Making things bright...

We got a new colleague a few months ago, and with him he brought lamps for his office. Why I had never thought about this, I have no idea! I hate my overhead lighting, and constantly use lamps at home, so why wouldn't I bring some into the office. With this came the idea to upcycle a fun lamp.

I've occasionally popped into Goodwill to browse throughout this summer, but didn't find the right one until last week (granted I didn't look too often or hard). I realized this morning that I don't have painter's tape, so my reveal of the base will have to wait until later. What I did pick up and finish in the past 24 hours however was the shade. I originally found this idea in the spring, when I was redecorating my living room. While I went with lampshades from Target for the living room, the idea stuck with me ever since...

I found a $5 small shade at Walmart, as well as a can of Primer + Paint Krylon Spray Paint (got to love still having gift cards!). The spray paint is for the base, but I could have also used it on the lampshade (I got lazy and used acrylic instead). The shade was an ivory color, so a quick coat of white guaranteed that it would match my spray painted base. I picked up from Michaels last night 3 skeins of Sugar 'n Cream yarn (hot blue, hot green, and hot orange). I used some Martha Stewart glittering glue (any liquid craft glue would work, I just happen to have a few bottles of this lying around).

I began by deciding the order I wanted my colors, and then painted some glue periodically on the shade (I did four strips up and down across the shade) and wrapped. I didn't plan out ahead of time, and just guessed how many times around would work. It turned out to be approximately 20 times around before I switched colors. To switch colors, I alternated the new and old color twice, then did two layers of new color, before one last layer of old color. If I was working with a bigger shade, I may have done a third alternated layer, and maybe even a triple new before one last old as well! Just go with what looks best to you. I continued this through the shade and finished with glue all around the top. That's it!

After about an hour and enough Eat, Pray, Love to get me wanting to finish the movie, I had a new lampshade. Now I can't wait to pick up some painter's tape after my matinee movie with friends so that I can finish up the base. I can't wait to see this on my desk in my office! Such a fun way to add some brightness and color to my office!

World Cardmaking Day Unity Challenges

I hadn't given much thought to World Cardmaking Day. One of my crafting besties moved this summer and another crafting friend was out of town. I ended up home and felt the desire to craft thanks to one of Unity Stamp Co's challenges, so I decided to participate. Well, one turned into 4, and you know I like a challenge. Below is what I came up with:

 Challenge #1: Shaped Card

Challenge #2: Texture: Rhinestones and Ribbon

Challenge #3: Embossing

  

Challenge #4: Sketch Challenge (my first card sketch!)  

Challenge #5: Fall Card

Challenge #6: Stamp a Border

Challenge #7: Coloring (with colored pencils)

Challenge #8: Color Challenge (Cream, Brown, Olive and Pumpkin)

Challenge #9: All challenges (these plus the one below)

St. Augustine - Part 1

Well, it's a few hours later and I have 6 pages scrapped and embellished, plus another 4 with the pictures laid out. It feels good to get some scrapping done, especially as I haven't scrapped anything since my last cropping retreat in April. I really have enjoyed working with Shimelle's The Perfect Collection scrapping technique. I think it's a great way to fairly quickly scrap pictures from an event that you know will be multiple layouts. I'll make sure to add my last layouts from my first attempt at this method when I finish them. I did have two starter pages that I didn't have pictures for, and used another starter page for a picture from last year's Cedar Key Seafood Festival, so I really do feel that you get a lot of bang for your buck (both time and the financial investment in papers) with Shimelle's method. Enjoy the first set of finished layouts!

The Perfect Collection class

Hi all! Sorry it's been so long, I took the easy route of sharing my crafts via iMessage and Facebook. Not as great for posterity, but quick as I use my iPhone for pictures. Okay, back to what has me posting again after more than a year. I recently bought a True Scrap 3 class called The Perfect Collection taught by Shimelle and was so inspired I didn't buy a single thing and instead used some paper! This class shows you how to mix and match a paper pack to get a giant assortment of layouts done quickly. What I really liked about it is that people commented how it got them to use (and love) paper packs that they've been "saving for the right thing" for ages - that is so me! With the class you get the video (about 40 minutes), a PDF with all of the cuts to help you replicate on your own, and if you order through Shimelle's site, you get access to her forum for the class which gives you tons of great examples of what people have done.

Anybody who knows me knows I have far too many paper stacks and don't use them nearly enough, so this was great! I bought Soul Food, a Melody Ross for GCD Studios stack from JoAnn Fabrics a few months ago, and had no idea what I wanted to do with it but loved it so much I bought it. After watching this video and perusing my stacks, I knew this was the perfect stack to start with. Not only did I have no idea what I wanted to do with it, but I had 4 sheets of every image, so even if I hated what turned out, I still had three pages of each design to play with!

The premise is that you start with base pages, then go in and add pictures, ephemera and embellishments. Below are my base pages that I made last night in just under 2 hours! I have 8 1-page layouts and 2 2-page layouts. She mentions that you can use these all for 1 event, or for just scrapping with whatever pictures. I may do a combination of both. Off to go play with pictures and try to complete some layouts! I'll make sure to post what my finished product looks like so you can see how they translate into pages. If you ever feel stuck, I would highly recommend purchasing this video, best money spent on a class in a while!