When you can't find your scrapping mojo...

.....it is a good sign that you at least are playing with paper. And that is just what I have been doing. I still haven't found my scrapping mojo and it has been a month. However, I am getting closer, I can feel it.

I have been beading for the last few weeks and have really enjoyed that but I have cut myself off with purchasing some new beads to play with. I have quite a little stash so I really don't need any new ones for a while but I thought it would be fun to work on a hybrid project. So paper beads it is. I found a great site, and now can't find it again but there was some good tips and I used many of them. First I learned that Modge Podge is a great glue and sealant for these beads. I just happened to have that. Then there was a great template that I used as a guide. I think if I hadn't had this template my beads would have been huge and I would have had to make many practice beads before perfecting it. Luckily, with the template things came into place easily. My beads are 1/2 inch long. Another great suggestion was using pins and a piece of cardboard or something to stick them in to dry the beads.

This is my husband's mouse pad for his laptop flipped upside down and is a great pin cushion for my drying beads. Shhhh, don't tell him.

Yesterday I made about 30 or so beads and created this bracelet with small glass cat's eye beads in between the paper beads.

Tonight I made the ones in the first picture. The beads are blue and pink and yellow. Perfect for summery jewelry!

Picture Frames

Raw frames purchased at Michaels for $1 each and I painted them with acrylic paints and then decorated them with balsa wood pieces. These pieces were pre-painted. They were purchased either in packs for $1 a pack or $.59 each. The most expensive frame cost me $2.20 to make, not including the price of the paints. I will sell them for $5. each. What do you think?

A few layouts I did this past weekend. These photos are from 2005 and were taken at the beach in the spring.

New card and a screw-up!

I screwed up the challenge that I made the card in the previous post for. UGH! I was supposed to not use any straight lines at all. Well I am straight lines all over on that card. So I screwed it up. Oh well, it was a cute card anyway.


I made a new card, not for that challenge but for another one. This one was to use this sketch to make a card. Let me tell you, that was fun. I like sketches for cards. But can't do them for layouts. It never seems that my pictures fit the sketch. So anyway. Here is the sketch and here is the card.

A "shape" card

This is a card I whipped up for a card challenge on AMR. If you aren't hanging out over there already you really need to check them out. I love it there. So much creativity.

Anyway here is my card. It was supposed to be in the form of a shape. I don't have any dies that would cut a shape so I used my zigzag scissors to make it shapely.

A layout and a Card

This is the card that I made for the AMR challenge. The challenge was to make a card that was mostly green. I used a pattern from a Stampin' Up video I saw on YouTube. It thought it was neat how the card was a Z-fold. However, when I made it I didn't like it so much. Perhaps with different paper or a different style but this card is just okay in my book. I ended up having to glue the short foldover on the front of the card down. I am not sure that the card was supposed to be glued on the top but it just wouldn't stay shut. Maybe it was the thickness of the paper. I am rambling. I used crystal stickles on the chick and around the border.

The layout is from 2005. It is of my son and youngest daughter. It was bathtime. Well, I guess you can surmise that from the pictures of the layouts. It is a two-page spread and I used skittles to resemble bubble water spray. How did I do?

A "No Adhesive" Card

If you are not familiar, All Moments Remembered has challenges every day. I tried a few weeks ago to keep up with them but just can't do that. So I pick and choose what I want to challenge myself with. They are great challenges and this one was no different. This card challenge was to make a card with no adhesive. Nope, nada, nothing. So here is my card.

I sewed for the first time ever paper to paper. And I also sewed the ribbon on. Everything else was done with brads. It was a lot of fun AND most of all challenged me to do something that I wouldn't probably have ever done, and I liked it. I sewed. I have liked the looks of stitching or sewing on layouts and cards before but have never done it myself. This challenge stretched me to do just that. And I am glad for it.

Head on over there and check out the challenges in the scrapbooking section.