MOPS Auction...

This is an answer to Peata's question- what is a MOPS auction? I mentioned it briefly when I was talking about the altered cigar box with a mini album as a possible item for our MOPS auction. Peata, by the way, is the awesome gal whose site www.scrapbook-crazy.com is the one I'm constantly raving about! She absolutely rocks with mini albums!!!! MOPS is "Mothers of Pre-Schoolers" an international support group for women with pre-school age children. It is a great source of support and opportunity to make friendships with other moms who have young children in common. It is Christian based, but is not pushy about it. I have been involved in MOPS for about 4 years now, and this year I officially took over the position of Craft Coordinator. I have several ladies who are helping me this year with ideas and such. Anyhow, if you would like to learn more about MOPS, you can check out the site: www.MOPS.org . You can find out if there are any in your area, and/or ways to start one if there isn't. Oh, the auction.... Our MOPS group holds an auction every year to help offset the cost of running our group. Each year I've donated a few craft/scrapbooking items for the silent auction part of it. So the altered cigar box, if I finish it and get a mini album made for it I had considered donating to the auction. And thanks Peata, for having such an awesome mini album site! :)

Bonus layout for last night..

This layout was a "bonus" layout... I hadn't planned on doing another one, but my papers and pictures were still out, so I thought I'd do this basic 8x8 inch layout. I usually scrap 12x12's, but I have an 8" album for my daughter, so I figured it could go in there. And while doing so, maybe I could shake a little bit more rust off... I used a layout from http://www.littlebookofsketches.blogspot.com/ , this was also a "Featured Favorite" sketch I posted in Scrapping with Friends on Cafemom, back in December. I finally got to it now. It's a great picture of my best buddy and my daughter, about 2 years ago now, but it worked well for a one pic. layout. I used the George cartridge on the Cricut that she so generously gave me, and Stickled a bit here and there. I made a super easy photo corner with coordinating paper, and let me just say that I love the embroidery (?) type needles that have a really big eye on them, because it allowed me to thread the ribbon through the big button- I'm a nerd and that really excited me!

"Auntie" layout

This is the first layout I've done in at least a month, and I'm definitely feeling rusty... ugh! Nothing seemed to look right for the papers- I finally settled on these.. I used a sketch from http://www.pagemaps.com/ , this was one of the "Featured Favorite" sketches I post once a week in Scrapping with Friends on Cafemom. I used Stickles on the "Auntie" title (which was a rub-on) the buttons, and the stamped flourishes. In hindsight, maybe I should just gone around the outside of the letters instead of filling them in completely, but hindsight is 20/20, isn't it? I used my new flourish stamps (Martha Stewart acrylics). It was fun and frustrating at the same time trying to make the layout look "right", but not knowing if I really achieved what I was hoping for. I guess that's just a commom theme with me... never satisfied.. I definitely felt rusty working on a layout though, I've concentrated on so many other paper projects that you have to work your way back into it again...

The cigar box- painted and crackled- not finished though..

Here is the cigar box I mentioned a few days ago- I painted it and used crackling medium on it, but I'm not done with it, I just have to "regroup" so to speak, on how I want to embellish it now... I have some chipboard flourishes that I'm toying with, and I have some ideas on using some cream flowers only inking a little bit with some Colonial blue-type ink, maybe try a new idea for the centers. I don't want to slap stuff on there just to get it finished but not be happy with it.. But I think it's looking promising... depending on how I like the finished product, I may contribute it to the MOPS auction in March, but we'll see...

Plaything of the day

I'm feeling restless today, and in honor of putting off something that I'm not enthused about doing, I'm altering a cigar box... My buddy Katherine gave me a couple more from her dad, and I feel that I'm accumulating more stuff to alter than I should have. I also have no more room to store this stuff, so I'd better get cracking already! Gosh I should really work on some layouts this week... but right now this stuff is begging for me to do something with. It's a shallow box, so I'm thinking that I'm going to make a mini album to go inside it and make it a combo gift. I'm using a French Grey Blue for the base, and I'll use Crackling Medium on it and then put a cream color on top which will then crackle. I think that will be a pretty combination. I don't have enough dark brown paint right now to cover another cigar box, and I really want to do another pink and brown crackled one... Maybe this will help me relax today and distract me from aggravating things...

Project 365- my version...

So in Scrapping with Friends on Cafemom, there's a bunch of us who have taken up "Project 365"- the original idea taken from Becky Higgins I believe... The point being to take a picture every day of the year, perhaps even scrapping some or most of them. I don't think I'm up for a picture everyday, but a gal on there mentioned what she was doing along those lines: taking a picture to represent each week of the month, and then scrapping those pictures for a monthly layout (approximately 4-5 pics). I think I like that, and for me that will probably be more realistic- especially since I have so many pictures I still need to do something with already. That's my profound thought of the night... what I'm going to do for Project 365....9 So I guess I'd have to call it "Project 4 times a month" tee hee... okay, I'm getting silly...

Thinking about what else I should have done to my sister's mini album...

Okay, so I'm really lame, and I'm looking at the pictures of the mini album and thinking, I wish I'd started that sooner, because then I'd have had more time to spend on it.... The chipboard scrolls would have looked cute with Stickles on them, and maybe a few more flourishes here and there... ugh, I'm lame... is this neurotic or compulsive, or both...?

the back of the acrylic calendar

This is the back of the acrylic frame calendar- it's a pocket that holds the rest of the calendar months.

Playing with calendars

I found these fun calendars poking around online- oh the fun you will find perusing around.... The acrylic frame calendar idea I got from http://inspirationaltechniquesandtutorials.blogspot.com/ - she has a lot of other cute projects to try there also. The second one that's from cardstock I got from http://www.scrapbook-crazy.com/ - one of my favorite sites. I'm going to make more of those definitely. They both have their qualities about them that I like- ooh I forgot to take a picture of the back of the acrylic frame calendar.. I'll post that later I guess- there's a pocket that holds the rest of the calendar months.

My mini album gift for my sister

I made this mini album for my sister as part of her birthday/Christmas gift. It was a Basic Grey 6x6 "bracket" chipboard album. I really liked the papers/colors of the metal/magnetic memo board and used them in this album. Because the cover already had an eyelet (grommet?) where the ring was to go, I didn't want to deal with trying to cover it with paper and then work around the metal ring... so I painted it.. Let's just say that I'm thinking I should have maybe painted it a different color- I was thinking that a maroon/burgandy would be too dark, but maybe an apricot/dark peach would have been good... Hindsight is 20/20 isn't it, because I was never completely happy with the cover- which leads me to the Pomegranate ink I used on the corners that I stamped and on the first page, yeeeahhhhhh, it turned MAUVE on the cream painted background... This is where the anally-retentive uptight part (which my husband says would be ALL of me, right? ) of me get's very unhappy...ugh! All that work to make the colors coordinate so well, and then I get MAUVE! So I did my best and moved on... if I'd had my paint with me I'd have sanded/painted over it, but I was working on it in the car on the way to my sister's, and didn't have that option.. oh well... I'm relatively happy with the inside of it, and my sister liked it- I just have to forget about my aggravation with the cover...

My New Year's Eve project

I tried this out last night on New Year's Eve, while hanging out with my best buddy who was visiting from out of town. We're lucky if we get to see each other once a year, despite talking on the phone almost every day. I had a lot of fun making this for my sister, hopefully she likes the colors... I got this idea from a Cafemom scrapper named Sara, who said she got the idea from somebody else... Anyhow, I had to try it out. I found 12x12 metal sheets at the Craft Warehouse in town, and used a spray glue to adhere my paper to it. I used my Cropadile to make holes for the hanger and set eyelets in it. I took chipboard and painted it, made it shiny with Aleene's Paper Glaze- I love that stuff! and glued magnets to the back. I took glass marbles and traced around them on paper (the "e" on the middle one is a rub-on, I didn't know if stamping ink would smear), then adhered the paper to the glass marble with more Paper Glaze. I think some people use the E-600 glue, but I didn't have any on hand. I let it dry, then glued magnets to the back of those also. I glued magnets to the back of the little white clips, then tied coordinating ribbon on those. It was very simple, and I plan on making one for myself. My buddy made one with her name on it- she said that if my sister didn't like hers, to just keep it and give it to her instead and she'd change the name! :) Gotta love that buddy of mine! I'm going to look on Craftwarehouse.com and see if I can find any more projects to do with these sheets- they were only $2.99 each, and they had 4" square ones for 99 cents each, ooh, just thinking about all the fun you could have with those... ooooh!!!