Living La Vida Loca by Omar Goesh

Living La Vida Loca By Omar Goesh and Shudan O. Betta

When I was a teenager, I was your regular bad girl, wanna have fun, let's party kinda gal.  I know you will never believe this, if you have been reading this blog for a while, but I was the black sheep of the family!.  A title given to me by my very strict mother, whom I love dearly, bless her heart.  It was not easy raising someone as complicated as me.  I used to tell her I wanted to live a crazy life! "la vida loca", we both laugh about it now.  I was the one dancing on top of tables at night clubs as a young adult, the one wearing the hot pink mini skirt, staying out late at night with friends......A mother's nightmare!

As an adult, I am more of a Disneyland version of my teenage years when it comes to having fun.  I still live La Vida Loca but Disney style.  In fact, if you see the movie "Diary of a Whimpy Kid, Rodrick Rules" now in theaters, I'm more like the mom in the movie. 

We all change with time, I heard a psychologist say once that every ten years we become a different person.  We go through personality changes and our likes and dislikes change as well.  We also tend to appreciate people more as we get older.  Our tolerance increases with age too as our patience and kindness towards others. 
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Have you noticed changes in you as you grow older? do you feel maturity comes with age or experiences or both? have you or someone you know had a drastic change in personality? let me know in the comments below, I'd love to know.

For today's post I thought I'd alter a book and give it a proper title.  Here's what it will look like finished:

  Here's what you'll need: ruler, craft knife or scissors, white glue, paper trimmer if one is available

Decorative scrapbook paper, ribbon

scissors, glue gun, felt

 also an old book and some cardboard paper, recycle your cereal box

 First, remove the pages from your book with a craft knife:

next, cut your scrapbook paper to cover the front and back of the book.  Place it underneath the cover and trim off the corner so that you can get a clean corner fold:

it will look like this:

fold over and do this to the back side too:

next, find a piece of felt and cut it to the length of your book: for this step you will need to put the pages back in for good measure:

hot glue the felt and hot glue some ribbon or lace to the felt, the back of both the front cover and back cover will look like this:

Next, by measuring the pages that were in the book, measure and cut your cardboard. 

You will need two side strips and one longer front piece:

 you will need to wrap these in scrapbook paper:

Next, cut a piece of cardboard, this will be the base, and hot glue the strips above to it, like so:
set aside

now it's time to cover the inside of the book.  Trim another piece of paper to cover the inside cover and the spine.  Adhere it with white glue:

to look like this:

take the other piece you made and adhere it to the inside back cover with white glue:

it will look like this

cover the inside of your box with some more scrapbook paper:

and that's it, ready to add some greeting cards or trinkets:

here's the inside once again:

and add a title:

To my international readers, in case English is not your primary language (and I really want you to get the joke) it says, Title: Living La Vida Loca, "Living A Crazy Life" by Oh My Gosh and Should Have Known Better!

I found a website that carries dozens of funny titles, here's the link:

click on the word link above or copy and paste the link below on your browser

http://www.allowe.com/Humor/book/Funny%20Book%20Titles.htm


I will be giving this book away on my next Guerrilla Art Adventure, stay tuned!

Go and have a Crazy Weekend everyone, Disney style.

 

Altered Books for Halloween Decor

What other modern housewife out there can sing an aria or rap to 80's rap music?  I hope I'm not the only one out there.  I guess I'm a bit eccentric that way.

I once challenged my four teenage nephews to an impromptu rap.  Can you imagine their expression when I started rapping New York, New York by Grandmaster Flash!  They had never heard the song and really thought I was making it up.  Specially when I changed it to: L.A, L.A big city of dreams, everything in L.A ain't always what it seems.  You might get fooled if you come from out of town but I'm down by law and I know my way around.....etc....I sang the whole song and the look on their faces was priceless.

I love to sing arias.  A while back I was singing Madam Butterfly, "Un Bel Di Vedremo" Italian aria. I was supposed to have been alone in the house that afternoon.  Unbeknownst to me, my husband and two boys came home early, they were supposed to be at the park.  I was in the middle of my aria, singing as loud as my voice could sing.  With such great emotion and despair.  Feeling the passion and heart broken sadness that Madam Butterly felt herself, when suddenly, they busted the door open thinking I was "screaming in pain".  I didn't know whether to be happy that they worried about me or upset that they thought I was "screaming in pain" when I was singing my beautiful aria......in the privacy of my own home.....alone.  Now that my boys know that mommy is not in pain when she's singing opera and she has not gone crazy when she's cleaning about the house rapping to Run DMC, I can finally sing any song that my little eccentric heart desires.

What are some things you like to do that you think might be a little eccentric? I know you all must have at least one thing on your list of  "I will never do that in public".  It's what makes us all "different" but in a good way.  Who knows, maybe deep down you're looking for the opportunity to have an audience to share your eccentricities with!!!


Now on to my crafts:
I have another fun Halloween project today.  These altered books are so easy to make and they can be used as home decor or as party giveaways for prizes....scariest costume, most original costume, funniest costume, etc..

Here's what you'll need: an old book you don't want

My favorite glue, Mod Podge

Acrylic paints, I love crafts that require this stuff

some extra heavy gel

First, apply Mod Podge on the pages and form them like so:

Next, once the Mod Podge dries, paint the pages with acrylic paint using  a brush:

Then decorate with Halloween decorations.
In the picture below, I used a craft knife to carve out a square.  I then applied the Extra Heavy Gel and let dry.  I used a glue gun to adhere my skeleton parts to the inside of the square:

The one below was done using rubber stamps:

here's a close up:

Hope you liked my altered books and I hope you have a spooktacular day!






Joining these linky parties:

Altered book

What a great idea! thanks to ..... fire flies and jelly beans

I got the styrophone circle from Michael's about $12.99 but I had my 40% off coupon! don't leave home with out 'em. The kids helped out a bit since I didn't have red paper, they colored an aqua colored construction paper red with tempera paint. I followed the steps in her blog and in no time at all came out with this beauty....love it, love it, love it.

I first selected a book I found in the garage and tore out the inside pages to make the above wreath. I used large head pins to hold my paper while it dried.

I just love my new hand made Valentine's day decoration.

I then used the outside cover of the book to make the following:

Sorry, because I'm a dodo, I forgot to take a picuture of the first three steps so bear with me.

After all inside pages were removed, I cut pretty scrabook card stock to cover the inside book covers front and back. I glued the cardstock and varnished with bone folder. I also cut a thiner piece of cardstock to cover the inside center of the book where the signatures (pages) were glued.

I measured the sides and made a small mark about one inch apart, this is where the ribbon will go through. I then punched the holes using the crop a dile (this baby will go through anything). After punching one side, I poked a pen thru so that the holes would line up--very important.

The next step is to poke the ribbon through, I used wired ribbon, and criss cross like you would a shoe lace.

I then decorated the front with more card stock, I used a heavy duty double sided tape.

I also rubber stamped a bird on white cardstock and cut around it and glued it to the cardstock. I added glitter to the bird to make it stand out more. Where there are birds, there are flowers so I added a die cut flower. This is the inside, you can kind of see how I covered the insde with cardstock, the same one I used to decorate the front.

The last step is to add some handles, use a crop a dile to punch the holes and pull ribbon through. You can also add beads to the ribbon, that would be really cute.

This is the back side

I'm going to give this one to my mother and fill it with small greeting cards and envelopes. I think I'll make a couple more extra. You can also keep a mini album to place inside, heck why not make a mini album to match! now that would be cool my friends.

Here are more pictures, you can easily fit 6 greeting cards with envelopes inside a thin book and even more if the book is a bit wider.