This is my first Blue Monday

This is the frost on my window's today. Sky is blue and looks terribly sunny out...but it's -27!!!

Happy Blue Day Everyone,
Viviana

Large Paper Rose Tutorial

This is the finished flower before the chalk and the sparkles.

Super Sunday, it's early in the am and I'm not moving very fast....maybe it's the snow, slowing me down a bit! I am once again sharing my version of Tim Holtz's paper rose, but this time I am using my Big Flower die from Stampin' Up.

I cut out as many flowers out of a 12x12 sheet of paper, I used some old stuff I already had.

There's my pile, I wasn't sure yet how many layers I needed. I bought that paper for 10c a 12x12 sheet at Scrapbookers Paradise, It's good to have on hand for projects like this, so if you mess up, it's not $1.50 paper!

I then used my chalks (I'm all for using what you have on hand) or you can use distress inks, I just haven't bought any because I already have so many other media I can use to tint and colour with.

So this is where the tutorials meet, I cut out the pieces the same as I did for the smaller roses, so that I had 1, 2, 3, 4 and three with 5 petals. Those ended up being all the layers I needed for a full rose

I used a pencil to curl my petals, since this flower is much bigger a skewer was too small. The 1 and 2 petals I curled in wards, the rest out.

I used hot glue to add each layer, I am not patient enough for liquid glues and I like the instant bond too!

This is the back so far, I snip off bit so the rose will be slightly flatter.

I then chalked some more, you can also ink if you like. It gives it more depth and definition and adds dimension.

Then instead of Stickles, I use spray adhesive (instant bond again!!) and some sparkles to give it a beautiful glow.

I love these chunky iridescent sparkles.

So that's it, pretty straight forward. You can always use the other Rose Tutorial for a step by step guide, it's pretty much the same but as you can see this is the size of my hand. I am using it for a "welcome to out home" sign and I will post the finished project when I get it done....

Have a happy sunday,
Viviana

Working on being more domestic....ahahah!

A little slow in uploading the picture, but these are our waffles just before the freezer, I use just a little double waffle maker, perfect!

My son asked me why he's had to eat cereal for weeks (it's been a month and  it's healthy stuff with fruit and omega3-6 soy milk!) and no waffles or pancakes, or eggs and sausages.
I guess in my plight to eat healthy I stopped using any mixes that weren't homemade, and cutting back on the amount of meats we eat, I forgot that not everyone wants to eat muesli with ground flax everyday!
So I searched the web for a great recipe for waffles, overnight waffles to be exact...the yeasty kind, the kind that makes my mouth water when I think of how yummy they are topped with fruit and whipped cream.
I settled on The Pioneer Woman's Overnight Waffle Recipe, which looked easy and tasty too.
I didn't change much on it, except that I used half almond half soy milk at 1 cup of each (my son can't handle milk, but butter is ok) rather than regular cow's milk.
Here is the ingredients,

• 2 cups All-purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon Yeast
• 1 Tablespoon Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 2 cups Milk
• ½ teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 1 whole Large Egg
• 6 Tablespoons Unsalted Melted Butter
• Nonstick Spray For Waffle Iron

I loved that you can mix and go to bed, and I got up at 6:30 rather than 6 to make them!

These are their instructions, super easy!
1. In a large bowl, combine flour, yeast, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Whisk in milk and vanilla until blended. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let stand overnight at room temperature.
2. In the morning, heat the waffle iron. Beat the egg and melted butter into the batter, which will be quite thin. Spray hot waffle iron with nonstick spray. Add just enough batter to cover the cooking surface.
3. Cook waffles until crisp and brown, but not too dark, about 2-3 minutes each.
Makes 6-8 standard waffles, or 3-4 Belgian waffles.

Since there is only two of us (and he is 6) we only ate 3 waffles and froze the rest so we can pop them into the toaster later on in the week. Today I served them with banana slices and breakfast sausages, next time maybe we'll do a poached egg and berries. The texture is crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle, my son loved the cinnamon and asked if they were chocolate ; a true complement on the taste!

This is what we ate at Grandmas every morning, she has a huge raspberry patch!!

Tomorrow I shall make eggs, with tortillas (the homemade corn ones)...egg tacos perhaps, yum!
Onwards and forward with my domestic endeavours!

Cheers,
Viviana

Pretty Paper Slippers

You know when you're dying to try something, but really have no reason to? Yeah, well that's where these came from. I loved them when I saw them Artful Affirmation, where she has a template you can use and a video tutorial too, which is awesome for you visual types. I hear a  lot of people do exchanges of these pretty shoe slippers, and giving them in gifts would be absolutely fabulous....so I had give them a try. I love how they turned out.

Cheers,
Viviana

I trimmed mine with feathers and velvet ribbons.

I used a handmade paper rose, and the accordion folded paper is from the rosette die.

This one has a rosette with a button middle.

I put a back on both of them, it definitely makes them look more elegant.

 

 

Thrifty Finds

I am cheap, ok well not really really cheap, but very very thrifty....just one of my many good traits!! Anyhow, just to show off a little, I've been wanting a pair of pinking shears forever, but I didn't want to pay $16-28 for a brand new pair. It's not like I was dying for a pair, so I took my time deciding weather they would be worth it. Lucky for me, I happened to be in a thrift store looking for something else completely, when I came across these!! I didn't even test them out, for a buck fifty, I didn't care how well they worked! I got 'em home and I am still thrilled (it's been a couple weeks) with them, they are as sharp as brand new and cut like a hot knife through butter, they look like they were never used!

Another curious thing, they were made in Canada! Not much is made here nowadays.

Can you guess what could be inside?

Another little gem I haven't blogged about....this little case I came across at a garage sale this summer. Now, the only reason I have it is because of something I read on Lark and Lola's blog a while back, always look to see what's inside.

Well I did! Check it out, I got it for $20 and it has an extra roll of inked ribbon and it still works perfectly too. Not sure where and when I will display it in my house, since it's always full of kids who want to touch everything, but I am sure I will one day have the perfect place to show it off.

Another curious thing, it's also made in Canada.....wowie!

So happy with both thrifty finds!

Cheers,
Viviana

Frosty Windows

The new camera captures amazing images.

I love the contrast of David's soft organic fingers to the rigid icy fingers growing on the glass.

I used my new Canon Rebel to take these gorgeous pictures, it's been about 2 weeks of -20c or colder, and this is about the only thing that still looks pretty no matter how cold it gets. I'm hoping that before they disappear I can get a few with blue sky or sun behind them, wishful thinking....
Ok, that's enough posts for one day!
Cheers,
V.

Bond's Boobies Crop

Hand made roses, check out my tutorial.

 Used paper from Webster's Pages and flowers I learned to make at the crop.

These were from a make and take at the crop.

The flowers are made with Tim Holtz' Tattered flowers die.

I was lucky enough to get invited to a crop (by donation) for a very special event. My friends Team is called "Bond's Boobies" and they are raising money for The Weekend to End Women's Cancers. They managed to raise over $600 for a very good cause and I manged to get quite a few pages done or nearly done for my son's scrapbooks. I am years behind in his pictures, and most of these were ones still waiting to be done. I still have some journaling to do, though some are pretty self explanatory.
It was a fun crop and I'm surprised how much I actually got done.
There is one more layout that I finished, but didn't take a picture of it yet. It's a framed picture for David's Dad, I'll snap one and post it soon.
Cheers,
V.