Do You Think I Have a Problem?

I have uploaded photos of my craft stash so you can see what I mean. I may need an intervention 😉 How do I get started when there are too many choices? I have so many photos and supplies and ideas that I cannot choose a place to begin. And yet there is always something else I can’t wait to buy … or do … or learn …   I also cannot bear to get rid of anything as evidenced by all my original Sizzix dies that I never use anymore.

I feel like the more I organize my supplies the more I need to organize my supplies! My older son recently moved into his own apartment and my younger son is away at college so now both my kids are gone and I truly have an “empty nest.”  After several years of illness and debilitation and other issues my mom has moved into an assisted living facility so that has given me back a lot of time also. I am really ready to start using all the craft supplies I have gathered over the past decade or two and have the time and energy to get things started. But where to start?

After selling my mom’s house recently there were a lot of photos and memorabilia that she did not take with her and so it came to my house. The last thing I needed was MORE photos and things to scrapbook! So I decided to scan everything and then give the originals to my siblings. After I finished with those photos I kept going and scanned every photo I had that was not digital, including some that were already scrapped. This led to cleaning up my hard drives and then going through my 65GB of digital supplies and cleaning and purging those files also. At one point I had printed a 4×6 of each kit so I would have a catalog of everything I owned and could easily see what my stash included when I was starting a layout. During this cleanout phase I discovered that I had not printed any kit info since 2013! So I uploaded everything to Walgreens as I had a 50% off coupon and printed them out. I now have a catalog of all 460ish kits (that is sadly not a typo) that I have collected over many years. Everything is backed up and safe and I am moving on to make a catalog of all my stamps so I can easily see what I have there also. I ordered some expandable file folders to organize my memorabilia and embellishments also. So many times I would start to scrapbook an event only to realize I had no idea where the embellishments that I purchased especially for this layout had gone or I would complete a layout only to find I had saved something I really wanted on the page but forgot it. I also come across things I don’t even remember buying since I have literally been collecting stuff for close to 15 years. By May it is my goal to be all organized and able to easily start scrapbooking my photos.

One of my biggest problems is I get started and then get sidetracked by another project that catches my eye, whether through a video I saw or something in a magazine or on Pinterest or at CHA. Honestly it doesn’t take much!  I LOVE to shop for craft tools and supplies – it is the only hobby I actually do participate in on a regular basis. I also crochet, knit, quill, needle felt, macrame, make soap, cross stitch, sew a little bit, make cards, use a couple of digital cutters, take classes for crafting and also nutrition, make jewelry, collect retro memorabilia (believe it or not this is very time consuming), art journal, cook, read and volunteer. I get so excited by everything I want to do and learn and I want to do it all NOW 🙂 I am going to try making a schedule for each day of the week devoting a day to specific projects and see how that goes. I will check back next week to let you know how it is going and if I have actually accomplished anything or not.

 

 

Embossed Treat Bags

Today’s treat bags were cut with the Cricut using the Tags, Bags, Boxes and More cartridge loaded on my Gypsy and then embossed using some embossing folders from Darice and Provo Craft. The leaf-shaped bag was cut using my Silhouette and embossed with a leaf folder from The Paper Studio.

I also made a small Thanksgiving album using a Sizzix album die an embossing folder from Provo Craft. The rest of the week I will be making candy to go in these treat bags and working on a few more boxes.

Thanksgiving Treat Bags

Each day I am trying to make something for Thanksgiving. Everyone has all their Christmas stuff going on but I am trying to stay with Thanksgiving until at least November 15th. I have to admit it is tempting though. I just love that I have so many things to choose from when making my Christmas crafts. Lots of clip art from old Christmas cards and such. I need to donate something to put in goodie bags for my son and the other cadets at the Air Force Academy and I am thinking I might make a treat/craft for them. But for today we are still focusing on Thanksgiving 🙂 One of the things I promised myself I would do when I decided to “retire” instead of going back to school and work was to use all the craft items I have been collecting for the past decade but never had time to use.  I used the Sizzix XL Baskets and Blossoms die from Stampin’ Up and my Cuttlebug to make the basket. I used my Silhouette to cut the box and the sour cream container. The paper and embellishment for the sour cream container are from a digital kit by Samantha Walker called Orchard Harvest that I got from Jessica Sprague. http://www.jessicasprague.com

 

Tomorrow I plan to make some more treat bags with embossing folders and rubber stamps from my huge collection. Thanks for allowing me to share some of the fun I am having with you.

Thanksgiving Tags

Had a slow, enjoyable weekend but I spent some time today playing around with the Silhouette software and making some tags with clip art.  I used the Thankful It’s Fall kit for a few but most of them were made using Peanuts clip art I got on Etsy a while ago. Because so many of my projects are retro based, I frequently will use clip art for my images. Tomorrow I will be making some bags and boxes as I told my cousin I would send her some to use for work and school. I really need to work on some better lighting as my flash is sending such a glare off my Formica table top!

 

Thanksgiving Pillow Box

Today I did work on a few projects for Thanksgiving using my Quickutz Silhouette and some digital papers I had purchased. I am trying to learn the different ways to use digital papers in the Silhouette cutting program. I made this pillow box using paper from the Thankful It’s Fall kit by The Kit Cart purchased at Gotta Pixel shop. http://www.gottapixel.net/store/product.php?productid=42342&cat=0&page=3 Tomorrow I will make some tags using this same kit as I love the felt embellishments in it. I made a belly band from the same paper I punched the scallop with and then stamped the turkey with an old stamp I got from eBay years ago. I will be making some Thanksgiving chocolates in a few weeks and will fill this box with a few of those.

Thanksgiving Crafts

I always feel like everything just jumps right from Halloween to Christmas every year and I really try to enjoy Thanksgiving there in between. I have been attempting to make a Thanksgiving craft each day but have been getting sidetracked by all the Christmas stuff out there. There are a ton of things that I could make to celebrate Thanksgiving but  feel like most of them would not be appreciated. We don’t have elaborate dinners where seating is an issue so place cards aren’t needed and there is no room for a fabulous centerpiece with all the food I make. Most people do not give gifts or treats for Thanksgiving and I think that is a shame. I am going to be making some treat bags to send to family members to try to change this. I did appreciate that Hallmark had a TV movie about Thanksgiving before they started their all day, every day Christmas movie extravaganza. Years ago I bought a wooden turkey hanging for my kids to paint and today I gave in and decided I would paint it myself. Since both my kids are away at college, I figured waiting for them to finish painting it was not going to end up with anything hanging on my door this year! Even though it was not very creative, I was happy that it finally got finished and hung it on the back door to enjoy.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder :-)

Just stumbled across this fabric while searching “retro Christmas” on eBay. This was so fabulous and awful at the same time I just wanted to share it. If you are interested here is the link on eBay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/CR477-Happy-Holidays-Pin-Up-Giys-Christmas-White-Cotton-Fabric-Quilt-Fabric-/221282319375?pt=US_Fabric&hash=item3385743c0f .

There are actually many great retro Christmas fabrics available for sale on eBay if you are in the market for any. Here are a few samples.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Retro-Christmas-Eve-Santas-Sparrows-Aqua-Holiday-Vintage-Birds-Alexander-Henry-/171162054963?pt=US_Fabric&hash=item27da0db133

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HOLIDAY-HOSTESS-MICHAEL-MILLER-BY-THE-1-2-YD-CHRISTMAS-RETRO-LADIES-GR8-4-APRONS-/281135742688?pt=US_Fabric&hash=item4174fefee0

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Retro-Christmas-Fabric-/321240438809?pt=US_Fabric&hash=item4acb6c1819

I get almost as much inspiration from eBay as I do from looking at Pinterest. Happy inspiration to you!

A New Start

I have been away from the blog and crafting altogether for many months now. I have decided that instead of going back to school so I can re-enter the rat race that I am instead going to “retire” early and just enjoy myself. I have the huge blessing of a supportive husband who likes me being a housewife and who works in Corporate America so we can have a good standard of living without me contributing financially at this point in our lives. I have decided to accept this wonderful gift and get back to doing the things that bring me joy. Both of my children are now out of the house, one to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and the other to the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado, so I have plenty of time on my hands. I enjoyed a wonderful summer of traveling to see my family and hope to continue to do that in the future. I have visited Colorado a few times which was so beautiful and inspiring. I have many photos to work with at this point. This will be the first Christmas that I have not been employed or overcome by family crises and I am so looking forward to it. I have spent the last month cleaning out and reorganizing so that I have a usable work space and am ready to get started making Christmas gifts for family and even putting some things in my etsy shop. My heart is warmed by thoughts of bringing my family back together for Thanksgiving. Time to say “Welcome back!”

Getting Ready For Craft Fair This Weekend

I am trying to get a few last minute things finished up for the Elzie Patton Expo here on Saturday, November 3.  I did a much smaller craft fair at church earlier this year but it was pretty much nonexistent for crafters and customers so this will be my first “real” craft fair. Here are a few things I have been working on.

Here are the dry erase memo boards from last time.

Still have a lot of tooth fairy tins left for sale also. I decided to forgo the pumpkin and turkey poop as I wanted to concentrate more on gifts that would be lasting and not so much candy this time around. I might end up regretting that as all I sold was turkey poop and a few other items but I will have to wait and see.

I added some new retro binder clip photo holders.

I tried to add some more coasters and things that were geared more toward the men in our lives also.

Worked on some more post-it note holders in retro color combinations for gift ideas.

I added some necklaces and zipper pulls to my stock of items also. Seeing this photo makes me think I need to change my display choice though! I am looking forward to having some free time to concentrate on holiday gifts after this weekend. Will post some cookie and candy ideas soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inexpensive Christmas Project Ideas

I have started thinking about my Christmas projects as I always start too late and then make myself crazy at the last minute trying to finish everything up in time. This year I would really like to have some down time to just enjoy the beauty of the holidays so I really am starting things early 😀

This was on the Carta Bella page this morning and would make a great gift either with the pictures already inserted or as a display for children’s artwork. I take a photo of their artwork and display those as they are much more durable and take up less space.

http://www.cartabellapaper.com/blog/hanging-frame-project-with-designer-natasja-verbeek/

This would look fabulous decorated with some retro papers and embellishments like these by Samantha Walker from http://www.jessicasprague.com.

 

Perhaps these papers from Echo Park would be delightful also.

Will be back tomorrow to post some of the things I will be showing at the Elzie Patton Craft Fair on November 3.  Have a great day and I hope you find some time to create.