DIY glitter your flats!

I stumbled across We Are Not Martha's DIY glitter flats a while back. Seeing how simple and easy the instructions made it seem, I was possessed with idea of glittering all of my shoes. But, I restrained myself and settled on revamping my oh so old but very comfortable flats. Any cheapie flats from target/walmart/payless may serve as a suitable alternative for this.

You may follow the steps from We Are Not Martha but here are my step processes to glitterifying your own shoes :D

1. Martha Stewart Antique Silver Glitter 2. Mod Podge Gloss Glue 3. Folk Art Clear Glaze 4. Sponge Brush (Not pictured: beige grosgrain ribbon, glue gun

Supplies:

Glitter
Mod Podge Gloss Glue (They have one made for fabric, which I think may help in terms of flexibility)
Clear Glaze Spray
Sponge Brush
Ribbon
Glue Gun

Mix the Mod Podge glue and glitter into a plastic cup or bucket. This is an old McDonalds happy meal bucket. All the blogs/tutorial states that the consistency should be runny. I might have made it a little bit chunkier than that .. woops

Use the foam brush to apply the glitter/glue mix. Don't worry about how messy it looks. The mod podge dries clear. 

You may need to put up to 3 to 4 coats in order to achieve the glitter consistency of the flats. Allow half an hour or more to dry in between coats. Not waiting enough will cause cracking. (Please disregard the worn out sole. These shoes are 4 years old from clearance when Jasmine Sola went out of business.) 

Spray the clear glaze as directed. Please do this OUTDOORS or in a well ventilated area. Doing this at 2 am in my room gave me a major headache. The clear glaze sets the glitters and reduces the likelihood of the glitter falling all over the place. But even without it, mod podge acts as a sealant and the glitter stays put!

For the finishing touch, use the glue gun to apply a ribbon bow for the finishing touch, and voila! An old pair of ratty flats destined for the trash has now become my fanciest shoe. 

Upon closer inspection, the glitter is not as flat and smooth as I would have liked on the flats. The well worn creases from years of abuse on the flats caused some problems with cracking. The consistency of the glitter/glue I believe caused problems with cracking too. But the imperfections are near invisible when seen from an eye level to ground view so I shall consider this a success!

I can't wait to attempt some glitter shoes, very much like the Miu Miu ones!

Food Photography

One crafty hobby I never got into was baking. I've dabbled in the past but unfortunately sweets is not my thing. Therefore, I've nixed it out. But, my talented friend P.C. is excellent with baking delectable sweet goods! She's petitioned me to take some photographs for her blog. I wanted to showcase some of her goods. See her blog for more yummy goodness :)

Carrot cupcake with cream cheese frosting

Cranberry granola cookie

Chocolate cupcake

Double decker carrot cupcake with cream cheese frosting

Chocolate cookie with white chocolate chips

This is my first attempt at food photography and PC and I spent some fun times trying out different plates! Let me know what you guys think :)

Cupcakes and friends

For Valentine's Day this year, I decided to dabble into making some real cupcakes. Red velvet is J and my favorite type of cupcake so I ventured to make it from scratch. Following this recipe, I went to my local supermarket to find all the ingredients. Baking/cooking is not my thing so I did have to buy nearly everything on the ingredient list.

The recipe is fairly simple to follow and even if it doesn't taste good, it did present well! J said the cupcake was good but as the bf, he kind of has to say that. In my opinion, the cupcake did come out fairly tasty. It's not very sweet (which is good for me cause I don't like sweet things) but it did feel a little dense. Not as fluffy as I would have liked. The cream cheese frosting is yummy too and its my fave topping for red velvet!

This is my friend who served as my hand model! :D She was very nice about taking my directions and humoring me. ;D

And this is J, who in return for my cupcakes, took me to a very nice Japanese restaurant ^_^ 

Yummy yummy

A photography entry ...

Lunch with these two lovely ladies

with this delicious tuna fish sandwich with sweet potato fries

and a free dessert (homemade brownie a la mode!)

equals a pretty decent day! 

Embossing Tutorial

Hello!



Wanted to do a quick tutorial. Embossing is one of the most versatile techniques in card making and scrapbooking. This is the best definition I could find regarding the type of embossing I am referring to.

em·boss 
To decorate with or as if with a raised design


Let's jump in! This tutorial will cover how to emboss and even show you how acrylic stamps work.


Here are the basic supplies that you will need. 

(Clockwise from the top) 1. Versamark Ink 2. Acrylic block 3. Studio G acrylic stamp
 4. Darice Heat Tool 5. and 6. Embossing Powder

Most of these items were bought from Michael's, AC Moore or Joanns. Versamark Ink costs roughly $7 but is very useful and worth the investment. With this and different stamps, you can create your own pattern paper! Acrylic block and stamp are from the dollar bins of Michaels. There are many different varieties all year round to be found. Heat tool might look like a blow dryer. But these are a little bit different in that it gets MUCH MUCH hotter. The heat needs to get hot enough to melt the powder.  These are about $20. I searched for a 40% off coupon for Michael's and purchased it for a lot less. Embossing powder comes in sparkles, clear, color, texture etc. Possibilities are endless!

From left to right:

Peel the arylic stamp from the packaging. Place it on top of the acrylic block. It should stick well. If you have problems with it sticking to the block, wash it with soap and water and dry with a paper towel and try again.

Take the versmark ink and place the ink on top of the stamp. I find this technique equals better ink coverage. 

Hold the acrylic block and stamp onto a piece of paper. You will be left with a darkened image of the stamp. You can always use the versamark for this purpose as well. It takes a little bit of time for it to dry but if you needed a subtle background image, you can use versamark ink to make the impression. 

Otherwise, pour the embossing powder over the image. Shake off the excess and you should be left with a white image of the fish.

Turn your heat gun on. CAUTION! Do NOT touch the end as it gets hot enough to burn. Be careful where you point the heat too. I've had carpet fibers burn up because of the heat. In slow motions, wave the heat gun over the fish. Be careful not to keep the heat gun in one area for too long as it can burn and warp the paper.

As the powder begins to melt, move onto a different area. You will be left with a bumpy/raised image of the fish!

The end!

I want to end the post with my process of creating a card. Pictures are fairly self explanatory in explaining my chaos when it comes to creating a card.

Hi! Just because.