The Projects

This is the result of the struggle.....the layout I did of my Momma.

I love it. The papers from the Melissa Frances Breast Cancer Page Kit are so
beautiful and combined with my feelings I put into the journaling, it was easy to
make it perfect. I loved her so very much and this layout was very hard to do.
But, I am so very glad I did it. Now that I've completed one, I want to do more.

But, emotionally, I was exhausted.

So, instead, I put together this sweet little "Think Pink" gift basket.
(supply lists for both projects are available at The Paper Mill Store Blog!)

I don't know anyone that has breast cancer right now, so if you know someone who is in a fight against breast cancer....leave me a comment and tell me how this person is special to you and I will draw a name on Friday. If I choose your name, I will send the basket to the person of your choice. (and it's filled with Milk Chocolate!!)
It might just be the right thing to brighten someone's day!

Finally, I'd like to thank all my loving friends who left me a comment or emailed me after my "Struggling..." post. You know each and every one of you are so important to me and you guys keep me inspired. You make me believe I can do anything.

Thank YOU!

A Beautiful Memento Box

What do you get when you take
WorldWin Cardstock from The Paper Mill Store.com,
add some patterned paper from the Melissa Frances Thankful collection
and use the Crafter's Companion to form it into something?!

THIS BEAUTIFUL MEMENTO BOX!!

So, if these photos make you want to see more...go to
The Paper Mill Store DT Blog
and get the step-by-step directions
to put this fantastic box together.

And once you've walked thru it once, step-by-step...
you'll want to make a million more boxes! It's just so fun!

Back to School Projects....

I love this little notebook. I saw it in my head and thank goodness I have access to the papers from 13 different paper mills with my The Paper Mill Store Design Team. So, it was very easy to find exactly what I was looking for in terms of paper. In this project I used papers from both TPMS and WorldWin Papers and then used my Bind-It-All to bind it together. I STINKIN' LOVE, LOVE, LOVE MY Bind It All!!!
(go to Scrapbooks-n-Stickers if you want a great deal on the BIA! ----
tell Kim in the notes that Roxie sent ya!)

Anyway, I made this before my 2nd trip to North Carolina for my deadline.
I finished it, but wasn't about to photograph it in the sunlight before leaving because it was dark when I finished it and it was still dark when we left for the airport.

No biggie, I think.....I'll just do it in North Carolina. Well, wouldn't you know it....the thing of hairspray that I packed for Marinne's flower girl hairdo BLEW UP in my suitcase....saturating the tip of the pencil and various items in my suitcase.

OH MAN....DID THAT SUCK!!!!!!!

Thank goodness, the wedding clothes were encased in plastic!!!!!!!

So, thanks to Big Daddy and his photoshopping skills, he was able to produce a photo that is indicative of the project before it was ruined with hairspray, but in reality....
...well, it's not good. BOO! (but, Yay to BD for coming to the rescue!)


And here's a coordinating collection I did........pretty much a little bit of everything!


The layout matches the color pallet, but I actually used a photos from Logan's last day of school last year. (because that's what needed to be scrapped!!) But, the layout can easily be used for the first day of school, just by changing the title!

I used the Maya Road Sheers for the first time....What a NICE product!!!
The next project was an altered lunch sack gift bag.
What better to give a gift to your teacher in?!?


And why not bring an apple for the teacher, with a super cute tag attached
and some school supplies with pizazz?! An altered composition notebook
and an altered eraser both personalized with her name!!


The next project is a post-it-note holder. Isn't it cute?!?! I've been making these for about 8 years or so. I used to make them out of a real "chipboard" I bought at Hobby Lobby years ago, which was like a very thin wood.
I hand cut them with an exacto knife and put them together.

I used to make them for teachers gifts when Logan started Pre-K like 8 years ago.
But, I often did it at the end of the year, when I knew the teacher better and
made them using color schemes that matched the teacher's preferences.

It's a great thing to carry a notepad in your purse!

(Step-by-Steps for this project are available on TPMS DT - Paper Crazy Blog.)


And last but not least, is the super-cute pencil holder for the teachers desk.

I just had to stickle one boy and one girl....it just had to be done! :p


As a former teacher, many people do not realize exactly how many school supplies teachers buy for their own classrooms. ( I sure did when I was teaching full-time before I had kids! And I suspect that teachers are doing it more and more these days!) School budget cuts and the slow economy just make it worse these days.

So, I thought this was a great gift!! A pencil holder and dozens of pencils!

Add a little tag that says, "Help Yourself!" and it'll make any teacher happy!

Reveal of the CHA project....

CHA was last week and because this project was lovingly created for the show, I had to wait until my DT Coordinator gave me the green light to share it on my blog. I had to wait for it to show up on The Paper Mill Store DT blog.

I really struggled at first designing my CHA project. I had been assigned a mini-album and I finally chose to do a Halloween album. So, I had this idea of using 3 pieces of chipboard to make the house "3-Dimensional" and then fill in between with cardstock pages as needed. I wasn't sure I could pull it off, but I was excited to try.

First, I drew some sketches on some pages from a white Marriott hotel paper pad. (do you think I travel enough or what?!?!) Once I had the 3 chipboard pieces figured out...it was time to put the plan into action. Once I started, I couldn't stop. I was like a woman obsessed. All I did was eat, sleep and dream about the haunted house mini.
(i know...it really is an illness......)

Keep in mind, this album is 100% my handiwork. Every single piece was drawn out by hand and then cut with a Fiskars craft knife. I spent a few hours cutting out that tree alone!! The entire album is made of WorldWin Papers cardstock and chipboard.
All embellishments are handmade except the few sequins that are in the book and the sequins I used to make the roof tiles. Everything else is handmade.

And 5 days and some 60-ish hours later....my mini was finished!

Let me know what you think.....

Now, I'd like to take a moment here and note a few things.

Number one, I had to take these photos in full sun before I sent the album. They are really bright and actually a bit overexposed, despite me trying to fix them in iPhoto. Any color that seem harsh, is delightful in real life.

Number two, I was betrayed by my most favorite white pen. For some reason, it was really rubbing off the cardstock. When I took these photos I had not realized it was happening. IRL it isn't as noticeable, but in the pics it looks awful. I went back an erased all these marks with my favorite adhesive remover square....and all was well again. But, I apologize for the messy looking photo. I've never seen this pen do that before, but most of the time, my layouts aren't rubbing against each other, as they do in this mini album. (and because the album was used in person as a display item for our booth....I didn't need to retake pictures that were clean.


Here are some close-ups of some of the details:


First: The pain was Black Soot Distress Paint by Ranger. Isn't that crackle paint look awesome. Tim Holtz is a genius and that's all I can say about that...... This was so fun to play with!! (and it was my first time and after one trial/error try, it was pretty easy to figure out!) And the glitter is Stickles, also by Ranger. (my favorite color ~ Black Diamond...oh, Black Diamond, I cannot live without you!!)

Ok, now here's the funny thing. See the spider hanging down off the tower? Well, he was made with the "spit ball method." You see, I wanted a 3 -D spider and I knew I didn't want to buy one, so I figured out how to make one. I tore up a bunch of WorldWin Papers Deep Heritage Black paper into little pieces. Than I ran water over them to make them stick together. I squeezed the water out and rolled them into a ball, but I didn't want to wait the time to figure out if that was going to work. So, I squirted some Sakura Crystal Lacquer into the ball and let that dry. It worked like a charm. Then I added the Stickles Magenta eyeballs to make him look a bit more sinister! (although, he still mostly just looks cute!)

(see photo above!)


Vellum and Acrylic moon, Crafty Board and Ruche tree.
(see my little owl peeking out?) Strangely enough, I had a really good time making these tombstones!!

The photo above and below both have the wonderful Elan Metallic cardstock in Obsidian. It has so much glitter in it! I LOVE IT!!!!! And it's available in so many wonderful colors! You should get some and play with it!

These gumdrop candies were so fun to make. I knew I needed a way to make 3-D candy and as you can see above, making the candy corn was easy. It took me a while, but I tried something that worked like a charm to make these wonderful gumdrops! You won't believe what they are!!!

Here's my GINORMOUS SUPPLY LIST!!!!!

WorldWin Papers / Crafty Board

WorldWin Papers / Deep Heritage Black / ColorMates
WorldWin Papers / Deep Orange Dream / ColorMates
WorldWin Papers / Deep Groovy Grape / ColorMates
WorldWin Papers / Deep Terrific Teal / ColorMates

WorldWin Papers / Sunshine Yellow / DoubleMates

WorldWin Papers / Black / Cascata
WorldWin Papers / Pink / Cascata

WorldWin Papers / Cocoa / Ruche

WorldWin Papers / Plum / Metallic Vellum
WorldWin Papers / Silver / Metallic Vellum

WorldWin Papers / Obsidian / Elan Metallics

WorldWin Papers / Black Stripe / High Gloss

Zutter / Bind It All Machine
Zutter / Black / 3/4" O-Rings

Sakura Hobby Craft / 3D Crystal Lacquer

Acrylic

Accucut / Circle Shape (only partially used for moon)

Ranger / Black Soot / Distress Crackle Paint

Ranger / Black Diamond / Stickles
Ranger / Orange Peel / Stickles
Ranger / Aqua / Stickles
Ranger / Icicle / Stickles
Ranger / Diamond / Stickles
Ranger / Purple / Stickles
Ranger / Magenta / Stickles

Clearsnap / Black / Color Box Cat's Eye Chalk Ink

Tsukineko / Jet Black / StazOn Ink

Tsukineko / VersaMark Watermark Ink

Walmart / date stamp

Signo / White / Uni-ball Pen

Too Marker Products / Pink / Spica Pen
Too Marker Products / Clear / Spica Pen
Too Marker Products / Turquoise / Spica Pen
Too Marker Products / Black / Spica Pen
Too Marker Products / Orange / Spica Pen
Too Marker Products / Lavender / Spica Pen

Zig / Pure Black / Artist Pen

Marvy Uchida / Orange / Liquid Applique'

Therm-O-Web / Zots Mini 1/4"

GlueDots / Pop Up

GlueDots / Vellum

Stampin' Up! / Sun Sparkle / Stampin' Glitter
Stampin' Up! / Coral Crystals / Stampin' Glitter
Stampin' Up! / Razzle Berry / Stampin' Glitter

Marvy Uchida / Embossing Heat Tool

WesTrim / Black / 24 gauge wire

Horizon Group USA / Craft Sequins

Novtex / Magenta / Sequins

Stampin' Up! / 12" Guilliotine Trimmer

Fiskars / 12" Trimmer

Fiskars / Heavy Duty Craft Knife

Creative Memories / Self-healing Mat

Walmart / 1" foam brush

Anita's / Grey / acrylic paint

ribbons/fibers: Offray, Michaels, Wrights, Hobby Lobby, JoAnn's

My Dad

Well...for those of you who have been asking about my dad, he's doing fine. He's in a lot of pain (which is to be expected.) But, he's doing fine. Things were a bit stressful yesterday, with his surgery that was supposed to be 4 hours turned into 6 hours. And his recovery room times, which was supposed to be 1 hour and turned into 2 1/2 hours before we couldn't take it anymore and asked if he was ok. They finally got him out of recover and into a room at around 5pm. (we were headed to the hospital at 4:30am....it was a LONG DAY!) But, the good news is that he's fine. It's going to be a long recovery, but we just hope that it will all be worth it when he's all healed up. And we pray that the constant pain he's been living with will be gone.

So, with my dad still in the hospital and me spending the night there with him tonight, I thought it might be a good time to share the card I made for him for Father's Day. I just love this! It's some delicious Eames paper and WorldWin Ruche, Crafty Board and DoubleMates. If you've never seen this Eames Paper...you should get some, it's available at
The Paper Mill Store.com

More Scrappy Stuff!!!!

I've got another card on the front page of The Paper Mill Store.com!

It's a card for my dad, so Janet....make sure he doesn't see it!!
Check it out HERE!

This card is made of this fabulous cardstock by Eames which has a square quilted pattern in it. As soon as I saw it, I knew I was going to need to ink that up to really amp up the texture in the paper. And it turned out beautifully!! You should head right over to ThePaperMillStore.com and order some of this fab paper today!!!!!

SO....WHO WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT THE *FaNtAsTiC* Summer Contest at The Paper Mill Store.com Design Team Blog?!?!?!?!


YOU KNOW YOU DO!!

How about the AWESOME PRIZES, including papers from the Paper Mill Store, a few autographed books from Ali Edwards and Stacy Julian, a fantastic book about color...called Pantone ( I have this book and it's beautiful!) AND the new --not yet released--
Art Declassified rubber stamps by Donna Downey!

So, pop on by to see the specifics on how to win these prizes and check out my Father's Day card. Let me know what you think about it by posting a comment for me
on TPMS.com Design Team Blog!!

Some recent scrappin' stuff!!!

So...yesterday was May 1st, otherwise known as MAY DAY.
The tradition of May Day is to fill a basket full of flowers and then deliver them to the door of your neighbor. But, the fun part is, you hang the basket, ring the bell and RUN!!!
(and the fun part is to not get caught!!)

So, I made a few May Day Baskets...one traditional and one whimsical....(or dare I say, cute?!...right WWPDT girls?!?) Ha ha ha!

(sorry, inside joke...right, Kim?!)


Don't you wish you were my neighbor!?!? Ha ha!!


And in the Spirit of Spring....here's another little project.
Now, I know the actual "First Day of Spring" was several weeks ago...but you have to remember we are just now seeing blooming trees and the first flowers of the season here in Kansas.
(shoot...it snowed 2 weeks ago!!!)