Greetings!

Hi Again! I didn’t even give you time to miss me 🙂 I’m feeling a bit better today. I can actually taste food so that means as soon as I finish this blog post there will be taco dip, yummy, yummy taco dip, eaten by me. Advocare All In starts Monday so this is my Last Hurrah!

I’m trying to work through some of my older SSS card kits that I’ve had and use them with some of the great new stamps sets that I’ve gotten (so I can justify buying more of course). The Cat’s Pajamas current challenge is Anything Goes–TCPTUES305! I used the Wreath Building Kit stamp set for the Greetings banner and sprig.

 

 

One of my goals for this year is to try and send more Happy Mail. We all have SO many cards we make and it’s wonderful to get fun mail just because. Because of that, a lot of the cards I’m making this year are either going to be birthday or just a “Hi”, “Hello” or “Greetings” sentiment so this is perfect! Now…TACO DIP!

9/366 #yearofmaking

Paper Smooches January Challenge

Good News: I’m at a retreat with my friends this weekend.

Bad News: The night I was packing my throat starting hurting and it became clear that I was getting sick. Awesome.

So I know there’s no way I’m powering through this weekend the way I usually do at these things: up at 8 am to bed at 3 am. Boo. BUT, I’m managing to get some things made and a blog post written. And coloring. Coloring helps everything, right?

The Paper Smooches Challenge for January is  4 Colors (+ neutrals).

I used an oldie, but goodie–Cuteasaurus and the colors blue, green, orange, and pink.

A heaping stack of cuteness!

I’m pretty impressed the T-Rex made it all the way up there! He’s a champ!

Another year, another try at #yearofmaking. 8/366

 

What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday: WOYWW 339

Well…when last we met brave readers, I was entrenched in my downstairs Crafting Outpost hoping that in the future, I could regroup and save the main battleground, ahem, crafting space. Alas, it is still lost.

My 5 square inches of space.

However…I HAD to go in there. A last minute opportunity to be in the McFarland Christmas in the Village Craft Fair fell into my lap (Thanks Ellie!) and I had gotten some cute new stamps to make into ornaments. So…yeah. It’s not pretty (well the ornaments are cute), but it got the job done.

I won’t even talk about what’s become of my Outpost.

Wish me luck on Saturday!

Now, I’m off to look at other desks, through the What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday post at The Stamping Ground, that are actually clean(er)!

WOWW #337

I Love What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday which is hosted by Stamping Ground. Stop on by and check out awesome work spaces every Wednesday. And since I’m endeavoring to do more things that I actually enjoy, I’m thrilled to contribute again. But, as with most of the plans I have with challenges and this blog there’s an asterisk…

It’s this:

 This isn’t going to work.

There is not a lot of work going on on this desk. Clearly I wasn’t going to be able to burrow into this to clear any sort of workspace AND actually make anything in a timely fashion. So I decided to set up a Crafting Outpost. 🙂 I set up my folding TableMate next to my chair and started working there. I’ve been wanting to get back to beading more and specifically making more Freeform Peyote bracelets. Looking in my Big ‘Ol Box of Unfinished Projects, there’s actually several of these bracelets from when I used to teach my Freeform Peyote class (which was also way fun!).

Crafting Outpost

Making these bracelets is probably the closest I actually get to Playing with my supplies. I know that I should, and most of me agrees, make stuff just for fun more often, but I have a hard time with that. And I like making things that serve a purpose so jewelry is perfect!

For those interested, the Brooklyn Community Craft Show went well and we’ll probably do it again next year. Maybe the current state of my desk will help me spend less money at the local stamp convention this weekend, but…probably not…so all the money I just made will be immediately funneled back into fun things. And did I mention today is the release day of Marvel Dice Masters: The Amazing Spider-Man? Shiny…Shiny…New…Dice…

Brooklyn Community Center Craft Fair

Did you miss me? 😉

I missed you 🙂

Forgive me internet, for I have been absent. It’s been…well…WAY too long since my last post. It’s not that I haven’t been doing anything, it’s more that I’ve been doing other things (I place A LOT of the blame on a little game called Dice Masters.) But I’ve been sharing them other places for now–like on Instagram. I had NO IDEA I would like Instagram. I hate having my picture taken so, generally in return, I’m not a picture taker. But then I started doing Kathy Racoosin’s 30 Day Coloring challenges at The Daily Marker, and uploading a daily little snapshot was the way to go. I also wanted to try a few new made-by-me challenges and those were also easier to do there because I could take a quick pic at a crop or something and post it with minimal editing and narrative.

However, I signed up to be in a small local craft fair with my mom which means “HOLY COW it’s been HOW LONG since I wrote a blog post ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod.” Yeah. And I want people that like what I make to be able to come and find an active online me. Someone at least as active as the real life me. And I need to focus and simplify so maybe this will help.

So HELLO TO YOU NEW VISITORS 🙂

Here’s some pictures of pretty things I’m selling this weekend.

I made some sweet wood ornaments (or just cute decorations).

Love them!

Meet Chester!

I don’t decorate much around the house. Since we don’t often have people over for the holidays, we don’t have kids, and we aren’t religious, then the whole decorating a bunch for Christmas is a little time consuming and we aren’t home much to enjoy it. BUT these adorable little canvases will work anywhere!

When starting to think about what I wanted to make for the show, I started making these little pendant rings..and then apparently I couldn’t stop. I’ve made A LOT of these. So please, if you’re in the area, come and buy one so that I can justify making more. That would really work well for me 🙂

There are SO many more where these came from.

So now I’m off to price and tag a few more things. I hope 3 things for the future:

1. Be on here more consistently.
2. Work on my follow through with planning and challenges.
3. Focus on the things that I enjoy.

I think by working on all of these, they will naturally feed off each other in a wonderful creative cycle. See you soon!

Craftroom Cleanup

I can’t stand this anymore. This is it. Have you ever gotten to this point? Where you can barely stand to walk into your craft space, let alone even think about actually making something in there?

I have.

I’m used to clutter. I just have so much stuff that it seems inevitable. I usually have what we affectionately call a “Fort” around the chair I sit in most nights. My Fort is built of magazines to read, boardgames to punch out, images to color, and beading to work on. But enough is enough. I tried to get into my craft room the other day and it looked like this.

It’s ok. You can judge me.

I know. It’s insane, right? My poor buried Vagabond! Are you ready for another one further in? Prepare yourself.

Seriously. Judge me to your heart’s content.

So yeah. That’s the state my room was in. And I wanted to get in there and make something, but I couldn’t. It was just too much. After a little analyzing, the biggest issue is that I need to find a Home for everything–a Forever Home. Otherwise, I’m just moving and pushing everything around. So I drastically took a day off work and spent a long weekend working on it. Here’s what I have so far.

Look! Floor!!!

As you might remember, I’ve tried this before, and every time I’ve worked on cleaning up, I think it’s helped. I still love the Target shelves that I put up in this post, and as you can see in the pic above, they’re still there.

There’s Table!!!!

I didn’t get the exact same photo, but I think you can probably tell the difference. There’s actually table space!!!! Isn’t it incredible? Now for the scary part. I have to actually get in there and Make Something. I need to test my organization and see if it’s going to hold because if it doesn’t, then it’s not working and I need to try again. Right now I’m just happy to have clear surfaces. I think the key for me is going to be the combination of baskets and carts. Even though I like to have everything at my fingertips, this time, I tried to move as much off of my table as possible. These things I put into easy to get to baskets and tubs that I can bring to my table when needed–and then put back away when I’m done.

So many carts…

There are 2 carts here and 2 more behind my table next to my chair. That’s 4 carts (2 Raskogs 🙂 ), in my room. Since I don’t have enough room to make stations for different kinds of media on my desktops, I’m using these carts. The top of the white one is all my “good” paints and mixed media type supplies. I’m hoping that by having everything together, I’ll be able to just roll it near my desk if I need it all, or take some of them out to use and then, here’s the kicker, actually put them back, when I’m finished with mixed media projects. I even have one downstairs near my Fort with all my coloring stuff for my #TheDailyMarker30Day Coloring Challenge (which I still need to do today). I’ll let you know how the test of the new and improved craftroom goes.

Ok…I’m off to go color something! 🙂

 

29/365 #yearofmaking

30 Day Coloring Challenge–Day 1

Guess what? Coloring is SO MUCH FUN! Remember?!?

I don’t have to remember too far back because I have a ton of coloring books in my basement on a shelf. You know, so I can get them out and color. So when I heard about the 30 Day Coloring Challenge that Kathy is doing over at The Daily Marker, I was in. The challenge is just to spend some time every day coloring. It doesn’t matter what it’s with or what you make, just color. As I’ve said about my #YearofMaking, that’s something I can get behind.

Today I even read an article on Huffington Post about how coloring helps combat stress. Fun AND a stress reliever? I’m double in.

So I won’t be posting my coloring here every day. Which I’m sure you would have guessed already based on the frequency of my posts (but I’m working on that!), but I will on Instagram (craftingwithoutkids) and on Twitter (@craftingwokids) and I’ll be checking in here now and again with my coloring. You know, when I make something out of it. Today I stamped some images to be colored later and then I made a bookmark.

Ready…Set…

GO!!!

I got the bookmark blanks from my friend Emily at Useless Without Pictures . She is doing the challenge too. I “talked her into it.” Hi Emily! This is going to be lots of fun. Promise. 🙂

17/365 #YearofMaking

1/30 #TheDailyMarker30Day

#YearofMaking

When I read about Make Something 365 started by Noah Scanlin, and his 365 Skulls project, I was inspired. I was ready to try it. I couldn’t wait. I had great ideas!

And it lasted about a week.

And that was even with the caveat that it was ok to fail sometimes. But I didn’t like to fail, and skipping days felt like failing even if I had said it wasn’t. So I quit, and I hated that I quit. But that’s what happened.

Fast forward to about a month ago. I found the book Make it Mighty Ugly (which is AMAZING and everyone should read it) and that lead me to #YearOfMaking, which was started by Miriam Felton when she began posting what she was making every day. This resonated with me. There really aren’t any rules. Just make something. Or part of something. Or whatever you decide “making” means to you. I can’t even begin to tell you how freeing this is. And it’s a “year”, not “2015” so I (and you) can start whenever.  In fact, I started 16 days ago. SIXTEEN DAYS!!! Can you believe that?

Here’s a couple of the things I’ve made.

Day 2

Day 12

Days 13 & 14

 

So far so good. It’s been good having an excuse to make something every day, but it’s also been good not to be limited to making a specific thing every day. You’ll be seeing the days tick by at the end of my posts, and every once in a while I’m going to post a couple of things I’ve been making. If you want to see what I’m making each day, follow me on Twitter (@craftingwokids) or Instagram (CraftingWithoutKids). I post pictures there (the 99% of the time I remember to take one & it isn’t a blog post.) I’m also going to be following along with The Daily Marker and her 30 Day Color Challenge which starts tomorrow so you’ll see those too.

16/365 #YearOfMaking

TCP Color Challenge

I love color challenges to help me put colors together that I wouldn’t think of. These are SO Springy and I need a little of that right now here in WI.

I used the Wish stamp set from The Cat’s Pajamas. I love the little bunny. He’s so fun to paper piece.

I made a fluffy little bunny tail for him with heated Liquid Appliqué. My Stickles gave him a sparkly star to wish upon and Wink of Stella added sparkle to his nose.

15/365 #YearofMaking

Watercolor Me Happy

Watercolor is one of the newer trends I am enjoying. There are a lot of trends I’m not a fan of (including calling anything “on trend”), but I can get behind the watercolor trend. It’s simple and doesn’t require a lot, if any, new supplies. You can make it fancy by buying fancy new paints (which would be awesome!), or you can use the Toys R Us set you got when you were a kid. You know, for instance.

This weekend I made a card for the Lawnscaping Birthday Challenge.

 

I stamped the hippo and cute little bird from the Year Four Lawn Fawn stamp set and then embossed them in white. I then watercolored over them with my super fancy (see above) watercolors. I added a heart balloon and some twine. Then I spritzed it with the Heidi Swapp Gold Lamé spray. Afterward, I slightly regretted the use of the spray. I really like the spray though; I think it was user error.

Part of the reason I decided on watercolor was seeing all the inspiration over at the Neat & Tangled Little Tangles Watercolor Challenge. That means I get a two-for-one! 🙂

 

 

8/365 #YearOfMaking