getting behind

I've been pretty busy the last month working on new stuff every day for my Etsy store. I've uploaded several minis, some really cute gingerbread men, snowmen and bears. They are already starting to sell! I am very excited about that, I sure can use the extra money.

I don't have any extra money so I will be making my Christmas gifts this year. I am thinking of making my daughter some soap and candles. If I make them for her, I'll have extras to sell on Etsy. My grand daughter is 5 and loves to scrapbook with me. I am going to put together a scrapbook kit for her. For my son in law I am making a scrapbook for showing his tractors to his friends. I am not sure at all how I am going to do that one. I've never made a scrapbook for a guy. I am thinking maybe a small photo album with a new cover with a few tractor themed pages in with the empty photo sleeves. I am giving my son a set of sheets that I bought on clearance last year. I was going to use them on my bed this winter but I gave it to him for his apartment and the sheets won't fit the

one I have now.
God bless you and I will try to update more often.

vintage lady tag

I made this tag for my new mini.

Wow, it has been a long time since I updated this blog!

Well too much has happened in my life to even go into that. But I have been really busy lately working on my new business, the Paper Crafting Diva designs. Here are some minis I have on ebay they will be ending next week.

Still not feeling creative

I am still in a creative slump. I did manage to make a couple cards that I needed to get in the mail. The first one is CTMH products and the second is SU stamps. I copied it from one I saw on Split Coast Stampers.










I have been doing some knitting and crochet. I've made four afghans and a few dishcloths. I've also made some layouts to sell on Etsy or Ebay. Most of them are partially completed because I scrap with friends on Friday nights and don't want to take along all the embellishments I need. I've probably got about 30-40 pages that just need finishing touches. I just don't feel like working on them at home. My personal life is a total disaster right now and it is taking a toll on me emotionally.

It's been a while...

I haven't posted in what seems like forever. My creativity level is about zero right now. The only creative thing that I have done is made a few layouts to sell on Etsy but I haven't scanned them yet.

In January my personal life came crashing down around me, everything changed in a matter of a few short days. What I thought was my life was really just a fairytale/nightmare depending on how you look at it. Now, I am struggling to slowly pick up the pieces. The soonest I could expect to return to a "normal" life would be about three months. But even then my life will never be the same, I have to create a whole new "normal" life for myself.

I've been struggling with my fibro and arthritis and will be glad when winter is over. The cold really makes my bones ache. I am still having lots of sleep problems and finally going to have a sleep study done. I've started doing Weight Watchers again and this time I will succeed. It would be so much easier to deal with my fibro and arthritis if I could loose the excess weight. I've been doing it for two weeks and have lost three pounds. I know that isn't a great loss but at least it is a loss. My doctor is finally going to test me to try to find out why I can't loose weight. I've had my thyroid tested so many times I can't remember but it always comes back normal. Now I am going to have a free cortisol test done. Maybe that will provide us with some answers.

That is about all I have to say for now. Until next time God bless.

Altered book

I finally finished my first altered book. I've been working on it off and on for a couple months. Last night I worked on it at my weekly crop then I finished it this afternoon. I used a kids board book from the Dollar Tree. First I peeled off the shiny pages and I was left with a rough board book. I glued the pages together in groups of two for the cover, first page and back cover. Then I cut an ATC size hole through the remaining pages except the last one to make a niche, gluing them after they were all cut. I collaged all the pages then used lots of distress ink on them. I made two pockets that hold tags and one that holds an old letter I cut from a clip art book and aged. I used photos from my personal collection, collage kits and the web. For the embellishments I used buttons, stickers, a poker chip, brads, photo turns, beads, fibers, a metal key, Grungeboard, a tea bag and micro beads. Click on the pictures for a better look.


Here are the tags


Here is a close up of the beaded sticker from page three.

I made a bunch of ATCs last weekend and with the Christmas preparations, I didn't get a chance to upload them.








We had a good Christmas, I cooked a big dinner and Bob's dad came over to eat with us. I got a laser printer and can't wait until I get it set up. I need to make room for it first and get a USB cord. I'll probably do that tomorrow after church. My birthday was Thursday and Jessica took me out for lunch then Chris took me out for dinner. Chris's girlfriend, Liz, got me An Officer and A Gentleman - my all time favorite movie! So my birthday went pretty good too except that Bob didn't get me anything. Well, it is getting late and I'd better go try to get some sleep so I can make it to church tomorrow. Until next time, God bless.

My first inchies and lots of new ATCs

I've been wanting to try making inchies for a while and finally signed up for a swap. Here are my Christmas inchies.
They were super simple to do because I used images from ArtChix, all I had to do was cut them out and mount on cardstock. I added a word and rubbed on some Stickles. Here are my newest ATCs all of them are for swaps on Swap-bot.

I used magazine pictures, Tim Holtz words and gold stickers on these. Next are some made using stickers. I've had these floral stickers for quite some time. But never thought of a way to use them. I also rubbed a little Stickles on these.
These were made using Tim Holtz stamps, gold stickers and a script background stamp.
The last four cards are for a 5 partner swap. I need 10 cards and have 5 ready.