Monday, August 1, 2011

Memory Crafting With Grand Daughter

Aloha Everyone,
It's been a fun couple of weeks blog hopping with Karen Valentine's "Where Bloggers Create" party.  I've met so many people, fell in love with their blogs and learned new fun ideas.  If you have a chance, click  here to get to the link if you would like to check out some or all of the blogs.  And for those of you that are still partying, just scroll down to the next post for part of my creative space.  If you want to see the rest of my space, click on the title "Where this blogger creates" on the right sidebar under 'home'.
My grand daughter started school today, so last week she wanted to work on a mini album project with me.  I bought a K & Co. kit along with a bunch of other embellishments.  I helped her cut the dp for the pages and she did a great job of gluing it to the album pages once I showed her how.  Then I let her do what she wanted, use what she wanted on each page.  Prior to getting started I downloaded pics of her favorite celebs for her to use in her album.  I had to use photoshop to resize the pics.
La`amea's Memory Album
Field trip to the Waikiki Aquarium
What young girl doesn't like JB?
A soccer player at age 4
TS--her favorite

There was a total of 8 pages; these are just a few.  La`a, as we call her, said she had fun and would love to do more. 
Have a great fun filled week!
Aloha,

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Where Bloggers Create 2011

Aloha,
This year is just flying by so quickly I can't believe it's mid July!
So, it's Blog hopping time and I'm so grateful to be participating again in Where Bloggers Create.  Thank you Karen!
Well I haven't made any major changes in my little corner workroom.  My dear husband put in awning windows which by the way was a second-hand from Craigslist; just doing our part in staying green. So glad to be rid of those jealousy windows; always having to close them when it rains.
Craigslist awning windows
 He also changed the door to my hideaway to an old french door which was one of two that use to be in our bedroom; yes, repurposing.  How's that for an oxymoron; hideaway, french door (glass)?

I took out the treadle machine/table and moved it to another part of the house so that I could put this fold-away table in its place.   We had a store here in Hawaii called Liberty House and when they were bought by Macy's, they were getting rid of some of LH stock. This table was one of them; cost only $15 and also came with a folding chair. This is a great work station for papercrafting.
This has been moved
Now this is in its place
I also did a few changes with the wall unit above this table. I've heard that it is better (?) to have our markers, whether copics or otherwise, resting horizontally than vertically. I've been shopping for a unit I once saw in a stamp store where the cubicles were slightly slanted towards the back, but couldn't find one.  So, since my wall unit has adjustable shelves with those little plugs you insert into the sides and the shelves rest on the plugs, what I did was insert the back plugs one hole below the front.  Oh yeh, problem solved! Now when I grab a marker when I'm working, a bunch won't come tumbling out.

Another thing I wanted nearby when papercrafting was a ribbon station.  I just don't have enough wall space so again, I took part of the wall unit and made some minor adjustments.  I took some chair/stool leg caps, cut a portion of the sides off; about a half inch, screwed them into the wall sides with the cut-open side up. Just loaded the ribbons on the dowel that I cut to the measurement between the section.  Now I can lift the dowel to add more ribbons or take off the empty spools. Love it!

I still have my work/cutting table, but I've had to use it lately to hold the overflow of equipment for papercrafting.
Easy to get to instead of hiding it in a box
 I'm running out of room in here. I've moved one thing, just one, into the guest room, my Bigshot pro.  My dream is to turn the guest room into the papercrafting room.  One of my dear friends just said to me a few days ago that, "dreams don't expire; dreams don't have deadlines".  I'm inclined to believe her. I'll be patient.
Another addition to my workroom is this lovely free standing cupboard.

I got it from Ross's for about $139; the color was perfect and I knew just where it would go. It took the place of the plastic Iris drawers on wheels. This piece holds most of my jewelry making goodies. I also got these plastic containers that have flat containers inside. They're sold as 4"x6" photo keepers, but...they hold my seed beads by color and other fun glass beads and gems. The thing is, I got the first two containers from BFC using the 40% coupon which brought the price from 21.99 to 13+.The coupons now are every other month; I wasn't going to wait.  I actually found them at Simple Living for about the same low price without a coupon.

My workroom may not be magazine, drool-to-die for, but I do have fun working here. And if Nate Berkus should ever come to Hawaii, I would love to have his crew decorate a good working space right here in this same space with a budget I could afford.
You can click on last years Where This Blogger Creates to the right on my blog to see last years post.  I noticed that on these separate pages you can't leave a comment or question, but if you do want to leave a comment or have any questions, my email is pharbottle@gmail.com.  
Thank you for stopping by for a visit, see you at the party hop!
Aloha,

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Busy Month of Celebrations

Aloha,
It seems every family has a month that is chock full of celebrations, more than any month, whether it's birthdays or anniversaries.  For our family, June is that month.  We have 10 birthdays, our anniversary, and because it's graduation month, we have 3 of those too. We're also honoring the 5th year of the passing of our dear nephew Carl, who was a very special person and now his spirit lives on with our families and his friends.
So, I've been creating cards as quickly as I can, and getting them out just as quickly so I haven't been able to snap photos of these cards with the exception for one.  You'd think knowing how many cards I needed this month  I would start the month before.  Hah!  Here's a rush card I made for my husband for our 40th anniversary.
I got some wonderful RAKS in the mail from Joy of "Joy of Crafting"! Big mahalo Joy!
All I did was participate in Flat Leilani again, this time with her Easter bunnies surrounding her.  It was fun and the grand kids thinks it's cool that Grammie still plays with paperdolls.
It felt like Christmas opening this box of goodies
I love K &  Co.
I heard this is a hot item
These items from 'Smash' are hot and just in at Ben Franklin Crafts.  I hope I have time this weekend to check out the other 'Smash' items.
I can't wait to play with my goodies, so I'll say good bye for now.  Warm thoughts to everyone.
Aloha,













Tuesday, May 31, 2011

New Tray For My Teas

Aloha,
I've been working on this tray idea for awhile because I wanted something nice to put on the kitchen counter to hold my assorted teabags and sweeteners. I shopped around for trays at Pier1, Macy's, other dept. stores and even checked Ross's for ornate picture frames that could be turned into a tray, but to no avail.
So off I went to BFC to see what they might have and I found this raw wood tray that was just the size I was looking for.  I prepped it and painted it an off-white, thought about painting some soft roses on it but got too lazy.  Then I thought about something sculptural, went back to BFC but couldn't find what I wanted. Another trip, this time to the hardware stores, the sales people didn't know what I was talking about when I asked about some fancy work trimmings out of wood; it was frustrating to say the least.  I finally went to a hardware store that pointed me in the right direction and found what I was looking for.  I glued the flourished molding on, painted the heck out of it.  But the inside still wasn't how I wanted it.  I decided to put a piece of vintage tea-towel, lace, buttons and part of a hankie. I had to strategically place the buttons in there so that when I put the glass on top of it all it would balance.
inside of tray  pic taken w/o glass to avoid glare

flourish from the HW store
I think the hardest thing was cutting the glass at just the right size so that it barely grazes the buttons.  I had to cut the glass about 1/16 to 1/8 inch bigger than the bottom.
Pau (done) for now. 
Aloha,

Monday, May 23, 2011

Thank you Cards

Aloha,
Just a quick post of a few thank you cards I made; finally got around to adjusting the pixels for downloading, but here they are:

Thanks for stopping by for a visit, glad you did.
Aloha,