Epilepsy Awareness Blog Hop

Thank you for joining for our Epilepsy Awareness Blog Hop. You will see great projects and read about some of our personal experiences with Epilepsy.
Epilepsy is a medical condition that produces different types of seizures. Epilepsy affects 50 million people worldwide. If you would like to read more information about Epilepsy you can go to the Epilepsy foundation online at : www.epilepsyfoundation.org If you arrived at my page from Lora at http://scrpbooklady.blogspot.com then you're in the right spot, however if you are reading from e-mail or just happened upon my blog, please go to Holley's blog: www.holleybarnhartsblog.com to begin the hop. There are lots of wonderful projects, touching stories and some blog candy as well.




Today I want to introduce you to my friend Ingrid and her Etsy Store Miss Bee's Boutique. Ingrid and I have been friends since college and we love to laugh at ourselves. Ingrid has Epilepsy, she had her first seizure while we were in college & it was quite the experience(once that bonded us since I was well versed in living with seizures). One of her 4 children also has Epilepsy and she has begun making custom medical alert jewelry. She also makes awareness jewelry as well. Here are some examples of her medcal alert and awareness jewelry. I love her talents.


One of the Awareness Necklaces Available

Medical Alert Zipper Pull/Keychain

Purple Day/Epilepsy Awareness Necklace




Ingrid also makes custom jewelry & she can make items into bracelets. She has many more items in her shop, these are just a couple of the examples she has. You can find a much more extensive library of her images available on her Miss Bee's Boutique Facebook Page. She can also do custom images.

Some of the images available for Epilepsy Awareness Jewelry




As a child I had what was diagnosed as "Stimuli Sensitive Epilepsy". I had seizures with a VERY specific cause(or Stimulus) and I was on an anti-convulsant for years, I don't know if it really helped or not...I had Grand Mal seizures. My stimulus happened to be head injuries. And yes, I had a lot of them...I was a bit of a daredevil of a kid... The last one I had was in 2001, it was not caused by a head injury and after extensive testing it was determined that that one was actually due to major stress & exhaustion & not related to my previous seizure disorder. Prior to that it had been nearly a decade since my previous seizure. As an adult, other than the instance in 2001, I've been seizure free...we think...although I'm in search of good neurological care for a myriad of other issues, which you can all read on my other blog www.chronic.chelle@blogspot.com . I will be updating later today with my project for this hop, I've been having a bit of a crafter's block due to all my recent medical setbacks & appointments, but I hope to have something little of my own to share with everyone for this hop as well. Please do go check out Ingrid's shop, especially if you or your child is in need of wearing a Medical Alert tag of some sort. Ingrid can customize it for whatever you need it to say.




Now your next stop along the hop is going to be Rexann at http://ibecircled.blogspot.com
I have included the entire hop lineup below in case you get lost, you can refer to it. Please leave love for all the participants. Epilepsy has touched every last one of them in some special way.


Holley- http://www.holleybarnhartsblog.com/ (start hop here)
Ashley - http://www.especiallymade.blogspot.com
Jessica- http://www.canyoupixelthis.com
Lora - http://scrpbooklady.blogspot.com
Michelle- http://www.craftychelle.blogspot.com <---------YOU ARE HERE
Rexann- http://ibecircled.blogspot.com <---------GO HERE NEXT
Lisa - http://handmadewithlove-lisa.blogspot.com/
Zenita- http://www.scrappinwithz.blogspot.com
Sher- http://www.patternsbysher.blogspot.com

Creative Cafe Design Team Wednesday Altered Art

As your Altered Art Wednesday Designer, I'd like to introduce you to my first project as a design team member. We were to make projects that were "All About Me" and I figured what better way than to make a box for my medications. All the different images on the box highlight things about me/who I am/what I like/etc. If you go to my photos on Creative Cafe, I've expanded on what the images on the box represent.

I started with a bare wood box I picked up at Michael's and stained it with Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink that I mixed up into a custom glimmer color. I then colored the digi stamp that is on the top which is from Slekje Digi Stamps with my Copic markers and applied her with Mod Podge. I also used Mod-Podge over the rest of the box to seal the finish I then stapled the cross into the front using a bar staple from my Fastenator. I actually had to hammer the staple in to get it to go into the slide on the cross the way I wanted to. I then ran the ribbon I was going to use through my small Xyron so that it would have adhesive on it. I used the ribbon with the adhesive to hold the medallions on, however they were a little too heavy so I had to go back & use Glossy Accents behind them to actually get the medallions to stay on the box. Next I attached the various stickers to the sides and inside lid. I had a few hiccups along the way, but that is the basics. I always tend to do things the hard way, so I ended up going back and forth and re-doing things, but the basic, important things/steps are in order...


Below are closeups of the cross and the medallions that are on the box. The larger pictures don't show the detail on them.

I'm on the Creative Cafe Design Team

I'm SO SO SO THRILLED to announce that I've been selected to be on the inaugural design team for the Creative Cafe. Creative Cafe is a WONDERFUL supportive community of creative ladies many of whom have been through abusive relationships. This is a wonderful community that I am honored to be a part of. I can't wait to share projects with everyone. I'll be doing weekly projects for the design team so my blog will be updated MUCH more frequently...YEAH! or is that YIKES! LOL :) You should start seeing projects from me starting the week of Nov 14th. I'm not sure what day I'll be posting my projects as of yet, we are still making our schedule, but be sure I'll be posting goodies once a week for all to see. :) Please come check out Creative Cafe and join us there as well.  

Checking in & crafty apologies

Hey y'all,
I just wanted to let you all know why I haven't posted any creations as of late and also apologize to the many people I was supposed to be blog hopping with last week. I just got home yesterday from spending a week in the hospital. I've missed crafting and missed my crafty friends. I feel terrible that I didn't get to participate in the hops last weekend with y'all. I'm still not 100% but I'm really hoping to have some stuff up by the end of the week, even if it's just something small. Thank you for bearing with me while I'm not feeling well. I look forward to showing you my next creations and sharing with you again soon.

Haunted House Blog Hop

Beware! This is a blog hop of haunted houses where Halloween fright is glowing in the windows as ghosts and witches fly through the air...



Please join us and hop along starting with Jearise our hostess. She has provided some Halloween blog candy for all those that leave comments along the way. The drawing will be on October 6th using Random.org. The winner will receive: K and Company Ghostly Greetings 12 x 12 paper pack, Stickles distress glitter glue pack, and EK Sticko's haunted house sticker pack.




If you have traveled from Robin at http://www.scrapandchat.blogspot.com/, then you are on the right road and when you are finished here, you have made it to the end of the hop. CONGRATULATIONS. If you got here via e-mail, stumbled upon my blog from your links or just randomly or If you got lost and found yourself on my doorstep by mistake, you can head to the beginning of the road here: Jearise's blog


Now onto my fun and spooky projects....I absolutely LOVE Halloween...and part of that is Howl-O-Scream (HOS) at Busch Gardens...I go EVERY year(I've only missed once and that was bc I was in Ohio during it...I went to King's Island's Halloween Event instead)... So I created a couple of frames to highlight some pictures from past years' trips. The first frame is from when I went with a couple of roommates I had at the time....This was circa 2002...Wow, it's been a long time...LOL

This was made using the paper from the stack that Jearise is giving away. K&Company Ghostly Greetings. I used ModPodge to attach it to a bare wood frame I purchased from Michael's. I then added Glossy Accents to the words "Halloween" and "Night" to make them stand out. I also used the Glossy Accents on the body of the ghost, the border of the bat, body of the spider and body of the skeleton. The skeleton is stamped with a Recollections cling stamp. He looks more like an alien after the Glossy Accent is put on. LOL...I used glitter glues(I don't own Stickles brand) by Studio G, Martha Stewart & aLa Mode for the spider's legs, bat's wings and outline of skeleton. The skeleton was stamped with Studio G ink and embossed with Stampendous Embossing powder.







This next frame is from when I went to HOS in '05 or '06 with my sister and her fiance. We had a lot of fun dressing up...well as much as you're allowed to dress up to go to the park...We looked kinda punk.

This frame was also made using paper from the same K&Company stack and the ModPodge technique. I stamped the Haunted House on Canson Drawing Paper using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. The stamp is from the same set of Recollections Halloween stamps as the skeleton from above. I then colored in the image using my PrismaColor pencils. and cut the image out. I attached it using my Xyron sticker maker(same way the skeleton was attached also). I then used my Studio G glitter glue to outline the haunted house. The bat & spider stickers are from Recollections.. I had planned on putting a title on the top left corner that said Howl-O-Scream, unfortunately both of my cricut machines are on the fritz so I could not do that...If I add it later I'll add pictures then.







Last but not least, I made a little 3-dimensional Haunted House to celebrate the theme of the hop. It has little ghosties, spiders, bats, witches and other critters peeking out of the windows and around corners.

This adorable little gem was made with my Sizzix and out of recycled materials. The "house" is actually a cardboard package from a tool. The windows are made from a recycled plastic package. The backing and the bat are made from cardstock scraps that I have from a bag of supplies I bought at a thrift store. All the little critters are punched out of scraps of paper. They are highlighted with various glitter glues and Glossy Accents.




Thank you so much for hopping along the Haunted House Blog hop...If you have made it this far, you are finished. I hope that you have enjoyed everyone's creations. We all have enjoyed creating for all of you.