My Semi- New Space

Well, for the past month or so I've been gradually working on my scrap space...took a while but got a big chunk of it done. Finally got my Expedit from Ikea. The wall that its on is in between two doors so my space was limited. The 16 squared one is nice but pretty short. I wanted to utilize any height I had so I put them on top of these 4 cabinets...also from Ikea. Ozan painted the room for me and replaced a door to our crawl space to a bi-fold door to save space. I put together all of this furniture and used plates to screw them together AND attached it to the wall. I have learned to be handy around this house...someone has to be. LOL! I love this unit and I really work well if everything is somewhat easy to grab and use. Love to see all my stuff that I've collected over the past 5 years. And 8 drawers below is so convenient! I stored some extras on top...have just enough space to put my Sizzix diecuts and some Maya Road tins. I'm able to reach up there so its easily accessed.

I had purchased a lot of the red Ikea Kassett boxes but I didn't use many of them...really realized that what I had worked better. I have a very ecclectic style so I tend to mix things up{This is going to be a super long post}

...some close ups...the white boxes are by Cropper Hopper to store my stickers and rub ons. I divided them by manufactuer, type, and theme. The blue drawers are ancient...got these about 12 years ago at Borders...they have a fabric finish and I really like them. Use these to store markers, thin die cuts, some ink pads, and masks. The large red box is filled with embellishments that are larger in their packages.

Some more...that small brown basket holds bling and gems. The white one holds all card making supplies...just pull it off the shelf to use.
My Stampin Up Cardstock...I cut out small pieces and wrote the color of the paper down...haven't done that yet for my newer purchases...

My new way to store my Cuttlebug Embossing Plates. Got this from Borders too...matches the drawers. I store them with a piece of white core cardstock (DCWV) that was embossed in the folder and then I sand it and put the paper back in. Its so much easier to find the plates. I use them all the time! And notice the labels? I own several label makers...love them!

I store the smaller Cuttlebug stuff in this open tin, easy to grab! And so pretty!

I love looking in other people's craft space...especially drawers and things like that. I have 2 drawers filled with my Stampin Up stamps.

And this is my favorite drawer below. I found this basket at JoAnn's and cut off the handles. This basket stores my tags, journaling papers, and small paper pads. Kinda keep them loose in the basket and I can just grab something. This has been real convenient so far.

I also arranged my cropper hoppers paper holders to one of my work tables. I really wanted this space for a paper trimer and for my Cuttlebug but I just didn't have the space to put them on the Expedit. And my favorite basket that holds loose wooden stamps...

To the right of that table is my making memories embellishment center and some racks I hung up below to hold all my making memories jars. Love seeing everything out. I hang my american crafts ribbon on a ring and leave it on the side of the center.

One of my other projects are these Benno CD towers from Ikea. I purchased some more jars to hold more embellishments. Here is a close up...

a different view...

a view when you enter my room...its really not too big. Really have to use the wall space well! My carpet looks funny...theres a shadow on the floor in the picture but thats from the light! LOL!

OK, I've made quite a few cards lately...I made a baby girl card for a co-worker who is expecting his second baby any day. But they don't know the sex so I made a boy card the next day just in case... I'll post the supplies later but used a tons of old school stuff and a shabby chic style that I used to have a long time ago. Super old supplies here. My friend Laura inspired me to use the tag on a card...and to emboss it. Love it. Oh, and I lifted one of her LO's here...you can see it later in the post. Yes, there's more.


Kendall made this at school for me. I thought it was a picture frame but she calls it a scrapbook page! Love it...have it hanging in my room.

And my LO! I was stuck on what papers to use. I just created a new Cropper Hopper paper holder to store all my newer papers...this is how I came up with these colors. I got some new Swiss Dot Bazzill cardstock...love, love this paper! They had some cute Pink Pailee stuff too. On the pink paper there is some typing and my mom's name is on there (Jeanne), so I didn't cover it up. I took this scan and didn't like it...took some pics and didn't like those, so i'll stick with this scan. I did use my new SU die cut and some cute cork paper.

And some leftovers for a card...super quick. I just found out that its one of my friends B-days tomorrow. Her husband works with my husband and then we found out that we both work at the same hospital...maybe I'll run this over to her! We always call each other Chica...thus the title!

This is the other side of the room...my workspace and computer. Its still a mess from these projects (and unpainted).

Have a great Halloween!!

...so busy this weekend! Just a quick post here. This picture of kendall was taken at her kindergarten open house last week. She is here with her best friend at school, Anthony (I didn't want to put his face on my blog without permission). They are super close and have been going to school for 2 years now. So super cute together. This picture was taken indoors at night so I was pretty surprised how nice it came out.


Found her favorite toy sitting like this at her cubbie when I walked in...had to take of pic. So cute!

Made this card for a wedding yesterday. I had this super old pre-made card base (from Making Memories). Just slid out the cardstock and put it through the Cuttlebug embossing plate. Used some floss to make handstitching. I messed up the embossing several times and had to cut some cardstock from Stampin Up to replace the ivory cardstock.

The kraft cardstock heart was made with one of those tiny Cuttlebug embossing folders. I have so many that I haven't used but when I saw the heart ones in the store recently, I knew I would use them. The 2 larger patterned hearts were made by tracing around a chipboard one.

I was quite surprised when we got to the table at the wedding reception and saw our little favor...the ribbon is almost exactly the same. This favor is absolutely adorable. I wish I had taken a picture of the center pieces. They had real white pumpkins with the tops cut off and mums planted inside. Autumn weddings are gorgeous!

And made this card tonight for my SIL who comes over often to babysit. She is awesome. This card was inspired by a notebook. I stamped out the letters with white SU ink and then used a punch to make the circles.



Supplies Used

"4 Ever" Card:

Pre-Made Card, Patterned Paper, letter stickers: Making Memories

Cardstock: Stampin Up (very vanilla) & Hobby Lobby (kraft)

Embossing Folders: Cuttlebug (background and heart)

Ribbon: Stampin Up

Floss

"Thanks" Card:

Cardstock, Ink, Ribbon, Kiwi Kiss Designer Paper (green): Stampin Up

Letter Stamps: The Paper Studio (Hobby Lobby)

White Patterned Paper (grid): Scenic Route

New Header...Nature Walk

Well, we've had some pretty good warm weather...it barely seems like autumn around here. But I'm not complaining! The trees that I see when I'm driving or those on our street have changed colors and they are full of leaves...so pretty.
So I had this great idea of taking the kids this morning for a nature walk to our local forest preserve down the street and capture them in the glory of all the leaves changing...well it didn't work. Except for the entrance (where you see Ozan entering with the kids) the leaves are still green...probably due to the warm weather. It was 86 degrees today, so unusual for mid-October in Chicago. In my great idea I was going to get some awesome pics of the kids running down the trail with the leaves all pretty around to scrapbook later. My plans rarely work out.
Notice my two very tactile kids...alway have to have something in their hands. Aydan with his 4 Cars...did a LO a few months back about his 3 Cars that he totes everywhere. Now we've added a 4th one. LOL!
And took a little break to make a card...I go through these card moods sometimes over scrapbooking and right now I'm crazy about making them. I can't stop using my Top Notz Die Cut...its just so darn cute. Used the leftover negative space from the LO I did the other day. I only purchased one sheet of that paper and I've gotten so much out of it so far. For this card I folded some vellum into a fan, taped it down and heat embossed it. i got this fun embossing powder the other day...made by Gel A Tins. It is actually candy cane scented which is so weird for this card's theme but I loved the color! I just put the embossed vellum behind the die cut negative. And that Heidi Swapp butterfly...love it! There were 3 of them in this 12x12 sheet and I've used them all already! Used my new SU Kindred Spirits set and Kiwi Kiss designer PP. And I love the Pacific Point cardstock and ribbon. I'm a sucker for SU blues...gotta have them all!

This card was inspired by Asian style shades.

Oh, did you notice the new header? I made this tonight with scrapbook supplies hoping for a change. i gotta rescan that and fix it in photoshop sometime soon. I used Elizabeth Kartchner's article in the Creating Keepsake magazine for a guideline on what size to make it and how to size it in photoshop.

Supplies Used:
Kindred Spirits Card
Cardstock, Ink, Ribbon, Stamp, Die Cut, Kiwi Kiss Patterned Paper: Stampin Up
Embossing Powder: Gel A Tins
PP: Doodlebug

Blog Header
PP: Doodlebug
Chipboard: DCWV
Stamp and Ink: Stampin UP
Fabric Tape and Stickers: Making Memories
Butterfly: Heidi Swapp
Prisma Glitter: Hero Arts

Wow-lots to blog about

Wow, didn't realize how much I had to put on my blog until I started this entry. I made this card last night for a magazine submission. I had so much fun making this...took about 2 hours though. This large die cut is new, something I just got recently and didn't have time to play with it now. Its a Sizzix Die cut from Stampin Up...I used a Making Memories metal sheet. This die is fun...its big, which is nice. This card is 5.5" square. Had to make that size to accomodate the die cut. The purple cardstock was put through a Cuttlebug embossing folder that was first brayered with some White Stampin Up craft ink. Loved how it came out. The blue papers are brand new and so is Stampin Up scalloped border punch.
For the diecut, I inked it with the same white craft ink and then added white embossing powder. The ribbon is silky and I had a really hard time tying it nicely. That was driving me crazy.



I was cleaning out my scraproom last weekend and found this picture of Aydan that was waiting to be scrapped. Its from Dec 06, so its been in my to-do pile for a while. I did the same type of picture for Kendall in this entry. Actually I was planning on doing the same type of LO on Aydan's but then I saw Laura's LO here and it was a great LO to lift. So it started as a lift, but I measured the paper wrong on the bottom so I couldn't make the circles. I had these Lil Davis stars for a couple of weeks sitting on my desk just begging to be used. So I guess I'll call this "inspired by Laura". I had purchased this blue and white Doodlebug paper just 1 hour before I made this. The blue had a raised chenille finish and the red has a glittery raised finish. Used the die cute for project too...just cut it in half to fit the page. The glittery letters are American Crafts...they were a pain! When I went to peel them off the sheet the back of the chipbooard was shredding and they weren't sticking well at all. I had to put some of them through a xyron. When I was attaching the stars, I got stuck on how to adhere them. The edges are too narrow to use glue dots and I'm not a fan of liquid glue cause it warps the LO...so I decided to use some brads stuck in the middle.


Ozan painted my room last weekend...well half of it. Here is a sneak peek. I purchased some Ikea drawers, organizers, and finally my Expedit. We are in the middle of putting everything up. Can't wait for it all to be finished. The blue walls seem to be lighter in the picture than in real life...its actually pretty bold...its a turquoise color. This picture doesn't do it justice.

See this ladybug? This thing is attached to my front door. These suckers come out in the fall and they stick to your house, windows, and they bite. Aydan and I have these welts on our faces, legs, and hands. At first I couldn't figure it out but then I remembered these guys from last year. When they bite, you don't even notice it or even see them on you. But after a week these welts start to itch and swell. AND if that wasn't bad enough, they get in your house and stay all winter. You could be sitting down watching TV and then you see these guys flying around. Just weird seeing bugs flying in the house during the winter months. Go away!

Last weekend I was looking for something and came across these...my first stamps ever. My sister purchased these for me in the early 90's. I kept them at work to use for my students tests...I work in the radiology field so I really love these...love bones! LOL! Sounds weird I know. They were covered in black ink and i was able to clean them off.

And Kendall...Daddy went on her first Kindergarten field trip with her to a local apple farm. Of course I made him take the camera. He got a beautiful picture here. Funny because her teacher emailed the parents pics from the trip and there is this picture of Ozan sitting with all the little kids eating cheese sandwiches at a picnic table. So cute.

Had to share these. I put up this chalkboard in the kitchen for the kids this summer to count down the days to our vacations. I started writing down what the day of the week was. The kids keep me on my toes by reminding me when i haven't changed it. On this day Kendall wanted to write it. She now can spell and recite the spelling of all the days of the week. She wrote the first "Monday" and then Aydan wanted to write it too. He is so good with his letters.

Supplies Used:

"Spring Card"
Cardstock, Border Punch, Stamp, White Craft Ink, Die Cut: Stampin Up
Ribbon, Letter Stickers, and Metal Sheet: Making Memories
Embossing Powder: Ranger
Solvent Ink (White): Staz On Tsukineko
Sheer Butterfly: Heidi Swapp
Metal Gems: Mark Richards
Gems: Hero Arts

Embossing Plate: Cuttlebug

Foam Tape: Scotch"Blue Eyes"

Patterned Paper, Die Cut: Stampin UpEmbossed Paper, Scalloped Edges, Trim: DoodlebugGlitter Letters: American CraftsTransperancy Stars: Lil Davis

The Things She Does/Great News

Oh my goodness, I've got a cute story to share. The other evening I came down to my scraproom and walked into this...exactly as seen here in the pic....

The leftovers of Kendall being creative and crafty. Tracing her feet and coloring them in. I love it. Markers and socks left there...rements of her little project. Makes my heart go pitter patter. Earlier that day I saw some pen marks on the bottom of her feet...was wondering how she got them.

She carries my markers and blank paper everywhere and just draws all the time. Her kindergarten class even made a special craft area/table because of Kendall's passion.

Both of Ozan's parents are really good at drawing and painting...my sister is a graphic artist...lots of artists in the family. Maybe we have an artist in training here.

And this LO is really special to me. I was organizing my photos from last year putting them into folders by month. I came across this picture of my lab Chloe and noticed the date: July 1st, 2007. She died 6 days later. This was the last picture taken of her...she's even wearing her harness here. We only put that on her when we had visitors cause she would jump all over them. Then she died of metastatic cancer soon after. She must of been in pain but she never showed it.

Even though the LO has a sad subject, I wanted to make it somewhat happy...not too dark nor too bright. I went through some papers and just pulled out some 'in-between" colors. The chipboard trees were stained with Stampin Up Old Olive ink. I tried to use some shading too by inking the edges and using less ink in the centers. The branches were painted and then when they dried I used a Signo White Gel Pen to make the dots. The quote on the bottom right is from Hero Arts and states, "One of the Best Things in Life is a Good Friend". I miss her so much.

And one more great thing happened to me yesterday. I found out that one of my cards was accepted for publication for a magazine. I literally screamed...this is my first pub and I can't tell you how excited I am. The magazine should be out in January-ish. Woo hoo!!!!

Supplies Used for "Chloe"

PP: Creative Imaginations/My Minds Eye/Stampin Up

CS and Stampin Ink: Stampin Up

Black Solvent Ink: Staz On

Stamps: Hero Arts

Chipboard Trees: Maya Road

Chipboard Photo Corner: Rusty Pickle

Letter Stickers: American Crafts

Journaling Sticker: 7 gypsies

Stickles: Ranger

White Pen: Uniball Signo

Pumpkin Farm

So this was the first weekend that our favorite Pumpkin Farm opened up. It has been so warm and today was in the mid 70's so I decided that I would like to go one time in my life without being cold...plus we can avoid the crowds. This place is so nice...we went on a hay ride, saw pig races, went on some kiddie rides, walked through a pumkin patch. The kids just love it!

Here are just a few pics...I didn't photoshop these yet, just not in the mood. Beside the fact that my kids rarely look at the camera, they came out pretty good.

Ozan doesn't understand the white pumpkins...he honestly couldn't understand why I'd take a picture of them.

Aydan cracks me up. He was taking all the pumpkins that were on their side and sitting them back up. He did this last year too!

More stuff

I'm feeling a little slugish lately in life and feeling a little uninspired to scrap lately. Guess I go through that one in a while...then I'll usually make a bunch of cards and I feel better. Anyway, I started this LO last week, finished 3/4 way through, and then it just sat there. But I kept it on my desk, right in the middle, so it would force me to finish it. I like it, but there are a few things I would go back and change if I could. My handwriting is going up to the right, I'd put the center paper off the the side, and the thin blue trim would be closer to the center. But its OK. I love this pic of Kendall cause its totally her...with her markers, drawing ALL the time. Everywhere. Love the age of 5, so much easier and fun...less time outs, although we had a few tonight...LOL.
Used a ton of Making Memories stuff here!

Had this picture of Aydan printed out the same time as the one of Kendall...just wanted to get it finished. It was hard to find some patterned paper that would work due to all the different shades of red in the pic. I really was going for a clean look here.
Got to use some stamping and punching here...2 of my favorite techniques. The red scalloped circle is an Archivers note card...just cut off one side and tucked it under the picture...made a circle with my circle cutter for the cover and used my embossing tool to score the left side so it folds. Then used some super strong tape to hold it in place. I wanted to do some hidden journaling to Aydan...just didn't want anyone flipping through his book and see it unless I wanted them to.

The stars were stamped with Stampin Up Kiwi Kiss Ink on the matching cardstock (new 2008 in-colors). Used a bunch of pop dots too for dimension. I'm amazed how well my stamped stars fit in the 2" circle punches...which were stamped too with a Stampin Up background stamp.
The star stamps are Fontwerks. I cut them out and then took my Basic Grey file in the corners so the cuts look sharp.

And a quick card here. Saw this technique on You Tube and had to use it. Took a brayer loaded with Baja Breeze and rolled into my Cuttlebug embossing plate and put a sheet of old book paper in it. Used some new Stampin Up colors here (Baja Breeze and Riding Hood Red) and some Basic Gray Cardstock. I also got to play with the scalloped edge punch, embossed the circles with a Stampin Up brass embossing plate, and used the matte pack for the pierced edges (love that tool).


Supplies Used:
U at Five:
Patterned Paper, Die Cuts, Letter Stickers, Felt Stickers, Pink Trim, Grommets, Chipboard Flowers: Making Memories
Cardstock: Bazzill and Stampin Up
Blue Trim: (either May Arts or Prima...can't remember)
Chipboard Photo Corner: Bazzill
Pearls: Hero Arts
White Pen: Uniball Signo

I Want to Tell U:
Cardstock: Bazzill (blue/brown) and Stampin Up (red/green)
Stamps: Fontwerks
Punches: Fiskars, EK Success
Circle Cutter: Fiskars
Card Note: Archivers
Patterned Paper & Foam Letters: American Crafts
Trim Stickers: Making Memories
Brads: Hobby Lobby

Happy B-Day Card:
Cardstock, Dotted Brass Embossing Plate, Matte Pack (Piercing Plate Guide), Ink: Stampin Up
Embossing Folder (large flower): Cuttlebug
Buttons: Autumn Leaves
Ribbon: American Crafts
Stickers: Making Memories

Some layouts to share

So I completed 4, yes 4, layouts this weekend. It poured and poured and poured for 3 days straight. So I literally didn't leave the house the entire weekend. I had a bunch of pics printed so I was trying to catch up on my scrapbook to do list. My printer hasn't been printing right for the past 6 months, so I can't wait to get a new one!

This first one came out the best I think...actually I was stuck on how I was going to arrange all those pics so I turned to pagemaps. They had a sketch for this month's issue that was just perfect for this LO. The American Crafts foam letters really aren't a favorite of mine, but really worked out perfectly for this LO. The roundness of the letters, love it for the title.

Then I got stuck on which papers to use. Their uniforms are black, gray, and a bit of red. I didn't want to use those colors nor could I use a busy patterned paper with those busy pics. So I looked through my Scenic Route stash...they always have fun and bright paper, so SR it was! I took the Bazzill scalloped trim and used a star punch on everyother scallop and put a piece of the red paper under it. Then on the other scallops, I put a single dry embossed circle. Before I did the embossing I used a disappearing ink pen by American Crafts to mark the center. I've been using this tool a lot! Its a pen but its a tool to me!

Added some Making Memories star trim next to it for some added definition.

This next one is a lift of the amazing Jennifer McGuire. It is almost an exact lift-lifted it cause when I saw her LO, it reminded me of these pics that I wanted to scrap ages ago but forgot about. This is Aydan at 11 months old and he was pushing his face against the patio door and I was outside taking his pics of course. I posted some of these pics on my blog here but the quality of the pics were pretty bad, actually underexposed. I used Jessica Sprague's technique of fixing underexposed images and I think that they came out OK. Not perfect pics, but they came out much better. In Jennifer's LO, she cut paper strips, glued them and cut circles out of them. I decided to skip that step and use multipatterned paper. Just got the new Making Memories Hullabaloo line and it had some fun prints in it. She also used some metallic brads. I was looking through my stash and found these cute shaped ones from Making Memories. They are star shaped and arrow shaped...thought they would work cute on this LO. The only thing that is really bother me about this is that its lacking some powerful color...its kinda dull.

Now I've saved the worst for last. I do not like what I did with this LO hardly at all. This is from Aydan's first birthday party and this 2 pages LO was sitting in my to do folder for almost 2 years...shame, shame. But its done. I had the first page half done and it had the lime green paper, his monogram, and the word fetti stickers but I had these chipboard letters that I put puffy paint on and they looked so bad, I tore the paper off and replaced it with the Hullabaloo paper. I'm just happy to have it done! Oh, and if you look closely on his large pic, you'll see the date. Those are super tiny Doodlebug rub ons...had to use my tweezers for those!

Supplies Used:

Soccer Page

Cardstock & Embossing Plate: Stampin Up

Patterned Cardstock: Creative Imaginations for Bazzill

Scalloped Trim: Bazzill Edges

Patterned Paper & Die Cuts: Scenic Route

Foam Letters: American Crafts

Star Trim: Making Memories

Mini Letter Stickers: EK Success

Goof

Cardstock and White Pen: Stampin Up

Patterned Paper and Brads: Making Memories

Die Cut Plates: Quickutz and Sizzix

Distressing Ink: Ranger

One

Cardstock: Bazzill Bling

Black Patterned Paper: 7 Gypsies (my favorite PP of all times!)

Scalloped Paper: Creative Imaginations

Circle Patterned Paper, word fetti stickers, chipboard letters, diecuts: Making Memories

Journaling Sticker: American Crafts

Scalloped Circle Chipboard: Technique Tuesday

Circle Chipboard: Junkitz

Rub Ons: Doodlebug