Blog break...

Hello bloggers!

As some of you may have noticed, I have been taking a blog break. As I began to reflect on why that break was needed, all I had to do was stop and take a look around to get my answer. Surrounding me or in my immediate reach was my iPhone, iPad, 2 laptops, a magazine, a tv playing on mute and an iPod playing with headphones. Three things were obvious in this scenario;

1. I like Apple products:)

2. I am using my multi- tasking skills to their fullest!

3. And no wonder I'm not blogging( or crafting) I am trying to do too many others things at the same time!

In this world of fast food, wireless access, computers that allow us to see the world from our living rooms, mobile devices that keep us in touch with our loved ones and jobs that expect us to stay organized and be super efficient, it's no wonder the fun and creative things I like to do fall to the wayside. I find I am met with a constant struggle to slow down and appreciate that the world is not only shrinking and moving faster than I can keep up with it but that I don't have to explore, organize, fix or understand it all in one day.

I recently read this article, From speed.com to soul.com and it hit home in so many ways. Not only do I want to seek a balance of Speed and Efficiency with Heart and Soul, but I am determined to use my hammer for good and not evil, and being constructive not destructive.

I took the above quote/ invitation as a true challenge to text less, create more, talk in person, try harder, listen better and pace myself while doing it, not to mention only use one Apple gadget at a time :)

Wish me luck! I hope to share a project soon!

Cheers!

K xxx

Keep em comin'...

You know when you get one of those bursts of creativity and all of a sudden you can't stop thinking of projects you want to try, I 'm having one, YEAH! I hate to say luckily I have been sick but because I have been sick and not doing much after work, I happen to have the time too, Yeah again:) Thanks to G45 for their inspiration again and good old Grandma and Mom, I bring you this next piece.


I printed this dress form picture over a year ago and fell in love with it, finally I found something to do with it. It is surrounded by my Grandmothers laces and fabric swatches, some more of her vintage pattern paper and old buttons and some of Mom's embroidering floss, I wound onto spools to resemble thread and a few of her buttons as well. The star of the piece is the dress form but a real close second of course is the lovely Graphic 45 pattern paper as the back ground, the fashion cards to the left, the mock pattern packet to the right and the necklace in the middle. All are part of the Fashionista collection, other than the backgrounds which are Renaissance Faire and Domestic Goddess. They can all be found here. I am really lucky a couple of my LSS carry their collections but Scrapbook.com also has their products, yeah again!



A close up of some of Grandma's buttons and fabric swatches and some of the beautiful fashion cards from G45.





Since I planned to use my Mom and Grandmothers pieces, I knew I wanted the LO to go into a window box frame to protect it, so to get dimension in the piece, I attached the dress form picture to layers and layers of chipboard and foam core to make it the focal point and pop in the LO. I painted the foam black so it would blend a little better and not be seen on the sides.

As I mentioned, the miniature spools of Embroidering thread are my Mom's thread but the mini spools are from Michaels, where you can buy all sizes. They make a great gift to a fellow Crafter too, especially if you are into Matchbox exchanges :)


A little shout out to my friend Julz who shared some of her Grandmothers vintage bias tape (the pink to the right) I pleated it and just glued it down to keep shape, thx Julz :)


These little gold buttons were my Mom's, I am pretty sure I was with her when she bought them, we took a lot of trips to New York fabrics when I was a child :)



One of my favorite elements is this necklace. After using some alcohol ink to darken up the charm piece, I simply cut out a button from the Fashionista paper , positioned it on a the charm, filled it with diamond glaze, let it dry for a few days and then strung it on the ribbon, instant necklace!




The final piece in it's window box, now I just need to find room to hang it!



Thanks for stopping by today, TGIF!!

Kristin xx

Graphic 45 inspires me...

When I heard Graphic 45 was having a design team call I was so excited! I love G45 so much. Not only is everything they do or create unique and beautiful but it really allows all types of Crafters to use it for a wide array of projects. I quickly broke out my G45 stash to see what I had. After falling in love with all their products all over again I felt very inspired to gather up a few existing projects, create a couple new ones and throw my hat in the ring. For a long time I had strictly admired G45 from afar, in fact for the first year, I think I strictly collected papers, too afraid to cut into the beautiful designs :) However once I dove in and realized all that their products had to offer, I couldn't stop thinking of ways to use them. Below are a couple:

First up, a greeting card created using a vintage Valentines Day postcard and a lovely cut out from the new Curtain call collection....it's quickly becoming one of my favs!



A Layout of my beautiful daughters using the Fashionista collection, perfect for them :)



Al altered canvas with a peak into my Steampunk mind...




A Mini bird house turned Cirque tent, thanks to the new Le Cirque line, check it out, it's awesome!



An altered cigar box I made awhile back. I think this may have been the first time I actually cut up anything and used it, boy was I nervous :)




A few tags inspired by G45 and Tim Holtz, how can it get better than that!


A wall hanging inspired by this Dragonfly Duet paper.


A Travel Album cover using my absolute favorite collection, Transatlantique, a must for any traveler!



An altered purse using the new Curtain call and the Le' Romantique collection, what's more romantic than Paris!



A thank you card for future use, I love this collection too!



An altered gift bag for some unsuspecting friend, I can't wait to fill it up!



This is a new project and I have to say, an instant favorite. The mini album is made of recycled old wood and cork coasters and the close ups of my hubby were taken awhile ago with a project like this in mind.



Another recycled altered item, this time a mini basket became a thank you card/basket :)



A layered Friend card inspired by the new Curtain call collection, I was looking for a reason to use these feathers.




Probably my all time favorite project using G45, a vintage wall hanging inspired by my Grandmother, an avid sewer and lover of fashion. I felt very honored to use her antique doilies and vintage sewing pattern paper.



I hope you enjoyed the collection, thanks for stopping by today :)


Kristinxx

Weekend wrap-up

~Hello~
As I wrap up the weekend, I am thrilled! Why? Because I have one more day to my weekend, hooray! I don't want to say I am happy for dead presidents or anything, but I am glad we have the day off to reflect on their dedicated service...ya...and 1 more day off! On to the weekend wrap-up...


I got a few projects done, the first one was for Julz Inspiration challenge over at The Scrappy Tree, it was so gorgeous! Even though it was her inspiration piece I will post it here because it is just amazing!


Her Inspiration, isn't it yummy! my take on the inspiration is below.


I ran into the red paper in a new LSS I found along with the trim (which believe it or not, I have in red already), the lovely ceramic button was in my stash along with the sheet music and doilie. I added the white sheet music because I could just picture a white grand piano in the opposite corner and the doilie because Julz actually used one and it inspired me too :) The background paper is a coredinations paper in Lavender that I sanded and inked in teal, I think it worked, I can't even tell.


My Next project was inspired by browsing through one of my Grandmothers old sewing baskets. She had a million, which I am now lucky enough to own and treasure. In digging into it, I ran across a bunch of her miniature doilies and between the G45 papers I already had my eye on and the doilies I couldn't resist. Initially I did not use a doilie, it seemed wrong somehow. So, I posted this at TST as my weekend project without the doilie, than thought more about it. If I can't share them with others like she did with me, I wouldn't be honoring her memory very well, so I added one and a string of black pearls and captured a few new pictures. I love how the wall hanging reminds me of her passion for sewing and being the fashionista that she was, now I need to find room for it somewhere :)



I love these little paper flowers, they are so delicate and the perfect hue for the rest of the piece.


This bottom image was from a piece of Steampunk paper vs the rest from a fashion themed one but she was dark haired like my Grandmother and seems to be draping a dress form, so again, it reminded me of her and seemed to fit in.



This last picture shows one of her beautiful miniature doilies and some of the vintage pattern paper I found in her basket, back when pattern paper still meant paper you make patterns out of, for me at least :) I pleated the PP and stitched it to some lace and the image, then added the doilie, button and pearls.



Well those are the two projects I got done but I am planning another quiet day without interruptions tomorrow, so we'll see what else I get done :)

Have a lovely Sunday evening, cheers!

Kxx

Hearts and Flowers...

Valentines Day for me this year was somewhat tainted, mainly due to being surrounded by an extreme number of hearts in all different shapes and sizes, but also being so busy leading up to the actual day, I had no time to figure out what, non girly, less than lame thing I could give my hubby. Both of these things had me really worried , I was convinced I would not have a good day regardless. For some reason instead of over thinking it, I made a card, which always calms me down. Feels good to get creative! Then I bought my hubby something totally not lame, Elvis Costello tickets! I knew he would love them.




The card for the hubby.


I also had fun making Whoopie Pies...okay not really, it was actually kinda traumatizing. The reason being....

Looking at this freaky looking batter!!! It is a box mix of Red Velvet cake, but all it reminded me of was ketchup and blood, two of my least favorite things! Not very relaxing baking but they turned out kinda cute and I listened to some new music while I baked, so it worked out.
This is the box, from Michaels of all places, ya probably not the best place to buy a mix but the box was cute so it sucked me in....
The end result was a lot less ketchup and bloody looking, so we did enjoy tasting them and boy they were rich but not bad for a mix in a cute box.

Our actual date night was sushi and a movie (the King's Speech). The sushi was awesome, the movie was also awesome. The best part of my day was coming home to beautiful red Tulips from my daughter and gorgeous red roses from my valentine hubby, he is so sly. So in the end, my Valentines Day turned from hearts to flowers, a great day :)

Here are my lovely tulips from my DD...

My beautiful Roses from the hubby :)

I hope your day was spent with a Valentine or loved one.

See you soon,

K xx

I can see the light....

Hi Everyone,
I can see the light....no literally! I have finally shipped enough hearts and heart projects out of my studio that the light is shinning in my room again...Hurray!

As I sit here in my brown uggs, my black yoga pants and a long sleeve grey t-shirt and stare at this ...
on my computer...I realize I need a serious catch up day to wash laundry, organize/clean my computer files, and then step away and maybe take a hike, yes again literally, somewhere :)


Before I do those things, I did want to share these things

My Studio re-inspire project: As you may recall, I was doing a re-inspire project to my crafty space. I claimed it was to make more room for books but it didn't actually work as planned. Oh well, I am liking the changes, it's something new to draw my attention to and keep me dreaming about crafting new things and it does give me more storage.

The main wall of storage, my recent book purchases are now under the globe, and the others, on the bottom shelf.

The two new focal points that are cheery and make me smile. The suitcase on the right holds my ATC collection but I may need a bigger one soon! The Wales Starbucks cup is from my friend Gayle, and on the left some bright and cheery flowers, glass candle holders and a lovely new tray I will use to snap pictures.

The shelf above my window, I gained some storage here with another new suitcase and the New York storage box on the left, also a few hollow books, great for hiding all my secret money :)

The entire storage space, I bought this years ago at Ikea, great store! The storage boxes are all from there as well. I was lucky enough to adopt some stock photo books from an old Ad agency I worked for, I really need to cut them up and play! The two fabric teal boxes hold my Jewelry making materials and yes, more beads :)


Next up: My favorite picture I took this week; the 85 lb. lovable Princess Layla



One last thing,

I wanted to mention our Create a Heart Challenge over at the Scrappy Tree, there are two days left to join in and a few details below. Follow the link and to post your project, go to the bottom of the post and use the inLinkz add link option, I hope to see you there, the prize is AWESOME!

Create a Heart for Hope Challenge for Save the Children- Haiti Relief

In typical Scrappy Tree fashion, we don't want to hinder your creative flare, so create a Heart Project, of ANY KIND and upload it here to submit Or to our Scrappy Community site, under, Challenge for Charity Group. The contest will close February 13th at 10:00pm PST.

Now the awesome prizes: First The Scrappy Tree will donate $50 dollars in your name to Save the Children- Haiti Relief.

Next, we will brag about you a lot :) But wait, there's more...

And Charee and Diane over at Graphic 45 have generously pulled together some of their awesome product to shower on the winner, see the pics below:





There are two 12 x 12 Pattern paper stacks, a cool envelope mini journal book and some of the coolest new embellishments, chipboard buttons, graphic 45 style paper flowers and beautiful ribbons and lace.

~ Our auction is still going online, through the end of Feb. We have been very lucky, some awesome Artists and Crafters have donated their projects to benefit Save the Children, and so far we have raised over $300 bucks, yeah!

http://myworld.ebay.com/tst-scrappytree/

~It's not too late to donate your project, contact us via email at thescrappytree@hotmail.com, with your name, and details of your project, including size, color, etc. and attach a few pictures.

I should be done dealing with hearts soon, I can't wait to catch up on all of my blog reading, I really miss all the inspiration I get from all of you.

If I don't make it back until after, what I now refer to as "the heart holiday", I wish you all a lovely Valentines Day with your loved ones :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Kxx