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Preparations

My mental lists need to get recorded soon, or I fear my head may actually explode.  

On October 1st, I will be participating in a bazaar & I need to decide what exactly I want to bring to sell.   I'm thinking it will be a mixture of hand made gift items; Jamberry samples & craft room destash goodness.

See more off my craftiness here...

  More about Jamberry...

I need to excavate my studio & find the Christmas golf theme trays plus my bird house collection, oh, I should bring some of my magic wallets too.

What kind of items would you want to find at an arts & crafts bazaar?

My First...

You Tube video

At work last week, I was given the assignment to put some pictures together with the song "Ordinary Angels" by Craig Morgan.  I need to give thanks to my husband for his expert advice during the editing process.  Even if you don't normally listen to country music, give it a listen.

Custom Embossing Powder

It is one of those things I just never thought to do until a friend of mine did it.  My friend and cohort in craftiness, Shannon, was not satisfied with the colors of embossing powder she had available, so she experimented with mixing colors.  It is so fiendishly simple and yet, so satisfying.  For the frame above, I mixed two colors of green and some gold.  I'm not sure if the photograph really does it justice, but in person it is really lovely.

Scrapbook

In all my years of crafting I have only made two scrapbooks.  My first was a mini scrapbook for my daughter-in-law and was filled with photos taken at her wedding.  I was pleased with the results and actually enjoyed the process - you see I suffer from a rare malady (I'm not sure it even has a name), but, well...I am intimidated by 12 x 12 pieces of card stock.  That is a lot of real estate to fill with pictures and pretty stuff!  Oh, and then, you put two of them side by side and now you have an expanse (24 x 12) to conquer.  Geesh!  It would make me break out in cold sweats just thinking about it....

ANYWAY.... a friend of mine is the owner / operator of Pearl's Pastries. She has brag books to show to potential clients of her previous work and figured her crafty little friend (little ol' me) could pull the wedding cake photographs together in a professional and visually pleasing manner.  At this point, I was having a little pep talk in my head about how nice a little 8 x 8 scrapbook could work out for us... no need to hyperventilate over the dreaded 12 x 12.

During our first meeting, we flipped page by page through her note book.  Peggy gave me all the details on each of her creations.  I quickly realized that the 8 x 8 was really not going to be enough room to showcase her yummy handiwork.  So my 12 x 12 phobia slowly melted away like an ice cream cone in the summer.

Below are just a few of my favorite pages from Pearl's Pastries Wedding Cakes Album:

I have since designed myself some business cards and intend to pursue "crafting for hire" as a means to make some cash while engaging in one of my favorite hobbies.  I ask you, what could be better than that?

One of the Centerpieces

They were a big hit and I had several people quiz me on how they were done.

Cardmaking

I get to craft with a bunch of my girlies today!  I love our monthly meetings.  We have a fabulous assortment of women - some who have been rubber stamping for years & others who are new to the sport (and think they have no talent for the endeavor.....BUZZZZ - incorrect assumptions ladies!)

We are going to show the group the shaving cream method this morning.

Random question:  why does my dog always seem to want to play tug of war when I am writing a blog post?  Maybe she is picking up on my excitement....

ANYWAY, it is almost time to leave & I am doing the mental checklist thing to make sure I have everything I need...meanwhile, the dog has practically stuck her nose up my armpit, nudging me to pet her...perhaps she needs some quality time before I head out...

Plan C Worked!

Six to seven drops of iridescent silver ink swirled around to coat the inside of the bottle.  Drained the excess into a second bottle and then sprinkled in some pretty blue glitter, replace the bottle top (a very important step to remember) and shake to cover the inside with glittery loveliness.

I taught the technique to two of my new Relay for Life friends so we could churn out a dozen or so for our kick off event on February 8th.

We ran out of the silver ink, so I ran home and got some of my re-inkers.  Just need to wait for them to dry before putting on the finishing touch of a ribbon along the top and to stuff them with our Alice in Wonderland themed bouquets.

Need to come up with a Plan C

I used to get frustrated & downright angry when a project does not wind up looking exactly as I had envisioned.  Oh, and I was easily offended when my husband would ask questions like "Did you mean for it to look like melted wax?"  Luckily, for BOTH of us, those days are gone.

My tissue paper & Mod Podge experiment wasn't a total failure...it just did not work out to match the picture I have in my mind.  Aw, well.  Stay calm & craft on!

Crafting Test In Progress

I had an idea to converting my stash of Starbuck's Frappicino bottles into vases by using some tissue paper & Mod Podge...

And now... I get to wait to see if my idea will work out the way I have it pictured in my mind.  {Fingers and toes crossed}

I do have a Plan B in mind... IF needed.  Luckily, I have quite a few of these bottles saved up.