Tiddly Inks---Back to School

Happy Tuesday Blogland.......... The challenge this week at Tiddly Inks is to make a back to school project....I used A Plus Avenger from the Tiddly Inks store that Christy just released.....isn't she a doll? I just love these little Avenger girls.....so hop on over and check out what's there...you will surely love all of them.....ENJOY!!!!!!!!

I decided to make a signature book so that I can keep track of my books that I listen to....I have noticed that when I go to the library, that I check out books that I have already listened to....so I thought this would be a great way to try and keep them straight.....I used 2 sticks that I just got from my back yard and a piece of hand dyed muslin using tea bags.....the grass and the cloud is from somewhere else that I can't remember who it belongs to....I know, shame on me....I really wish I could remember I would love to give them credit for them....the 2 little birdies are from the craft store that were actually little ornaments....I used distress inks to color everything in.....

here's the side view....you can see that I have 5 signatures with 3 pages in each one.....I sewed them together using ribbon and waxed thread.....and just added the red thread as an accent.....

here's the book standing up....

here's the inside....I used a Tim Holtz school notebook stamp and a book mark .......Well that's all I have for now....be sure to stop back later for my Paper Take Challenge....I used a couple more of Christy's images for that one......until then...Hugs from Charm City.........

Another Beautiful Fall Day

Happy Monday blog land. I have so much to show you today. I have been really busy working on my circle journal book to get it off and into the mail, that-that's all I really have been doing. I did however find some time to make a couple of cards that I wanted to share. I wasn't able to do any challenges, but I will be able to participate again here this week ( I have missed them). Everyone is back to school/work and I get to play some during the day. Have you heard about the H1N1 virus going around? I forgot what they call it, but it's not good. It's a form of the flu but really bad. I know 3 people (1 adult and 2 children) that have it. And the 2 little ones are friends of our little one. Playmates. So needless to say, I really am scared about this thing. They showed on the news about 3 weeks ago that a 14 yr old girl died from it. She just thought she had the flu. When they finally went to the hospital, they admitted her and the next day she passed away. It's a real epidemic here. I hope that everyone is healthy in your little part of the world. I know we are trying to stay that way here. My first cards are one for Halloween and one for Thanksgiving. They both turned out abit busy for me. I hope you enjoy... You can click on the photos for a better view if you would like... here's the deets for this card camp out --outhouse at 5" storybook--marquee1 at 6 1/2" --boo at 2" --crew at 3/4" I actually cut the letters out onto yellow cardstock and used Distress ink (Marmelade) to shade and color. The monsters on the inside are from Recollection/Mike's Here's one I made for Aunt Rene to send her in the mail. I can't remember where the squirrell cut came from but I'm thinking it was from Dreams come true. Sorry...I made the tree using MS leaf punch. The greass was from Paper Dolls and the Marquee1 was from Storybook... I'm participating in a circle journal swap that Betty (the scrap happy witch) put together. I am so thrilled with this as I have always wanted to do a journal swap for the longest time. My theme for my book I chose sketches. I thought this would be great inspiration to have here on my desk and be able to flip through it. I posted my book below. I just hope that it's ok and not to lame. I kind of took it to a travel book. Across the miles kind of thing. I have an elastic closure that will keep it closed that I forgot to show. It goes over top of the door knob on the right side. I wanted to make my own book so I cut up manilla folders and made the book.

here's the welcome page. I used Going Places Cricut cart to cut all of the cards out at 2" for everyone to add a photo and name to corrispond with their numered page. I also used the possitive and negitive numbers from Plantin Schoolbook to number the pages and little cards. Nothing like using up both, huh...lol..

just a view of the sign in...

here's the sketch that I made for the book. It's really lame though. Each page has a smaller page one to add your sketch photo and web address where you got it from. I thought this would be great to see the sketch and how you made you card/layout.

the first fold out of the card

view of it open. I left the side one blank at to use it for journaling. Then a DUH light went off. I'm not sending this card. Hello Nancy, what were you thinking....lol...

This is how I did the web address. It was longer than the page was, so I added a fold and a little rhinestone to be able to open it.

here's the back page. I thought it would be kind of cool for everyone to sign their name in the location of where the book traveled in the order that it traveled in. Kind of a second sign in location. I hope they don't mind. I used Going Places Cricut cart again for the North America cut at 6".

and the back of the book. Another N.America cut at 2"

here's what it looks like standing. It's a warped book, but that's what I really like. I use liquid glue to hold my pages down since there are no protectors on my book. That's where the warpedness comes in.

Well I hope the others will like my book. I so can't wait for us to get this going. Mine will be going postal here in abit and I can't wait to get my first book to work on. Well that's it for now. DH just walked back in the door feeling lousy and our little one just text me saying she's not feeling well either. Looks like my day has changed already. Have a great week ahead bloggers. I have a feeling we are in for a sickness storm here. Wish us well.

Hugs from a beautiful sunny day in Charm City!!!!

What a Beautiful Day

It is such a beautiful fall day here in Charm City. I have my windows open and am feeling the fall breeze rolling through our home. I just love this time of year. My feet, fingers, hell my whole body doesn't swell up...lol...anyone else feel like this? This is the time of year that I can actually go shopping for clothes and get the size that I really need and not have to worry about what size I need if it's so hot outside and my body swells. I just LOVE FALL!!!! Not to mention all of the beautiful colors that fall brings. With Halloween just around the corner, then Thanksgiving and then Christmas it means that this year is almost over. Can you believe that. Where has this year gone already. We only have a few weeks left before Christmas and I haven't even started my shopping, not to mention cards. Well, I just made one card but that's it for now that I posted below. I have been missing in action for a little while. I have to say, I have been on this audio book kick right now. I took our little one to the library a few weeks back and have fallen in love all over again with it. Normally, I don't go to the library. Our little one normally goes with her older sister or a friend. But on this day I took her. While I was there, I signed up for my own library card (at which I haven't had one in like forever). But then I decided to go and take a gander at the audio books since I'm in my truck quite abit. The first book I took off the shelf I just had to have. It's called Lethal Legacy by Linda Fairstein. It's the last one in the series of about 10 books. It was awesom. Take a gander over to her site. She does a video about this book and see if you like it. What I like about her series is that she brings history about New York City into her books. So you're getting a history lesson as well. Here's her addy Linda Fairstein Legal Legacy . I have since taken out all of the rest of the series except for the first 3 books. The library doesn't have these. So I need to find these so I can complete her series. If you have any audio books that you are fond of I'd love to hear about them. I'll be on the look out for some more soon. Now onto my crafting...the layout posted below is one I did one morning. It's a modpodge of products that have no rime or reason. I also posted a couple of cards and even a book. You can click on the photos for a better view...

I made the above card using the new Winter Wonderland Cricut cart. I left the greeting blank for now. Sorry for the coloring to. I just couldn't get this right this morning.

I made this card a few months back but never posted it here. I had made a card box that used this same card design but this is just a little different from those.

here is the book I made back in 2005 for CK's contest to be on their team. Heck, I don't even remember what it's called anymore or if they still have the contest. I don't think I have publicly shared this book and thought I would here on my blog. I have to say I am very fond of this book. It was the last time I made a trip back home to Michigan and I am feeling the itch to go. It's so me. Just what ever I thought the photos were saying to me at the time is how I decorated the pages. Each one is numbered and at the end of the book I have tags for each page that has my journaling to corirspond to each.

Thanks for hangin out with me this morning. I hope everyone has a lovely day. Hugs from a very beautiful Charm City.....

It's a rainy day

I'm sitting here searching the net and trying to catch up on some friends...this Saturday will be my first day off in about 4 weeks now, and I am sooooooo looking forward to it. Then I go to just working Mondays thru Fridays...and that my friend is such a welcome change. I will get to hang out with my family on the weekends and not be sooo tired. Not much to say so here's a little book that I made for our newest grandbaby Makayla....I used the Cricut machine with the Pooh and Friends font. All of the little pooh babies are on the cart and I just thought they were so adorable...Thank you goes out to Jody and Brad for sending this to me...I LOVE IT!!!! Here's their web addy if you'd like to go and take a peek at their site. They have a great place to shop and they are just the quickest to get the orders out to their customers... http://www.hallmarkscrapbook.com/ Here's the little 6X6 book that I"m going to send my daughter so she can add photos and journaling...I hope that she like's it..you can click on each photo to get a bigger picture... Well I hope everyone has a wonderful day.. Hugs from Charm City

This is a book I made for a friend for her birthday awhile ago. The cover I used crackle on it. Happy Hump Day It's 2 o'clock in the morning and I'm sitting here waiting for my coffee to finish brewing. Man, my sleeping schedule is so screwed up right now. I fell asleep around 5:30 last night and got up at 12. So needless to say, I'm up for awhile. I'm sitting here working on some flyers for Scott. I'm using my rollagraph to make a snowflake border around them. All 15oo flyers. It's crazy. I have half of one box completed already and thought I would take a break and do an update here. So today we went off to the store to return the end table. We also picked out a new lamp, a couple framed art pieces, candle holders and a couple pieces of art. Oh and can't forget the bedside steps for me. You all know how short I am...lol...so now I"ll be able to get up into the bed easier. Not to mention I'll be able to see what's in the top drawers and get to the top of the master chest. I can remember when I was younger how I was taller than my mother. Now my children look down at me (with the exception of our little one). How ironic, huh. Then we went off to Mikes. Yep, Scott even went inside this time. But we were looking for something for him, but nonetheless, he went inside instead of sitting in the truck waiting for me...lol... So come Friday, my lamp and steps get delivered. While we were at the furniture store, you couldn't believe how it was, I'm sorry, yes mam/sir. Sure we can do that for you. No problem. (Just get your crap and get out of here so the rest of the customers won't know what happened..lol...) no but really, the store manager was really nice, and really did what he could to service us and our needs. So that was cool. But I will have to say, I just don't know when we go to redo the next 2 rooms if we will go back there again. I can't wait to find a fountain to go on the smaller chest. I'm trying to build an oasis here, so I thought that would be a great additive to the equation. Bonnie--when you get to read this, I hope everything went great for you at the doctors. Let me know what he said. Well I'm off for now. I hope everyone has a great hump day... Hugs from Charm City

I thought I'd share these little laminate books that I made for raks. I really love them. I kept 2 of them for myself and they fit so perfectly in my purse for that on the go inspiration. I had seen one on Crafter's Coast to Coast, and just had to make some. So those laminate chips that we all got from Home Depot a couple of years ago are still great to use. So ladies, get them back out. Let your imagination flow and see what you can come up with. I know a friend of mine made a birthday card book out of a couple. I just thought I'd share. So if you make something, please post. I'd love to see where your creativeness went with these little freebies. Hugs from Charm City