Scary Class at the Paper Niche

I was so happy that I had the chance to take this class at the Paper Niche on Tuesday. It's the "Scary home decor" with Barbara. What a fun and inspiring class. Barbara taught us her techniques to decorate simple wood letters with paint, paper and embellishments to create this "scary" sign. She also introduced UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel) and glass etching. I had never worked with UTEE before, but after this class I know my next purchase will be a melting pot and UTEE, it is so simple to use but is so versatile to create embellishments.

If you are free on Saturday the 16th, Barbara is offering this class again from 9am - 1pm at the Paper Niche. Log on to www.paperniche.com for more information on this and all the other classes offer in October.

P.S. After class stop by the Ft. Lauderdale Christian School's Annual Craft Fair, my company, The Water Bottle Soap Co. will be there from 9am - 4pm. Shop early for the holidays and support local businesses.

The long awaited post . . .

I know, I know it's truly been a long while since I have posted anything on my blog. So here is the long awaited post. I was hard at work creating my ultimate masterpiece with some help from my Hubby.

~*Ta-Da*~
We're expecting a son, Darin Augustino, in February. We are truly blessed and cannot wait till he arrives. So as you can see my absence was with good reason.
More creations are soon to come . . . not necessarily babies (we see how the first one goes) but the more traditional paper, paint, wood, glue kind.

Oh yeah . . . Well I craft!

It's been a good minute since I have posted anything on my blog. Here's what I have been up to in the past few weeks. I'm still experimenting in photoshop to create scrapbooking papers. I created a couple inspired by Twilight, however truth be told I have yet to read a book or watch a movie about this teen vampire saga. I'll have to check out my on demand feature on my TV to watch the movie.

A new outlet I have found is decorative Dog Tags. I have a beautiful one with Marilyn Monroe on it, and I was inspired to create one of my own. Thanks to the candy bar at the Paper Niche, here is my decorative Dog Tag.

I started with drops of White, Metallic Silver and Black paint and swirled it on the tag. After it was dried I added my different rhinestone and metal flowers and arranged them in a cascade down the tag. I adhered them with 3M Metal glue. Once they were secured on the tag I dipped the whole thing in clear varnish, brushing off the access and making sure that every nook was covered. Let that dry completely, add a jump ring and you have your own custom made dog tag. It is a bit lighter than my Marilyn one but I love the way it came out and for under $5.00 to create you can't go wrong.

Cropping and such

A couple of weekends ago I attended my first crop at the Paper Niche. It was a lot of fun but I was a bit stumped for creativity since I had pushed myself the night before to make soap and update my website. Never the less I took the opportunity to use the papers that I designed ( featured in previous posts). I think these two pages came out cute.

Flowers, bling and ribbon courtesy of the Paper Niche. The butterfly: Cricut die cut, Martha Stewart flock in peony. Papers of course by me.

I should be packing . . .

. . . but what am I doing? Crafting of course. To add to my previous post I created new background pages. The blue and purple pages were inspired by the Michael Buble concert that the Hubs treated me to last week. What an amazing show and his stage set up was beautiful. There were 4-6 screens that would come together and break apart during each song. They would feature images of him or other animations that went along with the mood of the songs. But this particular song and the staging really inspired me to create these two pages. The other two are vintage inspired.

Why I say I should be packing . . . the Hubs and I are moving to Margate.

Enjoy the pages.

Danger, Danger

So I bought this Digi -Scrap booking "How To" book today and I think I have lost my mind. It is so cool to learn about all the things you can do in a digital format. There are different exercises outlined in the book but the one I had to try was to make my own background papers.

"What, your own background page? Shut up!"

Yes, I say. You learn how to use layers, brushes, actions and clip art to make scrap booking papers. Take a look at the ones I have done do far.

The danger lies in the fact that I can create these "papers" and lose track of time. I have a new outlet to the creativity well. Darn the Aztecs and their invention called time. . . lol.

A real labor of Love

Picture it, 2 Sundays ago. It was a lazy day and I spent most of it cleaning my craft area (really the dining area) I packed away all my stamps and Cricut stuff, etc. I finally had a clean dining table! Once I was done I asked the Hubs what he would like to do. "Nothing really , just watch the race." he said. "Fine by me, we can relax at home." I replied. Three minutes into the race I brought back out the stamps, glue, papers and warmed up the computer. Thus began my labor of love.

11 months ago our family was blessed by a baby girl named Anna Grace (I gave her Grace) she is my niece and the darling of the family. She is the muse that inspired my Canvas Frame box. Keeping to a simple color pallet of greens, pinks and white, using techniques that I have learned from reading and from my friends and co-workers, I began the mission of this project.

Of course I used my coupons and bought embellishments on sale and with my discount. I love how this came out. Each page of the book was created by taking smaller collages and then putting them together in to larger pieces. I printed the photos from home and trimmed them to size. I used a myriad of chalk, embossing, stamping and flocking on each page and piece. The box itself is was decorated with flowers, chalk and embossing. I especially like the was the gold tone handle and hinges accent the colors.


I almost hate to give this away, I made it with the intent to give it to my Brother and Sister in-law to commemorate Anna's first birthday in April. We will see how that goes. It really was a pleasure to see how this project developed. I have to say I am really proud of how it came out. I hope when Anna gets older she can appreciate how much time and love was poured in to it.