T-shirt Transformed into Jazzy Ruffled Purse

I've been seeing a lot of ruffles around lately.... ruffles on blouses.... ruffles on headbands.... even ruffles on greeting cards! While making a ton of upcycled t-shirt totes for the Farmer's Market and upcoming craft shows I found myself with a pile of strips left over. So what's a girl to do with all that great t-shirt fabric? Why.... ruffle it of course! Here's what I came up with:

It has been quite a struggle NOT to just pile all my stuff in it and carry it around, but I convinced myself that there was a future owner out there somewhere who just couldn't live without this fun purse. Maybe I'll have to make another one soon! This project is also linked at the Passionately Artistic linking party
where you can find a ton of really awesome projects from yummy recipes, to colored glass jars, hand-sewn quilts and well, you name it it's there!

I'm featured this month in Scrapbook News and Reviews!

I'm soooooo excited to finally be able to share with you the tutorial just published on the Scrapbook News and Reviews web site! It was such an honor to be asked by Dana Tatar to be a featured artist in July. I chose to write a tutorial for making grunge flowers out of upcycled book pages. Please go take a look around their site and leave me some loving in the comments so I know you were there! Here's a sneak peek at one of the flowers:

This project is also linked at http://www.passionatelyartistic.com/2011/07/hgtvs-cash-cari-with-linking-party.html

Birthday surprise from Emily!

We celebrated my birthday today even though it was on July 6th and I was surprised by these awesome necklaces made by my daughter, Emily. She has sold quite a few of these at the Farmer's Market and in our Etsy shop and I've always admired them. NOW I am the proud owner of two handmade upcycled washer necklaces! These lovelies are 2 inches wide and will surely receive loads of compliments every time I wear them!



Oh and my wonderful husband gave me a Michael's gift card. He sure knows what I like! My present to myself was a 24 hour slumber party called Crop for Hope that was a fundraiser for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. It was hosted by a long-time friend of mine who sells Stampin Up products. Please go take a look at her blog Stamp Crazy Girl. It was held at the Circle S Ranch bed and breakfast and let me tell ya, the place is out of this world awesome! You can go see it online at http://www.circlesranch.com/ and even take a tour of the rooms. Mine was the Kansas room here and was just steps away from the table I used for scrapping. I made an entire scrapbook for my dog, Tucker, who died last October from cancer. I'll post some pics of that later, but for now I'm ready to go play with some of my new toys!