Finally making some progress!

I'm finally making some progress in my craft room and thought it was time to show you some of my recent projects. The card below is for my daughter and SIL's 1st wedding anniversary today. That's them in the frame by the way, like you really wouldn't notice them... lol! I used my cuttlebug to emboss the pink card stock, then kissed it (very appropriate, huh?) with some silver metallic ink. The black design is actually cut out of some leftover wedding invitations. The pink squares are stamped, then embossed with silver embossing powder. The shadow you can see through the card is the gift card holder (see pic below this one) cut with my Cricut out of a wallpaper sample. Boy does that stuff ever cut like butter! Gotta love stuff that is kind to my blade and free on top of that! We are so proud of these two!

Next I'll introduce you to my newest free find for storing craft supplies, particularly my embellisments still in packages. It's made out of one of those things meant to hold blankets off your feet. Turns out they aren't useful when you have a thick pillow top mattress and size 11 feet, leaving my feet touching the metal frame all night. I had a spare wooden crate and a plastic milk crate just waiting in the queue for a purpose, then one day as I was staring at all three of them a lightbulb went off in my head and VOILA! Here is the result:

I used plastic coated paper clips as hangers. It's all held together with those same bright orange zip ties that I used for the black wire shelving unit. Below is another project made out of a wallpaper sample and a plastic thing meant to hold a quart milk carton. It was in a box of stuff we got from a garage sale. I'm not sure what will go in  it yet, maybe paint brushes or colored pencils or ???

Last, but not least, is some more proof that I do actually work in my craft room when I'm not trying to organize it. I borrowed some reinkers from a friend and dropped colors on baby wipes, then stamped leaves.

I really like the effect, especially with the solid stamps which tend to show the colors better than the lace leaves, but both are very colorful and each is unique depending on where the stamp hits on the baby wipe. Oh I forgot to tell you that I finally got brave enough to cut a sheet of stamps using the Cricut and the special acrylic stamp sheets from Provo Craft. Other than the fact that the odor of their acrylic nearly knocked me out, the Cricut cut right through it like butter. The leaves on the top sheets are a few of my homemade stamps. Pretty awesome, huh? Well, that's about all for now, better get on with my day... Happy crafting!

I've been struck by CADD again!!!

In my last post I showed you what I've been doing with my new toy, the Cuttlebug embosser. Well now I want to show you some things I've been doing with the folders that came with it and also give you a sneak peak at the effects of CADD (Crafter's Attention Deficit Disorder!) that pretty much keeps me from getting much accomplished because I flutter from one project to another, then end up with such a mess that I can't concentrate on anything. This usually results in me walking away from the mess and shutting the door to my craft room (more to keep the cats away from all that paper than anything else.) Anyway, this first picture shows some card stock cut into 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch sheets, embossed, then rubbed (distressed) with ink. I loved the way the sheets looked right after being embossed, but the first time I distressed one with that awesome Tim Holtz Distress Ink I was hooked and just HAD to do them all!

Since these were sitting there while I was taking pics of the embossing I figured that I might as well add them to the photo shoot. These are/were brass planters that looked kind of brassy (well, duh!) and didn't quite fit my decor (what, you ask, IS your decor anyway? MESSY?!?) Anyway, I painted them with some metallic silver acrylic craft paint and here is the result. I was planning on punching holes in them, adding grommets and creating handles to hang from somewhere for storage of something (yes I know, a lot of unknowns) until I discovered that my cropadile's bite isn't high enough to make it over the lip of the pot, so here they sit waiting for me to decide where to put them and what to put in them.

More pics of the Distress Inked embossed card stock. See, I just couldn't stop myself!

Below is what my work surface looks like now. I decided to try some One Sheet Wonders (called OSW over at SplitCoastStampers ) using my Cricut. I used three coordinating 12x12 sheets and as you can see, just got one card front done. It's a start anyway! Oh yeah, that pink card front below does NOT have distressed in on it. Guess I like the softness of the pink and the paisley embossing just the way it is.

Below on the left is my Cuttlebug and all the purchased embossing folders. On the right is a random picture showing a tin covered with bamboo wallpaper I got from a sample book found through FreeCycle. My sister gave me some clear acrylic circles that are cast-offs from a sign company she works for and this seemed like a perfect way to store them, yet still know what's inside the tin.

Well that's about all for now. Company's coming for supper and I guess I should take off this hillarious apron I'm wearing!

Homemade Cuttlebug folders using my Cricut

I've been busy making folders for my new Cuttlebug and wanted to share them with you. I'll post some pics of what they look like actually embossed on cardstock later, but wanted to let you know one reason why I haven't been organizing my craft room. These are all made with repurposed baseball card protectors. My husband threw them away after he put all his cards in 3-ring binders. I rescued them and found a good use for them, saving myself money in the meantime. All of the cuts were made with my Cricut and Sure Cuts Alot 2. The idea isn't my own, but came from several different blogs and YouTube videos that I'll be happy to post when I find them again.

How do you like my new look?

I just found an awesome place with not only free blog backgrounds, but also great tutorials for things like adding a signature to your posts! Let's see how this looks...

New Scrapbook Paper Rack!

Woohoo I've got a new rack to hold my 12 x 12 paper!!!  A lady at my office has done some downsizing and didn't need this anymore... gee imagine someone NOT needing more storage room for their paper!

So what did I do with that white rack that was in that spot? Made room for it somewhere else of course!

Now here's something that's funny. See that white banker's box on the shelf of the rolling file cabinet? If you look really close you'll see the words "Paper Crafts" written on it. Can you believe that I used to be able to get ALL of my paper supplies in that tiny little box? With a few exceptions everything fit in that box! Then someone at work got me interested in rubber stamping and card making and the rest is history!

Junk Mail Revenge - Keep my landfill clean!

Ok, so today after wading through the mud to get to my mailbox, cleaning my shoes and hanging up my coat, excited to see what was in the bundle of mail, only to be basically disappointed by the nature of the mail, I decided it was time to get my revenge. Here are a few of the special offers that made their way in to my home:

and here's what I did with them

In case you can't tell from the pictures, I put the Women's Day ads in the Good Housekeeping envelope. I continued doing this until all envelopes were filled with another company's ads. Figure this way the paper will stay out of my local landfill and gee, maybe they'll recycle it in to more junk mail. You realize that all those envelopes say:

so it doesn't cost me a cent to do all this:

then do this to the pages with my name on them

so my daughter's guinea pigs have nice fluff to pounce around in. What was left over after having all that fun was this pile of catalogs that will provide a night of perusing, then get recycled:

So next time you tire of all the assorted junk mail that reaches your personal mailbox, just take a little extra time to send it on to some other poor soul courtesy of the postage paid envelopes! Now, back to organizing my scrapbook room!

Working through the fog

This morning I'd like to share with you what living in a fog is like. It seems appropriate that for the past few days the weather in Kansas has been as foggy as my brain feels this morning. In fibromyalgia circles they call this "brain fog", I just call it a pain in the pattuty! Here's what our scenery looks like from my front porch:

Imagine that same fog being in your brain and not being able to think straight, just like you can't see the houses across the street. It makes it very difficult to function. Here's a good example.. well I didn't take a picture of it because I was so disgusted with myself, but I cooked a huge crockpot full of applesauce yesterday, turned it off around 8:30 or 9 last night to cool down, then promptly went to bed at 10. Can you guess what got left out on the counter? Yes, you guessed it... a full gallon or more of fresh applesauce!!! I am absolutely brokenhearted about this because it was going to supply that daily fruit requirement for at least a week, plus the added cinnamon would give me that extra boost of it's healing powers. Guess it'll be fresh apples, not a bad thing, just a little harder to digest and not quite as yummy. Maybe I've got another frozen tub or two of apples that I can throw in the crockpot to try again and maybe, just MAYBE this foggy brain will clear up so I can move on with my life with some semblance of normalcy. Until then, just like the little light in front of our house that finally poked its head through the snow, I will continue to work my way through this fog...