Shimmering Shamrocks Blog Hop - Blog Candy Giveaway

Welcome everyone to the Shimmering Shamrocks Blog Hop hosted by Tanya at Scrappy Scavenger. My name is Grace and let me have a few min of your time to show you my shimmering shamrock project, some quick how-to-dos and how to win my Blog Candy giveaway.

This blog hop begins at 8 am, March 13th and goes through March 19th. Please gather up your cup of coffee or tea and sit down and relax while we take you through a world of sparkle, bling and of course gold and green.

If you have been fallowing the Shimmering Shamrocks Blog Hop line up then you came from Shannon's blog at www.purplelionpaper.com. Wasn't her project sweet? After this you will head on over to Janice's blog at www.cricutconfessions.com

This project is a large wall hanging about 2.5' x 2.5'. It is made from a cardboard base with book pages and patterned paper decorating the clover leaves. I will show you how to make those later in this post for those of you who are interested.

Erin Go Bragh for those of you who don't know is most often translated as "Ireland Forever". Didn't thin you would learn how to say something in Gaelic today did you? These letters are glittered with P K Glitz Glitter... LOVE THEM!

The center piece is a traditional Irish lass who is surrounded by the colors of her country.

If you continue to read you will find a quick how to make the book pages clover and information about winning my RAK giveaway. However, if you are ready to check out the other great projects in this hop, your next stop will be with Janice's at her blog... here... www.cricutconfessions.com

How I made the clover:

Step 1: Cut the clover shape from a piece of cardboard. Make sure you plan for a spot to punch a hole in to hand it by a ribbon off the backside. You can see the hole I made in the third picture below.

Step 2: Find an old book, maybe it is missing it's pages or is worn out and has given it's best to society. It could be a garage sale find or one you have had for ever and never read. Either way make sure it is no one's favorite book. LOL. Before ripping out the pages take your ink pad and run it over all three exposed sides of the book. Rip the pages out and gently fold them like this and staple. You can glue this stage but it takes more time.

Step 3: Take a few pages and wrap the stem to the clover with them. I used hot glue to attach it to the front then again to the back, cutting off any excess.

Step 4: Take your glue and apply it to the area of the staple and glue down to your clover shape. Fill the entire shape with these (mine took about 350 pages). I love the way this looks. Once you are done with this step. Decorate it how you wish.

I myself am not Irish but I love it when people have pride in their heritage and their country. So I am giving this project as a gift to one of my friends who's favorite holiday is St. Patrick's Day.

Blog Candy:

In the spirit of giving I have collected a couple of things to give to one random person who leaves a comment on this post (with your email so I can contact you!). To be eligible to win you must also be a follower. So, tell me whats on your mind and make sure you peek around my blog. Follow me and maybe we can inspire each other. Check out the scrumptious blog candy you can win. Two colors of Martha Stewart glitter and three yards of both the ribbon and the gold trim.

Reminder:

Encase you get lost or need to make sure you see all the wonderful project made by all these creative projects.

1. Tanya www.ScrappyScavenger.blogspot.com

2. Jen Roseman www.memorieswithjen.blogspot.com

3. Dianne Shiflett www.diannesscrappycreations.blogspot.com

4. Erin Spantastic http://spantastikreations.blogspot.com/

5. Pam Bray http://www.pammejo-scrapbookflair.com/

6. Pink Cricut www.PinkCricut.com

7. Debbie www.craftyd...eb-ddscrafts.blogspot.com

8. Kathy Floen www.kathy-thebeautifullife.blogspot.co.

9. Kathy Gillon www.kathyand3kids.blogspot.com.

10. Teresa Harris www.thescrapbookingqueen.com

11. Anita Cannon www.anitaandbugs.blogspot.com

12. Teresa Hendrickson http://bigtimestamperwanttobe.blogspot.com/

13. Chris Hurley www.stinkydogdesigns.blogspot.com

14. Kristi Bennett www.littlepapersprinkles.blogspot.com

15. Nancy Owen http://www.fancywithnancy.blogspot.com/

16. Jennifer Brown http://jlbzlittlecorner.blogspot.com/

17. Shannon www.purplelionpaper.com

18. Letitia www.gracesscrapattic.blogspot.com <----- YOU ARE HERE

19. Janice www.cricutconfessions.com

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog. I will leave you for today with this Irish Blessing...

May the sun shine, all day long,
everything go right, and nothing wrong.
May those you love bring love back to you,
and may all the wishes you wish come true!

Happy Scrapping!

Altered Tree Branch and 100 Flowers in 20 min Video Tutorial

Hello everyone! I am so excited to share this project with you this morning. This is my Caring Tree. It used to be a low hanging branch in one of our trees in the front yard. The hubby cut it down for me and I love it!

I have made 500 flowers, 280+ leaves (video posted below) from the Mother's Day Cart on my Cricut. Check out the videos and photos and let me know what you think about it.

This first photo is of the entire project. The tree was made to display the cards I make. It will have cards all over it whenever I make them... or get them out of the drawer... LOL. Right now I am just enjoying the tree as it is.


This is a closeup of the flowers and leaves. Like I said before there are 500 flowers and 280+ leaves on this tree. That took the longest to do believe it or not. Hours with a HIGH temp hot glue gun... not my idea of fun but well worth the pain... er... I mean time it took.


This photo shows a few of the 30 office clips I have throughout the tree. They will be holding cards.


MY CARING TREE - is a tree made of ...

1 - branch from the tree in my front yard
1 - Vase on clearance at wally world
1 - hot glue gun
3 - boxes of mini office clips
7 - hot glue sticks
286 - cricut cut leaves - misted, folded and curled
500 - cricut cut flowers - distress inked, doodled, misted with two colors, glued and then glittered.
500 - pieces of bling

oh ya and two really bad hot glue gun burns... but all worth it.

Completed Tree project video:



100 Flowers in 20 min - Video Tutorial:



I enjoyed making this project and what I will use it for. Happy Scrapping everyone!

~ Grace ~

A Glittery Confection

This glittery confection was created to house some our valentine treats. They are favor boxes adorned with P K Glitter Glitz. The cricut and P K Glitz Sticky Paper provide the means to an easy assembly and impressive display.




Want to see how it is made? Check out the video tutorial on my YouTube channel.

The Cricut Design Studio allowed these heart shaped windows to be cut inside the cake favor box pattern and the lids as well. P K Glitter Glitz in Crimson and Golden Cadillac provide the sparkle and glitz.



It was enough to make your mouth water and with these tempting chocolate cake favor boxes as the means to pass out our favorite chocolate treats, it was a fitting combination.

EDIT: This post was highlighted on Party Time Tuesdays Your Daily Dose blog on February 6th, 2014.

Leave a comment below and have a fantastic Valentines Day!

Dynamic Duo!

Dynamic Duo? Yup, I have a pair that are just amazing together. They are as different as oil and water but when it comes down to it they make things in this life more beautiful. Here is a layout to prove it.



I am so excited to tell you about my Dynamic Duo... no not my kids! My Ritzy Ditzy Glitz and my P K Glitter Glitz, of course! My kids we call "T & T Dynamite"... but that is for another post all together. Lets take a closer look...



Ok fine... I will chat for a second about my sweet darlings...

Trinity likes Pink, Tristan likes Blue
Trinity will eat almost anything, Tristan is a picky eater.
Trinity is a social butterfly, Tristan is happy all by himself most of the time.

See what I mean... Oil and Water. The "T & T" well that stand for their names... and the "Dynamite" well that is because when they are in room together for a while it looks like some dynamite exploded in there.

Alright enough chatting about my rugrats. I hope you like this LO and I wish you a Happy Scrappy day!

~ Grace ~

The post party bliss... a fashionista pink and black party

It feels so good to cuddle up with the hubby after the party festivities are all done and just enjoy the memories from the day. Watch a little TV and pass out on the couch with a smile of satisfaction on my face.

I love throwing a good party. From the first impression of the invitations to the last memory of the kids taking home the goody bags. Everything in between especially the cake!


This will be a long post about my Darling Daughters Birthday party... so if you love to hear about the process I go through then grab a cup of tea or coffee and fallow along with me. There will be ton of visuals so it might not be as long as it seems... hehe.

It all starts about a month before the party when it takes me about a week to get my kids to decide on a party theme. Then another week to design ad make the invitations to match the party supplies they have picked out. Trinity went with a Fashionista theme. Here are the supplies.


So from this what better way to say fashion then making some purse invitations?



When ever their birthday falls on a schooldays I also make cupcakes for the kids to take to class. These were fun using the ribbons around the black paper wrappers.


From there I have about a week where I am decorating the goody bags and making the decor for the party, planning games and finding screaming deals on the prizes. This year I made a few wall decorations a manikin bodice, some perfume bottles, a shoe and a chandelier. My favorite was the chandelier... probably because I glitzed it out with some glitter and it was 3D!!!




And the goody bags were designed so the girls could put their names on them when they walked in to the party. There was only a few stickers and a lip gloss in each one. As they did a craft or played a game they each got a prize. The prizes were necklaces, bracelets, or rings from Clair's. Don't worry I got a great deal on them all, 10 for $10 and some were even less when I got sets for a $1 and I broke up the sets into more then one gift, Christmas clearance helped also. HEHE.


Now I am down to the week of and the days before. At this point I am seriously designing the cake and getting all the supplies for it and balloons and streamers.

I new the cake had to be pink and black but I was stumped on the ideas for it. I had the opportunity to speak with the Mother of a friend of mine, who by chance decorates cakes for a living. She drew up a sketch of her ideas and I just loved it. She turned me on to a recipe for Modeling Chocolate and WOW... no yucky fondant needed!


I baked the cake and froze it two days before the party and spent the day before icing it and creating the elements for it. I also baked over 60 mini cupcakes and decorated them as well. That night I cleaned a bit and again the next morning too. Then an hour before the party I put all the pieces on the cake and set out all the food and made the punch.


There are so many little details I that I put on here. I just love doing that. Here on the front I recreated the TL logo out of black modeling chocolate and then sprinkled it with black sugar crystals to mimic the glitter on on the front of the purse.


Here is a pic of the back side and if you look closely you can see there is a clasp for the pearl necklace and a flower behind the purse.


The other detail I love are the little pearl candies all over. There are pink and cream ones in several places.


We had 14 girls attend (over twice the amount we ever have) I guess that is due to her being in school this year vs. just friends of the families. The girls showed up and we had a movie on in the background to help them have something to occupy their minds while we switched from one craft/game to the other. We made bracelets, decorated necklaces, Designed and colored fashion outfits, they all got nail stickers put on, we played a game of limbo, broke a bottle of nail polish... J/K it was a pinata shaped like a nail polish bottle. Ate cake and ice cream, opened presents and added bling strings to the girl's hair. Whew!!! What a party it was and we all had such a blast. Thanks to the few Moms that stayed and offered to help, it went off without a hitch... and the hubby was off the hook helping make jewelry and do nails... LOL.

Over all the party was a hit and I even heard some of the girls say that this was the "best party ever", "I am having so much fun" and "this is the best day of my life"... hehe. I loved that last one, mostly because it wasn't my daughter that said it and it was just one of her guests.

Trinity had a wonderful time and was so thrilled that everyone came. She was enjoying being little miss popular.

Happy Birthday to my darling daughter, Trinity! I can't believe she is six already!

I hope you enjoyed seeing into my crazy and creative mind. Have a wonderful weekend. Oh and if you have any birthday posts, please feel free to share... my son's is coming up in May and he is already set on a Star Wars theme. Hehe.


~ Grace ~

More Birthday Party Invitations I have created:

Boy Birthday Invitations:
- Minecraft Birtyday Party Invitations
- Harry Potter Hogwarts Invites
- Lego Bionicle Mask of Light

- Lego Starwars Light Sabers

- Iron Man Mask Brithday Party  Invites

Girl's Birthday Invitations:

- Angelina Ballerina Birthday Party Invitations

My Mom

My Mom started me scrapbooking when I was just in Highschool. She has been there for me year after year. Mom's are like that ya know. Anyway, due to being married to a Military man I have found myself living far from her company. I created this layout because she has been on my mind so much lately. This one's for you Mom. I love you and hope I can be there for you anytime you need me.



It is simple as one to three to make your titles sparkle. P K glitz makes it that way.

Step 1) Cut your letters out of Sticky Paper, you can do this by hand or with a machine.

Step 2) Peel backing off and sprinkle with some P K Glitter Glitz.

Step 3) Adhere to your layout or card.

Simple isn't it?



To make the layout or card complete throw some glitter on an object or two some where else on the layout. On this one I glitzed up a die-cut butterfly.


Don't forget to leave a comment on my 100 followers Celebration post... click HERE you just might win a CRICUT cartridge!

Happy Scrapping!
~ Grace ~

Snapshot of Love

Got it all in this simple layout! Simply ink, a stamp, a few leaves, glue, and of course P K Glitter Glitz! I love the simplicity of this LO. I have found that with boy layouts most of the time simple is better. I love the way this turned out! With some squiggles of Helmar Gemstone Glue and some P K Glitter Glitz as a good backdrop for some simple embellishments. This really displays my son’s style.

The P K Glitz Can Challenge...

Check out the P K Glitz Can Challenge here.


This gift can was created for my son's teacher. Every year we try to give something back to the teachers he has and this is year we decided to give her some gift cards. We needed a container. It matches the card I made for her, highlighted in P K Glitz's June 5th blog post.



The details of the glittering on the flowers and the patterned paper designs were done by painting the glue onto the flowers or patterned design with a small detail brush. I chose to use Crafter's Pick Decoupage as the adhesive for this. It is one of the liquid adhesives I have that takes longer to dry. I painted a few petals then glittered them then painted a few more to avoid the decoupage gel from drying before glittering again. Same with the patterned paper detail. I would paint a small section then glitter it... then paint another. I chose not to paint the entire design on the patterned paper in glue to have it glittered. I left some of the design showing through and used a fine tip navy marker to shadow areas of the design after I used the glitter. This made it stand out more from the other patterns on the blue patterned paper.


This close up shows the brush strokes on the petals and the detail of the glitter and marker in the pattern on the paper.

This can was first opened by a pampered chef can opener. However I know there are many companies that make these style of openers, the kind that cuts around the top of the can on its side. You should open this can from the bottom, with the can opener, leaving the pull tab at the top alone. This is key to create a gift can that has the pull tab top in tact. Empty and wash the inside of the can and bottom. You may re-stuff the can with the gift and tissue paper first, but I prefer to decorate it before I stuff and reassemble the can. Having one end of the can open gives me more control over holding it when doing the detailing of the designs. Once it is decorated stuff and reseal the bottom with a thin strip of tacky tape or a liquid adhesive that works well with metal.



Thank you so much for reading about my projects. I hope you enjoy them.

Crazy Hair day

Today is the first layout that has been posted to P K Glitz's Blog. I am excited! "Crazy Hair Day" is featured here on the P K Glitz Blog today!



For a closeup and some details go check out the links above. Thanks so much for looking. I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Dream of Being More - Card

I am so excited to be part of the P K Glitz Design Team. My first card for them is now posted on the P K Glitz blog.

"Dream of Being More" is an inspirational card created to encourage someone who is taking the step to pursue their dreams. This sweet card was created with a stamp layering technique. I stamped the flower/leaf image four times. The first one I cut out the entire image then less and less with each layer, using foam dimensionals to pop the layers up. The final stamped image I cut each leaf and petal out and ran them through the xyron face down. I glittered the petals and leaves individually before attaching them to the now layered flower. This gives it a stunning three dimensional effect. Nothing like Glitzing it up to make this technique just pop!



This close up shows the layered technique well. As you can see some petals are flush with the base image and others are popped up with foam dimensional adhesive.



Please check out my post on the PK Glitz blog and see what all the other members of the design team have created.