back-to-school fashion

Awhile back, I listed a friendship belt DIY kit in my etsy shop. Apparently, based on the description:

My littlest child and only girl started school this fall (boo) and in an effort to spice up her wardrobe a bit with some personalized items, I decided to turn the newly ubiquitous, flash-from-the-past friendship bracelet into a belt. And I love it :)

I must have had them up a couple of years ago.

She's pretty adorable, right? But so much bigger now!

I'm planning to make a new one before Izzy starts kindergarten (sob) in less than two weeks (double sob) so I thought I'd share the idea here as well.

All you need is some yarn (I'm going with inexpensive cotton...the stuff you'd use for a dishcloth - this won't stretch too much and will hold up to being tossed in the washer if necessary) and a couple of D rings.

If you look closely, you can see that I added a small bit of tape wrapped around the opening in the rings...just to be safe. For the yarn, I used about 250" looped though the rings like so - the yarn will be doubled up to make for a sturdier finished product. That length of yarn should get you a belt up to 35"+ then you can cut the excess off.

For the belts above, I did a standard chevron pattern but I'm thinking of trying out this lovely leaves pattern or the evil eye pattern if I'm feeling particularly brave. If Izzy spies this Hello Kitty pattern though, I'm done for.

it's so obvious

Kids can say some pretty awesome stuff if you're paying attention. I try to remember some of the gems that come out of their mouths (particularly Izzy, at the moment) but this one has stuck with me for a few weeks now. I jotted down the conversation at the time and decided it needed to be fleshed out a bit more for me to finish processing it. I'm sure to her, it's long forgotten but I won't forget.

We were sitting in the front yard on one of the few glorious, sunny, perfect temperature days us Michiganders were fortunate enough to experience in July. We were both lying on our stomachs with our heads inside our pop up tunnel (the one that usually serves as a full body snake suit now that they'e bigger) for maximum privacy. Then this happened:

This is so obvious to her. Boys are icky and the girls in the neighborhood are the people she wants to spend her time with. Her only concern about the wedding is that both she and her intended get to be fancy and pretty. Someday, (and probably someday soon as she'll be entering kindergarten in 3 weeks,) she'll be told that girls can't get married. Or that it's wrong to even believe that it shouldn't be that way. And that breaks my heart. While we've never really actively discussed the idea of gay marriage with her, we have with the boys a bit with the caveat that like many things in life, not everyone thinks the same way about it and that it's OK to form your own opinion. The actual idea of same sex marriage makes them giggle (only because they've never seen how normal and beautiful it is in their own lives,) but the theoretical is something that is obvious to them as well.

Whitney believed the children are our future and I do too. Sometimes, (often,) I wonder if we wouldn't be better off turning it all over to them now. Before they get hateful and cynical and make decisions with their wallets and prejudices rather than their hearts.

I cheer every time another state is added to the small but growing list of places where equality is achieved and look forward to the day our own state makes the leap. I cheer and then a shed a tear or two watching the celebrations that result. I have a feeling that with the kids in charge, I'd be cheering a lot more and in quick succession. And that our diets would be awesomely indulgent.

I don't know about you but living in a world where a discussion about a future hypothetical trip for ice cream warrants a bigger conversation than the marriage of strangers sounds pretty darn appealing. (Don't worry vegans, I have it on good authority that there will be sorbet served in utopia as well :)

eat this now

It's hard to deny that the alchemy of water + flour + yeast is one of the most magical transformations known to man. Or, at least, to me.

Over the years, I've become more confident, more adventurous, more comfortable with my chopping and sauteing and experimenting but few things make me feel more competent in the kitchen than producing an edible hunk of bread. And this foccacia took less than an hour. Can't beat that.

I used this recipe, following it to the letter other than changing up the topping a bit. I did a butter/garlic/parsley/ parmesan mix that was absolutely delicious. Paired with this soup (with a couple of handfuls of chopped spinach and my trusty roasted corn instead of bacon substitution) it was the perfect dinner for a less-than-summerlike evening. Seriously, August, what the hell is up?

new in the shop: Pocketed Calendars

This digital set includes individual transparent (for easy recoloring) 3x4" envelope calendar templates for 2013 and 2014.

Simply arrange the files for printing, trim, fold and secure.

Recolor if desired (or simply highlight after printing if you want.)

Print a few months at a time so future appointments can be tracked.

I have mine stacked and clipped.

When the day/week/month is up, tuck the whole shebang into your album!

I'd love to share these with a couple of you...leave a comment if you're interested and I'll pick winners tomorrow (Wednesday) night!

cool story bro

Just for fun :)

For project life or whatever...3x4" in a single png file (need help using a png with multiple images? tutorial here.) Grab 'em!

newly released

I've added a few reworked kits to my shop as well as a new frame set. These files come as PSDs with a frame layer and a mask layer for the photo inset.

I also have a freebie for you. This was a paper single I released at Two Peas a few years ago (and was apparently featured in a Martha Stewart Weddings roundup having to do with lace? I never actually saw it but I was told it was there ;) You can grab this one here.

I'm working on a couple of downloadable 2014 calendars that are BIG, meant to be drawn/written on (kids' colorable version as well!) and meant to be printed cheaply at Staples/Office Depot/etc and should have that up soon (when is too soon for a calendar?)

And finally, since I've updated the shop with a few things, I thought it would be fun to do a last minute Christmas in July promo...use XMASINJULY between now and the end of the month  (expires July 31st at midnight...unless you sneak in and use it before I wake up and deactivate it on the first) when you check out with a $5 minimum purchase and get 20% off your order!

the things that come out of this girl's mouth...

Just the teensiest bit of background - (because I was taught you don't talk about money, politics or religion...a good rule of thumb in my opinion!) we don't go to church unless someone is getting married. Carlos and I have different beliefs but we have never disagreed over how we raise our children in this respect. Our kids know what our individual beliefs are and they know we respect each other's beliefs as well as of those we know. They see it demonstrated by our words and actions. Many (most) of our family are church goers and the kids have gone with their grandparents to church on occasion. My parents (dad + step-mom, mom + step-dad) always ask first if it's OK to take them and it's never been an issue with us - we want them to make their own decision about what they choose to believe.

A couple of weeks ago, Izzy spent the night with my mom and step-dad and went to church with them. A few days ago she said, verbatim:

"Mom, let me tell you the truth about God. He didn't have pants or shoes and people hated him. They hung him up and then there was a miracle. And that's the truth about God."

So if you were ever curious about what a five year old might take away from an infrequent church trip, there you have it.

ain't no party...

A few days ago when I made Izzy's birthday layout, I was thinking that an "ain't no party" project life card was a MUST. So I made one to share :) Grab it here if you'd like it (single png file includes color version shown as well as a black text version that you can recolor - enjoy!)

(why tupperware? no idea...I drew a blank and it was the first thing that popped into my head. also, I'm a dork.)

Wondering how to use a multiple image png file in PSE? Look here. How about using images in Word? Here's your answer!

VSCO presets: a cheat sheet

One of the fantastic students in the Phone Photography course at Big Picture asked about which VSCO presets were best for different types of photos. There is a description of each set in-app but I remember seeing a Hipstamatic cheat sheet a couple of years ago that I absolutely loved so I thought I'd put one together for this app as well just so I could quickly see a comparison of how the different effects work on different types of shots at a glance. I'll still probably turn to my tried and true method of simply playing with the different effects until I find one I'm happy with but this is a good guideline for when I'm in a hurry.

I did a comparison of a few different shots...one indoor still life type of a shot, an outdoor portrait, a sky photo and a more dramatic silhouette type shot. The VSCO descriptions for each are included as well as my original shot (which I only cropped and adjusted for exposure prior to applying the VSCO effects. (These images do get bigger if you want to click and save.)

I noticed after I had already started that VSCO has added a (free) skin tone set so those aren't included here...I'd say the application for that set is pretty self-explanatory though.

five years of Izzy

And just like that, whoosh, five years flew by. Five years seems so big. I'll admit to tearing up as I pulled some photos from the archives...5 favorite moments from the past five years of Izzy birthday parties.

Can you see her confidence growing? Amazing.

KITS: tile alpha | dude | stamp press life | ready set go

I created a set of six 6x4" geometric templates for photos and blocks of color (you can see one of them above.) Use them for layouts, cards or project life. Grab them here and enjoy!

birthday party edition

Yesterday we celebrated my very-nearly-five year old girl at our house with family and friends. (It seriously seems like yesterday that I was shocked and awed by my oldest turning "one whole hand" and now my baby is?!? Can't deal.) I took only a few phone shots of the festivities (sigh, that's the norm these days) but did snap a couple of shots of the pre-party set up.

As the years go on, our parties get lower key. No one really notices and I know my stress level has dropped considerably. Not to say that I wasn't up into the wee hours of the morning finishing up favor bags but overall, much less planning and much, MUCH less during-party stress. As usual, my ambition outweighed my time/resources but as time passes, I'm learning to let go, get the necessities done and be happy with whatever details I manage to pull off.

Izzy wanted a Detroit Tigers party (that's my girl!) so orange, blue and white with a dose of Olde English (this is the only occasion that font is appropriate...tradition, people!) were a must.

As were hot dogs, lemonade, baseball cupcakes and icees.

The gift bags had monogrammed pennants that I made from the aforementioned font cut from self adhesive felt. Inside were Cracker Jack, popcorn, baseball cards and parts poppers. I really wanted Cracker Jack in a box and Big League Chew but my tour of the city and five separate stores was fruitless. If I'd have been on top of my game I could have ordered these and these from Amazon ahead of time!

Some of the Tigers even stopped by (*wink, wink) on their way to the game yesterday to autograph the tablecloth (thank you google images for providing me the tools to search out signatures to forge...it's a good cause, promise!) I printed the signatures, laid them on the table (just a roll of kraft paper cut to size,) traced them really hard so that there would be an impression left in the kraft and then traced with a sharpie. I think I did six in total.

Those nasty looking hot dogs are vegetarian. I never liked hot dogs even before we were vegetarian but the rest of my family did...they all think Smart Dogs are a reasonably acceptable replacement though I don't make them too often. I felt so naughty buying real beef hot dogs for all of our guests!

There was much paper ripping (those are my two sisters-in-law in the background. Both sporting baby bellies and matching royal blue).

And an adorable nephew who would really like you all to know that he is THIS many now (as of a few days ago.)

And Jake, in happier times, before he was knocked out by a tennis ball line drive to his eye (seriously, it knocked him on his butt. There was crying and an ice pack but he's fine now...just a tiny bruise!)

And it wouldn't be a party if Izzy weren't hamming it up.

And maybe Carlos too.

And even my sweet mom.

And finally, a little Squinkie action to wind down after everyone had gone home. A good, if bittersweet day.

pom love

My brother and sister-in-law are expecting a baby boy in about a month so a couple of weeks ago, my mom and I hosted a baby shower for my sister-in-law. It was handcrafted pretty much top to bottom - a lot of thought and effort (and pinterest browsing - thanks again, pinterest, for shared private boards!) went into the event but I neglected to really take any photos at all (ridiculous memory keeper that I am.)

One of the items we created to decorate was a pom pom garland based on this one. OK fine, it was an exact copy. The colors were perfect and I could match up everyone of them to inexpensive Red Heart that would hold up well. We'd seen a few pom pom rugs around and decided that since the nursery theme includes lots of bright colors, re-purposing the garland into a rug would be perfect.

We kind of winged it but I love how it turned out. When we made the pom poms, we kept the strings long for tying to the garland so when we disassembled, we already had the means to put the rug together. We used latch hook backing, figured out the best spacing for the size poms we had, marked the backing and tied them on in a diagonal pattern. We used one skein each of the colors shown and ended up with 3 or 4 leftovers - really just the right amount for a rug that is a perfect size. After we trimmed the long ends, we dabbed each knot with some fray check and once dry, used a hot glue gun to attach an equally sized piece of felt to the back (to protect the knots from too much contact and make it look a bit more finished.)

I really think a black and white chevron pom rug would be AWESOME. I have nowhere to put it though so for now...on the back burner.

I have to mention this etsy shop too. We bought 50 succulent cuttings to use as favors and they came quickly with great directions and looked so healthy. I definitely recommend them if you're in the market - I'm sure I'll be ordering again from them in the future.

I clearly haven't had much to say lately and that's OK. I'm done with the days of apologizing for my absence (because, really, no one cares. And this is mostly for me anyway, right?)

We're been busy with summer and a baby shower I helped host a couple of weeks ago. We're in the midst of doing some major work around the house and Izzy's birthday is coming up this weekend (FIVE. don't even get me started.)

I've been craving some creative time though so I grabbed a couple of $1 kits from Pixels & Co. and put this together. And it was fun! Maybe what I needed to get me going on the last half of my May project. Maybe.

KITS: Dude | Stamp Press Life | Destination: Flight Path | font

The Phone Photography Project: A Giveaway

ETA Winners:

random.org gave me commenters 10, 15, 4 so LisaZ, Alijoy and Ryan Ann - you're the winners! Please email me (link to the right) so I know what email address to send the info. Congratuations and enjoy!

Still on the fence about joining? You can sign up until July 10th so you still have time. I hope you'll consider it! And thanks so much for stopping by :)

GUESS WHAT?

This class starts Monday and I am so ready for it to begin. I know I mentioned it awhile ago but I have to mention it again now that it's imminent. The line up, again, in case you missed it (!)

I might have a couple of spots to giveaway - interested? Leave a comment between now and Thursday at midnight CST and on Friday morning, I'll randomly choose two names. Already registered? If you're a winner, BPC will refund your payment! 

-- COMMENTS CLOSED -- I'll post winners sometime Friday!

I really, really think you'll love the class...Elizabeth has poured her heart into developing it and I know it's going to be amazing to see all the good stuff people share as a result.

on a Tuesday...

The girl finished pre-school yesterday (insert whimpering here) and is officially a kindergartner now. I just can't even think about it too much. I really need a rent-a-baby service nearby.

Today is the boys' last day of school but Zack is currently sleeping in bed with some kind of stomach thing. Awesome. Lots of plans out the window today but mostly just feeling sorry for the poor kid :(

Working my way through my breakfast smoothie. I'm terrible about breakfast but I will happily ingest my calories in liquid form at every possible opportunity. I bought this single serve smoothie maker a couple of weeks ago and LOVE it (can't beat the price either.) I've been sipping on simple frozen banana + almond milk + chia + PB2 (which I only bought because it was a suggested add on item to the smoothie maker and I remembered Missy raving about it) mix each day and it's got me off my no breakfast/mid morning snack-a-thon binge.

I'm frantically working on piddly, fiddly last-minute crafting for a baby shower Saturday. Cake making will commence Thursday; food shopping and cooking will dominate Friday. Summer isn't going to officially start in the Hernandez household until *next* Monday.

I am working on finalizing our summer schedule though. This will be the third year that we've worked off a loose schedule and that iota of structure makes things run just a bit more smoothly. And I'm all for that. When I'm rich, I'll just fly Lisa up here to do the planning/execution for me.

Oh, and Izzy's birthday is in a month. And my in-laws (Carlos' dad + step mom) may be visiting for a couple of weeks in July. And my mother-in-law may be moving back in with us this summer as well. Everyone is welcome but it makes for a stressed out Erica...all my own doing though. I need to just own it.

And we're in a perpetual state of remodeling. I've been mudding and painting and in a couple of weeks, we're knocking down a wall - whee!

I put a new alphabet set in the shop yesterday completely inspired by those awesome transparent alphabet tiles I've seen recently. I've been nostalgic for the days that I used to scrap regularly. My list project is fun and I'm excited to finish it but I've also been considering applying for a design team. It's been YEARS since I was on a DT but the AC call and Liz's call have me considering it again. Not sure I have what it takes anymore but I would love that motivation and it doesn't get much better than those two companies!

And today is the LAST DAY to take advantage of the early bird special pricing on the Phone Photography class...have you checked it out yet? If you're considering it - go consider NOW.

So how is your Tuesday?

31 Things Week 5

I just realized that I hadn't shared the last three prompts with you. Download here. Thanks again to Jennifer for sharing this list! All of the prompts are straight from her original list other than #31 which I added so that I would have a prompt for every day in May. And if you haven't been checking out her blog in addition to mine - you're missing out! She's brand new to digital scrapbooking but completely rocking it!

And three more completed spreads. I'm officially done with all 31 prompts - just need to finish converting them. I'm determined though! I can't wait to have this printed (and am trying to figure out if there is *any* way I could convince Carlos to complete these lists...I'd love for the kids to have both perspectives!)

spur of the moment digital inspiration

I was browsing around yesterday afternoon and found the latest issue of What Liberty Ate. So much good stuff here - both content as well as design-wise.

This spread quickly caught my eye though for the colors and simple triangles and I was off and running to create some cards completely inspired (copied) to use in project life or any other crafting you may have going. I thought they would work well as journaling cards, title/date cards or just as a decorative filler. I've already worked the design into one of my 31 Things spreads.

Download here and enjoy! (and be sure to check out the What Liberty Ate digital issue for tons of inspiration!)

I live for finding stuff like this in his backpack

(my favorite? "lactose and tolerant" ha!)

31 Things Week 4

Yup...way behind on sharing these but *still* staying caught up with prompts. I'm really thrilled that this is what I'll leave in your mind after reading this post. /sarcasm

KIT

Week 4 ready to download as well. Grab it here. (How's it going, anyway?)

Today was the kind of day in which Much Attention Was Required. I'm embracing these days though because just four short months from now, I'll have three kids sharing the same elementary building for 7 hours each day.

We made cookies (rescuing the empty honey bear for a future project before it hit the recycling bin) and planted some flower seeds in a lovely little pot I picked up on Mother's Day. We played some frisbee in the front yard and drug the picnic table up to the top deck so she could draw family portraits (LOTS of family portraits...daily) in the sunshine. We counted her freckles (she calls them "nickels") and made each other shrinky dink bracelets (so that we would always know the other was thinking of us when we're apart. For that 2.5 hours of preschool every other day.)

Our best use of time was this little portrait though.

A long, long time ago, I did an online class for BHG all about doing hybrid projects with digital supplies. One of the projects included tissue paper printed and adhered to canvas with Mod Podge. At the time, I thought I was a genius. I hadn't seen it done before but have since seen it all over the place done much better than I managed. If you're interested in my primitive process though it's a little like this.

Start with your photo. I took this one laying in the grass the other day with Izzy (when she told me I'm her best friend for ALWAYS.) Zap it through PicTapGo quickly to get an easy black and white version (how amazing is that app?)

This canvas is 8x10" so I sized the photo to fill the sheet and centered it on a letter sized canvas. I reduced the opacity just a bit (I think to 75%.)

Then, the tricky part. I cut the tissue paper to just under 8.5 x 11" and then smoothed it as much as possible over a sheet of cardstock taping each edge with a couple of strips of plain tape (three strips along the edge that gets pulled into the printer!)

Next, print. This can be finicky and irritating (or, you'll get lucky and it will suck through cleanly on the first shot) Be prepared to clean wadded tissue paper out of your printer though...just in case. I guide the sheet into the printer at first but once it's started cleanly, it should be fine to finish.

After carefully removing the tissue from your backer, coat your canvas in a thin layer of Mod Podge (this is matte...I think the gloss version would make the paint not stick/dry well but I don't really know for sure.) Starting at one edge, line up the tissue and smooth it over the canvas slowly trying to avoid air bubbles (there will be some in my experience and that's fine...just try to minimize them.)

Let it dry (and yes, I *do* need a real canvas of this photo!)

Then paint. I gave her watercolors so that the original photo would show through. I told her to go crazy and use any colors she wanted...no need to match what she was wearing or even make her skin/features the "right" color.

So she gave herself red hair and a ronald mcdonald mouth and added a big shiny sun in the sky.

I do believe she likes it.