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Monday, February 27, 2012

New wall color.... & much clearer work spaces!

     I was not happy with the first color of paint, as it did not seem rich enough. The second color which I purchased was darker than the chip/sample, so.....after living with each color for a few days, I made myself two color mixtures to try out on my wall for a bit. The mixture of 2:1 dark to light color won out over the 1:1 mixture, so......here it is. I still have to put up the wainscoting & stenciling, but I'm on my way to a happier wall.
     I have been brutally honest with myself as I sort through my "stash", adding PILES of product to my already over-flowing "scrap sale" items.  It is very freeing to have more space in my studio & clearer countertops!

  Now I have to find a spot to store my "scrap sale" products!  I always give my niece Sarah first choice of my yardsale stash, which helps fuel her scrapbooking while helping to clear out my own space.  She has a lot of shopping to do!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

EXTRA Valentine's Day treats & Studio Update

  This year I received EXTRA Valentine's Day treats....a 3 Birds & HSN delivery!  This shipment contained the newest 3 Birds Estate Collection piece, their Estate Collection Doily Elegant Card Kit & Claudine Hellmuth's chipboard kit.  The doily card kit is GORGEOUS & I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE all the PURPLES & PINKS used in this kit, along with the 3 dimensional embellishments....they've even included TWINE!  I've been waiting to try this new medium....yey! 
     Claudine launched her first series of products on HSN recently, and of course, I HAD to try it!  The chipboard embellishments are contained within an adorable ICE CREAM TRUCK!  As I quickly sorted through the HUNDREDS of pieces in this kit, I quickly imagined several pages that I can create utilizing these adorable pieces.  In fact, I wish I had several of them to use on layouts I recently created.
     Both the permanent packaging & the shipping packaging of these two kits is AWESOME, some of the best I've seen in a long time!
          Now for my Scrap Studio update:  My new studio wall is becoming dusty lavender!  This is the first base coat with the second coat to be applied later this afternoon.  I hope to be able to stencil tomorrow.  I'll have to see if I'm happy with the colors first.  I didn't want to use too dark a shade since it's in the basement & I only have one window to supply any natural light.  That window isn't even on this side of the basement, so I dream of one day having a large fire-easement window installed, or maybe even two of them.
      Uh-oh...Michael just discovered that with some color on the wall, we can now see that the drywall seams need to be re-mudded.  The drywall is contoured along the edges & so he needs to make up for that.  I guess we should have gone with the non-rounded drywall.  Live & learn.  He thought that his seams were nice & smooth.  They were pretty smooth, but you couldn't see the wave in the wall before there was any color added.  Take 2.

Valentine's Day activities & goodies


  Valentine's Day was a busy one for me, as I was asked to come into Wesley's classroom to make another project with his class.  I used my Cricut Expression 2 to cut Valentine's Day card bases & embellishments.
Once we got home following the Valentine's Day party, I started on a special dinner, consisting of Bacon Blast Pizza & chocolate-dipped bacon!No, I didn't come up with the chocolate-dipped bacon idea first....although we've joked about it before. I actually saw it being done on the Nate show that morning.  Granted, I didn't make the type of chocolate that they made on the show; I used the milk chocolate mixture that we use in my chocolate fountain...Michael & I had nearly the same reaction to it.  Michael said "it's a waste of good bacon", but I said "it's a waste of good chocolate!"

Saturday, February 11, 2012

My Studio wall is closer to being complete...& Wesley is a 3 Birds & Teresa Collins scrapbooking product user & fan!


     A few more pics of the ongoing upgrade to my studio.....      




  




 
     Now, for Wesley's Valentine's Day gift projects.  Wesley has ALWAYS loved to craft & scrapbook, & getting 3 Birds shipments is always a GREAT day!
      Wesley made his teacher's card with...of course...3 Birds supplies, which HE SPECIFICALLY ASKED FOR!  He has GREAT taste!  Since I couldn't find a heart-shape in the new Honey of a Card kit, I tried altering the shape of one of them...it worked pretty well, so WE USED TWO! 

      I received my Signature Series Teresa Collins book in the mail yesterday & I later discovered that Wesley finished his teacher's gift using ....wait for it....TERESA COLLINS scrapbooking supplies! I told him who made them & that we HAD to take a picture of it with her book! I always take pics of his gift projects, but this one needed extra photos!


Our son is VERY creative & has GREAT TASTE in scrapbooking & paper crafting supplies!

Thursday, February 9, 2012

3 BIRDS, DONNA STORK & HSN...GREAT DAY!!!! Plus, my new STUDIO WALL is up!!!

    A few days ago, I told you that 3 Birds' Donna Stork would be presenting their new ESTATE COLLECTION DOILY CARD KIT...I just HAD to reschedule my day to fit around the HSN SCRAPBOOKING PRESENTATION schedule haha!!!
    Also, I had mentioned that we were going to be drywalling my STUDIO WALL from nearly 2 years ago...."THERE BE WHALES".... NO, DRYWALL "HERE, CAPTAIN!"  That was an edited quote from my favorite movie EVER....Star Trek V, where they go back in time to retrieve/rescue 2 HUMPBACK WHALES to SAVE THE EARTH (my favorite mammal ever, which I had originally planned to study as they migrate between Hawaii & Australia, or California & Alaska each year)...sorry I'm rambling....back to MY SCRAPBOOKING STUDIO!
   After only a couple of hours, the wall was up, and in only a few minutes the following night, the very small corner wall was up!!!!!  This should NOT have taken us nearly 2 years to complete!  Anyway, after getting home from work tonight without my drywall compound, etc.....I asked Michael to make me a list of supplies needed, or him to pick them up tomorrow after work....he'll be bringing them home for me tomorrow (HOPEFULLY)....gee can you guess what I'LL BE DOING THIS WEEKEND!!!!

    Anyway, I have included a couple of pics....

Monday, February 6, 2012

The new 3 Birds Doily Card Kit is posted! YEY!

  I just checked HSN (for about the 4th time today...I tend to stalk it whenever I hear of a crafting show being scheduled) and the new 3 BIRDS DOILY CARD KIT is posted!  Woo hoo!
  I LOVE the peak of purple florals, as well as cute kitties & puppies! 

The construction chaos begins again...

     After removing the SW wall from my studio to push it back two years ago this coming April, we are preparing to put up the drywall.  We framed it back in right away, but that's as far as we got in the construction.  I have had 3 of my lovely dusty lavender curtains hanging there as my 'false wall'.   I look forward to painting & wainscoting this wall.  I am planning to paint the wall dusty lavender, adding a stenciled flourish in a slightly lightly color.  The wainscoting will be white, of course, like the majority of my studio.
      The external walls were already finished in a nasty texture, almost like "popcorn" ceilings, which totally tears up your fingers, knuckles, etc any time you reach for an item near the wall!  Ouch!
  I'll try to keep up on postings of the progress.  I also can't wait to install my second mini-chandelier, possibly more!!!  A girl can only hope!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Newest project, using the new Best of New Year's kit...

          The following layout was completed using the new kit which I had just received a few hours earlier...that's how excited I was to use this kit!


                I used A LOT of products from various 3 Birds kits which coordinate with the color scheme of the kit & photos.  Here's the list:
                Pattern papers, teal cardstock, cards (one of which was cut in half & used as a photo mat),  "Happy New Year", "Goodbye....
Hello....", "Ringing in the New Year", "Goals & Plans" & Black and Silver Tinsels: Best of New Year's kit;  Blue Felt Flourish:  ExScrapaganza;  Black & Teal glittered photo corners: Bling Stack;  Teal corner flourish & calendar rub-ons: Kind of a Big Deal;  Teal border: Super Sticker Nestables;  "Prepare to be Amazed" & "You've Got Style" rub-ons: Quote Me On That;  Teal glittered bracket & "Lookin' Good": Bling Extreme.
                Wow, that was a lot of different kits represented!  Because I scrap both by theme & color, I knew I could find lots of teal goodies in my teal 3 Birds stash!
                 I'm off to play some more with my newest kits, working prior products in whenever possible...I'm trying to be more generous with my HUGE stash of pretty products, getting them 'out of the NEST' and onto my pages, & learning to layer, layer, layer...the style I feel myself drawn to more & more....probably from my love of Victorian Decor.
                 Scrap on!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

New 3 Birds kit pics & updated layouts

     Below you will find a peek at the NEW 3 Birds kit, Best of New Year's.  I IMMEDIATELY used the purple "countdown" embellishment, adding it to my 'completed' layout below...it was a perfect addition!


 
          Next, I have updated this two-page layout to better match our Christmas colors this year of Purple, Pink & Chocolate Brown...
             I added brown ribbon from the Chickadee album kit to turn a gift box from blue to brown; adhesive-backed pink polkadot paper from the Straight From The Nest paper pack over purple Must Have Cardstock to convert the previous banner; glittered over some of the blue items with Walnut Stain Tim Holtz Distress Stickles to make them brown, and using Glossy Accents as an adhesive/glue with Martha Stewart purple Ultrafine Glitter on a gift box, ornament, tree garland & added a tree topper that resembles our own.
Now I'm off to play with the rest of the New Year's kit after printing the pics from Michael & Wesley's trip into Ludington to see the ball drop.  Happy crafting!

Newest 3 BIRDS: "BEST OF NEW YEAR'S" kit is here!!!!!!!!

         My newest 3 BIRDS kit is here! IT IS HERE, IT IS HERE, IT IS HERE!  rotfl... I can't wait to play with it....in an hour or so actually!!!!  I immediately took some pics of the delivery! haha 
         I'll post more later...can't wait to play!