The Pezza Way

Hi all!

I know I know - I announce I got a new Cricut Explore and then drop RIGHT off the face of the earth and leave you all hanging!  I will be getting to that and some other new things too but right now I am in the middle of snow day hell!  We have had some brutally cold weather and some snow in our area (DC Metro) and it doesn't take much of that to shut the whole place down!  Pez went to school for ONE partial day in the last week so that makes for precious little mommy time.  Especially being special needs and extremely high maintenance!  Having raised the boys in MO I get a little frustrated with the seemingly needless closing of school when we were all perfectly able to go to school in the midwest and even got BLASTED on Facebook (on my own wall for God sakes - IS NOTHING SACRED?) for thinking kids should go to school when they can - apparently that makes me a bad mother but whatever.  It appears there are alot of parents in my area who simply cannot be bothered to take their walkers to school when the weather is bad - perhaps they shouldn't have had kids?  I guess it is part and parcel with the heavy sense of entitlement unique to this area.  I haven't seen it much in the other places I have lived and I have lived alot of places!  Anyway, I don't know why this one person got so angry with me, it really doesn't matter how any of us feel about snow days - we gotta do what we are told and no matter whether they cancel or don't a good half of the parents will get angry.  Luckily I don't let people get to me too much these days.  Perhaps they just needed a whipping post - meh.  I know my life is good and I am a good parent!

SO on the subject of snow days - I ave been doing all sorts of stuff to keep Pezza occupied and I even got her into the studio for awhile a couple days ago.  She is still a Tim Holtz girl at heart though she has grown alot since he put THIS VIDEO of her on his blog (she was 3 at the time).  Here is her latest page:

She began by layering on some Distress Inks - she has her own of the little cubes now but only a few colors so far.  She really wants me to get her a whole set of all of them so she doesn't have to use mommy's.  Next she wanted some shimmer mist in pink so I mixed some up using water, Gum Arabic and Pink Azalea ColourArte Primary Elements.

Next she smeared on some modeling paste through a stencil - this diamond stencil is one of the first ones I ever got from The Crafter's Workshop and it's still both our favorite!  While the paste was still wet she sprinkled on some red Distress Glitter and Pink Gala Glitz.

The two multi-heart shapes are a die she got at a show last year - the open heart one is paper with Distress Ink, the more solid one is red crafting foil and she wanted to leave all the small heart cut outs in so it was more of an embossed look.  The bottom 2 hearts are ones she made after reading the July 12 tags post on Tim's blog.  She did complete another project to enter for the July Tag HERE.  Sure wish I had the money to invest in all the Tim Holtz products like I used to!

She is entering her project in the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - Think Pink.

Next up she is hoping to do Tim's current 12 tag challenge for Feb.

I am sneaking in wee bits of time in the studio here and there and hope to have some good stuff to post about this week including a DT announcement, a mixed media video (trying to get back to doing videos as my YouTube page still seems to be quite traveled....) and Cricut Explore info/updates.  I have several neighbors interested in scrapbooking together and we will be getting together for the first time tomorrow so I will get some things done then for sure!

Stay warm!

Live Now!

Hi all!

Pezza's challenge piece turned out so nicely I just had to make one myself to enter into the following challenges

• Tim Holtz 12 tags - July
• Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - Around the House
• Pile It On - Embossing

I don't do tags so instead I incorporated my smaller piece into a larger page sized to fit in my 8 x 8 loose leaf journal I have been making in my Journal Soup class with Kate Crane.  I followed Tim's tutorial as closely as I could - I was lacking a few products as he comes out with products far faster than my budget can keep up with now that I don't work!

My base page background followed his background and then I added a bit more to it by stamping with bubble wrap and distress paint, then I sponged embossing ink through sequin waste and sprinkled on Distress Embossing Powder for a nice tone on tone effect.  Finally, I took the leftover gritty goop mix (the "sand" in his tutorial) and I spread that through the same sequin waste.  I am quite pleased!

Here is a closer look at the main part - that Rock Candy crackle followed by Distress Stain is fantastic!  For the "around the House" challenge I have used the packaging from an embossing folder for my embossed plastic layer and I tied my metal tag on with kitchen twine I used to use to stake my gladiolas.  The Live Now tag is perfect - I am a live in the now type and my poor hubby is a plan for the future type so we tend to drive each other nuts!  But there is a good reason opposites attract - we balance each other out.

This was my first time playing with the Distress Glitter - I love how it sparkles in the "tree branch" goop I made.  I am thinking I need the rest of the colors - it is quite deelish!  If there is anyone who would like some Distress Embossing powder super cheap let me know - I still have several jars of colors in the inventory left from my store and would be willing to part with it quite cheaply!

Thanks for having a look!  Let me know what you think as I love to get comments.  Did anyone else participate in either of these challenges?

key keeper

hi all!

i thought it was about time to take down the thanksgiving banner decorations and decorate for christmas - with digi elements from my most fave digi designer kimberly stewart at scrapbook elements.

yesterday hubby and i took pezza to the christmas parade here in town - a bit of smalltown americana :)  it was the first one we have gone to even though we have been here 7 years.  my neighbor convinced me to go - she said they do a really good job and it's a really long one with lots of groups that participate - dogs, horses, bands, they throw candy, etc.  so i thought huh, i guess we should check it out.  now, i grew up in south louisiana - with HEAVY mardi gras participation.  needless to say this was NOT mardi gras scale.  then again - what is.  BTW mardi gras is something i believe EVERY person should experience at least once in their life.  BUT it was still a good little small town parade and pezza had a great time which is all that counts.  we just happened to set up near another of our neighbors that she likes to play with so they were all happy to be near each other.  the funniest part was the focus on the candy - grabbing up candy (the throwing was far less than a mardi gras parade too!)  i kept trying to get her to focus on the "floats" and stuff - at one point i said honey we can buy a bag of candy at target - seriously.  but nope - the joy of the mad scramble was too much for her.  well except for the moment when she grabbed a snickers bar, looked at it and threw it back out in the road!  hubby was like hey!  i like those!  so while it wasn't mardi gras it was fun and i think we will have to go to the other ones they do during the year.

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before we get to my project i wanted to plug the next Color Me Creative challenge - these have always been for copics but suzanne & i would like to get a challenge going for those of us who are pencil users.  so for now she is allowing us to join in on the cmc challenge and the timing is perfect because she has put together an amazing list of prizes for the holiday challenge!  these include a cricut mini and kindle fire!  the challenge is to use white, gold and cream.  get all the details - CMC Challenge.

i will post my project for tomorrow!

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ok on to my project for today - i have been wanting to make a new key keeper/hanger for near the front door.  i made two which i hated and finally got one i liked:

i started with a blank wood plaque from Michaels and some really cool metal objects i picked up at hobby lobby - love that place!  i took cream colored paper and stamped with a large script background stamp in black.  next i stamped some flourishes with versamark and covered them in clear embossing powder.  then i covered the paper with various distress inks using the foam blending tool. then i stamped a few floral images with aged mahogany distress ink.

next i took a couple more tim holtz stamps and stamped the two circles and the saying (a fave of mine) and added those.  the keyhole and grungeboard key are also tim holtz.  the key is covered in perfect pearls.

the fleur de lis door knob and big metal flourish are the pieces from hobby lobby.

i also found a fleur de lis in my stash of chipboard so i colored it with distress ink and stamped it with one of tim's flourish stamps.  i mod podged my background paper to the wood before adding the elements.  the edges are painted a sage green and then covered in aged mahogany crackle paint.  i think it turned out pretty good - what do y'all think?  i'd like to do some more, larger, mixed media projects for around the house.

TH tags - tag 1 black cat style

hi all!

the weatherman is talkin' snow!  yay! oh i hope i hope i hope!  i LOVE snow!  maybe not 5' like a couple years ago but enough to blanket the whole area in sparkling white drifts is always nice.  i was watching the weather in my chiropractor's office - i am hoping he can do something to get rid of these headaches.  at this point i don't go one full day without excruciating pain although the issue of my hand going numb has improved since the first visit last week.  i was even able to color some images with no numbness at all!  but those are not in today's post - you have to wait a few more days.  they have videos to go with them that need approval from FaveCrafts first!

i have been watching tim holtz's 12 tags again this year like i have done since the first year he did them. the first year's tags were always my fave until this years - i am really liking them!  i have not been able to do many of them over the years but i do try and get a couple in and it is one of the kinds of things i wanted to have time for again when i gave up all my design team positions.  however, i don't have any of his stuff - no winter distress inks, no xmas embossing folders, no xmas dies, no kraft core paper.....well you get the idea.  it's not that i don't desperately want them but until i win the lottery i have to narrow down my shopping list.  and so i had to make do but i am actually quite happy with the end result for TAG 1:

in case you are not following tim here is his tag 1:

for starters i made a card instead of a tag that i will be sending out.  i did not have the kraft core cardstock so i started with regular blue cardstock and this cool snowflake embossing folder i dug out - no idea when or where it's from.  anyway, i put versamark on the embossing folder, embossed and then added white embossing powder.  my first try i followed tim's directions - some areas were totally covered and others had just speckles of powder and i really liked that so i started over.  this time instead of dumping on the white embossing powder i sprinkled it so i had more of a snow flurry speckled look.

next, the little pine cone cluster and glittered die cut noel.  i did not have any of these items and i wanted it to be flat anyway for mailing.  after considering several options i decided to go with a cute tree branch with a bird house from the Winter Re-Tweet  cut file at My Scrap Chick - cut with my Black Cat of course!

i still wanted a bit of the "cluster" look so i added a stack of die-cut felt, fabric yoyo, glittered skittle and a fabulous flourish by Make It Crafty from SCACD.  i gave the snowy cuts a dose of stickles and the flourish is covered by bundled sage distress ink and bundled sage distress stickles.

i am hoping i get another one done tomorrow!

bubba kitten has been up to no good as most kittens are.  he has quite a vicious battle going on with the roll of paper towels in my studio:

and then there was round 2:

which as you can see thoroughly exhausted him and he had to nap.  luckily these are the paper towels in my art studio so i can still use them - i just pick up some shreds from the pile...good thing he is so stinkin' adorable!

etsy inspired and totally tim!

***REMINDER***

DT call going on now - click HERE for the details and see how you can apply!!!!!

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i just love Ashley's etsy inspired challenges and i am SO happy when i am able to participate in one! the etsy shop this week is Expressing You and they sell fantastic vinyl wall decor. i don't know that any ONE piece inspired me it was sort of a combination of the modern one with big flowers and the branches and leaves and nature themes in general.....anyway - i had this wooden frame that has been on my table for more than a week that i wanted to make for my dad. it was all crackle painted and i had the digi page done and printed but i just could not decide what to do on the frame and then i browsed Expressing You and here is where it led me:

it is a gift for my dad for his bday *SHHHH Paula don't tell* - and yes it has flowers which is not manly but the focus of the picture makes it ok i think :)

the pics are my grandparents and my dad as a child back in 1940s Cuba before it all came crashing down. the digi elements are from flerg's strawberry delight over at scrapbook graphics - LOVE LOVE LOVE them.

i had SO MUCH fun doing this - a total first for me - i may just have to do more *hybrid* stuff!

i started by painting the entire wood frame from Michaels with a Mushroom paint dabber. Then i covered the front with a thick layer of Crackle Paint in Old Paper.

i crocheted the flowers myself and used a few Sands of Time Bead pops *AKA skittles* for the centers.

Then came the Grungeboard - i got the letters from the plain minis set and the ferns from the Nature Set, embossed the ferns with my cuttlebug and painted them all with a Lettuce Paint Dabber. Once dry I rubbed over the embossing with Tim's sanding grip and then sponged on vintage photo distressed ink to the exposed grungeboard.

now i don't know about anyone else but i NEVER seem to have enough grungeboard swirls. so i got a Hello Kitty sizzix bigz die that has swirls and flowers the last time i was in Joanns and it worked perfectly! i painted them with the mushroom paint dabber and then covered them with worn lipstick distress stickles and the letters with scattered straw distress stickles.

this bottom corner has my Butterflies A Flutter stamped in archival black ink which looks cool over the crackle paint.

and in a last flurry of tim holtz inspired creating i FINALLY finished this bday scrapbook title for one of the girls over on scrapping friends. they have a wishing well board which is just THE most awesome idea EVER and she was looking for a birthday item for a teenage boy - boys/men can be so tough once you can't get away with cutesy!

anyway i came up with this based loosley on a 12 tags of 2008 tutorial:

i started with black textured cardstock and stamped my pezadoodle cobblestone background all over in versamark. covered that with clear embossing powder and heated to melt. once it was cool i covered the whole thing with a lettuce paint dabber. when it was dry i wiped over it with a slightly damp paper towel so the paint would come off of the embossing. i punched out various style letters from the grungeboard alpha set and covered them really well with distress stickles in faded jeans, scattered straw and peeled paint. once dry i inked the edges with tea dye distress ink. the 13 is from the Seasonal grungeboard set and run through the cuttlebug distressed stripes embossing folder then sponged with faded jeans distress ink. the party shapes are cut with the celebrations cricut cartridge - the blue is SEI velvet paper which really adds to the overall look.


so what do you think???? does it work for a BOYS 13th bday page?????

SFYTT plus tutorial alcohol inks (and a cute story)....

SO before i get into the fun post i have for you today i have a cute story for ya. once upon a time things like starbucks were a luxury i could NEVER afford - since that's changed i hit starbucks at every opportunity and now of course so does Pezzy - my little Partner in Crime. well daddy takes pezzy every saturday and sunday morning and yesterday he took her out with him to run some errands. so i get a phone call and he says "what have you been teaching our daughter?" and i think uh oh.....by the third one you get so lax you know....so i said what happened? well one of their stops was target (all of our targets have a starbucks in them). so they pull in and get out and she says DADDY! i need to get me a blueberry scone! hee heeee that's my GIRL!!


ok one to the real reason you vist me with me every day - a card! i used Jen's Sketch For You To Try for this one ->





i also did one of Tim Holtz's 12 tags of christmas - this technique is from day 2 (yes i am VERY behind!!!) - so here is my card:

Rather than doing tags i have cut some shapes out with my nesties and am using those in place of tags and then i will mount them on cards, LOs as titles or other christmas gift items. you can get ALL of t!m's goodies at the store!

i have to say this technique is AMAZING!!!! in fact the alcohol ink background is so friggin awesome i HAD to do more of them AND make a quick tutorial to share at least that protion of the tag with you for those of you that are not tim obssessed like me *grins*


here are the two blue and silver backgrounds i made. i also made a large green and gold one and a red and copper one. however my batteries died in my camera :P you will see them in upcoming projects though!

your supplies are pretty simple - if you like alcohol inks you will already have these things on hand. you need 3-5 colors of alcohol inks - be sure not to pick colors that make mud when mixed! i stayed within color families for these but may get more adventurous next time. you also need one metallic mixative, blending solution and glossy cardstock. start by dropping several drops of metallic mixative onto your craft sheet. (not too much) this was for a 6x6 piece of paper.

next add your colors - keep drops of colr grouped together so i went from dark to light - dark drops across the top area, next lightest color across the middle, next lightest color beneath and lightest color across the bottom.

next squirt a little blending solution around - the more you use the lighter your intensity of color.

now just lay your glossy cardstock face down and sort of twist it or move it a bit in a small circle to get the alcohol ink spread over the paper. grab one corner and sort of lift/slide your paper up off the mat to streak the color.

wah la! gorgeous background! for added fun dip a toothbrush into more metallic mixative, hold it over your paper and rub it with a needle to flick specks of color across the area.

it hink i could make these all day!!! the nice thing about glossy cardstock instead of photo paper - your colors will be more vibrant AND you can stamp and then emboss on the glossy cardstock which is what i did above on the card!

i hope y'all try this one!!!!!!

**SCREECH**

SO not only am i going to be at CHA for the first time in January, and not only will i be launching/displaying a secret surprise there......i got into the class with TIM HOLTZ!!!!!!!!! oh if you could see the happy dancing i have been doing!!!!!!!! if you have followed me for long you'll know i love his stuff and his techniques. but to get to take a class from the master himself!!!!!!!!!

and boy oh boy does ranger have a good one for us this winter but my lips are sealed. i wonder what OTHER goodies they may have up their sleeve.........my DT girl Cat is staying with me and hopefully my friend Suzanne altho she is scared because she knows how early i get up!!!!!

we will have posts straight from the show to keep you up to date!
hugs
M

oh can you feel the excitement??!!!!

that's right folks!!! T!m Holtz is doing it again! starting TOMORROW he will post one tutorial a day for 12 days - each tutorial is guarranteed to be FILLED with incredible techniques and tips on how to use the fabulous Ranger products he is known for. Last year's were truly stunning and i learned things i have used constantly ever since.

in addition i will be scrambling to put together kits for each tag at a 10% discount PLUS free shipping is still in effect!

SO BE SURE TO CHECK TIM OUT!!!! and then get your goodies and PLAY!!

more t!m inspired playtime!

two more t!m tags today! these are SO much fun!! this first one is Tag #8 from last years 12 tags of christmas tutorials:

this next one was the november technique challenge on t!m's blog:i will be hanging out with a couple of my stamping friends tomorrow,melissa, suzanne and christine - can't wait! it's always fun!

don't forget to enter my blog tart drawing for a bracket grungeboard book.

HOLY COW a tutorial!!!! PURE halloween distress!

That's right! i am finally back to doing some tutorials for y'all! today's is actually the October technique challenge issued by T!m Holtz over on his blog - that man is just inCREDible!! he did a tag as usual so i expanded on it and came up with these little goodies:

these are jars i am going to fill with hallowen nonsense and send to my brother and his friend. i think they will get a kick out of them. we will be using crackle paint - an amazing product that i just adore!!

Let's gather supplies: Crackle paint (only one color is necessary but i did several projects at once), cardstock, stamps, black soot distress ink, coordinating colors of distress ink (two is nice to use as opposed to one), foam ink blending tool, black paint dabber, fragments charm (brand spankin' new!), patterned paper, glossy accents, brad or eyelet, ribbon or fiber, stickles, grungeboard - all of these items can be found on my website except for paper and ribbon.

Start by painting on the crackle paint - it will take awhile to dry. Shake the paint well and then paint it on with the brush cap - just cover SOME of your cardstock - not all of it. Put it on a little thick so the cracks are nice and noticeable - i don't find it curls my paper too badly once it is glued down. i did gift bags too which will be a project posted later this week....

i did two pieces of cardstock and two bags. The top one uses shabby shutters and dusty concord. this one uses antique linen and black soot.

next let's do our fragment so it can dry. these come in a package with a wide variety of shapes and sizes. choose one that fits nicely over a portion of your patterned paper you want to highlight. squirt some glossy accents on the back of your fragment.

Place the piece over the patterned paper and press down from the center out gently - wiggle it a bit if necessary - so there are no air bubbles. Let it dry and then trim it out.

Also - optional - choose some grungeboard (i used "boo" letters but the seasonal set has some great halloween ones too. color your grungeboard - you can ink it directly with an ink pad, cover it in stickles, paint it, use perfect pearls shimmer mist and let dry if necessary.

Once the crackle paint is completley dry choose a couple ink colors and blend them over the unpainted portions of your cardstock. it doesn't matter if you get it on the paint too. the best way to use this tool is to dab it on the ink pad, then start off the edge of your piece on the craft sheet and begin rubbing in a circular motion with light pressure. gradually move onto your cardstock.

Next stamp you background stamps with black soot distress ink. using a slightly damp paper towel GENTLY rub the stamped image off of the painted areas:



Ink your main image(s) with the black paint dabber - rub across to knock the peaks of paint down. stamp it.

Last step - using the foam ink blending tool again - rub vintage photo distress ink or similar dark brownish color along all the edges. use a distressing tool along the edges for added distress look if you want.

Here is a close up of one of the jars.

Attach your fragment charm with ribbon or fiber using a brad or an eyelet. glue grungeboard pieces on.

To make the jar i attached my paper pieces with mod podge and used alcohol ink on the plastic lids.

crackle paint is GREAT stuff but especially for halloween!! i am hoping to get a wooden halloween plaque done using it too.........

i hope you enjoy this project -if you choose to do it i hope you come back and share a link with me so i can see it!! remember all of these great products can be found at http://www.pezadoodle.com/ !!