A Secret Garden

This post is going to cover 2 of my favourite passions, reading and altering. One of my Fav. Ladies on www.scrapbook.com is Martica. She always does the most amazing swaps. This time the challenge was to use Graphic 45 Secret Garden paper line. When I first read what she had in mind I brain started to pop all kinds of ideas into my head. It was to be an altered Shadow Box. I called my LSS to see if they had this paper set in and when told no went online to find it with the best shipping costs. Of course http://www.shop.scraputante.com/ had it and they got my order. Not only that but I had ordered part of the matching embellishments from another store and when my order arrived it did not contain the items order, when I called about it was informed that they were out of stock and sorry we will credit you back for charging you for them. So 2 days later I order the embellishments from scraputante too and they combined my order for me. Meanwhile as I wait patiently, 14 days, for the pp to arrive, which I have yet to see in person, the flowers I ordered from www.iamroses.com arrived and me crossing my fingers that they will match. Next I headed over to Michael's to purchase a Shadow box, I chose a wooden one that was slightly larger then the required size. I really wanted the sturdiness of wood as I was going to sand it, paint it, mod pod it and do some paper mache to LOL.

First on how I came up with this design. I LOVE to read, it transports me to a different world that I see very vividly. I wanted to do a little girls room where the garden came to life around her as she reads A Secret Garden. I chose a pp that looked like wall paper you might find in a little girl's room. Next came the tree that I made out of paper mache and then had to print,of course half way done the tree and my DH says to me "why did you not use modeling clay" Duh that would of been so much easier. Once the tree was done and dry I could start on everything else. The CB die cut of a princess is from DCWV Once Upon a Time series, I covered it in double sided tape and then glittered it :D. Next I took to flower sprays, one from Prima and one I think for Reflections and twisted them around a pencil to add flowering vines. I cut a Styrofoam ball in half and then flattened one side and glued it in the opposite corner of the tree. I covered the entire bottom in Spanish moss, what a messy product to use. Then it was time to layer everything. There are charms all over this, different bird charms, a watch charm from The Girls' paperie  Vintage whimsy line, bird in nest from Webster's pages, and in the right bottom corner a old locket finding from Michael's. The wooden swirl was in my stash from a different project so I pulled it out and gave it a sparkle finish. The cherry blossom twigs are Reflections and then the bling flourishes you can just make out are from Prima. Plus all the layered flowers, most from iamroses, plus there are some great crocete ones that my friend Penny made for me that I HAD to include. I added bling centers to them.

Here you can see in better detail the moss, flowers, locket and bird with the glitter princess in back. I love how the layered work looks and that it seems like the garden is coming out to embrace you.

The wooden flourish, watch charm and bling. Plus you can just make out the flowered branch I put on the top of the box.

I had to take a picture of this tree so you could see that it did take some time and turned out not too bad. It has been to many years to count since the last time I made paper mache.

Of course I had to decorate the top and as you can see I added another bird's nest that has little eggs in it with a little bird perched on the side.

Decorated the back and use some wonderful trim from Prima, I receive 2 rolls of this silver trim from different swaps. You can just make out the Card on the back that is from the matching embellishments for this pp set.

I really enjoyed make this and watching my vision come to life. I know several of the ladies in the swap are struggling and not enjoying this pp line as much as they thought but for me it was easy. Maybe that is because it happens just like I made it when I read :D

God Bless you all and until my next post keep crafting!

SewEasy Winner!!

Hello Lesly you have won the SewEasy, please contact me with your mailing address so I may mail it out to you!!

These past 2 weeks have been a nightmare for craziness, LOL. First there was the Breast Cancer Event at my job that I needed to finish organizing, get donations for door prizes, and alert the media of the event. Then of course it all fell apart the night of the Event, first one of the other vendors had a family emergency and had to travel 1 1/2 hours back home and the other person that was helping ended up terribly sick with the flu. Then one of the local TV stations called to see if they could film some footage so had to run around trying to get mall approval. Finally after all the work put into the event only 7 people showed up to shop and take advantage of the incredible deals the company put on.

Today its all about getting ready for the Diva's Women Trade Show I am in. Need to pack up my catalogs, current projects, print off sign up sheets for classes, make sure I have the door prize and table prize packed up, print off draw sheets then load it all into the Van. Really hoping that I have a better response then last time and can get some customers. If not will have to really think about the next one in Oct. and whether it is really worth it or not.

Tomorrow and Sunday will be all about getting some Blog post done of the great things I have been creating and setting them up to post. I have some wonderful pictures taken and I am hoping to inspire some of you with some of it.

Have a wonderful day all and God Bless!

So Sorry

I know I have not posted in a while, I also had issues creating. DT submission is getting me down and my creative juices/mojo fled. Then had a major computer crash and lost all my pictures. However in the last couple of weeks/days I have been crafting like mad. Not sure if it is the Spring weather or some of the great products I have received or the Challenges I have entered but I feel like I am back in the game. Not only that but I received a email today that Spellbinders has their new 2013-2014 DT call happening. This weekend/week should be busy as I sit and try to decided what I want to make. Do I submit a card, LO or altered work. Any suggestions from my followers would be much appreciated. I also have a draw for you.

I love to Cross Stitch and was looking for an easy way to add decorative stitching to my LOs and cards when I came across this product. I did a review of this product last year and love it. So I have one with 3 decorative heads to give away. To be entered you need to follow my Blog and it is open until Apr. 25. I will contact the winner on Apr. 26th.

Thanks for staying with me and God Bless!

A site to share!

Well the search continues or should I say I continue to apply for DTs with different sites. UGH sometimes I wonder if it is a waste of time. There is sooo much talent out there and I am still such a beginner compared to the majority of the women I know/watch. Eventually someone will be willing to take a chance on me, I hope. :D In the mean time I will continue to create and share my talent with you as well as the great finds and stupid buys I make LOL.

One of the Ladies I know from www.scrapbook.com was on a DT with Scraputante. They are having a 12x12 DT call, which she let me know about before it was issued. LOVE my friends for enabling me. Well this site carries paper and embellishments I don't have nor that I have access too. I went to their site www.shop.scraputante.com to put in a order. Well I choose some things from their clearance section because I have never ordered from them before and in was just before Christmas so a little short on funds. I ordered with grab bags, Anna Griffin, Bella Blvd and Basic Grey.

Here is the Basic Grey package, there are 2 of every piece of paper you see here as well as the package of die cuts and cs alpha stickers. The value is $20+ but only cost $10. Great deal.

This one is Bella Blvd, again 2 pieces of each paper plus 2 sheets of cs stickers, set of acrylic stamps and fabric flowers. Again $20 value+ value for $10.

And finally the Anna Griffin package. I have never seen her product before and was thrilled with the quality of the paper. Several pieces have raised velvet designs on it, one has gold foil and there are 2 sets of die cut 12x12 sheets not to mention the package of photo mats and 3D flower stickers.




So not only was the value and price amazing but the shipping costs I was charge was mind blowing. I was charged $2.40 flat rate shipping yet when the package arrived it cost her $12.50 to mail. That is incredible customer service and encourages me not only to shop there again but to encourage all of you to do the same! Oh and one last thing at no charge she threw in a package of Pop its squares. I am hoping to soon have a blog badge from them on my blog so you can link direct to them :D

Alright now to go and start crafting so I can hopefully submit to their DT unless I missed the deadline which is always possible LOL.

New Advent Calendar

Sorry I missed posting on Friday but I was trying to finish the new Advent Calendar I started before Christmas. All that remains for me to do is the boxes so I took pictures of it and are going to share them with you. Yes I know its January but I figured if I finished this project and shared it I was one step closer to being finished my Christmas crafts for 2013 :D

Here is my new Advent Calendar, this is made using Kaisers Crafts Advent Calendar kit. People are always asking me if I have a theme colour for my tree and the answer is no. My children decorate the Christmas Tree so its their creation. On the other hand I am working on a theme with all my other Christmas decorations. I LOVE snowflakes. Plus if you looked at my large picture Advent Calendar then you will notice I used Blue colours and Snowflakes on that one as well. First I painted all the pieces blue, I tried a sparkly blue but it was more a stain then a colour and I wanted colour. I then assembled all the parts and flipped it over to glue it all together. I used Arlene's tacky glue. Before I assembled the pieces I did adhere card stock to the back board. I used several different embellishments here and I will try to list them all. Of course there is Prima Say it with Crystals, snowflakes, Snowflake buttons by Reflections, Snowflake on silver ribbon trim from the Dollar Store, white flowers from www.iamroses.com , incredible ribbon roses wrapped with pearls trim from my wonderful pal Lorna Lee and I believe that Butterfly is Prima winter collection.

Here is a close up of the corner, the Mod Pod is still drying on the Crystals. There are a mixture of paper and fabric flowers here as well as the fact I added Icicle Stickles to the flowers to add glitter. The white Pointsettas are from Prima, up the inside you can see Snowflake stickers these are Jolene.

And a close up of the Bow that I made. Again the ribbon is blue with white sparkly snowflakes on it. There is so much you could do with these kits and a friend of mine makes them and sells them on etsay. She does amazing work and sent me this one for me to make. I love my colours I chose and the simple style I used to make it. Now all I need to do is finish the boxes, put it away until next year and start on the next project.

God Bless until next time :D

2013 Scrap Area

In the eternal search for the perfect place to scrap I moved my room out of the little cubby area and in to my Laundry room. I tripled my space but am more spread out.

I am more spread out now due to all the space, I share it with my freezer as well as the washer and dryer. Laundry is now getting done more regularly otherwise I can not make it to my work desk. I have added a couple of new storage/counter areas. We put both our little girls in the same bedroom so there was an extra desk. You can see I used it for my Cricut cutting area. On the cupboard side I placed my CTMH stamp organizer. The top drawer holds all my Carts, which will soon have 4 more there. Friend of mine was cleaning out her scrap room and wanted to get rid of a few which are no longer available so I bought them. The second drawer I placed all my cutting mats. In the cupboard I have stored all my CTMH embellishments and stamp sets. The other piece I added you can see is the rolling kitchen rack. Again picked up second hand from a friend at no charge. The top is not cleaned off in this picture but it holds my large cutter which I seriously need to order replacement blades for. The baskets are great for all kinds of things, I believe I have my scor-pal on there and my iTop container as well as the container that holds all my twine for sewing on projects. Plus there are 2 Clip-it Up ribbon holders. Finally have all my ribbon out of containers. Hope that will encourage me to use it more often on cards and LOs. Of course you can see my wall and shelve that is covered in projects that were made for me, unfortunately you can not see the area where I hung all the wonderful ornaments that others made as well, the lamp is in the way.

Under the stairs is a little area that originally we used for storage but when our landlady finally moved everything out of the garage we were able to move it there instead. That white book case is full of magazines for both scrap booking and Cross Stitch. I fully intend to get rid of them all this year. I plan to go through the cross stitch ones and remove any of the patterns I want then into recycling it goes. Here is my large wall unit that holds so much paper and other tools. Plus of course a huge paper rack which is nearly full. The tubs on top of the wall unit hold all my embellishments organized by season and Holiday. There is just enough room there for me to be able to sit down and look at all the paper while choosing the design/style I want in a LO or card.

Here is a picture looking from my dryer. The small desk up against the wall holds my Grand Calibur and Big Shot. In the Shelves are their dies or I should say all my Spellbinder Dies as I don't really use anyone elses. Plus I have my idea books from CTMH there as well. On top of the shelve are mini albums that pals have sent me as well as the one and only one I ever made. Its the red and black one :D The mesh cube unit holds all my CTMH pps right now as well as my trinkets and flowers collections. Its still a work in progress and is by no means going to stay like this or here. But for the next couple of years, unless we move, this will be my crafty home. I look forward to the day one or both my teens move out and I can take over one of their rooms. Then I will have natural light and SPACE. I hope we can purchase this home when that happens because I want to make some major changes to the room I use as a scrap room.


Have a productive, creative day and God Bless!

Ah 2013

Good morning my crafty friends, Thank you so much for sticking with me during the Holidays when things were just a wee bit crazier then normal and I did not get my post done.

With the New Year we all tend to make resolutions, I have chosen this year to set goals and check back on them every 3 months to see how I am doing. I figure that way I will stay more on top of things. My goals include both craft ones and personal ones.

1. Do at least one LO a week, I am in a challenge on scrapbook.com so this is a must.
2. Use my CTMH stamps on more then just their projects.
3. Exercise daily, again this is a must, I am not happy with my body size and figure a lot of my issue I am having are weight related.
4. Spend more quality time with my family, put them FIRST.
5. Be more like Christ in my life, study his teachings and teach them to my children.

For me the last 2 are extremely important, with the horrible things ppl are doing to each other in this world, and the atrocities we are seeing committed to the innocence I feel the need to do more to strength my family and our belief in Christ. The world has change so much since I was a child and the biggest one that seems to hurt us as a society most is the fact we have taken God out of our schools. Our children are growing up with no moral ideas, no understand of right and wrong. Now as parents are we at fault too, of course we are. But at least when we missed teaching something to our children the schools were there to give our children those lessons. Alright I am now done with my non-scrappy chat.

I always make a wish list each year and review how I did on my previous year's one. I did really well in 2012 on my wish list as well as a couple of extras just like I do every year. Plus in a later post you will see I have a new tool review for you. So first I wanted to get the Raspberry Plate for my Grand Calibur which I did receive and works great. I had to order it from Spellbinders directly but that was ok. I love my Grand Calibur but it did gather some dust this year :D Next was Spellbinder dies, well I did get more of these including some of the cut and fold ones and their new embossing folders. Very excited and must make it a priority to use these at least once a month. On to the Martha Stewart Punches, I did pick up a couple and received a couple in different swaps. I continue to love these and use them randomly. I still have not picked up a digital camera, really haven't even researched them yet, but I did get a NEW COMPUTER!! And what a beaut it is, way more power then I need at this time but I should not need to upgrade for at least 5 years+ depending on what components I can switch out as needed. Also became a Close To My Heart Consultant so traded my personal Cricut for a E2, and so glad I did. I used it more since August then I did my personal Cricut which I had for 5 years. I also picked up a Big Shot. Now I bought that before the E2 so I could cut the thicker dies that are used for boxes which now that I have the E2 I don't need LOL. Not sure at this time if I will sell the Big Shot or keep it. Only time will tell.

So now I need a Wish list for 2013

1. Digital Camera
2. This will be here for sometime, a scrap room.
3. Small table and chairs, this is for my little girls to join me in my crafting
4. Design Team, I so want to be on one and play with new products and share my talents with others.

Small list for this year but I have been so blessed last year to get a lot of the things I want. This year will be more about personal and crafting growth then getting supplies. Also my LSS closed so a lot of what I get is from the States and that has slowed down now that I am a Consultant. I tend to spend my extra cash there or on Pal swaps. This year I need to use more of my stash then accumulate :D I am sure that is true for most of us but I am making it a goal for me.

Well thanks for reading this post and sticking it out this long. No pictures but the link was not letting me do what I wanted. I could not download pictures from my computer which is weird and I hope a glitch this morning. Hope to have my next post for you in 2 days with a LO including Pictures LOL.
God Bless you all and have a wonderful day.