Thrifty Thursday: making it shabby with acrylic paint!

This is our first Thrifty Thursday. The idea is to share with you a technique that does NOT require new scrapbook supplies or tools, but can be done using what most of us already have at home.

Today I want to share with you how to make something look old, vintage, shabby or distressed looking. A while back I finished a custom order for 2 vintage scrapbook albums for 2 brothers. Here is a sneak peak of the first album. I wanted to achieve a fun, distressed, old look without making the albums feminine at all. So I decided to use paint - white acrylic paint. I found it is the best way to make something look shabby.

Now you don't need any special tools to apply your paint and any acrylic paint will do. But because acrylic paint is rather thick it can be very tricky to use it on rubber or acrylic stamps. They tend to get all sticky and you can't see much of the detail of the stamps, unless it is a big one or a foam stamp but that's another post.

I used two simple tools for my technique. I used water bottle caps and medicine measuring cups to make the white circles on my latest album. I also used my finger to dab the white paint around the edges of my album. I tried using a make up sponge but I liked the result of using my fingers better. I was going for a messy, smeared look.



First squeeze some paint on a paper plate and spread it flat like you would icing on a cake, then use the cap and cup to start stamping. Don't worry about perfect prints, you are going for shabby, not perfect prints. You will have some circles thicker, with missing pieces to the circle, others lighter. the paint dries really quickly too.

 

The first photo on this post is an example of the result of this technique. You can see the complete result on Carson's album HERE and Camden's album HERE.

You can use other tools with this same technique. Try using bubble wraps, the end of pencils, a sponge, a paper crinkled into a ball or anything else you can think of and already have at home.

On the card below I smeared the edges with white paint.



Here is an example using green paint and bubble wrap.



How do you use acrylic paint? Would love to hear about your results and your discoveries.

I wish you a Happy New Year!!! Until next Thursday, stay thrifty and crafty. :)

Be blessed,

Tereza

Prayer 12-28-2010

Dear Jesus,

Help me to encourage my children today. Help me to be positive, to point out their strengths and not their flaws. Help me to see them as you do - with all the potential to realize their dreams, to become who you have designed them to be.

Today as I read Elizabeth's post it gave me peace to just be me. It reminded me not to compare myself to others and vice versa. It made me realize that many a times I am so very judgmental and think that I know better than everybody else. I thank you that you are in control, that as you are working in my life, you are working in everyone's lives around me.

I thank you for letting me see that. I want to affirm that you are working in my children lives, you are working in my family's lives. That the good work that you started you will complete!!! And that they will stay the course and will not stray from it.

Thank you Jesus for your Grace. Thank you!!!!! :)

PS I love to see you smile. :)

Amen.

Making it NEW.

If you just stopped by and my blog is looking strange... then let me tell you that I am finally upgrading and making some changes. I hope to make it look better and more inviting.

IF you are looking for my slides, they are temporarily on the bottom of my blog. So just scroll all the way down to look at some of My Treasured Creations.

In the meantime, bear with me and please send me some suggestions. Like do you prefer a lighter or darker background? Lots of information about me or about my art?

hope you are not so stressed about the holidays. :) Enjoy your loved ones, everything else is not important at all. :)

Be blessed,

Tereza

Non Traditional for a tradional gal

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!!

God is good and I am so thankful for Jesus and my family. I am a traditional gal as I value my Lord and my family mostly above all other traditions. I don't really care for decorating my house according to seasons and holidays. I don't really care about keeping up with trends and doing and buying what everyone else is doing.

I was remembering my childhood and I can't think of any traditions we kept as a family. Most American families would think this weird or strange. As I thought and thought, the only tradition that we kept was this: whatever we did, we did as a family.

I remember one year going to my Grandma's for Christmas (she lived on the other side of Brazil,  so it wasn't something we did every year).   She had a Christmas tree put up and we got gifts but we really didn't care for the gifts at all. We were much more interested in spending time with Grandma, eating her wonderful cooking, running barefoot and playing in the rain. In Brazil, it's summertime during Christmas. :)

One year, we spend Thanksgiving with a family in California. They had us over as guests for their dinner. I remember stuffing the turkey and finding it more delicious than the meat itself. I remember the man of the house watching football on TV and forgetting to talk to us, his guests.

Another year, we spend Christmas eve at a hotel up in Lake Tahoe. We watched Rambo on tv and had Dominos Pizza for dinner.  There were no gifts, no tree. We had a blast. The next day we went skiing.

Our first year in the US, my Mom bought I huge Christmas tree, all the way up to the ceiling. We made our own ornaments and bought hundreds more. Instead of waiting until Christmas morning to open our gifts, we opened them on Christmas eve. In Brazil, we celebrate Christmas on the 24th in the evening with a big dinner, and games, gifts and lots of fun. Christmas morning is left to sleep in, and lunch is for eating left overs. My parents went overboard buying us toys. I remember I got roller skates, a walkman, clothes, stuffed animals, a Michael Jackson LP, and so much more. It was a gift extravaganza. It was never done again. We didn't really mind that at all.

I think because I have come to realize that our tradition has always been: whatever we did, wherever we went, we did as a family. Our tradition has always been to be together as a family.

So as to continue that ONE tradition, my husband and I spend today with our 4 children at home by ourselves. For the first time, we have put up a Christmas tree as a family. I don't know if we will do it again, but it really doesn't matter because the important thing is that we were together.

Today as we gave thanks to God (a daily thing to a Christian) I cooked up a meal not traditional for American customs. I fixed my roasted chicken with beer and orange juice, brown rice with mushrooms, spinach au gratin and roasted russet and sweet potatoes.

Everyone ate well and we had left overs. God is good. :)

How about you? what are your traditions?

Tereza

The Jeub Family give away.

hi everyone,

we are getting ready for the weekend and some awesome plans for next week. How about you?

While blog hopping this morning, I found out that the Jeub Family is giving away a very interesting book. Like the Jeub, we are a homeschooling family and I want to help my children to be able to articulate their thoughts in written form and speech. I think this book will be an awesome introduction to this.

If you are curious of what a big family looks like and why would people in this time and age have more than 2 children you should certainly check out this site.

I have made some dietary and health changes in our lifestyles at home and I want to share those with you. I have lost 20 pounds in a little over 5 weeks. So be looking out for a future post on that.

Have a blessed weekend,

Tereza

PS the little bunny ballerina at the top of this post was me when I was around 7 years old. :)

Navy and Hot pink Bridal Cards

I finished my custom order... here are the cards...

My customer said she trusted me and loved my style. So I could make anything I liked but she rather have a different card for each of her friends. The only demand was to stay in the navy and hot pink color scheme. Each card has a personalized poem on the inside, also with a colorful background and embellishment. So I went all out... This is my favorite one...

Which one did you like best?

And here is why I make these...

"Hey Tereza,

I got the paypal email that the second package had shipped so I assume you finished them!?!?! I am so excited to give them out! I am giving Sam's card to her tonight and I can't wait to see her reaction!! Thanks again SO much and I will tell everyone I know how beautiful your work is!! I may have you personally design my thank you cards when it comes down to that in a about a year.  Thanks!  A."

I am a happy camper. :)

Tereza

Navy and Hot Pink Bridal Card

oh, wow!! What a beautiful color combination!! As I said before, I am working on a new custom order for Bridal Cards in navy and hot pink. Here is a sneak peek with more to come!

Happy Monday! :)

Tereza

More than just Bridesmaids Cards...

I am working on a fabulous custom order that comes in a navy and hot pink wedding color scheme. While taking pictures I found out some photos from last year that I haven't shared with you yet.

More than just Bridesmaids cards, this bride requested cards for her Aunts, her Mom, her Dad, her In-Laws,  her Flower Girl and her groomsmen. Here are some of them...

Aren't they gorgeous?

As always, please email me, if you would like me to make you something special for your Special Day. :)

Have a great day!! :)

Tereza

Martha Stewart Wedding Album Kit

Three years ago I made my Sister-in-law a Scrapbook Wedding album from scratch. Her best friend saw it and wanted one. So when my sis-in-law visited last summer, she helped me put together a Scrapbook album for her best friend.

Our budget was small, our time was short. So we used a Martha Stewart Wedding Kit that my SIL had previously purchased. It was a real challenge for me because the kit has pretty clean lines and a very soft palette. It was sooo not my style.
Here is a video of me showing the kit.



I just got the pictures of a few pages with the wedding photos in it. Oh, my!! They turned out gorgeous!!


So here a few pages without the photos and and a few pages with the photos in them. The BEFORE pages are what we call premade pages. They are scrapbook pages that you just add your photos to it. All you have to do is glue your photos to them. Pretty easy, huh?

BEFORE

BEFORE

 

Would love to hear your comments...


Blessings,
Tereza

OperationWriteHome Birthday Bash

Fall is here!

All September long it was Birthday Bash celebration at OperationWriteHome. I wrote in and set a goal of 500 cards to send in, BUT I didn't meet my goal. I was able to create 110 cards only.

I have been so busy with our children. They are taking music lessons once a week. DD7 is learning piano and DS5 is learning the drums. Well, that was the initial plan but they are actually learning more. DS5 is also learning the bangos and DD7 is also playing the drums. About a month ago, God led me to a music shop in town and I was able to purchase an used working keyboard for $5.00!!! And last week, we purchased an electronic drum set for $200.00!!! So I guess we are preparing to become a worship band!! hahahaha Who knows!!???

Anyway, busy with that. Also I found a homeschool co-op that meets every other week and our social life has picked up a bit. :) My craft life has become second in my priorities. I have a lot of inventory in stock and I am cleaning up my studio. I have come up with a little marketing strategy to increase my sales in my Etsy shop and clean up the many treasures I have in stock.

Here are some of the cards I sent to OperationWriteHome last week. And if you don't know about them yet and you like to make cards you should check them out. :)

I made many more that I will share later on. Have a blessed week and thanks for stopping by,

Tereza

A new route.

I have decided to devote more time to my children. Besides my husband, I am their only caregiver and spend 24 hours with them. We homeschool and I truly enjoy having them at home but....

I have recently noticed that I was getting stressed and sidetracked with my scrapping and it was not doing our relationship any good. So, I am, once again, prioritizing. :) If you have followed my blog you know I have done this in the past.

I am re-organizing my blogs and I will keep everything here. I will be posting Thrifty Thursday here, Unschooling posts, useful daily tips, as well as my bridal cards and any other treasured creations here. I think keeping everything in one blog will help me.

If you are coming over from my other blogs I hope you will keep coming back. :) I have some new cards I made for Operation Write Home that I want to share with you as well as some layouts and techniques, so do come back. :)

Now, if you would like a custom order of something. Just email me. I will be happy to work with you. :)

Have a great week and blessings,

PS Sweet baby on the above layout is my niece. This was one of the many layouts I got to make for her when my parents were here last. :)


Tereza

August and September Challenges

I am now part of the More Paper Than Shoes design team. Last month we had a challenge to create something with a Trip to Paris in mind. I created a little notebook. I used digital papers and some Paris stamps to cover my little 3x4" book.



I embellished it with my ruffled ribbon and a fabric flower that I made. I know I am way late posting it.







For this month our challenge was a Rusty Bucket. As I brainstormed the theme trying to figure out what I was going to make, I realized I was feeling a bit like a rusty bucket myself. I got so much on my little bucket lately and sometimes I feel so rusty, tired and worn out. I feel like I am leaving a lot undone and although I still think I am only 28 years old, the mirror tells me otherwise.

Now, I am NOT the type to dwell on the negatives of life but when I was brainstorming for the card I was a bit tired and got carried away by my feelings. LOL So anyway, I had fun creating this little card to express my feelings.



Be sure to check the other designs for inspiration and do come up with something yourself. :) Also each week you can find out more about each of the members of the Design Team, so do stop by the blog to get to know us.

Have a blessed week, :)

Tereza

Cranberry and Apricot Wedding Color Scheme

It beginning to feel like fall around here. I can feel the breeze and the temperature has dropped a bit. I am already missing the summer. Summer time is my favorite time of the year. I dread the winter and I can only be thankful that I live in a part of the country that if it does snows it's only for a couple of hours. :)

Here is a recent custom order for bridal cards with a fall color composition. We first went with a cranberry background and then switched to the classic black and white damask background.





These turned out so classy and chic. The inside contains the bride's personal message to each of her friends. The bride in the front is also colored to look like the bride.





And the best of all were the bride's happy comments:

"Thank you so much for the beautiful chic bridesmaid cards! I absolutely love them and so does my mom. I cannot wait to give them to my bridesmaids! I will definitely be coming back for any type of cards I need! Thank you again." J.

I have so much more to share so be sure to come back. :) As always, if you need a custom order for bridal cards, a vintage scrapbook or handmade do email me.

Have a blessed week!

Tereza

Laura's scrapbook pages

Hi everyone,

My parents leave tomorrow back to Brazil after 2 months here visiting us. We are going to miss them. The days before they leave our home is mayhem. It's a mix of sadness and looking forward to getting back into our routine. As always I am at the last minute getting some scrapbook pages or other handmade keepsakes finished that will go back with them.

Below are a few pages I made for my niece.











I apologize for the glare and graininess in some of the photos.

I got lots more to share, so do stop by again. :)

Be blessed,

Tereza