Up

I love getting out these baby pictures and scrapbooking them. I wasn't a scrapbooker when my kids were little, so every so often I get the urge to scrap older pictures. Sometimes it's hard, they're not perfect, but that's all we have. Luckily, I did have an SLR before they were born. It was a Minolta.

Wanna know a secret? I have about 10 rolls of undeveloped film sitting on top of my shelf. I wonder what's on them? I should probably get them developed. I might be pleasantly surprised.

Here's the layout I did with some baby photos of Ethan. I seem to be doing a ton of boy layouts lately.



I'm using older paper, trying to use it up. This is Making Memories. I also have a strip of Crate Paper. The cardstock is Bazzill bling.

A close up:


I cut the shape out for my title using my Silhouette.



Flowers on a boy page? Sure why not! These are Creative Charms sequined flowers in green. Notice the little polka dotted orange star? That's a Halloween embellie! Works here, tho. I love when I can use theme stuff for a different purpose.

The close up photos are more accurate in color, the top one is blown out a bit.

I've been super busy, and haven't even checked my blog all week. I'm busy working on a smash book... not the official smash book, but I made my own! Probably saved $15-20. I even attached a pen to mine! Granted, it's not as cool as a pen and a glue stick, but hey, it was free! Can't wait to share. I even have a video tutorial. And I must say, I have a great appreciation for those girls who do video tutorials, they're hard! Especially the editing!

Back to the star embellishment, have you ever used Halloween or Christmas or other specific themed embellishment for something else? I love doing that, you can only do so many Valentine's layouts!

Weekend Gamer

Do you have one of these guys in your house?



This is my 12 year old playing a video game on Xbox live.

In my journaling I wrote about how when I was his age, or a bit younger, what we looked forward to were Saturday morning cartoons. Now there are entire channels dedicated only to cartoons. The kids don't have to wait until Saturday.

At our house, during the school week, he doesn't get a chance to play many video games, so it's his weekend thing.

Here's a close-up:


I used Cosmo Cricket paper on this. The swirly thing under the title is a piece that I cut from the KI Memories scribbles word. I just wanted to use the tail part.

Did I mention that I haven't bought any new paper since November? Not one new paper line. I really have a ton of paper, and even with all these layouts that I've been cranking out... I haven't even put a dent in my stash! I wonder how long I could go without buying any patterned paper? One, two, three years? Three might be a stretch, but one for sure!

How about you? How long could you scrap if you didn't buy new paper?

Last Week Recap

I had a super busy week last week. I did my normal design work, plus I had 2 photoshoots. It was fun. My shoot on Wednesday was super long, and far away. Half way through Ethan's school nurse called, he was running a high fever. I told her I was an hour and a half away and by the time I got there his bus would be there... so I called my brother and luckily he wasn't doing anything so he was able to pick him up.

I don't talk about my brother much. You probably didn't even know I had one. Yep, he's my "little" brother, but he's bigger than me. He's an artist, too, but he's a tattoo artist. He's actually very good. He's always offering to give me free tats, but I always say no. There isn't any picture that I love that much to permanently put on my body. I mean, what if I get sick of it? I can't wash it off. (I can't even decide what quote I want to put on my scrap room wall!) He, on the other had, probably has 100. He is his own canvas...and a walking advertisement, too. If anyone asks him who did his tat, he can say "I did".

Here's a layout I did for a challenge.



It has some sewing and some mists, and this new mist that I totally love and used half a bottle of already! It's Tsukineko Sheer Shimmer Spritz in Sparkle.  It sprays out so well, no splats. And when it dries, it leaves the perfect sheen. I also have Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Pearl, and it looks very similar, but doesn't spray as well. The only downside to the Tsukineko is the bottle is very tiny.



The sparkle mist is on here, but it doesn't photograph well, but trust me, it's awesome!

I sprayed it on the tag, too:

 

You can kind of see it there.

I just have to share the baby picture that I took. I did that shoot for the hospital, it's for the maternity department, when Karen sprung it on me that I was taking shots of babies.  I was totally unprepared, but the photos came out pretty good.

Here's a favorite. She's so A-dorable!

 

Seriously, what a doll!

So, tell me, do you have a tattoo???

Happy St. Patty's Day 2011

Top o' the evening to you!

Where has this glorious day gone? It’s a sunny 61° here... I love it! Ahhh, spring. My tulips are starting to pop up. I see buds on my weeping cherry tree.

I scrapped a lot this past weekend, but here is one that I did for a challenge on Two Peas in a Bucket... funny thing is, I did it, then forgot to post it in the challenge. Oh well.

The challenge was to use a quote in your layout. The quote I used came from my daughter, Emma. She was wise at the ripe age of 4, saying such things as (when overhearing us grown-ups talking about drunk driving) "You shouldn't drink and drive, you might spill your juice."

That was a good one, but the one I used on the layout ranks right up there... once, when she tooted while we were in the car, we looked back at her and asked her if she tooted. She matter-of-factly, "No, there's a dinosaur in my bum."

I think Matt might have driven off the road, just a little bit, we were laughing so hard!

Here's the layout, it's not technically that great or anything, but I'm trying to get memories down on paper, and not stress about what embellishments I'm using.



I used one of my Slice design cards to cut out this 4" dinosaur, then I decorated it up with these felt paisley things and some Creative Charm gradient gems...



Some more of the felt


I finished off the package... it kind of felt good. (now I can get new stuff!) Actually, I haven't bought any new paper since November... can you believe it?? I have a lot.

I do buy embellishments, tho. And, my newest craze is Shimmer Spritz in glitter. Oh my, I've been spraying it on EVERYTHING!

Here is a card I did using ugly paper. On a scrapbook board I frequent, we had an ugly paper swap. I spritzed the card with the mist, it's so sparkly. It's hard to tell from the photos:


See the shimmer:


I made these "flowers" with the ugly paper, I just punched some circles, then folded the paper and alternated the 2 patterns:




There you go, 2 projects. I wanted to spread them out and post a few times this week, but I was busy. Gotta work, so I can buy scraps! ;)

Hope you have a crafty day!

Vintage Bingo Cards

Remember when I re-decorated my foyer? Well, if you look in the photos in that post below, I have a wicker charger plate on the top shelf on the right. It looked really plain.

I decided it needed something. So, I made these vintagey "lucky home" bingo cards:


Here are a couple of close ups... these are really super quick and easy to make. I used some Ranger distress ink in walnut applied with a makeup sponge (or you could use Tim Holtz' fancy applicator tool) on the Jenni Bowlin bingo cards along the edges to make it look old, then I just added a few embellishments, and 20 minutes later, you have a fun home decor item to put on your shelf.



This one has a bonafide vintage button and stick pin that I got at the fleatique last summer:
 
Prima flower, Jenni Bowlin ticket and Creative Charms gradient gems.

On the "home" card, I used a Jenni Bowlin milk bottle cap and vintage button, jazzed up with a Creative Charms gradient gem.


Making Memories bird clip, vintage lace.



Fun, easy crafty decor project. I think it really added to the space and the wicker charger plate really makes the bingo cards pop.

Thanks for stopping by!! Hope you have a crafty day!!

I'm Back!!!

My assignment working out of the house is complete. I've learned a few things about this experience:

1. I do not like driving long distances to go to work
2. I do not like working in a cube
3. I do not like dressing up everyday
4. or wearing a girdle (ha ha!!)
5. I do not like office politics

And, some things I will miss:

1. The people, they were pretty creative, it was fun being surrounded by creative people
2. Shopping at lunch!
3. The steady pay
4. The variety of projects, I really do enjoy being a designer
5. The free samples! Working for a big grocery store chain there was always plenty of free food left over from photoshoots and also taste testing.

Here is my favorite things that I designed, it's a double page ad for Table Magazine:


That was done when I was working for the Market District side of Giant Eagle. Market District is a very upscale grocery store, kinda like Wholefoods, but way bigger, and with more stuff, plus cooking classes and celebrities go there. Martha Stewart was there late last year, and a lot of the chef's from the Food Network go there. Pretty cool.

Here are a couple pieces I did for the Giant Eagle side:


This is a direct mail piece that will go out. I hope I get one, so I have a "real" sample.


This last one is a small ad for a little booklet for a Farm to Table event being held at the end of March. It was for both sides, Giant Eagle and Market District.

It was a fun couple of weeks, but I'm glad to be back working from home, in my PJs!! Plus, GE said that they'll give me a call when they get overwhelmed again, and I could work from home, which would be great, because that's really what I like to do!! I've been doing it for 10 years, so I'm kinda spoiled with the staying home part!

We had quite the exciting weekend, my son decided to stand on an exercise ball and a desk, apparently looking for something on top of the shelf... Matt sits on an exercise ball while he's working... well, Ethan lost his balance and grabbed onto an Ikea Effectiv wall cabinet, and it came right off the wall, and smashed his finger.... all the stuff on the top came crashing down on his head. We were all watching a movie in the family room when we heard the big crash. We ran in to to see what had happened...Ethan was pulling himself up and there was blood all over Matt's desk, which totally freaked me out. I ran and got a kitchen towel, and Matt wrapped his finger in it. We calmed him down and asked if he was hurt and he said his head hurt... so I put ice on it... actually, I grabbed a bag of corn... I don't know why... I sat him on the leather chair in the family room, because being a mom and practical, I didn't want blood on our light colored sofa. ;)

The bag of corn was open, and falling all over the place, which was kind comical after the fact. I switched out the corn for an ice pack. We took him to the ER. I was more concerned with his head, than the finger, but thought he might need a stitch or 2, since there was quite a bit of blood. We got to the ER around 10 (this all happened about 9:30)... Ethan got Xrayed, and patched up. The doctor said he didn't have any signs of a concussion, so he was OK, and no need for a CT. His goose eggs went down, he had 4 total. His finger is broken at the very tip, the tiny little bone on top. Not much you can do with it, so they splinted it up and put gauze on it. We need to make a follow up visit with our regular doctor.

Ethan was quite excited when he found out his finger was broken... that's 2 broken bones so far.

Seriously, he is such a boy!!

Shopping in My Basement

That's right, I went shopping in my basement. And, it didn't cost me a dime! ;)

My foyer was looking very ho-hum, especially after I took all the holiday stuff down. It sat that way for 2 months after Christmas, just there... shelves and a table. I didn't want to put up my matching candlestick lamps because the one was broken. Knocked down ~I don't know how many times ~ by little kids. That's what started it, that one candlestick!

 Isn't it always that one something? The next thing you know, you're painting walls or rearranging furniture!

I have a confession... prior to my scrapbooking hobby,  my hobby was decorating, and I had a slight obsession with accessories. Any time I went shopping, I was always on the look out for accessories.  {sidebar: I think embellishments are the accessories to a scrapbook page... that's probably why I'm so addicted to them as well.} I have quite a collection of things in my basement. My friend Theresa even joked once that she was going to go shopping down there.

It's also fun to move things around in your house once in a while, and that's what I did with this new lamp on my table. Previously, it was in the formal living room, but I bought new lamps for the family room so I moved the family room lamps into the living room, and hence, the extra lamp. It was small enough for the table, too.

OK, enough talking! Here's the picture, I'll show you that, then explain it a bit:



I'm not sure what look I'm going after, maybe eclectic? My inspiration was the Pottery Barn catalog. Not one specific page, but I kind of combined a couple of ideas from several pages. This is still a work in progress. I'm going to add some kind of decorator balls in the basket. Maybe ones covered with old book pages. And, right above the basket, it might be cool to put some kind of vinyl saying or poem or quote... might be cool.

What's new here, besides the lamp, is the deer antlers... apparently, antlers are pretty chic in the decorating world... who knew? And I just happened to have some, compliments of my husband.



Normally I just have pictures on this table and the shelves, but I put up the wicker charger plate and a small orchid. On the bottom shelf, I put our Harry Potter books...



That was new, to me... then I put the urn with paint brushes on the shelf... I was going to take out the brushes, but after I saw it with the books, I thought it looked very Pottery Barn like, so I left them in the urn.

So, there you have it, my new foyer with old stuff that I found in the basement and around the house.

After this little fun re-arranging, I started hopping around the internet to get some other ideas, and boy was I in for a surprise! There are some great ideas out there!! Check out what these ladies do with thrift store finds and other cheap tricks for decorating:

• Inspiration for Decorating
• House of Smiths
• Tater Tots & Jello

Those are a few that I found, but trust me, there are tons of blogs out there and people like me who love to do DIY projects and fix up their house...heck, I'm so inspired I might even repaint my walls or faux granite my boring beige countertops!