Making the old new

WOW I STINK at keeping up with my blog! Life has been so crazy lately I haven't had two seconds to myself to be inspired it seems! However, inspiration has finally come in the form of "reuse and recycle." My sweet hubby actually LOVES to go to the farmer's market, flea market, antique shops and yard sales with me - can you believe that?? So we got up at the crack of dawn Saturday morning (no easy feat!) and hit up around 10-12 yard sales! My new treasures:

-Dresser with matching mirror: now I really only wanted the mirror. It's HUGE! And we all know how expensive a brand new, large wall mirror is! Even on sale the ones at the home decor store are over $120. I asked if I could take just the mirror and offered $10 (a large sum at a yard sale, right?) for it. Well the guy's wife said "how COULD you? They go together, we're selling them together!" Alright, but the dresser was $50. I looked at the guy, one eyebrow raised and said "is it really $50?" He peeled the sticker off and said "it's however much you want it to be." I told him we'd take the set for $20 and he gladly accepted. I gave the dresser (which isn't much to look at, but large and fully functional) to our friends, who just moved from dorm rooms into a large house together, as a house-warming present. And yes, I'm still planning on hanging the mirror on my wall, after some sanding and such!

-4 drawer filing cabinet: this I got at a different yard sale for $5!! It's a nice, clean white and in overall fantastic condition...except for a large scrape down the right side. I brought it home and it just so happens that the damaged side can be up against the wall so you can't even see it, and it fits PERFECTLY next to my scrap desk! Now I finally have somewhere to not only keep our household filing system, but I have a way to organize all the pretty paper scraps from projects past that I just can't bear to throw away. My plan for it? (Of course I have a plan!!) I'm going to my LSS today for Mod-Podge and a brayer. I've already removed the sleek brushed nickel knobs, and picked out pretty pink and black coordinating papers and trimmed them to size. I'm going to cover the inside of the front of each drawer with a pretty paper, then reattach the knobs over the top. YES pictures will be posted when I am finished!

-2 chipboard children's books: I plan on turning them horizontal and covering with paper for mini-albums as gifts. 2 books for $0.50.

-Napa Valley cassette tape holder: This one I actually got free - she had said $0.50, but then didn't want the coins after all! It is ALMOST the perfect size for my stamping ink pads...my husband just needs to remove a couple pieces so it will fit the larger pads. It even has holes in the back already so it'll be a quick hang job!

-Sewing machine: Last but not least - in fact, the most important I think! - is my new sewing machine! It's a Brother, and actually really nice! Seems to be fully functional, except for the fact that it's missing the Brother-specific bobbins (because they just HAD to make theirs different and therefore more expensive) and the presser foot. It's okay though, because I have coupons for Hobby Lobby! I downloaded the user manual for it online, printed it and put it in a binder under my sewing desk. My first project? Fixing my poor hubby's uniform pants for work! He's a crew chief, and definitely wears right through the "reinforced" backside and knees constantly! Up until now it's meant a new pair of $50 uniform bottoms every other month, but now I can patch the holes, reattach belt loops, re-stitch pockets, and basically save us a ton of money!

BEST PART??? The sewing machine cost.....(drumroll)......$35.

I can't wait till the Saturday after next when we can do it all again! I just have to get all my current projects done first! :P

I purchased an E-book on Scrapbook.com this morning called UR2 Cre8ive by Stacy Julian. It is WONDERFUL!! She has some unique ideas about how to change your outlook on life and open your mind to new possibilities. She presents a series of "projects" you can try, and they will help you gain the confidence to do things YOUR (-creative-) way, instead of the way the world has conditioned you to think they should be done. I love it and I'm recommending it to ANYONE who has ever felt inadequate in the creative fields of life.

PS: It's only 24 pages long, so it's a quick read too! Good for those of us (a.k.a. ME) with short attention spans.

I'm a favorite!

Quick update - I'm listed on the second page of favorite scraprooms on www.scrapbook.com! I had a happy happy joy joy moment and had to share. :D Guess the girl can decorate!

10 minute card!

I literally made this card for my aunt in just 10 minutes! I was so proud. :) The pink pp is My Mind's Eye and the daisy embellishment is K & Company.

2 Operation Write Home cards

If you don't know what Operation Write Home is, go Here. This has been my focus for the week! I made these two cards as part of my plan to make 50 this summer to send in for the organization. "Thinking of You" was my first, just a very simple graphic design for those who like that style. The green swiss dot embossed paper is AC cardstock, the blue and tan strips are Bazzill, the corner rounder I use is from EK Success and the arch lattice punch (that I seem to be using on just about everything!) is Martha Stewart.

The "Miss You" card includes SEVEN different patterned papers from the My Mind's Eye Delightful stack. I was trying to challenge myself to use more than 1 or 2 pp's on a card, and I actually really like how it turned out! I used a Fiskars punch for the scalloped pieces and completely hand stitched all the way around the entire card...which only took, oh, maybe 3 hours total? It took me an entire week to finish it because I got real tired of the stitching about 2 inches in LOL.

Anyway, loads more to come, TFL!

My first two-page layout

I just did my first ever two-page scrapbook layout last week of our move from the Emerald Coast of Florida to Middle of Nowhere, New Mexico. That was a whole year ago! Gee, I should probably stop shopping for new goodies and get to work already!

Anyway, this first photo is a close-up of the flower embellishment I made by hand. I simply traced and cut out 7 petals from S.E.I.'s Dill Blossom collection, then dampened and crumpled each petal. I then used Tim Holtz Distress ink in walnut stain to ink the edges of each petal and then glued them all together. While the glue was drying I threaded the button and glued that on as well. I pulled up on the petals a bit to give it more dimension. I LOVE how it turned out!! :D

All the papers I used are from the S.E.I. Dill Blossom collection. The chipboard letters are from Paper Studio. I used Tim Holtz' Distress crackle paint in Antique Linen on them and it gave them a super cool crackled effect, which is hard to see in the photo. We move so often I thought I should write the address down, because I'll never remember all the addresses we've had!! The punched border on the photo was done with the MS arch lattice punch, my fave punch of ALL TIME! I thought it kind of looked like a little fence for the photo.

Here's the full two-pages. I carried the piece of striped pp across both layouts for continuity. Ha ha see my toes??

I just love this page because it's pretty special to me. I kept it very simple on purpose. I wasn't able to get many good pictures of our cross-country move, mostly because I was too lazy to dig the GOOD camera out of the moving truck! But I did get 4 decent snapshots to illustrate our journey. The importance of this page to me is the journaling. We had such a tough trip, made a lot of mover-mistakes that we'll never make again, and gained a lot of memories from the move that I want to remember forever. They're still not funny stories to me yet, but they will be in a few years. I typed and printed it out on a sheet of vellum which I layered over green distressed paper - I mention this because it's impossible to see the layers in the photo. I've never found a glue that dries clear enough to use under vellum yet, so I just attached the two papers with some tarnished copper brads. The letters are chipboard and the flower is actually punched from a cereal box - I'm RESOURCEFUL!! LOL I covered them in patterned paper and sanded the edges down smooth. TFL!

My little paradise

So I thought I'd share what my scraproom looks like! This first picture is the right side of my work space. The wall behind me here has two closets full of clothes and office supplies. See one of my kitties on the printer? I love my printer, it's older and slow, but it prints amazing photos. The filing cabinet below it holds copy paper and photo papers. The corkboard on the wall holds all my stickers except the ones about to fall off their sheets, those are in the plastic drawers to the left of the filing cabinet. I don't use stickers a lot, so I don't have very many. I need to come up with something else to fill the board up with, or just take it down - it was free anyway! The tool carousel on the table holds my scissors, rulers, small paper trimmer, x-acto knives, superglue and all my pens.

This is the left wall of my scrap space. The blue accent color reminded me of Tiffany & Co. which is why I fell in love with it. The top row of boxes have my old decorative edge scissors for which there is no longer a need. I want to find like a kindergarten class or something that could use them. I also store instruction manuals up on that top shelf. The second shelf of boxes is where I keep my photos and spools of thread. My darling husband installed the floating shelves for me, and then added the ribbon rack underneath! I keep a measuring tape on the rack with all the ribbon so I can easily pull out, measure and cut off exactly the right amount. Then on top of the bookshelves is my Xyron and Crop-a-Dile Big Bite. The little jars hold all my flowers. The plastic drawers contain tools, paint brushes, Q-tips, emery boards, adhesives, envelope seals, different rotary blades for my Cutterpede, a couple of wood handle stamps, and ribbon scraps. The blue bins hold my cardstock scraps organized by color, upper and lower case chipboard alphas, chipboard accents and mesh and tulle. The pink file organizes any holiday-specific items, then my scrapbooks are next to it, and the white binders are full of inspiration I've pulled out of magazines.

Last but not least here's my work space. I just upgraded from a teeny tiny student desk to this awesome craft table, and it's STILL not enough space! I get pretty messy. :D My paper rack is to the left of my desk, and holds ALL the cardstock organized by color and then by texture. The top few shelves of the rack have the huge patterned paper stacks from My Mind's Eye, which I am totally addicted to. The Cropper Hoppers on the floor have my Basic Grey and S.E.I. collections. The clear plastic drawers under the table that I like to stub my toes on hold all my blank cards, envelopes, kraft paper, vellum and stationary. The little tray on the table holds a few punches, the rest get scattered all over the place. The little black binder has my clear acrylic stamps, and the green cd holder to the right has my Stampin' Up! inks. To the right of that is another little stamp ink shelf just for all my Tim Holtz Distress inks, which I am also addicted to. Then there's my heat tool and the blue embellishment center where I keep all my brads, buttons, eyelets, metal accents, etc. I keep my Cutterpede trimmer, my Martha Stewart cutting mat and clear ruler, and my nonstick craft mat from Ranger on the table at all times. Oh ya - and this is actually decently clean for me! LOL