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Hi everyone!  Thanks for stopping by....but this blog has moved!

Christina Designs Art!

Please continue on to http://christinadesignsart.wordpress.com/ to view my current blog, artwork, graphic design, shop, and resume.  Or you can contact me through here.

Old Navy Sample Share: Summer Shorts!

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 Summer Shorts Sample Share!  The coupon was for 1 pair of Shorts or Bermudas for you, and 1 for a friend!

If you read the fine print on the coupons, you found out early- no capris!  Bummer because they looked so cute in the store!  Not that I really need anymore capris, but they are so comfortable to wear!

I'm not a big fan of short shorts, even tho I found these ultra cute neon shorts: TEAL!  Not going to lie, I wanted them! However, I don't wear anything that short anymore!  If they had been in the Bermudas, I would have been all over it!

My Bermuda choice

As it was, I purchased the Bermudas in the dark wash:

I also liked the lighter wash with some wear and tear, however they turned out to fit too snugly in the thigh, even in 2 different sizes.

I'm on the fence about how much I like the rolled cuff.  As a DIY-er I'm considering releasing the cuff and ironing down, maybe cutting a short slit on the outer edge at my knee.  Or it might be fun to add a little bling or embroidery to the cuff.  Oh the options!  If I do decided to add or change something, I will be sure to post it here.

Another nice feature of these Bermudas is that the back pocket isn't overly flashy.  Which means, DIY it or leave it alone??  This would be a nice place for some simple embroidery stitches!

My sister was out of town on vacation when I needed to go shopping.  So my Mother and I went shopping, with the best of intentions to find her a great pair.  I think we succeeded!  She can pull off a bright colored pair of shorts!

front

back

Now, lets talk about some of the fun options I tried on but didn't buy!  First of all, they have some really pretty patterns and prints right now!  My only thought (besides 'oh pretty!') was, "How do I wear this?"  I loved the bright neons and the brighter patterns, such diversity!

I tried on this Black and Grey Floral that seemed wayyy too boxy on me!  Of all the patterns, I thought this would be easy to match colors with.  Then of course there is the Green and Teal Floral that has the boldest colors that really stood out!  

One of these days I am buying a white pair of shorts or Bermudas, what a clean look to have!  Unfortunately, for some of us it would only be clean a few short hours!!  And lastly I will leave you with this short and sweet pair of Caspian Sea Blue.  Theres something romantic about all of that dark floral and lavender and purple!

Now that I have shared all this with you, head over to Old Navy stores and check out all these styles in person!  If you can't believe I got these shorts for FREE check out www.Crowdtap.com and become a member and make a difference with your opinions!!

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