A Card Here, A Card There. Everywhere CARDS.

I've been rather scattered lately with posting what I've been up to. In all honesty I haven't quite had my MoJo lately. Talk about irritating. Work is starting to pick up and after working billions of hours for the two snow storms that came through, I have just been darn worn out. By the time I sit to craft I'm just not even sure where to start. I have been getting things done though, but that's where it stops- I don't post them on here and so forth, but fear not I have lots of fun things coming this spring!

Sharing a few cards I created last weekend. They are super simple and not too time consuming. Sorta just went through the motions on them- nothing too fancy.  Check back tomorrow for WOYWW! Then on Thursday I'll post a little tutorial on how I got the pretty wood grain paper I used on a few of these cards! Ubber simple and fun with a big impact!

Wood Grain tutorial here.

(sorry in advance on these pictures, but in this case something was better than nothing.)

Girly Keepsake/Jewelry Box

I had so much fun playing with this box. It's one of my Dollar Tree finds. I just adore them, I picked up like 8 of them when I came upon them last time, so I always have one when the mood strikes to play with one. I think this is just going to be so cute for a little keepsake/jewelry box for a little girl. Here is the box I altered months ago, it's much simpler than this box, but still just as great. Be sure to check back in tomorrow for an altered mailbox your just going to adore created for under $3!

I first painted the entire box with Tattered Angels Mists. I used 3 different shades of pinks on it. This added an extra girly element by making all of the wooden glimmer! I then began adding the Glitz pattern papers around the edges and the back. 

I then added the top piece of paper. I love that these boxes have a magnet closure already in them. So nifty. See that glimmer? Lovely!

Love this glimmer. I then added some pieces on the inside. 

I then added a few Pettaloo flowers, glitter center and knob to the top. I also added a mini glimmered girl figurine to it as well. 

I added some bling along the bottom as well, as what girl doesn't love a little bling. 

Maya Road Wing Mini Album

Like I said Tuesday... glitter glitter. I think maybe it's because these Maya Road chipboard albums just scream to me to have them girlied up (yep I am ignoring those little red "it's not a word lines" and going with it) and not my normal weathering, aging, clustering, etc. 

Okay so here is another completed album- keep in mine I say completed but I mean.. their not... haha. I'm not going to do much more to them other than a few minor charms and embellishments here and there. I often start a mini album, set it aside and work on the finer details of another.. is that weird? I mean just because I want to start it doesn't always mean that's where my Mojo wants to stay from start to finish in that sitting...does that make sense?

Honestly I've something kind of liberating with not going overboard on the mini's I have been doing. Sometimes I think I spend so much time on the "details" I miss the overall simple beauty. Does this happen to you as well in a world of having more and doing more? 

WOYWW- sharing today- check it out.

Craft Room Renovation Part 1 "The Shelves"

This is a poor excuse for WOYWW- however- I can't very well show the room when we haven't showed you how I got there. 

So in December I decided I needed to re-vamp my craft room. As I rent I know my options are somewhat limited to what I can do. I can't paint it the color I prefer for instances but I can bring in items that add a lot of character that later when I buy a house will still blend in a room and be mobile. That was a big thing for me. While I would love built in's that's just not an option right now. I don't want to put anything in that I can not remove and take with me!

Here's a tutorial and some of the do's and DO NOT's. There's going to be alot of these over the next week. I learned alot! There were ups and DOWNS. At one point I wanted to scream and sell it all! Not even kidding, it was frustrating. But a few steps back.. a few breaths... a few days and a few bottles of wine later... I'm happy to say the room is complete! 

These shelves I picked because they were cheap.. always a plus.. read below. They were also at the right height for me to use for a bar island style table. They were just what I needed also with all of the storage capabilities. Now these pictures are all taken in my living room . as are much of my renovation because New Years Eve.. my furnace decided to break and because of closings and life events, I worked in my living room most of the time with some space heaters going! Because nothing and I mean nothing was going to stop me from getting the room done before mid month! I was a woman on a mission.. and when the boyfriend gave me the eye... as though he was getting to question me gluing, using gesso, paint etc. in the living room I gave him a look of death.. and all was well again. 

I asked this year for Christmas for money to contribute to my room. Like I said I can't change the colors of the room but decided off the bat I wanted yellows in my room. I decided to go with some pattern papers at the back of these cube shelf units I bought. I got them for 35 percent off.. as they were both opened and I just asked the gal at walmart for a discount. One was also missing the hardware (it costs me 5 bucks to buy new hardware) but I got 17 dollars off! I collected some yellow and grey papers and cut them to size. 

I then... being smart as I am just began putting on the mod podge.... hmm do you see how it's not quite looking right?!?! Well that's because I skipped sanding the glossy cardboard back piece.. which caused the glue just to sit on top of the cardboard backing.. never really adhering to it. Remember when using anything with that shinny poly type coat on it.. you need to sand first. I could have attempted to sand it that way or take the whole thing apart and sand what needed done.....instead... I stepped back.. yelled some swear words, pulled the paper up... and moved on. 

BOOOOO I love this product- hate my stupidness!

See the bubbling?? That's what I was seeing with the mod podge. Now I'm not inexperienced in using this medium... it just didn't work for me and those papers and my forgetfulness to sand the back board. I ended up going a whole other route going with my trust Helmar 450 Quick Dry. It worked like a charm, I had bondage without having the tear about the shelves and sanding the back- and no bubble. 

I ended up loving how the came together. Pops of color on the bold black. Now be sure to stay tuned this week as all week I am going to be posting the renovation. 

Mechanics card and Happy Girl card

Here are two card I created for Co-workers. Nothing fancy but just short and simple. Love the instant coffee dyed doilies I made.

Altered Tin

So, my dear neighbor is on the verge of beginning her own business and is a bit nervous as any future self-employed person would be. I thought it would be nice for her to have something that will offer her encouragement, motivation and a little bit of inspiration for when she's feeling down about things or stressed or whatever. So, last night in about 15 minutes I created a simple tin for her to keep. Included in it are about 500 quotes and sayings. So there will be more than enough for one a day or many a day depending on the day.  Like I said maybe took me 15 minutes to create the tin, now........ cutting and folding and hand picking each and every quote that went in it to make sure it was relevant to her.... much much much LONGER. But all worth it in the end.

I'm hoping to get lots done this weekend but we'll see how it goes. I have a few Mary kay parties and then a finance class I'm teaching tonight.. and every Thursday night for the next 12 weeks. Sooooo I may consider moving Tutorial Thursday's.. but not sure yet.

This & That: Art Journal Page 4

If you have an art journal, smash book or whatever you want to call it you shoudl really check out "A Year in the life of an art journal." I'm not normally one for prompts, afterall no artists wants to me limited! However, this year I have been following along and found that playing with the prompts and twisting them the way only I can, has been quite refreshing. Allowing me to think outside of my normal box.  Here is February's 2nd prompt.

THE PROMPT: My Favorite Things

ie: a few of the things you LOVE about someone you love. Can be alive or dead.

THE STUFF: Lists and ephemera

ie: have a few tokens from that someone? Maybe the cover of the CD with "your song" or a napkin from the restaurant you both love to eat at...

THE TECHNIQUE: Pockets

ie: Use pockets to store those "things" on your page

I took this challenge very little and didn't read much into it or give it much thought. The first things that came to mind, you know that voice inside of you that says "I could..." Well as I read these prompts, I just went with it, I read a line and wrote down the very first things to come to my mind.

This is a little box of collected things I have. Odds and end and just things that I found that I love for one reason or another. I have a few of these boxes, because I'm hopeless. Anywho, a few details on how I met this prompt listed below! Thanks for looking!

Also don't forget about this month's giveaway! There's so many great goodies beign given away for simply posting a picture of your crafting space as well as posting about me on your blog and getting new followers to say you sent them! Anyways onward to the art journal page.

I hit a two for one here: one of my favorite things: bottle labels as I shared with my odd wine labels I also adore fun beer labels and peel them whenever I get a chance. Not budlight ones, but the fun labels! I also loved that this fell into the "ephemera" category.

I went with a super simple page. Labels layed as a background. Some letters I've collected over time, made of different things. Also added a little envelope with a cute receipt, this page is a bit more personal so I wrote about the person I love ont he back of it.

Tutorial Thurday (heavy photo tutorial post)

 19 (cause 19 is a fun odd number) things about me that might surprise you: Just to share.. hee hee, this is a long post... guess what..... it's good for you to learn more about the people you read each day... hahaha I often wish I knew more about people I read each week. haha

1. I love yoga pants, and have never owned a purse!!!

2. I haven't been in a bathing suit in public for almost 10 years, even though I weigh 120 pounds I hate the idea of being exposed in public. In fact first time I was married I cancelled wedding ceremony due to the same thing!

3. I had my son at 15, graduated HS at 16 and have 3 degrees

4. I at heart believe all people are good no matter what they've done

5. While at scrapbooking stores I sniff the paper, there's something all too wonderful about the smell of paper.

6. I met my boyfriend online, when I'd pretty much lost all hope in love or a relationship that would last forever. I waited 2 years before moving in with him. And have never been more in love then I current I am after 3 years with him.

7. I have a 11 year old lab and a rottweiler pup.

8. I haven't had a family picture taken in 5 years. I know I know, but I just hate them!

9. I don't eat sweets, okay on occassion, and I mean rarly I'll have some chocolate, but I do not eat honey buns, chocolate, donuts or anything sweet every for breakfast, not even pancakes unles stheir cold, a slab of butter and no syrup. I'm not big on cake either, even when we have it at work, I don't eat it. I do love some pumpkin pie though!

10. I haven't eaten ketchup since I was 12. I haven't had a soda since I was 15 (lol I know I'm odd. I stopped when 15 and never found a reason to return)

11. I've never eaten at an Olive Garden and until a few weeks ago had never eaten at a Applebees. LOL I prefer to find the hole in the wall awesome find places.

12. I've never gambled, at a casino or lottery or anything. I'm saving it until I'm 98 to play and win and then die the next day.. thank you alanis morsette.. hee hee

13. I've never been in any type of accident.

14. My children have never been to a doctor for being sick (since my son was 18 months and my daughter ever). not sure why just lucky I guess.

15. There's a donkey statue about a mile up the road on this gal's porch that I secretly wish I could steal. Ok not steal but i want it soo bad, saw it the day i moved here and now it almost mocks me! Trying to work up the nerve to go to her door and ask her to buy it. lol Haven't made it thus far yet.

16. I'm currently addicted to the following shows" House, the Voice, Army Wives, parenthood, happy endings, The new Girl, Modern Family, storage wars and Whitney.

17. If it has bacon, cheese or potato's or better yet all 3, I'll eat it.

18. My favorite color is yellow.

19. The most important!!!! I am a artist!  I try everything, even if I fail or the outcome isn't what you expected you will learn alot! Hence the name craft donkey. I'm a fighter and believe there is nothing I can not do! I can do it, may take many tried but I can!

This is a testimate to number 19. I'm not saying this was a fail at all. Because it's not at all, it's a great learning process. However, the outcome isn't exactly as I had planned. Still wonderful in it's own way! Learned alot  and can't wait to experiment more! I thought I would share with all of you as you're my people. I share my success's and my not so great moments with you all. I recently have been following tim Holtz and his announcement that he'll no longer be doing the 12 tags of Christmas and instead will be doing the 12 tags of 2012. His first tag of February inspired me to create other than a tag. he used a wonderful heart on it and it inspired me to try some of the wonderful book art I have seen. Here is my tutorial on it and some hints to help you if you wish to try. Following it, are some of my inspirations to try this task! I have tons of ideas for it in the future!

Post a comment on this post and have a chance to win................... these great Prima flowers!!!! Winner will be announced on Friday morning! And don't forget to check out how to win the fab February giveaways by sharing about my blog as well as sharing your craft space.

Get a book and then strip the cover from it.

Trace a shape. I choose something simple to start and did a heart shape. I then took my craft knife in combo with scissors and cut through the book pages. Please remember to be frickin careful if you try this. A slip of a page or anything and you can seriously mess yourself up SO PLEASE BE CAREFUL! I'm sure those long time followers remember last year when I cut off the the tip of my finger and it was stitched back on, of course I still found a way to craft, none the less it took 6 months before I had full use of it and feeling to it! So the next images are frickin nasty but I only show them because I love every one of you and want you to always be safe!

OK WE ALL GET TO BE SAFE NOW RIGHT... ok good. Lets move on!

Keep cutting the shape out in sections, little by little.

Don't worry about how rough it looks we'll address that later.

Now you have it all cut out. A piece of advice from my learning. Choose a nice fat thick book. I found mine wasn't as thick as I had desired for the effect I wanted.

Be prepared for a hella mess.... as seen here.

I then took the whole piece and sanded it against a very gritty/coarse sand paper. This will help alot with the uneven edges. it help then doing sections of it to also clip it to keep its shape as you sand.

Not take the cover. I added masking tape layers to the spine as when I pulled the book pages out I tore alittle too much. So I used the tape to reinforce it.

I then applied gessi to the entire book, front and back.

I then covered one side of the book in Helmar 450... hello happiness in the most amazing glue ever! What you haven't tried it? Remember you have a chance to win some this month!

I then crumpled some 7-Gypsies tissues paper.

Then applied it to the book cover, below you will see what it looked like when I flipped it over and glued it down as well. Trim excess pieces and make it work how you want to.

What it looks like.

I then covered all of the tissue in extra heavy gel medium.

I cute and distressed up some left over paper from my wine layout.

I glued the center pages together to ensure it didn't have the gap in the center from images pages I had pulled, in retrospect, I would not have glued these together if I could do it again and would instead put smalled heart book pages inside of this set.

Glued to the spine of the book.

Glues down one side of the heart and then the other.

Smoosh and clamp.

Now like I said this was a learning experience. As you can see it's not really great looking. Now the book itself is not done, however I can't really tell it's a heart unless I'm looking at it the right way. Live and learn. None the less I'll be doing it again!

Here were what inspired me to try this task. Amazing right? Now I do understand these books are mostly bent pages but well lets say i was pretty sure cutting would be easier.. lol