Thinking About Mother’s Day March 23, 2009

A couple of years ago, I made my mom a shadow box that I have continually been proud of. When designing it, I thought about the colors in her bedroom, and I wanted it to convey things that are associated with mothers- and here is what I came up with:

 

I took photos of it today while I was visiting my family.  I look at it all of the time when I go up there–and I hope it inspires you all to make something wonderful for your mothers- or someone who stands in for a mother for you.  I’m going to be making one for K’s mom this year (don’t worry she doesn’t even know I have a blog), and I plan on making a few more for other purposes this year.  I’m going to make a couple of more posts in the following days (or weeks-the way the work schedule has been), and talk about each of the four corners that I made within this shadow box.

Enjoy!

What is everyone making for Mother’s Day this year?

I keep talking about work, soooo… February 8, 2009

I am incredibly lucky.  I not only have a boyfriend who understands my scrapbooking/rubberstamping addiction so well that he agreed to pay for a larger apartment so that I had room for all of my stuff, he lets me scrapbook on my days off without whining (too much); I also work in a job that I (finally!) can scrapbook at my desk.

I’ve written before about the crazy hours that we’re working right now.  I can’t even discuss how intense my job has become in the past two or three weeks.  I work for a company in Michigan and I work in one of their call centers. Since the economy is so incredibly horrible; we’ve been inundated with calls.  The calls are from people who think their bills are too high, those who want to make payment arrangements, who need information about payment programs, or from those that have emergency situations.  Right now there is little down time between calls.  We’re spending anywhere from 8-12 hours on the phone and that is call after call after call after call. 

So to keep our sanity, several people read, knit, bead, and scrapbook. I just had to share what my work space looked like this weekend-it was interesting because we were actually not as busy as we have been recently, so I had downtime to work on Valentine’s Day cards…this is what my desk looked like:

Left side of my desk during work Saturday

 

Right side of my desk Saturday

 

No matter how many people yell at me, tell me that my company or I am stupid….I have something that keeps me sane and positive-and it is my crafting.  I’ve also been able to knit at work, and that has had a few fruits of my labor recently.  My sister received a new scarf for her birthday:

I made it from some yarn that I had received as a gift.  I plan on making one for myself in the future out of a pretty lacier yarn…this is acrylic, and since my sister has a young son, I thought that something that would be serviceable and would be able to go into the wash would be a good choice for her.   Here’s a closer look at the ladder stitch pattern:

Although I’m really happy with the results, I can’t wait to make it again with some yarn that is REALLY special.

I’m sure that in the coming weeks, I’ll have a lot more to talk about in reference to my crafting at my desk.  I can’t wait to share!

Back in the saddle January 27, 2009

I really want to spend today getting back to blogging about some projects that have come out of my scraproom lately.  This is something that now sits in my new cubicle at work and makes it a little bit prettier, I think.

What you need:

 

1.  Some sort of container to cover.  I used to work at this place that had tons of containers for small toys, and those have come in handy for several projects.  (Although they have added to my general stash-they have come in handy.)

2.  Nice sharp scissors.

3.  Glue dots or some sort of adhesive that will work for the container you are trying to cover.

4.  Ribbon.

5.  Ruler.

6.  Pretty paper, of course!

I measured the width of the container, and trimmed my paper to slightly smaller than the container size, so that my ribbon  could be the edging for it. 

Then, I adhered it to the container with the glue dots.  (I love those things!)

Next, I used the ribbon to edge the paper and make it look finished.  And there I had it, a new pencil holder for  my desk that is both pretty and functional.

 

Now, if you look at the back of the container, you’ll notice that I have a small slice that is not covered.  I really didn’t worry about it.  If this would have been for a gift, or as something that I wasn’t able to cover the back with the side of my cubicle, I would have spent more time covering the back and making sure that it was not exposed.

I’m going back to the scraproom to work on more circle journal things…and to make some more pretty pages for the scrapbooks.  I hope that this project gave you some ideas for looking at containers in a different way.  Explore the possibilites with things that you have lying around at home. A box, a bag, or a coffee can could become a great container for a gift or for some other supply.  The possibilites are endless!

New Desk January 11, 2009

I am at the point in my training at work that I have received my ‘permanent’ home.  I have a desk.  I have a cubicle.  I had little to no ‘things’ to put on or in it, yet.

So, this weekend, I took the initiative and began working on things to make my desk more pretty.  More Me.

My first project was to cover a box that I’ve  had around the house for about ummm….too long, anyway.  I’d hung onto it with the hopes of either painting it or covering it, possibly for a gift.  I think that every crafter has a few things around the house like that.  It’s too good to throw away, but not pretty enough to use.  Yet.

The desk that I have is entirely too deep, and I’d like to put some pictures behind my computer-so that I see them all of the time.  So I thought this box would be a perfect solution, and I needed to make it pretty.  Some scrapbooking paper, some ribbon and ding!  Here it is:

Pretty and functional.  That’s what I like.

I also worked on an old container that I got as a gift from a Hallmark store years ago.  It is one of those card organizers that has a tab for every month.  That really wasn’t working for me, so I decided to change it up and dress it up a better way.  Here are the results:

Much prettier and even more functional because I couldn’t resist.  I had to:

I just had to make the dividers more “me” by personalizing them, and creating the categories that I typically use for cards. 

This box will allow me to be ready with a card at any time, and have it at arm’s length.  I love it!  Not only that, those touches will allow my desk to be more pretty and feel a little more like ‘home’.

New Years Resolutions January 3, 2009

Hey, everyone!

I don’t typically make New Year’s Resolutions.  I’m a goal-orientated person already.  I know what I want to accomplish at work, I know what I want to do in my relationship with K, I understand that I need to eat better and exercise more- so I’ve never really been a big resolution maker.  But at the end of last year-and during the Christmas season, I’ve noticed the need for more direction in my crafting.

“More direction in your crafting?”  you may ask; but changes in my life this year (new job, new members in my family, new ideas for crafts) took a toll on my crafting time.  So this year, my resolutions will help to keep me more connected with the web atmosphere, they will also make me be more consicous about the time that I want to be crafting-and the time that I have to craft.  So here they are:

1.  I will take more time to craft.  Right now, I’m knitting a little bit every day, and I’m going to make that a continual habit.  I’m also going to spent more time scrapbooking and making cards for friends and family on a continual basis.  This may sound like two resolutions in one, but it really isn’t. 

I used to be the person in my family who was always organized.  I had a hand-made card (and possibly gift) for the members of my family.  I was ready for birthdays and Christmas well ahead of time.  I had supplies on hand if I needed to whip something up, and was always the one using my coupons and paying attention to sales in order to be prepared well ahead of time…  This will become more of a priority this year. 

Since I met K, I’ve let a lot of my crafting time go by the wayside. I want to be clear, it is not his fault.  I’ve just been more interested in sitting next to him on the couch and watching TV.  I can do that while I knit.  I can also bring small projects down to our kitchen table and spend time with him while I craft a little every day.  So, that is how I intend to make this resolution a reality this year.

2.  I intend to blog more.  I have thousands of ideas of blog posts.  I have photos of projects in process.  I have photos of projects that are complete.  Why haven’t I added those to the computer?  I don’t know either.  So, I’m going to kick myself in the butt and do it more often this year.

3.  Through these two resolutions, I intend to take more time for me.  I don’t see how it’s possible to keep up with the other two resolutions, and not do this one.

As you see, they are simple resolutions, and completely attainable.  I’m going to get to work right now. 

Blog post (check) knitting in my lap (check) I’m more than halfway there!

What types of crafty resolutions have you all made for this year?

Christmas Crafting December 16, 2008

I am going to be posting some pictures of Christmas Crafts in the coming days. 

I plan on doing this during the weekend, since I will have given some of the gifts at that time, and it will be safe to put those pictures up.

Hold me to it!

Hope all of the Christmas Crafting is going well for all of you!

Let me see what you’ve done…

Getting Organized: Christmas Edition November 29, 2008

If you’ve been reading, you know that my recent major project has been calendars for Christmas.  I have 10 of them to make, and that means 120 6″ x 6″ pages.  So, I’ve had to organize myself, particularly when it comes to making multiple calendars for multiple people who may see other people’s calendars-and when I take an idea and run with it, like I did in the last post I want to avoid someone seeing the same page over and over when they go to someone else’s house.  So, today I came up with an organizational system that I thought I had to share.

Let me first say that I never iron clothes.  I only iron when I absolutely have to.  I typically don’t purchase clothing that has to be ironed.  So, when you notice that my organization system is an ironing board, you may chuckle, but hey, it’s working.

I also have to comment on the fact that I have a small townhouse that I share with K.  We don’t really have a ton of space, and my crafting supplies take a whole room.  (As a matter of fact, we picked out a two bedroom, so that I had crafting space.)  So, now you understand the reasons that I had to use the ironing board.

I began by organizational system by making lists that have the name of each person who is receiving a calendar, and then put the list of each month under the name of that person.  Like so:

Then, I began to distribute the calendar pages under each person’s name, and I wrote the month that I intended the page to be used for.  Like this:

I didn’t want to come to the page later and think, “What the heck month was I thinking about for this?”.  I also have a hard time with certain months like May and June.  Maybe there are just too many ideas out there for that time of year, but I wanted to work on some of those first, so that I got past my block for those months.

Finally, I placed the written list on top of the pages that I have already made.  This will allow me to see if I’ve avoided a certain month or time of year, and will allow me to make sure that people who will see other people’s calendars won’t be able to see four months of the same calendar page.  It will also allow me to track my progress as I go.  You see?

So, this has already made the work flow easier.  What do you do to make the Holiday crafting less chaotic?

The next installment of the Calendars… November 29, 2008

Well, as I said in my last post, I tend to find and idea for all of those calendar pages and run with it.  This idea came from that same issue of PaperCrafts (August/September 2008); on page 63.  The designer was Lisa Nichols. Here it is:

My inspiration from this design will be quite apparent.  I took the idea and ran with it.  I made it in several color combinations and with some other variations.  I’m only going to highlight some of the best ones, and I’m not going to bore you with more and more of the same page, just different colors.  I’m only going to show you the pages that I think turned out the best.  Here is my work based on the inspiration card:

For this one, I used the basic outline and picked words to highlight each quadrant of the card.  I then thought that it needed some more “bling”, so I added the self-adhesive rhinestones.  The paper was more than likely purchased at my favorite big-box store and some of it could also be leftover Stampin’ Up! paper that has been retired.  The rhinestones actually came from Wal-Mart of all places.  I find more and more good stuff in thier craft areas.

Here comes #2:

This was a true Valentine’s Day inspiration.  I had some vellum stickers lying around that just happened to fit into the center of each of these squares.  I love the way it turned out.  A perfect February page.

I inked the edges of both the inside white paper, and the outside pink paper.  That is truly one of my favorite techniques.  It can either highlight something or age it.  I love how it always draws your eye to the center of what you inked.

Here’s the third one:

This page was actually the first one that I worked on.  It became the template for the others, and figuring out my spacing for the squares was the hardest portion of my work.  After I did that, I lay the original inside white paper beside the next page that I worked on, and made marks on the next one, so that I didn’t have to work to measure every time.  I continued to use a ruler to make sure that my marks were straight, but after that, no ruler for me.

So you can see how a magazine, or an advertisement becomes a jumping off point for other work.  What do you do to look for inspiration?

I scraplift, and it is not a crime. November 23, 2008

*Particularly when I give credit to the original creator* 

In my mind, scrapbooking and card making magazines should be used as a “jumping off point” for beginning projects.  They are always, and will always be the first thing that I reach for when I need to start a new project.  I look to the men and women who design in them for inspiration.  Sometimes that inspiration is just a color or a particular shape that is used.  Sometimes it is the composition of a design.  Sometimes I out and out scraplift their design with my own spin on it.  Today was an example of that.

Before getting on to the work that I did, let me first explain what some of my Christmas crafting is like for me.  About 3 years ago, I made my grandmother a 6″ x 6″ Stampin’ Up! desk calendar.  She loved it.  Since then, it has become a perpetual gift for her as well as my aunt (her daughter); they actually ask for it every year, like a little kid sitting on santa’s lap.  (My aunt actually made the phone call last week to remind me that she wanted a calendar again this year.)

Last year, when I had no idea what to get my new boyfriend’s sisters and mother (it was our first Christmas together), he suggested that I make “those cool calendars that I was working on for my grandma and aunt.”  I also had a request from my aunt to make two for her sisters in law, because they enjoyed the one that she has out at her house.  So, my original calendar project of one per year, has blossomed into oh-10, 6″ x 6″ calendars.  When you do the math, you realize that that means 120 6″ x 6″ pages, which represent each month of the year.  I will also be creating an 8 1/2″ x 11″ calendar, because that’s what K’s mom prefers.  So, needless to say, I look for inspiration where I can find it; and I usually pick out a few designs that I mass produce for several of the calendars-because it saves time and my sanity.

I had a pretty productive day yesterday, and I completed almost one-calendar’s worth of pages, or approximately 12 of them. 

While I was working, I thought it would be a good idea to discuss some of the inspiration that I get-and give credit to the amazing designers who I love.  I’m going to be referencing the August/September issue of PaperCrafts.  As I’ve said before, I love all things PaperCrafts (other than their swapping system, but I intend to talk about that in another post), and I want to share my inspiration side-by-side with my finished product so that you can see just how much I scraplift.  (And again, it is nothing to be ashamed of.  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery- and I would LOVE it if someone shared something that they made based on work that I’ve done.)

So, here is the first page of inspiration in PaperCrafts:

This design was originally done by Joan Heaps, and was on page 24 of PaperCrafts August/September 2008.

Here is what I was inspired to create based on the design:

You can clearly see where my inspiration was.  I loved the layout of circles (I used a ribbon holder, the top to my ModgePodge container and a round brad holder to trace the circles), and the way that the inspiration card had had a fall vibe.  I also took the cue of using a quote in the middle of the page to make it the highlight.  It is not an exact interpretation of the original- but you know where I got the idea.

Here’s #2:

Becky Olsen Design

 This was originally designed by Becky Olsen and was on page 48 of the same PaperCrafts issue.

Here is my interpretation:

 

You can see where I used the same color scheme, the same idea of the bold, plain pink paper at the top, but I used a softer pattern for the bottom.  I liked the use of the flower with a decorative brad on the right side, so I mimicked that as well.  The green border in the middle was simply a slice from another patterned piece of paper and I wanted a bold statement in the corner, so I added the “happiness” stamp.  Once again, you can tell where my inspiration came from, but you can tell my interpretations of the original.

I think that’s all I’m going to show today.  I have lots more, especially one that I fell in love with and used with several color variations.  They have turned out great-but I have to get back to work while the house is quiet, and I can get some more of these 120 pages done.

What ways do you scraplift?

Where do you find inspiration?

An FO! November 22, 2008

That’s Finished Object for those of you who are not savvy to the crafty-blog-land out there.  I made a couple of scarves; and had K take a picture of me in my first Stitch n Bitch project.  (If you are a knitter who has a little bit of rebel in you, you really need to check out Debbie Stoller’s Stitch n Bitch books.  You can find them here.)

I made the Wavy Gravy scarf that was designed by Rachel Russ.  It was easy-peasy, and it was a pattern that I could memorize and take along with me to family gatherings or to work to play with inbetween doing my actual work.

Here’s the photo:  (I’m going to get another one with the scarf itself, so that you can see the detailing, and just how easy it was.)

I love it, and I loved making it.

More FOs to come, I promise!