How to Make a Brad Bracelet

I was asked by some online friend for directions on how to make the brad bracelets that I posted back in February. They are light weight, comfortable to wear, pretty, and super easy to make.


Start with some chain... I got a card of this chain from Michael's. There was about 4' of chain; enough for 5-6 bracelets.


Cut a length of chain big enough for a bracelet (Mine are 13-15 links long) and use a couple of jump rings to add a clasp.


Gather two flower charms (use wire cutters to carefully snip off the loop and file it smooth), a couple of small brads, an three large decorative brads (only one pictured). I purchased a package of Basic Grey brads and it contained everything I needed. They have them in the CP store HERE. There are enough brads in one package to make 4 braceletes.

I found the flower charms on eBay by searching for "silver flower charms." There are lots of different styles to chose from.


Thread the small brads through the charms and through a bracelt loop.


The tines of the brads are soft and easy to work with. Use needle nose pliers to wrap the tine around the loop and tuck it under.



Now do the same with the big brads. The tines on the big brads are longer. Trim them shorter with wire cutters before wrapping them around the loop.


And that's it... so easy!

Week 2: Dimensional Details

Dimensional Details is the new class I'm taking at Big Picture Scrapbooking. My pages are mostly clean and flat. I thought it would be fun to learn a new style.

What happened to week 1, you ask? Well, week 1 just a review of distressing techniques that we incorporated into the homework for this week. The layout for this week had to included a paper pieced background, distressing, stenciling, all on Kraft cardstock. Here's my layout called: 3 Generation of Little Black Dress. I got the title from my mom. I just love this photo of the three of us.

Spring Break

Well, my big guy is on Spring Break this week... and Cheryl is in school and Jim and I are working. Not a very fun week for him. He's making the best of it though. He's been chatting online with his friends. One of his friends gave him a cookie recipe. So, today he went on a 10 mile run and stopped at the market on his way home to buy ingredients. He made this oooey-gooey chocolatey goodness! His friend calls them chocolate balls, but they don't look like balls to anyone here. LOL!

They were melt in your mouth yummy! As you can see, there aren't many left... that can only be expected when a teenage boy is home by himself with 18 fresh baked cookies. It's a wonder that he saved any to share!

Thanks for the cookies, Chris!

Happy Easter!!!

Look! The tulips are up, just in time for Easter!

The kids are 17yrs and 20yrs and we still dye eggs. We leave them by the back door and the bunny comes to hide them in the backyard. After an egg hunt at home and deviled eggs for lunch, we head to Mima's house for Easter dinner...

Hey Look! The bunny's been to Mima's house too!

Oh, look BUNNIES! LOL!

I can't call him a bunny and get away with it... Mima has a gorgeous, lush yard. It's perfect for an HUGE Easter Goodie hunt!

Here's the staging area... Chose your basket...

On your mark, get set.... GO!!!!

Chris found some goodies... How did the biggest kid get the smallest basket, and where did he get that bag of marshmallows?

...And here's Tango! He's a chocolate sniffing beagle, and he's ready to find all the candy the kids have left behind!

We had a great family Easter (minus the 7.2 earthquake in Mexicali). The earthquake wasn't too bad at Mima's, but I heard from our neighbors that it was really rocking and swaying at home.

I hope everybody had a Happy Easter!

April Fool!!!

Cheryl and I played an April Fool on Chris yesterday. We got a pair of really obnoxious boxers and stuffed them in his track shoe. He found them at his track meet yesterday, LOL! He actually got off easy... Cheryl wanted to stuff a thong in his shoe, BAHAHAHA!

Speaking of track meet... Chris ran the Varsity 800m again yesterday. He started out in a good position, and finished his first 400m in 1:03. I pasted this photo together, but the field was really that close together after the first lap. Unfortunately, the entire field passed Chris during the second lap (Phil doing his typical and passing Chris just feet before the finish line). The field was very close... The winner finished in 2:07. Chris finished LAST at 2:13... A NEW PR FOR CHRIS!!! He keeps getting better!

Happy Birthday - Take Two

We waited until my mom and dad got back from Kauai before having Chris's family party. We celebrated this past weekend with Papa, Grandma, my brother's family, and my Aunt Jane! It was great seeing Jane... my kids just LOVE her and think she's so FUNNY! Chris got some nice plaid shorts picked out by my SIL, Cat. Cat has a great way with picking out clothes. Cheryl and I have tried to get Chris plaid shorts before and he refused, saying that they look stupid. Cat picks them out for him, and he thinks they're COOL and wore them to school on Monday. I don't know how she does it. Cheryl always loves the clothes she picks out too. I must have taken 50 photos for the treasure hunt game, and I only have this one photo from the party. I didn't even get the traditional "kids behind the cake" photo! That is a BIG scrapbooker FAUX PAS. You like the hat? I think the hat is going to be another birthday tradition around here (along with the tiki man). Jim's really going to love that... NOT! LOL! Yeah, he'll think it's stupid, but I know he'll play along.

On to other news, Chris entered a contest at Capo to design a cover for next year's planner. Here is his entry... Does it look like a winner? He still thinks he wants go get into graphics design. Unfortunately, graphics design doesn't fulfill his fine arts requirement. So, if he takes graphics design, cross country, and pre-calculus (for some reason he really really wants to take pre-calc), he will have to take 7 classes his senior year. Most seniors (like Cheryl) take only 5 classes. Since he is taking the classes he wants to take, he's totally okay with that.

We have a busy day tomorrow... starting with the typical work/school. Then Cheryl has soccer practice with her little girls while Chris has a track meet. After all that we head to Home Depot Center for the Super Clasico against Chivas! GO GALAXY!!!

March - PTI Blog Hop

Welcome! It's the hoppiest time of the month... yeah, that was corney... Welcome PTI Blog Hoppers! This month we were asked to use buttons. I wanted to do something creative with sewing the buttons to the card and here is what I came up with. I planned to use the PTI Around and About Sentiments to stamp the circles, but the stamps were too small (or my circles were too big). Anyway, it wouldn't fit, so I created my own circles in Photoshop, printed them out, and glued it all together.




I LOVE this pretty PP from Basic Grey. TFL!... and happy hopping!

Weekend Sports Report - San Clemente Invitational

I worked over 60hrs this week... a real week from "you know where"! We had failed test flights and, grounded aircraft. Whew! I'm sure glad that's over. Welcome weekend, YIPPEE!!!

Chris was invited to run his first track invitational as a part of the 4x800m VARSITY relay team. It was such a beautiful day! This photo of San Clemente High School was not Photoshop-ed! It was really that gorgeous!

Here's the team! What a great looking group of guys! Jose-M ran first (on Chris's right), Chris second, Phil third (on Chris's left), and Jose-V anchoring the team (in the back with red hair).

Poor little Jose-M was grabbed and shoved out of the way during the start. After the first leg, Capo was 5th out of 6. Here's Chris just pulling past a guy from Newport Harbor HS. He finished just in front of him and moved his team up one place during his leg.

Here's hand off to Phil... Phil lost a place. That put Capo back in 5th. The last leg was a FAST one! Jose-V just couldn't hold on to Capo's slim lead and Capo finished last.

This was Chris's first relay and he LOVED it! Too bad the 4x800 is only an invitational event. It's hard to time relay legs, but the coach said Chris finished around 2:16, Jose-M in 2:14, Phil in 2:17, and Jose-V in 2:16.

Cheryl's little girls started their spring season. They had two games today; the first in Whittier which they won 1-0. Their second game was in Mission Viejo. Beach Blvd was closed down to one lane and the team was late getting all the way back. They had to drive straight to the field... no stopping for rest or lunch. They lost 0-3. They have another game tomorrow.

Galaxy season starts again!!! We have our season tickets and are excited for their first pre-season game tomorrow against CD Aguila, a Salvadoran team. Go GALAXY!!!

I hope everyone out there is having a great weekend!

Return of the Tiki Man

Mr. Tiki Man is making another appearance. It's Chris's 17th birthday! How did my baby get so BIG? {sniff} Cheryl picked me up from work at lunch and we took pizza to the High School for Chris to share with his friends. Of course, we embarrassed him with lots of hugs and kisses (it's in the mom and sister job description)... hehehe... The teacher thought it was so sweet.
Cheryl made the cake. What do you think? Well, listening to her, this cake was quite the adventure. Even the eggs banned together to sabatoge

the entire cake making operation. Cheryl did prevail and the cake was delicious!
Chris was complaining how our current toaster eats his pop-tarts. So, we got him a new toaster for his birthday. Doesn't he look happy? Well, I'm sure that happy look is more for the Photoshop CS3 program that he's been wanting. Chris is getting to be a real photoshop wiz. He put the program on Cheryl's laptop and is teaching her how to use it too.


Chris is having a BIG week! Yesterday was the first track meet of the season; and guess who is running VARSITY?!! Chris ran his first meet in the Varisty 800m. He was in third place until about 10 yards before the finish line, then one of his team mates just got his shoulder in front of Chris's. Chris finished 0.3 seconds behind. The last time Chris ran the 800m, he finished in 2:23. He wasn't too unhappy because he finished this race with a new PR, 2:14.

Great job Chris!
You'll get him next time!

If you made it this far through the post, thanks for hanging in there! I want to leave with a scrappy share. Chris's birthday card! I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Scrappy Weekend!

I scrapped some photos that have been in my todo pile for a while. For some reason my todo pile keeps getting bigger not smaller, hahaha... always, lots to do!

Here it is! A layout of my parents' 50th anniversary! I had so many photos to chose from, so many decisions... but I finally decided on some really nice ones of my parents and one of me and my brother.

Thanks for looking and I hope you are all having a great weekend!

Book of Me - C & D

Here are my two February pages, C & D, only a little bit late. I kept telling myself to get going on it, but then the laptop smoked. While we were waiting for Dell to send our replacement laptop, Chris was using the desktop. The new laptop is here now and it's a Dell Studio (top of the line). Our other laptop was a Latitude. The Studio is really nice, and the screen is bigger too!

It feels good to be caught up. Here are my new pages... C and D!

Cheryl
When I was in elementary school the girl named Cheryl had the longest hair. I wanted my name to be Cheryl so I could have long hair too (I was sporting a pixie cut). That's where Cheryl got her name. Cheryl is 20yrs now; a wonderful young woman with a beautiful smile that can light up a whole room (or a soccer field). She's friendly, well liked, has a great way with kids, and has a plan for her life (which doesn't include boys yet). I for one, absolutely adore the person that she is.
Chris
How about that! Both my kids’ names start with “C”. That was totally unplanned. Jim picked the name Christopher (meaning Christ like). Chris is a good all-around person. He's affectionate, sensitive, and loyal. Favorite past times include: chatting online with his manga friends, designing siggies, and racing. What I love best about him is his focus and a single-minded determination when it comes to getting things done. Right now that only applies to things he wants to do, but I know it will turn into a well-rounded life skill. I love him now and the man he is becoming.

Drawing
I almost got good at it at one point. But that was BK (Before Kids).
Drive-ins
I remember movies at the Highway 39 Drive-in. Dad would drive us in the station wagon with Randy and me camped out in the back with lots of blankets. We'd hook the speaker up to the driver side window and watch. At intermission, we might walk to the concession stand in the middle of the lot for popcorn. Some time later, Randy and I would fall asleep and not wake up until we were home.
Ducks
Along with the drive-in, another of my fond childhood memories is feeding the ducks at Knott’s Berry Farm. At Knott’s, where there is now a parking lot, was Jungle Island surrounded by a lake. Next to the lake, stood a merry-go-round. It was the best merry-go-round in the world! It didn’t have just horses, but all kinds of animals! I loved the lion! We used go often in the evenings to feed the ducks, ride the merry-go-round, and throw a coin in the wishing well.