Getting crafty

After the marathon scrap session to finish the holiday mini, I took a day or two off.

Then I came back to my desk, pulled out the January SC kit again and went to work.

And then I grabbed an older kit and threw this one together.

Envelope Tutorial

In my mini posted yesterday, I made an envelope to match the album itself instead of using the ones I had.

I keep a stash of these mini envelopes on hand in many styles.  I took pictures as I created the red and cream chevron pocket that holds the basic journaling for this mini.

 I  have these little graph paper envelopes that I picked up at a local store during the last shop hop.

 I carefully deconstructed it.

 Traced it onto the back of the paper I wanted to use and then scored it with a bone folder.

 Just to keep it interesting I used my fabric scissors to cut the edges.

And then glued it together.  Now I have a coordinating pocket.

Christmas Mini

I love the look of a December Daily but I've never been able to finish one.  Ever.  I have 4 years sitting unfinished and *gasp* I've even thrown them away.  I kept one - the one I started in 2010.  I still have everything in a box ready to finish but I'm stuck on day 14.

Every year, I get excited to document something at Christmas.  I take so many pictures and just never scrap them.  So this year, I challenged myself to a smaller type project.  An Elf on the Shelf book.

I took a picture almost every day of the elf and his antics.  You can see my blogs posts about him here, here, here and here.  I'm so glad I got these photos uploaded in time to have them printed by ScrapbookPictures.com before they closed.  This was my very last order from them.

And as I cleaned up my room, I collected the holiday papers and embellishments I've been buying for this project.

Friday and Saturday I pretty much locked myself in my scrap cave room and put this together.  I emerged early Sunday with a finished project.  I even had to turn on Christmas music to get me in the mood.

Products Used:

October Afternoon Holiday Style
Echo Park Seasons Greetings
May Arts Burlap String 
Divine Twine

Workdesk Wednesday

Its a mess.

Where I find inspiration

I'm an internet junkie.  I've always been addicted to computers even way back in 1984 when I took my first class at age 6.  My school sent a teacher up to the Apple headquarters for training and she brought back 6 Apple IIe computers to teach the kids on.

I. Was. Hooked.

And now, all these years later, I'm still hooked.

I'm on Pinterest.

I blog. (Obviously).

I love Facebook.

I love message boards.
          Studio Calico
          2 Peas
          LGK

I also love to troll the internet for ideas.  So where do I turn too?

          Studio Calico
          Paper Issues
          PageMaps
          Sketch Support

I have other blogs I frequent.  When I find someone who is consistent on posting items that I love, I follow them.  I put their blog in my reader and whenever they update, it shows up there.  I can visit daily to see who's updated and visit their blogs.  I also have people I know I love but they don't update as often - I keep a list of bookmarks so I can easily visit their sites.  I keep my list handy on my blog so when I travel, I can easily click the links to check up on people.  I take my iPad everywhere so I can browse while I'm in line at the bank, post office, waiting for my son to get out of school, on long car trips.......

All of my lists are over on the sidebar of my blog in case you want to check them out for yourself.

{Project Life} Stamp Storage

I love the way some of the stamped 3x4 cards are looking in a lot of the Project Life posts I see out there.  I'm usually rushing through the week when I get a chance to work on them and don't bother to reach for my stamps.

While I was working on weeks 7 and 8 this weekend I pushed myself to dig out the big binder of stamps.

I went through and pulled out some that I know I could use.  I had them in a pile while I used them and then decided I needed a better way to store them.

I'm addicted to the new Martha Stewart line at Staples.  So much so that I stop in once a week to pick up a pack of labels or something small.

This week, I had some major Staples Rewards and spent them on one of her blue binders.

She has a few different page protector types and I bought one pack of each.  This was my retail therapy since I didn't get to go to the Scrapbook Expo this weekend. 

 I took these at night so there is a glare but you get the idea.

And I picked up one of her cute metal labels.

Quick and easy.  I get little stamps in my Studio Calico kits every month that are perfect for PL so once I'm done with the kit, I'll be storing them in here.

And here is a quickie card I threw together as part of my Simple Stories DT application.