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