Wordless Wednesday- NOT!

words words WORDS!!!
I've been thinking about the process and ramifications of sharing personal details.
I LOVE talking- just give me the floor and I will tell you EVERYTHING.
I even tell job interviewers everything.
They don't appreciate it.
Don't they know it's easier to work with someone who will flat out tell you they made a mistake?
NOPE.
They want you to LIE.
They also want you to say "I've always wanted to work just for you!" My greatest life ambition- receipt check girl at Costco.
I don't lie.
Seriously- I don't lie.
Just ask my family- they will tell you hundreds of stories of how I made myself look bad just to stick to the truth.
Here's why- I care what you think and I want you around but telling the truth is easier.
If you break out because you don't like me that makes my life easier too.
It WiLL HuRT- but in the end it's easier.
I'm a lazy person who likes things EASY.
It's that simple.

Why am I showing you this? It's just what I worked on last night. I'm thinking about making a minibook
 about my summer vacation. This is 8 by 11- too big for a mini. I like that the mist got all over my photos.
It's transgressive- like I'm saying "Photos? MEMORIES? Who CARES! It's the PROCESS, BABY! That's
what MATTERS!"  Don't quote me on that- been getting lots of flack about my viewpoints on art lately.

I love hearing other people's stories.
I love telling truth even if it means I get my toches handed to me on a stick.
Several male family members have a strict tell 'em nothing policy that I like to subvert whenever possible.
They believe it means no one has enough info to judge them but what it really means is no one knows them. What's worst? In the absence of real details, people make shiz up.
The stories they make up are worst. Those stories serve them- not you.
Take control of your story. YOU HAVE THE POWER. YOU ARE IN CONTROL.
It's your life.

It's best to have this open door policy when others have it as well. If you are explaining where you are coming from and the other person is using everything they learn to mess you up then you are the problem. This is what people mean when they say: You are awesome- you just need to get out of your own way.

My cousin posted this randomly yesterday. So true in some many ways but also false.
Sometimes your best friend is the one that DEMANDS answers.

Not that this happened to me this week. I actually got something much more interesting. A nasty conversation that sprung up from my telling too much then turned into a deeper experience.
The lesson?
Try not to avoid pain- you learn from pain.
Sometimes you are wrong and there are certain people in your life who will point it out- in public- stridently.
Ouch!
But it's gonna be ok. Because do you really need a toady? A lackey? a cheerleader? Are you a WOMAN or a mouse?

Don't get me wrong. Negative people that make you feel awful all the time are not awesome. They bring nothing to the table. I'm not talking about them.
Challenging people are where it's at.
They bring IT- the thing you don't want to hear- the thing you have been running from. They have that innate bullcrap sensor.
Perhaps they smell it. Blood in the water.
And they show IT to you.
AAAACK!
Let me tell you a story.
Wait!- you exclaim- weren't you already in the middle of a looong story?
BAH!
It was 1998- I think. I was serving as an Americorp NCCC member in Oklahoma City where a tornado had laid waste to half the city- or close to that- you can look it up- it was bad.
I'm telling a story and it will have hyperbole but I ain't lying- just avoiding having to google half my life 'cause my memory sucks.
Anyway I was working in a warehouse for donations- sorting everything into boxes to be trucked to people who needed it directly.

Street poets, street truths

First of all, you will NOT BELIEVE the crap people send when asked for donations. Do homeless, traumatized folks need your half full bottle of shampoo? Your used lipstick? Your dog bed with hair still attached? For REALZ! That's what I was sorting through!
Normally I would let that slide but can you imagine having to separate those items from millions of other items?
How much it costs the charity to dispose of those items because they aren't sanitary to distribute?
When you give- be giving. New and unopened toiletries. Gently used clothes you have laundered. Coats in winter. Short sleeved shirts in summer.
Don't make it an occasion for getting rid of the contents of your problem closet.

Dave and the mask from "V for Vendetta" separated at birth??? 

A.NY.WAY. My team took a break. We sat down to eat with some missionaries that had come down from- I forget the city. I was sitting in front of a dark skinned boy with a BEAUTIFUL sing song accent- I couldn't stop listening- I wanted MORE.
Where are you from? I asked.
Somalia.
OOO Somalis are hot! Sorry, I was 19.
He was 15 so I wasn't about to start flirting but I wanted to know more. At the time Somalia had people running around with machetes, chopping other people up.
He told me his story.
He was 13. He watched his whole family and village die around him. He ran away with his sister. She later died as well. He was angry. He wanted to go back and kill himself some Tutsies. He was very eloquent about the differences between the two groups and started to talk about what he saw.
That's when my team mate told him she didn't want to hear what he had to say!
Yo, WHAT?
I went off on her.
This may be the first and ONLY time you get to hear about this war from a person who's actually experienced it!!!!! This is happening- RIGHT NOW- if you don't like it why don't you get up and go sit somewhere else!!!
There was silence from everyone.
She stayed put. And the boy shut up for the rest of the meal.
I never got to hear how he survived. How he made his way to the embassy. How he now lives with a family who loves him. How he deals with real pain- real sorrow- real injustice.
I STILL wanna slap my former team-mate for being such a jerk!
What's worst- she treated me badly for the rest of our service year together- because I made her "look bad" in Oklahoma City.
What. A. Putz.

Make it. Take it. 

So it's up to you.

Do you own up to your mistakes?
Do you grow from the experience?
Or do you retreat to "I'M HURT" status and stop sharing?
This is when you fall into the trap.
You lose a valuable experience and you stop growing.

What do you think?

MuChOs SmOoChEs!

31 days of Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween- What? You can't see the title ? It's on the lower left hand corner. 

At this time, last year, the wonderful link party website Paper Issues was born!


To celebrate, you get an extra 20% off in the Paper Shop!  Use code HAPPY20

It just happens that yours truly started blogging on October 31st last year as well. Angry that my husband had decided to work on a saturday and that the weather was so cold Lola was not able to join the Halloween Parade in Central Park, I declared Halloween over-rated.
Well not this year baby!
This year it's gonna be different!
This year Lola has her Candy Witch costume ready to go and we have tickets to the Museum of Natural History's Halloween party- it will be INSIDE so she'll have some fun.
Fingers crossed. No, triple crossed.

First edition- I  just added a great photo- the layout is.... beyond repair.

This page was made before Lola had a costume last year so I had some crazy black and white photo of weeds on there. I remember being so proud of this "creation". I redid the page for your amusement- yes I am aware it looks like the Micheal's holiday aisle threw up all over the page. Lola likes it- she keeps pointing at the googly eyes.

You're able to see Lola's SLAMMIN' orange and yellow tights here.

Love the layering in the tag.

Bottle with green flower soft- what the heck do you use
Flower Soft for anyway?

Swing by Paper Issues and join the link party fun.  For the next 31 days we will be celebrating Halloween and we hope to see you there!

AWWW! The polka dot pants with the pink hightop skips- I MISS those!!!

MuChoS SmOoChEs!
Michelle

Going Tag crazy- a lesson in randomness

Hiya! Over the labor day holiday I found myself furiously trying to finish my tag project for Kreatorville Krafts.
For some reason I had a really hard time with it. I wanted to pull a "shock and awe" scrap stunt and that was my downfall- never forge into any creative endeavor with perfection in mind- that way lies madness.

Favorite 3 tags from my tag swap project for Kreatorville Krafts.

PROJECT GOALS:
1. Use my scrap pile- papers whose patterns I loved so much I kept even tiny pieces that were now taking over my desk.
2. Use metal rims from Making Memories. I have so many of these I wanted to showcase them in a project.
3. Make the actual tags- don't buy them.
3. Use at least 1 stamp and 1 punch on every tag- I have so many stamps and punches! They hardly get used because they are in plastic boxes out of easy reach- this forced me to break them out and play.

"MINI TUTORIAL"- insert self-derisive snort here.

1. Using ready made tag as a template, cut out tags from left over office folders.

2. Make 3 "test tags"- experiment with acrylic paint- decide it looks great. Ruin them with microbeads.

3. Paint each tag with white acrylic paint to tone- down bright primary hues a bit.

4.  Experiment with make up brushes to sprinkle Tattered Angels Golden Goddess Glimmer Glam. Mascara brush works best- so does dropper from Baby Ibuprofen (Hope Lola never needs it).

5. Mist each tag with Mister Huey"Warm Calico" to "soften" stark white paint- have fun with polka dot template left over from circle punches made for project.

6. Start layering paper bits- panic tags are all looking the same- take a break.

7. Take metal rims and attach using basic stitch to each tag- rims go over the actual photo.

8. Project has a message- think- add Kaiser Craft mini alphas to each tag then cover alphas with Glossy Accents so that they stay put while in the mail.

9. Stamp each tag and sign- make sure signature is illegible thus besides the point. Whatevs the project is DONE! WOO HOO!

WHAT I LEARNED:
1. Pre cut your scraps and just play with resulting random shapes- do NOT try to "pre-design" each tag.
2. Paint and mist the entire tag cardstock THEN cut out each tag- that makes your pattern more random and natural looking.
3. When layering tiny pieces on light background colors highlight edges to make them separate.
4. Sometimes starting with tag titles is best as that can lead your design process. Use word association to come up with titles that aren't too "bossy".
5. DO NOT try to make a multiple item project with impressing others in mind- you will get "crafter's block" and suffer many hours of self doubt- let it all hang out"- as it were.

Final Results:

Materials: Pendaflex folders- brights, Making Memories metal tag edges, Sassafras Lass Amplify paper,
Fiskars Large circle squeeze punch,  The Girl's Paperie "On Holiday" mixed dot paper, Ek Success Large Edger -circles,  Double embossed dotted lace and Bubbles punches, Jillibean Soup corrugated shapes

This was great- onto my next large project- hand made post cards for each and every facebook friend! Do you want one? Friend me! Michelle Hernandez, Brooklyn, New York- or not- you can see them here as I will post as I make them.

MuChOs SmOoChEs!
Michelle

Christmas Felt MADness

I love me some holiday felt! Felt ornaments, felt stockings, felt holiday banners with reindeer, Santa and candy canes, felt wreaths and lately felt Pinecones which I'm simply going GAGA for.

Here's my first FELT MADNESS page:

Whaddaya think?

Rockerfeller Christmas 2010

My first 3D felt project. AND I learned a new stitch to do it. "Learning a new stitch" is totally easy (I found) if I use a patient teacher- YOUTUBE. Gulf Coast Cottage has super simple videos that are short so even the simple minded (ME) can view them 50 times in order to learn.
Here's a link:
Blanket Stitch tutorial


Normally I wouldn't go to Rockerfeller Center because the crowds make using a stroller safely impossible but we needed a family photo with holiday flavor. Luckily "Real Simple" Magazine had pro shooters set up in key areas around the tree. Our guy was so over it by 4pm that all the photos were fuzzy. I made him redo our shot (it cost 21 dollars for 1 stinking print!) but Lola refused to look at the camera so this unfocused shot is the best of the bunch.

Close up- stitches and awesome tag I got FOR FREE

Michelle WHY did you cut up the background paper? Because I'm crazy. I thought weaving the paper would look cute. What I didn't consider was that the paper was so busy it would compete with anything you put in front of it (and look horrible). But I loved the paper so I used it cut up and attached it using mini heart brads.

Items used: Making Memories mistletoe paper, Celebrate It! glitter pine cone garland from Michael's, scallop circle from Dusty Attic painted gold by Making Memories acrylic paint, Making Memories circle flowers and a couple of dollar store doilies I painted gold with a Color Box Cat's Eye pad and Tattered Angels Mist in "Sand" and "Iridescent Gold". The beautiful tag came with an Etsy order a while ago- wish I could remember the maker so I could link them up...

Tim Holtz tape makes the back interesting

That's it- I've edited this page a bunch of times already.

MuChOs SmOoChEs!

M.