Organizing Project

I have been using my craft room so much more these days and I was having a fit with my 12x12 cardstock. It was on a shelf in plastic envelopes by color, but they kept falling over and it was hard to get anything out. I couldn't see what I had.



Years ago I had seen a suggestion of turning one of those wire shelf kits into a scrapbook paper holder. I bought this kit at Target for $16.99. I had to buy a couple packs of zip ties to put it all together.


All you do is take the kit and put together two sections as directed. Then take the other pieces and zip tie into place as dividers. I placed mine vertically. The directions I had seen were for placing the shelves horizontal. I like it vertically so that I can easily see the pages. I separated my paper by color.

I had to build a shelf to put the paper organizer on. It took a while to get it up there, but it was worth it! I LOVE the end result. It helps me to keep my space organized and everything is easier to find. The rest of the room now needs a little attention!

Papertrey Contest

Here's a little card posted for a contest at Papertray Ink...one of my favorite online stamp sellers. They have cute and quality clear stamps.

I used their "Women of Life" stamp set and followed a sketch that was given as inspiration for the contest. Fun to do!

Latest Creations

So, the Bridal Scrapbook was something old, so here's a few ideas for something new.

This is a card I created using a stamp and my new texture plates from Stampin' Up. I love the embossing created on the blue. This was a very simple and fast card. The center of the flower is a gem brad.


This card is a 6x6 card made on a textured white paper. I again used a Stampin' Up texture plate. Some of my very favorite tools in my craft room are the punches I used to create the scalloped tags. They are all from Stampin' Up. I have two circle punches that layer perfectly on the scallop circle. They add character to little stamps and sentiments.



I have been using my Cricut like crazy. I can't believe I lived without one for so long. My niece turned ten today. Her parents redecorated her room for her birthday so I made this special picture for her room. She is totally into cherries right now!

I like the classic look of the white and white. I makes the cherries and her name pop. I used the Home Accent cartridge to create the cherries. The font is the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge.

I created the scalloped square myself using Sure Cuts A Lot software to cut it on the Cricut. That program plus the free program Inkscape have opened up the possiblities of the Cricut!

Each cherry embellishment is made by using dimensional foam adhesive for every layer.

I printed the verse out on white cardstock. I cut the paper to 8.5x12 inches so it would fit through my laser printer. I created the word art myself and set up the print job in MS Publisher.
Also, using the cricut and Sure Cuts A Lot, I created a dot patterned stencil and then laid it over my cardstock and colored the holes with a gable green marker. The light green pattern sets the paper off from the frame just enough.

My motivation for the art piece was to get that "Fruit of the Spirit" verse in a place where Emma could read it and write it on her heart. It helps that it is cute though!

Maybe I can sell these personalized on Etsy?

Bridal Scrapbook

Let's start with a project that was very meaningful to me. My sister was getting married about 3 years ago and I had lots of words of wisdom to share...but who listens to advice from their big sister? So, I made a special scrapbook for her. That way she had a keepsake of my love for her even if she didn't appreciate my "words of wisdom"!

The idea was to give her my eight best tips for a happy marriage. These were love, endurance, humility, honesty, forgiveness, sacrifice, contentment and prayer.

I decorated this hinged CD tin and made pages for the inside. I measured the inside of the tin. Using 12x12 cardstock, I cut it into strips that would fit the width of the tin. Then I folded the paper accordian style at intervals to fit inside the tin. I used the extra bit of each strip to glue on the next piece until I had created enough pages. A corner rounded made the pages fit nicely inside the rounded CD tin. Using a ribbon, I bound the back side of the pages closed. I decorated the inside cover of the tin with scrapbook paper and attached the scrapbook pages to the bottom of the tin (hopefully the picture below will help make sense!)

On each page I highlighted one word. I found a vellum quote from a Quotes Stacks that related to that word. Each page has an envelope with two tags. One has a meaningful related scripture, and one had my own words for my sister. I'm sure I could do a better job of embellishing now, but it was a good effort.

This gift was sent with much love, though I think it might have scared her more than encouraged her. I think marriage is wonderful, but it does take some hard work. It is a learning process and my husband and I are learning to love each other more everyday!

If you had to add any words of wisdom to a scrapbook like this, what words would you pick?

Where to Start the ART

There are some truly beautiful and inspiring websites and blogs out there today from some very crafty folks. It has inspired and motivated me to try my hand at documenting and sharing my own creativity.

I'm a mish-mash of crafty really. I do a little this and a little that. But art is that way...it spills over into every part of your life. It is great for beauty, decor, comfort, expression, passion, keeping memories, showing love, and can even be practical! You can do it with paint, ink, paper, printer, yarn, and computer. So, really there is no limit. The only thing I hope to prove with my arts and crafts is that it is meaningful. My motto in life is "Purpose, Passion, & Perseverance", so I hope that my art will fall along those lines...and also help you find your purpose, passion and perseverance in life.

The hard part is a chicken or the egg question. Do you write a blog without readers? That seems silly, but you surely won't have readers if you have no content. So here I start...I'll catch up on my crafts of the past first and share my very favorites. Then, I plan to create more and share ideas to inspire and tutorials to help into the future.

This will also help me to continue doing this creative thing that I love. I find that it's priority in my life is low. I ususally do the laundry, clean the dishes, and work away my time on the computer before I allow myself crafty time. However, I know that I am a happier person when I've been a little creative. Having a PURPOSE for being crafty (this blog) will allow me to give it higher priority in my life. So thanks to all my invisible readers for doing that for me!