Be Still: Narnia Inspired Box of Gems

Finally got my WHOLE project mostly completed for Linda's Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas Challenge. The sponsor of the challenge is her on-line totally awesome store The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

I think I've been working on this project for longer than a month!

Here is a close up! You can see that the Gingerbread Man Gem has the top on it still. I wanted to show you that I'll be displaying it that way. It's easier without the little glass tops to take a photo though.

Of course, it would also be way easier if it wasn't also snowing outside to take a photo, but we've not had many days of that this winter so far!

Here is the little center ornament popped up from the bottom of the box with some reused dragon dominoes. The lion button I've been hoarding for a very long time, so I was glad to use it to represent Aslan from the Narnia Books.

Linda's Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas Challenge also includes a bonus round. I really wanted to include this brown peace badge in one of these little gems. It made me happy.

Can you see it there on the bottom?

Here was my inspiration.

I used the brown in the branch, gold on the top and the stars to inspire the itty bitty little star I placed on North America.

She has a second bonus tag to come, so I'll be changing out the last little gem to comply with her challenge!

Hope your New Years Eve is or was fantastic!

The New Year is knocking on our door

He Said Shave That Stash: Layout for THE CUTTING CAFE

Since I am always looking for an opportunity to document something unique, my son's first shave is on the blog today. The oldest suggested I might embarrass him, but honestly I did ask before posting.

(OK, so he had just woken up and wasn't even wearing glasses, but that counts doesn't it?)

Regina at THE CUTTING CAFE gave us a freestyle week to pick anything out of her store to use! I was still thinking about her trees and also, in desperate need to get some of the Christmas photos into the book.

This is one of her 3-D Trees that I used as a large element on this page. It's a great way to use up some scrap paper too!

It takes your mind off what a crappy photo I had to use....

Here is the tree again with gold doily fringe and gold ribbon trunk.

The photo was from a cell, you know how it goes. Everyone was tearing into stockings in the wee hours of the am and taking a minute for a photo from a real camera was asking a bit much!

I am thinking he liked his razor since the baby stash my 12 year old was growing was gone the next morning!

Happy Monday! Are you all geared up for the new year?

Christmas Gems 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 for Linda's Funkie Junkie Challenge

I am working with these tiny sample containers for Linda's Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas Challenge. The sponsor of the challenge is her on-line totally awesome store The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

Wrapping them up now! (Holiday Pun intended!)

This batch contains my favorite gem, but we'll get to it shortly!

Gem 8 was inspired by this Santa tag which is exactly why I picked a map background! Thanks for that awesome-sauce collection of stickers, Aunt Coco! If you squint, you can see it's a piece that says New York! I also used some watch pieces and a snow flake! I thought the map and watch pieces would represent Santa's journey!

This is almost my favorite...

Gem 9 IS my favorite! Never knew how much fun it would be to build a little bouquet like that!

I was inspired by the blue roses on this tag! It is also my favorite tag Linda made this season!

My 10th tag was a bit over run by the very bright red. There is a smidge of silver in the back ground as well as I was matching the colors on this tag.

My gingerbread gem was inspired by the colors in this tag as well. Would have liked to fit in some sage as well, but that sparkly gingerbread man made me really happy as did the white and blue snowflake.

See it down there in front?

My last gem was inspired by the cream, gold and brown on this tag. Used some white glitter and perfect pearls on top of the brown gems!

I have a couple more of these to show as Linda is running an extension on her challenge!

And then, the final reveal of the whole collection all put together in one overall display!

Fun times!

Christmas Gems 4, 5, 6, and 7 for Linda's Funkie Junkie Challenge

I finally got all my gems finished! It's harder to work this small than I remembered!

I am working with these tiny sample containers for Linda's Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas Challenge. The sponsor of the challenge is her on-line totally awesome store The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

There is a larger project these fit into, so I'm anxious to get these completed and the whole thing put together!

Gem 4 was inspired by the colors on Linda's tag. The holy on the ornament reminded me of her flowers.

Gem 5 was completely inspired by that Santa! I had a great Santa image I wanted to use and sprinkled vintage glitter that really made me happy. 

Gem 6 really came together as my wooden chip board did not fit into my container, but I could use the top and some Prima gems. It's the half way point for this challenge and she used "25" on her tag which prompted me to use that same image. 

Gem 7 was inspired by that black & gold look and the world Joy. I really struggled to get a uniform coat of perfect pearls on that snowflake!

More to post later. Little peeps downstairs are begging for breakfast!

All is Calm, All is Bright

The Man shoved me in my jeep yesterday and told me to go South. See, I was having a bit of a fester with the 'rents. and phone calls and emails were not cutting it. Us all being people with thoughts and ideas of our own, I am pretty sure it was bound to happen at some point.

Thankfully we managed to have a cup of tea, sandwich, some conversation and things were a whole lot better.

Turned my jeep around and started heading back.

At one point I had to nearly stop due to three deer running across the road. Shortly after that I had to maneuver around a huge tom turkey that had gotten creamed taking up a rather large chunk of my lane.

The roads were nice and clear though so it was a nice drive with some tunes. The North County had endured a huge ice storm the previous weekend and ice coated trees were sparkling with some sun.

I was just heading down one of my favorite hills a half hour from home when I saw something big and white in the sky.

I realized that the ice from the top of someone's vehicle was hurtling my way. I am not sure we covered how to deal with ice chunks hurling from the sky in Driver's Ed.

I was pretty impressed with the hole in my windshield a split second later. In fact, my rear view mirror was gone and everything was covered with glass shards and ice.

In a weird happenstance, a police officer pulled up next to me almost immediately in the middle of nowhere and we had the following conversation.

Him: YOU OK?

Me: Ah. Yeah. Ahhhhh.....Um....was there anything I should have done to prevent this?

Him: Nope. Saw the whole thing. Really nothing. Where are you headed?

Me:  Back to Potsdam.

Him:  Well, I suggest you get a little farther up the road into town, get yourself straight and then drive home.

Me:  I can drive home?

Him:  Well, not legally since you don't have a windshield. You are going to be cold so it might take you a while.

Me:  Ah. Ok.

And he drove off.

The next conversation I had with The Man was not quite as calm.

Me:  Baby sell the jeep.

The Man:  What? Why what is wrong?

Me:  I don't have a windshield.

The Man:  What?

Me:  I texted you a photo.

The Man: WHAT! WHAT HAPPENED?

And....it was decided shortly there after that I start a cold drive home.

Got into my yard and was sent for a shower. Turns out my maniac sun glass wearing ways were a blessing due to the amount of glass I washed out of my hair.

The Man got to work getting things straight and calling the insurance company.

It might have been suggested later when he discovered ice chunks in the back window of the jeep that the position of the impact saved me from getting hurt.

Not sure about all that but I do feel blessed to only have a hole in something that is fixable.

Today is dawning all bright and cold. The calm will migrate into happy shortly when little people wake up and tear into some presents.

Onward and Upward! To Narnia and the North!

Merry Christmas to you all. Hug your peeps close and no festering. 

Hi Ho Hi Ho It's Off to Work I Go....

Sometimes at work I imagine I work with The Seven Dwarfs. THAT doesn't always make me Snow White...I do like to switch between Grumpy and also the Evil Queen.

It's my Evil Queen moments that may have prompted a recent present from a couple of guys I have worked with for over three years. It can't be my Snow White moments since they are reserved for the first half hour of Monday before everyone else has started work, I have no email and just a hot cup of coffee and my thoughts. That particular moment seems to happens once or twice a year....

These guys were working on this present for a while. The ordering part was easy. The engraving part not so much.

See, they wanted to write three lines of text since the wine glass they bought me holds an entire bottle of wine. Heck, you could write half a book on the side of it.....

They settled for writing:

Phone Call Level
E-mail Level
Text Level

They were divided over which person we work with to use for the various levels. There were no shortage of choices, but our roles change frequently so they didn't want to pick the wrong person to use.

The levels indicate how much wine you might need!

After getting the present, I suggested that fill the in blanks would have worked and I could just use a Sharpie. Wrote my first name in the other day. Baby engineers can be SOOOOOO annoying.

Let me direct your attention to that lovely wine glass shape!

Regina has the coolest cards on her blog THE CUTTING CAFE that you can purchase for use on your electronic cutter.

I used mine as a die cut, but really a card would be super cool and elegant!

Used some Prima gems on them as a simple accent.

The gold book plate at the top of my page over some banners helped tie in the gold accent in the title.

And yes, that is slush on my deck. We managed to keep a few areas cleared of snow during the huge ice storm we had.

Thankfully we did not lose power! Now, I will raise a glass to that!

Happy Monday sneaking ever so closer to Christmas.

12 Gems of Christmas Container: INSIDE

Earlier this week I blogged about the front of this little metal container and it's little gem contents yesterday.

Today, I'm showing you what I've done to the inside.

A little mixed media, some mica flakes, a ton of glitter, purple tree branches...and a little resin deer that had accidentally lost a back leg previously and now appears to be sneaking out....

My favorite part of course is the dove and the lantern. Still kinda sticking with my Narnia Theme on inside here.

Just a few more gems to make and that center section....

Happy Friday!

P.S. Purple tree branches are what you get when you have purple ink in a tray that appears to be dry but gets reactivated from your mist....and then..it's a happy accident....

12 Gems of Christmas: 1, 2, and 3

I am starting to get my groove on with the little tiny containers I'm making for Linda's Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas Challenge.  The sponsor of the challenge is her on-line totally awesome store The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

She carries some really cool hard to find stuff that is right up my alley so I love to support her!

Check out her first tag that inspired my #1 Tin above. Loved the chalkboard look so I used a bit of black paper. Loved the splash of red! And a dragonfly? Just thought it was pretty and made me happy! ;-)

The second tag prompted me to use gold vintage glass glitter in the bottom and hunt down a deer embellishment. Check out my #2 tin with the gold perfect pearls!

Her third tag was a bit daunting. I didn't know what to use for the Three Wise Men, so I settled with using a three! I do like threes anyhow! Added a white doily for the angel and a bit of gold to replicate the stars!

Here is a little side view of them again! Having fun with these little beauties!

Happy Thursday! It seems like the world's longest week waiting for CHRISTMAS so I will be happy to usher in the weekend!

Smokehouse Layout for Dad Pratt

First let me just say it's not my fault he wore purple. Putting on girl glasses to read the menu was just the final straw and before you knew it, THE MAN had taken a photo of his Dad to text his sister.

My sweet Father-in-Law will NOT appreciate this page. He will be mortified that the Aussie girls will pick on him. (He's still not over a post of mine from two years ago!!)

I am pretty sure he will feel that peacock feather accordion flowers are a bit girlie.

Yes, the photo is a bit blurry, but since none of us took real photos...how else can we remember the occasion?

Here is a close up of the blooms, vintage button border, and the notebook paper my daughter took our orders on.

See we have this amazing place to eat near Potsdam called THE SMOKEHOUSE and their food is super yummy! If your wings take too long, you can have a beer at the bar while you wait.

Anyhow, we got take out because the day before my son turned 11 and we had 6 kids including ourselves to wash after a trip out back in the mud with the 4-Wheeler and a house to vacuum and mop!

Anyhow, Happy Hump Day! Thanks for taking a stroll back with me to last month. It seems like a YEAR ago!

12 Tags of Christmas Container

A little metal sample box straight off Amazon will be holding my 12 Metal Tins of Christmas.

Here is what I started with (photo taken on a much less snowy day). They don't look teeny tiny, but those little metal tins are super small. Kinda like working with inchies, not that I can claim any experience in that area!

I did take that foam out and spray painted the entire box with black, gold and silver spray paint. 

Here is a close up of the cover so you can see the lovely mottling of the gold spray in the black. 

You can also see some vintage scrabble tiles, my little lantern decoration, and that awesome upcycled necktie flower from Handy Candy Mittens! Thanks Shirley, have been waiting for JUST the right project to add it to. 

I thought it worked well with the theme I was trying to work with.

See, the youngest has been reading CS Lewis's book The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Sadly it was a staple of mine when I was his age, but if they are making kids read it in school, it must have moved onto the classic book list...I knew I was old!

In fact, the book I saw him with I thought was mine due to it's advanced stage of tatter!

It made me want to create something with a Narnia Theme. Hence the Wardrobe hiding under the flower and gold embellishment and the little lantern flower. 

The inside reminded me of another book in the series, The Magician's Nephew where they travel between worlds via pools. 

I am going to create something with the little sample jars to work with Linda's 12 Tags of Christmas Challenge. I have made a couple so far, but they are mostly test cases. I'm getting my teeny tiny groove on!

Wish me luck and glue free fingers!

Happy Tuesday! Almost hump day!

2013 Card Scrapbook Layout for THE CUTTING CAFE

I am super in love with these fantastic shapes Regina has over in THE CUTTING CAFE store.

Check them out, they are called Christmas Ornament Fun!

They are nest-able ornaments, meaning you can layer them as much as you want or even just make single ones.

I had a lot of fun picking a couple of different papers and then layering them all up to make some really cool combinations! I even used a bit of gold spray paint on some so I could add that into my ornaments!























Here is a side view of my page. It was awesome having to shovel a flat spot to take this photo in real daylight....All you Aussie girls stalking me can use this photo to COOL OFF!

I can't wait to get this in the mail to my Sister-in-Law who sent me this lovely card. She has two youngsters and likes to scrap, but I am sure doesn't get a whole lot of opportunity.

It's always nice to have last year's card all saved!

Happy Monday!

Herb Ox Display

Last Christmas I had the best time with the 12 Tins of Christmas when I altered these vintage Herb-Ox boxes and added feet to the actual wood display box. 

My Aunt Coco had taken a shine to them then so I thought this year when I played along with the Funky Junky 12 Tags challenge again, I'd pass this project to her for Christmas. 

I couldn't just leave it alone, I had to add three more boxes (thanks Ebay), some molding, screw the feet in so they didn't keep breaking off (thanks hot glue, not!) and add some chippies up in the corner!

Here is what it looked like last year:

Really love the feel of it now, since now it appears to be FINISHED !

It has headed off in the mail and I hope my Aunt likes it as much as I do!

Happy Friday! 

Oh and onward and upward! Wait until you see what I'm working on this year for the Funky Junky 12 Tags challenge!

Rainbow Dyed Vintage Doily

Just popping in to show you my dyed doily project!

That is where I got the paper to make my scrapbook page from Tuesday!

It's not hard at all to do if you have stamp pads in various colors and some clear spritz. 

It's more like controlled tie dye!

And to make it color fast, I sprayed it with clear acrylic and sprinkled glitter on it.

The glitter just adds to the fun!

They have a whole basket of doilies at the second hand store and it happened to be the one I picked to use was a little stained up, so this alteration hides that!

I am going to gift this to a friend for use in her projects! Wonder what she'll come up with!

Christmas Card Photo Layout with Blue Snow Dots

In a weird turn of events, it snowed that beautiful Christmas Card Photo snow right before Thanksgiving, giving me a good opportunity of dragging the small people out for a photo.

They were good sports about it and Lexi was sporting her new fox hat that THE MAN hates. You can see, it even has gloves! Fox hats and sparkly boots match you know.

Just a quick side view of my page. You can see the silver embossing sparkle! As well as as the blue snow dots! 

Aside from being really happy with the photo I used, I am also happy with these inky glittery dots!

I kind of made them by accident...I dropped ink on the paper and it wasn't soaking up all that fast, so added a small dot of glossy accents and added glitter...so the whole thing turned glittery.

Am also in love with these red sparkly "leaves" that I up-cycled off that wreath I blogged about last week.

First Christmas page to add to the book! I am sure many more to come.

Happy Hump Day!

Beautiful: Showcasing Peacock Feather Paper & Water Color Roses

Taking a quick break from Christmas crafts to show you my latest page.

I accidentally made this white paper all rainbow like the other day when I used it to dry a project and it was dying to be used (pun intended).

The little acrylic roses ended up looking so pretty and add peacock paper? Very bling! The peacock paper was an impulse buy and I wasn't sure what I was going to use it for...but it appears I have figured it out since it matches perfectly with her hair!

Here is a close up so you can see how the roses look like I colored them with water color. Really I inked them with a red ink pad and sprayed them with alcohol to get the ink to run. Add in glitter on the edges, it added to the very girly look!

Just wanted to make a quick page to show case Lexi's recent blue color streak! She begged and begged. THE MAN finally agreed. Little did he know like I did that color like this doesn't really last in our kind of hair, so it's not quite so blue anymore!

Was fun to see her face after it was all done!

THE MAN did say I might subtitle the page:  The Day I got My Way. ;-)

Happy Tuesday!

3D Tree for THE CUTTING CAFE

The other day I was checking out the latest and greatest items at the second hand store and wandered across two sets of vintage glass ornaments.

The first being these bigger bulbs in a nice tattered cardboard container, the second being tiny bulbs flying around loose in a old card box.

I then got the idea of displaying the smaller bulbs on the 3 D Tree from THE CUTTING CAFE.

Yes, they are hanging off safety pins. If you are going to use old bulbs, Tim Holtz paper, and tuck in a gold doily it only stands to reason you must use vintage safety pins to dangle them. ;-)

Here is another photo of my tree next to the Advent Calendar my kids are slowly eating their way through. 

The file comes with small boxes suitable for gifts OR a similar advent calendar if you are so inclined. 

A few years back I made all 24 boxes for this calendar. I have seen ones recently that are stacked boxes that are all the same that look really cool as well. 

Love how pretty my little tree looks next to it! 

Happy Monday! Hope you have a chance to visit Regina. There is card that goes along with this set that is a 3D tree popping out of a card that is fantastic!