Recycled Flower Power!!

I can't believe its been so long since I've posted anything and there really is no excuse. I haven't stopped creating, I just stopped sharing for a while but all this will change.

On the Scrapbooker's Paradise Blog a couple of weeks ago, I shared a layout that I created by recycling a table decor that I had made for a demo table.

Here is the original flower......

Here is the layout...... complete instructions on Scrapbooker's Paradise Blog.

I had a big hole in the center of this flower when I took it my project and it was too big for a card so I just tore off all of the petals, shaped and overlapped them together in the center and stapled everything together.

And this is the Card that I made with the rest of the flower......

I was going to share my 'New' storage idea for my mini Distress inks in a couple of weeks but I will share this next week on this Blog. I can't wait to show you and so far it has been working great for me.

Until next week,

Glitter and Ruffles!!!

I had a lot of fun making little works of art with Molly. I pulled out the 'Creative Palette' from Stampendous and this is the first thing that we did. This was our test piece. I forgot to take pictures of the canvases that we made but they came days after this project. She had a huge smile when she saw me pull out the Palette.

TIP: I did find that the absolute cheapest acrylic paint from the craft store works best with kids. You don't have to use any paint retarder as the paint takes forever to dry.

It also happened to be my beautiful daughter's 31st birthday while I was there and she loves Banana Cream Pie so I insisted on a bit of pomp and ceremony even though the pie had already been delved into. 

TIP: Alas, no pie will ever come close to Mrs. Kent's and although this was a genuine effort (bakery bought), it was no rival.

GLITTER anyone? Could these shoes be more gaudy?

Lunch and shoe shopping with Molly yielded these. The look on her parents face when they saw them was priceless but they knew that this was her style and they believed me when I said it wasn't my fault.

This five year old has her own sense of style. She takes her clothes selections and lays them out on her bed as they would look on the body to choose her outfits. I only do this for special occasions about once or twice a year but she does this every day! I love this picture of  Molly and her shadow walking with such fierce confidence.

Ember on the other hand is just happy to have a dress with a skirt that spins and swirls. LOVE it!

When I took this picture of Ember, I could only think of  the Stampede. She pulled  out the boots and sat down to pull them on and they were just perfect with the outfit so as a true Calgarian, I just started shooting pictures of my little Cowgirl. So fitting that we were in Texas.

This is how I kept busy for two weeks in Texas. 

Until next week,

Doodle Fun!!!

I have to admit that I just can't watch television for the sake of just watching television......I have to be doing something else at the same time. The television is just really background noise but I do have my favorite shows that keep me the most entertained. My favorite show is 'The Voice' right now. I'm so glad a new season has just started again. I love the banter that goes on among the judges and I enjoy the incredible talent. 

I'm usually at home in my Scrap Room working away to keep busy but when I'm in a hotel room, I need something to keep me busy there as well. On my recent trip to Montana, I brought paper, markers with several nib widths and colors. I just doodled away while being obsessed with the Olympics.

Here is my original sheet that I used to teach myself how to do this:

............and here is what I did with my doodles.

For Scrapbooker's Paradise Blog, I put together a little how to that will help you get started so that you too can Doodle away the time!!!

I just got back from yet another trip. I went to Phoenix with my PMS group. This would be the 'Pre-Meditated Spending' club. There are 10 of us in the group and after 18 years there are still 6 originals in the group. This was our first trip together and I needed nothing to keep me busy with this group. We laughed so much and so hard and we really had the greatest time. Some of us got bad news from home while away but together we all got through it. We saw a sign........

"I Laughed so hard the tears were running down my legs!"

......and we knew it was about us.

The Botanical Gardens were AMAZING! The Chihuly exhibit that runs until May 18th.

Here's a link to the Chihuly pictures that I took. I find the idea so inspiring that I think I will have to base an upcoming project on one of these pictures.

Have a Great Week,

I finally finished my Box!!!

 Here is my Kaiser Box that I started some time ago.

I actually had all of the drawer fronts done except for two and all I had left was the actual box. I do LOVE how these turned out in the end. My biggest reason for the procrastination was trying to decide on the last drawer pulls. In the end I chose the faucet knob and the zipper pull.

I was going to paint the box but I was inspired by the Kaiser Baseboard papers and I'm so glad that I chose this different wood grain for the back portion. I'm so happy that the back is completely finished.

I took 3 sheets of the main paper and there are no folded edges here as all the pieces were cut to fit and glued on individually. The top piece actually has 3 pieces that are joined and the joints are not at all visible.

Here it is all finished and put together. LOVE IT!!! I can't wait to start the next Kaiser box.

hope you enjoyed it!

This and That!

Here is how the metal embossed tile is really supposed to look when you use the right chipboard. I used a thinner chipboard on my Blog tutorial for Scrapbooker's and the difference is quite significant.

One of my favorite storage finds is this old metal toolbox. This is how I store all of my rubons and stickers. This may look like a lot but most of these came from goodie bags. I tend to make my own embellishments so I rarely use stickers but I do use rubons. My favorites are the ones that I can just cut chunks out of and all of the definition words from Kaiser.

STAMPS are my real weakness! I would need at least a dozen of these boxes to fit my stamp collection. I couldn't help myself this week when the NEW Red Rubber stamps, Riley and Company and the Pan Pastels came into the store and I've had to add a few to the collection. I used one of my favorite Red Rubber stamps to create my background project below.

 Here's my latest project on Scrapbooker's Paradise Blog. The tutorial is for the background paper which I created from a plain white piece of paper. I'm always up for getting messy!

I can't wait to show you what I'm finally finishing up for next week!!!

Hope you have an awesome week,

My Muse(ings) is 1!!!!!

I can't believe how fast a year has gone by......

I haven't been too disciplined but I haven't been bad either! 

I'm excited to get this New Year under way and it actually started last Sunday with the plate bake. I hope that some of you tried this. I've been using my baked plates all week and I swear they also puffed a bit. This is good as some of them started needing shimming.

This week I am showing the finished layout using the technique that I did on Scrapbooker's Paradise Blog. I love how this turned out and I will use this technique again to create a background. I also used some of the leftover petals from a previous 'Paradise' post.

This weekend I get to judge at the Alberta Winter Games and I get to celebrate my Birthday with some great gals. The games are being hosted by the beautiful town of Canmore. The people will be awesome, the venue will be awesome so now it's all up to the WEATHER! I sure hope it warms up.

My favourite thing in the last week is the billboard on the outside of the church down the street.

"WHOEVER'S PRAYING

FOR SNOW

PLEASE STOP!"

I concur,

Have a Great Week,

Cutting Plates are FLAT again!

My plates were so bowed that I had to give this a try. Here is a picture of my cutting plate before I did my little experiment.

I did two plates at a time. I wrapped them in tin foil individually and preheated my oven to 325 deg.

I laid them side by side on a flat cookie sheet and covered them with a heavy glass (oven proof) dish.

I baked them for 30 minutes.

When you remove the plate from the tin foil, you will be able to wipe off old bits of dark cardstock.

Here is my flattened acrylic sheet. It's not 100% flat but it's pretty close and it still won't replace a brand new plate but it will give it more life and will save you when you can't get to a store when you need a fix at the most inopportune time.

The plate will still have all the cut marks, but it will be more translucent.

Here is a different view to so that you can get a better idea of how well this works.

Go ahead and give it a try!