Help [ME] Ronda

Zipper butterfly Tutorial

A while ago i create a zipper butterfly using Maya Road's zipper trim.  I finally sat down to do a video tutorial showing you how to create your own butterfly zipper.  This little guy could adorn a tag, a mini album, or put a pin on it and attach it to a purse, tote, or headband. 

Supplies you will need:

• Hot Glue Gun
• Maya Road Chipboard Foundation
• Two Trinket Pins
• One 9" Zipper Sea Blue Trim
• Two 7" Pink Zipper trim pieces
• Two 5" Yellow Zipper trim pieces
• Two 4 Green Zipper trim pieces
• Two 3.5" Pink Zipper trim pieces
• Two 4" Yellow Zipper trim pieces

Here's a look at the other butterfly i created a while ago.  This one is sea blue, yellow, grey, and black butterfly on a tag base.  So many colors, so many possibilities.  I cannot wait to see your creations! 

Butterfly Love

Altered Journal Cover

A couple weeks ago during a prayer bible study, my pastor mentioned keeping a prayer journal to help with prayers.  Of course when he said that my mind started wandering to creating a prayer journal.  Last week i went & talked with the ladies of our church about creating & Christ.  As part of the talk, i prepared a make & take where they got to create their own prayer journals.  It was a fairly simple make & take with a few altering options for them using papers, spray inks, tags, & a stamp phrase.  But at that time i still hadn't made myself one.  I cut the cover, filled it with paper, and wrote a simple phrase on the cover.  I knew i wanted (& needed) to alter it.  Here's a look at the process to create mine. 

simple journal with the paper & rings.  Add in some gesso for texture & priming.

add in some paint layers, some sense & sensibility text.  Add in some paints and some spray inks with stencils (Julie's Peacock Feathers from The Crafter's Workshop).  keep on layering on the color.

add more color. remove color.  build up the layers. Adjust colors as needed. 

add in another stencil layer.  add in more paints & of course some splatters.  add in some butterfly stamps from Maya Road.  keep tweaking until i am happy.

Colorful Love

and still

Last week was a bit crazy, a bit busy, and a bit hard to take.  I truly believe there is a reason for everything.  It was just a bit draining at times but equally filled with some great moments.  i know there will be some lessons to be learned and changes to be made.  It's at these times that i really miss having Andrew at my side.  and then that makes me sad again.  I dislike that cycle.  Thank goodness for ART and a little Kelly Clarkson sing-a-long (Stronger)! Here's tiny recap of last week.

• Madcap fundraiser for Youth Group
• A poor decision
• telling my story for LWML, Christ & Creating
• Ash Wednesday
• Bouts of the Stomach Flu
• some new opportunities
• an exciting design that needs tweaking
• a new style for Anthony, Bowties are cool (goodbye saggy jeans :)
• Lexi comes home for a week
• family dinners
• Crafting with Friends, including evacuating the building
• a video recorded & coming soon
• Family together at Church
• Lots of creating

Taco Night

Cooking for two sometimes three isn't the easiest.  I like to have my meals planned out so that i am not always thinking "what should i cook tonight?"  There are a few family favorites that seem to make the weekly or every two weeks rotation like Pot Roast or Chicken Noodle Soup.  But i also like to try something new every now and then.  It also about finding the balance between work, activities, and grocery shopping.  Because of an active lifestyle, i do like to have easy recipes i can cook at the last minute, like the above taco night.  I usually have some ground beef (actually it's usually buffalo meat) in the freezer.  I make my own taco seasoning.  It's so easy without any MSG which gives me terrible migraines.  I thought you would like the recipe as well. 

• 1 lb Ground beef (or Buffalo)
• 1/2 of a medium onion, diced (i like red onions)
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tsp of Cumin, Salt, Oregano, Chili Powder
• 1/8 - 1/4 of Cayenne Pepper (depending on the kick you like)
• 3 TBS of Tomato Sauce

It's a simple but tasty recipe.  Using approximately two tablespoons of olive oil, cook the onions and garlic until soft.  Add in the ground beef and cook until mostly cooked.  Next all the spices plus tomato sauce until the meat is completely browned.  It's that simple.  What i also love about this recipe is you can either serve it with tortillas, hard tacos, nachos, or on a salad like i did above.  Another tip is to use plain greek yogurt instead of sour cream.  It's less fatty and has a ton of protein plus that tang like sour cream. 

Homemade Love

365 ish

i admit it.  i have fallen in love with instagram & my iphone camera.  it has allowed me to capture my daily happenings in such a cool way.  I would occasionally pick up my camera to capture what i call "dailies" but it didn't happen every day.  My phone however is always readily available.  And the ability to sync my instagram photos with twitter & facebook, totally cool.  Don't have an iphone or instagram?  You can still follow people by using INK361.  Here's a link to my Instagram photos. Below are some of my dailies from the past ten days or so.

Art Heals

just a little art journal page to capture both my feelings of the day and the hope & lessons learned from each experience.  Life isn't always peachy keen.  It has its up & downs.  I have found that i can take those down moments and capture them in art journaling & scrapbooking to help me see the light.  it helps getting in on paper (or paint) to release it from my heart & mind.  I am blessed enough to work with a therapist who encourages this kind of art therapy.  After my sister passed, i took thoughts & feelings to scrapbook pages and more.  it really saved me and helped me heal.  We can all scrap the happy moments & events in our lives but is that the complete picture? Here are some of my previous works showing my not so happy side.

Hidden journaling to tell my story.  it's behind the blue paper.  I was full of tears one day and snapped a self-portrait.  This is the real me, tears & all. I'm not quite ready to put the full story out there yet.  

Feeling overwhelmed and learning to say no.  It was such a hard lesson for me to learn.  I did learn by saying no to someone else in a polite way, meant i was saying yes to myself.

A couple layouts about my sister, the funeral & the phone call.  These layouts are some of the hardest to create. I cried the entire time i was creating them but again i felt less burden by my thoughts once it they were done.

a layout from a parents perspective.  am i doing enough for my kids? do i over do? in other words, all the universal worries of a parent.  and one day when my kids have kids and read this layout, they will realize that we all worry. 

This was from Dec. 2008 when i was struggling with lots & lots of emotional stuff.  I felt lost and heavy.  My burdens were weighing me down and i didn't know which way to turn.  I was relying too much on myself and not enough on Christ. 

ahhh the teen years.  Lexi & I had many low points her freshman year and it was quite the struggle.  I am happy to say that our relationship is 1000 times better but there was a point where i was extremely worried. 

 

 Andy's life as a pilot.  The good, the not so good, the real life.  We have spent many years as a pilot's family.  We know how life is from our perspective but i wanted Andy's perspective.  It really helped me appreciate what he goes through on a daily basis.

 Real Love

Serendipity, Destiny, Fate, & a layout too

There is no doubt in my mind about love at first site.  He walked in and instantly I wanted to know more about him.  Andy really is my true match.  I am so excited to say the countdown is on again!  He is due home sometime around March 15th.  I cannot wait for him to come home.

The layout uses Lily Bee's new line called Victoria Park by Julia Stanton.  I love the surprising pops of colors in this line.  I love the soft cream background and just wanted gentle pops of color.  I have felt this tug to explore some softer colors and i am really enjoying it.  The thread on the page was a vintage find that i am obsessed with lately.  Little sprinkles of lime metallic Maya mist and green apple Maya mist. I love the Vintaj bird on the page too dabbed with a bit of alcohol ink.

Serendipitous Love

and they call it poppy love

i promised myself this year i would play more in my art journal.  this is me making good on that promise.  It feels really good to just play.  just play. i started with creating a bunch of backgrounds.  i want to use this art journal to explore different styles, different mediums.  it is a safe place to play.  it doesn't have to be shared if i don't want it to.  it feels so good to create a little something every day. 

when i started this page, it was going to be a two pager.  I got caught up in the idea that it had to be this way given the nature of the album.  (BTW, i love this watercolor journal from Moleskin.  It's just the right size.) There are those self imposed rules again.  i decided to kick them to the curb and just concentrate on the right side.  i grabbed Julie's new Poppies stencil from The Crafter's Workshop.  love the field of poppies on the page.  i decided to add some words to each poppy.  i loved the message on the stencil so i decided to use it.  Now to tackle the other side.  We will see if it ties in.  I am not going to force it.  i am just going to enjoy the journey.

Happy Birthday Kimber!

Happy Birthday Kimber!  I met Kimber years ago through some mutual friends.  She makes me laugh, has a great big heart, and a warm smile.  She's the type of friend who you can always rely on and gives so much of herself.  I am so blessed to call her friend.  Happy birthday sweet friend.  I hope your day is as special as you are!

Thanks for stopping by the surprise birthday blog hop!  You arrived from Anabelle O'Malley's blog.  You your next stop is Melissa Phillips!  Hop on over!  If you want to see the full list of blogs, go to Jillibean Soup's blog.

Cuff Love

I had so much fun creating this fabric cuff using Lisa Pace's Perfumery stamps from the Antiquated Collection.  Like most of my projects, i started with a base and began layering pieces.  The background fabric is misted with two Maya Road mists.  I love that i can heat set it and create my own fabric colors. 

This is what the cuff looked like "in progress."  I kept playing around with the layers, shifting them until i found my ideal spots.  I pinned things in placed until i could get some simple stitches around each piece. I added in some hand stitches too. 

Seriously love how it turned out.  Now to find the perfect outfit for it before Lexi snatches it up!