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Monday, December 31, 2012

Happy New Year!!

Just stopping by to wish everyone a

 Happy New Year  - Feliz Año Nuevo!

and to invite you to stop by on January 6 so you can hop with us!
in celebration of my only daughter's birthday
and Día De Reyes - Día De Los Reyes Magos - Three Kings - Wise Men

There will be some very talented ladies with great projects and of course some surprise prizes! Wishing you a safe and healthy New Year 2013!!
~Gaby

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Abby's Surprise Birthday Hop!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COMADRITA!!

TODAY IS MY BEST FRIEND'S BIRTHDAY!

She is more than a best friend, she is my comadre (I am her daughter's godmother and that makes us comadres), she is like my sister!

Her friends invited me to be part of this surprise Mexican inspired hop and I am super happy to be part of it!

Just when I thought I was so proud of my heritage, 13 years ago I met Abby... a Spanish teacher that had her house decorated with a Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo theme and often wears dresses and blouses so typical of our beautiful culture/heritage!  So this hop's theme is really a good fit for her.

Hope you just arrived from Jamie's blog, if not please start at the beginning HERE at Michelle's blog.

I only have a not so good picture of what her gift looked like....

So you must be thinking this is supposed to be a Mexican themed hop, where is the Mexican stuff... well, I am here to tell you that the poinsettia is native of México and that there are over 100 cultivated varieties and that we call  this beautiful flower "Noche Buena" (Christmas Eve).  The Aztecs used it for medicinal purposes and as a red dye. And legend of the association of the poinsettia and Christmas date back to the 16th century.

... I had shared on a FB group that she is part of what I had created for my sisters, but could not share the fact that one of these envelopes was for her (these are or were for my sisters) and was not able to take a good picture or even decorate her envelope containing a gift certificate because we were not supposed to meet until after Christmas and her birthday.... she surprised me by stopping by my house at the wee hours this past Sunday...  I gave her her gift (combination Christmas and Birthday, I know, she always suffers with the fact of getting a combo gift, LOL) without having decorated it or having taken the picture to share here.  She knows I love her! it's all that matters! right Abby?  She will forgive me once she is at Glen Ivy Spa receiving her massage or facial, or both!

Enough blah blah
On to the hop!
Blog Candy!
One lucky person will be selected to win the Mexican Food set from Jaded Blossom. The winner will be selected from all blogs so be sure to comment on everyones. Plus get an extra entry by visiting and liking the Jaded Blossom Facebook page, and let them know you came from the hop.

NEXT is Kate HERE

Here is the complete line up in case you get lost ~




Thursday, December 13, 2012

Gift Pillow Box | CCC

I am excited to be included in the Cameo Creations Challenge new DT

Today we are sharing a Christmas creation using our Silhouette Cameo electronic cutting machines.

For my project I created a pillow box which I adorned with a tin pin/button I created using the print and cut Cameo's feature.



This is the print and cut file from the Silhouette online store I used to create my button.
I additionally want to share how you can take "away" the "hash" marks from a design (I personally do not like them or the look of them on my project. I rather leave one or two and score).
 Click on your file and ungroup. Once all the marks are highlighted, you decide which ones to delete and which one to leave on design to guide you when you score.



Hope you can go visit the other creations HERE and enter the challenge for a change at this prize package.

Be back soon to share more of my Project Life
Gaby

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Feliz Navidad Card | DEE

There is a challenge over at Dilo En Español and we are calling it Monica-Feliz Navidad so anything Christmas goes! 

I created this card from a Basic Grey kit but with my own twist.  I replaced the regular included buttons with 1 in buttons/tin pins I created by first stamping the images from the Feliz Navidad set on white paper using different color Stampin Up inks.  Additionally I stamped the sentiment "que la magia de la navidad te ilumine con mucho amor" instead of the intended tag towards the bottom of the card.

This month the winner will receive a surprise prize and if you use DEE stamps in your project, your name will be entered 5 times!

Hope you can join us!

Friday, December 7, 2012

Project Life | Week 29 & 30

Week 29 was a super fun week... the beginning of two amazing Summer weeks of vacationing!!

The week started with my niece's birthday celebration on Sunday, planning and packing for the upcoming two super amazing weeks of fun and adventure!


Here you can see that I added a 6"x12" insert or page to write lots of journaling
On the left page I cut a 4"x12" piece of PP into 4 3x4s


 Here I used some wooden (wood veneer) embellishments that I colored in red using a Copic marker, a stamp from DEE and some stickers for the week/number.
 For Lauren's picture I used a Polaroid frame that I found at my local craft store.
Lauren loves to eat cucumber and jicama (and other fruits) with salt and lemon (a Mexican thing to do... and if you can handle chili powder, better!).  Love the look on her face!!

The adventure started on Thursday with a flight to meet my daughter in Phoenix and fly together to Seattle where we boarded our cruise ship on Friday!  Loved all the flowers in Seattle (not the rainy weather but still had lots of fun! part of the adventure!).


On the other side of the 6"x12" insert I added a collage of pictures and the welcoming "passport booklet" we received with our card when boarding the cruise ship to Alaska. I placed the card on the bottom right pocket and use this "booklet" to add ticket stubs and receipts.
 I taped it with washi tape (strong adhesive under) and inserted the whole thing in the protector.  After it was inserted I cut around 3 sides of the "passport booklet" very carefully (just the plastic) so that I can open it and see its content without having to pull the whole sheet out.

 Using the washi tape I created a pull me open tab.
 Week 30
An amazing cruise to Alaska and Victoria, Canada!

For week 30 I only used two journal cards and a 1 1/2" x 12" piece of PP that I inserted in the middle.  These protectors are from two different companies.  The one to the left is from We R Memory Keepers and the one to the right is from Recollections.  One has 3 6"x4" and 1 6"x12 pockets while the other has 3 6"x4", 2 4"x6" and a 1 1/2 spaces/pockets.  These were perfect for what I wanted to accomplish and that is to fit as many pictures as I could.
The only thing I added to this page was a strip from the Destinations collection by Simple Stories that I cut by hand.

 If a picture tells a story, the picture of my daughter hanging on the Skagway police department's sign will forever tell the most funniest story!  (an inside story!)  Love her humor and love it even more when we both make each other laugh to the point of shedding tears, snorting and more...  LOL
I created my own pin/button of a map.

The trip ended on Friday.  We flew back to my daughter's house where we spent Saturday getting ready to start driving to New Orleans to board another cruise ship, this time to the Caribbean.  This time we took my grand daughters!  I will be back to share!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
The washi tape is from Studio Calico

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Project Life | Weeks 26-28

Week 26 was fun and super quick to get it done!
I used Simple Stories latest journal cards, one stamp and a couple of die cuts.

Here you can see that the pockets I had created for week 26 by machine stitching and adding some confetti (flowers and hearts cut using punches) also worked for this week... liking the peeking to previous (and next) pages/pictures.

Week 27 and 28 combination.  I did have more pictures to add here but not of each day so I decided to combine the weeks.  On this spread I decided to use protector J once again so that I can use/create the 4"x4" collages.
 I had shared a bit about this layout on a post for Dilo En Español to show how I utilized the mini bags to insert a more private journal entry.  My journal cards are actual library check out cards (what can I say? I have tons being that I am a librarian and we no longer use this particular model/style/kind)


Supplies:
You can find the mini bags HERE

Monday, December 3, 2012

Project Life | Week 22 & 24

Today I am sharing weeks 22 and 24 of my Project Life.  I have been playing catch up because I took most of the Summer off from scrapbooking to do other things.  I did however continued to write on my iPhone/iPad notes and took and printed pictures as often as I could.  Catching up has been fun! I am almost done I just need to take the time to take pictures of my LO and write posts to share.

I had previously shared weeks 23 and 25 HERE and HERE

For week 22 I used journal cards from several Simple Stories collections.
 I die cut the wk and the number 22 and added some stamping and machine stitching.  I am loving that hearts washi tape.

Week 24

This week we celebrated Lauren's 4th birthday at Chuck E Cheese's and spent the week having lots of girl fun!
 For this week I used journal cards from Simple Stories and Echo Park collections.
Since I wanted to include several pictures in collages I used the protectors that allow for pictures that are 4"x4".  I was able to create the collages on Picasa and have Costco print them for me.  Costco carries or offers 8"x8" and 12"x12" pictures so I am able to print either 4 or 9 collages respectively. I just have to plan ahead.
The small pictures adhered with washi tape are 2"x3".  I just create a collage of 4 pictures and have them printed as a 4"x6".

I will try to post 3-4 times a week the rest of my PL LO so that I can be all caught up!  If you have any question, just leave me a comment.

Additional Supplies for week 22:
I do not remember the name of the stamp set I used to stamp the silverware and the chile nor for the sentiment "time of my life".  I also used washi tape red/hearts and wooden? All inks are from SU. And I believe the dies to cut the letters wk are from Quickutz/Lifestyle

Additional Supplies for week 24:
I believe the dies used to cut the word week and the numbers 24 are from Quikutz/Lifestyle.  I additionally used red/hearts washi tape and a roll multicolor roll of washi tape from the Smash collection.

Basic Supplies: