New Year...

new calendar. I really admire people who work in/on an artistic journal every day. Every year I have aspirations of working on an art journal. Creating little doodles and writing funny quotes. They even make special Bibles now that are created solely for art journaling. You've all seen them I'm sure. A-dorbs. I have also seen several examples of where people have used calendars.... well, who doesn't have one of those? It was on.
I grabbed my dollar store calendar and some cheap water color paint and gave every page of my calendar a different wash of color. I had to reinforce the center of each calendar page with some washi tape to keep the pages neatly intact in the book. The dollar store calendars are made with super cheap paper...

 But alas, you have to know your limitations-- and your attention span.

The appeal was fading fast...

I pulled out a couple of my favorite stamps, a bow to stamp on family birthdays-- can't forget those. Also a pig with wings... because lets face it that is down right funny. I wrote in birthdays, anniversaries and other special upcoming events...

and now? Now, I'm over it. I realize the prep work of each page is done and the fun part is the adding of the glitter pens, paper do dads etc... but I'm over it. I am however delighted with the colorful calendar pages-- so it isn't a total loss.
How on earth do people do this for an entire year?
big hugs,
 

Paper Wreath

I have wanted to make a paper cone wreath for a long-long time.. no time like the present right? I didn't really overthink this project and just used the materials I had on hand. The book pages I used for each cone were a smidge on the brittle side but in the end it all worked out. I like the yellowed color of the books pages and didn't want something pure white as I was planning on hanging it on a stark white wall. (if it turned out) I like to address a new craft endeavor with the attitude, "If it doesn't work out, I'm just going to toss it out." No pressure... just give something new a try. Actually the book I used was my glue pad for my hot glue gun. I pull off the front and back covers of a book and then I place my hot glue gun on the book--- and as the hot glue gets a page messy, I just tear it off and toss the hot glue mess in the trash. Works like a charm.
I premade a lot of cones ahead of time and then just glued them on one at a time in place. I thought I made enough cones... nope, it took a bazillion, a bazillion and one actually.

The first round of cones went down easily enough. I not only glued it to the round of cardboard base but I also put a spot of glue between each cone to help keep them uniform in shape.

The next row of cones were placed on the wreath while being mindful not to cover up each opening of the previous cones. It took a little bit of fiddling with the first two cones, but after that I figured out where to hot glue it so it was uniform. I kept adding cones to each round of the wreath...
 
The center was a little harder as the cones didn't want to fit so nicely together. I used the same size cones as the previous rows, but the remaining rows I squeezed the cones at the base to create an almost boxed end which actually made the cones a little narrower while keeping the same cone shape.

As you can see the wreath turned out, so it is hanging on my fireplace and not in the trash. I love it. The only down side is it is fragile and I suspect a dust magnet....

big hugs,

Crochet Projects

It has been steadily raining recently which of course just makes me camp out in front of my little space heater (swoon) and crochet. I love that little heater. My six year old grand daughter requested some crocheted slipper boots last month. I had been searching online for what seemed like for-ever to find a boot pattern to no avail. I had to actually buy an ankle- boot pattern off of someone on Etsy and then modify it to create the tallness to make a boot. Now that I've worked that pattern I am pretty sure I can whip up my own boot patterns in the future.

After finishing up the boots I turned my attention to a few granny squares that I had previously made and had stashed away in one of my many bins of yarn. This particular granny square has a three dimensional daisy in the center. It was fun to create, but once the pattern was no longer a challenge, I lost interest in it.  

 I only had to make three more to create this crocheted tote. It was like pulling teeth to do it though, and when I finished the three, I realized I had made one with the wrong color. Poo-- I had to rip that out and remake it.

 I thought it was going to be an "easy whip up"... but it was actually very time consuming to add another row of white around each square and then join them together... and then of course make the two straps. I must say though, seeing the bag finished felt great. Miss Chloe is the recipient of that too.... a perfect bag to hold some stuffies.

 Here is my grand daughter Chloe creating some art at my house the other day wearing her new crochet boots. I was delighted to see her using a pencil when she was coloring. Not so long ago, I told her that a pencils color is a great color to use in art.... I'm glad she listens to me about important stuff like that *wink*

I found a cute crochet owl pattern that I'll probably whip up next. I should clean off my work table so I can start making some jewelry. I have several projects that I am wanting to try my hand at for my silversmithing class... but alas, a messy desk just doesn't bode well for working on silver.
big hugs,

Treasure

The weather forecast for this weekend is rain. Hooray. Although I'll be missing out on my weekly trip to the swap meet... I must say, I won't be bored. I went to a few thrift stores today and came home with a lot of treasures. I bought six bags of crafting stuff. Each bag was $9.95.... a smidgen pricey for a thrift store. Whatev- You know how much these items are when you buy them one at a time.. so I figured it was worth the gamble.
 
On Amazon just these two items shown below sell for.... the Scraparatus $24.99 and the Craft-lite Cutter $44.49.  The combined total would have been $69.48. The combined total on the six bags was a little over $60.00.... so, everything else was "free."
 
Oodles and oodles of ribbons and flower pieces... All. Brand. New. 

Card maker's paper, blank cards and envelopes, foam sheets, stickers, fabric stickers, patches... All. Brand. New.

Stamps with the clear placement block. Yep, brand new. I love these :-)

Packets of rub on letters... new.

Lots and lots of rub on letters... 
 
Chipboard kits

and random embellishments.

My absolute favorite out of everything in the bags is the Scraparatus. This little jewel I never knew I needed - it sets eyelets, punches holes and even DIE CUTS. Swoon~ in the photo below you can see the die cuts on the key chain. They are called "Dinky dies." Adorable. There are a lot of youtube videos showing all the wonderful things you can do with it... so  I'm stoked.
 
In the bags were several K & Company items, these are always fun to pop on packages and cards. There is also some paper from this company somewhere in one of the piles.

Tons and tons of brads...  all brand new in the packages. There is even a little case to house them once I rip into the little bags.

A paper tagger with all the plastic attaching thingies...
 Paper piercing items...

These embellishments made using painters stir sticks. I would have never bought them intentionally-- but I'm sure I'll find some gift or card to attach them to in the future.
 
Santa came early... bring on the rain.... I'm reading to play indoors this weekend.
big hugs,
 

Outdoor Cat Bed For Winter

It has been getting so cold and rainy lately that I wanted a warm place for my outside kitties to hang out if they got caught in the rain. I ended up making two cat beds.... although one won't use it at all! At least it is there if ever he decides to.
They were super easy to make, and super cheap too. I just cut a good size hole in the side of a plastic tub and lined the entire thing with some Styrofoam. You can buy different thicknesses of Styrofoam from Home Depot. This particular sheet ran around $8.00. If I remember correctly, it was about 4' x 6' in size... and gave me enough to create two with a lot left over.  After I cut the opening, I thought it was a little to big. Luckily, I had an extra foam pipe cover in the garage so I used that to adhere to the opening to make it smaller. The two edges of the foam pipe cover had adhesive on it so it attached firmly to the plastic tub easily.

The next thing I did was to measure the inside of the tub and cut the Styrofoam to fit.

 I joined the seams of the Styrofoam using wood skewers. I just pushed the skewer in about 3 inches and snipped off the excess.
I used a blanket that one of the cats had been sleeping on so it was familiar to her...

I laid a piece of Styrofoam on top so it would be easy to access the inside at a later date for cleaning. Lastly, I popped on the plastic tub lid and it was finished.
Puss-Puss took to it right away.
Bear was insulted...

I put my hand inside the one my cat Puss-Puss was sleeping in... it was like a sauna, like a sweat box. Nice and toasty :-)
big hugs,
 

Vintage Cards at Christmas

It isn't a secret that I adore vintage cards. I've been collecting vintage ephemera for years and years. I love old vintage documents, vintage books, but I have a soft spot for greeting cards. Some with vibrant colors, some with glitter and then of course the pastels... swoon~

At some point in your life, you've got to stop collecting and start using the good stuff. What are you saving it for? If you don't use now, you know what is going to happen to all your fabulous treasure? When your dead and buried all your wonderful junk treasures will all be sold at a yard sale for .25¢ each or $1.00 a bag. How many estate sales have you gone to and bought treasure for .25¢ each or fill a bag of stuff for a dollar? I know, I know.... *insert the circle of life music here*

I have several totes of unused vintage cards, you could say I've been hoarding them. Its true. I even have them sorted by events such as Christmas, anniversaries, birthdays etc. I also have several totes of used cards too that I'm going to use... eventually~

 I DO however like to send vintage cards to people for the holidays and birthdays. Some people love them... some I am sure are offended. You just can't live your life trying to please some people- so I don't even try. *wink* On the backside of each card I adhere an address label stating that the card is a "Vintage Rescued Card" with my blog name and the web link.
I used the Avery.com website were they give you free templates to use to print out return labels. They have other free templates on their site as well so you can print all kinds of super neat things.

I have a huge collection of Christmas cards to pull from every year. The cards are little works of art in my opinion. The envelopes are a bit ratty though....

I am in the process of making a LOT of red envelopes using red card stock so I can send out my Christmas cards this year.

Seriously, I should just go to the dollar store and buy 20 cards for a buck. *wink*
I've linked up to My Salvaged Treasures "Vintage Inspiration Party." 
big hugs,