In a jewelry making mood :)

I was in a jewelry kinda mood last night... I've been neglecting jewelry making for months!!! I guess I was just having too much fun scrappin :oP So before I'm off to work the crop and then off to my weekend trip (WOOT! I'm so excited! I"m going to try to post something while I'm away - but if I don't, I might be having too much fun :oP Still bummed Wy is not coming with us.... we will miss you Wy!!!!!)

I made these simple earrings... I think they are very cute and would work great with a little black dress :o)

and I also made this very crafty and trendy necklace to wear on Sunday with a cute black shirt:

I guess you can say this is a Tim Holtz inspired piece, I used his chain and one of his keyholes as the base of this piece and then dressed it up with some beads, a ribbon made flower (like the ones I made for the tote and some very fun new rose ribbon I got from ScrappyB... I must admit, the ribbon is kinda itchy, but it's cute enough to make me have to wear it hehe

I'd love you're opinion on these. I'm not very good or experienced in jewelry making but it doesn't stop me from having some fun with some colorful beads and mix in some scrapbook supplies :oP

Have a great weekend!
Stay sweet,
Mari

In a jewelry making mood :)

7 Gypsies Rollie-thingy

Because apparently that's the only way I can ever remember to call it! As soon as I saw the new MME collection I knew I wanted to use it for this project. I mean, "Life is good" as a die-cut that I can just clip up like the rest of my pictures its just perfect! So I picked up a few sheets and some embellies that I could use with the thousand pictures I wanted to fit here. I wanted it to be a random collection of good times, of the dogs, Dean and I - just shots that make me happy :o) In order to be able to fit them all I had to print most of them in a smaller scale and then do some combining to make them all fit, I'll show you on some detail shots below.

On the right I used 7gypsies cute dangly clear charms with some rub-ons. I was so surprised to see how easy and nice the rub-ons came out :o)



On the left I fit two pictures by using 2 jump rings to attach them. I wanted to give them more of a flowy feeling than adhering it to cardstock and it turned out to be great!

and I just wanted to add these two very cool shots cuz Dean did such a great job taking pictures of our newly finished rollie-thingy today!

Oh! I also got to make some jewelry tonight!!! I'll post some pictures tomorrow. but let me at least give you a hint :oP I made a necklace that matches my new tote! *very excited*

Stay sweet,
Mari

7 Gypsies Rollie-thingy

To do woes...

My list of to-dos for this week doesn't seem to ever go down! Wednesday is almost over and I still have not done half of the things I need to have finished by Friday. *yikes*

I didn't want today to go by without posting something so I'll leave this very quick post with a new layout for you! I used the new Unwritten line by Reminisce :o)sorry about the crappy pic. its getting late and kinda hard to get a good shot :o(

So excited to put this layout up at the store soon! Come by and take a peek, we'd love to see you and chat for a bit :o)

To do woes...

YAAAAY!!!! It's tote time!

As soon as I saw the Prima canvas bag by Donna Downey at ScrappyB I knew I had to have it! Now what I was going to do with it was another thing... see, I don't know how to use my sewing machine just yet, and I really didn't want to experiment with this bag. I wanted it to be cute, colorful and girlie and nothing says girlie more than flowers and ruffles!

Anyway, here's the bag... I ended up using liquid stitch and hand-stitching for everything here. Next time I promise to be brave and use my sewing machine. Off to get more yummy canvas product :o)

I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty proud of how this came out. Not bad for being my first right? OOOOOH I just thought it would have been super cute to add some clouds (as in dreaming in clouds) lets save that for next time :oP

I have tons of projects I'd like to finish this week, wish me luck!

Stay sweet,
Mari

YAAAAY!!!! It's tote time!

Just rambling, and a few facts...

I know, I've been slacking... I don't know how those of you that work full time (or are stay at home moms) do it! BIG props to you for getting your creative time on no matter what your life throws at you. I've noticed that it doesn't take much to ruin my mojo and I gotta do something about it - no doubt. But why even start making something if I already know I never like how things turn out when I'm in a crappy mood, or tired, or just rushing to get something done. I rather just wait, but there's gotta be another way; a way to *make* my mojo come back and work for me and my creativity. Let me know if you know the solution, I'll let you know if I ever figure it out.

Anyways, I've been covering Bette's shifts while shes out on vacation over at the best scrapbook store in the world, if not the universe - Scrappy Boutique. Which has been great because I've been able to put new product out for you (and even a little for me :oP ) and it's just so much fun! Fresh product inspires me, my head's already going crazy with ideas and so its my wallet; but that's another story. So between working and some possible life changing decisions I've had make, and think very long about I just haven't had a chance... I know, I know - excuses... but what can I say? I can only tell you the truth and hope you understand. Do you? Understand, I mean... Anyone out there? Please say Hi to know someone's *listening* ... sigh.

One of the (smaller) decisions I had to think long and hard for was whether or not to go to the Inspired Artist Workshop in May. After going over the pros and cons with Dean like 1 million times we decided to go for it. He's even going to be driving and staying with me since its in North Carolina! He'll be exploring, writting, picture taking, and getting inspired in his own way while I'm at workshops and crops. I'm really excited about it, I've been looking at ways to get other styles of art incorporated into my own and I truly think this will be a great jump start. My challenge for today was to figure out the schedule and all the supplies I need to bring with me so I have an idea far in advance. Now let me tell you why this is indeed a challenge. There's about 50 workshops to choose from that you can take (for an additional cost) while you're not in the 6 core workshops; either that or you spend your "free" time cropping and shopping... So first I had to go through all 50+ main workshops and pick which ones I would like to take. Then print out the schedule and mark said workshops (some of which are taught multiple times) and finally figure out a way to take most of the ones I liked without having them overlap. I don't think this explanation gives it justice - just take my word on it, it was a challenge ;) or you can ask Dean...

Now all I have to do is eliminate a bunch of them because I'm not about to double the cost of the 3 day event in mini workshops. Oh! and figure out how to sign up for them... that's kinda important.

The *crafty* challenge this weekend was to alter my new Prima canvas messenger bag!!!!!!!! Can you tell I'm excited? I still don't feel confident using my new (to me) sewing machine, so I had to figure out a way to alter this one in time for our Bus trip next weekend! So I reverted to hand stitching and liquid stitch and promised myself that I will try to move forward next time and be brave. But for now this will have to do. I'm not quite finished yet, so come back tmw so I can show you the finished tote bag!

Stay sweet,
Mari

Just rambling, and a few facts...

Got a bunch of goodies to post :o)

Now that Valentines has passed I can post Dean's present! Ash and I got these really cute Choxie chocolate boxes at Target over Christmas. They were 40% off and we thought they would make perfect valentine gifts. Here's my finished little box, I used an older line of MME I had in my stash (go me!)

Here's another view. That little ribbon is what you use to pull out the box.

and a matching card, of course.

I mentioned sometime last week that I had started working on a layout with last years Basic Grey love line - Bittersweet (Man, I'm on a role! :oP ) I *heart* craft background, must go back for more.

2 more BG Page of the month kits down, 10 to go. I can do it!

A life changing moment:

You inspire me:

I'm itching to play with new product... SEI and Reminisce, here I come!
Hope you had a great Wednesday!

Stay sweet,
Mari

Got a bunch of goodies to post :o)

WOOT! feeling pretty good about this...

The Challenge: Get the new (to me) sewing machine to work. And while at it, try to figure out how it works.
The story behind the challenge: I've wanted to learn how to sew for a while - not necessarily to make clothes, there's just so much fun stuff you can make with a sewing machine and I want to expand my realm of possibilities. So lets get even more crafty! My mother in law, crap did I just say that?! I meant my *distance future* mother in law :oP was more than happy to give me her practically new sewing machine. I think she got it a little over a year ago and barely used it, apparently something was wrong with it. No problem! I can fix it right? just start from the beginning and follow the manual... Well it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be but I got it to work! I even tested all the different patterns on paper. There's still a few glitches I need to work out such as understanding the thread tension and stitch length options of the machine. I feel confident though, this is gonna be a good thing. I'll give you a hint on next weeks challenge - we're gonna put this puppy in practice hehe

Happy Valentines Day by the way! Hope you had a great day with *your* valentine. We drove over to our Paris (St. Augustine) for the day. Did our usual walk around holding hands enjoying the sights, struggle for like an hr trying to figure somewhere to eat that looked appetizing and wouldn't break the bank, St. Augustine mud ice cream by the fort with an amazing view - thinking always how lucky we are to have each other. Everytime we go we try to do something different, yesterday it was the lighthouse and it was amazing! For someone who loves roller-coasters and thrills I'm a big chicken when it comes to heights. I refused to look down while climbing the 219 steps to the top. Gotta do something about this fear, Dean made me so proud, he's normally the one freaking out :oP Maybe we should go skydiving.... I think that would do it.
Here's a shot of the view from the top of the lighthouse. Beautiful isn't it?
Next time we take the pups to the beach, never been to the beach over there...
And I just *had* to show you this. Dean was playing with the camera tonight (while he was supposed to be feeding the dogs) when he gets an idea in his head there's just no stopping him. These shots came up awesome though! I *heart* you too babe...
I'm out for tonight... hope to get some scrappin done tomorrow :o)
Stay sweet,
Mari

WOOT! feeling pretty good about this...

A layout for a friend.

My moms friend, Milena came over with her husband for lunch last Sunday. She happened to see some of my work and asked me if I would be able to make something for her friend - Well of course I can! and I'll even use it for Fetch a Sketch Friday :oP It was our *thank you* for her husband, Pepe helping us set up some shelves that wont fall unexpectedly like the ones we put up!

So here's a sketch for you:

And the finished project with shadow box and all :o)
I just started working on a new layout with last years BG love line - Bittersweet. So excited about this one, can't wait to show it to you!

Happy Friday!!!
Stay sweet,
Mari

A layout for a friend.

The Old Jail and another little treat...

Its getting late but I had to do something for this weeks Spontaneous Wednesdays! So I have two layouts for you today... I finally got started on the page of the month Basic Grey kits from last year; 1 down, 12 to go. Last week Dean and I laid every single one of them out and made a list of all the titles, pictures needed, and possible journaling options. Now all I have to do is get to them one by one...not necessarily in order :oP

Fist let me show you The Old Jail layout I made with some of our pictures from one of our trips to St. Augustine (REALLY REALLY hoping we get to take a little road trip this Sunday back to our fave town <3 )

And here's the layout from the Basic Grey kit of the month from the beg. of last year. I can not even tell you how excited I am to have one of these layouts finished. I can't wait for the whole album to be done... It's gonna be great to look back at it years from now.

Happy Wednesday everyone!
Stay sweet,
Mari

The Old Jail and another little treat...

Indy is my monster...

My sweet monster that is. He makes funny sounds that resemble monster-ish sounds, he likes to hide under beds, he bites (gently), and well hes huge. :oP Oh! and he's also my sock monster...

As soon as I saw the Monstrosity line from Sassafrass I knew I wanted to do something about him. Since todays challenge was to make my own over sized embellishment, I figured there would be nothing more fun than an over sized monster! So I looked through all the adorable little monsters Sassafrass came up with for this line and decided to go with the cute fluffy blue one. I know, shocker.

Basically what I did was sketch a bigger version of the blue monster on a white piece of cardstock. I then stripped it so that it was completely separated - arms, feet, body, head, horns, you name it. That way it was easier to trace and cut each in their corresponding colors. Once that was done all that was left was piecing it together, in other words - the fun part!

the finished product :)


during the construction of the adorable funky monster


once the monster was finished


and the layout with its guest of honor <3 the monster itself...

Hope you like it! This was a lot of fun to make - although the most fun was watching Dean try to sketch the monster's arm... it's a funky monster babe, perfection is not necessary! :oP Love ya still! Needless to say I had to re-sketch it, all those erase marks just weren't gonna work. I do appreciate the help though :)

Stay sweet,
Mari

Indy is my monster...

Eye Boogies... I know, gross.

...but its something I want to always remember about Blue. Always walking around with boogies hoping someone would go to his rescue and clear his vision. I guess it helps that it takes a lot for me to get grossed out :oP

Dean was writing a poem about about this story for his blog, so I thought it would be perfect to make a layout for it - since we had the perfect picture and all!

Here's today's sketch for you:And here's the finished layout:

I didn't get to scrapbook much this week, but I got tons of other stuff done so I can't complain. I have some really cute projects to post next week, and then as new stuff starts coming in at the *best* store ever - Scrappy Boutique I'll start creating with fun new product! Can't wait...

Stay sweet,
Mari

Eye Boogies... I know, gross.

Random is the word...

...for today's events.

I can happily say we got tons of things done! Things that we've been meaning to get to for weeks... like finally getting our occupational license (which requires framing hehe) We also got quotes, set up meetings, did a little room rearrangement - yet again :oP and took the pups for a walk. I even got to finish a project I've had for over a year now! I made this book last year (? - maybe even the year before - ? ) as a sample for an alternative project for the calendar desk from Clear Scraps. Thought that it would be appropriate to finish it now since we are near Valentines and all... Besides, I'd like to have it displayed with actual pictures sometime soon :o)

Here are some shots for you:

*Note the actual journaling is still missing, it was getting late to post and I didn't want to rush it, and risk Dean say it was thoughtless hehe*

Of to do some more randomness... Self mani/pedi :o)

Stay sweet,
Mari

Random is the word...