Michael's Rock Box

I'm so glad I picked up the collection pack for Basic Grey's Archaic line. I really have enjoyed using it over and over! This was a little box I altered for my son to put his little rock collection in. Just a simple $1 wooden box from Michael's and now I can (cough, hopefully...) stop finding his little rocks here, there and everywhere in my house! I love the little dirt/worms/rocks sticker and thought it would probably be a good idea to use the arrow pointing to rocks to keep Michael from deciding it would be ok to bring in dirt and worms as well. We'll see!

Supplies:

Patterned papers - Boulder and Primal from the Archaic Collection by Basic Grey

Adhesive - E6000

Metal buckle - 7gypsies

Leather strip -Tandy Leather Company

Mod Podge - Plaid

Acrylic paint - Delta Ceramcoat in Espresso Cafe Noir Opaque

Stickers - Basic Grey Archaic Collection

And the countdown begins...

The countdown to CHA, that is! In exactly a week I will be arriving in Chicago (I'll be driving so leaving VERY early next Friday morning) for a few days of pure bliss! I've been to a lot of these shows but this will be my first NOT going as a buyer but as a member of the press (I'll be going with Scrapbook News + Review). I don't know yet what to expect from this new role but I'm definitely so excited to see all the new goodies, catch up with old friends, and just be in a totally creative atmosphere for a few days!

And speaking of Scrapbook News + Review, we are looking for submissions for our August issue! You can find the main calls here. Several of the departments have separate calls now as well, including mine! Have I mentioned yet that I'll be coordinating the newly re-vamped "Altered Art and Home Dec" section? :) I'm so excited about the future plans for this section! And I'd love to see your work for it! Here is what we're looking for:

Artful Rooms - We're looking for items you have altered for your kitchen - utensil holders, spice racks, kitchen art, altered cookie sheets and cutting boards...anything you can put in your kitchen!

Options - Time to see how you keep your household on time! We're looking for a wide variety of altered clocks - any style - what makes YOU tick?

Seasonal - We're looking for items altered with summer or beach themes.

Wearables - We'd love to see anything made with scrapping supplies that can be worn (totes/purses count) - jewelry, shoes (would love to see some flip flops!), etc.

ATC's - Show us your favorite ATC's for a new ATC gallery feature!

Call Guidelines Please submit your projects with the following guidelines: - Of any size - No restrictions on whether it has been posted to an online gallery, blog, etc., but we respectfully request that you take them down when requested for publication. Submit to jfranklin@scrapbooknewsandreview.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Deadline: July 31, 2008

I hope to see some of your work!!!

In the meantime, I'll leave you with one of the projects I had in the June issue - an altered wooden gift bag I made for my dad. I'm so in love with Basic Grey's Archaic line! I also used leather trim on this and clipped off the backs of some brads to just glue them on. The chipboard letters are 1.5" Prim & Proper font from Zsiage hammered with the Tim Holtz texture hammer then inked and swiped with gold and covered in Glossy Accents. Click on the picture to see the mega version and the details!


Let me know if you'll be at CHA too! I'd love to be on the lookout for you! :)

Dinosaur Birdhouse

I am so in love with Basic Grey's new Archaic line! To be honest, when I first saw the previews online, I just wasn't feeling it. It wasn't until I saw it in person that I found myself wanting every single piece, lol!


My first birdhouse without a resident birdie, but I decided the the little dinosaurs I cut from one of the papers (were just too cute not to use instead. All I used were a few pieces of paper (with lots of scraps left over) and a couple of pieces of the border stickers from the sticker sheet (the overhangs in front and back). This paper was so fun and it was quite enough all by itself. The palm trees are also cut from the piece of paper the dino's came from. My son begged and begged for this one, so it's happily sitting in his room....but I think I need to make another one for MY collection!

Mellow Birdhouse

As seen in my article in the May issue of Scrapbooking.com Magazine!

Found some of Basic Grey's Mellow line at Creekbank Creations when I was there and couldn't pass up these two for a birdhouse! Added my usual bunch of Primas (the bottles with these tiny flowers hold a LOT - no matter how much I use them the bottle never looks touched, lol, gotta love that!) and some dots of Scribbles in Iridescent Golden Brown. I grabbed Scotch 2-way Scrapbooker's Glue to attach them and found a huge drawback to this glue. If you click on the picture to get a closeup, you can see especially at the top peak where the glue pulled up the brown paint underneath and it soaked through. Luckily for this birdhouse it went with the rustic charm of the papers, but I won't be using that glue over unsealed paint again!

Blush Birdhouse Windchimes

Well, I have officially taken my Michael's store out of stock on the mini birdhouses. I still have a few left to decorate, but for the past month, they still haven't restocked. I knew I should have bought more when they had them! Anyways, I did find these in the next bin - still birdhouses but quite a bit smaller and they are windchimes - and also $1. These are rather a pain to do - dismantling wasn't too bad (although the chimney took quite a bit of force to remove), but putting those chimes back on was a nightmare. The cords are still a bit twisted but since it's one cord, getting it back on was quite the challenge. You have to count the threads in the screw, then turn the screw that many times (full turns) the opposite direction (to twist the threads backwards) before screwing it back into the base. It's not an exact science, but it worked ok. Patterned papers are both more scraps from the Basic Grey Blush line, paint is Strawberries and Cream from Making Memories. The rhinestones are from a cell phone sticker I found on clearance and have been using an Xacto knife to separate out what I wanted. I thought about doing something to the chimes themselves, but didn't want to affect the sound (not that it's anything spectacular to begin with, but still). Now if it would just warm up enough to open some windows and let a breeze in!

And one last picture to show the size, of course!

Sticker Organizer To Be

Ok, somewhere I DO have a million page protectors to finish this project but my 8.5x11's are buried somewhere in a box in the basement. This is what I'm trying to duplicate.

The original credit goes back to Britney Mellen from the book Organization Tips for Scrapbookers from Creating Keepsakes Magazine by Denise Pauley. Of course, I couldn't leave things alone and use just a plain old paper towel holder. I found this one for $3 at the dollar store. The wood was pretty bad. Here it is in its original state.

But I didn't mind since I knew darn well I wouldn't be leaving it like that! I went back to my favorite DecoArt Elegant Metallics Finish in Rich Espresso and also papers from Basic Grey's Blush line. This will sit right next to my tool spinner so of course it had to match! And that was it. I have my ring clips, just need to hunt down those page protectors and I'll try to remember to take a pic to share! Sigh - and I just might need to go get another one to alter for actual paper towels...

Such a Lucky Mommy!

After his grandparents left yesterday, my seven year old son, Michael, told me he wanted to make something with me. We went through some of his choices and he decided on a wooden gift bag. He picked out a light blue paint and went to work. Then he wanted to cover it the way I do with scrapbooking paper. We had been at Michael's last week and he usually gets me to agree to allow him to pick out a piece of paper (despite the piles and piles and boxes and bins and racks of paper I have here...). He had picked an ancient (cough - 2001!) Paper Pizazz paper that looks like water. Then he asked what kind of glue he would need to attach it to the wood - "Can I use your Mud Podge like you do, Mom?".... :) I love moments like that!!! Anyways, he had to go to bed before he could decorate the finished piece but hopefully I can share some pictures after school and karate tonight!


Here's a little something I made while he was making his WGB. I found these little windows in the miniatures section of Hobby Lobby. I couldn't think of a single actual USE for them but they were just so CUTE, lol! They came in a package of three. For this one, I painted it in a dark pink but it still turned out too bright for what I wanted so I used a sheer gold glaze (Rubber Stampede/Delta) over it to darken it up (ok, and make it shimmery). I attached a small scrap of paper from Basic Grey's Blush line and then lots of tiny Prima's. A button and some rubons from Making Memories and then filled in the centers of the flowers with a pearly light blue Scribbles.



The blue paint bottle wasn't used at all in the project, it just happened to be handy to show you the size of these little windows!

BG Blush Monogram Necklace

Ah, the things you can make with scrapbook paper! The beads for this necklace are made from paper from Basic Grey's Blush line, as is the pendant. The pendant is a blank from Plaid covered in paper and a letter sticker als from the Blush line. I then covered it in Papier Glass Finish from Plaid. The color in the picture is a little off because I didn't want to wait until morning to photograph it in natural light so this is just plain old dining room light!

Tool and paint storage

Well I finally got around to getting some pictures of my spice rack filled with scrapbooking items! I used it for a bunch of things I used to have sitting in a basket that I was forever tryin to dig through to find things. Odd little tools that just didn't have any other place that was handy. Also my rulers, which I never knew what to do with (case in point, I still haven't uncovered the others as they are buried...somewhere!). I also added some of my most often grabbed paints and glazes and slid those in where the spices would have originally been - holds them perfectly!

Garage sale find finished!

Ok, so it's not really FINISHED (lots of touchup still to go), but for all intents and purposes (and wet paint), I wanted to get it photographed before it gets dark! I'm loving how this turned out! Once it's all finished and dried I'll post some pics of what I intend to use it for, but in the meantime, just wanted to show how it came out! All the papers are from the Basic Grey Blush line and the paint is from DecoArt (Elegant Finish Metallics in Rich Espresso). Learned a few new tricks working with this and found a new tool I LOVE in the kids' craft department! Four sheets of paper, about an ounce of paint (I used two coats) and some Mod Podge and my 50 cent find looks completely transformed!

Basic Grey Transparency Clock

This was another really fun clock to make but hard to capture in a photo. I actually have this hanging in a window and it looks great with the sun shining through it. I used a window frame from Walnut Hollow (clock mechanism too) and backed it with an old BG transparency. I had to drill the hole for the clock hands and also had to use the circle of cardstock for two reasons - one, to hide the clock mechanism in the back, and two, to make the hands visible when the sun's shining! The flowers are from Prima and the flower centers are actually flat beads from Halcraft. Another thing you can't tell from the photograph is that I mixed in a gel medium and sponged the paint on - it has a pretty dimensional look to it in person.

Basic Grey Lamp

This lamp was a fun little project. I bought a pair of these lamps on clearance because I loved the base. However they had these boring little white lampshades on them that didn't do them justice. I had a decoratable lamp shade (covered in adhesive, meant to add fabric etc. to them) hanging around so I thought I'd make one of them match my living room better. I had some really old (think it's from the first or second release) Basic Grey paper hanging around that had colors pulled perfectly from my room, so I decided to use it here. The lampshade comes with a template, which I used to cut my papers. I wanted the paper to remain in the same orientation, so I did have to use four pieces to keep the design facing the same direction (had that not been important two would have sufficed) and then I used velvet ribbon from Flair on the seams and a rickrac along the bottom edge. I think the whole project took about a half an hour - cut, adhere right to the sticky lampshade, glue on the ribbon and rickrac and voila! Instant custom lampshade that looks awesome in my living room!