Chalk it Up to Lovin' Me Some Vintage!

Yes, I am a lover of antiques and vintage stuff!  Although I don't neccessarily have a lot of valuable items in my own collection, I do love to pick up an occasional piece here and there to sit around and pretty up the house!  And, I do love to go to the flea-markets and antique malls and such whenever I get a chance.  Absolutely love browsing.  So as I was up in my gram's attic helping my mom put some things away one day, I came across a very cool shabbily chic white ornate frame lying in a bag.

Of course my gram told me to take it, and so I did... wasn't going to pass that offer up, lol! At first I was thinking I'd use it to frame a mirror, but then I was looking through either an issue of Country Living or Better Homes magazine, and saw that they took similar frames and turned them into chalk boards.  What a novel and cool idea, so that's what I did with it.  First I had my brother cut me an oval shaped wood board  to fit the frame.

Then all I had to do was paint the board with some black chalk board spray paint and glue the piece into the frame opening and now I instantly have a very chic framed chalk board for my room.

Think I need to soon make another trip up to my gram's attic!  I'm sure there are plenty more hidden treasures! 

As for scrapping/crafting... I had myself a very productive extra-long weekend at Ellen's for our scrappy girls's retreat!  Gosh, did we ever have so much fun.  If it's something we girls can do to the best of our abilities, it's scrap, laugh and eat, lol! We sure didn't go hungry!  Anyway, already looking so forward to our next gathering in November.  But this past weekend I was concentrating on designing a lot of projects with Core'dinations Cardstock, as they have a new Design Team call in the works right now, and I'm planning on submitting for it.  I would totally LOVE to join the Core team and create til my hearts content with their yummy cardstock! Ellen is a part of the current team, and I'm always so amazed by the magic she creates with Core... definitely would be a thrill to join her ;)

I'm not going to show you any of those projects with the Core right now... that will be in a post coming soon!  However, I'll share with you a little gift bag I made for a Baby Shower gift-card.  I was so excited with this one because it was actually the first time I used my Tags, Bags, Boxes and More Cricut cartridge!  I believe I've had this cart for a year or more already and never broke it out til this weekend, but I can tell ya it's not going to take me that long to put it to use again...

Oh, I also used my new Sew Easy tool on here from WRMK.  It got a little wonky in areas, but I'll practice with it some more.  Those cool wood stars on there are new wood veneer stars from Studio Calico (thanks, Ellen)... love them!  The papers are from Echo Park's For the Record line, and I used a Papertrey Ink label die with an SRM sticker.  The wee lil' duckie is was cut using the Wild Card cart from Cricut.  And the buttons... again, chalk it up to vintage.  Love my stash of vintage buttons, and I even found a yellow gingham one to match the paper here! And before I head out, also wanted to share a previous card publication.  This one is a Thanksgiving card that was in the Nov. 2010 CARDS issue...

Lots of American Crafts paper there and the turkey was cut with the Cricut Doodlecharms cart. 

Okay.. I'm headed out.  Mornings come way to early and I've got to work so I must find my bed.  But please visit me again soon... I'll be back in a few days to reveal my creations for the Core'dinations DT call!  C-ya! 

Paper Crafts Magazine Newbie!

That's me!! Finally! 

I've been submitting my card projects to Paper Crafts magazine for quite a few years now... not consistently, but still... it has been a good number of years.  I've never had any luck with getting anything published with them, but now that unlucky streak has come to a halt.  Yesterday I came home from work and checked my inbox to be pleasantly surprised with a request for one of the 4 cards I submitted for their upcoming special issue, Go-To Sketches for Card Makers!  What a cool thrill... esp. since I read on their facebook page that there were 2,750+ submissions for this and only 288 acceptances! Plus, I am among 38 newbies to be published with this issue! So that was a great ending to my otherwise wasted and just plain awful week.  Yep, I caught the flu... and it was a doozy too.  Guess that's what I get for going back to work at a Daycare/Preschool.  I haven't been this sick since previously working in Preschool back in the 90's.  But, I'm on the mend aside from the sniffles and sneezing of a cold that just won't go away! 

So today, I am supposed to be working on some assignments for CX, but instead I've been piddlin' around here at home doing much of nothing.  I did create a card though for the Jenni Bowlin Studio crop that's happening this weekend.  JBS has added forums... did ya know?!  If not you need to register and check them out.  Lotsa fun challenges there for the crop, and I've been wanting to do more, but like I said, I've been piddlin', lol!  Anyway, here is the cute card that I did get made...

This was for a challenge to use a JBS Bingo card and at least one punch on a card design. 

I have had this bingo card and house diecut for quite some time now so I was happy to put them to good use at last.  No better feeling sometimes than to use that stash! I also added some personality to the house diecut with a paper doily which I cut, folded and inked to add texture to the roof.  I used my favorite large embossed Curve EK punch to add grass layers, and the heart I added is a Maya Road chipie, which I inked with a Latte color and added a scrap of the JBS red floral "Hotel Lobby" pp behind.  I attached it to the card with a JBS pearl rhinestone stick-pin.  Also used some denim and fabric scraps to make a shabby lil' sun accent and the stamp sentiment is a Kolette Hall stamp from Michaels.

Thanks for looking!

Hope you are finding sometime this weekend to do something fun and crafty along the way!