A Few Sweet Gifts

Ever been in one of those moods when you have to have something sweet but can't quite figure out what you want? Well I've been in that mood for the last few days but since I can't figure out what I have a taste for, I just haven't eaten any sweets. I was just starting to get grumpy yesterday when I remembered a sweet lil stamp set called Cookies n Milk I won over at Some Odd Girl during a release day blog hop (get yours here!) I knew exactly what I wanted to do with this set when I got it but hadn't intended to blog about it, so I finished my project and put my stamp set away. Well today I decided to satisfy my sweet tooth with chocolate chip cookies. That's right, chewy, soft, warm, and oh so gooey melty so-big-you-should-only-eat-one-but-you-just-can't-help-yourself, chocolate chip cookies, and that's when inspiration struck! I wanted to make my hubby a cookie as well, but what's better than a cookie (besides another cookie, obviously)? A card! Or in this case, a cute decorated mini pizza box, enter SOG brilliance; Cookies n Milk clear stamp set!

Cookies n Milk

Aren't these guys just the cutest?! They also come with two other sentiments in the same awesome font, "Best Friends" and "We Go Together" how adorable is that! I colored these up using my copic markers and created the texture on the cookie by applying a few drops of colorless blender to a terry cloth towel and dabbing gently (hint: you can use the same technique to give denim clothing texture by using a scrap of denim with a little colorless blender). I layered on a few squares of cardstock and a stampin up doily. I stamped the cookie on a piece of x-press blending card, fussy cut them out and popped them up with pop dots. Throw in a couple of enamel dots, a button with bakers twine, and a sentiment from the Cookies n Milk set and voila! This mini pizza box is the perfect size for one giant delicious cookie or several bite sized ones or any other treat really. They make the cutest gift and are super easy to decorate and assemble. Trust me when I tell you tis is another addictively easy project that will 'wow' it's recipient so give it a try. I used a wonderfully simple tutorial found here.  Speaking of gifts, the first project I mentioned earlier was nothing major, just a cute gift for my 4 and 5 year old daughters

I honestly could resist! What was I supposed to do? I had shrinky dink, stazon, clear ultra thick embossing powder, jump rings and even a couple of ball chain necklaces, all the things I needed to make these adorable matching necklaces. They love them and refuse to take them off, meanwhile everyone whose seen them asks where I got them. Win win for me, plus this is my last entry for the SOG July Linky Party. What about you, do you blog everything you craft, or are some things just for fun?

-Krys

A Sunny Share

Hey all my crafty peeps (Lol I've always wanted to say that ^.^)! So lately I've been bouncing around from one crafty thing to the next, my most recent adventure being the mixed media canvases I've been experimenting with. This week I've been thinking a lot about starting a scrapbook. I've always wanted to make one and with so much going on with my family just this year and my hubby turning out to be quite the shutterbug I figure it's time. I tried once before and it was an epic, colossal fail. Try as I may the color schemes never fit, the layouts were terrible, you name it. Recently though everyone's been doing these project life type scrapbooks. They look so gorgeous and seem simple enough that anyone could preserve their memories beautifully and professional looking with no stress. Naturally given my past misadventures in scrapbooking, it was too tempting to pass up so I thought I'd set off to my local craft store and buy a binder and a package of pocket page thingies for my project life album. I also bought a small pack of themed journaling cards to start off with. They were adorable but seemed like something I could easily make at home...so I did! I put away my scrapbook and pulled out my papers, stamps, and markers and got crafty. Here's what I came up with:

Sunny Mae

Aren't they adorable?! I used the SOG Sunny Mae clear set and some papers from the Bo Bunny Lemonade Stand collection for these journaling cards. I meant to make at least 6 but stopped at 4 until I could think up more cute layouts. There's also a website I discovered through Pinterest with free printable project life journaling cards. I can't remember the link but will post in an update when I find it again. In the mean time I'm going to link up these cuties to the Some Odd Girl July Linky Party and I hope to see you guys there. What kind of crafty projects have you tried for the first time lately?

-Krys

Thank You

Yay me! I finally got that rain and cold front I've been waiting for and I am loving it! Today I thought I'd complete another card for the Stars and Stripes Facebook challenge for Some Odd Girl. I sure hope chevrons count as stripes ^.^ These patriotic themed cards would probably normally just sit in my craft room until next year when I have the chance to send them out to my family and friends for the 4th of July, or worse, get buried lost or thrown away. I found a better cause and so I will be donating them to be sent to the soldiers on deployment, after all who doesn't love an unexpected card in the mail? I know I would! Sometimes these soldiers feel forgotten or lonely and hopefully my cards will make someone's day by letting them know someone out there cares and appreciates what they do for our country. Without further ado, here's Happy Gwen to say "Thank You"

Happy Gwen

I'm loving these digi gals from SOG, they can be printed out by the sheet in multiple sizes for multiple projects and they are so versatile. Most companies that create clear or rubber stamps as well as digital stamps to me are usually somewhat lacking in the digital department, like their digis don't sell as well so not as much detail goes into them. With Some Odd Girl I actually prefer their digis to their clear because they have a much broader range and aren't that expensive but still just as gorgeous and detailed as the clear sets. I can't wait to get my hands on more SOG digis! This baby is about to join the July Linky party for certain, hopefully I can squeeze in a few more before the end of July? See ya!

-Krys

Organized my Chaos (FINALLY!!!)

Hi guys! I normally don't do posts on Sunday, but I finally finished my project remodel/ organize the craft room so, Ta-da:

The lighting isn't the best in my house because apparently someone took "energy efficient" to mean dull and dim so all the lights in my house are as mentioned. I realized I was running out of room on my desk and my room isn't the biggest so there wasn't exactly room for more drawers. That left really only one option: the wall! There was plenty of room there so off I went to my local hardware store and purchased a 4'x4' sheet of pegboard along with a can of white spray paint. I started off spray painting the whole ugly thing white but since the spray paint I chose to use was cheap, the white came out closer to pale grey. Once it dried I sectioned off a chevron pattern using painters tape and painted the sections individually with acrylic paint to match the small buckets, cups, and baskets I found at the dollar store (3 of each for $1). I used L-pegboard hooks to hang my 6x6 and other small paper pads and J-peg board hooks to hold the baskets and cups (after using hubby's drill to make holes in the sides of them). Total price for this DIY peg board storage including baskets, hooks, pegboard, and paint came out to less than $40 and more storage and work space on my desk! Not bad for the amount of space it gave me and it looks amazing! I loved the way my chevron pattern came out so much, I almost wanted to leave it empty and hang it as wall art ^.^

 Of course I couldn't leave it so neat and orderly (that would just be uncivilized!). Instead, I decided to break in my newly organized craft room by making this super cute bookmark today for a friend and sharing it with you guys!

Geisha Kaylee

OMG I just love this gal! I've always loved the Asian inspired themes, so elegant and beautiful and Geisha Kaylee is just fab! I started off stamping on a dark blue piece of cardstock with my versamark ink using a Fiskars cherry blossom 8x8 clear stamp set (borrowed from my awesome friend!) and some white embossing powder to make the background. I layered the largest spellbinders oval die I own, after inking the edges in navy blue ink. I stamped Geisha Kaylee on a sheet of Xpress it blending card, colored her up with my copics, fussy cut her out and glued her on top of my oval. I found a flower from my stash and colored it with my copic markers to match my color scheme. A few well placed pearls, some clear wink of stella, and a little bit of stickles here and there on the flower background and project bookmark was complete. Now I'm headed over to link this lady up for the July linky party over at the Some Odd Girl Blog (If you haven't joined in already there's still a few days so hurry!) In the mean time, tell me, what do you do when you need extra storage space in your craft room???

-Krys

Welcome Home Heroes

Hey guys! As we come to the end of July most if not all of that patriotic spirit present early on in the month is long gone and packed away till next year. However we here at Ft. Drum have something more to celebrate and that's the home coming of the Mountain Division 3rd Brigade. In honor of this heartwarming reunion I thought I would make a center step card for the SOG Stars and Stripes Facebook challenge and also link up for the July Linky party at the Some Odd Girl Blog.

SOG Birthday Mae

I decided to use birthday Mae and repurpose her by coloring her red white and blue. I love finding other uses for stamps when they are holiday/season specific, it gives me more use out of my stamps. The DP used is from Bo Bunny Anthem pad and the dies are memory box precious stars, paper smooch stars and spellbinders lacy ovals and ovals large embossed with a stars embossing folder inked with antique linen distress ink. I'm seriously excited for those families being reunited with their soldiers and can't wait till they're all home safe! I plan to make a few more and donate them to be given to those families and returning soldiers. It's getting kind of late here so I'll call it a night but remember, it's not too late to link up a project for July! Let's see some Stars and Stripes from you guys too!

-Krys

Stuck on You

Hi guys, did you know that the pinterest contest over at Some Odd Girl ends tomorrow? OMG wow where did the time go?! I barely got to squeeze in any projects but got a lot of love for the ones I have done, I got a spotlight last Friday for the mixed media canvas I created using Geisha Kaylee and won two digi stamps of my choice! For my two, I knew Bookish Tia and Library Mae would be perfect for my rapidly growing digi collection. So far I've only used Mae but tomorrow's project will be Tia

Library Mae Digi

I've seen these adorable little post it note holders many times before but they've always seemed a little intimidating to me so I never tried. Well these girlies were perfect for this type of project and I can just see her sitting on someone's desk, being admired! Maybe I'm a bit proud of this but hey I put on my big girl panties (excuse the expression) and tried something that seemed difficult and I LOVE the results so I can't help but smile from ear to ear ^.^ I can't wait to link this up for the Some Odd Girl July Linky Party and pin this to the oddies Pinterest board, which may be the best idea I've ever seen. In case you didn't already know, SOG created a Pinterest board specifically for all their fans/ followers to pin their Odd Girl project, so sweet of them! I'm on my way over to pin my project now, hope to see some of your awesome creations too!

-Krys

Celebrate Each Day

Hi guys! Im in a very cheerful mood today so I thought I'd do a happy uplifting kind of post! I love cartoons but I was not a huge fan of kung fu panda. Random right? Stay with me I promise this is going somewhere! Anyway not a big fan of the big guy, loved the message of the movie but something about it was more annoying than comical. However, one of my favorite quotes of all time came from this children's cartoon, mind blowing right? A wise old tortoise said : "Yesterday is history, tomorrow a mystery. But today is a gift, that's why its called the present." Truer words could not have been spoken and that quote stayed with me from the moment I heard it so today I chose to make a card based on the notion that each day should be celebrated, and here she is, Birthday Mae

Some Odd Girl Birthday Mae

I love these awesome little pop up box cards, but I can never get a good picture. They remind me of the celebrationator  from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (which is actually really cute and much better than the first). If you have no idea what I'm talking about, stop reading this open up a netflix account, and watch! Wait... finish reading first, comment, THEN open up a netflix account and watch it! It makes this post that much better ^.^ Now back to the card, it would make a great birthday card too if you change the sentiment but that's exactly my point, you celebrate your birthday right? I say celebrate every day! So go do something fun today just because the sun came up, just because you woke up, just because it makes you smile!

-Krys

Geisha Girlie

Yes I'm back with yet another mixed media canvas! I'm addicted to these things because you really can't go wrong, just let your creative flag fly and before you know it you have a masterpiece you can't wait to share with everyone! Today I thought I'd use one of my SOG clear stamps, Geisha Kaylee. I just LOVE the Asian inspired look of this gal and her kimono and flowers in her hair remind me of one of my favorite movies, Memoirs of a Geisha. Its such a beautiful love story that I thought Geisha Kaylee would be just perfect for my theme

Geisha Kaylee

I started off by layering the background with a few book pages and some cherry blossom paper from my stash and distressing with sand paper. I used acrylic paint in light pink mixed with water to create a wash and used a red gelato around the edges. I also used the same red gelato to draw a few flowers and a water brush to spread the color. I stamped here and there with the stamps that came with the set as well as a few I've had a while and printed the sentiment off of my computer. I love pink so right now I think I have a winner as far as my favorite so far but who knows what I'll come up with next, pink and cupcakes maybe...? You'll just have to wait and see! Hope to see some mixed media projects from you guys for the SOG July Linky Party

Oh I also had a scrap of cherry blossom paper left over so I created this ornament for my new friend who has a love of Asian themed things, also using Geisha Kaylee and a few of the stamps included with the set. Colored with my copics and stamped on ceramic bisque like my coaster projects and sealed with a spray on acrylic, she loved it! I even added wink of stella to her fan and the lace on the kimono for a little extra shimmer.

I mounted the cherry blossom paper on the back blank side of the ornament but goofed up and forgot to take a picture of the completed backside before giving it away, so you'll just have to imagine lol!

-Krys