The Girlfriends Club

V-Blog # 89 Part 1 and Part 2 (with a montage)

Sorry this is getting posted so late tonight! Please enjoy our special final Candy Cane Friday videos in 2 parts. This week we share tips for your giftwrapping. To purchase the die cut flowers shown in today's video, go to www.donnasalazar.com. 

Part 1

Part 2

Thanks for watching and Merry Christmas to all!!!

Live Chat CHANGE!!!

REMINDER!

We ran into a conflict for our Friday night live chat at www.ustream.com. We have re-scheduled the chat for 6 pm Pacific on Saturday. Just login on the site and search for "The Girlfriends Club". We will have prizes from Making Memories AND Smooch Spritz!!! You don't want to miss it!

See you there!

V-Blog #88 - Candy Cane Friday #3

Hello everyone.  Today is our 3^rd week of Candy Cane Friday tutorials. Today we are showing tips and techniques for Holiday Gifts.  We begin with Samantha's cute little bread and recipe present using Pink Persimmon Recipe stamps. You can win the Pink Persimmon prize by going to Samantha's blog HERE.

Johanna shows us some great ideas for quick and easy handmade gifts. One of her projects is a doggie treat bag:

Here's the recipe for the treats

• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1 cup oatmeal ground up in food processor
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 egg
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup finely chopped turkey jerky
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 cups finely grated carrots
• Mix everything together. Add more broth or flour if needed.
• Roll out and cut with cookie cutter.
• Bake at 350 deg for 10 minutes. Turn off heat then let sit in oven till treats are hard.

Here is the topper: Download Dog Treat Topper

Here's the link for the stocking pattern at graphic 45:  http://g45papers.typepad.com/graphic45/2009/09/christmas-stocking-project.html

 

Donna give you a quick peek at the 8x8 binder calendar. You can purchase the Project sheet on the Girlfriends University page for just $2.00.

We will be hosting a LIVE chat tonight (Friday, December 11^th) at 6:00 pm. You can catch the link from our facebook updates or go directly to www.ustream.com and search for “The Girlfriends Club”. You will need to set up a login with your e-mail address and a password. Once you are logged in you will be able to participate in the chat. It only takes a few moments but you may want to do it ahead of time so you can jump right in!

Last week we gave away these prizes in the chat:

This week Clearsnap donated our prizes! We will be giving away 12 bottles of SMOOCH SPRITZ! These will be packed in twos so there will be 6 prizes given away:

The winner of Pinecone Press’ Fancy Pants “Options” Kit from last week’s video is from a comment left on the blog…

Patty C said...

Such cute ideas! I love that you each have very different styles ... so there is a little something for everyone!

Congrats Patty! Just send your mailing address to donna@thegirlfriendsclub.net.

Thanks for watching!

V-blog #87 - Candy Cane Friday week 2

 

Welcome to week 2 of Candy Cane Fridays. Today we are discussing Home Décor. There is nothing like getting your house all spruced up for the holidays to usher in the holiday spirit.

Jo shares  a tip from her pizza pan Christmas Countdown calendar (the instructions for this project are available for purchase for ONLY $1 on the Girlfriends Website HERE.

Donna shows you how to create a wall hanging out of Ranger Memory Glass, UTEE, cardboard and her dictionary scallops. This will be a project sheet that will be available next week, also for ONLY $1.

Leah shows us how to make a paper roll frame from your holiday paper scraps.

And our special guest, Samantha, shows you how to make rosettes from crepe paper. Thank you for joining us Samantha!!!

The winner of the Pinecone Press Christmas “Options” kit from last week’s video was taken from a comment on our blog:

Tona said...

Thanks for doing a another great video full of wonderful tips. I loved all of your cards!

Send your mailing address to donna@thegirlfriendsclub.net and she will send out your prize.

Don’t forget that we will be hosting a live “chat” on Facebook. If you would like to join in the fun you will need to be a Facebook “friend” of Donna’s. Just send a friend request to Donna.Escuadro.Salazar. We will begin the chat at 6:00 pm Pacific Time (comments section beneath the video post)

We are hoping to have our newest feature, VIDEO CLASSES, available this weekend. If all goes well and the technology gremlins stay far, far away... we will have one class loaded this weekend and one class loaded next weekend.

Thanks for watching!

V-blog #86 - Candy Cane Fri. Wk1

 

Happy Candy Cane Friday Everyone!!! You know what they say… “It’s the most wonderful time of the year” and that is exactly how we feel. This week we share some great tips for your holiday cards, so don’t feel bad if you have procrastinated (like us) and haven’t created, addressed and shipped off your cards yet because now you have some fun new tips to try out.

We would love for you to join us for a live “chat” on Donna’s Facebook at 6pm Pacific time next Friday after we post the next Candy Cane Friday video. We will post the video to Facebook and use the comment section beneath the video for our chat session.

We would like to thank Pinecone Press for providing this week’s prize which is their new “Options” kit. You can see more options kits on their website: www.pineconepressdesign.com. Just leave a comment and we will post the randomly drawn winner next Friday.

The winner of the bag of goodies from our last video is:

Amazing.. simply amazing! I love you gals! You're so creative! Thanks for doing these videos, and sharing your creations with me!! :) (((Hugs))))) Lexen~ Donna... everything you touch doesn't turn to gold.. it turns to DENIM!! hehehe! Love ya~
Lexen~

Just send your mailing address to donna@thegirlfriendsclub.net and we will ship your prize to you.

Thanks for watching!

V-Blog # 85 - 6 Random Tips

 

Hello friends! Johanna is still on break but she will be joining us again really soon… She will be back for Candy Cane Fridays (can you believe it is almost time for these again!!!). We can’t wait for her to be back… we MISS her!

In this video Leah and I share 6 random tips. Leah does the most amazing things with packaging… her brain works more efficiently than mine.  She shows a great way to store your rub-ons,  how to use packaging to store your slice cartridges, and she uses a clip to keep her Ranger Craft Sheet handy (I show the 2^nd half of her tip by showing you the functionality of the Ranger craft sheet). My tips are: how to use Distress pads with foam blenders, how to make embellishments from lace, and how to use Scrapbook Adhesive’s Photo Tape to make a glittery “ribbon” on your projects. The first of the two glitters I show is a mix of several different glitters together and the second is fine glass glitter from Art Glitter.

We also talk about our newest venture… VIDEO CLASSES! These will be coming really soon. The video classes will be available on our website and will come with the step by step project sheet AND we will walk you through the project on video (showing you techniques on camera will be a HUGE help).  My first video class is a gated album and Leah’s first class is paper wreaths that can be made for any holiday or occasion.

The winner of the Paper Flower goodies from V-blog #84 is from YouTube:

mculbertson1

Wonderful. I love your creatvity. I can't wait for my daughter and I to try this out.

Thank you for all you do.

E-mail your mailing address to donna@thegirlfriendsclub.net.

 

 

We have a great announcement about our cruise in May of 2010! Everyone who is signed up by the 12^th of December will be entered into a drawing for $250! You can use the $250 on the cruise OR choose it as a cash prize. If you are planning on going, get signed up ASAP. We need to have a minimum number of attendees signed up to make sure that we can still hold this event.

This cruise is longer than most scrapbook cruises and we have so much planned for you! You don’t want to miss out!!! Go to www.craftingcruises.com for more info about The Girlfriend’s Getaway.

Thank you for watching!

Free Quarterly Newsletter

Hi everyone,

For those of you who haven't heard, we have a FREE quarterly newsletter. The first newsletter went out on October 1st. We are still taking new subscriptions daily. All you have to do is send an e-mail to donna@thegirlfriendsclub.net with the subject line "Newsletter" and your name in the body of the e-mail.

**IMPORTANT** Please add my e-mail address to your approved senders list so the e-mail won't be sent to your junk e-mail.

We are also hosting challenges every quarter and the theme this quarter is "Comfort". We would love to see projects, layouts, home decor, etc... with this theme. Each of the three of us will be picking our favorite submissions and if your project is chosen, you will be highlighted in our next newsletter! Just send a pic of your project (250kb-500kb) to donna@thegirlfriendsclub.net with the subject title "Comfort" to enter.

Tell your friends!

We have a prize to give away!

To enter into the contest for the prize shown above, have your friends send us an e-mail that says "your e-mail sent me" in the subject field (example: donna@thegirlfriendsclub sent me) The person who refers the most new subscriptions WINS! 

Good Luck!

Hi everyone,

For those of you who haven't heard, we have a FREE quarterly newsletter. The first newsletter went out on October 1st. We are still taking new subscriptions daily. All you have to do is send an e-mail to donna@thegirlfriendsclub.net with the subject line "Newsletter" and your name in the body of the e-mail.

**IMPORTANT** Please add my e-mail address to your approved senders list so the e-mail won't be sent to your junk e-mail.

We are also hosting challenges every quarter and the theme this quarter is "Comfort". We would love to see projects, layouts, home decor, etc... with this theme. Each of the three of us will be picking our favorite submissions and if your project is chosen, you will be highlighted in our next newsletter! Just send a pic of your project (250kb-500kb) to donna@thegirlfriendsclub.net with the subject title "Comfort" to enter.

Tell your friends!

We have a prize to give away!

To enter into the contest for the prize shown above, have your friends send us an e-mail that says "your e-mail sent me" in the subject field (example: donna@thegirlfriendsclub sent me) The person who refers the most new subscriptions WINS! 

Good Luck!

V-blog #84 - Donna's Layered Flowers

In this week’s video I get to show you a brand new way to make my signature flowers. I’ve been experimenting with different materials and LAYERING them together. These new layered flowers remind me of the crepe paper flowers we used to make around Cinco de Mayo when I was a kid.

One question I get asked most often is how I make the scallops. I use an AccuCut die (you know the huge wood & foam dies you see at your local scrapbook store) and I cut the scallops out of dictionaries, vintage books, denim, material… you name it. If you don’t have access to a scrapbook store where you can do the die cutting yourself, I have some for sale on my website (www.donnasalzar.com) I bought one of the big machines and the dies because I wanted to be able to die cut at home… and use some slave labor to get them done (a.k.a. my children… lol).

I'm selling a set of 20 flowers (10 medium and 10 small) for $5 and a set of 15 of the original scallops for $5. You can buy a set of 12 (6 large and 6 small) for $4 at the Pinecone Press site.

If you would like to win the prize from this week’s video, just leave a comment and we will pick a winner when we post our next video.

The winner of the drawing for the gated album and the covered post it note pad from our last video is:

JuneBugPins

 

Have missed you guys! So glad to see you today! :c)
Love the gate fold book! The note card cover gift was also very quick and easy ...perfect since most everyone uses post it!
Your both so fun to watch...your out-takes are adorable...Thanks!

 

Send me your mailing address and I will ship off your prizes!

Thanks for watching! ~D~

V-blog #83 - Patterned Cardstock

Hi Friends. In this week's video, Leah shares her love of patterned cardstock and shows some GREAT tips for making mini-albums. These albums can be made using cardstock that you already have on hand to help you make some quick and beautiful, yet affordable gifts... These would be perfect for the holidays!

This week we are giving away the gated album, the two micro-mini albums and the tiny post-it notes as the prize. Just leave your comment here for a chance to win.

Our winner from the last video, who will get Samantha's adorable wall hanging is:

S. Payan said:

Thank you for sharing Sam's ideas. I love her stuff at Yellow Bird also. Get better Donna, we miss you.

So... S. Payan... e-mail donna@thegirlfriendsclub.net with your mailing address and we will ship off your prize.

 

If you haven't signed up for out quarterly newsletter it isnt too late. We are sending out our most recent newsletter almost daily to new groups of subscribers. Just e-mail donna@thegirlfriendsclub.net with the subject line "newsletter" to get signed up. In this newsletter we have lots of info about the cruise that the three of us will be hosting in May, 2010 and ton of pictures of the actual cruise ship that Johanna took for us!

 

And DON'T FORGET to let your crafty friends know. Send an e-mail to them letting them know about our free newsletter. If they send us an e-mail saying "your e-mail sent me" you will be entered into a drawing for a great prize (example would be "donna@thegirlfriendsclub.net  sent me").

 

Thanks for watching!

 

photo friday

Just a quick tip!

Balancing window light when it is sunny outside. The above photo is not balanced for the amount of light indoors and outside. Most cameras on auto, this will be the photo you will get. the windows will be all blown out and white. The photo below is after I balanced the light for the existing outdoor light.

the top photo with the women was balanced and you can see the trees outside and the water and marina. the bottom photo is not balanced. Not only are the windows all white, but the woman showing the table cloths, her hair is almost erased by too much light.
Solving this and balancing the light is quite simple.

1. turn your camera on and set it to shutter or aperture priority.

2. turn on your flash. many times with this much window light the flash will not want to flash, it is looking straight into a huge window with tons of light.

3. before you take the photo, toggle or turn your aperture or shutter speed dial until the image you see is darker and you can see out of the windows and see what is outside of the windows. If you are using aperture priority you will be moving your camera to a higher number such as 11,16,22... If you are using shutter priority, you will be moving your shutter speed to a bigger number such as 250, 500,800...

4. take the photo. you may have to make small adjustments to your exposure, but this should work :)

until later :) Johanna Peterson