Friday, March 22, 2013

Getting Creative Again, Part 2

I've completed the card organizer that I mentioned in my blog post last week, actually I finished it the day after I posted the sneak peek.  Unfortunately it still had quite a few rough edges and as much as I liked how it came together, it still seemed unfinished.  So I started another one and deemed the first one my prototype.  I used my entire Stampin' Up! stash of designer papers to make the modge podge prototype and as much as I liked all the different colours and the fun vibe it had, I decided to try for a more cohesive look on my second go round. Thus inspiration came from Graphic 45!


It just so happened that I have been looking for some way to use my G45 'Place in Time' Paper pack and I wanted something special for my mom's birthday.  This organizer seemed like the perfect opportunity to do both!  I feel a little guilty because I really wanted to promote the card organizer as an upcoming Stampin' Up! Class but between the prototype photos I'm about to show you and the finished G45 gift photos, you will see that I haven't gotten around to a finished and fabulous Stampin' Up! version yet, not to say that I won't..just not yet and I'm too excited and impatient to wait to do a third organizer before I show you all the pics I've taken of the project(s).

Oh well, such is life..I got creative and I want to share with you all so here goes:

This is the binder that I started out with


I covered the edges with washi tape and used Sizzix adhesive sheets to adhere the Paper cover

This is what the finished cover looks like

Next I had to create the card holders themselves.  I did this by covering up file folders


two file folders were glued back to back before covering with papers

I also created a mini card holder, accordian style




I also used an envelope to create a pocket holder, great for tags

this is the layered look of the inside
and thus, the prototype is born!

 Now I want to show you what the Second Card Holder looks like.  I think having a coordinating paper pack does pull the look all together, but really I kinda like the eclectic mix of the first one too!  Either way, I don't judge..it's all crafty to me :)





The Cover isn't made from G45 papers but Little Yellow Bicycle Papers**

The finished Organizer
The inside
Now I just need to make some cards with various themes to put inside the organizer and then this gift is ready to give to my mom.  I hope she likes it!!

Cheers!

p.s.  ** the Papers I used from the Little Yellow Bicycle collection are actually from a kit I bought from www.birdsofafeatherkitco.com .  I belong to their monthly kit club and honestly I can't get through all of the great stuff I get each month from this company.  I just wanted to share the link because this is an amazing site with great deals!!

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Getting Creative again!

So the expected withdrawals from the scrapbooking world only lasted a week.  It's just not in me to stay away from creativity for very long.  A few things in the last week have motivated and inspired me to get creative once more.  Let me lead you down the garden path (so to speak) along the trail to my inspirations.

It all started on Monday when I saw the empty coffee canister by my desk.  Such an innocently empty vessel just sitting there waiting to be picked up, smelling of fresh ground coffee and hinting of a wake up call.  But first..my cluttered desk space was bugging me.  I needed to find room to put away the supplies from the workshop I had taught the Friday before.  In my space everything has a place and it bugs me when I can't put something away neat and tidy.  So I spent a half hour decluttering my work cabinet and in doing so I found 8 perfectly good binders filled with old resources.  The resources I chucked but I just couldn't get rid of these 8 perfectly good binders..there had to be something that I could use them for, some crafty upcycling that would give them fresh life..so for the time being I piled them up on a chair and returned to looking at the coffee canister.  My co-worker has been faithfully saving these canisters for me, with the idea that when I collected enough I would use them for something crafty.  Well I believe that time had come because as I looked at the empty coffee canister on my desk, my mind was doing a mental tally of how many canisters sat on the shelf in my craft room.  Surely there had to be enough now to create a class around, but what to make?

I took the empty coffee canister and one of the binders home and put them in my craft room.  There they sat for a few more days while ideas percolated in my brain.  After another conversation with another co-worker around scrapbooking and papercrafting ideas, a few visits to pinterest, some time spent on my favorite crafting blogs, and reading my various weekly RSS feeds, the ideas started to coalesce into that tunnel vision I mentioned before..sitting there at the back of my brain and digging a path through my consciousness.

The coffee canister became an easter container wrapped in pretty paper and covered in paper flowers made from all the paper posies I have been punching out like crazy this week (thanks to an article my co-worker shared on waste not/want not scrapbooking tips) and filled with plastic easter eggs hunted from my family's easter egg hunt.  I can picture how each container will look, all soft and pastel coloured, or perhaps they will become container's for Mother's Day and I will go fresh and vibrant with the paper selection?!  so many visions playing around for what these will become, but for now they will sit on the shelf until I can post a finished product..their time is coming soon so stay tuned!

The project that really took hold in my creative mind, the one I had to actually try first..is the binders.  I would love to say that I came up with the idea for their final vision myself but rather I was inspired by those continued conversations with my friend and co-worker.  I could picture covering the binders but ran a bit blank from there.  It was my friend's suggestion to turn them into a card holder/organizer.  From there I came across file folders and envelopes in the local grocery store, which made me think of an idea I had seen on Pinterest about a cardholder made out of a folder and several pins I had seen about using envelopes for mini albums.  I bought those and returned home after work to play! 

I am in the midst of creating this project, which I will call my "Creative Card Carrier" (sorry, I have a think for tongue twisters lately).  I've been taking pictures of the various stages of it's development, since the idea is that once I finish the prototype, I will promote it as a class (I do after all, have to find something to do with the other 7 binders!), but for now I want to share just a teaser of how it's coming along.  My next post will have all the photos and finished project.
I've taken the opportunity to use up all my extra Stampin' Up! Designer Series Papers
Before I finish for now though, I will say this, this is a great project for getting rid of scrap or mismatched sheets of paper, I've finally found use for my washi tape collection, AND it uses far less adhesive paper sheets than I originally thought so it shouldn't be an overly expensive project to do.  I just love when ideas come to fruition and projects become a reality!

I've started this project and should have it completed this weekend, which means stay tuned next week for more photos and a final product reveal!

Cheers!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Go All Night Recap!

Oh my gosh...I am so tired and stiff today and it's two days AFTER the 6th Annual Go All Night Crop Fundraiser!  It was such a blast but people don't realize how hard on a growing girl's body all that cropping can be LOL.  I was on my feet most of the weekend, I stayed up late, I helped to run various raffles, taught a Mixed Media Canvas class, visited with 48 other Amazing crafters, and I got 11 layouts done ( I think that was the most amazing thing of all with all the crazy busyness!).

some of the prep work for the Mixed Media Canvas class I taught


One of the finished canvases

I won this tape gun in the silent auction!  Makes me feel like a secret agent..or super crafter LOL!

One of my fave layouts I finished

Another layout I loved!
We had a Tiki Bar with Yummy Non-Alcoholic Daiquiris..I had two..they were soo good!

This is only half of the room we were in.  This place was packed to the nines!
Here are some highlights from this wonderful weekend. We had 49 crafters, 5 vendors, 3 project classes, and 42 hours of Scrapbooking Heaven, to say the least.  I haven't even mentioned all of our relaxation services, Silent Auction and Brown Bag Deals, and Raffles galore.  Seriously it was like Nirvana for Crafters! We may just be a small community but we go BIG or go home and in this case, none of us wanted to go home!  I think I am in for some serious withdrawals after all the planning, organizing, prepping, and just plain fun I've had these past 6 months to get ready for this event and now that it's all said and done, I kinda can't wait for the next one! 

But until then..I will keep crafting, creating, and sharing!

Cheers!