Dress Forms, Bookmarks, and Lace!!!

Hey scrappers! Two small projects to share today :)

The first is for a swap on Scrapbook.com. For this one I made corner bookmarks. It was a little challenging embellishing them because in order for them to be practical they can't be too bulky. They definitely can't have dimensional flowers, so I was really out of my element! These would be perfect to embellish with stamped images. I'm still building my stamp collection so I opted for the flower route, but flatter ones. The bookmark itself isn't hard to make, you can follow the written tutorial and watch the video tutorial on Splitcoaststampers.com right here.

Fun fact: since I was out of dimensionals/pop dots, I grabbed three plastic buttons in bright colors (which I never use) for each bookmark and hot glued them to the back of the biggest scalloped oval. Then I hot glued it to the bookmark. I have since gotten myself a package of dimensional adhesive circles from Hobby Lobby :)

Okay, fair warning: If you don't feel like reading from here until the next picture, you're not missing any vital information pertaining to the pictures I wanted to show you all. I for some reason felt like detailing my little trip to Hobby Lobby. All I meant to do was mention that I got a dress form and I ended up writing all this, LOL:

On my way into Hobby Lobby to get dimensionals, I passed all the cool displays they keep at the front with neat stuff. A lot of the time it's 50% off so I make sure I take a peek at it all. If nothing else it's entertaining, there are some cool things on those shelves! But I noticed something on one that I could actually buy without feeling like I wasted my very limited money on something I really didn't need (not that I needed this, either, but you know what I mean...maybe lol). Ever since I saw Jewel from YouTube show a dress form she bought at Ross that she planned on hanging tags from, I've wanted a dress form, too. I've never seen them in stores before (the kind that aren't life-sized, anyway) and didn't have a lot of luck online the first time I searched. Last week I found a few sites I could buy some from but there was other stuff I wanted to spend my money on -- if I had a steady income I'd be fine spending $20+ for a metal/wire dress form, but since I never know what kind of cash I'll have, I kind of have to predict what I might need. I'm sure lots of you do that, too :) So I decided to wait until I had a little more money to get one. But as you can probably guess, I found a perfect one at Hobby Lobby. It's about a foot tall and made from black metal. I think it was made to hang jewelry from, but who knows. Anyway, with great anticipation I stepped up to the display, reached up and flipped the price tag over to see it was only $9.99! And it was on a 50% off display so I happily grabbed one (and I say "grabbed" like it was a simple task...the bottom of the form's three legs curl up- and inward so they were getting caught on everything around the dress form. And a lot of the time the stuff on those displays is fragile or made of glass, so I had to be super careful not to pull anything off. And being short didn't help this process, haha).

So in my basket it went and I made my way to the 50% off ribbon. I had figured out that I couldn't spend more than $20 on this trip, so I took forever to pick anything out! And considering how little ribbon I have at the moment I wanted every color, in every width and every texture. Then there are cute patterned ribbons to choose from! Sheesh. I settled on some sheer metallic gold ribbon (5 yards 5/8"), silver double face satin ribbon (1 spool 5 yards 5/8" and 1 spool 6 yards 1/4"), and a 3 yards of this black ribbon with ruffly edges (5/8") -- there's no description/name on the spool like the others but it does say it's 100% polyester, and after opening it I can tell it won't last me long -- I LOVE it! Each one was $1 on sale. Then I wandered to the next set of shelves and on the other side were laces and trims. Oh my. Glad I didn't see that first or I'd have come home with nothing else but lace! But after spending several minutes picking out four spools of ribbon surrounded by loud squealing and excited kiddos I wasn't going to let that time go to waste by putting it all back in lieu of lace. So I got a big spool of white flat lace (it's about 6 inches wide) for $2 on sale. I like to buy white lace and ribbon so I can Glimmer Mist it whatever color I want for each different project. I didn't realize in the store that I bought silver ribbon, not white. Oh well, it'll do for now :) (Tip: in my experience with misting ribbon you don't get a bright, strong color like with the ribbons you buy already colored, but with lace this works very well!) I was excited to find such wide lace so I can use it with my fabric flowers.

Then I made my way to the scrapbook section and could not for the life of me figure out what to get! I was looking for something to use my 40% off coupon on, and while there was plenty of stuff I'd love to have, I couldn't find anything for $8 that I was willing to spend my little bit of cash on. But if my price limit was $10, I would have had a horrible time deciding what to get. Lots of $10 items I could have gotten. Probably would have picked up an 8x8 pack of awesome paper from DCWV (that may have been $12, I can't remember). So I decided to hold on to my money and let my printed coupon go to waste and left the store with my ribbon and lace, dress form, and dimensionals (on sale for 40$ off! Woot!) for a grand total of $15.24.

On the way home from my doctor's appointment later that afternoon I stopped at Goodwill to see if I could find any more cute shirts or jackets. I accidentally found what is now my favorite shirt there last week, so I'm now hooked on buying clothes there. I love getting like-new clothes for next to nothing! I left with two jackets (one thin denim one and one suede) and a cozy pink 3/4 length sleeve shirt for under $10.

And last night while watching a video from ILuvVintageScrap on YouTube I got linked to The Piece by Piece's Etsy store. After seeing I had more in my PayPal than I thought I had, I decided to buy some trims. I can't wait to get them! I'll be doing a haul video after Christmas and that lace and trim will definitely be a part of it :) I purchased 2 yards of her beige ruffled satin trim, 2 yards of the black ruffled satin trim, 2 yards of the ivory pleated trim, and 2 yards of black venice lace. I made out like a bandit!

Whew, shopping blabbering OVER. Now for the photos of my new dress form and how I decorated it to store some of my lace!

(The red in this is a little desaturated.)

Feel free to comment and I'll be sure to check out your blog :)

K is for Cambria

Hey scrappers!

Today I have a small project to share. A friend of mine has an adorable 2 year-old named Cambria and she plans on homeschooling her. She found a really cool idea on Pinterest for their school room: a letter wall. It had all the alphabet with each letter a different size and design. So she got 26 of us to each make a letter however we liked and send it to Cambria for Christmas. I was assigned the letter "K."

I received a plain black metal "K" from a swap awhile ago and decided to use it for this special project.

Since I didn't get a good closeup of the embossing I'll talk about it first. I used a tapestry pattern background stamp (from Stampabilities at Hobby Lobby) and stamped Versamark ink on two parts of the letter. Since the metal held onto oils from my fingers the pattern didn't turn out perfect, but it turned out okay. The gold embossing powder I used took quite a bit longer to melt on the metal than it does on paper! Then to hide the sudden end of the embossing I added leaf trim (from alphastamps.com).

I made this flower using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die. The paper is actually from Tim Holtz as well (the pink and blue paper stack). I did quite a bit of glimmer misting and painted the curled up edges with gold paint. I finished it off with some Stickles. Here I decided to take a large floral leaf and set it behind the flower to give it more "whimsy."

This part is simple. I used a piece of Prima bling and flanked it with a pre-made paper flower on the left, and a handmade rosette/blossom on the right. I have a bundle of cool velvet floral leaves so, again for whimsy, I added these behind the flower.

Thanks for stopping by, and leave a comment so I can check out your blog! :)

Fun Flowers and Sprays!

Hey scrappers! I have a few things I'd love to share with you because they make me happy :)

I've finally accepted that my depression and anxiety disorder are disabilities and finding a job where this disability won't get in the way will be hard. So in the meantime, I've been trying to add more scrappy goodies to my Etsy store for a little income. I have three new items listed that I'm pretty excited about!

Vintage European Lace Flower

I love how simple this flower was to make. It's just strips of lace layered on top of each other! The cream and red laces are vintage from Ireland. Vintage European lace? Yes, please! You can check this out at the store here.

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Denim, Lace, and Tulle Flower

This creation was pretty time-consuming...I think it took over 2 hours. This is largely due in part to the fact that I lost my $30 scissors and the ones I'm using don't cut denim very well. That part took quite awhile! Oh, before I forget, I need to thank my mom for giving me a pair of her jeans to slice up! Then it was all a game of arranging the denim, lace, and tulle. And it took me quite awhile to decide how many pearls to put in the center. And if I should add feathers and/or a leaf. The decisions we make! But I finally finished this and am very happy with it. It's quite heavy and very fluffy. Check it out on Etsy here.

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Red and Gold Rose Flower Spray

I watched a great tutorial from Psychomoms on YouTube (link to tutorial: here!). So glad I found her channel, I love it. Anyway, this "spray" turned out to be more of a cluster and no, those aren't glue strings you see, they're fibers ;) I promise it's more obvious in person! I made the flower in the middle from Glimmer Misted and painted Tim Holtz paper (the pink and blue paper stack), and the red rosebuds came from the floral section at Hobby Lobby. The little white ribbon rosebuds (look closely) came from the wedding section at Joann's Etc. I've had those for a few years and still have quite a bit left. And if you're looking for a good place to buy very reasonably priced pearl strands like I used in this ($1.99 for 24 yards! Even I can afford that!), check out this awesome site I order from whenever I can: Crafta.com. You can get more details about this spray in my store here.

Leave a comment and I'll be sure to follow your blog :)

Well hello, scrap world!

Hi friends! So after a year of being out of the scrapping game, I'm back and ready to start creating like a maniac again. Unfortunately I'm having trouble staying focused and awake enough to do a whole lot. I am steadily working on several swaps I'm in on scrapbook.com and can't wait to share all that comes from those projects. Then I think I'll take some time to make a few things for myself, to KEEP, not send away or sell :) I love creating, though, no matter where the creation ends up (unless it's the garbage, that would be no fun :p).

I am currently going through a bit of a rough spot with my depression and anxiety. I have definitely been much worse and am managing to look happy and okay right now, but I am struggling. I blame the lack of daylight -- I have more problems with depression in the winter months than any other time. I will be discussing new treatment options with my psychiatrist on the 22nd. To help me deal with anxiety and some problems that don't make dealing with depression any easier, I am meeting with a Christian counselor/therapist on Monday. They have a sliding scale based on income so my family will be able to afford it if I go weekly. I am looking forward to all this and feeling better. I can't even remember how many times I've had to take a hiatus from school to deal with all this nastiness called depression. But compared to past ordeals, this right now is a cake walk. Doesn't make it easy or not extremely frustrating but at least I can take comfort in the fact that it's not any worse.

I can't wait to get back to writing here, I hope to do it regularly (don't we all say that? LOL) when I have things worthy of sharing. Right now I'm going to try and take a nap (I know, it's 9:30pm, but my sleep cycle/circadian rhythm is so off thanks to my depression "relapse"). Then I hope to really get some scrapping done!

~Katie~