My DIY Chair Cushion Redo

Well I've not posted in a little bit and unfortunately it's not because I'm just slacking and doing something fun. I'm not saying I have been totally devoid of fun during the month of September, I have not. I have been however, really swamped in my office. I've had thoughts, dreams and ideas galore and no time at all to be a maker. Sadness.
I did however just this morning finish a project for my Mamcita. She's had these chairs in her living room for ages. I didn't know where she got them but we've been sitting on them for years. Apparently they are part of a Drexel Heritage dining room set that she gave to my younger brother when we were in our twenties and someone has the table and chairs but it's not my brother.
The original color was a vibrant emerald green metallic I believe which was then covered in a red velvet. My mom had a roll of vintage upholstery material that she wanted to use but to cover these but we deemed it too brittle after 30 years of sitting in her garage with very poor temperature control. So. We headed to JoAnn's and hit the discontinues/remnant rack and found this beautiful velvet type material with blues and greys in it. I grabbed a yard and a half to be on the safe side and blammo! It was on sale. I got out of there with a beautiful piece of upholstery fabric for four dollars and fifty cents.

I didn't go through the blow by blow in the diy process. There are enough of them out there. I did however want to say, when you are working on a chair bottom that has notches for the seat to fit around the pieces of the back, really think through how you are going to cut those notches. I struggled with them and the overall project was ridiculously simple. They were irritating.

In the picture above you can see how grey the material looks. In the photo below put back together and sitting happily in my mom's place it looks much bluer but the color is still subtle.

Overall, I'm really tickled with how they turned out. I didn't add any extra padding to the chairs and I think they could have used it but heck it's still a nice looking chair and still very comfortable.
So tell me, how did I do?

Card for the Birthday Boy

Today is my younger brother's birthday. Apparently I'm not allowed to call him my "baby" brother because that causes teasing and such over at his house with his kids. LOL. So, in honor of the younger bro, last night, we had a nice dinner with his family at my mom's. She pulled out all the stops and did a yummy dinner for us along with peach cobbler for after. And. As if we were not already stuffed enough, I made vanilla bean ice cream that was pretty darn divine to go with the cobbler.

Oh and a card, I did make a card.. He said  it was so nicely done that he almost thought it was store bought. Ha ha, it was not.

On the outside of the card I used all Close To My Heart BT Duo papers from the retired Dakota paper pack. Plus, the Cricut Artiste cartridge for the fancy label cuts the car is sitting on, and one of the stamps from the new Cricut Artbooking set that CTMH has. ( I was working my stash LOL) Oh and what else? Whisper card stock along with Pacifica ink.

I really loved how the whisper made the car look silvery. The car itself, arrows, and other embellishments are from the Hot Off the Press Vintage Car Dazzles. I mounted the car onto whisper card stock, cut it out used some gold and silver Smooch Inks for some of the cars details then I popped it up off the background with some foam squares from my stash. I'm not sure if you can tell in the photo or not but I achieved a pretty cool drop shadow effect from first stamping the card with the Indian Corn Blue ink and then stamping just off center with the Pacifica ink. Thank goodness for the clear My Acrylix Blocks that allow you to see where you are stamping.

I also did a bit on the inside, I think it make it look more finished. The inside also has a label cut from the Artiste cartridge as well inked with Indian Corn Blue pigment ink from the Enchantment mini pigment pad set and the (slightly crooked) bottom strip is one of the "innies" from the dazzle sheet.

Leave me a comment and tell me what you think, I'd love to hear from everyone. Talk to you soon.
And just in case he happens to see this. Happy Birthday JB.
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Paper Flowers for MAS

Well I'm back. Been on a little bit of a vacation with my husband and a bunch of my sister in laws. My husband is the oldest of 7 and his second sister (of 5) turned 40 and we took a little jaunt to Las Vegas to celebrate. We had a great time, with some yummy food, great laughs, a little gambling and some of the best summer weather anyone could ask for if taking a trip to Sin City. Although we really were not gone that long I didn't plan and schedule a blog post ahead of time.I am getting better about this stuff though.

Anyhow, I'm home and I've been making again. I guess the thing that I needed to kick me into gear for getting projects done is belonging to the great group over at Mini Album Scraps, MAS. It really is a great bunch of guys and gals over there and I have really been stretching my creativity doing things for the swaps I've been joining.
I just send off my contribution to the flower swap we had and well, the picture below just does not do justice to the flowers. I was tickled with how all of them turned out. I must admit though that I kinda went nuts with the Tim Holtz/Sizzix, Tattered Floral die.

I used it for three of my flowers and I have more incarnations of flowers planned. Muahahahahaha (sinister evil laugh echos through the craft room...) It is however one of the best and quickest ways to throw cute flowers together. The other thing is you can use different materials to get different kinds of flowers. I used mod podged burlap for the bottom center flower, an old book/pages for another and then coffee filters for one. I love them ALL. Top flower on that bunch is a simple ribbon flower. If you have any questions about how I threw them together give me a holler.
Also wanted to mention, I'm in a class over at JessicaSprague.com called "How to Bloom Your Blog." I'm learning some digital skills so I can update my blog and do some other nifty digital artsy things. So if you pop in and find it looking a bit different I'm working on the blog.
Talk to ya soon.

An Addiction Is Born

...and I really think I've lost my mind.  Seriously. My name is Felica and I'm an addict. No pictures today just a vent on my addiction.

 It's no suprise that I like crafting of all sorts. I can get totally engrossed in blog hopping and checking out techniques and projects. Drooling over all the different things made (by very talented crafters) from paper, beads, paint and materials of all sorts and my list of things I want to try just grows and grows. I think the real problem is that I just want to make pretty things for myself and other people. I know people that ask me "why" all the time. If I say I'm working on some project it's as if it has to be for something specific. Can we make beautiful things for no other purpose at all but just to make someone happy (hopefully).

Anyhow. I've been making pin cushions and stick pins. And more pin cushions. And flowers. Paper flowers. Bead flowers. Lace and fabric flowers. Burlap flowers. Last week I was at JoAnn's 4 times. I've hit the GoodWill store twice looking for, well, several things. Friday I came out of there with a couple of cute tea cups (for pin cushions) and a cami top specifically for the puropse of cutting up and using as the cushion part of said pin cushions. My first visit there netted me a couple pieces of drapery sheers (for fabric flowers) and a top with the most beautiful lace that I immediatly removed from the garment and put away for some future project, only because it's a bit to wide for pin cushion embellishments. *heavy sigh*

I've also been hitting eBay. Really, I was just only looking (I swear)
 until Thursday when I did a search for vintage lace and found a listing for a "lot" of beautiful laces from an estate sale. Yup, I bid, won, and got a VERY great deal. Now I've started stalking my mail man. It's a sad, sad, thing. As soon as I get it I'll get some photos of my haul, then a post of my las MAS swap.
Talk to you soon.

Altered Dominoes

Well I've been crafty. LOL. I have seen pieces of jewelry and teeny tiny scrap books made with altered dominoes so I thought I'd try my hand at altering one of these tiles. Actually I did 3 over the course of a couple of weeks. I'm not quite ready for heavy duty alteration just yet or doing the little book. I thought I should work my way up. Here's a couple of views of the three together. I was trying to get a good shot and I see I still need some practice with the camera. I'm mostly happy with how they turned out. I think I need to work on keeping the air bubbles and renegade strands of cat fur out of my Glossy Accents though.

The first domino I used my Sakura Micron pens on and then thought I'd throw some Ranger Alcohol Inks along with a couple of gear "Dazzles" from Hot of the Press. Oh and a random rhinestone. I think the colors are a little dark although I love the combination. Of course, I have a couple air bubbles in there that make me crazy.

The center domino I used Sharpies. Yup. Sharpies! I picked up a pack of "80's Colors" at the local Office Max a couple of months back and got a great package of 24 colors including brown and the standard black. They also have a fine tip which was good but quite as good as my Sakura's for detail, but I was still able to get my Zentangeling on. I tell ya it's kinda hard working on such a small canvas but I also find it very relaxing and therapeutic. You cant really tell from any of the pictures but I also doodled around the sides with two toned swirls. I had the intention of putting a small flat back rhinestone in the center of each of them and sealing the sides with Glossy Accents as well but I haven't figured out which steps to do that in and I find that handling the domino after inking it tends to fade (or rub off) the colors before I seal them. Again, I have a couple of air bubbles up top and a single piece of bling down in the bottom corner.

This last domino is actually the first one I completed the day my dominoes showed up in the mail. I whipped out my Sakura Pens and went to town doing a Zentangle doodle. Now technically Zentangle is not supposed to take more than say 15 minutes or so, but I think this took me about an hour. Again working with such a tiny "canvas" I really took my time. I need to work on my "Tangle" techniques as well because I LOVE the graphic look of the black and white.

Tell me what you think. Has anyone else out there altered any dominoes? I know they just finished an Altered Domino swap over at MAS and the pieces are georgeous. Check them out.

More of the MAS Ocean Theme Stickpins

Well we've been working on our house like mad men for the last couple of weeks. All our insulation is up and have the building inspector coming out this morning to give us his blessing to move forward hopefully.

That said I haven't been posting things I've been working on and I have definitely been crafting. It's been keeping me sane during the stress related to all the little details that we've been finishing up.

This weekend I should have pictures of my latestes creations for the Current MAS swap that I've been working on. It's gotten me totally addicted to making pin cushions and along with the finding of beautiful trims to use in making them. But more on that later. Below is the beautifully edited video from Merry Seaver over at Sugar Grove Crafts of the last stick pin swap. The work that all the gals did was just beautiful and amazing. They are all so very talented and I felt a little overwhelemd when I recived my package of pins in the mail. The presentation pieces were stunning.


 

Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think about the beautiful work everyone did and I'll be back over the weekend.

Stick Pin Swap at MAS

Well it's Sunday and I'm exhausted, it's been a busy week. Spent most of the weekend with my husband and two of his sisters. Dinner with the family and us girls had a baby shower for a friend of our yesterday. Now it's back to crafting.

I am a member of the fine group over at Mini Album Scraps. I'm really glad that I joined the group. It's made me more accountable in my crafting and I think a bit more creative and for me, these really are challenges. I think because presentation is a very important part of the swap and that really needs to be as good as what you are swapping.
Now, I'm also cook, and I know that presentation is a huge part of serving food and I put a lot of thought into it and it just come second nature to me most days. But in the crafting world...well let's just say this really is more of a challenge for me.

The last swap that I joined was the June Stick Pin Swap which had a beach theme and I jumped in with both feet. I wasn't as happy with my presentation piece as I would have liked. I had an idea but I don't think I executed it as well as I can.  The worst part about the whole this is that once you start making these you don't want to give them away. They are all so pretty.

Requirements for the pins were that there needed to be 4 pins per presentation piece and we were swapping three. Beach was our theme so we needed to stick with colors found around the beach be they sea glass, shells, drift wood etc and at least one pin had to have a dangle. The hardest part for me was finding anything that resembled a decent seashell.

I think I did pretty well.
What do you think for my first stick pin swap? Did I pull it off?
I'm looking forward to getting my swapped pins back and I'm currently working on my next stick pin swap which includes a pin cushion as a presentation piece.
Tell me what you think.

June Cards

Can you believe that July is already half over? The summer is zooming by fast and has been really busy. I've had baby showers, weddings, father's day and birthdays galore. I didn't make as many cards as I would have liked but I did manage to get two done and out the door. The first one was a card for Father's day for my FIL.

I hate to say it but I was less than creative on the card. I totally loved everything about a card I found over at Paperwishes so ordered everything to copy the card. The great steampunk paper, the vintage cars Dazzles the smooch inks and I lifted the design and made a copy. It turned out great and the act of putting it together sprouted a few ideas for the future.

I love Dazzles and have a three ring binder full of them and often forget that. If I'm lucking during a creative brainstorming process I'll  remember and be able to pull out some sheet that ends up being just the perfect thing for what I'm working on.


The next card I did was for my husbands birthday. We are both huge Star Wars fans and I couldn't let an opportunity to cut Darth Vader on my Silhouette Cameo go by. (Honey's a huge fan of the Empire.)
It was simple but the result was an ecstatic husband and that's what counts. Especially since the poor guys had his birthday sandwiched between a baby shower and and a wedding and his birthday presents have still not arrived. (My bad)  Anyhooo. I used card stock from Close to My Heart. I love how smooth it is and how wonderful it is to work with. Simple  black layers on the cuts and where the white (Colonial White to be exact) was showing I used Silver Smooch ink. It looks really nice and like I said he was tickled.

Butter Cream and Burlap

I've mentioned that my girlfriend got married last month, it's been a whole two weeks so far. Married during one of the most awesome heatwaves Northern California has seen in a while and of course it was outside. I've had several requests for me to post pictures of the cake and the burlap roses I did for her. So here they are.

First the cake. Since the bride wanted butter cream instead of fondant on her cake I hit Pinterest for inspiration and found this. It was perfect. So. Thinking I'd give it a shot I found the most awesome tutorial for doing the petal technique here. I haven't made a wedding cake in a while and well, I was happy with the cake. I'm just really glad no on could see my inspiration photo to do a comparison.  I was really starting to worry about the butter cream melting off the cake with the heat and I kept having to refrigerate the butter cream while I was working to continue decorating.  I can say that I am totally looking forward to doing this technique again on a couple of practice cakes. It totally looks elegant and it's simple and I have to say even a bit relaxing to do. (if you're not concerned about the butter cream melting.)

The back side of the cake. 

Next are the flowers. I wish I had a good picture of the centerpieces that were used on the tables. They were simple mason jars wrapped with burlap and ribbon with a button embellsiment on the front filled with small cheery sunflowrs and daisies. Each of the bouquets had one of these burlap flowers stuck in the jars. I found the best tutorial for burlap flowers here. I used burlap ribbon instead of a piece of burlap of material even though I had a whole bolt hanging around the house. The yellow ribbon I found at Joann's and it was wired. The regular burlap ribbon is from Close to My Heart and that can be purchased at my CTMH store here. I love this stuff, the finished edges really made the roses look polished and they couldnt be easier to make. Just watch the hot glue. Burlap being a very loosely woven material tends to allow the hot glue to seep through layers and hot glue is, well,  just plain HOT. Watch out for your fingers is all I can say.

Let me know what you think. Are any of you out there DIY - aholics like I am?

Addition to the Craft Room

So a few of you know that my husband and I are in the middle of a major remodel on our very old house. We have one of the few in ground basements in Northern California per our building inspector and we have completely overhauled it and made it basically into a 722 sq ft apartment and that's where we are living. When we finish the main living area  and move UP it will be a spare bedroom, my craft room and possible a man cave/second spare room, and I will have two kitchens!!!!


But until recently the Craft Room/Dining Room/Office looked like this, and this is just one side of it.

The messy, unorganized right side of the room. Look at that poor used of space.

The red chair was my Darling Husband's "gaming chair." He picked it up along with a sofa, love seat and ottoman a couple years back for a hundred bucks when he broke his leg. But I digress. He decided that if I had more storage it might look less cluttered because I'd have someplace besides the table to put things. He also said the chair was hard to get in and out of and if we put counter with a work station spot in he could set his computer game stuff there. If I didnt mind. (Of course not, lol)

Table on the "other" side of the room.

So we picked out a counter and cabinet from our local Home Depot.
Of course I had to DIY the cabinet before it could come downstairs.

I chalk painted and stenciled the cabinets, using Royal Design Studio's Lovely Lace Furniture Stencil and Behr paints that I made into chalk paint after reading Diane's post on how to do so here. The particular piece above my honey fitted with casters so it rolls out and it cleverly hides our storage cupboard under the stairs.

I love the teal it goes well with the sunny yellow in our downstairs and it goes well with "cat" also. Here's my helper Ace he really felt like he needed to be a part of the project. Thank goodness the paint dries fast and being the end of May when I was working on this it was rather warm.

Here's the grand reveal after the install.

I still would like to put hardware on the drawers and  doors but we havent picked those out yet. I aslo need to take a few minutes and rub the piece down with wax to finish the process to protect my investment. But for now I'm really loving this, it's got a great place for my Scrap Rack over in the far corner and my honey says he's happier at his new gaming spot.

My First TP Roll Mini Album

I've been busy, busy like a crafting fool. Hopefully I can get posts in to show what I have been doing.

Lets start with the latest thing and work my way backwards. I decided to join a couple of groups with hopes of meeting some talented crafty people, making some new friends and learning some things and actually producing something. First place I joined was Mini Album Scraps (MAS), I figured if it was about mini albums I might actually do something with all that crafting goodness I've been stashing away in in my craft room. Now don't get me wrong, I think scrapbooks are nice but heck, I have a major creators block when it comes to doing a layout. They are NOT my forte. But mini albums...they are beautiful, creative pieces of art. Ok, so are large layouts,  but they seem easier, more manageable, something I can actually wrap my head around. And I don't necessarily have to put pictures in at the time I'm doing them. That makes my life infinitely easier if I'm not trying to shove photos into my creativity.

So I'm looking through the swaps available and I see "Toilet Paper Roll Mini Swap" and my head starts spinning. I have been saving tp rolls for quite a while, for what exactly I'm not sure but I knew I might use them for something. Quilling a home decor something maybe, but I had them nonetheless. I was in, and I'm done. and I really hope it manages to meet expectations.

I learned several things. First of all, apparently I love to make embellishments, and if you are doing something like this it's a good idea to have your embellishments completed and together before you start. Also, have more then you think you are going to need. Maybe you can tell from the picture, but my album is a bit on the chunky side. I don't think "flat" is in my repertoire. Below are some of the pages that were in my mini. All of the paper used to cover the tp rolls were from the  Close to My Heart "La Belle Vie " paper pack. The same paper pack was used to make the majority of the embellishments. All the ribbon fibers I've had in my stash but the black and mauve lace and  velvet ribbon used along with my bling I picked up at Michael's a few weeks back in the dollar bins. They were perfect!

I'm really happy with the way it turned out overall but I know where my improvements will be on the next one and I have tp rolls being flattened as we speak!!! Also, I think one of the requirements of the MAS group is to video and upload to YouTube when we get our swaps. I need to check, if thats the case I'll be adding some video.
Let me know what you guys think.

Color Pallets

Do you have a favorite color pallet? Something that you find yourself drawn to or colors you consistently reach for when you are crafting? I do. I dont know when it happened but suddenly I had the biggest crush of Tangerine and Raspeberry. Something like this

Source: theperfectpalette.com via The Perfect Palette on Pinterest

Wait! That's Coral and Fuchsia. But they pretty much figured into my scheme as well. I wanted colors like this for my wedding or actually; Tangerine, Mango, Guava,and Watermelon. The worst part is I don't know when I decided that I liked these colors. I used to be a true blue girl, and I still love shades of blues and greens although they are not the first thing I gravitate towards these days.

Source: su.pr via The Perfect Palette on Pinterest

For a softer look I particularly love this. It makes me hungry for something sweet and creamy just looking at it. So what are your go to color schemes? Is there a color you just can't shake that makes you really happy to work with? I'd love to hear, leave me a comment and  tell me about it.

A Rant on Thursdays, and a List.

Some people hate Monday morning, I'm not too fond of them as well cause I feel like I'm just getting into the groove of the weekend when it comes to a screeching halt, but Thursdays are worse. Much worse.

Being a business owner with a couple of employees means we have responsibilities to other people not just ourselves. I get that. People want to get paid. I get that as well, but I digress. In order to get payroll done and out the door is sometimes really like pulling teeth and it wears me out to no end. Thursdays are the bane of my existence and if there is ANYthing else scheduled on a Thursday I can't guarantee that I'll make it there. I don't check e-mails most of the day, forget checking in on Facebook. Nothing fun happens on a Thursday. See? I really don't like them.
So in an effort to deal with Thursdays since I can't cut them out of my life and they seem to single-handedly mess up my week. I have taken action against them. I'm now getting up earlier every (other) day of the week. I'm having dinner ready to cook when I get home so it's not such a daunting task and I don't end up begging Honey to order Pizza. They are little things, but dang the day seems so out of control sometimes. Like it has a mind of its own and I do have the rest of my week fairly under control.

On that note, here is my list from yesterday, and if anyone is interested since I started on the lists in the middle of the month, when it comes to an end I'll continue with the beginning of the list.

List #21 Today's (or rather Yesterdays) weather reminds me of

#1 Early Spring. Yippee, the weather is back to normal a bit. Not that I don't like how lovely it's been but I'm not ready for summer yet.

#2 Green. Everywhere. Green things are sprouting like crazy.

#3 Being at my folks place, out in the country.

#4 The smell of moist dirt, from the garden.

#5 Cut grass.

I think that about it for now.Wish me luck though, next week I have a Quickbooks Payroll class all day on Thursday so my payroll day will need to move to Wednesday. 

Hot Air Balloon Continued...

So I'm baaack. I came home and finished up my little project and I must say for a "prototype" I'm really happy with it and ready to start another one. I know just how I'll do it.

For this I actually used all white card stock. The outer panels I ran through my Cuttlebug with my Anna Griffin Pirouette folder. I LOVE how it looks. I ran Tim Holtz Distress Inks over the panels, half with Victorian Velvet and half with Cotton Candy. Very subtle but with a bit of a vintage feel. The bunting around the top of the balloon has just a bit of Color Box's Surf from my cat's eyes. I also used some Dazzles stickers from my stash to finish things up on the basket and the butterfly on the top and some lavender ribbon from the dollar bin at Joanne's.

Here's a close up of the top for a bit more detail.

And now for my List for today.  List #20  I Do Not Regret...

Well, I had to think about that a bit as I dont usually dwell on regrets and such. But here goes. 
#1. Getting remarried (Honey will be really happy to here that.)
#2. Bringing home a third kitty although he really is a little monster.
#3. Starting a business with my new Husband even though some days I really want to pull my hair out and throw things.
#4. I really do not regret saying yes to rebuilding the house we live in. It's a ton of work but the is gonna be so awesome when we are finished. I'll have before and after's to prove it.  
#5. Moving to San Jose, finishing school and getting a job in the tech industry. It was the toughest thing I think I've ever done but it was one of the best experiences of my life. I truly believe that. I think that's it.

See you guys soon! 

Hot Air Balloon #1

Well upside down to finish gluing, a little wonky, and not quite completed here is my very first project with my Silhouette Cameo!  I'm so dang excited! I'd cut out a couple of things since getting this for Christmas but hadn't really done anything with it.  I know it looks a bit odd sitting on its head like that but the upside down version just wasn't working for me. Hehe.

I am no cutting machine pro, at least not yet. I can't believe, I was just so tickled with how easy my machine was to use. Plus, the file from SVGCUTS were a breeze to work with. These guys do some amazing work over there I got a little stuck getting my files to cut but I went to the blog found Leo's step by step for the Silhouette with Studio Designer Edition software and I was good to go. AWESOME!!!

My biggest problem was getting to excited I think, and trying to go to fast. I thought I had everything together and then I realized that I wasn't gluing my base together the correct way. That is very important. Honey also asked me  why I was only using white card stock and I had to let him know that I really wanted to know how the thing went together before I committed pretty paper to it. But to make him happy, I decorated it a bit so it wouldn't be a ghost balloon.
 I'll have this finished this afternoon after I get home and then get some (better) shots of the completed balloon, right side up, and with info on what I used to gussy it up.

#19 In the Next Year, I Will...

Here's my current installment on the 30 Days of Lists. I'm a little behind, especially since I didnt start the "Lists" till the 15th or so but I'm plunging in not just dipping a toe. So here goes my list for today.

In the Next Year, I Will...

#1 Help plan a wedding for my best friend.
#2 Help Plan a baby shower for my niece.
#3 Get a new bed.
#4 Pick PERFECT paint colors and paint the main floor of my house.
#5 Take more pictures. (An put more up!)
#6 Have two characters at level 50 in SWTOR
#7 Be healthier, which is always an ongoing project here at our house.
#8 Learn to be a finisher. (I'm starting here, 20 minutes and I think I'm done.)

I love crafts and as I get, well older, I suppose. I really like doing home decor things for my own place. Probably in part because I was a late bloomer and was always renting a room or living in someone else's house. But now, Honey and I are rebuilding the house his grandparents built after saving it from being condemned (really).  We live in the basement. A 722 square foot basement. Thins originally looked like this...

I'm learning all about design and color and it's kinda scary.  

That hole is my "downstairs" kitchen window. It's all concrete down here and sticks up about two feet above ground. 

Here's is a partial picture of the kitchen after it was painted before we got out cabinets in.

I don't have a picture of what the "living room" looked like before but lets just say it was very similar and when we move up to the main living area it will be a man cave/spare bedroom. Now the living room had been looking pretty much like this. Please forgive the blurry bad pic, this was a cell phone pic the day we got our grown up furniture about 6 months ago.

So I've been wanting pieces to decorate my house. Of course I don't want things like everyone else and I'm trying to develop some sort of style of my own. Right now it's called basement clutter. After a year of having nothing on the walls, we finally got some floating shelves up. They look really nice, I have a couple of photos in frame up and I'm praying the cats don't decide they are for them. LOL. 

Tomorrow I'll post the pictures I'm putting up in the shelves. They are from the trip I took to San Francisco at the beginning of the month. In the meantime off to finish another project so I can post some pics of them as well.

Short Post and 30 days of Lists

#1 I'm a Lister because...

Well I ran across the 30 days of Lists last year at the end of March and was hoping it would come around again this year and it did. Yippee for me! Of course, I forgot about it till I ran across it again yesterday, and since we are only halfway through the month I though I go ahead and add it to my plate. (Of course I am)
Of course, I was reading the list of prompts last night before I went to sleep and I thought theses would be fairly easy to get out.
So here goes, why do I list.
#1  It makes me feel good to cross things off.
#2 I feel more productive. (actually I am more productive.)
#3 I make me feel more organized and under control.
#4 I am less inclined to forget things. (usually)
#5 I follow through with more things. For example, if I make a list of what I'm cooking for dinner during the week(my weekly menu) it usually happens AND my husband and I eat far better than when we were grabbing fast food daily.

That's it for now. I'm slowly but surely working through my craft project list and will have some pictures of a couple projects later today.

All the Little Details

So, I'm in the middle of a couple of projects more to come on those hopefully Sunday or Monday, but I was thinking.
Do you ever get bogged down when working on something? I know I do. For me I sometimes think I have to be able to see the finished project in my head before I can start the darn thing. It can be quite frustrating. Especially if you end up with something like writers block. I feel like I need to have all the little details in place before I begin, or at least some sort of idea how I'm going to finish a piece.
Then, I have a thing for embellishments,  specifically making my own. Now don't get me wrong, I don't mind purchasing something for a piece I'm working on but I really think I get great satisfaction making them (from paper of course!) That was the reason I bought a Cricut a few years back, I love all the little things it allows me to make. That was also the reason I purchased the CTMH, Cricut Artiste Cartridge, and then The Art Philosophy Cartridge as well. Personally I think if you do any sort of regular scrap booking it's very useful and can totally make your layouts spectacular. The same for cards, if you are a card maker. Check out the video I've posted. This is a video from the Close to My Heart training team on things you can make for great embellishments with the Cricut. It gave me even more ideas... isn't that always how it goes. LOL.

Confessions of a Total Craftaholic!

I know I said NO new projects but dang it, every time I peruse Pinterest, or look at a blog hop of some sort I find SOMETHING that I want to do. And um, I think I'm addicted to Pinterest I swear.  Why, oh why are there so many talented, creative people out there and why  do I have to be sucked in to all the cool projects.
I have no less than 4 projects (yet to be started) sitting on my table. Ok, really 3 yet to be started. The 4th is my apron but I'm having some issues with learning how to use my sewing machine. Not issues learning per se, but I keep getting material stuck while I'm working with my practice material and haven't taken the time to figure out what is going on.

So, of the 3 projects on the table,  two are sort of in progress one is still in the box. It a pair of Melissa Frances Putz House Kits for my "future" Christmas decorating.
The next is a Graphic 45 Place in Time, perpetual calendar from the magnificent mind of Kathy Orta over at Paper Phenomenon. I had purchased some of this paper, and then this project just fell into my lap. It's awesome. The paper is perfect for this calendar and I totally see how Kathy was able to come up with the idea. The great part is that it has a hinged door that holds all the monthly pieces inside.
This is a picture of Kathy's completed project and I've got the majority of my pieces and parts, I just need to get my chipboard cut and I can go on from there.

Next, I have a CTMH printer try calling my name. I stole this image from the talented Lisa Stenz over at Lisa's Creative Corner for inspiration. She is one talented CTMH consultant. In this picture she is using the CTMH Avonlea papers but I think I'm going to be using the Buzz and Bumble along with some wedding mementos, although Chantilly is totally calling my name as well. I have both coming in an order tomorrow so I'll decide then.
I have a special board all set up on Pinterest for my "this is how I did it pics for when I'm done and hopefully there will  not be any epic fails.
Well, off to work on said projects and to clean the table off. Wish me luck!
F-

Valentines Treats

Cutest Treat Tubes EVER!

I was even able to dress up the tops of the tube caps.

Did everyone have a good Valentines Day?  My day ended well. Chinese take out and DH got me the cutest little "Cat" necklace which is so appropriate as my nick name to a bunch of my online friends is Kat. I, on the other hand sat my behind down a few days ago and did a digital scrapbook of our first year of marriage for my husband at Shutterfly with the Digital Project Life Templates. 
Then I printed the book and had it sent to delivered. It turned out really great and he was thrilled and I was very pleased with the results. It was kinda like getting a school yearbook and made me realize that going digital (or hybrid) is actually easier than I thought.
Then, I made 24 of these cute little boxes with treat tubes for my mom to use at her discretion. (Being a good daughter I was.)  I thought she'd use them to give to kid in her reading room at school or something but I think she gave them out to teaches instead. They were really fun to make after I narrowed down the design elements. I started off my project thinking that I was going to do something very different and elaborate for each of the four colors. I was so wrong... I used the Close to My Heart, Whooo's Your Valentine Kit that I snagged when I had an opportunity.  They were very well received from what I understand although I believe she gave them out to the teachers. It's probably because the treat tubes are VERY generous. I think a 16 ounce bag of M&M's filled half a dozen tubes. The treat tubes are available through CTMH and although the kit came with the boxes, they are not selling those. BUT, if you have a Cricut, I do have a cut file available using the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge that I will make available.  I'm thinking these would be really cute for wedding or shower favors...  I may have to make some just to see.

Well two projects down and I can now get the next one going.

Finally Some Creativity

Hope everyone has had a fabulous Valentines Day. I had to work so no crafting today, which brings me to a question. Do you ever feel like you just don't have time to do anything creative? I do. Often.

Weekends generally look something like this;  start with a trip to Home Depot for a window for our bathroom, some conduit stuff,  electrical miscellany, a single roll of insulation and for me darn near every Behr paint inspiration sheet at the paint chip wall  any sort of home improvement project the husband needs my feedback on. Then random other things, errand, groceries etc. But I'm finally getting some time or rather making it a prioity.

While DH is upstairs listening to music working on some task to get us closer to to getting our sheet rock up. I on the other hand am working on cleaning up my craft space (never happens, things just get moved around) so I can get my sewing project finished. Currently my table looks like this.

Its slightly cleaner now but not much.  I moved on to getting a card made for my MIL's birthday last week and got a couple of pictures taken.  I got myself the new Anna Griffin Cuttlebug package from HSN for my birthday. It came a little over a week ago and  I'm tickled with all the folders. I haven't figured out how to get a good photo of the  folders so I cant show you what I was working with.  I'll be working on my picture taking skills, and I'm taking suggestions too.

I am a big fan of the white on white cards. So using four of my Anna Griffin embossing folders I made small panels and adhered them with my tape runner.
I used basic white card stock, misted it all with glimmer mist and then added my final (smaller) square set on a diagonal. Bear with me while I lean some photography skills. I swear my pictures will get better. This was the best picture I got of the card but practice makes perfect.

Tomorrow I'll be posting the adorable treat boxes I made for my mother to take to her reading room kids. Also be on the look out for some changes on my blog. I'm doing a bit more with Close to My Heart and while I don't want to be a full blown non stop advertisement for it, I do want it to have a bit of a bigger presence, but more on that later.

Happy New Year!

Good Morning and Happy New Year!  Ok, I know it's not New Years Day technically. But it's my birthday and I like to use my birthday to start my resolutions. I figure I've half heartedly started at least one resolution at the beginning of the year probably already stopped or my enthusiasium has totally flagged on something so it's my party I can start new resolutions if I want too. LOL

I have a couple of broad categories, not specific resolutions. #1 is  to my health. In the last 18 months or so I've done three big things. Got married, my husband and I started a new (thriving) business and we moved into our house. All good things but stressful, lets face it. All three of those things are a work in process but the house more so than anything. It was slated to be condemned when we got it and it's a major, from the studs up remodel. We're are living in the completed basement apartment while we work on the main living area. So I need to be kinder and take better care of myself. You know, eat better, get more exercise  get regular haircuts. (I am so bad about that :-) )Wear more dresses!

Which brings me to #2 finish my current projects. They just keep multiplying like bunnies.

In the next day or so I'm going to sort my projects, see exactly how many I have and get them on my calendar for working on them and getting them done. Along with that I'm going to be doing more documenting (blogging) of what I'm working on with links to finished projects going up on my Pinterest Board. What better way to keep track of a big goal.

The first project I'll finish is the apron I'm working on. My DH got me two great additions to my craft room at Christmas. My little Singer sewing machine and a Silhouette Cameo! That man is the best.

I currently have my material out, my pattern pinned and I'm ready to start cutting. Hopefully I'll have a cute little apron by the end of the week. This may also help in my goal to wear more dresses and skirts as I'm enrolled in a sewing class.( Can we say sewing assignments.) My fingers are crossed.
Then we have the Cameo, sitting and waiting patiently for creativity to strike. I have a couple of things line up for in in the next couple of weeks as well.

In the meantime I will not start anything new, or purchase anything to start something new.I swear! My craft room stash is about to swallow our little living space. But. In the spirit of full disclosure I do have two things in the mail winging their way to me. A small charm pack quilt kit. (to practice sewing  straight lines I swear!!!) and this little beauty...

The New Anna Griffin Cuttlebug set that was on HSN last week. It should be here today and I can hardly wait.

On that note, off to the salt mines. I can't play if I don't get my chores done and on Mondays that means invoicing our customers. Hoep everyone has a good day and I'll be back soon.