graffiti highway, pa Layout

Had a little play with some paper Sunday morning. It started by printing out a very large 12 by 12 photo on white paper that didn't really excite me, so I overlaid a large 8 by 10 photo which kinda made me happier, even though they didn't match up perfectly. I had planned on doing a large format photo since I had taken this really cool photo of the Graffiti Highway in Centralia, Pa. See, a while back a controlled burn in this town accidentally set a coal layer on fire and the town has smoldered since! It prompted shutting down the road which is seriously melted in parts. Later, people visited & came with spray paint. It's eerie yet super cool.

Interestingly enough, many choose to practice their skill at drawing dicks. In fact many cartoon characters had genitalia added that the original artist hadn't intended. I found the whole hike pretty entertaining as you never knew what you might see in paint! This little pup made a nice fussy cut addition to my page.

It's a pretty flat page for my album, which is awesome! I've got a few more pages to add from recent trips! Next one up will be from Lake George!

Happy Tuesday!

Floatsam & Jetsam from the Field

Summer is always a busy one here at Pratt Inc. Work picks up, camping commences, and this year the almost adults that live here also have summer gigs. The summer gig for the oldest involves learning how to flame work and she's getting pretty proficient. So proficient, I've taken to hiding her creations and posting about them on Facebook. We have a pretty good tourist trade 'round these parts and a very healthy Kindness Rocks community, so this morning I headed off with a dozen all wrapped, labeled, and stuck in baggies to Market Street so I could "hide" the little critters in plain sight. So far I've heard that the penguin was found. On that note, those glass marbles & that funny little glass ball up top aren't something that Lexi made. The dirt around these parts in town are full of glass! (Other not so nice things too, but it's been industrial here with the glass industry since 1880.) In fact, one of the Habitat houses I work on had a sewer line cut in and that's where I found that little milk bottle. Another hundred year old house we suspect might have been a barn yielded the funny little glass ball. Yet another place built in 1880 had that gold shovel bottle opener and that cool wood horse piece. It's also the same house we found Nancy Drew stairs!

This past Saturday, I had a group over to a house to start gutting it. Armed with hammers and sledges, they started demo. The house started the day without stairs...and a small upstairs apartment. We then
spotted something funny behind a built in closet realized that the stairs were still in the house all along! I expect the next group will figure out how to take out the tub and cut a hole in the floor so we can get between the floors.

This little adorable table also came home with me from that house. She had nice legs, what can I say! I spent some time in the sun cleaning off the cobwebs & old varnish with some TSP. I did more work with some gray chalk board paint, but I'll be back to show you that later after some distressing & wax!

Happy Monday!

Green Wire Nut Box for the Plain Box Society with StencilGirl® Tiny Medallion

Can you believe this was a really simple plain kraft box? I added some Lindy's Stamp Gang mist to some plain paper over a really cool stencil and the whole thing got quite magical!

Here's the Tiny Medallion Stencil I used that was JUST the right size for this box! I've used it quite a few times and I'm always pleased with the result! Just enough detail, yet not too much!

Here's a photo of the box open. It's still quite functional, even though I added green & silver spray painted wire nut feet, metal scallops, and some crystal brads! Loving the copper scallops on the edges. The little molding around the bottom is a paper straw cut & hot glued.

The top has a little metal scallop too! This went off to my niece with an air plant & these pretty glass gems. Hope she liked it!

If you want to see more cool stencil projects, Tina Walker has a HUGE blog post with lots of things to look at over at StencilGirl Talk!

Happy Monday!

Christmas Cracker for THE CUTTING CAFE

Despite the heat here in New York, I was able to channel my inner Christmas spirit to create this Christmas Cracker from a cutting file from THE CUTTING CAFE. It was fun pulling out the pretty paper and some festive ribbon!

I even grabbed some fake snow to stage the cracker but then thought...SNOW??? Seriously? it was so humid out that even contemplating snow hurt my brain! Loved adding some flowers & vintage foliage to the cracker.

I even pulled out the embossing powder to add a little gold to the ends. So much fun! My cutter really did the heavy lifting with this project. I just added a little bling and it was ready to be filled with treats!

Happy Thursday!

4th Layout

Was having a bit of a play with some paper the other day and came across this fabulous circle with vellum. I decided it would make a great background to a bigger photo. Since I rarely scrap myself these days, I wanted to use a recent photo that was taken of me at a Habitat for Humanity Home Dedication.

I'm also at the stage of the game where it looks like there is a LOT of house to finish on both of our ongoing projects, so I was trying to pump myself up. See, the home dedication is pretty much the party...at the very end of a long bunch of work!

Isn't that a cute house? I sure will miss that porch! Good thing we have a deck at the new house we're working on! It's a great place to eat my lunch! Well, I'll get back at it! The house in the photo was my 4th house, so onto the 5th, 6th, and 7th!

Happy Hump Day!

For the Love of Nail Polish

My house has perpetually smelled like nail polish for weeks. The boy decided to make his girl a flower out of wire, wood glue, and then nail polish for her birhtday. I mean, I've seen this project on Pinterest and it's cool....but I think he took his project to a whole other level. It was for her birthday and work must have started at least three weeks ago. It culminated with him requesting a new bottle of clear and another of red....which was a first for me. Usually it's the girl who's asking for makeup!

Once all the petals were done, he raided my scrap metal bits and built a stand (or stem if you will) for the flower with a hose handle bottom. It's quite genus, but don't tell him. He was already impressed with himself after he found a real gold leave in my stash.

I heard through the grapevine that Megan was impressed with his flower. I myself was pretty excited it was done! (There might have been a small incident where a bottle of nail polish got tipped over on my floor, but thankfully it's brick and pretty forgiving.) Anyhow, it turned out better than the roses he gave her that got overdosed with advil and only lasted a day!

Happy Thursday! We're off with those two kids to hang at a Water Park for a bit & soak up some summer!

Kindness Rocks & Trapped with the Craft Supplies

THE MAN had been suggesting for quite some time that I get the Driver's Safety class completed. With a teen driver and a second one in the wings, it made some sense. We could use the discount. I decided to take an on-line class this past weekend as the heat index was quite high. Might as well make the most of the air conditioning.

It was torturous. The only thing making it any better at all was the availability of all the craft supplies since I was working in my office. I managed to get three backgrounds for layouts completed, made four lovely paper flowers, started gluing all the glass pebbles onto a metal garden gazing ball, and painted 12 affirmation rocks.

It took me a little longer than most, probably because I had to keep stopping the videos to wash brushes! And yes, I took the AARP version. THE MAN said the one he took was horrible & timed, so I figured one for the older generation would be nicer. It was a little nicer, but still quite a snooze! Glad to have a stack of rocks to go hide, not to mention quite a few baskets of laundry folded!

Happy Tuesday!

A Fish Army

The oldest came home the other day smelling rather burnt and with a reddish hue to her face. She had left wearing SPF 30 and with a spring in her step. She had an entire day at a torch being trained on how to be a flame worker...and came home dragging. She said quite clearly when she got home: I made a lot of fish when asked how it went. Just how many fish wasn't clear until the large sized Amazon box returned full of fish a day later. They are lovely by themselves. Some of them have rather large sized fishy lips with little twists in their fins.

Fish in groups of three aren't bad either. You can enjoy the little bubbles which according to her might seem cool but the instructor considers a flaw. She adds bubbles to her marbles though because she likes the look. 





































Others seem to be standing via their fins with a little fishy smirk on their face. None of them have dumb fins. About a month ago Lexi came home after trying to make dolphins and was quite annoyed about their dumb fins. I guess her instructor gave her lots of tips of making fins. In fact, this is his fish design. ;-)

Some of them we discovered we could reflect color into the glass by means of a light and a colored piece of paper. I had to enlist help taking these photos. Thankfully Luke's GF Megan messes around with photography so this might be my favorite photo from the batch. My photos were terrible.

A fish army currently sits in my office. They are in need of re-homing. I mean there are a lot of fish in here. Some of them have extra fins as she was using them to practice on. I actually think they might be multiplying....

Happy Monday!

Family Posies Scrapbook Page with Sketchabilities

Dear me, I haven't played around with a sketch in like forever! Believe it or not, I was having a tidy in the office and thought, well if I use this paper it will be easier than putting it away....Anyone else have thoughts like that???

So I pulled out the sketch from Sketchabilities that I had saved to my desktop and had a little play. I pretty much stuck with the layout with the exception that the altered title got moved down to it's own area.

The premade title actually said Family Portraits and since the photo really wasn't that, I altered it to work! The flowers I used too I had cut out for a previous project with THE CUTTING CAFE and were extra. I was happy to see they worked well for a nice flatter type flower.

I really liked the layering on the sketch and it made me happy tucking all those bits on. Pro tip is to cut them in half so the little frame & banner you see is only one piece and the other is on the opposite side of the photo group!

The sketch called for two photos so I printed out two of the same one. I really only took one because she jumped down and the moment was lost. I like the double look though, kinda has a big impact! Check out those dark purple irises! Aren't they awesome! Kinda like the kid in the photo! ;-)

Have a great Tuesday!

Glitter Modge Podge Karma: Me on a Monday

I'll admit it. I spent most of Saturday either reading or watching the back of my eye lids. I have learned after 44 years on this planet that one doesn't ignore the signs of fatigue. If I thought I was tired, it was time to chill or else some nasty bug would take me down and then I'd be on the couch for sure. It was a very rewarding, moving, yet exhausting week over at Habitat.

See, back a couple of months ago THE BOSS said quite clearly that it would be a miracle if we could pull off a group of 35 kids on a three and a half day build. To me, it sounded like she was throwing down a challenge. Little did she know I had a couple of ACES up my sleeve. I invited my good friends from BOCES (Board of Cooperative Education Services) Kirk and Roger who have doctorates in kid wrangling. They teach Building Trades and manage to build an entire house with 20 kids over the school year. I actually had to call the principal and spring them outta work. The last week for them involves lots of paperwork and they were on board to work on the house they built for us vs. staying back at the shop with the computer. Thankfully the kids coming were from Pennsylvania, so they had already been out of school a week or two.

The kids came with their own set of wranglers, but it was nice to have Kirk and Roger as they knew the house inside & out. These kids completely insulated & framed out the basement of the house which involved two bedrooms, a bathroom, and storage room. They also built a huge 12 by 16 deck, and sided one side of the house. The younger ones demolished a deck at our rehab and cleared lots and lots of brush. They didn't work the whole week. Towards the end they had a visit to CMOG and then were off to Olive Garden for a fancy meal. I ran into four or five kids on Friday when I stopped to have a slice of pizza and heard that they were enjoying the hot glass shows.

It really made me happy to have them hanging in our little glass town. As I ate my slice, I gave them some advice for the hot glass shows. See, they usually give things away each show and although it appears random, Lexi tells me they pick the most animated people. I sent them back over with that advice. Later, I wished I had told them to look out for rocks. See, the peeps around these parts like to hide happy rocks. So, Sunday still having nice thoughts about last week, I made up a batch of galaxy rocks to hide. They weren't too complicated as most of it involved splattering. I then used up a little stash of bling adding some additional planets. I even had some bling that was red & star shaped! Super fun! I like to add a lot of modge podge in case they don't get found all that quickly and it's rainy. So these have a coat before paint, and two coats after paint. I even used glitter!

So, a huge thanks to the universe for such an awesome week! Happy Monday!

Cheers Jar for THE CUTTING CAFE & Cutting File Give Away

As with most of my projects, before starting, I audition a little collection of recycling in my office to see what I might want to work with. This peach jar volunteered! Doesn't she have pretty curves! I'm sending her off to my North Country friend Shirley, so the foam sticker that said Cheers just made me smile! It's like my happy mail is talking! And, it gets better! Today we are using one of our favorite sets at THE CUTTING CAFE and giving that set away to one of our readers....all you have to do is leave a comment to win the set!!!

I cut a few flowers out for my project and assembled them. I never get tired of using this file from THE CUTTING CAFE called the paper flower template because you pretty much can make flowers to match your project exactly. In this case, I cut them out of the same paper that I used to make that little scallop over the top.

I added a few fun things to go with my flowers. Check out that little gem & the purple thread. Those green berries make me happy too! Now, I've got a big ole pile of flowers I can make up to put IN the jar or I can add a treat....Lexi says I should add chocolate....what do you think??

Want to have a chance to win more cutting files? Hop along here & see everyone's favorite files!

Here are all the links:

Regina Easter 

 

Martha Lucia Gomez -

 

Maria Pilar -

 

Gail Scott -

 

Chauntelle Lee

 

Keri Parish

 

Robyn Weatherspoon

 

Lisa Bzibziak 

 

Mitra Pratt -you are here!

 

Audrey Long

 

Sheryl Wilder

 

Lisa Snowdy

 

Debbie Fisher

 

Maria Luisa

 

Shanta Newby

Krista Norman

Tina Goodwin

Christi Steinbeck

Enjoy the hop! Hope you win!

Live Laugh Love Decoration

This really cool wooden box was hanging around the office and came out to play when I got a can of spray paint out over the weekend. Might as well make good use of the sun & some good drying! Then later, I brought it into my office and got it all fancied up!

Can you tell I used clear vellum letters which let that pretty paper show through under it. Really pleased with how that worked out. Even better was spelling out LOVE in big letters with that little tiny Live & Laugh above it. Kinda sneaky!

The top has a little gold hanger so this piece can be hung. I'm intending to pass it along to a friend for her wedding anniversary! Hope she loves it!

Back tomorrow with my project for THE CUTTING CAFE! Had so much fun making another present!

Happy Tuesday!