Grease is the Word!

Two posts in one day, wow, I am on a roll! Well, tomorrow night I am going to go see my cousin in her high school's performance of the musical Grease, and she has a very good roll for only being a Freshman. Anyways, I was trying to think of something really cool to take her as kind of a congratulations/job well done gift... that's when I came up with this awesome little hair clip. I just printed out a picture of the Grease logo in the size I wanted, traced it backwards on the backs of two pieces of glitter-foam, cut them out, glued everything together, then gathered the blue tulle behind, and added a ribbon-covered clip. I'm so excited about how this turned out!

Money Saving Tip for the Day:

Check out some garage sales, estate sales, and thrift stores. Be open-minded and think about everything with a creative mindset... look for items to alter, buttons, tape measures, old dress patterns, dictionaries & other books, storage, picture frames, glass jars, ribbon, etc. Go out, have fun, and who knows what trash can come home as your treasure!

Door Hanger Replacement

I've had the same door hanger on my front door for the last 4 1/2 months... a cute little girl scare crow that says "Welcome." So, I thought it was time for some change. And what's the next holiday coming up? That's right... St. Patrick's Day! And since I'm Irish, and my husband's Irish, I LOVE St. Patrick's Day!

Money Saving Tip for Today:

Get together with some friends, that scrapbook as well, and have an "Old Things New" party. Bring tools and other supplies that you don't want or haven't ever used and trade to get some new stuff, maybe even stuff that you wouldn't have ever bought yourself. Then, when you go home, challenge yourself to make something great with that "new" item(s). Have fun!

Phil's Journal

My husband, Phil, loves to take notes while he studies his Bible. So, I decided to decorate this journal for him for part of his Valentine's Day present. Thankfully, he really liked it!

The black cardstock is distressed white-core cardstock from the Paper Studio, as are the tiny little hearts that I stitched to the elastic band that holds the journal closed. I added 4 strands of ribbon for him to use as place-markers, which are stitched down to a piece of Tim Holtz grunge board that's been painted/distressed with some white and red acrylic paint and some black Ranger Distress crackle paint. The letters are Cosmo Cricket tiny type stickers on a Creative Imaginations journaling sticker.

Money Saving Tip for Today:
When buying ribbon and trim, always go for white, off-white, or cream colored items. You'll be able to stetch your supplies by adding your own color depending on the project. Try chalking, inking, painting, coloring with markers, ink-daubing, Tattered Angle/Tim Holtz spray, or even dying with food coloring. Buy more variety with still always having just the right color of ribbon or trim for each and every project!

A New Day, A New Idea

For the last couple of weeks I've been pondering this idea... and I think I'm ready to start putting it into action. Starting today, each of my posts will have some money-saving tips and suggestion to make your paper crafting habit a little nicer to your wallet, and stretch those dollars a bit farther than usual. Here are today's tips, they're the more obvious:

(1) Sign up to be put on Hobby Lobby and Micheal's email list. You'll get a new ad every week with all the greatest deals, plus some great printable coupons. (Also, look on the back of your Michael's receipts to get extra coupons or chances to win gift cards)

(2) Look at the clearance aisles! (also, don't forget to keep your eyes open for those little red stickers, not all the newly marked-down items have made it to the clearance aisle yet)

(3) Try a trip to Basket Market... the place Hobby Lobby sends all their clearance items, where everything's at least 1/2 the original price, and you can get some really good deals if you're not afraid to dig a little!

(4) And are you only looking at Hobby Lobby and Michael's for your supplies? Broaden your horizons, take a look at other stores that you wouldn't expect to have scrapbooking sections: Big Lots, Target, Walmart, Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Marshall's, Ross, TJ Max, even CVS and Walgreens.

Good luck and happy shopping!

Valentine's Day

Some would say I'm a few days late, but I have to disagree. This year, Valentine's Day falls on Thursday, February 17th... for us anyway. I was really sick all weekend (and still have a little bit of the sniffles, actually), and Phillip's off work on Friday, so we decided to celebrate Thursday night. So I'm very excited to go on my Valentine's date tomorrow night, where we'll be spending a long, relaxing evening eating at The Melting Pot. Plus, we'll save almost $20 by using the coupon I got from signing up for their little email club!

On this card I used a new Sizzix embossing folder that my aunt got me for Valentine's Day, made my own chipboard using a couple of punches and some cardstock, and cut letters out of glitter-foam using a set of sizzix alpha-bars. Then, a bit of distressing and there you have it.

Unusual Inspiration

I'm so excited about this post b/c it includes 2 very cool ideas/techniques! The first is using free paint samples in place of cardstock. This is really great for cards since they don't have to be 12 x 12 or 8 1/2 x 11 sized, and plus, you can get them in any and every color and can be used as a great way to challenge your use of color. The samples I used are ones I got from Walmart's paint department, and are Glidden and Better Homes and Gardens brands b/c they have more free-space (more details in the "free products" post from January 29th). The second idea I had was to made clear-background cards, which I did by buying a pack of 3M brand transparencies. I love the way you can layer, texture, and add a little something unexpected to the projects.

(1) A tri-fold card using a BH&G paint sample as the background, with paper studio brand glitter-stickers, and a sentiment I printed off the computer and cut/glued to mimic the cosmo cricket tiny type letter stickers. I also took pictures of the 2 top layers to show how everything works together.

(2) A card-holding pocket that I made out of a sheet of 3M transparency.

(3) This one uses the same set of paper studio stickers from the 1st card, and has 2 sheets of transparency stacked (the bottom layer w/ the stickers, and the top layer ambossed with a cuttlebug folder).

(4) A valentine's day card using some Doodlebug stickers, and a Glidden paint sample (which shows you how big those samples can get!). The other pictures are just to show you how I layered the stickers by putting some on the inside to show through the transparency.

(5) These next 2 are part of a set I made, that include 2 of each card.

(6) This one uses 2 BH&G paint samples and 2 different embossing folders (both from Cuttlebug).

(7) And this last one uses a Glidden paint sample, textured yellow cardstock, and stickers from Creative imaginations and Bo Bunny.

It's Been Too Long

Oklahoma has been a pretty fun place to be the last week and a half. Blizzard! So, I haven't been on in a while b/c of a couple minor set-backs. First, we've been staying with my grandparents for about a week, to make it easier for Phillip to make it to work. And second, I didn't get any of my paper crafting until last Thursday, when I started working hard. But the downfall was that I forgot my camera card converter! Now I have it all and am getting some stuff done... b/c we've had another blizzard over night! Enjoy these simple cards:

Some Old

Russian Doll Gift Card Holder:


Mini Chewy & Storm Trooper:

(Can fill with candy or hold a little gift inside)