I am Blessed

I feel so blessed to have such a loving daughter and grandchildren. This week my daughter, Jennifer, asked me to take some pictures of her and the kids with their sweet, small hands on her five-month pregnant belly for Valentine's Day. (Jennifer creates photo cards for every occassion and wanted to get her Valentine's Day cards ordered.) Presley is old enough now that all we do is ask her to pose and she does, but 3-year-old Brady had to be coaxed into cooperation with a box of chocolates! I will post later the card she ends up creating with the pictures.

I wanted to post more "crafty" projects this week, but the truth of the matter is I have been re-arranging mountains of craft supplies (and 90% off Christmas bargains) that have somehow multiplied in our guest room. You know how that goes, you start, then discover something else that needs your attention (like boxes of photos and memorabilia from the ninties) and get side-tracked along the way. One of my biggest goals for my new retirement (after I clear the clutter) is to properly organize all of my pictures and get them into scrapbooks. Since this goal is SUPER important to me, it was easy for me to get distracted when I kept coming across MORE boxes of photos! Yikes! So, along with getting the guest room back in order, I am happy to also be making progress on my other goal as well!

Gotta run, the mess is calling my name!

Linky Parties

I just put my fairy shoes on the CraftOManiac Monday Linky Party! I am still so new to blogging that I don't even know how to go in and put this linky button under my shoes, but when the time comes that I learn, I will fix it...LOL!

Because I have so many friends new to blogging, I am going to continue to put posts like this one up so they can start exploring the various cool features that blogs have (like Linky Parties.)

Well, in my new life as a retiree, Monday is laundry and clean house day, and since I hear the dryer buzzing, I had better go attend to it.

It's OK to be a Newbie (Chick)

I have to keep telling myself that we all start somewhere, that it is OK to be a Newbie at blogging and I can't expect my blog to start off with all the beautiful bells and whistles as my favorites have. I now know just how the Newbies in scrapbooking feel when they first dive in! I am lucky to be one of the "oldies" in that forum, and am constantly telling someone that they will catch on with a little time. Now, if I can only remember my own advice and have patience with myself as I wade off into this new delicious distraction.

Speaking of beautiful bells and whistles, I must mention one of my absolute favorite blogs: Common Ground. Debra has even posted her amazing space where she creates and you absolutely must go see it. She also hosts a blog party called Vintage Inspiration Friday that will also amaze and inspire you.


I originally got into blogs about 2 years ago when I began planning my kitchen remodel. Rather than constantly buying magazines for inspiration, I discovered I could find more (and better) inspiration online. One blog led to another blog and before I knew it I had fallen down the rabbit hole and was hooked. Since I was working and remodeling and had a busy life, I did not entertain the notion of starting one myself....well, I am happy to announce I just (this week in fact) retired from my full time job as Sales Rep in the scrapbook industry, so I decided blogging would be my first new addiction! (notice I said, "first?!!")

I can't wait to learn more about blogging and since most of my girlfriends know nothing about it, I will try and help them into this very fun hobby.

Fairy Shoes!

Last weekend I decided to make a pair of "Altered Art Shoes," and since I was making them for my granddaughter, I choose to use Graphic 45 Papers' new 'Once Upon A Springtime' 8" x 8" Paper Pad. Presley, my granddaughter, loves pink, so I concentrated on selecting pink prints for the background paper for the shoe's base. (I bought the shoes on clearance at Wal-Mart for only $3.)

I had to find small images for the main embellishment since the shoes were so tiny! The 8" x 8" pads have smaller images than the regular 12" x 12" papers. I cut out all of the fairy, frog, bunny, and flower images first and planned where they would fit and then how to make them 'interact" with each other.

When the time came to begin gluing the paper to the shoes, I choose to tear the background (base) papers into small pieces and soften them so they would be able to "move" with the shoe when it bent when Presley walked. By "soften" I mean I broke down the stiff paper fibers by rubbing it against the edge of my desk, wrinkling it a bit and then almost "molding" it with my fingers. The end result when you soften the paper is it almost feels like fabric. I then started gluing it down using Glossy Accents (you may use Crystal Laquer or any "decoupage" type adhesive.) I then created the "collage" that became her "Fairy Shoes." As I worked around the shoe, I continued to bend it so I could make sure the glue was sticking and would not pop off when she walked in them.

Once the papers were all in place I went back over the shoes with more Glossy Accents to give the shoes more shine. (I bent them again and glued down any piece that seemed less than cemented down.) To seal the shoes I sprayed them with "Super Seal" by Creative Imaginations. Super Seal is a miracle product that seals, water proofs, and makes your projects archival, too. The other marvel to SS is that it dries in under 5 minutes! I gave the shoes 5 coats to be sure and seal them as best I could. Now, I know that Presley cannot wear these shoes running and playing but she can definitely wear them to her next dress-up tea party!

Here you can see the back of the shoes and below you can see a side-view. The shoes were both unique because I did not repeat any of the major images. To make the shoes appear as if they were a pair I used the same background (base) print and small pink flowers as accents.

My hands were a total mess when I finished the first shoe because I used my fingers to mold and smooth and glue down each piece! I washed enough glue off to tackle the second shoe and then dealt with the dilemma of the sticky fingers once I got everything adhered. After about a dozen attempts with soap and water, it dawned on me to try fingernail polish remover! Yeah...that worked!

I know you want to know, so I will fess up how long I spent on this project: about 3 hours per shoe...however, I will say that now that I have finished her pair, when I begin work on mine (well, of course I am making myself a pair...what would I wear to the tea party????) I am going to use Modge Podge this time around and see if it is easier to work with. I will report back after I conduct that experiment....

Presley's Birthday Party!

Today is Presley (my 7 year old granddaughter's) birthday party. Her party is themed as a slumber party and the girls are getting 'spa' treatments. Just for fun I am wearing a cute pink smock I picked up at a thrift store and going as a 'beauty shop lady - as my kids always called them' since Presley told me she wants me to apply her beauty treatments. Last night I made her some "fairy" shoes (I will blog about them later) and can't wait to see how she likes them.

Altered Bottles

Here is a picture of the bottles that I altered/decorated for Sherry & Terry (my Purple Sisters) this Christmas. I bought the bottles at Hobby Lobby but did not want them to appear "shiny" like new bottles do, so I painted them with a glitter glaze first. I then ripped up some of my antique hymnal pages and inked them with my Vintage Photo Distress Ink and attached them with Glossy Accents. I collaged several different pieces of music to form a "band" all the way around each bottle. I painted some antique lace with a champagne metallic paint and attached that around the neck of the bottle. I then layered on a piece of Prima swirl crystals and a Prima flower. I took a decorative brass button and wired it on. To finish it off I broke the back off of a pair of antique pearl earrings and attached them to the top of the cork and then to make the cork look pretty, I twisted a piece of crushed crepe ribbon around the cork base and tied it in a knot in front. I also placed a metal initial on the back of each (and "S" on Sherry's and a "T" on Terry's,) but you cannot see that in this shot.

I really love old, odd shaped bottles and have started collecting them when I go junkin'. I even saved the wine and booze bottles from New Year's Eve. I found a lot of gorgeous bottles when I googled altered bottles before I began the project, so I plan to make many more.

Happy crafting!

Last post on Winter mantle

Here is the promised closeup picture of my Winter mantle (so you can see the cute little birdies!) One tip I will pass along that I discovered this Christmas with my decorating...don't spend the extra cash on garland for your mantle, use multiple sprays of greenery instead! I was shopping for new garland and the prices were high (even half off) so I decided to experiment and see if I could just buy 8 picks instead...and it actually worked better because I had way more controll over how it 'flowed.'

Happy decorating...I am off to plan my fun with my grandson, Brady, who is due to arrive any minute.

More on my winter decorations....

We had our best friends over for New Year's Eve and had lots of fun eating (of course), drinking (a bit), and playing games! We started off playing the "Not So Newlywed Game" - we have all been married over 20 years - then progressed on to Guys against Gals Trivial Pursuit. The guys did beat the girls 2 games to 1 but in our defense they did get pie questions like "Who is Alvin, Simon, and Theadore?" and "What state is the Rio Grande River in?"...but I won't be a spoiled sport, they were the NYE Champs. We actually were all quite surprised when we realized it was after 1:30 am and we were all still awake, so I guess us old folks can party hardy on occasion!

I had lots of fun pulling together my tablescape with my newly scored post Christmas bargain winter decorations. I filled my "Dollar Tree" vases with the 'snow fruit & winter white pieces' from Michaels, put out my "DT" (I will have to use Dollar Tree over and over again, so I am now abbreviating it to DT) silver tinsel (that I bought to make cute cone-hatted people - but never found time for,)used my milar snow flakes (probably had those babies for 5 years in my scrap stash,)and incorporated my various other decorations from Christmases past. I lamented not having white dishes, but that is on my "To Score" list for 2011.

Cozy Snow Day

It was wonderful spending the ENTIRE day Monday sitting by the fire in the library reading my favorite blogs. I have fantasized about having a day to do nothing but be cozy indoors while the weather roared on outdoors....and I must say, it was as amazing as I had imagined! (We got a couple inches of snow on Sunday.)

Here is a picture of my fireplace in the library with the fire blazing. I converted my mantle to "winter" from Christmas with just a few easy adjustments. I bought the snow covered fruit and white pearl picks at Micheals at the after Christmas sales. I used them in my New Year's Eve tablescape. (I will also post a picture of it.) I found the adorable skates last year at TJ Maxx after Christmas, but never quite got them to work with my Christmas decorations, so I was super pleased they worked for my winterscape.

I apologize ahead of time for not being very "blog savvy" so how the pictures get uploaded and controlling where they go in relation to text is still new to me. I will also post a closeup picture of my mantle so you can see the cute little birdies I also got on clearance at Micheals. So, I will now post this and then go and pull the other pictures and continue my post with them....

Happy New Cheer!

I've wanted to start this blog for some time now, but have not had "some time" to do so. I am a huge fan of so many talented bloggers, I just feel like I should give back to the "community." As far as which community I am referring to, that is kind of hard to define because I love so many! From junkers to designers to frugal minders, to scrappers and stampers and altered artists, to writers and readers and movie efficienatoes, to travelers and photographers and gardeners, to just amazing women living ordinary lives in less than ordinary ways....I just want to say: "Hello! I am out here cheering you on!" So Happy New Cheer to you all!