Homemade Upcycled Cuttlebug Folder Holder

Good Sunday afternoon everyone! I have discovered yet another reason why it takes me so long to do everything. It took me several minutes to type in the title for this post. WHY??? you say! Well there's a little thing called being obsessed with cuteness, or maybe catchiness, or symmetry or ??? Whatever it is called it means I was trying to find a catchy and cute acronym for what I could call this new cuttlebug folder holder thingy that I might decide to sell as a kit on Etsy. Since HUCFH not only doesn't spell anything, but IMHO tends towards the not-so-nice side just because there are three letters from a horribly vulgar four letter word in it. See, I told you I'm obsessed! Not only do I want something cute, but it can't in any way lead one's mind towards a vulgar word. Sheesh! Okay, so back to the project at hand.... after my latest shipment of Cuttlebug embossing folders it dawned on me that I could no longer stuff them in my handy $20 portable craft tote:

and I certainly couldn't leave the new ones piled on my desk

So here's a sneak peak of my solution. Hint: each folder has been embossed on to upcycled interoffice envelopes that were destined for the trash pile (rescued for me by the gal in my office who opens mail). After embossing I used a brayer to ink the raised part for better viewing of the pattern.

Below you can see the kind of paper I was using. Those are a couple of my homemade embossing folders ready to go through the Cuttlebug. I will finish the folder holder this afternoon and post pics later. It has been fun and exciting to turn trash into treasure at a mere fraction of the cost of purchasing a special embossing folder holder and is eco-friendly at the same time!

One of my furry helpers, Katie. There's always at least ONE of the four pups in the room with me at all times. As I type this from the other den I have one at my feet, one laying in the doorway and the other right outside the door. The fourth, our almost 14 year old Wire Fox Terrier, Tuckerr doesn't move around much and is sleeping out in the living room.

Oh! One last thing.... here's the card I made for my parents' 60th Anniversary...

I used a couple of my new embossing folders on an off-white vellum that has a faint rose pattern on it. The diamond was cut on my Cricut using the Indie Art cartridge. After gluing it to the vellum I spread Crystal Effects all over it, including the openings, then sprinkled fine white glitter over it. The vellum got really wrinkled from Crystal Effects, so if I did it again I'd have to either not put in directly on the vellum or mount the embellishment on something first, then use either pop dots, glue dots or double-sided tape to mount it on the vellum. Anyone have another solution? I actually wanted a bit more dimension to the diamond, but that would have required much more layering of the CE. The number 60 was just some inexpensive Dollar Store chipboard numbers coated with the same fine white glitter. Another lesson learned... should have painted it white first because you can see the chipboard color through the glitter. Neither of my parents have very good vision, so they won't notice any of the things I've mentioned, but I'll make a mental note to avoid these things in the future.

Now, on to update Tucker's blog, then back to work on the Cuttlebug Upcycled Folder Holder.

60th Anniversary Scrapbook Pages

This coming Saturday we will travel to Wichita with our daughter and son-in-law to celebrate my parents' 60th Wedding Anniversary. What an awesome accomplishment! Instead of presents we have all been asked to create a page or two for a special memory album, so I thought I'd let you see what I put together. They are both done with one piece of grey textured card stock and neither use any 3D embellishments, just flat paper. I was trying to keep it simple,  yet wanted the pages to POP! My father was career Army, so we were constantly moving from one place to another. I found a few old bw pics of us either traveling or at our newest home. We never stayed in hotels, always camping our way across the country to catch a plane or ship to travel overseas (Japan, Hawaii and Germany). What an incredible journey it was getting to visit all those exciting places and meet so many people. Having a large family meant we were always guaranteed to have at least four instant pals no matter where we went!

The second page shows Emily in the kitchen of our first home with my Mom. The picture next to that includes all four generations, Emily on my lap, Mom and Grandma (also my husband, Dad and Grandpa). The Summer picture shows Emily, Mike, my Dad and I on a Volksmarch. Dad and I got started on those walks in Germany when I was stationed with him in the Army, then we continued here in the US after returning. The bottom picture is our most recent BIG event, Emily and Matt's wedding in March, 2009. I love how happy my parents look in that picture!

Blog Candy with a Difference!

I came across this blog candy prize pack and would love, love, LOVE to win it! You can enter to win also, just hop over to her blog  and follow the directions. It is so nice of her to do this!

How to make a endless card

If I can figure out the directions/dimensions I've got to try this!

I'm still here

I haven't left the face of this earth and am still searching for the top of my desk under all that paper! I've managed to slip in a few minutes here and there to clear a portion off to work on a card or two and envelopes to sell on Etsy (see sidebar for shop info), but the floor is cluttered and everything remains in disarray. I found out by reading an article the other day that my clutter style is "perfectionist", which pretty much means that I am not able to do any organizing unless I can do it perfectly and in order. None of this just throwing things here and there, but it all must be color-coded, shape-coded, topically-coded or something like that. Well, that pretty much paralyzes me from getting things done and I can't progress. Somehow I need to lighten up and just carry on with my organization of this craft room! Any suggestions?