In the Storm

seriously, i'm gonna' do it

this amazing eye-candy is one of elsie larson's wall in her new home. she is slowly decorating and sharing her home on her website a beautiful mess. i feel on the floor in love when i saw this wall of WOW!

i said to myself, "Self, you could do that on the blue wall in the living room?"

"Sure, like that's gonna' happen?"

"Seriously, a full wall of pictures of the kids and grandkids! It would be quite the statement wall."

"There is no way Hoosier Man would go for that..."

and so my conversation with myself ended.

temporarily.

i had the same conversation with myself several times that day. i looked at elsie's wall multiple times even as much as talking myself through how i might be able to create a wall like this without an instax camera.

then i decided to show Hoosier Man the wall.

and then i asked if i could do something like that on the blue wall.

he said...

YES!!!!!!

i am seriously gonna' do it!

i am ecstatic! crazy excited!

now - my punk daughter ashley better get me some pictures soon!!! 

52gratitudes | 05



pin + action | 04

pin (p n) ac·tion (ak'sh n) v.

1. the act of pinning; and then making, crafting, copying, diying, the pin

while i was home over thanksgiving and shopping on black friday (seems i started a previous post like this...), we went to joanne's first off. we always do. everyone was buying something. i wasn't going to. but i wanted to. i decided to visit other parts of the store while my mom and sister were in the fabric cutting aisle waiting for their turn. i spotted these paper mache letters that were quite large. i originally wanted the 23"-high letters but figured these would work great because of how thick they were.

i pinned this display of N O E L from pottery barn from craftily ever after and knew i would one day make it.

so i've had the letters for a while now and after the first of the year when i decided i needed to start taking action to all those things i was pinning i also knew it would be soon that i'd make that NOEL christmas decoration.

my typical way of doing things is to make christmas decorations after christmas (sure, i make some before too, but it never fails that i get in the mood after christmas).

so i bought some krylon hammered bronze spray paint, some more E6000 super strength affixing glue stuff and went to town.

1) First, i glued the bottom of the N to the top of the E, then glued the side of the E to the side of the L and let all that dry for about 36-hours.

2) Then, i glued the O catt-e-corner (i have no idea how to spell it) tilted on top of the L and hugging the N.

3) i was concerned that the O, because it had such a small area to glue that it would come apart but E6000 glue is strong.

4) then i began spray painting.

5) the first coat looked like this. i was already seeing the awesomeness of the hammered bronze spray paint.

6) i let that dry overnight before i gave it a second coat to try and smooth things out a bit and hit any areas that i missed.

7) my finished N O E L project.

LOVE THIS PROJECT!!!!!

so gorgeous! i got to say that i love them way better than pottery barn's!!!! sorry pb.

set of 6 3x4 project life journal cards

inspired by paisleepress day planner kit and elise blaha cripe's seafoam kit i made a set of 6 vertical 3x4 project life journal/note cards. i used tan, seafoam, and grey for the color scheme and i'm super excited how they turned out and i'm planning on using all of them this coming week's edition of project life (coming to a blog near you next monday).

i mimicked liz's the story of today changing the colors and font (not sure what font she used)

this one is super similar to liz's also. i'll use it probably by circling the day of the week too.

i was inspired by liz with this filler card but i've seen days of the week all over in many different forms as filler cards or background cards. i could certainly journal on this because i made the type fairly light.

i used an inch from elise's seafoam kit to make this card and gave it a morning label flag. would be nice to journal our day based on morning, afternoon, and evening.

i kept the color of the flag and type the same but changed up the 1-inch paper strip at the bottom on each of these three.

super excited about these cards and i can't wait to use them

pin + action | 03

this block nativity scene has been on my christmas love pin board since i began pinning. i have wanted to make these forever. even before i began pinning i had these saved into my favorites.

one day.

this past thanksgiving we made it down to florida for the thanksgiving family gathering...and black friday shopping. when we hit black friday shopping its always joannes, micheals, and target and other places might include hobby lobby. this past black friday we hit hobby lobby and i hit pay dirt.

8 inch blocks were on sale 50% off. i knew immediately i had to have them for this project.

while i would have loved to have made the vinyl pieces myself on my very own silhouette camea - alas, i do not have one in my possession. so i had to purchase them.

this was a very simple pin + action.

my supplies were simple:

three vinyl nativity cut-outs, 3 - 8-inch glass blocks, three strands of tiny white lights, and a spool of 2-inch shimmery ribbon, and scissors.

1) i affixed the vinyl onto the glass block

2) stuffed in the strands of tiny white lights into each block

3) cut off a good length of shimmery ribbon, wrapped it around the block and tied it into a bow at the top. i did use some clear pop dots to hold the ribbon ends in place.

here's a close up of one of the blocks.

easy-peezy. and these have become my most favorite christmas decoration.

yes, even over my snow men.

project life | week 04

until i actually sit down and begin my project life week i have no ideas for how it will come out. this past week cathy zielske posted her project life where she used protector D for one side of her two-page spread. because we had so few photos this week Project Life template D was a good template to use for the right side of the page. i kept with template A for the left side.

i really like using a unified color pattern throughout both pages - at least right now. we'll see how it goes from here.

all that said i love project life.

i used cathy z tiny templates, ali edwards digital templates, and elise blaha cripe seafoam project life. just click on one of the pages to get a bigger look see at the journaling which this week there is alot. i think i'm going to try and make sure the details, the entire story is told too since this is a record of our life.

hello monday | 05

hello monday.

hello to The Hobbit. We begin the Hobbit today with study guide and lectures to boot.

hello to Walkabout. A reading for our Geography lessons on Australia.

hello to two young men, 15-years old who now need to shave. their dad loaned them his electric razor (he uses a cheapy disposable).

hello to gorgeous weather.

hello to creating a Chapter 8 test on Air Masses for my homeschool co-op Meteorology class.

hello to finishing out the month strong by walking everyday this week.

hello to a new recipe in a bowl: Oktoberfest Lager Stew. And additional on-the-menu for this week: Zucchini Mozzarella with Caesar Salad and Texas Toast, Tacos (of course), Chili with Fritos, Barbecups with Spicy Broccoli and Salad...

hello to being well

hello to simplifying

hello to creating another pin + action (i'm in the process of creating another Christmas decoration). I always do this, make Christmas decorations in January-February for the next Christmas. Not sure why.

hello new week. i love monday's just for the possibilities.

 

i'm linking with lisa.

52 scraplifts | 09

all the doodling and such on this page isn't my style. if i tried it it would just look dumb. but i liked the basic layout of the page and figured i could get a bunch of photos on the two-page layout and still keep a pretty clean and simple page and it still look good. i had just gotten some more photos off of facebook from elizabeth so i used those for this two-page spread. this will go in her alaska book that is coming along nicely (well, at least on the computer - although i have some already printed)

this scraplift came from a memory makers magazine, scrapbook idea gallery 6 - wow! i'm pretty sure that was an old magazine. it was created by marla kress. thanks marla for the scraplift idea!

i flopped the pages and mimicked the title pretty much keeping a large photo with smaller ones of ella throughout the second page. love this page alot! one of my favorite 'creative' parts is the sewing over the title - i love that added touch.

isn't my grand daughter a cutie! miss this family so much.

52 scraplifts | 08

so much for one page a week of scraplifts. i've been cranking out way more than one a week...and i'm lovin' it!

this scraplift the creating keepsakes february 2005 magazine. they did not give the author of the page credit so i'm unable to do that.

i loved the block of photos and the title especially using two different types of fonts. the white space at the bottom was clean and simple.

before christmas i had cleaned up the guest room from it's piles of junk lying everywhere and made it homey again to welcome mom over christmas. after she left and i put the room to right again i took pictures for this page and to document the lovely room we've made and the people can enjoy when they come and visit.

i kept the margins fairly even and duplicated the title and the journaling spot. i love how it turned out. i have a few more touches i want to include in this room and will probably do another page documenting as i go. we have a headboard to make and curtains to put up with some additional 'beachy' touches too.

52 scraplifts | 07

rhonda stark from the creating keepsakes, june 2005 magazine created this digital page and i loved the clean-ness and the words + photos and a the words telling about any given weekday of their lives.

i've documented pieces of our day, i've done week in the life but i thought this would be a good thing to have an account of any given weekday.

i pretty much scraplifted the entire page from the title, to the uniform photo blocks, to the large journaling spot. the only embellishments i added were on the photos themselves.

i realized once i put the two pages together that the title is wanky (which i'll fix before i print - i just haven't fixed it yet...)

you can read my journal by clicking on the photo (which will open the image up into a larger image and be easier to read)

i realize how much i am scrapbooking with this self-imposed challenge of  52 scraplifts.

i'm lovin' this project.