Colored pencil box, finished

Hi all! Just a quick post this morning. I have finished my colored pencil box and would like to share the completed project with you.

The "crayon box" has 6 individual "cups" that can be removed for easy access. All the panels except the lid, are 2 layers of canvas. The outside layer is stitched and inside layer plain so the cups will slide out easier. They also have a piece of heavy chipboard covered with black cardstock in between them for strength. 

I had a lot of fun making this! Now I am on to working on items for my booth I will have at the Spring Fling :)

Have a great day all!

Cheers!

~ Mindi

Other than scrapbooking, I like to....

So I am wondering, what does everyone like to do other than scrapping and card making? Not exactly a portable hobby, as we all well know! What do you like to do while watching tv or during long car rides?

There are a lot of crafty things I like to do. I crotchet, cross stitch, and play with plastic canvas. What is plastic canvas you ask? This is how I explain it to people who ask me. Remember those yarn covered boxes that Gramma always seemed to have over her tissue box or toilet paper rolls? Yes, that is plastic canvas! A more "official" explanation would be such - it is like cross stitching as it is composed of squares, but it is a stiffer plastic and the holes are further apart. You stitch on it with yarn and can make 3D objects with it like boxes, etc.

So last week I finished a carrier/case for my 48 classic Zig Markers. So, slightly scrapbook related :) This is what it looks like closed

 and then the awesomeness of it open!!! For those of you wondering, yes, I store all of my pens, inks, etc by order of Roy G. Biv ;)

 This is how I get them stinkers to stay in place. The outer cover is completely covered with the chevron yarn stitching and the inside is blank. I used thin elastic and sewed it thru the holes of the canvas to make the pen loops. Then when I stitched the front and back together, I inserted a piece of heavy chipboard between the layers to make it more "book" like. 

Fun, right? I am currently working on a colored pencil case. There are 6 individual boxes that can be removed separately (by color family of course!) and I am making a crayon style box to hold them. I am almost to the construction phase, just a bit more to go.

I work on these in the evening while watching tv or in the mornings while I am watching Heather do her morning broadcast of Coffee, Chat and Kraaft on her YouTube channel

I would love for you to comment on what kinds of projects you work on when you are not playing with paper!

Have a great day all!

Cheers!

~Mindi

Fun with embossing and distress ink

Well hello!!!

I have been having a blast watching my dear friend Heather and her LIVE web shows in the morning. I shall now insert a shameless plug for her....
Here is the link to her YouTube channel Coffee, Chat & Kraaft, which is very similar to the name of my blog, so should be an easy mental association :)

Anywho, I have several Tim Holtz distress inks, but hardly ever use them. So Heather was playing with them on some Kraft resist papers in Episode 10 so I thought I would give it a shot. I did put my own twist on things by embossing on some scrap kraft I had instead of using pre-made.

You will have to forgive my messy stamping as I was excited to try this out! 

The one on the left is using mowed lawn, salty ocean and picked raspberry distress inks. The top flourish is clear embossing powder and the lower is pearl. The stamps are CTMH. I had never sprayed water or heated distress inks before, but Heather did indeed inspire me. I love it! The bright colors look like tie dye to me. Super fun! 

The one on the right is a mish mosh of several inks including antique linen, bundled sage, iced spruce, frayed burlap and walnut stain. The stamps are also CTMH and the dress form is clear embossed while the sentiment is gold. I really smudged the colors around, big fun and big mess!! After doing the main part, I inked the helk out of the edges with the walnut stain, sprayed lots of water and let it run down before I used the heat gun. I think I have found something to keep me busy for hours on end! What a blast!!

While we are on the topic of embossing, I just have to share this bit of awesomeness! At my crop last Saturday, and friend of mine bought a few things and couldn't find a pen to write a check. So what does any clever paper crafter do in this situation??

They emboss the check of course!!!! LOL For those of you wondering, yes I took it to the bank and yes they deposited it! :)

Off to make dinner for the troops, have a great night!

Cheers!

~Mindi

Busy, Busy!

I have actually gotten several wedding album pages done in the last couple of days! For me this is monumental, as I am usually a very slow and methodical scrapper. I guess getting most of my tax paperwork was such a relief that my creativity came flowing freely from deep down!

This was our receiving line after the wedding. I didn't have a lot of photos to work with, but made due to a least get a single page out of them. I matted all my photos with silver chrome paper, then embossed the circle mats with different folders in my Sizzix. The ribbon is velvet and the buckle was just in my stash and came from who knows where :) The butterfly is laser cut felt from Multicraft Imports and started out grey. There is a lot of silver Stickles on that guy, and also some clear and black mini rhinestones. I used the right side of the 6-9-10 sketch from Let's Scrap

For the wedding, I had super glued rhinestones on the bottom of my shoes that said "I do". For our first anniversary we stayed in the same hotel in the same room that I got ready in and we stayed in for our wedding night. Before we left for the evening, I got out my silver Sharpie and wrote "we did" on the shoes I was going to wear. The photos are taken on the same couch in the hotel even! A super fun memory for us and in my opinion, made for a great scrapbook page! This is also my entry for this month's Stack-a-holic template challenge at DCWV. I used the Bella Armoire stack.

Of course you can't be legally married without signing the ol' marriage certificate. The papers are all also Bella Armoire stack. The doves are Jolee's I believe. The white flowers (and black one peeking out from underneath) are Color Me Crazy and the two smaller are Prima. The centers are pearls and rhinestones from Making Memories. The dots around the scalloped circles are Liquid Pearls in White Opal. The inspiration for this was from a sketch I saw on Pintrest, but boy I surely strayed far from the path. 

One of my scrappy goals this year was to try some of the design elements that I see on other people's layouts that I like, but shy away from doing myself. So on this page, the mixed title was that thing.

Lot of fussy work on this page. The dress came with a small jacket, that of course didn't fit my football player shoulders. So I hung on that darn thing since before the wedding so I could use pieces of it for this page. All of the black embroidered pieces are fussy cut from that jacket. Of course the beading all fell off when I cut the pieces apart so they are all individually glued back on. As well as the loose black sequins and the tiny rhinestones inside each of them. Whew!

I also made the rose with inspiration and instruction from Heather Corbitt and her video

Coffee, Chat & Kraaft (CC&K) episode 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_aoWK2w-r4&feature=g-high-u. 

I did ink the edge, brush some Stickles on it and shoved some silver ribbon in the center for fun. :)

Papers-all stash

title - "2" is Tim Holtz, "nd" is Colorbok, "dress" is DCWV (actually Mango Frost but I painted them black and added some sparkle paint)

journal tickets - Brilliance Ink pad "Graphite black", Stampin Up! stamp and punch

Sizzix die - Decorative frames #2

harlequin mask - TCW, Colorbox chalk ink "Charcoal" and SU! ink "Illuminate"

mist - Tattered Angels "Silver Sugar"

white flowers, sequins and mini stones - stash

I used the 4-27-11 sketch from Let's Scrap

So again, I am amazed at the amount I got done this week! Tomorrow night a good friend is coming over and we are gonna have a Wine, Scrap N Chat, which I am totally looking forward to! 

Have a great night!

Cheers!

~Mindi

OH ME, OH DEAR!

August? Really? I haven't blogged since August? What a pity! I deserve a blogger flogging! I guess the good news is, I have gotten back to scrapping. Ironically, my last post was the last scrapbook page I did until a few weeks ago. That is a long time without scrapping! I was very busy and I did manage to stay out of trouble, just didn't any layouts done!

As of a few months ago I also became an administrator at Let's Scrap. A challenging position at times, but rewarding all the same.

Onto some scrapping! This layout was started shortly after I posted my last one in August. I did not get finished until the begining of December! I have to give every bit of credit where it is due for this layout. I found the idea on Pintrest and was linked to Virginia's Scrappy Place and her use of a Sketch support sketch. I really loved her layout and searched for the perfect picture to work. This photo is from our engagement photo shoot and I think it worked beautifully for this format.

 This was my first layout using a Let's Scrap sketch since August. This is the 12-5-12 sketch, using just one side. I really wanted to push myself to something new. I always admire the pages like this, with one photo, surrounded by the embellishments with a lot of "white" space. It took every muscle in my body to not put the title in the lower right hand side and spread the arrows out and run more strips, etc! It was worth the mental anguish, as the result pleased me :)

I was without printer when I was working on this layout, so no journaling or title. I guess I could have used my Cricut, but I didn't feel it was absolutely needed. The sketch is 12-12-12 from Let's Scrap. I used some of the fabric that was hanging at the wedding to make the swag on the page. Scrapbooking in its truest form. I do realize that there are 2 photos the same on the left side and that the photo of the disco ball is sideways. C'est la vie I guess. I am not one to re-do pages, so I can laugh at myself in my old age that I was dumb and didn't notice as I was printing the sheet out LOL

This is Let's Scrap sketch 9-28-11 using one side. Not the typical wedding album page, us out having a cigarette, but I love that the photographer captured Mike letting me have his jacket. A great memory for me to cherish. What a gent! 

So, last but totally my fave right now! This is the current sketch at Let's Scrap, 1-2-13. Another example of me not exactly where I am used to being, but enjoying the process. I love the "shabby chic" look, but really struggle to get it on page. This sketch and layout, really got the royal treatment. I kept adding and adding and adding! You just can't have too much bling! I have swirls and sequins and pearls and liquid pearls and even the old keys got blinged! The part of this that is the dearest to me is the "chain" that the keys are hanging from. I used leftover beads from Susie working on my dress to make it :) 

Speaking of my Susie (bestie of 16 years turned sister-in-law), she is expecting her first child! I am so very excited for her and her husband! No due date yet, but she will be finding out more on Wednesday! Wishing her all the love and comfort in the world!
~Cheers!
Mindi

One more before I take a break

So this morning I finished a layout I started yesterday.

Lots of fussy work with this one.
The large paper flowers are K&Company. I painted them black and then added black and silver stickles. The smaller fabric flowers are Celebrate it with liquid pearl centers. The butterfly is Grant Archival and the trail behind it is hand drawn with black liquid pearls. All the rub ons are Kaiser Craft. The black ribbon is stash and the Mr/Mrs ribbon is The Paper Studio. Background and tag are DCWV Bella Amoire stack. I used the RHS of the 8-4-10 sketch from Let's Scrap.

Now the real work begins for me. My web guy stopped by yesterday and I officially own my website domain name. So now I get to design my website. EEK! It seems pretty dummy proof, which is good for me! Then I get to load my items and get my Paypal account linked. A lot of work, but very excited about the end result of having my online store. Fingers crossed this all goes smoothly!
Cheers!
~Mindi

Congrats and farewell

Not farewell to my blog, or my scrapbooking, but to my position as a Design Team member at Let's Scrap. I had the honor of serving for 2 terms on this wonderful website, but there are things around here that need to be taken care of. I will apply again in the future, but right now there is only so much of me to go around. :) I tremendously enjoyed my time on the DT and the gals I worked with are all wonderful and talented ladies. I am grateful for the opportunity to have been involved in such a great group of gals.

Now, CONGRATS!!!!!! 
to the August to November 2012 Let's Scrap Design team


Misty Rushlow
Janet Gregory
Martha Sterbens
Elaine Young
Rachel Myerson
Annie Collins
Michelle Looi
Cassandra Leigh Dyson
Michelle van Wyk  
Denise van Deventer          
Judy Rakes                    
Jennifer Russell              
Kristine Ponte                  
Enikö DeLisle                    
Asmah Zainal Abidin        
Cathy van der Bruinhorst

There are some new names on this list and a few familiar ones. Enjoy the ride gals!

On another note, I was feeling a little bit of creative mojo yesterday, so I got a layout done! I used the Lets' Scrap sketch 7-27-11. I tried a few new techniques on this one. Things I have seen others do, but had never gotten around to trying it myself. I "stamped" on the bottom left with silver acrylic paint and bubble wrap and made a zipper flower. The fabric flowers are also silver (even tho they look grey in the photo) and they have rhinestone and sequin centers. I used my Storybook Cricut cart for the title.

I really had a lot of fun making this. I don't know if I was just excited to have some mojo back or what. Either way I will take it! Anytime I can feel inspired, create freely and enjoy myself is a good day to me!

Have a great night all!
Cheers!

~Mindi