My new entryway

Found this table at a great little antique/thrift store. I knew it had potential, even with all the crap piled on top of it.
This certain store has an inside, which is decorated beautifully and artfully arranged. It also has an outer building, it's actually inside, but it's like a big garage or shop that is detached from the actual store. I L-O-V-E digging my way through that shop! So this table was covered in at least 4 or 5 layers of dust & dirt, plus piled high with other stuff.

Found this mirror at an old church turned thrift store. I was talking with the lady at the front about looking for a cool old mirror and she pointed me to this one. I looked at the price tag and said it didn't fit. She continued to tell me that she had had that mirror for almost a year and no-one would buy it. I usually don't speak my mind for fear of hurting peoples feelings or making them upset. I calmly stated that I wouldn't pay the price that she was asking and saw other items in the store that were similar and much cheaper. She was so shocked! --> at the price!! She asked what I would pay for it, I told her, and that's that!

I painted the table with this new paint that the lady at that antique/thrift store told me about. It's by 'Zinsser' and called "B-I-N". It's like a stain, but tintable, which means you can choose your color!! It's cream based so it will only do pastel colors, but I tinted mine yellow and am super in love with the outcome! It dries really fast, like in less than 45 minutes. I found that with doing the shabby chic sanding, I really had to use elbow grease once it was dry. I did one section while it was still kinda tacky and wish I would have done it all while still a bit wet, I like the look better.

The old crates I lightly spray painted white and added casters to bottom so as not to scratch my floor. I made some brown chalk board paint to use on the ends so I could personalize them for the kids (LOVE LOVE LOVE).
The mirror I spray painted white over then sanded so some yellow comes out. It will be hung, not leaning against the wall, once hubby has time.
I found that cool old painters box to use as my catch all. It's perfect! It's got a spot for keys, cards, misc, and a big spot for mail. It was a great old red, but that didn't go with my theme so I painted over it in yellow then sanded.
If all else fails, I've got a back-up dinner table :)

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Crayon card

Watercolor crayon, that is! We stamped the flowers in Sahara Sand, the same color as the cardstock. We traced over it with the crayons then blended using the aqua painters.
We got the ink blotches on there using markers and the color spritzer tool. That's always a fun one for workshops!

Watercolor tag card

OMGoodness this turned out cute! This was another one that I did at a workshop, in hindsight, I wouldn't do it again for beginners. Lots of work for this one.

I just love the fact that you can stamp any image & sentiment on the tag, and viola! The card is now personalized! That part made it perfect for a workshop! We used SU watercolor paper and the inks/aqua painters for this tag.

The doily is easily my favorite part of this one. Also the most time consuming to put together, just throwing that out there. I recommend making sure you have a stylus close at hand when doing the doily, makes pushing out the pieces so much easier. I will also warn you that no matter how hard you try to keep the pieces on the table, in the garbage, or elsewhere, there WILL be pieces on the floor. Especially when you have 6 ladies punching out doilys.

See the "ribbon" across the front? That's actually a piece of cardstock that we wore down using our bone folders. When you break all the fibers in the paper, it starts to separate. We peeled the paper apart and that's actually the 'inside' of the paper. Neat, huh!?!

Glittered cake birthday card

Seriously, who doesn't like glitter &/or cake?!

This is a great card to teach people masking, or the general use of Post-it's with stamping!

Made this card at one of my last workshops. Love the fact that you can change it up, the guests can personalize it, by just changing the ink color and choosing different paper scraps to make their banner out of.

"Don't be a chicken" birthday card

Unfortunately, this is the most manly stamp I have. I know, shame on me :(

I have other "guy" stamps, like a BBQ, some ties, and... I'm sure I have something else... Nope. Nothing. I'm so disappointed in myself!

My goal for the next few months: To get a couple of manly stamps
If you have any suggestions on CHEAP stamp sets, pass them on! This girl needs some help!

See my little chicken? I fussy cut him from a magazine and plopped him into the back of the truck. LOVE him!

"King of the day" card

All this, out of my crafty junk drawer?! You betcha!! Went for the playing card first, then went digging for red stuff to accent it with. I came across this great page in a book, put that away for later use ;) but decided to use his sister page as a background, inked, of course.

A friend of mine needed a birthday card for her brother and masculine stuff is almost never in my stash. Thanks for inspiring me to create today, Ruth!

Scrappy Card

Just a simple card to use up some of my extras. This would be a great card to mass-produce just to use my scrap pile up! I didn't get all inky on this one, I used a sanding block instead ;)

Hubby is talented, too

This is how it all began:

planter boxes and fence panels. He makes all shapes & sizes, these are the most popular.

He's actually CRAZY talented! Since he was laid off in April, he hasn't had full-time employment. We've actually been "behind" since December 26, 2010 when he got laid off from his good job. Yes, he got laid off the day after Christmas. We had no idea, it was a total shock. And it sucked.
We had to have work as I was 4 months pregnant at the time with our 3rd child, so he took what he could at a $20k/year paycut. Even though he hated that job, it was a job with steady paychecks to support ourselves.
We sold a car, we moved into a cheaper place, I got crazy into coupons, we did everything we could to help make ends meet.
Long (depressing) story short, here we are without a real "Job" and still have a roof over our heads and food in our bellies. PRAISE JESUS!!
Hubby had a hobby of wood-working, so he decided to get into it and treat it like a full-time job, with me as his manager, YES!! :)
We have business cards, a Face Book fan page, flyers out, and have had success with our goal of keeping our family fed.
His work is AMAZING and I want to share it with you.

This is a modern style fence that the customer had thought of and Michael (my handsome husband) helped design.

He makes fence panels and also installs them making full fences. I love this style of short fence, it has a custom design on the top of it that I think is gorgeous!

Bunk Beds! These come apart to become two twin sized beds when you're ready to separate the kiddos. The ladder detaches and can go on either side of the bed so you are limitless on moving it around the room.

A sand box that you can sit in without getting sandy! The top opens up to become bench seating on both sides. I want one of these :)

Our motto is: "you think it, We build it" because we started out not knowing what to build but needing money, so when someone said they wanted something we said, "YOU GOT IT!". A motto was born... :)
I would absolutely LOVE the support if you could visit our Face Book page, take a look at his stuff, and maybe share it. We are still trying to stay afloat and any/all help would be appreciated. Thanks my scrappy friends!!
Teitzel & Co. Click HERE

Embossed Birdy card

This was the other make & take from my last workshop. This card was less in depth but took longer as I let all the ladies pick their own paper. We used the "Everyday Enchantment" designer series paper, which is pictured below.

We also used cardstock and patterned paper from the 2011-2013 in colors, seen below.

Dainty Vintage card

This was a make & take from my last workshop. Just love the doily die for my Big Shot!
You ever get something that just becomes a staple in your crafty life? For me it would be that great label punch! I seem to use it with just about every other card! You can see it HERE. And guess what?!? There's coordinating stamps to go with it! Yup, I know. Heaven. :)

Old Door Headboard

So this is how my room looks now with the latest addition of the old headboard from an old door. I absolutely LOVE the outcome!

My handsome little booger is the main attraction in this! He kept trying to get in the action of picture taking so I decided to just take his picture :)

You can't see them, but the door actually sits on legs that I stapled to the back of the door. I didn't want to hang such a heavy door on the wall. I took two 1"x4" cedar planks per side(excess from our business, see our business FaceBook page HERE), spray painted them white, then measured for height and width before stapling to back of door.
ACTUALLY- I only had one leg per side at first. Got the door inside (by myself, had to show hubby that I didn't need his help), got it positioned behind the bed, and CRAAAAACK the door fell forward towards the bed, splinters shattering everywhere. Rockashawna to me. Since my room was already covered in splinters and wood pieces, and the door was laying on my bed, I decided to finish up the project in my room. Went out and spray painted new legs (two per side this time), brought them to the sliding glass door on the patio outside my bedroom (thank GOODNESS for a sliding glass door in my room! Especially one that is only feet from the back garage door!) along with all the tools I'd need, and with a confused baby watching and wanting so bad to use the staple gun, I finished my project ON my bed.

After cleaning the door, I spray painted the interior of the rectangle a chocolate brown. It's a really rough paint job as my 13 year old was "helping" me.
I took a lace tablecloth and laid it over the door centering the design that I wanted to highlight and used unwanted planks to go around the edges of where I didn't want paint to go. After I had the edges blocked off, I spray painted the lace onto the door with a pale yellow. I peeled off the lace after about a minute (didn't want it to dry in place) and set aside (it'll be a great table cloth for our picnic table. Crusty from the paint so it won't fly away, the edges are still lacey for that delicate look).

A close-up of the design

I took pictures step by step to post, then my phone broke. I lost over 1,400 pictures. Talk about heartbreak.

We have 2 other doors that we are working on, one for each of our girls. Will post pics when they are completed.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Distress Watercolor Dry Embossing

Came across this tutorial today at SplitCoastStampers (LOVE them!!). It looked so incredible I had to clean my craft room so I could get inky.
You can see their tutorial HERE
A wonderful crafty lady (Mel) did this tutorial, you can see it on her blog HERE

I got to use my new SU embossing folder! This technique was a lot of fun, but then again, watercoloring in ANY technique has been right up there with breathing since I discovered it!

Arn't those little photo corners fun? It's actually a scrap from a punched scallop oval that I cut. Waste not, want not.

New Toys!!

I got myself some new Stampin' Up! goodies that I just can't wait to play with!

I got a new pack of designer paper: See it HERE
A pack of Very Vanilla Cardstock: See it HERE
Sanding blocks: See them HERE
A new impression folder (SO EXCITED): See it HERE
A new stamp wheel (LACE!!!): See it HERE
and the new spritzers (WAY COOL!): See it HERE

Dishcloth Apron

My biggest complaint in the kitchen is that the baby constantly takes the dish towel off the oven rack so when I'm washing my hands, there's nothing to dry them off on.

Seriously.
HATE it!!

So I took an old dishcloth (there was a hole in it, and the edges were worn pretty bad) and "fancied" it up.
To hide the hole, I made a pocket out of an old T-shirt sleeve. I hid the worn edges with a pretty pleated layer of lace and another old T-shirt. To make the tie around, I used the bottom seam part of the old T-shirt since it should hold up well, and let's face it. It keeps the theme.

I haven't cooked with it yet, think I made it a bit short for me, I'd like more towel. This one now belongs to my daughter, the lovely model you see (isn't she just plain GORGEOUS?!).

When I make mine, I will applique something on the pocket before I sew it to the towel. I'm really bummed I didn't think of that with this one :(

Family Command Center

This is how our family of 5 (currently 8) keeps it all together. We have our calendar up and i put everyones activities on it. Guess what? COLOR CODED!! I assigned a colored marker to everyone so at a glance I know who has what.

Got the boards from Wal*Mart and guess what... they're magnetic!!

I hate to hear "What's for dinner" at least twice per kid, per day. That's at least 12 times per day!! Sooo, dinner is planned out in advance and all I have to do is point.

This is a 12x12 shadow box that I found at a garage sale. I painted it white, distressed it, added a lovely piece of paper as a background, and viola! Ready for my menu! I printed the menu out on regular printer paper, tore and inked the edges, then straight pinned in place.

Found this big ole frame also at a garage sale, SUPER cheap. I created a mat around it with scrapbook paper so my regular printer paper would fit inside it. I printed off the kids daily, weekly, and monthly chores on one side, the other side is for miscellaneous stuff I want them to get done. With the paper under the glass, we get to use it as a dry erase board!!

I was given the chalk board clip board as a birthday gift and decided to use it with this project. We have 4 hanging clipboards under the big board to keep individual papers from getting lost in the shuffle. Everyone has their own board so they are responsible for keeping track of their own papers. LOVE the accountability!

Repurposed Planter

BEFORE

Normal run-of-the-mill thick wire over-the-rail planter.
All I did was spray paint it.

AFTER

I have a perfect caddy for all those necessities that should be at hands reach while changing my little guy. Perfect!

Paper accessories

Please disregard my face-
That said, a new class being offered at Michael's is "Paper Crown" and "Paper Party". These are some of the things that are made in the two classes.
The crown is GINORMOUS. After wearing it around the store for a few hours (you should have seen the looks I got!), the ribbon had cut my ears. It's HUGE and heavy but very cool.
The name tag is super simple to make, in fact, these classes are geared towards kids! It's a folded medallion style flower, with a scallop punch in the center and a lapel pin on the back. Add some ribbon, and VIOLA!

I am thinking of doing my little princesses next birthday party with these crowns. I will cut out all the pieces first though, there's a lot of them.
You can't see them all too well, I would use different colors for the different layers next time so they pop, but these require a lot of paper, and a lot of pop up glue dots. I would also fold thick ribbon in half for the band next time so as it rests on top of my ears, I don't get cut.

Plank Sign

I found these fabulous metal letters at my local Michael's store in the dollar bin. YAY!!
Took the most rustic looking cedar planks I could find and lightly spray painted them white. I attacked them with a hammer and screwdriver (on the ends) to make them more rugged.
The staple gun that I was using was going right through the metal, no matter the setting, so I decided to go the old fashioned route and use a hammer and nails.
After I got the first one in half way, I missed the top of the nail head and bent it down. LOVED it!! Needless to say, I continued in that fashion for the rest of the letters.

Home Made Smash Book

At one of our last M.O.P.S. meetings, the craft was "Smash Books".

I teach the class using the books from K & Company at my local Michael's store, but honestly I prefer this kind.
This is what I call the "Cram-What-You-Can Book"

Seriously. To save money on scrapbooks, make your own. Head to the craft store to get some rings (like $3 for 6, I think) and then just use scraps!

I decided to go for texture. I got canvas pieces, rope, twine, netting, magazine paper, cardstock, envelopes, cardboard... anything that I thought might not get used, I used. A lot of the pages are made with 12x12 paper cut into fourths (so 6x6 squares) and glued to each other. I only glued 3 sides though, make every page a pocket! Give me glue, a paper trimmer, a pile of junk mail and a Crop-o-dile, I'll give you a Smash Book!

This has been in the works for months now, I wanted to get as much in it as possible before giving to hubby for Father's Day. I got all the ticket stubs from our outings (Plays, Seahawks & Mariners games, Museum trips, etc), included family pictures of us & our parents, and found miscellaneous stuff that I know he loves. I found a great vintage koala bear postcard at a garage sale for next to nothing, also found some vintage Father's Day cards that just happened to say the perfect things :)

A gift from a lovely

This was one of my birthday gifts this year from my youngest sister. She's so freaking talented and CRAZY creative!
I had been having a hard few months, it was so difficult getting off that pity party train! My sister flew in from San Fran to surprise me. Boy did she! Hubby helped orchestrate her home-coming and a surprise party for myself and our daughter (who's birthday is around the same time as mine), once again, they did a great job. He had about 40 people hiding in our garage when I came home from church.

I think this is such a cute idea. We sat around for hours talking about the documented memories of our childhood that filled the pages. We laughed, we cried, I felt ashamed at not helping do her hair at Homecoming, and we laughed some more. I decided that this could be a great tradition for us, plus a great way to keep track of all the crazy, funny, scary, embarrassing stuff that we lived through together.

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This one is for my little guy. His first year of life and all the memories we made.
Enjoy!

More Fathers Day

More altered Journals

Fathers Day Card

This is one of several cards that were made this year for the guys in my life who are great fathers.

And to my dad, Bob, you are an incredible man. You stepped up to the plate when it wasn't necessary, but I needed it, and you filled a hole (a rather large hole). I don't know who I would be without you having made such a HUGE impression on my life, and I wouldn't want to know either. You are a wonderful husband to my mother and showed me what a good guy should be. You have been, and always will be, the line in which I compare other men. I have found an awesome man of God to be my husband, and I am so lucky that he possesses similar qualities of yours.
I just want you to know, I love you.
Happy Father's Day!!

Monkey Birthday

My little monkey just turned 1!!

We had a monkey themed party at a local park. It was a great day, too! If you're from up here in the North West, you know that we haven't had the best weather. Actually, that's an understatement. There was a threat of snow a couple of weeks ago :(

In all the turmoil that we have had to endure in the last few weeks (VERY long story, we lost two family members within four days. Very hard on us), it was a welcome treat to have sunshine, happiness and cake... all on the same day.