A gift for my Mother

 Good Morning, everyone.  This weekend was extremely busy with lots of things going on but I did manage to finish a huge project I was making for my mothers 83rd birthday.  I wanted to give her something really special and I figured whats more special than a mini album full of memories.  The basic design of the project was from a very amazing artist Kathy Orta and can be found at her blog ttp://www.paperphenomenontutorials.blogspot.com/ . She always has alot of fun little pockets and places to put pictures and tags.

The closure I used for this was simply a magnetic clasp that I found in the jewelry department at my local Joann Fabrics attached to the cover with some suede paper straps and d rings.

This allowed for a space to add a chain to which I added trinkets for the bling factor that you know I love.

I embellished the cover with crystal scrolls and flowers.  I actually found these little butterflies that look perfect on the flowers.

They were purchased from Michael's at a deep discount, they were in the dollar bin and they were on clearance 5 for a dollar, you got about 4 or 5 butterflies per package and they are quickly becoming one of my favorite embellies.

As you can see in this close up they really add just a touch of whimsy.

The book itself consists of about 10 pages, but as you can see from the photo there is room for about 5 pictures. 

This book really was as much fun to make as it was to look at and I  learned some really cool techniques working this tutorial and would absolutely encourage anyone to go try out one of Kathys projects it was well worth the 10 or 15 dollars I paid.  I can't wait to take some of the tips and incorporating them into my next project. 

Thanks for stopping by and looking at my latest.

Jennifer

A Tag for every occasion

Happy Monday one and all, todays post is about tags.  I use alot of them for all different reasons.  I add them to gifts, I make mini albums with them and I use them to label containers.  I was inspired by my sister Laurie this week because she makes such beautiful tags.

I started with  a plain manilla tag from Tim Holtz and of coursed dyed and distressed it with various distress inks and glimmer mist.  On top of that I added some old fashion tags with french sayings on it that I found on Pinterest. 

I topped off each tag with some scrolls I cut from a Tim Holtz die, added some homemade vine and flowers to embellish.

Thanks for stopping by

Jennifer

How I organize my studio

Hello everyone, today I wanted to talk about something that is near and dear to alot of scrappers and artists I know.  How to organize all the stuff we have so that we can buy more!  I have been hard at work doing some spring cleaning in my home and what better place to start but the room we all love our studio.  Now I can't take credit for all the ideas and I will try to give credit where credit is do.  So I hope you enjoy and can use some of my tricks. 

1) Stickles.  We all love them, we all use them and some of us struggle with how to store them.  What I did here what take an old frame that I bought at Goodwill (not just helping the community ladies, you are also getting stuff really cheap) .  I took the glass off (it will of course be recycled into something fabulous, stay tuned) I covered the insert with black velvet and added elastic going horizontially across the board.  I used brads to secure it, sorry no measurements, I just eyeballed it.  I then was able to store 20 bottles in this 8 X 10 frame and as an added bonus I can secure to the only free space in my room , the WALL!

2)My next problem product to store is lace and trimmings.  Well, I like alot of you ladies, I say I am going to recycle everything.  Since I  have been hoarding (choke, choke) cardboard boxes hoping and praying that I find a use for them before my husband calls that network and I have to go on TV because I don't want to throw anything out.  Ta Da, I have a use.  I cut pieces to fit inside some boxes (that I recycled from my sons lego collection) and I wrap all my beads, lace, and other do dads on to the cardboard pieces.  I was able to secure the pieces with rubber bands (yet another, "I know I can find a use for this somewhere" product.  The result is fabulous.  Not only are my pieces individually wrapped so that I don't have to spend hours unraveling but they are wrinkle free.

3) I used this same concept for other products such as Items 3 Tissue paper and Fabric that I use to make lovely things out of (such as flowers). I now can see all the fabric that I have collected and since I only allow so much room for these items I don't overbuy.

4) Now this idea was totally scaplifted from Leann at http://luvleescrappin.blogspot.com/.  She came up with a brilliant way to make foam stampers for her Tim Holtz distressed inks  (sorry Tim but I love this idea and since I cannot justify buying one of your stamp holders for every color I am passing it on)  She came up with a way to take a 2X2 (actually it measures 1.5 X 1.5) and cutting it down into 1.75 blocks and adding velcro and wa la you have a perfectly fitted block for each color of distress inks that you own all you have to buy are the replacement foam pads.  I love, love, love this and can't thank Leann enough.  She also came up with a cool idea to take doll pins clothes pins and by simply adding a makeup sponge to the rounded head with a rubber band a perfect sponge dauber to use when you are doing a smaller section.  I labled all mine with the color and name and have them sitting out so they are always in reach.

5)  Since I have been getting into using embroidery on my pages I was really struggling with how to have all my threads neatly stored.  I found this one on Scrapbook.com forum and Pinterest.  I bought some clothes pins at Micheal's.  They have some in the dollar bins and you get 4 for a dollar and they come in really pretty colors.  I simply wrapped the clothes pins with the individual colors of floss and here they are.  Now not only are they out and accessible but I can see what colors I have so no more overbuying (Thank God, because there is some new Tim Holtz Idea-ology pieces I need to make room for)                                                                                                                                                              

7) Last (for today) but certainly not least, a place for brads.  I used the same technique for my brads that I did my stickles.  I took an old frame added some ribbon and brads and placed all my brads and grommets into test tubes that I bought fom my local science and suplus store and make this attractive little piece that is always within reach.


I hope you all found something that you can use in your space and would love to see how you made it your own.  Please leave a comment I would love to hear you.  Thanks for stopping by.

Jennifer

Sisters

Here is a page I just finished displaying a picture of one of my sisters, Laurie, I am very fortunate to have many sisters (from birth and marriage) So I hope to show an inspiration with each one of them eventually.  For now we'll start with Laurie.  I used a lot of different techniques in this layout and I show you 2 flowers that I designed for this page and will attempt to get the tutorials out there soon.  The first flower i made was the scrunchy silk flower  you see displayed below

I think my favorite part of the flower was the vintage Schwarofski Crystal charm that I made for the middle.  I aslo made a pinched rosebud for the LO

This little gal was pretty simple to make out of a 3 inch square of leftover fabric,  All I did fold each corner toward the middle of the square, (which should now be a triangle) and then ran a running stitch along the entire bottom of triangle and cinched it together and added a touch of green ribbon and wrapped it in floral tape and viola a little bud. 

I also had a little fun with some grunge board flourishes that I inked with some Adirondack ink and brushed on a little stickles for bling.

I found this beautiful feather butterfly at Michael's in a dollar bin.

Thank you all for visiting my blog and checking out my new layout

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