FINALLY the First Grade Scrapping Begins

When my position was eliminated a week and a half a go I found myself with a lot more time on my hands and I decided to get busy. I have a long list of household chores and projects but they are CHORES and I needed Therapy, Comfort, and Play more than work those first few hours. So I scrapped three pages that first evening. Amazing for someone who generally only gets to scrap at the monthly crop.

My son is heading to the second grade and I am finally scrapping the first grade. I don't have a lot of photos in general and fewer pertaining to school. I am generally too busy doing things with my son to be photographing him, the camera would distance me from the activities – making me an observer instead of a participant. I like to participate. This is a problem when it comes time to scrap. SO...

I scrap the other stuff. I saw a woman at a crop putting together a page of the complimentary notes the teacher had sent home about her kid. I figured I could do the same, as well as some of his projects that were really meaningful or spoke to who he was in the first grade. These were really easy pages (a blessing given my emotional state when I put them together).


The paper on the first two pages was from the Target dollar bin last fall. Grand plans and all that but I am finally putting them to good use. The first is when he was Student of the Week. I'm sure they make their selections for this randomly because it can't be based on his behavior for THAT week. Fairly straight forward page, an 8.5"x11" award, a couple of words from the retired SU! So Very set and badda bing a page is done.

The second is for his College Bound paper. These projects were on the school walls for the first parent/teacher conference and I was struck by his statement.

For the journalling circle, I measured the largest Nestability circle die I have and created a circle in InDesign that size. I wrapped the text within the circle and around a rectangle that took the place of his paper. I added a dotted line to match the ones on the background paper. I chose SU! More Mustard because I thought it was closest to the yellow on the background paper. There was space at the top and bottom of the text and I knew I wanted to stamp a small something there and use SU! Real Red - my son's favorite color. I needed to have the printer spit out text in that same color.

Life Made Easier
Enter the wonderful Adobe Swatch Exchange (ASE) file I created from the PDF of the new SU! colors. With this handy dandy color palette I have all the SU! colors at my fingertips and can print anything out of Adobe PhotoShop, InDesign or Illustrator I can dream up in a color that will match my papers. I LOVE IT! I can even share this file and use it on another machine running the aforementioned Adobe products or Photoshop Elements.
I found a good description of how the files work and how to load them here.
If you're working with Photoshop Elements look here.
If you're interested in getting/using the ASE file I created go here to download it.

The last page is my favorite of the three. It is the letter home telling me that my son was accepted to the gifted program for next year, all they needed was my permission. This page uses SU! textured Brilliant Blue 12x12 card stock, another of my son's favorite colors, for the base and bits and pieces from The Boyfriend line by Cosmo Cricket. I LOVE their style. The images are great and wonderfully retro - you know that this was designed by someone with some life experience. Someone who has used a number 2 pencil to fill in an oval or two -- all the boy's major tests are done on a computer. I got the paper at the newly reopened Memories & Beyond in Downers Grove, IL. If you know the area you know this is a ways away from Hoffman Estates but it is SO worth the drive. I created the Permission Granted piece in Illustrator. I was really wishing I had a Silhouette or other machine that would cut designs from your computer because this was not easy to cut, I was planning on having it half on and half off the letter so I need to cut it close. It worked better fully on the letter but I had worked so hard to cut it that I was NOT going to go and print it again.

My favorite bit about this page are the snaps I used to fill the ovals. It's such a throw back to my youth. I don't have a Crop-A-Dile II Big Bite™ punch so I couldn't get into the ovals that well, a bit of poor planning on my part, so I was using the old hammer and hole punch method for those further from the edge. It was noisy and tiring and not as effective at going through 2 layers of card stock as I wanted it to be. You can see where I just decided it was too too much. But I still think it adds something to the overall page.

Well it's past my bed time and tomorrow is another day of working to find work, cleaning the house, and making you something.

Happy crafting,
Katie

Simple Journey

I'm still in the urge to purge mode. When I am in this mode I look through the scraps that I keep next to my work table in Sterilite drawers . I found these small drawers on sale at Meijer years ago and I love them.

I have a drawer for each color group:
White, Vanilla, Vellum
Greens
Yellows/Oranges
Reds/ Pinks
Blues
Purples
Black/Browns/Grays
Plus one for PreStamped or Punched and one for Patterned Paper.

The drawers are long enough to hold paper that is 8.5" wide and 5.5" long or in other words I can put half a sheet in these drawers so when I cut a sheet for one card I can put the other half in the drawer. That way when I'm in the "I want to create a card but not work too too hard" mode I can get card bases easily. It may not be a perfect system for everyone but it's perfect for me. What do you do with your paper scraps? How small is worth saving? How do you store them?

I found each element for today's card in these drawers. I'm not that good at masculine cards but I think I did OK with this one. One great thing is that it's so simple. Most of the men I know prefer that there not be a lot of stuff on a card. It's distracting and they just want us to get to the point.



Happy Crafting,
Katie

The new craft trend - beading

I have read that jewelry making is the new trend for crafters. Beads and baubles are getting more real estate in craft stores and paper crafts, while still very popular, will have to share space on shelves with wire and other jewelry making tools. Even Stampin' Up! is getting in on the craze with their Simply Adorned line.

I am in an urge to purge situation and came across the directions for how to crochet a bead necklace. I thought I would share it with everyone before it goes into the recycling bin. I am not a jewelry person. I don't wear earrings, necklaces or bracelets but I will wear a ring as soon as the right guy gives me one.

These instructions were found in my aunt's home, G. C. Murphy Co was a 5¢ and 10¢ store that has long since closed in her small town.

Just a preview:

Get it here.

Happy Crafting
Katie

Same Sketch Different Look

Yesterday's post featured cactus. Today it's cherries. Again I really like this sketch. I also really like the ability to make round rick rack with nestabilities. The cherry stamp just didn't pop enough so I added buttons. Hope you like it.

I need to get back to the sewing machine - anyone in the Chicago area willing to trade graphics work for sewing lessons let me know. I'm trying to convert holey pants into dress shorts and I think I may have messed up my machine. Tonight is my son's Cub Scout cross over ceremony and I wanted him to wear dark dress shorts but... well I'm not a seamstress.

He also has a ballgame at 1 so back to it all.

Happy Crafting
Katie

Western Pair

Western Pair
Originally uploaded by Kalyber

unmounted cactus stamps from a lifetime ago watercolored and embossed, at least the right hand one is embossed. The silver ribbon slides are actually buckles. I have a lot of these buckles and never got around to ordering the SU wanted set that they would be perfect with. I think they work ok with these cacti though don't you.

Saturday I'll post the same sketch in cherries. So that's something to look forward to. I'm posting Friday's cards today because tomorrow we will be busy brushing sand off our feet and reapplying sunscreen. Yes we are beach bound.

Until Saturday morning,
Happy Crafting
Katie

KIDS EAT FREE

What a wonderful phrase and a wonderful surprise too.

Yesterday there were terrible storms in Chicagoland and so I kept my son home from camp because I didn't want to be out in an electrical storm. Normally this isn't a big deal. Run to the car which is on the street but they were working on our street and we would have to walk to the local school parking lot and we would be the tallest things in the lot.

Once the storm passed we went to Ikea for a kitchen clock and lunch. When we got to the cafeteria there was a sticker on the kids menu that said, "KIDS EAT FREE". Woo hoo! So my son and I had a wonderful meal with vegetables and flavor and minimal fat and salt for less than a trip to McDonalds. If you are near an Ikea and your kids are under 12 GO!

I found this on their web site:

Kids Eat Free!
June 23rd - July 5th, 2010.
Valid at participating stores only.
Check your local store for details.

The store was fairly busy for the middle of the day on a Wednesday. We saw a lot of moms and their college-bound kids buying dorm gear. These are smart moms because Ikea is also having sale from June 23rd - July 5th, 2010. Again, GO!

We did our shopping and came home and I decided I didn't want a plain old clock this time. It's all of $2.99 but I wanted a little style, something to go with the kitchen so here it is…


Happy Crafting,
Katie

Twister Raincoat

Craftzine.com blog : Twister Raincoat
Ok so this isn't my design but it's awesome and worth sharing.

I'll be posting more of my stuff later today. Remember to comment on yesterday's post for postal love.

Katie

Just a Note to Say Hello

"HELLO"

I have been making these cards for a while now and I am ready to show them off. While going through stuff with the urge to purge I found the rubber stamp on top of an envelop full of postage stamps and I thought they would look good together and you know what, I was right.

I still have a boat load of postage stamps from years ago (the perks of working in an office that a sweepstakes was mailed to) I'm still making this design in a variety of colors: Yellow, Blue, Purple, Reds, Green. I will have them posted on Etsy soon in packs of 6 (if it works for beverages it should work for cards, right?)

If you are interested in crafting with postage stamps I can hook you up. Comment here with the subject "I want postage" and I will send you some postal love to the first 10 commenters. I will need an email so I can contact you directly and get your addy if it's on your blog that works.

Happy Crafting,
Kate

New Look for a New Day

I have changed the look of the blog, not sure if the background image is going to stay but I like the layout. It's a new look for a new period in my life.

Friday was my last day at work. My position was eliminated, along with the positions of several of my coworkers, after nearly 20 years. It's the kick in the seat of the pants that I needed to move on with so many things.

After all the end of employment paperwork is done I will have a bit more time and a lot less stress. Yes I am unemployed and that has it's own stresses but I am trusting that God has a plan and it will be good. My new full time job will be to find a full time job but I will also have time for this blog that has been sorely neglected.

My mojo has been a no show for quite sometime because of the stress of "possibly" losing my job. Now that it's gone the stress level is so much lower and the ideas are starting to come back. I am excited about the future again. Excited about crafting. Excited about creating.

I intend to be a daily blogger, posting vintage images found at my aunt's treasures and new creations, plus a few posts about parenting life. I hope you will enjoy the offerings here and tell your friends. I intend to purge my collection of crafty supplies soon and will be selling some items and giving away others so add me to your blog reader for the gifting.

Now on to the images.
This is a larger collection of images from an ad for Fruit of the Loom dresses - just $1. They were more than undies and sweats back in the day. These images and more can be found at my Flickr site in the Collection titled FYAO. Free images.




Until tomorrow, happy crafting.
Katie