Winner!

Ok, we have a winner for the necklace!!

Which is . . . .

I sent you an email Diane. Reply back to it with your info, and I'll get your new necklace sent out to you!

Thank you everyone for entering and sharing the giveaway on your pages!! Don't forget, you can use the code BLOGHOP15 at my ETSY store for 15% off!! This necklace has been added to the store there, so you can order one for yourself, if you don't want to make your own with the instructions I posted. :D

Have an amazing day everyone!!!

Thank You!

As a thank you to all the new followers, both on here and on the facebook page, I created a free download for ya'll! (My dad was from Texas. "Ya'll" just grew on me. lol )

I am ALL about surrounding myself with inspiration, encouragement and support. I wanted to create a piece that embodied that. I'll work on doing it in different color schemes as well. :) But for tonight, here's what I created for you!

I created it as an 11"x14". But it can be resized to an 8"x10" as well. You can download it and take it to any copy center or digital photo printer. Put it in a frame and you have a fun piece of wall art! I think I'm going to head to the local thrift store and find a funky frame, spray paint it, then use a eggshell colored mat around it. Too bad the store is already closed! lol

To download a jpg of it, click HERE


To download a pdf of it, click HERE

I hope you like it! :)

Linking Partay!

If you have a blog of your own, and want to show off some projects (and maybe win a prize even!) check out Alex's You Had Me At Craft. Every Monday she does a linking party where you get to link to your own blog, and showcase up to three projects on her blog.

Blingity Bling! Ribbon & Rhinestones Blog Hop Day 2

Day 2.

Project. Super bling jewelry.

Objective. WOW 'em with bling!

First of all, I want to extend a HUGE welcome to all the new followers! I am SO excited you are all here, and can't wait to show off some more fun things. I have a lot of exciting projects in the works! Second, a GIGANTIC Happy Birthday to Stacey, our host for this blog hop. I am truly honored to be included in this hop, and to count myself among so many talented women. I hope you've had a chance to check out all their blogs and projects. And good luck to you in all the giveaways!! So much fun blog candy! If you started with my blog and want to start at the beginning of the hop, check out Stacey's  blog at http://CreatingACraftyLife.blogspot.com/

Here is the complete lineup:

1. Stacey ~  http://CreatingACraftyLife.blogspot.com/
2. Kim ~ http://rickettscricuts.blogspot.com/
3. Gina ~ http://californiascrappin-gcinderella21.blogspot.com/
4. Janet ~ http://createatdreamscrapbooks.blogspot.com/
5. Tanya ~  http://ScrappyScavenger.blogspot.com/

6. Brie~ http://vintage53.blogspot.com/ <---You are HERE! :D
7. Cathie~ http://cathiescafe-scraphappy.blogspot.com/
8. Nicole ~ http://creationsbymommy.com/
9. Kristy ~ http://www.scraptasticalkreations.blogspot.com/
10. Martha~ http://pattisscrapingtime.blogspot.com/
11. Haidee~ http://created2bunique.blogspot.com/
12. Zoe ~ http://www.CraftyX.blogspot.com/
13. Kristal~ http://www.gettingcricky.com/
14. Raven~ http://www.love4stamps.blogspot.com/
15. Jess~ http://www.kinderstampo.com/
16.Deb~ http://craftydeb-ddscrafts.blogspot.com/
17. Esmeralda ~ http://noahsarktwobytwo.blogspot.com/
18. Karle ~ http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1890631198460&set=a.1890626638346.104027.1621905895&type=1&theater

Now on to my project! Which is also my giveaway. :D

I'm really excited about this necklace! Now I know it doesn't have ribbon or rhinestones in it, but it sure sparkles like rhinestones! And you can always weave a ribbon through the chain for some added fun. :) I love all the bright colors in here, it's the PERFECT unique summery/springy accessory. And one of you readers gets to WIN IT!

For the rest of you who don't win it, I will have it available on my Etsy site. AND I'm giving everyone who goes there a coupon code for 15% off your order! Use the code: BLOGHOP15 at checkout.

For those of you who'd like to make this for yourself, keep reading! I've got step by step picture instructions.

These are really the only tools I use for all my beading: needle nose pliers, flat nose pliers and wire cutters. You can also buy these with padding things on the pliers, to protect the metals you work with from getting kinks in them:

Here are the things you'll need for your bead charms: 1-3 beads, including a silver spacer bead (you don't have to use a silver on EVERY charm you do, but they look really nice spaced out among them), an eyepin and a jump ring. The other supplies you'll need for the rest of your necklace: a length of chain & a lobster claw, or whichever type of clasp you prefer.

First, measure your length of chain. I always just put it around my neck and figure out where I want it to fall, then I add a link or two. Attach a lobster claw with a strong jump ring. I actually used a link from a smaller chain to attach my lobster claw.

Then this is all you do for the rest of the necklace. Just repeat these steps a bunch of times, until you have as many beads and charms as you want on there.

String a combination of beads onto your eyepin. If the hole of the bead is too big for the eyepin and it slips off, add a smaller bead or a silver spacer bead first to keep your larger bead on.

Take your needlenose pliers and clamp onto the stem of the eyepin 1/8"-1/4" away from your top bead. Wrap the stem over the pliers until it is parallel to itself. (This is why I take pictures. It's easier to see sometimes. lol!)

With your flatnose pliers, wrap the stem around itself.

Continue to do so until it's wrapped several times around. This takes a little bit of coordination, it took me a few tries to get it done smoothly myself when I first started doing this. If the wire is too long, clip it with the wire cutters.

Next, you're going to attach a jump ring to the loop you've just made. Remember, always open a jump ring by separating it away from and towards you, like pictured above. Never open it by spreading it apart the other way.

Before you close the jump ring, attach it to the chain. Just repeat that over and over, with different bead combinations until you fill your necklace up to your liking. :)

Here are some close up shots of how I clustered the beads on this necklace:

I attached most of them to the chain itself, but there were a few that I attached to the loops of the other bead charms, just to give it added depth.

And the shot of the final project again:

Want to win it? Yes? Here's how:

• Enter a comment to be counted for your first entry.

For additional entries:

• Be a follower of this blog - leave a comment on this post telling me you are a follower.

• Go and "Like" Vintage 53 on facbook. Click HERE to go to the facebook page. Leave a comment on this blog post, letting me know you are following me there.

• Share this giveaway on your own facebook pages. Leave a comment on this post letting me know you shared.

• Share this giveaway on your blog. Leave a comment on this post letting me know you shared.

• Tweet about this giveaway. Leave a comment on this post letting me know you tweeted.

So you'll have 6 chances to enter! Remember to leave a SEPARATE comment for each entry. I'll pick a winner on Tuesday of next week, which is the 24th.

Thank you all for the support and for sharing the page! I really appreciate it and am grateful for each of you. :) Have an amazing day everyone! And good luck!

Ribbon & Rhinestones Birthday Blog Hop

Day 1.

Project. Card.

Objective. Awesomeness!

I was SO excited when Stacy, the Ribbon DIVA, invited me to participate in this blog hop. What could any girl love more than ribbon and rhinestones? Answer? Nothing. ;) So HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Stacy!! I hope you are having the most amazing birthday!!!

Now I'll admit, I'm not much of a card maker. So I've been "forcing" myself lately, to get more into it. I've learned all kinds of things about stamps and border punches! This may have been a bad thing. haha!

First of all, if you started off on my blog and want to start at the beginning of the hop, check out Stacy's blog here, and we'll see ya when you get back to my blog.

Ok. So here's the card I created. The color palette I went with is black, and shades of pink and teal. The one ribbon is an olive-y green. The picture makes it look yellow. :S I'm pretty much obsessed with teals/aquas/turquoise right now. SUCH a fun color, and perfect for the spring/summertime!

I had a lot of fun playing with dimension in this one! The main card is made from core'dinations cardstock, the rest of the paper is from Echo Park. Love them. LOVE. THEM.

The card itself is 5x7. I cut the background paper at about 4.5-ish x5. I didn't actually measure it, I just laid out the circles on my card, and estimated a little extra room for the border punch and ribbon. Then cut my paper at that estimated length. (I'm very precise and technical when I craft, can you tell? lol!) The circles were all on a 12x12 paper from Echo Park, ("Script Polka Dot" from the Be Mine collection. The background is just the reverse side of the polka dots) and I just cut out 20 of them, then inked the edges, and adhered them to my background paper using foam dots, to raise them up. In between the circles, I used a rhinestone from My Mind's Eye "Lush" collection in the teal.

The ribbon came from American Craft's "Dear Lizzy" line. It's just two ribbons, layered together using Tacky Tape. The border punch was from EK Success, which I inked once I punched it out. Inking is just fun!

Confession. I don't own a Cricut. Or any die cutting machine. Haven't been able to buy one, and I haven't decided which I want when I finally DO buy one. Definitely not a Cricut. I refuse to be limited to cartridges. I'm leaning toward a Pazzle. Thoughts? I made the Happy Birthday tag in Adobe Illustrator. I created the shape by putting two of these: {} together in a cute font, then "welded" them together. Then I used the font American Typewriter. Then it was just print and cut. I used foam dots again, for dimension. The patterned paper behind it is also from the Be Mine collection from Echo Park. (Have I mentioned I love their paper? No? I LOVE THEM. lol)

Thank you for stopping by my blog while making the rounds! Come back tomorrow, and I'll have another project. Now that we have a birthday card, we need a fun present to go with it! ;) The next stop on the hop is over with Cathy at http://cathiescafe-scraphappy.blogspot.com/. Have so much fun, and we'll see you back here tomorrow! I'll have some fun blog candy to go along with the present project post. :D You won't want to miss it!

Everyday

Everyday . . .  

Everyday I will be excited about what lies ahead.

Everyday I will take NOTHING for granted.

Everyday I will find an opportunity to make someone else's day.

Everyday I will make my own day.

Everyday I will make sure my kids know how special they are.

Everyday I will encourage them to never give up.

Everyday I will never give up.

Everyday I will smile for no reason.

Everyday I will laugh at nothing.

Everyday I will give of myself.

Everyday I will re-learn humility.

Everyday I will Enjoy the beauty around me.

Everyday I will believe I possess beauty.

Everyday I will learn something new.

Everyday is an opportunity

a gift

an adventure waiting to happen

Everyday only lasts one day

Everyday I will make the most of it.

Here's one thing I learned today, that I've been wanting to try for a long time! For instructions, click HERE

Paper is from Teresa Collins.

Birthday Cards

I was so excited to be asked by the Relief Society president in my church (I'm LDS) to make birthday cards each month for the women in the ward! Finally a job in church I can do AND enjoy! LOL! I had a lot of fun with these. Normally, I'm not much of a card maker. Or a scrapbooker. I think I narrowed down WHY I don't do cards or scrapbook often. When I make something, like a jewelry piece, I have TONS of beads, charms, ribbon, chain, etc. in front of me to choose from. I start, back up, change things out, keep going, make another change and so on until I have a piece I'm happy with. It's REALLY hard to do that with paper and embellishments. Once it's down on the page, it's down for good. Unless you want to completely start over and then waste all of that paper. Ya just can't unstick paper. Doesn't work too well. ;)

ANYWAY. So here's what I came up with for the June birthday card:

I thought the yellows, blues and oranges were the perfect combination of colors for the first month of summer! The yellow textured paper is from Core'dinations, the other papers are from the So Sophie line from My Mind's Eye.

I had to make 10 in all. I'm definitely not used to having to make so many of the same thing! lol!

This is such a fun pattern! I love the hint of pink in there with the more melon-y colors. Super fun color combination.

I'm new to the whole border punch thing, but I am LOVING this one from Martha Stewart. I especially love that it came with a corner one. How genius is that?

Orange houndstooth? Yes please!

I created this tag in Adobe Illustrator. The Happy Birthday font is called Doris Day and has totally become my most favorite font! Thanks, Skip, for sending me that one! I'm such a font nerd. lol. Once I stuck the tag down, I used my permaball pen from Pilot to draw an outline around it.

And, because I loves ya, I created a download of the tag for you. :) If you want it. Just click the little image of the arrow pointing down to download it.



Happy Mother's Day everyone!!

May - Week 1

Confession. I totally slacked the last two weeks. Haven't grocery shopped. Eaten whatever. UGH. I'm horrible. hahaha

BACK AT IT for May!!

Ok. So according to my outline, May is going to be high, lean protein, low fat, low carb.

Here's what Week 1 looks like:
Breakfast: 2 egg whites & 1 whole egg, low carb tortilla, 1 tbsp salsa
Snack: String cheese, fruit
Lunch: Spring Strawberry Salad with Chicken (reduce the fat content by NOT using candied pecans or goat cheese as the recipe calls for.)
Snack: Veggies
Dinner: Salsa chicken over brown rice

You'll notice a lot of chicken. I really, really, INTENSELY dislike seafood. So fish is out for me. If you want to substitute fish for chicken, go for it. I'll stick to chicken. lol! No red meat this month, unless you spring for the super low fat kind.

Exercise will be a combination of weights and cardio. Alternate muscle groups that you work on each day. Day 1- Upper body. Day 2- Lower body. For week 1, my upper body workouts will focus on arms (biceps, triceps, shoulders), back & chest. Lower body workouts will focus on quadriceps, hamstrings and calves. I work on core everyday. Can't get too much core! Planks, crunches, penguins. For cardio, I'm going to do a lot of swimming. Which is why I bought myself a new suit yesterday! YAY! There is no better feeling for me than being in the water.

Don't forget, STRETCHING. My favorite place to stretch is in the sauna. Feels so good!

Now I gotta go do some grocery shopping for the week. lol