Wednesday, July 13, 2011

4th of July

Ok, so I know this is a little late but I finally downloaded my pictures.

The weekend of the 4th was a little hectic. Lots of friends to see, not so much time to do it in. Spent our Saturday at my BF's pool party. Spent the night teaching her how to make her very own altered birdhouse. Sorry, forgot to take pics. Maybe my friend can help me out?

Sunday was spent getting ready for a cookout at our house. We had a rousing game of baseball complete with our very own baseball field in the back yard. After dark we had a great fireworks show courtesy of the huz.

Monday was spent at mom's pool. Gorgeous day. We went to the local fireworks show. Bugs were everywhere. Fireworks went a little long. All was well.


 If you build it, they will come





Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Sunday, July 10, 2011

...and more cards

LB came home at 7:30 from his grandparents house completely exhausted.

So...that means I got to keep crafting away through the evening hours.

Anyway, here's more stuff........


Gift Card Holders






Just Because

New Card

Little Buddy has been hanging out with his grandparents in the pool today. I took the opportunity to make a few thinks and tinker around.



I'm going to add it to my etsy shop this afternoon. I'm having issues with the website right now but will list as soon as I can.

T-Ball Mini Book

Just a new project I finished this weekend at the scrapbook retreat.













Homemade Glimmer Mist Part 2

I tried to make homemade glimmer mist last weekend and it came out with mixed results. I bought some re-inker over the weekend and tweaked the recipe a bit. I am very pleased with the results.


Recipe:

1. fill bottle 1/2 to 3/4 with water.
2. add a small scoop of perfect pearls. (perfect pearl was used for the pink and green  patina was used for the green)
3. add 1-2 droppers full of reinker (tattered rose and peeled paint)
4. shake and enjoy!

Coverage is much better than when I tried it with acrylic paint and the shimmer also shows through a lot better.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Cards

I was looking through pictures this morning and realized that I never posted a pic of the birthday card I made for my friend Jen.



Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Gearing up for the retreat

I am going to another weekend scrapbook retreat at my favorite scrapbook store this weekend. There is so much to do to prepare.....(and in no particular order)...

1. decide what I'm going to work on
2. print pictures
3. figure out what embellishments/stickers/paper I may need
4. pack everything else anyway
5. try to stuff everything into bags
6. pack up the car
7. buy more stuff at the store that I probably don't need
8. try to find inspriation

I'd better start packing and planning tonight.

Busy, busy, busy weekend

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July holiday. I know my weekend was busy and FUN!

Me and little buddy spent Saturday hanging out with my best friend at her mom's pool. The weather was beautiful and the food was delicious. Friend came back home with me and made her very own decorated birdhouse. I think I have her hooked :)

Sunday was spent cleaning house and waiting to entertain guests with a cookout, baseball, and fireworks. The fireworks were great (thanks to the huz), the food was great (I'll take some credit for that one), and the company was great too. The baseball diamond was a big hit. I'm still sore from playing.

Monday was spent at the parents house swimming and eating...and swimming and eating some more. It was such a nice day without a cloud in the sky. We went to the riverfront and watched the fireworks then spent almost an hour trying to get back home.

We are all tired and a little sore but I couldn't ask for more...spending time with friends and family.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Success!

I love Glimmer Mist. There, I said it.

I love to spray it on everything to give it a hint of shimmer. I love that it gives me the chance to make custom-colored ribbon and paper. What I don't love about it is the price ($7.00+). Glimmer mist is nowhere to be found in the craft stores of the greater Peoria area. That means I either have to order it online and pay hefty shipping costs or else I have to drive to St. Louis and go to the greatest scrapbook store known to man...Archiver's. Now don't get me wrong...I love going to St. Louis because that means I get to see my BFF and go to Archiver's but it isn't exactly a short trip or one I can take very often.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that it is possible to make homemade glimmer mist! Today I did a little shopping to buy just a few items needed to make my own. I really like the fact that I can make the colors I want because I can't for the life of me find a shade of orange that I like. As soon as I got home I decided to run upstairs for a few minutes and whip up a batch of my own.

How did it turn out? Well, the first bottle wasn't the greatest but I think that was due to the fact that I used a pale paint color which doesn't give very bright or vibrant results. I tried a darker color and voila! Success! I really, really can't wait to get home and experiment more with it this weekend. I'm thinking a bright red and maybe a shade of turquoise?

Friday, June 24, 2011

Things I love today

1. a nice, quiet office all to myself
2. the internet
3. leaving early to watch my son play t-ball

Giant Mess!

I decided to finally go through the stacks and stacks of pictures and duplicates, triplicates (is that even a word?) just to try and get them in some sort of order. The primary reason was to get little buddy's baby pictures together and finally start on his baby book.

I have made two observations:

1. I order WAY too many of the same picture.
2. I should have done this project a lot sooner. I'm going to have to do some research and figure out when some of the pictures were taken.

On the plus side...at least I'm starting to get some of the extra pics in actual photo albums.

Monday, June 20, 2011

I did it!

I have officially posted my first item up for sale on etsy....




Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Why I Scrap

I started scrapping back in 2002. I originally did it to make a book of my wedding. Now I do it mainly to document my son's life. I also make gifts and cards. Mostly it is just nice to sit down without a clue as to what I'm going to work on or do and just create something out of the blue. It is an amazing stress reliever and is about the only time I get to myself.

I like to work with different styles and different products. I have no hard-and-fast rule to my creative process. Sometimes I like to use sketches and see how they transform into an entirely different layout.

I am obsessed with stamps...and ribbon...and buttons.

Other things I love:
1. my scoring board
2. stickles
3. glossy accents
4. fiskars non-stick scissors
5. glimmer mist

More projects


Little Buddy helping me with his father's day card.


Finished product



Organized paint drawer!


Thank You cards from the bridal shower order I had last month


Anniversary card - work in progress


My partner-in-crime



Project Birdhouse

I made this cute little birdhouse for my friend Jen. I bet it looks great in her sun room. My plan, and I am actually working toward it, is to whip up a bunch of these cute birdhouses and sell them on Etsy.

My Craft Room - Before and After

One of the reasons I waited so long to work on anything was my mess of a craft room. I had stuff everywhere. I finally figured out some storage solutions that would work better than the system I had in place. I stumbled on some 3 drawer Sterilyte carts that I found in the storage room. I used them back a long, long time ago when I sold Tastefully Simple. Anywho, I thought I'd spray paint them a light pink, Ballet Slipper, to be exact. They looked good but I decided that I wanted something a little darker.

That is where my plan was temporarily derailed. I bought some Jade spray paint and tried to paint a few other carts that I bought. For some reason the paint just dripped everywhere (hands were covered...and don't let me get started on how hard it is to get spray paint off of your hands...). After a strongly worded letter to Krylon they finally sent a reply. They think the cans froze during shipment causing defective cans. I'm waiting for my replacement cans to come in the mail. :)

Anyway, enough of my blabbing. Now for the before and after pictures.

Before - disclaimer: I had already moved the carts to the side of the room and pulled out all of the drawers so it really wasn't this messy.



After: I moved some stuff from this corner of the room that we weren't using. I decided to move the entertainment center that I had been using as storage to this corner so that there was more space in my working corner (you'll get it after you see the other pictures)



Before - this is the space that I actually work in. I decided to take down the table I was using because I wasn't using all of the space and the open areas I did have seemed to accumulate junk.



After - I used the desk that was also storage and took off the top shelf. It worked out much better than expected.



I absolutely LOVE it. It is organized, uncluttered, and I have so much more room now.