ALAS it's not always soo pretty....

So, like many of you out there... I rarly take pictures of thigns at their worst. But, with this blog I think its only appropiate to share the good as well as the bad. This is some of the "bad". This is my scrappin area when its not necessarily in use. Here's what happens.. I have no tv or radio in my area and sometimes it's sorta lonely in my little "nook". It's only about a 6ft by 5ft area. So, sometimes I pull thigns to work on a project into my livivngroom onto a craft table and work on a project.. byt he end I'm not feelign up to putting everythign away so it sorta gets put whereever there is a little space for it.. as you can see there's not much space persay. I like to share this as often I post pics on other networking sites of my site and everyone oooowwwww and aaaawwww's over how pretty n in place everything is. However, it's not always pretty adn in its place. In fact this very mess is sometimes the very reason I go a few days without scrapping, as I dont want to have to get back there and do the "putting away" I know is necessary. It sucks. When I used to have a room for my thigns everythign had a place and there was plenty of room for everythign to even be a bit spread out without being unbearable. I've learned to work with the area I have as there's only 2 other solutions.. move my supplies upstairs in the spare room.. where I fear my daughter would get into my stash without a proper lock on the door and well I prolly wudn't scrap near as often beign so excluded from the rest of the house. And the other solution, would be to have no area at all and well.. thats no fun at all.

Anywho I thought that maybe I would show you all that even me and my pretty prohects don't always come from a pretty place. It's often messy and disorganized. But, somehow I deal with it and make it work. Always stepping into it tryign to come up with better solutions to store things.. never coming up with anything better than the time before. Anyways, I just thought I'd share the not soo sunny side of scrappin.

I don't always get to cleanign up the scraps on my floors. And with runnign a daycare often throughout the day toys make their way into my area as well... Such is life.

When in a crafting slump..

Have you ever had a feeling like you wanted to be being creative.... yet you had no motivation to actually do it. Or maybe you felt guilty. I'm often overwhelmed with the fact that I know I should be doing something else.. like laundry or cleaning or something of higher priority. So, then I sit guilty I don't want to do those "important" things and shouldn't be scraping. Then what happens is.... I do absolutely nothing at all trying to convience myself I am fine to scrap.

Does this happen to you? What do you do?

Lately I've been going on ahead and scrapping. Knowing that all the other things can wait an hour or two or even until the following morning. Crafting is my release. So, I have been tryin to make more of an effort to make sure I do it. I still feel a bit of guilt. But, I've learned instead of making a page I may do some work on a project or work on some little things. Like maybe create a new type of flowers or a new distress technique. Just something. Anything. I have found that keeping a folder on my computer of things I find that inspire me. They could be layouts I loved the colors of, or see somethign ont hem I want to try myself, or a project that inspired me or a tutorial. Then onthose nights when I want to do something but not really sure I have one of two options... just start playing with things until I make somethign I like or.. look through that folder. I find that to work super well to spark my creativity. What do you like to do when you need motivation?

I find I am not scrapbooking as many layouts, but when I do scrap the layouts cause I am really "feeling" it i love them so much more than making them because I feel like I should be doing and want to be doing something crafty but not sure what.

I mostly scrapbook in the evenings. I find it relaxing and well I have no other time. I scrap after the kids have gone to bed and a silence and peace falls over the house. When do you scrap? Why does that time work for you?

How do you balance the things that need to be done and the things you want to do?

Recent Creations

Here are some layouts and some cute little lace flowers.

Above are some flowers I made with some great lace. They are no sew flowers. That i created for a class I host once a month. Simple gathering and glueing onto a piece of paper then using some mists on them for a great variety of colors.

This pendant banner was super cute and already on the banner. i simple took a craft knife and cut around them and inked them a bit. Then added some string along the top to make it "appear" to be a handmade banner.

Altered Used Books

So, these arne't new persay however their something new I have been working on. Thought I would share. Thier old books, pages torn out and then new pages sewn together and inserted within them. I scraplifted this idea, but put my own spin on it.

Hello there

I have a normal blog, however I decided that I would like one that is just for crafty projects. I plan on having giveaways and tutorials and all sorts of other great fun.. maybe even some vids. on how to's. Here is the most recent creation! I love it. It's a Time Holtz alterable box frame! I adored this and the possible ideas long before I ever bought one! I decided for this peace to do my first altered art piece. There are no pictures! Which is a very hard thing for me as I either work with a project or with pictures. I love how it turned out! It's got bits and pieces of wonderful vintage materials I have collected throughout the years as well as just alot of my favorites trinkets and things. Each piece has a special meaning to me and me alone. On this project i used all Helmar adhesives. It was my first time really using them and I just fell in love with them. Used nothing but them on this project! Thanks for looking! I'll promise lots of pics and when I can lots of details and pics on how to do them! This box is 9 inches by 6.5 inches. Just looks big in pictures!