A Flair For Buttons Valentine's Blog Hop!

Hello!
Welcome to the A Flair For Buttons Valentine's Day Blog Hop!
Join us as we showcase some of Shelley's FABULOUS new flair.
We hope to inspire you along the way!

As a Thank You for visiting, please feel free to use the following coupon code
IHEARTFLAIR
and receive 10% off your purchase in the A Flair For Buttons Etsy shop.

Make sure to visit the A FLAIR FOR BUTTONS blog at the end of the hop and leave a comment for a chance to win a new set of flair!

Blog Hop order:

Shelley Haganman

Danielle Walls

Erica Weinstock

Dana Howard

Diane Payne

Michelle Hernandez- <<< You Are Here. YAY!

Meghan Klauer

Jennifer Chapin

A Flair For Buttons

I've never really paid much attention to Valentine's Day.
Now that I'm a Mom I've had to change that tune.
My daughter constantly asks for the candy in the store check out aisles (nasty trick!) and likes all the red heart shaped items she's seeing so I've decided to go with the flow (for once).

I used the Love Flair Two and Arrow 1 Flair sets for this page along with some old Martha
Stewart Christmas paper along with some Crate Paper and Studio Calico prints.
The Polaroid Cameras are from Die-cuts With A View.

The second project is a card I made for my husband who is working incredibly hard and feeling a bit down about not spending more time with his family.

For this super quick card I used Dude Flair and some Basic Grey
and American Crafts leftovers that have been lying around entirely too long.

This year we are planning a family "date night" with dinner at an actual restaurant and a movie.
It will be quite fancy... if my 3 year old decides to co-operate. :)

Thanks for swinging by!

Your next stop is Meghan Klauer of Meghan Klauer Design.

Don't forget-  use the following coupon code: IHEARTFLAIR

to receive 10% off your purchase in the A Flair For Buttons Etsy shop!

Have a great (and safe) winter weather weekend!
Michelle

Thankful for family- A Flair For Buttons Post

Hello there!

I feel like I've fallen into the rabbit hole.
Today is the first day in over two months where I have nothing planned.

Lola is with me- we are going shopping for winter sneakers and having lots of Mommy and me moments.

Before I'm off on my adventure I just want to wish you a happy, drama free Thanksgiving.

Here is my most recent page for A Flair For Buttons:

 The red stripe paper is from Sodalicious, The fussy cut roses from Paper Trunk, the index card from Lily Bee and the flair buttons from A Flair For Buttons. The silver doily is from a pack I got at Michael's.

My gratitudes list:

1. I am grateful for having a husband who is very much in love with his crazy wife. I often play the lottery but I know lightning doesn't strike twice. My luck came in the form of one David Martinez.

2. I am grateful for Miss Lola who is happy and healthy and freakishly intelligent- pretty soon she'll be teaching me to multiply and divide fractions which is why I had a child in the first place.
(just kidding! not really)

3. I am thankful for my Mom who is awesome and my mother in law Reina who can cook up a storm. Also I am thankful for my brothers Guarionex, Daniel, Roberto, Luis and Christian (who just got engaged to Lisa!!! WOOOT!) and my sisters Leticia, Melissa and Sandra and my nieces and nephews Noemi, Emily, Natalie, Kaine and Marcus.

4. I am thankful for you my blog readers- for sticking with me through all my drama this year- sorry I don't post more- I wish I could dictate posts while on the subway.

I think that photo of Dave and Lola dancing down the street is one of my favorite images ever- too bad it's a low rez iPod photo.

Here are some detail shots:

I tried out my American Crafts DYI Thickers with loose silver glitter.
I will not be using them again- they stuck to everything except the page.
It's easier to use Stickles on regular Thickers instead.

I'm LOVING Heidi Swapp's Color Shine mists!
The tiny stars are also from Michael's.

The A Flair For Buttons blog is full of great ideas from the DT- swing by and check it out.

Have a happy, healthy and peaceful Thanksgiving!
Michelle

Having fun with BlueBird Chic Design Flair

Hello!
Today I want to share a quick clean and simple page I made with flair from Blue Bird Chic Paper on Etsy.

Blue Bird Chic owner, Leah Farquarson, designs for Jenni Bowlin, American Crafts and Hambly amongst many others- swing by her blog Amusing To Create and check it out- her work is amazing.

I love the cool tones of this set!
The light purples look fantastic when paired with the warm tones in the Amy Tangerine's "Ready Set Go" line which I have been using on everything lately- the patterns are so perfect.

I wish AC had taken the vellum theme in this line further and put out matching vellum tape and vellum pie chart die cuts- I can never get enough of vellum- especially if it's bright.
I wanted to make something a little more complicated but when I saw this configuration I loved it just like it was.

Here are some detail shots:

Everyone loves the My Minds Eye enamel dots. I'm SO on the
bandwagon and playing the tuba! They are AWESOME!

Leah's pins are unique in that they have flat backs so a bit of double-sided
tape sticks them right onto your page- easy peasy.

Swing by Blue Bird chic and check out the beautiful hand made camera straps as well.

Have a great day!
Michelle

A challenge of Olympic Proportions! True Xoxo Girls Scrapbooking

Hello!
If you're here for the Punky Scraps Blog hop please scroll to the post right under this one!
Or swing by http://www.njmacs.blogspot.com/2012/07/punky-punky-back.html for a chance to get on the team for 2012-13!

The True Xoxo Girls Olympic challenge is here!
Perhaps you would like to use the colors of the Olympic flag in your layout.
Or maybe you'd like to make a heritage page about a sports event your family was inspired by.
The possibilities are endless!
Swing by the True Xoxo blog and pick a page to scraplift.
You can also vote for your favorite page from the June and July entries.

Here's my page for the August challenge:

Materials: A Flair For Buttons arrow pin, Studio Calico paper, Crate Paper border, Fiskars Jenni Bowlin
ribbon punch, American Crafts glitter Thickers, American Crafts "Alex" Delights, Pebbles flag, Fiskars
corner rounder, gold gel pen from Sakura, gold mini brads from American Crafts and Mister Huey Gold mist.

That's my sister Melissa.
She's a pro boxer.
She changes weight divisions once in a while but mostly she's a Bantam weight fighter (and now a world title belt holder- WOOT!).

I rarely talk to Melissa about "the boxing thing".
It REALLY bothers me that she risks permanent injury every time she does her job but she loves what she's doing and she's good at it so I've learned to keep my reservations to myself.

I kept the page simple to focus on the spectacular photos (that I DID NOT TAKE-  I promise to track the name down of this photographer- he did a fantastic job)

I used my favorite Studio Calico print, cut some 1/2 inch strips from a Crate print for the border and tried to use Diamond Stickles on vellum.
The water-based Stickles glue crinkled the vellum but I liked the wonky effect so I kept it in.

A whole bunch of fun new flair pin sets are up over at the
A Flair For Buttons Etsy page!

Now you!
Join the Xoxo crew and show us your Olympics inspired page!
Swing by to check out the other DT work- lots of great pages this month (as always!)
True Xoxo Girls Challenge Blog.

OH! Before I forget!

3 pages of mine are in this issue! German Art Scrap Magazine
http://www.diescrapperin.de An online preview will be coming your way soon!

I have a page in the August issue if Scrapbook Trends as well.
I would show it to ya but I need to go to Joann's to pick up a copy!

Have a scrappy day mi gente!
Michelle

Cheer up- it's wednesday- water color day!

It's wednesday.
I have a list of 8 things I HAVE to do today.
It's 4pm.
Will I be able to pull it off?

Happy place! Happy place! HAPPY PLAAAACE!

If you look up the term AWESOME (sauce) in the dictionary you will see a large photo of my
niece Noemi taking up most of the page. It's SO encouraging to see a happy, virtuous, INTELLIGENT
and FUN (not to mention popular!) 16 year old!!! MTV how about a reality show? I would watch it! 

Gauche Alchemy Punchinella and washi tape, Sassafras Lass layered flowers, water color paper and cheap 99 cent store water color paints were used for this late night experiment.

I used some loose leaf reinforcers as stencils and colored the actual stickers with Prima chalk ink- which by the way is the BEST THING EVER!

Some quick close up shots:

I'm adding that Gauche black loops washi to EVERYTHING!!! 
The magenta lace scallops is another fave.

Caption and can you spot a favorite item of mine as of late?
A Flair for Buttons typed words flair.

So now I'm hurrying off to the NEXT item on the to do list- the A Flair For Buttons Blog post I should have written oh 2 weeks go. YIPES!

Can I just show you two things?

Triangles Kraft and color flair

Colored Stars Flair

Aren't they luscious??? LOVE!

GRATUITOUS TODDLER SHOT!!!!

I finally found a Bokeh filter app- PicFX- cool as all GET!

Onto the next "To Do List" item.
LET'S DO THIS SCRAP HAPPY FOLKS!!! :)

MuChOs SmOoChEs!
Michelle

The flyness of flair (buttons)

Guess how long I've been dying to add the word "fly" (as in AWESOME) to a post title?
Forever!
WOOOOT!
Today I want to share a couple of pages that will be going up over at the A Flair For Buttons blog.
I. LOVE. Flair Buttons.
Thankfully mine come with no strings attached.
Unlike:

How NOT to use flair. Jennifer Anniston in Office Space. 

Guuurl I KNOW how you feel- work place MADNESS!
But that was then- this is NOW. (Now is ALL the awesome AND some sauce on the side).

First page up:

Sunday Sunshine Baby- that's my nephew Kaine when he was just a year old.
Materials: A Flair for Buttons woodgrain Days of the Week, Gauche Alchemy corrugated board, woodgrain punchinella and sequins, Sassafras Lass paper, stickers and die cuts, Crate Paper alphas and a Prima newsprint vine- oh and chevron and mini banner dies from "My Favorite Stamps".

How about this one?:

Capture Happy.
This was  a page I made for Gauche Alchemy last year and I remember thinking how I wish I had some plain white
word buttons- funny how life works out huh?
Materials: Gauche alchemy White mixed media color kit and clear punchinella, A Flair For Buttons Cameras flair pin and Word flair button, Happy pin from Joann's, Maya Road corrugated clouds and straight pins. 

I think you should swing by A Flair for Buttons blog and check out what the new Design Team (me included!) has come up with.
There is something for everyone- clean and simple scrappers, retro or altered item makers, romantic style scrappers, graphic designers of all types- Shelley has something for everyone.

Some project detail shots:

Mono chrome pages- I need to make more! They are FABULOUS.

I liked the plain wood print on the back of the letter "K" so I flipped it over but had to cut
parts off. It looks wonky but the color works. Sassafras!!! I MISS YOU! Come back! 

Brown cream and yellow together- it was by pure chance but I LOVE how the
girlie flower stuff got layered on there and the page is still pretty gender neutral.
Those A Flair For Buttons woodgrain days of the week? TOO AWESOME!

You go on and have a great weekend you hear?
My sister is in town- YAAAY!
We are gonna paint the town several shades of sunny yellow! I will take ALL the photos! And make ALL the happy sisters together pages. (woot!)

Keith Haring exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. This was my favorite piece. Someone
ripped the black subway poster backing right off the wall and took it home- smart cookie!

MuChOS SmOoChEs!
Michelle

On Blogger followers, Google Friends Connect and redoing cards

Ok so after some searching on the internet for this Google Friends Connect dilemma- wait-
I don't want to lose anyone...
Google Friends Connect is the little "join this site" box there (pointing to the lower right of this blog) with all the friendly faces.
The box is staying but anyone who reads you on a different blogging platform (like Wordpress or TypePad) will no longer be able to follow you using that box)

NO SOUP FOR YOU! Un-blogger blogers!!

That means you'll be limiting your reader base. Time to diversify!

Some of my favorite blogers are using:
Blog Lovin'  
Networked Blogs apps 
or asking readers to follow via email.

See that teeny tiny box up there (pointing to the upper right)?
If you like what I do, sign up and get me in your inbox at least 3 times a week.

Some of you have "upgraded" to new Blogger formats and are now looking for more info.
Blogger has a website for that.
"Blogger Buzz"
Yay! Click on me! Get taken to a totally bewildering website and read for HOURS!

So I will keep looking and linking and talking to help ya'll out.
Us scrappy peeps gotta stick together!

Here is this week's project.
This is a redo of a card I made for fellow Scrap FX DT member Scarlett who sent me some much wanted Target washi tape at the drop of a hat She's SO AWESOME!

Materials: Washi tape and punchinella from Gauche Alchemy, flair buttons from
"A Flair for Buttons"on Etsy, Ormolu arrows tag (fave ever!), Bazill white cardstock.
I added the alphas from K & Co to give the card's sentiment visual clarity. The handwritten
 "thank you" was totally lost before. I also gave up that FABULOUS red arrow button. Scarlett deserves it. 

Lola and I are "collaborating" again.
She did the splashing and stamping on this card that is still "in the works".
Buttons from A Flair for Buttons- love that place!

It's wednesday- the most effective blog posting day of the week- have YOU posted today?
Write it up and POST mi gente!
Someone wants to read it!

US, SUPER MOON AND THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING.

MUCH LOVE!
Michelle

Tuesdays are better! A Scrap FX Post

HALLO!
I hope you had a great Mother's Day weekend!
I will be celebrating next saturday since this weekend was don't disturb The Hubs who's studying for  finals week.

I've been struggling mightily with staying creative while also chasing a very active 2 and a half year old around a very small apartment.
It seems every time I turn around she's got a pair of scissors or some glue in her hands- not the friendly versions.
The ones that make me squeal in motherly terror.

I made this for Scrap FX but feel it's due for a make over so here's version one and you'll see version 2 there in a week or so.

Materials: Scrap FX Dinosaur mixed pack (2007287), Itsy Bitsy Bets "Typewriter" 2005103,
I altered several frames to make the "instant" ones here. Decorative frame "artsy" 2012044,
Simple frame A rectangle 2012047. I also used Studio Calico paper, Gauche Alchemy washi tape and
punchinella, A Flair for Buttons "Love You" button and regular staples I colored black using a marker.

Detail shots:

A Flair for Buttons "Love You" and Scrap FX Simple frame

Love this Tyranosaurus chipboard! I couldn't help
adding some stacked buttons left over from my shadow
box project. I love that look now.

I had a "brain wave" to use vellum for my journaling
to soften the look but it was see through so I had to back it
up with white paper. I nixed this project after using
watered down acrylic paint and warping the paper so badly I had
to cut it down to 8 by 11 size.

This week I sat down and started doing research on Mommy and Me craft projects because Miss Thang gets really crazy when it's raining and she can't go on her usual 4 hour walk.
NOPE! I'm not EVEN kidding.
It's walk her till she literally falls asleep or deal with mini Hulk.

So if you see I'm posting less or not getting around to your blogs and leaving much deserved love it's because I'm conserving time for the kiddo.

She's only 2 for so long.

MuChoS SmOoChEs!
Michelle

Get messy and kick start the mojo!

So it's 5:22pm on May 9th. Really.
Already.
I feel like I'm on a moped speeding down the highway over here!
Only it's more boring than that- like maybe it's an electric bike- not a Vespa which would be awesome actually.
My husband would take offense at my electric bike dig.
Electric bikes are apparently the sliced bread of motorized mobility.

Been on a "so many ideas, so little results" down swing lately.
I have the motivation and the inspiration but it's all going to pot on the page right now.
Last night- at around midnight I might add-
I made this.

Materials:  Red punchinella, plastic white embroidery grid and washi tape from Gauche Alchemy,
Crate Paper Storyteller paper, "I love" pin from A Flair for Buttons on Etsy, Heidi
Swapp "Epic" photomat, 7 Gypsies tape, American Crafts star border punch, Studio Calico wood
veneer hearts, camera, arrows and stars. Mister Huer in Schoolhouse red and Cream, Prima
Chalk ink stamp pad in cream and yellow.

Just trying to get over the hump and get cracking.
It's probably due to the piles and piles and PILES of crap on my desk.
Seriously- piles- it's not remotely fun to look at it since it's begging to get cleaned.
I'm starting to show on my pages.

 Here are some detail shots:

Creepily accurate map!

Perfect for Project Life or for those who prefer smaller embellishments on their pages.
I bought a "choose your own mix" pack of 12 flair buttons and got to mix and match.
A Flair for buttons- Etsy.

I've had these GCD Studio paper strips since last summer but they were hidden away in a
random flower pot I was supposed to alter. I found them while searching for my bag
of sewing machine thread which has been missing for over a month. 

I watered down some neon yellow paint and spilled it on the page.After it dried, I sprinkled some black Mister Huey mist on it but everything ran together. I finally realized I don't need to buy black staples. I can just use a permanent marker on the ones I already have. Brain? Where have you been?

GRATUITOUS CUTE TODDLER SHOT!!!!

May 7th- Wants to walk the dog but refuses to take the hat off. It's 70 degrees out.

UPDATE!!! Studio Calico just released it's Summer 2012 collection!! HEXAGON MASK!!!! Mistable fabric Ali font Thickers!! SUNRAY STAMP! And typewriter wood veneers! It's gonna be an AWESOME June!!!

MuChos SmOoChEs!
Michelle