Currently...

...taking care of this sweet monkey that has a double ear infection :(

...packing

...and packing

...crafting a new hair clip

...and overall flipping out that I am fortunate enough to be flying to CHA tomorrow. So tell me, what do you wanna see? I have already seen quite a few sneaks that I can't wait for! What are your favorites? Any new lines/products that I can get try and get the inside scoop for you? I know Heidi plans to blog while we are there so be sure and check here and here for pictures from the showroom floor.

Speaking of crafting goodness....Purple Cows is holding a contest in which the winner gets $5,000 in product! YES--you read that right. The runner up prizes are not too shabby either--$1,000 in product. All projects made had to be created using a product manufactured by Purple Cows. From what I can gather all the projects get voted upon by the public and begins soon. Voting is only open for a few days so take a minute and head over the to the Purple Cows blog to vote for your favorite....You *may* have remembered in my last post that I created a project using their ultimate trimmer II. Just sayin' ;)

'Tis NOT the season, but oh well!

So.

I had this idea before Christmas, but it has just now came to fruition.

And I

love

it!!

You could think of it 2 ways: either I am sadly waaaaay behind in making this..

or how I like to think of it..

..super early in decorating/crafting for Christmas 2010 ;)

So would you like to see more? You're here...might as well :) Be forewarned...LOTS of pictures and perhaps boring if your not into the crafty thing.

It reminds me of something you might see in Anthro for the holiday season, but on a much smaller, and cheaper scale!

So here's what I did:

I ordered some paper mache bells online. I actually ordered a dozen, but the little boogers took longer than I thought so I only ended up making 6...for now...I mean..I have SEVERAL months to make the rest and STILL be on time, right? ;) Cut the bottoms off because I wanted to add the little "jingle" to the bells in the form of vintage buttons and a couple of vintage mini bells. I loved the way the newsprint showed thru, but the ones that had funky colored print I misted with Maya Road emerald metallic mist. It's hard for me to do any project without misting..and sewing. Even bells.

The easiest part of the project was using this little puppy--my new trimmer (Purple Cows Ultimate Trimmer II to be exact.). I had always wanted a guillotine type trimmer, but I didn't want it to be too bulky for crops. Not only does this fold compact into it's own case, it comes with a freestyle cutter--perfect for making my hills any curve I wanted. (Hills you ask?Wait for it...)

There are a few click blades you can interchange. I liked the short wave blade and used it for interest on some of my hills edge.

Just a few cuts and my paper was ready to go. SO NICE to be able to cut several sheets at once. I actually got a little carried away and cut about 3 times as much as I needed--whoopsie!

The line I used for this project was Joy Ride by Collage Press. Love that line. Has the vintage/kitchy look I love and I loved the robin egg blue and pink thrown in for Chirtmas colors.

The hardest part was paper maching.....paper mache ;) Took my piles of strips and overlapped with with sparkle mod podge. The easiest way to do this is to start from the top and go down, then wrap around horizontally. I didn't want it to neccessarily lay flat...I liked the funky way the layers of paper stood out.

And then the glitter. OH MY. This new vintage leaf glitter from Martha Stewart (who else, right?) had the perfect texture and colors for the look I was after. I used a different color on each bell.

Once those beauties are dry use some vintage buttons and bakers twine to make the little jingley part. Hard to see once they are hanging how fun some of the buttons are. In retrospect I might have made them hang lower.

Wanted the bells to look like they went togther, but I created each one independently so they had unique looks...their own personality if you will :)

Now I think these would look just dandy like this, but we gotta embellish right? Right!

Dug into my stash of vintage Christmas goodies and scrapbooking bits.

Each one a bit different. Those leaves were actually silver, used Maya Road carnation mist on them for a pink shine to match the glittered bottom.

Typed "Let it snow" on some vintage paper here.

Used a piece of vintage christmas hymnal along with a gummed back old reindeer I have been saving FOREVER!

vintage buttons for some "jingle"

(Is it possible to use the word "vintage" any more times in one blog entry?!!)

The vintage bells inside the bell as I mentioned earlier...

I've had this tree from Wal Mart I got on clearance several years ago and have never used it. I really liked the way they looked all hanging together....but maybe....

I should do a little something more.

Like spray paint a tree branch white.

Or silver.

Or maybe I should wrap it in yarn.

Yes. Take the next month of your life and wrap a branch in yarn! Just kidding. It didn't take that long. You can catch up with some tivo-ed shows to pass the time. I love this because I know I can reuse it for other holidays...I'm thinking I'll hang some valentine doilies from it next and then I aready have spring ideas in my head. So although it might take a few nights, it's versatile!

But the branch has to go in something. How about an altered oatmeal container?

I sprayed the whole thing with, yep, Maya Road silver plated mist. It has a sparkly sheen in real life. Some stickles added to the chipboard pieces. Used Martha Stewart (again with the Martha!!) clear microbeads for the frost on the ski hill.

Doesn't she look like she's having fun?

Doilies on the top, punched into snowflakes and sewn on and also added to cover the sand. Yep, stand your branch in sand...mine happened to be wet sand but it worked great! I had one little place on the branch that didn't look quite right so I made this to cover it up. Perfectly imperfect!

Some chipboard snowflakes put on randomly and a bit of pom-pom for decoration. Really, I think this looks fun just like it is, but we worked too hard on those bells! Time to decorate--my favorite part ;)

The most difficult thing was trying to get the bells all hanging in the right direction without turning for a picture. For some reason they have a mind of their own ;) But I think you get the idea. I would love to know what my neighbor thought of me hauling this out onto our front entry and decorating for Christmas in January! Actually, she probably wouldn't think much of it by now ;)

So...what do YOU think? Whimsical? Fun? Crazy? If you have any questions PLEASE leave them in the comment section and I will try and answer them!

Now the sad part, off to dissemble ;(

Perhaps I've been playing around with these beauties...

and maybe an oatmeal container.

and yarn.

and vintage goodies.

and maybe, just maybe, I'll have it all here for you by the end of the week.

And now there is glitter on the mac :)

And it looks oh so pretty.

*May* have a little to project to share this week while I wait in anticipation to play with the Feb Freehand Scraps kit and an overseas package from Buzz and Bloom.

*May* even have a little tutorial to go with...would anyone want one?

Today was a heat wave...30 degrees. When we left to go to church this morning the actual temp was -4. So see, 30 was an improvement ;)

Two weeks from today I will have experienced my first day at CHA. Can hardly wait!! Anyone else going?

And because this is just one ramble after another...guess who has a peanut allergy?

Yep. Notice the hives around the mouth? They were also on his hands where he had touched the crackers. Poor little guy!

Here's to the beginning of a hive-free, heat wave filled, blessed week :)

Glitter hands

My hands are covered in glitter.

I would have a photo, but really, how would I do that..did I mention they are covered in glue too?

The wind is blowing and the wind chill for the next day or so might reach -20.

seriously.

But good crafty weather...there's always a silver ling ;)

And because I have nothing profound to say, a layout.

Yes I realize I just scrapped this pic in my last post.

I reused it.

That's the great thing about scrapbooking...or at least my version of scrapbooking: make your own rules :)

Hope your craftiness is involving lots of glitter and glue :)

And warmer weather.

I promised...

...and although it's late, here it is:

1. Thrifty Finds

Give me a free hour or two and I don't head to the mall. I head to the local thrift shop...and come away a few dollars more poor, but a few treasures more rich :) The guy ringing up my total said, "These are grandma things."

He was like 70.

I said, "Well I feel like an old lady trapped in a young person's body most of the time."

I don't think we either one had any idea what to say after that.

2. Instead of sneaks how about the real deal?

Meet an "Old Acquaintance"

Used a part of a chipboard flower to mask here and some recent photobooth pics of my cousin, her baby boy and I. Loved the toned down feel of this. Journaling about how I can't believe we are in this place in our lives, how blessed we are and how I wish we lived closer. The paper is Bella Blvd. as well as the paper flowers--aren't those awesome? You get one in the kit, but they has so many layers I pulled them apart for more ideas...although I also messed them up in the process ;( Guess that's how it goes!

When I saw the October Afternoon aplha in the kit it immediately made me think of all the pics I have of Aven creating. Here he is, Bumblebee Transformer costume on, painting away. My journaling talks about how he loves art and said on this day, "When I grow up I want to be an artist, but right now I'm just a little artist." Totally fine by me! I used the bottom of an old metal basket as the misting mask and some new spray ink. My stocking was filled with 8 new colors from Maya Road..guess I was on the nice list after all ;)

And this might be my most favorite project of the whole kit and it was so easy! Thrifted this frame for 50 cents and cut out some beautiful paper from Basic Grey to fit.For the life of me I can't remember where I came across this quote or who it is by. But I have always loved it and thought it could mean so many things..

*I took a deep breathe and let it go....and walked into the room to face my fears.

*I took a deep breathe and let it go...and pushed my baby into the world.

*I took a deep breathe and let it go...and chose to move beyond past disappointments.

*I took a deep breathe and let it go...and drove away for the last time.

You get the idea. Anyway, I loved how the butterflies seem to be flying away and kinda went with the quote. Plan on hanging this by my computer as a reminder that sometimes all I need to do is take a deep breathe and

let

it

go.

A couple of cards in the gallery, as well as some super inspiration form the January guest and design team. Be sure to check it all out!

3. Be my guest

There is a new prompt over at Category Stories and a new guest designer you might know ;)

The prompt was "perfect fit". Here is my interpretation:

I love that they give prompts and then you just jump off with it and create. Be sure to play along with them this month. All you have to do is link your creation to the January 1 post and/or their Flickr group (do both for a second chance to win!) The prize is determined by a random draw so you have nothing to lose and a cool new layout to gain! Please link me up if you do play along. I would love to see what you do with it :)

Hope you all had a wonderful ringing in of the new year. Wishes of the most blessed year for you and yours!