The NEON Challenge!!

2012 is the year neon came back!
I'm seeing it everywhere.

Even on the lace bows of expensive french lingerie! 

Who wears neutral underwear with blindingly bright pink bows that cost 200 just for the bra?

MATERIALS: Bazzill grey card stock, Cocoa Daisy stamp, Cosmo Cricket’s DeLovely paper,
Crafter’s Workshop 6x6 chevron stencil, SC Mister Huey in white and chipboard from
Crate Paper, Sakura Gelly Roll pen outlines in fluorescent yellow,  neon pink twine,
Cosmo Cricket Heart In The Dark alphas and Jenni Bowlin flying bird punch.

To celebrate, I'm hosting a challenge over at DO MORE WITH LESS.
Yvonne Yam's awesome scrap style is both clean, modern and full of messy techniques such as paint, upcycled items and glitter.
How does she manage to pull it all off with nary a finger print or stray pencil mark on the page???
I aspire to that kind of control over technique.

This project was shaping up so well! Those finger prints are
UNINTENTIONAL and decidedly UNHAPPY accidents!

Perhaps you have some generic price stickers or neon pink twine lying around?  Most of Hambly's entire inventory qualifies. I've also found lots of great neon in Basic Grey (Out of Print) and Crate Paper's Random line.
Cosmo Cricket totally saw the trend coming because the entire DeLovely line is neon and it came out last winter.

Martha Stewart NEON GLITTER! EEEE!
25 dollars for the pack! Coupon time!

If nothing else Sakura makes neon gellyroll pens. (EEEEE!)
I tend to buy these every time I go to the scrap store because I use them on everything.
And there's always the 89 cent bottles of craft acrylic paint from the kids section at the arts and craft store.

Price stickers, 89 cent paints and thread.
At 5 bucks a pop perhaps thread is the purchase you want to save till
you've decided you love neon.

Swing by Do More With Less- you probably are already a follower- she's that awesome.
Thank you so much for the opportunity Yvonne!

My second project-you can do better I'm SURE! I do like the border. REDO TIME!
Materials: Basic Grey Life of the Party, Ki Memories NYC puffy, woodgrain fabric circles, Hambly
woodgrain washi tape,  EK Success peg alpha stamps, Scrap FX flying bird chip board, American
Crafts Zing embossing powder, K & Co Smash tape, Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam in Mermaid.

Ah bribery- the BEST way to drive traffic.
Here's what you get if you win the challenge:

GRATUITOUS TODDLER SHOT!!!!

MuChoS SmOoChEs!
Michelle

Can you feel it? It's SPRING!

Hello Spring!
Materials: My Little Shoebox papers & alphas, Bazzill swiss dotted paper- Fuschia, K & Co pink netting,
Liquid Pearls in pink

OMG NYC just had the most beautiful springlike day and I didn't know what to do with myself! I ran up, I ran down, I ran all around- Lola was happy but soon realized I had gone bananas and put me ON POINT in the middle of the park with a huge SHRIEK so we went home and watched Elmo for a while. I feel a HUGE weight lifting- GOOD BYE WINTER! Little dance little dance...

How much do I love the orange glitter alphas? MUCH dude MUCH!

Here's a new My Little Shoebox page. I got my prize package from 2 Peas with papers, stamps and alphas stickers from Farmer's Market and Home Tweet Home lines. I also bought some Green papers because I really wanted that woodgrain pattern- it's so mod! I feel so free with these papers! They are so colorful and playful that it just dissapates all the obnoxious angst I usually go through when thinking up a page. OFFICIAL MLS fan!!!!
Here are some close ups:

Luscious flowers! Bend up the petals and WHAM! instant texture.

Had "fun" cutting those itty bitty scallops- will need to practice.

Started with red pen but it disappeared into the orange paper so I had to go over it with red marker.

Now about this machine stitching technique:

Left to right: Yellow zig zag stitch- front of stitch followed by Yellow/pink zig zag stitch- back of stitch usually never seen since it's on the inside of your clothes.

Here's what I did:
1. Roughly traced circle and scallop border onto onion skin paper to give general idea of their location.
2. Glued template to the back of the scallop die cut paper
3. Put pink thread in bobbin at bottom of machine and canary yellow in spool on top of machine to get two-tone effect.
4. Using the rough sketch on the onion paper as a guide, I stitched a swirl shape onto the MLS die cut paper using a zig zag stitch so that the BACK of the zig zag stitch (usually hidden in the interior of your clothing) showed on the FRONT of the paper BINGO - instant 2 tone effect!
5. Turned paper over and giggled hysterically at the COOLIO effect.
7. Switched bottom bobbin to canary yellow string.
8. Swirled the FRONT of the zig zag stitch onto the spaces left by previous swirl.

Hope that makes sense- it's just a fun little tweak on the usual.
*Thank you Mary from the Scrapbook.com forum for helping me with proper sewing terminology for this itty bitty tute!

Here's the page again in larger format (and away from all my blogger template madness):

Required Miss Lola shot:

MuChOs SmOoChEs!
M.

2 Peas In A Bucket- LOVE YA BABE!

I just found out my "num, Num, NUUUM" page won the February My Little Shoebox Challenge over at 2 Peas. So excited! I love the caliber of the work in their galleries so winning is a big deal for me.

Anywhoo- here is a page I finished yesterday for their Studio Calico Challenge. Go on and make your own page and post it by March 31st.

First Birthday Outfit
Materials: Studio Calico Barn Swallow paper, Homefront Die Cuts, Wood veneer Buttons, Homefront Stickers, various exclusive kit club paper bits, Mister Huey in Schoolhouse, Collage Press alphas, Elle Studio "Remember This" tag. 

I had so much fun making this page! Cutting out the birds took about an hour. I am terrible with an Exacto knife but one of my scrap goals for 2011 is to improve technique so I took the plunge. This is meant to be one of my 2 sided projects but I'm wondering how to make the bird print work in a layout - it's going to take a while.

I can't bear to let go of my favorite prints- I just keep using the left overs till they are gone. I have a teetering stash of paper but if it's got woodgrain or grids on it, it gets used first.

I love those new SC die cuts- they are PERFECT- bright, funkily retro and modern at the same time. The actual design for this page came together in about 2 hours- I just dumped a whole bunch of leftover bits on the page and started moving them around.

I love those photos of Lola in her Alice tutu! They printed super dark so I don't think this page will win  but I wasn't about to chuck the photos out- printer cartridges for my crappy HP cost 50 bucks!

Fun times at mini golf party.

MuChOs SmOoChEs!
M.

Make some sun

I got to see my first ice storm today- everything is coated in an inch of glass- it's beautiful! And hideous.
This is another project to chase the clouds and the 5 state large storm away:

Be You
Materials: American Crafts cloud paper, Sassafras Lass Entwined Blooms- Turkish 
Turquoise Bloom,  Jillibean Soup corrugated alphas- green, Mister Huey- sunshine, 
Bee cut out from Nikki Sivils paper, Green bird from  
One Bright Shiny Rainbow Collage Altered Art Kit- Paper Issues on Etsy, 
Wood block Faux Kiss on Etsy, Elmer's glitter glue- yellow,  
K and Co ephemera die cuts- bird.

Valentine's Day is a week and a half away- what are YOU doing for your nearest and dearest? Mine is getting some.... Sushi.  Aaahahahahahaha! Made you look!
Sorry.
Paper Issues is hosting a wonderful Valentine's theme challenge- all paper projects welcome! The piece above gives you a hint on the next challenge- cogitate on THAT then go on and get BUSY!

Abuela Gille. We are coming to see you.
Please get well soon.

MuChOs SmOoChEs!
M.