Time Flies

I have so neglected my blog but not any more !!! I am dedicated to trying to post everyday and also focus on creating. I have revived my Etsy store. Today I listed a few things, some tags and my finished chalkboard frames. Speaking of chalk, Jason told me someone had defaced the back yard - Well, Jason took some chalk I had out on the table and wrote on the back driveway a common thing he has been saying about Tank - Poor Tank, he gets so much verbal abuse from Jason and he doesn't even know it. Today Tank and I went for a 4 mile walk. We were walking by some people and I heard a few guys say "now there is a dog". I am so proud of my handsome Tank. Another walk that was kinda hot for him - he spends so much time cooling off. I am really careful not to overheat my poor little pup.


Back to my creative side - I am hoping that someone likes them enough to buy them. I really like these cute little tags.



I am also starting to think about making some Halloween stuff - It's only August but it gives enough time to create some good stuff.
Create away !!!!

2010 - Journal & Word = Choice

Part of my 2010 goals is to create something everyday (or at least try) and I didn't get this finished before midnight so it is technically 1/2/09, but I still haven't gone to bed, so I think it still counts. So to start the year out, I wanted to make a journal to document all the positive for 2010 and it will go along with my word for the year which is "CHOICE". I used a vintage readers digest book front and back cover, I stamped and embossed some vintage French text, I used some scrap velvet ribbon, I used the definition of choice from a 1930's dictionary page in the metal frame, I embossed a die cut of a bird and distressed with vintage photo ink, I stamped and embossed a manila tag with vintage photo ink and clear embossing powder and tied it with scrap ribbon. The inside is blank pages using various shades of green, tan and white cardstocks. I am going to use this to doodle in, document moments, add pictures, write different positive sayings etc. Anything that really comes to mind. I wanted to use large rings so I can easily add pages later if needed. I can't wait to see what it turns out to be at the end of the year. I choose the word choice because I need to make different choices and the only way to achieve change is by the choices I make. So this word doesn't focus on just one aspect of my life my all of it. It is going to be a great journey and I am so ready for it. The choice is MINE - that is so powerful, don't you think?

WELCOME 2010

So goodbye 2009- lets just say it was some year -

January - Tank celebrated his first birthday 1/22/09, traveled to NY for work

February - Archivers with the scrapin ho's (Laura, Maryann and Nancy, an actual Valentine's dinner date with Jackie and Mitchell Harris and Kathy Banta at Il Mulino's, saw Elaine Harris's performance in Amadeus, decided to get a body wave (no, not a frizzy perm !)

March - Scrapbooking weekend in Lake Geneva (Laura, Eileen, Maryann and Theresa), dinner with the Henz (Daphne, Michelle and Tracy), Brooke Brynes bridal shower

April - Attended Daphne's dad's service, did a road trip to ISU to see Pat Brynes in Evita, 12-hour crop at Archivers.

May - Emma Ferriter's communion party, went to North Carolina to attend a creative event called Inspired, walked in the American Cancer Society walk and roll with Tank (and Daphne and Tracy and a few others), club at Lynn's new house and a crop at Archivers.

June - Went to Old Town Art Fair and then to Jackie Swift's and Meg Rowley's for open houses, went to Joe Ferriter's high school graduation party.

July - Crop at Archivers, went to visit Jackie Swift in Boston and New Hampshire, Grandpa Zudycki passed away on 7/24/09, Lauren McGovern's accident happened this month (there was and still is a lot of prayer for this strong little girl)

August - Brian came home for a long weekend, went to St. Charles Scrapbook expo for the weekend and sold stuff int he Scrapbook consignment sale.

September - Went to dinner with some work friends and went out on Gerard Burke's boat on Lake Michigan, went to Renegade craft fair on Division St., went to dinner with the Henz,

October - got a short haircut - yikes !, was a vendor at the St. Laurence craft fair and went to the Croppin Cottage. (celebrated my 44th birthday - how did I get so old)

November - scrapbooking at an event in Norridge and at Archivers

December - Had Ria, Red, Meg and Carolyn over for holiday movies and dinner, Micky O'Donnell passed away, another hair cut and went to Nancy's for the scrapin Ho's holiday get together.

Just some tidbits to jot down as to what happened in 2009. I am really looking forward to 2010 - I am ready for change and the choice is mine !!!!! Choice is my word for 2010 - I have the power to make choices for what will be and what I will make of my life, so let the journey begin. Getting healthy, personal changes, overall attitude changes, job refocus, lessoning expectations, releasing negativity - all kinds of good stuff. It is just a huge thing to be at this point in my brain. Its been awhile since I have had the desire to work on something.

So I welcome 2010 and all it has to offer.........

(and since 10 is my favorite number, I think it will be an even better year right !?)

December Daily Journal - 2009

It's been awhile since I have posted - I have been working on something new a December Journal. I got the project from Ali Edwards. The idea is to create thebasic book to be ready for each day as it comes. Once I have journaling and pictures, I can embellish a bit further. There is a page for the first 25 days of December, maybe I will go to the end of the month. Each page captures a memory of that day. I really like how my journal came out. It was fun to create. This started with a 7x7 album kit from Fancy Pants. There were chipboard pages, acrylic pages and two black felt pages. I made some of my own pages from card stock and file folders. Easy to do by tracing the shape. It is not bound yet, I am still trying to decide how I want to do this.

Cover page - using fabric thickers, quickutz die for red frame, cardboard mat, reindeer is grunge board covered with distress crackle paint with bells, ribbon and hemp around his neck and the hollies are distress stickles. Gold oval is chipboard covered with distress crackle paint. Of course edges are inked with distress ink.

1st day page is a Theresa Collins journaling spot, scallop circle punched from vintage book text with a daisy d rub on. Edges distressed with distress ink. 2nd day page is on an acrylic page. Chipboard "Christmas Memories" from K & Company on patterned cardstock. Foam Thicker for number two on patterned paper with chipboard star

3rd page, backside of acrylic page, patterned cardstock with dollar store corner metal looking embellishments, red and green fabric flowers with chipboard center and brad, felt number 3. 4th page is black felt with ivory snowflake ribbon and felt red number 4. Stocking die cut from K&Company.

4th page, backside of black felt page, patterned dies cuts from K & Company, patterned paper with Theresa Collins journaling sheet, felt number five. 6th page is patterned cardstock with cardstock mats, Hambly scroll rub-ons, felt number six and K & Company chipboard piece.

7th page is backside of patterned cardstock, scroll die cut from a monthly kit, red metal gems and red felt number seven. 8th page has vintage Santa die cur, scallop circle from vintage book text, red felt number and acrylic gold corner pieces.

9th page is patterned paper with felt trees, gold chipboard oval painted with distress crackle paint and foam thicker number. 10th page is a file folder stamp with Tim Holtz stamps and embossed with copper embossing powder. satin and lace ribbon. Grunge board numbers embossed with copper embossing powder.

Page 11 is backside of file folder. Martha Stewart paper pocket with backside of paper used as a journaling card. Border scallop punch is EK success, number 11 die cut from cuttle bug hippie chick font, pearl stickers and felt angel from hobby lobby. 12th page is patterned paper, with dove diecut from manila file folder, chipboard Thickers letter

13th page - patterned cardstock, with snowflake lace cardstock centered with pink gem brads and pink number Thickers. 14th page is a black felt page, with scallop patterned paper and red felt letters, dots and ornament. Black fabric Thickers for number 14

15th page is backside of black felt page, with metal tape of quickutz border scroll die. Red and green ribbon with quickutz ornament die using metal quickutz tape. Red foil thicker numbers. 16th page is an acrylic page with patterned cardstock, nestabilites label out of vintage ledger paper and red felt letters.

17th page is backside of dotted acrylic page with small nestabilites die from vintage ledger paper and green chipbord thicker numbers and metal tree. 18th page is file folder with K & Company mat patterned cardstock, twill ribbon, vintage dictionary text with the word holiday, brown foam thicker number and felt holly

19th page is backside of file folder with chipboard K & Company joy label, quickutz border embossing folder, scallop circle punched from vintage book text and smaller scalloped circle from green cardstock, green chipboard thicker numbers. 20th page is patterned cardstock, with quickutz border embossing folder, K & Company chipboard tag, with gold number diecut from hippie chick cuttlebug font.

21st page is K & Company cardstock, bazzil just the edge green scallop, ivory glitter thicker numbers. 22nd page is an acrylic page with muslin scrap, cardstock scraps, back sticker numbers and my version of Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags from 2008. (tag has grunge board letter, buttons, vintage book text, brads and metal joy word

23 rd page is backside of acrylic page - edged with white dots - same scrap cardstock and muslin from page 22 - its folded over the top. black number stickers. This is another tag of my version of Tim Holtz's 12 days of Christmas. 24th page is red patterned cardstock with scrap cardboard, edged with fake snow, Jillibean cardboard numbers with same fake snow on a distress mail tag tied with ribbon. K & Company sticker embellishment 'Be Merry"

Another page for 24 using Love Elise embossed tree cardstock, ribbon two chipboard tags from K & Company, Nestabilites tree die from vintage book text with black fabric thicker numbers. 25th page using patterned foil cardstock with felt numbers and chipboard label from K & Company.

Today Donna Downey's blog is having a great give away of some wonderful fabrics from Pickled Pear Lane

http://donnadowney.typepad.com/simply_me/

I wish I could figure out add a link and replace the actual path with a word or name. I would google it but I don't even know what it is called but I am on a mission to find it

Quilt & more

So over the Labor Weekend I was sewing 4" squares together to make my second quilt. It is made of blue and browns. I had to cut 500 of the print fabric and 228 of the sold fabric. Four inch squares - WHAT - maybe next time it will be 12 x 12 squares, I am sure it would be quicker. After cutting the squares, I sewed two squares to together leaving me with this pile.

Then I had to sew the those sets into rows of 28 squares. Had to sew 26 rows. Here they are hanging on my TV cabinet doors, ready for the next step. Which is to iron the seams, sew the rows together, make a sandwich on the floor of quilt backing (haven't decided on muslin or a sateen), then cotton batting (Just found this product a few months ago, I used polyester batting in my first quilt - guess that was a no no) then the soon to be quilted cover. More to come - I needed to take a break from it.

So Mister Tank decided to eat some foam this morning right before i left for work. I mean this got chewed in a matter of seconds that he was out of my sight. What a goof ball. This was Jason's foam mattress topper he had with him at school and so I decided to fold it in half and cover it with a sheet for a re-purposed dog bed. It was nice and comfy Ozzie told me. ARRGGGHHHH - TANK STOP CHEWING STUFF !!!!!

Today was a very tough day at work - without going into all the negative details, I am letting it go (wow - see how I am growing !) It turned out to be not as bad as I had envisioned. I tend to over think things to my disadvantage. I am trying to allow things to happen as they should and stop trying to control the situation (wow-light bulb moment- thanks Oprah) What a emotional roller coaster day. I can't keep doing that - to much stress. But tomorrow is a new day and I am sure there is something new for Tank to chew on !!!!

............and so it begins

Busy Bee - for Halloween

So all day yesterday I have been working on some Halloween stuff for my Etsy store. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5179254 I was on a roll. Some trick or treat bags, tags, wall hanging, flags and my favorite are the treat boxes. It was a rainy day and perfect for hanging out in my craft room. I have also been purging my stuff to sell at the scrapbook consignment sale on June 28th. I have way to much stuff !! So if you are in the area, stop by and find some good goodies. http://www.notjuststickers.com/

BIRTHDAY - HIP HOP HANGOVER

I made this card for the HIP Hop Crinkle challenge but didn't get it posted in time. I used a kraft card with scrap white card stock strips. I stamped The Dream Tree stamp from Unity Stamp Co (http://www.unitystampco.com/stamps/1204-US229W_Dream_Tree_Background ) onto blue patterned card stock using Broken China distress ink. I cut the image into four sections and crumpled each one up and inked the edges and over the bumps. I stamped birthday from Unity Stamp Company May kit of the month ( http://www.unitystampco.com/stamps/2256-KOMMAY09_another_sweet_day )

Head over to the next blog http://inkfullyyours.blogspot.com/

Live Simply

I had fun creating this little canvas. I need to do more of these projects. This is my first one. I painted a 5 x 5 canvas (got on clearance at Joanns for .97 cents - gotta love that) Use a page from an old dictionary with the word living at the top left of the page. Stamped Unity Co. stamps on the book page, canvas. Cut out the bird and mounted it to card stock and added gems. Attached that piece to torn piece of cardboard. Used some rusted wire and attached a distress crackled chipboard piece with a metal frame piece I got off Etsy and the end of the wire I strung some beads. I used a vintage piece of something I got in a jar of buttons I bought at an estate sale and some scrap ribbon. It was fun to make.

4th of July

Happy 4th of July - Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. It is only 69 and rainy today in Evergreen Park. But with rainy days like these I love to hang out in my craft room. Hope tomorrow is a nicer day, heading out to Kane County Flea Market.