I have been such a bad blogger… I admit it. CHA kicked my booty while I was there and once I got home. But it was so fun getting to see old friends and make new ones during the make n takes in the Maya Road booth. Which if you weren’t there and don’t know… it was INSANE I tell ya. Fun but insane. Everyone loved using the new Maya Mists so much that we scrapped our day 3 make n take and did an improv Maya Mists make n take.

I must admit I am pretty stuck on the new Maya Mists as well. The coverage of these mists is incredible and the fun part is they have 8 colors (black, brown, blue, green, red, orange, pink and purple) that gives off a matte finish and 3 metallics (gold, silver and copper) that have the best shimmer. So if you want to add some sparkle you can lightly add the gold, silver or copper on top of the matte colors or completely cover the chipboard in a solid shimmer you have either option. Super cool. I could talk and talk and talk about this new product.

Actually I think I will talk some more about these… and tell you how we did our make n takes at CHA. We used the Maya Road Sheer Die Cut Sheets cut in 1/4’s and some Maya Road Chipboard Sets as masks. We used pages from several of the many Maya Road Chipboard Coaster Albums, placed one of the cut sheer sheet templates on top of the chipboard page, sprayed the Maya Mist Orange on top (hold about 6″ from the page for best overall coverage),  removed the Sheer Die Cut Sheet and sprayed the Maya Mist Metallic Gold on top of the masked chipboard page. It is beautiful.

(this photo was taken before adding the black outlines and white sharpie poster paint to the sheer blossom. My finished version image is lost in space.)

Then we added some embossed polka dots using the snap setting on a crop a dile to some Sheer Blossoms inked them using Ranger’s Alcohol Inks, added a Maya Road Button and some Trinkets Ribbon for the hanger and that was it… super easy and super fun. These would make really fun make n takes in your store to demo the products. Once the Maya Mists are compeletly dry you can then outline the designs on the chipboard using  the Inkssentials White Opaque Pen by Ranger (my absolute most favorite white pen ever) and a black pen. To fill in your embossed polka dots on your Sheer Blossom you can use a White Sharpie Poster Paint Pen and then accent it using some Crystal or Diamond Stickles.

In a few days I will post a make n take using a page from a Maya Road Chipboard Coaster with some pieces from a Maya Road Chipboard Set as a mask. Then I plan on posting some about me posts. While at CHA I realized most don’t really know the non-scrapper me so I thought it would be fun to do a few posts about some of my other hobbies and such.

Wishing you all a great day.

I hope you haven’t given up on me… hopefully there are still a few of you left out there reading my blog. Lots of stuff has been going on mostly end of school stuff, some CHA-S and of course projects for my book.

I can’t believe the school year is almost over. Ansley will be a freshman in high school next year. Can someone tell me how I ended up here because I swear I was just 20 yesterday. Anyway, here is a card I created for the National Stationery Show using lots of Maya Road products. Some don’t realize how perfect Maya Road products are for card making so I thought I would share a little tutorial.

Products:
DCWV Card
Patterned Paper (BasicGrey Mellow)
Maya Road Office Sheers - Memo
Maya Road Heart and Home
Maya Road Scroll Rubons
Maya Road Jonathan Rubons
Ranger Stickles (Crystal)
Thread (Black)
Chestnut Roan (ClearSnap)
Black Pen
Glue Dots

Instructions:

1. Cut patterned paper to fit the top of your card
2. Using Black thread, sew a straight stitch all around the patterned paper
3. Adhere to card
4. Ink edges using Chestnut Roan
5. Adhere Office Sheer to card as shown
6. Alter a house from the Heart and Home chipboard set with patterned paper, ink edges and heart using Chestnut Roan, accent house using a Black Pen
7. Adhere to top of Office Sheer, accent house using Crystal Stickles
8. Adhere Scroll and Jonathan Rubons

Supplies:
Maya Road Square Banner Book
Maya Road Scallop Coaster
Maya Road Atlanta Uppercase Alphabet
Maya Road Fresh Ribbon (Candy Polka Dot)
Deja Views (my Sweet girl ~ Gingham, Paisley)
Paint Ranger (Snow Cap, Pink Sherbet)
Heidi Swapp Clear Bling Border
Tulle
Seam Binding (White)
Ballerina Cupcake Toppers
Sequin Trim
Lace
Liquid Glue
Iridescent Glitter
White Pen (Ranger)

Instructions:

1. Cover Square Banner pages (front Gingham, back Paisley), cut out slit using the back as a guide when covering the front of each page and repeat for the back using the front slit as a guide, sand edges
2. Paint Scallop Coaster pages in Snow Cap and Atlanta Uppercase Alphabet in Pink Sherbet, allow to dry, Using a crop-a-dile punch a hole in each corner scallop
3. Using a paint brush cover painted Scallop Coaster pages with liquid glue, while the glue is still wet completely cover with iridescent glitter, tap off excess, allow to dry
4. Using the end of a paint brush randomly apply glue dots, while glue is wet apply iridescent glitter, tap off excess, allow to dry
5. Using a white pen outline each glitter polka dot
6. Adhere Scallop Coasters to the center of each Square Banner page
7. Adhere Atlanta Uppercase Alphabet to the center of each Scallop Coaster
8. Thread Tulle through each Square Banner page, tie a Tulle Bow at each end
9. Double Knot Tulle in between every other page, double knot Maya Road Candy Polka Dot ribbon in between each Tulle Double Knot
10. Adhere White Seam Binding Bow onto each Tulle Double Knot, adhere Ballerina Cupcake Topper in center of White Seam Binding Bow
11. Adhere Heidi Swapp Clear Bling Border to the top (in between slits) of each Square Banner page
12. Adhere Lace to the top bottom section of each Square Banner page, adhere Sequin Trim to the top edge of Lace just applied to Square Banner pages

Now it is ready to hang for the “Birthday Girl” to enjoy. This will also make a cute mini album after the party is over. All you need to do is remove each page from the tulle, place photos of the birthday girl and her guests on the back (upside down from the front so when you flip up the page the photo views correctly) of each page, place the pages on the binder rings, tie tulle bows on them and there you go… a beautiful memento to reflect on in the years to come.

At the moment, I seem to have all of the above so I created this little box mainly to keep my hands busy and to place the above mentioned in to let them fall as they may. I have a wish/dream that is so close to coming true it causes me great worry but in the end if all goes well it will be incredible to have reached a goal I have had for the past few years. If it doesn’t happen well I am not giving up and will go to plan B.

Here is a little tutorial on recreating this little box in case you have a few worries, dreams or wishes you need to store away for awhile.

Supplies:
Small Matchbox (2″ x 1.5″ x .5″)
2 - Patterned Papers or 1 - Double Sided
Seam Binding
Flowers
Jewelers Tag

Tools:
Martha Stewart Starburst Punch
ColorBox Fluid Chalk Ink (Chestnut Roan)
Strong Adhesive

Instructions:

1. Cut a strip of Patterned Paper to 2″ x 4.5″, ink edges using Chestnut Roan Fluid Chalk Ink
2. Wrap strip of Patterned Paper around Match Box and adhere using a Strong Adhesive
3. Ink outer edges and the sides of drawer portion of the Match Box using Chestnut Roan Fluid Chalk Ink
4. Using the Starburst Punch, punch out Starburst from Patterned Paper and adhere to center/left top portion of the Match Box
5. Wrap Seam Binding around the Match Box and tie a bow
6. Place a small bunch of Vintage Flowers under bow
7. Tie Jewelers Tag to center of Bow
8. Open Match Box and fill with your worries, dreams and wishes

Here are a few more Easter decorations I created. These “Egg Gift Boxes” are perfect for altering. I painted mine using Ranger Acrylic Paint Dabbers in Juniper and Shell Pink then covered the tops and bottoms using Coarse Glitter in Crystal. Once dry I lined the outer edge of each box with Maya Road Cream Velvet Ric Rac, created a ribbon flower out of crepe paper using a vintage rhinestone button for the center and finished it off with two felt leaves accented with a back stitch. These will look so nice sitting on my table with the baskets I created over the weekend. It is finally starting to look like Spring in our house.

Sorry for the not so great photo… it is raining really bad here so the lighting is terrible. And that front crepe paper is not that big, the angle is just not too great for it.