Run G! Run!

Just a quick note becuase even though I have had quite a few people in my life run marthons, and do triathalons... Brooke, Kiml, Jean-Claude to name a few....I have never been at the finish line at a race like this. The Rock and Roll Marathon was today and it is amazing the people that run it. All shapes and sizes all ages and well, just all types! I was so happy for Gloria to finish in her best time yet. 4:10. You go girl! You do ROCK!

Faeries in the tree!

I just finished making the dolls for a little doll swap I am doing. I was inspired by my friends Georgia and Sally and I just had to try it!

so they let me pick the theme which is Faeries! of course because I am Head Fairy for SBR!

So here are my paper dolls.... Mine are sitting. I found a picture of a slutty fairy with garter and all and I photoshopped it and gave her glitter panties. not pictured. this is not that kind of blog!

Anyway, then I scanned one of my moo cards that I love and I had to resize it like a thousand times to get the head size right.
Then I made her a flower and tulle skirt and used a fleur de lis chipboard piece for the body. A little more glitter, a little bling and a stick pin wand and she was ready to go!

Oh, the stick pin was scaring me so I hot glued a butterfly at the end so no one would end up needing a tetnus shot if they picked her up wrong.Or in case she flies away and they try to catch her!!
Becauase Mela made her some wings for me that I covered in tissue paper using the technique she taught me and voila! A Fairy!
Holy crap I am a HAPPY PEOPLE!! and after this post you might think I'm a bit crazy too! This post is crazy but its how my brain is working right now!

AND WTF!!!
Ok -speaking of what a happy people I am. I do have to say that Ulta Salon pissed me off good today. I was charged $10 extra for a haircut because my hair is long. I called to find out wtf and they said it is a charge they add to anyone with hair past their shoulders. So I ask you friends. have you ever heard of such a thing? what a load of crap!! So now I need a new hairdresser. So sad, I really liked her!
I asked Mela, who has long hair, and she said she has never been charged either. I really want to know if you have been charged so tell me!

Still happy! :)

Art A la Princess...

I love love love crafting! Just love love love it! It makes me such a Happy People!!

Here is the canvas that I finally finished for my mom. She loved it and that is all that matters right? Mela and Maryam gave me the confidence to outline in black. I just was having a hard time committing then Mela gave me the idea to do it in photoshop first and it was perfect. I am trying to muster up the nerve to submit this to Somerset... why is rejection so hard on us!?!?!? :)

Joshua Tree Rock Climbing

I even impressed myself today...

We went to Joshua Tree and climbed the amazing rock formations there. It was really really fun. My hands are a bit raw but I really challanged myself climbing the very vertical rocks and doing all the "un-girly" things I wouldn't normally do. Jean-Claude said he was proud of me and I am glad we have found another thing we both enjoy doing. The only thing that sucked really was the horrible traffic coming home...

Here are some photos of us messing around and the most dangerous part of our climb... We weren't that high up but it was definitely a bit sketchy!

Endure

It was my beautiful friend Gloria's Bday and Maryam and Melanie planned a very sweet party at Cupcake Love in Solana Beach. Gloria was surrounded by friends and family and with tears in her eyes, I know she had a great time! Here is the card I made her with a necklace that says "endurance" Gloria runs marathons so that word fit her perfectly.

This is a really awesome chair with a Gloria Doll that Jackie B made and everyone just loved loved loved it!

Melanie painted this beautiful painting for her.

Here she is surrounded with love.

Here is a journal I altered for her. An homage to her amazing accomplishments with "inside" symbolism becuase sometimes life kicks us in the a** and we just have to endure. Thank you Gloria for helping me when I needed to get through it and know I am here for you now. Happy Birthday G.

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Here is a card I made him out of the plastic acrylic from a frame. I painted the back and made a little tree and printed out "Elena and Jean-Claude sittin' in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g." I actually took this picture in a tree and one of the branches is in front of it. Iam just not an aware photographer!

Yep, the husband gets to have a birthday too! Sometimes people wonder who JCE is, its Jean-Claude Etcheverry- the man behind the myth. He used to love to be in photos and in the last couple of years has really shyed away from it so yesterday on his bday he was not cooperating but I did get two picture!

We went to Disneyland but because my poor husband works all the time, we did not get there till about 6:30pm :( They did give him a birthday present though! a $69 gift card to use on anything but food. Pretty cool! And when you go on your bday it shows up when they scan your card so this is picture #1

and then for Pic #2 Space Mountain! Which is always fun and always good!

I did get a couple of his birthday party with the fam which was on Sunday. I was laughing because my mom had them just put JC on there instead of his name and so I had to make a cross out of toothpics just to add to the fun. I asked for forgiveness though so hopefully will not be going to he** for it.

Mommy and Me Princess Tea... Sign up!!!

Ok, here is the cute sample of the project for the Mommy and Me Princess Tea I am doing at Pink Pineapple on June 27th 1pm. Details are here. You can sign up on the SBR website or you can sign up by calling Pink Pineapple at 760-598-2222. This is limited to 15 pairs so call quick! It's going to be so fun. Come with a Tea Party, Project, exclusive raffle to raise money for SBR and Princess reading. Perfect for a Saturday afternoon treat.

This is going to be really fun!

To Dutch Flat and back...

Miss Vicky's Retreats...

Well, there is nothing like a road trip with Miss Vicky and Carly and this week I got to do a fun 12 hour trip from North of Sacramento back home. Miss Vicky generously donated some great sturdy shelving to SBR and we hauled it down. Unfortunately the wood part of the shelving was really moldy because of the freak snow storm Dutch Flat got a couple of weeks ago so I had to buy new wood, but the racks are amazing and going to make the storage unit so much more bareable! I dont know why but for some reason what I need is always in the bottom box! Here are a few photos of Miss Vicky's place.

Could you imagine if your craft room looked like this? and this is about 1/100th of what she has

These vintage bottles are just a small portion of the bottles she has. She finds them all over her property becuase Dutch flat is a historic mining town. Just can't tell you how much I love everything about this place. Its is always an amazing experience to go there.

I will be there for a Designing with the Diva's retreat on June 19th and 20th if you can come. Its going to be amazing! Angela, and Cheryl from Fiskateers will be there hosting the crop with me and we will be making some awesome projects from the Designing with the Diva's book that I was published in! We will be making a version of this birthday hat.

And last week I was at Jackie's for art meet up and as always it was super fun. Jackie opens up her art studio to some friends once a month, offers some guidance on a little project and then sets us loose in her personal stash. And boy does she have a stash! We all do, but hers is particularly awesome and large! It actually takes up her whole upstairs! here are some of our projects

Jackies Art Meet Up...

This month we got sadistic and mutilated dolls to make unique art. Jackie gave us each an old prescription bottle and showed us her creation and we all fed off her amazing creativity to come up with our own altered bottle. I ended up using a mini purfume bottle instead. I just like things smaller and cuter and honestly I am running out of space on my dresser for all the things I make and can't part with!

Melanie rips the middle out of a flower and I chopped the head off one doll and the feet off another. What can I say, you have to make sacrafices for art!

You know how we say, if I could just put his face on that personality, it would make the perfect man? Well, that is kind of what I was thinking with this doll :)

Here are the finished dolls. I am still working on mine a little. I gave her a pet pig but then noticed she does not have arms so figuring out how to work that out! created by Left to right- Bet, Melanie, Elena (mini one) Kat, and Jackie. Jackie has more pics on her blog.

It was a really wonderful Mother's Day. I spent Saturday at my mother in law's house in Bakersfield. It was really hot! I played with my calendar from Scrapbook Club a little and I realized that sometimes you just have to start over! Not the whole book, but I am redoing one of the pages for sure. Just couldnt get it to look right. And I stared and stared at this canvas that I made my mom for Mother's Day but It still didnt look finished. I gave it to her and she loved it but I brought it home to work on it some more. I know she mostly loved it becuase of the photo of her and her sister. I did this in a Lisa Bebi class a couple of weeks ago at Sally's House. Lisa does this paint over technique that she explains on her blog. I did not do the technique right so to saythis is Lisa Bebiesque is a stretch but her work is beautiful and it inspired me.

Here is my brother Eric's gift to my mom. (notice the difference in creative process between us two) I could have died when she opened it in front of everyone. I would have killed him if I wasn't so busy laughing. She said she is going to hang them in the hallway to my room at her house. They are all me sleeping on different trips we have taken. WHATEVER! And they are pretending to be me in the picture but my tongue is totally not hanging out when I sleep! Jean-Claude said I look like an angel. Ha ha, he did not say that :)

I bought these little bird houses and covered them with Paper/ paint and stuff. I did this in the car on the way down from Bakersfield on Sunday and totally got car sick! Aren't they cute though!

My Aunts and Grandma loved them. It's the simple things in life that seem to bring the biggest smiles! I am a happy people for sure!

Im going to submit!!!

Ok, that statement may have two meanings but I am talking about submitting some of my artwork to Stampington & Co. to try to get published. I have never wanted to before because I hate hate hate rejection. I am just too insecure to have my art work judged like that. Which is why I do not do contest at SBR events and I stopped doing the judging at my scrapbook club at Pink Pineapple. I just really love creating for me and if I like it, then that is what makes me happy. If someone else likes it, that is just a bonus. BUT... that being said, I am going to do it. I am an outside the box crafter and I kind of got the idea that that is what they are looking for after...

da da da da....

Jana Holstein, Jenny Doh and Cheryl Waters were my guests last night at Scrapbook Club!! They were sooooooooo awesome! I can't tell you how much everyone, including myself, enjoyed them. They were super encouraging, shared some great stories, shared some great art and Cheryl shared a beautiful tag make and take. I just really really love that girl!

This is my unfinished project. I will finish it, and take better photos but it is a calendar with the kit which was the entire Magical Wishes line from Webster's Pages. The papers are amazingly beautiful!

And Jenny Doh is the editor and Chief for Somerset Magazine and one of her babies is Apronology. I got to take a photo with her with our aprons on! That was a treat!

She made this one at Miss Vicky's Retreat which I will be at in June... for a Designing with the Diva's Extravaganza! I will be teaching my little birthday hat book. I hope you can all come!! details on the website.

Dang I look colorful!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL YOU WONDERFUL SELF SACRAFICING WOMEN. I have to tell you though, my mom is a superwoman. I thank God every day that I picked her to be mine.

Have a great weekend!

Some Favs...

Just some crafty projects to share today....

Here are my fav two make and takes from Reflections. One is by Kim Henkel. She is amazingly crafty and a wiz with felt!

I also loved Rebecca's canvas house. I made mine similar to hers but Lisa, made hers a tornado with a flying cow! which i loved!

Here are the

give aways we are sending to Eliot Raffit

for the National Stationary Show. He has been so generous with donations and support and now he is going to promote us at this prestigious show!

Kat and Dawn came over and helped wrap and cut and pin about 100 of them. just 300 more to go!

Reflecting on Reflections

I had a fabulous weekend at Reflections this celebrating our national holiday in Newport Beach with 100 other crafty fun loving women. It was seriously a blast. Here I am with Cheryl- Fiskateer #2 and Susan from Freckle Friends. It was just so fun being a part of this!

I had some fun roommates that rotated through my room-Cheryl, Jennifer and Jessica. What can I say, it was fun sleeping with ya?

I met so many wonderful women and we held a silent auction that raised about $600 for the American Heart Association. Karen, the owner of Srapbook Oasis and 1/2 of the planning committee for this fun event picked the charity. Her father is suffereing from heart disease so this cause is very close to her heart. They are actually donating a portion of the revenues from the event as well so I will have a total soon.

A huge thank you to Yuko and Anita that came on Thursday and Friday to help. They came with food to feed me and Cheryl, and then fed Stephanie and Jennifer too! (Stephanie was there teaching an awesome class which I will post pics of soon)They sat in the empty crop room and held down the fort while the rest of us worked the silent auction. They were bored and such troopers and I just can't thank them enough. And lovely Allison and Jennifer they helped with the auction and answered people's questions about SBR.

And what can I say about my wonderful classmates. Nan, Sarah from across the pond and Lori, I had so much fun with your guys! Thanks for saving me a seat and catching me up when I had to run out for a minute here and there. I seriously loved bonding with you girls. And Cheryl even got to sit in on a class with us with Mara May who I just loved. She is in Cali so keep an eye out, you will be hearing more about her from me :) here we are with our party hats we made in Mara's class. Accept Sarah who would not be caught dead wearing a party hat, she made a lovely layout instead. :)

Ok, more pics and ramblings to come.... gotta get caught up on SBR work!!