Feeling Sentimental

I'm hosting this week's Crafty Secrets member forum challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers. The theme of the challenge is "Feeling Sentimental". I've challenged the other members to use a sentiment or words as the main focus of their project.

My sample card is above. I used a K&Company file folder for the card base and the new Heartwarming Vintage garden-themed Creative Scraps for the main panels. The bird stamp is from Crafty Secrets Altered Art set.

Thanks for stopping by today!

A Clean Counter & New Storage!

Woohoo! It's been three years since the creation of our family craft room, and we finally settled on a storage solution for under my work counter.

While I love wood and antiques, for a family-friendly craft room, we decided on storage and furniture that was easy to clean and could be repurposed for other things some day.

We bought these three Sterilite three-drawer units at our local Trader Horn. They are a perfect fit, with about a half-inch of width to spare on each side, and about three inches of space on top of each unit to store my cutting mat, Scor-Pal, and foam stamping pad.

These units are very sturdy with deep, wide drawers and plenty of space for lots of scramping goodies.

The other storage items you see here from left to right are: a Closet Maid cabinet where I keep things I don't want the kiddos to get into, like Glimmer Mist, reinkers, acrylic paint, Stickles, embossing powders, and cleaners; hardware storage drawers for small embellishments like brads, eyelets, buckles, etc.; vintage canning jars with ribbon scraps; metal tool box with scissors and various adhesives; Sterilite drawers with inkpads, diecuts, and chipboard; red cast iron utensil caddy with Sharpies; and finally, Sterilite drawers with 12x12 patterned paper organized by theme and/or manufacturer (my Tonic paper trimmers also are on top of these units - well out of reach of lil' fingers.)

So, that's a little corner of my happy space! Thanks for coming to visit today!

Heartwarming Vintage Gardener Card

Last night, my mum was the keynote speaker at our annual Historical Society banquet, and I made this card for her for the occasion.

She gave a wonderfully eloquent speech based on a Thoreau quote: "Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in." The main point of her speech was that time, like a stream, is continually flowing, and we gain knowledge and strength for the present from remembering stories of the past. It's also important, she said, for us to restock the stream for future generations. We should preserve stories and photographs, so when our children and grandchildren go fishing in the stream of time, they can draw strength from the past as well.

I know I'm a little biased, but I thought Mum's speech was excellent, and it reminded me of why I scrapbook - to preserve our family stories, as well as how those stories are part of the community and people around us, and beyond that, how as Christians, our stories are part of the Greatest Story of all.

Thank you for coming by today, my friends! I'm blessed to have such wonderful fishing buddies in the stream of time!

Pen & Paper

Even though we have a dedicated craft room, when I'm working in the study the kids usually end up drawing or coloring nearby.

We have a card table and chairs that we keep handy for that purpose. The kids can set up this portable art area all by themselves and create away the day.

We also have a lot of different paper of various sizes, colors, and textures on hand, as well as all kinds of media for drawing. Lately, though, the kids have been most interested in drawing on white paper with simple black pens. Sometimes they add details in crayon or oil pastels.

I love hearing them chat away as they draw. I feel very blessed to work from home!

Ronan (age 3) drew the dinosaur above.

All Work & No Play

While I was folding laundry this evening, Shannon's bear, Owliver, came in to entertain me. He says that "All work and no play makes for very dull bears indeed." Point taken, Owliver.

Owliver, a handmade teddy bear from my ever-creative and multi-talented Mum, arrived on our doorstep on Easter six years ago, so I guess this is an anniversary of sorts for him. He is a wonderful bear, very watchful, a bit meddlesome, and rarely ever dull.

Picking Pinecones

Here's a layout I did for last week's Crafty Secrets member forum challenge over on Splitcoast Stampers. Lori challenged us to use metal on our project. I used painted metal leaf brads and a sheer ribbon with metallic sheen.

This is one of my favorite photos of the kids. We took it on our annual fall photo shoot in 2007. It is just so typical of our kids' personalities. There's Ronan enthusiastically going after something he wants to do, even if it's too much for him to handle. Then there's Shannon in the background lending him a helping hand.

The layout is 8 1/2" x 8 1/2", which is a wonderful size for scrapping. If you don't have much time to scrap, I highly recommend trying out this size. It's not intimidating, and it's great for highlighting one photo. An album this size would be great for showcasing a bunch of your favorite photos, keeping track of a remodeling project, recording a pregnancy, a baby's first year, or a child's school year. This is also a fun size for kids to start learning how to scrap.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Take Time

It's good advice; isn't it? Take time. Now, I know some of you are groaning right now. You're thinking, "Well, if only I had some time to begin with...." A wise professor once told our class that time is the great equalizer. Regardless of any other circumstances, we all have 24 hours in a day, and what we choose to do with that 24 hours is up to us. This thought may be somewhat idealistic, but it's certainly worth pondering.

For me, as a work-at-home mum to two young children and a wife to a crazy-busy husband , to take time seems impossible most days. There's a frenetic pace that sets in motion as soon as one pair of little feet hit the floor in the morning. Inertia propels us through a day of we have to do this, and I have to do that, until we all get a bit dizzy and nauseous from the motion. There's a drive to do more, be more, achieve more, and usually what follows is a disappointment at all that didn't get done.

Our family's cure for this motion sickness? Slow down, or stop and get off the ride altogether. We take a walk, play in the yard, color a picture, read a book, go for a drive together...any number of things to stop the crazy "have to" cycle.

Sometimes we even do things by ourselves. Gasp! I know you mums are shaking your heads right now. Taking time to do things alone seems so selfish when there are people who need us to do things for them, who count on us. But guess what? It's okay. Because when we take time for ourselves, those people who we think need us at all times learn all kinds of cool things.

Stuff like:
*Mum's way isn't the only right way. (That's a good one for us too.)
*Practice good habits. (If Mum is taking the time to pray, study the Bible, exercise, keep in touch with friends and family, and relax then these things must be important.)
*It's okay to have a hobby of our very own.

See, it's all good! So go forth and take a little time soon.