February is a RED MESS!! True Xoxo Girls Challenge

I love the color red.
I think anything can be improved by a nice red detail. A black jacket? Extra smart when paired with a red scarf. Pink looks more alive when paired with red- so do orange and turquoise.
Strawberries, cherries, apples- all red! Mother Nature is on my side.

Love Monkey- True Xoxo Girls Messy Challenge- February
Materials: Gauche Alchemy Pink Parts and Scarlet Fever Mixed Media Color kits (glitter hearts, little rubber monkey sequins and buttons), red punchinella, packaging from a Maya Road pins pack, Thickers in foam and fabric from Joann's, Tim Holtz brick pattern embossing plate, graph paper from Staples, Mister Hueys in Schoolhouse, Calico Cream, Piglet  and Cameo, Art-C heart doily and "today" stamp from Cocoa Daisy (GREAT SET!), Dooddlebug and Reminiscence brads

I long for red especially at this time of year when everything outside is brown or grey.
When I go and do laundry we have four loads- bleach pile, darks, lights and red/pink. It makes for fun loading at the laundromat- everyone just looks at me like whaaaaaa?
The red/pink pile is the largest.

Some of my favorite Hipstamatic app filters add pink or red to my photos.
The Lucifer VI lens adds a subtle red circle to the photo. 

Here I've used the Lucifer VI lens and Big Up film for the yellow/pink tape border.
Big Up border effects are random so I love when this combo comes up.

My husband knows to skip the hearts, flowers, chocolate and lace. (Especially the lace- I pugnaciously reject gifts with ULTERIOR MOTIVES)
He usually shows up with a fun red cotton sweater or shirt for me and something wacky for Miss Thang to play with.  When he put this outfit on Lola, totally alone and without my help, I was so very happy:

The Maya Road plastic packing fit the Instax print perfectly! I wish I had a bunch more so
I could make a whole series of these mini shakers!

I also tried something new (for me). Using recycled packaging on a layout. I usually throw these out but my fellow Gauche Alchemy DT members encouraged me to try incorporating them into a layout- this is my first attempt so it's a bit.. rustic... but I can see myself sewing these onto cards or using a few of them as wall decoration- the possibilities are endless and it was super easy to make.

Sneak peek at something else I'm working on for my Feb 13th
post over at Gauche Alchemy. The Hispstamatic Ben Watts Lens
gives this photo magenta edges.

The True Xoxo Girls Challenge for this month is MESSY! I used Gauche Alchemy Scarlet Fever color kit on this as well as some older paper from my stash. And I FINALLY broke out my Claudine Helmuth acrylic paints- which scare me with their pure and beautiful color intensity. Your challenge for this month is to SCRAP MESSY!
Go on- you can DO EET!

GRATUITOUS CUTE BABY SHOT!

Running away from Mom's "smile for the camera" request.

MuChOs SmOoChEs!
Michelle

Get PUNKY! Week 2 sketch

This is my second week as a Guest Designer for Punky Scraps and I'm having insane amounts of fun. Need evidence?

Beautiful Girls
MATERIALS: American Crafts papers, AC Thickers alphas, Crafter's workshop Cosmic swirl template, floral fabric, die cuts and words from K & Co,  Maya Road satin pleated ribbon. My Mind's Eye velvet ribbon and ball fringe. 

Whoop! Whoop! Slam dunk. I am seriously loving all the American Crafts color here. Here's the sketch for week 2:

Punky sketch for April week 2 

Punky sets your design bug free. Paint splattered incorrectly on my page? So what? It's Punky! Edges of machine stitch frayed? It's all good- it's PUNKY. I'm telling you it's a license to experiment and that's just what I needed at this point. I was getting way too self conscious and loosing sight of why I scrap- to HAVE FUN.

Nieces Noe and Emi. These pix popped up on their facebook profile one day and  I simply HAD to scrap them.

The sponsor for this month is Crafter's Workshop whose templates I've been collecting for a while now. I wanted to get a little more paint crazy here but I only had 1 sheet of this gorgeous Dear Lizzy paper and I've been known to ruin entire layouts with too much spritz so I added just a touch of SC Mister Huey in white over the Crafter's Workshop Cosmic Swirls 12 x 12 template and loved the subtle swirls I got.

Minor twist- photos hanging where banners should be.
"Journaling" where photos would normally be placed.

I have an entire box of "bling" which I rarely use
because I rarely remember it's there. No more!

Now please run to Punky and make a page of your own- you might win a wonderful prize from Crafter's Workshop!


Second (larger) look:

MuChOs SmOoChEs!

Michelle

Love ATC MADNESS!

A reader might wonder why half my headlines have the word MADNESS in them. It's just fun to hear the headline in my head. Remember Crazy Eddy? "Prices so low... IT'S INSAAAAAAAANE!" well I'd hire him to yell out my blog headlines- too bad he's in jail for fraud & money laundering.
Here are my Valentine's Day ATCs. YAYYY!  You can also check them out on the next PAPER ISSUES CHALLENGE. This is the first time I tackle ATC format AND a Valentine's Day project- it was FUN!

And ATC
MATERIALS: Love Art-C Artist Trading Card Kit, EK Success Abstract Flower Edge Punch, Smooch Pearlized Accent Ink- Gold Lame, EK Success 2" scallop heart punch, American Crafts Thickers- pink, Crafter's Workshop 12x12 heart template, AC glitter paper- red, Smooch spritz- red,  Tattered Angels mist- Suede
PHOTO CREDIT: DANIEL LAM

The photo is from Gia's amazing engagement photo album shot by her extremely talented brother Daniel. Gia's wedding theme was AND- as in 2 different families coming together or Gia & Tom or We are getting married & you better be there!!!! I LOVED IT! She's so awesome.... (read my blog read my blog read my blog)
That is the home run card.
THIS is the bleh one:

Love ATC
MATERIALS:  Love Art-C Artist Trading Card Kit,  Tattered Angels glimmer glam- Pink Lipstick, Adirondack Acrylic paint dabber- gold, Smooch Pearlized Accent Ink- Gold Lame, EK Success 2" scallop heart punch, Crafter's Workshop 12x12 heart template, V alpha bead from Red Lead.com,  Jolee's woodgrain alpha stickers

What do you think? BE HONEST.
I'm ok with it only because I found out I could use an acrylic paint dabber on a transparency and have it stick.  But really these are all about how much I love shopping. Two Peas in a bucket (Remember the order the US Mail kidnapped? Well it finally appeared FOUR days late in the building lobby where THANKFULLY David's Uncle found it. TOLD YOU I had CRETINS as mailmen!!! Plus the PUSTULOUS GHOUL marked it as delivered!! I was home- he never rang the buzzer! EEEEVIL! )

Sorry- Two Peas in a Bucket has Art-C ATC kits on sale for 7.49 so I thought-might as well try it... I really like these kits. The paper elements could be higher in quality but they get so abused in the misting and gluing process they come out looking fine. The Tattered Angeles Glimmer Glam is not something I would normally buy but OOOPS! Joann's included one on my last order- FOR FREE! Not sure why... maybe to apologize for terrible customer service, an incredibly time consuming & creaky website that freezes with Safari and turn around time so slow Snails regularly pull up next to it and laugh.
Breathe, B.R.E.A.T.H.E- cute photo break...

Nephew Ty. Next project subject.
Photo by my cousin Viviana Vazquez
another hugely talented young photographer

Not sure where the energy is coming from for all this ranting- maybe I need to take up yoga... But Glimmer Glam is AWESOME and I now will buy as many different colors as my grubby lil wallet can afford.
MuChOs SmOoChEs!
M.