It’s official…I have an art journal!

I have been suffering from creative block lately.  For months I have been silently building my craft supply stash, gathering lots of supplies; lots of media; lots of fun things to play with.

Today I decided that I was going to jump off the bridge into the crafting water and just go for it , so I randomly picked things out of my stash and this is what I came up with. My first art journal page.

Who out there has journals?

I love to scrapbook, however I feel like art journaling gives me the freedom to explore my creativity and just have a good time.

In the very least, I was able to be creative.  That’s the important thing!!  I can see this being a good diversion when I have creative block in the future.

I’d  love to see your projects. Leave your links in the comments below.

Happy crafting!

 

I’m such a little dabbly do-er…

I hate that I don’t have tons of time to blog.  My problem is I’m a perfectionist.  I see big, beautiful, brilliant blogs and I try to measure up to that… why?

I figured this out this weekend when I posted  in the Facebook Group I belong to that I had tried to make enamel dots.  I did the research by You Tubing videos for a foundation of preparation, and this is what I came up with using perler beads and pony beads:

First pic is my result with pony beads, the second pic is the perler beads.  My contribution to the Facebook group got almost 100 likes!  Wow I do have something to contribute to the crafting world!!

Here’s how I honed the instructions:

For the pony beads:  I preheated my oven to 450 degrees.  I used parchment paper on a cookie sheet and sat the beads down, hole up.  I ended up cooking the pony beads for about 10-15 minutes in my oven.  There was a slight plastic-y smell in the air, but they turned out perfect!

For the perler beads: I preheated my oven to 300 degrees.  I used parchment paper on a cookie sheet and sat the beads down, hole up.  I ended up cooking the perler beads for about 20-25 minutes in my oven.  Just watch them and when the little dimple from the hole in the beads disapear, you pull them out.

My tips:

Don’t take them out too early.  Wait for the hole to enclose and the dimple to disappear.  If you keep an eye on them they don’t burn up.

Use parchment paper, not wax paper.  They just slide off the paper into a storage container.

You can find the beads at Joann’s or any other craft store.  Buy them with a coupon and you will have enough enamel beads to last you the rest of your life!

Let me know how you do!

 

Scrapbook Saturday!

I’ve complained about this before…sometimes I feel like my mind thinks I can do big, artsy, spectacular layouts.  I get on Pinterest, I make a plan, and when my project becomes reality, I always feel like something is “missing.”  It never looks as awesome as I invision it looking.

I’ve found a solution… Craftsy.  Have you seen it?  It’s this online community where people hold virtual classes.  You can learn basically anything under the sun on crafsty.com.  There is a fee for the classes, but some generally go on sale often.  They also have free classes you can sign up for.

I.  Love.  Them.

I have taken two classes so far.  The second one I’ve been taking is called “Patterned Paper Play” by Paige Evans.  I feel like she helps with my mental block, she inspires me and pushes me to start a project.  She has stash busting ideas that any newbie, any person with moderate skill, or any expert can take advantage of.  And the cool thing is, you don’t need a lot of extra equipment, paper, or inks with this class and you walk away with amazing layouts.

So that’s the origin of the circle layout.  I will never take credit for an idea I don’t think of independantly.  Thank you Paige!  I think this layout is fun, kind of funky, colorful and happy!

I can’t wait to whip out my silhouette cameo and start cutting butterflies, hearts, sentiments and try all of the other layouts from the lessons Paige teaches.  She makes scrapbooking fun when it was getting a wee bit frustrating!

 

 

My Affliction Has Been Diagnosed!

Oh my gosh, I’m so addicted!  Some people have a drink after a long day at work.  I come home and punch circles for two hours and glue them to paper to unwind!

Maybe I’m hopping on the tale end of the meme scene, but they crack me up!  I’ve been hanging out in bed tonight, cruising craft memes…

This one speaks volumes about me:

But this one really screams me… I mean, come on.  I’m not buying purses, I’m a nurse I don’t carry a purse.  I don’t have fancy fingernails, I CRAFT! Crafty chicks usually have hot glue stuck to their nails.   Clothing??  Whatever.  I wear scrubs.  Craft Supplies… yes please.  Some girls like diamonds, my husband bought me a Silhouette Cameo for my birthday.

And…he only knows about the craft supplies that I let him know about!

Have you seen a good meme?  Please share with me!  I love all of them.  And yes, any with Ryan Gosling are VERY WELCOME HERE.  I’m just saying!

 

 

 

The One That Got Away.

My 17 year old daughter has a garbage pit for a bedroom.  We recently bought her piles of hangers and an organization system for her to hang up her ten (yes ten) baskets of clothes.  You see, she works full time, she has a lil addiction, to shopping.

Anyways…

She wanted to spend the night at her friends house and we wouldnt let her leave until her bedroom floor was visible.  She cleaned for hours and when she emerged from the abyss, she had the little doozy shown above.  A picture.  One of her and her 23 year old brother, taken January, 2001.  He was 7 and had just broken his arm, she was 2 and thought he was the cat’s meow.  She had apparently put this picture in a frame and had it in her room for awhile, unbeknownst to me…  was there a time they liked each other???  haha

Where did time go?

I tried to remove the photo from the glass, but over the years it had stuck to it, it was not budging.  The photo was too precious to remove from the dated old frame.  It will be stuck to the glass forever.

I was dying to scrapbook this photo.  I call this photo, “the one that got away.”

What about you?  Do you have one you are dying to lay down in paper but the stars just don’t align??  Tell me about it!

You Might Be An Addict If…

I am not neat or meticulous with my crafting. Ok, I’ll admit I’m a borderline slob.

I have a habit of going to the craft store, buying as many things as I can find on clearance.  I take my treasures out of the bags that they come in, and use them when inspiration strikes me.

I have a bad habit of taking the store bags that my treasures come in, and I throw them in a corner next to my desk, with the intention of using them to collect trash.

Today I was upstairs cleaning my craft room, picking up the remnants of paper from a project I did 7 days ago.  I grabbed a trash bag to put the baby scraps of trashed paper in, and found all of the things in this photo that were still left in the bag from a shopping trip I took in December.  Almost two months ago…haha!

Have you ever went on a shopping spree, brought your treasures home, threw it on the ground, and forgot about it?  Tell me about it.

I think I’m addicted to just building my stash. I don’t think I want rehab either.

Who’s an addict like I am?

From Great Intentions to “Meh” to “Hey, Not Half Bad!”

I might be on Pinterest overload.  Maybe I’m addicted to paper right now.  Maybe I’ve watched too many tutorials over the past five days, but after 8 hours of homework yesterday I thought, “I’m going to take a break and and make an amazing card, using my stash of scraps!”

I can almost hear the angel chorus singing my praise again, as I type this.

I had recently taken a Paige Evans Craftsy class on scrapbook pages and had learned a technique for punching circles and tweaking them to make really neat, original designs.

Except for a few obstacles, it was going to be a masterpiece.

1.  I didn’t have any double sided paper in my stash (she likes to bend the circles and sew them to show both sides.)
2. I couldn’t find my tack down tape because I have the remnants of three or four scrapbook projects still thrown all over my desk; and
3. My sewing machine was in a box, and I didn’t want to pull it out.

So this is the wackiness that ensued:  Wet tacky glue that took forever to dry, paper circles that bent up when I tried to cut borders, and the pièce de résistance, the digital scrapbook embellishment I printed and colored for the center of the card didn’t match and looked all wrong.

Now no respectable scrapbooker/cardmaker is going to give up and I have a pretty decent size of stash built up, so I started digging into it.  A long string of jute, three random flowers, some stragetically placed buttons and a “wooden” embellishment later, this is what I came up with:

Not what I had originally planned…BUT it’s nice!  It’s different and it will make someone’s day happy when I decide someone needs it.

I guess what I found out is this…there are a lot of AWESOME, BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFUL, TALENTED cardmakers and scrapbook artists out there, but the neat thing about this hobby is, everything that comes from  your heart and flows out of your finger tips is equally beautiful.

Even if it looks nothing like the masterpiece you imagined and planned out in your head.

Stay scrappy, my friends!

 

Let Your Silhouette Do The Drawing For You.

The Silhouette Cameo is a really remarkable machine.  It is so versatile.  From cutting paper, material, adding rhinestones to patterns, etching glass, there is an endless array of crafts and projects you can do!  Last night, while lying in bed awake (I don’t sleep well at night) I thought up this little project, using an image from the Silhouette Image Store.

The idea was to take this tree, have my Silhouette Cameo sketch it onto my 12 x 12 layout, then add embellishments.

It is so easy to sketch with the Silhouette Cameo!  The first you do is pick out which design you want and pull it into your software.  I chose this tree I purchased with the Silhouette Design Store a couple months ago.

The next thing you is open the sketch window and choose your options (right side of screen.)  I chose continuous sketching for my project.

The software turned my image into a “drawing.”  You can also choose for it to fill the inside of the image with sketching if that’s the look you are going for.

TIP:  Always scrapbook with a friend, it makes it more enjoyable and memorable.  My helper/friend today was Jett the Wonder Dog!

There are two different ways you can sketch with the Silhouette.  One way is by using their sketching pins that slide into the razor holder.  The other was is to buy the writing utensil holder that allows you to use whatever pen you like!  (That’s on my WANT list.)  I do however have a set of sketching pens.

So you open the razor holder, slide the razor out and put the pen in!  Easy Peasy.

Click on your cut settings (the razor icon – second to right, top of page) and make sure you select the Silhouette Sketch Pen.

Then let it do it’s thang!

I wasn’t sure at first what look I wanted, so I fiddled around with some scrap paper I had in my stash and cut some leaves.  I snapped a picture so I could remember what I did if I got interrupted!

I was tossing around the idea of coloring the tree trunk with my Prisma Pencils, but then I decided to live on the wild side and try the watercolors.  I’m talking old school, kindergarden, Crayola watercolors on the tree trunk.

I ended up making a border by ripping paper edges from one of the patterns I chose from the leaves, just to tie it all together.

And…

I had my Silhouette sketch a heart on brown paper and sketch mine and my husband’s initials and the year the photo was taken to make it look like it was carved in the tree.

So much fun!

 

 

Plain and Simple Awesome!!

Tell me what you think about this one.

I was experimenting with distress inks and a cute Lil stamp I bought on clearance at Craft Warehouse – they have the best clearance deals.  This card cost me pennies to make – everything was scrap!

Anyways, this took me about ten minutes to make. It’s just a splendid little expression of love and we all need that in this world!

Patterned Paper Play for Scrapbooking!

I took this class on Crafsy.com called “Patterned Paper Play.”  The teacher had so many great ideas for busting your scrapbook stash!  You know, taking all those little pieces of left over paper you store away with the intention of using again…only for them to pile up in a box, hoping and waiting to be used again.

This is a picture of my husband and I at our cabin in 2012.  I thought it would be a cute picture to add to this first time project.  I used my #Silhouette Cameo to cut all my hearts which only took about ten minutes!  I finished off the project with some leftover stickers I had in my stash, and some rhinestones I had from an older project.

This scrapbooking project cost me $0 to put together!!!  I would love to see your projects!