Another UIU (Use It Up) Project

Here is another project I made doing the UIU - Use It Up of my supplies.  This exploding box was shown by Jess on Ustream.  I did not make it while she was working on hers, I wrote the measurements down for a future project.  Yesterday I went through my stash of papers (lots and lots) and picked out which ones I wanted to use.  I used basic black cardstock for the base and top and paper from the Glitter Stack for the matting.  I have a stash of smaller sheets of paper that look like cardstock aluminum/mirror type of paper.  I have only used a few sheets of this paper as I was not certain on what to do with it.  The paper went very well with the glitter stack paper.  (I also used it last week on my postscard challenge for China.)

Here is my exploding box waiting to have pictures added:  TOP

Opened Box:

Open box flipped open:

There are 3 layers to the box which will allow for many photos and journaling.  I will add smaller embellishments to the flaps after the pictures are added.  Thanks, Jess, great project ....can't wait to see your paperbag album.
THANKS FRAN FOR UIU.

Postcard #4 - China

This week's destination was China.  Since my story involves fashion I looked up facts about Chinese dress.
My postcard is my interpretation of the Chinese clothing called Hanfu.  My Hanfu was paper pieced onto a silver paper that looks like a mirror and then matted with black , I embossed the gold pattern onto the paper after cutting out the paper pieces.

Front:

My story continues with Fashion Photographer Zoey being sent to Hong Kong, China and  she discusses the fact that China gave the fashion industry the Mandarin collar, frogged fasteners and butterfly buttons.  She also discusses the beautiful silk fabrics used in the fashion shoot and even sends Ann a silk Chinese Hanfu.  She mentions she is glad to hear that Ann's pregnancy is going well and they plan on meeting up in June.

Back:

I used Chinese translator to print out the word Postcard.

Hug Your Loves Ones....Tell Them That You Love Them

Hug your loves ones and tell them that you love them.  You do not know what tomorrow brings.  We take our love for each other for granite and forget to say it out loud.  Tragedy strikes all around us, so we think but one day it could be your family.

Friends of ours are facing a horrible situation with their son being injured in a house fire.  Life is precious and the thought of losing a child, even an adult child is unbearable.  I cannot comprehend how they are getting through this horrible situation. 

Please hug your loved ones, tell them that you love them and say a prayer for my friends and their son.

P.O. Five hours after my original posting we have been notified that the young man has passed way.

Reminder - Bikini Season is Coming

Just a reminder that swimsuit season is just around the corner and we should all be prepared.

BIKINI or....

One piece:

Ella Rose is preparing for bathsuit season.

Another Post....View Around the Scraproom

Okay...I am posting pictures showing around the whole room.....this room is way smaller than the bedroom I was previously using.  I left an antique desk and loveseat in the room....which is taking up space but necessary.

New Scrapping Area

Spent the day moving items downstairs to fill up my work areas.  Hopefully I will be more productive and actually get some scrapping done.  Before/After of computer desk:

Book shelf to right holds all of my Cricut cartridges and Sizzix Dies.

Before/After of Second Work Station

Before/After Cubby Paper Holder Cabinet

I still have a lot of sorting to do with items still in the old scrapbook room but I am making progress.

Postcard #3 - Brazil

Our country this week was Brazil.....I learned Rio De Janeiro, Brazil is the Carnival Capital of the World.  Beaches are to Rio what Cafes are to Paris.  The Brazil flag is green,yellow and blue and the Brazil National Flower is Cattleya Labiata....Orchid.

I decided to do a collage postcard:  I show a beach in Rio as the background, did a 3-d effect with 2 models in fashion wear popped up on the card.   The fashion wear is more in line with the writer of the postcard, Zoey, who is in Brazil doing  a fashion shoot.

Postcard front:

My story line continues with Zoey corresponding with Ann, who is a columnist for a local newspaper, married a year and just found out that she is pregnant.  Zoey complains that she loves traveling but is not able to establish a serious relations.

Back of postcard:

I am so happy that I have taken on this challenge.  I  have looked at each postcard differently as far as how to design it.  I started this week again with the flag of Brazil.....I loved the look of it, the colors and was able to find a very interesting picture that depicted the flag through an eye.  I even started working on a flag postcard  and decided to go more with my fashion photographer character.  I am sharing the picture of the flag that I found on the internet as I thought it was beautiful.

I fell in love with this picture.....love the interpretation of the flag.

I look forward to learning out next destination to continue our journey.



Postcard Challenge Book....UIU

I was able to work on my Postcard Challenge Book this week.  I decorated the outside cover and inside cover using an old Atlas and painter's blue tape.  (I wanted to use Tim Holtz tape but I was in a UIU - use it up challenge.....so I looked around to see what I had and used the blue tape instead.)

I did cover the inside covers but have not started on the individual pockets.

Almost Killed Husband....

It was an accident.  I decided to move my scrapbook room from upstairs down to the main level of the house.  Well that big  piece of furniture with 12 - 12x12 cubby hole  which I swore when they struggled to get it up our staircase would be up there forever, came down the steps a lot faster than it went up.  Bob was at the bottom end and the thing almost crushed him.....well didn't crush him but did scratch him up....it took off down those steps .....about a 200 lb. wooden shelf.....skidded to a stop at the bottom of the steps, good thing he can move fast.  Didn't break any bones, just scratches....could have been a lot worse.  He didn't swear or anything but I think he wanted to bust it up for firewood.  But he didn't, we put the little slider pads under it and slid it into the scrapbook room.

Here is the almost murder weapon:

I swear that piece of furniture will not be moved after this, but I think I remember saying that one time before.  I swear this time....no more moving it.  Now I just have to sort my hoard of scrapbook stuff and get it loaded up.

PostCard #2 - Spain

Well I finished my card a little earlier this week.  Story line is no problem, my characters continue on with their prospective lives, Zoey, a fashion photographer doing a shoot in Spain and Ann recently married is now doing a column for her local newspaper, called A to Z....which was the name they always though they would name their business when they dreamed about working together in college.

I so loved looking at every card posted to the challenge last week.  I realized what great artists there are doing this challenge.  I looked at mine and said wow you can tell I am no artist but a scrapbooker....no art just paper, looked like a little page layout.   Well this week I thought okay I can do this I have a whole tin of new watercolor pencils.  So I found an image on computer to use as a template to trace and thought I would just color/watercolor it in.  Well I did but boy I should stick to scrapbooking my postcards.   I was not happy with the results so I adding some inking. So my postcard this week will show that I am no artist even using a template to trace an image.... next week I will probably stick to scrapbooking my postcard....doing what I know.  I did love that it challenged me to try something else but I have never considered myself to be an artist and that is okay....we can't be everything.

Here is the front:

and the back:

Snow......well a little

We did get a tad bit of snow today:

I am wishing for sunshine......not snow and cold.  I guess I should be happy with the great weather that we have had.

DeDe's Idea Collector - Week #1

This week the words were Discover and Style......is something a style or a trend.  We were to look up these words and determine what they mean and what words describe them.  I was looking at - Polka Dots and did a postcard.

In my opinion Polka Dots are a TREND.  This was another UIU (Use It Up) project.  Nothing was purchased, everything I used was in my stash.

Pizza Box Challenge - Done

I got Mitzi's Pizza Box Challenge done.  Again I was able to UIU...Use It Up....I used what I had on hand or I asked for what I didn't have and paid nothing for this challenge.

We are on low carb diet so we are not eating pizza.  Pappa John's was glad to supply me with 2 - free large pizza boxes.  I had a collection of wallpaper books, so I got them out from under the bed and used the large paper to cover the box.  I was able to use the decorative papers in the wallpaper book to decorate the box.  I then used alpha stickers that I had on hand to give the box a title.

UIU = no money spent on this challenge
pizza box - free
wallpaper - already on hand
alphas - already on hand
paints - already on hand


BEFORE:

 AFTER:

The pizza box was large enough to hold 12x12 paper, therefore I made a storage box to hold Scrapbook Layouts in Progress.   I complete the challenge and made something that I will use.  Thank you Mitzi for the challenge.

Postcard Challenge 2012 - Postcard #1 Austria

Here is postcard #1 front:

For the background I paper pieced the Austria flag, the pictures of picturesque Austria were taken from a travel book which I matted and water colored , my first attempt at using watercolor pencils and then a map of Austria which I matted and popped up on the postcard.

Postcard #1 back

On back of card I used rubber stamps to create Postcard and stamp.  My story starts in 1985, characters Ann and Zoey were previously roomies in college and this story will show a continuation of their lives and connection to one another.

What was I thinking......I wasn't

What was I thinking when I decided to do Darcy's Postcard Challenge.  We were to create 2 characters, 2 addresses.  Each week Darcy will post a new country. We are to take inspiration from that country  to create a postcard.  We will be creating a story with the 52 postcards.

 Well I jumped head first into the challenge.  Picked my characters and addresses (that was the easy part).
Next I cut some post cards.  There is not much room on those things to create much of a story but I can figure that part out.

First country....AUSTRIA... the only thing I could think of was the movie THE SOUND OF MUSIC and those von Trapp children in those clothes made out of the draperies.  When I finally decided on a somewhat postcard design, I put it together but glued the paper down crooked, pulled it up and tore it.  So I did it all over again.

I really wanted a rubber stamp that says POSTCARD and has the lines to make it look like a real postcard.  I had husband drive me to JoAnn's but they didn't have any.  I bid on one on Ebay but lost the bid.  Then I remember that Fran has a I Pledge to Use It Up in 2012.....which means shop in your own supplies and use what you have on hand. 

So I rummage through my supplies and found an alphabet set of stamps and spelled out POSTCARD with my stamps.  While looking around I found a rubber stamp of a postage stamp except it is an Italian stamp but what the heck maybe no one will look close enough to see that all of my cards will be postmarked in Italy.

So after completing my masterpiece I noticed that one of the letters in POSTCARD is turned sideways....but I decided what the heck it gives the card a little character.  I proudly took the card to show my husband and I said I only have 51 more to go. 

I Pledge to Use It Up in 2012

Here is another challenge that I have decided to do this year that Fran has posted on her blog:  Use It Up.
Use what you have instead of buying new.....use up all of those supplies you have been hoarding....use
them.

Again I am blogger illiterate and unable to figure out how to grab a button, so again I grapped the photo and posting it to my blog.

Postcard Challenge 2012

I have joined Darcy W.'s Postcard challenge for 2012.  I am so illiterate at blogging that I have no idea how to grab a button and place it on my blog.....so I did the next best thing....I snagged the picture of the button.

It is official Christmas is over.....Christmas tree has moved back to the attic....

Christmas tree and all of it fancy lights, Mom's Santa ornaments, Hallmark ornaments and kids ornaments have all been tucked back into their storage containers and placed in the attic.  Makes the house look blah with all of the glitz and glitter gone.  It was nice while it lasted.

We had a pickle ornaments on our tree  which is a German tradition.  Here's the pickle “legend” from one Web site: “A very old Christmas eve tradition in Germany was to hide a pickle [ornament] deep in the branches of the family Christmas Tree. The parents hung the pickle last after all the other ornaments were in place. In the morning they knew the most observant child would receive an extra gift from St. Nicholas. The first adult who finds the pickle traditionally gets good luck for the whole year.”

 Since we both are of German descent we found this tradition fun for the grandkids.  Neither of our families followed this tradition but it was one we discovered and have done for a few years.  That is the great thing about the holidays....you get to make your own traditions.  

Good bye tree and ornaments see you in November.

New Year ...... Fresh Start