Eclipse VIP night & IMAX opening day

So, in case you hadn't heard, Eclipse, the third installment in the Twilight Saga movies based on the books by Stephanie Meyer debuted last night. To 7 million people. Yes, it broke some sort of record. And, I was a part of it last night and today. Thanks to having a very lucky friend who won VIP passes to an early special premiere, I was able to watch New Moon at 6:00pm on the big screen and then Eclipse at 9:00pm. I cannot tell you how excited I was. Maybe this photo will give you an idea.

Yes, I went full Wolf Pack. Well, I guess full would have to been to wear a furry suit, but I was close. One of my besties was a vampire for the evening, sporting her incredible red eyes and awesome Volturi

costume. 

Hottie, isn't she? We had to show off our chosen sides and we went to all lengths. ;P

Gold eyes, my friends, gold eyes. It was so awesome to dress up and watch this with my friends and all the fans who were so excited they couldn't contain their squeals, screams, and gasps. I know that their fanaticism isn't for some, but to me, it is all part of the experience. So were these guys.

And, no my hands were not THERE. Then today, we headed over to the IMAX theater in our "regular" street clothes to see it again on the massive screen.

I love this movie! It is the best of the three and I KNOW I will be seeing it again in the theater at least once more. And, I will be eagerly awaiting it's release on DVD. What a great 24 hours!!!

Back to creating tomorrow. Tonight, it is time to reflect on the six hours of yummy movie- goodness that I have greedily consumed. With my focus on one hot wolf.

One productive night!

Finally, I was able and willing to create last night. Not sure what is up with these dry spells, but they are not making me happy. Anywhoo, I made two cards, two layouts, and a tag. The cards and layouts were for challenges on the Scrap-Friendzy link and I was about 2 weeks behind, but the point was that I did them and they were fun.

First are the cards. Everyone needs birthday cards on hand so I whipped up these two. The challenge was to use your scraps, no new sheets of paper. Since I have an overflowing box of scraps, this wasn't too hard. I added the Greeting Farm stamps, because, seriously, how can you not love these little people?

Inside the Alice card and the tag I made in case I need to tag a gift. (I really wanted to use this stamp. It cracks me up every time I see it.)

Obviously, whoever I decide to send the Alice/Jasper card to will have to be a fan of Twilight or they won't get it, but that is okay. 

My layout is for the Nature challenge and it had to include a shade of green, two kinds of flowers, and a bird and/or butterfly. I used photos of three of my favorite scrapbook artists that I have been able to meet in person. I also used mostly Sassafras Lass for this layout because I had received the Vintage Yummy kit from Crafty Steals and it was sitting on my desk calling to me. The crochet flower is from an old cardigan I found at the Salvation Army. 

If life gives you "Lemmons,"

you should consider yourself DAMN lucky!!!

That was the stroke of genius that came to me last weekend regarding this picture of our dear friend, Tracy and her lovely mom. As I am sure you can surmise, their last name is Lemmon and she loves anything that refers to lemons, so I built this layout around that and my new Tracy-slogan.

Patterned paper is BG's Nook and Pantry, bling lemons are from their Bling It! line, there is a piece of lime Pink Paislee pleated ribbon overlaid with some Nikki Sivils gingham ribbon and burlap covered buttons, three Nikki Sivils heart tabs above the photo, AC Thickers, MM journal block cut in half, Jenni Bowlin buttons with yellow bling, and some Art Life flowers. The two crochet flowers were cut off of an atrocious cardigan I found at the Salvation Army for $2.00. It yielded a bunch of these flowers, pearls, hot pink buttons, and a pair of crocheted cherries. Plus, I saved someone from possibly ever actually wearing that atrocity in public. Cute embellishments and saving the fashion world? All in a day's work, my friends, all in a day's work. ;-P

Flower clouds and cupcake blossoms

I had a dream. No, seriously, I did, and this is what I dreamt about.

This is my canvas set that I created in honor of my friend Daniela's new artistic endeavor, The Art Life Flower Shop. I wanted a way to showcase as many of her beautiful flowers as possible on one project and this was my brain's answer.

I started with two My Mind's Eye canvases that I found at Michael's and layered what I call a paint wash until I reached the desired look of a rainy sky. To add a little bit of sparkle, I spritzed it with Marshmallow Glimmer Mist. I took a piece of 12x12 paper and sketched my pictures out on each side, then used carbon paper to trace my designs onto the canvas. The base of the clouds, the hills, the little girl, and her dog are all paint, with the exception of her coat which is a piece of scrap fabric, (actually from an old Christmas ornament!!!), and the shiny umbrella and boots it Glossy Accents over yellow paint.

To fill the clouds, I cut the stems off of a bunch of The Art Life Flowers, then swirled Fabri-Tac on my cloud shapes and began filling them in with the flowers. I started with the larger flowers and then worked my way to the small posies to fill in any spaces I didn't like. The rain drops are self adhesive bling strips.

I punched the cupcakes with an EK Success punch and added the little touches of bling or drawing sprinkles with a marker. I highlighted them with different color paint and some Stickle grass. I drew the features and outline of the girl and dog with a fine tipped Sharpie marker. 

Lastly, I ran some fun rainbow ribbon around the outer edges, adhering with the ever useful Fabri-Tac. I loved making this set and while I haven't decided where they will hang permanently, their temporary place over the bed is working out just fine. 

One of the questions I was asked yesterday when I showed this pair off at the LSS was how much did I invest in flowers? The inquirer was under the impression that I had spent A LOT of money to make such a project. That is not the case. While I used about four packages per color and size for this project, The Art Life's flowers are very inexpensive, none of them over $2.00 for a package. How is that for great value? Want to know more about these great blossoms? They were also featured on The Scrap Review, where Paula Gilarde made an adorable project with them that I SO wish I had thought of!

Getting funky!

The layout below must be my funkiest to date. While the end result is pretty and girly, the process wasn't. This is one of those projects I dreamt about and then tried to recreate in reality and I am happy with it. First, I splatter painted the hot pink card stock. Not a new technique, but the first time I have done it. Then I cut the four strip of gray, heat embossed that awesome wood grain stamp on them, and distressed the edges. My final unique touch was the twigs. I soaked them in bleach water just in case of bugs and once dry, covered them in two coats of glitter Modge Podge. The phrase block and the pink phrase chipboard stickers are from the awesome Melody Ross, Homespun Chic, the roses are from The Art Life, and the pink flocked paper for the two mats is scraps of Doodlebug.

This layout was so close to fitting a recipe challenge at Scrap-Friendzy, so I added the last two required ingredients. The journaling spot under the photo and the word rub ons in the grain of the gray strips. I wanted the words to look like they were a part of the grain, either as if someone had carved them or nature was giving us messages.

I also finished a canvas project that I have been working on for two months, but it is an entry for a design team and I have asked them if I can post it prior to the end of the team call. If they say yes, then I will have it to show you too.

Kicking butt and taking names...

First name I took would be Migraine. Despite having a doosey yesterday, I finally surfaced last night and was still able to pull out two layouts and a mini hanging. I seem to be a on a kick of those lately. The first layout is for the Scrap-Friendzy Archery Challenge. The layout had to include three circle elements and an arrow. I used random family shots from the recent gathering in April.

Second is the mini wall hanging. I made one of these a while back, but am submitting it to be published so I can't share it yet. I was so enamored with the original that I had to make a second one, this time focusing on my Grandma as the subject. I used the Melissa Frances vintage postcard book as the base, (I LOVE this book, FYI. So much possibility), Melissa Frances element at the top and some of her and Heidi Swap's chandelier crystals. There is a Melody Ross inspiration card, The Art Life roses and collage words, Tim Holtz memo pin, Making Memories stick pin, Jenni Bowlin buttons, Basic Grey pearls, and vintage daisy jewelry and lace.

I love this. This is totally my style and it was so fun to put together. Most of these items were purchased at The Art Life Shop, in case you want to make your own. Now let's see what TODAY holds for me. Definitely not a headache.

Migraine-1, Lora-0

Ugh. I love starting the day with a headache, especially a migraine. It so doesn't seem fair, you don't even get a fighting chance. My plans for today were to work on the project I started last night and to knock out some fun challenges I am participating in, all while listening to the new Eclipse movie soundtrack. Instead, the Migraine pulled a TKO on me and I have been on the couch with the blinds drawn and no sound for most of the day. I hope that the dinner I just got together will be done in time for actual dinner or we may be going out tonight and having it tomorrow. I really would like to go play in the studio, but right now it is still touch and go.

Luckily, I did get this little project put together last night. It was one of those things where I was moving some embellies around and I happened to toss them next to a different set of embellies and a lightbulb went off in my head, "Hey, I wonder if..." Well, I wondered right. The Webster's Fabric Fancy DOES fit perfectly in a Maya Road Mega Bottle Cap. And if I add a Prima rose, some Art Life roses, a Tim Holtz charm, three random chandelier crystals, some plastic dew drops, peacock feathers, and a thrift store beaded necklace, I WILL get this pretty and unique wall hanging. Ta-Da!

Funny how those things work. I think I may have to make some more of these as gifts. I know Webster's has Christmas Fabric Fancies that might be really cute in a Mega Cap. Oh, the possibilities.

Likes and dislikes

You know what I like? Sunshine, a good cup of coffee, time in my scrap studio, the smell of a new book, creative inspiration from my friends, laughing. Pretty simple pleasures. You know what I don't like? HOA's, ridiculous rules, sneaky stalkers, double standards, one dimensional people. These little irritants are like sand in your bikini bottom. They rub you till you are raw and want to vow never to go to the beach again. And, for the most part, they are unnecessary, that is the biggest irritant of all.

Now for more chipper topics because in all honesty, I feel great this morning, sand or no sand. I spent SIX hours in the studio last night and I created for me. You know those moments where you just go and let yourself out on whatever medium in front of you? That feels amazing. I completed one layout and one tag and I need to print journaling for the second layout. After I was done, I realized that I do not stamp as often as I should, because I love it and all the possibilities of it. I also realized that while blue and green are two of my all time favorite colors, I don't focus on them in my art very often.

This layout is one that I had already started sketching in my head when I got the hot air balloon from a RAK I won at For The Love of Art (FTLOA). When I purchased the Prima roses on Saturday, read the weekly challenge at FTLOA and the C-A-M-P-E-R challenge at Scrap-Friendzy, it all fell into place. That is another thing I like, when the idea becomes reality with little to no issue.

This week's challenge at FTLOA is to use paint, glimmer sprays, ink, etc to a project. Here I used Glimmer Mist on the doily punch strips and on the background of the card stock, though it doesn't really show in the photo. Scrap-Friendzy is hosting this awesome event called Camp-Friendzy, which is a scrapping based online "camp" running this summer. There are weekly projects, badges to earn, games to play, etc. One of the first challenges was to create a project using the recipe below.

C- Card stock (I used Co'redinations for the base and cs for the punches and stamped title)

A- Use the word "adore," "admire," "amaze," or "awesome" in the title

M- Use metal on the LO (the bling brads in the center of the hydrangeas and under the title)

P- Use a punch or punches on the page (LOVE that MS doily border punch!)

E- Emboss an element of the page ("adored" in title)

R- Use ribbon (anchored the photo)

Head over and check out both Scrap-Friendzy and FTLOA. Both are wonderful communities full of very talented and inspiring people. 

The photo is of my grandmother and her father. I never knew him, he died shortly before I was born, but I know my grandmother thought he was one of the greatest people to ever be on this Earth and that speaks volumes to me. She called him "daddy" her whole life and while that usually kind of creeps me out, when she said it, I wasn't. There was a different reverence in her voice. I wish I had been able to know him.

This second little project is a tag. I wanted to try out the new Chalkboard Glimmer Mist I got on Saturday, so I made this little guy.

 

I pulled out some Crafty Secrets stamps that I have never used and when I looked at the finished product, I wondered why I don't stamp more. I love them and all that you can do with them, but I just don't reach for them very often. I am going to make a point of changing that. The blue section of the tag is the Chalkboard Glimmer, but I think I made a mistake of wiping it before I allowed it to chalk up. Still, I love this little guy and will have to add it to a LO in the future.