Free August Calendar

Can you believe July is almost over?! Never fear! I will help you prepare for August.

This month we have for your consideration an award-winning calendar! (This is where you say, "Ooooh!" and "Aaaaah!") Remember when I told you that I was entering some scrapbook pages at the fair? Well, I entered six 12x12 pages, three computer items, and a wedding invitation. I promise to show you the 12x12's, but I don't have great pics of them and they're at the fair for another week, so when I get them back, I'll have a show and tell. 

I can, however, show you the other items. There was a category in the computer art division for calendars and this one earned a lovely red ribbon for second place. 

The business cards I made for myself also earned a red ribbon in the computer art division....

I used Coolibah and my iPad, of course. It's so easy that it makes it feel a little like cheating!

Last, but most certainly not least, the page I made (with Coolibah) using photos of both of my grandfathers in their WWII uniforms won a blue ribbon in the scrapbooking category of computer art. I'm certain the subject matter was what did it!

Aren't they two of the most dashing devils? They both have their hats at that cocky angle in almost every picture from their younger days!

There is a cardmaking division, too, so I entered one of the wedding invitations I've made in the category for "other occasions." (That pretty much means it's not a birthday or holiday card.) It earned TWO ribbons! A blue for first in its category, and a purple Champion ribbon for the whole division. They liked it better than any other card there! 

Enough of that! If you need help loading the calendar to your computer or iWhatever, click HERE and follow the instructions. Or if you'd like to make your own calendar using Coolibah, go HERE to learn how.

I have another long week of all day band, so I'm turning in now. 

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time!

Michele

There Are No Mistakes in Scrapbooking...!

A few weeks ago, one of Andy's co-workers had knee  replacement surgery. He's a great guy and we hope he's back on his feet (literally) very soon. Andy asked me to make a card to send him and this is what I came up with. The images are all from a discontinued Stampin' Up! set called "Loads of Love." Seems easy enough, right? Ha! Fooled you! This is a lesson in fixing-what-you-mess-up-when-you're-not-paying-close-enough-attention. 

I stamped and colored (!) the images on white cardstock, inked the edges, affixed brads for hubcaps, and added a green mat. Then I adhered the striped paper to the front of a gold card. I stamped and punched the tag and placed both pieces on the card front. Quick and Easy! So quick and easy that I wanted to take some pictures so I could use the card for a blog post! This is how my first pic turned out:

Hmmmm.... 

Instead of peeling everything off with Un-Du, I just trimmed the gold card front about 1/4 inch each way and adhered the whole thing to a green card. Much better! Here's another look:

I delivered my fair entries Saturday. We had a failure to communicate which did not make me the happiest person in the world, but it was all (pretty much) worked out in the end. I should know later this week if I won any ribbons. I will share some of those pages when I get them back in a couple of weeks. 

Today was the first day of  "Band Camp" with the entire band. We started at 6 a.m. Ugh. 

I. Am. Not. A. Morning. Person.

So thanks for stopping by, but I have to go to bed!!! See you next time!

Michele 

More Awesome Paisley Stenciled Tables.

While surfing for inspiration (browsing blogs and other websites) a few weeks ago, I happened upon a blog called Domestic Imperfection and some pictures of a table with a paisley design stenciled across the top. You can see Ashley's post HERE. Go ahead and look. I'll wait....

Isn't that just beautiful?!

A few days later I was at Uncle Doc's, the flea market where Mom and I share a booth, when I spotted two plain little end tables that Doc had purchased just a few minutes before I walked in. 

They were practically screaming my name! I made a deal with Doc: If he would trust me with those two tables, I would take them home and do my thing, and when he got them back he could put a better price on them. (I was just dying to stencil paisleys on something and they were perfect!) Doc agreed, thinking I had more than one screw loose, and helped me carry the tables to my car. 

I sanded the tops a bit, glued some loose joints, and tightened some screws (on the tables-not in my head!). Then the stencils I had ordered from Cutting Edge Stencils arrived and the real fun began. 

 I taped the stencil in place with blue painters' tape and used a four inch foam roller to apply creamy white acrylic paint. The stencil pattern is almost two feet square, so that part was done in no time! After the acrylic paint dried I gave them a light sanding and, using a foam roller again, rolled on a couple layers of Minwax Polyshades, which is a stain and polyurethane combination. You could use straight polyurethane, but I wanted to tone down the contrast a little. (Besides--Ashley used stain over the paint on her table. If I'm going to use someone else's idea I should do it correctly, right?) I painted the skirt of the tables and the legs with a white latex paint then brushed some of the Polyshades over those areas as well, purposely leaving it a little streaky and toning down the contrast again. Finally, I replaced the knobs on the drawers. One was pretty wonky anyway, and I found some that looked like crazed ceramic at Hobby Lobby (for half price, of course!) They are perfect! Here are some after photos: 

I am happy to say that Doc was very pleased with the way they turned out. I am too! I have an old footlocker I'd like to doll up a bit next, so I'll let you know how that goes. 

Before I can jump into that, however, I have a bass drum table/light to show you and a few scrapbooking projects to take to the fair. Yes, the fair. Stop laughing.

I'll be spending a big chunk of the next three weeks with the color guard girls, learning drill for the upcoming marching season. Geez. Guess I better go get some laundry done! 

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time! 

Michele

Love at First Sight

I fell in love with the Stampin Up! Doily die when I first saw it several months ago, so of course, I ordered it.  I imagined using it to make wedding invitations, matching the doily to the bride's color scheme. I imagined using colored tissue paper, vellum, parchment, and any number of options. Unfortunately, the die did not work with my Cuttlebug. I used every possible combination of papers, plates and shims (and even some that probably are NOT possible), but to no avail. Bummer. 

But I do not give up that easily! When it was my turn to be the hostess for our monthly stamp club, I put my "earnings" toward the purchase of a BigShot. No, I did not buy a BigShot just because of one die! My Cuttlebug is probably the most-used of all my tools and I'm sure that someday it will tire of my demands, make a horrible groaning sound, and cease to work. I don't want to be caught unprepared. Now I have a replacement. Just in case.  

Now I can cut doilies, but I don't see myself using them for wedding invitations. (Unless it's a very small guest list!) Every single cut had to be poked out. Ugh. I need to play around with some different papers and see if I can find something that works better than lightweight cardstock. In the meantime, this doily works very nicely for a card front!

I made the background with a 4x5 inch piece of cardstock, scored both ways in one inch intervals. 

Then I used Baja Breeze to stamp the paisley background. The pattern doesn't get down into the scored grooves, so it looks kind of like tiles. That's something I've had on my "Things-to-Try" list for a while. I like it enough that I'm sure I'll have to try it again. 

To adhere the doily, I ran a single line of adhesive where I knew it would be covered by the ribbon. Then I layered the doily and the ribbon, stamped and punched out "Happy Birthday," and put everything on a pink mat. Oh, and I used a new tool to ink around the edge of that punched label--my index finger! Yep! It worked pretty well. You know the ink ends up all over your fingers anyway. 

Here's another look:

Very girlie, isn't it? I just love that pleated ribbon.

I am turning in early tonight. The hubby and I have been working on a BIG project for the last few days and I am wiped out! I think I'll be able to share some pics with you, but it will be the end of the 

month before the surprise is revealed and I can get the OK.

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time!

July's iWhatever Calendar

My Goodness! July! 2012! Wow! Here's the new calendar. I hope you like it. You don't think I used too many stars, do you? I think there are a few in some of my Coolibah kits that I didn't include. You can find instructions for downloading it to your computer or iWhaterver HERE, or if you would prefer to make your own calendar using Coolibah or another scrapbooking app or program, you can find those directions HERE. Feel free to use the calendar below for your own creation. I'd love to see what you create!

That's all I have for today. I've been sitting on the couch playing--I mean, um, working, yeah--at making the calendar long enough. Time to head outside! I know I'm in the minority, but I LOVE this heat!

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time!

Not Quite Ready For "Junk Gypsies"

I added a new show to my dvr's to-do list. "Junk Gypsies."  It fits right in with "Cash & Cari" and "Rehab Addict." They're all about creative women who do what many of us would love to do: They actually make a living using their creativity and imaginations. "Junk Gypsies" and "Cash & Cari" are both on HGTV and "Rehab Addict" is on DIY.
In a nutshell, Cari Cucksey runs estate sales. Every now and then she finds a "treasure" that she refurbishes or completely re-works to put in her shop.
The Gypsies are sisters Amie and Jolie Sikes, who design rooms using flea market finds, other peoples' junk, and a whole lot of whimsy.
Nicole Curtis (from "Rehab Addict") buys old homes that need lots of tlc. L.O.T.S. of tlc. She "rehabs" them and (hopefully) sells them. She shops architectural salvage, dives into dumpsters, and picks up curb-side cast-offs to find the pieces that would have been in the house when it was built. The houses are beautiful when she gets done with them. She lives and works in the Minneapolis area and I'm just waiting for the house my father-in-law grew up in to show up as one of her projects!

You may be asking, "What does all this rambling have to do with a cup floating in a swimming pool?" Well, my other favorite part of my house (besides the front porch) is the pool that we put in nine years ago. Sunday afternoon Andy and I were doing our laps (Before you get the wrong idea--they're not THAT kind of laps! The current from the jets carries us around the pool on our inflatable rafts. Usually about one lap every four or five minutes. Watch out, Michael Phelps!) So, anyway...I said that I needed to come up with some way to float my cup so I wouldn't have to hold onto it. That is deceivingly strenuous! I mean, what if it tips over and spills? And I can't leave it on the side of the pool, where I would only pass it every four or five minutes. I might need a drink at three minutes! Before long Andy got out of the pool and returned with a piece of foam insulation (JUNK) with a hole in the middle. Voila! But of course, I cannot leave well enough alone, so I had to make it cute. Finally!

The first version took waaaaay too long, but it is pretty cute. I got out some SU! background stamps and stamped a blue paisley pattern on some muslin scraps and red polka dots on some others using StazOn. I tore the muslin into strips about 3/4 inch wide and wrapped them around the foam, tying knots around the outside edge and leaving the ends to fray. I was watching "Junk Gypsies" while tearing and tying and the finished floaty would have fit right in with anything they do!

That would make a really cute picture frame. And you could always use ribbon to cut out a few steps....

I decided to go back to the drawing board and simplify. Crazy, right?! That's when I realized I could just stamp the designs directly on the foam. The cut edge was still pretty rough and ugly, so I hot glued some ribbon around the edge. Don't touch the tip of the glue gun to the foam. They don't play well together.

I also learned that a circle doesn't work. The whole thing rolls right over. 

It took a little trial and error to get everything just right, but now, when we are doing our laps, we can have our drinks close at hand. 

Life is good. But please don't tell me if I could have bought a ten-pack of these for two dollars at Dollar General. Ignorance is bliss.

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time!

It Just Looks Like I Live Deep In The South

How inviting is this?! Relaxing on a shady porch in a rocker with a glass of iced tea and a good book (on an iWhatever).

Our favorite part of our house is the front porch. Even when the floor needs to be painted. It's just six feet deep, but it runs about 26 feet across the front of the house and another 30 feet down the south side. It's very welcoming and the shade from the roof helps keep the downstairs cool if there is any kind of breeze at all. The porch is the one thing that we both insisted on when we were adding to and renovating the original house, and it is the house's most outstanding feature.

But I'm not here to write about my porch today. I'm here to write about that little table in the photo. I know that's not my normal kind of thing, but it was so much fun to re-do! It is literally a marble top table! I found it at a neighbor's garage sale and bought it for one dollar. Yep. One. Of course it looked more like this at that time....

I think it was meant to be a plant stand. I'm not a big fan of that shade of green paint, so of course I had to cover that. I had just enough blue left from when I painted the rocker a couple years ago. I didn't want it to look new. That would make it stick out like a sore thumb at my house! So I left a few spots bare and sanded a little to let just a hint of the green come through. I have some big pieces of glass in my backyard (my uncle was the original American Picker) and a few months ago I learned how to use a glass cutter. I knew I wanted to put glass in the top and bottom of this, but I couldn't decide what to do to make it cute.

Then I remembered all those flat marbles that I used to put in vases and candle dishes. I had enough different colored ones to make a design in the top, and the bottom is just rows of green. (No problem with green glass or glasswares--I absolutely love Jadite--it's just that shade of paint. It's a home town rivalry thing.) 

I just put down a dab of hot glue and pressed a marble into place. The worst part was trying to clean up all the hot glue "stringies!"

I had to squirt some glue in the joints and pound in some loose nails to tighten it up a bit, too. I'd hate to spend an hour and a half gluing down all those marbles and have the whole thing collapse under the weight!

If you wanted to do something like this, the hardest part would be finding the right piece to start with. 

I took this pic from above so you could see the pattern. When the photo opened on my computer, my first thought was, "Wow! That would make a great patterned paper!" It would make a neat background for an iWhatever, too. If you use digital papers and would like a copy, just send me a message and I'll remove the watermark for you. 

That's it for now. I'll try to get back Friday, but you know what a wonderful job I've done of that lately! lol

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time!