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Saturday, January 29, 2011

Basic Grey Challenge 36

One final layout for the day. It's for the Basic Grey Challenge, #36-Flower Power. Most of the papers are from the Marrakech line, one of my favorites.



Materials used:
Patterned paper: Basic Grey Masala Bella,  Blue Nights, Green Tea, Jubilee, African Nectar, Mandarin Slice
Letters: Basic Grey Marrakech Alphabet Stickers
Flowers: Basic Grey Marrakech Element Stickers

Starting my Christmas Cards early!

Well, last year I got so busy i only got 6 made! So this year, I figure I'll do 1 a week or so and by the time the holidays roll around I'll have oodles. There's a challenge blog out there called Christmas Cards Challenges, which has a different challenge every week. This week's challenge: Christmas Card Challenges: 2011 Christmas Card Challenge #8 was "No Coloring." Here's my submission.


Patterened Paper: Basic Grey
Stamp: Tingtura Designs
Rub Ons: Basic Grey
Ribbon: Close To My Heart
Buttons: Unknown

New Layout

Here's a quick little layout I did of my sister and my niece.


Patterned Paper: Close To My Heart and Storytellers Club
Cardstock: Unknown
Shimmer Flourish: Making Memories
Snowflakes: Unknown and Marcella by K
Ritzy Ditzy Shimmer Mist
Cardstock
Brads

Submitting it to Pencil Lines Sketch Challenge.

More to come!!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

No craftiness today, but some pictures....

I got an iPod Touch for Christmas and one of my favorite apps is Hipstamatic. I love it. Here are a few pictures I have taken so far. The only downside I have found is their custom prints (if you want real prints) are expensive, and there's no way to get them printed properly by snapfish, etc. But the pictures come out really neat, and it's a lot of fun to play with.




The first two are where at I work, at Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, MA. The third is in Cambridge, MA. And look at this great picture of my niece I took last month! I love how the lens and film I used make this picture look like it's one of my childhood pictures.

Their website is at http://hipstamaticapp.com/ and you can download their app in the app store. It's not very expensive, and for me it has been tons of fun.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

New Year's, sort of, Resolutions....

I do not usually make New Year’s resolutions. Mainly because I am way too ADD to follow through, half the time. But this is a list of some things I would *like* to accomplish this year. In no particular order:

Gardening
Get my garden up and running again. Since I disappeared last year for a while, no one here has heard the tale of what happened to my garden (unless you read my small post below, snicker). Just a few short months after transplanting everything from my old community garden plot to my front yard, my landlord destroyed all of it. There are 2 sides to my front yard, I was gardening one side. It had gotten a little weedy, but nothing like the side that belongs to my neighbors. Someone must have complained because I came home from work one day to find the entire yard stripped to bare earth! All of my container plants in a dump truck! My worms, my lovely worm bin, also gone! This was a bin I had been caring for during the last 4 years or so, and it had almost 10 pounds of compost ready to be harvested. Gone. My 7 year old tarragon, sage, lavender, etc.? Gone!

I was devastated. This year I am building a raised bed, so it is clear that there is a garden there. Urgh. Unfortunately, it didn’t get made before the snow, and there is now about 2 ½ feet of snow in my yard, so it will have to wait. But it will happen. The seed catalogs are starting to come and I am starting to plan the space a bit. I am going to get started on a new worm bin in the next week or so, I set one up for my Dad for Christmas, and I miss the little critters. Now we have an ample supply of bunny poo for fertilizer, due to Lola, the house bunny my daughter got for Christmas. I am busy collecting paper towel rolls and toilet paper rolls to make seed starters. This year I am going to try potatoes and hops. The hops tie into my next goal.

Random Skills/Hobbies
Learn how to brew my own! I’ve been thinking about it forever and make very good liquors. But I want to try my hand at beer. I figure if I grow hops, by the time they are ready to harvest I will be ready to move away from kit brewing into more complex recipes. Now, just to come up with the $$ to get the start-up kit.

Start canning and preserving more. I want to start keeping my eyes open for crazy good deals on produce so I can do some more preserving. I desperately want to get a food dehydrator. I’ve been trying to get more involved with the Urban Homesteaders League Meet Up group, which has been a good way to get produce cheaply, every so often. I got an amazing deal on canning supplies at Target at the end of last season, so I am well stocked on supplies. I just joined a new CSA, and they have Pick Your Own days, so I will probably take advantage of that.

Find an online certification in Herbalism. Start saving up for it. See if I can find one that is pay as you go.

Crafting
This year I will learn how to crochet a granny square. I just need to find someone who crochets who can show me in person. I have tried and tried to learn from books and it is just not working.

I am going to enter more craft challenges online, like at Cupcake Craft (http://cupcakecraftchallenges.blogspot.com/). I am going to win some! So there. I am definitely trying to break out of crafters block, slowly but surely. I’ve been joining some online crops and things just to force myself to do some work. I’m also going to Maine in a few weeks to have a crafty weekend with my sister, which should jump start things.

Keep up with the Art Journal Every day. I’m trying, but haven’t been too good about it. I’m concentrating right now on getting my supplies in order more. Everything is kind of scattered.

Get my etsy shop up and running. Produce, produce, produce.

Everything Else
I really, really, really need to get my craft area more organized. It’s super small, and I can not find anything right now. Organizing in general is a challenge for me. I need to streamline things a little.

Well, I guess that’s it for now. This is more to get things down “on paper” and start moving toward goals. They’re all attainable. And I have a whole year!

Monday, January 24, 2011

A few new cards....

I really need better pictures for these! I took the pictures on my iPod, so the quality is not great but, here are 2 new cards that I've made:

Patterned papers are Basic Grey Wisteria Stone Wall and Willow
Die cuts are Basic Grey Wisteria Chipboard dies



And the second card:


Fancy Pants Patterned Paper Glimmer
AdornIt Patterned Paper Fern Collection-Owl Hoot B
Prima Flower
Copic Markers

I've been busy trying to organize what little of a craft space that I have. *sigh* The perils of small space living. I really only have a 3 foot by 3 foot space to craft on, and small spaces for supplies. I'm trying to get it more workable, so I will use it more!

I made these cards for an online crop over at Memorable Seasons . A nice way to break out of scrappers and card makers block. It was fun and I got some stuff done, 2 cards, 2 layouts and 2 more layouts that weren't related to the online crop.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

New Year, New Start!

Boy have I neglected this place. Sorry...things all went downhill fast last year.

But it's a New Year and I have started partcicipating in a new challenge to keep me busy! It's called Art Journal Everyday and it's over at this link http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/art-j.html

So, that should kick start things.

Projects this year... I want to start home brewing. As soon as I get money for the start kit and equipment I am going to jump right in.

My landlord razed my garden to bare earth last summer. We have two front yards, one that I was working in and one on the other side of the duplex. That side got crazy weedy. I was clearing my weeds out as best I could. Someone in the neighborhood complained so i came home from work one day to find everything GONE. 7 year old lavender? Gone! I had finally gotten it to overwinter well too. 7 year old sage? Gone! Well established worm bin, with about 10 pounds of compost ready to harvest? GONE!

Needless to say I cried. But this year I am building a raised bed. So I'll get going on the garden wagon soon. I am going to have to start scouring freecycle and The Urban Homestead league to find new herb plants, but that will come.

So.... I can't promise I will post every week, or even every day. But I'll be here more often.