Make Your Own Mists

Have you seen all of the videos/demos/tutorials for color mists?

Studio Calico has some (Mister Huey's), Maya Road has some, even my favorite of the cheapie brands, Inkadinkado has some. In terms of shimmer, major props go to Ranger for their Perfect Pearls Mists, and Tattered Angels for their Glimmer Mists.

Super cute, super fun...but they can get crazy pricey. Most of these are around $3 to $7, depending on the brand, size and whether or not it's on sale. 

Always the frugal shopper, I decided to make my own. Cheap, easy, just as cute, and insanely customizable. 

There are two basic ways to do this: with your stamp pad re-inkers, and with acrylic paints. The colors tend to be more sheer when using re-inkers, and more opaque with paints. It just depends on the look you're going for.

Here's what you need:

- Empty spray bottle. I like the Mini Mister from Ranger, because if I don't love a color, there's not much wasted. I use the regular-size Mister from Ranger for the colors I use a lot, like the sheer pearl. (You can also buy 2 oz. mister bottles from the dollar store...just sayin'....)

- Liquid glue, Modge Podge, Glossy Accents, or something similar.

- Re-inkers in your color of choice, or, acrylic paints in your color of choice. No need to worry about the brand - get the cheap stuff. I won't tell.


- If you want some shimmer (and really, who doesn't?) you can add some Perfect Pearls to the mix. But I've found this product, and I love it, and it's a lot easier than dealing with a powdery mess: Pearlizing Medium by Art Deco. I just paid $2 for this bottle and a small squeeze did an entire 2-ounce spray bottle full of pearly mist. I'm a happy girl.

- Warm water. I don't need to tell you where to get this stuff. It's cheap.

Step-by-Step:

1. Fill your bottle about halfway with warm water. (Mine's a little less than halfway, I didn't want a huge amount of this color. Oh, and note the slight amount of steam creeping up the bottle? WARM water.)

2. Add a drop of your choice of glue. Not a lot, just a drop. (Picture's not great. It just got cloudy. You get the idea.)

3. Add some color: if you have the dropper kind of reinker, start with half a dropperful. If it's the drip kind (I'm so technical), I do about 12 drops to start. Acrylic paint? One squeeze. If there's no spout for it, I just dip the little tube in my mister top in there, grab some paint, and put the lid back on. (This is about 10 drops of green acrylic paint, plus about 5 drops of the pearlizing medium.)

4. Shake. A bunch.
    Not sure if you can see the shimmer here, but it's so pretty in real life!

5. Spray.

No really. That's it. The more color you add, the deeper the color of the spray. Shocker, I know. 

For some other great shimmer, you can buy metallic acrylic paint. The gold is GORGEOUS. Might actually be my new favorite.

Anyhow, that's all. I hope you enjoy saving money and having awesome spray mists in every color you could dream of. Because it rocks!

Here's a great project using some darker ink, courtesy of Kristina Werner.

Some more subtle masking here, and some bolder stuff here.

Oh, and you can full-on color with this stuff, like Nichol Magouirk does with her word diecuts on this awesome art piece. 


Or I might just frame this. I love shimmer :)

Pretty Paper Party - Prompt 3

So on day 3, Shimelle challenged us to use our stuff.
No, really - cut up all of that gorgeous paper and USE IT.
Now I'll be honest. There is 1 paper in my stash that I simply cannot cut up, but it has sentimental reasons, and I know exactly when it will be used and what for. But everything else? Fair game.


My biggest challenge lately has been using stuff that I like, but may not necessarily *LOVE*. Like a few months ago, at Ross, I found a killer deal on some very pretty cardstock. Some of it is totally up my alley (light pink on brown floral, yummy!) but the rest of it...notsomuch. It's pink and green and very sparkly. And I'm just not there. Not much in my life right now is pink and sparkly. 


But hey, it's a challenge, right? So I decided that this was the stash to use for this particular prompt.


The first (and so far, only) layout I made is a double-page layout. I cut up all my papers yesterday, and laid them out last night onto two pages of cream cardstock. And then I glued everything down. And realized that I have no pictures to scrap that would even remotely go with it. So I went to bed.


This morning, I woke up and went to my online albums to find pictures from the Texas State Fair from a few weeks back. We went with my nieces and nephews, and I took roughly 900 pictures (no joke). I was trying to get used to my new camera, so I went a little crazy. I wasn't sure I would find anything, but I thought it would be worth a shot. And you know what? One of my nieces was wearing a pink shirt that day, and one of my nephews wore a green one. And they were eating cotton candy. Pink. SCORE!

This page is not my normal style (I don't really do "bright" - but maybe I should??). But I love it. Of course, with the subject matter, how can you not? 


Oh, and in case it wasn't obvious, this was my very first ever attempt at stitching on a layout. I need practice. But I like the look, and it's pretty simple, so I'll probably try it again. 


Thanks for looking!

Scraplift! (Cardlift?)

Wanted to quickly share this card I made yesterday for my friend Jessica and her new fiancee, Travis. They got engaged yesterday! Yay! :)

This is a direct lift from Kristina Werner's genius folded card. I just loved it, and had been SO wanting to try it for awhile.

I used some old pearlized cardstock. I have a ton left over from my own wedding invitations, and it just screams "wedding" to me! I used my Echo Park For The Record 6x6 pad for the background paper and the hearts, and just some black cardstock on the inside (it's hard to write on that pearlized paper!). The brad is from Hobby Lobby.

Thanks for reading!

Pretty Paper Party - Prompts 1 & 2

Monday and Tuesday were days 1 and 2 of the Pretty Paper Party.
Shimelle has become my hero. I'm in awe of this woman. 


Prompt 1 had us using strips of patterned paper to make up some sort of design element on the page. Prompt 2 challenged us to use a whole sheet of patterned paper to make up the background - and go from there.


I ended up using these prompts to complete a 2-page layout I'd been meaning to do. The pictures are from a concert I attended with my cousin and some friends this summer. Page 1 has some pictures of me posing for the camera in some MySpace-worthy self-portraits, showing off my fancy hat. Page 2 has pictures from the pre-concert margaritas, and of course the concert itself!


Page 1 / Prompt 1: For this I used some plain kraft cardstock, but I used my Hero Arts Designer Woodgrain stamp to create a background of sorts. I inked it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. You'll see that it's a little uneven; I was going for a weathered wood look, so this was fine with me. If you want a more perfect stamped image, make sure to press firmly and evenly ALL OVER the stamp before you pull it up. The paper strips all come from Basic Grey's Curio collection, which is probably my all-time favorite paper line. And a quick look at Two Peas in a Bucket shows me that it's 50% off right now, so I'm probably going to have to stock up!


I'm still working on my embellishment/finishing skills, but I wrapped up this page with some (older) sparkly turquoise American Crafts Thickers, some rosettes (I made these by hand using my Martha Stewart Crafts scoring board), butterflies, and some tissue tape from Tim Holtz.

On day 2, I put the same patterned papers to use, to tie the pages together. Again, I stamped some kraft cardstock with the woodgrain design, this time very intentionally leaving things light, so I could still journal over the top. I used more rosettes, some of the sticker die-cuts from the Curio collection, and a sticker border strip. The letter stickers are old old old old chipboard letter stickers from Basic Grey in chocolate chip. I wouldn't even know where to find them anymore :)

We should be getting another prompt sometime today - hopefully I'll get some time to make more crafty things today!
Thanks for reading!

my relationship with patterned paper

**warning! long, long, long post***


I started stamping in 2002, after going to a Stampin' Up party. I bought a few things, had some fun, and then stopped playing. In 2003, I was introduced to Creative Memories and started scrapbooking. My first complete project? My brother and sister-in-law's wedding scrapbook. I know, I know...all those memories, something that should be so beautiful...my FIRST scrapbook? I thought I was a lot better than I was. I eventually made a scrapbook (ready to fill-in with pictures) for their first baby. They've since had 3 more and I think I gave my SIL the bug...she's doing their scrapbooks now :)


So anyway. When I started scrapbooking, it was all about cardstock, in all shapes and colors. In my first pages, I had hot pink backgrounds with photos framed in yellow and blue and purple and green...all topped off, of course, with stickers. I've always been a fan of embellishments, but I've never been terribly good at them.  In my most creative scrapbook page (from 2004), I used different colored cardstock to create a camping "scene", complete with tent and river and trees. It's extremely indicative of what scrapbooking was like back then, and SO not my style today. But I'm still surprisingly proud of that page.


Fast-forward a few years, and the discovery of patterned paper. Beautiful, colorful, inspirational patterned paper. Think of all the gorgeous layouts I could make with this paper! I want to say that I collected it, but in truth? I hoarded. I would buy stacks of paper on sale, even if I didn't love it, because by God, I might need it someday! Paper packs? Yes please! Page kits? Bring 'em on!  And do you know what I made with all that paper?


Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I went on scrapbooking hiatus for awhile. I was 22, unmarried, no kids, and had just moved to a new town where I knew almost no-one. No scrap-worthy events for me!


So here I am today. 28. Married. Still no kids. But lots and lots of pictures. I hopped back on the scrapbooking train about 3 years ago (after I started dating my husband), because his cousin's wife (they live down the street from us) is a scrapbooker too. So we had something to bond over. I have an extra-large stash (hoard) of patterned papers, the majority of which I just don't like anymore. I have new tastes, new styles, and there are SO many amazing new products on the market, I wanted to trash everything I have and start from scratch.


But I couldn't. Can you imagine how many hundreds of dollars I spent on all of this stuff? How can I justify doing that?


Over the last 3 years, I've pruned my stash. I've set aside what I love, and recycled or given away what I truly didn't like anymore. Everytime I purge, I become more realistic about what I'll actually use; like all those baby papers I bought for my nephew's scrapbook? Sure, I want babies eventually, and I'll want baby papers...but realistically, I will want (NEED) new stuff, things that are more my style. 


So that brings me to today. Still a large amount of paper I'm slowly working my way through. And a new challenge:

Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party.

A month of prompts to help me use my pretty patterned paper. I'm SO excited about this, I can barely contain myself!


Projects coming soon. I'll do my best to post daily so you can see my creations as they come out of my brain (realistically, out of Shimelle's brain first) and onto paper. Pretty, patterned paper :)

starting something new

Well hello, internetters...
I've decided to start something new.
If you can't tell...I've decided to start a blog.


I've thought about it for awhile. I think I have a lot to share with the world...not sure if anyone else will agree, but why not give it a shot? 


So here I am. I decided to start this today because I got a major kudos. I have two hard-core hobbies: cooking and scrapbooking. I like to think that I'm pretty good at both, though proficient at neither.


Anyway, I recently made a mini-album for my husband, in celebration of our first year of marriage. There happened to be a contest at Technique Tuesday's blog. So, I entered my little project (because it fit the bill) and guess what? I got a 2nd place title!


I won't lie, it made me happy. And validated. Okay, there were only 4 entries in total. But in the top 3 of that? I'm psyched!


My project is below, along with some of the items I used. I'll be posting more on this blog about my various projects, both in the cooking and crafting world. And as the title suggests - in the wifery world. With my husband, it's always an adventure!

Patterned paper = Jillibean Soup - Dutch Mustard Soup 6x6 pad
Die-Cutes = Jillibean Soup - Dutch Mustard Soup Coordinating Die-Cut Shapes
Cardstock = The Paper Studio Kraft Cardstock (from Hobby Lobby)
Stamps = Various Studio AE and Ali Edwards Designs stamps from Technique Tuesday; plus a few others from Hobby Lobby, Jo-Ann and/or Michael's that I haven't had time to track down yet!
Letter stickers on the front are some old old old Thickers from American Crafts.