Blog Tiffany

Day 10

Childhood Memory

Making sandcastles!

Pin Cushions!

Sorry I have been so MIA lately, but summertime is quite a busy time.

My Mom came for a visit two weeks ago, and we had a great time.  We were blessed with gorgeous weather for most of her visit.

I finally got a chance to be creative yesterday.  As most of you know, I am addicted to Pinterest.  I have been pinning lots of cool little Pin Cushions, so I decided to try making a few.

My first one is made out of a mini picture frame.

And this one was also a picture frame.

It can lay on its back,

Or stand on its side.

Then I made a few out of some tiny canning jars.

I love the jars, because you can store extra pins or thread in the bottom.

I need to find some more fabric scraps so I can make some more!  Have a great rest of your weekend!

Day 9

Someone you ~LOVE~

Day 8

A BAD Habit...

I can't get enough of my string cheese!

Day 7

Fruit

Day 6

From a Low Angle

Day 5

From a High Angle

 

Day 4

Something Green

Day 3

Clouds

 

Day 2

What you wore today...

OK, it was my first day off in a long time, I didn't get dressed :)

Day 1

Self Portrait

30 Day Photo Challenge

Wanna join me??

Scrapper's coming together

I received this e-mail from CHA yesterday, and I wanted to share it with you:

On May 22, 2011a tornado swept across Joplin, Missouri leaving a catastrophic wake of destruction. Schools, businesses, homes were destroyed and many were killed. Since then CHA has learned that even months after the tornado there is still a great need in the area. Several CHA members including Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker and Kristi Parker Van Doren have been coordinating craft supply drives to help the surviving residents return to some sort-of normalcy through crafting.

Nikki Sivils rallied manufacturers and scrapbookers to help give Joplin crafters their hobby back and on Sunday, July 10, 2011 when she delivered 50 tubs filled with nearly $50,000 worth of scrapbook supplies to crafters who lost everything to the tornado. CHA Members including Bella Blvd, My Little Shoebox LLC, Meredith Corporation, Bazill Basic Paper, Elmer’s Products, Inc, Unity Stamp Co, Graphic 45, Helmar Adhesive, Creative Crafts Group LLC, Jillibean Soup, Jenni Bowlin Studio, Best Creation Inc, Maya Road, Graphic 45, Creating Keepsakes, ProvoCraft, Elle’s Studio, and Spellbinders all responded with generous donations.

CHA also learned that member Kristi Parker Van Doren is coordinating an art auction/sale to benefit the City of Joplin where 100% of the proceeds will go to a fund managed by a non-profit organization called the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. Monetary donations can be made directly to www.cfozarks.org/donate. For more about supporting and donating art and craft projects for the auction please contact:

Art for Joplin
c/o Kristi Parker Van Doren
3438 S Clifton Ave
Sprinfield, MO 65807
417.823.0585
ask.kristi@att.net
http://artforjoplin.blogspot.com

While we applaud the selfless actions of our members there is still a great need. After contacting Joplin area authorities, CHA was informed that St. Mary’s Elementary school which housed pre-school through 5th grades was demolished and in desperate need of supplies and cash donations in order to prepare for the coming school year. The school that teaches 210 students, employs 12 teachers and six staff members was completely destroyed with very few items salvageable from the rubble.

Any monetary or product donation would be greatly appreciated. The school has a wish list of products including school supplies, adhesives, plastic zipper bags, pom-poms, yarn, crayons, markers, paint, paper, and more that CHA can easily assist with. The list can be found by clicking HERE.

Anyone interested in making a contribution to the school can do so by sending monetary or products donations to:

St. Mary’s Elementary
Attn: Stephen Jones, Principal
(CHA Craft Donations)
c/o McAuley High School
930 Pearl
Joplin, MO 64801

For additional questions about St. Mary’s, please contact:

Renee Motazedi
Development Director
Joplin Area Catholic Schools
930 Pearl
Joplin, MO 64801
417-624-5003
http://artforjoplin.blogspot.com

Thank you for your generosity and consideration.

Way to to Nikki!  You are a super star!

 

A Girl can never have too much PINK!

So I'm getting ready to order some new fire helmets for the Fire Chief (Shad), the Asst. Fire Chief and the Safety Officer (me).  Our department helmets are Yellow, the Chiefs are White, and that leaves pretty much Red or Black for me.  As I was shopping today, guess what I found? 

Oh yes I did!

I found a Pink one! 

So I asked the Chief, does it REALLY matter what color mine is, as long as I stand out??  Well, I think the Pink would stand out, right?  Well, since I'm married to him, and I always get my way...there is a Pink Fire Helmet in my future!  He did say no to pink boots though :(

Sorry for the slow blogging lately, summertime is busy here.  The weather has not been the greatest, but on those days that the sun comes out, it is glorious!  Ashley leaves early in the morning for her more than 24 hour trip back home to Tennessee.  We have had a great visit, and I think she will be moving up here soon.  She caught her first fish last night, so she was quite pleased with herself.  My Mom and her husband will be arriving on Saturday for a week.  We are very excited to see them!  I'm hoping it will be nice on Sunday so we can take a drive out to Red Mountain and take some photos. 

Have a happy Wednesday!

I was doing a bit of Blog Hopping last night, and I thought I would share some of the goodies that I found.  First up is Wendy McKee!

Amazing, right?  I love all the texture and dimension that she adds to everything, and all those butterflies she uses are great!

Next up is Mahlin.  I'm not sure if that is her first or last name, her blog is not in English.  She has such a unique style, and is a master at layering!

 

I hope you head over to their blogs and take a look at more of their work...just gorgeous!

Have a wonderful weekend.

A Busy 4th of July

We had a fun filled 4th of July this year.  We started our day off with the Annual Firehall Pancake Breakfast.  We served lots of hungry people.  At 10:00 we all headed out to line up for the parade.

I was driving Rescue 1, with some of our Junior Firefighters on board.

Kaitlyn and Chance.

Logan got to Ride on Fire 1 with Dad and the Assistant Fire Chief.

We threw out about 60 pounds of candy, and I ate about 10 pounds of peanut butter cups!

After the parade, it was off to sell Cotton Candy, then to work at the Harbor.  Such a busy day, but lots of fun!  I was tired to partake in the Fire Works, but the kids had fun with that out at the beach with everyone in town.  I hope you all had a great day too!

 

Mommy's Little Rock Star!

Tonight Chance opened up our 4th of July Concert by playing the Star Spangled banner on his guitar.  He just started playing this year, and I am so proud of the amazing progress that he has made.

We got rained out, so we had to do a last minute scramble, and they set things up in the firehall.

So here is the World Premier Video of Chancie Jankins! (that's his Rock Star name, lol).

Leave him some love on Youtube, if you get a chance.

 

 

 

 

Gone Fishin'

Chance caught his first King Salmon tonight.

16lbs!

He caught his limit in less than 10 minutes.

All in all, quiet a good night at the bridge!

The end of an era...

After a lot of soul searching, I have decided to not continue with the ScrapTiffany Design Team.  I have been blessed to have been represented by amazing Designers for the past two years, but because life sometimes gets in the way of things, I don't feel like I have the time to dedicate to the Team that they deserve.  I will continue with the blog, but it will be more of my life here in Alaska, with some crafts and recipes thrown in. 

I'd like to thank all the ladies that have designed for me over the past two years, your talent amazes me everyday.  I appreciate you letting us get to know you through your scrapping.  I have been fortunate to meet some of you in person, and I look forward to the possibility of meeting more of you.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  All of you ladies are wonderful!

I am spending my mornings working at the Harbor Master Office,

and my afternoons working at the Fire Department,  

and trying to find a little time to craft in between.

Thank you to all the loyal ScrapTiffany readers, I hope you will still stick around to see what I may have up my sleeve.  Have a great 4th of July weekend.  My son is opening up for the band on Saturday night.  He's playing the Star Spangled Banner...Jimi Hendrix stlye!  There will be video!

Tuesday Tutorial with Sophie!!

Hi Tiffany's friends!
Sophie here, to share with you a simple tutorial which will help you add dimension to your projects!

I got a lot of positive feedback on this layout:

When I was making it I couldnt find the right ribbon in my stash and decided to use paper (we all have LOADS in our stash!) as ribbon!

So today I am going to share with you the very simple and quick steps to turn paper into ribbon!


1. Take a strip of paper about 1 centimeter wide.
2. Spray it with water or, like i did, with pearl glimmer mist.

3. once it is wet enough , roll it around a pen and then twist it and fold it just as you would do to real ribbon.




4. Your ribbon is now ready! I machine-stitched it to my paper to add even more texture and dimension to my page!

I hope you enjoyed that easy step by step!

And the WINNER'S are...

Vicki and Stella!

You are the winner's of the Elmer's prize pack, send me your addresses and I will forward them to Elmer's.

Congratulations ladies!

Elmer's Craft and Tell Party!

Last night I had my Elmer's Craft and Tell get together with 10 of my closest Crafting Buddies!

Remember all that great stuff that Elmer's and X-acto sent me last month?  Well I got to share all that crafty goodness with all those ladies!

This is the project that we made, using the Elmer's Bi-Fold Foam Board.

Brenda loved the tape runner!

But Ashley has a slight malfunction with hers.

We had a special visitor, her name is Bat Girl.

And another one came to visit too.  I know, kinda random, but whatever.

Kyla is always the youngest one at my classes, but she always amazes me with her creativity.

Sharon loved her Painter Pens that she won.  We are going to get together later to use them to paint some beach stones.

Like this one :)

Thanks Elmer's, we had lots of fun, and we loved all our pink goodies!

If you would like to get in on the fun and win an awesome Fabulously Pink Prize Pack leave a comment, and we will pick two winners on Sunday night.  Good luck, and have a great weekend!

 

Tuesday Tutorial with Krischelle!!

Shrink Plastic Is Back!

That’s right, Shrink Plastic is back... do you remember sitting in front of the oven... waiting for seemed forever... just waiting for your artwork to shrink!  Well, wait no more, your handy craft heat gun has slashed the shrinking time.... how much fun and it’s just another way to use your favourite stamps.

Step by step:

Gather your supplies.

Stamp your image onto the Shrink Plastic.

Cut out the stamped image.

If you would like to turn your image into jewelry, use a Crop-A-Dile to punch a large hole (remembering, every part of the shrinkie will shrink!).

If you plan to colour, I would suggest that you use the Clear Shrink Plastic so that you have stamp on one side and colour on the other.  When colouring the shrink plastic, ensure that you sand the plastic in a criss cross action – remember to stamp one side and sand/colour the other.  Time to colour your shrink plastic.

Ensure you have an acrylic block handy and start to heat you shrink plastic with your heat gun.  You will find that the plastic will curl up on itself and then start to flatten.  To help flatten the shrinkie, work quickly and turn over the plastic and stamp down hard with your acrylic block.  This will help to get rid of any air pockets.

Add a jump ring and the twine/ribbon.

I just love to make my own presents or embellishments for my layouts and this product is a fantastic way to add your own style to your artwork.  Below, I have made a tile to add to a future layout!

Well that’s it for another Tuesday Tutorial, hope you enjoyed and why not give it a go and send it through to Tiffany - we love to see you work!

A day on the Beach

We woke up to beautiful blue skies and really low tides, so we decided to take a little road trip and go tide pooling.

I got to wear my new boots, and I took lots of pictures...

  Fun day.  We are enjoying showing Ashley all the sights of Seldovia, not sure we are going to let her go back home!

Fabulous Find Friday with Krischelle!!

Hello to all the Scrap Tiffany followers, it's that time of the week again - Fabulous Friday Finds! There is no better way to get just a little bit of inspiration, or perhaps a nudge to try something completely different!

So I wanted to share some of my favourite creative individuals and their musings (blogs).

Make It and Love It - There is a little bit of everything on this blog, sewing, crafting, baking... everything I love! Thank you Ashley for sharing your creative talent and ideas!

Sewing in No Mans Land - Kelly is just so very creative, I love to sew when I have time and the pieces she comes up with are just adorable... and the patterns are free to download! Check out the tutorial on that gorgeous headband.

 

The Girl Who Ate Everything - And I think there is nothing better than crafting with some delicious goodies... and perhaps a great coffee (if I actually drank coffee!). I just love cheesecake desserts, make sure you check out the Caramel Apple Cheesecake... yummmmm!!!!

An Embellished Life - And this is one of my favourite gal pal blogs, the very talented Barbara Shepherd. Barbara is amazing with her card and layout creations... and wicked sense of humor!

Polkadot Prints - If you love parties... well Jordan is your girl. She has an amazing amount of party wares, printables and idea's! Oh my goodness, it just blows my mind how talented some people can be!

Well I hope you enjoyed your journey to some of my favourite blogs and perhaps got some inspiration for your next project!

 

Have a great week, till next time.

 

One last Sketch...

This week is the last Challenge for our Design Team, and why not end things with a Sketch!

Here is the Sketch that the fabulous Sophie made for us.

And here is what the Designers came up with.

~Wendi~

~Bev~

~Danielle~

~Dale~

 
~Jennifer~

~Michelle~

~Kay~

~Jolanda~

 

~Krischelle~

~Katie~

~Renee~

~Gaby~

~Sophie~

Thanks ladies, great job as always!

 

 

The Best kept Secret EVER!

Sorry, the text from my post never posted.  Our surprise was our daughter Ashley coming up to visit.  Everyone in town new, and no one spilled the beans to my kids!

The Great Alaskan Adventure...Revisited

We all loaded up the Suburban, and got onto the ferry at 2:20 am yesterday.  We traveled to Homer, got off the boat, and made our way towards Anchorage.  We are picking up a very special package on Tuesday morning, it's a surprise for the kids.

Anyway, we were about 5 miles from Anchorage, and in true Haller Style....

Yep, Flat tire!

Honestly, all we could do was laugh.  And to make it funnier...when the kids cleaned out the car before we left, they took out the jack and tire iron.  I know, that would only happen to us.

But as always, Shad took charge, and we made it into town about 2 hours later.

We have done lots of shopping, and got to eat at our favorite pizza place, Round Table.

Taylor and I were supposed to get our hair done tomorrow, but now we need a $300 tire...so no pink hair for Mom on this trip.  Oh well, life goes on.  I'll let you know the surprise when it arrives.  Happy Monday!

 

Saturday Tutorial with Gaby!

This is Gaby with a little tip on how to give the letters of your title or any cut a little bit more depth. Or if you are just like me and do not like white edges most of the time....

This is a plain letter (you can see I have already been doodling around on my inking mat).

I take a plain brown marker (your kids might already have a crayola one) and trace around.

Another option is to hold it with one hand on the air and go around it with your other hand.

Here is a title using this technique.

And here is another title with a fun design all using the trace around with the marker technique.

Hope you enjoy.

Fabulous Find Friday with Michelle!!

It’s Michelle with Fabulous Find Friday!

   

Today I am sharing my favorite photography resources. It doesn’t matter what kind of camera you use, I have a little something for everyone.

As my love for scrapbooking grew, so did my interest in photography. I wanted to learn how to make my pictures the best they could be. I went through several cameras in an endless cycle, blaming my so-so pictures on my camera. I upgraded to a big girl DSLR camera in 2006 but for years never took it out of auto mode. It made me wonder why anyone would bother with a big bulky camera that didn’t take much better pictures than my point and shoot.

I finally got fed up with buying a new camera every 6 months and instead started looking into learning more about photography and post processing.

First I started by taking a few online classes. I have taken similar classes

I took Maggie Holmes’ Online Photography Workshop last summer and it was the class that finally got me to move the dial on my DSLR camera out of auto. Maggie is an amazing photographer, superstar scrapbooker and awesome teacher. I have also had the opportunity to take a few scrapbook classes from her too. In addition to being fabulously talented, she is a really sweet lady. I live near Maggie and was able to have our family photos taken by her last fall. She did a wonderful job capturing the personalities of my little ones. Maggie Holmes has two Beginner/Intermediate sessions left in 2011 (July and October). Registration is open now. Maggie also offers an advanced class, which is scheduled for late August.

Big Picture Classes runs few different photography offerings, and I have personally taken a few of them.

Elisha Snow is another great photographer and scrapbooker. She has offered at least 3 different fantastic photography related classes through Big Picture Classes that I have taken. My understanding is there are plans to repeat each of them. Mastering Manual Mode starts July 28^th and registration is now open. I took this earlier this year, and it really helped me get more comfortable with my camera. Elisha has repeated her Get Great Photos with Any Camera class, no DSLR required and really good for someone just getting into photography.

I just finished up Photo Finish with Elisha, a 4 week class on post processing in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. I have been dabbling in photo editing for a few years, but I learned more in those 4 weeks than I have in the past several years.

Tracey Clark from Shutter Sisters has run several “Picture” workshops at Big Picture Classes. These classes are full of photo tips and 30 days of daily inspiration. Picture Color just closed for registration but you can sign up for Picture Inspiration, a 52 week ongoing class and Picture Spring is available as a self paced workshop. 

Katrina Kennedy teaches at Get It Scrapped. She has a very affordable self paced class that I plan to take really soon, The Very Basics with Katrina Kennedy.

I have also heard really good things about photography classes taught by Karen Russell and Candice Stringham’s (at JessicaSprague.com). There are no available classes at this time, but ones to keep in mind. 

I also found a FREE workshop in the 2Peas archive, 12 Weeks to Better Photos. This is definitely one I will be checking out.

Inspiration

Katrina Kennedy’s Capture Your 365 – daily photo prompts, tips, tutorials, and a monthly photo inspiration list.

Shutter Sisters

Learning, Tips & Tutorials

Digital Photography School – get photography and post processing tips and tutorials, a weekly newsletter with weekend assignments, participate in photography challenges and so much more at this site….and it is FREE!

KelbyTraining.com - This site has a huge selection of photography and post-processing video training (mostly Photoshop and Lightroom), you get unlimited in depth training for $25 a month. I subscribed to this for a few months and learned a lot about Lightroom. They also offer free webinars, just sign up for their newsletter to find out when they are offered.

OnOne Software - Offers free webinars and a library of free videos on photography and post- processing.

Pioneer Woman – Ree Drummond seems to do it all! Her photography blog is full of inspiration, tips, tutorials, technique and free Photoshop and Elements Actions.

Digiscrap101 – Kayla Lamoreaux recently did a Lightroom series that was amazing and FREE. If you use Lightroom you need to check this out.

Lynda.com – A subscription site that offers video training on just about any software for photography you can find, as well as training on photography.

Lastly, here are my favorite places for Photoshop (PS) and PS Elements (PSE) Actions as well as Lightroom Pre-Sets. Because once you learn more about photography, you may get bitten by the post-processing bug.

Pioneer Woman – PS and PSE Action Sets and they are FREE! I used these almost all of the time when I was doing my editing in PSE.

MCP Actions – My new favorite actions. Available for both PS and PSE. There are a few freebies that work really well. My favorite action that I recently purchased is the Eye Doctor and Dentist. The Eye Doctor really sharpens the eyes make them pop. I was amazed at what it could do. I also really liked the Magic Skin Action. This site also offers informative video tutorials on using their actions. 

Maggie Holmes Action Sets – Cool color and vintage effect actions for PS or PSE

Indie Actions – Another cool color and black and white effects set. PS only.

Mindy Bush Photo Actions – One of my first PSE purchased sets that I used the heck out of.

Totally Rad Actions – PS Actions Sets and Lightroom Pre-Sets – Awesome photography effects with these actions. A bit spendy but I love to play with them.

OnOne Software – Free Lightroom Pre-sets

Favorite Photography Podcast – I enjoy listening to this even though it is sometimes way over my head.

Books – If you like to read about photography here are a few I recommend:

The Digital Photography Book, Scott Kelby

Understanding Exposure, Bryan Peterson

David Busch Guide To Books – If he has written one for your camera this is way better than just reading the manual

The PhotoShop CS5 Book, Scott Kelby

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book for Digital Photographers, Scott Kelby

Here are a couple of my recent favorite photos using some of my newly learned techniques. I still have a lot to learn, but having all of these resources will help me on my way.

Hope you enjoy!

 

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