Gorgeous Girl

I entered a challenge on Vintage Flaire and am so excited it's my first real vintage item. I call it an item because it's only a 6x6 LO. I totally love how it came out! It's my grandmother in her teens.

Things you need to try!

I've been so excited about alot of things lately! I've seen a bunch of new tutorials and ideas and I need to share them with you because they are just too freakin cool! Check this post off and on over the weekend because I'll be adding to it. Also I'll be posting a new tutorial about a match book album by the end of the weekend.

Flower Pot Card
Here's mine! Totally loved this one and super easy!!


Envelope Mini Book

Slider Card
I actually did a slider card for a mother's day card for my mom. I've show it to mu husband and brother and both boys loved that it's interactive, lol!

National Scrapbook Day (RAK)

Ladies it's that time of year where we as scrappers can celebrate our very own holiday, National Scrapbook Day. I'm super excited because Tally is hosting a cyber crop all weekend it's bound to be awesome!

So because it's such a special day I'll be giving away a cute little RAK. All you have to do it leave a comment for this post and I'll enter your name for this RAK. I was gonna make you work for it, but I thought I'd be nice! LOL. Good Luck Ladies.

The RAK is a card kit from Die Cuts With a View, 1 yard of adorble ribbon, 8 flowers, 4 hat pins, 15 buttons and 1 package of jewels.

Survivor Challenge Week 11

Gosh, can you believe I've been particapating in the Challenges for 9 weeks already. It's gone by pretty quickly.

Here's this weeks challenge:
~ No Pictures of People -Check
~ Something Fuzzy - My Line of flowers on the top are felt.
~ 8 1/2 x 11 LO - Check

I'm a collector of Lambs and Sheep, hummm I wonder why?



Journaling:

Adding a new lamb to my collection always gets me excited. I don't go out and find them they find me. It always gives me warm fuzzies when I get them as gifts from my husband or family. I'm a Lamb wife, what more can I say.

Meet my two favorite Lambs, Knottie Lamb (beacuse his ears are knotted at the ends) and Snickers (because I love Snickers and he's brown).

4-19-09 thru 4-26-09 creations

I've been working on projects on and off this week.

I did these two LOs for Friday night's mini crop on Tally.

This one we had to use at least 2 arrows, primary colors and a verb in the title.
We went to the county Fair this weekend as a family all 5 of us! That never happens. We had a blast checking everything out and had some yummy food. I so wish we had a dippin' dots here.


This one was done using the song "girls just want to have fun." It's my friend Heather and I before I meet Justin. She and I would go out to club nearly ever weekend for about 3 months.


I altered a recipe box this week to use on my desk to hold my tape runner refills. It's the perect size too!





I also worked on a few cards today. I've been very spoiled this week. Mom bought me nearly the whole set of the new Fiskar Border Punches and a Xryon Design Runner. And Justin bought me the Animal Cricut Cart this weekend. I had fun trying out my new tools. I used the Xyron runner on the ribbon on the top right card and a border punch and the animal cart of the lamb card.

Blog Challenge #2

Hi Ladies I hope you all are ready for this next Challenge!!

Instead of Following a sketch I would like you to pick our 4 or more Elements below to use on your LO (Layout). The size of your LO is up to you. Have fun with this!

Remember Due Date for this is May 15th. Email me your layout at monteslori@hotmail.com or leave a comment here with a link to your LO. Only one entry per person.

Pick 4 or More of the Following Items:
~ Handmade Tag
~ No Pattern Paper
~ Large Letter
~ Use 1 Large Flower
~ Bling
~ 4 or more Photos
~ 12 Buttons
~ Use the colors pink, brown, and white
~ Corragated Cardboard
~ Use Rubons
~ 3 Pattern Papers
~ Black & White Photos
~ Machine or Hand Stitching
~ Use Paint

Just like the last challenge if we reach 10 entries I'll be giving away a Second RAK.

The MAIN RAK has been voted on and is a Whimsy Jar, which has been decorated and filled by me. :) Check it out!




The Second RAK is a Making Memories Calendar you decorate. It's really cool!



GOOD LUCK, Ladies, I can't wait to see your creations! The lucky lady(Ladies) will be announced Saturday May 16th.

Entries so far:

My Layout

Stamping with Bleach

WARNING: BLEACH CAN RUIN AND EVEN DISOLVE SOME STAMPS. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

I'd never heard of stamping with bleach and when Kalena asked me to do a tutorial I was all for finding out how and the best way! I researched it was completely pleased with how simple it is. You can use regular bleach from the bottle or use one of the those on the go Clorox Bleach Pens like I did in the video below. (I happen to be pretty messy and carry the tide to go pen with me. my husband bought me the bleach pen but I was scared I'd end up ruining colored clothes so it's been in a drawer this whole time and now it's found a new and very cool use!!)

I like the idea of using the bleach pen for a few of reasons though.
uno: It's easily portable and you can store it with your craft stuff
dos: There's no danger of spilling liquid everywhere
tres: I'm sure i'll have more after I try the regular bleach :).

(Notice my minamal use of spanish, well thats because I don't know it lol!)






I also wanted to show you a project using the stamps and bleach so I did a pretty simple card to show you the different effects.

Strung Out!

Strung Out was part of the business name I was going to go under for my bead work. I started seriously beading in September 2007 upon returning home to AZ. I even did a craft show in October that year. I sold a set or two but mainly just bracelets and earrings.

Mom was running her own business at the time with a big red trailer parked in front of the Post PX and December she owned a Kiosk inside the PX. That's when all my jewelry went on display. My first customer there was my favorite and dearest friend by the time we left the PX in December 2008.

I sold alot of jewelry but was noticing the trends of smaller priced items went faster and more often. I branched out to accessories like cell phone charms and bookmarks. MY biggest let downs were the rosaries and the lanyard that for months people bugged me to make. I did alot of custom work and re-stringing, which I did have to start charging for.

I love beading but it's so expensive. At the time I had more room for storage for beads than scrapbooking, so it dominated my time and money. Its at the point of do I want to spend more $ on beading or scrappin'? Scrappin' is definitely winning, and I've only acquired minimal beading items in the past months.

Today I'll share with you some of the items that were once for sale in the store or I still might have in stock. Most will be sold at future craft shows and some here as RAKs.

Sets:






Spring Bracelets






Key Chains



I'd like to give credit to my Mom who first showed me how to make flower bracelets and got me into beading long ago and also to my Mother-In-Law Lori who showed me how to make the spring bracelets. Thank you ladies!

Bird House Dos & Charm Jar

I seriously love decorating these tiny bird houses. This is my second one and soon you'll see a pink one. But for now this one will do.


This is a jar I'll be using to hold all of my charms. I'm loving the frost effect of the modge podge.

Modge Podged Chipboard & Tips

In this video I'll be showing you how to use Modge podge as both an adhesive and clear coat. This one is by request thanks Kalena! If you have suggestions for future tutorials please let me know. I'll be more than happy to try and help you out with those tricky situations.



Here are pictures of how the K and L turned out. I used regular embossing powder on the K and only sanded the edges of the letter to show the white core. For the L I used an extra thick embossing powder which gives a more raised look to the embossed portions. You'll notice the K has more of a detailed pattern where the L looks alittle messy.



Here's the box I completed with the K as an embelishment. I had it as video tutorial but the video was too long so If I find a way to edit I'll post it. This box was actually the Box for Fancy Pants Chipboard. You can see the type of chipboard since I used it to embelish :).


More tips:

Modge Podge
When using modge podge always use a thin coat. You can apply multiple coats. If you use too much modge podge you might end up with bubbles. The bubbles aren't bad but if you're picky they can be horrible! Lol. Bubble often dry out and flatten. Make sure your project is completely dry before applying another coat. Again if use modge podge as an adhesive always make sure the projects is completely dry before starting the clear coat.

Papering Chipboard
You have two options for the adhesives, use double side tape or a glue like modge podge or elmers. Do not use a tape runner as it'll bring up portions of the chipboard. Use an exacto knife to cute off excess paper. To give a better look to the rough edges of the cut paper use a file, piece of sand paper or sanding block. Holding the piece with the paper facing up take your sanding tool and sand down towards the bottom of the piece. For smaller space use peices of sanding paper or small precion files. You can ink the edges of the chipboard pieces or you can leave the naked.

Covering Chipboard

One of my scrap sisters is always asking me how to questions. So with those questions I've decided to share my answers with everyone. I am not a pro in anyway, and sometimes I know the answers to her questions and other times I'm clueless, but more than willing to find out. Alot of it is trial and error. Chipboard is one item I love to use to embelish but found it hard to do so. But I've finally found my favorites. Check out the video to find out how.

A new hair cut...

No not me, Zoey. Justin and I have been talking about getting Zoey's fur cut for about a month. It's hard to keep up with and has started to mat in some place. I try hard to get those mats out but I hate hurting her when I have pull at them. I told Justin I would be making an appointment for his this next week. Turns out that wasn't soon enough for him. He and Zoey went missing for an hour the other night. I thought they were in the living room watch tv with dad. No, Justin and Zoey were in the Bathroom. Justin Shaved my monster. She's no longer the fuzz ball I used to know. She's skinny and had these LONG legs.

What I'm most upset over is I wanted a before picture. We'd gone to the park earlier in the day and I forgot my camera! Her fur had gotten so long she looked adorable running in the wind with her fur pulled back. Super freakin' cute, but no pictures. Anywho, since this little ball of mess never stops boucing I found two pictures that will work for now.

Before:



After:


She's still cute of course, and she still needs to be properly groomed, but for now she looks more comfortable and there are no mats! And it's still Zoey the crazy monster.

Challenge Week 10

I was supposed to particapate in a scrap-a-thon all week on a myspace group. That ment whipping out as many LOs as possible. I got a total of 7 done. Which include 2 I've already posted this week the Baby in Combat Boots LO and the Sketch Challenge LO. I'm kinda sad I didn't get more done. The good thing is I completed the last 4 layouts I had packed for a crop over a month ago. And I've completed my Team Schrute Challenge week 10!! Yay, me!

So first because I'm quite proud of it is the Challenge Week 10 LO!
We were told to pic a challenge that the other group had already completed in weeks prior. I choose Team Jim's Week 8 Challenge.

* Photo(s) should be in the lower right corner
Me & Joe
* Sticker Alpha Title covered in Paint
You & Me
* Newspaper covered chipboard as embelishment
Q and Pinwheel Covered in Newspaper Comics
* Include Numbers
10 Reasons Why I love my Brother



Here's the other four which are none other than doggie ones!

Whimsy Jar

I finished it!! Whoopie. It'll hopefully go out in the mail on Monday with the two RAKs and a couple swaps. I love how it came out, lets hope my partner does too. She's not one of my followers so lets hope she doesn't peek. But I'm gonna show you ladies, beacause eventually I will be making one into a RAK for a challenge!! Smaller but just as much fun!

So here's the jar and it many contents:







As for that special update, I'll have to post later. Be on the look out for a new challenge soon. I'm hoping to have it up by Monday if not sooner.

** The Jar is 6 1/2 inches tall and 5 1/2 inches wide. Being a former army brat and wife, I've come to learn how to pack as much as possible in a tiny space. Kinda like tetris, lol! I've gotten very good at it as you can see.