Wedding Planner

I made this for a present for a good friend, Heather,  who recently became engaged to a wonderful young man, Brandon.  I thought that a journal would come in handy for planning her wedding.  I purposefully left it "blank" so that she could organize however she wanted to.

 I used DCWV Bella Boutique Stack.  I bought it a while ago, and this was the perfect project to use it on.  I made the chipboard covers and used a Fiskars edge punch on it.  I used a little ribbon, and a charm I bought by Blue Moon.  I added a K and CO. label, but left it blank, so she could write whatever she wanted on it.

 I made 5 sections.  They all have the same stuff in them, but the dividers are covered with different papers.

 Divider (made of chipboard, covered with papers, sturdy to handle paper clips)...

 ...followed by 5 lined pages...

 ...followed by 5 heavy cardstock blank pages (I was thinking she could cut out images from magazines and kind of "Smash" it)...

 ...then 5 graph papers (in case she wanted to design some things herself)...

...Then I made a pocket page for every section, with a pocket on each side.

Well, what do you think?  I am giving it to her tonight...I sure hope she likes it!  Congrats to Heather and Brandon!!!

Here's something different for you!

I have been on a low carb diet off and on for several years.  I feel better when I do it, sleep better, don't have heartburn, all of those wonderful things.  I also lose a little bit of weight!  Life happens and sometimes I have got to have chocolate and french fries...but then I feel physically bad and go back to a lower carb lifestyle, and I feel great.  Contrary to popular belief, I don't just eat meat!  I love veggies, and we eat TONS of them.  We just don't eat potatoes, rice, bread, pasta, flour, etc.  We are trying to choose "good" carbs for our diet.

That brings me to this post.  I discovered an awesome recipe, and I tried it and I LOVED IT!  Have you heard of "Oopsie Rolls"?  You can find tons of recipes and variations, but I followed the recipe here, at Heart of a Country Home.

I made the recipe, this shows two of the rolls I made, one face up and one face down, just to show you what the look like.

And here is my breakfast BLTC that I made.  I only used 1 1/2 strips of bacon (see, I told you I don't eat just meat, haha),  lettuce, tomato and a  slice of Muenster cheese.  IT WAS DELICIOUS!  I popped the rolls in the toaster for just a minute to crisp them a little, YUMMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYY!  I really miss sandwiches, and this is going to be a life saver.  They work out to about 1 carb per roll, you use two for a sandwich.  Delicious!

Next I am going to try the recipe for these rolls I found here, and there is even a video to show how to do it.  I am on my way to the store to get the pans she used in a bit.   Have a great day, and I will let you know of any further yumminess I come across.

Stay Crafty, and HUNGRY, My Friends!

Ribbon Spool Bowls

When you cook, they always suggest that you prepare your "mise en place" (meaning "everything in place".  That way your ingredients are ready for you when you are cooking.  Chefs use lots of bowls to put their ingredients in, so that when they cook, everything is ready for them.  Well, why not have bowls for crafting?  I had these ribbon spools and I was wondering what to do with them.  Then this idea popped into my head, and I prepared some "bowls" to do my crafty "mise en place" in.  

I cut the top and bottoms off of the spools, and then cut the spools in half like so.

 I stained the edges of the spools, then cut papers to fit the spools inside and out.  The tops and bottoms were cut in half also.  Then I ran the papers and the tops and bottoms through my Xyron.

 After covering the pieces, I distressed the edges, then simply glued the halved tops and bottoms to the sides of the spool halves.  Taa, Daa!

 I created crafty little catch-all bowls for all of the little embellishments that I use for a project.  That will help keep them contained and organized as I work!

An added bonus, they stack for storage!

Stay Crafty, My Friends!!!

Desktop Photo Holder

You all know I am in my "Polaroid Phase"...Well, here's another project for you.  It is simple, it is cute, and (DRUMROLL PLEASE)...IT ALSO RECYCLES!!!

 I originally saw this idea on Pinterest, and followed it here, at Blue Velvet Chair.  This is a cool site, she gathers all sorts of recycling and repurposing ideas on her blog.  This one caught my eye, because it was made from recycled phone books and metal tubes.  I did it a little different.  Let me introduce you to the Desktop Photo Holder.

I used some recycled book pages from the wine book I repurposed to make my Recipe Index.  I had saved the pages, and I am glad I did!  I rolled them up and fit them into a TP tube that I divided in half and added the fun paper to.  The scraps of paper were leftover from the project that I was making here, my Photo File.  I added some cut outs from the DCWV paper stack to show who it works.  Simple, and OH SO CUTE!  So, I guess I recycled the book pages, a TP roll and some scraps of paper.  WOO HOO!  I also got more of my instant photo addiction in too!

Stay Crafty, My Friends.

Happy Father's Day!

I just want to take a few minutes and say Happy Father's Day to all the Daddies out there.  I want to say a special Father's Day to two of the most important Dads in my life.

 This is my Dad, my Mom, and me, when I was about a week old.  Dad is gone now, and I miss him very much.  There is so much I wish we could have done and talked about.  He left us far too soon.   Happy Father's Day, Daddy!!

This is my awesome husband and our oldest, Neil, taken about 5 minutes ago.  What a lucky girl I am to have DJ in my life, and all of our kids and our grandson, too, are so lucky to have him!!  Happy Father's Day, Sweetheart!  I love you!

The last of my posts on this series!

I needed a place for my book boxes, so that they could be displayed and used as they are supposed to be used, for some secret storage!

 This is the entrance to my room.  Behind the door is all of my ribbon storage with hooks on the wall.  This shows the side of the closet, I have some book shelves here with my knitting and crocheting books and magazines.  The wall above was clear, so my shelf went here!

 I constructed a shelf with chipboard, painted the edges, and covered it with papers from Cosmo Cricket, "Material Girl".  Fitting, huh?  I chose the yellow and green to kind of go with my room.  I used a purse handle I got on clearance at Craft Warehouse, and hung it with a Command hook.  Simple, easy peasy!

Now my book boxes have a home!

Stay Crafty, My Friends!

I have an announcement...

I have known a very talented lady, Elsa from Just a Few Designs, for a while, since Jackie and I have been blogging here on Creative Operation.  Some time ago, she started a group of equally talented folks she calls her "Pride".

Well, Guess WHAT???  Guess WHAT???  GUESS WHAT???

She has invited to me to join her group and be the newest CUB, and I have accepted the invitation!!!  I am going be involved in blog hops and monthly challenges, and I am going to share it all with you!  When you see the badge above it means that the project is related to being in this group.  I will have links to the other members of the Pride, and you can check out the amazing creativity they have to share.

I feel so honored to be asked to be a part of the group, and I can't wait to get started...so I have started already.  My first project with the Pride will be in July, and I already have ideas cooking on my work table.

If you click here, on Just a Few Friends, you will get to see the bios of all of the talented folks who are part of the team.  There are 10 people in all now.  Several of us are the newest members.  Please stop by and give them some love and keep a close watch, because you never know what the Pride is going to come up with for your crafty pleasures!

Stay Crafty, My Friends, and don't forget to ROAR WITH PRIDE!

(I love this little Cub, Thanks, Elsa!!!)

Book Innards and Cigar Boxes

I bet you are all thinking I have lost my mind.  Nope, just recycling again!

I used the inside pages of the book I made the box books out of and folded them to made these pillars.  I layered them with vintage doilies that I had.  I also made the flower vase out of one of the book innards.  Do you like my flower?

 I created "drawer boxes" for these cigar boxes that a friend of mine gave me.  I added Tim Holtz drawer pulls to them so that I could pull them out of the drawers.

 The vase.

The awesome cigar boxes!

I made the drawer box out of chipboard and covered it with this awesome paper by Bo Bunny.  The other box is covered with paper that looks like books.

What do you think?  It is probably not very practical the way it is layered, but it is cute and it gives me extra storage.  I think my hubbin is eyeballing the drawers for his man-cave though.  I may have to make myself some more and give these to him!

Stay Crafty, My Friends!

Altered Book Vase

I have seen the altered book vases all over, and decided to try it.  I had the insides of the book that I made (you can see it here) and thought it would be perfect for my scrap/craft room!  I freehanded the vase shape on chipboard, then cut out the pages with an exact knife.  My hand hurt so bad after I did this...it was a thick book!  But, here are the results and I think it turned out kinda cute!

Stay Crafty, My Friends!

I finished my Book Boxes!

 I already blogged about the purple book, today I want to show you two more.

 It is hard to see, but I layered photo corner punches in this book.

 In this one I created photo corners from my corner punch.  I also used off white paper to see what it would look like.

What do you think?  I now have secret storage for more stuff!

Stay Crafty, My Friends!

Viewmaster Reels

I am totally in love with Polaroids and Instax pictures right now, you all know that...but I also love Viewmaster Reels too!  I am totally digging the retro stuff right now.  Groovy, Baby!

I decided to try to create some with my Gypsy, and this is what I came up with...

I just eyeballed the placement of the frame squares, but I did look up the proper dimensions online.  I also cut out black circles to put underneath.  I am NOT THE FIRST ONE TO DO THIS!  I want to make that clear, many people have done this. I just wanted to make one for myself!  I used my Gypsy Wanderings Cartridge, and I think it turned out super cool!

So, then I used one of them in my Photo File project.

I think it looks cool behind the instant picture!

Thanks for looking, and Stay Crafty, My Friends!