Creative Chaos

I've fallen down the bottomless abyss properly known as ......

Flickr.   And there is no turning back.  I place full blame squarely on the shoulders of Kari and Tammy.  Ooooh, Jenny Holiday also shares in some of this time sucking mayhem as she was the first one who asked me to be a contact.  But, those first two gals listed above are the ones that first made me cross over to the other side.....the side known as Flickr.....the side known as a lose all sense of time and direction, my kids now make their own dinner and put themselves to bed obsession that has me completely enthralled.......to put it bluntly.......I'm in love. However, when it comes to blaming someone as to why my kitchen still isn't painted......don't think those three names won't be tossed around.

Now to tell you the truth, I really never fully understood what Flickr was all about until Kari of Artsymama hosted her May Basket Swap.   Of course I naively thought...."oh, what a great way to share our pictures."  never realizing the full impact Flickr would have on me.   For the love of every picture in the entire world you could possibly ever want or need.......I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!   You can post pictures!  You can save favorites!  You can have contacts of favorites! You can look through the contacts of your contacts and then save some more pictures....... You can look at beautiful pictures until your head falls on your desk in complete exhaustion and you then still pick it up to look at "just one more".........

Ok.....enough of that.  I have a lot of pictures to share.  So you may want to pull up a comfy chair and grab a cup of coffee.  You may even want to make this little piece of heaven to eat while I ramble on endlessly as usual.  First up, are the tags I received from the Tag Swap Tammy over at Tammy Gilley Studios hosted.  So much fun.  What a great group a women!  We had emails flying back and forth throughout. 

So without much further ado, here are the Fan"tag"ulous tags from the swap.....

Below, from left to right, is Lisa's from My Sweet Petunia (it's hard to see in the photo but Lisa hand painted hers) and Tia better known as Mizsmoochie (you should see the back of the tag.  As cute as the front.....too bad I forgot to take a picture of it!)

And here we have Linda's gorgeous understated yet glitter filled tag and the hostest with the mostest of the swap Tammy's "cute as a button" vintage tag.

Next up are the beautiful blue tags from Michelle of Rose Garden Romantic and The infamous Jamie of Terracotta Tales.  Love, love, love these.

The beautiful bird tag is from Heather of Bluhm Studios (again it's hard to tell from the photo but she hand painted the background on this), the wonderful damask birdcage tag is from Maija of Maizgirlz and the dreamy "dreamer" tag is from Dawn of Artist Reborne (which by the way check out her work on her site....awesome)

Oooohhh that sneaky Mizsmoochie.....she gave us two tags.  I LOVE the bingo card with just that little bit of glitter on the side.

And last, but absolutely in no way shape or form least......Mary of Oh Merci handstitched the word LOVE on her tag.  Ahhh the patience of that woman.  And, Melissa from Little Melfred's Studio gave me this gorgeous piece of work 

So as you can see I'm one lucky girl!  But wait there's more....... Look what I bought from Karla over at Karla's Cottage......

Isn't it beautiful!  She also does these handpainted charms that will just knock your socks off........

And lastly a work in progress.  I've been working on this for a while. Not quite sure where it's going.......Although, my feeling is that years down the road it may possibly be "going" into a therapist office with a complaint of "my mom wanted girls".  Hopefully, they will understand my need for all things shabby and pastel did not mean I didn't love them as the boys they are are.  Hey, I painted their room blue and bright green in a rainforest theme.  What more do they want from me......

See you later!!! 

Good "Monday" Morning........

Or, is it it still Sunday....No. Wait. I dropped Carlos off at school this morning so it must be Monday......Oh, forget it. I have no idea what day it is today. Or, yesterday. Or, the whole weekend for that matter!   I got this comment from Heather yesterday about how she was "waiting for the tutorial. It's Monday" .....of course, I just laughed and thought "wow!  Everyone is SO excited for my tutorial they are coming a day early!  This is sooo great.  Looks like it might be standing room only."   And then I thought that I better email Heather and let the poor gal know that it was Sunday not Mon..........WAIT a minute. Just wait a darn, pickn' glitter filled minute here.  It was Monday.  Oh my gosh.  I'm pathetic.  Although, I would love to blame it on the fact that my family was in town over the weekend.  I'm sorry to say that the same thing probably would have happened sans guests.   

So anyway.....where were we......Oh yes.....getting ready for glitter!!!!  I've got everything glued down and ready to go.....

I like to use couple different glitters.  For the edge of the crown and the outline of the diamond I use a silver or in this case a lavender silver glitter.  For the outline of the "it's my party" and butterflies I use a fine white glitter.  Around the little pink flowers I use a ultra fine diamond dust glitter just to give some subtle shimmer.

I like to "paint" the glue to the edge of the crown in order to give it a smooth wider look.  Of course you can always just line it with the glue from the bottle. I like to use diamond glaze or this one.   I realized these are best for the glitter as opposed to Elmer's.  You won't get the glitter trail because they dry harder than Elmer's.   

Uuggg......Micro manager..........

So here I have started edging the crown with glitter..........

And here is with the rest of the glitter applied.  You can add more or less depending on your glitter tolerance factor.  Mine goes quite high.......

At this point I decide on the ribbon that will tie the back of the crown.   I suggest using wire ribbon that isn't shiny/glossy for the main ribbon.  I find the Offray "taffeta" style ribbon works well.  When tied it will hold the crown in place and not slip within the bow.

You then want to glue your ribbons to the back of the crown.  I find that a glue gun does a fast, easy, strong hold.  Because the ribbons will be pulled on when tied, you want to make sure the bond is secure.  (NOTE:  That green ribbon below is only for photographic purposes.  It would be to thick to tie with the other ribbon.  Unfortunately, I ran out of the usual ribbon I would normally use, such as a thinner sheer ribbon preferably with polka dots or a design on it. )

Here is the backside.  I like to fold over the ribbon so it looks neater.  You can also cover it with a bit of decorative paper.

And TA DA!  The finished crown!  Well, almost finished.....I still have to get the right ribbons to attach to it.  This one is going to be for my friend Hope (hence the H) for her 40th birthday. 

I hope that this was helpful to everyone.  If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.  Also, if you do one, take a picture and let me see.  I would love to see what everyone's interpretation and design will be. 

Crown Tutorial..........Part 1

Yes. Part one.  You read it correctly. Part 1 meaning there will be a Part 2.  Meaning, I was unable to complete the entire tutorial today as scheduled.  Oh, how Thursday morning began with such perfect promise. Everything started off according to my finely tuned and organized plan.  I dropped Carlos off at school.  Met a friend and her daughter at the park to properly wear out Andres for the upcoming crown frenzy.  Arrived home, and got right to work.  I accomplished quite a bit  before I realized that I needed to run up to the store and get some things for dinner.   I walked through the door with bags in hand and crying child in tow to the sound of the phone ringing.  It was my brother calling to tell me that he and my sister-in-law and niece were on their way to my house today instead of tomorrow.   As a matter of fact, they were just heading out of Camp Pendelton and should be here in 45 minutes.  Great. No problem.  See you when you get here.   Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh...........I frantically looked around and tried to figure out what I should tackle first.......last night's dishes that were stacked with this morning's dishes?!?.......the piles of laundry scattered about the house?!?........the box of goldfish dumped in the middle of the living room from earlier this afternoon (hey, it kept Andre's entertained for at least a good 25 minutes), or the general stacks of stuff scattered about the house in a random yet purposeful manner.  I never moved so fast in my life.  It's amazing how quickly you can clean on a deadline.  Phew.

So, here is what was accomplished yesterday for today's tutorial.  I will post Part 2 on Monday......(The link is below)

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot about the second bad news.....Here is what the "CEO of Tomfoolery" left on the conference table for us to enjoy during the tutorial.   No margaritas.  He said he had no idea what those were; but assured me that a juice box would be just as good.....especially if I ate it with Froot Loops. 

Here is the link in case you missed the meeting  CEO of Tomfoolery Crown Meeting Minutes

So, grab your refreshments and let's move on to the craft room.............

First off, I made a template for my crown. I used an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of heavy stock paper. Fold it in half and trace half of the design.  You can make the crown bigger or smaller than I did depending on what you prefer. 

For the crown itself, I like to use a 12 x 12 piece of heavy card stock scrapbook paper.   

I then start laying out my design and color choices to go with the body of the crown.  I like to first have a strip of decorative paper going across the base of the crown.  I suggest not using a heavy stock paper for this part because you don't want the bottom so stiff that it won't bend easily. 

I like to then play around with different papers and embelleshments.  At this point you want to decide your color theme and how you want to arrange things on the crown.  I decided to do a green/blue/pink theme.  As you can see, my playing around usually results in changes along the way as I switched the blue strip of paper along the base with a white textured one.

I then put a diamond in the middle of the crown and flanked it with butterflies.  You can also do hearts as shown here.   

At this point I start to do more embellishing and added little pink flowers and some rhinestones.  You can't really see it on the picture but the green paper I used for the crown actually has flecks of glitter on it.   If you use a patterned piece of paper for the body of the crown, you probably wouldn't have to use as many embellishment and can add glitter to the existing pattern like in these examples.

I print out a fun saying on a piece of heavier cardstock and cut it with some decorative edges

I usually will then glue the "It's my party" cutout on another piece of contrasting paper and then glue it to the band on the bottom of the crown.

Right about now is when it all starts coming together.   I like to flank the "It's my Party" with flowers on each side.  In this case I used some of my old flowers that I used to use back in the day with a pink fabric flower in the middle.  I like to decorate the side of the crown with some extra strips of ribbon or fabric.

I put another smaller diamond shape in the middle of the bigger diamond with a contrasting color and then topped with a glitter initial or star.

So this is as far as I got on Thursday afternoon.......When I return on Monday we will finish up with the rest of the embellishments, the all important glitter and the attachment of the ribbons.  I hope this makes sense. It's 11:21 right now and I have to go to bed.  But, please feel free to ask any questions in the comment section if I haven't been clear or missed something along the way.  See you on Monday!  Don't forget your glitter! 

Crown Tutorial Part 2

 

Crown Tutorial update........

Crown Tutorial Part 1 and Part 2

I received a memo written in highlighter and crayon (and smeared with peanut butter) from the guy in charge of crafting and chaos which said the tutorial will take place on Friday after his nap.  This is barring any meltdowns, tantrums or general crankiness that he may have on that day.  He was very explicit about not being able to guarantee or be responsible for any of his behavior.  He politely explained that a breakfast of Froot Loop and chocolate milk may get him off to a happy start. (although, I heard through the grapevine that HIS senior supervisor said absolutely not. It would be the usual oatmeal and bananas.)

As he outlined his demands for the day which included endless bowls of goldfish (the colored kind), juice boxes on ice,  nap breaks whenever the mood struck and full creative control over the design of the crown (ONLY Thomas the Train would be approved), I couldn't help but think he was appearing very familiar to me....... as if I had worked with these same sets of childish requests and general nonsense before.

Then it hit me like a ton of Lego's.........This was the same guy the Temp agency sent over to help me with the last two giveaways!    Apparently upper management never listened to my complaints about him playing with his trains when he was supposed to be picking names and had hired him on permanently.....and, to add insult to injury, with a title and his own office.   I have no idea how he managed to work his way up the ladder given that he doesn't even speak full sentences yet.  However, he must have razzle dazzled someone at corporate.   

Anyway, I have no other choice than to cooperate with him and do my very best to bring a crown tutorial to everyone despite having to work with someone who wears Higglytown Heroes pajamas to the office.   I told him that no matter what he says we were still going to serve margaritas..........I think we're going to need it!

   

I've got the Tags in the Bag.........

Well, it looks like I am one step closer to the crown tutorial that I promised.  I just wrapped up all my tags for the tag swap that Tammy is hosting. Here are some more pictures of fab tags! I was on a roll this weekend...... up until 3:00 am Friday night and 2:00 am Saturday night.  Now, I'm tired.  But, here they are.......

I really enjoyed doing these tags. Actually I love doing tags. They are quick and easy.  Instant gratification.  And I'm all about that....... Ok, I am off to clean my craft room so that I can invite everyone in for some crown craziness.   I will have refreshments available.  I'm thinking along the lines of some margaritas or maybe some appletini's.....hope I don't glue my fingers to the crown and embarrass myself after a couple too many 'tini's........See you later! 

The Only Gift I Want.....

Yesterday was my birthday.  After the Ladera Ranch tragedy, I had the best gift of all.  I was blessed to have another day with my boys.  Here is my niece and mom with the boys at Heaven Sent Desserts last night.  I didn't like the pic of me so I posted this one......

Ok, off to go shopping and then finish my tags for the swap!

A Tutorial you want.....A Tutorial you will get......

in about a week or so ...... I am still recovering from a certain someone's 7th birthday Lalapalooza celebration.   It started on Thursday morning with a resounding chorus of Happy Birthday from me, Pappa and Andres (well he didn't sing. Just sort of screeched.)  And, then, a special treat breakfast of Froot Loops instead of the usual oatmeal. 

He got to wear his crown all day at school (He wanted me to make him one the night before and helped me to decorate it!)  I then brought cupcakes to school for him.  See how cute the packages are? Aren't they adorable!!!!!  Don't be fooled.  This project falls under the category of "looks much better on paper than in actual implementation"  I failed to take in consideration the smoosh factor.  As in, the cupcake falls to the side and the frosting smooshes against the bag.  As in, "Carlos's mommy!  My cupcake is smooshed."  and then "Mine is too!"  and "Me too!"  to which my reply was "Hey kid. It's all gonna end up looking like that in your stomach anyway.  Just eat it and be happy I didn't bring you sugar free tofu cookies."   All right, I really didn't say that.   I just pretended I didn't hear them when they were complaining.

After school, Pappa met up with us and we all went for ice cream with the twins.  Then we went back home to open his gifts from his grandma and us.

Carlos and Grandma

Then on Saturday he had his first big birthday party. (which by today's standard would be considered small and intimate)  We had a pool party with mainly family.  A great time was had by all. 

Can you guess what his favorite toy is?  We spent the whole next day on Sunday at the Wild Animal Park with our friends from Los Angeles who came in for the party

Andres seem to take the "wild" in the Wild Animal park a bit too seriously.

  Cosme, me and Carlos. Andres was sleeping in the stroller.

So, finally the weekend is done. And all the crazy partying is finished.  On Sunday night, after we got back from the Park, I cleaned out my craft room from all the crazy craft making of Teacher Appreciation week and Carlos's bday.   This is what it looked like......

I had to make crowns on the floor......

But look what I did yesterday........instead of making tags for my tag swap......

Remember that big hole in the wall when we removed the bookcase? ( I'm sure you're thinking "Yes Karin, I was sitting on the edge of my seat just wondering what you were going to do to solve that dilemma?!?!? )  Well, here's my solution being as I know I'm not going to get my shelves anytime soon from my husband.  It's my Target/Ikea solution.  I just threw stuff up on the shelf for the picture.  But I'm hoping that it will get me a bit more organized and get stuff off the desk. The corkboards go all the way up to the ceiling covering the awful hole in the wall.

And here are the pictures of the tags in progress that are supposed to be mailed out today.......

Oh yeah the crowns....I almost forgot.  I will do the tutorial within the week when my desk is cleared off.   I am so glad to see the response. I really didn't think anyone would be interested .....boy was I wrong.  Looking forward to it!   Off to do my tags before I'm kicked off the swap circuit......

Do you want a Tutorial?

Ok........  Others do these wonderful tutorials that I enjoy and love.  But, I really didn't think there would be too much interest in a crown tutorial other than Ms. Smoochie.  Let me know if you want one in the comment section and I will be happy to do it!

Crazy for Crowns part 3.......or just plain crazy......

I say that because today is Wednesday, a half day at Carlos' school and I come home with two additional children.  I watch my best friend's kids. It works out great because Carlos and Andres get to play all afternoon with Christian and Natalie.  My afternoon is filled with feeding and supplying drinks to hungry and thirsty children while breaking up all kinds of skirmishes and potential fights over toys.  One of the things I love to do is just listen to their conversations amongst themselves.  My all time favorite is the "NATALIE....I am NEVER.....EVER......ever.....EVER  going to play with you for the rest of my life!!!!!"  Literally two minutes after telling Carlos to come inside and calm down, he walks up to me and asks "Can I please go outside and play with Natalie?"   I'm guessing the "rest of his life" definition means until he's bored or two minutes....whichever comes first.   

One other time, I was in the kitchen making lunch when I hear the familiar schreeching of "CHRISTIAN.....I am soooooooooo telling on you!  That's it!  You are in big trouble mister" (I'll give you one guess where he picked up the phrase "big trouble mister")  Anyway, I put down my peanut butter laden knife and determine whether my diciplinary presence was needed.  Then I hear "Moooooooommmmmmmmmyyyyyyy!  Christian blah, blah ,blah, blah"  (I added the blah, blah, blah as I have absolutly no recollection of whatever ridiculous thing was being argued)  I cut him off at the chase and loudly stated (ok, maybe yelled) "that if they were unable to get along and play nicely they were to stay away from each other and play by themselves or Natalie."  To which Carlos replied  "that's no fair!!!! I want to play with Christian. He's my bestest friend"  (However, apparently not so bestest that he was willing to sell him down the river to me a minute ago)  I said "Hey, if you two can't get along then there is no need for you to speak or play with each othe."  Carlos responded "Mommmmmmyyyyyy why did you even come out here in the first place?  We were getting along PERFECTLY FINE with out you!" 

**Sigh**

Anyway, I finally got some crafting done!!  The crown above and directly below were made for Carlos' two teachers for Teacher Appreciation week. 

One of the two crowns below is for my sister Amy whose birthday is on Saturday.  And the other is for a Ms Smoochie who was a beggin' for a tutorial but honestly it's so much easier to send her one.

Here are some crowns in progress.......

Now this cupcake crown I didn't make it was created by Amanda at Hodgepodge by Amanda.  I visit her blog all the time and love all her cupcake related art.  When I say this I just fell in love.  It is sooooo creative and cute!  I knew I was going to be posting a bunch of pictures of crowns and asked her if I could show hers off as well....Love, love love it!

Below is the bracelet I made and sent to my sister along with the crown.......

Here it is wrapped and ready to go.......

Below is the box I made for Carlos' teacher for all the kid's card for Teacher Appreciation Week......

Here are some work in progress.  The one on the right is for a friend at Carlos' school who took over a project while I was sick.  I'm not sure where these two project are heading but it will be fun to see.

So you think YOU'RE weird........

My friend Heather over at Bluhm Studios "tagged" me to spill 7 weird things about myself .  Now, I'm sure your saying to yourself "well, we kinda already know 236 weird things about you, Karin.  We read your blog. Could there possibly be any more"   Sadly, yes, my friends, yes.  There is so much more.  I'm really not sure I can contain it to just 7..........

1.  I believe that chocolate is a legitimate Food Group and I am currently trying to get on the Board of The Department of Agriculture in order to classify it as the 7th category on the food pyramid.

2. I love my DVR so much I would marry it if i could legally do so.   I wrote this post awhile back to show my love and dedication to it.  However, since I am unable to tie the knot with an inanimate object I will just continue my lurid affair.

3. In that same vein, I watch Real Housewives of Orange County.  I consider it my meth of TV watching in that I know that it actually kills important brain cells the minute I start viewing it and upon subsequent viewing renders me in a partial coma.  But, yet, still I secretly watch it when my husband's not around.    Yes. I know. This falls under the category of 7 reasons I need to get a life.

4. I harbor evil thoughts of people who are perfectly healthy and able (i.e. 20 year old guy who wears backward baseball cap and shirt that reads "I dated your mom" who bounds out of 325i series bmw towards Target.)  that they will trip over an abandoned shopping cart and break their leg on the way to the entrance. I'm not asking for compound fracture or anything requiring surgery. Just a simple break requiring the use of crutches for the next 6 weeks.  Yes. I know. This actually falls under 7 evil things about me

5.  I will throw a bag of chocolate chips in my shopping cart muttering something to the effect that they are for the cookies that I am planning to bake this weekend knowing full well that those chips will never see the light of cookie dough and will be eaten by the handful by me over the next two weeks.

6. I worked for a number of years with the homeless as a Director of a men's shelter/job program before starting my design business. 

7. I have a fantasy that QVC will call me one afternoon and offer me my dream job as an on air host.   My dream is to get paid for talking incessantly about 47 different reasons why you need the Northern Lights bedding set.  Or, if QVC doesn't come through, I would love to be a Soap Opera character.  I want to be the object of two men's undying love for me while trying to figure out how to escape from the desert island I was stranded on after my plane crashed while en route to to Paris to meet my secret lover.  All the while having perfectly coiffed hair, impeccable outfits, flawless makeup and perfectly manicured nails.

8. My husband and I used to ride a tandem mountain bike every weekend.  So much fun! And we once dressed up as reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh for a Christmas Fun Ride.

9. I absolutely believe the cereal is an acceptable dinner choice.

10. My love for Judge Judy borders on obsession.  I am fascinated  by the cases and the fact that there are so many people out there that a) do not have checking accounts and pay everything by cash; therefore, never able to produce any evidence of payment.  b) how many people who have friends that can not get a cell phone in their name whereby the said "people" put the said "friends" on their cellphone plan resulting in nothing but trouble every time. and  c) The disproportionate number of females who loan money to men resulting in the men saying it was a "gift".  Plus, I love when JJ calls someone a "wisenheimer".      

11. I will only eat Hagen daas ice cream.

12 I feel absolutely no guilt whatsoever when my kids eat a Happy Meal.

Ok. That's 12.  I really could continue on endlessly. But I think I will stop and take my weird self to finish some craft projects!