Contrary to popular belief...

I have NOT fallen off the face of the earth. Feels like it though, huh? Just been insanely busy for some reason. And what should one do when they're so busy they can't think straight? Of COURSE...do a major re-do of the crafting workroom. Yea. I'm out of my mind, lol! And my house is now a complete maze as I have made little piles of product everywhere while I organize everything I removed from the room and now have to figure out how to get back IN the room. Soooo not doing anything for my creative spirit, lol! Just about everything I've done in the past few weeks is off limits for the blog until after publication but I've been busy!

Now that the August issue of Scrapbook News + Review is up, I can share some of the projects I had in the July issue. Here are a few of my cards (there were more of my cards in the issue but I'm trying to figure out where I filed them on my computer, lol) :

This one is simple, using Bo Bunny papers, some Prima flowers, some Queen & Co felt, and a velvet brad.

Again, a very simple card - Prima papers and flowers, and some Target $1 spot adhesive pearls! Ooh - and this could even be considered hybrid (lol) - the words are computer generated!

This one was for a technique article on using glitter. Zsiage papers and chipboard letters, Prima flowers and loads of glitter! The article gives a quick tutorial on each of the techniques I used for making this card glittery (yea, it made my hair and house glittery as well...) Wondering why I scattered pink flowers in front with the teal ones? That's what the small flowers on the card looked like before I glittered!

I guess I really was all about the easy cards this issue! This one features Fancy Pants paper and a bunch of their stickers layered on. I even used a border sticker to add a quick embellishment to a candle to match. Cardstock stickers won't really stick to candles so I just made about a 1/2 inch overlap in the back and stuck a short straight pin in to hold it in place!

For this card I used one of my favorite quick and easy techniques. By simply cutting a chunk of paper into even strips and then lining them up with a little space between them, you retain the pattern and give it a whole new look! Love these papers from Stemma! Oh - and the candle WAS a burgundy thing that's been sitting around my house for years and years. I wanted to use it because the candle holder just looked kinda cool with the card but the burgundy just clashed. So that's white alcohol ink (Jacquard Pinata Ink) toning it down! Please note I have NO idea what would happen if I tried burning it with those inks on it. The round design makes it (in my mind, at least) an un-burnable (my invented word for the day, lol) candle anyways sooooo...I guess I'm just saying if you try this at home I'm not responsible for any sparks, fires, etc.! ;)


There were some really great cards in the July issue! If you missed it, don't despair! Subscribing now gives you access not only to the August issue, but also every back issue we've done! So that's FIVE issues now!

Don't forget the giveaway for my upcoming Blogoversary here!

Love Frame

This was another project I did for the first issue of Scrapbook News + Review using the same window frame from Walnut Hollow as the clock I shared yesterday. This time I simply painted it black. I cut Prima papers to fit each window opening and actually just used masking tape to attach them to the back of the frame. My intention was to be able to pull these fully decorated inserts out of the frame and rotate them with other seasonal looks, but these papers happen to look nice in my living room so for the time being, I've just left it, lol! The chipboard letters are from Zsiage, covered in Prima paper and edged with a gold pen from Sakura. I used the same pen to edge these silk flowers from Michael's and layered them with tiny gold heart brads,

Thank you, a frame, and another giveaway!

On Monday, Scrapbooking.com Magazine's newsletter went out and editor Jami Petersen had bestowed the great honor

on my blog! This was obviously beyond exciting to me, lol! Thank you so much, Jami!! And thank you to all the new readers who discovered my blog through the link - I hope you enjoyed it and will come back to visit!

I made this wooden frame a while back and never did post it. I used Prima papers and, of course, flowers. I used a gold glaze paint from Delta/Rubber Stampede to edge the inside and outside edges of the frame (which was painted using a metallic teal paint from Deco Art - same series as my beloved Rich Espresso). I also used the glaze to highlight the tops of the flowers. I did both paint techniques simply with my finger (my index finger was gold for a couple of days, lol). I pulled out some micro beads (Provo) that I have probably had for about 7 years for the flower centers. You really have to click on the picture to see all the blingy details. For some reason even my nifty new camera didn't pick it up really well - might have to take it outside later and try again.



And last, but not least, I thought I'd get everyone involved again! I have a brand new Crop-A-Dile and case I'd love to give away (I have two for some reason) to a blog reader to say thanks for checking in on my creative endeavors! As I mentioned the other day, I got a new video camera and would love to do up some tutorials for you. Simply leave me a message with what kinds of projects or tutorials YOU would like to see in video form and next Tuesday (yes, I know that's April Fool's Day...maybe I'll fool you and add in some extra goodies!) I will use my handy dandy low tech random number chooser (yea, a phone call to a friend asking for a number between 1 and x) to find a winner!

Oh! And one more thing! If you haven't already, be sure to click on the link on the right to go check out the Craft Coalition - it's a great idea and something everyone can get involved in to help strengthen the craft industry!

Marah Birdhouse

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend!

I've been dying to find a way to make Marah Johnson's papers work for a birdhouse but the designs are so large compared to these tiny birdhouses I didn't think I could. On Saturday I went over for a crop at Blessed 2 Scrapbook in Champaign and in looking at the corners of one of the papers, found enough design in a small area to give it a try and I'm so glad that I did! I took the paper I needed from the corners and laid them out exactly to keep the design from the corners centered at the peaks in the front and back - LOVE the result! She has so many gorgeous papers I'd love to take a shrink ray to so that the design won't be lost in a birdhouse this small and I'm so happy I found ONE to work, at least! I edged everything with black Stickles because I ended up having a few issues with trying too hard to capture the design that I figured out too late that this particular birdhouse was terribly uneven - to keep the designs where I wanted them I had to sacrifice perfect fit and the Stickles cover this nicely. Of course, I had to also cover it in Prima's! I realized I'm out of little birdies so this house is still uninhabited for the moment. As usual, for a much closer look, simply click on the picture for the gigantic version!


On another note, I got a new toy this weekend! I finally broke down and bought a video camera! I would LOVE to do a few video tutorials so let me know what you'd like to SEE rather than just read my long-winded explanations of, lol! And then be patient...I have NO idea how to edit the video yet. More software to learn - just what I needed!

Coffee House Birdhouse

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

This one's definitely all for me, lol, and my addiction to coffee! Paper from Doodlebug, flowers from Prima, coffee beans from the bag I just finished up yesterday, and diecut paper lace from KI Memories. At the moment the beans are making this smell soooo good! I know they're not exactly going to last so once the lovely smell goes away I'll coat them with Glossy Accents but right now I'm just enjoying my new potpourri! Loving the textured flowers from Prima, by the way - just found these at Scrapbooker's Dream in St. Joe over the weekend. For future reference, the lace paper was a pain to adhere to this stepped roof (there are 3 different birdhouse designs in this series and this is the one that annoys me because of the roof) but I liked the airy effect of having the open areas. I think it will probably look even better on a flat roof so I'll probably try this again!

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!

Two Projects from the Bringing it Back Challenge

Here are the two projects I made for last week's Bringing it Back Challenge - Magic Mesh.

This little harvest basket was super easy. I spraypainted a basket black, then added this rust colored Magic Mesh to the side panels. The rest of the decorations are from two packages of Jolee's stickers from EK Success. I did quite a bit of rearranging of the different elements to make them fit where I wanted them. Then I used some Twistart to cover the handle and form two bows.




I've had this cheap little bracelet blank hanging around forever. I don't even remember where the heck I got it. But I had all these little scraps of mesh from the project above and realized I could make them fit inside the rectangles of the bracelet. I then covered each with Glossy Accents from Ranger and added some tiny Prima's with copper Scribbles as the centers (I just poked them right into the wet glaze). Rather different looking. Not sure if I like it...but I don't hate it, lol!

Another functional piece

So this is the little chest of drawers that I posted the unfinished picture of a while back. I needed something to keep track of all the little odds and ends I keep next to my bed. I don't have a nightstand with drawers or anything, instead I just have a little bookshelf. Which is nice, however it's hard to keep track of all the little things I have to have nearby - chapstick, lighters for candles, jewelry I've forgotten to take off before getting into bed, etc. My cat has absconded with several tubes of chapstick so far and it's never there when I need it, of course! So I decided to go with the teal color of my walls (don't ask - it was a paint color error and I've just never bothered fixing it!) and used Prima's Stone Rose collection of papers. This did take me longer than most altered wood projects simply because I painted and Mod Podged (glossy) every surface, inside and out, just to help protect it since it will be opened and closed several times a day! I edged everything with a copper Krylon leafing pen. For good measure I also gave this several coats of a spray lacquer (from Valspar - found it at Lowe's).





On another note, as some of you may have noticed, I like to include products in my altered items that haven't seen the light of day in ages. Like most scrapbookers, I've got bunches of products from when I first started scrapbooking...the good, the bad, and the truly hideous. Well, with the encouragement of some of the girls at 2Peas, I've started up a new challenge blog, Bringing it Back. Challenges will go up on Fridays and I hope you'll join us in our effort to use some of these older products and maybe even bring them back into "style", lol!

Also, don't forget my giveaway ends today! Be sure to comment on this post to get in on the drawing! I'll be drawing at noon right before I go to my son's school then we're off to Champaign for some shopping so I hope I can find what I need for the winner! There are so many fun ideas - can't wait to start playing!

Checkbook cover and a tiny wreath

I've decided I have too many projects going at once. Each in various states of "something" needed drying time so it was left "overnight". I just don't always get BACK to said project, lol! I have them everywhere. So instead of finishing any of them, last night I at least started projects I could finish in one sitting. It's a start, isn't it?

First is this checkbook cover. I can't believe I've never done one of these. I've put up with the ugly ones you get from the bank or the check companies. I found one of the Creative Imaginations blanks at Blessed 2 Scrapbook in Champaign and last night decided it was time I had a pretty checkbook cover I won't be embarassed to pull out in a store! Cheryl, one of my fellow Zsiagettes, recently sent me (among other things - she's so sweet!) the Stone Rose collection from Prima. I LOVE this line! Then again, I love a lot of their paper lines (totally in love with Angelique and Cavalier from the upcoming CHA release!), lol! I thought the paper was pretty enough on its own to not need a lot of miscellaneous "stuff" added. I did use a rubon that came with the collection which I embellished a bit with glittery Scribbles (I wanted the pattern to show through so used those rather than the Stickles, which would have covered completely). I used some Bo Bunny letter stickers I had hanging around and an old EK quote sticker. I'm in a "less is more" kick right now...except when it comes to sparkles! Oh - and the center of the flower IS in Stickles in a teal color. Click on the picture to get the gigantic version where you can see details.



I found these adorable little tiny grapevine wreaths at Hobby Lobby in the miniatures section (actually I found several really cute little things over there to play with - would it be totally weird if I want to do a full dollhouse altered style even though I only have the one little boy so there will be no one to play with it?). Simply covered it in tiny Primas and used glittery Scribbles (just because I still had them out from the checkbook cover) for the centers. I was debating adding some ribbon and other embellishments, but think I'll hold off. I rather like this one as is...after all, I did buy several more to play with! They can get a busier design. It's about 3" by 3" - thinking I might add a magnet to the back and pop it onto the refrigerator.

I'm back!! With a super quick Valentine's project!

See, I knew I shouldn't have gotten on that blogging every day roll I was in a couple of weeks ago! My computer crashed! I finally got a new one, but am still getting things caught up and organized. And trying to FIND all the disks to reinstall all my software! However I really wouldn't have had a whole lot to blog about - I've been doing tons of creative "stuff", but most of it can't be shared yet! {wink} - Doesn't that sound mysterious, lol! It's really not. I made a bunch of things for the first issue of Scrapbook News + Review (I'm on the staff so this is my shameless plug - you're going to LOVE this magazine!) and some random things I just want to hold onto for various calls and such.

I HAVE, however, replaced my Christmas kick with a Valentine's Day one. Which is odd - the holiday itself is rather depressing for me, a single gal and all, lol, but I am just in love with creating in pink and red and hearts for some reason! So here is one more item I've made to decorate my house and show the love of my life (who turns 7 next week!) how much I love HIM!
I have more, but need to get better pictures.

This was a 50 cent wooden heart plant stake type thing I found at Hobby Lobby. This took less than a half hour, including drying time on the paint! The paint, ribbon and buttons are from Making Memories and the flowers from Heidi Swapp. One of my secrets for getting this done so quickly was the glue I used. Can I just RAVE about Beacon's 3-in-1 Advanced Craft Glue? This stuff really grabs onto embellishments and holds almost immediately. Dries clear and FAST. Love this glue!! A little goes a long way and its hold is similar to E6000 (it smells too, but not nearly as bad as the E6000 does) in that it will take metals and all kinds of things and hold them strong. Seriously - if you haven't tried it yet, do so! I have buttons everywhere and never use them and one of the reasons is it's just a pain to get them to stay put long enough to dry where I want them. On layouts I usually can get away with Glue Dots, but on altered items I just don't have the faith that they will stand up and take a little abuse. I'm so glad I pulled them out and tried them with this glue! The pictures are of the front and back - which are pretty interchangable, but I plan on putting this in a plant hanging in an opening between my living room and dining room so both sides will be visible.

Love Nest Altered Mini Birdhouse

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

Remember the cute little birdhouses I found for $1 at Michael's the other day? I finished one and now I'm so hooked! These are the perfect size for using up scraps you've got sitting around. I had been using Prima's Romantica line for a bunch of Christmas items and decided to use up some scraps for a love themed project as they were meant for and I'm just so excited at how CUTE it came out! These papers are double sided so I ended up using scraps from two different papers (sorry, I can't find the scraps that happen to include the name of the papers themselves though!). I Mod Podged them all to the house (I measured and cut these precisely - this is just too small a piece to mess with trying to sand edges on). For the roof, I cut strips of the polka dotted paper and used a little Martha Stewart (EK) cutter to give them a decorative edge. A couple extra coats of Mod Podge made the overhanging areas nice and sturdy. Then I realized I had the actual matching set of flowers to this line and started tucking them in behind the little fence to create a little garden. Then if that wasn't enough Primas, I started decorating some more with the flowers and some antique gold heart brads. Then I had to run out to Hobby Lobby and find some little birds to live in the house! I was hoping to find lovebirds but the ones in the bridal aisle were just too big so I had to find something in the miniatures section. I've only got a few more houses sitting around but I'm envisioning a little shelf with a birdhouse village all lined up, lol! Guess where I'll be going next weekend! Back to Michael's for more birdhouses! And darn it, why on earth couldn't I have done this project before the Prima DT applications were due, lol! Have you all seen the new DT, by the way? I'm so excited - there are some of my favorite designers on that list and I can't WAIT to see what they do for Prima!!! Congrats, ladies!!!

House Number Plaque

I've lived in this house for two and a half years now and suddenly USPS, UPS, and FedEx are ALL screwing up deliveries. My boxes end up several houses away, my mail next door. I've had to deliver the lady down the street's insulin to her (what if I hadn't been home!!! It has to remain refrigerated!!). So I finally decided to put up house numbers. Well, I can't possibly just use the plain, boring ones you stick or nail to the house so I decided to make my own! I got this little scroll plaque at Walmart. Painted the back and sides with Plaid paint and then Mod Podged (also from Plaid) Tantalizing Tulip paper from Zsiage's Flouristics line (I REALLY love this particular piece of paper!). I then painted some chipboard numbers from Zsiage in black and covered them in Glossy Accents. The flowers are from Prima and I used a black pen from Sakura to edge a few of them to bring in the black and give them a little more depth. I used the same pen to edge the whole plaque and give it some definition as well. Cross your fingers for me that now I can get my own mail and packages!

A few published pieces

I wanted to post these since they are able to be shared again. Both were in the October/November issue of Ready Set Create E-Zine.

This clock was a wedding gift for a co-worker. The papers are from Bo Bunny. Flowers from Prima. Plaque and clockworks are from Walnut Hollow. The rubons for the name and date are from EK Success. The beads are blackstone from Cousins. I used the pearly glaze from Making Memories over an off-white paint from Plaid. The Mod Podge is also from Plaid.



For this candle holder I started with an inespensive glass vase from Hobby Lobby. Using Mod Podge, I covered it with paper from Zsiage's Confuscious Say What? line. The Peace cutout is from another piece of paper from that line. The flowers are from Prima. The coin is from Tsukineko.

Brrrr! Got our first snow!

Luckily there wasn't much snow, but it still makes me want to curl up inside and do nothing but craft all day! I still have a bunch of projects I keep meaning to post but haven't gotten around to photographing and with this dark, dreary day I don't think today will be the day either, lol! But I do have a frame I wanted to share that I made up a few weeks ago.

As seen in the February/March issue of Ready Set Create E-zine.

I really love this paper from Zsiage - it's from an earlier line called Flouristics and the paper is called Tantalizing Tulip. I've used it on several altered items - it has such rich colors (that brick red just makes me feel warm!) and a really lovely design to it. The flowers are from Prima. The gem brads and gem stickers around the inside corners are from Making Memories. The chipboard sticker is from MAMBI. The film letters are from Zsiage - I painted them with the same paint I used for the sides of the frame and found it matched TOO closely to the paper so I edged them with a silver marker from Sakura, which played nicely against the gray in the paper design. I used glossy Mod Podge as I wanted to keep an elegant feel to this.



I hope everyone is staying warm!

To Do List Clipboard

I live on lists. I make them for absolutely everything. I was looking at this long clipboard from EK and thought it would make a perfect home for my never-ending "To Do" lists! The paper and decorative strip at the bottom are from My Mind's Eye. The flowers are from Prima. The decorative snaps and letters are from Making Memories. Ink from Clearsnap and Mod Podge from Plaid. For paper, I couldn't find a pad offhand that I liked, so I just cut up some quick copy paper into 3x6" sheets to use until I find some lined (a must-have for me with my handwriting!) paper that will fit properly. I also added a strip of magnet tape to the back so that I can hang it on my fridge and always be able to find my list of things to be done. I love how it turned out - if only finishing my To Do lists went as quickly and easily!!!

Pastel Nightlight

This was fun to put together! I used a premade nightlight kit with a self-adhesive shade and added strips of Petallics cardstock from Worldwin. Some Prima flowers and dimensional glue from PSX and voila! All done! Because I used the same width of cardstock strips, it starts with a perfect vertical stripe on one end and gradually gets more and more of an angle - wasn't planned, but I actually really like the look anyways.

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.

Create Wooden Gift Bag

I found these adorable wooden gift bags at Hobby Lobby and wish I had picked up more because I haven't seen them there since and they're a lot of fun to work with for a small project with tons of storage useage (this one is currently in my studio holding scissors on my workspace). I used Surf & Turf from Zsiage's new line New England (which is one of my all-time favorite collections from Zsiage - seriously yummy and versatile!). It's hard to tell from the picture, but I did not Mod Podge over the top of the paper. Instead I used Ranger's crackle finish over the swirls (looks shiny in the picture). The ribbon is just a piece of stray white I had hanging around. The flower is from Prima. The letters and flower center are Zsiage's chipboard. This stuff is awesome - it has a nice white glossy finish to it. I used Ranger alcohol ink and metallic mixative over them and then the crackle finish again. I'm not sure if it's the glossy finish or the alcohol ink/crackle finish that caused it, but it ended up with a super cracked finish - deep, crumbly cracks. It's a neat look - they look almost like amber! You can see where I somehow managed to forget to pull out a "t" when first doing this so I did the "t" later, resulting in a bad color match when trying to remember how much alcohol ink versus how much metallic mixative to use. So there's my next tip - proofread yourself when doing anything that requires color mixing!

Vintered SOD Gift Box

The boxes that Zsiage's Scrap-O-Dex's come in are really fun to decorate and use as a gift box. For this one, I used Altered Ego and Vintered Vagabond from Zsiage's Vintered line. I also colored Zsiage chipboard letters with a Sakura Permapaque marker and added a Prima and another piece of the feather boa I used for the frame on an earlier post.