On more Glimmer Mist Project

We've all had such fun with Glimmer Mist this last two weeks at The Beary Scrap and I've got one more project to share, based on this gorgeous autumn photo:


I love fall colors and leaves so this was easy to get inspired by. I decided to see what I could do with some real leaves from my yard and went out and raided a few of my trees to get this (reminds me a lot of our inspiration photo):


I used the real leaves as screens and misted over them with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Sunflower and Tiger Lily.


After removing the leaves from my paper, I was left with just the outlines like this:


I used the misted paper with the leaf outlines to make Table Place Tags for all The Beary Scrap Gals that could be used for Thanksgiving (another of my favorite holidays, and it's coming right up!) If only we lived close enough together to share that lovely day together.


The tags are mounted on Bo Bunny Double Dot cardstock in Chocolate and Burnt Orange and stitched around the edges.


With some awesome brown lace as a background, I added Prima fall leaves and some tiny brown flowers that were also spritzed with the Sunflower and Tiger Lily Glimmer Mist.


The photo has that awesome acorn and I so I had to add an acorn to my project. I stamped the acorn image, popped up the top of it to give a little dimension, added Cinnamon Stickles and then popped the whole acorn up for even more dimension.


Then I added some jute around the bottom and some rhinestones for a little more glitz.



This were quick and easy to make and would be fun on any Thanksgiving table.

So there you have it, the last of our Glimmer Mist projects! Now we'd love to see yours in our "Spritz the Glitz" challenge. We'd also love to hear from you-- if you have a question about Glimmer Mist or anything else for The Beary Scrap Designers, click on the Ask the Designers tab at the top of the blog and leave us a comment or send a question on some sort of paper crafting dilemma you might have. How do we get inspiration? How do we find the time? (Trust me, I'd like to know the answer to that one!) What is our favorite and "go-to" techniques? Whatever you wonder, we'd like to answer in our Ask the Designers post each Sunday. We look forward to seeing your questions!

Cards for Sweet People

Just a couple of cards for some sweet people to share with you today:

First, this is for my dear friend Elise-- Cheryl from Australia is having a card drive for Elise from now until November 16th at midnight and is looking for as many people as possible to make a bright and cherry card for Elise and mail it to her. So, this is my card:

Here is the inside with the sentiment:


I know it's not pink, but I was having a hard time finding something pink I liked and I just loved the bright cheery colors of this paper.

If you'd like to make a card too, just make anything happy and cheery, link it up to Cheryl's blog before Nov. 16th midnight and then email Cheryl to get Elise's address. This is a great thing to do for a very special lady and Cheryl will even enter you in a drawing for some fun candy!

Secondly, this is a card for a sweet little girl named Madison who is also going through some tough times.


This is the inside view with a pocket holding some stickers for Madison.

You can read about Madison and find out if you still have time a send her a card by going to Trish's blog here.

Happy Cardmaking everyone!

Inking Pink for the Cause

We all have those moments, the ones that come along every once in awhile and take your breath away-- some of them are happy, like my wedding day, when I was offered my first teaching job, the days each of my three children were born. But more often than not, those moments are TOUGH moments, things we'd rather not have to go through but they come anyway. And I believe these are the moments that define us, that shape our character, strengthen our hearts, cement our relationships.

One of those moments hit me a little over two years ago when my younger sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was only 31 years old when she was diagnosed and 4 1/2 months pregnant with her fourth baby. I knew something had been going on with her that week, but because she was expecting, I worried it was something to do with the baby. I never, never expected the news she told me-- that she had breast cancer and was going to have a double mastectomy the very next day. I was shopping that day and just sat in my car in the parking lot of Target and cried. And cried again many times throughout the next few months as she underwent her surgery, started to heal, began chemo, delivered a healthy baby boy, began more chemo and 6 weeks of daily radiation therapy. And yet throughout all that, I never saw her cry. I am sure she had her moments of breakdown and terror about the future, but she was so strong, so brave, so positive throughout every single minute.

My page in honor of my sister, a hard page to make but I'm so glad I did!

And that's where the defining part comes in-- I learned so much from her and admire her so much. Whenever I am having a bad day and think things are going absolutely rotten, all I have to do is think of everything she went through, never complaining or being bitter about the trials she was facing. And when I remember that, I remember what moments really and truly count. How blessed I am and grateful I am for what I have, for the precious moments I share with my friends and family.

I know that many of you have had personal experiences with breast cancer and understand how important these moments are. And now with the experiences of my dear friend Elise, I think about it all over again. I hope our stories this week inspire you to treasure those moments, we never know how many more we have and we have to take advantage of every single one. This means, that as women, we need to do what we can to protect ourselves. Early detection and screenings are the best way to reduce a woman's risk of dying from breast cancer. So do your monthly checks and get that mammogram when it's time! And yes, I've had my first one and it wasn't that bad! Take care of yourself so you can have all the moments you possibly can.

Thanks so much for joining us as women together for a cause all around the world!! And now, the fun stuff! I'd love to hear your thoughts so to be entered in my PINK blog candy, please become a follower and leave me a comment. I will choose a random winner when this blog hop closes on October 31st and send you this lovely candy!



Once you've left a comment if you want, then you're ready to hop on to the next blog! Here's the list:

Patricia
Betty
Bonnie
Carisa
Catherine
Chelsea
Danielle
Emma
Gini

Jamie ----You're here, that's me!

**Jennifer (click here, it's the next stop)

Jess
Karen
Kellie
Liz
Lori
Marlene
Meredith
Nicole
Shelly
Stephanie
Susan
Trudy

Kimm

Happy Blogging and Remember to be Breast Aware!

Trick or Treat Mist

Trick or Treat

Smell My Feet
Give me something good to eat. . .
Oh, forget it!
Just give me some Glimmer Mist to play with!

I had the strangest thought today-- wouldn't it be awesome if we could take our Trick or Treat Buckets from door to door on Halloween night and instead of candy, everyone would give out scrapbook supplies? Wow! I would be in trick or treat heaven! Especially, if there were lots of colors of Glimmer Mist involved!

Last week I told you that this Glimmer Mist thing is a bit new for me, but let me tell you, I am now HOOKED! Check out the Halloween treat tags I made with mist everywhere--


First I started by using some Halloween Glimmer Screens and several different colors of absolutely gorgeous Glimmer Mist-- Sunflower, Jack O'Lantern, Haunted Shadow, Graphite and Key Lime Pie.



I used three different screens and when they were dry, I was left with images like this:


Then I used some Tattered Angels stamps that are made specifically to go with these Glimmer Screens-- the stamps go just over the image I made with the screens. I actually wet embossed my images using a black glitter embossing powder to give them more shine.

When everything was nice and glitzy, I added all those goodies to my tags, attached them to a bag of treats and they were ready to go!






If you haven't tried Glimmer Mist, you've got to get some, it is definitely a treat every paper crafter needs.

Don't forget to do your own misting and join us in our current Beary Sweet Challenge, link up your entry before that spooky night, Oct. 31 @ 11:59 EST, we can't wait to see your fabulous projects!

A Special Event for a Special Cause

Our paper crafting community spans the globe and brings all of us together under a common roof. Join me, and 23 (or more) other talented women for our first Blog Hop for Awareness that has been creatively titled "Inking Pink".

Many of us have family or friends that have been affected by breast cancer and all of us want to encourage all of you to check yourself! For those of us at The Beary Scrap DT, we have recently found out that our dearest friend and alumni team mate has Breast Cancer. In her honor, we are "hopping" in hopes of helping to spread awareness throughout the world.

The hop will start October 26 at our Hostess Patricia's blog; from there you will be guided on a journey around the world to visit all the talented artists participating in this amazing event. Some of your fellow crafters along the hop are even offering blog candy! Please be sure to give a little comment of love to each and every crafter along the way.

The hop will run through October 31 to give all of you enough time to "hop" around and visit each blog.

We all hope you will join us in our hop, and most of all we all want YOU to give yourself the greatest gift and do a self-check. The more you do it, the more breast aware you will be!

Glimmer Misting at The Beary Scrap

This weeks starts our new challenge at The Beary Scrap-- using Glimmer Mist (GM). This is a fairly new product for me but I can tell, it's going to be fun! I'm getting addicted quickly!

To start with this week, I used GM on a few simple aspects of my layout. I know this picture is a bit hard to see since I used light paper and a light colored mist, but hopefully you get the idea. I spritzed Creme de Cocoa GM over some stars that I cut out with my Sizzix. Then I carefully removed the stars and ended up with this:


The Creme de Cocoa mist is sooooooooooooo pretty! It is a real light brown with a little bit of a gold sheen to it, though when I sprayed it on some of my embellishments, like the blue stars and brown tag below, it took on almost a coppery color. I particularly like the GM on the dark brown tag and star, it really stands out and adds just a little extra to my page.


Here is my entire layout:

Which is actually based on this sketch from Sketchy Thursdays:



Come on over to The Beary Scrap to check out more projects using Glimmer Mist and to join in our challenge-- use any type of spray on a project and link it at our DT blog for a chance to win a $20.00 voucher to The Beary Scrap. Shop the Beary Scrap this week for some awesome Fall Clearnance Deals, up to 60% off on some items!

The Witch is In. . .

Creepy wishes going out to all of you during this spook-tacular month of October! It is Halloween week at The Beary Scrap, just my favorite time of year! I am just warning you now, I love Halloween and you will probably have to put up with my obsession with all things orange, black, purple and witchy all month! It's really not my fault, I didn't have much of a choice about liking that day because it is actually my birthday! So I have always had double reasons to celebrate and make it a fun day.

But that's not all-- I actually have even more reasons for this being such a big deal in my world-- 7 years ago, my younger sister had her first baby girl on Halloween and I thought, cool! someone to share my birthday with. AND THEN, 4 years ago that same sister had her second daughter on Halloween. Seriously, my family may be bewitched! So myself and my two nieces share a Halloween birthday and have fun celebrating it together now each year. AND, by the way, my other sister is currently expecting a baby due Nov. 14th which is extremely close to Oct. 31st, especially since her other two babies came early. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a 3rd Halloween niece to share my day (I'll keep you posted!)

So, in honor of the witches, big and small, in my family, my project this week is an altered witch hat.


I simply took a paper mache witches hat bought at my local craft store ($2.99) and covered it with paper. First I painted the bottom of the brim, edges, around the crown and the tip with black craft paint-- I wanted to make sure that any edges that might peak through the paper would be black and not the brown kraft color of the original hat.


Then I traced around the bottom brim circle on the sheet of Echo Park paper and cut out the entire circle. Then I flipped the hat upside down, set the circle on it and carefully with my embossing stylus went around the smaller inside circle. After cutting out that inside circle I was left with a piece that looked like this:


I had to trim in a few places to get a tight fit but I got it to slide right down on the brim and then adhered it with glue sticks. I like to use just plain old glue stick (I prefer Scott brand) when adhering paper to chipboard-- I put a layer on both the paper and the board to get a good hold. Some people like Modge Podge but I have a hard time with that stuff and my paper always ends up wrinkling so I just stick to the glue sticks.

The top of the hat was definitely trickier-- first I measure to find out how far it was from the point down to the brim. Then I cut a square that fit those dimensions and rounded it a bit to look like this:


After adhering that piece with glue stick, I was left with a spot like this on the top so I cut another triangle that measured the length of the top and finished covering up the paper mache.


Note: I did use glue dots to attach the last piece to both sides of the paper that was already there so I could get smoother edges.



And now, the best part! Embellishing! I used black tulle orange tulle, some black tulle flowers from Bo Bunny and a few black feathers to go around the brim. Above that I added some crystal swirls and a cool little bat.


I also made a tiny card to set on the hat brim, declaring The Witch is In!


Now the only thing I have left to do is find room for this in my highly haunted and decorated house! Check out our Beary Scrap Store for some hauntingly fabulous specials this month and create something to celebrate your Halloween. Best Witches!

A DOUBLY Sweet Sketch at The Beary Scrap

A DOUBLE cheer for Susan at The Beary Scrap this week for such a fabulous sketch-- it was so quick and easy, I was on a roll and made DOUBLE versions to show you! I got two complete sets of portraits scrapbooked, what a completely successful day! I won't dwell too much on the fact that the pictures are all from two years ago, oh well! At least I got something done.

First off is my boy version of the sketch:





That one was so quick, I just kept on going and came up with this girl version:


These were so fun and quick to make! At this rate, I just might get to my kids' current portrait-- these two are actually 9 and 7 now instead of 7 and 5, plus there's one more younger than them with pictures of his own to scrap. I better keep on working! This Sketch kicks off our new challenge at The Beary Scrap Design Team Blog so head on over and check it out, then enter your take on the sketch for a chance to win some fabulous goodies!