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Happy Scrapping!  =]

Happy New Year

So it's been an eventful end of 2010 this past few days.  Neighborhood vandals took out our mailbox Tuesday night and it ended up about a quarter of a mile down the road under a neighbor's pickup truck.  I felt extremely lucky that it was just our mailbox after talking to the sheriff and all of our neighbor's about their damage, especially since we weren't even home until Wednesday.  Others had their houses and cars painted, vehicles broken into and decorations trashed.  So needless to say yesterday was spent assembling a new mailbox and stand... trust me, not as easy as it may seem.  Especially trying to put it IN the ground, we might as well have been trying to put it in bedrock.  I hate, with a passion, the rocky soil of southern Missouri.  The positive thing about it is that we now have a very pretty white mailbox with a fancy number sign.  =]  If vandals want to mess with it now they'll have to answer to me.  Not something they want to do, TRUST ME!  LOL.  Then to top it off, today the entire area is in shock over the tornado that went through post.  2010 really went out with a bang to say the least!  Let's just hope that 2011 brings health and happiness to everyone and our vandals are caught!

In crafty news, I'd previously mentioned my mom's sled that I made years ago.  Well I finally got the photo taken and off of my camera!  I think I like it now more than I have ever before.

Over the holidays I gathered up a few goodies from gifts, gratuity and even myself.  The distrezz-it-all was a "me" gift that I ordered, as was the lovely pink ATG.  I honestly have no idea how I'd ever live without it now that I have it.  It dispenses like a dream and that adhesive is definitely not letting anything go anywhere!  I also gifted myself the rest of the smooch spritz colors.  I can blame that on my friend Andi, who ordered some items from me, including some smooch and the distrezz-it-all.  I couldn't resist completing my collection or pass up the holiday special on the distresser.  The create a sticker was a gift from my mother and father in law.  I have the mini one and like it so having the larger one with more capabilities will be really nice.  Especially for lace and diecut papers that are a pain to adhere adhesive to sometimes.

Then a trip with my mom to the city to go to Joann's left me with this... The blue fabric is going to be a pillow to match the new bedding set that I'll be making.  Notice the pattern on the right?  Unfortunately the other fabrics we have to special order, but we have them picked out and it's going to be fabulous!  The orange roll was off of the remnant clearance rack and looks and feels like a basketball.  I thought I could find something neat to make with it eventually.  If you have any ideas feel free to share them!  I think I've been trying to hard to come up with the perfect project for it.  The letters I will be papering and mod-podging for Logan's room.  I also got a gigantic paper mache "C" for another project, but my lovely hubby left it at my moms so now I have to wait two weeks to start on it.  (Probably would have taken me that long anyway, but I am REALLY excited about it and wish I had it here to work on as I have time.)

Then these, totally amazing, beautifully rusty metal signs were on my in-laws porch.  I saw them and fell in love.  So shabby chic and obviously customized with our last name.  =]  There were four of them sitting there and my father in law gave me two.  I'm not sure what he made them for but I LOVE THEM and can't wait to put them into commission decorating my home.

My mom and I also grabbed these at the store for a special decorating idea.  We've been looking for the right fabric colors for months now and this had them all!  Something we never would have thought of either.  I will post details soon, I promise!

What goodies did you get over the holidays?

Tomorrow I will be posting some scrap resolutions (complete with photos) in hopes that publicly putting it out there will help me stick to it!  See ya then!

Prayers Needed

So today has been quite the day.  Our area was hit by the storm system that has been reported across every news channel there is and an F3 tornado touched down.  Luckily our house was off post, a few miles away from it and wasn't damaged, but some friends of mine were directly in it's path and their houses were damaged.  My friend Norma's house is one of the worst I've seen so far.

Please keep her family and all the other families in your prayers!  Many homes were destroyed and even more damaged. 

My husbands company building also got hit as well, Fort Leonard Wood has officially been declared in a state of emergency so I'm sure my hubby will be busy the next few days (he's a military police officer).  He worked all last night on patrol then after the tornado hit this morning around 10:00am he was called back in.  He got home an hour or so ago and is sleeping so he can go back in again tonight to work.  Some of the military vehicles it moved and flipped weigh over 20,000 pounds my husband said.  Crazy!

Unfortunately there are more areas like this across the path of the tornado, through Missouri and Arkansas.  Here are some more photos and a video of our local area.

fabric Fabulous

Want in on another giveaway? This one's for some lovely fat quarters. Head on over to Retro Mummy for details.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Still on vacay :]

Hello dear friends! I'm still visiting family for the holidays and I'm definitely starting to have scrappy/crafty withdrawals. Boo! I keep meaning to take photos of this awesome vintage sled that I made forever ago for my mom while I'm here, but every time I think about it I'm in the middle of something else or too lazy to find my camera. I will get photos of it before I leave and before my mom packs up all her Christmas decor, I promise. In other exciting news you may notice that I'm posting my first blog from my new iPad! My mom and dad are AMAZING and got me this electronic candy for school and I'm without a doubt IN LOVE with it. As a mater of fact I nearly took it to bed with me, but talked myself out of it so as not to make my dear husband jealous. Haha. Anyway, since I've been unable to share or create any of my own crafty goodness due to this lovely holiday season I will share with you this amazing, I'm totally in love with, magnetic calendar by www.justaboutthedetails.com.

Happy Scrapping!!!





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  Mine was amazing and I can't be thankful enough! 

Merry Christmas!!!

Gingerbread House

Tonight Logan and I put together his gingerbread house kit that my mom got him from Joann's and it turned out better than I'd expected.  Now I've made gingerbread houses before but never from a kit and let me tell you, the icing that came with it was a pain.  Never again will I build one from a kit.  Nothing wanted to stick to the house AT ALL!  After contemplating throwing it out the window I reassessed the situation and came to the conclusion that the house pictured on the box could not possibly have been put together with just icing and still looked that good.  So... out came the hot glue gun.  Yes, I said hot glue gun.  Now I can say that it's because I'm at my parents house for the holidays and didn't have my all my cake decorating supplies, but in reality, with the way things were going (or should I say falling off), I'd have grabbed the hot glue gun no matter where I was.  The way I see it, the gumdrops on top are really the only thing Logan MIGHT want to pick off and eat and they're not glued on so we're all good.  So now, I shall share with you our gingerbread masterpiece.  LOL.

Nothing like the last minute...

So last night I had a lot of fun at the handmade dirty Santa party with the girls.  =]  Here's what I made to exchange...

I love mod podge and paper... and ANYTHING crafty  =]  Jane picked my present so I hope that she likes it!

After getting home I had to finish two last minute mini albums that I decided to make for my grandmother and my husbands grandmother.  Now I said finish, but I really meant start and finish BOTH of them since all I'd gotten done the night before was print the pictures off (my printer was being a pain... I did accidentally put the paper in backwards but hey, we'll blame the printer anyway, LOL).  So for a moment there I actually talked myself out of making them, thinking there was no way I'd ever get them done and get any sleep, but I persevered and by 3:45 AM they were finished.  They're simplistic for me, but in order to get them done at all I had to talk myself out of a million different ideas.  Embellishments are my friend, like my best friend, but it was actually kind of refreshing to end up with something a bit different than I'm used to.  Here's a sneak peek... I will post page by page photos after Christmas! 

Happy Scrapping!

Paper Rose Tutorial (Four Sizes)

Hello everyone!  After a lot of positive feedback and questions about how I made the flowers in my previous post I've decided to do my FIRST tutorial so here it goes... =]

In this tutorial I'll show you how to make paper roses in four different sizes, or how I make mine at least.  =P  I made my previous roses out of Pink Paislee cardstock so to test things out a bit, this tutorial uses background paper from Jenni Bowlin.  I must say, although it wasn't any harder to work with, I like the final outcome and stiffness of the final product from the cardstock much better than from the paper.

So let's get started!  =]


First we'll gather up our supplies, I used:

• Glossy Accents or Sobo (Or any liquid scrapbooking glue)
• Embossing Mat (I used the backside of my mouse pad since I don't have an embossing mat)
• Glimmer Mist (Any color you want to use but I used pearl) (optional)
• Sharpie
• Rhinestones, Buttons or something for the center
• Stickles or something for the petal edges once finished (optional)
• Embossing Stylus (or rounded end of a paint brush)
• Paper piercer or needle (Something long, round and thin)
• Craft Knife
• Tweezers (optional, to position petals on final product)
• Paper or Cardstock
• Punches or diecutter

First you'll need to cut out your flowers, now since I'm a very spontaneous scrapper and I like to be prepared I cut out WAY more flowers than you'll need, but I plan on making extras to have ready later so it's all good.

I used my Pazzles and cut a variety of different sizes, some five leaves but most were six.  You can use different punches or a cutting machine.  When I first began I didn't know what would work best but I ended up using both and just saved the cutting file so I can cut whichever sizes I want when I want.  Here's the different sizes I used, they range from 1/2" to 2" as you can see from the grid underneath.  The more sizes you use the better your flower will look I've found out, even if it's just 1/4" or 1/8" larger or smaller. 

and here's my little piles of assorted sizes lol (like I said.... way too many!)

First I took the smallest flower (1/2") and cut short slits between each petal, be careful not to cut too far or you'll cut the petals off.

Then I took the small end of my stylus and my mouse pad and using a circular motion rubbed each petal until it curled up into a little bowl.

Then I did the same thing to the center of the flower but used the larger end of my stylus.

Next I glued my center rhinestone but you can use buttons or even brads if you wanted.

I sat that aside to dry and grabbed the next size larger five leaf flower.  I cut slits between it's petals as well and used my stylus (the larger end this time) to curl the petals and center just like I did with the smaller flower.

So now you have this:

Take the center piece, making sure it's dried, and roll it closed between your fingers.

Then glue the center piece inside of the second flower.

After it dries I like to scrunch it up again with both flowers.

You'll then take the next largest six leaf flower and cut slits between it's petals and using the stylus curl it.

You'll then take another six leaf flower of the same size and WITHOUT cutting slits in it, curl it's petals as well. 

You should end up with this:

Using your liquid glue, glue them one inside of the other.

Now that is the completion of the SMALL rose (about 1/2" across).

To make a medium size rose you'll need your small rose, a 1" five petal and two 1" six petal flowers.

Cut slits between the petals of the five petal flower and one of the six petal flowers.

Use your stylus to curl up all three petals and centers.  If you tear your flower at ANY point don't worry about it, it will work just fine.  I actually kinda like mine torn a little but the tear here was an accident lol.

Take the small rose bud you just made and glue it inside of the five petal flower and then glue that flower into the next.

Now before I glued these last two pieces for the medium flower together, I took my paper piercer and curled the petals on the last layer back (sorry the photo is blurry but you get the idea)

It should look like this and then you can glue them together.

So you've learned how to make a small and medium rose:

Let's move onto the large rose.  To make a large rose you'll take a medium rose, one 1-1/4" flower, one 1-1/2" flower and one 1-3/4" flower. 

Slit the two smaller ones between the petals and round them all using the end of your sharpie.

One the larger one, after you've rounded it, you'll hold each petal with two fingers (one on top and one on bottom) and using your other hand pinch the end to make it look like this.

I then used my paper piercer to curl the middle flowers petals back.

Take your medium size flower and glue it in the center of the flower on the left.  Once it's glued use your fingers and bend over the outer petals towards the center.

Assemble the rest of the flower and I usually use my stylus to press down in the center to make sure it's glued well all the way through.

So now you have a small, medium and large flower.

To make an even bigger flower you need a large flower that you made and a 2" flower.  I forgot to take a pic of it before but you'll use your sharpie to round out the petals and center then pinch the petals like you did before.  It should look like this when you're done.

Next you'll glue your large flower onto the 2" flower base.

So now your flowers are complete, for the finishing touches you can spray with shimmer mist, or something similar.

and add glitter to the petals using stickles or a glitter glue technique.  These I didn't add glitter to but on the previous ones I used the stickles pictured above.

If you have ANY questions just let me know!  I'd be happy to help in any way I can.  Thanks for visiting and if you use my tutorial link me and let me know, I'd love to see what you all create!