Inkin' & Thinkin'

My Christmas List Organization & A Freebie

Every year, I end up with a scrap or two of paper with crazy little notes written all over them.  What kind of notes?  Ideas for gifts, things that need to be done, gifts we've already gotten, how many gifts each girl has (have to keep it pretty even now that they can all count!  LOL!), etc., etc., etc. 

This year I decided to stay on top of it better and started my lists back in August.  I created a page in my planner especially for this purpose and have been making notes constantly since.  If an idea hits me, I have a place to write it down right away and if i buy something and tuck it away in places I can't even remember, I check it off and write it down.  Yes, this has been so much better than my usual crowding of notes and my panic on Christmas Eve as I realize I forgot something or that, heaven forbid, one child has one more gift than the others do.  (Creative packaging always helps here...some gifts end up with 2 things in them, etc.).  So I like it and I intend to keep that page in my planner from now on. 

However, since Christmas is looming down on me, I felt the need to get a little more organized so I made up a purse size mini book that will be helping me keep track of my ideas as well as what I've already purchased for each person on my list. 

I created the pages to be 4.25 x 5.5 so that it was small and I could get 2 sets of pages on a sheet of paper.  My thought was that I would print them out, fold them in half and glue them together back to back to create a little book and then wrap the cover page around them to make it pretty.  Well, I ended up cutting the cover piece in half and gluing it to a folded piece of cardstock to give it a little more uumph.  I also glued a piece of ribbon between the cover image and the cardstock so I could tie it shut if I wanted to. 

This is what the cover looks like:

Then I created some gift lists for the inside pages:

And finally...the To Do list and the Santa list...because Santa needs a little reminding sometimes!

When it was all said and done, this is how mine turned out:

Of course, once I had printed it and adhered it all together, I have decided that in the future, I'd definitely print it on cardstock for better color and sturdiness.  But alas, it only has to last me a little over a month so it's good for this year.  Next year, I'll do it differently. 

I also thought maybe someone else might like a copy so you can download yours here.  Please remember this is for personal use only.  Thanks!

 

Halloween Books

I have seen quite a few of these altered books lately and wanted to create one but I love my books so the thought of messing with one of them, just wasn't all that appealing to me.  However, I picked up a couple of books this month at a yard sale for a nickle apiece and since they were in really bad condition already, I didn't feel too bad about painting them and decorating them.  LOL!  Yeah me!  Here's what they looked like before...

Then I remembered that I had brought home a book from my mom's house (she was throwing it away) that was just a mother's day piece of art.  I dug it out too.

I pulled the rope schtuff out of the middle of that book and the decorative pages started pulling off as well.  Well, I was surprised to find that it was an actual book under there...so exciting!  So I pulled off the cover pages and painted the pages and binding black to better match my theme. 

The next thing I did was to semi-layout how I wanted the books to look in the end and gather all of my supplies. 

Once I had the covers on the books, I almost wanted to just leave them like that because I really just liked the way they looked at that point. 

But I decided to actually finish decorating them.  LOL!

I'm still not sure I love how that top book turned out.  I may re-stamp that witch on a lighter paper and insert it into the frame instead.  We'll see.  I wanted the bottom book to be pretty plain on top since I'll be stacking the other one on top of it.  The open book, I left pretty open because I want to add some pictures to it this Halloween.

Anyway, that was my inky finger experience yesterday.  I hope you liked it.  I had fun making them! 

Just Playin' by Kaylee's Rules

The other day Kaylee stayed home from school with an upset stomach and by mid afternoon, she was feeling better but was terribly bored.  So I grabbed a crazy scrapbooking book  that I had just picked up at the library and told her she could pick a project.  This book is full of the craziest scrapbooking ideas...using cardboard boxes, paint, wire, glitter, masks...and not in your usual way.  It's very interesting. 

So she picked out this watercolor/masking project and as soon as Lexi got home from school, we started playing.  We had to follow Kaylee's instructions and we made a grand mess!  But I have to tell you that it was so much fun to watch each of them creating their own work of art.

I intend to add some glitter, some branches and a photo or 5 to mine.  But since, we were following directions, this is where it had to end that day. 

It was a beautiful way to spend the afternoon!

A Little Paper, A Little Yarn & A Little Pout

So my mom has been asking me to show her some of the things I did while I was at Creative University in February but I hadn't taken any pics of them so I kept putting her off.  Well, while I was in the craft house cleaning up and unpacking yesterday (yep, still hadn't unpacked from CU!  LOL!), I decided to snap a few pics of two projects that I had worked on...these were two of the classes we were offered.

This first project is a set of altered coasters (you know, the ones you can pick up at a bar, restaurant, etc.) that we had time to work on over the weekend.  There were a lot of fun techniques included with these coasters...some of which I knew and some I didn't...some I mastered and some that left me feeling like a dork!  LOL!

On the "S" we covered a stamped letter S with a layer of liquid glass and then poured sz 11 seed beads onto it...very cute results!

The "P" used a technique I had taught a few years ago and forgotten about.  The letter P was cut out of a tag and then we used the tag shape rather than the letter.  You simply cover the backside of the opening with packing tape.  This allows the sticky side to show through the opening so that you can pour prisma glitter over it and that gives you a sparkly P...good stuff!

The letter "R" gave me a headache because I pretty much suck at folding and creasing!  LOL!  Seriously...there was this really cute pleating that was supposed to be at the bottom of this coaster but mine looked so silly that I decided to snip into it and create a hula skirt look instead.  Others mastered this much better than I. 

We did some watercoloring on a piece of wood with the letter "I".  We also had a watercolor class at CU but seriously, I am just not talented in that area so I won't be showing you those results any time soon!  ;)

The letter "N" used the kissing method which I did incorrectly because I didn't read the instructions first.  But I liked how it turned out anyway so no skin off my back!  LOL!  We also did some leaf making with this one and I have to say that I love the crumpled leaves!

I learned something new (something that made me slap my own forehead and shout "duh!" in my head) when we made the letter "G".  We took the pink piece of cardstock and used a foam brush to apply liquid glass in a thin layer over the entire piece (DUH!) and then poured prisma glitter over it.  Instant sparkly goodness!  Seriously...I have no idea why I never thought to do that before...big DUH!

So if you haven't tried some of these things, give it a whirl and see what you come up with!  I'd love to see it if you decide to.

Another project we created at CU was an altered My Creations Album.  This was not what I was expecting but it turned out really cool (only I can't show you the whole thing just yet).  We started out with the covers from a 9x9 My Creations Album.  The pages were removed and we simply had a nice, sturdy 9x9 chipboard piece to work with.  We sprayed it with a spray adhesive then covered it with Veranda paper....so gorgeous (this is my fav paper from the latest CTMH catalog).  But the technique we learned was to create these beautiful paper flowers (mine are not nearly as beautiful as the sample, but you'll get the general idea).  We started out with strips of paper and rolled them and crumpled them and rolled them and crumpled them again until they were very pliable.  Once they were pliable, we put a nice dollop of hot glue on coordinating cardstock and began to wind our flowers into shape adding more glue around as needed.  I won't lie, I'll admit right here and now that I burnt my little fingers while doing this but it was worth every little blister (even the one under my fingernail that made me want to pee my pants!).

We created a few more projects but you'll have to wait a little longer to see those as well as the things I finished while we had free time. 

So this week, I've been knitting and crocheting a little more.   I found some camo yarn the other day and picked up a skein to make a hat for Andy.  He wanted it knitted so I knitted him a hat with it.  It didn't end up being very camo in the end...more of a camo colored stripe.  I love it and told him if he didn't like the pattern, I'd be happy to keep it...to which he replied, "I don't think so!"  So, me thinks he likes it just fine. (Sorry the pic is so blurry...my camera didn't like his face that day!)

Then I found this skein of yarn in my stash and decided to make a fun little beanie with it (I swear I wear makeup when I leave the house!  LOL!  I'm also wearing a shirt...this looks like I'm just in my bra but I swear I'm wearing a tank!  Oh man, I gotta stop taking my own pics!).

And this shows my extending jowl line quite nicely...oh yes, I love self portraiture!  LOL!

I decided at this point to try a new knitting pattern to see how it would turn out...kinda fun to experiment every now and then.

I also decided to experiment a little with some funky yarn and created this doozy of a cap...we all had a lot of fun with this one and decided that if I should ever be bald, it would be a fun hair alternative!  LOL!  Did I mention that Izzy has decided to put her own little flair in her pics?  She poses so nicely and just as the camera starts to flash, she strikes a funny pose.  I decided this one was a keeper!

I had also made another puff stitch hat for Lexi this past week.  She picked out some pink camo yarn and wanted a puff stitch hat so away I went with it.  She wanted a different brim on hers so I added a few scallop stitches to the front of the hat and she was happy as a clam!

 

And to finish off my week, I created this fun lightweight spring hat as well.  Only I used a super soft baby yarn with sparkles in it and it's so comfy and sweet just like the girl wearing it!  LOL!

And after all of that yarning, I decided I better get my rear out to the craft house and get things put away again.  So now it's mostly finished so I'll be able to take you on a tour very soon!  YEAH!

And now to the pout.... On Wednesday, Miss Kaylee wanted permission to ride her bike down to the park and around the trout pond and back to our house all by herself.  Of course, I had to say no because she's just too little and I love her too much to risk something happening to her.  This sent her into a horrible pouting session which I felt I had to capture (as her mother, and all).

Yep, she decided that the dog's dirty kennel was the best place to hide and pout...so sad.  LOL!  She got over it within a few minutes but in the mean time it was fun to follow her and take her picture! 

Have a wonderful weekend!

A Planner Thought & A Freebie!

Yesterday my friend, Dayna, asked on FB if anyone had ever made their own planners.  Of course that got me thinking about how much I love and hate my planner.  I love it because with three kids, a home business, sports and Andy's rotating schedule I have to have it to keep our lives organized and on schedule.  I hate it because I can never find one that really fits the needs I have.  I have always wanted a planner that I could use for me the way I wanted to.  So since Dayna brought it up, I thought, why not?  So this morning I sat down and started creating a planner that I would actually use.  I made it the size of a half sheet of paper so that it would be small enough to fit in my current planner.  Here's what I came up with...

I wanted a place to check off the things I want to do each day and prefilled in some things that I know I'll need to do each day.  I also wanted a place to jot things down as they came to mind...thus I needed a notes section.  I also want to be better about planning meals so I created a menu section.  And lastly, I want to be better about daily scripture study so I added a place for that and will fill in my reading assignment before I print out the sheets.

Then once I had the daily pages done, I got to thinking about how I have to have my month-at-a-glance page because that's where all the details happen for each month.  So I made up 12 monthly pages that look like this:

And then I thought...a grocery list would be great and so would a page to just jot down some notes now and then so I made these:

And then I thought that maybe I would share these planner pages with you so I made them all blank and added a non-scripture study daily page for those that aren't into it.  And now that you've made it this far into the post, you can see what you can download for free today!

Yep...you'll get all 12 months + 1 blank month (in case you don't like the monthly labels I did), the grocery list, the notes page, a daily page that includes scripture study and a daily page that does not.  They are sized to be 5.5x8.5 so you can print two per sheet of paper.  You could even size them down to 5x7 so you have some more room around the edges if you like!  Have fun and I hope you'll find them useful!

You can download them here.

Don't forget that if you're looking for more freebies you should check out DigiFree to find hundreds every day!

Lexi's 5th Grade Memories Mini Book

Man, where does the time go?  It seems like I have been saying this all month but I am so stinkin' busy lately!  We are down to our last two days of school and I can't wait for summer to get here.  I plan to spend the first two weeks of summer vacation simply getting my house back in order and creating some kind of semi-normal schedule for our family.   There are so many projects that haven't been finished this spring that need to get done.  I think we started switching Lexi and Izzy's bedrooms around in January and we still haven't finished.  It's crazy. 

I know I need to tackle the girls' bedroom upstairs and do some serious cleaning out all over the house.  I can't believe the amount of junk that piles into our house in a year's time.  Where does it all come from?  We do a clean out of the girls' room at least once a year and every year we throw away a couple of leaf bags of broken toys, trashed clothing, etc.  And then we make them go through their things and we donate at least another 3 to 6 leaf bags full of toys to the local police department or churches.  It's crazy!  It's looking like we are going to do it again this year...next week!

But enough about what is making me crazy today.  LOL!  Izzy and I got up and went for a nice hike this morning with a friend of ours and it felt good to be out there just enjoying the day.  Andy and I use to do that all the time before we had kids but when we had to carry kids and diaper bags and strollers and everything with us, we kind of lost interest in doing it together.  He still hikes all the time but until last fall I didn't really go out and do it anymore.  Now Izzy is big enough to walk a while on her own so we get to go out exploring every now and then.  It just feels good to do that.

I haven't had much time to create this past week but I thought I'd show you a few things I've finished.

First of all, I'm hosting a challenge at Pretty Scrappy this month that involves making a mini album so if you're feeling up to it...go join in and get your creative juices flowing.  I made my mini album this past Sunday.  I sat down with Lexi and we pulled up the pics we've taken of here at school activities this year and went to work making a 5th Grade album for her.  We started out by using the brag book album Teri is offering made with the kit School's Out 4 Summer.  We simply added our pictures and our journaling on making sure we left plent of room for binding and adding some extra embellishments after we were done printing it out. 

So we made 26 pages and then printed them out 5x7 on regular photo paper.  Then I put Andy to work cutting out 13 pieces of 5x7 chipboard to go with it.  While he was doing that, Lexi and I chose the embellishments and got them attached to the photo pages.  Then we simply glued the pages to the chipboard (one on front, one on back with chipboard in the middle) and filed away the edges so it was a nice smooth finish.   I popped them into my bind-it-all and bound them together.  Of course we added a little ribbon to complete the book and voila!  Her 5th grade highlights are scrapped in 3 hours!  WOOHOO!

So you want to see it?

These are the digi pages we made up...keep in mind that there are some blank spots that we later filled with embellishments.

Now if I can do it, you can do it!  Go sign up and make a mini for you!

Ok...I was going to add more to this post but now I think I'll retitle it and send it to you.  Come back later and I'll post again today.  A twofer!  LOL!

An Altered Journal

I decided to try to journal more often...more privately than my blog anyway.  LOL!  I also wanted a place that I could randomly write quotes, techniques and things like that in.  I wanted it to be fun and freestyle so even though the pages inside are lined, I'm not using them.  I'm writing at angles and in circles.  I'm letting my kids draw on certain pages and really am just using this book as my crazy brain on paper.

These are before and after shots.  I stamped on the cover, used alcohol inks and embossing powder.  Oh yeah, and of course I used some glitter too!  I am happy with how it turned out and I hope it will continue to be this fun to write in.

 

 

A Few Christmas Gifts...

These are a few of the projects I made as gifts this year.  I was a procrastinator and seriously put these off until the week before Christmas...I so suck!  But hopefully everyone liked them (they seemed to ... unless they are all good liars!  LOL!).

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

A Starbucks Tumbler for Izzy

There is a challenge at Pretty Scrappy in the forums to create a tumbler insert from a template you can download there. 

This was my attempt...it must go to Izzy (can you tell what my favorite pictures are right now?).  Now I need to make them for the other girls and buy some tumblers!

Foxy Ladies ~ ATop Note Creation

A few days ago I was blurfing and found this cute little cat card made with SU's Top Note Die and I thought it would be fun to make with the girls.  I can't remember where I saw it now though so I'm not sure who to link the original back to.  If you know, please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due.

This is the original:

 

Of course I don't follow directions well and it wasn't long before my cute little kitty took on a new form.  I thought maybe she was a sex kitten but then as she matured I found her to be more of a foxy lady.

  

Lexi joined in and decided she wanted to make one like mine.  Kaylee on the other hand decided to make a wolf instead.  I think she did pretty well.  She even added blush and blue eyeshadow to her wolf...now that's creative!  Izzy took her pieces cut them into little bitty pieces and painted all over them and then threw them away (thus no picture but the effort was there!).