BPS Self-Paced Project: "Permission to live a Creative Life"

I was very drawn to the class due the fact that I like non traditional scrapbooking project.  The fact that i was putting off doing the dishes and instead searching on BPS's website for a new class and found this one proved that it was the perfect class.  It's simply a book that put together so that when you are feeling guility about being creative you can look through it and remind yourself its ok.

Title Page

Page #1: Creative Creed

Page #2: Write a Letter to Yourself...“When I feel guilty for creating.”


Page #3: Creative Quotes

Page #4: Fill Your Creative Tank

BPS Class: "52 Card Pick Up" - Week #2

Technique #6: Creating an Instant Quickie Collage!

Technique #7: Brayer Uses
Technique #8: Adding Texture to Acrylic Paint

Technique #9: Cupcake flags...using our scrapbook supplies!! Crazy, I know!

Technique #10: Creating distressed and weathered paper

Scraplifted Recipes - I WON!!!!!!

This week American Crafts (http://americancrafts.typepad.com/) is holding a scraplift challenge.  The challenge is to take a previous card or layout from the American Crafts' Studio Blog and make it your own.  This is perfect for this big project I have been working on for some time now.  A while back I ran across Holly's "Food In Jars Mini Book" (http://americancrafts.typepad.com/studio/2009/09/food-in-jars-mini-book.html).  I liked the idea of using American Crafts' Craft Fair line to record those memorable recipes within a family.  I knew one altered child's board book would not be enough to hold all my recipes I decided to alter a journal binder instead (see "Halloween Idea Book" for another altered binder).  It's still a work in progress, I am going through my numerous binders and boxes of old recipes and deciding which ones to put in the book.

                           

Supplies: American Crafts-  Paper - Craft Fair; Remarks - Fruit(Color & Chestnut/Leaf), Veggies Journaling (Color); Minimarks - Market Accents, Cafe Accents, Berry Special Phrases; Thickers - Patchwork Accents (Bubblegum), Daiquiri Green;  Ribbon - Crochet; Stamps - Ginger Small, Abode Washer; Stamp Markers and Memory Markers

OMG!..... I WON THE CHALLENGE

http://americancrafts.typepad.com/studio/2010/06/spotlight-on-melanie-louette-spotlight-week-challenge.html

BPS Class: "52 Card Pick Up" - Week #1

Technique #1:  Resist Technique with Acrylic Paint and Embossing Powder

Technique #2: 3-D Flower Embellishments

Technique #3: Patterned Paper Scrap Mosaic

Technique #4: Journaling from the Past

Technique #5: Clear Button Techniques

What a fun week this was!  I am really enjoying this class.  Too bad no assignments on the weekend, can't till monday.

#24.Read all "30 Books everyone should read before their 30th birthday"

1. "Siddhartha" - Hermann Hesse
2. "1984" - George Orwell
3. "To Kill A Mockingbird" - Harper Lee
4. "A Clockwork Orange" - Anthony Burgess
5. "For Whom The Bell Tolls" - Ernest Hemingway
6. "Ware and Peace" - Leo Tolstoy
7. "The Rights of Man" - Tom Paine
8. "The Social Contract" - Jean-Jacques Rousseau
9. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
10. "The Origin of Species" - Charles Darwin (5/29/10-)
11. "The Wisdom of Desert" - Thomas Merton
12. "The Tipping Point" - Malcolm Galdwell
13. "The Wind in the Willows" - Kenneth Graham
14. "The Art of War" - Sun Tzu
15. "The Lord of the Rings" - J.R.R. Tolkien
16. "David Copperfield" - Charles Dickens
17. "Four Quartets" - T.S. Eliot
18. "Catch-22" - Joesph Heller
19. "The Great Gatsby" - F. Scott Fitzgerald
20. "The Catcher in the Rye" - J.D. Salinger
21. "Crime and Punishment" - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
22. "The Prince" - Niccolo Machiavelli
23. "Walden" - Henry David Thoreau
24. "The Republic" - Plato
25. "Lolita"
26. "Getting Things Done" - David Allen
27. "How To Win Friends and Influence People" - Dale Carnegie
28. "Lord of the Flies" - William Golding
29. "The Grapes of Wrath" - John Steinbeck
30. "The Master and Margarita" - Mikhail Bulgakov

BPS Class: "52 Card Pick Up" - Orientation Week

I am taking an online workshop from Big Picture Scrapbooking, http://www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com/ . This is the first workshop i have every taken online for scrapbooking.  It was moderately priced, only $52, but i found a $5 coupon (use code: ilovesbc).  It is an 11 week long course, consisting of 52 assignments (one per weekday, with a couple of days off).  In the end the workshop will create 52 different techniques/tips/etc. to help with creativity when scrapbooking.  Looking through the supply list (not all listed are traditional scrapbooking supplies) I am sure this will be an exciting journey.  I am so ready to start, and that i did.  I am in the middle of the orientation week where we create the basis for our card deck.  I am still missing a couple of items from the master supply list, but they will be ordered monday after I make a trip to Michaels to find some stuff locally.  Here is my (almost complete) assignment:

Supplies: Basic Cardstock, American Crafts Patterned Paper: Teen Line, American Crafts Ribbon: BFF  & Kiss, American Crafts Thickers: Tiara Taffy, Cupid White, Daiquiri Green, and Sprinkles Blue.

I can't wait for Week One!

"Tiger Congrats"

Spring Time usually means graduations in our family.  This year was extra special because a dear friend of mine graduated from LSU this week.   CONGRATS MADDIE!  Here was her card.  American Crafts trifold cards were perfect size to make this card into a graduation hat with a little note inside.

Supplies: American Crafts trifold card, black; American Crafts Thickers, cream soda, purple; American Crafts Memory Markers, Lavender;  Various patterned papers.  PaperStudio spare parts, brads.  Joliees' stickers, yellow tassel.

"Halloween Idea Book"

I really like the idea of Holly's post on American Crafts' Blog with the "Idea Book" for Halloween so I made myself one.   My family throws a big Halloween party every year on the 31st and I am always coming across ideas to decorate, make and bake.  The book will hold all these clippings together, so when it gets closer to Halloween this year i know where everything is instead of frantically searching on the Internet at the last minute for stuff i found months ago.  


Here is how the journal binder started......bought from TJ Maxx for $3.99

I took the dividers that came with the binder and covered them to use a the pockets in the Idea Book.
Here is how it looks completed.  I used eyelets to re-enforce the holes..........

Supplies: American Crafts Patterned Paper - Full Moon, Magic Spells, Transylvania, Friday The 13th, Sleepy Hollow, Bump In the Night, Wicked, Costume Party, Midnight, All Hallows Eve, Boogieman, Horror; Black Cardstock; AC Thickers - Daydream, black; AC Minimarks - Edgar, Potion Accents, Cauldron Accents; K & Company Grand Adhesions - HW Character, HW Haunted House, HW Skeleton; We R Memory Keepers - eyelets, bronze


Links to printed ideas found on the internet:
Breadstick bones: http://www.pillsbury.com/Recipes/PrintRecipe.aspx?rid=16018
Witches' Brew Punch: http://www.pillsbury.com/Recipes/PrintRecipe.aspx?rid=44564
Witches' Brooms and Sauce: http://www.pillsbury.com/Recipes/PrintRecipe.aspx?rid=45785
Witches' Broom Snacks: http://www.pillsbury.com/Recipes/PrintRecipe.aspx?rid=37973
Witches' Brew: http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/witches-brew-for-kids-65967.aspx?pf=true
Spooky Spiders: http://www.pillsbury.com/Recipes/PrintRecipe.aspx?rid=15300
Taco Monster Mouths: http://www.pillsbury.com/Recipes/PrintRecipe.aspx?rid=44578
Skewered Worms: http://www.pillsbury.com/Recipes/PrintRecipe.aspx?rid=45764
Scarecrow Cookies: http://www.pillsbury.com/Recipes/PrintRecipe.aspx?rid=37964
Skeleton and Brain Dip: http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/skeleton-brain-dip-65180.aspx?pf=true
Melted Witch Pudding Cups: http://www.pillsbury.com/Recipes/PrintRecipe.aspx?rid=41939
Peanut Butter Pumpkins: http://www.pillsbury.com/Recipes/PrintRecipe.aspx?rid=37965
Mummy Dogs: http://www.pillsbury.com/Recipes/PrintRecipe.aspx?rid=16015
Marshmellow Mummies: http://www.pillsbury.com/Recipes/PrintRecipe.aspx?rid=37963
Halloween Soup: http://www.pillsbury.com/Recipes/PrintRecipe.aspx?rid=16005
Frankenstein's Monster Toes: http://www.pillsbury.com/Recipes/PrintRecipe.aspx?rid=45768
Easy Ghosts Cookies: http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/easy-ghost-cookies-54288.aspx?pf=true
Crabby Snake coils: http://www.pillsbury.com/Recipes/PrintRecipe.aspx?rid=44554
Bubbling Cauldron Cheese Dip: http://www.pillsbury.com/Recipes/PrintRecipe.aspx?rid=45784



I am in the process of creating a Recipe binder of those favorite meals that I cook all the time.  I will be using the same type of binder, just different inserts.  I have this project planned to be completed while I'm at the beach in two weeks.   Next, I plan to create an Idea Book for Christmas, since its my favorite time of the year.  Thanks to Holly for an awesome "idea".

#69.Try 10 new restaurants

1. Bone Fish Grill - Mother's Day 2010, We had bang bang shrimp as a appetizer followed by Crab Cakes and Salad for my meal
2. Islands Fine Burgers and Drinks - Meet & Greet, Long Beach, CA
3. House of Blues - Downtown Disneyland, CA

"Dance The Dream"

What a busy last week!  Due to the early work days and dress rehearsal for recital on Mon, Tues, and Wed followed by actual recital on saturday and mother's day on sunday, I was not able to keep up with the "at least one blog post a week".   I will double up this week instead.   Recital was awesome and I have a few pictures to share with what dance means to my family.  It could be summed up in two words "Pure Joy"

Big Buddy Program

I have been working on Tatianna's Scrapbook for quite sometime now....here is the progress

Update (5/22/10) Added the last pages just in time for the Traditional Match Ceremony.  Thats right! Tatianna and I are traditional buddies now, I'm so excited.   She loved the scrapbook and we plan to make more pages together.