I'm not picky, I have style... :)

I would have to say that I have a very eclectic style in scrapbooking -- I have a very eclectic style really in everything in my life!! Decorating, fashion, when I home schooled I was like that, and even with the preschool program at church that I organize.. I can't ever follow someone elses curriculm, I gotta make my own!! I always just have to do my own thing or put my own twist on something... I just love a variety of different styles -- there is probably something about every style out there that I like, except maybe like goth or something like that.. but then again, I do like black, so .. perhaps... so anyway.. I just kinda throw it all together somehow, and it usually works out just fine!!

I really do love that about myself!! If I love it, I use it..

I remember my scrapbooking days from when I was a teen and my scrapbook-- it was huge! It was full of Beatles pictures and stuff from Tiger Beat Magazine, like Leif Garret , John Travolta, and KC and the Sunshine Band, The Bay City Rollers, and Parker Stevenson, yeah I didnt like Sean Cassidy.. it was Parker for me ! I also had another album that I kept pictures of my friends and stuff in it with captions and other little mementos ... I have that one still, but I don't know what ever happened to that Tiger Beat scrapbook, but I loved to make those books. Another thing that I loved to do when I was a kid was doodle, I have always been a doodler... I can remember filling up pages and pages with doodles in class at school and even at home, I would listen to music and either work on my scrapbook or doodle.... and still do it, usually if I'm on the phone or listening to something if there is a something to write with and something to write on, I usually have it filled up with flowers and swirlies...

But anyway -- I love to scrapbook, I don't like so much digital scrapbooking --digital scrapbooking is good for pictures that I would put on my website and then it's usually a quick page... But for an archive of memories, its gotta be in an album for me and something I made! I just have to do it the old fashion way... and I do absolutely LOVE all the supplies that I have, I love collecting paper and I love making my books. There is just something about cutting and gluing paper for me that is so satisfying, I can't describe it!! Some sort of fetish maybe.. ... I just love to do that!!
That was my favorite thing to do when I used to work for a newspaper -- I loved to work on the layout and cut and paste all the ads and pictures on the paper !!

But anyway.. that's me that's my style ...paper, scissors, glue -- And a little bit of everything..
and Put it all together and well, that's me.. :)


Have a great day.

WooHoo.. Martha at Wal-Mart!!

I went into my local Wal-Mart last week and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but the whole scrapbook aisle was totally FULL of the Martha Stewart Create craft line!!

I definatley am a Wal-Mart kinda gal --and definately LOVE Martha just as much... so this was just so exciting for me .. :)

I was jumping for joy in the aisle.. :)

So, I bought the glitter stamping starter kit, with some extra glitter and some brush markers for my first purchases of MS from WalMart .. :) What's on my wish list..

ummm..........EVERYTHING !! :)


Have a great day..
Kelli

Save your Foam Pieces!

OK, one more post this morning and then I need to get to my laundry, and other household chores.. yuck!

I guess this is a craft tip:

I save my little pieces of foam that I or the kids have left over after cutting out shapes and use them later on for popdots.

I just cut them to size and stick on either glue or double sided tape and viola! -- you have yourself a free (more or less) 3D mounting tab!
and of course, I save mine in jars. Here is one:

Jars of Stuff

If you read my first blog, I talked about how my grandmother and my great-grandfather organized their stuff in recylced jars.

That somehow rubbed off on me and I just love to put things in jars. But I have come to love to decorate my jars, they never did!
I suppose I will pass that down to my grandchildren.. haha.. :)
Anyway, here is a shelf in my room full of my jars and some cans -- I have jars and cans all through my room decorated to hold stuff.. this is just a sample.

Those cans hold my thumb tacs and paper clips -- they used be chicken cans. I love those large chicken cans! I also love the smaller cans that the evaporated milk come in.

I have decorated them with scrapbook paper, and/or ribbons and buttons. Everything just looks so much prettier when its decorated. I do have a couple that I painted and then decoupaged paper flowers onto them and glued ric rac around the mouth of the jar. They are not shown because they weren't up on my shelf, they are down on my work table!

Not only do I put my craft supplies in jars, but I usually put my baking supplies in jars too in my pantry. I tend to get ants around here, and putting everything in jars, keeps all my stock fresh.

Plus it looks alot neater in my pantry to and of course I put nice labels on the front of the jars and stuff... :)

Here is another picture of something useful -- this is a box of votive candle holders, the same day I purchased those frames at Kmart for a buck each, they also had sets of votive holders for 1.00 or maybe these were .75 cents - I'm not so sure now, but anyway, I certaintly didnt need to use this for votives, so I decorated the box and I use the votive holders to hold some of my brads and eyelets!!

It works, and its pretty too...

DUH and Double DUH.. Go to The Dollar Tree First!

I have been finding a ton of treasures at The Dollar Tree--

The one I go to is always stocked full of really great stickers and small paper packs by Miss Elizabeths. And, They are really nice too. If you saw my blog about the carpi sun storage boxes, I used some of the papers I got on them, and also on the CD's, the paper was purchased at the The Dollar Tree! They also have been having a ton of 3D embellishments lately too..

Some of those 3D stickers that are at the dollar tree -- I have also seen the same thing at the craft stores, for triple or quadruple the price!! Duh!

I also have seen people selling Miss Elizabeths on ebay for more money plus shipping!! Double DUH! They must go buy it from The Dollar Tree and then re-sell on ebay.

Last time I went, I also got a bunch of double sided tape, a couple of paper crimpers, and some embossing punches. They also always have small paper punches as well.

The Dollar tree is also always loaded with tons of craft supplies too, foam sheets, wood shapes, boxes, tons of silk flowers, beaded trim, buttons and appliques just so much stuff for crafting!! Its become one of my favorite craft stores to get inexpensive embellishments for my crafts. Or even things to makeover.. cause you know I love to make over stuff!

Also when I am there, I go grab a couple of the plastic place mats that they have in the housewares section, I use them for cutting/craft mats! They work great!

And the wall decals that they have there are super cute too.. the art work on those is done by an artist named Dan Morris http://www.danmorrisdesign.com/
He used to be an artist and sell his work at Daisie Company, but no longer does. Anyway -- I just think that is cool because I love his artwork!

Well I hope when you go to The Dollar Tree you find those treasures too!

Quilled Button Mum Art

I love to do quilling, I am not an expert at it, but I have been playing around with it here and there for a few years, and I really like it! I want to start doing more quilled work.

I made this picture using of course, scrapbook paper-- I cut my own quill strips and just eyeball everything when I quill, I by no means, do it in an "expert" way. I just have fun with it.

And yes, I made my title banner for my blog out of this piece !! :)

Lamp Shade

I redone an old lampshade instead of throwing it out..

I covered it with scrapbook paper held on with double stick tape and beaded trim (glued on).

It's lovely and matches the colors of my Peace and Love Barbie.. :)

I love my lampshade and I love my 70's Peace and Love Barbie!!!

Craft Knife Holder and Note Pad and Pen

I have a TON of old CD's!
I have been saving them for years now.. and I have so many it isn't even funny .. I have lots of great ideas for them so stay tuned..

but for now, this is what I whipped up with 2 of them !

I covered the CD with scrapbook paper and glued two foam hearts to it.. I use it to hold my craft knife and also my little needle hole punch tool.


And.. with this CD I covered with paper and glued an old backgammon cup to it to hold some pens and the CD holds my sticky note pad..

Both of these are very handy and I really love them!

My Newest Tool Purchase

I was so excited to find this punch -- A punch like this has eluded me for a while -- because every time I went to one of the craft stores.. there was nothing there like it and to purchase one online, was costly plus shipping ( ya know, I can't ever buy anything full price!) ... so I kinda just waited it out.. and one day I went to AC Moore with my 40% off coupon and I was just tickled pink to find this punch --



So not only did I finally find it.. but I got it 40% off!!

Its a McGill Perfect Petals Stacking Punch and at the moment its my prized possesion!
This punch is so easy to use and you can build many different types of flowers with it.

next on my list is the McGill Baby Blooms -- hopefully it'll work out to where I can get it 50% off!
I am working on a project, when complete, of course, I will post it to show what I made using this punch!

My Newest Book Purchase

I bought this book called Paper Greenhouse by Michael Strong --

I saw him several years ago on the Carrol Duvall Show and I was just totally intrigued by what he did with paper!! I finally bought this book a few months ago.. and I'm so excited about it.


I love this book because its totally written and published by him .. that is something that I have a desire to do someday. Publish my own book. :) But that's another story.. :)



But anyway.. it is filled with really wonderful projects..and easy to follow step by step instructions to create 15 different flower cards! He he teaches you how to make paper flowers for cards, but you can really take what you learn here and apply to whatever you would like.
It's really been a valuable tool in my paper crafting education.


I totally recommend this book to anyone who loves working with paper.. :)

Orange Juice Cases to Pretty Storage

We shop at Sam's Club a lot -- and recently started to shop at Aldi's -- the best thing about these stores for me, is the boxes you can get there!!! :) :)

I got two orange juice cases from Aldi's --- and this is what I made from them:

This box holds my ribbon scraps --






..and this box holds some of my magazines that I love so much!

I just decoupaged scrapbook paper on them and and embellished.. :)

Picture Frame

I bought a bunch of picture frames at K-mart that were marked down to $1.00!!


They were pretty beat up, but that doesn't bother me, cause I just cover them up anyway!!



I still have to use up the others, but with one of them I made this frame specially, to show off my precious granddaughter --

All I did was choose the scrapbooking paper I wanted to use -- Which I bought these particular ones loose at Michael's. and then I decided on my design. I cut out the letters using my Cricut cutting machine and emblished. I also cut out some of the flowers on the paper and put them around randomly to give the frame a 3D look. I also put rhinestones around.. everything I make has to have a little bling to it!

:)

Storage Box Envelopes

We bought some Hawaiian Punch Freezer bars for the kids to enjoy -- and when I saw the boxes, I thought, very cool, mommy gets to enjoy these too!!
These boxes appealed to me because they open up like envelopes -- so I got busy and went to work.

I opened the boxes flat and decoupaged my paper choice on them.

Glued the boxes back together, added embellishments and clasps to hold the boxes shut and viola!

I had some really pretty boxes to hold some more supplies in.

You can get as elaborate as you wish -- Don't forget that these boxes and the capri sun boxes, would make awesome gift boxes too !!

Turn This:

Into This:

Storage Boxes

I am always in need of storage with my ever growing collection of craft supplies. And, usually what is working for something today, wont be working for that same item next week because, I will either have gotten more of them, or I have thought of another way to store it that I like better!

I really don't like the regular clear plastic shoe boxes or anything like that - that you can buy in the stores to store my craft supplies. They are just too boring for me!
What I like is something pretty and decorative with a handmade look to it!

Of course, anything that is like that, usually costs more than I am willing to spend - because ya know, I like to spend my money on my supplies, not storage!! So, what do I do? I save my trash and make my own storage!!


I made these pretty little storage boxes out of Capri Sun boxes!


What I did was open the box down the long seam -- once you do that you will see you have a nice little treasure box! Its not very deep, but it works to hold tons of smaller things that you would have!


I then chose some scrapbook paper and decoupaged that all over the boxes -- of course you can use fabric or paint, or whatever you like.. then I chose some embellishments and glued them on!


I used my Cricut to cut out the letters to show the content and decoupaged them on too!


Have fun creating your own!

Turn this:

Into this:

Crusin' Book

I created this Memory Book for my friend who went on a cruise recently -- I used cardboard that I saved to make my covers -- and used cardstock for the pages.

I decoupaged scrapbook paper to make the covers, I love to use decoupage medium for this, because when it dries it leaves a very hard sturdy cover! I don't mind the brush strokes that may be left behind, it just gives my books more character and a more handmade appeal.
I used a bunch of different elements, like, clipart that I have purchased, pieces from scrap packs and punch outs, and other embellishments.

I also put in pockets that hold a 4X6 picture and she could easily put several pictures in the pocket if she wanted to. Towards the end I embllished a note card and gave her space to journal any special memories that she had. Also in the back I filled a pocked full of tags where she could journal more and put in a small envelope for any momentos that she would have.

On the back cover I placed a bible verse - Psalm 126:3 "The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy."

The letters were cut with my Cricut!

First Post from me, the Trash Lady .. :)

I've been blogging on my space for a while a little bit, but I decided that it was time give my craft blogging its own space... I'm excited and I hope that you enjoy what I make.

Something that I love to do is make useful things out of my trash..
I used to save everything I thought I could remake into something else.. until one day I literaly had trash bags full of boxes and jars and all kinds of other stuff that I thought was worthy of remake! I had gotten myself overwhelmed with trash saving, and it was taking over my house!! At this time, my crafting was basically non exsistant because I had been homeschooling my boys. So, I ended up throwing it all out when I just had no choice but to declutter this house!
However.. that pack rat part of me will never die..its been bred into me by my grand mother and great-grandparents... they were pack rats and they passed that down to me -- My grandmother, used to have, literally!! a hardware store in her basement, as did my great-grandfather out in his shed! They saved everything and organized everything into jars and cans.

I know that is where I get my "jar with things in it" fetish.. lol .... I have tons of jars that hold my treasures in it! I guess for them, when you had survived the great depression -- you learned how, out of necessity to save things and re-use them again for something else because there was nothing to get, you really had no choice -- I suppose that they always had that fear in them after that, that it may happen again, so they continued on and saved things and reused things.. and it rubbed off on me!
I am glad however, that I inherited my grandmothers thriftiness... I always have been and I will always be and its alright with me!

I do absolutely love yard sales and second hand stores and I even love to grab stuff I see out of peoples trash on trash day if I think I can use it for something!!
And this is one of the things my husband loves about me -- ya know.. I was pretty much, and still am a low maintenace woman.. hahaha.. anyway ...

But there is a bad side to this, as I stated in the beginning of this blog, we can definately get over run by junk!! So I have to becareful -- but ..........

I do love to make things out of trash!

I hope you enjoy my blog -
Be Blessed
Kelli