Ginger's Vintage Room

Happy Holidays

2011-12-23T04:58:00.000-08:00

I have been MIA again and not because I want to be. This holiday season has been busy with work, shopping, cleaning and preparing for the holiday season. I'll be honest this year has been tough this year for me I'm not sure why, but I have been scrooge. I tried a little bit of everything, decorating, shopping, baking nothing has worked, but Tuesday I had a little help from my favorite nephew when he and I sat down and read my favorite holiday story The Polar Express it was our second year reading it and the 15 month old sit and didn't move, didn't fuss, just listened to me read the story and looked at the pictures. I was surprised because every time I try to read to him he wants down to play and run around. I'm still a little bah humbug but helped me a little bit. He's better then any present that little bundle of crazy with all his giggly smiles. He mimics things we do now. We egg him on to blow kisses, give high fives, and "pop" his finger out of his mouth. My dad makes a pop noise by popping his finger out of his mouth and baby J tries doing it. He just means the world to me!

The real reason for me doing this post was to wish all my blog reading friends a Happy Holidays!!! See you next year unless I get into a writing mood between now and then.

Decorating for Christmas

2011-12-08T08:14:00.000-08:00

So I have been away....TOO LONG. I'm going to try to be better in this coming year. So anyway I'm starting to decorate for Christmas these pictures are from my craft room, which isn't difficult to decorate because I just have to pepper in some decorations with my already very fun vintage decor. The vintage Christmas ornament boxes and ornaments came from an awesome find at a thrift store over the weekend. I'm in love with them because they remind me of my great grandparents. My mom had a few of their ornaments when I was younger but after many many years they have slowly disappeared. So I just started my own collection. But because of my 1 year old nephew I felt they would be safer in bowls in my craft room up high where I knew his little hands wouldn't get them. Better safe then sorry. This has inspired me... I think I will be going to more thrift shops and antique shops in search of holiday decor in the near future.

New Earrings listed in my shop

2011-10-20T13:14:00.000-07:00

I just listed these two pairs of earrings in my shop aren't they fun? I have had the peace sign beads since last year when I was working on paper beads and figured I would make a few pairs of earrings with them. I made 5 pairs 3 of the longer ones and two of the shorter. I kept a pair of the longer ones for myself.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/84298076/dangle-earrings-turquoise-peace-signs
http://www.etsy.com/listing/84297886/dangle-earrings-turquoise-peace-signs
While your there take a look around the shop they is lots to choose from. Great gifts for one and all Christmas will be here before we know it. I know I know you don't want to hear that, but this year flew by it seems. It was a decent year in my opinion and I have had really bad years and some really good one and this past year was pretty good. If your on facebook and you like my shop feel free to stop by my shop page and like it to get the most up to date news, posting, and coupon codes. http://www.facebook.com/GingersVintageRoom

Talk to you soon!

A little Change

2011-10-20T05:32:00.000-07:00

Well I decided today to create some cohesion between my etsy shop and my blog so you will notice that my blog title changed from Pawprints and papercrafts with Ginger to Ginger's Vintage Room. I like both titles very much and I'm attached to both, but it just makes more sense for me to have my etsy shop name and my blog title name be one in the same. I could have just created a new blog for my shop, but running two blogs with the same concept would be silly and kind of redundant. This will still be where I create, share and explore my love of papercrafts...and crafts in general as well as life, but now it will include shop updates and products I'm selling as well as coupon codes. I hope that you my followers will enjoy my new direction which is much like my old one with a twist and that I will gain more followers. I hope this will inspire me to post more because lately I haven't been that great about posting because I have been attempting to get my shop going and that has taken all my focus.

Halloween Rose Buds

2011-10-06T20:40:00.000-07:00

So I have been working on my etsy shop at the moment. I would like for my craft to make me a little money at the very least to support my habit. lol. So I worked hard on roses to turn into earrings and bobby pins. I really love how these came out. With my earring set you receive three pairs of earrings in purple, green and orange these are on posts but clip-ons are available upon request. The bobby pins are a set of three so you will receive three bobby pins in green, purple and orange. You can find these in my etsy shop at www.etsy.com/gingerhollner

Where has the time gone to

2011-09-29T09:29:00.000-07:00

Once again I find myself to busy to blog I guess that's not a bad thing. What have I been up to...well...painting, cleaning, purging, a little crafting (more like gift making), and setting up my etsy shop. I really enjoy setting it up and trying new things. Now I just hope that I can sell some of my stuff to make a little extra cash as work has been slower then I expected. It is the beginning of the school year and I'm thinking most teacher are very busy getting the kids set up and getting to know them so I can't blame them for not being out sick and in need of my services, but I am anxious to get back into the classroom again and making money is a big plus. I am taking the much unneeded down time to clean up my house getting rid of things I don't need, improving some rooms with a little paint and a little rearranging, and spend time with the pups. I think they feel more at ease when I am home with them all day and I do really enjoy their company. So this down time is good and bad. Well that's all the excitement in my life at the moment. In the mean time feel free to check out my esty shop maybe make a purchase (hint hint... wink, wink hehe). If you have feedback for me feel free to message me privately I would love other's input. Ginger's Vintage Room

2011-09-15T08:51:00.000-07:00

Isn't this a beautiful project and It is soooo easy. What I used was the Close to My Heart Mix and Mingle album, Close to my Heart Mayberry Paper Pack, Close to my Heart Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge, Mocha Pearls (CTMH) and Smoothie ink (CTMH). The Mix and Mingle album is awesome its 5 pages of Chipboard and 3 pages of acrylix and the jump rings to attach it together it cost $8.95 and I have seen it used as a mini album, a banner (like mine) and the list goes on and on. Its so fun to play with! I just worked on each page as its own piece of art. I used the cricut to cut shapes out of patterned paper, a 3-d flower and the letters. It looks beautiful hanging in my craft room.

Stamped plate

2011-09-10T13:09:00.000-07:00

Well I'm planning for a Close to my Heart Club gathering at my house. We are doing our projects a month in advance, so the crafters have a chance to give them out. This month the projects are Halloween based. I decided to decorate a little and I wanted to make mini pumpkin cupcakes and I wanted to get a cupcake stand, but ended up with a plate stand from Target then got white plates from the Dollar store. Then with some purple and green stazon ink and the flourish stamp from the Close to My Heart Stamp set "Pair a Pharse" I stamped around the edges. I'm not a perfectionist so I tried to space everything out as evenly as possible without measuring in some spots the images overlap and with glass it is hard to get a nice smooth image because between the glass surface, the stamp itself and angle your working on you get images that look a little too mushed and images where everything slides. But the great thing is that in the end it is handmade and honestly no one will notice but you. lol. Why use aryclic stamps for projects like these, because you CAN go back and line the image back up if you don't stamp it evenly the first time. Even the most experienced stamper has projects where that stamp something and part of image doesn't stamp quite right. I do it all the time, on your usual cardstock project like cards its easy to correct. You can put a piece foam like Close to my Heart provides in all of their stamp sets and slip it under your paper and try again. Projects like my plates you don't really have that option so you have to line your image back up and push a little harder. Another tip when working with Stazon ink that I have found it takes a little time to dry so if you keep a damp paper towel handy when working on glass projects when you make a mistake that you don't like and you want to start over with you just wipe it off quickly. Another thing and this works when your using sharpie too. All you need is a little rain-x to wipe Stazon ink or Sharpie off plastic or glass. I like to label all my craft tools so when I go to a crop and let someone borrow something it will come back. And once in a while I like to be a little bit of a perfectionist so I sometimes will get a new tool and decide I want all the writing on my tools to match, so if I have say my name in blue on one item and pink on another it SOMETIMES bothers me, so I take out the rain-x and wipe all my tools down and relabel them. This doesn't happen too often but when it does, it does I can't fight it haha.

August's Tag

2011-09-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

Well while I'm signed in I might as well as my August tag. I found some where on the wonderful internet that Clown week or Clown day is in August and I bought the beautiful Le Cirque paper pack to do some layout about my Great Grandfather and decided to use it for my August Tag. The other reason I did the Clowns and circus theme is because I hate to do what everyone else would do. I like to go with the unexpected unless the expected is what inspires me. Like you'll see with next months tag. And I really love how this tag came out and hope you enjoy it too. I had to steal the picture from my friend Tabitha because I forgot to take a picture. Only 4 more tags to go and I already have September and October done....But guess what I did...forgot to take picture so you will have to wait till Tabitha posts them for me in the group. Oh well.

Wow its been WAY too long!

2011-09-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

Well this summer I was just creatively drained I guess. Not much crafting for myself happened. I took on a new role at my summer job that I thought was going to be easy, but proved to be a challenge. I was the Arts and Crafts director for 3-5th graders which with my background should have been easy as pie. I found and had great ideas but on a smaller scale. Like I said it was a real challenge, but now with fall coming in fast. I have the hopes of being able to craft and have some me time again in between my sub jobs and on the weekends. I finally decided to wander into my craft room the other day and dust off my cricut and gyspy and some pictures and here is what I came up with. Not too bad for not scrapbooking for probably about 3-6 months. Nothing too fancy but I think it does the picture justice. So the next adventure I have planned is a Close to my Heart Club with my bestie and some friends. The first meeting is a couple weeks and there is a lot to do. We are going to do one of my favorite themes Halloween (I can't believe its just around the corner). I'm impatiently waiting for my order to get here with all my new goodies. I'm hoping my cricut cartridge will be here. Art Philosophy is such an amazing cartridge with 700 images which includes 3-D rosettes, two fonts, plenty of giftboxes and shapes to pair with your stamps. I can't wait to play I will have new projects to post soon. Probably Monday night or Tuesday. I hope that you all enjoyed your summer and got through Irene okay. See you soon!

I swear I've been crafting

2011-06-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

Graduation card from my stash of supplies (made 2)

Lucky Workshop Kit (made 4 of each)

Mayberry Workshop Kit (made 4 of each)

Bliss Workshop Kit (made 2 of each)

I guess I have been neglecting my blog. I'm making up for it. I made 34 cards over the course of 3 days. Most of them were made from 3 Close to my heart workshop kits which I must say that they are amazing. You receive an exclusive stamp set plus tons of paper, some sort of embellishment and directions on how to make 3 different designs of cards. In the instructions it teaches you to make 2 of each design, I made 4 of each design and still had tons of paper left over.

Remembering my fur friends

2011-05-30T13:00:00.000-07:00

I started this post forever ago. I was looking through the list and noticed this untitled, unpublished post over it lead to me looking to see what it was. My fur friends I have lost. I miss them everyday and I was finding myself crying at the thought of them, but lately it is less. I still miss them terribly, but I realize that I need to live with my fur babies of the present and think of them fondly. My dear Bandit, Sara, Stormy (not pictured) and Buster. Though they are missed deeply I must move on. I love you my beautiful babies, but I know your in a better place!!

Father's Day cards

2011-05-30T08:30:00.000-07:00

Sunday I had the house to myself and I used my time kinda wisely (of course I could have been cleaning, but that's no fun). So my bestie wanted me to join her a stamp camp that a friend runs and its always been kinda far from me and during the winter driving at night in the dark really wasn't an option. So now that its lighter longer I was thinking I might just try to make the trek (of course all depends on how I'm feeling and if I'm working a lot this week or not). I decided that just in case I would make cards to swap so I sat down pulled out some close to my heart paper an inkadinkadoo stamp ("Happy Father's Day") and my gypsy and get to work. I started with Close to my Heart's Passages workshop kit (which there was like nothing left. I promise that's a first for me). I dove into what was left which was the paper with all the emphera looking stuff on it (postcards, journal pages) stripe, barn red cardstock and brown bag cardstock. I add some bazzill Dark brown cardstock for the matting and the diecut image. I basically went into this project mimicking my mother's day cards. Hey stick to what you like. I do like what came out and making 12 cards takes some time. I even stamped the envelope to kind of match.

Some Altered art

2011-05-29T18:07:00.000-07:00

House Shaped ATC Swap

Owl Twinces

STU Alphabet Swap

Okay so I'm not done blogging today and no I didn't create all of these today. I have been a bad blogger. I have been very busy with work this past week (YIPPIEEE!!!) and creating and blogging for that fact were not as important, so I'm playing ketup so that my friends who read my blog can see the art that I have been creating when I can. I labeled the pictures so you know the theme. They were all lots of fun and I really like how they came out!

Thank you Cards

2011-05-29T16:01:00.000-07:00

Recently my Motorcycle group worked very hard on a Poker Run to raise money. After the Run was over the Secetary asked me if I wanted to make up some Thank you cards for the Firehouses and our Sister and Brothers from another chapter that came out to support us. And of course I said sure!! So I went home and pulled out this very old (but awesome) Stampin' Up set that has been sitting on the shelf for just such an occasion. Then I thought to myself "I don't have any paper" lol that is such a LIE!! Anyway I decide to use Tim Holtz's Brick embossing folder. I inked it first with Close to my Heart's Colonial White, placed my red paper into it and ran it through the cuttlebug. I think the effect was awesome!! I then stamped the four firemen on white cardstock and ran to the computer to look up the colors each house wore. I love to personalize when I can. Then it was just ripping a whole into the center of the brick adding some Black soot ink around the ripped edges. I did a couple other things with this card. I didn't just leave it flat I wanted to pop up the brick a bit, so at first I used foam strips which I figured out I didn't have a whole lot of so I came up with the idea to use cardboard cut into strips instead (the firemen don't know the different between cardboard and what we craft ladies normally use). The tag was cut out on the cricut and for the life of me I have no idea what cartridges it was now. The "Thank you" is a close to my heart stamp that I cut so I would fit (which I actually cut it before this project).

The boy on the firecraker was made for a local military group that is currently in Iraq. We decided to send our left over bake sale items to the boys so they could have a little taste of home. The card was just a little some extra I wanted to add from us as a group. I hope they enjoyed their goodies and their card. It was fun to make. The Back group was another Tim Holtz embossing folder. I inked white cardstock with Faded Denim and Fired Brick Distress ink. Then Inked the embossing folder with Vintage Photo Distress ink placed the paper in and embossed. Then I cut the little boy on the firecracker out using A Child's Year on the Circut. I glued it on the the blue/red paper, which I had glued to a black piece of paper and then used matching Ditress Stickles to embellish the image. I then stamp the same Thank You on a piece of white paper that was also inked to match and punched it out using an EK Success Punch. I foam doted that up on the card.

The Top card which I made for our Brothers and Sisters in our very supportive Brother Chapter. The motorcycle come from the Feeling Groovy Cricut cartridge! It was fun but a challenge to make. It is about 5 or 5 layers. Other then the bike I kept it simple.

Mother's Day cards

2011-05-18T11:51:00.000-07:00

I made up these cards for mother's day one was for my mother. They were pretty simple. The top one was made using white paper, distress ink and a Tim Holtz's background stamps. I then cut the cameos out on the cricut using the Heritage Cartridge. Then I punched out the "tag" using an ek punch distressed them then stamped using another Tim Holtz's stamp and stamped the sentiment (inkadinkadoo) I put the sentiment on using 3-D foam and added some pearl bling.

On a side note I'm loving the new ek punches that fold down. I wish there was a way to trade in all my punches for them. They need to do a trade in program. I'm not going to dump all my punches (which isn't too much by the way). I have my cricut and I love my cricut more then anything. I can cut just about anything out on it which is great, but once and awhile I want a quick and easy shape for a card or project, so I have a small collection of very basic shapes and to be honest I use them just enough to justify picking up a special one here and there. Which leave me with a question for you...

Do you own punches and if you do what is the one you use the MOST? Which do you you use the least?

Special Order Apron

2011-05-08T07:43:00.000-07:00

I came up with this idea for my bestie and I to make customize t shirts at first. Then I thought to myself I have a million t shirts I don't need another one, so I found these aprons. I cut the crowns out on the cricut altered them a little bit (they had a weird thing on the top that I didn't love so I cut it off). I was going to cut the letters out of the same fabric and just iron them on but long story short that didn't happen and I end up using fabric paint. Then I decided they were still a little blah so I added some vintage buttons from my stash and then dyed some white seam binding pink. I then pleated it along the pocket that was a little bit of a chore, but well worth it. We wore them yesterday for our National scrapbooking day crop. People seemed like them a lot. In the long run they were well worth what I went through to create them and I offered to make customized ones for the girls at the Vintage Room. A couple members wear aprons at our gatherings and they are great because they protect your clothes from your mess project. And frankly I think they are a lot of fun!!

What are your plans?

2011-05-02T10:31:00.000-07:00

So saturday is National scrapbooking day!! What are your plans this year?? My plans include spending the day with my best friend at a crop at our favorite local store Captured Moments!! I'm really looking forward to celebrating this year as I haven't really celebrated in the last few years. It should be an awesome day of crafting with friends. I also signed up with Big Picture Classes because the scrap store has wifi!!

So I will be following also with them and hopefully all sorts of fun stuff!! I hope you all have a wonderful National scrapbooking day and that you get to do something fun with friends even if you just do some shopping. Have a great day!

July's Altered Tag

2011-05-01T19:21:00.000-07:00

So here is my altered tag for July. It seems these come to me in clusters. Its nothing too fancy I just inked the background with Faded Denim and Fired Brick ink. Then Embossed Fireworks in white. I cut my main image out on the cricut with Child's Year. Made a Rosette out of Tim's Holtz holiday paper pack (I got for $5 at Micheal's on clearance wooooowhoooo!!) Then added some tissue tape and Distress stickles (and regular stickles) and July that I welded and cut out on the cricut (and more stickle!). Now I just need to sit down and duplicate June and July's tags for myself and I will have them done then on to August and September.

June's Altered Tag

2011-04-28T20:31:00.000-07:00

Front

Back

This tag has been staring me in the face for weeks now. I had the men and the tag front sitting on my table along with the vintage truck. I knew I want those element on the tag in some way but I wasn't sure how to get it the way I wanted. So I just starting placing and pulling stuff to make a tag I was proud of. So today I sat down and said to myself "You are going to finish this!" and of course I did. So here is what I basically did. I started with a blank manila tag I stamped the background with one Tim Holtz's new stamp sets (I'm not sure the name of the set and I don't feel like walking to my craft room to figure it out. Its the one with the stamp of the three men, which I also used). I then took distress ink in Peeled Paint and Broken china and turn the manila tag green and blue. Then I made my June pattern paper using my calendar stamp set from CTMH and added peeled paint distress ink so it would match the tag. The next thing I did was I color the truck Aged Mahogany (again with distress ink) and to tie it in with the rest of the tag I used a very light amount of the mahogany around the edge of the tag itself. I then glued the strip of DCWV gear paper (which measures 3/4 inch) and then my June paper (which measures 1/2 inch). Then I set my men on the tag and decided it needed more so I went to my stamp collection and found a CTMH stamp set with a pocket watch and embossed it using copper embossing powder. I still thought it was too plain so I went off to my gypsy and looked through my Heritage cartridge and found the tree I used. I cut it out on white paper and then used Vintage Photo and Walnut stain distress inks to color it (which I should have colored the paper first then cut it out). I glued the tree down then Foam dotted my men in place. So as you can see my truck ended up pushed to the back of my tag, so I used it like I wanted to but I just couldn't work it into the front. I repeated a few techniques on the back. I really like how it turned out. Now I'm going to move on to July and hopefully I will share it very soon.

Playing with my cricut

2011-04-26T15:15:00.000-07:00

I got a few cartridge for my birthday and easter so I sat down yesterday and played a little bit. The three cards I made are from the Simply Charmed Cartridge and the motorcycle is from Groovy times. I'm going to make it into a card I think. I just wanted to put it together last night and figured that I was already taking pictures of my cards so I'd take a picture of it too.

I made some cards and Birthday art from my friends

2011-04-18T16:40:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple of days I have taken sometime out to do a little creating. I made some cards using my new Tim Holtz Stamps, distress ink, some white and black cardstock, ribbon and brads. They came out pretty cool in my opinion. The other thing I wanted to share is the birthday art on display from all my friends in my art group. I received some beautiful art as I do every year! I have it hanging as you can see in my art room on a "clothes line"

Happy Birthday to me

2011-04-13T12:51:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was my birthday it was pretty low key. I had dinner with my parents, my bestie and my nephew. Then my boyfriend and my brother (and fur-nephew) came over for ice cream cake and presents. It was nice to quietly celebrate 28 years. So I got some great stuff some pretty jewelry from Funky Vintage Lovely, some cool motorcycle related t-shirts, some new music to jive to in the craft room from Michael Franti and Spearhead, a gift card to Kohl's (I can't wait to go shopping), gift card for Walmart and a gift card to get a mani, pedi. Then of course I got all of Tim Holtz's new stamp sets, and 4 cricut cartridges to play. I can't wait to play!! I think the best thing was that my nephew was there. With some help from Tabitha Jamison turned a little blue lol. He put his hand in the side of my ice cream cake and got his fingers and face a little messy. I can't wait till his first birthday and watching him play with cake! I'm a good Aunt lol. I'm going to spoil the child rotten!!

The picture above is from my art gathering birthday cupcake. The ladies were sweet enough to remember me and that cupcake was sooooo good. On top of that I got lots of beautiful goodies to display! My art friends are so awesome. I love giving a receiving art. I'll try to remember to take a picture of my new art in my art room.

Inspired to share

2011-04-06T09:05:00.000-07:00

I saw this video on youtube this morning. I have been mostly been using youtube to entertain myself with funny silly videos and scrapbook how to videos, but today I saw this video pop up and I was drawn to it. This woman is amazing and inspiring and if I have a daughter I would speak this poem to her. I watched all 15 minutes of it and then watched "If I had a daughter" probably about 5 times till I decided that I would share a poem of mine. Something from my journal, something NO ONE has ever heard or seen before. I write poetry when I'm inspired to, which lately isn't often mostly because I have become more visually inspired. My altered art is where my creativity currently is. I return to poetry on occasion and I will always go back there. So without further ado, I hope you enjoy.

the vacant halls don't hold

your voice anymore

i can't walk through the door

to see you in your spot

no more stories to share

once a home now a shell

your picture is here but your

presence is not

i can't bear to walk through the door

or move your things

for i fear i will lose your memories

your love your kindness

so the windows stay dark in your shell of a home

cause your not there to light them

Some of the other ladies...

2011-04-05T07:13:00.000-07:00

So of course the mystery project wasn't just me. There were 12 other ladies involved in the project. Not all of them have blogs but I sending you to the ones that do. Then of course if you find what we are doing interesting and your an artist yourself or would love to be one you can join us at the vintage room. Its a wonderful art group with great ideas and projects. We are mostly local but we do have and will except members from anywhere and everywhere. Feel free to join us we love new blood and you could always make a special trip to visit for one of our gathers someday. Oh and if you join our group you can see all of the talented ladies work on their mystery project, but here are the other ladies that have posted their mystery projects:

Tabitha at Tabitha's Trinkets (by the way my best friend in the world!!)
Peggy at My Inner Playground (an amazing and talent woman who I am proud to say is my friend)
Maura at Two Crafting Sisters (a newbie to the vintage room, but has hit the ground running and is extremely talented like the rest of our group!) she hasn't posted her's yet but probably will soon.

Mystery Project 2011 revealed

2011-04-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

So here it is the Mystery Project 2011. I went with a beach theme because as a kid we collected treasures that just sat in a box. I made some of those treasures into something beautiful. Below is the other part of the project. We had to write something about why they project was important so I sat down and wrote about childhood memories of going to the beach. I love how it came out. Then yesterday we unveiled the projects each one was amazing. The thought and detail that went into each beautiful project was so amazing and each one was so different, but in some ways similar. I walked around a few times and saw something different each and every time. Every time we gather together I am more and more thankful to be apart of this wonderful group of women. They are so positive and warm. I'm always excited to share progress in my life with them because it always seems like they are rooting for me!! I'll share more about the party and a special surprise a little later.

The Beach
Year after year my family returns to the beach. Some of my fondest childhood memories are at the beach. Walking the sand shores in early morning light looking for shells with my mom and brothers, walking in my Dad sandy steps while listening to music. One year in particular I remember warmly we were walking to shore in the early morning as usual and in the distance you could faintly hear music. As we approached in the fog there standing on the edge of the water playing for the waves was a bagpiper. Hearing the sweet whine of his pipes in and out as the wind blew in my direction. It gave me goose bumps that beautiful, magically morning. It’s never happened since sadly but it is a morning I will never forget. Other mornings were spent collecting shells and other treasures to remember our trips.
The afternoons were spent on the beach in the baking sun and cooling off in the water. We spent hours on a sheet playing in the sand listening to the surf, gulls, lifeguard’s whistle, the roar of the crowd around us, and the sounds of the boardwalk. Around noon my brother Bobby and I would take our youngest brother out to the car to eat Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with kool-aid and chips. Bobby and I would make the sandwiches and watch Chad till we were done and then wander all the way back to our blanket on the beach. We would stay till the beach would close and we heard a recording blasted on the loud speaker that would end with “stay out, stay alive, stay out, stay alive!”
The evenings were spent one of two ways. The first was we would go back to the camp ground burnt and tired and hangout there at the pool, fishing, reading and spending time around the fire. The other way we would spend our evening was we would go back to the camp get changed and go back to the boardwalk. My brothers would play games. I didn’t see the point more often then not I would not win anything so I would spend money on shopping in the trinket, “surf” shops or buying the fried food I enjoy. We would eat pizza at one of the many pizza shops and fireworks would close out the night. Sadly these days have ended, and if they begin again they won’t be quite the same.

No art :(

2011-03-30T17:03:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to post because sadly no art has been created in my craft room lately. I have busy cleaning the house and subbing. On top of that now I'm sick not fun. I'm doing what I can to feel better because I have a very busy weekend ahead and the last thing I want is to be sick. So for now you will have to settle for pictures of my beautiful babies. The top picture is my beautiful Penny and Patches on their grandparents bed looking adorable and the bottom one is my buddy Raven hanging out in a shopping bag. They are the best when don't feel good. They love to spend time with me. Now if I could only train them to bring me a drink and clean the house that would be awesome!

You know what I dislike

2011-03-23T13:09:00.000-07:00

No pretty art to share today I just want to rant a bit. I dislike money....Why because you need it so much. This pasted month or so I have had little to no money. Which I would be fine with if it weren't for the fact that I want/need a list of things for various parts of my life. I needed clothes for work that were professional looking so I decide to go thrifting when I finally got some money. I'm not too proud to save a buck. I said it I HATE buying clothes for full price. I really do. Very, Very rarely do I do so and if I do its on things I will wear I million times over. I'm tired of my ho hum wardrobe, tired of concert tees and jeans. So I bought thing that were style wise out of my element. Things I would never ever purchase for full price. I proudly spend maybe $40 on 3 tops and 3 pairs of dress pants! I need a hair cut, I have been putting it off for a very long time...maybe a year. I know the hair dressers are screaming at me!! I hate getting it cut, I'm never sure how I actually want it and I'm too afraid to cut it all off so I just ended up having it trimmed. I finally know what I want to do. I'm taking a risk and I want to cut it just long enough that I can wear it up off my neck during the summer. I also need dress shoes. I of course want my basic black and brown heels and flats but I want to also get a few pair of shoes with pops of color. I'm tired of my heels I have had since student teaching that by the end of the day my knees and feet are killing me, because they are that worn. Then there is accessories but those are easy... I can make myself stuff or find cute necklaces at target and what not for kinda cheap and of course I have this wonderful best friend who makes beautiful jewelry for me once and awhile.

Then there is my ultimate WANT the things I can't get enough of...Craft supplies!!! I haven't walked into a craft store in at least a month for something more then maybe glue dots or a cricut mat. IT IS KILLING ME!! I can't go to Micheal's without feeling guilty cause I need all the above things and shouldn't be buying something so silly as craft supplies. I will not die if I don't get craft supplies, but I must admit that I feel great to be able to buy a shiny new something from the craft store. Its like a drug I guess, a high and from all highs your get down. I often come home and think should I have bought this really? But it always ends with me stuffing it in where it belongs for me to forget its there and then months later I remember oh yea I had to have this. This weekend I'm allowing myself to go to a craft consignment sale to spend the $20 I have on some second hand craft stuff. I think its my reward for behaving for the last couple months and actually spending money on something I need. I guess I'm done ranting I hope you can at least enjoy/relate to my rant.

A birthday gift, A Sympathy card and Alphabet atcs

2011-03-22T08:13:00.000-07:00

So this past month had some different events that I needed to make stuff for. First was my friend Lori's birthday. I made her a card which for some reason I didn't photograph...oh well. Then I made her an altered cabinet card, which I altered with gesso, and green paint then added stamped images and diecut flowers (from my cricut), of course I used brads as my flower centers and some pretty lace to finish it off. I also made her an altered tag which is pictured above. I went with a bird theme for her art, I'm not sure why but when I think of Lori I think of birds. I think she likes them I'm not sure where I get that idea from but it works. Who doesn't like birds. Then I made her a 4x4 again with the bird thing going on. The big beautiful bird cage in the back ground and the pretty girls in the nest.

Then a dear family friend's dog passed away and boy do I know how hard that is. So I decided to make a simply sympathy card for them to let them know that they were in our thoughts. Losing a pet is equal to a human being in my book. My pets are my children. I lost 3 beautiful ferrets last year for various illnesses and my best friend Buster. It makes me sad just thinking about it, but I think Buster was the hardest. I know it sounds a little strange but through high school I cried on his shoulder all the time. The best thing about him was how he just sat there and listened to me. He was patient and kind and there will never be another Buster. One of my girls does remind me of him sometimes just her mannerisms and sweetness, but she doesn't behave quite as well as he did, but I will move on...The card was cut out on the cricut. I welded the image of the dog onto a circle card and then cut the "with Sympathy" on its own. I love how much I have learned about my gyspy and cricut in the last month or so. I'm becoming pretty good at making new stuff with it and I have been using my cricut soooo much more now. I also made the envelope which I welded the paw print on to. To make sure there was no problem when I mailed it I took a small piece of plastic from the packaging of a sticker sheet and packing taped it in place on the inside of the envelope before I folded it and glued it.

Now last but not least are my M,N,O cards for my Alphabet atc swap in the vintage room. I'm having a lot fun with these. M is for Mirror, N is for Neighborhood, and O is for Oven mitt. The oven mitt was done on my cricut. The Neighborhood took me forever (and I decided to keep it) and the Mirror actually came to me pretty quickly. I was surprised these are not my usual style as far as my atcs normally come out but I think that's okay sometimes. Well that's all I have for now I'm sure I will be back soon with more to share.

How to create: My Easter Altered Tags

2011-03-21T12:20:00.000-07:00

This is a step by step, or as close I can do to how I made my April Altered tags. I did this one 3 times till I liked the final product. I took two tags and put them through my cuttle bug in an embossing envelope. I went with the Script because it was the most fitting to the theme of Easter. Then I took my distress ink in Wild Honey and Scattered Straw and inked them using my blending tool.

Next I took out my Close to my Heart egg stamp set (this was a stamp of the month last year I believe)

I pick a few eggs out that I liked and stamp them with Versa mark ink on white cardstock.

Took my chalks and a make up sponge and picked a few pastel colors.

Then chalked them so they looked like the ones below.

Below are all the eggs finished

I then cut them in strips cause I find them easier to cut with my little scissors that way.

Then Carefully cut around the images and then up them aside. (Boy do I wish I had a video camera with the stand so I can do videos instead of all this)

Next I dug through the scrap bins and found two brown scraps of different tones and cut them into strips with my paper cutter. I then did I simple basket weave that was wide enough for my tag and I eyeballed the height.

Every Easter basket needs grass right. So I went the scrap bin again and found two scraps of green in different tones and cut them with my scissors into very thin strips.

To give mine the "grass" feel I balled them up in my hands. Creating this:

Next up I flipped my baskets over and added adhesive in a strip on top of the basket

I added the grass and then added more adhesive to glue them down. Then I layered my eggs on the tag itself about were I want them so they would poke out over the grass and basket. Followed by gluing my basket in place on top of them. Then I did all the trimming around the edges that needed to be done. After all that I cut two strips of white cardstock and stamped Happy Easter then scored and folded them, cut "v"s on either side to create the banner look. After I glued them on I decided they looked blah so I added some purple Stickles around the edges. I think the came out pretty cut.

Sneak peek

2011-03-17T18:12:00.000-07:00

In 2009 I did a project called the mystery project. My Best friend Tabitha created it as a creative challenge to our art group The Vintage room. We were given a cigar box and 33 items that had to be included in altering the cigar box. Well Tabitha was at it again. She put together a series of items and one large item to alter. You will have to wait and see when it is done. At the moment I completed the 1 step to the project and now I have to write a piece to go with the project (I haven't sat down yet to do this). Other then that I have been busy completing projects whether atcs, tags, or cards. I've been so creative that I haven't had time to post. So in the next couple days I'm hope to get caught up with you as to what I'm doing creatively. I have to say things are starting to go my way. I'm pretty excited by the things that are happening in my everyday life. I'm nervous that creating will be push off to the side for awhile but that's not for a couple of months luckily. I promise I will always make room for creating in some way. Its just that I will not have AS much time as I used to.

So I fibbed a little

2011-02-19T07:35:00.000-08:00

So I fibbed a little I said I was going to post more yesterday and ended up in the craft room, so it just didn't happen. These are for an altered charm swap. I'm sure they look familiar, they are my altered poker chips. I added jump rings and lobster claps so they can be quick attached to a pin that we will receive with the swap. A requirement that the host asked for was that we make some sort of label so that the receiver knows were our charms came from. so I made atc sized labels with a Tim Holtz atc background stamp and added my blog name to them.

J,K,L Atcs for my Alphabet swap

2011-02-18T14:08:00.000-08:00

Here are my J,K,and L atcs for my Vintage Room Alphabet swap. I love my K card. I had a hard time coming up with these but I think they came together pretty well. The Challenge for this month was bling. As you can see I used gems and stickles.

Valentine's party get together

2011-02-18T14:03:00.000-08:00

Well this past Saturday I had a get together at my house with The Queens of the Vintage Room. I made them mini whimsy jars which included these little handmade rosettes and no these were not made using Tim Holtz die. I don't have that one yet and haven't figured out how to use the long dies with my cuttle bug yet. I made them using a scallop punch. You can find the directions on my friend Maura's blog Two Crafting Sister's. They were really easy and came out super cute. I also made the ladies Eiffel Tower place cards from the Cricut!! I just haven't taken pictures yet. This will be one of many blog post I will make this evening cause I've been bad and haven't been posting, but I have been doing crafting so I guess its not a bad thing to be back logged on the blog entries.

An old friend

2011-02-04T18:32:00.000-08:00

I have been busy in my craft room but figured that I would like to take pictures in the morning when there is better light, so instead I will share an old friend. This is Autumn is hangs out in my craft room, but before that she was Memory Lane's scrapbook bear. She took trips with customers and they made scrapbook pages of the places she went. She is a little bit of history and I was thrilled when I was able to get her from my former boss. So now she spends her days in my craft room hanging out where ever and just enjoying life.

The Crop-ical Getaway

2011-02-02T08:48:00.000-08:00

Ladies Night Out using Rusty Pickle paper, title and journaling spot cut on Cricut

"Artist" Sandylion paper colored with markers and water color pencil, also prima paper, journal spot from pinecone press

"untitled" it needs one just haven't figured it out yet, paper is Rusty pickle and prima flowers, ribbon from Close to my heart

"The Vintage Room's first Craft show" Paper K&Company and Daisy D, Stamps Tim Holtz, Letters Heidi Swap, Lace purchased from Joann's

Cousins paper from Bo Bunny Press

Patches' Page paper Mme, ribbon is vintage seam binding, Flower is Close to my Heart and Brad is from K&Company

"Cousins2" Paper is Colorbox, I don't like what I did with the title so I'm going to fix that

Sassy's page paper from Rusty Pickle paw is from Cricut's Four Legged Friend Cart.

Sorry for the shadows in this one "Smokey's Page" paper from Adornit

Wet Nose Warm Heart aka Archer's page. Page is from Colorbox

"Things in life that matter most are the Little things"

Here we go as I promised. Although packing was a challenge for me I feel like I did a great job packing projects and supplies to make my first crop in ages a productive day. The food was amazingly good and boy was there food!!! I'm telling you if you are in the and love to scrapbook sign up for one of Captured Moments' Crops you will not be disappointed. The ladies were friendly and their daughter were sooooo helpful when bringing our stuff in. Although I didn't really need the help, but I took it gladly. Everyone seemed very friendly and it was a fun day had by all. I completed 14 layouts and I'm including just a few I completed. I had a lot of fun making myself use what I had on hand and on top of it actually use paper that I have had in my stash for-EVER!! I even did journaling (which I have never been a big journaler, which I find interesting considering I dabble in writing and poetry). I feel like I didn't go crazy on embellishing but these were kind of meant to be simple pages. The pictures I chose to bring with me were one's that I knew I wanted to scrapbook and I don't want to take away from them because they are such special people/pets and memories. So sometimes simple is okay in my book.

Some Cards and getting ready for a Crop-ical getaway

2011-02-01T07:23:00.000-08:00

So I have been rather busy the last week or so. I was inspired to make a few cards which happens from time to time. I don't really consider myself a "Cardmaker", but once in a great while the mood strikes me and I'm pretty surprised by what I come up with. So I made 4 cherry cards because I need to make a card for Tabitha's birthday. I had this cute Scalloped fabric in my ribbon box for awhile. I got it on clearance at Joann's I believe its from Colorbox. I used a piece of paper from the Farmer's Market stack from DCWV and some red and green cardstock. The brown paper used on these cards are actually the opposite side of the Farmer's market paper. It was a great use paper. The stamps I used on most of the cards came from Close to my Heart (a special set only sold in there Cherry Oh Workshop Kit) and a cupcake stamp from Studio G and the "Happy Cupcake Day" stamp I purchased at my local stamp store awhile back. Other supplies include brads and sticky bling.

Before the Cherry cards I made 11 "Wood you be Mine" cards. I was inspired by my friend Tabitha who was inspired by the most recent Papercraft Magazine. Tabitha's Card was a rectangle of brown paper embossed with the Tim Holtz Wood Grain Embossing Folder and then had baker's twine wrapped around it. I had 11 hearts I cut out on the cricut that I embossed using the same folder that I was going to make tags out of for my Christmas presents this year and I ran out of time so I just threw them in my box of Christmas stuff for future use. After seeing Tabitha card and how cute it came out I just made these. I hope she doesn't mind I scrap lifted her card.

The last thing I have been up to is packing for a crop. I haven't done this in literally years. I used to be a crop scrapbooker. When the store was around the corner I would go once a week and at least once a month to a bigger crop. After the store closed and I moved I was able to have my own scrapbook room which made me a home scrapbooker, but I wanted to get out and socialize and I had heard wonderful things about the crops that a store about a half an hour away had, so Tabitha twisted my arm and we went this month. I was soooo nervous that I wouldn't get anything done and that I would forget something vital to my creative process. So I packed about 5 days in advance and then unpacked the day before to make sure I packed everything lol. I decided because most of my stuff was packed and I wanted to create I would make my name tag for the front pouch on my crop bag. So the pictures posted are 1 of my crop bags ready to go and my name tag using Graphic 45's Steampunk line (I love that line by the way. Its not a normal color combo I like to use and honestly I would probably never buy it but I picked it up a Captured Moments and I don't regret it I have almost used the whole stack of 8x8 paper).

There is more to come about the crop but I'll wait for Captured Moments to post the big group picture before I do. I have my layout all photographed and up loaded to share. Stay tuned....

Fun with the Cricut

2011-01-19T17:49:00.000-08:00

Well Today I had in my head I wanted to work on cutting a few things from my cricut (of course using my gyspy) So I sat down and cut out some paper hearts to put in my craft room window for Valentine's Day and I made the 3-D Eiffel tower just because. Yesterday I altered a few baby food jars for an up coming art gathering. I just cut K&company paper into strips, cut a bunch of heart out using a sizzex die with my cuttle bug and embossed Happy Valentine's Day in black embossing power. I think they are simple but very cute.

A little Scrapbooking this weekend and some tags done

2011-01-17T16:42:00.000-08:00

Full 2 page speard

Close up of first page

Close up of second page

Close up of title

May Tags Complete aside from tassels

Well this past Sunday I had the girls over to craft (my bestie included) and we had a very productive day. I completed this two page layout that I love. I got some of my childhood pictures back awhile ago and I pulled these out and said to myself that I would scrapbook them before most of the rest. I love the fun free color and lighting in the photos. And the pictures of me playing with the balloon are just amazing and then of course my favorite is my Grandma Edith eating the cotton candy. I wish I remember what the reason for the day was or a little bit of how it felt to be running around but I left it simple with just the title "Fun". All the embellishments and papers are Sassafrass lass, the cardstock is all bazzill.

Then I got my tags done for my Twelve tags of the year swap. These are for May...So I now have January, February, March and May done. I have an idea for April and its started but I have finished yet. I also help my Best Friend Tabitha with her 12 cards for a swap at her Stampin up Stamp Camp and then another 24 for the teacher at her school (that I was going to scrap lift today but couldn't find the awesome stamp she used. I left Micheal's so very disappointed today, with just 2 12x12 cricut mats and a couple pack of felt embellishments. I HATE that Micheal's doesn't allow you to use a coupon on the cricut mats and don't understand why they don't when AC Moore does. I keep trying to remember to go to AC Moore to get mats but its out of my way. Then to top it all off I had to go get someone to open the case to get me the mats out...are you kidding me really are they in such high demand (and being shop lifted) that we must put them behind glass and a lock. I understand the cartridges but the mats. I should have walked out but I needed the mats, so I bit my tongue.

March fairy tags

2011-01-14T19:38:00.000-08:00

These tags didn't come as easily as my first two months. But after a lot walking away and hard work I think they came out pretty cute. I didn't go crazy with them just applied some ink with the blending to the tag and some other papers before diecuting them. Paper pieced a rainbow, cut the little fairies out from a image sheet, colored their wings a different color that worked a little better with the tags as a whole with Smooch and embossed some shamrocks in white embossing powder.

Valentine's Day Altered Tag(s)

2011-01-09T09:36:00.000-08:00

tags 1 and 2 side by side

Tag 1

Close up of the altered "Be mine"

Tag 2 close up

Back of tag 2

Back of tag 1

So I was inspired after completing my first tag for the Tag swap in the Vintage room, so I moved on to the next month already. There are a lot of techniques used in this tag. I started with a blank tag then I inked it (using the blending tool) using Tim Holtz distress inks (Spun Sugar, Victorian Velvet, worn Lipstick). After letting it dry I took heart shaped paper doilies and put it half on and half off the paper then sprayed with Brick Tattered angel glimmer mist, then lifted the heart leaving the pattern on the tag. After letting that dry I put a light coat of Distress crackle paint (clear) over the whole thing. I let it dry before layering stamped images in Vintage Photo distress ink and stickers. The metal "Be Mine" embellishment was originally pink with would have went fine with what I was doing but I wanted it to stand out so I used Tim Holtz idea from this years twelve tags of Christmas and painted it with white paint then covering it with embossing power (white) then heat embossing. I think it really makes the tag more eye catching. At the end I added Glitter glue and some ribbon and altered pompom trim ( spray with Brick and Cupid pink glimmer mist). Now I'm moving on to March already.

First of the 12 tags swaps for the year

2011-01-04T19:00:00.000-08:00

So my group of friends at the Vintage Room are doing a swap similar to Tim Holtz's twelve tags of Christmas but instead of just Christmas we are doing 1 tag a month. So here is my first tag I'm really excited on how it came out. I'm already started on the second one. It will be posted soon I'm sure.

some Christmas Crafting for my home

2010-12-03T20:18:00.000-08:00

So I have been a little busy with some Christmas crafting. Most of which are for presents so I can't share but this was done kind of for myself. I sat down on the floor and start to make myself a paper chain like I did as a child, but the new and improve version of course. I used my beautiful scrapbook papers. So after two nights I have beautiful paper chain in my bathroom. And then I starting doing some research on how I could make a paper wreath and decided to go for it. I'm not very good with a hot glue gun I burned myself quite a few times before my Wreath was done. But one old book, a foam wreath base, lots of hot glue and two nights later I had my beautiful book wreath. I wanted to do something different with mine of course cause it seems everyone leaves their's oh natural. I sprayed mine with glimmer mist and wiped some pine green distress ink on it. I want to put a bow on it but I need to do some brain storming because I don't want it to be forever. I change my mind often and I want to to be able to change whenever I want. I think its because I don't want to put my wreath away. I can't even imagine trying to store it so that it wont get ruined. So I want the bow to change with the seasons. So I will update you later when I decide on what I'm doing. So I most go I need to get some sleep I'm off to NYC in the morning for Christmas shopping.

Tradition take 2

2010-11-26T02:19:00.000-08:00

Patches enjoying her food

Penny's 2nd thanksgiving

Notice how she leaves her veggies till last

Penny mid chew she looks pretty mean doesn't she?

my dainty child

takes her dear sweet time

Sassy was already finished when I got to her with the camera

getting the crumbs off the floor

The turkey did its magic. Passed out.

Well here I am up a 4 o'clock in the morning on black friday. Not because I'm hitting all the sales (I honestly saw nothing worth while that I knew I would get, so why bother). No I'm up because my phone woke me up (nothing exciting I promise). So I figure hell why not share another Thanksgiving Tradition with the world. Its kind of a silly one. So the family dogs are like...well like family and what does the family get on T-day... Food. So a silly family tradition in our house is that we make the dogs plates (on the china) for them to enjoy thanksgiving dinner after we are done. This year was Patches first Thanksgiving with us so I took pictures and again I figure I will scrapbook my silly tradition. The tough part about it for me was it was our first thanksgiving without Buster. Even though I had to make the same amount of plates as last year I still felt the empty space. I am a sappy, sentimental person and Buster was by far my best friend. I literally would talk to him when I felt I couldn't talk to anyone else and he always just sat there and listened and let my just cry on his shoulder. Penny and Patches don't sit still let alone listen on let me cry to them. There will never be another Buster in this world. I'm thankful that he's not suffering anymore and that I had so many years to cry on his shoulder without judgement, but I'm sad that he's not here for me to stop and just lay with him during my day or just pat him on the head and tell him I love him. I hope someday it will be easier, but at the moment I'm not sure it will ever be.

RIP Buster I miss you

Tradition

2010-11-24T13:29:00.000-08:00

Beautiful detail

my apron

My apple pie, pie plate

crust ready to be filled

In the oven

The apple pie ready for the oven

Done

yummy

Well its Thanksgiving eve and I completed my big thanksgiving tradition. Being the baker in the family I had to bake the pies. I'm known for my french style Apple pie and thanksgiving wouldn't be the same with out it. So today I set out to do my baking. I decided to document it this year with pictures so that I can actually scrapbook it. So tomorrow is the big day of family, the parade, and that lovely bird with all the fixings. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Hope its a great one and remember tell those you are thankful for that you are thankful for them because you never know what next year will bring and who will be sitting around the table or missing from it. Its amazing what a year can bring.

An old tool box given new life

2010-11-03T07:19:00.000-07:00

This antique tool box I found originally had a nasty green felt lining. It was dirty probably because it was a man's tool box. So when I began the project a few months ago I wanted to keep the outside of the box as is and create mini shadow boxes out of the drawers, but like I said that was months ago. I did one drawer and then stopped because other things and projects were pushed up to the top of my list to complete. So the other day I was dusting and doing a little bit of reorganizing when I looked at the toolbox again and a light went off in my head. I'm always trying to go through my images, stickers and papers that I have put aside of Altered projects and I haven't been completely happy with how I had things stored. I love that I use an old briefcase that my Great Grandfather had divided up for one of his cameras and all its lens, but the briefcase was getting quite stuffed and not easy to find things in. Actually I out grew the briefcase and had stuff in a metal drawer and two 12x12 boxes. In my new craft room its all about looking neat, so I decided that I would re organize my Altered art stuff between 1- 12x12 box, the briefcase and this toolbox and of course 4 slots in my paper rack (for the 12x12 paper). So I went to finishing the toolbox. Nothing fancy I just relined the drawers with Tim Holtz Lost and Found paper and Gel Medium. Then yesterday I went through all stuff and organized it. So now these empty drawers in the pictures are filled to the brim with images in different themes (Vintage Women, Vintage Children, Animals, Travel, and one drawer contains Game boards, labels, tickets and all sorts of fun). And the bottom drawer is the perfect size for those long sticker sheets to lay flat. I'm so happy that I altered something that is beautiful, but sooo useful too. I had pictures of the drawers filled but my camera didn't upload them for some reason oh well.

Art party lead to inspiration!

2010-10-30T18:47:00.000-07:00

Front of the notebook

closer up so you can see all the goodies

an altered envelope

Inside Front cover

Inside back cover

back cover

Me-flection close up

So Today I got together with a few of my art friends and we had a little project we worked on. It was a "me-flection" using the bingo card as our base. The challenge was to use a Mucha girl as Donna called them by artist Alphonse Mucha. I don't really know why I choose the girl I did but she spoke to me today. I just think it is because I'm constantly praying something will go right. Which as far as my art I guess I'm constantly hoping not so much pray that what I create will make me happy and proud. I also incorporated sheet music cause I enjoy singing and listening to music, a stamp of a hand writing with a quill to show my love of writing, the stamped cat peeking just reminded me of Raven who always seems to be in my face jealous of my art, scissors because I love my scissors they are the one tool that is basically in my hand 90% of the time. The woman deep in thought because I am always thinking of what I can do next or how can I make something better, a button because of my love of buttons, and just the word free because when I am creating I feel free. I attached the me-flection to a notebook and started to alter it while I was still with the ladies and then when I came home I completed it. I am very happy with how it came out. The whole thing was altered using Steampunk Debutante from Graphic 45.

Well its Saturday time for my Fall Finding Reveal

2010-10-29T22:06:00.000-07:00

No wait that is my beautiful kitty Raven looking very handsome the other day on my messy bed. I couldn't resist taking a picture and he has to thank our swap partner Victoria for his new kitty catnip toys. So he say "Meow" which is cat speak for thank you Victoria

Raven toys and some yummy candy for mommy (which was basically consumed by my brother and dad)

The cigar box beyond full with goodies

Handmade cards and a lovely bookmark made for me

some stamps and some more handmade goodies

Glimmer mist (score!!!) and beautiful trims!!!

An Awesome ATC stamp, and some other fun to include in my art!!

Images and ephemera to use in new creations

and more!!!

very sweet crochet items that I will be saving for just the right project. I think I see some beeswax in the future

So I joined up on my bloggerette sorority's Fall finds swap and I must say it was fun!! I enjoy making and sharing my art with others and receiving some new and different in return. Sometimes its funny because I would have never thought to use somethings or alter others until I got into swaps. And knowing you are getting a fun box that you don't know what will be enclosed is just exciting!! I was so happy to open the door and see that my package arrived and it is just not the same as buying something cause when you buy something you know what's going to me inside the box and the join of opening it last like a second of too. This box was hours worth of joy just ask my family lol. They were pretty bored of my joy after a few minutes. After opening the box I got to go through and put it in its place with in my art studio and you know whats funny there was one little image that I was so happy to see and I don't think its even in the pictures. It is from a Graphic 45 piece of paper from the Domestic Goddess line of a women with this beautiful blonde hair and red lipstick. I made myself a really cool necklace with this image last year and it disappeared I was so disappointed when it came up missing and did want to buy a whole new sheet of paper for that little picture and there it was in the box of goodies so now I can make myself a similar necklace!!! I'll share when I make it. Thank you soooo much Victoria for being such a great partner!! I can't wait to use all of this fun stuff. Raven loves his little mice! The way our house is set up he can actually play with them because his sisters Penny and Patches can steal them from him (my dogs like cat toys I'm not sure why). I'm looking forward to see what everyone else sent and received!! Now its 1 am and I need to go to bed I have errands to run in the morning and then I'm off to have an art party with friends happy Halloween everyone!! Check out Victoria's page to see what I sent her at Things I learn from Bear.

PS. Feel free to see what the other sisters did on Some Days are Diamonds that is the house mother's page and she has us linking on the right side of her blog!

Beeswax Series yet to be named

2010-10-27T18:12:00.000-07:00

I have been working on these beeswax pieces for about 3 days. I have been taking my time letting them guide me. I don't think I could be prouder of what came out. I used various art stamps, paint, beeswax, ribbons and trims, of course beeswax, dress pattern, and all the images came from Lisa's Altered art (A thank you sheet that came with my order). I think I will some how attach them but I'm not sure how. I know that there will be more created!!!

Believe in Beeswax

2010-10-24T18:42:00.000-07:00

The whole piece

The pretty woman I love!!

Trust in your potential, enjoy the process, try something new, explore the possibilities but most of all believe

A close up of the thought bubble

You can kinda see the dimension

See I have been creating. Today I sat down and worked on some ATCs for a swap I'm holding and I finished them and decided to move on to more ATCs, but the results of my efforts weren't what I call great. So I sat there for a little while talking with my mom and my friend Cara about how I would love to work with Beeswax and they told me then go ahead. Thought for a moment put the beeswax pot on and started pulling supplies. In my head this was going to be a canvas inspired by Paris but as I was pulling stamps I came upon my Donna Downey stamp set (THAT I LOVE!!!). I haven't even used it yet but have been looking at it for many projects and it didn't quite fit into what I was creating before. Today it made my canvas piece take shape. I was taken over in a sense by Donna I painted the canvas pink and use her spray technique but of course I started with Purple and Olive Green Glimmer mist and decided I didn't like it and then painted the canvas pink and sprayed it with water which caused the paint and the glimmer mist to kind of mix creating this dirty greenish pink that wasn't half bad. I then pulled my paper from my Tim Holtz Vintage Chic paper pad (again pink paper) tore it like it was nothing and started pulling things that I think of and hope and dream to be and then came the thought bubble I thought how can I use the woman stamp in a way that she isn't over powered by all of these images. I think it came out perfectly. It is my new favorite piece of beeswax art. I think I enjoy beeswax because I tend to make them for myself with my favorite supplies that I keep just for a project I get to keep. I think everyone knows about those supplies I'm talking about. The one of kind things weather its an image or a metal charm you found or a crochet flower you received in a swap ( I have pretty red one that I'm saving). Its just a little something you can't replace or you can and just don't want to.

I've been Clicking around again

2010-10-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

I just found this amazing blog through Tim Holtz's blog. Its call Jack and Cat Curio and I have to say I love it. I've always been a fan of Halloween and this year I've been feeling a little blah about it. I didn't even decorate...I know I know bad Ginger. I don't know if its just that last year was such a disappointment. Where I live we get no trick or treaters and I'm used to getting like 20-30 if not more and to go from that many to none. It just sucks. So I created a little bit of Halloween art for a swap and that was it for my Halloween. Then I find Jack and Cat Curio and I wish I could join the vintage room Halloween atc swap but the dead line has past oh well. I'll just save the images for next year. Next week I get to share my Bloggette fall findings swap with you. I'm really excited cause it was amazing.

Crafting has been happening

2010-10-11T12:25:00.000-07:00

I can't really share what I've been working on just yet I'm doing a few little things nothing major, so far nothing I can share, but I do have few websites/artists I would love to share with you today. I love to click on all the blogs in my side bar and sometimes that leads me to other blogs and artists and website that I drool over. Today I feel like sharing with you some jewelry makers that I wish I could own a piece of their jewelry. First is Lisa Leonard she makes these beautiful simple silver necklaces that you can customize they are soooo awesome! Then looking through her blog I found another amazingly talented artist Allora Handmade. I would die for one of her necklaces!! I think you should go check out there stuff maybe support the artist (if I had some money I would).

not mine but I HAVE to share

2010-09-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

So tonight I went to a card class at Captured moments (an amazing little scrapbook shop). I haven't done a class is awhile and I really enjoyed it. It helps that the stamps used are in fact Paris inspired. I love Paris and can't get enough! These cards were designed by Michelle a Stampin up rep and the class was amazing. Of course the visit to Captured moments lead to me spending some money on the new and gorgeous graphic 45 papers in 8x8 pads and some beautiful In my mind's eye paper and stamp sets!! I found the perfect paper for a very special layout.

One button necklace so many options

2010-09-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

Halloween (purple, lime green, black)

Red script and black

Turquoise and white with turquoise Great for winter

Fall (maroon, orange and white with dark green edges)

Christmas (Maroon and dark green edges)

Spring (pink, lime green, purple)

Halloween choice 2 (orange, lime green, and black)

So I have been thinking about those really cool necklaces that you see now that are short of set off center and most of them a beautiful but probably can be only worn with one outfit and I'm one of those people that will buy something cause I love it then it just sits there because it is out of my comfort zone to wear it. I was looking at my rose pins and thinking how much I love them and I was wearing a simple long white button necklace and though hey what if I combined the two. Here is my newest idea. I took two or three rose pins set them off center on my necklace and use a special pin back to create they various looks with one button necklace. I'm loving them I started off my day wearing the Red and Black roses cause I had a red knight meeting and they matched my vest and then after switching out different ones landed on the turquoise and white with turquoise edged roses. I like when I can take one item and jazz it up.

finally some Art to share

2010-09-12T06:36:00.000-07:00

So I have been busy again but finally I got myself organized enough to create!! I felt like doing some halloween inspired altered cabinet cards. I have a whole box of cabinet cards but I'm too afraid to do something with them. Of course until now. Then I have been organizing, purging and just try to make my craft space a good place to work in again because summer left it a scary and messy place that wasn't inspiring. So as you can see the purging and reorganizing is working if I have already been creating. The other photo I include is a self made (with dad's help) ribbon holder. I use to hang my ribbon with tole from the window, but things have changed and that doesn't work anymore, I have these really great boxes they were drawers from cabinet my great Grandpa made for a wood lathe he had. We got rid of the lathe and the table but when I pulled the drawers out and saw how cool they were I couldn't get rid of them. They make awesome shadow boxes, or shelves and of course ribbon holder lol. I'm pretty happy with how it came out. The drawer are actually made out of ammunition boxes my Great grandpa was green before being green was cool.

It's been too long

2010-08-26T10:52:00.001-07:00

Hi guys and girls. I know its been way too long. I hate not blogging at least once a week but my summer ran me over. At lot has happened in my personal life over the last few months and craft got put to the side for awhile. With the weather cooling off Maybe just maybe I will have some time create in the near future.

A fabulous Bag

2010-07-07T19:01:00.000-07:00

So I received a Donna Downey canvas messenger bag as a gift about a week ago and I was pretty excited to start it. I just took my time thinking about it cause I didn't want to ruin it. It didn't take too long cause I started adding beautiful green paints with a foam brush and used a spray bottle to cause the paint to move around the lid. The purple is tattered angel glimmer mist that it added in a similar way as the paint I sprayed it heavily, added water and used a foam brush to move it around the bag. After throwing the bag in the dryer cause I am impatient I added the bling flourishes and the big purple flower. The bag came with the word dream which was also canvas but it was white with yellow polka dots. It didn't really go with the bag. Yellow matched but I didn't like how stark it looked on the bag so I sprayed the letters the same color as the bag. After it dried I attached with glue and sewed the letters on. Once I was done with the front I thought how cool would it look with buttons covering the sides. So I began sewing and after about two days of sewing buttons on the bag is finished. I figured the buttons would protect the sides of the bag if I decided to use it. If I need to set it on the floor or anything the sides should not get dirty. I think it might need a little more but for the most part I believe it done.

I'm a sister in a Bloggerette Sorority

2010-06-27T18:23:00.000-07:00

I recently came across the Bloggerette Sorority over at Some Days are Diamonds. I missed out on Rush but decided to do it anyway. The requirement to rush for the sorority you had to use the image in my art above and take your picture with your completed piece, so here is my take on our rush project. A canvas beeswax piece using all things girly. Ribbons, lace, pearls, buttons and beautiful paper. I really enjoyed doing this. I'm excited to be apart of this group and can't wait to see what things are in store.

Your all winners in my book

2010-06-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

So because only three people posted why not just give you all a prize. So the winners are as follows:

Tabitha
Helen
Fran

I will get your little prize packages out to you by the end of the weekend (cause I feel like doing a little more then a book). I still have a stack of books to give away and I will be doing another giveaway soon so if you want to winner a prize free and clear I would post a comment next time. I hope you ladies enjoy your gift. Much love and creation to all.

Vintage Women

2010-06-16T20:19:00.000-07:00

So here is my take on my friends idea. Tabitha set up a swap in the Vintage room. The stipulation was that you had to use images from the college sheets she made for us. The images were black and white so I took the time to color them with colored pencil (so is watercolor pencil). So vintage ribbon, vintage repo papers borders, stamps and some embellishments. I haven't really created anything for a trade in quite awhile I think these came out pretty good. I'm just saying I would keep em. Lol.

The Start of Weekly Giveaways

2010-06-16T08:37:00.000-07:00

Well I have decided that I'm going to share some books that I have kicking around with my readers. I'm going to start by doing a giveaway once a week. So if you would like a fun little gift/surprise in your mailbox please leave me a message by Monday June 21. I will choose one random winner to receive a new book.

2010-06-13T17:05:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry for being away but I'm dealing with my personal life. Which is not so fun sometimes. I haven't had anytime to myself let alone to create something. So This past week I have been taking sometime time in my craft room. The first piece I created was the one above which a beach inspired beeswax canvas. I haven't touched my beeswax in FOREVER. I'm actually running low which is probably why I haven't touched it cause I felt like I wouldn't have enough for my next piece and I haven't been in a craft store in ages, but I need to make a special trip to get some beeswax. I have to put the blinders on though. Today I spent the second half of my day in my craft creating a college to cut into LFB sized pieces. I find this amazing. That something 12x12 looks so different when you cut it into little pieces. Below are the results.

Buttons and Roses galore

2010-05-13T07:11:00.000-07:00

Well I have been keeping busy with my craft show stuff in between life so here are the newest necklaces in COLOR. Unfortunately these will be very limited because I'm having a hard time finding colored buttons. I will be doing some antique store shopping and my mom gave me the idea of going to Salvation army to get them off shirts when I can't find them by the bag. As for the rose pins there are 56 in total which you see above. Then you might notice a poker chip that isn't a necklace that's because I made it into a pin!! I'm considering making a few of them for the show. and last but not least are my rose bobby pins. They look amazing in an undo. I'm currently wearing a special one I made in my pony tail.

A rose filled night

2010-05-07T19:36:00.000-07:00

So this evening I sat down to produce some roses. These roses will become pins and headbands for my upcoming craft fair I don't have the ribbons that I need to do the headbands at the moment or the pin pieces for the pins so now all I have to do is put the items together and glue. The hardest part is complete. I want to do a couple dozen more but I have cut more paper. I'll probably do that tomorrow night after a very busy day. Then I can do what I just did sit down and pop together some more. Right now I'm playing with some different things to create the color. I'm adding color to just the edges one the top three (pink, green and purple) and then the two lower pictures (purple) are glimmer misted. The first I went heavy with the mist but the last one I went really light. I will have to do a bunch more with glimmer mist. I'm liking how they are coming out. Now my fingers are covered in ink and clear accents. Oh well.

button necklaces and rose pins

2010-05-03T07:33:00.000-07:00

I'm preparing for a craft fair May 22nd. So I started working last night on producing button necklaces to sell. They are made of mostly vintage buttons, thread, and hook and eye latches. I love making them!! The roses are actually pins that I made a couple weeks ago that I never took a picture of. I have to make a lot more before the fair. I have headbands, pins and button necklaces in my future!! lol

I hit the mother load lol

2010-05-01T20:05:00.000-07:00

Today was a really fun day with my friends, we searched high and low for amazing deals on everything from fun stuff to play with to decoration for the home. I don't have much space left in my room for stuff so I kept it to stuff to play with, so I ended up with a haul. first is my new emphera including two scrap packets from artifacts, a german book, a year book from Mechanicville High School 1953, some trims (from the generous Peggy), some adorable baby paperdolls and what not. Nexy was this beautiful necklace from Artifacts. I was looking the different Eiffel Towers and I liked another one but I flipped this one and saw that it had a black cat on it and I thought to myself this is the one cause I will be able to wear Raven where ever I go.

This is one of my favorite finds. It was a little present for my dad when he was little he had a Zippy ape and he chewed the fingers off. So when ever we got to antique fests or garage sales we have our eyes peeled for them and he is the first one I have seen other then my dad's orignal which is in the picture also in the photo.

My biggest score of the day are for my collection. I have a huge collection of cabbies and I haven't brought any new friends into my collection for months but I found these guys for a price that made me very happy. $25 for them all. I had a ton of fun wandering with my friends and finding treasures.

April Showers bring May flowers

2010-04-29T10:17:00.000-07:00

So here is my take on the April Showers bring May flowers swap for the vintage room. The requirement for the page was you had to have an umbrella on it. So I used my vintage lady stamp from Paperwishes catalog. I painted the scene in the background and stamped the Eiffel tower and the birds. To finish off the page I added the prima flowers on the bottom (my favorite flowers from prima!!). I sometimes over think things and I was looking at it yesterday thinking "I love it but it seems too simple, too easy" It took me only a half hour to an hour. Sometimes a piece of art takes me days and some times minutes. I find it weird how easily things are sometimes and soooo difficult others.

More Close to my heart demos

2010-04-29T10:11:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to get in my craft room but lately it has been very difficult because we have been doing major renovations on the garage that is on our property. We don't even know how it was standing. Two of the walls were completely rotted out and were probably only held up by two 2x4s. Scary!!! It could have collapsed on my dogs who's leash was right there. We completely replaced two of the four walls and put on new boards and we will be siding it soon. My dad is currently running the electricity. I'm happy to know that it is now structurally sound. In between doing our big project I have been making time to create the demos for the vendor fair next week. I fit this mini album cover and 12x12 page in. I think they came out pretty good. The Layout is using the Twitterpaded paper pack and stickers. The mini album is using Grace paper pack.

2010-04-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

May 4th my best friend and I are going to a "Ladies Night Out" Vendor Fair where we are showcasing Close to my Heart products and she will be selling pre-made cards as well as some Close to my heart stamps and items that are available in the Catalog. To help her out (in case you are wondering "her" is my friend Tabitha) I'm doing demos using the product I have in my house (which weird cause I never limit myself to "Just" Close to my heart product). This is the My Creation Cube that is featured in the back of the catalog. It is a 5x5 cube that you receive completely flat and it comes in white. You just add ink, paper and your favorite photos and it becomes this beautiful home deco piece you can have sitting in any room of your house for friends and family to enjoy. I used the "Grace" paper pack, mini medley's, ink (Honey, Twilight, Cocoa, and Barn Red) Stamps sets ("Grown with Love", "TLC", "Extreme Caps"). It was a quick and easy project that only took me a few hours and it would make a beautiful presents for a friend or family member. And an AWESOME mother's day present hint,hint...

So come visit us May 4th at the Site Solutions Worldwide Office 333 Kingsley Road Burnt Hills, NY from 5:30-8pm.

I took a moment out today for some photography and creating

2010-04-21T20:32:00.000-07:00

So today I took a small moment out to take this adorable picture of my little Archer sleeping in the cage. I love how lazy he is, typically I will put him in the cage and he just flops into a postion and that is how he sleeps. He is such a goof and good natured boy. He gave me my first kiss today. I got a little kissy on the tip of my nose too sweet he is. So anyway today was family friends birthday so I made this card and envie. Not too bad for not having made a card in awhile. I also finished up a LFB page for a Vintage Room Swap. The theme was Story book and the only reason I did the swap was because I receive an awesome Alice in Wonderland stamp for my birthday. It is funny how one minute I am not inspire by a theme and the next I'm rushing to get it done. I guess its cause I'm a procrastinator. lol

Birds, Bees and Butterfly Atc #2

2010-04-19T16:37:00.000-07:00

I got to play again today and here is the out come.

Year of lfb project and a possible Bird butterfly, and bee atc

2010-04-18T17:55:00.000-07:00

Well I know I have been away for awhile, but I have been busy with a project I came up with. 12 women have come together to create 12 LFB pages for their said month. My month is February and I have been struggling to complete it. Ideas have been bouncing around in my brain and I have tried a few times to get something out, but nothing I loved happened. Until now finally I have complete something I'm proud of. The first side is for Valentine's day of course the one major holiday that everyone thinks of when they think of February. The other side is decicated to the Friendship that the women in the group and I share. I thought it was fitting and February is also "National Friendship month". The Quote I used says "A friend loves at all times" of course loves be came a heart and a "s". I have never done a project before where I had to make so may pieces at the same time. Boy was is kind of time consuming, but in the long run I think the final product is totally worth it.

Here is something else I did today. A theme for the month of May is "Birds, Bees, and butterflies" at the vintage room. I just started this project and I'm not sure if this is the completed project yet, but we will see.

Creative Genius

2010-04-05T08:29:00.000-07:00

Well I don't know if you can tell what this is so I will explain. Before the party I had an ah-ha moment. Cara, her cousin and I were shopping at target and we were looking at the headbands that I always want to buy but convince myself not to because to me they are kind of expensive. So I had my paper roses on the brain and I have been thinking of what to do with them and then it hit me. We walked to the health and beauty department where we found inexpensive comfortable headbands and bought them. We went home and made paper roses and covered the headbands in pretty ribbon and here is my finished product a very pretty headband. I think I'm going to start making these to sell them I just have to figure out where. I was thinking etsy then I was thinking craft fairs, but I don't want to pay for a spot and then waste my weekend at a craft fair, so its still up in the air on where exactly they will be sold, but while I think about it I will start making an inventory.

The Baby shower a finished product

2010-04-05T08:21:00.000-07:00

Well the baby shower was about a week ago now and I'm happy that its over and now I can be a little selfish with my art again. I enjoyed creating a special day for Mommy to be Bree and future baby Lily, but it was a lot of work for me, mom, and future Aunt Cara. Now we get to relax and wait for baby Lily's arrival. I can't wait to meet her, spoil her and help scrapbook her life with her Aunt! The first picture that I'm sharing with you is a very preggo mommy to be with her little cousins and helper for the day, then the finished tables (I just kinda wish we made the diaper cakes a little bit bigger). Then we have my very creative and functional wishing wells (each guest brought baby Lily a book for her library) and as you can tell we used laundry baskets (so mommy can use them to store baby Lily's toys or clothes or all the diapers she has). Lastly you see the game gifts that my mom created for the guest to win each had a theme (from left to right are a gardening basket, movie basket, bath basket and then there is the easter kitchen basket). The guest were impressed and walked away with a full stomach. The food was amazing, we had everyone bring a dish (and there was some great food to be had). I know that the party was appreciated by all present, but boy was I tried when it was finally done.

Frog LFB back

2010-03-25T07:03:00.000-07:00

So here is the back of my frog lfb page. I think it came out pretty cute. This isn't the vest picture of it but oh well. Not all my pictures can be prefect. Hopefully more art soon.

The Princess and the Frog

2010-03-22T18:02:00.000-07:00

Well I was at it again today. Little Fat Book Club isn't for a month but I thought I would get a head start on it. Can you guess the Theme... Well the theme is frogs, which at first I was thinking what am I going to do with frogs? Then yesterday while blog hopping (cause I can) I found this gorgeous image from some variation of "The Princess and the Frog" I cut the image out and then "painted" the gold areas of the image with gold smooch. Then I took a nice piece of paper from a Prima Marketing mat stack (it was the Alice in Wonderland themed one) I altered the paper with swipes of gold paint from Ranger. I then stamped a Fancy Pants stamp in Purple Pansy ink (CTMH), then I took green smooch and traced all the stems on the stamped image and colored the edges of the buds in the same color. The last thing I did with the stamped image was color all the "buds" and centers of the flowers in white smooch. I stamped butterflies (one from Fancy Pants and two from Tim Holtz) in embossing ink (Distress from Ranger) and embossed them one was in a red/orange color the other two in purple. Then I stamped what I would consider a Queens Anne's lace like flower in embossing powder then embossed that in white. I glued down my princess and then foam dotted my frog. Lastly I embossed inked the words "The Princess and The Frog" and embossed in gold embossing powder. I think this side came out perfect. I'm going to use another image of some cute vintage frogs, but for now I'm done for the night it is almost time for Big Bang theory!! I can't wait.

As for life at this moment I'm good. I passed my final certification exam! I was extremely nervous and trying not to think about it for the past month because at the time on top of trying to study I was dealing with the death of my ferret and another one being sick. So I didn't think I did well. Now I can sub which will be nice. It looks like things are starting to go my way again. Stormy my sicky ferret is doing a little better. She is eating hard food again, she sleeps a lot. I'm not ready to reintroduce her to the rest of the clan cause she is no where near a hundred percent and I want still watch what she is eating. Other wise it is hard to see what she is eating compared to three other ferrets lol. They can be a handful as a group, but I love them.

Famous Women Swap

2010-03-21T17:58:00.000-07:00

Well I know I have been MIA again. Lots of stuff going on and I wasn't too sure if I was going to get to this months swap nor did I feel really inspired by them, which happens sometimes. But after a lot of thought I decided to do the vintage room's Famous Woman swap. I went with women that inspire me and that I grew up with, which is a little different cause it may not be people that the people with in the group may have picked. I typically try to pick people that I know that other people wont choose. So I went with Marlyn who I grow to love she is just a beautiful woman and I just love her sex appeal. Then Madonna who I have grown up with. A baby in the early 80s with a teen mom (when teen mom's weren't cool) I listened Madonna, Cyndi, Aerosmith the list goes on and on. So although I don't love the "newer" Madonna I liked her earlier stuff. And Last but not least I chose Gwen Stefani. I love No Doubt and Gwen on her own. I think to be honest she was one of the first female rockers I heard. So as you can see they come together as a series with the red, black and white colors and Tim Holtz stamp images on a red painted background. I also embellished their lips. Marilyn with pink smooch and Madonna and Gwen with Clear accents. I love how they came out I kinda want them for myself but that isn't what it comes down to. The point is to swap with friends and I hope these cards find there way to someone who will enjoy them just as much as I did creating them.

Show some skin in wax

2010-03-13T13:15:00.000-08:00

Well A new chapter has opened for Little Fat Book Club. We are going to a new venue this coming Tuesday. I'm pretty excited to get with the ladies because I haven't seen them since January. So the theme for this month was Show some Skin! so This is where I went with it. I went with beeswax cause it's my new favorite medium. I think the outcome is good and I can't wait to trade it at lfb club.

Went off to NYC again.

2010-03-01T07:03:00.000-08:00

Saturday I went to NYC again. I really enjoy it as does my family. This time we went to see Phantom of the Opera, which is a childhood dream come true. As some of you already know my memory is kind of fuzzy when it comes to my childhood. One thing I remember is being a child and looking through the Phantom of the Opera program my mother brought home when she saw it. She would take it away and tell me that it wasn't for me to look at. I would always end up finding it again. It came around here a couple years ago and I wanted to see it but it didn't work out, so when Dad suggested we bring Mom for her birthday. I was on it. We watched the movie the week before and the build up to the day was driving me crazy. I was beyond happy to see it finally and it was AWESOME!!! I enjoyed every minute some parts were slower, but over all it was great. I wanted to get the CD but they wanted $50 insane!!! I'm going to wait and find it here locally for probably $20.

The rest of the day was fun we went to the NBC experience which was neat. We saw where they tape NBC Nightly news, The Jim Fallon Late night show, and Saturday night Live. I don't think it is something I would go to again, but it was neat to experience once. Then I made the family walk 30 blocks to go to a stamp store. The Ink Pad was a cute store and had tons of stamps but it was too much to process and it was too hot really enjoy. I ended up with one stamp that I wanted. I'm not sure if I can convince the family to go again. Probably not. Oh well.

St Patty's day Twinces

2010-02-24T16:40:00.000-08:00

Here are my St. Patty's Day Twincies I did for a Vintage Room Swap. I wasn't sure I was going to get them done because I was feeling kinda blocked. I was a little concerned because the images that I orignally printed were kinda being used by other ladies in the group, I ended up scrapping my orignal game plan and went a totally other way. Of course aside from one. I really think I like what I came up with. This project was kind of a break for me to get my mind off things. Sara's sister Stormy has taken a turn for the worse and most of my day was spend force feeding her a liquid diet. It is not fun to force feed a ferret. I have tried ensure and pedilyte softening her food, just water, chicken baby food she is not interested. I have do to what I have to do to keep her comftable. I have a bad feeling that with in the next couple days Stormy will pass too. It makes me cry just thinking about it but there isn't much I can do. I have give her and Sara a safe and happy home. I'm not sure how their started but I do that the last part of their lives have been good!

Happy to report

2010-02-21T18:29:00.000-08:00

That this little cutie has joined my little ferret family. This past week has been tough on me and the babies. I have been watching them very carefully trying to decide what to do. I started looking at babies online I entertained the idea of bring in rescues again, but its so tough not know there past health history that I didn't want to go there again. So I dragged my dad to a couple pet stores and ended up holding this little guy and falling in love. He is 5 months old and God he's handsome. And I'm using the word little loosely he is HUGE!! He is like I said 5 months old and double the size of his big brother JJ (who is full size). I just love his size I know that's dorky but I'm not sure why I do. I guess its because I know he is able to handle himself. I have a house full of animals as many of you know and I sometimes worry about the bigger animals hurting my ferrets, so I feel like I don't have to worry so much about him. If I remember correctly JJ was only 6 inches or so long when he came home. He has already changed the mood in the cage/my room. Stormy protected him from Penny (my 2 year old beagle) she bit Penny square on the forhead. I haven't seen Stormy move like that ever (let alone use her teeth). Bandit my oldest ferret doesn't seem care either way. JJ on the other I was worried about I have never had two males at the same time. And JJ wasn't been very nice. I haven't had extremely playful ferret before my girls are kind mellow and JJ just kinda follow suit, but the baby came in he has been biting him and pinning him and talking like you wouldn't believe. I have never heard him go on like this before. So at first I would grab by the scruff of his neck and let the baby get away. I woke early this morning to him doing the same thing in the cage so I spilt the cage in two sections so that the baby could sleep. Then today I went my room to check on them cause I have been letting them have the run of my room lately and I found JJ and the baby curled up together in the base of my curtain. Too CUTE for words!! I don't think I have a thing to worry about. A baby boy was just what we needed. I did question it for a minute after I got home. I thought it would make me feel better but after a little while I felt a little empty, but after a little cuddle time with the baby I felt a lot better. We bonded. I have a new cuddler. The cuddler doesn't have a name yet. I'm leaning toward Archer...Cooper...Xavier...or Xander. I haven't decided yet and I want it be just the right name.

Well I've been scrapping

2010-02-17T16:47:00.000-08:00

I felt the need for something different. So I went back to some childhood pictures that I had waiting for pages. So here they are. The first one is actually the last one I did (this evening) I used BG's Color my Silly papers. I used Tim Holtz's foam stamps, ranger paints, cardstock, and watercolor paper. I used a paint brush as an embellishment. It was a fun a different page!

The second page is the first one I did two nights ago. I used a Close to my Heart paper and embellishment kit that I got free awhile ago. I love how the softer colors work with the picture of me as a toddler. I believe the dress I'm wearing in the photo was one of two I wore for my Great Grandma's wedding. She choose one dressed and her Husband to be My great Grandpa Jake choose the other.

The last page is the one I did yesterday I used the new Grace collection from Close to my heart. I paired it with some prima flowers, making memories brads, and American Craft Thickers that I recolored with Close to my heart Twilight ink to match the pages. I had fun doing something a little different and I am happy with the out come.

Thank you my angels

2010-02-17T05:27:00.000-08:00

A women that I have only gotten to meet a couple of times Marilyn made me think today. She asked a simple question "What is an angel? What does that mean to you?" Her defination was spot on for me "To me, an angel, is someone who is kind to people, caring, and warm with a keen sense of humor. Someone we can trust, who has good character and a solid value system who treasures family and friends, loves animals, cares about the environment, enjoys helping people in need." and it got me thinking I don't say thank you to my friends/angels enough so today I want to public say thank you to my friends your are truely my angels you have such kind words for me, have give me confinence, and gave me a profound belief in myself and my own art. I have always wanted to create in some way and settled with scrapbook (which I LOVE), but didn't feel that I was an "Artist" until last year when I was pushed by a very special angel to the Vintage Room. So a big THANK YOU!!!

Well I actually created something

2010-02-14T17:09:00.000-08:00

Well I did some creating yesterday and today. I have been thinking about a canvas piece for awhile inspired by my friend Peggy who quoted Tim Holtz in saying "Never Apologize for Your Art". I got a new book last week that showed how to create wire letters and I formed the letters I needed for the piece. I bought some flat canvas boards from walmart the other day and painted it a dark and light green and stared at the letters sitting on the green canvas for a few days. So as it sat I started thinging about some other projects that I need to work on. So I move on to the LFB page above which I like but it doesn't have the pazz I wanted. So that is sitting on the shelf till I figure it out and I went back to the canvas today with beeswax on the brain. I love the medium!! So I put a sewing pattern over the greens which gave me the aged look I love. Cut up a page of mini collages from K& Company. Stamped my new little girl on to sewing pattern and used one of my paper roses and some do dads and placed my words in the wax. I love this reminder piece!! I will look at it and remember that my art is my art and I should embrace the good with the not so good and continue creating. In other news I have been spending a lot of free time with the ferrets cause they need it. I have given them weekend to rest, so that I can start all over with play time tomorrow. Here are a couple pictures from play time last week. JJ the lighter ferret likes to steal toys and hide them under the bed and I guess size doesn't matter. I bought them a fun toy that is a big lady bug wtih a pocket for them to hide in/sleep in and some balls that make noise and then there is a bar that goes over it that has a couple toys hanging down. JJ just love to take it by the attached toys and try to pull it under the bed to hide it. I play tug-a-war with him. Its nice bonding time. Stormy is the other ferret picture she hasn't been doing well in the loss of her sis. She plays for a little while and then climbs up into the cage or finds a place in my room to go back to sleep. I feel really bad for her but I pull her out of her hiding spot and try my hardest to get her to play for awhile more. I last for a few rounds of this before I give up and let her go to sleep. What can I do?? There are no pictures of my oldest ferret Bandit because she is naked due to anderline diesase. She lost all her hair but she functions like normal she is way to old for a ferret to have the surgery required to fix it, so I figure what's not broke don't fix it. So we are still hurting over the loss of Saratoga Hollner (yes her full proper name was Saratoga because we got her from Albany Saratoga Speedway at an adoption Clinic) but I think we will heal and maybe someday soon someone new will enter the ferret cage. Its just not going to be too soon.

i was hoping...

2010-02-11T17:03:00.000-08:00

I was hoping that I would do something creative today something more postive to share, but notta. I started a canvas piece but it didn't get very far. I'm just feeling drained still. I have been trying to go through my daily routine adding some extra time for the remaining ferrets. Although they haven't really been feeling it either. The girls just wander for a little while then climb back into the cage and go to sleep. JJ (my male) has been loving it. He and I have been playing from one end of my room to the other. They even got a bath this morning. I'm trying to keep them busy because they are just as affected by thier sister's death as I am. Aside from possible introducing a new sibling I don't really know what to do. I just want to wait awhile before bring in someone new. Only time will tell what happens next.

It's a sad day here

2010-02-10T12:15:00.000-08:00

Well this is one of those life moments I hate. I am a proud ferret mama each of my four ferrets mean the world to me and it hurts me to watch them in pain. Over the last year or so Sara one of my rescue ferrets has been having seizures that slowly lasted longer and longer and happen more and more frequently. To be honest I think it was in the last few months that they really started happening. I suspected she had some form of cancer and decided that I would just let her be where she wanted to be with her ferret siblings in the safety of her own home instead of letting a vet poke and prod at her. I went through that with my first ferret a few years ago and didn't really want to do it again. As soon as I took him to the vet he went down hill fast (and by fast I mean from normal to extremely ill in the matter of a day). So Sara's seizures were handled well on my bed as I thought about wether or not I was doing the right thing. Yesterday was the worest one yet about 2 to 3 hours she just laid on my bed unable to move with off and on seizures. I made her comfortable and cried through most of it, telling her it was ok and that her big brother was waiting for her in heaven. She snapped out of it wanted to run around so I returned her to her siblings to do what she wanted. I went to the store and she was fine before I left, then I can home let all of them out of the cage to play and they had a ball at the end of play time Sara and Bandit decided to take a nap and curled up in a blanket on the floor. I returned all four ferrets to the cage and fussed over them a little before going to my aunt's house for tea with my parents. I came home and checked again Sara seemed fine so I let her be and went to watch tv on the couch as I do every night. Around 11o'clock I went in to my room to get ready for bed and before doing anything I checked on Sara... I picked her up out of the cage. She seemed like she was sleeping (she usually seems like dead weight when sleeping) I laid her on the floor and just stared at her to see if she was breathing and sadly she was not. I found a box placed a towel in it and laid her as comfy as I could inside closed the lid and got ready for bed with tears in my eyes. I have been wrestling with the idea of bringing her to the vet but didn't want to make the choice for her. She needed to go on her terms (in my mind). I slid the box under the cage for the night before going to bed I checked one more time I thought maybe I was crazy maybe she was breathing I just didn't see it or I blinked but I wasn't. My baby was gone. I of course have mixed feelings I'm sad to lose a member of my family and a dear friend, but I was happy that she was no longer suffering. I am going to share some pictures of my dear Sara on her last day curled up on my bed with me she was tired, it was during one of her good moments and anyone that knows ferrets knows that they don't really stay still long enough to take pictures. She looked so cute curled up in her little ball on my bed. I could help but want a picture.

Love Blocks and Paper Roses

2010-02-06T19:28:00.000-08:00

I have been working very hard on these 2x2 blocks. I'm not going to give you every side because it would be picture overload and I don't feel like uploading all of it tonight. Blogger needs to do something alittle different for their picture up load I don't like the current one. Any who I also created a bunch of Paper roses. I was told that I could create the Tim Holtz grudge paper roses using water color paper. So I borrowed a similar flower punch to the diecut that Tim uses and went to work. I played with color, stamping, and glimmer to get different effects. I really love making these, but I dont' have the patience to wait for them to dry, but it didn't much matter if they were still a little wait. Here are my pretty creations.

Artful day

2010-01-30T19:12:00.000-08:00

Ok well I can't get the hang of the new way blogger is which is disappointing. I want things a certain way and it wont let me do it how I want. Oh well. Well today was nice time with some art friends then I went home and visited with my uncles, my aunt, my one uncles girlfriend and my little cousins, so over all today was a good day. Today was my best friends birthday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY Tabitha!!! It was a nice time creating with my friends from the vintage room. I got a lot started then after my uncles left I did some finishing. We created 1 inchie block and one twincie block. I had all my images planned out then came home and did some embellishing. I left the party with a warm feeling and I enjoy every minute I spend with my art friends... I guess I shouldn't just call them they are my friends. Which in my world means so much more. Anyway. When I got home I played with my little projects and then remember that at the last gathering I started another inchie block and never finished so what did I do. I finished so now now half finished art sitting around its all finished for the most part. I am very proud today.

*** I just wanted to let you know I used my new Tim Holtz Disstress crackle rock candy on the bigger block. The stuff is amazing. It gives awesome texture to and flat surface and gives pictures that little bit more. I also think its neat that it flakes in sections to give that little bit more aging. Tim Holtz you are amazing!

Valentine's and Winter theme

2010-01-22T11:15:00.000-08:00

I have been busy today finishing up some projects one of which is due next weekend. Besides that I haven't really done much today because I spent all day yesterday for company my parents were having over, so my house is already pretty clean. This morning didn't start out so well. I awoke to my bedroom a lot colder then it should have been. I over heard my parents disscussing the furnace and decided it would be a good idea to stay where I was. Warm under the covers with Penny and Raven. I got up at my usual time and got ready for the day as my mother waited for the repair guy, who couldn't repair our furance she went off to work some time later and I got to wait for the second repair guy, so what else can I do but sit in my craft room with a cup of tea and create. I completed these two pieces. The First is my LFB page for next month's meeting with the ladies can you tell I can't wait to go back I already complete the page for it which I normally wait till the last second. I am beyond inspired by Valentine's day. I love the Reds and pinks it means we are getting closer to spring and color in the world no more bare trees, cold weather and snow. Don't get me wrong I like snow just can't wait for it to be gone. So lots of V-day art to come!!

The other project has been kinda hanging over my head for awhile. It is an altered Chipboard mitten. I love the idea just not the idea of create something celebrating the cold. I just didn't feel it... I think it is not my best work. I have moments where I feel this way. I don't even know if I want to trade it because to be honest I wouldn't want my own in return. If that makes sense. I already had the front started so I kinda had to stick with it. I thought about doing a valentine's themed mitten but that would mean starting over and I don't want to start over!! So here it is my boring altered mitten.

A Quick pop in

2010-01-21T12:30:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to pop in and share my LFB page I did for Little Fat Book Club. I really feel I over thought the concept. The only requirement was that we had to have something move. I wanted to do some sort of spinner, but just couldn't figure out how to do it with in the 4x4 so that when the person received they could put their holes where they wanted. So I decided to do simple pull outs that I also altered into mini colleges. I kinda like it but it isn't what I orignally wanted. I was lucky that Tabitha recieved because I forgot to take pictures of it, so I asked her do it for me. On to the next theme... Angels, Cupid, "winged Beings" Valentine's. should be interesting.

Valentine's Day LFB pages

2010-01-20T09:04:00.000-08:00

Well yesterday evening I spent some time at my local stamp store Stampassion and did some creating. It was a wonderful evening that got me out of the house for a couple of hours and allowed me to visit with some friends (old and new). And by old I mean friends I have only known for a year or so but couldn't imagine life without now. Now normally when I visit the ladies for LFBC I don't get much done. I use it as a social time and get easily distracted by all the goodies in the store, but last night was an unusual evening I guess. I completed 2 LFB pages. One for my self you can see on the left and one for a trade the one below. The theme for the trade was Valentine's day and we had to include three inchies from other artist. I find it fun to create a two part trade. Something different. I'm always looking for something different it keeps me creating.

Well I'm off to do some organizing in my scrapbook room maybe some purging. I might start a new friend on scrapbooking and I love to pass stuff off to the next person who will use it cause I'm not. Enjoy and keep on crafting!!!

Finished Product

2010-01-14T17:10:00.000-08:00

Okay I decided to finish my recycled LFB page I like it but don't. What can I do, sometimes I love 'em and sometimes I don't. Oh well.

Possible Recycle LFB page

2010-01-12T18:10:00.000-08:00

I didn't tape anything down. I am just playing, the swap that it is for is a Recycle theme. It needs to be 80% recycled. I'm not sure if I love it. I like the concept, I like the simplity, but I have a slight problem with the Monocromatic color scheme. It is something I have never really done before, so I think I'm unsure because of my inexperience with it.

Paris Finally

2010-01-11T18:35:00.000-08:00

Well after hours of sitting in my craft room I have finally came up with my Paris ATCs. Yippie I am very happy, so happy in fact I created an extra cause I wanted one for myself!!

Who knew...

2010-01-11T06:30:00.001-08:00

Something so small could make such a big mess.

This is Tabitha fault. I was playing around last night and getting frustrated that I could not produce three concepts for three atc in our Effil Tower swap, so I decided to play with my new valentine's day supplies I picked up yesterday when I went to Micheal's with my grandmother. So I created a couple inchies which lead to more inchies and in total I ended up creating 9 inchies last night. So in total in the last two weeks I have created 15 valentine's day inchies. Addicted for the moment much. lol

Fabulous 50s swap

2010-01-10T16:08:00.001-08:00

I have been feeling a slight block the last week or so... but that could be due to the fact that I have been creating for a baby shower mentioned in my previous post. So I have been sitting in my craft room the last couple of days playing with a Paris swap but didn't get anywhere I wanted with it. So today I went to Micheal's and picked up some new products to push me in the right direction. I have picked up some valentine's day stuff for some valentine's stuff I want to create, new cool stamps set with an Eiffel tower on it to use in my Eiffel tower/Paris swap and some really cool recipe cards with 50s ladies on them with cool saying to use in a fabulous 50s swap. I didn't want to seem like I copied my besties so left out the saying and used DCWV Mod(?) stack paper with cool retro sayings like "gee whiz" and "Oh, heavens to Betsy". They are not my favorite cards i have done but they came out cute. I'm hoping this is a step in the right direction as far as my block.

Baby Shower

2010-01-10T15:44:00.000-08:00

The invite

The Front of the center piece topper

The Back of the center piece topper

Side view

A side/front view

Thank you cards

The last couple weeks have been creatively consumed by a friend of mine's baby shower. I am helping her sister plan and create center pieces, invites, thank you cards, and favors. The party isn't for awhile but we wanted to get the creative stuff done before moving on to other things. We have designed and created 80 invitations, 14 centerpiece toppers and we started the thank you cards this past friday. It has been alot of fun creating with the mommy and Auntie to be. Lilly-Jaye (the baby) will have the best baby shower ever and she will know that she is very loved by all involved.

Yippie I created some art

2010-01-06T13:35:00.000-08:00

Well I said I was gonna get back to work in my art studio and I tried. I sat there for awhile the other day... and nothing I pulled stuff out and looked at mags for inspiration... nothing. so I did what I normally do when I'm not inspired I walked away and bummed around for a couple of days then created 80 invitations for a baby shower for a friend with my mom, said friend's sister and my bestie Tabitha. I'm proud of them but I really wanted to do something in the altered art relem of things. Well today I decided was the day. I took apart my vaccum and cleaned, vaccumed my rugs, did some dishes, played with the dog, cut the cats nails, uploaded pictures to facebook and then I finally made myself go in to my art room and start working. I picked out the images, stamps and anything valentine's day-ish and started to play. I have only done inches once before at christmas time and Tabitha told me the rule of thumb was an image, a word, and a little do-dad (aka gem, etc) to me this concept is too simple. I of course had a hard time going from a 12x12 page to an 8x8 page, then 8x8 to 6x6 as a scrapbooker then Tabitha pushed me to play with 2 1/2x 3 ATC then of course LFB which are 4x4 and now 1x1. So after making my first one for this swap I thought that was too simple so I gave myself I little challenge. The six inches I needed to make needed to be contected some how so I came up with "Love is..." each inchies includes a word that completes that sentance. And yes those words are no completely true in the real world cause nothing is perfect. lol, but it work with my concept. Enjoy my "Love is..." inchies and hopeful I will be posting more art this evening and then again maybe not. TTYL

Back to Work

2009-12-29T15:24:00.000-08:00

I'm back in the scrapbook room working on altered art. Yippie!! I'm glad to finally feel like I can create something!