A Creative Operation

A Birthday Card for Madie

2012-03-02T01:00:00.000-08:00

My niece is turning 17, and I thought I would use some of this GORGEOUS paper from Colorbok to make her this card.

I had these 6x6" gatefold cards. I used punch outs from the paper line for the banner on the envelope. The butterfly is from my paper bag spray catching. I used some bling for the butterfly. The yellow flowers are Prima, I think, the crocheted one is from this papers line of embellishments.

I added the pocket on the inside for the money she is going to get. SHHHH, don't tell her!

Stay crafty!!

Art Journal Page #6

2012-02-29T06:46:00.000-08:00

This page is a variety of new things that I tried. I put watercolor on the page, then spread it around with a wet paintbrush. I tried to used some masks and spray Glimmer mist over them, but it didn't work too well. Lesson learned. I used a template and distress ink to create the circles. Then I added words I cut from a magazine and some punched flowers that I doodled in. Then I stamped some images of writing. This is where I discovered that my ink pad is in much need of replacing. I think it actually turned out OK. It was fun to do, and I learned a couple of lessons along the way. What do you think?

Stay Crafty, My Friends!

Live Out Lout Mini Album, Part Two

2012-02-27T05:16:00.000-08:00

OK, here it goes...Part Two of my mini. I am going to show you the finished product today.

The butterflies are cut from paper bags that I use to contain the spray when I do my spray inking. I thought the layers of ink and glitter were super pretty and decided not to let that go to waste. The flowers and die cut are from the paper line Antique Paperie by Colorbok. I added the buttons and the foil stickers (from K and Co.).

Here is a side view of it. The yellow flowers are by Prima. The fabric buttons are by the Colorbok line.

I got rub ons from this paper line, and these die cuts are also from the line. I layered 4 of them to create a pocket.

These tags are what I put in the pocket. They back can be used for photos or journaling.

The next page.

And the tags in those pockets. Again, the flower pocket is layered diecuts. The envelope came with this line as well. I added the key diecut into the pocket, I made the tag out of scrap paper and the ticket is two stickers stuck to eachother. You can see the tags peaking out of the inside middle pockets. I will show you those later.

The next page...I used a die cut "Memories" to create another pocket.

And the tags in those pockets.

The last page, the inside back of the book. More pockets.

More tags. These all came from this line of paper. Isn't it delicious?!

Two of these tags were created from the packaging of the diecuts and such that I bought with the line. The other two are scrap papers. These tags are in the top loading pockets of the pages created by the folding of the base grocery bag paper.

These tags are journaling tags from the line, and some more scrap paper and packaging. They go into the side loading middle pocket on each side. I fit three tags in each one.

Well, that's it. If you have any questions please let me know!

Stay Crafty!

Live Out Loud Mini Album, Part One

2012-02-24T05:39:00.000-08:00

I made another mini album using a variation on my Double Zine Fold. This tutorial and mini you can see here. I thought about how I could use the same concept to make a sort of "gatefold" mini. I also incorporated some recycling in this project, using an oversized grocery bag for the base of the book. I am going to do this in two parts, the first being how I made it, the second, the final embellishment of it.

I recycled a very tall grocery bag for this project. I cut out the bottom and made it one long piece, then folded it lengthwise to make a long skinny piece. Then I did a little measuring and created two zine folds, one on each side, with a 1" spine piece. Each side is four "sections" and the spine piece.

This shows the folded piece, after cutting the two midsections on each side.

All folded up.

It is hard to see, but the parts that become the front and back covers are 1/2" longer than the inside pages, so that I could utilize the middle pocket created by the fold on the inside. You will get two top loading pockets and one side loading middle pocket on each side of the mini.

After folding and gluing, I inked the book.

I found these GORGEOUS papers from Colorbok called Antique Paperie at Jo Ann's. OMG...Love this line! The closure is seam binding by 7 Gypsies.

This is the first opening...

Then the first page opened,

The second page opened,

And the third.

On the next post, I will show the finished project. I think it turned out beautiful. The final dimensions are 7 1/2" tall by 4 3/4" wide. It has so many tags that you won't believe it. I also used some interesting recycling ideas for filling it and decorating it. If you have any questions about how I made the base book, please let me know.

Stay tuned, and stay crafty!

Art Journal Page #5

2012-02-22T14:30:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to do a little tangling on this page. I love doing this Zentangle work. It is relaxing and fun. I have not taken any classes, only learned from the multiple artists and posts I have seen online. I also have some of the books about Zentangle. I think it turned out kind of cool. What do you think?

Stay Crafty, My Friends!

A Baby Album

2012-02-20T05:39:00.000-08:00

We have some friends who are expecting their first baby, and after seeing the UStream Class by Laura from Following the Paper Trail, I had to make an album for them! I used the Simple Stories papers and cardstock by Bazzill.

I love the colors in this line of baby papers!

It is a paper bag book with her "Stack the Deck" binding. The bags are done in such a way to make the pockets on the edge of the bag.

Each bag has three pockets, each of the outer pockets have a cardstock tag, sized to fit a 4x6" photo, and a journaling tag from the paper line.

Each of the inner pockets has two cardstock tags that also fit a 4x6" photo, and I did a little decorative punching with my Fiskars edge punch.

Six bags in all...36 tags in all. I think it turned out cute!

Stay Crafty, My Friends!

An Update on my Recipe Index Binder

2012-02-17T05:37:00.000-08:00

I made this double-three-ring binder to use as an index for my recipes. I just wanted to show you what it's starting to look like. I have about half of my favorite recipes and their locations in this book, and I have already used it. I just put the name in the book, where it is located, and now I can find them so easily!

This book is working out great!!! It is making it sooooooo much easier to find my recipes now. I could remember what the recipe was, but where it was had become such a problem.

Stay Crafty (and Hungry), My Friends!

Purse Sized Notebooks

2012-02-15T07:47:00.000-08:00

I have seen notebooks made out of bingo cards all over the place, and now I have one of my own (and so does Jackie!). I got some cards in grab bags and I went through my "found papers" and made up these little goodies! They measure 4 1/2" by 5 1/2" total, the pages are quarter-letter size.

I used the paper doilies I punched a while ago, and inked them. I layered them with a doily punch I just got from EK Success, and then layered some vintage bottle caps that I got in a grab bag as well. The label is a Tim Holtz ruler sticker with some Adorn It letter stickers. I used book rings to bind it and a little ribbon to decorate them.

For the inside I added a library pocket with a card, and a Tim Holtz ticket.

Thanks for looking, and remember to stay crafty!

Recycled Greeting Card Journal

2012-02-13T05:36:00.000-08:00

I found the coolest tutorial from Jennibellie here, on YouTube, and I just had to do it. She makes the most awesome journals for art journaling. I love this!

I used some page kits I bought from DCWV, called "A Colorful Life". I thought it was super appropriate for this project.

The binding can either be beaded or not, and I decided to raid my stash and use up A BUNCH of my funky cool beads.

I layered some images from the paper line on the cover, and added some of the epoxy stickers to it.

Some of the cards make pages, and some create pockets. She shows some of her pages painted, some covered with paint. I chose to make them all covered with this delicious paper.

In the pockets she puts mini journals. She did tutorials on several different ways to make a mini journal. I did paint the pages for this one. I totally just experimented. These turned out cool. These are also made out of greeting cards.

Some of the pages.

I need to make the rest of the mini journals to go in the pockets, but you get the idea. I love how this turned out. My first thought is to put my favorite quotes into this journal. Your thoughts?

Stay Crafty!!

Mini Junk Journal Organizer

2012-02-10T05:43:00.000-08:00

I am doing another swap on Mini Album Scraps, and this is the result of my efforts!

We were supposed to create a mini organizer, that uses 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" pages, has 4 dividers, and a minimum of 50 pages (which includes dividers, pockets, etc). The base colors are supposed to be neutral (black, brown, off white, white) and our partner picks an "accent" color we are to use for the book. We were also not to use a lot of embellishments, unless they were paper, so that the book would be flat and easily fit into a purse without damage.

Valentina, from Quebec, is my partner. She said she loves vintage, pastel, cream and teal. She also likes flowers and fairies. This is what I came up with.

Inside the front and back cover I used a coin envelope and stamped 2 tags to go in them. I made 4 dividers and tabs so she can write whatever she wants on them. I also covered 4 binder clips with coordinating papers, and put one on each divider.

This is hard to see, but the black page is a pocket page...

One side is empty, but the other has a library card with a punched butterfly. I put 10 pages of plain paper in each section, and stamped the front of them with something. Some are word stamps, some are flowers, some are flourishes...

In between the 10 pages I put one card that I covered with paper on the back.

I also have large tags that I folded up, secured with decorative paper tape, and created pockets for two tags. I inked hole reinforcers to use for them as well.

Each of these tags are stamped on the back. Oh, I also inked all of the pages except for the plain ones.

The back of the tag page, and the next divider.

This pocket page is different in that I added another piece of paper inside of the fold to create a second pocket. I did this with 2 of the 4 pocket pages I made.

These tags are in these double pocket pages, and I put some on the other side as well.

Thanks for looking, and wish me luck, I sure hope Valentina likes it!

Stay crafty, my friends!

Art Journal Page Number 4

2012-02-08T07:57:00.000-08:00

There's No Place Like Home! This was inspired from a rather stressful grocery shopping trip in which I swear I was having a panic attack from all of the people! I also used a saying that is on a magnet that my daughter-in-law has on her fridge.

On this page I tried the method of spreading paint around with an old credit card. I knew I saved those fake plastic ones they send you in the mail for something! After I painted, I glued on some butterflies punched from pages from an old book. I cut out images I had in my stash from an old Daisy D's line. I added the fun sticker cows, and stamped the words. I drew "flight" swirlies and the music for the bird. I had a doily that I Glimmer Misted for a project and then never used, so I thought it made a good sun. I have to admit, when I first painted the page, I had no idea where it was going, but then I went shopping...

Stay crafty, my friends!

Strathmore Pad Mini Album

2012-02-06T01:00:00.000-08:00

I found a cool way to make a mini album, and I am going to show you what I did with it. I found a tutorial here, by Paperkitz, on YouTube. Then, I went straight to Michael's and bought the sketch pad.

I used a Webster's Pages Farmer's Market paper pack for this book, although I did add 2 papers from Basic Grey because I needed a few more pieces than I had. For the cover I used some Bazzill chipboard letters, Recollections bling, Petaloo flowers, and a Recollections Butterfly. It is soooo dimensional!

Another view...

This is going to be picture heavy, sorry!

Some pages are just left without any pockets, and covered. She shows how to make a trifold page, and I put a butterfly punch out to create a pull tab.

Some pages have pockets...

This page on the right is folded so that the other side has another interactive piece.

Here is that page opened.

She shows also how to make the long, skinny pockets.

This page is folded, then adhered to another page, creating a fold out and a pocket.

And another one on the other side. Another long pocket also.

This fold out has a pocket with a tag.

This pocket is a diagonal one. I inked everything with Distress Ink, and used a MS edge punch for a lot of the tags.

This little mini pocket is cool...here it is, just sitting there looking cute...

Then it opens to the right, and there is a pocket...

Then it flips up.

This is a double layered pocket.

And a little mini pocket fold page.

Another trifold page.

Another long pocket.

This trifold page is adhered to the page on the left, so it creates a pocket also.

There it is! This is going to my son's girlfriend. I am going to fill it with our family favorite recipes. And, yes, she asked me for them! LOL!
Stay Crafty, My Friends!

Art Journal Page, Number 3

2012-02-03T05:43:00.000-08:00

I am learning some new techniques. I don't think I like this page, it came out a lot darker than I would have liked. Oh well, that is why they call it learning. I tried the techniques I read by Traci Bunkers in Pages magazine. I put some clippings of flowers on the page, then I painted the page with purple acrylic paint mixed with water, then used some blue. After it dried, I tried to use the bubble wrap technique, I need some practice with that. I used some $1 stamps from Michael's also.

I did the title with stickers, then hand wrote the entries for the day. I did the "Currently" type of journaling that is all over the net. I can't seem to find where it originally started, but I first saw it on Creativity Prompt. My stamp pad is needing some reinking, too.

I highlighted the topics in black and white boxes.

So, that's it for this one. I am having fun with this, and am enjoying this so much. I am learning, so I am hoping this will get better, and easier for me. I think the next page is going to be the credit card - scrape the paint around technique. Wish me luck.

Stay crafty, My Friends!

Double Zine Fold Mini Album, Part Two

2012-02-01T08:31:00.000-08:00

Here is the finished album!

I had leftover papers from a Button Farm Kit that I had bought, so I thought I would use it up. I also had some dimensional stickers from K and Co. and a Jolee's Passport book that I used as well. The tags are from a LSS and the seam binding is from 7 Gypsies.

Here is the other side of the book.

And here are the pages. I created a mini pocket with a sticker and some extra paper. The tags in this pocket are the bottoms of the tags that I had to cut off to make them fit, that are in the top pockets.

More pockets on one of the pages.

I love the filmstrip stickers!

More pockets created, one to hold the Passport book.

I cut the tags to fit, then inked and put stickers on them. These are the tags from the pockets that open to the top of the book.

These pockets come out of the side of the book.

I decided to fold these and create more space for pictures.

Thanks for looking! I think that this turned out pretty cute! This would make a cute little journal for a day trip.

Stay Crafty, My Friends!

The New "Double Zine Fold" Mini Album, Part One

2012-01-30T05:37:00.000-08:00

I have another project in the works. I have seen double sided mini albums around the net, where one side opens, and then you turn the book over and it is another mini album. You know, the ones where the back cover is actually the front cover of the other side of the book...are you confused? I am! HAHA! Anyway, I was playing with a new way to fold a mini album and I figured out how to do it, and I want to share it with you.

This one is made out of a paper bag, my practice model, if you will. See how the two sides have pages, and a common "back of the album" in the middle?

Just another view of the practice model. I wanted to create a "two albums in one" kind of thing, and I thought that the "zine fold" would be perfect. This is made with one sheet of paper, you can use any size you like. Here is what I did...

I have these huge 12x15 1/2" envelopes. I sealed it after removing the metal clasp.

Then I cut the right side off, and opened the sides so that it would be one long piece. You need seven equal sections to create the pages of the book. I measured the length of my now opened envelope, and did some math. I trimmed it from 31" to 29 3/4 total length. That length divided by 7 gave me 4 1/4" lengths. This is the width of my pages. Since the envelope is 12" wide, after folding in half, my pages are 6" tall.

This just shows the paper folded in half lengthwise, then sectioned off into 7 equal pages of 4 1/4" each.

I scored, and folded things to show this next part easier...you need to make two slits in the middle scoreline, keeping the left, center and right pieces intact.

Now, do the zine fold.

You will end up with this...

Now just fold one side one direction, and the other the opposite way. TAA DAA! Now you have two books in one if you want, each with 7 pages and three pockets.

Part two will show you what I came up with after using my papers and other embellishments.

Stay Crafty, My Friends!

Art Journal Page 2

2012-01-27T05:41:00.000-08:00

I have decided that since I am NEW at art journaling, this first journal will be trying all of the new techniques I am learning. This is my second page.

I wanted to see what Glimmer Mist did on the page, so I added the three colors. Then I went around the edges with a gold paint dabber and added rub-ons. The faces are transparencies that I got in a grab bag, and I adhered them with gel medium. I colored their eyes and lips with glitter pens. It is hard to see in the picture, but the page is shimmery.

I found this list on the net, all over the place, but I can't figure where it originated. If you know, please tell me! Anyway, after I did all of the inking and the rub-on-ing (woo hoo, I made up a new word!) I stamped the numbers and hand wrote the list on the page. I think it turned out cool.

Stay crafty, my friends!

Fotographia Mini Album

2012-01-25T07:46:00.000-08:00

Hello all! I am here today to show you a mini album I made out of these...

I had seen a video here by ILuvVintageScrap where she had made a mini out of one of them. I decided to use three...I used the "Never Ending Mini Album" design for it...it turned out COOL!

As you all know, these envelopes have two pockets, one making a flap.

For this design, I pulled the flap pocket down a little more to make a little more room for pulling out tags.

I inked all of my envelopes. This is Zeke, and he is helping me with the process...such a good supervisor! And please, don't look at my mess...I am getting my OWN CRAFT ROOM really soon, and it will be much nicer in just a bit!

Then I put the envelopes together in the configuration that creates the album.

Here are a couple of views of the album after I covered it with paper. I used DCWV's Timeless Time Stack. I LOVE IT! The poloroid images made me buy it!

Another view...

I wanted to challenge myself to not buying anything for this album, just using what I have. And, because of the nature of this album, I wanted to keep the embellishments to papers from the pack. So, I utilized the paper in cutouts and through the use of punches. I only added some string that I inked for some of the tags, and some hole reinforcements that I had leftover from another project.

I cut out another image of the "Fotographia" piece of paper and adhered it to the front cover over the same image, creating a pocket. I put this paper slip in to show the pocket.

Then I put things in the pocket, and layered images over the bottom of it to cover the "seam". I titled it 2012, because I am going to use it to showcase 1-3 pictures a month through the whole year. A sort of "highlight" photo album.

The tags in the front cover. This paper stack has two pages of the poloroids and postcards!

Front cover open...The tag behind the left poloroid comes out for journaling.

...then the right flap opened, showing the pockets of the envelopes.

Then that flap pocket opened. There is a TON of space for photos.

Here are the tags in the first set of pockets.

So then you turn the page after remembering which flap closes first (HAHA) and you get this. This is the second set of flap pockets.

The tags in the flap pocket...

Then opening the left side to reveal flap pocket number 3!

These are the tags in this flap pocket.

Then you open the flap pocket to the right, and you get this lovely "Dream" page.

This is the flap pocket on the right opened to reveal the "Butterfly" page. I embellished these butterflies with punches from some of the typewriter key paper.

This is the middle section. I added a flap with two of the postcard pieces to create another "page".

The other side...

...and the back of the album.

I hope you enjoyed this! Pleasse check out her video and give this idea a try! My album using the three envelopes holds a lot of stuff, and measures 6" across by 8 1/4" tall! Lots of room! There are 20 photo mats and 13 double sided tags.

Stay crafty!

Daily Junque Journal

2012-01-23T05:40:00.000-08:00

You all remember this...

...it is getting full!

I have been putting all kinds of stuff in it. It is fun, and addictive.

I found the lemon picture in a magazine...I wrote, "When life gives you lemon... ADD VODKA!

One night I got my vintage folder with a ton of stuff I collected a long time ago, and did a collage page. I really didn't think about it, just glued stuff down.

This is a "to do" list I did for a week. I decided it needed to be in here.

The "art" is just a paper I had, and liked it, so it is here now. I cut the "memories" title from a magazine, along with the exclamation mark, and smashed in the packaging from the candles I put on Jake's cake.

I have two adorable Dachshund babies, so this page is for them. The picture isn't mine, I found it on the net.

More magazine clippings...

Here are ideas from the net, from magazines...Here for future reference.

That's just some of the stuff I have been doing. I also have been putting all sorts of clippings and such for projects I want to do, decorations and furnishings I love, quotes that are funny, etc. I love to just look through it every once in a while. It has turned into a daily junque/smash/inspiration/art journal. Whatever I like goes in.

Stay crafty, my friends!

Update on the December Daily Junque Journal

2012-01-20T05:35:00.000-08:00

This book got HUGE! I did finish it this year! HOORAY! Last year I didn't finish my December book, but this year, it is FINISHED!! I cheated a little, and I added all of the pictures through our kids visit with us than was done on the 6th of January, but that was our Christmas present, so it is in the book!

I need to add something so that I can close it, I can't believe how full it is.

I decided that it was a combo December Daily and Junque Journal, so there is random stuff in here, and it may not be in order. Oh well. I found that I like this format way better...I felt less pressured to do something every day.

Our daughter came home from Iraq, and she sent us the paper from her home town where she was featured. We also got this wonderful plaque and an American flag flown in a mission over Iraq.

This is Christmas day, having our taco salad supper after my husband, son and I all worked that day!

Some cards and such.

Our grandson, Cooper.

Cooper loved the Zoo Lights and the train ride!

More of the adventures at the zoo!

OK, that is it. I just wanted to let you all know that I did finish it! YEAH!

Stay Crafty, My Friends!

Christmas Card Memory Book

2012-01-18T17:24:00.000-08:00

Here is my book of Christmas cards we received from family and friends. I made it out of some older Basic Grey paper on a chipboard base. I just used simple rings to bind it.

I layered the plastic snowflake with a piece of cardstock covered chipboard that I put a rub-on on. I had some miniature pipe cleaner candy canes that I adhered in a heart shape over that.

I just gathered all of the cards and put them in.

I have done this for the last several years. It is fun to go through, especially when you receive picture cards and you can see how the kids have grown!

Stay crafty, my friends!

The Last of the Christmas 2011 Albums!

2012-01-18T07:40:00.000-08:00

I started this album back in November, at the CK Convention that Jackie and I went to. We saw these lovely papers and embellishments in the Melissa Frances booth, and I couldn't resist.

I got the base album from that booth as well. It has two envelopes with closures for the front and the back, and top opening pockets for the pages. Each page has a huge tag in it.

I got these cute little bags with tags in them, and used them for the album. On the page on the right, I layered some die cut embellishments to create a "mini page" to add a little interest.

Aren't these papers delicious!

On the page on the left I created a pocket out of die cuts, and added tags to it.

I also used a couple of die cuts as little mini tags in the rings in a couple of places.

I loved all of the vintage stickers that I bought at this booth.

The only thing I had to add to the book was some bling and ribbons.

I didn't put the large tags in the covers of the book, instead opting to make them another page. There are tags in the pocket pages, however.

This is the inside back cover.

And the back of the book.

Stay Crafty and Jolly, My Friends!

A Valentine Never Ending Mini Album and Tutorial

2012-01-16T05:26:00.000-08:00

I have made a couple of mini albums that I call "Triple Fold Never Ending". There are links here. They are all over the internet, using envelopes to create multiple pages with different folds to them. I came up with another configuration to put one together.

I wanted to use envelopes in their full size. So I got a bunch of Bazzill 7 1/4" x 5 1/4" envelopes and went to work. First, take three of them, seal them, slice a wee bit off of the LONG side of them, and then score, leaving a 1/4" gusset in the middle as shown. Set aside.

Take two envelopes, leave one open, seal the one on the left.

Use score tape to the back of one of your folded envelopes already prepared...

Adhere the envelopes to them, so that the openings are on the "inside" as shown above. These will create more pockets. I made two of these, the one with the open envelope on the left is the "front" of the book, then I turned the other over so that the open envelope was on the right for the back of the book.

I took two envelopes, sealed them, and then sliced the top of them open to create pockets. (You can better see them in the photo below). I took the last of the scored pieces we made at the beginning, added another score line 1/2" to either side of the scores already made, then attached the sealed and opened envelopes to the scored one, leaving the pockets of the scored envelopes on the outside, as shown above.

This is what it looks like so far. the cover pieces we did are in the back, and the last piece we made is in the front of the photo.

This is the flap of the front cover, I added ATG to it like I was going to seal it, but instead...

I put another envelope on it, effectively sealing both and creating another page. I did it to the back cover also.

This is what I ended up with...I also decided to slice open the pages just added at the top, to create another space for a tag.

I used some papers, bling, tags and flowers and this cool metal watch I got today at Michael's to decorate it..

See the pockets created with the envelopes we used to attach the envelopes together with? I made large tags for these pockets.

The back cover.

The middle of the book. The tags on the left are adhered on the side and bottom, so I can slip pictures under them.

This is the front cover opened...

...then opened again.

This is the back cover opened...

...Then opened again. I have 16 pages and 10 tags in all! It used 11 envelopes in all.

I sure hope this tutorial made sense! I love how the 1/4" gussets made for more room for embellishments and made the book lie more flat when all decorated.

I did add ribbon from my stash, used punches from McGills and Martha, and some extra bling from Prima.

Bring on the Valentine's Day date with my Husband!

Stay Crafty, My Friends!

Super Cool Mini Album!

2012-01-13T05:38:00.000-08:00

I came across this awesome video tutorial, and had to try it. You can find the tutorial here on the MyLilTreasureTrove's Channel onYouTube. It is wonderful! It makes a cute little compact 4x6" album with tons of space for pictures and pockets for tags. I am thinking brag book for my purse with this one!

It is made from two sheets of cardstock, and I used up leftovers from my Echo Park paper pack "For the Record". I left the embellishments flat, which is necessary for the inside of the book, but if I am going to put it in my purse, the cover needs to be flat as well.

The cover page opens left and right, with a pocket in the middle where I put three tags. I adhered the "registered" piece on three sides, leaving the green tag able to come out.

So, close the left and right pages and flip the cover up...another pocket that I created for more tags.

Then that bottom page opens up to the left and right as well, with another pocket.

Close that up, then flip that piece down! I told you there was a whole lot of space for things. The middle section (black polka dot) has a pocket, and I adhered another piece on three sides for two more tags to be placed.

This is the back of the book, with another pocket!

Go check out her tutorial, and have a crafty day!

Grandma's Brag Book

2012-01-11T01:00:00.001-08:00

Our daughter, son-in-law and grandson came to visit during the end of December and the first week of January. When I get back to work, I have to have a brag book to show everyone...so I made this today.

I was inspired by this book I found on the Crate Paper Blog. But, I decided to do it a little different.

I took out all of the pages out of a book I found at the thrift store, then painted the book black. I added paper to the inside of the book to cover, then used 8 envelopes and made this file book.

I used 8 envelopes, so there are 8 tags, each with a picture on each side. I wanted to highlight our visit and things we did together. I did all of the pictures in my December Junk Journal. Above is me, my awesome husband, DJ, and Cooper, our first grandson. He is 3, and we are on the zoo train ready to see the Zoo Lights.

This is Grandpa and Cooper putting together a puzzle.

I used Cosmo Crickets Circa 1934 paper line ( I had leftovers from another project and they worked perfectly for this), Recollections cardstock, and Bazzill envelopes. I used some 7 Gypsies and Recollections bling on the cover as well.

I think the folks at work will like looking at this, what do you think?

Stay Crafty, My Friends!

A Dabble into Art Journaling

2012-01-08T16:47:00.000-08:00

I have never been a journal writer, although I would love to be. I have been looking at tons of art journals on the internet. I have purchased books about the subject. I wanted to try my hand at it, it looks like so much fun, and it looks like a style of journaling I may be comfortable with. This is my first attempt...DON'T LAUGH!! LOL!

I decided to turn a composition book into an art journal. I found this tutorial on Lil Blue Boo and gave it a go.

This...

...became this. I had a ton of emphera papers and items that I did a collage with to make the cover. There is some glitter paint on the edges, and I used rub ons from 7 gypsies for the "title" of the book.

This is what the pages looked like after I glued three of them together, then used gesso on them to prepare them. IT TOOK FOREVER since I decided to do the whole book first. Some folks do a page or two at a time. I may do that next time.

I still need to cover the back of the book. Now, here's where I am asking you not to laugh. This is my first ever art journal page. I saw a couple of WONDERFUL videos by Pam Carriker, the link to her videos is here. I tried to follow her steps to making a journal page. This s what I came up with.

I had no idea what this was going to become until I was done with it today, and I have been working on it for a week.

The images are from an OLD (11 years to be exact) stamping magazine I had that I finally cut up. I added Tim Holtz stamps, and a film strip die cut from him as well to highlight some of the stamp images. I love the vintage lady in her bathing suit. I decided this had to be some sort of travel page. I think I messed up on the "frame" around the quote, but that is ok, I am still learning.

I did a quick list journaling style, since I am not too comfy with journaling. I am hoping that doing this will help with that.

So, that is that. I am going to keep trying and see what happens. I love the style of using paint, stamps, and collage.

Stay crafty, my friends!

A Recycled Mini Album

2012-01-02T11:14:00.000-08:00

I made this mini album out of a roll of paper that my Christmas Wrapping paper came off of...

I found this cool tutorial here, at Artfull Crafts. They used an A4 piece of paper, but I wanted mine a little bigger, and I wanted to use this paper. I made another, using another roll of this paper, to make my Christmas album, you can see here.

So, this is what the roll looks like after you use all of the wrapping paper.

This is what it looks like after you cut an fold following the tutorial I linked above.

And, this is the finished project!

Twelve pages, six pockets made from the base papers. I ended up making more as a way to close the pockets preserving their full size. Instead of gluing the base pages together to create the pockets, I glued papers over the ends and bottoms (the brown print papers), and created more pockets on the pages.

I used a variety of things...Paper, a sticker, and tags from 7 Gypsies, Tim Holtz butterfly sticker and tickets, lace tape from Creative Imaginations, tags from Tattered Angels, Distress Ink, and Glimmer Mist. The ribbon was from my stash.

I made large tags, big enough for 4x6" photos, in every pocket and punched file tabs for them. In two of the side pockets are the Tattered Angels tags.

This is Ace...he is helping Mommy with the photos.

So here are the pages. I edged the papers with a Fiskars punch.

The smaller brown tags I got in a grab bag.

I bound the book with some Score tape, but also with a pamphlet stitch tied in a bow at the front.

This is a tag that goes into one of the four top pockets.

I hope you enjoyed this post! Check out the tutorial, and grab some paper and make one for yourself!

Stay crafty in the NEW YEAR, my friends!

Just wanted to say...

2011-12-31T08:10:00.000-08:00

We wish you all a

wonderful,

happy,

fun-filled

New Year!

A Recipe Book for my BFF!

2011-12-28T08:33:00.000-08:00

I made this mini recipe book for Jackie as part of her Christmas Present. It went along with a set of decorative (but functional) measuring spoons that she can hang on her wall...they say "Queen of the Kitchen". She is the Queen, she loves to cook, and makes some incredible stuff!

This book is a combination of two different tutorials I watched. The pages were by Lisa on Mini Album Scraps, and you can find her video here. She called it the "Coin Envelope Mini Album Page", and the cool thing is that each page is made from one piece of 8 1/2" x 11" paper, and it forms the pockets and everything! The binding is from Laura from Following the Paper Trail, and you can see her binding method here. She called it the "Stack the Deck Binding" and it is a pretty nifty way to bind a book.

So, I made six pages in all, each page has two pockets and two flaps. This shows the pocket, where I put two index cards for her recipes.

Turn the page, and you get the first flap.

Open it to reveal a pocket. I put a 3"x 8" index card, folded, for a recipe here.

Then it opens again!

I didn't decorate a lot, because I didn't know if she wanted to add recipes or pictures or both to the pages. She loved it!

This is what she gave me, and there is an excellent story behind it...

A long long time ago, I saw this WonderFILE and told her I needed it to organize some of my stuff! She laughed, I laughed and we went on from there. A couple of weeks ago, we were discussing some of the things we used to get every Christmas in our stockings. I always got Loves Baby Soft perfume, Lip Smackers lip balm, and my Dad always got a box of chocolate covered cherries. SHE REMEMBERED!!!! She actually found these things (I didn't know that they still made Loves Baby Soft) and got them for me! THIS ROCKS!!! I have to think about the perfect thing to use the WonderFILE for! (I already used the lip smackers and I ate some cherries already!) The perfume is so soft and sweet smelling! It totally reminded me of Junior High and High School. That was the stuff to wear! I Love it! Thank you, Jackie!!!

A Found Paper Junk Journal

2011-12-26T18:42:00.000-08:00

I was playing around with a bunch of wonderful collage papers that I got in grab bags at the local stamp store. One of the awesome finds was this book cover, torn up, spine removed.

I decided to fill the book with found papers, and turn the spine into a bookmark.

I had advertising pages,

and shorthand pages. Ledger pages,

an old text book page, and a page from a yearbook.

Even a cool old map made it into my book.

I used 75 pages in all.

And I used one scrap to cover the back of the bookmark. I am thinking of all kinds of things I could do with this.

Stay Crafty, My Friends!

Just want to say...

2011-12-24T06:50:00.000-08:00

From Jackie and I, to you and your families...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

We wish you all of the fun and wonder

of the season!!!

Also, we wish you the most

awesome NEW YEAR!!!

December Junque Update

2011-12-21T08:01:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to share a couple of pages from my December Junque Journal. I am using it as a mix between a December Daily Journal and a junk journal or "Smash Book". I am taking lots of pictures of various stuff, but I am adding in lots of other "stuff" to it. Well, you'll see....

It's getting full, I am having a fun time with it. I bought a basket to put it in with the pictures and other stuff, and all of the extras to decorate it with. That way I can carry it to wherever I am and work on it as I can.

I put pictures of my card making this year. I also added the plans I drew out in pencil to the pocket. I hinged the pictures with folded pieces of scalloped punched circles for a little interaction.

I also took some pictures of dinners that we have had that turned out particularly well. I blogged about it in our Creative Kitchen, too. We have put a couple of our favorites there...it is a site in progress!

I participated in a swap on Split Coast Stampers a long time ago, and finally was able to put the books together for my daughters. I did three different cards, so I could have two for them and one for me.

Just a little star I made for my son's tree at work. I had a leftover snowflake so I used it as part of the decoration. Some shopping receipts are in the envelope. I also added the tags from some ornaments we bought.

And this page is a cool one. I bought an Oregon Ducks Gnome Ornament to stand with our Iowa Hawkeye Gnome. It is little, but it looks cool! I also put some pictures of our decorations. My husband and I bought the Christmas Dancers when we first got together. He has had this chipboard Nativity scene since he was a kid. We put it up, and I used some battery operated tea light candles in it so that it lights up and glows.

This album will be fun to go over in years to come. I have so many more pages to fill. There will be lots more pictures to take with the holiday festivities.

Stay crafty, my friends!

An Upcycled Recipe Index System

2011-12-16T01:01:00.000-08:00

I love to cook, and I have collected a ton of recipe books, as well as the clippings and printouts from the internet. I recently decided that I needed a system of indexing my collection. When I find a recipe I like, I flag it in the book. That seems like a great idea, until you can't remember which book that particular book was in. So, I need one place where I can write down the recipe name, and where it is, so that I can find them easier. I found this huge book at the Goodwill for 3 bucks! This is perfect.

Just wanted to show you the pictures in the book...these come into play later. I found the binder mechanisms at a scrapbook show for 50 CENTS EACH! I grabbed up several of them, and this project is a perfect opportunity to use them. I wanted to be able to add and remove pages from my index as needed.

I didn't have the screws and acorn caps to attach the binder mechanism to the book. So, after removing the pages of the book, and figuring out where the holes needed to be, I punched the holes, and used these brads that look like screws...

I used hot glue under the mechanism where the brad would come through, then glued it down, and then set the brad.

Then I had these little baubles that are perfect to glue over the tines of the brad to cover them and give a finished look.

After I took out the pages of the book, I covered the spine with another piece of chipboard to strengthen it, then covered that with one of the books index pages. I added a mechanism to the left and to the right sides of the book...

The rings are not very big, and I wanted to be able to have as much space as I could, so I made a double-three-ring-binder! I did have to cut the pages a bit to make them fit, but the filler paper is still 10" tall by 6 1/2" wide. I got the paper with the reinforced hole edge, because I wanted the pages to be able to take some wear-and-tear.

It closes perfectly!

I tore out all of the pictures of the book, and used them for divider pages.

I punched out tabs from the index pages, then used scraps of manilla folders to punch out labels, and wrote all of the categories I wanted for my index.

I then rummaged through my stash and came up with this little bit of dangle for the spine. I looped them though an eyelet that I set in it.

Well, what do you think? Now I have to just sit and add my recipe names to my index, and remember to keep it up, and I will never spend an hour trying to find that perfect cocktail sauce recipe ever again!

Stay Crafty My Friends!

Recycled Envelope Mini Notebook

2011-12-14T08:19:00.000-08:00

I have seen lots of people recycling security envelopes in a lot of different ways. I was feeling punky (I have a cold) and I wanted a quick little project to keep my brain occupied a bit, and here is what I decided to do with the hundreds of envelopes I have saved.

I used a manilla file folder for the cover of the book, and a simple pamphlet binding technique. I used some stickers and actual pieces of envelopes for the decoration on the cover and on the inside. In all the notebook is 8" tall and 4 1/2" wide.

I used another piece of the folder to create a pocket. I simply took security envelopes, sealed them, then cut three sides off to open them up.

I stacked them, I used 10 envelopes, and did the pamphlet binding. I then went back and covered up some of the writing on some of the envelopes with pieces of other envelopes.

Some of the windows I covered from the back side so that they would show through.

I am putting this in my purse and am going to use it to jot down those notes you need to jot before your brain forgets them.

Stay crafty, My Friends!

Winter Wonderland

2011-12-12T10:53:00.000-08:00

I was at my local scrapbook supply store and found a little mini album kit by Little Yellow Bicycle that was on clearance. I then got an idea, bought some extra stuff, and this is what I came up with.

The book didn't come with a cover, so I made one with chipboard covered in papers. Some of the supplies I added were from the same company, some by Bo Bunny's new line.

The pages are all different sizes and shapes, and there are some pockets and envelopes.

I added some extra pages with another paper packet I picked up. I also bought some Bazzill flowers to go with the papers.

I love this color scheme!

I made a pocket page, and added huge tags to them.

I also added this mini page on the right.

The rosette is from a kit by Little Yellow Bicycle.

Lots of space or pictures and journaling.

The icicles are by Jolee's.

I loved making this...I had so much fun.

These envelopes are from a set that was supposed to be "Five things I love about snow", but I decided to make it whatever I wanted to, so I left that sticker out.

I sure hope that we get snow this year so I can fill this up!

I wrapped a journaling/picture die cut around the envelope...

...so I can have some on each side.

I sure hope it snows this year so I can use this!

Stay Crafty My Friends!

A New Christmas Ornament

2011-12-09T08:05:00.000-08:00

I was messing around with an idea, and this is what I came up with.

I wanted to make a ball type ornament for the tree with the rosettes. I came up with this. It uses two sheets of cardstock, some ribbon, two beads, one ornament hanger, and a dangle. I don't have my tree up yet, so I hung it on my ivy plant. I think it looks quite festive.

Here's how I did it...

You will need 2 sheets of 12x12" cardstock. Take one and cut at 11 1/2", discard extra piece." Take the other and cut at 5 1/2", saving the extra 6 1/2" piece. Out of the 6 1/2" piece, punch 14 circles that are 1" in diameter, and punch 2 scallop shapes (2" in diameter). Punch a hole in the middle of the circle and scallop shapes. I used my cropadile's smallest hole punch.

Take the cardstock, lining the 12" side to the top of your scoring tool, and score at every 1/2".

After scoring, take the 11 1/2" piece, and cut into the following strips for your rosettes:
4 strips at 1 3/4" wide each
3 strips at 1 1/2" wide each

Take the 5 1/2" piece of cardstock and cut into the following strips:
1 strip at 1 1/2" wide each
4 strips at 1" wide each

You should now have 4 strips of each width. Adhere two of each width together so that you have 6 long strips, 2 of each width. Make your rosettes, using the 1" circles to secure them on both sides. I used a hot glue gun for this, it is faster and I am impatient sometimes! You should have 6 rosettes, two in each width.

I used a bamboo skewer to adhere the rosettes together, so that the holes all lined up nicely...

I put the smallest rosette on the skewer, added glue to the circle, and slid the nest one down. Repeat for all shapes until you get your ball.

Now, adhere the scallop shapes, one on each end of the ornament ball to cover the circles.

I put an ornament jewel onto a decorative ornament hook, I threaded ribbon through the top of the hook, then through a bead...then through the ornament, through another bead and tied a square knot. I hung it up with my Snowflake ornament I made for the Christmas blog hop.

I think it turned out very nicely. I am seeing other colors in my future...

Stay Crafty My Friends!

I GOT A PRESENT!

2011-12-07T08:13:00.000-08:00

I have been a member of Mini Album Scraps, a scrapbook community that ROCKS! I recently got an AWESOME junk journal from one of the wonderful ladies there, and she gave me permission to share it with you all! I really hesitate to call this a junk journal, it is just tooooo beautiful!

Gina (Girl, you are amazing!) made this wonderful and HUGE journal for me. She even created the charm assembly...the pictures don't do this book justice, it is sooooo cool.

Side view: four sections, lots of pockets and envelopes and she added so many goodies to it!

It starts off with this calendar...I am going to make this a year long journal!

She created gusseted pockets and put journaling cards and other goodies in them.

She added page protectors and stuffed them full of goodies.

More journaling cards and some cut outs of wonderful sayings.

Envelopes and border strips...The blue metallic paper just POPPED against the browns...LOVE IT!

Each section has a bunch of journaling pages.

She creates these laser cuts, and has them for sale on Mini Album Scraps...go check out their store!

More places to house stuff.

She made these cute envelopes, and more laser cuts. I love this vintage/Steampunk combination!

And more!!! This ROCKS!

She added some pages that fold out...

The last page protector with even more goodies. I can't wait to use it, but it is so beautiful I am scared that I am going to mess it up!

Thank you, Gina, I will treasure this FOREVER!

Stay Crafty, My Friends!

The Third and Final Day of the BLOG HOP!!!

2011-12-03T22:00:00.000-08:00

I have to say a couple of things before I get to my project. This has been a ton of fun for me and I am soooo honored that Elsa had invited me to participate. I am overwhelmed with all of the wonderful comments left for me, and I want to say a huge WELCOME to all of our new followers. This has been such a great experience and I hope to do this again sometime! Thank you, Elsa!

I found this plain kraft colored box at my local Craft Warehouse. I picked it up, actually a couple of months ago, not knowing what I was going to do with it, but when this blog hop came along I knew what it would become.

I covered it up to look like a present, and added bling to the side ribbons. I tied a bow for the top, and added two dangling snowflakes.

The box is closed by magnets. I covered the insides, and added ornament punched shapes with Stickles to look like the hangers.

Here is the box fully opened, revealing 4 smaller boxes.

I decided to put mini albums in each box!

Here are all of the lids, opened.

The first album, entitled Winter Wonderland, is a maze book, or also called a meander book.

I made tags with snowflake punches for the pulls.

The second book is a take on the "Never Ending Mini Album" that I have done in the past, except this time I used just a piece of cardstock instead of envelopes.

Some views of the book. I used a belly band to close it.

For some of the pages I made library card type pockets and put tags in them.

The third book bound up with ribbon...

...Titled Happy Holidays...

...is an exploding album! This is the front...

...here's the back. I added punches of ornaments and glued them on the sides only so that tags could be placed behind them.

The last book is an envelope book, the envelopes made from cardstock. I closed it with bakers twine that I wrapped around the album and then around the poinsettia, much like you would do those envelope closures.

The envelopes are adhered alternately by the "flaps". I added die cuts from a Spellbinders die to them for added picture space.

Each of the 6 envelopes has a tag inside for more pictures or journaling. This is the front of the book...

...and the back of the book.

I hope you enjoyed this project! I had a wonderful time making it!!! The papers used are from October Afternoon, and I used a variety of punches from EK Success, Fiskars, and Martha Stewart. The bling is Recollections.

OK, time to go see what Tmika has done for her third project!

Just in case, here is the lineup, one more time...

Elsa- http://www.JustaFewDesigns.blogspot.com

Krystal http://www.krystalsnight.blogspot.com

Jules -www.thejulebox.com

Kimi - http://uniquescrappiness.blogspot.com

Linda -http://simpleandsassycreations.blogspot.com

Margaret- http://www.auntmargaretdesigns.blogspot.com

Stacie- http:// www.creativyou.blogspot.com

Michelle- http://creativeoperation.blogspot.com <--- you are here

Tmika - http://www.scrapdaworld.blogspot.com

Sue - http://scrappingsuzieqtt.blogspot.com/

Yolanda - http://socrafty3.blogspot.com

Emily- http://www.createserendipity.net

Tis the Season Blog Hop DAY TWO!!

2011-12-02T22:00:00.000-08:00

I decided for my second project to move away from an album and do some decorations for my tree.

I made a set of 6 rossette ornaments using a variety of things. The papers are DCWV, the charms and the showflakes are from Michael's in their "ornament making section", and then I added ribbon for hanging and rhinestones.

I made them so that they are double sided, incase they wiggle around on the tree.

For each of them I used a strip of medium blue, and used an edge punch on it. This punch also gave me the holes that I used to attach the ribbon and the dangle. I made two rosettes out of light blue, one for each side. I used the 1" white circles to finish the rosettes. The dark blue punched shapes provided the background for attaching the showflakes. Then, I added the rhinestones to the middle of the snowflakes. I used hot glue to adhere everything.

They turned out soooooo cute!

I think I need to make some more of these, I love how they turned out!

Now please head over to Tmika's site and see what she's cooked up for today!

Remember, this all starts with Elsa...Here's the lineup if you got here by chance or got a little lost!

Elsa- http://www.JustaFewDesigns.blogspot.com

Krystal http://www.krystalsnight.blogspot.com

Jules -www.thejulebox.com

Kimi - http://uniquescrappiness.blogspot.com

Linda -http://simpleandsassycreations.blogspot.com

Margaret- http://www.auntmargaretdesigns.blogspot.com

Stacie- http:// www.creativyou.blogspot.com

Michelle- http://creativeoperation.blogspot.com <--- you are here

Tmika - http://www.scrapdaworld.blogspot.com

Sue - http://scrappingsuzieqtt.blogspot.com/

Yolanda - http://socrafty3.blogspot.com

Emily- http://www.createserendipity.net

Stay Crafty My Friends!

WOO HOO! IT'S A CHRISTMAS BLOG HOP!!!

2011-12-01T21:44:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the TIS THE SEASON TO HOP!! I have been invited to join a bunch of talented ladies to share with you some awesome Christmas themed projects.

Here's the plan...We will be hopping for three days from the 2nd through the 4th of Dec. Some of the ladies in the hop will offering Candy so look out for those neat gifts...also make sure you become my follower and comment all 3 days of the hop on all the participating blogs in order to win the Candy Elsa will be giving away on her blog.

We hope to inspire you to create and give homemade gifts and cards this year.

Here is the line up...Just in case you got lost...It all starts with our AWESOME host, Elsa...

Elsa- http://www.JustaFewDesigns.blogspot.com

Krystal http://www.krystalsnight.blogspot.com

Jules -www.thejulebox.com

Kimi - http://uniquescrappiness.blogspot.com

Linda -http://simpleandsassycreations.blogspot.com

Margaret- http://www.auntmargaretdesigns.blogspot.com

Stacie- http:// www.creativyou.blogspot.com

Michelle- http://creativeoperation.blogspot.com <--- you are here

Tmika - http://www.scrapdaworld.blogspot.com

Sue - http://scrappingsuzieqtt.blogspot.com/

Yolanda - http://socrafty3.blogspot.com

Emily- http://www.createserendipity.net

If you arrived here by chance please go back to the beginning at Elsa's blog, Just a Few Designs.

For the first day of our hop, I made a Christmas themed Junque Journal...Yes, I made another one, but this one ROCKS!! I was able to make something new out of my old supplies....A STASH BUSTER! That will help make room for all of the new goodies Santa is going to leave under the tree, right?!

I went through my stash of old Christmas papers and goodies and created this junk journal. I called it "Christmas Junque". It could be used for a December Daily type of journal. All of the supplies were in my stash. I bought nothing to make it! I cut the ornaments with the Sizzix die, and elevated them with foam tape.

I used old charms, made a charm (Santa), and even attached a "button" (the tree) as dangles.

I made four "sections", each starting with a pocket page.

I kept to a green/red/brown color theme throughout.

This tree is flocked!

Some of these papers are so old I don't know who made them.

I used stickers to embellish some of the papers, others needed nothing.

I used some papers to make envelopes, and created closures with a circle punch, a brad and some twine.

Aren't these papers delicious?

I didn't do a lot of embellishing in the book, because I wanted to add my "junque" to it.

The big pocket pages also house two HUGE tags in the middle!

So, what are you waiting for...Go and get your stash out and make yourself a Christmas Junque Journal!

Thank you so much for stopping by! Come back tomorrow and see what I have in store for you!

Next, please hop on over to Tmika and see what crafty goodness awaits!

Stay Crafty My Friends!

Happy Monday!!!

2011-11-28T05:37:00.000-08:00

OK, we have two things for you today...

Just a reminder that this Friday starts the official Christmas Blog Hop!

It will start with Elsa at Just a Few Designs, and will continue with a lot of talented ladies. Please join us! I have three projects that I am going to share, one each day, that I hope you will like!

Now, I have to share this with you all! I am swamped with projects that I have to finish. I have mountains of kits and supplies bought, that are waiting to be assembled. But, when inspiration strikes, you have to go with it, because you never know what is going to happen next. So, that is what happened. Instead of starting to make my Christmas cards, I made a Christmas album, with recycled materials that I came across. This is cool!

It was our youngest son's birthday, and I was wrapping his present...

I used the whole roll, and this is what it was wrapped around....a huge piece of super sturdy kraft paper!

I made a "zine" fold out of it.

Then I got my Tim Holtz papers and supplies and went to town! The pages of the book are 7 1/2" wide by 8 1/2" tall. I threaded ribbon through the center of the book to hold the pages in place. I also turned it "upside down", so that I could fold pages down to make interesting pockets.

There are two diagonal pockets, and two huge page pockets. Above is the diagonal pocket on the left. On the right, I added a kraft envelope and a card for a pullout.

Two large tags in the diagonal pocket.

The card is gatefold...

Opened...

The back of the card.

I attached the envelope to the page with the flap to the back, then covered with papers, giving another interactive element.

The huge tag on the next page, and the other diagonal pocket.

This sticker I adhered on two sides, so that something could slip under if I wanted to.

The next page, another envelope and card.

I LOVE THESE PAPERS!!!!

This is the coolest vintage Santa!

The envelope flap opened.

The back of the book.

Top view. The papers, distress inks, charm, and Sizzix die is by Tim Holtz, the ribbon and bling are Recollections, the envelopes and cards are by Paper Accents, and the Kraft paper to back the tags is by Recollections.

So, ladies, when you are wrapping your presents, check to see if you have this kind of paper under the wrapping paper...if you do, make a book!!!

Stay Crafty My Friends!

A wish for you all...

2011-11-24T19:44:00.000-08:00

We just wanted to take a moment and say...

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Birthday Smash!

2011-11-23T09:55:00.000-08:00

When Jackie and I started our CK Convention Adventure, we had stopped at Fred Meyer's for some supplies...we found that they had Smash Books. We decided to each get one, as a record book of our trip. Since it is also around my birthday, I decided to make it my "Birthday Smash!"

I still need to do some more journaling, and I haven't decided about what else to do with the cover, but here it is. I used some leftover stickers I had for the title.

This thing is FULL! I saved every little bit of whatever we came across.

Inside the first cover I used a calendar and mapped out the week. We found the vintage linen tape on our adventure, so I used that. I love the look...just like an old family scrapbook.

Here is Jackie, driving us to Whole Foods. I didn't use the knife from my lunch, so I smashed it. I told you I saved all kinds of bits and pieces.

Jackie and myself during one of our classes. Please excuse the flash-glare!

I made this picture a flap with the tape that K and Co makes for the Smash Books.

I added the packaging/directions for the Christmas Journal we made. I also used a pocket to house some pictures we took.

Breakfast...

This is the page that started the rest of my "vacation". My husband missed me, I got three dozen roses! I also included my list of things I wanted to do on my final three days off.

What our view was on my birthday. The tree was GORGEOUS!

My BFF, Jackie, sent me this text, and gave me this BEAUTIFUL orchid!

This was taken a couple of days later, the same gorgeous tree, all bare! I saved a couple of leaves and laminated them and added it to the book.

There you have it. Just a few highlights from my book. I also added all of my birthday cards, pictures of presents, everything. I loved making this!

Have a SMASHING DAY!

My Halloween Mini

2011-11-19T07:55:00.000-08:00

OK, I still have to add pictures to it, and I have to decorate the inside pages, but I have some stuff done. This little album has taken more time to do than I thought it would, but it is sooooooo cool!

I drew inspiration from Kathy at Paper Phenomenon and from Laura from The Paper Trail. I also did some of my own little tricks in it as well. The pages are such that the black tags used (by Recollections) will hold 4x6 photos. There are two that are a bit smaller, but the rest will hold the full size pictures. I used paper bags as the base of the book, made gussets to allow for some embellishments, used chipboard to create covers, and used a variety of papers. The papers used are from Daisy D's, Authentique, Basic Grey and Memory Box. I wanted the papers to be orange and black. Some are new, some are from my stash.

This is the front cover. I used Prima flowers, some Teresa Collins ribbons, a dollar store Halloween Spider, and some Recollections bling. The "31" is Tim Holtz, with a banner from his Sizzix line, and the quote came from the bottom of an Authentique paper I used.

First pages...This is our friend, Gertie, our Front Porch Greeter on Halloween Night. Next, a family portrait. I made these so that I could put journaling tags behind the pictures.

Most of the pages have a side pocket that holds a 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" tag.

Some of the bottoms of the paper bags I put together to create a pull out tag.

These have pockets at the bottom of the page to hold tags.

These tags go to the sides.

Full pages....

...That flip up to reveal pockets and more full pages.

These pages are cool, I made them with packaging so that the tags under can peak through them.

These pages flip open...

...to the side.

In all, I made this album with 34 pages! There will be even more room for pictures, as you can take the tags out and put pictures on both sides.

Have a most crafty day!

Two things...

2011-11-16T08:18:00.000-08:00

First, I want to let you all know that I have been asked to participate in a Blog Hop for Christmas!!!

Elsa, from Just a Few Designs, invited me to join in on the fun with this Christmas blog hop she is hosting. It will be for three days, and each of us are doing three different projects. I am working on them right now. I can't wait! Stay tuned, more information will come!

Second...here is the class project by the Button Farm that Jackie and I took on our CK weekend!!

This album was designed to be either a book like I did it, or bound like a pennant. The papers are Basic Grey, LOVELY!

Friday, I will show you the finished "bones" of my Halloween book. I worked on that on the Friday Crop!

Stay Crafty, My Friends!

We're Baaaaack!!!

2011-11-14T06:14:00.000-08:00

Jackie and I are back from our mini vacation to the Creative Keepsakes Convention held in Seattle!

Here is Jackie in the "15 Things About Me" album class...

And here I am...This class was fun!!! Below are a couple of the pages we made. There are 9 pages in all, and room in the album to add more. I have some leftover papers, so I am going to come up with a few more pages of my own!

This page flips up so that you can add hidden journaling!

I bought a kit to make a 25 days of Christmas album at the Embellish It booth, and made it in our spare time.

Here is the cover. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the papers!

I also brought a kit with me, by The Button Farm, to make during one of the crops! The crops are 5 1/2 hours, and it took that long, but it is soooooo cute!!!

One of the inside pages...I love this book!!!

We took another class by the Button Farm, I will show you that one on Wednesday!!

I am sooooo glad I took the day off today, so I can unpack my stuff!! We shopped until we dropped!

Stay crafty, My Friends!!!

Another Junk Journal Swap

2011-11-09T06:31:00.000-08:00

Today Jackie and I are leaving for a mini vacation to the CK Convention in Washington. But, before we go, I wanted to show you all this little project.

I made this for Daisy at Mini Album Scraps.

She wanted a general purpose book with her favorite colors, black, purple, pink and robin's egg blue. She also loves the shabby chic type style, so this is what I came up with. I used Pink Paisley papers and ephemera, Prima flowers, and Recollections bling.

Here is the view of the whole book. I made 4 sections, and all sections have the same type of papers. The dividers, pocket pages, and envelopes I made all have different papers, but the "pages" are all the same in every section.

Divider number 1.

Pocket page made out of a 12x12 paper.

Plain heavy weight copy paper and flash cards with some ledger paper.

I used 4 paper bags, and made pockets out of the bottoms, putting some journaling tags in every one.

Map page and a list page.

A brochure envelope, I added paper to the flap to pretty it up and put an index card in it.

Home budgeting page and a lined page.

A blank white card and a large tag with ribbon.

A black card and more white paper.

I made huge envelopes to tuck things in. I don't know which line of paper it is!

I had bought some stuff to use for the book cover , and am sending what I didn't use for Daisy to embellish as she wishes.

I sure hope she likes it!!!
Stay Crafty My Friends!

Stash Buster Junk Journal

2011-11-07T05:54:00.000-08:00

I made this and totally used up a ton of paper scraps that I had in a box by my craft table. The box went from overflowing to manageable. I need to make another. I just picked papers and started sewing and gluing.

The cover is made from an old 7 Gypsies folder that I had and never knew what to do with. I painted it and then covered it with panels of scraps. The binding is a pamphlet stitch using just some bakers twine.

The inside cover and first page. Lots of scraps, some doilies made it in here too.

Papers left over from my junk journals that I have been making.

This left side is a left over file folder from my last "Mini Notebooks" entry.

I put library cards in it too...and some stickers.

This is the back cover.

Stay Crafty My Friends.

Mini Notebooks

2011-11-04T05:37:00.000-07:00

I decided to clean up my craft room today and ran across an OLD tin full of K and Company mini file folders. I used a few when I first bought them, and had a ton left, sitting on the shelf, not doing a thing. I decided to use them to make some tiny notebooks.

I took groups of them and sewed them down the spine with my sewing machine. I tied the thread above and below, and cut off the extra.

I had these 7 Gypsies labels and used them for the title labels for the mini books.

I cut up papers from my junk journal stash and glued them into the book.

There you have it. All done. Some have 10 pages, some have more.

They can be held together with mini binder clips. I also have some mini paper clips from Tim Holtz that I am going to use.

Three down, four more to go.

I think these will make cute purse notebooks, or even mini smash books. They have all kinds of possibilities.

Stay crafty my friends!

Journal Page Tutorial

2011-11-02T08:38:00.000-07:00

I was shopping at my local grocery store and realized that I had forgotten my reusable grocery bags. I asked for paper bags, since the plastic ones are so bad for the environment and the paper ones have a bazillion uses. Then, I got a recycling idea...

I cut the bags up into manageable sizes, these are 5"x7". Since they all had the store logo on the outside.
I arranged them so that the wording would be on the "inside", and then applied a little double sided tape from my ATG to the middle of the papers, making a kind of sandwich out of two of the pieces. I left the borders of about 1" without tape. I just wanted enough in the centers to hold them together.

Then I took my sewing machine and sewed the edges at about 1/8" with a straight stitch. You could totally use any fun stitch and color of thread you wanted. This is why I didn't want the double sided tape too close to the edges, so the needle wouldn't get all gummed up.

This is my stack of papers. I used 4 bags, and got enough to make 16 pages.

I tied the thread together on each side and cut the strings off.

Taaaa daaa! I have 16 journal pages, 5"x7" in size, double thickness so they are durable. Now my head is swimming with ideas on what to use them for. Should they go into another junk journal? What about a cool birthday book? I could make it into a recipe book or a photo album. I have to think on this one. I could distress them, paint them, draw on them, whatever I wanted.

What would you make with these? Please let me know what you think!

I have used paper bags in the past for another cool project...check out this tutorial with a PDF for brown paper bag recipe cards...its awesome!

Stay crafty!

A Food Tutorial!

2011-10-31T05:40:00.000-07:00

First, before I do anything...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

OK, this is completely different, but here it goes...This is not a Trick, it is a Treat!

My husband and I are on a low carb diet, so that means no bread. Which, when making casseroles, means no bread crumbs to grace the top...until now.

I love these Mission Carb Balance Tortillas. They are only 6 net carbs per tortilla, and are delicious. We use them for wraps, enchiladas, anything you can do with a tortilla. I have made tortilla chips and shells for taco salads also.

I decided to try an experiment. It worked beautifully!

I took one tortilla, cut it up, and dried it. I just left it to sit out overnight, but you could do it in the oven also.

I broke up the pieces, and ground them in my food processor.

One tortilla made about 1/2 c of crumbs. Regular bread crumbs are about 20 carbs per 1/3 c, these are 6 carbs per 1/2 cup. It doesn't sound like much, but those nasty little carbs add up.

I added the crumbs to some butter, and some Italian Seasoning.

I made Baked Sour Cream Chicken and topped them with my crumb mixture. It was awesome!!!! The crumbs provided the crunch that we love on a casserole! (PS: How do you like my Halloween kitchen in the background?)

Stay hungry, my friends!

And, for the kiddies...Have a SAFE AND FUN HALLOWEEN!!!

Recipe Mini Album by the Button Farm

2011-10-28T05:36:00.000-07:00

When Jackie and I went to the CK Convention last year, we took this class by The Button Farm. You should really check them out, they have magnificent album kits, and they have a monthly kit club. I am waiting impatiently for that to start!

The album was an acrylic album, which I had never worked with before. I learned a lot of tricks in dealing with these little beauties. The paper is by Basic Grey. I actually had more recipe cards than pages, so I created a few more out of cardstock when I got home.

Because I tend to write big, I made each recipe card a pocket, then added a double sided tag behind it so that I could have plenty of room to write. Now the problem is, what recipes to put in here!!

Stay hungry, my friends!

A Halloween Pumpkin

2011-10-26T12:20:00.000-07:00

When I was on Paper Craft Planet where they were having a 3D Challenge, I saw a link to Archivers, where they have a tutorial for a pumpkin, and this is my attempt:

I think it turned out very cute! I have it out for Halloween, but I can also use it throughout fall and Thanksgiving!!! I used plain Bazzill cardstock, and inked the edges. Others have used double sided papers. It was fun and easy to make. I am thinking about all sorts of other possibilities.

Stay Crafty My Friends!

An Old Halloween Project

2011-10-24T05:41:00.000-07:00

Back in 2005 my husband and I had a Halloween Party, and I made a book for keeping the recipes I wanted to use, party planning papers and such. This is that book. I found it today, whilst I was getting ready for our Halloween this year, and I thought you all would like to see it.

This is a paper bag book, made out of full sized grocery bags, folded in half and the edges trimmed. It is big enough to hold 8 1/2" x 11" papers!

This was pre-Cricut days...so I created the recipe tombstones on my computer. I hand cut all of the letters with stencils to make the titles for my pages. I even created the tags, which I will show in a later picture.

I don't know the line of papers I used, that was 6 years ago, sorry!

I made up the "spooky" recipes by myself.

The binding was a simple ribbon binding.

Here are the tags I made.

This is just an example of what I have in my pockets. It held magazine clippings, printouts from the net, and I even have pumpkin carving templates in here! It was cool to find it buried under my cookbooks. It was a mini time capsule.

Stay Scary, My Friends!

Halloween Jewelry Box Tutorial

2011-10-21T06:24:00.000-07:00

I found the coolest nesting paper coffin boxes at Michael's, and I got another idea. I needed a jewelry box to house all of my Halloween baubles and bangles. So, here is what I came up with.

First, while watching the season one marathon of "The Walking Dead" I painted the boxes with black acrylic paint.

When they were dry, I inked them with white.

When that was dry I sprayed them inside and out with Haunted Shadows Glimmer mist.

I also used the mist on these flowers, they started pink, but after spraying and using some black ink on them, they ended up like this.

I stacked them all wonky and hot glued them down. I cut the rings off of spider rings, and used the spiders in a couple of places. Two of them look like they are coming from either underneath a coffin, or from the inside of them.

I figured that the poor skeleton that was supposed to be in the box had to be moved out, so I took a skeleton from a dollar store garland, cut it up, and scattered various pieces.

For the top two boxes, I used Tim Holtz charms to decorate. I placed my flowers and added a little bling. You can never have too much bling, right?

My hubbin said it was creepy. I thought that was awesome, because that was what I was going for!

Here are the boxes with my collection of Halloween jewels! You will recognize a couple of the pieces from a previous post! Some of these are over 20 years old. I started out with cute stuff, because my son was little, but now, I can creep into the more scary stuff. (Yes, pun intended!)

Just a shot of it sitting on my dresser.

Stay Scary and BEJEWELED my friends!

More Stuff for my Junque Journal

2011-10-19T08:07:00.000-07:00

I made the Faux Washi Tape, and then I decided I needed hinges.

I cut strips 1" wide, they were 3 1/2" long, but you could do any size you wanted. You could make long strips and tear them (that's the beauty of score tape, it rips easily), or you could use edge scissors to cut pretty ends on the strips.

Score them at 1/2".

Apply two strips of 1/2" score tape and fold.

Use them to adhere whatever you want, creating another "page" for your projects.

I added another envelope/page to my book.

Stay Crafty, My Friends!

Jewelry!

2011-10-17T05:40:00.000-07:00

They say diamonds are a girls best friend, but for me, all jewelry is pretty OK!!

I made some baubles for myself with some of my scrapbooking supplies.

From left to right: The Witch necklace was made at a make-and-take at the Scrapbook Expo that my BFF Jackie and I went to. The back says, "Sometimes you have to be a Witch". LOVE IT! It was my first time soldering, and I think I may have to do that again! We also make the swirl paint necklace at the show. That was fun to do. I love the pattern that came out. The mini butterfly used a piece of my Mariposa paper from DCWV. I bought the necklace piece from my local stamp store, Stampadeedoodah. The Skull and Angel necklaces were made from the same type of necklace supplies. The Angel was another make-and-take, we bought some additional pieces, and I used a Recollections piece of paper for the Skull. It is Halloween after all! The earrings are pretty fun...Darice has come out with a line of bottlecap stuff to make jewelry out of. I used my Tim Holtz punch to make holes in the bottlecaps, and used a piece of Authentique Halloween music papers. They are covered with a clear epoxy top. Lastly, I finally put together the bracelet kit from Making Memories that I bought last February.

Stay crafty, scary and bejeweled, my friends!

Spells and Curses

2011-10-14T05:35:00.000-07:00

I made another Halloween decoration. I needed something for the dining area.

I had an old blue canvas book, and I painted it black. Then, I sprayed it with some Art C copper spray. I wrote the title on the spine with a silver pen.

For the front cover I used a Tim Holtz Halloween charm, and put Stickles in the eyes and nose.

I sprayed the pages with a variety of things...I used the Art C spray, walnut ink, and I also got a distressing ink pad in on the fun.

This is the display in the dining room. We covered the antique sewing machine table with creepy cloth. We have a variety of props. Under my spell book is "The Secret Journals of Dr. Victor Frankenstein", by Jeremy Kay. If you are a monster buff, I say run out and get it, it is COOL!

I also have this Raven's Haunted Bird House that I made. I just painted a wooden birdhouse black, then added Recollections flowers to the bottom. I used Stickles on the roof and the chimney of the house. The Raven sticker is from Recollections.

Have a scary day!

Faux Washi Tape

2011-10-12T08:17:00.000-07:00

I have seen this stuff all over the internet, in craft stores, and I even own a few rolls. I didn't know what to really do with it until I saw Smash books, and started using them.

I have seen some tutorials on how to make your own. I loved this tutorial, here, so I basically did the same thing. I decided to make some to match my journal. This is my take on how to do it. SUPER EASY!

This is my junque journal I started working in. I used the scraps of papers left over from the pages I put into this book.

I love score-tape. It is super strong, and you can rip it. You don't need to cut it at all, and that makes for a cool effect when you use this stuff. I just put lines of it on the backs of the paper and cut them out.

Presto, faux Washi tape.

I used it on this magazine clipping to add it to my book. COOL! I didn't use it on the photo on the right, but wanted to add it in, because I like this quote by Mother Teresa.

The other cool tutorials are everywhere, including here for a printable one that is genious.

Stay Crafty, My Friends!

Gigantic Envelope Mini Album

2011-10-10T05:36:00.000-07:00

How's that for a title?! I found some huge 12" x 15 1/2" envelopes at the local thrift store, I snapped up 6 for $0.99, the whole time thinking I could do something with these. I came up with this. Now, please forgive the lack of embellishments...I was doing this as a first model, working out some bugs. I am going to do another one soon.

Front Cover...

Back cover...

Top View...The closure is a simple ribbon closure.

First and Second Page...Hard to see but page one has two pockets and page two has two, one tall skinny one and one shorter side pocket.

Third Page and the Flap...This page has two pockets, one tall and one small and short.

Flap Opened...Page Four revealed with two pockets, one large and one small on the bottom. The inside of the flap created two pockets for two smaller tags.

And another pocket. The black cardstocks are showing the pockets, they are going to be tags. The envelope was never closed so that one more large tag can be place in there.

Here's how I did it...

I put the envelope so that the flap is on the right. Scored it at 5", 7 3/4" and 10 1/2". Then turn so that the flap is on the top and score at 8".

Turn it back onto its side, fold the bottom up, and the middle in, as shown. This is the base of the book.

On the first left handed bottom piece, cut a slit in the envelope only to the first score line to open up the pocket as shown above. I put a piece of paper on the main body of the book, a smaller piece of paper inside the pocket, in between the main body and pocket sizes, adhered it only on the two sides to create another pocket. You totally don't have to do that.

Cut the middle score line to the score, on the pocket part only. I glued the pocket piece only on the right side of page two, the side is split open, giving that side pocket.

Cut the next side only to the score as shown to open up that piece of the pocket. I glued the left side of the pocket piece on page three, giving the tall pocket, and the front piece folds down to give the other pocket.

Cut the envelope flap only to the score line. I used the top part of the envelope flap to attach papers to make the almost full size page flap. The envelope remains open on the right side, for another large tag. The bottom piece folds to the front of the pocket, making the piece I used to create the small pocket on page four.

Fold the pocket piece down, as shown.

Turn the book over, apply glue to the inner portion of the half pages, and glue together.

It holds 11 tags in all!

I hope that this made sense. I will make another model so that you all can see another version. If you make one of these, a little hint, use thinner papers! Thick papers that are double sided are not recommended. The nature of this book is that very thin embellishments will be used as there isn't a lot of gusset space.

Stay Crafty, My Friends!

Can you get enough Halloween?

2011-10-07T05:37:00.000-07:00

NOT AT MY HOUSE!!! BWAHAHAHAHA!

I came up with this little display for my bedroom

I made a witches hat out of a paper mache hat I got at Michael's. I used this skull as my hat stand. Also found the coolest printable from Chickabug and made a spell book cover. I got the lenticular portrait from Michael's also, it is CREEPY!

Every witch needs a broom, so I have that, and I put out a pair of my funky shoes with spiders in them for an added effect.

I painted the hat black. I used some white lace, and colored it with purple Glimmer Mist. The flowers are from Bazzill and Recollections. I added a couple of skull beads and a couple of glittered spiders. The black feathers are the finishing touch.

Another view of the book cover.

Stay Scary, My Friends!

A Birthday Junk Journal for Jackie!

2011-10-05T08:10:00.000-07:00

I made this for my BFF!

I used a book base from Glitz for the cover and some of the inner pages.

I had some Glitz papers that I used also. The pocket page is glued in the bottom, creating a middle pocket that I put large manilla tags in.

The green pages is a policy envelope that I folded the bottom to the back to create a pocket...

Then the other side is the envelope.

I made her some large envelopes and put cards in them.

You have to have some vintage home budget papers.

Some 7 Gypsies papers also ended up in this book.

I did some paper bag pockets.

I found these cool tall flash cards that I put in the paper bags.

Planning pages.

Another envelope.

I used some stickers from Glitz throughout.

More tags.

Another pocket page and the inside back cover.

Stay Crafty My Friends.

And yet more Halloween goodness!

2011-10-03T05:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, here goes the next installment...

This is a corner of our house by my son's room. We have a little table that we covered in creepy cloth from the dollar store. I made the skeleton-spider. The cauldron is filled with black flowers from Michaels, and when it is dark, a battery operated color changing light is going in the bottom to illuminate it. We had the sign, but added black light paint to it to help it glow. I have wall sticker spiders. Also, I made the fortune telling game. I found it here. This is a cool site!

I found these mini frames at Michael's for $1 each. I snapped up the last they had! I went to the Graphics Fairy and found these pictures. I had the ribbon from last year. I just adhered the frames to the ribbon, added a bow, and Taa Daa! I think it looks kinda creepy.

I added this to my bathroom. I had an old embroidery hoop made of wood. I painted it black and used it as a frame for another printable I found at the Graphics Fairy. I added some Recollections flowers and ribbon to hang it with.

Stay scary!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

2011-10-01T08:26:00.001-07:00

Today is Jackie's birthday!!! My BFF and blog buddy deserves a song...

ahem....

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday, Dear Jackie!!!!

Happy Birthday to YOU!!!

More Halloween Decoration Ideas

2011-09-30T05:37:00.000-07:00

I thought I would share a few ideas with you. I came up with some creative uses for some of my scrapbooking supplies.

This is a $1 Michael's birdcage I bought a while ago. I filled it with a skeleton from a garland I bought at the dollar store.

This is another birdcage from Michaels. I put some bats in here. I made the bats from plastic rings that I got in a goodie bag at Michaels. I cut off the rings, glued two bats together with some fishing line in the middle, and hung them from the top of the cage.

I thought our bathroom needed a little decorating. This is the top of a cabinet we have. I put the papers from the DCWC Immortal Love Stack behind the glass doors. I used glitter pens to give the eyes a little extra shine.

This is our shower with the bloody handprint shower curtain. (You can see the cabinet reflecting in the mirror.) Why did I show this you ask? Well, we have sliding doors on our shower, but enough wall that we put up a curtain tension rod so that I could use the shower curtain. Rather than spend extra money on the curtain rings, I used book rings!!! You can get a bazillion of them for cheap at the office store, and they worked perfect! (Just a side note, there is a clock in this picture...I made it with an old CD and a clock kit from the craft store.)

My kitchen also is going through some changes. I had this old spice shelf and some jars. I used some Tim Holtz papers to create labels for the jars. At the thrift store I found this cool apothecary jar, that I filled with superball eyes I found at the Halloween store. I filled the mayonnaise jar with glow in the dark spider web, and some spider rings (rings cut off just like the bats). In the other jar, another skeleton. Not pictured is another jar on the opposite side of my stove with mini skulls in it. I am going to add some fabric toppers to the jars, I just haven't done that yet. I am trying to decide which fabric to use.

Stay Scary, My Friends!!!

It's Here!!!

2011-09-28T08:06:00.000-07:00

This is the junk journal that Tracey made for me for the swap on Mini Album Scraps. I asked for a kitchen journal, and this is what she came up with...I LOVE IT!

I have this line of papers, it is from DCWV and it is so cool! I had also told her that I like retro and vintage things! This couldn't have been more perfect.

The books were supposed to have 4 sections. There were also supposed to be pockets. She included a pocket on each divider.

She edge punched the tags!!!

In each section she added some patterned papers, and these cute little envelopes!!!

These index cards are awesome! She inked the edges and punched them. She stamped all of the images.

Look at the cute little tags in the envelope!

LOVE IT!

She also added many bland pages to each section. That is something I didn't do, just add white papers to the book, I am totally CASEing that idea!

BBQ anyone?

Beautiful doily page!

Isn't this awesome.

I can't wait to fill this up with my kitchen clippings.

This is going to be COOL.

She stamped throughout the book.

She painted the chipboard letters as well!

I am loving the Old Crow tag!

So pretty, I really am blown away with this!

This is FULL of pages for me to add to.

But wait, there's more!!! She also sent me some goodies that I am going to use to DECORATE this with as I go!!! How awesome and wonderful is this!!!

Thank you, Tracey! I really love it!!!

Stay Crafty, My Friends!!

Bonus Junk Journal

2011-09-26T05:44:00.000-07:00

I made this junk journal for a swap on MAS...she wanted it for her two boys. I thought she needed a book just for her, so I made her another one. I can't help it, they are addictive!

So, I came up with this one just for her...

The cover is 7 Gypsies with some Echo Park journaling tags, Recollections bling and a wooden butterfly.

I hung some charms and ribbons from the first book ring.

Inside cover with library pocket from the Learning Palace and 7 gypsies tags and paper. The paper was 6x6, I folded it over and...

Glued it to make a vertical pocket for more tags. I got the Theresa Collins month page, cut it up for pages.

Tim Holtz tickets, 7 Gypsies pocket, and paper from an old vintage time keeper book.

Post cards are here also.

More vintage record book papers. The blue is an envelope.

Some scrapbook paper folded to make a pocket page.

7 Gypsies ephemera and a sales order form I found at the thrift store.

A mini file folder, and a giant tag that I folded up and glued to make a pocket for smash book journaling tags.

7 Gypsies transparent tags.

A large envelope that I cut the flap off, folded, and created two pockets with. There are paper tags in them.

More ledger papers.

This pocket page was made out of a replica Sears catalog that I found in an antique store.

I put more Smash Book Journaling tags in it.

A black paper bag with tags...

This paper I cut into a file folder shape.

I put clips on it, and other pages as well.

I put a Tim Holtz glassine bag here, and used a doily folded up to make a pocket and put tags in it.

She loved it!! On Wednesday I am going to share with you the AWESOME book and goodies she sent to me!!!

Have a CRAFTY DAY!

A Swap Junk Journal!

2011-09-23T05:44:00.000-07:00

This is for swap I was in, at Mini Album Scraps, making a Junk Journal. You all know I have become addicted to them. Now, I got to make one for my partner, and she is making one for me! My partner wanted one so that she could record memories of her two boys, who are 3 years and 18 months old. That was her only requirement...the rest was up to me, and here is what I came up with. This is super pic heavy, but there are a lot of cool things in here. I apologize right now!

The cover paper is by My Mind's Eye. The ribbons are from the collection. I stickled the "brothers and the eyes of the dinosaurs. It is hard to see, but the light green guy and the pterodactyl are lifted with foam. The bushes are made with Prima leaves.

I glued buttons to the ribbons for a little "bling."

The dividers are from plastic dividers I found at the thrift store, I just cut them down. I put two clips on each divider. The words on the tabs are from Creative Imaginations.

I made a pocket for each section. The variety of stickers throughout are also by My Minds Eye.

I made this pocket and pullout at a make-and-take a while ago, but never used it...so I put it in the book.

I glued the bottom of the paper bag to create a pocket for tags.

I have had these bright library pockets and cards forever, from the Learning Palace. I used a few of them. The Life Documented paper came in handy for a variety of journaling spots.

I found a deck of Old Maid cards, so I stuck a couple in here.

The library pockets are also from Learning Palace, and I put journaling cards from K and Company in them.

This pocket is from Daisy D's.

Here is another pull out...But I left it blank for my partner to decorate.

A mini file folder...

An old grade book page and a desk name card...

I folded a huge envelope in half, and on the inside put pages from an old Lady and the Tramp Book.

I cut the end of the envelope off to create another pocket, then added the "Rough and Tough" making yet another pocket.

The back of the bingo card had advertising stuff on it, so I attached a coin envelope and two more mini tags.

The "Little Man" sticker is on the back of a piece of file folder.

I added a page from an atlas book that I have.

Taa Daa, the end of the book! The tally: 50 pages, 27 pockets, and 19 tags!

On Monday, I will show you the book I made just for her, and on Wednesday, I will show you the book she made for me...it is AWESOME!!

Please, let me know what you think. And, Stay Crafty, My friends!

Use My Stash Challenge

2011-09-21T08:53:00.000-07:00

I got involved in this at Mini Album Scraps and came up with a cool new idea for a mini album using an old kit from My Mind's Eye called "The Spider's Web". I took a bazillion pictures, but it did turn out soooo cool, well, at least I think so.

I was inspired by a You Tube video I saw by Marla on LakeAvenue Design's. She has a great tutorial on a "Brag Book". I took the concept of it, then adapted the idea of a "Never Ending Mini Album" that I have done in the past, and you can see a tutorial of it here.

OK, the papers are just cool! I love the colors, more brown than orange, which makes me think it is more spooky! The bling is prima, the flowers are Recollections. I used an EK success punch for the gold flower center, and the flower centers are from Creative Imaginations.

I used some of the gems from Creative imaginations on the spine as well.

Just a simple ribbon closure for the book.

Open, and showing the two sides of the album. Each side is its own set of pages. I made a closure with flowers, punch shapes and velcro. The pages are brochure envelopes. I kept them closed on the sides (in the above tutorial link I opened the sides so that the tags could be inserted in the top). I left the flaps of the envelopes open, giving me pockets coming out of the sides, and the flaps gave me space to add more cardstock pages and pockets!

The closure opened, showing the first page. A MS punch created the spiders and I added gems to the bodies.

There are a ton of pockets and tags in this book. I used up all of this kit! The solid page is a piece of cardstock from a DCWV mat stack that I added to the flap of the envelope to give me another page. This is the first page opened...

...then it opens again! The pumpkin paper is attached to the flap of the envelope, giving another pocket for tags. The ribbons are attached to the tags that are in the envelope pockets themselves.

Next page opened...

...and again...same thing, using the flaps of the envelopes.

I punched a round piece, attached it to the middle, to create a space for more tags.

The next side of the book.

First opening...

...then open again. A MS punch helped create the fence pocket.

Next section...

...then opened again.

The last section.

I took this shot to show you the one side of the book from the top, all of the pages opened a little so you can get the idea of how it worked. The other side is the same!

15 pages in each side. 32 tags in all.

Stay Scary, My Friends!

Specimen Art

2011-09-19T05:39:00.000-07:00

I have seen these all over the net, and decided to made one for myself. An inexpensive frame, a piece of cardstock, and scraps of Halloween themed paper. Use a punch and TAA DAA!

I am thinking of doing another one with a bat punch I have, and another with butterflies in scary patterned papers.

Stay Scary, My Friends!

Halloween Creations

2011-09-16T05:36:00.000-07:00

I made a couple of things for Halloween...I thought I would share them with you!

I found the skull printable on The Graphics Fairy. I printed it out on light kraft colored paper, and then inked the edges. I put it in a homemade frame. It is the bottom of the box that my youngest son's senior picture portfolio came in. I lined it with black cardstock, and on the inside edge I put a strip of grey ribbon and then used distress Stickles on the inner edges between the cardstock and ribbon. I glued the ribbon on the back to hang it.

I have seen huge skull-spiders for lawns, but wanted something a little smaller. I used 12" pipe cleaners for the legs, and glued mini skull heads on for the bodies. They look really cool and creepy in the blacklight.

Anyhoo...more creative Halloween craftiness coming soon!

Stay scary, my friends...bwahahahahaha!!!