Out With the Old: Some Unshared Projects From 2014

Hello!  I was organizing some photos the other day, as I was tucking 2014 into bed, and realized I had some projects that I hadn't shared here!  Would you like to have a look-see at some of my favorites?

Mini Albums

I love this mini album I made to record memories of a trip to visit my dear friend Christine in Denver. I adore the rustic piano hinge binding that I made using twigs that I gathered from the birch tree in my front yard.

Another dear mini album is the one I made for my dad for his 70th birthday.  Yeah, the cover doesn't really match the style of the interior pages, but I'm ok with that.  The focus of this project was to express the love I have for my dad, and I think that I conveyed that pretty well.

While presenting in front of a whole lot of family, I didn't want to provide explanation for this "Do Not Poke the Bear" card from Cocoa Daisy.  But, growing up my dad always referred to my mom as "The Bear", and during those smarmy teenage years he would often coach me not to provoke her with my attitude.  :)

Art Journal

I worked quite a bit in my art journal this year, and most everything in it was black and white work. I practiced sketching and shading, and I doodled and journaled.  

Scrapbook Layouts

Here are a handful of layouts to peruse.  I think all the seasons of the past year are represented, though chronological scrapping is not my thing.  My guides are emotion, nostalgia, and pretty paper.

I love that these kids truly love each other.
I hear them say it to each other all the time.

Love this bouquet of dried sage flowers picked up on a local walk.

Blaze loves the beach! It's nice to finally have a kid that enjoys it as much as I do.

Documented Bliss*
*Mine, not hers.

Jillian's costume from Halloween 2013 finally scrapped

Dorking out, just because it keeps me entertained.

Aw, sweet little ol' me.

Off-the-Page Projects

We started 2014 off with a fun commissioned project for our new local scrapbook store.  Anna, one of the other design team members, Mike and I worked together to build a huge magnetic chalkboard for the store's grand opening.  It was so fun to work on this project with Mike.  I must say, as difficult as they were, I truly miss those years where we worked side by side creating and running his bike company.  :)

Photo by Tonya Wade

 Here is a cute little gifty inviting a friend to Tea for Two.  I love that I had a couple of teabags from Trader Joe's whose tags perfectly matched the paper I used.  It's Ginger Pear White Tea, if you are interested.  Pretty good with a vanilla and white chocolate biscotti.

This was a failed attempt to do some free-motion sewing, challenged by the One Little Word blog to create something inspired by the word "aspire".  I didn't continue the piece, annoyed by puckering, impatience, and lack of stabilizer.  But I enjoyed the practice, and will keep at it.

In the meantime I finished these pillows for our sofa, which I hand-emboidered with the artsy look of free-motion sewing.  Mike drew the dogs for me and I traced them onto the fabric along with the words "sit" and "stay".  I crocheted a scalloped trim, and hope they send a welcoming invitation to our guests.

 Aw, here is Blaze modeling how to use one properly.  :)

This is another commissioned piece made for a teacher's retirement.  The kids later added their thumbprints as foliage to the tree.  

I love these little Halloween trees!  My favorite part are the tree stumps made from wine corks.  I painted the corks black and scribbled on them with gold glitter glue--totally looks like bark!!

Also, for the love of all things pumpkin, I crafted these wire pumpkins and tacked them to canvases.  One canvas I painted orange, and the other I left primed white.  I rather like both of them!

Here is another wine cork craft.  I made these cute place cards as a design team project for Craft Envy.  Just a simple circle folded into a rectangle and slipped into a slit cut into the cork.  

And finally, a gingerbread luminaria, which has been on my bucket list for a dozen or more years.  I had seen them in a Sunset magazine long ago, tried, failed, and have long lost the magazine.  I was able to come up with a great "construction" gingerbread recipe online that made for much more predictable and sturdy pieces.

So, there you have it, assuming someone actually made it to the end of tis monstrous post!  It is my intention to share more regularly in 2015.  I will be sure to put out more manageable sized chunks of content.  No one should have to take a potty break in the middle of a blog post!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Reality Bites

Ah, aging...It's a wonderful thing!  Maturity, wisdom, life experience...

And...TRIFOCALS???  Are you kidding me???

Well, for the love of Lisa Loeb, at least there are cute frames out there to accommodate the progressive lenses I've come to require.  :)

Also love that printed overlay--perfection!

I adored this glittery paper from My Mind's Eye the moment I saw it (with my fresh new spectacles) and knew I had to document this little "progression" in my life.

And to drive home the aging theme, how 'bout titling this layout with an apt reference to the 1994 film which launched Lisa Loeb's single "Stay" to Number 1 on the charts, a song that still resonates today as much as it did 20 years ago.

If not my eyesight, I can only hope the rest of me has as much longevity.  :)

For the Love of Pumpkin

Ah, 'tis the season!!  

All hail the mighty pumpkin!!  

That gorgeous gourd of gastronomic gratification!!  

I love you!!  

And I know I am not alone in this love affair.  Trader Joe's, my favorite grocery store has a seasonal offering of 63 (63!!!) pumpkin related items.  Jillian and I went in there the other day and bought 9 of them:

• Pumpkin Cereal
• Pumpkin Oatmeal
• Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
• Pumpkin Cereal Bars
• Pumpkin Macarons
• Pumpkin Scone Cookies
• A Harvest Salad kit with Pumpkin Seeds, Pumpkin Croutons, and Pumpkin Dressing
• Pumpkin Croutons (the sample offered was so yummy we knew we needed more)
• Pumpkin Body Butter (not for eating, but I smell delicious wearing it, and it is divinely light and creamy)

I commemorated our haul with a scrapbook layout.   It's a Design Team project for Craft Envy, my local scrapbook store, using Simple Stories "Sweater Weather" collection, and some bits of packaging from a couple of the pumpkin products. 

There are so many pretty papers in this collection!  I made this card taking inspiration from one of the cute Fall motifs included on the coordinating sticker sheet, sketching out a large acorn.  By stitching around the outline, the paper piecing is "instantly" unified.  A perfect project while watching an episode of The Walking Dead, counting my blessings that we are not having to deal with the zombie apocolypse at this time.  ;)

And, the inside:

Love that little squirrel.  The line also features an adorable hedgehog and fox.
But the papers are not "cutesy" and have a lot of versatility. ;)

So, excuse me now, darling as I go off to graze on some of the pumpkin-wonderfulness we've got in the kitchen.  Then it's back to the store, because this will be me come late December: 

Borrowed from the Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer Advertising Circular.

Thank you for visiting!

Sweet 17 Mini

Hello, friends!  As I am still in disbelief that I have a 17 year old kid, and I had a bunch of pictures from her birthday that I still wanted to scrap, AND I had some of that Twirly Girly paper yet to use, I decided to craft up a little mini book/accordion display to further commemorate the milestone and maybe even slap myself back into reality, come to terms with the fact that:  Your baby girl ain't no baby no more, Lisa! 

I started out with 4 manila tags and randomly scraped gesso on each side of them.  Once dry, I applied various colors of mist to each in a random-ish way, encouraging drips and drying each color before adding the next.

Using a bit of masking tape to position 2 tags side by side while keeping a millimeter or two between them, I used my sewing machine to zigzag-stitch the tags together.  I added on a third tag, and then the fourth, creating an easy free-standing accordion which could also be folded into a small book.

  

Embellishing was easy-peasy with a couple of circle punches and a piece of gold striped vellum from My Mind's Eye and the word sticker sheet that coordinates with the Chickaniddy papers.

What wasn't so easy for me was figuring out how I wanted the pictures to look.  I tried full color, muted color, and sepia toned, and finally committed to black and white.  Jillian had just purchased a couple KAISERfusion alcohol markers, and still not satisfied with the look of the pix, I decided to try the pink one out on a photo.  I love how it turned out!

Matthew, my silly nephew, making goofy faces and photobombing his grandpa.  :)
"Ha-ha, kid, now you're on my blog!" 

As on the layout poster earlier, I think the papers needed a little something, and the sparkle from a clear Gelly Roll pen was just that thing.

Because the mini has an accordion fold it can open like a book in both directions.  I made a little strap   to go around it and hold it closed with a loop and toggle when not out on display.  The toggle was made with a small piece of a paper straw.  I threaded some baker's twine through, then crimped the each end of the straw around the twine.  A few pounces on the table to flatten the end and that straw is attached quite securely in place.

I held the toggle on the edge of the folded book, wrapped the twine around and tied a loop for it to slide through and secure the book closed.  A generous dab of glue on the back of the knot keeps the contraption attached to the front cover.   Pretty clever, eh?  I admit I am pretty proud of myself. ;)

Thank you for coming by to check out this little mini!
Have a great day!