Stolen Moments

You were right all along, Nina... Iris Uy is herself the muse. She left a message on my blog last weekend, so you can just imagine how ecstatic I was (can you imagine my tail wagging all over the place? That's how thrilled I was!). Anyway, she got me so hyped up, I was able to finish this LO I scraplifted from Page Maps. Initially, it was the scallops that got me interested. Since I've been intending to try doing one for a long while, I decided to scraplift that section of the LO. The arrangement of the pps was from Becky Fleck's sketch. As for the rest of the inspiration, it was Iris-borne - hehehe.

Do feel free to critique my work. For once, I'd really like to hear what people honestly think can improve the subject LO. It may make you feel a bit uncomfortable telling me your opinion, but hey, if it will improve my work, wouldn't you like to help out? Thanks in advance to the brave ones who will step forward. I really appreciate your effort.

Hidden Journaling Reads: Being a working mother, I live a harried and stressful life. But for half an hour everyday… just before I set off to work, I get to have this window of opportunity to have my daughter all to myself. And for a brief moment, my daughter and I get lost in a world of ‘a-foo-foo’ (octopus), ‘e-pen’ (airplane) and ‘ebysees’ (ABC). We would either draw pictures or read a book. We also get to play hide and seek or sing and dance. I would make up short ditties and sing silly songs for her. She, on the other hand would clap at my senseless stories or do an interpretative dance to my tuneless racket. It is great to discover a captive audience during these stolen moments. And for a short instance, time really does stand still for the both of us.

Materials Used: BG Phoebe Sausalito pps; Telegraph Hill pps; The Presidio pps; Bazzill cs; Kelly Panacci stickers; Prima flowers; Stamp-N Stuff Embossing Tinsel (Copper); Tres Jolie Tres Bien “Play” Card.

Others: Brass embellishment; Swarovski crystals; white acrylic paint; Sizzix Funky Brush alphabet; cotton lace; mini-brads.

The Process: First, I used the pinking and mini-scallop decorative blade of the Carl trimmer to edge the Telegraph Hill and The Presidio pps, and adhered them to the Sausalito cs. Then, instead of matting the picture, I chose to distress the edges with acrylic paint. Before liberally swiping the foam brush on edges of the picture, I dabbed it several times on a dry tissue to take off majority of the acrylic paint. This is to give the picture that weathered yet dreamy soft edges.

After which, I moved on to estimate the area to be covered by the scrolls and cut a 4”x12” Bazzill cs. Then I lightly sketched the scrolls free-hand using a pencil. It is okay to have the initial sketch uneven after all, it is simply a guide and you can later smooth out the edge when you cut it with a pair of scissors. Since I will later be covering the scrolls with embossing tinsels (copper), I intentionally drew and cut the swirls in three separate sections (you can do four if you feel it will make it easier for you to handle).

You need not worry if the three edges do not meet perfectly because it will later be covered by the big Prima flower. After cutting them out, I started with the smallest scroll and dabbed it in the clear embossing pad. Next, I sprinkled the embossing powder and melted it with the heat gun. On the first pass, majority of the embossing tinsels were blown away by the heat gun leaving patches of unevenly melted sections on the cardstock. Since I thought I already ruined it, there was no harm in making it any worse and repeated the process like I would do with a UTEE. Surprisingly, the second layer of embossing powder adhered better on the scroll. Perhaps because the embossing pad liquid were not absorbed by the smoothed out surface of the embossed cs. I did the same on the remaining two sections of the swirl but I noticed that the biggest one needed a third layer. It was a great discovery for me that if I make a mistake on one layer, I can just continue heating it with the gun and prayed that the next layer will make it look better, which it did. By the way, I found it better for me to melt the powder if I laid the scrolls flat on a magazine or folded newspaper. That way, I can protect the surface of my working area from any stray melted powders.

Next, I used the Sizzlits Funky Brush die to spell out the title and individually embossed the letters with the same embossing powder. Since the letters were much smaller than the scrolls, they were blown away by the strong heated air of the gun. To hold them in place, I used a pair of long-handled tweezers (not to pin them down but) as a wedge along both side the letters so when I apply the strong heated air, the small letters may move a little but will not be blown or tipped over by the gun. As with the scrolls, I noticed that the letters too needed at least two to three applications of the embossing powder. Now here’s a tip, it is better to position the heat gun directly downward. That way, the strong air will push the scrolls or letters towards the newspaper and not blow it sideways. I must also inform you to expect light smoke to emanate from the melting powder and just glide the gun slowly to the next area as soon as you see the powder turn shiny.

After almost giving up from the tedious effort of individually embossing the letters, I gladly moved on to cutting the 4” diameter Prima flower in half. I used one to cover the ends of the sectioned scrolls. The other half I adhered to the top section of the Tres Jolie Tres Bien “Play” Card which contains my journaling. But first, I cut the top section of the card to follow the stamped design and glued two sizes of Swarovski crystal on selected ends of the swirl design. Then I glued the picture on the base pps and slid the card underneath the top section of the picture. Finally, I cut the cotton-lace to size and pinned them to the pps using mini-brads as a finishing touch.

Now here’s the most important part: After gluing all the components and embellishments together, allow yourself to do your very own version of “The Jig” as you sway towards the ref for a much-deserved can of coke or chunk of chocolate. Do not forget, too, to pat yourself at the back between each swigs of coke or bites of delicious chocolate. Then you can go ahead and call your best friends to brag about your newest LO.