Crowdtap Old Navy Bundle Up Bash!!!

I've enjoyed another Old Navy party!!!  Same info as before:  "I belong to an online group called Crowdtap.  Please read more information about it here: Crowdtap  One of the great things about it, you give your opinion, answer questions, participate in discussions, and then you raise money for charities.  I picked the Nature Conservatory.  There are about 5 options, all good choices of course!  :)

Another perk is participating in targeted discussions, some of my faves are to talk about Old Navy products.  I was recently approved to join an Old Navy Sample Share, basically I was mailed a coupon, 1 for me 1 for a friend, for a FREE pair of JEANS!!!  And so I/we headed to Old Navy to do some shopping!"

This one was for a Women's Winter Pant, Winter Sweater, and Winter Accessory!  AND I got to invite 3 friends with me :)  I invited my sister, Liz, my coworker Marchelle, and her daughter Toni.  It was a good time :)

me with the new jeans and new shirt!

We met early on Sunday December 11th at Old Navy.  None of us were all that awake yet (mostly me...not a morning person at all!), but we still made it work to check out everything in the store and try on some fun stuff!

Liz

We started out in the jeans section, they have some nice selections now!  Colored jeans, I found some pretty reds!  Too bad none my size.  I ended up buying a (super soft) pair of blue Rockstar Super Skinny jeans!  I already have a pair in black that I love to wear, and these looked super cute!  I didn't even realize what they were when I picked them up!  These are great for wearing with boots or flats, so thats what I am doing this winter!  Now I have 3 pairs (of ON jeans) that look great with my boots :)


This is my sister in a nice red sweater and black cords!  Very nice. I didn't even know there were corduroys at Old Navy.

Marchelle

Marchelle's daughters

This is my friend playing around with the cart.  I thought it looked funny.   Now she just looks crazy :-P


Her daughters joined us for the day.  Her little girl is all dressed up in the cutest pink jacket!  And some nice fleece hat and scarf!






Her oldest daughter and I tried on the same sweater.  We both agreed the grey version looks the best!

Marchelle bought the teal sweater

Liz got this whole comfy outfit :)

I guess I don't have any other photos with me.  Oh well, this is my sister -->
in what she got.  Loves her fleece scarf!  Very warm.






<---Marchelle got the teal sweater and it looks great!














We had so much fun and I am really looking forward to another party!!!  

Old Navy Sample Share: Active Wear!

Same Intro Info as before, incase you missed my Sample Share: Jeans post:  "I belong to an online group called Crowdtap.  Please read more information about it here: Crowdtap  One of the great things about it, you give your opinion, answer questions, participate in discussions, and then you raise money for charities.  I picked the Nature Conservatory.  There are about 5 options, all good choices of course!  :)

Another perk is participating in targeted discussions, some of my faves are to talk about Old Navy products.  I was recently approved to join an Old Navy Sample Share, basically I was mailed a coupon, 1 for me 1 for a friend, for a FREE pair of JEANS!!!  And so I/we headed to Old Navy to do some shopping!"

So same thing applies, except this was for Old Navy Active wear Sample Share!  The coupon was for 1 paid of Active wear pants and 1 Compression Top, which was later changed to include ANY Active wear top!  Works out great for me, I LUV jackets!

I was so excited for this one (of course I love my jeans!), but this time, I was really excited to grab a new pair of knit black pants.  If you've been following along, you know for my job I need to wear all black.  So I bought a cheapo pair of yoga pants at Meijers for $14, they are pretty thin and the tag fell off after 2 washes!

Luckily, my new Active wear pants are thicker, which is nice because its quite chilly and drafty right now at work!  I like that they are a thicker material, but I'm not going to get sweaty in them.  Its a nice knit fabric that stretches with me and was a great fit for the massage I gave this past weekend!  I'm so happy to have this pair to add to my work clothes!  Which at times...is a workout!

I LOVE MY JACKET!  OMG, it is soooo incredibly soft and warm!  It has the thumb holes which are proving to be really comfortable and useful in several ways!  I don't know what the true point of them is, whats their real function?  However, I'm loving that I can carry something cold (like a drink) and my whole hand isn't icy!

I don't have as many photos as I did for the jeans, but I think you will still be able to tell how comfy I am in the clothes!

Activewear Pants

Activewear Jacket  .....Having a hard time locating the proper jacket...we were told anything in the Active section was ok to choose....Ooops....I picked a Performance Fleece Jacket....it was in the same section and it said Active wear!!!

My sister picked: Pants and Jacket    (She loves to cozy up in fleece!)

^Not entirely sure why I was posing like this.  But as you can see, theres the lines of the fabric stitches up the sides.  Feels pretty cool, plus makes my butt look nice :)

And also, what I was wearing for work that morning!

Just so you can see the whole outfit together!

Hopefully this is making you all want to go shop at Old Navy!  I'm really pumped to see the sweaters they are going to bring out this year!

New Job = Really Busy

I have been so busy lately!  I'm sorry I haven't been up to many craft projects lately, I'm actually working on organizing my craft room.  Its takes a lot of work!  I have tons of stuff, and I'm not at all an organized person, though I love anything that can help keep me organized!  I'll include a future post of my craft supplies and some of my new organization methods.  Hopefully it happens soon, I try to do a little every day.

As for the reason I have been MIA, its because I have become newly employed!  Extremely happy to say I am now the Licensed Massage Therapist at Fringe by Carrie Salon Studio!  Life is good, finally at some place that feels like its a great fit for me!  I'm so happy to be here, and since I haven't been doing craft stuff lately, I'll instead introduce you to the lovely ladies I am working with (and for), and my workplace!  I know you are just as excited as I am!

Details: 

Address:   3316 Glanzman Rd  Toledo, OH 43614

Phone:  419-382-0891

Facebook:   www.facebook.com/fringebycarrie

Website:  http://www.fringebycarrie.com

Blog:  http://fringeatbeverlyplace.blogspot.com/

Cool logo right?  Wait til some of you get some of the coolest marketing materials around!  BOOYAH!  haha

Doesn't this look cool?  ------------->>>>

Picture a theme like this for our marketing materials as well as the NEW salon, coming to the Toledo, OH area during the month of November!!!  Its going to be amazing!  More details to follow!

Now, let me introduce you to the ladies of Fringe!

Carrie, Owner of Fringe by Carrie

Stats: 

Artistically transforming hair to masterpieces for 17 years

Master colorist and stylist

Networking extraordinaire

Marchelle, Colorist and Hair Stylist, John Paul Mitchell Systems National Color Educator

Stats:

Creating gorgeous color and cuts for 5 years

Outstanding product knowledge of the Paul Mitchell product line

Alicia, Jr. Stylist and Colorist

Stats:

Graduated early this year from Toledo Beauty Academy

Learning up a storm and delivering gorgeous color transformations

Christina, Licensed Massage Therapist

Stats:

Performing relaxing massage therapy for over a year

Sharing the benefits of massage with the world

Delivering artistic beauty to the world of Fringe

We hope to see you soon at Fringe!  Come have not just a cut, but a hair experience...

Basket Paint Touch-Up

On Friday September 9th, I was out driving and saw a sign for a garage sale.  Its hard for me to say no to just checking it out.  I decided I'll look in the rare case that they might have cheap paper, crafting, or bead supplies.  Ideally I want to buy my supplies for my Etsy shop at Goodwill, thrift stores, or garage sales, or maybe the clearance sections (with coupons) at Hobby Lobby or Michaels.  I'm trying really hard to be thrifty!

So I popped into a garage sale and I found this fall basket, it was only $1.00 and it looked nicely made and my Mom has these pretty fall flowers she loves, I thought it would look nice to hang up in the kitchen perhaps.  So I grabbed it.  I also bought a XL Men's striped polo because I thought it was black, its actually blue.  So now its going to the boyfriend.  I was going to use it for one of my purse remakes.

I decided the painted parts were too blah for my tastes. The pumpkin wasn't even orange, and the whole thing had an old/pale/sun lightened look, but very unflattering.  So I whipped out my acrylic paints and some paper towels to try a "stained" not brush painted look.

BEFORE plus my paint supplies

Ingredients:

Basket to paint

Similar acrylic or craft paint colors (or new colors if you want to paint the plain sections)

Paper Towels to use to apply paint

Process:

1.  I gathered my supplies and my craft paints were almost perfectly matched to the paint choices already used.  So basically I was just looking to brighten up the basket.

Using Paper Towels to apply the paint "stain"

2.  I used paper towels to "stain" the basket weave.  It was harder than I thought.  And very messy.  The orange stripe at the top was easiest, but the weaves were quite tough!  It was very hard not to get it everywhere else.

3.  I ended up tearing up small slivers of paper towel, and rolling them up to small tips.  This worked best for the weave.  It was trial and error really!  The smaller the tip, the easier to was to get close to the edge, without touching other weaves.  When wet, paint was much brighter.  But I only wanted a touch more color, so I thought it looked really good.  If you want more, you can obviously add a few more coats.  Wait til it dries in between to check your color.

Squirt paper to a surface and dip your rolled Paper Towel.

 4.  Once you're finished just wait til its all dry before grabbing your flowers and hanging on the wall!  Ideally you'd use a cup holder hook, but for how I only have a nail, and its just barely holding on!

What do you think?  For only $1.00 and some flowers we already had, I think it looks pretty good!

DIY: Journal

I've always loved the look of DIY Art Journals, but I never really had a need for one.  Or know-how.

Yesterday I took the Level One class for the Crystalline Consciousness Technique.  You can read about it and the woman who taught the class, Amy, did a fantastic job.  I think I learned a lot and we participated in a few mini sessions which were really relaxing.  The Level One course is meant to "activate the Crystalline Electromagnetic Field" which surrounds your body and all living things.  Please read more about it if you are at all interested in Reiki or other energy healing methods/modalities.  I found it quite enlightening.

During the activation of my energy field I was quite inspired to paint.  I have a lot of creative energies already, and this just turned them up a notch!  It was mentioned to consider journaling our Intentions for our Energy Fields, so I thought it would be fun to make my own journal!

I found an old sketch book that doesn't get used and I had some blank very thick cardboard that was used as packaging materials that my boyfriend found at work.  He said, "I thought you could find something to use it for."  Too true!  I grabbed up my favorite scrapbooking papers, some Mod Podge, a ruler, and got set to work!  I only have my after photos to show you, but I'll try to do some explaining along the way.

Ssupplies: That's cotton crochet thread that I used to tie it up.

OK, So you got your normal Mod Podge that worked perfect.  Use a medium amount if you have a really thick cardboard to use as your cover.  If your cardstock is thinner, you'd want to use less because of bubbling.  Don't forget to use a brayer or popsicle stick to flatten out the pages.

This is the front of mine.

I liked the idea of happy words to put on the front.  Just seemed fitting.  Feel free to embellish it more.  This is just how far I got today, but who knows, I might go back later and add some beads, buttons, maybe paint to it.  It could be really fun doing the front page as well!!

The back.

 The back is nice and happy too.  I glued these on just like you might think, measured the paper, applied the glue to the CARDBOARD then placed on the paper.  Wait a few minutes for it to dry, then start folding over the edges to the inside of your journal.  I didn't do fancy corners, I was hoping to cover them.  Didn't work out so well, but I still like it.

The inside of the front.

I don't know why this is blurry.  But just giving you an idea of what I did, these are Cricut cuts from another project, just the "insides" so I used those for some embellishing.  The green paper I chose didn't cover the whole back, so I took skinny strips I had otherwise leftover, and cut those to cover the cardboard.  Nothing is too well thought out, but its handmade, so it can't be perfect!

The back inside.

I had this fancy paper that had a bunny cutout, I thought it would be cool to put something behind it, inside the cutout portion.  I found some scrap paper that said "Know Your Tools" on it.  How fitting for my journal!  So I glued it all down.  Then I looked at it....its all upside down!  Oh well!

I think my first attempt turned out really great!  I got some inspiration from these great DIY-ers:

Lil Blue Boo I love her idea with the gesso, its more fitting of an Art Journal

Serve Northwest Washington An Upcycled Book Journal, very crafty!

The Creative Place Ideas for Travel Journals, I must try this!

Samantha Hahn She gives lots of photos and has instructions for all levels of DIY-ers

Etsy Shop: Pear's Palette NOW LIVE!!

Hi all!  I just REopened my Etsy Shop!  http://www.etsy.com/people/PearsPalette

Please check out all the cool new things I have available!  I had first started my shop back in 2009 but quickly lost steam.  I love to paint but as it was then, I didn't know what to do first.  Since then I have been a fanatic about reading creative blogs and learning How Tos for handmade businesses!  Since then I have helped encourage others to make the first leaps toward successful businesses.  The whole while I have been learning from others, taking notes (quite literally) and biding my time while I find the perfect items that give me the pleasure to make, but also that are economical!  I've enjoyed making my new products and I'm pretty excited about where this can go in the future!

Here's a few of my products: 

Dark Blue Star Bobby Pins

Pink Bear Bobby Pins

Light Blue and Purple Star Bead Barrette

Light Blue and Sparkle Blue Star Bead Barrette

Orange, Yellow, White Button Barrette

 In the future here I hope to be adding some Mixed Media paintings.  I had a vision of painted canvas with beads, and so I made it happen!  Those will be posted soon, as well as some new ideas I am working on.  I love painting, but I tend to be a perfectionist and some paintings take more time!  Good for everyone right?

You can find more information here at my Facebook page (brand new): http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pears-Palette/211004365621624?sk=info

My YouTube (currently blank...will update): http://www.youtube.com/user/PearsPalette?feature=mhee

My Graphic Design: http://sites.google.com/site/christinapertz/

My Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/christinapertz/

My Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/people/PearsPalette

Crowdtap Sample Share: Old Navy Jeans!

I belong to an online group called Crowdtap.  Please read more information about it here: Crowdtap  One of the great things about it, you give your opinion, answer questions, participate in discussions, and then you raise money for charities.  I picked the Nature Conservatory.  There are about 5 options, all good choices of course!  :)

Another perk is participating in targeted discussions, some of my faves are to talk about Old Navy products.  I was recently approved to join an Old Navy Sample Share, basically I was mailed a coupon, 1 for me 1 for a friend, for a FREE pair of JEANS!!!  And so I/we headed to Old Navy to do some shopping!  I brought my sister along, but I do not have photos with her to share.  Both of us are rather shy to be taking glamor shot photos in a store!  So I tried on my own!

I'm posting the photos after the links!  I also went back, and got another pair!  I couldn't help myself!

I picked up the Sweetheart Skinny in the dark wash: Sweetheart Skinny

It fits great.  I will have to find photos showing me wearing my pretty flats with them!  I can't wait to find a pair of boots to go with them for the winter!

I went back for the Rock Star Super Skinny in black.  I thought I would need the Long size because the first time I tried it on they were too short.  Well this time they were just perfect!  Rock Star Super Skinny

Be on the lookout for me wearing these jeans in the future!  I was in Chicago for a few days and wore the Rock Stars out to a bar, but failed to get a photo.  I will try to remake the look for your guys!

These are my silver flats, my faves and now they go fantastic with my new skinny jeans!!!

Yes, this is me posing.  Trying to show off how good these skinny's fit me!  They feel so great on too!

This is supposed to be my "recreated" photo.  This is basically what I was wearing when I was at the bar.  Minus a different tank.  I'll try that out later and maybe post again!

I cut my head off on purpose, the face I was making was not pretty!  But like before, these jeans fit like a comfy glove!

Sorry its dark, the flash and light were on!

 Hopefully this is making you all want to go shop at Old Navy!  I know I want to go back, their tanks were on clearance when I was there last!

Almost Been a Month!

Since I've really made anything!  I'm working on some new projects right now.  My sister has a CriCut machine and we just scored CLEARANCE $19.99 cartridges!!!  So that was really exciting and I decided I would make my own Christmas cards....of course last year I happened to actually buy some after the holidays when they were cheap.  Maybe I will cut those up to use with the CriCut!

I've been throwing around the idea of actually stocking up my inventory and doing a craft show.  I thought, how hard could it be to stock up 100 items by November?!  Probably not hard if I could just settle on an item that I want to make!  My head is so ADD with crafting ideas, I haven't come up with 1 or even 2 ideas that are quick to make and aren't super pricey either.  I can't profit on these items if it takes me a few days (or weeks) and my supplies are expensive!  Michael's Crafts had a big sale plus a 15% everything including sale items, this past Sunday.  So I stocked up on paper and I've already used some of them to make an anniversary card for my sister and brother-in-law.  I was in a rush and using her CriCut before she got home from work, so I don't have photos to post!  But when I go over there next, I will take some pics to share here!

Winter Wonderland Cartridge

Wall Decor Cartridge

Upcycled Hair Barrette

For the past few days I've been simmering on an idea to use buttons and old hair accessories to make a new hair barrette.  Finally I decided to just dig in, I knew I'd feel better once finished!

Ingredients:
Misc buttons, beads, hair accessories
Hot glue gun
blank barrettes or other hair clips

Here is the before/after photo.  I have multiple blank hair clips just sitting around, so its easy to show you what it used to be -nothing!  I'm sure at one point it held a ribbon and we eventually just ripped that off.

So instead I used buttons we had around the house:

Which I sorted yesterday and as you can see, had a few set out in a row trying to decide what I wanted to do.  I'm also thinking of fancying up my flip flops with some buttons or old earrings.  (Process to come!)  So thats why I have so many laid out and grouped by color.

I also went through old hair accessories:

These are no doubt from when my sister and I were in grade school and used to wear the hair ties that you looped over with beads, because most of these have the loop on the back of them.  I just cut off the loop with my specialty kitchen shears (any store similar to Walmart should have them, they cut through bone!), and that worked really well.  Just be careful of flying pieces!

So basically all I did was plan out how I wanted the beads to look, them hot glued them one by one!  I think it looks super cute and I can't wait to pair it was a cute summer dress!  Its a pink monkey and pink banana! :-)

Restyled Mod Podge Fabric Purse

I love to go to garage sales.  Ever since I started following pages like Mod Podge Rocks! I've been really interested in trying some of the projects featured there.  The first big project I have tried is to remake a leather purse, and Mod Podge fabric to it for a whole new style!  I think I did a great job of it!  Please read on for my photos and my process :)

Here is the blog that inspired this project: Scissors & Spatulas for the tutorial.

Ingredients:

Buttons, brads, hair beads, etc.

Inexpensive garage sale purse (75 cents!) or other purse you no longer use

fabric scraps to cover outside or a medium/large size cotton shirt to cut up (I used garage sale tank, $1)

buttons or beads to accessorize  (see photo)

coordinating fabrics to accessorize

hot glue gun

decoupage glue or Mod Podge Matte ( I used Matte) or Fabric

Process:

First take your purse and line it up with the fabric.  I cut up a size Medium sleeveless shirt, however it looked like a large.  Cut off all seams, for me this was the bust because it was pleated.  Lay it out flat.  Its ok to iron the fabric at this point if you'd like no wrinkles.  Personally, I found after I decoupaged it the wrinkles disappeared.

Cut out the fabric and leave 1-2 inches for folding over.  Once you use decoupage, the ends will not fray.  I will admit, I'm not much for measuring, so I was missing some sections and had to double up cut strips in a few places, but not anything too noticeable.  If it bothers you, depending on the type of bag you are using, leave extra fabric along the sides for tucking in.

Traced flap and then cut along the blue line.

Next I cut a piece to fit my inner flap, but I used an old pair of jeans instead.  I have never worked with jean material before, but once decoupaged it became darker, scratchier, and stiff.  At the crease it does not stick well and I may have to re-glue that spot with hot glue.

I glued the jean down first, however depending on the how you want the seams to look, you may want to glue the outter fabric on, then the jean on top.  Check out my other photos before you make that decision.

After cutting and gluing it to the purse flap, I decoupaged the top of it to seal it down.  The Mod Podge dries clear, but in this case, it dried the jeans darker.

I also needed to cut the hole for the snap.  Next time, and I post the photos next to each other, use a razor or craft knife AFTER you glue it down.  Much easier and a cleaner cut!

Cut after glued, with craft knife.

Cut before glued, with scissors.

After I did the flap and once the fabric was all cut, I mocked it up.  This is my plan.  Its a thinner purse, but I misjudged the widening creases, extra fabric on the sides would have been better.  The black pieces are felt and the whitish strips are extra scraps from Fat Quarters.  

Mock up with other fabrics.

Next, glue down the fabric and pull it tightly around the purse.  I started with the "front" non-flap part.  Then I flipped it over, applied Mod Podge to a thin-medium consistency, and flattened the fabric along the entire length through the flap.  Pull tightly and smooth out with your hands to remove bubbles or wrinkles in the fabric.  Should dry fairly quickly.  Once mostly dry (or fully, your choice) continue to fold over the edges and glue down.  Check out how to do corners if you're looking for a cleaner look.

Curve along flap.

Corner of flap.

Inside "creases"

 The "creases", this was the hard part and where I didn't measure correctly!  Measure twice, cut once!  Obviously I didn't listen to that!  But still, it turned out well.  Once I figured that out, it was still fairly easy to push it in there and glue it down.

Spools to help dry decoupage glue.

This is how I let it dry, by placing to spools of thread inside to keep it open.  It was a little stiff once it dried, but since then its been perfectly fine!  And it looks so cute!

Handmade "rosettes" for front flap.

Here is my finished product of the "rosettes" that I made with strips of fabric that I folded tightly, before wrapping into circles.  Use a hot glue gun CAREFULLY to secure the fabric together as you circle.  I burnt myself twice, painfully!  So please use extra caution, get help if you need it!

And HERE is the finished product!  An adorable purse/clutch for me to take out!  Also, look how much I can stuff in there?!  I showed my sister and she thought it was so small!  Well, I don't carry much more than my phone and chapstick in my purse (usually several chapsticks/lip gloss!) so this is big enough for me! :)

I hope you enjoyed this little project and I definitely plan to do this again on other types of purses.  I may photograph and show that as well, depending on how different it is.

Look forward to more decoupage projects or other upcycles!  Or other cute crafts I find!

Thanks for tuning in!

Hello everyone!  Thanks for finding me, and welcome to the very first post on my blog Me and My Crafts.  I hope you enjoy my findings and the processes I go through while I recycle, upcycle, and just plain refinish things!  I love to craft and I'm really excited to share my crafting journey with you!  Feel free to check out my projects and share some feedback!