Stereo Hearts Pop-Up Card

This is the card I made for my husband in celebration of our 23rd anniversary. My inspiration is the song "Stereo Hearts" by Gym Class Heroes featuring Adam Levine.

 My original idea was a plain white card like this

with music notes. It should have been a one-day-easy-peasy project.

But for some reason I can't seem to do simple. My quick card turned into a big project because I just happened to come across a pop-up card on Pinterest and I thought it would be fun to make a pop-up card. I wasn't sure how to do it because the link on Pinterest was to a person who used a pop-up die set and didn't show the die cut. But I remembered I made a pop-up card in elementary so I knew it couldn't be too difficult. I used a piece of junk mail that was about the size of a card to experiment on how to cut the pop out.  

To make pop-up panel fold a piece of cardstock paper in half and cut 2 slits about 1 1/4" down from the folded edge. How far apart the slits are depend on the size of the object you will be placing on the pop-up panel.  Open the card and push the middle of the paper through the crease to opposite side.  

Please ignore the smaller rectangle cut-out in the middle of the card. 

I was thinking about doing a second pop out on top of the first pop out.

After cutting the slits I decided to cut out the pow symbol triangles along the sides to give the

 pop-up more oomph.

When you glue the paper make sure you DO NOT GLUE the panel that will pop out. 

K&Company for the stereo and the man with the big mouth. 

The pic below might be confusing but I want to show this step. The jambox is a sticker and when I attached it to the pop-up panel there was still quite a bit of the sticky back showing. I covered the exposed sticky back with striped masking tape so it wouldn't stick to the card preventing a pop-up fail. 

  

For the front of the card  I couldn't find a heart that I wanted in my gigantic stash of stickers or at the stores so I decided to make my own heart. Now I've had grunge board in my possession for years but I have never actually used it. After watching Tim Holtz's videos on grunge paper I was a bit overhwhelmed so I stayed away from it. I thought I had no use for grunge board. But I found it it's actually just pliable cardboard that won't rip or tear when you bend it nor will it fall apart when you get it wet.

Ink your cut out prior to embossing because the powder may not cover everything. 

 

I wanted to add one more layer to heart so I used Tim Holtz texture stamp.

It doesn't look like it made a huge difference but it was worth a try. 

I used alcohol ink to stain silver stars. This is a before and after. 

Adding the crystal embellishments was a pain in the butt. I was using tweezers to try to place them on the heart but it was very difficult. I finally used the tip of the exacto knife and my finger to get the crystals in place. 

This was a lot of work for one little ol' heart but it was worth it for my love.

I had this orange arrow that I wanted to use but it was facing the wrong direction. I just traced it upside down on another paper and and cut it out. Added the Distress Inks. 

 

This big-mouth man was plain so I colored him with chalk. 

It took several attempts to get the lyric words small enough to fit in the space between the jambox handles but I finally got it after I traced the space inside and fit the words in.

The 23 fav songs represents our 23 years together. I compiled 23 songs that remind me of my husband and put it in this small envelope on the back because the inside was already very busy. 

Distress Ink colors:  orange marmalade, fire brick red, vintage photo, black soot, antique linen.

The music notes paper comes from 

Disclaimer:  I do not know what I'm doing. Every time I make a card or scrapbook it is always an experiment. Sometimes I have happy accidents and sometimes it is a complete failure that I cover up with paper and embellishments.

Highlighters for Bible

Sometimes when I'm reading my bible I look at some highlighted words and I wonder to myself why did I highlight this?  Then I realize the highlighted verse is actually on the other side of the page. Even though the highlighters in this kit was made for the thin pages of the bible it still bleeds through. I tried using a pencil highlighter but it wasn't smooth and I had to go over the verses several times before it actually highlighted and it was so waxy I couldn't write not over it. Then one day as I was reading my bible I came across a verse I wanted to highlight but my bible highlighters were downstairs and frankly, I was too lazy to walk downstairs to get them. So I used a manga brush pen and discovered that they actually work better. Now the manga pens do bleed through, but not as much. If I only underline the words it doesn't bleed through at all. I usually use the yellow, orange and green manga pens. I think the purple pen would definitely bleed through. 

Manga pens are more expensive than the highlighters but if you use the 50% coupon at Joann's Fabrics or Michael's it is very affordable. The 50% coupons come out about once a month. Both stores and Hobby Lobby have weekly 40% coupons.

manga pen

 

other side of page

highlighter

 

other side of page

Kiss Me

 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.

- King James Bible

My husband and I celebrated our 19th anniversary in 2010 but I'm just now getting around to scrapping our picture from the night we went pig out at Piranha's Killer Sushi to celebrate. Piranha's has the best drinks. I need to go back there for the drinks and the food, but mainly the drinks.

When we were carefree, wild teenagers our love song was Stephen Tin Tin Duffy's "Kiss Me". 

When we grew older and started reading the bible we found out that the words from our song "kiss me with your mouth your love is better than wine" is actually in the bible from Song of Solomon. It was a wonderful surprise and made the song even better and I felt all warm and squishy inside like it was meant to be. But don't be fooled it is not a christian song. It's a very catchy dance song about love. If you're curious what "Kiss Me" sounds like I have the video below. 

This page has embellishments that has meaning about our lives so I added a legend below for my husband. If he actually ever reads my blog he can remember what I told him. When I talk to him about my scrapbook stuff I can see his brain going into just-say-yes-and-nod-your-head mode. The legend will be for me in my old age when I can't remember the meaning either.

1. Kiss Me With Your Mouth. Our Song by Stephen Tin Tin Duffy. 

2. Celebrating 19 years of marriage

3. Hot Air Balloon.  My dream is to ride a hot air balloon

4. Shakespeare's Sonnet 116. This is my favorite sonnet. 116 is also my birthdate.

5. Yellow Rose. We have a yellow rose of Texas comforter that we've used since we were married

6. Coffee Cup. We are both coffeeholics

7. Bikes. We used to ride bikes everywhere

8. Italian stamp. Our dream is to retire in Italy

9. Lady Bug. We called our youngest boy "baby bug" because he looked like

 the male lady bug from "A Bug's Life".

up close for details

Kiss Me With Your Mouth

Family Scrap Page

My kids went back to school this week. It couldn't have come any sooner. This is the first time I was glad school started in August instead of September.When they were younger I became melancholy and wistful at the end of summer because I knew I would miss them while they were at school.  Boy oh boy, that has changed. There was no melancholy feeling this year. I couldn't wait for the peace and quiet to come to my house. My two boys bickered all summer long and I nearly lost my mind. I try not to interfere because they need to learn to resolve their squabbles on their own. I think it's good training for when they enter the real world and have to deal with jerks who rub them the wrong way. But there were moments when I called on Jesus because I was about to spew cuss words or just get in the car and drive far, far away. In those moments I had to stop their arguments for the sake of peace. Since school started it has been quiet enough for me to get my mind back a little closer to sanity. I also decided to do something for myself and worked on several scrap pages simultaneously. This is the one page I completed. 

Windex is My Insect Killer

Even though a fly has a tiny brain it can process sensory information into an appropriate motor response and make planning movements prior to take off when it first sees a threat. It makes its escape plan in 100 miliseconds. Michael Dickinson, who has been studying the flight of insects for 20 years (yes, you read that right) suggests, "It is best not to swat at the fly's starting position, but rather to aim a bit forward of that to anticipate where the fly is going to jump when it first sees your swatter." (source:  http://phys.org/news139142949.html#jCp)

In a nutshell the fly can calulate the threat and position itself for flight quicker than you can move your arm through the air. Our dear and dedicated flight researcher suggests to aim where you anticipate the fly is going to jump. Oh, if Mr. Dickinson could only understand that even though my brain is bigger than the fly's I cannot begin to even anticipate which way the fly will take flight considering it can change its body position and take off faster than my brain can tell my arm which direction to swat.

I'm no rocket scientist but I've got a better method than Mr. Dickinson's method.

Spray the fly with Windex.

The dad from my "Big Fat Greek Wedding" can add this to his list of all the wonderful things Windex can do.

One summer day there were three flies in my house and I had spent hours trying to kill them. I mean, not literally hours in a row but cumulatively the time spent trying to swat them became hours. They were the fast kind of flies too. The kind only Bruce Lee or Aeon Flux might be able to swat or catch in their lashes. Luckily, one of the flies flew onto the window pane and I quickly closed the blinds trapping the fly behind the shades. I squirted Windex through a slat and wet the fly down. It wasn't able to fly away. Then I was able to kill it. After that I was able to kill the other 2 flies and discovered I could spray the flies while they were in mid air. They fell down to the ground giving the opportunity to kill them as well.

The green (food safe) window cleaners do not work. You must use something with ammonia in it. I haven't tried vinegar yet but I don't think it will work since it's natural.

Another option is to buy the electric fly swatter which also works very well. However, with the electric fly swatter you still have to anticipate where the fly is going but you can swing the swatter around like a person who's walked into a spider web and possibly hit it. Be careful not to hit anyone with the swatter though. I haven't personally shocked anyone with it yet. But I imagine it stings.

This is a fly on my vehicle. That's just my reflection with an orange drink in the background. 

Birthday Card for Mandy

The card came out nothing like I imagined in my head.  It came out nice, but not what I pictured. I added a birthday cake so it would look like the fairy was blowing out the candles but the cake never really looked like it belonged in the pic. Gluing the tiny candles was sort of a pain in the butt.

I did think of a cute idea. I added tags on the inside that looked like gifts and my family each wrote a birthday wish on the back for my niece.

I know these pictures are bad. I realize looking back on my posts that I need a better camera and a lot of lessons in photography.

front of card

inside of card

back of card

tags inside

birthday wishes we wrote on the back of tags

Lipsticks and Expiration Dates

Experts tell us to toss our makeup after a period of two months to one year depending on the product. It really ticks me off. I mean who are they kidding? How many of us really throw our eye shadows out after six months? I understand the reason is to prevent infections but I have yet to get an infection from makeup (crossing my fingers now that I've said it). I believe if they expect us to throw away our makeup after six months then they should produce products that are smaller and less expensive. I would be more willing to throw it away and buy a new batch. If I'm going to spend a pretty penny on makeup I'm going to get the most out of it and so I do keep makeup a few months past the recommended expiration dates. It's hard to throw away an eye shadow or lipstick that I've only used a few times. Now don't get me wrong I don't keep makeup for years unless it's a color that's discontinued. Then I keep it to use as a guide to find a similar color but I don't apply it to my face. Estee Lauder discontinued my perfect eye shadow seven years ago and I am still on a mission to find it's match. I take the eye shadow with me to makeup counters and just do the color comparision on my arm. Never on my face. I know it sounds gross, but it's really the perfect shade.

In the United States the FDA does not provide regulations for the expiration date for makeup ( fda.gov/cosmetics/labeling/expirationdating) but rather the expiration dates are simply "rules of thumb". So we are basically left alone to decide for ourselves or trust the experts. I've seen different guidelines for makeup so I always go with the one that gives me the most amount of time. I'm thankful that lipstick has the longest shelf life of 2-3 years. Since lipstick's longevity is significantly longer than of all the other make-up it is difficult to keep track of when to toss it out. If you're like me and have about 10-15 different shades of lipsticks being used throughout the years it can get very confusing. So I write the dates on the tubes when I start using them so I definitely know when to throw it away.

There's 2 lipsticks in there from 2008, definitely past expiration date. 

To be honest I'm usually running late and when I use a tube for the first time I don't always have the time to write the date immediately. When I finally remember to write the date down I aproximate the date. *Note to self: leave a Sharpie in the bathroom.

Taking into consideration that the shelf life is 2-3 years it is also a good idea to sanitize your lipstick. There are 2 things I do to keep it germ free:
1. Scrape a little off the top with a Q-tip.
2. Fully submerge lipstick in alcohol for 30 seconds

Below is a tube that doesn't have a date. Since I am not sure how old the lipstick is I'm making a larger cut using dental floss. I tried to slice it off at an angle but as you can see it didn't really come out that way. I will use a lip brush to shape it back into a usable form.

Next step is to dip your lipstick in rubbing alcohol. Twist the lipstick to fully expose the entire tube and submerge lipstick for at least 30 seconds. I just use a Dixie cup in the bathroom. I saw Dr. Oz on the "Today Show" affirm this technique (Dr. Oz segment on germy purses).

I usually sanitize my lipstick using the alcohol method every couple of months. If your lipstick has changed color or smells funky that is a definite signal to toss it out. Don't even bother trying to sanitize it.

Another way to get the most out of your lipstick is to blend the colors. I don't always like the shade of my lipstick. Usually the freebies from Lancome or Clinique don't match my skin tone. So I combine the too dark lipsticks with the lighter shades. Have you ever seen those lipstick pallettes with different shades? It's the same concept. I once read in a magazine that Marilyn Monroe used five or seven different shades of lipstick and gloss to achieve the perfect color.

One more word of advice, we all know this but I'm going to say it anyway: NEVER share your make up with anyone, even if it's your own daughter or best friend. The most common infection from sharing lip products is herpes simplex virus. Even though it's not visible it may be on the other person's lips and you can still contract it if they're shedding. A cold sore is no fun, no fun at all, and embarassing. Even if you stop a cold sore in 2 days it still has to go through the drying up and crusty stages. Not worth the trouble. If you can't avoid sharing your lipstick make sure to always scrape off the top and sanitize with alcohol.