I almost forgot....

My life has become insanely busy all of a sudden. Broken cars - up to 6 carpool trips a day- chairing committee's- house guests- you name it! So busy in fact that I forgot to pick up pictures I put in to be printed weeks ago! Usually I stand there and wait because I am so excited to get them back- forgetting that they were there is a definate sign that I am trying to do to much. That and the fact that I found the cordless phone in the refridgerator - but, enough said about that!!

Anyway there amongst my photos were pictures I had taken of my finished wrapped xmas packages. I posted my ideas here on the blog and then forgot to post how they turned out. Big hit! I used brown shipping paper and rolls of twine. All the ribbon I used came from rolls purchased at thrift shops and garage sales! Then I used an old book whose pages had that perfect patina and glued and cut and punched all sorts of designs. I thought they looked pretty cool.

My favorite packages were the ones where I glued on all the snowflakes that I had punched out decorating other packages. Really time consuming- but, Oh la la! Everyone loved the wool snowman ornaments I made for embellishments. Now I just have to figure out how to top it next year!
Sorry I am so late posting the end results.. but, I figure the same ideas could be used for birthdays - how cute with silk sunflowers tied in the ribbon or valentines day.. lots of punched book page hearts! Cute!

Best of Both Worlds

I'm surrounded by males. Between my husband, my two sons, their friends and my Boy Scout Troop- I recently realized that I have become less and less girly over the years- rarely are my nails polished (what's the point we're camping this weekend)I can't remember the last time I wore a dress (not the best hiking attire) and most of my footwear resembles my husbands. At first I was shocked and a little saddened by this revelation. But, then when I really thought about it- it dawned on me that I wasn't an outsider that I had been warmly welcomed into this manly man world full of
good natured ribbing, weekend adventures and football. And you know what? I like it- it's a blast. No one cares that I don't have a manicure or if my shoes are last season. They like me for me! And when there is a reason to put on the ritz and go girly the looks on their faces is priceless- I think I've got the best of both worlds.

Quilling & Stuff...

Some scrapbooks are amazing and beautiful because of their perfectly matching coordinated pages. Other scrapbooks are amazing because of how different and unique each page is from the others. Personally, as a scrapper I tend to want to try something new and different on each page. New techiques, new products, new ideas are what really float my boat. However, coming up with new ideas and techniques all the time can be challenging. I'm always reading magazines or books for inspiration. For
example we recently went to the Aquarium and I have a bunch of really cool photos of sea life that I am dying to scrap.

A while back I purchased a childrens Klutz book all about Paper Quilling. It came with the strips of paper, glue and eyes and instructions on how to make all sorts of cool sea creatures as well as instructions and product for lots of other nifty things. I searched and searched my patterned papers and nothing seemed liked the right background so I tried another new technique. On watercolor paper I used watercolor pencils and drew the sea.
If you've never tried these pencils- they are so fun and awesome to work with. They go on like a regular colored pencil but, when you add water on top of what you've colored it turns into watercolor as if you had painted it! I love the effect.

When I find time to work on the Layout- I'm ready to go and there is nothing else in my scrapbooks like my new little google eyed sea friends!

Cardinals

We have 2 bird feeders on our back deck outside my kitchen window. I love watching them and am always trying out new seed and other bird treats to see what kind of birds we can attract. It's always exciting to have a new visitor. We get out the bird field guide, identify the new bird and then mark it in another book - Our bird lifelist. This book is a list of all the birds we've seen in our yard or at our feeder since we moved here.

My favorite visitors have to be the Cardinals. There are some days where there
are up to as many as 25 bright red male cardinals here at the same time. Some at the feeders and others waiting in the trees for their turn to eat. It amazes me how bright and colorful they are- turning barren winter trees alive with color.

Then in the spring when their babies hatch the fun really begins. Little cardinal families start arriving at the feeders. The babies are awkward and their feathers are molting and funny looking- but, it is the Daddy cardinals that touch my heart as they take feed from the feeder and feed their children beak to beak.

These redbirds have become an important part of our families routine, brightening each day.

Grunge!!

Have you seen this? Sometimes I order things just on "gut instinct". Something I haven't seen in person or that I know little about. Sometimes my hunchs are flops- but, when they aren't.. YIPPEE! Today I got such an order. Grungeboard by Tim Holz.
LOVE IT !!!!! Imagine if you took craft foam and mixed it together with chipboard.. then poured it out and embossed it before cutting alphabets and shapes into it... and you have Grungeboard. It looks like chipboard.. but, it's totally pliable!! Super Duper cool!

This Bites!

Somehow I managed to go from having a minivan and a spare minivan to having NO van at all. I am stranded.
You've seen my earlier post about my eggplant van rolling into a tree...well my other van has decided to stall whenever you brake or stop- so now it's in the shop too. Arghhhhh!
Eggplant due back sometime Friday- Verdict still out on the Silver One.
This would be bad enough- but, my oldest son started college (commuting) last week and is missing classes and it's my week in the carpool rotation for son number 2 and there is an ice storm coming and I am out of groceries etc. etc. etc.
What's a Mom to do?
Scrap of course! There on the porch waiting for me when I came home from dropping Van 2 off at the garage was the most lovely site- a UPS package! And inside was something even more exciting....

:::gasp::: Those of you who have a crop-a-dile are no doubt grinning from ear to ear- those of you who don't have one..let me tell you about this puppy! It punches holes- multiple sized holes. Into cardstock, into paper, into fabric, leather, plastic and thin metals, so easily it's like you are cutting butter. It silently then sets eyelets, in multiple sizes and grommets, even BIG grommets--SILENTLY. What makes my new toy better than the original crop-a-dile? Well it can do all of this anywhere on a 12x12 page. Even in the center! AND it sits on the desk for hands free operation or you can use it in a handheld fashion. AND there are no parts and pieces - it's self contained. You just spin this and spin that and set the guide and you are all set! Love it!
Ahhh gee!
No car?
Guess I will have stay home and play all day! :)

As promised..

Well I did it! I made myself focus and one project and although I'm not finished I am pleased with my progress!
I LOVE working on this new Rusty Pickle Acrylic Album. So much fun! Pictures behind..paint on top. The ideas I have for this new medium are staggering. I can't wait to try more things.

Here are a couple of inside pages:

This was fun! Pictures and paper adhered to the back of the clear page... dimensional paint used for the "splats" on the top of the clear page! Pretty Groovy!

Rubons of smeared paint made a great impact on this page. The skull and word extreme are that new Junkitz transparency ribbonz with paint applied to the back.
Hope you like the album... more to come!

Panic

For me the creative process is a slow one. I'm amazed by scrappers who can sit down at a table and crank out page after page. In the amount of time it takes some scrappers to do a double page layout it takes me just to decide what paper to use.
I think I have scrappers ADD.

Right now I am so far behind on things I have to scrap. 8 projects that should have been done yesterday. I begin planning one and then get an idea for another and then another and nothing is getting completed. ARGHHHHHHHHH! I am beginning to panic.

I just need to pick a project and get rolling with it and forget about the rest until it's done. Yeah- that's the ticket. I also need to commit to completing something today- so here it is in typing. I PROMISE to POST a FINISHED project to this page by the end of the DAY!

I'm Back :)

I'm back in more ways than one. We had a fabulous Christmas and New Years visiting family and friends out of state. Which of course means I came home to stacks of laundry and piles of Christmas gifts needing homes. Which of course went straight into cleaning out closets and sorting of things no longer needed. Which had me buried- organizing things left undone for far to long. While I thought I would be back to having my daily free time by the 1st proved to set me back a week. I apologize- but, I am obstacle free now and plunging head first into a new scrapping year!

I have a list of New Years Resolutions when it comes to scrapping and an even longer list of ideas fit for 2008!

Without further ado- Paper piecing! This fun and fabulous technique has somehow gotten pushed to the wayside. Why, oh, why? Without a doubt it one of the most vesatile and budget conscience techniques in a scrappers arsenal. It's a resolution on my list to paper piece more! Maybe it isn't the "in" technique at the moment-but, I vow to stick to my guns and bring it back into my scrapping this year.

This title page in an album I did for my Mom is a perfect example. I had so much fun piecing it together and thought it looked spectacular. (if I do say so myself) and I dare you to find anyone else who has one exactly like it! A bonus is that I made it entirely from scraps. The total cost was a little glue! Now how can anyone beat that?