Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Live Love


Hi everyone!

Today I felt like altering a notebook. 
I wanted to use a piece of the pretty paper Maggie sent me. 
Isn't it pretty. 
It is by TPC Studio, the Grandma's Attic Collection.
All I did to the paper was to add some tea dye distress ink to the edges.

Here is a close up of my collage...
The Eiffel Tower is from Magic Moonlight Studio and I believe the lovely lady image is from there as well.
The postcard is from Astrid's Artistic Efforts.

All the images as well as the Tim Holtz Adage Tickets were inked with tea dye distress ink. 

The lace down the left edge of the notebook is a piece of lace sent to me from one of my Bella Friends, Pam.
I added the rhinestones.

The big flower is a Melissa Frances flower that I won by playing along in the Flying Unicorn Blog hop recently. 

The butterfly is a Martha Stewart butterfly that is another gift from Maggie. 

Here you can see that I used some Rock Candy distress crackle paint on the Eiffel Tower image.

On the postcard I heat embossed the whole image with a clear embossing powder and the lady image was embossed with a thicker embossing powder and just around the edges of the image, clear as well.
I love the water droplet look.

Here is a close up of my mini roses and shoe button.

Thanks for stopping by!


Monday, August 29, 2011

A quick weekend catch up...

Been a busy weekend so I am a little slow posting my projects I made Friday. 

I was determined to do a little scrapping but as soon as I sat at my desk the canvases called to me.

This first one is my entry into the Viola ink challenge over at Bella Creations
We had to use some spray on our project.
I used Tsukineko Walnut Ink.

The images are from Graphic Fairies.
I painted them with inks I put on my mat and sprayed. 
The skin tones are a mix of Bambi Brown and Light Ivory paint from Delta.
I will be linking this up to Graphic Fairies Brag Monday.

This canvas is entered into the Bella Muse and Bella Unique challenges over at Bella Creations. 
The image is the Gecko Galz image we were given to use for the Bella Muse challenge.
The Unique challenge was to make a tie-dye embellishment, I made the large flower.
I made this flower Thursday night, along with the one for the first canvas. 
I didn't have a clear plan as to what I was going to do with them yet but I wanted to have them ready.
Friday I ran over to the Post Office and there was a pkg there for me from a wonderful Bella friend, Maggie
In this box were the daisy flowers and they matched my tie-dyed flower perfectly!!! 
The little yellow resin flowers were also in there so I had to add them all to my project too!
Thanks Maggie!
I did not have any paints that would work with my flowers, of course, so I set out to mixing what I had.
This is a combo of Folk Art Paints...Terra Cotta, School Bus Yellow and Engine Red.
Love what I ended up with! 
I made the stick pin for this canvas.

Thanks for stopping by.

I hope all my East Coast friends and family made it though Irene well!


Wednesday, August 24, 2011

The organizing challenge



We have all been there.
Trying to figure out just the right place for everything to go.
The right place to hide those little things that don't look so pretty but you might need them often as well as those things you just want to hide, never to be seen again!

Display the pretty!
Hide the ugly!

As some or all of you know I recently relocated 

AGAIN!

My hub's managed to find a place for us where I can have a room, that is all mine, to have my scrappy/crafty fun.

Gotta love him for that!

Since the move out here was going to be a long drive (23 hrs) for my daughter and me, in a moving truck that we had to fill, (hub's was already out here) he told me to get the smaller truck and just bring the necessities.

YES, he did mean my scrappy goodies!
LOL
He knows how lost I was without my stuff after the last move!

Since the move I have painted all the rooms that were in desperate need, got the kitchen set up, shopped for the beds that we needed since the others were left behind, walked around this wonderful small town several times, took part in the town fair (fun & food), and tried several times over and over again to get my scrap room set up. 

What little furnishings I have in here have been rearranged a couple of times! 
I am pretty sure they are set in their final resting places, 
you never know though!

My big problem now is the lack of drawers to hide things in.
I had to leave my Michaels cubies behind,
no room in the truck.
UGH!


As you can see...
pens, pencils, markers, etc...
glues of all kinds,
inks and ink accessories,
all the little tools, 
rulers, 
mats of one kind or another, 
scissors,
paint brushes,
stickers even found a home on top of the table in an old boot box!

Who know's what else is up there!


Then there are the boxes under the table with the paints,
a tub full of ribbons, paper cutters, the basket full of tags,
Tim Holz's has his own box, 
and the fan!

On the shelf beside the table we have more ribbon, my cuddlebug, bind-it-all, 
my crop-a-dile and big bite, buttons, flowers, beads, stamps and more stuff!

And here we are on the other side of the room with a two more bookcases...


The taller bookcase I tried to have space for "pretty" displays with storage mixed in.
The top is all display, the next shelf down is my glitter glues, alcohol inks, liquid pearls, glitters, embossing powders, etc...
Then we have my "mini" display shelf.
My Boyd's Bear shelf.
Then we start getting back to a mix of stuff on down from there, 
baskets and mini crates filled with cuddlebug stuff, clear stamps, mini making goodies, letters.....

There is an old crate between the bookcases that holds a bunch of my patterned papers beautifully.
With my project baskets sitting on top. 
Heehee, there's a bag of chips there too!

My printer bookcase seemed to be the only place that organized quickly for me. 
Papers for printing on, 
as well as smaller patterned paper pads,
notebooks to alter, paper bags for mini's,
my box of little projects done (my Christmas cards!)

The mantle shelf hanging above the small bookcase I am proud to say my dear son made that for me!
I LOVE IT!
HIM TOO!  

Here we are at my computer table...


It's actually a sewing machine table but since there is a piece missing from my sewing machine, since the move, it has become my computer desk. 
 
And there you have it.
Well all but the closet.
But that still has boxes in it, don't need to show you that. 
I also have all my albums,
"more" boxes of ribbon
as well as my boxes of pic's that need to find a home in a scrapbook one day.
 
Thanks for stopping by to look at my mess.
Happy day to you all!


Oh, just a side note here...
 
Heather
I did lift my weights today...
See them there
on my desk
I lifted them right up there on top of each other to keep that folder from falling down!
LOL









Card and Bookmark

Hi all!

Yesterday I decided to take a break from the organizing mess and make a couple things for my bff.
Her birthday was this month and, although I tried, I missed it. 

Moving just upsets your whole schedule!

She is a beach love'n book reader!

The image comes from Helene's challenge over at Bella Creations Oh la la Group. 
She got the image from Gecko Galz to share with us!
Her challenge was to make a bookmark with the image. 


The card is entered in the Cartes Classique challenge over at Bella.
Starr kept it simple for us this month. 
We had to make any kind of card using 
1 button, 1 piece of ribbon & 1 flower. 


I used pine needles and broken china distress inks, for the backgrounds, I think it matched the color in the image pretty well. 
Then I used mustard seed distress ink for the stamping of the shells and faded jeans distress ink for the title and bird stamp.
The backgrounds also got a little spritz of a perfect pearls mist I made.

I kept the bookmark simple, it is, after all, going to be squished in a book.

On the card... 
the ribbon I thought looked a little beachy, the flower is one I made, and the button is made from seashells.
I also, for whatever reason, I added a little Tsukineko walnut ink to the background of the card.

Thanks for stopping by!
Have a great day!




Sunday, August 21, 2011

Scrap on

My scrap room is still a mess after the move. 
Stuff still in boxes.
More stuff all over my tables.
More storage needed.

But...

Today I got my scrap on! lol
I managed to find an empty spot on my table and made a few Christmas cards for the
Jingle Bella Challenge
over at 
We needed simply to make 3 square cards.
I however made 4. 
Last months challenge was to make 4 cards and well...
could ya blame me?
With everything going on I guess I just combined to two.

The way I see it I am up one and that's a plus for me!
LOL

Here they are...
They are all pretty simple. 
All easel cards.

The flower on the 3rd one was a cream color but since it is a Christmas card I wanted to add some red somewhere so I got out my markers and inked the edges of the petals.
I sprayed a little glimmer mist, that I mixed up, on it as well.
The image is an image I love from 
  I stitched the edge on the one side and the corners on the other.
I will enter this one in the 
Sew Virginia There is a Santa Clause
challenge over at 
We needed to make something Christmas themed and use stitching somewhere on it.

The forth card I wanted to add some bling but I wanted it to be red so I got out my alcohol inks, watermelon, and dabbed it on. 
Unfortunately it left the gems feeling a little sticky so I rubbed off a bit of it from the tops of the gems leaving a little on the edges and I like how that looked. 
I used another homemade spray on the lace and although it looked good it wasn't quite the color I wanted so I took my alcohol ink that was left on the pad and pounced it on the lace. 
And while I was at it I decided to ink the edges of the card, the sentiment tag and the cream colored flower.

I hope you all are able to get your scrap on too!

Thanks for stopping by.



Thursday, August 11, 2011

Hi everyone!

Here I sit in a quiet bowling alley hopping through some blogs and I am getting a little antsy.

Some of you already know I have recently moved. 
I left Pennsylvania and am now living in Iowa.
It is a beautiful little town we now live in and I am excited to (hopefully) spend a lot of years here. 
It is quiet, peaceful, friendly town and so small it's cute!

I have lots of painting to do in all the rooms of the house, a little carpet cleaning to get done, then I can get into my scrap/craft room to set it up. 

I am also excited because as you may know my scrappy playthings have been in a shed since the beginning of the year and now they are with me in our new home! 
They are still in boxes right now but once my scrap room gets it's new paint job I'll be busting all those boxes open.

Can't wait to get my hands on my Cuttlebug again..textures and diecuts, yay!
I have also missed my I-rock and being able to make my own gem swirls and florishes.
And, at this point, I don't remember what else is in there so it will be a great surprise what I will find.

I am also looking forward to decorating my home with my own art pieces.
I have curtains to make, I get to use my sewing machine again, woohoo!

Oh my the fun I am going to have...lol

Well I am off now to get my daughter enrolled in school and get some shopping done, need more paint!

Hopefully it won't take too long before I can get back here and share some fun new projects that I'll make.


Tuesday, August 2, 2011

A little boredom & a lot of moving

First...
the boredom...

My 14 yr old, who seems to get bored way too often, finally decided to join me at the table the other night and made a couple of things to enter into the
Bella Creations challenges.

 For the July Oh la la challenge...


For the July Nuances De Couleur challenge...

The little girl is a cut from Heather.
The red flower is one I made a while ago and she embellished with a charm from an old necklace she doesn't wear any longer.

And last night she made this bookmark for the 
August Oh la la challenge...

A little while later she came in and asked me for a sticky note so she could mark a page in her book.
LOL
I gave her her bookmark that was still sitting on the table.

Now the move...

Hub's finally has what looks to be a more permanent job so we are on the move once again. Hopefully this is the last one for a lot of years! 
Not looking forward to sifting through the piles of stuff in the shed but it's got to be done so we'll be heading out there to do that soon. 
Not going to take everything right now because hub's is not here to help. 
We will come back for the rest or hire a moving company. 

Not sure when I'll post again. 
Hope everyone's summer is going along swimmingly and everyone is staying cool.