My Fauxdori Insert

 This is super simple, but I thought I would share…I made a Fauxdori for myself, and wanted to make an insert that had flip out pages.  This is what I did.  I took an 8 1/2" x 11" paper, and on the 11" side I did the following:

 Score at 4 1/4"

Score at 7 3/4"

Fold like so, so that the 4 1/4" panel is on one side and the shorter panel folds into the center.

 I layered them so that they alternated, like in the above picture.

 I got my handy-dandy long arm power stapler (That I LOVE and highly recommend you get if you don't have one), and stapled in the fold line.  The red stop make the staple line perfectly lined up.

Then just insert into your Fauxdori and enjoy your new notebook!

Stay crafty and organized, my friends!

My Craft Room is Evolving!

 I just wanted to share some changes I made in my craft room.  This corner got an addition of the cubed organizer that I found at Michael's on clearance.  I love it because it has doors, so it looks "finished".  The only drawback is that it isn't very sturdy, so very heavy things can't go in it.  But, for some extra storage it works great.  Right now I only have some embroidery floss in it…more will be coming.

 Here is a picture of that corner of the room.  The drawers on the left hold all of my punches, with my binding stuff on top.  The drawers on the right hold all of my stamps with my die cutting stuff on top.  I had a peg board of Spellbinders by my worktable, but I moved it over to the side of the drawers with my Cuttlebug.  I think it makes more sense to have them together.

My worktable was added onto with another shelving unit from Ikea.  I laid it on its side, and put it beside my desk to add more workspace and more storage.  It works out very nicely!

 I have a sewing table now, also from Ikea.  I love having my machine out all of the time.  I am working on finishing a puff pillow quilt for my son.  You can see it folded up on the table.  I have storage under the table, and used a curtain I made, attached with Command hooks to cover it up.  It looks much nicer!

 This is my new shelving unit I got at a local Fred Meyer.  It is a closet organizer.  I put it at the end of my desk for storage of my planner stuff.  I need one more green drawer though!

 Of course, I had to tweak it a little bit more...

 I used Command hooks and bins to organize my camera, cords, etc.  It is a great spot, and highly accessible while I am working on my computer.

This is where my dies used to hang, but now I use the space for my blades and accessories for my paper trimmers.  It made more sense!

That's my new organization for now.

Thanks for coming by, and remember to stay crafty!!!

Finally…I have done the MAKE A MINI ALBUM TUTORIAL, Parts 5 and 6!!! AND 7!!!

I have finally got the videos going again.  YAY ME!!  I did two videos and you can see them if you click the links below.  I cover all of the remaining pages.  I still have a video to do on the back cover piece, and decorating.  But, the base pages are done!!  Thanks for being so patient with me!!

Make a Mini Album Part 5, Pages 2-5

Make a Mini Album Part 6, Page 5

EDITED TO ADD:  

I just finished Part 7, the back cover interactive piece.  Please come and check it out!!  Make a Mini Album Part 7, Back Cover Interactive Piece

If you want to see the other videos, here are the links:

Make a Mini Album Part 1

Make a Mini Album Part 2

Make a Mini Album Part 3

Make a Mini Album Part 4


Stay Crafty, My Friends!!

A pretty new desk blotter idea

This is my desktop.  It's organized, but it is kind of a mess.  My desk blotter needs help, and that is what this post is about.  But first...

 I just wanted to show you my desk corner.  Along with some of my favorite pictures of my family…I have Daryl Dixon.  Santa was nice enough to put him in my stocking this year.  Yay me!  But, I digress...

 This is my blotter.  It is a giant gridded notepad.  I love the idea of having a space to jot things down when I don't know if they belong in my planner, or I don't know where they belong yet.  But then there are sticky notes on it.  I colored some stickers so I have some residual of that on there…not too pretty.  I had an idea.

 I got out my washi tape and went to work making my paper pretty.  I decided to make boxes, in case I need to categorize my little notes.  I think this is funny, really, because this blotter is for quick notes, and here I am, with my planner OCD, and I want to make it organized.  LOL!

After I did that, I found these ladybug stickers and decided to use them up.  Now my blotter is gorgeous!

Thanks for looking.

Stay crafty, and organized, my friends!

December ARC Planner Pages

Happy New Year!  

I hope everyone had a wonderful December full of love and fun!  We sure did.  We had so much fun this December visiting with our family.  It was so nice to have all of our children and our 4 grandchildren in the same house at the same time!  I'm so glad we moved so we had room to accommodate that!!

I have been behind on any sort of crafting/blogging/tutorial-ing!!!  I am going to try to get caught up now.  Today we are going to see my December pages.  I am going to finish the book making tutorial this month.  Then, when I get the December Daily done, I will show you that.  Bear with me.  I am trying to get everything done.  It seems that time is flying away from me a lot faster these days.

This is the start of December.  After I decorated it, I realized I should have done a Christmas theme.  Oops.

 Getting ready for the kids and grandkids to show up.  We had no vacation time this year during December, so it was hard.  That's why things are so blank in my planner.  I worked too much.

 I am playing with different configurations on my notes page.  I am thinking about changing it up, but I haven't come up with a definite plan yet.

All of the stickers came from my stash.  It is a mix-match of a bunch of different things.  I, of course, just last night found some awesome Santa stickers that were hidden.  I was bummed, but I guess there is always next year.

Stay crafty, and organized, my friends!!

November ARC Planner Pages

Hi, Everyone!!  I hope you are ready for Christmas…Because I'm NOT!  It's coming faster than I can deal with and working full time is really getting in the way of me being prepared!  I don't know where the time has gone!

I am totally late on getting videos done for my mini album project, but I am trying really hard to get them done.  Please bear with me.  I am so sorry it's taking so long.

In the meantime, here are my November ARC Planner pages.

This week was the week that Jackie and I went to the Creating Keepsakes Convention in Seattle.  I didn't take my planner with me, so it is a little sparse.

 This week was my birthday week, so I decorated accordingly.

 I didn't know what to do with this week.  I just rummaged through my stash of planner goodies and chose this decorative tape.

Thanksgiving week.  I, again, really didn't know what to do with it.  I obviously didn't use it very much this week.  I was too busy to plan!!!  I am hoping that December pages are better for your viewing pleasure!!

Have a great day, and remember to stay crafty!

Make a Mini Album, Part 4 (Cover Decoration and Page 1)

Part 4 of the series is available on my You Tube Channel!

I go over the cover decoration and how I made the first page.  

Please come on over and check it out!!!

Stay Crafty, My Friends!

Make a Mini Album Series

Hi all, I am FINALLY making that mini album series that I have been promising you!  YAY!!

There are three parts for the Binding and Cover…the videos are on You Tube and you can click on the links below to watch them.  Please be gentle, it is "live" and I made some boo boo's, but I think it came out OK.  I do have to say that I need desperately to get a real video camera set up.  My iPhone is just not exactly what I need, but it is what I have for the time being.

Make a Mini Album, Part 1

Make a Mini Album, Part 2

Make a Mini Album, Part 3

Thanks for watching, and remember to stay crafty, my friends!!

Happy Birthday, Cooper!!

My grandson turned 6 a little bit ago, and I decided to make him this special card for his special day.

I found it on the Silhouette site, and it was so fun and easy to put together!!  I has a lot of parts, and did take a little bit of time, but the time was well worth it, because it turned out soooooo cute!!

This firetruck is awesome!!  It says "Sound the Alarm" on it.  On the back of the card, I put a piece of white card stock so that Grandpa and I could sign it.

I love these 3D box cards that fold up so you can mail them.  I needed to create an envelope for it, however, because it is HUGE!

Here is the envelope I made to match it.

Thanks for looking…Stay crafty, my friends!

October ARC Planner Pages

I just thought I would share with you all my October pages.  I tried to decorate them with a Halloween theme this month, because, well, I love Halloween.  This year is a bit more tame than previous years.  This move thing has really put a damper on any sort of free time fun that I may have enjoyed for Halloween in the past.  But, the house stuff is over now.  Until the very next day, then another "surprise" befell us.  Read on…I'll explain in a few pics.

For this page I had a lot going on, so I added this printable I found online to chart out all of the things I needed and wanted to do that day.  Then I just folded it up and stuck it in the planner.  It was out of the way, but I could still access the whole page when I needed to.  Don't you love how the ARC is so easily customized?  If you want to get this lovely bit of organizational heaven, you can find the printable here at The Creativity Exchange.

 On this one, I has made a list at work of things I needed to do and remember using my little notepad that I made to carry in my pocket at work.  I brought it home and stuck it in my planner.  I also had seen somewhere on the net, about using post its folded, with a little "tab" sticking out to write the topic of what was inside.  It hides what you wrote, leaves you a "title" of what is in there, but is folded so it doesn't take up a lot of room.  To apologize for not having the source.  I'll try to find it and edit the post with the information of who came up with this.  But it worked and it was excellent for what I wrote on the inside.  :)

 My eyeball tape page…I love this one because it was very colorful.  On this one I was playing with a section on the right side for my meal planning and blog planning needs.  I have a blog planner but it is big and cumbersome, so I am entertaining other ideas for this planning.  I am not sure what to do at this point.  Just testing things at this time.  

Do you see the drawing on Saturday?  A tree fell on my son's mobile home during a severe rain/wind storm.  It landed perfectly onto his bedroom, crushing the back end of the home.  He was in the kitchen, having just got home from work.  Had he been there, it would have crushed him.  HE IS OK, and that is all that matters!!!  He usually comes home from work and takes a nap, since he has to get up at 3 am.  He hadn't done it yet.  I am so thankful that my boy is OK!!!  So, now we are trying to clean up and get the insurance folks out to see it and help us out.  There was so much damage that they are calling it a catastrophe, and calling in other adjusters from other states…too many people have had this problem.  I haven't heard of injuries though, and that is GOOD!  

So, I will be late on my tutorial that I keep saying I am going to do, since we are busy helping him.  He is staying with us, since we moved we have ROOM now!  That is a blessing!!  The project I am doing is cut out and ready.  When I get a minute to breathe, I will get it done for you.  Thanks for being patient.

This is the current week.  I am trying another layout for blog planning.  I started working on this page last Sunday, so it is more full now.  I'm not digging the blog planner side, as you can see, it has room for one post, not two, and I wanted to do this one today.  Hummmmm…I will keep working on it. 

That's all I have today.  Have a great day.  Stay safe.  Have a Happy Halloween.  And…

Stay Crafty, My Friends!!

EZ File Folder Mini Album

Hi all!!!  I have an awesome album to share with you today.  It is from a tutorial by Elsa of Just a Few Designs.  She has a great video tutorial on You Tube that you can see here.  

I made this using an old collection of Halloween papers.  Since we have been so busy working on the new house and selling the old house, I haven't been out to buy new stuff in ages.  This paper, by My Mind's Eye, is awesome though, and I love how it turned out.

This album is made with a manilla file folder and some chipboard.  It's very simple and easy to put together.  I did a video share and you can see it here.    The video goes over all of the flips and pockets. It's a great book, and I plan on making MORE!!!

Please check out Elsa's video and check out what I did with her tutorial and then MAKE ONE and share with us!!!

Stay crafty, my friends!!

Another Button Farm Book Share!

 I made this kit…I needed a project to do so that I could get my creative juices flowing.  It has been really hard with the move to get my mojo working again.  I am trying, but I think exhaustion is taking a toll on me.  I love Button Farm kits, and I have several…I thought that I would make one and maybe it would help.  I could be creative by doing one of these fantastic books!  It was so much fun to make!

I love the October Afternoon papers…right up my alley with the whole day planner/work theme.  I was thinking that I would make it into an internet site password keeper…but the pages are so full of awesome (but bulky) embellishments that I won't have enough room for extra pages…so I have to rethink this plan.

It sure turned out beautiful and I loved the complete and super easy to follow directions.  Button Farm knows how to put together a quality kit that is fun and easy to do.

Go check them out…The Button Farm has past kits from their kit club available, and you can enroll in a kit club if you wish.  There are so many awesome kits to choose from!

Stay crafty, my friends!

Button Farm Kit Share

 I bought this kit back in November of 2011.  I have had it half made for about 6 months.  I had to put it away because of the move, but I finally was able to get it finished and off of my "To Do" list.

 The box holds the mini album inside.  It is so pretty!

 I used some scraps from the kit and finished the inside of the box.

 The album is an accordion album, with two mini albums attached to the inside of two pages.  There is a lot of room for pictures in this project.

Check out The Button Farm's page for more kits to purchase.  I have several and I have NEVER been disappointed!  They are remarkable…tons of supplies, excellent instructions.  I will buy more in the future!

Stay Crafty, My Friends!