Life goes on....

My goodness - this here blog sure has taken a back seat to life, lately. I have begun a new blog over at www.funkyanddamnnearnew.blogspot.com which is more of a blog about my 2nd favorite hobby which is finding and refinishing furniture and re-selling all my do-overs.

I plan on keeping this here blog up and running but if you want to see what else I am up to - you can check in on me over there...

I have been busy making some fun albums. Let me know what you think...

A recipe album...

btw- this use to say LET'S GET {CANNING}

inside pocket page with recipe cards included.

 

sweet pages ready for photos

 

this would be a fun gift for someone special or a keepsake of recipes that grandma left you.

 

Here's a Christmas album I just finished - with some fun colors and accents

 

I think this album just exudes HAPPINESS and CHEER

 

The colors are so bright and I love the coordinating accents...

 

I think this would work for a kids albums but also some hipsters would appreciate it as well.

 

Would make a great gift or just a place for you to add your photos of Christmas 2013...

 

I hope your holiday went smoothly and was spent with family & friends and that you have new memories to document.

 

Happy Holidays

 

Tina

Sweet Sweet FALL

 

Oh My here in So CAL - it is finally feeling like FALL. My most favorite time of the year next to WINTER....the cold brisk mornings, the darker nights, and the warm heater or fire keeping me warm - oh and the warm "RED CUPS" of coffee to keep me warm...life couldn't be better.

 

I was getting my "Thanksgiving" decorations out and was totally disappointed when I notice that some little varmints got into my boxes and destroyed all of my stuff - 14 years of stuff collected in the trash...I do have some stuff that I recently made but not enough to decorate my house...

 

Here are some of this years pumpkins - that I made using some fun fabrics...

I sold most of these at my show

 

 

but here are a few more I made...

 

 

this was last years round of pumpkins

 

 

Here are this years and an up close shot of my NEW pumpkins.

I like these a bit better because they are so plump and juicy!

 

 

I like the green burlap leaves and the cinnamon stick stems...different yet the same...

 

Kind of like life right

so looking for the silver lining in losing my 14 year collection of FALL decorations...I guess now I get to BUY new stuff...{wink & a BIG goofy grin}

 

I am linking this up to the following parties listed in my tab above.

thanks for visiting.

 

Happy Fall

Project LIFE

 

I know everyone is familiar with PROJECT LIFE and while last year I completed my 2012 PL album - it was stressful and time consuming and I think the label of PL came with a BAR that I needed to reach every time I shared my PL layouts. So I decided  to bring the bar down so to speak!

 

This year I decided not to do week by week but rather a month at a time. I get my photos printed via the GROOVEBOOK - I only have to pay 2.99 a month and get 100 pictures off my iPhone printed in a perforated style book and the dates and location are printed on the top of the photo - check it out its a pretty cool thing and makes remembering the date easier. I have my books out and I label the front with the months so I can pick and choose the photos and place them in my album as I am working on a layout.

 

With all that said here are my JUNE layouts...

I added a few extras - lots of letter stickers of the names of places we went to...

 

 

some border stickers and some labels

 

I have been using the products by SNAP - which are available at Michael's and Joann's

are reasonably priced and have the cutest sayings and graphics

 

all the yellow cards are from SNAP...cute right!

 

they add a lot with out much work on my part (like that)

 

Added some minimal accents like stickers but other than the pictures are doing all the work

 

I gotta tell you that I am so much at ease with this NEW way of doing PL - it is so much less stressful and I am getting the highlights of the month done and it happens in all one night of scrapbooking - LOVE IT!!!!

 

I am linking this up to the parties listed in my tab above.

 

Happy Project Life-ing no matter how you make it work for you!

xo

Feliz Dia De Los Muertos

We had a wonderful Halloween - Hope you all did as well. We had some fun playing dress up last night - especially with the make up part... we had a


 witch

 

with lots of make-up and a funky old broom - this costume was from the thrift store...love those kind!

 

we had

 

FREDDIE KRUGER

 

used some sticky waxy scar stuff for his face. Believe or not, we had the pants and sweater top and just bought the glove & hat from the party store...

 

My oldest daughter wanted something original but still cool so again to the thrift store we headed and my daughter was able to piece up

 

ROSIE THE RIVETER

found the shirt and some DOC MARTENS at the T.S. she had the tank, the shorts & red bandanna

mom helped her with the hair - which I think she totally rocked!!

 

 

All in all not a bad night with some fun & cheap costumes.

 

One holiday down and now the "SEASON" begins...HOLIDAYS

 

ok anyway I also wanted to wish you a splendid weekend and share a fun DIA DE LOS MUERTOS skeleton I made - I learned it in a class this past October.

Using fimo clay to create & sculpt the head

 

 

and hand sewn body and then the pain stakenly drawn then painted in BONES

 

...I am in LOVE with the doll - subtle but to the point 

 

 

and the finishing touch was some fun fabric to make a collar for the skeleton.

I am in LOVE with the doll - subtle but to the point and all handmade!

 

I will be linking my skeleton to the parties in my tab up top.

 

Here's wishing your dearly departed LOVED ones a wonderful day of rest & celebration

in honor of Dia De Los Muertos

 

Love you Mom & Paul and miss you everyday!!!

 

xo

 

 

Happy Halloween

Here's wishing you all a wonderful Halloween - whether dressing up or handing out candy - hope you have a fun & safe night...

 

Wanted to share a fun mixed media WITCH I created using different bits & parts and a wonderful old doll head.

 

vintage alphabet blocks

 A metal lamp shade base (I think?) for the body and a candle saver for the collar and vintage hands holding one of my hand dyed trees in purple.

 

all in all a fun & pieced together Halloween decoration.

 

I am linking this witch up to the weekly parties in my link at the top of the page.

 

Have a fun night.

xo

The Show

was a total success. Thanks to all my lovely customers friends who stopped by and visited for a bit, shopped and those of you who hung out and talked with me. I really enjoyed seeing you all and appreciate your support.

 I have a problem with taking photos of my booth before sales start and especially one with me in it. So I have shots of my booth during a quite time with a lot of things already sold - hence the  emptiness of it all.

 

the bottom rack of pillows (with words on them) was filled with burlap pillows - simply made but quickly desired...weird and I only made a few. Hate when that happens.

 

Here are the table tops and whats left of my products.

 

 

 

Here is that cool booth set up I made with not much left on it for display.

 

Here is the left over scrapbooks I had - I was so considering not doing them this year but I'm glad I did because people loved them and bought them.

It warms my heart to know  that people are still scrapbooking.

 

I wanted to share another cool project I made for Halloween scrapbooking...

 

I found a super cool white metal easel and made some scrapbook pages to fit and hang from the easel so you could easily share your Halloween past photos or add this years to it.

 

If you used some repositionable tape you could totally use this year after year

and add new photos to it...

 

I love the colors of this and the details - and so as not to overload this post I only shared 3 layouts but this comes with 10 total.

I have it listed in my ebay shop if you are interested in it.

 

Well here's wishing you a wonderful Halloween night and a crafty week.

 

I will be linking up my scrapbooking easel to the parties in my linky up top.

 

 

CHALKingly good

Don't know if you have fallen in love with the art of CHALK or chalk art in the manner of signs...well I sure have and while I have not mastered it - I have definitely played with a bit. I have been trying to make some fun signs for my show this Saturday using the CHALK ART writing...so I did 2 signs...

The first sign I made using an old mirror frame which is amazingly ornate and which I painted Robins egg blue...

 

then I looked on pinterest for some ideas using the chalk writing and of course there is a bunch to choose from.

 

I bought one of those bistro markers - that are chalk in a pen (easier to write with)

 

and took bits and parts from various signs I saw and added them to my sign 

 

Here is the whole sign - wanted you to get an idea of the whole thing even with that snarky glare

 

here is a close up of the writing. I am not a pro by any means and quite frankly its not as clean and wonderful as those on line but I can say that I am quite pleased with the way it turned out.

 

The Bistro chalk marker I used was a chiseled tip and quite thick and made for writing in small spaces a bit hard

 

Like I said I took different parts from various images I found...

 

some made sense and some just filled spaces. But I LIKE it A lot.

 

The 2nd chalk sign I made came from using a vintage doll crib.

 

This is one side and the other side was blank (no tiger)

so I painted it with chalkboard paint and added a cute FALL banner

 

and this time using an actual stick of chalk made this sign for my booth tomorrow.

 

 

I love it and well consider it my contribution to upcycling. Viva our environment.

 

Ok. so I hope these make a splash tomorrow at my show. Wish me luck.

 

Linking up to the parties in my link above.

Have a great weekend folks.

 

xo

Hello Fall

Good grief - a month later and life just whooshed by...It's that time of year...where I am spending all my time finishing up my hand crafted goods for the annual VILLAGE VENTURE. It is a real treat to participate in this show, it is the biggest show I have ever been a part of. This year there is expected to be 490 crafters/vendors...YIKES. Its an all day (1 day) affair and usually it is super hot - like 95' degrees hot - I am praying for cool weather and lots of new people.

I can always expect my usual clients - who I might add are the greatest peeps out there. They make me feel special when they hit my spot every year. What a compliment to know they came to me first. LOVE LOVE you guys.

I thought I would share some of the fun stuff I have been working on.

 

Here is proof of my CRAFTY MESS

 

Here are some fun shadow boxes I have made using vintage sewing habedashery

 

and the cutest little snowman face getting started.

 

I am super excited that I will have a bunch of my usual items pillows, jewelry & such but with a NEW twist on them all.

 

Here are some more fun shots of things I have made in the past month

 

I have been having lots of fun playing with paper clay and have created many cool characters this holiday season.

 

I will be back more regular after this show. But in the meantime I hope I will see you at this years VillageVenture in Claremont California - October 26th

 

Happy Crafting