Paper Whiskers

currents on a Friday afternoon

eating: Halloween candy from the front desk candy jar - (yes, Halloween has already arrived-crazy!)

drinking: water

wearing: red top (cut a little too low); tan slacks; hair in ponytail

feeling: sad

weather: it's a beautiful day outside today

wanting: to be independently wealthy - I know it won't solve all my problems, but it would make life a lot easier in many respects

needing: a shoulder rest attachment for my phone  :P

thinking: about visiting London again. This post by Shimelle Laine brought up all those feelings I have about that city. Even though I was only there for a few days, it had a huge impact on me.

enjoying:  the weather - it's just so nice!

anticipating: doing make and takes (quick little scrapbooking projects using new products) at my local scrapbook store tomorrow

currents on a Thursday morning

eating: a lemon zest Luna bar

drinking: water

wearing: blue shirt, grey pants

feeling: tired - I was up way too late last night

weather: it's pretty outside this morning, and it was a little cool when I came into work - finally a break from the incessant heat!

wanting: to have the afternoon off. Why is it I always think of cool projects at the very last minute, when there is no time to do them?!?

needing: a haircut - need to chop off some inches :)

thinking: I'm trying to decide whether to keep up with the ongoing scrapbook projects I'm doing. I have a lot of days where I wonder if Project Life is just feeding my packrat tendencies. Although, honestly, when I really think about it, I tend to think it's helping instead. If I focus on collecting a few bits and pieces as the week goes on, then I'm throwing away everything else. Aside from that though, is the fact that I've done so many of these types of projects that the actual execution is growing a little stale. Or maybe I'm just annoyed at getting behind and now my printer isn't printing as well (have to print almost every day to keep it in top shape, apparently). Heh.

enjoying: family email conversations

wondering: when I'll get to see Captain America - I'm not so keen on the WWII stuff, but I am very interested to see the modern scenes and the tag scene after the credits; I'm also trying to figure out where White Collar is going this season. The writers/creators/etc. mishandled the Nazi loot topic, and never really came back from that. I'm really hoping that there is some kind of long con involved that will explain a few things and tie the season together.

loving: vampire tv shows - I'm not a fan of the really violent stuff, but Eric and I just mainlined seasons 1 and 2 of The Vampire Diaries and we are completely hooked. The new season doesn't start until late September, so now we're watching Moonlight (a very good show canceled before it's time). We may or may not keep going with Buffy/Angel after that. ;)

Friday

Turns out having a 12-year-old nephew visiting stops regular life for awhile. Perfectly fine by me. :) I'm looking forward to the next kid visitor, this time a 13-year-old niece. Yay July.

So, what's new?

My Project Life project stalled a bit while Trent was here, but I'm going to work on getting the last couple weeks input tonight I think. Since I won't be going to Harry Potter, like I'd hoped. :( Eric's job is just too intense right now, so he won't be home in time and will be exhausted to boot. And I hope to also start cutting into scrapbook supplies finally and getting some decorative stuff added too.

However, there will be a break around 10 for the new episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day. I am still reserving judgement because the first episode was honestly not that great. I'm hoping it improves and the old Capt Jack shows up. Last week, he was barely in it, and not at all the Capt Jack he used to be (understandably). Still, any new John Barrowman performance is always a good thing. ;)

The last couple weeks have been great for photography, too. I have lots of new photos to play with (bubbles!, water guns!, capes!, kids!, fireworks!, babies!), and I even managed a self-portrait in my truck today that I'm actually pretty happy with.

Next up is to figure out how to do a Week in the Life album. Ideally, I'd do it during the time that Torie is here, but I don't know how realistic that is. I guess I'll play it by ear. If all else fails, I still have my Project Life book.

Layout - "Everyday Companion"

Sharing another layout today. Darling Edie - almost impossible to take pictures of unless she's not looking at you (which is rare). She's such a love. Also, this layout is more proof that she exists! ;)

Supply notes: cat chipboard (Martha Stewart cat, stripped of the colored paper layer, then inked; I glued a Sassafrass flower sticker on top, then trimmed to the shape; added another sticker and an initial)

Layout - "Uncle Eric"

Supplies to note: that fantastic patterned paper (Sassafrass), clear acrylic tree (Maya Road), bike image (Cosmo Cricket's Snorkel line), "2005" (Doodlebug), 'sunshine' rubber piece (KI Memories)

This is one of my all-time favorites, and it is what I wish all my layouts could feel like.

The tree is the time-intensive piece of the layout. I started with a plain acrylic piece, and added rows of lots of different small rubon letters to spell out "bike ride" over and over. Then I edged it with some green Stickles. I love how it turned out.

 

 

Layout: "There is More Here..."

I'm still doing Project Life, but haven't done any of the 'pretty' stuff for it yet. I've just been putting photos and ephemera in. So no pictures of that yet. But, I do have some layouts that I've never shared here.

Supplies to note: letter stickers (Sweetwater-discontinued), acrylic squares (Tim Holtz Fragments)

This is an old layout that I never got around to posting. It's 12x12 and the photo is 8x12 I think. It's one of a series of photos I did when the Tate kids were little tykes. The oldest is turning 14 this summer!

The square accents were created using rubons and stickers applied to white cardstock, then glued with Glossy Accents to the clear acrylic Fragments. Looking back on the quote, I have no idea what I was trying to say. LOL Cryptic, much? This is the problem with this kind of layout - I didn't include any journaling to explain myself, so it's really meant to be a display piece.

Anyway, it's cute and I love the photo so much. Each kid is doing their own thing, which is so real to life it's hilarious. I can't wait to see them all again in a couple weeks. :D

 

Project Life - Underway

I finally started it this weekend. I decided to use the Marion Arts Festival as a book-end for the year, although our visit this year didn't quite work out as planned.

I don't have a dedicated album for it yet, and will be using the 12x12 album I used for last April's Week in the Life project for now.

For the base of the album, I'm using the Style A page protectors used in the Project Life kit. I'll add in 6x12 photo pages, 8.5x11 pages for articles/blog posts, and various other sizes as needed. Essentially, it will be a large-scale version of the way I did December Daily last year. The trick will be paring down what I include - I love to collect bits, but the weekly format doesn't allow for as much as I'd be inclined to. We'll see how it goes.

Things I do plan to keep track of, just because I think it will be interesting to look back at in the future:

• Facebook posts (I don't post that often, so this will not take up too much space)
• Movies and TV shows I watch
• Books/fanfic/comics I read
• GetGlue stickers
• io9 articles
• Blog posts (mine and others I read that strike a chord)

I won't be obsessive about keeping track of this stuff, but it will be good filler for the times when I don't have photos.

too quiet

I've really lost the knack of this, I guess. But, I'm not willing to give up on this blog quite yet.

I have lots of layouts from retreat to photograph and share, so that will be coming. I'm also doing Ali Edwards' A Week in the Life project. I started today and will go through Thursday. 7 days of recording where I go and what I do - hopefully it won't be too boring. Most of that time is spent at work, so we'll see.

Eric and I saw How to Train Your Dragon a couple weeks ago. Oh my gosh, was it good! I really want to go again, and can't wait for it to come out on blu-ray. I'm also on the lookout for a good souvenir. I haven't checked out the action figures yet, but hopefully there's a decent one. Or, I might buy the movie poster.

I'm also doing a monthly photo project, inspired by photographer Tara Whitney. One picture of our family every month, combined with a short list of stuff that went on that month. I think it will be interesting to look back on the 12 sets at the end of the year.

But probably the biggest excitement right now, is the Eleventh Doctor. New episodes started airing in the UK on Easter weekend, and so far, it is outstanding. I am super excited to see where the season goes. Here's a YouTube video of the season preview. Cool!

 

4.5x7 Embellishment Hideaway - Hacked

In my quest to get more organized, I found this Cropper Hopper storage box on clearance at TwoPeas:

 

I found no information on what the inside looked like, so went ahead and got it anyway, gambling that it would have the space I needed. It fits perfectly where I planned to put it, and I could easily stack another on top (which I may still do, since they are still on sale). But I was really hoping that it had no dividers at all.

As you can see, it does have dividers. Lots of them. By the time this came, I had decided to use it for stamp storage - the ones that I always forget to use because they are sorted into drawers. Those 3x3 slots weren't going to cut it.

So, I hacked it.

 

It's actually very easy to do, because it's made of chipboard, covered in fabric on the outside. I used an xacto knife to trim out the first divider and glued down the loosened pieces that came up when I pulled out the inner pieces. Then I picked out paper:

 

and started trimming liner pieces. I ended up using the left two papers (Fancy Pants Designs) and cut them to these measurements:

6.5 x 6 3/8 for the base (cut 1)
6.5 x 3 5/8 for the sides (cut 4)
6.5 x 1.5 for the scalloped strips to top the sides (cut 4)

I glued them in this order: base, scalloped strips, sides. I used fabri-tac for the scalloped strips, since they were being glued onto fabric, but I don't think it's entirely necessary. I think the Scotch Quick-Dry I used for the rest would have worked just as well. I used liquid glue, over red-line tape, for durability. Liquid glue bonds the paper with the chipboard, whereas red-line tape (strong as it is) just sits between the layers and doesn't have the same absorption property. But that's more information than anyone cares about, so moving on!

When I glued the scalloped strips in (and later the sides), I used clamps to keep pressure on the middle and corners, to help the bonding process along.

Once I had everything glued, I realized that I needed a better handle than the one that's on it. Luckily, there are two handy holes pre-drilled in the handle, so you can add ribbon or tags or whatever. Nice. I decided to use a fancy fabric brad from my vast collection of brads, that matched the insides perfectly:

 

Pretty!

And here's the final product, put to use:

 

The brad might get put back into the stash soon, because I'm not quite sure it's going to work as well as I'd thought. I may end up using ribbon after all.

:)

Labor Day Weekend Labors

I spent the weekend sorting, cleaning, organizing, and purging my scrap/craft/spare room. It's not done, but I have a clean worktable, more places to put things, two boxes of rummage sale-bound stuff, and more logical arrangement of key supplies. I'm still working on it, and have lots more paper to purge (mostly cardstock at this point). I also went through my stamps pretty ruthlessly, and for the first time, my Magenta stamp collection (ouch!).

I also pulled out a bathroom cabinet kit that I'd had kicking around way too long (because I discovered after opening it that it needs to be wall mounted) with the intention of putting it together. That's when I rediscovered the wall mount problem, not to mention that it was missing the hardware. And know why? Because the box it's in, isn't the box it came in. Weird. I've had it so long, I have no idea why. I'm sure it made sense at the time.  lol  So now I think I'm going to have to make a trip to the hardware store to find the screws, and doorknobs. I still have to figure out how to get around the wall-mounting, though.

There was one crafty thing I did this weekend. I finally catalogued my paint/Stickles glitter glue/alcohol ink bin. I used some cardboard pieces I was originally going to recycle, plus a stack of white cardstock tags that have been kicking around. I made them into tags, and hung them on a binder ring, which I then hung on the bin. The other tag booklet is one that I made at CKU a couple years ago, in a Tim Holtz class. It has instructions and examples for several alcohol techniques.

I have been wanting a way to be able to see these things in action, all in one place.

For the Stickles and alcohol inks I stamped an open circle with room to write in the color names. I figured this would be a good way to see them at a glance. The alcohol inks are actually applied to clear epoxy circles that take the color beautifully. I intentionally left spaces blank, for future acquisitions. ;)

 

Glitter Mists are another supply, like alcohol inks, that are impossible to really know what they look like without having a an sample. I used Eclipse masking paper to cover the tag as I was spraying each color, so they wouldn't get all mixed up.

 

And this photo shows the examples for Lil Davis Designs metallic paints and Ranger distress crackle paints.

So, I procrastinated a bit, by making this when I probably should have been working on something else, but I had a lot of fun and I did get lots of other stuff done, too. And now I have something that will help keep this stuff top of mind when I'm working on a project. I have so much stuff, that it's easy to overlook things that later on I realize would have been a good addition.