them and fussy cut that  once it dried. The chain is just a large piece from Michaels along with the lobster claw. Since they were a super bright silver I decided to use some brown and black stazOn ink to tarnish them up a bit. The beads are actually from one of my Swirlydoos kits. I had no idea what to do with them but this idea was fantastic...if I do say so myself;)  This charm chain was made for my Bro-in-law's GF who is a mother. She is an absolute sweetheart and I just adore her.

 The back I stamped with a Prima background stamp and covered with crackle accents. 

 This is the charm chain that I made for my mother-in-law. The metal charms were purchased at Michael's as well. Yes, she loves Chandeliers and fleur-de-lis. This chain suits her to a T.

Here is a look at the back with the crackle accents. 

I won't show my mother's because she is in Nevada visiting my sister. I think she should be the first to see hers;)

I recently purchased a big shot and the the Tim Holtz tattered flowers die. I was dying to try the tut that I previously posted from Lyndie's stamp gang so this week, instead of cleaning house, I made flowers.  I loved them so much I decided to give them as broaches for mother's day. I then thought they would make a great accent on cards as well. So, the cards that I'm giving to my mothers also double as a broach!

 I started by using pre-cut cards thinking that would make things easier. Yeah RIGHT! It just wasn't good enough. So I cut the pre-made cards apart and used them as an outside and inside panel. I sprayed this panel with Olive Glimmer Mists and stamped the image. I added the perfect pearls randomly across the image.

 The flower is cut on my Big Shot and covered with magical micas. If you've never used magical Micas then you are missing out. These pics just don't do justice. They are so vibrant and beautiful with variegated metallic sheen throughout. I just added some teal feathers on the side and a dollar store glass bauble for the center. Voila!

 Here is a peach panel with Lyndie's Starburst spray in Merigold. Again it has a gorgeous sheen to it that is lost in the photo. I wanted the card to have the sprayed appearance so I didn't cover the panel as evenly.

 Here is a better close up of the flower. You know the flower on the green panel? I took one of the spikey flowers that I had painted green and balled it up to create the center of this flower. I was experimenting and it turned out good.

This is the third color. it's more of an orange yellow but again I used the Starburst spray in marigold. The broach pin is already attached to this flower and I used the pin to attach it to the card itself. This card has some globs of glimmer here and there that look really good. The center of the flower is just a simple rhinestone. I really love the teal and orange look together. 

So this was a long blog with lots of pics. I hope you enjoyed them. As you can see I have turned May into National scrapbooking month. I've been using my birthday as an excuse but who am I kidding...I just love to craft. Happy mother's day all.

Andiepants

Success....on a small scale

It's finally over. The Scraptacular came and went and was a total success. A big thank you to all the vendors and volunteers who SHOWED UP to help. Today I am actually home sick. I woke up with a sore throat and feeling run down. I think everything has finally caught up to me and my body is giving in. I will take a day of rest (regain my voice which I lost this morning) and jump back in tomorrow morning.

Another success this month was starting back into belly dancing after my surgery. I have retained all the muscle memory but the diaphragm is GONE, the endurance no longer exists, and I cannot stretch my abdomen like I used to. I will be unable to perform at the Everyday goddess Hafla May 21st as I told my friend I would, but I will be there to support her. I am working toward re-gaining all that was lost in the months following my surgery and I have to say....it feels so good to be back.

Yet another success was I finished the CHANGE class to patch into HIM (Hogs in Ministry).  This will be a great way to do God's work and help lead people to the lord as well as create a conduit for hubby and myself to maintain our relationship. I'm so excited to see what God is calling me to do with HIM.

Last but not least, I met my scrap booking goals. I finished 3 layouts this month which is absolutely amazing for me. Is it bad when you have to set goals so that you actually do your hobby?  I had a layout for a fourth contest and was trying to complete it at the Scraptacular but I was too busy and time fell short. I will still finish the LO and post here when done because I truly have outdone myself this time. (not that I'm tooting my own horn or anything;)

This is the page I submitted for the chipboard palooza contest over at Swirlydoos:

 The frame around the large  picture is chipboard, the flower, and the frame around the sign are too.  The paper in Simplicity by fancypants. I designed this page for the chipboard palooza contest over at swirlydoos.com.  I was really happ with the way this turned out and had a blast doing it too. 

Here are some close ups of what I did to the chipboard. The large frame is painted blue and then covered in Modge Podge mixed with mica poweder. If you take powder on your brush and then grab some Modge Podge it gives it this chunky grungy look that is just fantastic. It's really hard to see here. I then covered it with 2 coats of UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel) While the second coat was still hot I took a rubber stamp which I had already covered with Smooch ink, huffed the stamp, and pressed it into the hot UTEE. The result was this embossed image that really gave the frame some dimension. The flower is just covered in Smooch, the center is glittered, and backed with paper. The smaller frame is done with a masking technique. First I covered the frame with Xyron adhesive. Then I used my Tattered Angels iron works mask and pressed it onto the frame. Covered with glitter, removed the mask and covered with a second color of glitter. Make sure that you are pressing the glitter with your finger so it stays.

My final LO was for the round robin challenge over at swirlydoos but I haven't taken closeups of that page yet so I will save that for another post. 

Please check out the link for the everyday goddess belly dance workshop in Clio Michigan. I know the instructors personally and they are all fabulous ladies. If you click on the photo gallery you will see pics of me dancing too;) The workshops are for beginners who have never danced before so check it out. Hope to see you there;)

Andiepants