Beautiful wall hanging

Not one who deals with last minute, under the wire, pull it out of my tush sort of stress very well I will confess to having packed my crafty supplies for the Scrapbooksteals Retreat/crop four days early. Four. Now, what in the world was I thinking?  I found myself without the ability to simply adhere two pieces of paper for something as basic as a card. Oops. 

I quickly realized that I could still craft, as long as I was willing to get a bit messy. So I set my mixed media skills to work on this little wooden plaque that I'd picked up at the thrift store. 

It was a lot of fun to make, some of the products I used include gesso, Creative Inspirations paint pots, plastic packaging, scraps of paper, fine point PITT pens, Maya Road banners, Recollections flower, MME wood veneer butterfly and gems, cheap acrylic craft paint, TCW stencils, modeling paste, Unity Stamp Co. Donna Downey stamp. 

Practical Scrappers September Layout

*Yawn* After a day of traveling to the Scrapbooksteals Retreat I'm wiped, but wanted to make sure this posted. Psych! I actually pre-scheduled this one knowing I'd be away, sleeping in and without little darlings waking me up, crafting to my heart's content. I'm on a Mommy-Vacay!! Today is our main classes day so I guarantee you that I'm excited about all the goodies I get to play with and the people I get to meet. :)

Anyway, today is the layout sketch day at Practical Scrappers, and here's my interpretation. Head over to the blog to see the sketch and check out all the other inspiration the design team has ready for you!

While I was working on it I realized I could utilize this layout to meet the SWAT Drill 15: stamp, sew, spray/splatter so I'm linking it up over there too. 

Here's my stamping, in modeling paste:

If you didn't notice, there's a bit of misting/spraying/splattering that happened in that part of the layout. I love splatters, misting continues to allude me.

Above is the top of the layout, check out all the textures and layers from my bin o' scraps.YUM! And below you'll notice my little hand-stitched heart. I traced around a heart stamp and then poked holes to create the shape before even threading a needle. So quick and a perfect little touch.

Okay, question time. I often have photos of the boys that are slightly blurry (helllloo preschoolers!). Do you scrap your "lesser" quality images? It doesn't seem like many do it but sometimes I do if it meets a need! You'll see that the cat's eyes are burnt out in the left picture - that's because I had to use flash to take that one. I noticed she was sleeping on him when I was leaving for work (4:30 am!) and just *had* to have the photo so much that I risked flash! 

Pumpkin fun

I'm so over summer temps and ready for fall! Needless to say, when I was at the grocery store stocking up for the guys before leaving for my trip I found that pumpkins were at an amazing price. I nearly bought enough to gut and make my fall pumpkin treats but I decided that it would just be way to overwhelming to have them unused and taunting from the corner. Instead, I bought one little guy and my boys thought it was awesome! 

You know what they thought was even more awesome? Mommy taking the papers off the crayons and melting them over the top. They love to "help" with my messier projects and both sat watching the colors drip off the sides. 

Uh, super cool! And even David was impressed.

upcycled canvas

This week on 10 Things Tuesday at Practical Scrappers it is all about doilies. You'll find them used in so many really fun ways, but most of them are little crafted/paper doilies so I went a bit less conventional and used a doily I'd picked up at the thrift store to accent this canvas I was upcycling.

The base of the canvas was painted with a white wash, then I layered some paper scraps over it with a strip of washi covering the seam. Then I sewed the kraft paper to the doily and adhered them to the canvas. Finally, I wrote out the sentiment with assorted alphas and embellished it with some yummy flowers and jewels. 

I love having this hang where I can pass it several times a day!

Use that stash!

I'm talking to myself with this one. I have so many scraps and leftover stickers that it's a constant challenge to use them before digging into those shiny plastic wrappers that encase new goodies. 

But this card for Use It Tuesday is all that! It's old stickers, unused tools, and scrap madness with everything being 1-3 years old. This challenge we're asking you to bust into your stash and use at least 2 hoarded items (and don't forget to tell us what they are, we love drooling over old products). 

I had a bit of trouble capturing this card, the variation in color in the embroidery floss in particular. The reds are much more vibrant in person. 

But check this out, the flower sticker is from a BasicGrey kit that I discovered on clearance when I discovered designer papers, which means it's over 3 years old. And that WRMK sewing head has never been used in the year plus that I've owned it, and I bought the floss at the same time. Those scraps have been around for a while, most of the paper's a year or so old. I love that if you do it right "old" products can have a fresh feel. 

Ten Things Stickers

I do love Tuesdays, for one it's not Monday (can I get an amen?!) and then it is also 10 Things Tuesday at Practical Scrappers. Can I just say that the other ladies are so. stinkin'. talented. and that I am inspired every time!

Today we're bringing you 10 Things Stickers, and here's my card:

A cute, quick card to show my appreciation. 

The card is from Crate Paper Random, as is the doily.
The stickers are mostly MME Find Your Wings and Fly, as is the lone enamel dot.
The popped up sentiment and twine are from MME Miss Caroline.

More exciting fun in my life - I'm a Paper Girl!

I'm pleased to announce that I'm now a part of the Paper Girls Challenge Blog. I've had so much fun in the year plus that they've been running their challenges that when I got asked to be part of the team I hardly hesitated.

For my first challenge with blog we're asking you to make your own stamp and link it back up on the blog.

I made a couple of cards using the bottom of an Elmer's Glue bottle as a stamp. After the first impression I realized that the shape resembled an eye and when the sentiment exactly fit in the space I knew it was meant to be!

Here's the other one, I like that the bottle made a really cool background stamp but also works as a frame all on it's own.