Fish Out of Water

I know, I know, I've been quite absent but I've had a lot going on! Life, that is! 

For those who may not already know, my husband is bi-polar, and oh what a roller coaster it can be. Recently, he began losing touch with reality. Delusional completely!  It was scary and sad. Through the last tumultuous few months I have also been handling a medical nightmare and my vision has gotten increasingly worse due to a BRVO (Branch Retinal Vein Occlusion) and found out I had stroke level blood pressure.  Hubby always insisted I didn't need medicine.  

After he became totally paranoid and thought everyone was out to get him (Oh, and I'm a call girl - funny, right?!?!) he went off the deep end. Last Tuesday, he was supposed to leave the house, but first, he made a threat (to kill me if he returned) while our son was on the phone with me in front of him.  I felt compelled to call the police and ask for help, mainly because his mental state had become so unpredictable and sometimes downright scary. Next, he showed up at my work and reiterated the threat. He left after throwing our house key on my desk. 

Shortly following his departure, a nice policeman showed up and asked me what had happened. I proceeded to tell him as he got a "call" from his shoulder speaker thing. And then, as quick as he arrived - he bid his farewell, claiming they needed him on the call.  "The call" was where they had my hubby pulled over right down the road! At that time he was baker-acted and taken to a mental health facility. Relief washed over me...maybe now he would get help, I thought.  

It is now one week later, and tomorrow is our sons 14th birthday, and there is a restraining order...messy, I know! 

He was released late Sunday afternoon and went to stay with a friend - thank GOD for that friend! We have a court date set for the restraining order next week and until then I am anxious that he will just show up any time.  I have changed the locks, but if he wanted in that bad, I am sure he'd find a way.  If he is any kind of rational I don't think he would hurt me.  He was medicated inside the facility he was staying at, but since leaving, his friend has been unable to confirm whether or not he is still taking said medication.

I am sorry this is not a happy scrappy or crafty post but this is my life right now, filled with hard choices I am faced with making - SOON!  I thought I'd share what's been going on because I intend on jumping back into my blog now that I have a little free time, and now that I plan on getting back to doing fun things again!

In Remembrance!

If you would like to donate through the United Way fund for the victims you can use the following link:
 https://newtown.uwwesternct.org/ .
This effort was started by Carrian Cheney of Sweet Basil (blog)
& graphic was created by Nike Peterson of Nike Peterson Designs (blog).

Big Blog Giveaway WINNERS!!!!

At first I had decided to follow in the foot steps of so many other great bloggers and put it out there that, when I reach 100 followers I will do a huge giveaway.  Something nagged me about this idea and so 2 days later I took it down.  It just wasn't settling with me, my excitement had waned.  Then, it hit me like a Mack truck!  My intention wasn't to get a gazillion followers, my intention was to give reason and purpose to some of my obsessive shopping!!! So there it was, I announced and began my BIG Blog Giveaway with way less than 100 followers. 

A cool thing happened though...I noticed that just through my giveaway Hide n' Go Scrap realized about a 30% growth in the number of followers!  Which I think is pretty great.  I am happy to announce that I will be doing a monthly prize giveaway. Some months will be bigger than others but each month will have at least a $30 value.  Some months, depending on my mood and deals I find, may have multiple giveaways again like this first one...boy wasn't that fun!!!   Feel free to post ideas for things you'd like to win.  It can be a single item such as a tool or a prize pack with a variety of one type of thing, such as my adhesive prize pack!

The next giveaway is Father's Day inspired and will include a kit that will allow you to create a mini album about Dad...or Family in general.  It will include the album, a paper pad, bling, embellishments, fibers, stickers...so many cute things that all coordinate!  I will try to get it all laid out and snap a good pic to show you and then we will start sign ups.

Thank you everyone for following; I am genuinely happy you are here!

FIRST-EVER BLOG GIVEAWAY WINNERS:

ADHESIVE PRIZE PACK   $60 value
WINNER:

TIM HOLTZ PRIZE PACK   $70 value
WINNER:

SIZZIX SIDEKICK PRIZE PACK   $230 value
WINNER:

Congratulations to all winners!

Prizes will be mailed out tomorrow and I will provide you a delivery confirmation number.

Accordion Mini Albums

I recently made my first Accordion Mini Album for a swap at Scrapbook.com.  Strike that, I recently made my first seven Accordion Mini Albums! LOL  I was in an awesome swap over at Scrapbook.com and we all got to tell a little about ourselves, likes and dislikes (and such); then, we each created a beautiful mini for each other.

Here are some of my creations:

For this scrapper I combined greens and browns and inked the edges for her.  I like to use multiple patterns on each album. Although, now I try not to mix more than 2 patterns because the first album I attempted turned out hideous...I think it was just too busy with patterns! For the closure, I used 2 complimentary ribbons instead of a single wider ribbon, as seen below.

For this scrapper I created a Faith-based theme. The colors are burgundy and brown with gold accents. I included a couple tags and a hidden journal spot.

This scrappers favorite colors are pink and silver! This album was a lot of fun. I created 2 mini tags on the inside and adhered a little vellum envelope to the cover.  I also used more bling on this one, who doesn't love bling? 

Overall I had a lot of fun creating an album for each individual scrapper.  There was a small margin of learning but I enjoyed that too! I always like learning new techniques and gift ideas.  This can be a great card to accompany a gift or fill it with photos and have it be the gift! 

I combined 2 methods from links I was given in order to create my version of the Accordion album.  The video I used was on :

Accordion Scrapbook Mini Album/Card Tutorial

It was created by Elsa from her blog at Just a Few Designs.  She's got a wonderful blog and her videos are easy to follow!

Then, I found the idea of using a cover and back made from chipboard on About.com:

Accordion Mini Scrapbook - Mini Album Scrapbook Gifts

Hope you have fun trying this at home!

$100 Giveaway!!!!

Imagine you started a new blog but you wanted to take all your followers with you...seems daunting I know! Kristin Wilson has a great idea though....giveaway $100!!! That's what she's doing to promote her new blog and try to get people make the move with her.  She's already transferred all her content to the new site now it's just a matter of transferring all her followers! 

You can get in on the fun here.  Just make sure you join her new blog, here, and do a link back in a post on your own blog!

Good luck!

Until next time, hope you get to...

Hide n' Go Scrap!

Tampa Bay Scrapbooking Treasure Hunt 2012

This year, I was finally able to participate in The Tampa Bay Scrapbooking Treasure Hunt. All of my sane somewhat normal friends would never agree to accompany me in the past.  But this year, a new friend I'd met on Scrapbook.com (that lived somewhat local) asked me if I was doing the Hunt...YES an accomplice a partner! I was so excited!!
Nine stores participate and you have 11 days to complete the Treasure Hunt.  When you spend $5 at a store, they stamp your passport.  If you get your passport stamped by each store then you can enter a drawing to win a $100 gift certificate to each store, that's $900 in scrapcash to spend!!! Second place was $50 to each store and third place was $25 to each store.

A week before the Treasure Hunt, I found a trip planner online that would provide the quickest route between 10 stops for free. (This is important for later in the story.) Our plan was, I would drive to her house (over an hour away) and we'd start in her town first.  Then, we'd follow the route the computer decided for us and cram in visit all 9 stores in one day!

I should have known how my day was going to go when I was trying to locate her house. My directions were not reliable and had me turning on the same road 3 times in 3 different directions! Somehow I managed to find her house! I was a little nervous but feeling adventurous.  Soon after I arrived, her mom stopped by and exclaimed, "Hi, I just wanted to see how the Hatfields and the McCoys are getting along!" It's true, I forgot to mention, I am a Hatfield and she is a McCoy...hilarious, I know!

We arrived 40 minutes late to our first stop. I kept telling myself it'll be ok!  I noticed early in the day that she was a pretty safe driver: interpretation - she drives slow the speed limit. (Again, important for later in the story.)  We didn't pay too much attention to time but did end up making an extra stop at a bead store along the way.  At some point we both started to question if we'd make all nine stores in one day, but we still felt confident that we could do it.  The final 3 stops were Lakeland, Ruskin and St. Pete.  After Ruskin we only had 45 minutes to make it to our last stop.  Another Treasure Hunter said it would be close but if we weren't far she thought the store owner would stay open for us; she told us that the same store owner had stayed open 10 minutes for her the previous year.

The beautiful sky as we drove 90 down I75.

Everything got crazy after we left Ruskin, we should have went south on the interstate as per our trusty computer generated directions (remember I mentioned them earlier) and yet she went north.  When I pointed out that we'd gone the wrong way she felt sure that we could just as easily make it going north.  When I assured her that would take more time she mentioned turning around...but we kept going north, across the bridge and then had to head south again. As we were driving north, we finally broke out the GPS and I quickly informed her that we had to make up at least 9 minutes.  This is where the Hatfields and the McCoys meet the Dukes of Hazzard because I had to politely ask her to SPEED like her life depended on it! It took a lot of convincing to finally get her to just maintain with the car in front of us...all the time telling me she was going too fast and all the time me applauding her efforts and cheering her on!  I had her make the first call to the store owner to which she was told basically no and I hope you make it here in time.  We waited about 10 more minutes and I tried to call back.  I pleaded that I lived so far away and I was trying to complete the Hunt in this one day and she was my last stop...can you just stay open 7 more minutes??? (Really it was more like 12 but I wanted to make it sound better!)  To which she replied, no - she couldn't stay that long but we were welcome to try anyway! Grrr

After my failed attempt to persuade the owner to stay open I did the only thing I could think of, I demanded urged McCoy to go even faster!  Once we finally reached our exit, only a few blocks stood between us and success; I dialed the phone and threw a Hail Mary....when a different person answered I knew there was hope.  I begged, exclaiming that we were so close and could they please, PLEASE just wait on us.  To my surprise, this employee was AWESOME! She said, "Of course, just come on!"  Yahoo! Victory was within reach...although parking in front of the store rallied a cleaver interception, we still managed to be victorious.  I was shocked at where she ended up having to park, since she dropped me at the door.  We had a little hike to make it back to the car, but at least my adrenaline was still pumping and we had accomplished the Treasure Hunt in one day! Yay!

My amazing scrappy booty!

Freebies we got throughout the day!

Each store gave us a cute tag to attach to our bead necklace!

After the Treasure Hunt I decided to enter the "Cover Contest."  Design a cover for the 6x6 album that was included in our goody bags at the beginning and all the store owners would select a winner.  I painstakingly agonized over my design, which I always do.  After I submitted my entry I found out their email was down so I had to re-submit and wait an extra week! The wait is what was killing me; then, I finally saw the email in my inbox, titled, "Easter Sale, Treasure Hunt Winners, and more!" My heart sank, this was it! I couldn't open and scroll fast enough....drum roll please....um, nope, I lost! Boo I was so bummed, I don't normally have as much confidence in my creations as the people around me do but darn it I really thought I had a good chance this time! As if to rub salt in the wound they even announced that it was so close they had to pick 2 winners...and still... mine wasn't one of them! Oh well, I did have a ton of fun on the Hunt and wouldn't trade it for anything. I spent way too much but got an awesome haul and lots of freebies too!

My Cover Contest Entry!

Until next time, hope you get to...

Hide n' Go Scrap!

Hamburger Cake: Dev's Birthday 2012

Today (April 3rd), I officially become the parent of a teenage boy!  It's been an awesome 13 years with a fair share of twists and turns, but I would never trade it for anything in the world. My son, Deven, was born 3 months premature.  Doctors and nurses weren't even sure if he'd make it, he was born not breathing, but was a tiny, 1lb 7oz, fighter!! He made it out of the hospital 2 weeks before they predicted, his size caught up by 6 months and his development caught up by 9 months.  He was reading at a 9th grade level in 1st grade.  Currently, he's in the gifted program in our school district and yet I can't even get him to DO his homework most of the time! LOL  My favorite thing about him is that he walks to the beat of his own drum and has a style all his own! 


Ok Ok - now on to the cake! 

A couple nights ago we scoured Pinterest looking for cute cupcakes. Obviously I wanted to do rainbow cupcakes but he said 'everyone at school does that!' So we came across the cutest hamburger cupcakes on Pinterest.  After getting all the ingredients at the store we come home to make cupcakes and I couldn't find my cupcake pans.  (I still think my sister has them but she swears she doesn't!) So after Deven went to bed thinking I'd stop and get store-bought cupcakes for tomorrow I made him a totally cool hamburger cake, with fries!!! 


At his school, there is a "birthday booth."  On your child's birthday he can invite 8 friends to sit with him at a special booth in the cafeteria.  Parents can bring stuff so the kids get a reprieve from cafeteria food and get to enjoy a little treat.  So tomorrow I will bring pizza (choice of cheese and pepperoni of course!), Capri Suns, full size Hershey bars for his friends and this totally cool hamburger cake!  I am so happy with how it turned out; I seriously cannot believe I am the one that made it.  It's totally something my bestie would make and I'd drool over, who knew I would be able to create this....

I used:

I box yellow cake mix

1 box brownie mix

1 squeeze pouch of Oreo frosting

1 yellow, 1 red, & 1 green squeeze pouch of frosting

Sesame seeds

1 box snickerdoodle cookie mix

1 sheet red gingham paper

Simple syrup (I made using equal parts sugar and water)

Pam Baking Spray

3 - 8" foil cake pans

Basting brush

I preheated my oven to 350 degrees and sprayed the foil pans generously with Pam Baking Spray (I'd never used it before but it worked really well!).  Next, I followed the directions for the cake mix and poured it into 2 of the foil pans. Then, I followed the directions for the brownie mix and poured a thin layer into the foil pan and used a small pan we had to contain the remainder of the brownie mix.  After baking, according to the box directions, I allowed them to cool completely...this took a little while.  

While they were cooling I made the "fries."  I mixed the cookie dough according to the package and formed them into long skinny cookies.  Next time I will make them a wee bit smaller because I didn't realize they'd plump like they did!  After the cakes and brownie are completely cool I set the gingham paper on the cake platter and inverted one of the cakes so the bottom was up. I squeezed half of the Oreo frosting in the center of the cake and place the brownie upside down on the lower cake. At this point I was amazed at how much the brownie looked like a hamburger patty! I squeezed the remaining Oreo frosting onto the center of the brownie until it reached about 2" from the edge. I smoothed the frosting so it would be even since it squeezes out a little thick.

Then I chose a spot on the edge to begin and, using the yellow squeeze pouch, I made a triangular shape pointing down off the brownie; this was my cheese.  I repeated that 2 more times and tried to space them evenly around the brownie. Next, I used the red pouch and created the tomatoes by making a half circle hanging off the side of the brownie. Finally, I used the green to form the lettuce.  Ultimately, I wanted the condiments to be distinguishable! After my condiments were in place I set the last cake on top and then squealed about how cute it was...I was happy at this point, or delirious because it was almost 1 a.m.. lol  I brushed the simple syrup on the top of the "bun" and then carefully sprinkled the sesame seeds.  To complete the cake I set the cookie/fries next to it and VOILA - a darn cute hamburger cake! (If I do say so myself!!!)

Now, it's super late/early and I just hope Deven LOVES his cake! Makes me sorta happy we couldn't do the cupcakes this time; although, I bet they'd have been super cute too!

Until next time, hope you get to...

Hide n' Go Scrap!

* UPDATE: The cake was a HUGE hit at his school today; all his friends LOVED it. Even kids walking by said something or stared. The burger and fries were devoured, and tasted good too (yes!) score for mom!

Magnus Bane's Scrapbook: My Son's School Project

Imagine my delight when my son brought home this assignment: Scrapbooking with Your Favorite Character!  I was so excited I couldn't wait to get started.


Now of course getting started didn't happen right away, we are a family of true procrastinators and while I love the project it doesn't necessarily speed things along!  While all the other kids were starting on them in class my son did what he always did, looked busy and accomplished nothing! Now there were lots of stuff he could have been doing to help us pull it all together quicker but then again we are procrastinators; he gets it honestly.  Good thing we also work wonderfully under pressure.  Sometimes I think I work better under pressure because I don't make decisions easily and when you don't have a lot of time you have to decide quicker.


The weekend before this was due I went to JoAnn's Superstore and purchased some awesome paper and embellishments, consulting with my son of course.  The purpose of the project was to demonstrate that you know your character.  We had long ago decided on Katniss, from the Hunger Games, since we'd both read that one and liked it but my son changed his mind the week before the due date.  At least he picked a character from another book we had both read, Magnus Bane from City of Bones (the Immortal Instruments series).  


Magnus is the High Warlock of Brooklyn; he is bi-sexual and loves things flashy, glitzy, sparkley and multi-colored.  Immediately glittery paper and lots of gems were at the top of my shopping list.  

I actually made the album so we could make it any size we wanted. I used chipboard and covered it with black glitter stock.  I was torn between this and making a book that appeared really, really old since he is over 800 years old (yes that's hundred, I did not add in an extra zero-lol) but in the end we decided since Magnus loves the glitz and sparkle - glitter paper wins!

I love to use multi-colored fibers to add a fun accent.  There are also charms tied in sporadically. 

We found the portrait of Magnus on Google (of course).  It is a drawing by someone we don't know but they did sign it and we thought it was a great, and accurate, interpretation of Magnus Bane!

For photos inside we found who may be cast to play him in the upcoming movie.  So all photos are of Magnus inside the scrapbook are actually Tyler Blackburn.

First required element was "Character's Favorite Poet or Poem"

Deven looked online and found Spirits of the Dead by Edgar Allen Poe.  I must say it was pretty fitting!!!

Next, "Character's Favorite Song"...of course we chose Adam Lambert's For Your Entertainment.  Magnus LOVES to throw parties!!!

Then we had to show the "Character's Favorite Book."  This book isn't real but it's from the series, it's a book of magic that Magnus wants very badly, The Book of White.

Next we had to include at least 2 postcards from places your character visited in the book or would like to visit.  Deven chose the first one above, Warsaw, Poland; Here Magnus was helping the Jews that were being persecuted! We decorated with the national flower, the red poppy.

His other 2 postcards are Vegas from the '30's and the San Fransisco Party Bus 2012.  Deven wrote for the Vegas postcard that it was a representation of the statement, "I was there before it was cool." The party bus because, once again, he loves to party!!!

Finally, you could include an extra page or two that further demonstrated your knowledge of the character.  Above, we included Chairman Meow, Magnus's beloved cat.

Next, we did a birthday layout from when Magnus turned 680 years old! (I couldn't help it, I found that picture and thought it was perfect!)

Our last page was a page showing his boyfriend, Shadowhunter Alec Lightwood.  Here again we found a picture of someone who may be playing him in the movie!

Overall we were very happy with the finished product. Finally something I could help him with (not math - Yay!).  His class applauded the fact that he had a project turned in not just on-time but a day early and then cheered for his teacher to let him present it first.  After he was finished they gave him a standing ovation! I was very proud of him and hope the good feeling he had for accomplishing a great project will encourage him to complete more of his work, on time!

Until next time, hope you get to...

Hide n' Go Scrap! 

A gift for the Boss that has everything!

It's that time of year again, when my co-worker and I ask each other, "What are we getting our Bosses for Christmas?"  We work for a guy who owns real estate and his wife works with us in the office.  These are the quintessential "people-that-have-everything-they-ever-wanted-or-needed-so-what-the-heck-do-you-get-them" people!!  Last year we put a lot of thought into their gifts and while I think they really appreciated them, I am just not sure they got any use out of them.  I really hate to get people gifts that will sit around and be useless (unless they're collector's of useless crap), so the challenge was on! 


I knew I wanted to get them an awesome experience, something to do that, hopefully, they'd never done before.  You know, create memories instead of accumulate more stuff to set around.  But again, they are goers-and-doers, they like to be active so I knew this challenge might not be easy to accomplish. My co-worker, who happens to be one of my really good friends, thought of a rock climbing experience.  We researched it and found a local indoor rock climbing place and it was affordable; however, I thought that's good, but I just don't think that's IT.


Then it hit me...a helicopter ride! Again, we researched it and made calls, but it was too expensive!!! 


That idea led me to my second idea...a hot air balloon ride! Once again, we researched it and while it was not as expensive as the helicopter ride it was still out of our reach since we waited too long and Christmas was only one payday away.  This was my favorite though, so I told my co-worker-friend that we need to save up for next year and do this! Which makes me really happy since we won't encounter this dilemma for at least 2 more years!!! 


Next, I looked to my trusty friend Google.  Google is my go-to in any case of searching.  I simply typed in "giving the gift of an experience"...now you may laugh but anyone who knows me knows I am champion Googler.  I Google for all occasions and all bits of information I don't know.  My co-worker and I can start to search for something at work and I inevitably find it first, which really irks her. Or, I can allow her to search something and when she doesn't find it I will go right to it; again, this really irks her.  So in this search I found a website that specializes in gifting experiences, that's in their tagline!! I scrolled through tons of pages and found everything from Indy car driver for the day to hiring a personal chef for a special meal.  You can even fly a fighter plane in a simulated air fight and you don't have to have a pilot's license.  There were so many choices but alas they were either not close to home, a little bizarre or too expensive.    


That's when I found it; I hit 'next page' and there it was staring at me.  I sheepishly said, "I think I found it."  To which she replied, "What?"  I am sure she wasn't confident in my announcement since I had just rattled of a litany of crazy experiences that we'd never choose.  But, when I said,"a murder mystery dinner show!" she actually paused with careful consideration.  That pause spoke to me and said, "Ding ding ding we have a winner!"  After little debate and hesitation we agreed, this was definitely IT! 


Feeling that the presentation of any gift is the most exciting element, I knew exactly how I wanted to present it.  That, and we didn't have time to wait for shipment of the certificate in the mail.  This is how we presented our bosses with their experience last night at our Christmas dinner.

It's an altered cigar box!!!

Because we were giving them a murder mystery dinner show experience we thought using Clue as our theme would be fun!

I used a glitter chipboard frame to highlight the title Clue.  I used layers of flowers and inked them to make them look rustic.  I also placed the arrow in the bottom right corner and foot print stickers because I thought it was cute.

This cigar box had writing on both outer sides so I painted the bottom half of the box black and then applied distressed crackle paint for a really cool effect!  I also applied distress stain onto the dried crackle paint.

I lined the inside with red velvet paper.

This is my favorite part! I envisioned a card that opened from different sides announcing the gift.  This is the top, I thought the blood splat and question mark would have them really wondering what they were getting!

After lifting the top of the card straight up, this was the first thing they'd see.  That was the name of the website we purchased from, but again, with them not knowing that they'd still be in suspense.  I also placed a line of rhinestones along the bottom that made it sparkle.

The first flap opens to the right, revealing the next, pictured here.  This was on the emailed certificate and I thought it was very fitting since I'd originally Googled for gift "experiences!"

The final flap opened to the left to reveal the gift inside!  

Now we included the certificate that was emailed to us under the shreds at the bottom of the box so that she has her purchase code and directions on how to redeem.  But I was so excited to create what I envisioned and even more excited that they REALLY liked it! My boss even said she may have me make another so she can gift it to her Mom and Step-Dad since she was having a hard time figuring out what to get them!! (Hmm...I know the feeling! LOL)

Until next time, I'm going to...

Hide n' Go Scrap!

Twilight Altered Cigar Box

I wanted to share the Twilight themed Altered Cigar Box I created for a swap. Recently, I have fallen in love with cigar boxes; and, altering them is a great outlet for collage-style (which I love) creativity!

My partner in this swap picked Edward as her theme. 

This is the what I created:

I used a cigar box that was already black to begin with.  I used deep red rose paper to cover the top for the background.  I used bling to give it some sparkle and I also added dimensional flourishes and roses. I chose to place the pictures onto tags because I also love to create tags!

 This is my favorite quote from the entire series so I just had to include it too! How perfect that it happens to be an Edward quote! 

(It doesn't appear so washed out looking in person.)

 I used glittery foam letters for his name and found the perfect silver trim to accent the box all the way around.

For the inside I had this vision of a collage using lots of different Edward pictures from all the different movies; I think it turned out quite dreamy!

I used red velvet paper to line the bottom of the inside and small black trim to go around the inside edges.  The trim gives it a more finished appearance.

This is a close up of my collage. I also turned this picture into my desktop background on my computer at work; how nice to look at Edward all day long. I used gem hearts, dimensional gel flourishes and roses for accents.

I had so much fun creating this treasure for my partner; I was actually quite sad to see it go. But I know she will enjoy it and I can always create more whenever the mood strikes me! I think next I may try to do one for each movie in the series, that sounds like therapeutic fun for sure!

Now I will leave you with a close up of my favorite tag from the front of the box, enjoy and until next time be sure to...

Hide n' Go Scrap!

Mmmmm...nice!