Holy Scrap Batman!

Time flies when your getting ready to have fun! Scrapbook weekend starts tomorrow. Ohh happy day.

Lots of photos and pics of my work will be up next week so be on the look out!

Have a great weekend!

Photoshop Fun

This past weekend I got a "how to" PSE book so I can make some attempt at actually figuring out how to use it with some level of proficiency. Here's what I did tonight.

Before

After (I was able to get rid of the "stuff" in the background, but definitely still pretty elementary)

Hope your having a great week!

Sending some Crafty Love

Jeff and I don't typically celebrate Valentine's Day, but since I have some cute little babies that I am Auntie to I thought I would send a little love their way. They all got a version of this card, each with a sweet pea on the inside that I made with my trusty Cricut and customized for the boy and the girls. They each got a little present with their cards.

Little miss Sydney got some headbands for her hair and I had to amp up a few of them so I found this great "sherbert" fabric at Joann's and made some lollipop flowers and sewed them onto the bands.

I am thinking of all kinds ways to use the BIG stack of fabric I still have for my scrapbooking pages.

Speaking of scrapbooking...t-minus 13 days til our next scrap weekend in Saginaw! There will be a small group this time, about 1/2 our normal crew but it should still be quite a bit of fun. So I will be getting photos and paper ready so I can really get something accomplished.

Keep on being creative!

Knit This!

As you know one of my creative endeavors for the year was to try out knitting and maybe even pick up. So Jessica and I signed up for a knitting class a Joann's. Despite the fact that our teacher was Kuku for coco puffs, I did actually learn a little bit, now I just have to find time to practice so I can decide if its something I really want to pick up.

So let me take you through my first knitting masterpiece (aka a 3x4 inch swatch of orange yarn :-))

Step 1. Casting On (there are 2 ways to cast on to get your project started either knitting on or long-tail cast on which is what I found easier.


Once you have your first row cast on then you can start knitting, which is a bit awkward at first but I found holding the needles a certain way did help (of course not the text book way but whatever)


Then basically after that you are transferring your knit knots from one needle to the other (note you always hold your work in your left hand so once your knots are moved to the right, then you switch hands) and it starts to look like this.

It was surprisingly hard to keep an even tension so that will be my biggest challenge to figure out. And after a while of knitting the same stitch (Garder I think?) Then we learned a different stitch (purl) so the when you see those nice v style knit sweaters it is a combination of both (stockinette).
Then after a while you can switch between the two and it starts to create a pattern. We finished off class by learning how to bind of the piece and voila here have my finished piece!


Here's to all the knitters out there - you are amazing because it isn't easy! To another creative week!

P.S. To all of you are wondering about my teaching - some of my students have been very creative which has resulted in my brain feeling like it is going to explode, so I may have re-categorize teaching into a category that is not 'creative' :-)

Sunday Scrapbooking

This Sunday was spent resting from my birthday celebrations (thanks all!) Last Sunday though, I had a chance to spend a little bit of time with my sweet sis-in-law Crystal and get some scrapbooking done. I purposely brought some old photos that I had been putting off to the side and finally got them put to paper and they turned out great.

First Up - Kickball photos from our 2008 team.

I used the index photos to get a couple more on the page and I used the red circles that looked a lot like a kickball to add some fun facts about our team.

Next Up a photo of Jeff and I at his sisters wedding circa 2005.

I added felt hearts and used a black pen to make it look like I stitched the title on the page.

Then there were these adorable photos of Burt right after we brought him. Once day I found him snuggled into the corner of the couch and he still stretches out now just like he did then.

Lastly I had this picture my cousin took at one of our family reunion a few years back. She had us dress up in old clothes and took the photo in sepia. I used some monochromatic papers and gold ink to keep the look going.

To another creative week!

Think Big, Make It Happen!

What a great time on Saturday girls! A bunch of us got together to create our goal boards for 2010. The theme for mine was think BIG, Make It Happen. Here's a glimpse below.

The girls... who doesn't love magazines, glue, a bit of glitter and friends. That has to put you in a good mood!

The best part of the night was when Debbie thought Lipstick Jungle was coming back on T.V. then realized it was an old copy of Cosmo. You are soo cute!

Cheers!

P.S. Officially signed up for knitting class on Feb. 3rd and have my first project picked out which is inspired by a White House Black Market pocket Scarf. I'll try to find a photo to post here.

Snow storms and Crafting

So we are getting our first real storm this winter, which works out great, because what better time to stay inside and do some fun crafting! This weekend's plans include signing up for my knitting class at Joanne's and of course while I am there I should look around. As well as making my 2010 goal board and a bit of scrapbooking. This means getting organized tomorrow night - another great thing to do when its yucky outside.

Stay tuned for weekend updates!