WOYWW #165

This week has flown by...it hardly seems a full week since we last peeked into the desks of all the crafty lads and lasses...Pop into Julia's blog to get this weeks sneak peeks.    http://stamping-ground.blogspot.ca/                                                                  Wow...that rhymes! LOL

No desk photo's of my desk today...I was over with my grandchildren all day so instead, I am sharing a picture of the "desk" Little Miss C and I used today. I was under strict instructions that she wanted to create some more cards.

All this cardmaking interferes with little Mr P's plans for the day. Usually he has Grandma all to himself on Tuesdays. During the school year, Tuesdays are his day off preschool. We have a little routine of Starbucks for a cookie and small sized hot chocolate, a huge coffee for Grandma and then a walk home to play board games after lunch!

Having his sister home all day, every day,  for a couple of months, has thrown a monkey wrench into the board games!  Today's new routine, consisted of cardmaking  from what felt like dawn to lunchtime, a trip to Starbucks for all of us, and then home for the board games. Was he disappointed when she raced off to her room to play with her hampster and it was just he and I for Mousetrap. I had to remind him the game would last longer with just 2 players and then he was happy. He was even happier when he won!!!

Enough nattering...here is what little Miss C created today...

Although she won't be 6 till mid-October, she is very arty. She is quite good at concentrating for long periods of time and takes pride in doing things well. I am always impressed at her endurance when we paper craft together.

I got the idea of purchasing watercolour paper thank you card packs  at Michaels. I think they are 8 for $1.50  The card base is lightweight but not too bad, and it is completely flat sheen with a wee bit of texture to the card.

She places 3 dimensional stickers from the Dollar Store onto the card fronts, chalks the edges and carefully slides the finished cards and envelopes into a little acetate sleeve and puts a wee price tag of $1.50 each (now that's a entrepreneur...making 8 times the cost).

She wants to put them in the craft fair her mom is organizing... but so far, they mostly sell fairly quickly after she finishes them:) I think she has made over 20 so far...
I think the cutest thing is that she likes assembling them into the sleeves and sticking on the wee tags just as much as making them.

She has some close ups of her cards on her blog today. She also explains her "creative process".
Her blog is The Pony Girl06      http://theponygirl06.blogspot.ca/

Scrapbook Garage Sale Haul

I have mentioned in my last couple of posts about the great bargains I found at the Clipper Street Scrapbook Garage Sale. I grabbed a ton of  12x12 patterned paper @ 12 sheets for a dollar and a bunch of odds and sods that I thought I would share with you today.
First up was Christmas in July!  I got 3 lengths of these yummy black velvet, Xmas ornaments. for a dollar. They are already adhesive backed.  I plan to fussy cut them out for cards. Beside them is a package of black and white journalling cards and words etc, also a dollar.

Next up are some cute Xmas stamps...sorry about the glare but I wanted you to see the prices. I fell in love with that first whimsical Stampendous Snowman and sentiment for $1.50

Merry and Bright from Imaginesce was only 25 cents and although I probably paid too much for Kissy Kissy (one dollar), that cute little reindeer just jumped into my basket!.

 Little Miss C will be gong into Grade One and Mr P will be in preschool each day. I couldn't resist these printing alphas for 10 cents. The school days tablet of journal cards and the little boy book of tickets were a dollar each.

The Spook Alley words were 25 cents, the Mellissa Frances vintage, ivory resin shapes were 50 cents. The shabby chi,c flat sheen, hinge stickers as well as the glittery flowers were only 10 cents.

The little leaf branch punch was a dollar, the kaiser tag book 25 cents, the chipboard travel accents one dollar,  and the lilac and green sewn edging and the matching tag beside it, were 25 cents.

My final treasures were these glassine bags. Fifty of the smaller bags were 50 cents, and a hundred of the larger size were one dollar. They are for my oldest daughter, Glamour Girl. She will use them for her handmade jewelry. The small ones should be perfect for earrings, and the larger size for bracelets or necklaces.

Favourite sports?

Do you have a favourite sport?

I sure do...but not the way you would think!

My favourite sports are golfing, fishing and boating. Maybe you are thinking that I am a sporty kind of girl...well, you would be WRONG!!!

I love those sports because my husband likes to go fishing, boating and go off to play golf with his buddies. He is still best friends with his original buddies from elementary school and luckily they share a love of the same sports.

While hubby is off getting some exercise with his pals,  I can get in some paper crafting...so...yes...
I LOVE those sports!!!

These past few months have been a bit of a dry spell for paper crafts as he was not strong enough to golf, etc. He is finally up to a bit of golfing out of a cart, on a good day. Prior to the heart attack and the diabetes, he always prided himself on walking the course and even carried his golf bag...no dragging or pushing a wheelie cart for him. Now, it's playing out of a cart with a wee snack bag tucked into his golf bag, in case his blood sugars drop!

Today, while he was off with his buddies, I managed to get a birthday card finished. It has a golf theme and will probably go to one of his pals on their birthday.

Wasn't quite sure about the golden circle behind the birthday sentiment. I was going to score sunshine rays coming out to the left on the green cardstock. I thought it would look reminiscent of sunshine on the golf course.but that idea was kyboshed by the fact that the green cardstock is heavily textured and the rays looked strange. Then I remembered I had some wavy, circular rays of sunshine in my stash drawer...they have been filed away for over 10 years...Extras from a tropical, Hawaii scrapbook album that I finished up long ago!  Good thing I am not a paper purger as I was able to locate them right away. A little judicious trimming with the scissors and it slid right behind my sentiment circle. Finally, I had my sunshine.

Here's a little peek at the inside.

With the exception of the argyle paper, all the other bits used today, are from my stash and well over a year old. (Some more than others...teehee). The argyle came from a  6x6 paper pad of My Minds Eye, Lime Twist, that I picked up at the infamous Clipper Street Scrapbook Store garage sale last weekend. I kind of think it is still using stash...it just used to be someone else's stash!!! Best of all...It was only 2 dollars for the whole pad.  Yay... how I love a bargain!

Supplies:
Card blank:- Recollections
Cardstock - green textured sheet from my stash
Stamp on card front      - G-1677 1999 PSX
Sentiment on card front - older stamp from stash, name worn off
Sentiment inside card - Inkadinkadoo
Brads        - stash
PP - My Minds Eye lime twist

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
1.  Alphabet Challenge    http://alphabetchallengeblog.blogspot.ca/    - M is for Men
2.  Pause, Dream, Enjoy http://pausedreamenjoychallenges.blogspot.co.uk/
- Sports or Hobbies    
3.  Paper Play Challenges    http://paperplaychallenges.blogspot.ca/   Week 30 - Sports
4.  Simon Says Stamp  http://www.simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.ca/   - Anything goes
5.  Emergency Crafters http://emergencycrafterschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/  - Circles
6.  Fun With Shapes   http://funwithshapesandmore.blogspot.ca/ Use Punch or Diecut and Numbers
My blue and yellow circles are both punched out.I have also punched the argyle paper to fit round them. The numbers are on the red tee flag (118)
7. Simply Create Too http://simplycreatetoo.blogspot.ca/  #18 Use it twice - I used 2 white brads.
8. Shopping Our Stash http://shoppingourstash.blogspot.ca/  Use something new - I used the backing card from my stash. I had to cut the seal on the box to get it out!
9.  Use it Tuesday http://useittuesday.blogspot.ca/ #36 Uncut paper - I cut into a full sheet of green textured paper for the second layer of this card. I love textured paper but do sort of hoard it too long.
10. Divas By Design http://divasbydesignchallenge.blogspot.ca/   #45 Happy Birthday

WOYWW # 164

It's time to pop round the world and peek onto all the crafty desktops...yep, it's What's On Your Workplace Wednesday!  Be sure to drop by the lovely Julia's blog  http://stamping-ground.blogspot.ca/  and leave her a little blog hug as she is the one who hosts all this peeking. 

I am still struggling to re establish my crafting routines. My room was a bit of a fright so I have spent a couple of evenings filing away all the bits and bobs on the main desktop. I attended the Clipper Street Scrapbook Store garage sale on Saturday and managed to get a lovely bunch of 12x12 cardstock and patterned paper @ 12 sheets for a dollar.  Fifteen dollars later, I had a huge bag of paper to file. 

I should have kept on with the job and got the embellishments filed away...instead I got waylaid by the realization that  I now had enough clear counters to perhaps make a card. I put together a Christmas card and decided to try out the new Kraft chevron bag as my envelope. 

A couple of strategically punched holes, a bit of coloured jute threaded through and voila!

I went with fine, brown jute as it went with the card.

 Here is the matching card. Thanks goodness for clicking on photos to enlarge them...I have just noticed some of the pearls have shifted and 2 of the shifty little beggars have escaped!!! I am off to search the rug for the elusive escapees. I had better find them as I used the last of these teensy pearls and can't remember which dollar store they are from.

 As usual, my photography skills are lacking. I do something wrong when I take my pictures:(    My cards always look bottom heavy and elongated on top. I never seem to get them square on. In this photo, it looks as if the red border is missing on the bottom of the PP rectangle. It is there, but it hidden in the angle of the photo. I used a florist frog to try to avoid this angled problem:(    It didn't work!

Any critiques and helpful suggestions would be greatly appreciated! 

Chevron bags...thinking outside the box!

I had a lovely morning out yesterday with my good friend. We popped into the local scrapbook stores and had a peek through all the scrapping goodies.

My eyes lit up when I spyed these Chevron bags. They came in many different colours and best of all they were only 25 cents each!

I picked up 5 small ones in various colours and thought I would use them for journaling card sleeves. They would even be cute with a tag tucked into them.

I noticed that they also had a larger size as well. The larger ones came in the same colours but also included Kraft! As I was standing there wishing that the little ones had the Kraft option as well...I had a lightbulb moment.. Yes, even in my advancing years, I still sometimes have lightbulb moments!!!

Why not use these larger bags as envelopes for bulky cards!
 Sometimes really layered cards just do not fit comfortably into a regular envelope. The Kraft envelope would work well with bulky Kraft cards and the Chevron pattern would be subtle enough that you could still add an address etc.

I picked up a few of the larger Kraft envelopes to try out and might be planning a trip back for more.  I will  add a piece of double sided sticky tape and fold over the pinked edge to seal the cards that need to be mailed.

For hand delivered cards, I will thread a bit of fine jute through some punched holes and tie a bow  to close  up the bag. I might even add a button for a decorative element.

I will make a nice bulky Kraft card and then do up my large Chevon bag to match.
 Hopefully, I  will have the finished card and envelope ready to show you tomorrow night!

*************On a blog candy note************
You should check out Ingvild Bolme's unbelievably generous blog candy. Her candy giveaway is for a celebration of her new blog design. I have a link up on my left sidebar. for those who want to take a peek. Her blog, the candy,  and her paper crafting style are so gorgeous that it is worth stopping by to see.

Not another RV card!

Yep...hope I am not boring you all too much with my quickie cards.  I have another one to share. It  is the second card I made for the raffle at the Garden Club. Sorry about the shadows distorting the look of it. It really is not bent at all.
I do something wrong when I photograph the cards. They always look like the elements are too close to the bottom and the upper third is blank. It must be something to do with the angle of the card when I place it.
This photo has that look...I had to tilt it to keep the sunlight of the shimmer background. The tilt has given it that bottom heavy look again. Any suggestions on how to take good card pictures would be greatly appreciated.

Now for the big news....It is now the only one left for the garden club raffle!
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Little Miss C. came over this afternoon to help finish off some of the lake cards. After learning how to chalk, she decided that yesterday's card needed an uplift. She chalked all around the edges with lavender chalk and we stamped a Birthday greeting on the inside. Of course it was carefully chalked as well...she has discovered her niche!!!LOL.
By this time, she had put the majority of the effort into yesterday's card, so I gave it to her for her "Pony Fund". Luckily for little Miss C, my SIL came over for dinner and promptly bought it as she needed a birthday card for a friend at work. Here is the reworked, lavender chalked card.

Little Miss C was grinning from ear to ear when Mummy came to pick her up. She left with a little golf ball box,  full of cards. I think there were $40.00 worth of cards in her box!  I gave her pretty well all the cards we made at the lake...and some new ones we made today.  She is going to be grinning even bigger when I give her the $5.00 SIL left for her.      My, that pony fund is growing!

While she was carefully placing her beloved cards in the clear card sleeves and sticking her teensy price tags on the back she shared her marketing plans. She  was certain that my oldest DD (Glamour Girl)  was going to want a fancy one, and her other grandparents would surely need some cards, as they didn't have many art supplies at their house!!!!

Another card from my time up at the lake.

My Garden  Club has a raffle table. Everyone brings some plants from their garden and the items are raffled off to raise funds for the room rental.  Sometimes I just don't have time to dig up something from the garden. Usually, with my arthritis, I just can't manage to dig anymore. If I got something dug up, I wouldn't sleep all night!
It is easier to make some gardening themed cards and pop them into sleeves and donate them to the raffle. Usually they go really fast!  I haven't been to garden club for a while but want to start back in September.
Here is my latest raffle card. I am trying to do a set of three to donate. One down...two to go!!!
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It was a bit windy when I took this picture. I had to hold the card in place with a stone in the bottom left hand corner!

Little Miss C helped me top make this card. She cut all the tape and "installed it" on the card for me. Some of the tape didn't make it onto the card as she got it stuck to the table. When she tried to clean it up she got more tape stuck to her fingers. I showed her how to roll your fingers together to get it to "roll off". Then we did the same thing to clean up the table.

We had fun and giggled about it.

Where Bloggers Create 2012 My Paradise

This post is part of  "Where bloggers Create 2012". You can drop by Karen's blog to peek into even more rooms and have a good look around. While you're there, leave her some bloggy hugs for organizing this wonderful party.. To see more bloggers rooms click here    http://www.mydesertcottage.com/ 

My scrapbook room is in the basement. Although it does not have a window, it is still my paradise! I created my room on a budget so used Craigslist finds and clearance sales to outfit my room.

My workdesk is an L shaped counter. My son-in-law built it and installed it for me.  This is a view of the technical side of counter. It is a wee bit narrower than the other side of the L. I can sit back and surf the web or watch TV in between creating! The plastic drawers underneath my counter house some of my wooden stamps.

As you can see, I still have a bit of work to do. I need to choose some nice family photos for those frames. I am thinking of doing up the one on the left with scrapbook pages and embellishments like a little 3 views art piece.

Now you can see the other side of the L shaped corner of my workdesk. The counter is much wider here..somewhere around 39 inches wide. This gives me room to create, and yet still store jars etc at the back, up against the wall. The little square jars hold ribbons rolled up and the smaller jars on top hold flowers.

Here's a view of the upper part of the wall...sorry that I have had to cover the photos with vellum My family doesn't like their photos on my blog: ( Luckily, one of the frames doesn't have photos in it yet:) 

The bird cages and flying birds were another dollar store score! The white shelves were originally from Ikea but I picked them upat a  yard sale for a dollar each. I did have to repaint them as they were a bit marked up.

Here are some close ups of what is on the shelves. I have three of the  6 drawer units from Jysk and 4 baskets centered on top of those. The 4 green and brown baskets were 2 dollars each at Dollarama and the 6 drawer ones were around 15 dollars each.

The top shelf holds 2 big jars of foam stamps. I know some people think these are out of style now. I still like the look for certain layouts. The huge jars were another dollar garage sale score. The black leather square suitcase hold black glitter alphas and the little black metal, floral lunchkit is an altered Dollarama find.

It was a Homer Simpson mini lunchkit found in the kiddie toy section. It holds a ten pack of cards and envelopes in black and white floral that I made to match the tin.

I have a series of woven baskets in brown and green scattered throughout my room. The individual baskets are from  Dollarama, the dollar store and the matching woven brown drawer units are from Jysk.

Stickles are stored in these wooden selves I bought on clearance at a local scrapbook store. I have several of these and the others store glitter.

I was lucky enought to find all the cabinets on Craigslist for 100 dollars! What luck!
The shorter ones hang over my workdesk.This picture shows the hanging units and a row of pantry type cabinets. The combination of the width of the hanging cupboards and corner unit gave me the depth for that super wide countertop!!

This next picture is the inside of the upper cabinet you can see hanging above my counter...yes, it is just above the white  Making Memories tool carousel. 

The black boxes on the bottom shelf hold prefolded card bases. One holds solid coloured card bases and the other holds patterned card bases. I have been struggling to get everything labeled for this blog hop but ran out of tape today!

The next hanging cabinet to the right, holds my 8x8 and 6x6 supplies, paper pads, albums, sleeve protectors, etc. Like all scraprooms, mine is a work in progress...the bottom shelf holds packs of weird sized prefolded cards and envelopes. I would like to move those over with the card bases in the previous picture but those two black boxes of card bases are completely full! I am on the lookout for a third box that will nestle in between those boxes. 

Here some shots of the inside of my tall cabinets.

 


 

My scrapbook store moved and sold off a few of the fixtures.I got this 3 drawer base and matching shelf set for $20.00 The pesky electrical panel box prevented me from installing the full shelving so I dropped it behind the drawers for now. It does waste some of the shelves and pushes the drawers forward but I do not want to cut it down as we are thinking of moving. Perhaps it will be better situated in the new house!

The top 2 drawers hold all types of punches.

The bottom drawer holds Spellbinders, Memory Box Dies and embossing folders.

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The door you can see to the right is the laundry room. I do my laundry while I work in my room...my laundry has never been so caught up:)

Did you notice that in picture 3, there were white Michaels cubes to the right of the tall cabinets even though I just showed you the scrapbook store's 3 drawer unit and shelf? No, you are not seeing things...I had to move those white cubes to make room for the 3 drawer unit!
The white cubes moved over to the wall at the bottom of the stairs and are stabilized by the bookcase beside them. Each cube has 3 drawers and I use these to store embellishments. I have them divided by theme.

My countertop has the additional support of my husband's childhood dresser set. The top drawer holds my cutters and odds and ends of tools. The other two drawers hold my finished cards and more card supplies. Here is a shot of the interior of the second drwer. The long label you can see is on the handle of the drawer above

Well, that's about it...Hope you have enjoyed your tour!

Back From The Lake - second card

As promised here is another card I made up at the lake. Yesterday, I mentioned that my card making was fairly limited as I had only one small bin of stash/supplies with me.
I must confess that I did have access to another type of supplies...one that I have used before...coffee cup sleeves!

DH likes to read the paper and usually heads into the village to pick up a newspaper each day. I love to tag along on these outings so I can drop into my favourite coffee shop "EcoTreats". I get a coffee or perhaps a latte and carefully save the coffee cup sleeve. It then gets added to my sleeve stash of Starbucks, Tim Hortons, Blenz, Eccotique etc, sleeves. The beauty of this collection lies in the fact that each store uses a sleeve that is a slightly different shade of kraft and each has a different texture.

I tore the EcoTreat sleeve to create a base for the sentiment and the larger grouping of flowers. I chalked the edges of the sleeve with Little Miss C's sidewalk chalk. I think it worked rather well! I kind of rubbed off the chalk till I had the intensity I wanted and then used pop dots to elevate it for a little extra interest.

Kraft embossed card base - Recollections from Michaels
Embossed Sentiment sticker - K and Company
Glittered Flowers - Dollar Store
Butterfly - Dollar Store

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

1. Charisma Cardz Challenges http://www.charismacardz.blogspot.ca/      Recycle
My card uses a coffee sleeve as the base for the sentiment and the larger flower cluster.
2. Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge   http://pennyschallenges.blogspot.ca/  Anything goes #84
3. Wishcraft: Waste Not Wednesdays  http://wishcraftcards.blogspot.ca/
Every element on my card is from my stash with the exception of the coffee sleeve which became stash soon as I finished my drink!
4 Our Daily Bread Design http://www.ourdailybreaddesignsblog.blogspot.ca/  Tearing or distressing
I tore the coffee sleeve and chalked the edges to give it a distressed look

Back from the lake with some cards

Finally back from the lake.
The rain ended and we had a few days of 34C weather.  If you read my last post you know what that means...
Boating Weather!!!
When my husband has friends come up to stay, they set off  for the day golfing or fishing in the boat, weather permitting.  Soon as they leave, I camp out in the gazebo and try to create some cards.

I didn't have many card supplies up with me this time, as I was a bit stretched for space. We were expecting non-stop company, so I needed the "bunkie" set up for company every day.  I mainly brought supplies for what I call "cheater cards". Cheater cards are made with purchased card backs, handmade or purchased embellishments and stamping is usually limited to a sentiment. I raided my stash and brought one bin of embellies, a few bling jewels, some border strips and a couple pieces of ribbon. I scored a few bits of embroidery cotton and some vintagey buttons at the resort garage sale so that was all I had to work with. I forgot to bring my paper slicer so I couldn't even cut up some of the different coloured card fronts to use as contrast bits.

I'll post a card a day over the next few of days...That will give me something to blog about as I tackle the mountain of laundry I brought home. We do have full laundry facilities there, but I would rather be crafting than sitting in a laundry room on my holidays!  My scrap room is right beside my laundry room at home, so hopefully I will get them all posted, one by one, as I wait for the wash cycles to finish.

This first card is on a shimmery, ivory,card base. This is the first time I have used this type of base and once I use these all up, I won't purchase them again. They are a bit lightweight for my liking. I like a sturdy card! I think they were 7 bucks for 40 cards and envelopes so I got carried away and decided to give them a try. My bad!

This card will go in my stash pile and be pulled back out to give to a gardening friend, on the right occasion.       

daisy embellishments - K and Company                                    

butterfly - K and Company
word phrase - K and Company
Yellow sparkly adhesive ribbon - Walmart
Diamond Jewels - Dollar Store

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
1. So Artful Challenges - All That Glitters - closes July 14 http://jeanette-soartfulchallenges.blogspot.ca/
My card base is shimmery, the ribbon and the diamonds are glittery, and the flower embellishments are very glittery

2. Oldie But A Goodie - Use an item that is at least 6 months old http://oldiebutagoodiechallenge.blogspot.ca/
My 3 diamond jewels in the top left corner, are over 6 months old.

3. Use It Tuesday #35 - Use some form of embossing    http://useittuesday.blogspot.ca/
My word phrase is an embossed phrase from K and Company.

4. Clear It Out Challenge - Use something yellow and 2 of something. http://clearitoutchallenge.blogspot.ca/
The glittery, self adhesive ribbon is yellow, the flower cluster has yellow flowers in it,  and there are 2  yellow daisies.

5. Digi Darla Designs - 2 of something  http://www.digidarladesigns.com/
My card has 2 yellow daisies.

WOYWW 161 The RV version

These is not much on my workdesk this week as we are up at the RV.  This is our gazebo/outdoor dining room/craft table. There is a big evergreen in the foreground of my photo and it gives some much needed shade when it is 40 C.

Here is how it sits on the lot. The little green building you can see at the back of the lot is the famous "bunkie" where our guests stay when they come up to visit! It has a double bed futon with a twin bed bunkbed above.

Here is the reason I can usually manage to get a bit of papercrafts done when we are up at the RV. Hubby goes fishing for the morning and I get set up in the gazebo to make some cards.  I have made my Christmas cards up here at times...it is so much easier to bring one theme and just work on that, off and on over the summer.

Unfortunately, the lake is really high and boating is being discouraged right now as the wakes from the boats can contribute to the flooding.  One of the other local RV resorts is under water and the water is cresting on the highway in spots.  Several waterfront homes are flooded and my heart goes out to all those affected by this high water.

Very little papercrafts are getting done here this week since the boat is stuck in its moorage!
We have had company up for the last couple of days, have another friend coming Thursday to Saturday and a third friend arriving Saturday afternoon!  Fingers crossed the fellows go off to sightsee and I can get tucked in at the gazebo!

If you would like to learn more about what is on all the other workdesks around the world, check in with Julia   http://stamping-ground.blogspot.ca/2012/07/whats-on-your-workdesk-wednesday-161.html  and leave her a comment!