Mums The Word...

Here is the flower that I made with a five petal flower in 3 layered sizes and colored with Copic markers on water color paper.

Vintage Charm

Before I move on to my lovely bliss book, and the pink mum I created for it, let me share my vintage book with you all!

 This is the front cover. It has an itty bitty booklet tucked in right on the front cover and is easily removed. All of the flowers are handmade, the leaf charm is also hand crafted, and the lace on the cover was a nice vintage find at a "charitable" thrift store which means the lace purchase went towards helping a family in need. That makes it more special!

Scraptacular Memories

Here is my new advertisement for this blog...Please watch and  share!Scraptacular Memories After I complete my college studies this week...I have some more goodies to share...I made mums, and I will show you how!

My Friday Night Ritual

     We have a new ritual in my house. We have been frequenting a local Mexican eatery for the last four years, called "Old Mexico". Let me tell you, the family owned and operated restaurant is the gem of Independence, MO; located on 23rd street. Wow, the food is so good, and we have been going every Friday lately! Afterwards, we head over to a local cargo liquidation store to see what shopping gems we can find. I always look for inexpensive scrapbooking supplies of course! Then I make stuff and bring it into the restaurant the following week to show everyone. The young lady (Rosa) whom we have always preferred to wait on us because of her witty sarcasm (that we totally get), liked my mini books; so I decided to make one for Rosa.

     She loved it! When I brought it in, her mom saw it, and she happens to be a fellow cropper...yay! She wanted to steal it from Rosa:)  We instantly hit it off; talking about scrappy stuff...heck my margarita sits right there and has to wait for me to finish my scrappy talk with Sylvia, (Rosa's mom).

     The last time we ate there we went to the cargo liquidators, called Cargo Largo ( www.cargolargo.com ) and I got my weekly deals!

     Look at all this stuff! The paper set by Trinity http://www.trinitypaperarts.com/sincerely.html was only 5 bucks! I just love this set and for five bucks BOOYAH!! Hang on to your hat when I tell you that those two Martha Stewart punches together ($8 + $9 ) didn't cost as much as one usually does! The 33 count package of  3 layer, felt flowers with bling (that you can barely see) were 50 cents! The opal paper pen $1, mini clothespins $1.50, Making Memories brads $2, acrylic cling stamps by Autumn Leaves, Stampology; "Love Is In The Air" set was $1.50...can you believe it! Don't hate me...visit Cargo Largo and see what you can find! My last (caught out of the corner of my eye) scrap candy from last week was the corsage pins in the front; they are GOR-GEOUS and at $6 even more beautiful http://www.miltonadler.com/jewel_picks_large.htm here is a close up of the felt flowers, Martha Stewart monarch butterfly punch,  and a corsage pin; playing well with scraps I had laying around!

I couldn't wait to get back to the restaurant tonight, and brought along my colorful explosion box I recently made to show off, a nice tag, and a few silver handmade roses; for my new crop buddy Sylvia. Well I got more than tacos tonight...I was awarded the extreme pleasure of the responsibility of babysitting this for a whole week!

Oh my goodness, we are going to have so much fun playing together; little pinky slice and I... LOL!!!

Of course even though I have plenty of paper and a new toy to hang with; we still went to Cargo Largo and looked around...I found some paper abuse going on there!

The South African scrapbook supply company called FabScraps found its way into Cargo Largo...there was only one kit and someone dumped it out on the shelf into a messy pile ***GASP***

I just had to rescue it! I took it up to customer service and asked them to re-price the kit...ready for this? 15 BUCKS!

In addition to a FABulous find...they had two packages of copic markers for 12.99...they are $44 retail...I'm happy as heck because they allow me to color like this:

The rest of my Friday night will entail cutting, cropping, and coloring now...it's going to be Scraptacular weekend!

My First Explosion!

OK, I have seen these around, but never tried to make one; until now. This is my very first "explosion box". It is 

blank, and needs decorating (the photos could have been better as well) but I couldn't wait to post it! I will post the finished box after I decorate it thoroughly as well!

Mini Book Inspired by The Sea

I just love making mini-books. After scrapbooking 12 x 12 layouts for over ten years, I found something else I enjoy doing just as much. There are several ways to make a mini book. One way is to buy a pre-cut chipboard book kit and build from there. Another technique I love is building a mini book from paper bags. Here is the latest creation I came up with using 3 brown paper lunch sacks and a blank 6 x 6 chipboard book cover.

All you have to do is cut 3 6 x 12 pieces of scrapbook paper for the non-flap side and adhere. Then cut 6 x 10 and 6 x 4 pieces for the flap side. Use double sided tape on the edges of bottom flap to make pocket, and use a circle punch to make thumb slides for photo mats inside the book's pockets. 6 x 6 size photo mats can be cut and decorated to fit pocket pages (inside lunch bag), and tags can be made for flap pockets. Just decorate pages, and add embellishments. Punch holes and tie with ribbon or use a binding machine to add rings, d-rings, or binding wires. I used layered journal tags here to act as pull tabs for the inserted photo mats that are made using coordinating papers, but reside within the book pockets.

It's gonna be a happy scrappy weekend!

You have got to love a good scrapbook haul. We have a store here called "Cargo Largo" they liquidate damaged packaging products and sell them dirt cheap. I don't care if my new Martha Stewart punch has a scuff on it for 9-10 bucks...I can get a lot more goodies for the price of 2 punches...I got all this!

The pretty maroon ruffle scarf was only 50 cents...we'll save that for winter!
In the middle of it all...checking out my haul, then she has to be right in the middle of it all...my happy scrappy cat...Gabby! Most cats come running when they hear a can opener...my cat comes running when she hears a Cricut, a printer or a jar of embellishments jingle...LOL!!! Happy Scrapping everyone...the weekend has just begun!

Paper Roses

Paper Roses are for sale on Yardseller at : http://yardsellr.com/for_sale#!/embellishment-kit-3986426 if you would like to give it a whirl and make your own...this is how I did it :
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Qw8ZZ6moMUe_-fyDwfWDVReHImUKz1YY-Ek_PX5ij3c/edit#slide=id.p