It's My Birthday!

Congratulations Heather!! I've sent you an email. Reply back to it with your address and I'll get your prize sent out to you. 


Thanks, everyone, for entering and sharing your stories and birthday wishes!! I just posted another giveaway today, if you'd like to enter that one. :) Good luck!!


http://vintage53.blogspot.com/2011/06/brave-girls-giveaway.html




UPDATE!!
I won a Cricut cartridge today at work, but since I don't own a Cricut, I thought I'd pass it on to the winner of this giveaway! YAY!

I wanted to take the opportunity while I had y'all's attention with a GIVEAWAY!!! to introduce a new thing I will be incorporating to this blog. In my "About Me" page, I mention that I had been really into training and healthy living. And if you've followed my blog for a while, you'll know I've done things like post weekly meal plans and fitness tips. WELL. I'm going to expand upon that! I've been supremely slacking the last two years and my waistline is hating me for it. :( I came across a picture of me from back then, and while I still had a good 30-40lbs to lose at the point the picture was taken, I looked GOOD! I'm going to work hard to get back to that, and I'd love for anyone who wants to join me to follow along! My goal is to get back to where I was by Christmas this year, and down to my original goal for my birthday next year!

Here's me, two years ago, at the Scrapbook Expo in SLC, UT. My work, Roberts Crafts, had a booth there and I got to go play. That was a FUN day! :) Look at me! I had a defined chin and collarbones!! hahahaha

So here's the plan.

I met with the man who helped me get started on my weight loss journey two years ago, my old trainer and good friend Raleigh Campbell, and he's going to help me with this new feature on the blog. He and I are going to film different exercises and show how you can adapt them for either a gym setting or for at home. I know not everyone can make it to the gym. I know not everyone has time for extensive workouts. BUT We do all have time for being healthy and we owe it to ourselves to be so! :) So we'll have weekly videos and blog posts with exercise and healthy living tips, advice and whatever else we can think of to help us all out. And I'm going to start up my weekly meal plan posts again. I know how I do it isn't going to work for everyone. But I hope that someone can find something within what I post that can help them. You don't have to follow my meal plans, but maybe they'll give you an idea for dinner one night. :) Or something like that. lol

NOW ON TO THE GIVEAWAY!!!

Since it's my birthday, I'm going to celebrate by giving YOU the opportunity to win this:

Rhinestone charm necklace, made with a gear from 7Gypsies.

AND THESE!

 

• Enter a comment to be counted for your first entry. Tell me what your fitness goals are, and what you'd like to see in the videos and posts we do. I'd love your feedback, and I want it to be something beneficial for all! :D

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. I'd love to see your own blogs as well! :)

• 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 June 21.

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!

What I've Been Up To

The last few weeks have been a complete whirlwind! At the beginning of the month, I was lucky enough to get to meet Teresa Collins. That woman is amazing! Seriously the sweetest, strongest woman ever. I told her about my idea for a scrapbook line and she invited me to lunch to talk about it some more. GAH! Totally one of my most favorite lunches ever. :) I started reading her blog and was so impressed by her as a person. The strength she displays, and the love she has for those around her and her love of what she does. So inspiring! I decided I wanted to make her this, as a thank you for being such an inspiration and for taking time out her insanely busy schedule to help me.

The paper in the dress comes from a TCD line. :)

She totally is strength and love. :)

I love the dimension the ribbon adds to it.

These are vintage buttons from the 1950s. I had to use some from my little stash of vintage buttons for this! They looked to good not to. lol

I've been making more things for my Etsy site as well!

I may just keep this headband for me! hahaha

I made this for a Mother's Day present for myself. ;) 3 pearls for 3 kids! I'll be adding it to the Etsy site soon.

My friend Leslie asked me to sew a bag for her to hold her portfolio pieces for her photography class. I had a lot of fun with this!

She wanted a pocket to put information cards in. I used the same fabric to line the flap.

I put together this frame for Roberts Crafts. We're doing a Youtube video featuring all the new frames that have come into the stores. I did another frame, but don't have a picture of it yet. It was a lot of fun! Think buttons and modeling paste. ;) lol

I'm really looking forward to May! Hopefully it will decide to be spring, and stop snowing on us! Also, it will be my daughter's 8th birthday! She's really excited about being baptized and turning 8. Every time we talk, she's telling me what else she wants to do for her birthday party. LOL! So far, she wants to go to the water park, have a pinata, go see Kung Fu Panda 2 (it comes out ON her birthday, May 26) and I can't even remember what else. I'm sure Pirate Island Pizza is in there too. hahaha! It's going to be a FUN month!!