Out With The Old...

And in with the new...

A little while back I acquired some old vintage frames. They were dark brown and dirty, oh boy were they dirty. Anyways, I thought they would look great once cleaned up and painted. Originally I was going to get glass for them and use them for their original purpose...picture frames. But after many hours, days, weeks, months wasted on Pinterest, I decided to do something else. I turned them into a bulletin board of sorts...

I washed the frames, sanded the frames, primed and painted them. I then attached chicken wire/mesh with a staple gun of sorts (I ended up hammering the nails in with a mini hammer) to the back of the frames. Voila, my bulletin board type frames. They turned out quite nicely. I still might go back and add a little bit of colour...haven't quite decided. They sit on the wall above my computer. I am intending to hang recently completed projects and photos up, kind of like Pinterest for my wall.

Why Do I Love Scrapbooking...

Because I get to do this with my supplies...

I love having my supplies visible, it's a constant reminder of what I have plus it makes clean up a breeze! Not to mention it's pretty!! 

A New Mini Album...

Oh my, where has summer gone? I cannot believe it is the end of July! Seriously, where does time go? I'm not ready for August, I'm not ready for fall. I cannot believe stores are selling back to school stuff! Ahhhhh!

ANYWAYS!!! Ever since I cleaned out my craft room I have not been able to use it. My dad came for a visit on the 18th and left just a few days ago. Needless to say I was busy playing tourist guide. But he is gone, and I am able to craft up a storm. So the last couple of days I have been working on a project. Now, I cannot take credit for the design of this book, the credit belongs to Marion Smith. This woman is beyond creative, the beautiful creations she comes up with, blows my mind away. Seriously. I LOVE HER! And her gorgeously, charming, sweetheart of a hubby is crafty too! :) I would die if I could take one of her classes. Die and go to heaven that is!! :)

ANYWAYS!!! When Marion first designed this book (about a year ago) I was in love and needed to complete one as well. As luck would have it, I was able to find the same papers and sat down to complete the project. I am over the top thrilled with how it turned out...

First, I cut two pieces of chip board down to size. Glimmer misted the outside of each piece as well as the inside edge of both pieces. Once the chipboard dried I used some crackle paint (antique linen I think) and lightly painted both chipboard pieces. The overall effect is a very vintage, distressed look. 

While the chipboard dried, I cut a bunch of 12 by 12 papers down to size. By the time I was done cutting all the papers, there were a lot of smaller size pieces, pockets, pages, and tags. I then bound all the little pieces with a signature bind (see above photo). The thread I used was a very thin hemp. The end result is a mini album that is bound like a book. It's very neat to flip through and look at it. 

Now I just need to fill the book with embellishments, photos, and some journaling. I am really impressed with myself. It was tricky and a pain at times, BUT I completed it AND it looks great. Perhaps in the coming days I will do my own little tutorial. We shall see :)

Almost There...

This weekend I did a complete over haul of my craft room. To say it was MESSY is a complete understatement. The room was in a word GROSS; in another word, unorganized, dysfunctional, nasty, should I continue or do you get the picture? If you need a visual reminder you can always scroll down to the view the before pictures. Ugh! Anyways, I did a complete over haul. I could spend quite a bit of time telling you how wonderful it looks and how impressed I am with myself, or I could just show you...

I scored that blue dresser from Home Sense. Best part it was on sale, marked for clearance. Love deals like that. I also got a matching dress form. 

My hubby's next job is to hang my degree. I only graduated from uni a few years ago. LOL, I think it's time to hang it on the wall, no?

I really like the two tables together. Before they were pushed together so that they made an L-shape. I found it was to cramped and just icky.

My goal for the rest of the day is to clean out some of the junk on top of this Ikea shelf.

So I'm not quite done. I still need to organize the drawers and get rid of some of my clutter on top of the Ikea shelf as well as the ledge, however, it looks GREAT! I am also in the process of painting some old wood frames. Hopefully I can get those completed in the next couple of days IF the weather cooperates! Until next time :)

A Funny Story...

Actually, the title of this post should read, "A Funny AND Embarrassing story"...

The funny part - in preparation for this blog post I decided I should take some photos. My camera was already out, so I just grabbed it and started clicking away. Only after I sat down to upload the photos did I realize my memory card wasn't in the camera. LOL. Sometimes I am such a dork!

The embarrassing part - Uh, maybe not having my card in my camera was fates way of telling me NOT to take these pictures, because really it's just way too humiliating. The only saving grace, and I mean ONLY SAVING GRACE, is that the mess is not all mine. Nope, my dear husband contributes to the mess quite a bit. Okay maybe not quite a bit, but he does have a tendency to dump stuff in this dump...you'll see what I mean when you see the picture! Don't judge, the whole purpose of taking these photos is to show you the before, while I take the weekend to conquer the AFTER! It's going to blow your minds away. Besides I saw this really cute cabinet at Home Sense, but I told myself I could not have it unless I cleaned and purged. Kijiji shoppers be warned, after this weekend you are going to want to open up your wallets :)

Even my dog is saddened by my mess!

such a GROSS mess!

The ironic part - You caught me! I didn't mention there would be irony too, so shoot me. Ha-ha. A girlfriend of mine sent me a message last night essentially telling me to get my butt in gear and post on my blog. Actually, it was a lot nicer then that. I told her I didn't have anything to post, so maybe I'd just direct my readers to her blog. Ha-ha. Seriously though, it has been months since I posted. I have a bit of an excuse I was in Mexico for almost a month, but still that explains what, three weeks out of 3 months? Ha-ha. Anyways, she inspired me to post and as luck would have it, I was reading her "reads" section on her blog right before I snapped my pictures. If you look at the bottom photo you can see her blog!!!

So people, if ever I don't post for months on end or even if I do, check out her blog @ http://rackelkat.blogspot.ca she has a great section on books if your stumped for new authors.

Until next time :)