I was published!!

I was published in Scrapstreet.com magazine and it came out today!! Go check it out at here. My LO is under Give a Hoot. It is one of my favorite LOs and it is of my niece Shea.

A Great Pick Me Up Day!

So today has been pretty fantastic. First I found out that I was featured on Practical Scrapper's blog and that post can be seen here: http://www.practicalscrappers.com/2011/04/technique-tuesday-twine.html. Then I got to go shopping and I love shopping. I found some great clothes and deals at the mall today!!! I also found out that my little sister and I are the same size, which delighted me and horrified her (which secretly made me more delighted =D). So all in all a really good day off.

Plastic Distressed Flowers Tutorial

Go easy on me this is my first tutorial =)

This is to make the plastic distressed flowers that I feature on my LOs 'Relationships' and 'Young and Unprepared'. I came about making this flower just by experimenting. I was looking at an old cricut mat and thinking that I could make my own transparency from the cover and when I cut out the flower I thought how much cooler would it look if the melted the plastic and from there this flower was born.

Supplies Needed:

-Plastic transparency (I recycled an old cricut mat cover)
-Flower punch (2 sizes) or die cut machine (I used the gypsy wanderings cartridge for my flower shape)
-Distress Ink
-Lighter
-Brad
-Glimmer mist

Step 1:

Ink the flowers. Make sure that you have two different size flowers as you will layer one on top of the other.

Step 2:

Pierce a hole in the center of both flowers. Place the smaller flower on top of the larger one. Put the brad through the holes, but do not fasten the brad closed yet.

Step 3:

Hold the prongs of the brad, burn the edges of the bigger flower. If plastic catches fire just blow it out. Though letting it burn for a few seconds creates the black burn marks that makes it much cooler.

Step 4:

Hold the lighter underneath the smaller flower to make the plastic melt inward. Keep melting and burning the edges until you achieve the look you desire.

Step 5:

Spritz with glimmer mist. Let it dry completely.

Finished Product:

Well I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!!

-Ashley =)

SOD April Round Robin & Skeletons in the Closet Entry

Hey guys! It's finally the 22nd where I am so I can finally share this page that I have done for the SOD April Round Robin challenge. It also is for the Skeletons in the Closet challenge over at SOD as well.

It is titled 'Young and Unprepared'. The pic is of me when I was a senior in high school. It was taken after I had performed in a school talent show and I was basically throwing a fit because I wasn't allowed to go have dinner with everyone who was in the show because I was grounded. At the time I thought it was unfair ... now I realize it was completely justified, after all I was grounded because I totaled my car. I choose this picture of me because it was from a time of when I thought I knew everything when I really knew nothing. In this picture I thought I knew exactly how my life was going to go and boy was I wrong.

The hidden journaling states "Looking back I can clearly see a crossroads in my life. I didn't realize it at the time but I was too young and unprepared to take the responsible path. I dropped out of college and just focused on having fun. I do and I don't regret this. Making that decision has made my life harder, however it has also made me who I am today and I like me." I know its not popular to not completely regret the mistakes in one's life however if I went back in time I think I would still make the same decisions. I like where I have ended up and though I know that I am still not where I wish to be, I am who I wish to be and I am with who I wish to be with. So in the end I think it's all good and the decision that I made then has defined who I became. Ok enough with the heavy stuff. Here is a close up of the flowers. A tutorial will soon follow for the plastic distressed flowers.

Thanks for looking!

The Color Room #54 & Let's Capture Our Memories #78

So I have decided to start participating in challenge sites recently. I came across fabulous LOs from The Color Room and went over there to check it out. I love it there! Such gorgeous palettes and pages!! I wanted to join this week and when I saw the sketch from Let's Capture Our Memories I knew what I wanted to do.

This is a picture of my niece Shea. My nephew actually caught this moment on his mom's iPhone. It's amazing how camera phone pics have improved in quality.

I painted the colors onto the ink resistant bg paper. I really like how it came out. Though IRL the purple diamond has a redder tint to it. =( Here are some more close ups:

Tomorrow I finally get to share my Scraps of Darkness Round Robin page and my first flower tutorial!!

Punky Scraps Challenge 12

I decided to play along at Punky Scraps. For a while now I have just been blown away with their challenges and designs but I haven't joined in because I didn't have a blog. Now I do! This challenge was to use the colors green, orange, and yellow, with the twist of only using one patterned paper. Well I used no patterned paper =)

It took FOREVER gluing all those flowers down. Especially since I inked the edges but I really like how it turned out. The pic is from Epcot during the Flower and Garden Festival 2010. I had so much fun altering the photo. I have been doing that more and more lately and I really like how you can change the pic to match the design. Hopefully I can get photoshop one day and do some really cool stuff.

An Epic Night

So last night I was awake and couldn't sleep. Honestly, recently I haven't been able to sleep well at all. I decided to try scrapping but I have absolutely no design in my head. I just sit down take some pictures out and the April SOD kit and the pictures fell on the page in such a way that a structure immediately popped into my head. After that one thing just led to another and I am pretty pleased with the result.

This page depicts the first night our friends came down to visit us in Orlando. We went out to downtown and hit the bars. While we were making plans we kept saying that this night was going to be epic. Thankfully it was. The next morning however ... not so much.

I bordered the pictures with Shimmerz paint that was included in the color add on. I wanted some more punch though so I added red pepper Adirondack paint. I then did some random doodles around the pics and border of the page. I topped it off with black circles which were created by putting paint on the edges of the plastic top of the paint bottle. I also randomly splattered the page with all three of the paints that I used.

I spritzed the flowers with black velvet smooch to make them black rather than the brown they were. I then edged them in the red paint. As an added embellishment I used the ... I absolutely have no idea what to call it. The stuff underneath the flowers. I was actually grateful to be able to use it because I will admit that when I first saw it in the kit I had no idea of what to do with it other than to make a nest! =D

Well this is probably my last one for a little as I have to go back to work. Sigh. I hate work =(

Meant to be Sisters

It is finally Tuesday which means that I can post my sb.com April Round Robin layout!!! I made this with the Scraps of Darkness April kit which I love so so much.

 It is titled 'meant to be Sisters' and features my sister Katrina and I. We are technically stepsisters but that doesn't matter so much to us and we treat each other like full blooded sisters hence the title. This is a lift of Jcbrek's page which can be found here: http://www.scrapbook.com/galleries/164367/view/3186407/-1.html over at scrapbook.com. I believe she lifted her page from Manda K. It is so cool I think to see a progression of pages that start from the same design. Its why I love participating in round robin challenges. I distressed this page heavily using multiple techniques.

Here is a close up of the burlap and the water distressing. I inked the burlap and then burned the edges. To achieve this water distressed look I actually did not use any water. I first distressed the edges with my Tim Holtz distresser (I love that little tool so much!) and then I inked it with the rusty hinge distress ink. I then thoroughly saturated the edges with shimmerz baby breath mists and scrunched up the edges before gluing it all down. Water distressing without having to go to the sink! It allowed me much more control over which parts of the paper got wet and in the sunlight it shimmers so prettily.

This is one of my favorite elements. I created plastic flowers on my page 'Relationships' and I created this strip using those scraps. I was going for a very rustic and distressed ribbon effect. Basically it is a strip of plastic that has been inked, misted, burned, and stickled. I think I have finally learned to use distress stickles but I am still not completely in love with most of them.


In more personal news I am so happy to report that I now weigh 135!! I am so ecstatic! I used to weigh almost 185 2 years ago. I have decided to never let that happen again.

So I have gone from this (I am the blonde):

to this (I am the red head ;)):

Looking at these pictures I have also decided to never go blonde again =D

Relationships and It's about Time

So I belong to the Scraps of Darkness kit club and I have to say that I love it. From the first it felt like I belonged. Which is a much better feeling than the one I had with my previous kit club (I won't mention any names). There I always felt on the outskirts, though that was mostly my fault as when I did try to become accepted I was welcomed by most with open arms. However I was never as wowed by their kits as I am by the ones I now receive.

The first page I would like to share with you is called 'Relationships'. It is a pic of my boyfriend, our best friends, and I. I chose the title as it represents not only the romantic relationships in the picture but also the friendly ones. This design is my take on the sketch by Suepup this month.

This was also created for the April Chippie Challenge over at Scrapbook.com which is hosted by Featherrs. The chippie that was provided to us by 3tailscraft is the 2 vines which I then painted and stickled. My favorite part of this page is the flowers. I decided to experiment and ended making those flowers from an old cricut mat cover. I love how they turned out.

The other LO I have created this week is called 'It's About Time' and it is very much a boys page. It features my father and my boyfriend. My boyfriend and I have dated for about 5 years now and it is only in the last year or so that my father realized that we were probably going to continue to be together for a while if not forever and decided to warm up to him. I have to say that my boyfriend has always liked and respected my father, my dad has just been way too overprotective towards me and that colors his judgment sometimes. Now they get along famously, which is nice.

I used the clocks to show the passing of time, the brads as a manly decoration (some of them look like screws ... I love them so much! I got them at Hobby Lobby), and the paint because I thought it gave it an edge and well I am kinda obsessed with paints and mists =D. My favorite part though is the framing of the pic. I took the centers of the Tim Holtz reinforcers (reinforcements?) and used them as a border. It is my favorite part because that was the one item that I seriously thought I was never going to use.

I also did one other LO this week but I can't post it until Tuesday as it is for the April Round Robin Challenge at sb.com.

First Post

It's funny but I never figured I would have a blog. Ever. I tend to hate journaling about my experiences so much that I don't really do it on my LOs either. When I was younger it seems like I started about ten different journals and lost interest with them after maybe a month. Hopefully that doesn't happen here.

It seems that in order to join design teams, challenge blogs, etc. nowadays you need a blog. So I bowed down to the peer pressure. I am actually kinda excited about it. I know I really enjoy reading other scrappy blogs and one of the reasons that I have improved in this craft is because of that. Hopefully this blog can become that to someone else. Now I just need to become technically savvy. How is it possible that I seem like the only 24 year old in the world who knows nothing of computers but the basics?

Here's to trying new things! Wish me luck!!