Saturday, August 22, 2009

Gigantic Smish Smash and Bits Left Over

Ok, first of all, would you let your 8 year old do THIS???!?


I don't think I would!! Crazy British parents I say lol. At least I think they were British. And with an old man driving the plane to boot!! lol. So not happening here! Second thing up, I placed a bird feeder outside my house when we moved here 3 years ago, and this summer, birds have finally found it! They ate up the 3 year old bird seed that was still in it and I just refilled it. I love having them come hang out on the deck and fence and eat! So cute. We had up to 40 the one day! I think I am going to be going through a lot of bird seed this winter! I also took a picture of the front of our house, now that the flowers are in full bloom and fall seems just around the corner. I need to do a new photo of the backyard, as it looks alot different than the photo I posted this spring!

I also did my first hybrid! What's a hybrid you ask? It's when you use a digital kit to do something on actual paper! (Again, scrap booking!) So I made my nephew his first birthday card using the Happy Hoppity kit by Lliela. It was so cute, and the elements fit nicely. I altered her string and used the alpha bead alpha by Ziggle Designs instead so I could add my nephew's name. I got the alpha as a freebie on her blog, but the link is gone now, you can find a similar one HERE. So first, I used my Storybook Creator program to place my elements onto a 4x6 size page, and I sized them anywhere between 2" and 4" depending on what the item was. I figured I would save a couple bucks this way, we're trying to cut down on costs. Then I realized I don't have any white card stock. Well, I do, but it is patterned and would print out like crap, so I thought I was going to have to go buy some, and then wished I had just hit the dollar store and bought a card instead lol. SO I went downstairs into my paper scrap booking stash (which has sat largely untouched since I started digital) and found a lovely paper that matched the colors of this kit, and decided to use that as my background and cut out my elements, instead of designing it and just printing it out. So I printed out my two designed pages on 4x6 matte photo paper. (I ended up printing them twice as the first time I printed my printing program cut off the edges of the photo, and some of the elements, which actually worked out in my favour at the end). Then I used very tiny sharp scissors to cut out all my elements as closely and carefully as I could! I cut my cardstock background paper to match the size of a miscellaneous card I had in the drawer (which was weird like 8 1/4" by 10 1/2", and then folded it in half, so my finished card ended up being 8 1/4" x 5 1/4". I used my scrap booking double sided tape to attach most of the pieces. Some of the elements I cut out twice, as the first time I printed, they were slightly larger, so I thought I could use them anyways and add some dimension to my card. I used "pop dots" (double sided tape foamies) to add the smaller elements directly on top of the larger ones, like the flowers and balloons, and one of the mushrooms I did by itself. I thought it looked a little plain, so again, checked my craft stash and found this great brown ribbon which I decided to add to the top and bottom of the card with a little hot glue (try not to use too much though or else it shows up as a lump under the ribbon!). And here is a larger shot of the outside of my finished card! On the back I also wrote with scrap booking marker at the bottom "Hand made with love for you by Auntie Rose". My sister has a stamp that she uses to emboss on them, but I needed something quick! (My nephew's party was the next day lol.) I thought it turned out pretty well!

Also, on August 15, we had a part for my parents 40th Anniversary. Can you believe my sister and I made these two cakes?? I know! We rock. First time ever using fondant icing, many thanks to P-Dubs' post on fondant to give me the idea to try, and my sister for trusting me that we could do it! I LOVE fondant. Had it on my own wedding cake, which was fantastical. Want it for Rayna's first birthday. I'll show you our fanciness after her party next month! I also black and whited this photo and brought back the color on the cakes and roses for effect. Bee-yoo0-t-ful!And here is the cake table at the party, along with a digital page I did up for the occasion, showing photos of them then and now. (Sorry to say, I have permanent brain damage from having kids and don't remember which kits I used to make it! I think Magical Harmony by Thalaris, and also Whimsical Spring by Shabby Miss Jenn). We also bought a plain dollar store cake knife and added velvet ribbon to it to match the cakes. Nice!And I'm sorry to do this to you, and follow such sweet pictures with this, but does anyone else out there think this is totally disgusting, or cool? This gigantic spider (I've started referring to him as Big Daddy) is living outside my window, and he's a good half inch in size (at least). I took this photo of him eating a grasshopper through my front window. My husband has started tossing daddy long legs and grasshoppers up into his web, and I've never seen anything move so fast. It grosses me out, but I find myself compelled to take photos of it. The top of the photo looks blurry as I have white bars in my window and the angle I was at was catching that bar. It's ok though, as I'm sure you're seeing more than you want to! I also have photos of him shooting web out of his backside and flipping poor hoppy around and around wrapping him up, but I thought this one would be sufficient for you to get the idea. Ugh. {shudder}. Ok, that's it for my smish smash post. You'll think twice before reading another, because my blog is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get!

No comments:

Beware the few racy photos...thought it was worth it to see all the other ones!