Today's Inspiration

I love these verses from Jeremiah, sometimes we all need to remember that The Lord ALWAYS thinks good thoughts toward us and has a good plan for us all! 
-For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.  Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.  And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.  I will be found by you, says the Lord.
--Jeremiah 29:11-14

Another Simple Layout

One thing people tell me a lot when I ask them if they do any scrapbooking is "I would love to but I don't have the time."  Scrapbooking doesn't have to be really time consuming....I am posting some simple layouts that didn't take much time at all.  Get some great coordinating papers and a few small embellishments and you have a great page!  I used some wire mesh that has been hanging around in my scrapbook supplies for a long time and glued it to my paper with a paper flower on top.  You can use almost anything on a page, just look around your house and you'd be surprised what you will come up with!

Simple....But Beautiful

This is the page I just finished making.  As you can see it's really simple, but my new  Basic Gray coordinating papers make it look beautiful.  If you love scrapbooking but don't have a lot of time to do it this is a great way to make quick pages that look nice.  I used my cricut to cut some trees and I used a punch for the butterflies.  I added some stickles to the trees and butterflies to give it some sparkle.....oh and I almost forgot, I used dimensional stickers to make the trees really stand out.   Like I always say...great paper makes great pages!  Find four or five coordinating papers, cut out some shapes and you're done! 

Inspiration

Inspiration!  That is what I need more of on my blog!  I will post my favorite inspirational quotes and stories here.  One of my favorite apps on my itouch is my C.S. Lewis quotes app.  I just read today's quote and I love it so I will share it with you. 

Now we cannot.....discover our failure to keep God's law except by trying our very hardest (and then failing).  Unless we really try, whatever we say there will always be at the back of our minds the idea that if we try harder next time we shall succeed in being completely good.  Thus, in one sense, the road back to God is a road of moral effort, of trying harder and harder.  But in another sense it is not trying that is ever going to bring us home.  All this trying leads up to the vital moment at which you turn to God and say, you must do this, I can't. -C.S. Lewis

Where To Go From Here

Some of you may have noticed that Angela is no longer sharing this blog with me.  I am thankful to Angela for helping me to start this blog last year.  I wouldn't have been able to do this on my own.  I will miss blogging together with her and I just miss her in general since we don't see each other nearly as much as we used to due to all the changes in our lives and new schedules.  She also has 2 other blogs right now of her own to keep up with.  I hope to have her as a guest blogger soon. 

I am working on coming up with some new and different ideas for my blog to keep it interesting.  I would like to make my blog about more than just scrapbook and collage creations, although that will still be the main theme of my blog. If you have any ideas please feel free to leave comments. 

My Latest Project

My father-in-law brought me some old printer trays and drawers like the ones you get in the scrapbook stores...only these are real vintage, unlike the ones in the stores that are made to look old.  How cool is that!  I am really excited to finish decorating these.  I like the look of the burlap, it adds a nice touch.  I will be using lots of cool vintage embellishments to finish these.  I'll try to remember to post the finished product when they're done.  I have a lot of projects going right now since I started selling crafts at The Crafter's Boutique on 3rd Street in Ankeny, right across from the farmers market.  Stop by sometime there are lots of awesome crafts by lots of different crafters. 

Summer!!

Wow!  I still can't believe it's summer!  I love this time of year!  I love having the kids home all day and being on the new summer schedule...you know....staying up late and sleeping until at least 9 a.m..  I love cooking out and taking the kids to the aquatic center,  all that fun summer stuff!  I'm already dreaming about a trip to Maine this summer.  I grew up there and I visit every year to see my family.  Here are some pics from last years visit. 

These were taken in Bar Harbor.  I love the Maine coast.  You really learn to appreciate it when you live 1500 miles away!  I try to take a trip to Bar Harbor everytime I go home.  Of course Maine is known for it's awesome lobster.  My brothers and sisters-in-law always take me to my favorite restauraunt.  Here's a pic below of my lobster role, sweet potato fries and coleslaw....makes you want to go to Maine huh!!

My New Cindy Loo

Gotta love Michaels! Last week they put their Cricut cartridges on sale for $34 and of course I couldn't let a great sale like that go by! I picked up the Cindy Loo cartridge. I'm using that with the Heritage cartridge to make a new scrapbook layout. This is just the beginning but I thought I'd share. I'll post the finished product when I'm done. The tree is a stamp I picked up at Michaels the other day with my 50% off one item coupon. I try not to let a good Michaels coupon go to waste either. Even if I just pick up my Tombo adhesive or something small it helps save on my crafting.

Spring is Here!!

Yeah! It's officially spring today! I can't quite describe how happy this makes me! I love it when the flowers start blooming and the grass is green again! I even love the thunderstorms that roll through in the springtime. Here in Iowa the thunderstorms are a lot different than what I saw growing up in Maine. We didn't seem to get them very often and I don't remember ever seeing any severe storms. I still remember when I was a little girl how my mom used to love to sit out on the porch whenever there was a thunderstorm and watch the lightning. I was sort of afraid of the thunder but I knew I was safe there with my mother. Those are good memories. Maybe that's why I still like thunderstorms today, except for the severe ones that come with tornado warnings! I don't have a mom by my side anymore at those times but I know I have a father who is with me no matter what kind of storms come my way!

I found some great K&Company scrapbook paper on sale at Target yesterday and I just new they would make a great vintage scrapbook page. These are some pics of my dad when he was younger. I love using old black and white photos to make scrapbook pages. I don't think I'm done with this one yet, it still needs something else, I'll have to get Angela's input on that. She always has great ideas!

Vintage Scrunchies

I know....enough of the scrunchie flowers already! I just could'nt help posting these flowers I made last night. They are great for vintage papers like the Bo Bunny paper pictured here. These will be in my ETSY shop soon. I am working on pictures of my new product so I can update my shop and get it going again.

Making "Scrunchie" Flowers

My sister sent me some great pictures in the mail so I decided I would make a scrapbook page with some of them. This is my brother-in-law and nieces, they're so beautiful! I don't get to see them much because they live in Maine. I plan on visiting this summer and having a craft day with my family...fun!

I made the flowers by punching them out of cardstock that coordinates with what I used on my page (Bo Bunny of course) and then I spray them with water and mold them around a knitting needle as soon as they are soft enough. When they dry I spray them with some glimmer mist from Tattered Angels and let them dry again. When they are completely dry I put 3 of them together with a Bazzill bling brad. This is a great way to add something to your pages especially if you are on a limited budget and don't want to go spend four or five dollars on some flowers at the scrapbook store.

Another Friend Page

Here's the friend page that goes with my last post. I used photo filters to alter the picture of Jen and Olivia, it has more color and just looks kind of cool. I used coffee glimmer mist from tattered angels to make the big flower. The paper is beautiful, it's from Bo Bunny, I love their papers! It makes scrapbooking easy when you have great paper! Angela gave me these papers last year for my birthday.

Scrapbooking With Photo Filters

I have been experimenting with photo filters a lot lately and I love how amazing some of the pictures come out. Here is a picture I took of Angela while we were having some coffee at her house last week. I used the 100 cameras in one camera app to add filters and the finished product was beautiful! What a great way to add something extra to your scrapbook pages.

Step by Step...Making Vintage Tags

I love making these vintage tags! Aren't they beautiful! I used pages from a 1917 needlecraft magazine that Angela gave me. Here are some supplies you will need (below).

The tags are made by transferring a photo onto a piece of acetate and then gluing the acetate onto a tag that I colored with Tim Holtz distress inks.

Here I am using a makeup sponge to color the tag.

Before I transfer the photo onto the acetate I drop some alcohol inks onto it. Use a brush to spread a layer of clear tar gel onto the acetate when the ink is dry.

I cut a piece of the paper to fit over my acetate and pressed it into the tar gel. I usually let it dry for about 30 minutes.

When it is dry use a wet sponge to carefully rub off the paper and the image will be left in the tar gel.

I love to "distress" everything with Tim Holtz "vintage photo" distress ink. First I do the edges of the tag and some in the middle.

I also put some distress ink on the acetate on the side that I rubbed off the paper from.

The last step is to glue the acetate to the tag with the clear tar gel.

Brainstorming Blogging Ideas.

Deedee is here visiting me, and she brought a bunch of goodies she's been working on.  Scrapbook papers and bling to put on her etsy site.  She's been working on a Vintage Tag - How-to.  So, we looked at that post in process today, and looked at how to add captions to photos, how to add buttons on the side of the blog, etc.  She's flipping through the wonderful book by Tara Frey, Blogging for Bliss.  It has so many ideas, for finding your voice in blogging.  Oh, how fun it is to daydream with Deedee.  What a wonderful way to start the day.

Deedee reading Blogging for Bliss, surrounded by Starbucks, new scrapbook goodness, and Ipod Touch.

Here's a tag I made with pages from the same magazine I used to make the vintage flowers below. I put Tim Holtz alcohol inks on a piece of acetate and then brushed on a layer of transfer medium, placed the magazine on top of it to dry. When it's dry you can use a wet sponge to carefully remove the paper and then I glued it to a tag colored with Tim Holtz distress inks. (As you can see, we really love his products)! Angela hasn't seen it yet....I'm thinking she'll be proud. I should really do a step by step on how to make one of these with pictures of the products and the process used to make one. Maybe that post will be coming soon...

Making Vintage Flowers

I love these vintage flowers made with Tim Holtz die cuts and some pages from an old 1917 needlecraft magazine that Angela gave me. I used the McGill foam pad shown in the picture above to curn the edges after spraying each layer with glimmer mist. You could do the same thing with a foam mouse pad if you don't want to buy the McGill pad. The flowers are beautiful and easy to make. I also made a cool tag using the same vintage magazine and some alcohol inks. I'll make that my next post.

scrappin with Deedee....

Ok... seriously, we finally got together Deedee and I, hooray!!!  Something about the zero degree weather this morning, I thought, now that the girls are in the car... I'm going through the Starbucks drive through and heading over to Deedee's house.  Once you've got them bundled up and ready to go, you've got to keep going, or you might just not get out again.  After our morning coffee, we ventured into Deedee's craft room, and we started playing with a letter her mom wrote... back in the day.  I started going crazy with her beautiful BoBunny papers, and it had to become a funky valentine... don't be disturbed by the headless school girls.  Yes, there are more than one.  This has nothing to do with Deedee's mother, just my crazy collaging.  Deedee is making a beautiful vintage piece, and look at that cool photo of her mother's school house with the letter she wrote super imposed on top of it.  She's learning photoshop and it's quite inspiring!  She takes her time, so her pieces are timeless, and I jump right in, so my girls are beheaded... yeah.  Maybe this will inspire some fun valentines... It's coming up!!!  Crazy!!!

More photo transfers

Here's another photo transfer that I made for my sister. I was tempted to hang it on my wall but decided I would much rather give it to Donna. :-) I love those old family photos! I am going to start working on an album soon that will be all vintage pictures and things that my grandmother saved or wrote down. My aunt Patricia is going to help me with the album. I will post pictures of it as I go. At the top is a picture of a letter my mom wrote about the one room schoolhouse she went to as a little girl, I layered it on top of a picture of the old schoolhouse. I can't wait to get started on the ablum!

making cards...

I hope your holidays have been great!  I can't believe we're already into January.  I took down my Christmas tree today, 'cause I really stretch out the Christmas season as long as I can get away with it.  I've done a few scrapbook projects these last few weeks, but it seems like they were all done in a whirlwind, and I needed to wrap them up before I could even photograph and post them!  Deedee and I are in serious need of a crafting day together, and now that the holidays have past, we're looking forward to getting together and throwing ideas back and forth.

With my Memory Bound gift card, I picked up a new Tim Holtz die cut.  It's a lot of fun.  Aeva modeled it for me before I decided to put it on a card.  Here are photos of both Aeva and the thank you card she inspired.  :-)

Happy New Year!