Its official! I am teaching again!

I have been excited about this for a few weeks after first walking into Shabby Shutters....A papercraft studio in Antigonish. I immediately loved the store and the owner and after talking for a bit she informed me that she was looking for another person to teach classes. After meeting with her today it is official! I will be teaching classes at Shabby Shutters! I am so excited to get to know these gals...Sherry, Nicole and Michelle. I can't wait to meet new people in the classes and get inspired all over again. Hopefully this is the beginning of something great and it is a perfect way to begin 2012. On to new things! Happy New Year everyone!

Camper Sign

My crafty little fingers have been busy as a bee for the last few weeks. I have made lots of little gifts for the holiday season...some for others...some for me. One of the items that I was asked to make was a camper sign for my Aunt and Uncle who are avid campers. I was given a piece of plain pine board 1' x 2' and a can of spray varnish and given carte blanche. My favorite. I was also told to make it look old/weathered. Not a problem.

I painted the entire board black and then applied a layer of 'crackle'. I then painted with a white and that allowed the black crackles to come thru. I drew the names and camper with pencil and then colored it in and applied shadows/highlights. I drew a little camper to make it look fun. My husband cut me some pieces of trim and I again painted and crackled with black and then white. The frame got nailed and glued on and hooks were added to the top to allow it to be hung. The entire piece was finally covered in varnish.

( the crackle on the back)

All in all I think it turned out ok and it was a fun change to working with paper.

The Loft (mini make over)

 The Before: When we first looked at purchasing this house this was the way they had their loft decorated. Cute, but totally not our style. Originally this was supposed to be my side of the loft for crafting but upon further discovery we realized that all the cable hook-ups were located on this side. The big "switch-a-roo" had to happen. I was getting the other half of the loft for my crafting. It did end up working better in the end because of 3 things;
1. The south window is located there
2. The built in shelves are located there
3. The huge storage cupboards are located there.
Eventually when my side looks somewhat organized I will post the pictures of where I am crafting now. However, for today it will be Nates side that I show you...

The After: It looks a little more inviting than the wicker that was previously here. The sofa is super comfortable too...which is a bonus. The best part of all though is the VIEW! Sitting in that chair and watching the view is not even comparable to watching the TV. The channel that I enjoy viewing the most is the one in my front yard. Between otters and ducks and eagles it is a new view every day...each one just a little better than the one the day before.
Now to get my craft side done so I can show you what I have done to make my scrap table more workable!

Room Makeover

 The Before: This was the main bedroom in the house when we bought it. We decided to make our main bedroom in the basement and turned this room into our 'den' where we could just cozy up and watch some tv or read.

 The After: There are still a few more picture frames to fill and I have a black coffee table in front of the sofa now...but all in all, I am pleased with how it turned out.

Nate is not too happy that the cheesy mirror doors are behind the sofa but until I come up with a solution for that they will remain as cheesy mirror doors.

Stamp crazy!

 Love these new little packages of stamps! Again...one of my new favorites.

I ended up making a few cards with these sets because they were just so fun to color. Normally I would color with my Copic Markers but decided this time that I was going to color them with alcohol inks and an alcohol pen.

Another card made with the other set of stamps and this time colored with Copics.

Today my husband lifted the legs on my craft table so that I am able to stand while crafting. I love it! It only took a little over two months to do it. It doesn't matter now, its done and thats all that matters. The 'new' legs had to be stained so the smell of stain is way to strong for me to be crafting tonight. I guess its a night of watching TV. Hopefully a full day of crafting tomorrow. I have a few orders that need to be done! Happy Crafting to you!

My new favorite stamps!

 The Inpiration: A new set of stamps/die cuts from Sizzix/Hero Arts. I love the fact that there is no cutting out with little teeny tiny scissors! Stamp the image and then cut it out on the Cuttlebug. Its my new favorite thing :)

The result: A card made with both the cut out and the left over part of the card stock. When I cut out my first flower I thought both the flower and the card stock looked nice. So....I cut out three flowers and then popped them off the page slightly to the right on the card stock. I think it makes nice shadows. Then I stamped my hummingbird and cut that out on the Cuttlebug as well. I popped the hummingbird off the page with yet another pop up sticker. I ran a piece of silver tape along the Cuttlebug and placed that in behind the flowers. I had to cut into a new piece of patterned paper but thats o.k. because I think it looks nice and takes on the colors well.

Candle Display

So after making my wreath and hanging it on the house I am not happy with it. Thus, my candle display instead. A few dollarstore candles and some burlap wrapped around it. A piece of 'sheet music' paper wraps around the burlap and then my branches, berries and acorns are attached with the trusty glue gun! A few other candles wrapped in burlap and voila, a simple Christmas masterpiece.
I am going to have to go back and redo the wreath, so don't give up hope. I am sure you will see it posted when I get it all 'purdy'.
On another note...I drove to Antigonish today to check out a Scrapbook store that I have been hearing about. Be still my heart to "Shabby Shutters" on Main Street. I walked out of there a happy girl :) (and I know I will be making many trips to it in the future!) Hmmm....so now lets see what I can create from this new pile of inspiration sitting in front of me!

Inspired by nature

Having recently moved into this house I have not really walked around to see what sort of trees and plants I have already growing in my yard. After a snowstorm last week I took out the camera and started walking around the perimeter of our yard and was pleasantly surprised to see the amount of these little guys everywhere...and thus I was inspired. I was going to buy a few wreaths to put around the house but decided now that I need to make them...with lots of these little acorns all over them. Off to the Dollarstore I went and purchased a few Christmas trinkets...you know, bows and berries and stuff like that. A few dollars later and I was off to cut some of these branches off the trees! I sat on my deck this afternoon with the glue gun in hand. Stay turned tomorrow to see what I actually came up with!