DAYS 5 - 6 - 7

And a puppy shot - Poca "helps" load the dishwasher. I don't allow her anywhere near when we unload. We are having a terrible time with biting, chewing, all that puppy stuff. She constantly gets a whack with the newspaper and hears the words "bad dog" - and just so you know we are equally aquainted with "good dog". I had forgotten just how demanding getting to a well trained puppy really is. Please don't look too closely at that damaged floor - the kitchen in the 130 year old farmhouse is going to be our last big expense and we just are not ready to go there.

Now for the USE WHAT I HAVE weekend accomplishments. I finished these up - yes they are drying on a really ornate silver plate tray. I needed a large flat suface and that was the first one I found. Anybody else guilty of that?

After I cut out all those oval birds I was left with this detritus.

Still very pretty scraps don't you think. Well being the true scrap saver, I could not just dump these.

So I dug in the stash and found these springy bright solid cardstocks, a Martha Stewart lace edge punch, and came up with these larger gift enclosures. Liking the look of these a lot and I like the size these finished. They are not fold overs, just flats with room for a short message on them.

Well all that trimming left me with this little pile of scraps again. Still very pretty. Again the scrap saver in me couldn't dump them.

This time I pulled neutral card stock - being a paper whore, I have plenty of card stock - and my sizzix tag die and made these small gift tags.

So from 20 misprinted images I got 60 various sized gift tags. I think this qualifies for turning lemons into lemonade.

I have been gathering up composition books at various locations with the intention of making those covered journals. Again this month's USE WHAT I HAVE focus is a good thing for me. It has forced me to really buckle down and get some things made. I pulled a dozen of those compostion books out and some scrap book papers (remember I got a huge variety of papers to pick from) I went through the stacks and just pulled some I liked. I trimmed them and using YES! Paste covered the fronts.

That was Sunday afternoon. I let them dry overnite and then yesterday I started digging in the stash for embellishments. That stash digging is so much fun. I mixed and mached and finished 3 journals.

Two Christmas ones. The Santa was an embossed sticker. The Christmas tree one is (guilty of saving what people might say is trash again) a recycled Christmas card that was a perfect color coordinator.

My favorite one so far is this one. A postcard (I save way too much crap). I added the little rhinstone "blings" to the card and punched a few birds.



I learned a lot about me with the projects.

I really hate to toss anything I deem to be "pretty"

I have a problem USING things I buy to use. Not sure what that is about. I found myself thinking "if I use it then I won't have to use in the future." Weird.

No matter how hard I try, I cannot force myself to do lots of layers and really over the top "froufrou" items. I am drawn to well placed and more simple designs. I hope customers at this Artists Market are drawn to this look as well.

I LOVE MY STUDIO.

I have a beautiful life -

You all have a fabulous day.