Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Birthday.

Good MORNING, good morning!

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good today. (Gotta give the Harry Potter some love!) My brother-in-law is turning 23 tomorrow and his girlfriend (who is also my best friend) and I are fixing a special surprise for him tonight. I definitely am a "go big or go home" kind of gal, especially when it comes to birthdays. If it turns out the way we're planning, there will be lots of delish food, entertainment and, above all, EMBARRASSMENT!

To go along with this special occasion, I whipped up a card using Paper Crafts Magazine's Go-to Gal Kim Hughes' sketch. It's for the Horizontal Sketch Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, if you'd like to play along!


I do love me a flower, but I didn't think my brother-in-law would appreciate it much. 
      Although... it would've added to the embarrassment factor. I should've thought of that earlier! 

Pardon the horrible photo, as always. Please contact me if you would like to donate to the Tessa-Needs-A-Better-Camera fund :P


Like I said yesterday, I finally figured out the secret to the Tim Holtz Fragments. Darn those things! Now I'm addicted. They are so much fun! I swoon over anything and everything Tim Holtz. Did you know he got a key to the city of Roswell, New Mexico!? AND they have a Tim Holtz Extravaganza Day! Crazy awesome!

Now it's off to work for me! Thanks for coming by :)

I used nearly all Tim Holtz products - FragmentsLost and Found paper and Adornments
Stamp is from Stampabilities
Embossed with American Craft's Zing! Black - Opaque

Monday, August 29, 2011

Goo.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Goo Gone?I love that stuff.

Last night I realized that I had to make a card for my brother-in-law's birthday on Wednesday. I hate making cards for men. I suck at it - I really do.

I bought some Tim Holtz Fragments a few weeks ago when I saw them on clearance at Hobby Lobby. Since then I've been trying to perfect the technique. Those of you that have used these fragments probably think I'm retarded. They look like the easiest things in the world. Take even an ordinary piece of paper, put Glossy Accents on it, put Glossy Accents on the fragment, smoosh together, then cut. See a video from Tim here. Not so simple for me. I used too much Glossy Accents, I used too little, I didn't smoosh well enough so there were huge air pockets when it dried, I put too much on AND smooshed too hard and waited for it to dry before I cut the paper which created some strange ripping and air pocketing...

Man... 
I am the 
worst 
writer 
ever

I go off on tangents and everything is non cohesive. Try to stick with me.

Ok, so last night I had to make a card for a guy. I found fragments. I found Tim Holtz paper. I decided to try my hand at making some fragments again. I tried some. And they actually turned out!

Except for the fact that the entire front of my fragments were covered in caked-on Glossy Accents.

        Enter: Goo Gone!


HOT DOG! You get to experience my MAD Photoshop skills. What a treat!



*Poof*                 

All the hardened glue is gone. I've finally perfected the art of fragmenting! Tomorrow stay tuned for the BIG REVEAL. (Yes, it is going to be HUGE. Or maybe the picture will just be huge.) It's also going to be for a challenge - something I haven't participated in in a long time!

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Swing.

As incentive to finish staining the deck, I talked Adam into buying a swing for our front porch! This was probably a month ago when we were at Lowe's buying stuff for our fire pit. We finally put it together today. It's a beautiful day outside - no clouds, mild heat, and a cool breeze. 



I also got an outside seating area for the other side of the deck (poor picture, but you get the idea).


I found this photo from when we first put an offer on the house. This is what it looked like before we purchased it.


And this is what it looks like now!

 

The strips of weird grass along the sidewalk are grass seeds Adam recently laid. The grass is full of "quack grass" which is rough and weed-like. He's been working hard to kill the bad stuff and grow the good stuff!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Help.

I got in the crafting groove today! My parent's birthdays are coming up and I had a really fun time making my mother's card. Since I believe she reads this blog, I won't be posting pictures of the card until I send it to her. 

I did a mock-up of what I had in mind for my dad but I don't know how I feel about it.


I originally had the card horizontal and the redish paper ribbon was on top of the blue paper. 

I bought some felt from Walmart the other day for Moxie Fab World's challenge. I had so many ideas running through my head and I have no idea which one I like the best. I wanted to have it just be black and white at first - but then I found some cute buttons that I wanted to use. I was going to have one black flower and one white, then I thought that some might have see lame, underlying racist statement being made. When really it has nothing to do with that all. I'm probably reading way too much into this.

I'd really appreciate any comments on which layout you like the best!




















Then my camera died. Obviously there are a lot of options and I like all of them so I can't decide which one to actually do! HELP!

Friday, August 19, 2011

Nummy.

Yesterday I posted this picture:


And last night I did it! It was really easy, just like the picture shows. I didn't do the same pattern, but as my first time using cake decorating tools, I'm happy with my silly results! I used Funfetti cake mix and Pillsbury cream cheese frosting for easiness!


This was the first cupcake (underneath) and the last cupcake (color-saturated on top). It took a while for the coloring to come through. And I had extra frosting so I dumped it on this.









Thursday, August 18, 2011

Tired.

* Two months
* Three power washing attempts
* Countless trips to Lowe's
* Estimated 32 hours of labor
*Estimated $300 cost

Equals: One stained deck.

I am exhausted. I'm almost done staining our deck. I ran out of stain and took some pictures before I ran to Lowe's for more. I'm so tired right now I can't even go take an updated picture.


I mostly took a picture to show a Lowe's employee my problem and to ask their opinion on how to fix it. The stain was rolling on just fine, but the planks are too far apart and you could see the unstained side of the wood... like this:


The employee in the paint section told me to use a disposable foam brush (like what you'd use for Modge Podge) and go in between. More work. I complained but I did it anyway. And it looks great! I don't think I will ever stain a deck again. They say you should re-stain every 2-3 years. Screw that. I wonder how much it costs to pay someone to stain it.

I was far too ambitious today. I started stroganoff (Adam's mom's recipe, takes all day to "brew") and I made cupcakes this morning in attempt to try something like this:

Found on pinterest.com

Adam got me bubble bath when we moved here that had Disney princesses on it. When we used it, we said we were taking a "Princess Bubble Bath"! (Yes, "we" includes Adam.) All I wanted to do when I finished the deck was take a Princess Bubble Bath but the tub was gross and I didn't want to lay in it. I cleaned it then decided the bath was too much work and took a 5 minute shower instead.

All I want to do now is nap. But I have the stroganoff to finish, dirty brushes, a dishwasher to empty, and a load of laundry to start. All before Burn Notice at 8:00.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Newb

I am a noob when it comes to many things, but I didn't think spray painting was one of them.

I found an awesome wall fixture thing at Hobby Lobby for $3 a few weeks ago that had paint chipped in multiple places. I thought I could age it more with sandpaper and have it look shabby chic but it was turning out a lot more shabby than chic.

Enter scene: Wal Mart.

I'm obsessed with purple at the moment. I have purple toe nail polish, purple flip flops, recently purchased a bunch of purple tops... and I bought purple spray paint at Wal Mart.

I sprayed it twice last night and it was looking shiny purple and awesome. This morning I could still see some black paint on some edges so I sprayed it again. Aaaaaand this happened.

Unfortunately I didn't take a before picture!


What!? It's shiny, but it's crackingish? What do you call this? Wrinkling? Why is it doing this? Is it the heat? The humidity is only 50% or so. Can you only apply so many coats of spray paint before it starts hating you? According to my Google searches, it's because the type of paint reacted poorly do the paint beneath it. So my paint didn't react right to itself since I sprayed it last night, let it dry overnight, and sprayed it again this morning. What??

As an attempt to make lemons out of lemonade, I continued to spray the entire thing to get a cohesive look. I kind of like the look now!




It should go nicely in my "eclectic" crafting room!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Shutterfly

Ever hear of Shutterfly? I did, but I thought it was a waste since I love to scrapbook. Boy was I wrong!

Erin got a code that gave a free 8x8 photo book from Shutterfly and she gave it to me. It was the perfect way to document our trip to New York. Check it:

front

back


first page

There are a total of 27 pages. Here are just a few: