Celebrating Spring!

 The sun was shining brightly enough for us to set up our lawn chairs and table with umbrella for an afternoon card making session this afternoon, huzzah!

Here's one of the messy cards we'll be creating in week two of my Seasonal Greeters cardmaking class at TCC's Gig Harbor campus. After embossing the Celebrate sentiment, we dragged it through a mix of Tim Holz Distress Inks misted with water. The watercolor effect around the edges is dreamy and I love how the raised image picks up those same variations in color. A spray inked back ground and washi tape borders and added punches of star shapes make this a fun and festive card just right for a summer birthday or wedding.

 

Upcoming Spring Cardmaking Class!

I've been a member of the Two Waters Arts Alliance for nearly a year now, and I really enjoy being a part of such an eclectic ensemble of local artists. They also encourage me through regularly offering me venues to teach in, which is just really incredible.

In addition to the youth-based classes I've been teaching through our local Key Peninsula Home School Association, and our youth center, the Red Barn, this year I'm offering adult paper crafting classes as well.

Saturday, March 5th, we will create approximately four card (more if time allows) that show our love of the growing season, Spring. Not only will I be sharing some quick background coloring techniques, layering solutions, and creative ways to use our "old-fashioned" tools like punches and distress ink, I'll also be helping students to create their own, fancy-scripted sentiments.

All this for just $15- and the supplies ARE included!

Interested in reserving a seat? Email my friend Patty, who is coordinating class sign ups for me, at pfdesign@comcast.net and before you know it, we'll be crafting up your own pieces of happy mail to send out, together!

Zipping Around the Honduras

I wasn't the only one awake at this hour...

Rising at around fifteen past dawn to run with the sun rising in the distance over the island of Roataan, Honduras was certainly an invigorating start to another memorable day. I had mentioned my desire to do so the night before, but saying you want to watch the sun rise can be easily excused away in the morning from the comfort of the unbelievably just right down blanket! Just before my eyes opened, I had been dreaming of doing some folk dancing, so I figured, Hey, if I've got enough energy to dance in my sleep, then I can get out of bed and get up on deck! What, you don't dream of folk dancing...?

Here on board there are many ways the boat resembles a floating city whose inhabitants come from all walks of life and yet cohabitate in their different roles . From the Impatients to the Complainers, the Young and Old, Rich and Poor both monetarily and in spirit or health, we're all experiencing the vacation in our own way, and yet, together! The smiles of my fellow walkers and joggers reminded me of the atmosphere of my neighboring city Gig Harbor, where people delight in the community of early risers, go outsiders, those of us choosing to greet the day on our own terms...with souls we love...  but there weren't any dogs up top of the ship lol.

One of the observations I couldn't help but notice was the wide variety of cameras being used to capture the amazing view as it unfolded before us. I helped a fellow scrapper with her huge Ipad, and there were a lot of the smaller point and shoot cameras out there too, but I was envious of the big, long lensed, old fashioned focus-with-your-hand-instead-of-a-button versions. Alas, I didn't bring mine; I just couldn't picture myself as being willing to heft it around on our adventures. And, no I didn't bring my camera up top either, but that helped me to really concentrate on the task at hand- enjoying myself!
And not slipping on the running track, which got hosed off with a heavy wash of water each morning. Just before sunrise. So it was extremely wet and slippery. Every morning. Did any of you readers hear about the time I catapulted myself down the stairs here at the house? Or how I have fallen hard enough to knock my glasses off? Dropped a vase on my face just before a trip to see my sisters a couple years ago... Trust me, I slowed down on the hard parts haha. Of the track people!

Back in time for a shower before room service delivered our fresh fruit and bacon heavy breakfast, which of course we chose to eat on our balcony. Don't think it will be possible to tire of that! The pineapple was a perfectly golden tangy this morning, as were the grapes, kiwi, and strawberry. I've kind of surprised myself with the amount of fruit I've been seeking; never high on my list of favorites, it has been a struggle to find a balance of the fruits I love with the stomach uneasiness that can sometimes follow the ingestion of large quantities of God's gift- especially the citruses. The addition of a banana seems to help. And bacon! I must've eaten about 6 pieces. BECAUSE I COULD.

Dressed, in what I considered to be somewhat Ginger and Mary-Annie outfits, slathered with Off!, our bags packed with sunscreen (and credit cards) in tow, we set off giddy with expectation for our first port and pre-booked excursion. The colorful stucco buildings echoed with the beats of a welcoming group of Honduran dancers. Since I plan to end the day with a little booty shakin' myself, it was with a keener eye I tried to observe how the heck they move so fluidly. I feel like a stick doing the robot, and these women were twerking in the streets, so I figured, hey free lesson! Thank goodness their skirts left a lot to the imagination, the way the tourist guys were ogling them. Heck the way their band members were gawking! Girls had the moves. 

Zip N Dip! I forgot about the dip, whoopee!

Down the street we went, easily locating our tour's hut using the information on our printed from home excursion directions. Wrists extended for some lime green bracelets printed with "Zip and Dip!" With friendly smiles we were advised to "wait over there please." Hmmm, OK... where? "Just right there, ma'am." Here? "Yes, ma'am." Realizing there weren't bound to be swarms of bugs attacking within the confines of the restricted access parking lot, off went my long sleeve shirt and I soaked up the 9'oclock sun. Then I realized all the men around us were now ogling me... back on went the shirt!
The addition of sunglasses allowed me the viewing pleasure of watching all the tour guides and taxi van drivers- one in particular captured my attention with his long lean physique and dark glistening skin, accented by a few heavy white gold chains. And then it happened: not only did the object of my interest begin to pick his nose with those elegantly long fingers I'd been admiring, but another much less attractive man nearby hawked a huge loogie into the bushes D had just photographed... Talk about a Deal Breaker.

Joined by two other couples from our ship and our van driver, along the coast and up into the rainforest we bumped along the pot-holed streets, staring into the villagers homes with avid interest. Stilted, with huge open areas beneath, and decorated with what looked like weeks of laundry hanging in the warm wind. Palm and coconut trees in every yard, along with beautiful, long leaved, purpley- magenta plants, sprinkled with coral blossoms bunched in hedges of what looked lot like the invasive vines that grow around our yard.                                                                

 Winding our way up the mountain side, we passed a construction crew, hard at work repairing the dilapidated roadway. While a few men shoveled dirt onto screens leaning against trees, others filled craters in the road with the finely sifted results. I supposed the daily rains, coupled with abundant forest growth, would make cement or asphalt roads difficult to maintain. We noticed the workers backpacks hanging from nearby tree limbs. Guessing they don't have the luxury of company vehicles and the air conditioned lunchrooms our road crews are accustomed to!

I'd say it was about a 15 minute ride to the South Shore Zip Line and Eco Walk starting point. We were greeted by our guides, Jeffrey and Ishmael, who directed us to place our belongings in the small lockers provided for the small cost of $2. I had some trouble with the lock, and will admit to wondering, is this a scam for them to go through our bags and get our credit info while we're screaming from tree to tree? But those thoughts were quickly dismissed, as this company was recipient of a 2013 Service and Excellence award, and chosen by our travel agents Gail and Cheri at CruiseOne as their preferred Zip line excursion package in Roataan.

We eagerly watched our companions get zipped into their harnesses and then it was our turn to get rigged up. Thinking back to my girls night out the Friday before leaving... was there going to be a Fifty flashes of rainforest scene unfolding? Heavy duty leather gloves and an adorable helmet completed our new ensembles, and it was off to the first platform. Anticipation was felt all around as Ishmael performed the proper placement we'd need for our hands during the ride and how to operate the hand brake. Literally, it would be our hand braking us... D and I look at each other cross eyed and burst into giggles as we have no idea what we are in for!

Exhilarating, surreal, awesome, breathtaking... just a few of the thousand adjectives we could have (and did) use to describe the incredible feeling of flying through the canopy 20-50 feet off the ground. I actually have no idea how high the zip lines were, but the platforms were a comfortable 10-15 feet or so high, with a large net surrounding the exit and landing zones. 

I've been afraid of heights for so long I could hardly believe how comfortable I was, enough so that when Ishmael asked if I wanted to go upside down on the 2nd zip, I agreed without a second's hesitation. "Just trust me Anna, and don't use your hands, I will do it all for you and you will just concentrate on the enjoying, all right?"
The result?

For the first time since I can remember, I wasn't so afraid of falling that I wasn't able to experience with my heart the thrill of zooming over the rain forest tree tops with arms out stretched,  mega watt smile ready to catch any bugs I encounter! A few zips later I was advised  "Just let go and fly, don't even put your hand up until the end okay, Anna, now you're  gonna see why the birds fly all day," and I was suddenly propelled across the valley at an outrageously delightful speed. Already, I was comfortable enough in the harness that I really could just open my arms and enjoy the sensations, lean back and experience that soaring joy without fear. Well, a little fear. Some added bouncing of the lines let me add my whoops and shrieks to the cacophony of wildlife that lay below.

My helmet doesn't look like it's on right...among other things.
Check out my cool vacation water shoes- Aqua Sox with socks Rocks! #RockGirl #PanteraRules

^^^   Safety First!

Seriously, Ish and Jeff were extremely courteous, even when sending our group into fits of giggles at comical lines they must feed every tourist. We asked about how much they work, and sometimes it can be as few as two groups in a day that they lead screaming through the trees. There is a rotation amongst the staff, and they take their livelihood seriously, securing each of us with practiced care, and explaining exactly what not to do- i.e. don't put your hand on the cable in front of the rigging... advice I literally heard booming through my head as my hand attempted to do just that. Shared that little scare with D and thank goodness she then heard MY voice in her head and instead reached behind her, just before her hand attempted to separate from her body through the same method mine had. 

Mega Watt Glad We Stall Have Our Hands Selfie

Laughing at our breathless enjoyment, our group was not only soaring through the air, but we were all literally high as kites as the constant surges of adrenaline flushed our cheeks a high pink and a sparkle to our eyes. D commented that my mega-watt smile could probably power the ship! And yes, it felt like my face might break from smiling so hard. We each took amazing photos of the adventure, and a video showing of our gliding through towards the camera with arms not just outstretched but flapping like the black and red butterflies that surrounded us will be one of the most convincing displays of how safe we felt with the rigging, guides, and I guess being able to make fools of ourselves. But man was it fun!

Stepping out of the harness was a relief; one can only discreetly try to dig a rope out of ones nether regions so many times on one excursion. About 4 flights of stairs took us to an inclining hill where a bench invited a quick rest before the pick up vehicle arrived to transport us the rest of the way up the mountain side where our belongs, and of course the gift shop, were waiting undisturbed. There really was dust on some of the reasonably priced items we could collect as proof that we really had done the unbelievable.

My Precious

Did I mention I'm a Survivor Fan-atic and that Wednesday is the new Thursday in my world? Seriously, we do at home Survivor challenges in our house. Tasks as simple as cleaning the yard become much more intense when There's A MILLION Dollars On the Line! I even have my purple Survivor: Samoa buff with me for flaunting at the beach to come! Would I take home the Oh My Gosh, I want to buy this so bad, but it's not going to get worn "I Survived" shirt? Of course not, I chose a black V-neck with, "Zip Chick" in hot pink emblazoned on the front. D tried to pick out a hat, but none really looked perfect, and finally settled for a cute crew neck tee featuring a lizard a top "Gettin' Zipped," and she picked up the $10 DVD with their photographers pics of our fun for our home printing enjoyment. What a deal!

What I didn't figure on dealing with was a credit card malfunction that may have spelled a quick end to my MasterCard shopping availability for the rest of the trip... apparently the little gift shop's machine is somewhat temperamental, and my cashier had to run my card twice. That in itself wouldn't have sent any red flags to the Capital One security team, however, I then impulse-bought a souvenir hat as well, which was the third transaction in one day, in a foreign country, on a card without a travel alert on it. And I work for a bank... Whoopsie! 

Have a similar story to share about adventuring? Facing your fears? A shopping trip halting all future expenditures?  Comment below and come back tomorrow for a long awaited trip to the beach!

 

Same-Month Scrapping

Working on a layout featuring photos taken within the same month...is that an even thinkable task with scrapbooking?! With the blossoming of Project Life style scrapping, i.e. daily, weekly, or monthly recapping of life's happenings, this idea is becoming more realistic. Add to this equation tiny printers that you can wirelessly send your photos to for instant printing, and you've got a recipe for some same month scrappin.

Well, I don't have a Project Life album per se, and I don't have a cool new Selphy printer, but I do have pictures, an album and I do have a printer! So even though the ink is running out in said printer, I did print off my fourth of July pictures and scrapped them within the same month. I'm pretty proud of this accomplishment.

I started with a series of photos of my family taken down at the beach as we waited for dusk to turn to night. My hunny is known for his dislike of the traditional family portrait taking session, but my mom's got an iPhone, so within the 30 or so pictures she snapped I found three that I really liked and wanted to have all on the one page. You can tell when looking at the photos that I was trained to hold my picture smile! 'Cause I am like the wax statue that my family is posing around lol.

This year I've been working really hard towards reaching for my not-favorite items. Not that I don't love all my products, but there are definitely some with dust accumulating on their edges. Instead of patterned cardstock, I got into my patterned paper (probably purchased over a decade ago) and chose an unlikely sheet of a snow covered treescape. It reminded me of that grey light that our eyes see as the sun sets. Next I pulled that striped sheet from a gifted paper pack which includes the die cut letters you see in my title.

When I have trouble getting my die cuts to pull cleanly from their background, I simply cut around the letter for a fun and funky new look, and then pull up the edges on the letters for a bit of dimension. This saves me a lot of frustration (and wasted letters)! Plus, on this layout especially, it can lend my alpha a bit of visual weight it may be lacking.

Under my title I added some scraps as banners. Some banners got their edges inked for more depth, and I even cut the lighthouse from Graphic 45's By the Sea collection and turned it to create a nautical flag as well. There are so many different reds in the picture itself that I didn't worry about matching, and tried to use bright, dull, and everything in between shades without fear. The same idea was in mind for the many blues, and it seems to have translated well. Rub on stitching and Queen & Co.'s star shaped rhinestones helped to emphasize our Fourth of July fun.
It doesn't show much in the photo above, but I got really creative with some washi tape fireworks as well. I'll be sure to post an additional entry with my completed left page and a close up of what I think are some of the coolest fireworks amongst my album to date. Thanks for reading today, and don't forget to comment for a chance to win either a die cut or a scrapbook page designed just for you in my Scrapbook Expo contest going through the end of the month.  

Six by Six Series: Episode Two

I'm back today sharing some more from my Six by Six series, all about how to use those awesome miniature versions of our favorite paper collections.

A simple square torn right from the pad makes a great background- as long as your photo is smaller than 4x6... but this idea can be easily interpreted and used for a piece of paper that is about 8x8 inches.

 I have a lot of these because I'm a paper hoarder and often times will cut the back out of my scrapbook pages. What I mean is, that when I'm only using a sheet as the very background layer and the middle will be covered, I just cut that part out. I generally cut in about two or three inches all the way around from my 12 inch sized patterns, leaving me with about a 9x9 or 8x8 square to use on another project.

I'm bad! I even do it for really small pieces of paper. There is something about a beautiful print that gets to my paper cutting heart :-) So what then do I do with those tiny scraps of paper? Well, I've been known on (only) one occasion to go through them all and donate them, but I love to incorporate them somehow.

What I've been doing a lot lately is using them in little border clusters.  A couple strips of paper from the same 6x6 paper pad can help to balance the page, and of course the colors go effortlessly together.

See how I layered a couple pieces behind the top of the green photo mat, as well as under the title block?Check out the bottom left and top right hand corners of this page. This is a fun and funky way to bring some color to the corners of your pages and help the eye travel around.

For more funk, add in a sheet with similar colors from an entirely different collection. You can't tell, but this soft pink on cream is actually from Christmas collection!

If you are having trouble matching cream and white colors together, a simple swipe of ink on the edges will make it easier for the colors to blend together. The ink works really well at distracting the eye from "clashing" colors. Try it on an outfit soon!

I'm off to the library to upload a new video, creating a special card for the grad in your life with items from around the house. So come back and check it out!

I hope you're enjoying this series- I'd love to get your feedback through a comment! & Happy Crafting!

Six by Six Series: Episode One

In this series, I've been exploring different ways to make use of those cute little six by six inch paper pads of patterned paper available from most designers. These miniature replicas of the full sized sheets are perfect for using on your scrapbook pages, as well as on your cards; their smaller sized prints can even help you include somewhat bolder patterns with ease. Another bonus? If you fall in love with a new release but can't justify the purchase price, you can still get the designs you love and not break the bank- or appear to be walking through the door with yet another ream of paper!

Bonus number three? A lot of the collection pads are coming out double sided. Yes, twice as much fun in one small price! Look at how easy it was to just tear out two of the same pattern (green snowflake) from my Jillibean Soup Winter Tortellin & Spinach Soup 6x6 mini pad. This brand actually gives you three sheets of each double sided design, so I had no problem using two sheets for my background. I did have a problem tearing the paper out, but no worries, I just cut it across with my paper trimmer and used my kraft background to create a lovely border. A little inked distressing on the edges, along with a few coordinating stickers from the same company, and my Mommy & Me layout was almost done.

Do you have a problem cutting into a 12x12 sheet of paper... I'm not sure why it is so hard for me but I really struggle with it. With the smaller designs, I don't have that problem at all! See the row of houses that anchors my page? Yes, it was cut from a pint sized sheet as well. Perfectly coordinated embellishment base for my word cluster down there! A few more little houses up at the top help to create that visual triangle, along with the repeated cirlces stickers and typewriter motif.

I'm really pleased with how this page turned out. It was super simple to create, with the die cut circle as a photo mat to break up the very linear design of photo and sticker placement. So many people comment that Sunday is like a little mini-me, and what better way to visually tell that story than with some little mini prints! So how will you use your little darlings? Leave a comment below and come back by my blog to see the rest of my Six by Six series. Happy crafting friends!

Be Still My Heart!

Well in the first year or two of having my blog, I would have thought nothing of a week or two between posts, but now that I'm in the habit of sharing my life with THE WORLD, I actually felt bad for not having put anything up on here since Valentine's! Sorry, world, I know how interested and disappointed you must have been!
All joking aside, I've been terribly busy and had to (gasp) put my crafting on the back table this last month as I pursued the direct selling business sides of my life. On top of that, I was finally able to replace my phone's cracked screen- if you saw it you thought it was horrible and unsafe and remarkable that it would still work. When you replace your phone and all of the pictures were saved on the phone, guess where they stay?! Great lesson in downloading though :-)
I did create quite a few scrapbook pages in the last couple of weeks and I was really inspired to try some new things with my "letter stickers and paper" product challenge. Surprisingly inspired, actually. I had forgotten how easy it can be to simply build on top of a plain background for instance, or how a subtle texture like embossed polka dots can take that plain background to a whole new level of fun!
and my dear little Letter stickers, how I love thee! I love to mix and match your fonts, I love to create letters that I'm lacking out of letters that I won't use i.e. a 'g' turns into an 's' with a simple snip of the scissors, I love to use as many of you as I can to build extremely long titles. My pages were sometimes on the receiving end of no less than five different brands, types, and colors of tiny alphas! So that's something I'll be continuing to play with. Side note: my fixation with filled in letters seems to be waning slightly. But only slightly.

To start of my March on a bright and positive note, guess who is learning to craft by osmosis?! Little Sunday has demonstrated both stamping, with a scrap paper beneath her project for surface protection, as well as sponging edges, glue sticking, sticker application, and tape runner use. All in the last week, and completely unprovoked by me. YESSS! Another successful conversion hahah!

I love the sound of crying to craft in the morning...

So now, on to my March product of the month to work with (drumroll, please)


Stamps!


Check out the new issue of Die Cut Crazy, and may be the creative forces be with you!