Inspired By Pinterest.....

Hey there girls...

For those of you familiar with Pinterest and all the beauty and inspiration that can be found there, you won't be surprised to know I've become quite the Pinterest addict.

My favorite part is all the wonderful craft ideas I see out there.  Many of them that I want to try myself.  The one I'm most anxious and a bit intimidated to try is creating an altered shabby chic style journal/mini book.

Something similar to these beautiful art journals I've seen on Pinterest.

Created by Karin at Creative Chaos

Created by Christina at Sweet Pea Ink

Photo Courtesy of Flickr

Pages created by Heather at Pretty Petals

So, to start my artistic endeavours, I recently purchased these two books from the antique store to help get me started.  An old journal/ledger book...

And a very interesting vintage textbook for bookkeeping..

I love how the pages are just perfectly yellowed and some of the text is very elegant.  Who ever knew that learning something so basic as bookkeeping could be made so pretty..

I

I'm a bit perplexed on how to start my altered art journal, but I know I'll figure it out.  I'm sure it won't be anywhere near as beautiful as the one's I shared with you from Pinterest, but I'm sure going to put my best effort into it.

If you'd like to see more of the journals that have inspired me, check out my Mini Books & Journals  board on Pinterest.  Maybe it will inspire you too..

Until next time !!!

A New Treasure.....

Hi Girls...

For those of you who have been following my blog for some time may recall seeing these first two pictures before.  Pictures I took after a little tragedy that occurred last Spring when a trip to the antique store ended in a bit of a mishap with one of the treasures I had found.

A vintage Pin Money bank that sadly broke after I accidently dropped the bag it was in as I was getting out of the car and before I had even made it into the house..

 
Boo Hoo.... It was quite heartbreaking to say the least.  :-(

Well, thankfully, my luck recently changed for the better and I am now the happy new owner of a replacement for that broken Pin Money bank.



It looks to be an almost exact duplicate of the one that broke, but I can't say for sure as the first one ended up in so many pieces it's really hard to tell.  The spray of flowers on the front look nearly the same though so I am guessing that it is. Or I can pretend it is anyways.

A pretty new pink find to add to my collection.

And let's just say, I was extra, extra careful with this one to make sure it made it safely into the house in one piece.

See you soon !!!

A New Collage .....

Happy Tuesday everyone...

I'm just popping in real quick on my lunch break here at home to show you the latest collage I created using a piece of chipboard and leftover pieces of scrapbook paper...

After I thought I was finished with it, I decided it needed just a bit of sparkle, so I added some gold glitter glue around the image of the pretty little girl..

Much better I have to say...

And now as I'm looking at it again in these pictures, I think it's still missing just a little something else.  I think I will add a few small color coordinated beads to the top corners of the piece of lace trim, just to finish it off.

Well, my lunch break is just about over, so I have to get back to work..

See you again soon!!

Shopping Goodwill For Crafting Stuff....

Hi Girls...

If you're a crafter like me, you've probably found yourself looking for things to use in your craft project in all sorts of places.

I myself am always keeping my eyes open in hopes of finding different and maybe slightly ordinary and mundane things that one would typically not think of as being something to use for crafting.

And I lucked out today at one of my local Goodwill stores where I came across these in the "Office Supply" aisle.

Just a box of unused manila index card dividers, about the same sturdiness of the manila colored tags that I use in creating my tags.  The box was completely full so there were lots of them in the box...

And at the bottom of the box, were some blue, heavier weight alphabetized dividers..

I altered one real quickly with just a leftover peice of pretty scrapbook paper as an example to show you how they can be turned from something boring and mundane, into something a bit more pretty..

In addition to the box of index card dividers, I also found a ridiculously cheap roll of some vintage looking vinyl wallpaper. 

While it's not the truly vintage wallpaper I would love to find, I think I'll be able to incorporate little pieces of it here and there quite easily in my tags and collages.

So remember... keep your eyes open wherever you are shopping as you just never know what you may find.

Pretty Mail.......

Hi Girls....

I've been so busy the past several weeks with work.  It's been mandatory overtime pretty much all month and it's quite exhausting mentally some days.

I've never been one who enjoys working overtime but I must admit the extra money on the paycheck does make up for it in the end.

While I know I could use it for more important and practical things, I'd much rather use that extra pocket money to splurge on something impractical and fun.

Like this..

A pretty pack of vintage ephemera/papers to use in my crafting project that I purchased on Etsy.  They just arrived in the mail today.  A nice treat to come home from work to.

Along with those, I also purchased a pack of vintage wallpaper scraps.

I'm becoming a bit obsessed with vintage papers lately and I have so many ideas swimming in my head of things I'd like to create using these papers.  Ideas I often see featured in one of my favorite magazines.  The always beautiful and inspiring Somerset Life...

It's a bit expensive, but it's more like a book than a magazine and it's only published four times a year, so it's worth the cost in my opinion and I feel no guilt when I purchase the latest edition to add to my expanding collection of the magazine. I'll keep these for years knowing I'll be referring back to them over and over again.

Well, that's all for now.  See you again soon!!

Just In Case You Don't Already Know.....

I love PINK !!

It's always been my favorite color.  For as long as I can remember.

And I don't think that will ever change...



I think my love of pink will stay with me forever.

Rainy Day Projects....

Well hey there girls..

It was a wet and cloudy weekend here in Minnesota this weekend, so it was a good reason to stay indoors and play in my craft room for a bit.

In my last post, I showed you my new Paris themed rubber stamp..

Well, this is the first project I've completed using the stamp and I love how it turned out.  Yep, another of my infamous wall hangings..

I used some pretty new trim that I received from a friend for my birthday on the bottom of this wall hanging. It adds just the perfect finishing touch.

And for something just a bit different, I created this collage using a vintage photo mat that I've been hanging onto FOREVER trying to decide how to incorporate it into my crafting.

A peak at the beginning of the project as I was working on the layout trying to decide what elements I was going to use and how they were going to be placed.

Well, it didn't quite turn out how it started as I ended up changing the background paper from sheet music to scripted scrapbook paper as I thought the second option looked better.

And then I finished it off adding the paper flows, lace trims, and of course, I couldn't resist adding a few other embellishments too.

A productive weekend in the craft room if I do say so myself.

Thanks as always for stopping by to take a peak at what I've been up to.

See you again soon!!