Cousins Frame

I made the cutest frame for Mariann (aka Mother in Law, aka the Mother, aka GrandMary...) on Sunday. It was her birthday on the 27th. She has two grandchildren. My son Riley and her daughter's little girl Kayla. She cherishes both of them very much and I wanted to make her something that she could display both of their photos on. She goes by "GrandMary" and I wanted to add that to the frame. I got this really cute wild asparagus (WA) paper at K2 and wanted to use it for a project and this was perfect.
Instructions: Cut MDF board with a table saw to desired size (this one is 10x10). Cover board with papers of choice. The pink strip of paper is the backside of the WA floral one I used. Add ribbon and stickers. Drill the four holes where you want your hardware to hold the plexiglass on, and 2 more at the top where you will be hanging the frame from. Place pictures behing plexi, secure plexi in place with washer and nut. Hang with a matching ribbon. (I had the plexi glass cut professionally at a hardware store into 4x5 pieces.)

K2 Klass on 3-25-06

Today I taught a class at K2 Scrapbook Studio on altered wine canisters.
It all started when I was working on some projects for a book I am being published in called "Great Gift Ideas using Scrapbooking Materials". I found this great paper mache wine canister at Wal-mart and just knew I could make something really fun with it. It sat on my shelf of "ready to be altered" projects for months until I got inspired one day. I happened to be looking through my Lil Davis papers when I ran across the one that looks like olives and I just thought "perfect" my girlfriend who LOVES cappucino martinis would really appreciate getting this canister for her birthday with a bottle of vodka in it... That just started the ball rolling and the ideas never stoped. The problem was I couldn't find the plain paper mache canisters anymore. Now I have to use ones that are prefinished, but I cover them all anyway (it just may take a couple extra layers of paint).

I will be teaching more classes at K2, I will keep you posted. Thanks for looking.

K2 Klass on 3-18-06

K2 you ask?
K2 is my (awesome) local scrapbooking studio where I teach classes. I taught a really cute frame class last weekend "Hardware meets Home Decor". I got the idea from an upscale boutique here in town and thought "I can make that". I had so much fun making them that I knew it would be a hit for a class as well. I was right. The girls and I had so much fun! Note: When looking at the pictures of the frames, notice there is a piece of plexi glass screwed to the board that is how you display your photo. The hardware is on the front of the frame for some great texture and dimension.

I am going to be teaching 2 classes a month at K2, one a Saturday, and one class during the week. I will keep you posted on upcoming classes I teach.

Scrapbook Career???

Wow, I have always dreamed of doing what I love (scrapbooking) and making money at it to boot. Last week I was approached to do 2 little girls scrapbooks. It was a connection I made at CHA this past Jan/Feb. The graphic designer (Laurie Dougerty)of the 3, possibly 4 books that I am being published in (wohoo!!!) lives in Sarasota. She works full time for Linda who has 2 little girls. She told Linda about me, showed her some of my work and the woman contacted me. I was so excited to work on some "girly" pages since all I have been doing since Riley was born are "boy" pages. Here are just a few of the pages that I started with. Lindsey is 4 and loves ballet, gardening, her dog... (For some reason the background color on the dog pages are different, but in life they are not.) Thanks for looking. I will keep adding to my blog as I go.

trash to treasure

Literally. I has so much fun making this trash can. I found it at Walmart. I decoupaged all my scraps from the last year of projects onto the body of it. (I had a fun trip down memory lane remembering all the fun things I made.) Then decoupaged the edge with that fun Provo Craft "life happens" paper, covered the top lip in green Rainbow Tape (which you can not really see in the picture) and painted the cover pink and orange. I went on the internet thesaurus and found different words for "trash" and used my Dymo label maker, printed them out and stuck them to the lid. Lastly I added one more layer of decoupage to the whole thing to protect it from scratches (and Riley).

Today marks a milestone...

Well today marks a milestone for me. I started this blog. It was one of my resolutions, and I am so excited to have figured out how to do it. I wanted to do this for a couple of reasons: to keep myself in the computer world on a more consistent basis, to journal more about my own life and the ones around me, and as a personal place to post my work. I also wanted this blog to help me in my journey to get more of my work published. Blogs have opened up an entirely new world to me. In the last couple of months I have been able to read about the lives of some women that I admire in the scrapbooking/design world. It has been fun to see their personal side and see who they scrapbook and why. One of my goals is to get my work out "there" and hopefully inspire others like I have been inspired.

The Cleary Family. My husband Sean, our son Riley and me. This photo was taken a couple of months ago, but I have not gotten a better family photo since this one. We were in Boca Raton for our neice Kayla's Christening.

loves to dream,design and create...