What I did this weekend...

My current swap is a bracelet one. Three bracelets one partner. Here is what I made for her.




She loves pinks and pearls. The earrings are a little bonus!

Also this weekend I got these beauties.


My mom (The Clever Rose) and I were on our way to Roberts. When we ran into a garage sale and we HAD to stop! It was 10:30 so they were trying to clear out the last of the stuff. We scooped up a bunch of shirts (name brand I might add!) at 50 cents each. A way cute corduroy, wool lined coat from Old Navy for 50 cents, for me and the jars. Which were brand new in the original box. They said $15 but we offered them $5 and got them! I have so many things I want to do with them. Put them in my craft room with embellishments in them. Put them in the kitchen with textured balls and what not in them. Even maybe the bathroom with cotton balls and bath salts. Ah the possibilities!

And at the Roberts we found tons of cute things to try making in craft group for Halloween.

What a great weekend!

I heart Craft Day!

Yesterday was my monthly craft day. I love craft day!!! My gorgeous cousin, Alisha, hosted it at her house this month. Yummy food, no kids, the girls and cute crafts...yea it was a good day!

This month we decided to make these from Not So Idle Hands. (love her blogs, check out all the cute ideas she has on there) We used this tutorial from How about Orange for tacks.

These cute stamped washers from Bizzy Bee Creations. (Also a really cute blog)

And a really cute set of blocks that were a few different ideas combined into one. It was Cory, my DH, turn to do the cutting. We have the DH take turns with any cutting of wood, metal, etc that needs to be done. So his idea of cutting the wood was taking it to Lowe's, were he works, and having his friend in lumber cut them for him. I asked him what else he pawns off on his honey do list. Oh well, at least it got done!

So first we had to sand, and sand and sand. I sanded down the frames and all my blocks for my words. I knew I wanted a long word. I wanted something that isn't used alot (like love, family, home. I came up with quite a good list of words (serenity, dream, affection, simplify, amazing, cherish, delight, Amore, Adore, Laugh) and finally decided on Happiness. My mom, the Clever Rose, did family and fall and my sister, Starlee, did Beautiful. They printed there pics in Sepia. So cute!

I used my picture editor, and lowered the tint on all the pictures, so that the color was all washed out and faded.

I love the way that they turned out! They look really cute in the family room. DH loves the fact that I used one of his pics from his Nascar races and the kiddos had fun pointing to all the pictures of themselves.

Here is a how quick how to. Paint the block and let dry. Coat the block with modge podge, then set the picture on top. Use a old gift card or credit card to smooth out any bubbles. Then use a slightly wet rag with black paint and tab it on the edges. Then sand the edges of the picture. Last, apply a coat over the top of it all to seal it in. Coat the back of your letter with modge podge and place it on the letter, pressing firmly. Tadda!

Here are my frames after painting.

I could not find and 12x12 frames that I liked, that weren't a fortune. So my dad made these for me out of some spare molding he had. They are so pretty! (thanks dad!) I wanted two one on each side of my metal board in my craft/dining room. DH is suppose to hang them up tomorrow, on his day off. (Added to the "honey do list") But here is the completed project.

(That is My 10 year old hiding behind there).

Another hit! My boys each want one for there room. Except my 7 year old doesn't want it all "girly" he said maybe some skull and crossbone fabric with some guitar tacks would be awesome. (Another project for the to do list)

But that left no time for the washer necklaces. So the pieces are lying in my craft room just waiting. I plan on making one for Gunner and Gavin. Taya didn't seem to care for them to much. I also want to use them to make a fall wreath for my door. With the words fall, apple, leaf, etc type things stamped on it. (Any other fall like word suggestions for me?)

As a bonus, I got some awesome recipes for the binder I made last month. I loved Aunt Cec's taco soup and the cake was so good and so forbidden! Cory, DH, would love it!!

Can't wait for the next one!!

Digital Scrapbooking

I've gotten a few more digital pages done.








I am really liking how these look and the layering I can add to them. I use a free site www.scrapblog.com. It has some limitations, but hey its free, so who's complaining!

Gavin and Taya watched me design a few and wanted to make there own. Here are their designs




I am so proud, getting all creative and taking after their mama!

I've missed ya!

I was trying to avoid big gaps of time and post at least every other day, but starting a new job and getting three kids ready for school has kind of zapped alot of time. But, so has my new addiction...swapping! I am so into this! My first swap was to make a card. That's it, any card, color, style, size and send it to your partner. I was partnered with a sweet lady in Mexico City, Berniece. I found out her fav color is pink and brown, which is also one of my fav color combos. This is the card I made for her.


I also swapped a altered composition note book with a lady in South Carolina. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of that before I mailed it. This one I signed up through Swap-bot.com. Cool website, if you are into the swap thing.

Right now I am working on two other swaps. One is for a Halloween felted charm.
I had come up with these 4 ideas.
(the white blob is suppose to be a witch, but the picture is terrible) But I have decided on this one.

The other swap is a whimsy jar with a Halloween theme. A whimsy jar is a clear jar (2qt in this case) filled with fun trinkets and treasures. This one is suppose to be 1/2 scrapbook stuff and 1/2 anything else. I am having fun shopping for this one! My partner loves pumpkin seeds, so I think I am going to order some gourmet pumpkin seeds for her as part of the jar. These two I found on twopeasinabucket.com. I am really digging this swap thing!!

But I have had a chance to do one small craft. You all remember this


from my garage selling a few weeks ago? I had originally planned on removing it from the pot and buying a new pot to put it in. Well that thing was glued in there so tightly, there was no way to get it out of the pot and keep the wheat in tack. So this was the back up plan.

I painted the pot black and tied a black bow on it. But it looked a little too goth and needed some pop. So I added the small red ribbon. I plan on replacing that with a large red bow, but need to get the ribbon still. I originally had it on my "dining room" (lets not fool ourselves, its my craft room!) table. It got rather lost there though. So I moved it to my entry.

I don't know though? What do you think? Is the lamp and the wheat thing fighting with each other? Maybe another pop of red? I am still not in love with it. So let me know what you think.

Another one off the "to do list"....

A while back I was shopping around Roberts (my favorite local craft store) and they had the cutest blank chipboard books. But this was during my unemployed moment and even the $5 they cost was to much. Now I know I could have gone to my mommy (The Clever Rose)and she would have bought one for me, but it didn't feel right, so I put it back. Later that week I was purging stuff in DD room (yes, while she was out playing at a friends house, so she didn't freak out and try and horde all the stuff I had in the pile) when I came across this
and added it to the DI pile (local thrift store), which is were I actually got it in the first place, you can still see the price on the front of it. Later that night, I am lying in bed when inspiration strikes (this is were it usually happens, when I am trying to sleep)! That book is exactly what I was coveting from the craft store!. The next morning I rescue it from the DI pile. I set to work making it into this

Cory's book that I still "owe" him from Christmas. Every year I make the kids and him a mini album of highlights from the past year. For Cory's I usually find a song that I feel is significant or expresses my feelings. This album is Angel of Mine by Evanescence. It took me about a week of little bit here, a little bit there building.

At first I was going to leave the book completely in tack. But then I started adding buttons and brads and bulky embellishments and it wouldn't stay closed. So then I cut it apart, used a crocodile to punch holes in the chipboard pages and then assembled it back on some key rings. I was going to tie ribbon around the rings, but it looked to feminine.

I left the spine in tack on the front/back cover because I felt it looked a little tidier.

I finally finished it yesterday and presented it to him. He loved it. I even caught him showing it to some friends last night!
I guess I better get started on this years, then I might actually have it done on time for Christmas!

I am adding this to the Make your Monday over at Twice Remembered's link party! Check it out.

So many recipes

I love magazines some of my favs include Women's World, Family Fun, Taste of Home and Simple Scrapbooks.
One of my favorite parts is all the yummy recipes that is featured in them. So I rip them out and stuff them between my recipe books, thinking I will remember to pull them out and make one. But I always forget about them.
Or there is all the ones that I get from friends, at church or from the occasional cooking class I attend at Macey's (my favorite local grocery store). Same thing though, stuffed between the recipe books and forgotten.

But no more! In my craft group we decided to dig out those recipes and sort them into a binder. I whipped out my scrapbook paper (Ok, so maybe I never really put it away) and created this pretty little cover.


Added some of those page protectors in 8 1/2x11 and some of the divided ones meant to hold individual 4x6 pictures. And have started sorting all my ripped out and forgotten recipes into categories. I am using Breads, Main Dishes, Sides/Salads, Dessert and Just for fun.

My goal is to make one new recipe a week, on Surprise Saturday. If the family gives it a pass then I will added it to the list of menu options I have for them. (They each get to pick a meal for the menu options once a week)

Yea, I organized one tiny little thing, now if only the garage were done.....

Apron... with a boy twist!

Over at Twice Remembered is a link party for Make Your Monday. Check it out and join the party!

So here is one of my Monday project I wrapped up and can remove from my crafty to do list....Gunner's apron. I have had Gavins done for awhile, but needed to finish up Gunners.

Last month in my craft group we made aprons. I made one for me and one for Taya. it didn't occur to me that "the brothers" (Taya's nickname for Gunner and Gavin) would want an apron. (I know, how sexist of me!)
Boy, was I wrong! So I got to work. The fabric for both aprons was used from left overs I had.
(I make there scrapbooks out of a cheap binder covered in a fabric that fits into there style and taste of the moment. Past ones have included, pink plaids, buzz light year and race cars. So this is the left over fabric from the most recent ones I have made.)


This is Gavin's. The skull and cross bone is kind of his thing right now. Especially in the red and black.


Gunner is into loves penguins, but not cartoon or cute ones, he likes them to look really. So when I found this fabric, I knew it was perfect!

I just cute the fabric in a basic apron shape. I made a large rectangle for the pocket. Then I edged everything with double sided bias tape. I did this because it seems to give the fabric more durability, plus I liked the contrast that it added. I made thin ties and neck band out of more of the fabric. I also sandwiched the ties between the bias tape. Last I top stitched the pocket to the apron and done.
It took hardly any time at all!

The brothers love them, all though they won't answer the door while wearing it!

Treasures!

Today I discovered there is a 7 AM! My mom (The Clever Rose) and I went garage selling and as all good bargain hunters know the early bird gets the best stuff!

So I up I got at 7 AM and out we went. After a quick stop to get Rosie a Pepsi (seriously, if she does not have a Pepsi by like 10 then you want to hide, cause she is not fun!) off we went!

Here is what I found:


The birdhouse was $1. It was originally blue, which is not really in my color scheme, so I painted the blue parts black. The salad shooter is BRAND NEW and was $3 (I am calling that my find of the day) the book Stand A Little Taller is also brand new and was $1. I actually got 3 of the shadow boxes 50 cents each and you will just have to check back for my plans for those. The three red mattes were 75 cents and I am going to use those for the kids school pics this year. In front are two brand new sets of stamps $2 each and 4 scrapbook embellishments 25 cents each. The only thing I hesitated on was the wheat in the white pot. I plan on updating the ribbon and the pot a little but it will need some work, but for $1 I figured what the heck! I also got some Tupperware ($4), but left it in my moms (you better not be using it mom!)car. Total spent $16.75! Not bad for all the treasures I got!

I'll post the pics of the finished shadow boxes in few days, hopefully I will be able to get them all done!

I guess I am not the only one who found some fun tresures this past weekend. Check out Southern Hospitality to see other bloggers treasures from all over the country!