What I have been up to

Boy does time fly.
I have been working on some swaps over the last few month.

Here are a few things I have been working on.

 

I made some altered mouse traps.  I made the flower out of some trim I had and added a small rose to the center.  Most of the stamps where from CTMH, the small bird cage is from Prima.  All paper is from CTMH, and I made the small charm as well. 

For a stick pin swap I came up with this one.  The tag and the bird with cage are from a Tim Holtz die.  The flower I took apart and removed all the plastic pieces and glued a small flower into the center.  I had painted and distressed the bird cage.  It is hard to see, but the background is painted and I heat embossed in white a script stamp.  The bird and the cage are on pop dots, and the stick pins are stuck under the bird.  I added some trim and cut lace for the bow.

Here is a chunky charm.  I used again the Tim Holtz tag die, and a swivel clasp.  I made charms out of glass beads, and a number of charms.  I also added a fragment charm and a stamped image on shrinky dink. 

I know my pictures are not the best.  I have still not mastered taking decent pictures and am still having a hard time with the settings etc. 

Thanks for visiting me in my little corner.
Marlies

Happy New Year!

How come that time just flies so fast.  It was just Thanksgiving,  Christmas came so fast, and of course now the New Year.  Hopefully things will slow down a bit.

So, I usually do not make New Years Resolutions.  But, I will make one exception, when it comes to my crafting world. 

Like so many, I have just way to much crafting supplies.  To much paper, and to many of everything. It is just getting out of control.  I have no more space to go to, I am already taking over parts of my living room.  I was just contemplating what I could move onto my shelf that would look pretty, like a big jar of ribbon scraps, or my laces.  What will be next?  My bedroom or even the kitchen.  We live in a rather small house, and space is very limited.  So I am constantly tying to figure out what to move where, and that takes time away from what I would like to do. 

So, for the year 2013 I will go on a "Stash-Diet".  I have done that before for a while (about 6-9 month), but not for a whole year.  Now I will have to still get glues etc and stuff I may run out of and truly need, but no purchases of "extras".  Of course I will use my gift card and money I received at Christmas for something fun, and any gifts etc I may receive during the year of course.  But otherwise I will work very hard on not buying anything new.  Boy that will be hard.  But I think I can do that. 

And my other resolution is to start an Art Journal.  I have started a small one last year, but have not done much, mostly sketching.  I have a nice big book, and I would love to try out mixed media techniques.  I do have enough paint, pencil, inks, etc to make it work.  And I have decoupage glue and lots of paper.  So nothing should stop me.

Of course I try to be a better blogger.  I am still having a hard time with loading pictures.  The whole process seems to long.   So I will have to research if I am doing something wrong, or if it will just get easier with practice. 

So, this week I am going to unearth my desk, again, and start on my 2013 journey.

I hope you will all have a fantastic crafty year as well.

Thanks for visiting me in my little corner,
Marlies

It's been a while

Hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend. 
I can not believe that it has been a while again since my last blog.  Well I have been playing hard the last three month in my little corner.  I have joined two online sites, Mini Album Scraps and Your Paper Pantry.  And I have been participating in some swaps.  For those who are not familiar with the above mentioned sites and swaps, here is a brief description.  You sign up for a swap, in my case I have done the following:  Stick pin, Charm, Embellishment, Rolodex, and ATC (Artist Trading Card) swaps.  You send in the number of requested swap, and follow guidelines of the swap, like theme for the month etc.  Once the hostess has received the swaps (yes there is a deadline) she will mail you back the same number of items that you had send in.  For example, for the stick pin swap I send in 3 sets of 3 pins.  If 5 people participate you will receive 3 different once back, so you will not have one from everyone.   But those swaps have been so much fun.  And it is nice to get something that you may not have come up with. 

I got to upload my pictures the next couple of days, and hopefully I will be back to blogging at least once a week.  I have now a big list of things to do before Christmas.  So no swapping till after the New Year. 

Thanks for visiting me in my little corner.
Marlies

Missing in action

Wow, it has been over a month that I have posted.   All is well in my little corner.  I have been busy and participated in my first swaps on two different sites, Your Paper Pantry and Mini Album Scraps.  What fun I had.  All swaps where mailed in on time, and now I am eagerly awaiting the return of swaps.  I have watched recently some more swap videos on Youtube, and all in the sudden I feel so inadequate.  I just hope that my creations are up to par. 
But I had a good time and I am trying again.  I have already signed up for a few small swaps.  
I will show  my creations in the next week or so.  Right now I am rearranging  my craft corner, and I will have to clean my desk from my creative mess.  As I was working on my swaps, I just left everything I pulled out on my desk.  So now I got this hot little mess on my hands. 

I have gone to some yard sales this last month and was lucky enough to find a few things, that I now need to find a home for.  So for the next day or two I am organizing and cleaning my little corner (my vacuum cleaner was out of commission for about 3 weeks, and sweeping just did not pick it all up).

Thanks for visiting me in my little corner.
Marlies

LOVE IT

I am so excited.  I got my first copic markers.  I have been eyeing them for a long time.  I have a few Prismacolor markers.  But the first few strokes with my sketch markers and I am in love.  They feel so nice going over the paper and they seem to blend so much nicer.  I still have to get the right paper. 
The reason I got the skin color once first, is so that I can practice coloring nice faces.  If I like the results I can start working on getting more. 
They are an investment, and of course I would just love to get them all, who would not.  But, like so many of us, I have to budget my purchases.  And in general I am waiting for things to go on sale, or I have to have a good coupon (40% or more) before I buy a bigger (more expensive) item.  I waited over a year to get a good deal on my Big Shot, so I have a bit of self control.  So getting my collection of copics growing will probably take me a while.  But it is all good.  It's worth waiting for something like that.

Hope you all have a fantastic scrappy week.

Oh and I also joined Your Paper Pantry recently.  I have signed up for 2 swaps and am so excited about that.  I am done with sketching out my ideas, and I pretty much have all I need already.  I may have to get a few small things.  Will probably show glimpses during the month of my creations, but will not reveal the completed projects till after it has been delivered to the recipient, so that the surprise will not be spoiled. 

Thanks for visiting me in my little corner,
Marlies

Mini Album

I have been paper crafting for a while, but hardly ever do any layouts.  I think I only do them when I am at a workshop etc.   I am still organizing my pictures (it's been years in progress, I am the worlds biggest procrastinator).  A few years back however I tried my luck on a mini album.  I love the format and the way it is more decoration, even without pictures.  So far I have only made them as gifts.  But I am hoping to do some for myself this year.  But I still have ideas on a few that I am trying to do as gifts as well.

Here are a few pictures of an early mini I made for a friend of mine.

Well, can you guess what her name is.  The cover had her name on, I covered chipboard letters with paper.  I paper was from my stash.  It is an older paper pack.  But I love the natural earth tones.

She is such a sweet lady, and just adores her hubby.  When I saw that paper I just had to include it in the mini, and added the "my husband" stamp (from CTMH).

The cake stamp is also from CTMH, and I used prisma pencils to color it it.  I made my own tags and tried to distress them.  I think I used the distress inks.  But it is to long ago to remember it for sure.  I even added a few ribbons, something I still have a hard time remembering to add to my cards, minis etc.  I am not very frilly so adding ribbons and flowers I have to try to make sure I add them.

Here I added a few more tags for family pictures and journals about her family.

I did make my own pages by cutting up some recycled packaging I think.  Now I have this nice stash of purchased chipboard album, I however still like to add extra pages in between by making my own.  One can never have to many pages in a mini.  They really should be called "chunky mini's"

There where more pages in this mini, but these where the nicest once.  Well more soon.

Thank you for visiting me in my little corner.
Marlies

Card

I have been having some technical problems these last few days.  But I am able to get on today.  Yeah.

So I looked at my photo archive to see what I can find to post today, and I came across some cards I made 2 and 3 years ago.
I never would have dreamed of ever having a blog at that time, so I did not keep good records of technique  and what I used etc.  Not that I am so much better at keeping track at this time.  Still learning in the progress, but I am having fun with it at least.

Above is made with a CTMH stamp set, so much I remember.  It do like the little bird, and I think I will do that one again, just will try to layer more paper etc.   But I always like the image.  It is made using the egg as the body.

Also a CTMH set,I fussy cut the images and colored with pencil.  I do not think that I even knew about the odorless mineral spirit at that time.  Paper is from my stash, and I do not remember what it was.  I just loved the leaves.  It was a birthday card for a kids birthday.

Thanks for visiting me in my little corner,
Marlies