WCMD Challenge #4 Australia

My great grandmother, on my mom's side, was born in Australia in 1859. Although she did not live there for many years of her life, I have always been intrigued with the country of her birth.

For the past three years my preschool has taken a trip around the world during the summer and every year we visit Australia! It has been so great learning about the different animals and live there. The children really love it.

The base of this card reminds me of the dirt in the outback ~ a rich burnt orange. I cut the birds out from a patterned paper I had and added the outline in white paint. The edges of all the elements are inked with Time Holtz Tea stain (LOVE IT!), adding another color from the outback. In addition, I randomly inked the base of the card with the Tea stain.

Enjoy!

WCMD Challenge #2 Mexico

I was inspired by the "Celebrations" of Mexico. Mexico loves holidays and celebrates them all in a big way.

One of my closest friends boy is having a birthday this week and I thought what a great opportunity to make a birthday card.

I used 3-d foam dots to add some dimension to the "cake", balloons and to the ends of a couple of the pennants.

I used glitter to add another dimension to the balloons.

WCMD Challenge #1 Japan

My inspiration for this card is two fold ~ a Tree and a beloved Aunt.

My parents had this beautiful flowering cherry tree in their backyard when they lived in Washington State. For eight years I had the joy of watching this tree bud and blossom every spring with its abundance of delicate pink flowers. I loved that tree!

Some of my earliest memories are of spending time at my Uncle Richard and Aunt Toshi's house with my sisters. What a cultural experience! My aunt was from Japan and there was always some sort of interesting food to be had at their house. I loved her little Japanese garden with its Kio pond in the backyard. There was always adventure to be had inside. Aunt Toshi had the largest collection of fabric I have ever seen. My sisters and I would play and sort and resort these fabrics while visiting.



The branch is a depiction of the buds on that beautiful tree my parents had. I used my Cricut cut the branch out and added gems to represent the buds. The dotted lines I inked down this paper are very reminiscent of a weeping cherry tree. Inside the scalloped frame is a charm with a "Lucky" Kio fish, which reminded me of my Aunts pond. All of the edges are inked with Tim Holtz Tea Stain.

WCMD Challenge #3: India

I have taken some time to get back on track! With so many irons in the fire, my creative juices were almost drained.

My sister Michelle gave me a much needed creative boost this week. Thanks Sister! My creative juices are now running full force (YEAH!)

This is my interpretation of the WCMD Challenge #3: India. When I think of India I think of sari's in bold prints prints, beautiful henna tattoo's and jewels.

I used my Cricut to cut an intricate boarder around a flower stamp mimiking a henna tattoo. I then pulled the blue color from the floral background paper by marking in the flower. The strip on the left side of the card is a flower stamp with a flourish, repeated and jazzed up with some jewels.

My goal for this design was to embody the beauty of sari, henna tattoos, and the jewel the women of India are know for. In my mind that is a goal completed!

Enjoy!

Monogram Me

It is hard to believe that school will be starting in just a little over a week! What a whirlwind summer I have had.

With the preschool full and a new teacher in place, I am ready for the school year to begin. I am so excited about the Scrap Clubs starting! For just a few bucks a week, kids get to scrap and craft on Wednesday afternoons for Bend schools and Friday afternoons for Redmond schools.

I taught a Back-to-School Class today. It was fun! Six girls in total. They each made a bookmark, a backpack tag, and a journal with their own monogram. Once again I was impressed with how individual each item was from the example I had made. Options are the key. Even though we all had the same materials, the paper I selected was double sided and I let everyone make their own choice on what side they wanted to use.

During this class I decided to join in the fun - what better way to demo a technique than to do it live and in person. OK - so my original plan was to make the demo's with my neice Madeline's initial, I forgot and used my own. As I wanted to make one to send to her, I figured that I would just do a live demo and kill two birds with one stone! I am glad that I did she is going to love it!

Takin' a Break

When I have a really crazy day I love to shout, "Stop the planet, I want to get OFF!." Not that I really do, it just makes me laugh and go on about life...

In addition to my Preschool, my husband and I own a Home repair business. I hold the contractor license and Cecil is the muscle (ok he does all the heavy work). Things have been totally slow and the state of Oregon has once again changed the playing field. Renewal time is just too stressful! I am happy to say that all the paperwork is signed sealed and delivered (almost it just needs a stamp!). Whew!!!

All that paperwork really zapped my creative juices, so I decided to spend most of my day with my neice Karlie. We played a computer game for most of the day (thanks goodness I have employees that allow me times to get away)! Besides Karlie and myself, Feona, and Miss T helped us out at different times. My hubby even got into it with Kar and Fe. What a great day!

It felt so good to have a day that I was able to take a break from the pressures of "stuff"!

I already feel relaxed and ready for tomorrow!

Let the Scrapping Begin

Finally! I have started a new project. I began working on my Wednesday Scrap Club for Kids projects.

Today I began working on the album keeper. I thought that this was going to be an easy project, boy was I wrong! I am fairly new to mod podge, oh sure I used it in the '70's (dating myself there), but I have not used it in a long time. Refreshing myself with the best way to go about it.

To begin with, it was difficult to get my paper to stay on the cereal box. I am not sure if I used to much mod podge or the paper was too thin or if the cereal box was not stiff enough. Whatever the problem is I am not digging it! The paper is wrinkled and it does not look like I thought that it would. Bummer!

I will have to consult with Sherry tomorrow to see where I went astray. So much for simplicity. Maybe I am just to done in from my busy day.

A Class Act

Wow! It is already Tuesday evening. The week is almost half over and I have yet to get crafty. So I hit Scrappin' - Along and got some supplies. Sherry had the most adorable themed school paper that I could not resist.



This picture does not do it justice. The papers have red foil embellishments that are not visible in the picture.

I haven't created anything this week....yet, but I have been busy planning classes and coming up with projects using my inspiration items.

In an effort to save money, our local school district has, for the past several years, had an early release day on Wednesdays. What an opportunity to start a Scrap Club (or two!) for Kids! The first club will be themed monthly paper bag albums! The afore mentioned paper will be our first album! Can't you just see it as a back-to-school album?!

My idea is that our club will meet once a month, make an album, and scrap some pictures into it. To get the whole ball rolling, in our first class we will make an album keeper out of an old cereal box! I am so excited. Of course we will have to use the Cricut! The possibilities are endless!

I am anxious to get started while the ideas are still churning!

Look for the album keeper and first album coming soon!

A New Medium

OK, so it isn't new, it is renewed! I am a big time recycler, both at home and at my preschool. One of my new discoveries has been repurposing items.

Honestly, I hadn't really given this idea any thought until my neices and a little friend went to our local children's museum, Working Wonders. Karlie wanted to spend some time in the craft area, so we all followed her. It was here that I discovered the world of repurposing. My eyes were opened to the idea that I didn't have to just recycle items, but I could use them in different ways and make them Beautiful! (Who knew!)

Cecil had bought himself a new wallet that came in a tin container. He asked me if I wanted it, I did, and I began my first repurposing project. I cannot express what fun I had making my little album.

My hubby and I enjoy getting away to the Oregon Coast whenever we can and I love to take pictures, so what we would come home with is a ton of new pictures! With so many piling up, I had the perfect subject for my new project.

Here is a shot of the front and the first few pages. In addition to repurposing the tin, I used several techniques new to me. On page three, my friend Sherry showed me how to make a sand box (collected from an Oregon Beach) - Thanks Sherry - What a fun interactive addition that was. I had recently discovered Tim Holtz's Fragments (Love 'em!) and used them everywhere! The fragments really made the pages stand out. The album turned out much better than I imagined and my Husband LOVES IT!

The next two shots are of the album fanned out. (Not the best shots, but I am working on that!)

All of that to say, I am gearing up for class ideas using recycled items or repurposing items. I spent a few moments wondering around the house and gathered up some items of inspiration. Here are a few items that caught my eye.

I am excited to see what I can come up with using these items - paper bags, tin can, bottle cap, Gift Card tin, coffee cup cozy, and a cereal box.

Come back soon to see what these items become!

Whew!

What a day! As a person who does not really enjoy shopping (Yes, I really said that!), I had a surprisingly pleasent day of shopping. My pantry is full, my tummy is full, and I am ready to roll with something creative!

I have several ideas on the back burner, but I need to get a few kits together first. A few weeks ago, I taught a class for kids called Clip-It! and I promised my friend and owner of Scrapin'-Along, Sherry, that I would put a few together for her store, so I had better get that done before I get sidetracked!

This is the finished project. My beautiful neice, Bailey on one side and her adorable sister Karlie on the other! These were so much fun to make! I really got a charge out of how everyone personalized their own. What a great gift idea for a grandparent!!

I personally had fun putting the kit together. I really enjoyed using my new "toy" a Cricut Expression. Love it!! I use it almost daily - Thanks Cecil - Love you! My husband suprised me a little over a month ago with the Cricut. His reasoning was "You needed it!" How right he was!! Anyhow, I was able to cut out all the flowers and stars (for the boys Clip-It!) and was done in record time.

Can't wait until the Monogram class in two weeks!! Cricut, here I come.......after I get the kits done!

Let's Get Creative!

Join me on my journey as I Get Creative.

I love, love, love, to do paper crafts! Using my skills as a teacher and my love of repurposing (recycling), I am always coming up with something fun to create!

This week my 8 year old neice wanted to make something for her cousin's birthday, so we put our heads together and came up with a project. I had just taught a kids class at my Favorite Scrapping Store, Scrappin'-Along, and Kar thought that the paper bag album I had designed, would be just the thing!

Kar brought all of her scrap stuff with a few borrowed things from her mom, and we set about making the most adorable album ever! Kar is a very creative gal and has a design style that is uniquely her (I love this about her!), so this album really reflected her style, which I totally LOVED!

What a week of creativity!