Month: April 2011

Spring break started off with 2 birthday parties + 2 family birthdays in 4 days. HOLY WOW. Talk about getting things off to a fast paced start!! What happened to mom’s quiet time? Guess my spring break isn’t happening just yet.

We all love to cook in this house. I let Miss B “cook” some spring break trail mix…

Jason asked if there was a recipe. You don’t need no stinkin’ recipe for trail mix! It’s just whatever you want it to be. For us this time around that meant dried fruit, cheerios, almonds, choc. chips, and marshmallows. AKA: Becca’s spring break mix. Then I let her mix until she got bored and threw it in a tupperware to be doled out as afternoon treat.

Becca feels I should have allowed more marshmallows… Elizabeth felt there was too much fruit, not enough chocolate.

Isn’t that always the way when you’re a kid?

I had some fun shopping for some new glass containers… I’ll share photos soon. You see, I’m spring cleaning and organizing here in my studio. Oh but I saw SO MANY inspiring things at Cost Plus and Pier 1… I *never* go out shopping and so the rare times that I do? Well my brain gets overwhelmed and inspired and I LOVE it.

I fell in love with this tray (it has ‘feet’ so it is raised off of the table – LOVE!!) at Pier 1. link

I actually NEVER go in Pier 1 because it’s a crazy dangerous store. Sometimes I can escape unscathed, other times I find myself writing a wish-list a mile long!! Yesterday I found a PURPLE DAMASK CHAIR. Yes, I used all caps.

and so now I’m back to cleaning so I can get rid of the trunk (I don’t have a chair at my computer!) so I can move this chair in… oh how I want it… it’ll be perfect!!

Jason LAUGHED and said if I could get the scary closet clean, sure! By all means move in a chair to the studio. (He knows how hard that scary closet will be to clean!!)

Anyhow – have a beautiful weekend…

I don’t know if you’ve heard – but the girls’ paperie is NO MORE! Oh it just about broke my heart… except our Margie is up to new (secret?!) fabulous things and she’ll be sharing soon as she can I’m sure. The papers I have scored from the new lines (and it’s HARD to find!!) will be used in my upcoming Junqued up Tea Party classes. This class will only be taught twice – at Scrapbook Territory in Berkeley, CA on April 30 and on National Scrapbook Day (May 7) at Stamper’s Corner in Elk Grove, CA. So both Sac town area & Bay Area have a chance at this class!! The classes are slightly different – the May 7th one is a bit longer *but* both have the same PDF file handout (HUGE! like 10 pages+!!), kits, and you can see all my sample pages and projects either way.

I can already tell you the kits will be SUPER limited. I will share here on May 7th if I have any extras available. There’s a bunch of great product in this class – so fun. It’s what I call a workshop – which means I’ll be teaching and talking up a storm… but students have a LOT of options both in what they create and what they use. I’ll be bringing stamps, inks, mists, trims, jars of buttons… oh and loads of sweet TREATS.

The kits are filling up!! I added Sassafras Lass goodies to it, some fabulous Pink Paislee Daily Junque, Webster’s Pages trims and sparklers, Glitz Designs goodies… not to mention all the Tim Holtz stickles, stamps, and inks I’ll have available in class to use.

here’s a sneak of one layout…

But what if you’re not in Northern CA?

Well… aside from waiting and crossing fingers that maybe one of those class kits is available – you could also check out my on-line class May with May. It’s my newest from Big Picture Classes (link: www.bigpictureclasses.com/maywithmay.php) – and I’m SO excited. I wanted something budget friendly (it’s under $20!), fun, and full of ideas & inspiration. I hope you’ll join me!!

OR – you could take advantage of the CRAZY good deal I’ve got going over at my etsy shop (pictuerd above) for one of the 3 extras kits from my bits & Pieces class kit – it does still come with the PDF from class! The deal is I had some extras of a few things… but not enough other things to make full kits – so you get a mini value partial class kit!  The mini kit is sold out – but I’ve got a few full class kits left – all the info is here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/mayflaumdesigns . If you don’t want to buy through Etsy you can just email me (mflaum @ comcast.net) as well.

One last peek at the Junqued up Tea Party as it comes together…

(CAN.NOT.WAIT.)

I’ll be back with more peeks as I can, and next week = spring break prize madness. So stay tuned!!

I’m the guest this month over at Little Black Dress Kit Club – to see my four projects with their utterly fabulous April kit you can check out their blog on Friday (April 8)…

 http://www.littleblackdresskitclub.com/wp/

I thought it would be fun to share this canvas project I’ve been working on for Elizabeth’s room. It is 8×10 in size…

1. Painted canvas with Liquitex iridescent medium (think white paint that sparkles) mixed with brown distress stain. (As shown in  distress stain post I did a while back).

2. Hated the brown-ness. Coated again with the liquitex medium – this time using foam brush and big strokes to create lines.

3. Used cookie cutter to make circle, poured both more of the liquitex medium + Tattered angels glimmer glaze (yellow) and mix around to make a sun.

4. as sun dries yes, it’s going to look kind of like egg yolk. Add more yellow as needed, also add in “rays” with the paint mixture and/or add stickles for added color and texture (I used scattered straw).

5. Use blue glimmer mist and lightly spray over (still damp) canvas avoiding the sun.

6. Accept that sometimes your canvas will take on life of it’s own. I can not explain the “dots” or why my mist pooled some places more than others. I’m just running with it.

7. Cut bird shape out of paper. Use Perfect Paper adhesive, multi-medium, or other liquid adhesive to adhere to canvas. NOTE: I did not wait until paint dried.

8. decorate that bird! Using smooch ink, paint, and pens I doodled in feathers, feet, etc…

9. Use bubble wrap + distress ink to stamp dots of color randomly around the background. My bubble wrap is heart shaped, cuz I stole it out of a thing of valentine candy.

10. Let it all rest and dry before we continue on…

My creation has a lot of work still to go- so watch for a “part 2”.