Update

I’ve been a busy crafter lately. It seems that I have my hands in a lot of different pies… just the way this big girl likes it. LOL!

First, I went up to Berkeley to have a little “Me” time and take a class at a great little store, Castle in the Air. What a cute little store – filled to the brim with lovely little, hard to find goodies. I could have spent a small fortune in this store! Thank goodness I was so busy with my class that I didn’t have too much time to shop. The bad news… they have an online store! Ugh… there goes my pocket book! Anyway, here’s a little glimpse at the lovely I made in class:

Isn’t it just the cutest thing ever? I still have not decided what to do with it, but, rest assured, it will find a special place in my home – far from all pet’s jaws!

Speaking of pet jaws… Check this out:

I posted a photo of this on my Facebook page and someone commented that it looked like… well, doggy yuckies! LOL! It’s not, I assure you. This is what is left of the witches head that I had started this week. Check out the eyes! It’s kind of funny. Really… at this point, all I can do is laugh. Trixie decided that the witch was really ugly and she needed to be chewed to pieces. LOL! Oh well…

So, I thought I would share my latest “Sunday Morning Journal Notes” with you…

These are from the Sunday morning services. This has been so incredibly therapeutic for me, I can’t even tell you. I know that it looks like I’m not paying attention to the message that is being taught, but really it has been helpful for me. Not only do I hear the message in church better, but it has helped me to spend some time thinking about the message after as well. Love that! Of course, the weekly devotion time is not going quite as well…

This is from a couple of weeks ago. For some reason, I just can’t seem to get myself into daily devotion time. I will keep trying, though, because I know that is key in my spiritual life.

Lastly… but certainly not least(ly)… SILVER BELLA! Sign ups have started for all of the swaps! Not only am I hosting 2 incredible swaps, but I have signed up for another 5! That’s 7 swaps. The good news is that I have TONS of time to work on these. And since I was called for jury duty tomorrow (UGH!!), looks like I’ll have some time to get started on them.

Anyway, two of the swaps involve embroidery. I have done some embroidery over the years, but I most certainly would not call myself a master of it. So, I decided to work on a little piece to get myself familiar with some of the stitches again. Here’s what I have so far:

I cannot tell you how much fun I have had with this! I have always loved stitching, but I guess I forget how much I really enjoy it. I’m looking forward to the two swaps involving stitching. I’ll keep you posted as to how it goes…

Shopping Adventures

Last week, my dear friend Cheryl and I headed up to LA for some fun shopping adventures in the Garment District. I’ve never really been there… maybe once a very, very long time ago. What a very dangerous place for a fabric/trim lover to be, let me tell you! I’ve never seen so many fabric stores in once place… EVER!

Well, we stumbled onto two absolute treasures. Of course, I don’t remember the name of either place, but I’ll definitely be visiting there again! The first store was filled from floor to ceiling with every kind of trim you would ever want to get your hands on! Holy smokes! I could have spent an entire week in this place and still not seen everything they had to offer!

The second place was a fabric store that had nothing but “remnants” and they sold by the pound. Of course, their idea of what a remnant is and what my idea of a remnant are two totally different things. They had boxes upon boxes filled with yards of fabric. A lot of them were duds, but if you were willing to dig a little, there were some treasures to be found. I found some great pieces of linen for embroidery, velvet, tapestry, upholstery… amazing stuff!

Well, I only have photos of the trims, but it’s worth drooling over…

And today, I received a package from Pink Paislee. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this! Last week, they posted on their blog that they were having a warehouse sale. However, because they share their warehouse space with another company, they are not allowed to let the public in. So, they put together boxes of goodies to ship out. According to the post, it was to be $150 worth of product for $45 plus shipping.

Now, I’ve been to a few warehouse sales in my time. They are always filled with SUPER old product that you really don’t want to buy, but feel obligated to because you made the trip down to the warehouse. (You know you’re giggling because you’ve done it, too… hee hee) So, I was a little leery about buying a box of product sight unseen. Well, let me tell you, it was worth every single penny! Check this out:

I’ve added it up… $159.28 worth of product! I would have had to pay $172.42 (with tax) to get all of this from my LSS. Here’s what I got:

Over 50 Papers
1 Topsiders chipboard
2 Ribbon Cards
7 Alpha Stickers
8 Rub On Packs
1 Enchanting Sticker Book
2 Boxes Chipboard Shapes (from Winter CHA new lines)
2 Packs Epoxy Brads (From Winter CHA new lines)
2 Clear Stamp Sets

AMAZING… plus I got one sheet of paper from a new line to be released at CHA Summer.

So cool!

One last thing… Tattered Angels, the makers of Glimmer Mist, will be changing their packaging. You can read all about it on their blog here. But I wanted to let you all know that Glimmer Mist is the same great product with a Fabulous NEW Look!

A New Class

I am so excited to announce that I will be teaching a class at The Scrapbook Oasis. As you know, I’ve been playing around with needle felting now for about a month. When I first learned how to do this, I immediately had a vision for a mixed media scrapbook filled with fun techniques.

This class is an amazing mix of technique, photos, color and texture. I had so much fun making it and I know that everyone who signs up for the class will as well. We’ll be working with needle felting, watercolors, paint, crayons, canvas, fabric and many more fun supplies. Everything you need to make this book will be supplied in class, with the exception of your basic tools. It’s a screaming deal.

AND… Karen has made sign ups so easy. You can now sign up for the class online! How fantastic is that? Check that out at thescrapbookoasis.com/shop. Look under the Upcoming Classes section. So cool! Here’s a sneak peak of the class:

I’d also like to thank Donna Downey for her book Fabric Scrapbooking book. The cover for this album was made based on one of the projects in her book. It’s fantastic!

Can’t Decide

My little head has a body now. It went from this:

to this:

today. I can’t decide whether I want to put a shirt on him or not. I love the “jeans” and will probably put some flip flops on him. But, I just can’t seem to decide if I want to add a shirt or not. What do you think?

He’s not perfect, by any means, but I am very, very happy with him – especially since this was my first attempt at it. I’ve learned a lot over the last week and can’t wait to start another one. I got a better flesh tone in the mail yesterday, but I’d still like it to be just a shade lighter. I’ll be placing another wool order next week and then I’ll be starting on some swapping goodness!

Also have a couple of classes coming up. I’ll post them when they are ready for sign ups. Looks like one will be in July. The other one I am still working on, but will hopefully finish this weekend.

More Needle Felting

Oh my goodness! I am in love with this new hobby! It’s quite time consuming, but aren’t all good hobbies? Ha!

Well, I decided to do a little Flickr search to find out what other people are creating with needle felting. I stumbled upon this woman who creates caricatures of people. These sculptures are absolutely amazing. Check them out here. Better yet, this amazing artist offers an online class on how to make these adorable creations.

Of course I signed up immediately, never expecting to be able to create anything so amazing myself. I was just really intrigued at how these thing were made and wanted to get some instruction. I thought I might be able to create some fun Christmas ornaments at the very least. Her instructions and video tutorials were so good that I was able to create a head in one night! I cannot wait to take the rest of the course to finish him up. For now, this is what I have…

You can see the face beginning to come out.

Patrick was a little freaked out by the head at this stage. HA!

Starting to look more like a doll.

Eyelids and ears have been added… almost done.

Hair and teeth… done!

Pretty cool, huh?? Can’t wait until the new wool comes in this week. I ordered the wrong color for the flesh tone, so he is a bit darker than I would have liked. I still think he is hilarious and I’m SUPER happy with the results!! What do you think?

Art Journaling

A couple of months ago, I picked up Somerset Studio’s Art Journaling magazine. I instantly fell in love! I have been trying to start an art journal for I don’t know how long. In fact, I have started quite a few of them, but I always seem to fizzle out. I have always found it kind of a daunting task to fill the pages… no matter how big or small the books are.

I have always been so inspired by Pam Garrison. Her art journals are absolutely amazing. I mean, everything she does is amazing, but I am especially in love with her journals. I love they way she doodles and the colors she chooses.

Fast forward to yesterday. It has been quite a long time since my family has gone to church. There are a lot of reasons for this, most of them lame excuses, some of them valid concerns. Will and I decided that it was time to listen to God and get to church on Sunday morning. I have always been a note taker. I love to sit in church and take notes from the sermon. It helps me to stay focused on the message and to better remember what God is saying to me. But, I’ve always been a doodler as well. All of my class notes always had little doodles on them because I have to stay busy or I get sleepy!

So, I decided to combine these two things on Sunday morning. As you can see from the results above, it was a great success. I am super happy with the way this turned out. Not only did I get to listen to an incredible message from my favorite Pastor, but I also got a lovely art journal page as well.

How was this accomplished? As I was taking notes from the sermon, I would just put them in spots on the page. As you can see, I generally only write down a few things that are speaking directly to my heart. While I was listening to the message, I would doodle around the notes that I had taken. When I got home, I spent the afternoon adding color and filling in where needed. This also helped me to think of the message and spend some time just praying. It was quite therapeutic, actually!

This morning, when I got up, I was inspired to copy a page from one of Pam’s post (see it here) from April 29th. As I mentioned before, I have always been intimidated by the idea of filling a whole page in one sitting. I know that this is not the way to do a journal page, but my “have to finish what I started” attitude will not allow me to walk away from an unfinished page. I’m working on that, but for now I needed to find a way to get over that hump. Pam’s post talks about breaking up a page into days. Her page is much better, but here is my incomplete version:

I’ll keep you posted as to how this works out for me. This is a journal that I stamped in 3 years ago at Creative Escape. I never completed the project, but I’ve always wanted to use it for an art journal. This seemed like the perfect project for this journal.

One last thing, I finally took some new pictures of our new itty bitty kitty (as we call her). She is quite the monster now that she’s healthy. She’s already chewed threw the box springs on my bed AND the power cord for my Mac! She beats up on all three of the big boys around here, but they are very tolerant of her. She has even been seen putting the smack down on the dogs, which I think is too funny considering she is the smallest creature in the house right now.

Ah… but we are so blessed to have her!

Feeling Inspired… FINALLY!!

Seriously, it seems like it has been FOREVER since I have crafted anything. I know that, in reality, it has only been a couple of weeks. But seriously, when it is such a part of who I am, having not crafted for a couple of weeks is a pretty big deal. As I said in my previous post, though, I just have not been feeling very inspired lately. I think it’s mostly been a product of my busy schedule.

Well, today I decided to head out to Santa Monica to visit a store I’ve been dying to see. A friend of mine recommended it when I was as Inspired last month. I checked it out on the web and I could not wait to get down there to check it out in person. I could not get my husband to make the hour and a half drive with me, so I just decided to go alone. Holy smoke, was it TOALLY WORTH IT!

The store is called The Urban Craft Center. It’s a pretty small store, but it is PACKED full of fun, crafty goodness. They have everything from scrapbooking, to felting, to sewing and beyond! Their work space is amazing. check out the supplies that they have on hand for you to use while you are there:

It’s kind of hard to see here, but they have sewing machines, irons and ironing boards, toaster ovens for clay, and just about anything you can imagine available for you to use in their studio. Seriously, I wish I lived closer because I think I would be at this place every single day!

But it gets better. After spending about an hour checking out every single nook and cranny in the store, I decided to check out some of the shops in the immediate area as well. I stumbled upon David and Goliath, a fun, kitschy kind of store full of fun t-shirts and prints. LOVED this store and left totally inspired. I also stumbled into the cutest baby store, Weego Baby. I am so NOT into baby stuff, but I could have browsed this store FOREVER. They had the cutest stuff I have ever seen. Again, I left so incredibly inspired.

So, last night, while I was at the Oasis, I started working on some needle felting. I’ve been wanting to try this for a very long time and have just been a bit intimidated. I get that way about anything new that I’m going to try. Anyway, I dug out the supplies I bought a couple of months ago and decided it was time to give it a go. Dear Cheryl decided to join me in the adventure. When we left the store last night, we both had cute, little teddy bear heads started.

After spending the day shopping and getting inspired, I decided that I needed to not only complete my little teddy bear, but I needed to make a list of things I want to make/accomplish for my much neglected etsy store. I found that during the almost 3 hours it took me to get home from Santa Monica, I had lots of time to jot down ideas that were floating in my head. I now have a fantastic list of yummy craft goodies that I’d like to start making for the store. I even asked my husband to help me accomplish my goal by reminding me to keep on top of it!

Well, I’m happy to report that I finished the teddy bear tonight! She is really cute and not too bad for my very first attempt at needle crafting, if I do say so myself!

Without her dress

Really thought she looked naked without the dress

So… hopefully you will be seeing a lot more photos and crafting projects in the coming weeks. Here’s hoping that I can keep on track!

Dare I Say… “Uninspired!” GASP!

Yep, that’s me right now. I don’t know what it is. Could it be that I have been so incredibly busy for the last month that I could barely breath? Could it be that I’ve been surrounded by amazingly talented women for the better part of the month and I feel inadequate? Could it be that I’m just plain tired? Could it be that I’ve been sick for over a week and just now starting to feel better? Could it be that I’ve been doing laundry for THREE WHOLE DAYS and STILL HAVEN’T FINISHED!?

To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure what it is. I wish I knew. But I know that it’s a phase… this too shall pass. In the meantime, I continue to take in all the inspiration I can from the world around me. One source… “entre ARTistes magazine.”

I was SO excited this afternoon when this FINALLY arrived in my mailbox. As you can see, it’s a French magazine filled with incredible scrapbook inspiration. I heard about it from Celine Navarro when she was here in January. I absolutely adore this magazine and have already devoured the whole thing. Yeah, that won’t stop me from looking at it several more times – even if I can’t understand one thing that is written in it. I took Spanish in high school, not French!

Hope you are finding the inspiration in the world around you!

Remembering…

Thank you to all of the families of lost military members. Your loss is most definitely our gain. I thank God for this awesome country that I am blessed to live in and for the freedom that I have because of our incredibly brave military! Hug your loved ones a little tighter today!

Breathing…

I’m back from Inspired and it was incredible. I have one more event this weekend to get through before I can have a bit of time off. It’s a wedding shoot, so at least there aren’t any big travel plans that go with it!

There is just way too much to post about Reflections and Inspired. Both events were amazing, yet completely different. Reflections was definitely a scrapbooking event, filled with scrumptious class kits and memory keeping. Inspired was definitely an artistic event, filled with new techniques and lots of paint under the finger nails! I adored them both for different reasons and hope that I get to be a part of both events again next year. I had a blast.

Karen blessed me with the week off to recoup from all of the traveling. Thank goodness since I’ve slept for pretty much all of the past 2 days! When I’ve been awake, I’ve been spending time with my art journal, creating some fun, yet very different, pages.

Inspired by Pam Garrison

Inspired by Patty Van Dorin

Created while driving up the east coast

Inspired by Jenni Bowlin

You might be wondering why I say that this last page is inspired by Jenni Bowlin. After all, it is just some typing on an old sheet of paper. Well, about 6 months ago, I got the urge to buy a typewriter. I resisted because, really, what do I need a typewriter for. I have a computer with typewriter fonts on it. But, while I was at Inspired, I got to talking with Jenni Bowlin. She told me that she has a typewriter next to her desk that she uses all the time. She just pops those vintage papers in the typewriter. What a genius! Of course! That’s why I needed the typewriter! I am much too lazy to tape my papers down to computer paper and run it through the printer, yet I love the way the typed words look on the old paper.

So, on my way home from the airport, I made my husband stop and buy me a typewriter for Mother’s Day. Yeah, I know I’m not his mother, but it is his responsibility to get me a gift “from the kids” right? LOL! I’m in love!