Howdy Ho Everyone!

We are almost thru another week, can you believe it?  As much as I don't want to admit it, it's getting closer to Christmas.  It's almost September ~ eek!!  I do enjoy Fall, it is my absolute favorite time of year.  The crispness in the air, the beautiful colors and the coming of sweater and sweatshirt weather.  When I was younger (and a lost smaller) I used to love summer - but now that I'm old (ugh...) I just don't enjoy the heat anymore.  Ok, enough of me babbling ~ you didn't come here for that.  Let's get to something crafty shall we?

These little notepads I made with some of that "special" paper that we all have.  You know the paper that you just love and just cant put it in the cutter and use it ~ this is that paper for me.  Danielle had purchased some paper a while back at a sale and she split it with me.  The paper is from K&Company called Berry Sweet and it's just adorable.

I took some thin chipboard and covered it with the paper and Mod Podge and let it sit overnight under some heavy books.  The next day I used my BIA and put it together and decorated it. 

I used ribbon, primas, buttons, chip board accents from American Crafts, felt flowers, jewels, stickers and accent cutouts from my Storybook cartridge.

What I did was let these dry overnight because I covered the front and backs of both the front and back covers.  Then the next day I added the word "notes" and used Mod Podge again to seal the stickers.  I waited about a half hour to dry well enough then decorated them. 

When I made things like this I like to Mod Podge over the top to help seal the letters and just to protect the journal in general.  Trust me, nothing can penetrate Mod Podge - I've found that out the hard way.

I hope that you liked my little books ~ Come back tomorrow for something else that's "berry" sweet too!

Have a super great day!

Happy Friday

Woo-Hoo today is Friday. It seems like this week has taken forever to finish. It was hubby's 1st week back to work after shut down. They close down the plant every July for maintenance and such ~ and this was his first week back after 9 days of being home. Let me tell you after getting to sleep in for that long then going back to getting up at the crack of dawn to get him going was hard. I feel sorry for my daughter who's got to go back to school soon ;-)


Well, here's my first card to show you today. I made this card using my TAC set Kid's Praises.

I started off with the scor-pal and made some score line on the piece of cs. Then a nifty little trick that I learned from Mel over at Mel Stampz was to use a crayon to highlight over the score marks. My daughter, yes even still at 16 loves to color ~ so I "borrowed" her crayons to do this.

I colored the image with my pencils and gamsol, layered it on to the card with scrap pieces from the Mimi paper collection with a length of ribbon and I was done. Quick and easy.


Here is a card that I somewhat cased from Becca over at Amazing Paper Grace. I just love all of the layers on her cards. And everything is always so pretty.

The base card is Creamy Caramel. It is layered with Chocolate Chip, Really Rust and a piece of DP that I have no idea where it came from - but I like it.

I punched the scallop circles with my Mega and Giga punches. Then I punched a square with my 1 3/8" square punch out of the center of the rust panel. I punched another square with my 1 1/4" punch in Creamy Caramel and the acorn with the 1" square punch. I glued down the Chocolate Chip panel then the ribbon and tied a knot and then used pop dots to place the Really Rust panel down. Once I did that I doubled the layers of pop dots under the acorn and placed that down in the center. I used my word window punch to punch out the sentiment and I "made" another word window punch in Really Rust to go under that and glued that down in the corner.


I want to leave you today with a few of the things that I've been working on to sell at the Peddler's Mall. It seems that the notepads and post it notes are good items to sell. So here are a few that I've made to put there.

This batch I used my SU! paper Au Chocolat. I just love this paper, and if I knew where to get my hands on more I would.....

These are post it note holders with matching clips.





Here are some more post it note holders. I covered the coasters with some TAC paper from the Brighten my Day collection. I also made the little clips to hold them to the coaster and beaded pens.

These are along the same lines as the post it note holders ~ just note pads. I covered some chipboard with paper from TAC's Uptown Girl collection with the clips. I thought that the ribbon was perfect to go with the paper.

And last but not least more post it note holders. This one I used TAC's Rustic Chic paper. I just love how it looks all distressed and you don't have to do a thing to it! These are a little bit more "fancy" than the others :)

I wanted to say that there is a whole world out there of knowledge. I can say that since we've moved here I have not been able to attend any stamp shows or classes. I miss the stamp shows that we used to go to in California ~ but everything that I've learned since then has been off the Internet. So even if you make something and you thing "nah - I won't post that" please do. You never know who might be out there just wanting to re-create what you just made!

Now if I can stay off the computer long enough today, maybe I could create something!

Have a great day!
Hugs,
Joani

Busy busy busy!!

I just thought that I'd show you what I've been up to this past weekend.

I've been busy making things to sell if you remember at a local Peddler's Mall. Well, so far I've got cards, small notebooks, post it note holders, pens and paintcans. I feel that there is still something missing - something more that I want to make, but I just cant put my finger on it. Of course it will come to me after I take this stuff down and put it in the booth.

These are some if the post it note holders and the notepads that I did. They of course have matching pens with them. For the bag toppers I am going to try my first attempt at making my own rub-ons. I think that I might put something like "a little gift from me to you" on the top. Or something to that effect.


There is so many different papers that I have used it's not funny. So I'm sorry if I can't list everything. BUT, I can tell you that the little notebook right here with the word "notes" in white and the one on the top picture in the middle have the papers used from the Catelynne collection from TAC™. That's one of my favorite papers I think.

Another of my projects was to do some paint cans. I will let you know that the cheapest place I've found paint can's are at Sherman Williams. They are just up the street from me. They are only $1.60 per can for the quart cans. I know the last time I looked at Lowe's they were $3.00 each!!

I wanted to show you an up close look at this can. I "colored" in the image with stickles. I thought that it gave it a cute little touch. The bee on the lid also has stickles on his wings ~ but the picture does not show it. I think I need a new camera.







Here's a look at the front's of the paint cans. I love the brads with the crystals in them ~ I don't use them too much on my cards because they stick out so much and I'm afraid of sending them thru the post office. I know to mark "hand cancel" on them but sometimes they still get damaged.

Well, I hope that you like what you see and I hope that it inspires you to create something nice today. I'm off to create!
More tomorrow.