You can do it!!

This polar bear sure finished the job!! He or she was NOT happy until that big plastic barrel was completely torn in half...it was so interesting watching this bear have fun! :)

Domino Art Tutorial

Hey everyone!! I want to thank Gwen really quick for asking me to Guest Design for A Crafty Little Place...I am so honored! And this is my first tutorial (other than just showing you how to put stamps in a binder...I don't think that really counts). So I would LOVE any feedback!! When Gwen first asked me to do a tutorial on anything I wanted I first thought of a flower or something that had to do with ribbon. But then I thought everyone does tutorials on that stuff and well I just had to be a little different so today I am going to show you how to make some Domino Art!!! Sounds fun right? Okay, lets get started!!

First you will need the items you see in this picture.
1. Dominos (I use double six size...found them cheap at the dollar store!)
2. Non-Stick Craft Mat
3. Alcohol Inks and a mixative
4. Copics
5. Staz-On Ink
6. Stamp
7. Alcohol Blending Tool with felt
8. Sealant like ModPodge (optional)



After you have the above assembled you take your chosen alcohol colors. I used sunshine yellow and the copper mixative. You can use as many colors as you want! You will need to make sure you shake your mixative up really well first and just put a few small drops on the felt and then put your alcohol colors on your felt. I started circling the blending tool on my non-stick mat and then twisted and blotted the blending tool on my domino. I found that you need to work pretty quick because it dried fast!



Here is a close-up after the first step...make sure you also do the sides of your domino! At this point if you wanted to lighten or have the colors blend together more you could use an alcohol blending solution.



Next you want to ink up your chosen stamp with Staz-On. I picked a filmstrip stamp that fit perfectly...you can also just use a portion of a bigger stamp. Totally up to you! For this I stamp backwards meaning I don't press the stamp on the domino but instead I push the domino onto my inked up stamp. I find that it keeps the stamp from sliding on the slick surface of the domino.



Now this is the part where you can color! You can use Copics or watercolor markers and you can also use versamark with some chalk. But for me I LOVE my Copics I got from Claudia so I use those whenever I can!! :) I chose the colors B29, R59 and YG67 (These colors match my kitchen!). I thought about drawing some flowers in the filmstrip part or even putting in a small picture but I really wanted the copper to stand out so I lightly colored in a few squares on the side of the filmstrip just to add a touch of color but not overpower it.


Next you can choose to seal your domino. Different coloring mediums work differently with sealants so you need to be careful. With alcohol inks and Copics using ModPodge is your best bet so things don't smear/bleed. You can use matte or glossy depends on the effect you want.



Voila! Here is your finished piece of art!! I have seen some people attach a pendant bail for a necklace but I am going to put a piece of magnet on mine for the fridge.


It might sound like alot of instructions but really this is sooooo super easy!! And the possibilites are unlimited on what you can create! You can even use acrylic paints, crackle effects, glitter, etc.!! Just experiment and above all HAVE FUN!!!

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and I would appreciate any feedback!
Hugs!
-Stacie

Small Disaster....

So yesterday I mentioned that the night before we had a small disaster. Here are the pictures of the aftermath! I have not heard if it is officially classified as an F1 tornado or not but I do know the winds were atleast 100 mph!!! And we were out driving and got home just SECONDS before it hit....lets just say I was NOT a happy camper with my husband that night!! Thank goodness nobody was hurt and the damage to houses/vehicles around town was minimal...it could of been alot worse. We were lucky at our house and only had trees down but no other damage. After talking with virtually everyone outside yesterday it seems that the storm hit full force mainly in our itty bitty town of MAYBE 250 people. Again we are lucky houses weren't demolished and people weren't thrown out of buildings, etc. I have never been in a storm like this before and I sure thank God for keeping me safe! Always count your blessings because you never know when something will happen!

This is what we saw while driving home....as you can see the clouds are starting to come to a point and there was rotation.

This is the alley next to our house.

This is in our yard. The next few tree pics are various places around town.





This is our neighbors brand new toy....it got smoked by a huge tree. There SUV also had a big wooden crate smash into it and busted out a window and dented the side of the vehicle. I just think about how this could of been us....our properties join back to back....so we were REALLY REALLY CLOSE! Our other neighbor had a fence to blow down, had a HUGE metal dog pen blow away AND his brand new chimney came off the house! Once again...we are so super lucky!!

I thought this tree was the most interesting...you can see where it split right in the middle and it looks like it twisted to the right.


-Stacie

Down Under! (Picture Heavy Post!)

**OOPS, edited to say the zoo was in Ohio...I did not go to Australia although I plan to someday! This was just the Aussie area in the zoo :) Sorry for the confusion!

I have been meaning to post some more vacation pictures for over a week now so I figured I better just sit down and pick some out (there will be more than one post with animal pics). My pal Annmaree shouted out she would like to see animal pics that I took at the zoo so these are the ones that were in the Australia area! All my Aussie pals have to tell me if you have seen any of these animals in the wild! :)

I don't know how accurate this sign is but I do know I have seen a few of those words in some e-mails from my Aussie pals!!





Wish I could go out in public with a wild hairdo like this and look pretty!

I must be part koala because I found out they sleep ALOT and I sure do cherish my sleep!!

I'm sure I would give the same look if someone was disturbing my nap!

This is what I call a BIG FRENCH KISS!! Oh LA LA...must be love! Now get a room! LMAO!!


That is all for now. Hope you all enjoyed these pictures and have a great rest of the day/night!
-Stacie

WOYWW!

As you can see my workdesk is FULL of brand new goodies!! I have LOTS more new stuff than what is in the picture but I couldn't fit it all on the workdesk....such a terrible problem isn't it? LOL! My hubby was nice enough to let me buy crafty related items as his gift to me for our anniversary that we celebrated earlier this month! Plus I had to buy a few extras just because...I love sales!! :) Now what am I going to do with all this loot you might ask??? Well, I am not 100% sure other than I know I will have alot of fun! First I need time to brainstorm and get creative! I don't think life ever "slows" down does it?? And yes...I have the new Tattered Florals die in my possession (you can see it towards the back of the photo)!! I am so addicted to Tim Holtz lately!!! :)



And here is a looksy inside my stamp box...I really only keep my wood mounted dollar stamps I get from Michaels or the Dollar Store in here. The rest are in another area but someone asked a long time ago to see in this box so here ya go!!!


Now if you aren't aware of WOYWW yet go check out this blog called the Stamping Ground! You might find lots of other neat workdesks to check out! Oh and before I forget....lots of you commented how "TIDY" my desk was last time....well I sort of fooled you because I only took a picture of a small area...the rest of the room is a DISASTER!!! I will have to show you that another time although I am awefully ashamed!

One last thing before I go....I have several things I want to share this week. Some crafty and some non-crafty so if you aren't interested in the non-crafty stuff just stick with me because I will be back with a project at some point!! I actually have a tutorial I am working on today amongst 80 other things! We had a small disaster around here last night....but that will be in another post! Oh oh oh...almost forgot....I will be offering candy sometime soon!!! Figured it was time to celebrate because our wedding anniv. was this month, my 1st blogaversary is in July and my birthday is in August and I now officially have 80 followers!! NEVER did I think I would get that many followers so I want to thank all of you for encouraging and sharing in my journey of doing what I love!!

Hugs!
-Stacie

Today is the last day to enter!

Don't forget to enter my first challenge I have come up with over at Doodle Palace. Click here to go to the post! You just need strawberries on your card and you can use any images and combine challenges but if you have a Doodle Palace image go ahead and show it some love!! :) Thanks for those of you that have already joined in the challenge....I appreciate the support!!! And good luck to all of you ... hopefully someone that follows me will win some images!! :)

-Stacie

Thanks!

Thanks for all the help on my question yesterday...I think I got it figured out now but sadly it is not as easy as it used to be and I didn't change anything so not sure what happened?? But now I have to click on design then go to layouts and it shows my gadgets but I can't edit anything until I click on "go back to blogger"! So instead of just one click on customize I now have 3 clicks....how wonderful blogger...geesh! :P

Anwyays, thanks again for those that responded...I felt really lost without knowing how to get to my sidebar!

Hugs!
-Stacie

A little help please!!

Blogger seems to of changed on me and well I am not sure what to do so I hope someone can help me! When I wanted to add something to my sidebar I always went to the customize section that is located on the upper right corner and now it is gone and instead I have this thing called design of which just allows you to pick different templates and stuff. Does anyone know another way to get to the sidebar stuff??

Thanks!
-Stacie