Wednesday, September 19, 2012

'WOYWW - 09/19/2012 - Haul and Wow-ee Zow-ee News Flash!'

by Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes

Howdy and Welcome,

Yes - I have been MIA. A lot of scrapbooking crops and the annual Scrap-A-Thon 6 retreat in Wisconsin!

For WOYWW this week, check out my 'haul' from the dollar store. I was on the hunt for spray bottles to concoct my version of Glimmer/Shimmer Mist. I want to start making some faux prima flowers for scrapbook/brag book covers, and I like the sparkly effect. I watched a slew of youtube videos on how to make faux mists and I watched another slew of videos about DIY faux prima flowers. Some of the scrapbook covers with the flowers are SO-O-O-O gorgeous. Almost delectable -  they are so pretty!

Anyway, for $1 each, I bought 11 packages of spray bottles (all that the store had on the racks). Each package includes:
  1. spray bottle (2 oz)
  2. regular bottle (2 oz)
  3. cream pot (.5 oz)
  4. funnel
Wearing my 'chemist cap' again, I'm having a blast measuring and combining components for my DIY mists.

LuLu's 2012 DIY Mist Project

Re-inkers: Stampin' Up re-inkers that I bought way back in 2001!

Storage: Hubby's used cardboard tote from a 6-pack of bottled beer. He doesn't buy beer often, but I asked him not to recycle the totes. I'm keeping them for storing supplies. They're ugly, but handy because of the 6 divided sections. They also work great in my cavernous tote bags keeping gear organized when I head out for a crop...

Haul: The purple plastic tote I found at JoAnns this weekend for $10. It has 2 large sections and 2 small sections on top - PLUS there is a divided drawer on the bottom! This tote also stacks on other totes - but I bought just the one tote this time. (Using a 40% off coupon, I also scored a small rolling plastic cart with 4 assorted drawers that I'm using to store components for a fabric project.)

In the purple plastic tote, I have baggies and other project supplies. Each baggie contains a bottle filled with these wet ingredients:

  • distilled water - less than 2 oz,
  • 20 drops re-inker - or a few drops acrylic paint,
  • 4 drops acrylic glazing medium (as a binder - I could have used white glue),
  • 2 glass beads

Each baggie has an asortment of one or more of the following sparkly dry ingredients (PearlEx, Perfect Pearls, and/or Twinkling H2Os).

My plan is to add the sparkly ingredients to the wet ingredients and combine by shaking. The glass beads are to help combine wet and dry ingredients when shaking. Next step is to spray scrapbook paper with my sparkly mist, let air dry and die cut paper into flowers. I broke down and bought Tim Holtz dies at Archivers - again using discount coupons!

The reason I bagged up the components was because I had started mixing the wet ingredients on our dining room table and selected the matching dry ingredients but soon I needed to clear off the table for other uses. It was easy to move the project into my craft room after I bagged stuff up and put them in the purple project tote. Don't you just LOVE how useful those baggies are?!

Fyi, I do have a small supply of Ranger Mini-misters but I only made my mists in a few of those vials before I quickly abandoned that product because:

  • volume of vial is too small - I use multiple layers of spray to get the effect I want, and had to re-fill the Mini-misters too often.
  • spray pump on a mini-mister was defective
  • bottles from dollar store are more affordable than mini-misters. Duh!

Wow-ee Zow-ee NEWS FLASH!

The owner of a golf resort emailed me out of the blue (from a meetup.com Scrap-A-Holics group). She reached out because she wants help on developing her golf resort as a scrapbooking retreat!!!! 

One of the first things I told her (after reading all the pages on her website) was that I would need to inspect her resort (lodging/cabins, restaurant, golf course) before I could recommend it to my scrapping contacts. And would it be possible for me and hubby to get 1 or 2 nights complimentary lodging to inspect it, since we’ll both be on vacation? She said ‘sure’, and she booked us for 2 nights! I’m SO-O-O-O excited!
 
 
YOUR TURN
Do you use any sparkly mists in your artwork? Have you tried Glimmer Mist? What's your fave store bought mist? Have you tried to concoct your own sparkly spray? If so, what ingredients did you like best? Least?

Finally, have you attended any scrapbook or quilting or craft retreats? What are the 3 things you liked best about your retreat experience? 3 things you liked least?

Thanks for stopping by. Come back soon - my Giveaway for Followers will be here before you know it!

For more WOYWW ateliers, click here.

Peace,
LuLu
 

Monday, September 3, 2012

'My 2nd Commission - a Paris Adventure!

by Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes

Howdy and Welcome,

Exciting news! This past Friday I officially accepted my 2nd commision. Yeah!

For this commission I'm creating a custom scrapbook of a client's Paris vacation! I've been given carte blanche - total creative freedom! The base of the book is a Brag Book by Fancy Pants that I'm altering.

I'm ecstatic!

Here are photos of my scrapbook that I presented to land this commission.










YOUR TURN

Have you ever made  or personalized a custom scrapbook to order? What were your specifications? How long did it take you to complete the order? How many hours did you spend on the project?

Thanks for stopping by. Would love for you to become a Follower while you're visiting. Stay tuned - my '100 Follower Giveaway' is coming SOON!

Peace,
LuLu

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