Fewer words, as promised!

A layout of older ghost-nephew playing with my Ma.
I've decided to start calling them "ghost-nephew" and "ghost-niece".
It's like "god-nephew" and "god-niece" only spookier.
Hence the owls.

Here's the sketch!
In (brief) summary, I am still being haunted. But I'd say naming the ghosts is a good first step, wouldn't you?

Wall Art Tutorial

This here is a too-toe-real for this super-deluxe wall-art:
I think this might be my favourite project yet. Or at least, it ties with this one. And who could forget these?

Anyway, I'ma gonna show yous how ter make one. Here we go.

Here's watcha need:

• picture frame with a "back part" (mat is optional)
• sheet music, either cut from a book or printed from the internet
  
• ModPodge and a brush
  
• at least one piece of cardstock
• white tissue paper
• tape
• a printer
  

Ok. So first? Get yourself a frame. You can use any size, but I used a big 'un. Take off the particle-board-backy-part, and ModPodge the sheet music directly onto it.
(Ignore the top part that already has the writing on it. That comes later. Don't get ahead of yo-self!) Oh, and by the way...
...it's helpful to strategically cut the sheets apart in order to make them go farther on the "canvas".

Once you have the entire canvas covered, add a fresh layer of ModPodge over the whole thing, cover it with a piece of tissue paper and paint over it with another layer of ModPodge, thusly:
Add as many layers as you want in order to get the level of transparency you want. There will be lumps and bumps. That's a good thing.

Now, it's time to print out whatever words you're looking for. Something that truly expresses what's in your heart. Like, "Happines, not in another place, but this place...not for another hour, but this hour." Or "Teri is the boss." You know. Whatever.

Now, here's my technique for printing on tissue paper. Wrap an ugly (because you'll be tossing it afterward) piece of cardstock in tissue, like it's a present. If your tissue has a glossier side, put that side face-down. Be sure to tape down the edges well.
Next, set up your Word document with your sentiment in your desired font and size. I found it worked best to put one line per page, with the page-orientation set on "landscape". Now, in your print-menu options, choose the option that lets you print "backwards" or "mirror-image" or "flip horizontally". You might have to play around with it first and print some test pages to make it work.

Here's what the printed pages look like:
To remove the tissue without tearing it, cut along the edge of the cardstock. I managed to reuse (what-what!) by adjusting the feed-guide-thingies in my printer's paper-feeder to accommodate the ever-shrinking paper.
Be sure to peel off the tape and paper-edges before reusing the cardstock.

Okay, are you still with me? Wake up! I know this is a long post. I promise to make the next one shorter, okay?

I SAID WAKE UP!

That's better.

Anyway, the next step is to decoupage the sentiment onto the canvas in just the same fashion as the previous layers. Be careful when laying down the pieces to make sure they are straight and positioned the way you want them. As long as your sheet music is straight, you can use the lines as a guide.
***Editor's note: If you do make a mistake and wind up with a crooked sentiment, re-layer the affected area with music paper and tissue, and try again. Don't ask me how I know that.

If you want to add a graphic, open one in Word, resize it, and print and apply it in the same way as the sentiment. I got this fabulous bird image from the Graphics Fairy.

What? You've never heard of the Graphics Fairy? For shame, blog readers! Go! Reconcile this terrible crafting faux-pas!

Ok, once it's dry, it should have some lovely lumps and bumps, like this:

Now, it's time to distress. I used Tim Holtz' "antique linen" Distress Ink. Holding the ink pad parallel to the canvas, lightly rub it across the canvas so that it just touches the raised parts of the paper. See the difference?
This will give it that lovely weathered look.
Let that dry, put it back in the frame, et voila!
Dee-luxe, made-to-order wall art, on the cheap. The only way this could be better is if it really did say "Teri is the boss."

I have some work to do.

I am conflicted.

Ok, so I love this picture. Me, chillin' with my homies. Goofy faces. There may have been some spit and eye-crossing involved.


And the sentiment is true:

And so's this one:


And by "you", of course, I mean "me". It's a little ego boost every time I look at it. "I'm sweet." "Ooooooh, why thank you! I try."

***Editor's note: Do you see that absolutely darling little hand-crocheted flower? I won a bunch (ha! Bunch!) of them from Susan at My Paper Passion a while back, and I've just been waiting for the perfect project for them. I adore them, Susan! Thank you!

But I'm conscious of putting photos of my sisters' kids online. So I had to "ghost them out".

But here's something I've never told you. I'm afraid of ghosts.

And little-kid ghosts are the scariest kind.


So this layout doesn't so much tell me I'm sweet, as tell me I cheekily stuck my tongue out at two little ghost kids.

I think I'm going to sleep with the light on.

(Thanks for the awesome sketch, though, Aphra. It's not your fault I'm being haunted.)

Christmas-vacation math.

So I had these boy-pictures. You know. Ones that don't exactly say "flowers" and "ribbons".

Seriously. How do you scrapbook these things?

I'll tell you. Basic Grey + Cosmo Cricket X the square root of a whole lot of time on my hands =

Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that I had to solve for x, which turns out to be equal to this awesome sketch by Michelle Fowler:

And then I think I had to plot it all on graph paper or something, and that's where I got lost.

Anyway, it's a layout. And it's about boys. And I'm scrapping again.

What I'm trying to say is that life is good to the power of 9.

Don't hate me 'cause I'm beautiful.

And here we have SnobbyDog looking stunning in Teri's fall line.
She carries herself with such grace, such poise, such...je ne sais quois.
And of course, by "je ne sais quois", I mean that "why do you insist on humiliating me for your own amusement?" look.

You can find the debut of both Maggie and the scarf here.

Card-making tutorial

{{{This is a repost of my video from November 21. Thanks for letting me know about the problems with the videos, Mandi! I think it's all fixed up now.}}}

Hello, world!

This morning, I put together this little card tutorial as I was making a get-well card for dear, sweet, sick friend. A while back, Mandi from Tidbits from the Tremaynes asked me to put one together, and here it is.

By the way, if you haven't read Mandi's blog, you are dead to me. Go. Go now.

It's, uhhhh, a little long. Apparently I like the sound of my own voice. The first part is basic preamble about making cards, and the second part (starting at ) is the actual creation of the card. The last part is putting it all together.




Please excuse the craptacular lighting. Ahem.

Also, just for future reference, do you prefer video or written tutorials? I made a video this time because I forget to take "during" shots...and it would take me forever to write all this stuff out. I'm lazy like that.

A little video of me scarfing.

I'd like you to watch this little video I've made for my dear friend Adrienne from Happenscraps, etc., starring my dog Maggie, my slippers, and my scarf-in-the-making.



If you'd like to see the tutorial for the spool knitter, the video tutorials of how to use it, or if you'd just like to check out a great craft blog, you can find Etcetorize here.

De-fuglified sewing-machine table

So I've had this retro sewing machine table since I was in college. My mother gave me one of her old sewing machines that came in this lovely candy-coated shell:
Oh wait...did I say candy-coated shell? I meant to say poorly-painted-this-awesome-baby-poo-colour shell.

And not only was it an awful colour, but as you can see, the paint was all flaky. As in, chunks-come-off-all-the-time, Pillsbury-pie-crust, told-me-she'd-meet-me-at-the-mall-but-then-that-trollop-went-on-a-date-instead flaky.

So then we were having company. And I thought to myself, "Self? You surely should fix this fugly specimen before introducing it to your friends."

And then I chuckled for talking to myself that way. I mean, let's get serious here. I don't call myself "Self". I call myself "Queen Consuela of Craftopia."

But I digress.

Anyway, I figured I couldn't possibly make it any uglier. So, I took a sander to it...
This paint came off way too easily. Seriously. It's like I did the original paint job myself.

Anyway, I had neither paint nor time to paint (everyone was about to show up, remember?). So, I sanded off the flaky parts and then sanded a little more for good measure and then scuffed up the edges and then put down the sander because the whole process of de-fuglifying was starting to make me a little lightheaded.

Then, I mixed a few tablespoons of acrylic craft paint in teddy-bear brown with a few tablespoons of water and glopped the mess onto the table with a rag. I rubbed it all over, especially in the sanded areas, let it dry for a few minutes, and then topped it all off with a coat of spray sealer I had lying around.
Now of course, it does help that my living room has low light. But, it's better, right?

Total elapsed time: 10 minutes. Total effort: minimal. Total cost: free. Total reduction of ugly: infinite.

Nice buns, Betty. Err, I mean, this post is about cinnamon-raisin bread.

Hello, world!

I've been busy.

On the one hand, I've been so busy preparing new units for my English students that I haven't had time to post.

On the other hand, I've found a wonderful distraction from preparing new units for my English students.

TaDa!
I have made my first foray in to the world of breadmaking, and it's been a success!

Ok, so I didn't knead the dough myself. But I did borrow the breadmaker that did it from Adrienne at Happenscraps, etc. (Thanks, Adrienne!) And that counts for something, right?

Ok, fine. So it's a lazy foray, but it's a foray nonetheless.

A lazy foray. That sounds like a really bad dance move, doesn't it? (Copyright Teri2010)

Ok, so anyway, I have made two loaves of white bread, whole-wheat cinnamon rolls, and a loaf of the best cinnamon-raisin bread I've ever had.
I'm even going to tell you how I did it, because I'm all generous like that.

First, I made a dough recipe I found on Food.com. (You can find the original post here - thank you to the talented baker who posted it!) Here's the recipe:

Put the following ingredients into your breadmaker on the "dough" setting.

• 1 1/4 c warm water
• 2 tsp butter
• 3 c white flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp powdered milk
• 2 tsp yeast
  

*****Editor's note: The breadmaker peeps insist that you have to add the ingredients in the order listed...but I may or may not have twice forgotten to add the little paddle that kneads the dough before I added the ingredients...and then I may or may not have had to dig down to the bottom of the bowl-thingy to put it in, thereby stirring up the ingredients and messing up the layers. May or may not. We can't be certain.

By the way, I didn't use breadmaker yeast - I was just guessing that you only knead that if you're baking the bread right in the breadmaker.

Get it? Knead?

Snort.

Anyway, I added all those ingredients, then turned that sucker on. Then I tried to find something else to do because I am oh-so-patient that way.

Oh look! A kitty!
Ok, so this is where it gets a little creative, because I've never done this before. After looking up some recipes for this stuff, I determined that I wanted to use the bread recipe I had tried and liked, and then just experiment with the raisin-cinnamon aspect.

This was truly an experiment, because everything I read said that add-ins make it rise more slowly, and that the sugar content, etc. causes all sorts of changes. I didn't have any issues, though.

Anyway, when it let out that if-you're-gonna-add-something-add-it-now beep, I added half a cup of raisins.

***Editor's note: Do not add "two scoops" unless your scoops are around a quarter cup. I'm just saying...if you want some bread with your raisins, do not let Kellog's clever marketing put you on auto-pilot.

Then, I let it go through its first rise in the breadmaker.

And then I waited again.

Oh look! A puppy!
Alright, so then it beeped, and I removed the dough and rolled it out to around 10" by 16".

Ok, so I actually froze the dough because I had to go out, then thawed it and rolled it out. Gosh, you're nosey.

I melted some butter (maybe 3 tablespoons) and slathered it all over the surface of the dough. Then, I used some leftover brown-sugar-and-cinnamon-concoction from the cinnamon buns of the other day, sprinkled that on, and rubbed it in a little for good measure. It was about 1/3 c of sugar with perhaps 1 tsp of cinnamon mixed in. Then, I took the cinnamon shaker and added a little more all over.

Next, I rolled up the loaf from the narrow side, pinched the ends closed, then tucked them under, and put the loaf in a greased loaf pan.

After letting it rise for 35 minutes, I baked it for another 35 at 350...

Et voila!
The most scrumptious cinnamon-raisin bread I've ever had!
Mmmmm.
"Noooo, don't eat me!"

Shut up, bread.

Here's da fibs...

So we've had some guesses, but here'r the answers...

1. I once got a ticket for passing a clearly-marked Oregon state trooper. Yes, I saw he was a state trooper before I did it. No, it was not one of my more intelligent moments.
Actually, it was a Washington state trooper. Fib.

2. I am probably the only person in the world to have seen the Backstreet Boys, Eminem, Keith Urban, Hole, ZZ Top, and Weird Al Yankovic in concert. "Eclectic" is an understatement.
I've seen 'em all...except Weird Al. Although, that would probably be fun, too. Fib.

3. Though I'm not at all Hungarian, I grew up in a heavily-Hungarian area and took Hungarian Immersion and Hungarian as a second language from Kindergarten to grade 12. This came in particularly handy when I had to tell a particularly belligerent restaurant patron that no, you cannot have garlic bread without the garlic, and please stop shaking the pepper shaker at me, you odd little man.
It was Russian...and the restaurant thing never happened, though I'd love it if it would!

4. One time I was in a plane that nearly crashed. I didn't know what was going on, so when the whole plane shook and the everything hit the ceiling, I was so nervous that I started giggling. Turns out, the pre-9/11 curtain that enclosed the cock-pit swung back during the turbulence and other passengers saw us headed for the ground. Come to think of it, they probably didn't appreciate the teenager giggling at the back of the plane. Huh.
This one's actually true. I was 16. We took the bus home after that.

5. A few years back, I went on a week-long hike through the Valhalla mountains in British Columbia. Fancying myself a real outdoorsman, I used my compass and left the main trail. It rained the whole time. While traversing a huge glacial moraine, I slipped and wedged my leg between two wet boulders, breaking it severely. Because I was no longer on trail I'd mapped out for my family, I had to keep going, or risk being eaten by a grizzly bear or a sasquatch or something, so I splinted my leg and kept walking...uphill...for miles and miles. When I was three days late arriving home, Search and Rescue was called out. Luckily, in the midst of dense fog, I'd managed to hear a child calling out to hear the sound of his own voice from a ranger station near the top of a mountain. I called back, and I followed his voice to the station, where they radioed for help and I was picked up in a helicopter. I was in a walking cast for weeks, but glad to be safely home.
Nope - this one happened to my dad when I was five. Ironically, we got lost dropping him off in a seeming labyrinth of logging roads and my poor mother spent the night in our minivan with 6 kids (some her own, some the neighbours') with no food, water, or blankets. The next morning, we were lucky to come across a logger who gave us directions and enough gas to get there.

6. My pet peeves include rudeness, gum anywhere other than in the garbage can or in someone's mouth, and feet. Not feet as in hooves, but feet as in 12 inches. I go metric all the way, baby.
All but the inches, though it'd be nice if we could all get on the same page with that one.

Thanks for playing along, everyone!

5 fibs and a truth

So Mandi from Tidbits from the Tremaynes is one of the funniest bloggers I've ever come across. Plus she's super inspiring and wickedly creative. Best of all, she makes Wayne's World references.

Clearly, she's my virtual BFF.

Go check her out, now. Now, I say!

So she gave me this:

(Thanks, Mandi!)

And now I have to give 5 fibs and a truth, and it's up to you to decide what's what. Everybody ready?

1. I once got a ticket for passing a clearly-marked Oregon state trooper. Yes, I saw he was a state trooper before I did it. No, it was not one of my more intelligent moments.

2. I am probably the only person in the world to have seen the Backstreet Boys, Eminem, Keith Urban, Hole, ZZ Top, and Weird Al Yankovic in concert. "Eclectic" is an understatement.

3. Though I'm not at all Hungarian, I grew up in a heavily-Hungarian area and took Hungarian Immersion and Hungarian as a second language from Kindergarten to grade 12. This came in particularly handy when I had to tell a particularly belligerent restaurant patron that no, you cannot have garlic bread without the garlic, and please stop shaking the pepper shaker at me, you odd little man.

4. One time I was in a plane that nearly crashed. I didn't know what was going on, so when the whole plane shook and the everything hit the ceiling, I was so nervous that I started giggling. Turns out, the pre-9/11 curtain that enclosed the cock-pit swung back during the turbulence and other passengers saw us headed for the ground. Come to think of it, they probably didn't appreciate the teenager giggling at the back of the plane. Huh.

5. A few years back, I went on a week-long hike through the Valhalla mountains in British Columbia. Fancying myself a real outdoorsman, I used my compass and left the main trail. It rained the whole time. While traversing a huge glacial moraine, I slipped and wedged my leg between two wet boulders, breaking it severely. Because I was no longer on trail I'd mapped out for my family, I had to keep going, or risk being eaten by a grizzly bear or a sasquatch or something, so I splinted my leg and kept walking...uphill...for miles and miles. When I was three days late arriving home, Search and Rescue was called out. Luckily, in the midst of dense fog, I'd managed to hear a child calling out to hear the sound of his own voice from a ranger station near the top of a mountain. I called back, and I followed his voice to the station, where they radioed for help and I was picked up in a helicopter. I was in a walking cast for weeks, but glad to be safely home.

6. My pet peeves include rudeness, gum anywhere other than in the garbage can or in someone's mouth, and feet. Not feet as in hooves, but feet as in 12 inches. I go metric all the way, baby.

Ok - any guesses?

I'm passing along this Creative Blogger award to...

• Adrienne, the woman of a thousand brilliant ideas, from Happenscraps, Etc.
• Jennifer, the woman I am convinced never makes a scrapbook page that is anything less than scrappy perfection, from Scrapping Daze
• Susan, a new blogger who inspired me this morning with the most adorable little crocheted flowers, from My Paper Passion

(Thanks for inspiring me to be creative, Mandi, Adrienne, Jennifer, and Susan!)