Matchy Matchy ;)

Not too long ago I purchased used scrapbooking items from some gals on FB. I think I may have mentioned this before ... group of women folk purging their hoards ... I mean supplies ... ;) ... and how I cannot comprehend the idea of "purging" scrapbooking items. I am old school ... even have a rhyming mantra ...

Do not throw it away!
It might come in handy some day ... 

:-\ ... sometimes I am my own worst enemy. ;) lol

So anyway, when I received one of the packages, the packing material took my breath away ...

When I saw this awesome packing material ... aka kraft paper ... I remembered this awesome idea ... and this awesome idea over on Pinterest ... and I thought to myself ... why not? :) Well, as of this very moment ... I am not a home owner ... but I am looking ... so ... might need it some day. :)

Last time I was on here I shared my ambitious plans for a matchy matchy craft room and the inspiration paper that brought all this about. This morning, I was heading out the door to a dollar store to replace all of ... what I am sure many people have in some shape or form in their homes ... these:

with any kind of container that would match my inspiration in my "Ema-gination" ... ;) ... for my "matchy matchy" room ... and as I was glancing around my craft room counting the number of baskets I would be needing, I saw the packing material in it's very safe place and a light bulb went off in my head ... I mean it! The room light up with my bright idea! So I sat myself down and first prepped enough of the packing material to test my idea on two different small baskets and ... it worked! It lead to this:

So I saved myself about $13 in baskets from Dollar Tree. :) About now I might be coming across as a tightwad. Maybe ... but all I know for sure is that now I can go to Michael's or Hobby Lobby with my 40% coupon and buy ... the possibilities are endless! ;) lol When this weekend started I did not have plans to visit either one of those two places ... only a dollar store! :) It is all good! Besides the Kraft paper I also used lots of Mod Podge, scissors and patience. :) At times ... I kinda worried I would run out of patience before I ran out of Mod Podge. ;) lol

I think these came out so ... one word ... WICKED AWESOME!  :-D The possibilities seem endless to me! ;) These blank canvases made me almost giddy about the whole thing! ... or maybe it was the fumes from the glue? :-| But I was pretty excited about my accomplishment! :)

The only down side ... is that I scrunched the paper to make it more wrinkled and softer to work with and since I use my hands a lot during the workweek ... typing ... filing ... ;) ... my hands were EXHAUSTED ... yes ... from my strenuous workweek ... and nothing to do with my age ... :-\ ... nothing! ;)  Next time ... I am waiting for Jay to be home so I can ask him to help ... he is a guy ... I am sure he can do a much better job than could I with scrunching ... ;) ...

Anyway, now I am working on prettying them all up! :) teehee ... when I started all this ... I really thought I would be able to get them all glued on a Saturday morning and would have Sunday afternoon to decorate them ... Yes. I. Did. :-| Never dawned on me it would be time consuming ... ends up ... I may be busy all week if not for weeks! ;)

Now, to figure out where to get this awesome packing material because the next thing on my list to redo are the small pieces of furniture that are all different colors and types of material! Because ... I wrote already ... I want a matchy matchy craft room! :) I cannot wait! :-D

Inspiration

Boy howdy! I bet you were thinking I had fallen off the face of the earth, huh? Actually, my meds were changed and I have gone back to having good days and bad days. :-\ Today is a good day! :)

I see pictures of scraprooms that are breath-taking over on Pinterest. They are all matchy matchy. I dress like that. Matchy matchy. I like that concept. When it came to my scraproom ... I was just happy to have all the stuff in ONE room! :) But I decided ... I want a pretty, matchy matchy scraproom. Normally ... people who know me would think I would go with bold and red. To be honest ... I kinda had that same thought too. But as I was looking around my scraproom ... I noticed I had a lot of blues and browns ... coincidence? Probably ... I always tend to reach for red when shopping. I cannot help myself! :-) It just happens!

I shared with you all the cans I went kinda crazy with right? Well, not all of them but most of them. I forgot to share this one with you. I loved the PP I used. It is from GCD Studios Ella Blue collection which truth be told I have not heard of before. I bought this PP from one of those gals on FB who was purging her stash. I am still having trouble wrapping my mind around that idea! But lucky for me, I bought this pretty paper ... and ... it inspired me.

So one of the things I noticed was blue and brown was this:

Ain't the PP pretty? I love it! :) So I decided ... my scraproom ... will be matchy matchy ... in browns and blues. :) I still have about 15 pages of this same collection ... then ... because I just do not have enough paper ... I bought a K&Company Ancestry paper pad with the same brown and blue colors. So I am on a roll. I did worry about not having enough PP. I found a nifty idea over on Pinterest! There was a pin about using vinyl paper and mod podging PP over it! How awesome of an idea is that?!? I do plan to paint all the furniture in the same shade of brown. I think I want to paint the walls a light blue but right now they are a creamy beige and I think that color will work as well. I have some blue fabric for curtains. So I think over the next few months I might be able to pull it all together. :) I am just ambitious that way! ;)

Today I decided to alter the first of many, many things I want to use the GCD Studio paper on. The K&Company paper is to use AFTER I finish the GCD Studio paper ... Every. Single. Scrap! :)

As always ... I forgot to take a before photo but remembered just as I was gonna cover the last side. Here is an idea of what the letter holder looked like:

And after I worked my magic ... this is how it now looks:

Are you as excited as I am about the possibilities?!? ;) lol

I Love Twine!

I do! I do! I have always had trouble making pretty bows for my cards and use to resort to a knot with a rhinestone, button or flower in the middle to substitute for the bow. It just wasn't the same. Since I discovered twine I have become the Queen. Of. Bows. Yes! Really ... I have ... see ...

I originally received my free twine from Raisin Boat. I purchased some stamp sets and received the twine as a free gift. I thank them so much for that eye-opening experience! If I had never received that free gift I would have NEVER tried it on my own or gone back to buy some. I always thought ribbon was plenty. :-\

Then ... I think I have told you about that horribly addicting site ... Pinterest ... ;) ... my friend, Terry Gerrior, pinned the cutest image over there and when I repinned I found this most generous site ... Sliekje Digi Stamps. Guess what? She GIVES away her digi stamps. Now, I will be perfectly honest here. I am not much on digi stamps. In my "Ema-gination" digital has nothing to do with stamping. Where's the fun in that? There's no stamps to smell, no ink to stain! I just couldn't imagine it! In today's world everything seems to be going digital and I hope to be able to continue with my rubber stamping as long as I have breath in my body ... but I was curious to know what the fuss was about digi stamps. I just couldn't make myself PAY for these! After finding this site ... I do not have to! Not just that ... what an incredibly generous soul who runs this site! All she asks is that we give her credit if we use her stamps! So here I give her credit for this image I got off her site. I thought the mouse peering over the teacup was just too cute! AND ... she has lots more! I do not know if I will do more with digi stamps ... but I just couldn't get over her generous spirit. :) Go on ... go have a look! :)

Here It Is!

Took two full days ... :) ... but I got her done!

 Wedding Album

Belated Happy 4th!

I haven't been on here for a couple of days nor have I journaled ... gasp! ... :-\ Keeping up with both apparently take a great deal of discipline ... :( ... I am in trouble! :-\

Wish I could say I was just so busy with the 4th celebrating but that is not the case. Jay, my awesome now 26 yo son, and I took vacation this week to drive up to Ruidosa, NM. We were to stay at the Inn of the Mountain Gods. We had signed up for an 8 hour class in skeet shooting! We were gonna try trout fishing. I was taking my almost new pink golf clubs just in case I managed to get on the golf course.

By the way, did you know golf is not meant for fun? Nope! I love to golf but I. Stink. At. It. :-} True story! I cheat ... just like I cheat at coloring on my cards ... I cheat at playing golf. I. Have. To! If I played the ball the way I am suppose to ... I could be at the golf course ALL. DAY. LONG. :( Sometimes ... since I play alone ... I do not see where the ball went and so I lose the ball! The water and sand traps ... these were meant for me! I do hit the ball straight each time but not far. The only time I can get the ball on the green is when it's on the short hole. :) I like that one! I wish they were ALL like that! :) Then ... are you sitting for this? I am not a putter. Once I get the ball on the green ... it's gonna take a minimum of five and no telling what the maximum can be ... once it took 16 times to get the itty bitty ball into the itty bitty whole! People who go to the Inn of the Mountain Gods to golf are Very Serious Golfers. I often have to let people play through. Some of them are not very nice about it. These are the Very Serious Golfers. I have a friend of mine who golfed with me once and found the whole experience very amusing ... AND ... it wasn't as bad as when I play alone. He is the one who suggested I not golf at Ruidosa because of the Very Serious Golfers. I've experienced the Very Serious Golfers but I was still planning to try play some golf if time allowed.

So, anyway, I was taking my golf clubs just in case. Then ... we were gonna try gambling for the first time ever! Jay and I could hardly wait!

But then ... two weeks ago ... my meds were changed. Yes! I had about two weeks when I felt like my old self and was enjoying life again. Because of the CML, I am very susceptible to infections since this causes a weaked immune system. Dr. Cruz wants me to take this new med that is suppose to help my immune deficiency. But of course ... it comes with side effects. I was starting to feel better but I woke up Saturday feeling ill. Typical side effects of a med ... nausea, joint and muscle pain, headache and just a general feeling of malaise. These are suppose to go away after I finish taking the medicine ... four months from now. These are injections and on the day of the injection along with all the other side effects I listed, I also have a red, hot, sore area from the inoculation. :-\

Jay and I decided ... well ... really it was Jay. He is such a responsible young man these days. He was concerned about me driving in my condition. He's not licensed to drive. I could see he had a valid point. Then ... when he pointed this out was Saturday morning while I lay in bed feeling ill ... and he asked what if I could not get out of bed once we were there? Valid point! I could lay in bed for free instead of driving to Ruidosa and ... if I got us there safely ... lay in bed for about $200 a day. :-\ We post poned our trip for September. :-|

I still took my vacation time off. I needed the time off from the office. I needed the time off from the office. In case I am not making myself clear. I. Needed. The. Time. Off. From. The. Office. :-|

Anyway, I have a great-niece getting married on Satuday. She's been living with the groom for ten years. They have I think four children. I know there are children involved and there are quite a few. Three could also be quite a few for me. Five would be A LOT and I know I did not have that idea in my head. They have decided to make it legal and what do you gift the wedding couple? I have thought and re-thunk it some more and it finally came to me ... a wedding scrapbook album! What a gift from the heart! I also know this is a very nice gift for someone who could appreciate the craftiness, time and expense of such a gift. I am only half way through the album and I have used about $50 of cardstock and printed paper, on my third roll of double sided tape and ... we, as crafters ... know the cost of each roll. Pulled out all of my rhinestones, glitter, pretty silver and white embellishments, lacey and shimmery ribbons, Spellbinder to emboss some paper, templates to cut out some envelopes and all the ideas in my head for layouts. This will be my gift to the new married couple. I will video tape it when I am done and post it! So far, I am very pleased with how it is coming along. It is an 8.5X11 album with 15 sleeves. That means 30 layouts. Thirty. That's three zero. 30. 8-| I have 15 pages made. I still have two more days. :) I can do it!

So I am outta here! :)

I Cheated again! :(

I was gonna work on a card to post on here today. I got to messing around with some Dazzles I bought from HOTP. I fought the urge to hoard these. They are so pretty! I won't post these cards because they aren't really my cards. You know what I mean? The Dazzles came in kits so ... that's why it was easy to make TEN cards! Yup! TEN. Well, ok, you talked me into it ... ;) ... I will post one. All the materials come from HOTP monthly Dazzles club.

I like the monthly kits because if I am in the mood to play with paper but not feeling creative this works for a quick fix! :) What can I tell you. A junkie gets her fix anyway she can! ;)

Memories

When I saw this stamp set from Raisin Boat, Just Add Love, I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it. :)

I inherited my mother's belongings November 2008. Not because she passed away, thankfully, but because she moved in with my sister, Lilly, and she gave me all her worldly possessions. There were things I gifted because when I combined her things with my things ... it was just TOO MUCH! Sinful really! My mother was very unhappy about that ... see she expects me to keep EVERY. SINGLE. THING. :-/ Now when I gift things, I tell the recipient under no circumstances are they allowed to tell my mother! ;) My momma didn't raise no fool! :) lol I cannot invite her to my home because I am afraid from the minute she enters the front door she will begin to take inventory. :-/ I will have a lot of explaining to do. Life is too short for explanations.

Even with all I gifted, I still have way too many things. Some of these I plan to scrap about and then gift them ... some will be given to charity ... some I still plan to keep. These are three items I plan to scrap about and keep. I thought this stamp set would be excellent for the layout I have in my "Ema-gination". ;) lol

See what I mean? I used twine as well because it just seemed to fit better than ribbon! The PP is from Cosmo Cricket Double Deck Material Girl and Garden Variety. The brown PP is from HOTP. Of course, the CS and eyelet is from my long hoarded stash. I used one of Fiskars corner punches.

Again, I used silver metal looking paper for the accents on the sifter, see below in greater detail. I also used a silver gel pen to fill in the handle. Not sure you can see this in the picture. ;)

I used vellum this time for the glass ... I remembered ... ;) ... and placed hearts inside the measuring cup for detail.

I cannot wait to do the layout now. This really motivated me for it. :)