Our New Place

The New House

It's been quite a year getting our act together enough to buy a new home with my Mom.  We finally found a great place right before Christmas and are now half way there.  4 bedrooms (2 master suites) and 3 baths.  Next comes the sale of Mom's home in Oregon and then our place in AZ.  For today, just a couple of pictures.

^ living room

<<< family room

No more yard work - Yea!!!!!!!!!

Awesome Planner!

Check This Out!!!

It's been a while since I've taken pictures and posted, but I am crafting and will catch up when I can.  It's a very busy time with lots going on; so much so, I need to actually plan ahead.  Oh My....

I found out about this planner today, the Passion Planner (it's on kick start) and the author is not only very creative, but also very generous.  She created a planner that I think is perfect for me, so I'm passing on the link to you guys.  Check out the kick start video here  and then go here to get the details.  What I like the most is a chance to print out a weekly view so I can get a feel for it before I decide what I like.  

Enjoy... Sandy

PCC Magazine Mondays Week 69

Puzzle Fun

Our inspiration for Magazine Mondays - Week 69 at Paper Crafter's Corner is a fun cover from New Yorker Magazine.  I can see so many ideas here, but the first thing I thought of was all the jig saw puzzles I have done with my Dad over the years.  It's been a favorite activity all my life, so much so that I will take any challenge, with any puzzle, any time.

The top picture is Dad and I working a puzzle of the Grand Canyon while traveling through Utah and Arizona in our RV's.  The bottom picture is the last puzzle we did together just about two years ago.

My layout is simple, and a good reminder of all the fun we had.  I cut the green puzzle background with my silhouette and left it on the cutting mat.  After I pulled out a few pieces, I removed the outside border piece and ran tape over all the pieces while they were still secure on the mat. Then I just laid the yellow piece on the green and gently pulled it all away from the Silhouette mat.  The random pieces are popped up at different levels and the journaling will be on the second page (that I will make when I find the rest of the pictures taken over the years).

PCC Magazine Mondays - Week 68

IN LOVE TODAY

Another fun Magazine Inspiration at Magazine Mondays with Paper Crafter's Corner.  This week, the colors popped out at me as something I would never put together.  So of course, I felt a challenge to use them.  I remembered a great CTMH Workshop on the Go kit from last fall and it seems just right for this challenge.  Picking the pictures seemed easy too because our wedding was poolside and the aqua color seems just right.  Add the fun patterns and it describes our wedding day perfectly.  The pictures are very washed out (my dress and DH's jacket are peach) and I could not restore them, so the layout adds some color.

The workshop on the go kits come with enough supplies to do another double layout and maybe more.  I took advantage of this and made these pages.  I still have enough paper to get the rest of my wedding pictures in the same color scheme. 

 Last, but not least, the inspiration:

It's never too late to join the fun at Paper Crafter's http://papercrafterscorner.com/ Corner.  Stop by and craft with us.

A Secret Message

PCC Magazine Mondays Week 67

The colors of this weeks inspiration grabbed my attention in a big way.  Since Halloween is just around the corner, I thought I would have fun making a secret door card for my nieces.  This technique is from several years ago, but there are lots of tutorials available including this one from 

How'd she DO that?

The details:

Our Inspiration:

 I think I incorporated every color in one way or another.  Seattle is one of my all time favorite cities and places to scuba dive so I am keeping this inspiration handy for a future layout or two.  

If you missed this weeks Magazine Monday at Paper Crafter's Corner, watch for next weeks inspiration tomorrow.  Paper Crafter's Corner

Magazine Monday at PCC, Week 65

40 Ways to Stay Creative

 Our inspiration this week (at Paper Crafter's Corner) is all about Staying Creative and I took it litterally.  

The first thing I saw when I looked at this cover was the word "Declutter".  No, I didn't see the part about my workspace.  I wonder if this is a subliminal message?  Of course, I immediately said, "No Way is Decluttering going to inspire me", even though I know it always does.  So my card is all about the injustice of finding the word declutter on this fabulous list.  I chose 4 ideas that fit right in with inviting a friend to do something crafty and wrote a lot of the other suggestions around the border.  I normally try to use my best penmanship, but this is all about inspiration and I decided to just list the ideas in my normal, sloppy writing.  Now, of course, I don't really like it, but my friend won't care.

Scor-Pal Challenge

Christmas Treats for Freckles

The theme for the August Scor-Pal challenge (More than one score) is 

"Food For Thought".  There are so many ways to create a fun box for a treat, or a basket for a potluck, but I couldn't think of one thing I needed.  So I decided to make a little treat box for Freckles for Christmas.  

The box is 10" long by 1" in depth, holding a lot of treats.  Here are a few of the tricks to remember when creating an odd shape box:

After tracing and cutting out your cardstock, score along the drawn line to ensure your tabs won't tear when you fold them.  Believe me, they (the tabs) will be abused by the time you have put all the pieces together.  Because my box is rounded, I used the self healing side of my Scor-Mat to work on.  It was perfect. 

To form the sides of the box, cut strips of matching cardstock the height you want the box to be.  You should cut strips for the inside and the outside.  Be sure to use a very strong tape (I used Scor-Tape) to secure the strips to the sides.  If you want your lid to sit flat against the table, the sides should be 1/16th of an inch wider.  If that measurement scares you, just use 1/8th. 

If you haven't checked out the challenge fun at the Scor-Pal blog yet, stop by to see what the September challenge will be.

Halloween School Bus?

OK, Not Really, but....

The Inspiration for Magazine Mondays at Paper Crafter's Corner, Week 64, was a really cute school bus and I immediately knew what I wanted to do.  A simple layout about our bus conversion with before and after photos.  After a few hours looking for pictures, I found two that would work ok, but I could not put the colors with any background or get any real ideas on where to go with it.  So, I went to my Silhouette and saw the school bus svg I had (from Lettering Delights) and it hit me.  An interactive layout with each layer opening in some way to display pictures of the process.  But the darn thing wouldn't cut (I admit nothing).  SO... a change of directions.  Maybe I just wasn't meant to start something new when I still have piles of UFP's (unfinished projects).  So I grabbed my Halloween layouts from last October and finished them.

Then I created two more pages to finish telling the story

As I was outlining the title letters and webbing on the last page, I realized why my Silhouette didn't want to cut and of course, I had to go back to my bus idea to see if I could figure this out.  I did!  However, now there is not enough time to put the entire thing together, but I thought I'd show you what I did get done, along with a picture of what our bus looked like when we bought it.

 

I don't want this to end up another UFP, so I'll be working on it as time allows and will post the finished layout.

UFP's

Unfinished Projects

This week's Magazine Monday left me hanging:

The second I saw it, I saw the tears and thought of my UFP's (unfinished projects).  They have been haunting me for a while, mostly because they are taking up valuable shelf space.  I have a whole hoard of UFP's from cards, to class samples, partially finished altered books, kits and projects that got interrupted, etc.   Now, admit it, you have a few too.  I don't mind having them because it give's me something to grab and work on if I don't know what else to do (like that will ever happen), but I do want to get some of them done.  It might sound silly, but I include my Silhouette and other tools seldom used in my UFP's.  To me, if it is not being used because I haven't taken time to learn enough about it, it's a UUFP - Useless Unfinished Project.  So my Silhouette is high on the list.  That is why last week I played with my shapes and files and learned quite a bit.  The result was several cut pieces that needed to be put together. 

And that's just what I did.  Yesterday was our monthly crop and I took all those cut pieces to put together, and a couple of UFP's to play with for the day.  The bone shape treat box is for the Scor-Pal August challenge, so more about that soon.  The rest are things I cut on the Silhouette.  I love the carousel horse and the doggy wagon.  I need to decide if I should add brads for the bolts on the wagon, or maybe something else.  I'm thinking some stickles or ? on the tags too.  I made several of these so I can add a little fun to my holiday packages.  Any suggestions are welcome.  I also worked on a mini book I started about 3 years ago with Teresa Collins papers and it is looking great.  One more day and I should be done with that too.  YEA!

I had so much fun that I am going to continue to work on my unfinished projects when I can.

2014 Summertime Photographic Scavenger Hunt

A Very Tiny Water Fall

OK, it's not really a waterfall, but with my limited budget for fuel, I don't think I'll be driving anywhere that actually has water this time of year.  I had hoped to grab a shot of a monsoon runoff somewhere, but during the heaviest rains, I realized that I stay in when it's raining.  I'm pretty sure the road closures would keep me from getting very far.  For those of you not familiar with the summer rains (monsoons) in the Arizona desert, it rains very hard for a short time, causing flash floods in little pockets everywhere.  If you are caught out driving during the storm, you might find one or two road closures on your way home.  No big deal 'cuz the water runs off as fast as it came and you can be on your way in no time.  I had also thought I could add a photo or two of the "waterfall" inside our house when the wind blows the rain hard against our porch room.  It runs down the windows mighty fast.  But the wind has not been in the right direction, so I am presenting my idea of a very tiny waterfall.  My friend has this beautiful fountain in her yard and we took this picture during my visit last week.  I enjoyed it's beauty every bit as much as I do massive waterfalls.  Be sure to stop by Gallo Organico and read about the photo challenge for this summer and join the fun.