Because sometimes you should be a little fearless

The Craft & Hobby Association has blessed me this week by arriving to the good ole Chi!  Though I didn't have an admittance ticket, I stopped by the convention center on Monday night to meet my crew from Charity Wings.  

I've been volunteer blogging for them for almost a year now (crazy!), and this was my first opportunity to meet some of the wonderful people.  

While hanging out, I was offered the chance to take part in a class by a total stranger.  I didn't even blink...I didn't even ask what type of class!  I said:

YES!  

You see, this is my year of WHY NOT!  So...why not?!

Well, as I waited for the class to start, I started to get very, very nervous.  I saw paints, paint brushes, and canvases. I thought: "Oh my...I'm a paper girl...I don't paint!"  But I sat there quietly and listened to what we were about to do.

After two hours of listening to our wonderful teacher describe the order of mixed media layering and techniques on painting, I'm proud to say that I'm actually pleasantly surprised by my progress at the end of the class.

I found myself drawing freely and painting even more freely.  

Mistakes?!  Who cares!  It's paint.....paint OVER it!  

I layered colors and added highlights &shades to the best of my ability.

And at the end of two hours, I can say my girl has a peaceful face.  Not scary....not off scale....not too off color.  Just peaceful.

I guess abandoning fear does have its perks and can result in some fun surprises.

I have a lot to finish here, but I can't wait to get back to this!

My first publication - Cricut Birthdays

Below is the original blog posting I had done on my first magazine submission ever.  Yes, you read that right.  My FIRST submission ever.  Little did I imagine that Cricut would fall in love with this card and notified me that I would be in their Birthday idea book.

Well, I'm on page 73 and here is a quick snapshot of the page.  Below is my original post with all the circut cuts needed to make this card.

Original post
Now that I have officially sent in the submission, I can start to post some of the submissions I made this weekend.  I wanted to try and stand out a bit, so I'm trying to make cards that use phrases in Spanish - can't hurt to be a little unique here, can it?

Well, the first birthday idea I knew I had to try and make was a quinceanera card!  This was my first time trying to use a layering item, so it was a bit tricky to get the sizing right.  I also accidentally hit "real size" which changes the way things are cut out.

Anyway, here is the final card with all the details below!  Let me know if you have any questions...I'll do my best to reply!

I love how cute this looks!  I purposely left out a mouth...I wanted to keep it a little anime like (an homage to my sis).

I used a crown from a different cartridge just so I could use multiple cartridges on one card.  I also really like the ribbon - a total fun find at a recent shopping trip.

How excited was I to finally receive and use these Stampin' Up! Spanish phrases stamps!

Feliz 15 (Quinceanera birthday card)

The celebration of a girl's 15th birthday in Latin American culture symbolizes the transition from childhood into young womanhood. In Mexico, if the teenager is Catholic, the quinceanera celebration begins with a mass in which the birthday girl wears a formal dress (almost like a western wedding dress).  A white dress is usually the most dominant but many girls will add fun embellishments or opt for other colors (silver, pink, blue, etc). 

• Used Cricut Expression machine

Non-Cartridge SuppliesPaper Source - chocolate
The Paper Company Cardstock (starter pack) - Tan, Black, Hot Pink, White
AC Cardstock (Heavy Weight) - white (for underskirt)
Zig memories 2 Way Glue to adhere Our Craft Lounge Crafty Sprinkles in Chunky Crystal
Boutique Fleur Lace Embellishments by Recollections for Sash
Stampin' Up! Frases Basicas - Feliz (stamp)
Versa Color - Bark

Cartridges (with cuts)
Once Upon a Princess (Real Size)

Doll 2-s, 5.5 inches
Doll 2, 5.5 inches (cut twice)
Doll 2 Hair/Layer, 2 inch
Princss1, 4 inches (cut twice)
Prncs2-s, 3.5 inches

Ashlyn's Alphabet

numbers - 1.25 inch
crown, icon, #5 - 0.5 inch

Accent Essentials

Accnt48s - 5 inch

scored in half, inked with Versa Color Bark

Feliz 15 Block
1.5 inch x 1 5/8 inch white block
1 11/16 x 1.75 inch in chocolate block for mounting

Cricut Circle Weekly Challange #36: Fabric Challenge

It's so nice to get back into the swing of things with Cricut Circle.  I love how the weekly challenges force me to be creative.  This week's challenge asked us to incorporate fabric into our projects.

I now have a broken sewing machine, so I haven't bought any fabric in awhile.  Of the remnants that I have on hand, the print was very theme specific, and I didn't want to hack into the fabric for a tiny card or scrapbook layout.

So what was I going to do?

Well...I remembered that I had just gotten some pants back from the tailor.  They are white cotton and needed to be majorly hemmed because I'm short.  Well, thank you heavens for the tailor...they pinned the extra fabric to the hanger when I picked them up.  I'm not really sure what the reasoning is on that, but I'm assuming it's in case they need to add some fabric to the length.  That was so not necessary for me.

Anyway, I grabbed that fabric and stamped an image on it.  I then ran the fabric through my xyron machine....and attached the now sticker fabric onto paper to make it sturdier.  I colored the flowers in with copic markers.  I wasn't ready for the markers to start bleeding...so it looks like I colored outside of the lines sometimes.  Totally fine, of course.  Just not what I expected to happen.

I think inked the edges of the fabric to age it a bit and mounted them onto brown cardstock.

I found some distressed looking paper in my scrap bin and ran with it.  Here is the final creation.

The cricut cuts I used on this 5x5 card were:

Graphically Speaking, Imag48-s, 4.5 inches

Stamping 

SclpFrm1, 3.5 inches

JustBcse, 1.25 inches

I attached the flowers with some dimensional foam, and tied the ribbon around both.  I added a little bling and anchored the card at the right with a 2 inch thick piece of brown cardstock so that I could also keep to the rule of three.  I followed the same rule of three with the bling.

The promised baby picture!

As I was getting ready to post a new creation, I realized I teased everyone with the promise of posting a new pic of baby Jimenez.

Baby Jimenez was supposed to be born on July 3rd...but decided mommy's tummy was way too cozy.

With a planned section, mommy Jimenez was ready to go on the 6th, but baby had many more plans for mom. Without going into major details, let's just say that baby Jimenez refused to go along with mom's plans and came in her own time.

So on July 7th, I was fortunate to meet this little bug...and, OF COURSE, I snuggled her lots.

Baby Roya Grace Jimenez

length: 20 inches

weight: 6 pounds, 11 oz (I think)

It was so nice to meet you, Roya...I can't wait to get to know you!

Adorable baby photo awaits

One of my BFF's is having her baby today!  I have somehow convinced myself that it's a girl, but I'm now starting to think my plans for pink and sparkly wardrobes will be foiled.  Seems like everyone else thinks she's having a little boy.  Including my own dad!

Regardless.....I don't care.  It's another nugget of cuteness to hug and kiss a plenty!

One of my other friends was laughing at me because she says it seems like I'm busting at the seams.  That made me laugh.  I guess I've just been more public with how I feel...via this blog and facebook.  However, I'd like all my other mommy friends to know that I was equally as crazy when they had delivered.  Just ask my coworkers.  I'm a hot mess at work just waiting for the call or text and I'm not even the one delivering!

Because I don't know the sex or name of this baby, I'm feeling so clueless on what baby surprise gift to bring.  So much of the stuff out there is very stereotypically pink or blue, and though I don't hate it all, I'd much more prefer to do something specific.

So I actually think Baby Jimenez might just have to wait (gasp!) for my bday surprise.  I'm shaking my own head in disgust....this is NOT how I like to do things.

I blame the mama :)

July 2011 Card Chain Challenge

I've recently become obsessed with a blog called Lily Pad Cards. I happened upon them accidentally and boy am I glad I did. They have great instructional videos and challenges.  Much of what I've seen so far is so simple to do - all levels of card makers can have fun with their layouts.

For the July 2011 challenge, they gave us several options to play with.  I decided to use their sketch as my guide.

My version opted for a circle instead of an oval because I didn't have anything to make the oval with.  My self cut oval was very lop-sided.  I hope it's okay that I slightly modified it.

Each of the cards created will be added to the card exchange.  People from all over the globe participate in this challenge and I'm eager to see where my card will come from and where the one I created above will go.  I can't wait to see the techniques that others use....so much fun!

Lastly, I just want to thank my high school friend, Erin, for all the paper and supply donation.  unfortunately for her, she gave up the scrapping hobby...but fortunately for me, she remembered I loved to create and passed along the supplies.  This card was created with about 80% of Erin's old supplies.

Cricut Circle Weekly Challenge #35: Patriotic Pride Challenge!

It's been such a long time since I have devoted some creative effort to the weekly challenges at the Cricut Circle.  I've been so consumed and obsessed with my friend's wedding and then my other friend's baby shower, that I sort of let the Cricut Circle sit there.

Never fear - I'm back!

Baby Jimenez is coming to the world tomorrow (!!!!) and I can't wait to start creating some fun stuff for him/her.  I'm actually starting to feel really bad for my other friends and family as I didn't own a Cricut when their munchkins were born.  I might have to start planning for things I can make the rest of the crew this year. 

Anyway, this week's challenge was to show our patriotic pride.  I wanted to make sure I got this done in time, so I made a quick card that was inspired by a Lily Pad Cards blog posting.

Super easy to make and the final result has a lot of texture and character!

1. First I cut three strips of white paper - 1 1/4 inch x 5 1/8 inch
2. I embossed each strip with white powder using a stamp set from Clear Stamps - Autumn Leaves Scribbles Hearts & Stars.
3. I blended dye inks on each of the strips....lighter colors of each.  I used a mixture of Tim Holtz ranger inks and some of the Classic stamp pads from Stampin' Up!
4. Using foam dimensionals, I adhered the strips to a white block of paper - 4 1/8 in x 5 3/8 inch
5. I tied a piece of thin white ribbon to the bottom strip at the lower right hand side

I then added some quick Cricut embellishments to finish off the card.  These are the cuts and cartridges I used.

Storybook
EverAftr - Accent Blackout - 3 inches

Stamping
Happy Birthday saying (only used the Happy) - 2 inches

Heritage
Tree4 - Word - 1 inch

simple wedding card

I recently joined a group that gets together to make purchases from a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. This group of women has been getting together for many, many, many years and they've taken a very interesting twist on their gatherings.

While the primary intent is to make purchases from the demonstrator, we also agree to make cards (of that month's theme) to swap.  I'm behind on my cards a bit and decided I needed to do a little catch up. 

Two months ago, our theme was weddings. Now, the group often laughs at me because I tend to make cards that are pretty tedious.  When I found my source of inspiration, I thought this is super simple!

This is the cute card I found on-line that I wanted to try and replicate.

Looks relatively simple, doesn't it.  Well, of course I didn't have these exact stamps and punches, so I had to improvise.  While kitty sitting on Saturday for a friend, I took the liberty of snooping at all her stamps and found these amazing lace doily stamps!  I am sooooo going to need to buy this set.  I love it!

I loved the stamp results, but I didn't quite account for all the fussy cutting that this would involve.  Fussy cutting is when you pick a particular design (on a fabric or piece of paper) and painstakingly detail cut that image around. In this case, I cut out all the doilies.  Oh my!

However, I think the final result was well worth the "simplistic" overall look of the card.

The cute Happy I Do Day stamp is a Stampin' Up! item....so happy I bought that set :)

Here is my final version of the card.

Lily Pad Cards - a great source for fun and global inspiration!

I became a Member of Lily Pad Cards today! 

Go become a member for a chance to win a collection of Hero Arts stamps. Contest closes at 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday, July 15!

They have some cool challenges and prizes and they have an incredible global card swap.  How fun!  I can't wait to see where I'll be mailing my card to and what I'll get. Am looking forward to the new source of inspiration!