In youth we learn; in age we understand.

This is a LO I did for a Flying Unicorn challenge - Count down to summer.

This is a picture of me 19 years ago and 70 pounds lighter... (sad...)

For the challenge, the rules were:

10 handmade flowers 
9 rhinestones ( only 4 may be counted for the center of the flower – 5 must be used in a different manner)
8 leaves
7 diecuts/ embellishments – laser cuts/fussy cut items / die machine/resin/buttons – ( you can not use birds/ butterflies/ dragonflies/owls in this count . And there must be a variety ie not 7 buttons and calling this point fullfilled ..
6 words -in saying /title /journaling
5 birds/butterflies/dragonflies/owl
4 stamps and/or rub ons ( same stamp used more than once but a minimum of two different stamps must be used and you may layer if you stamped it twice it counts as 2x )
3 different ink/marker/paint/mist colors
2 ribbon/trim
1 picture


The details

The butterfly was made using Spellbinders Wonderful wings, the roses were made using Spellbinders Rose Creations and the carnations with Carnations Creations. 

The hinge is Tom Holtz grunge board, the key is K & Company and the humming bird is a stamp from BoBunny's Little Miss collection.

The butterfly was cut from acetate using Home Accents Cricut cartridge and then I coloured it with alcohol inks; the corner flourish is an old stamp I have and the watch is a Kaiser Craft rub on.

I was looking for a quote about youth, since the picture is a younger me, and when I came across this one, I thought it was just perfect!! 
I printed it off on a cardstock, and cut it in the label shape with my Cricut. I did the blue distressing and the swirl stamp, then I painted with crackle paint and after it was dry, I distressed the centre with Antique Linen distress ink.

Another closeup of the flowers. I traced the borders with Tim Holtz distress markers and misted them so the colour would bleed. After they were dry, I shaped them, brushed them with some glue and glittered them.


I loved doing this page and I'll definitely start a diet. I can't get younger, but I sure can lose some weight. But just on Monday!! - ;)


Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave any comments. 

My first explosion box

This was a project that I really enjoyed doing. This first one was just an experiment, I expect to do a better job for the next one.
It's basically three "layers".

I have plans for a second one. I just found out that they are tiny albums that work as a piece of decoration (even in the office), and you can open it up any time you feel like...

Everyone should try, they are so much fun!!!

Baby Showers

Another thing I love to do is baby shower "stuff". The first one I did was for my friend Patricia's first baby, Leonardo. The theme was Pooh Bear.
Here are some pictures:

Wall decor, using the Pooh font cartridge for the Cricut.

The diaper cake that became the centre piece for the main table.

A diaper wreathe with lots of goodies.

This little diaper is made of napkin and I put many of them on the tables and filled them with jujubes and gold fish for the guests.

This is just a regular baby food jar. I covered the original label with this altered one with "what are boys made of". It also doubled as a small centrepiece to hold the balloons.

More wall decor.

And these are the party favours I made from scratch. It took a looong time, but I was very happy with the result.

Then came her second baby, Lucas, and she was pretty tired of the Pooh theme, so she left it to me to decide what to do. She had mentioned to me that she had gone to another baby shower that had a candy buffet and that she was craving candies, so I decided to go with the theme "Sweet Baby", and for this one I used the Cricut lite cartridge "Sweet Shop".

The diaper cake. YES!! Those on the top are real, ridiculously tiny and cute, flip-flops.

See? I told you!! Unfortunately I left my camera at home and these are cellphone pictures, but you get the idea...

Another baby Wreathe. Look at the tiny sneakers... LOVE baby stuff...

Cute clothesline. She bought some identical pieces for the oldest and the baby. The name I cut in the Cricut and used double sided tape to stick them to the diapers.

Well, she did say she was craving candy, so we gave her a lot of candy!! We were able to find some blue candy, but not enough for a buffet, so I decided to make my own!! The first plate at the bottom has a typical Brazilian desert made with condensed milk which I dyed blue, the second level is marshmallows that I dipped into white chocolate dyed blue and the top tier is cake lollipop covered in white chocolate dyed blue as well. The bear-shapped cake was made by another friend.

This time, instead of the baby food jars, I decided to re-label the water bottles.

Instead of the diapers, this time I made baby booties to put the munchies inside.

Centre pieces.

Party favours.

Unfortunately I didn't get any decent pictures of the wall decor, but it was basically cupcakes, ice-cream, milkshakes, lollipops, hard candy, etc.
For both baby showers I was the mind behind the ideas, but on the day of the parties I had a lot of help from other friends to put it all together. I wouldn't be able to pull it off by myself, so I want to thank the friends who helped with the more practical details!!

Brasil (with "s")

I made the page on this post for a Flying Unicorn challenge. The only rules were the the colours green, yellow and blue should be the dominant colours.
Being Brazilian, I didn't have to think about for more that 3 seconds> I had always though about using the Brazilian flag on a LO and this was the perfect opportunity!!
Just to explain the name of the post - the name of the country is spelled with an "s", not a "z". The thing is: in Portuguese, an "s" between two vowels sounds like a "z". I believe the change was made so that speakers of other languages would pronounce the "z" sound. I think the idea is that it is better to spell it differently in other languages than to hear people pronouncing it wrong. (just useless trivia...)

I wanted the page to be very "clean and simple" in order to preserve the flag, so I added very few details, this way the colours would also stand out.
And here is some more useless trivia: the colours on the flag are green for our forests, yellow for our gold, blue for our skies and white for peace. There is no red in our flag because most times red represents the blood lost in independence wars, but there was no independence war in Brazil, so there's no red in our flag.
Here are a couple close-ups:

The flower I put together with some silk flowers I had a home, the shell is DA and the pin wheel I made following a tutorial I found online.

The kite I made with a little scrap from my first attempt of the spinning wheel. I was trying to think of summery things we do at the beach and the kite came to my mind immediately. It is also a reference to my parents who actually sell kites (and other seasonal toys) down in Brazil. The tiny bows on the thread were the hardest part of the whole LO... took me a long time to shape them. The picture doesn't show, but I also put on some stickles on them (as well as on the kite, pin wheel and flower)

Hope you've enjoyed it.

MCS May Challenge

Update!! Great news!! The LO below was chosen as one of five featured LO by My Creative Sketches! It was my first LO for MCS, I'm soooo excited!!!


I did this LO for My Creative Scrapbook Sketch challenge.
I tried to wait for my kit to come in the mail so I could use it in this challenge, but since the deadline is tomorrow, I just put something together quickly.
I have this picture of my daughter when she was a baby and she was playing with her hands, but it looks like she was praying.

Now some details:

The clock is Tim Holtz Weathered clock die cut. For the title I printed on cardstock, distressed the edges in blue (Faded Jeans) and painted with a layer of Rock Candy distress crackle paint. After the paint was dry, I used a finger dabber to spread a bit os Antique Linen distress ink.

The rosettes were handmade as well as the roses. Around the picture is just a cheap lace trim I got at Walmart.

For the blue rose I tried something a bit different. I painted the edges with Tim Holtz distress marker and sprayed them with water. I have to say I'll definitely try that again with other colours.

Let's get started!!

Ok, let's get started.
I'll start with a l/o I did for Scrap That May sketch challenge.

This is my sweet daugther in an amazing photo shoot we did in a park close to my house. The photographer, Ana Rocha (http://www.anarochaphotography.com/), specializes in photos of newborn, kids and families, and she is awesome!!

Now for some close ups:

This black rose I made using Spellbinders Rose Creations and following the tutorial on Gabrielle Pollacco's blog.

The butterfly I made using  Spellbinders Woderful Wings.



 The circle I made using my Cricut (Lacy Labels cartridge). I cut both the circle and the detail in white cardstock and didtressed them with TH Antique Linen. Then I inked the details with chalk pink and green ink.

The small rose and green flower came in the kit, the bigger rose and petals I made using Spellbinders Rose Creations and the butterfly is from my stash (I bought it in a clearance sale at Michaels ages ago).

For some of my future posts, all show some things I did for baby showers.