Brave Girls Giveaway!

Welcome to my blog, fellow Brave Girls!! I am so happy and excited to have you here! And to my current followers, if you haven't heard about the Brave Girls Club, you DEFINITELY need to check it out. It's an amazing place full of love, hope and encouragement. They have a class called Soul Restoration, which I've been wanting to take since I saw them debut it. I can't believe I haven't taken it yet, because it looks like a truly incredible experience. If you want more information on it, click the image below:

They also have a Brave Girls Camp, that I would seriously consider trading one of my kids to go to. Just sayin'. ;) hahaha!! I'm kidding, of course. But you get the gist of how badly I want to go. lol

And even though I haven't taken the SOUL Restoration classes yet, I still feel such a connection to the Brave Girls and to pretty much everything they do over there, that I wanted to be a part of it even if I'm just doing a giveaway on their page. I would love nothing more than to send this:

to one lucky Brave Girl! This, I think, by far is one of my most favorite pieces that I have created. I love all the colors, working together, shining and sparkling in the light. There are so many yummy beads in here, it's like having a different necklace every time you move with how they move around and shift.

Here's some close ups:

And, if you'd like instructions on how to make it, so you can make one for yourself, check out this blog post I did a few weeks ago: http://vintage53.blogspot.com/2011/05/blingity-bling-ribbon-rhinestones-blog.html

Also, while I have your attention here, check out the purple box on the lower right hand side of my blog. I was involved in an amazing blog hop earlier this month, and we're working to raise money to send to a women's shelter to help families who have been victims of domestic violence. There are some really amazing prizes you can be entered to win by sending cards with messages of hope to our sisters out there. To count for entry, cards need to be postmarked by June 30, but if you can, please send a card. It'd be amazing to be able to share messages of hope and strength to as many women as we can. :D

Ok, back to the giveaway here! To enter:

Leave a comment on this post. Tell me one amazing thing that you love about yourself that you have learned from being a Brave Girl. Let's get some positive mojo going!! I'll start: One thing I love about me is I know that no matter what life throws in front of me, I can and WILL make things work out. :) I'm definitely an "it doesn't matter if the cup is half full or half empty, because I know how to fill it up" kind of person.

Your turn!

For EXTRA entries you can do the following, and please leave a separate comment for each thing you do. If you lump it all together into one comment, it will just count for one entry unfortunately. So be sure you get your extra entries!!

• Be a follower of my facebook page HERE

• Be a follower of the blog

• Share the giveaway by posting it to your own facebook

• Share the giveaway by posting a link in your own blog

• Tweet about the giveaway

So that's SIX entries you could have! Entries must be in by midnight on Tuesday June 28th. I will post the winner on Wednesday June 29th.

Good luck everyone!! And thank you for taking the time to visit my blog, I am so grateful to have you here.

Have an amazing day! -Brie

Holder of Endless Possibilities!

I've seen this project done in several places. The Crafting Chicks have done it. Brett Lund, my partner in crime at Roberts Crafts, did it. Here's my take on it:

A few of my things from my April Gilded Girls Society Stash look amazing in it!! (The Gilded Girls is a "kit club" kind of thing, but instead of being sent scrapbook kits, they send out the most amazing and delicious vintage finds like fabrics and rhinestones and custom mixed German glass glitter . . . . I've told them I want to be a member for life!! lol)

But really . . . . the possibilities are endless when it comes to things I could put in there. Scrapbook embellishments . . . jewelry . . . beads . . . flowers . . . I need to make more! :D

(*waving my hand in a Jedi motion* You do not see the electrical cord in the background.) All I did was take two brass candlesticks and two silver mini mixing bowls that I found at the local thrift store and glued them together with the magical substance, E6000. I let it dry over night, then I spray painted it this amazing blue color! The bowls were $1.00 each, the candlesticks were 75¢ each. Spray paint was the most expensive thing coming in at $3.99. Ya just can't beat that. :D

True love.

The Goal Project

As I was driving home from work last night, a sudden thought hit me. And it overwhelmed me.

I have a lot of goals. SOOO many things I want to do in my life. I need to write them down. I don't want to call it a bucket list. That sounds so morbid. lol! So I'm calling it my Goal Project.

I've really loved the idea of an art journal, but I'm horrible at journal keeping. Even an artsy one. So I kind of took a twist on the art journal, and am making a goal journal. Of course, I had to make it all cute and fun! And it's not finished yet, but I wanted to show you what I started. I wanted it to be made of fabric. I thought being able to use different fabrics would make such a fun background! I'm going to include pockets for pictures and journal cards and things like that. I'm so excited!!!

Here's what it looks like(ish):

Here's how I did it:

Take 2 rectangles of fabric and a slightly smaller rectangle of the heavy duty white stuff that's not interfacing, but you find it in the same spot in the fabric store. (If you haven't figured out this about me, I am SOOO not technical or precise when I craft. LOL) If anyone knows the name of that stuff, I'd love to hear it. haha!

I wanted a lot of fun texture on my cover, so I took a strip of netting and sewed down one side of it and gathered it. (It does not have to be cut straight. In fact, having a completely uneven cut only adds to the fun look of it at the end. You'll see what I mean.)

See how the uneven cut gives it different levels of dimension? LOVE IT! So pin your gathered netting about 3" from the bottom. And sew it on.

I sewed it so far over to make sure I got it all sewn. With it gathered so much, I didn't want to miss any spots.

I cut a strip of lace and fan folded it to "gather" it. Then I laid it over the netting and pinned it down.

I sewed it across the top, then along the bottom in two spots to make sure it was tacked down well. I intend to use this for a LONG time, and don't want the lace falling off.

Then I did a zig zag stitch around the whole thing, leaving about 3/4" of space on the edge.

I left that much space so I could go around with pinking shears.

I found some cute ribbon from my stash, and used Glossy Accents to glue it down.

I love ribbon!!! I'll post more pictures as I add to it and get it "finished." :)

I repeated that for my inside pages, minus all the trims and ribbon. I will sew things like pockets onto those pages, to hold photos and things like that. 

I'm going to use the Crop-A-Dile to "three hole punch" it, then I'm going to use binder rings to hold it together. I want to be able to add more pages to it as I go. I'm sure I'll find more goals to reach for in life! I want to have a page for each goal, and as I achieve them I can add things to my pages like photos or journal cards, memorabilia from whatever the goal was.

Here's my list of goals. So far.

• Travel the world!
• Get back in to theater/film. London or New York. I'm good with either option. ;)
• Volunteer on an archeological dig. (My dream from when I was 11 was to be an Egyptologist. lol)
• Swim with dolphins. (My other dream was to be a killer whale/dolphin trainer at Sea World. I love me! haha I'm so random!)
• Get back into a shape that is NOT round. (In progress - more on that in my next post!)
• Do a triathlon (I was SOOO close before! GAH!)
• Design a scrapbook line. (In progress!)
• Own my own craft company. (Also in progress! YAY!)
• Travel all over teaching crafting.
• Start a scholarship for single moms.
• Write a book.
• Write a screenplay. (In progress.)
• Write a song. (Also in progress. Working on a lullaby for my kids.)

I think that's a pretty good list for now. lol! What are some of your goals?

Father's Day Ideas

So some of you may or may not know, but my full time "bill paying" job is working as the graphic designer for a Utah based scrapbook/craft store called Roberts Crafts. I do all their marketing and web design, and run the blog and facebook pages. We have a guy named Brett Lund who features projects using products we carry in the store on a local show called Studio 5. He was on today showing off some really REALLY fun and cute Father's day gift ideas. He had asked me to design some labels he could use to put onto the Jones soda bottles.

The giveaway he's talking about on the Roberts blog can be found by clicking HERE. Don't miss entering this one! I'll be drawing the winner for it on Friday. :) We're giving away the Life's a Party Cricut cartridge, an i•Top & magnet daddies from Imaginisce. YAY!!! ***REMEMBER*** Comments on this post are not entries to the giveaway. I'm just telling you about the giveaway on the Roberts blog. ;)

AND! If you'd like to download the soda labels I created, click the picture of them below. It will take you to where you can download them. Just download, print, then wrap around the bottles and adhere the ends together. Done and done! :)

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! :)

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!

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!!

Fabric Flower Project

Ok, back when I made the video with Kristine McKay on fabric flowers, I talked about different things you can DO with fabric flowers. One of those projects was a headband. Today I finally made one! The kids and I are going to be doing family pictures in a few weeks, and I wanted to make my daughter a super fun and colorful headband.

So here we go!

First, gather your supplies. I have strips of fabric ranging from 1" wide to 1 3/4" wide, a headband base, ribbon, needle, thread and a glue gun.

Take one end of the ribbon and wrap it around the end of the headband, keeping it at an angle to wrap around the rest of the headband. Hot glue it in place. (If you have the eye hand coordination to sew it as you go, go for that. I definitely don't have that kind of dexterity, and therefore use hot glue. lol!)

Continue wrapping around the headband, hot gluing as you go until you get to the other end, wrap and hot glue (or sew) down.

This would be cute just like this too! :)

Take a strip of fabric. Fold one end over slightly and secure it with a stitch. Then loosely weave the needle and thread through the length of the fabric.

Once you get through the length of fabric, fold down the other edge and secure with a stitch. Then pull the thread to scrunch the fabric. It will automatically make itself into a circular shape.

Wind the fabric on itself, creating layers. Stitch the layers together.

Tie off the thread and you're done with the sewing on that flower. You can add any kind of embellishment to the center, or just leave it plain. I love myself some bling, so I add things like buttons, rhinestones, brads or whatever I find that I think would be super cute. You could seriously use most any scrapbook embellishment.

This was a scrapbook embellishment that had a foam adhesive dot behind it. I took off the dot and glued it down. Done and done. :)

This was just a brad that I stuck the "brad" part through the center, spread the prongs to "extra" secure it, then glued down the button top to the fabric.

I had a felty button that I glued down. Then I removed the adhesive foam from behind the rhinestones and hot glued them down on the felty button.

This was an acrylic sticker thingy that I just glued down. I didn't end up using this flower on the headband, but I still wanted to show another way to finish a flower. :)

I took a rectangle of lace that had a scalloped edge on one side. On the un-scalloped edge, I weaved some thread through one edge. I gathered it then sewed through it to secure, making a clam shell shape with it.

Take an oval of felt. Glue or stitch the lace to one end of it.

Then glue/stitch your flowers onto the felt, placing them for your desired look.

I took another length of ribbon and glued it to the back of my felt, letting it peek out. When you turn it over you see the loops.

All you have to do now is glue it down to the headband!

I can't wait to see my little princess all dressed up for pictures (with her hair done. LOL) wearing this! I'm making the boys ties to coordinate with the colors in the flowers. It's going to be so much fun!

Other things you could add to your headband would be netting. You could either gather it under the flowers to have as a base, or create a veil. You'd make the veil part how I did the lace for this particular headband. You'd just cut it a bit bigger. Feathers are a lot of fun too! They create such a fun vintage look. I know at Roberts Crafts we're expanding our selection of feathers and felt and we've added fabric! The fabric pictured did not come from Roberts, I bought it before they put the fabric in the stores. But if you check out the Roberts Youtube channel, I made a video of the fabric we have in the stores. I know you want to check out my video editing skills! hahaha (Or lack thereof. ;)