Oh Lovely Kit!

I wish I could be a fly on the wall when the product for the Jenni Bowlin kits are chosen.  The colors in October's kit are just beautiful.  I wish I knew how the whole process of putting a kit together like this worked.  I don't think I could do it.  Gorgeous, gorgeous stuff.

Pretty sure the reveal is tonight:  JBS Mercantile

a teaser:

thanks for stopping by! - betsy

Flea Market Fun and Pinch Me Please

Sunday was my 'special' day and I honestly don't like a fuss to be made over my own birthday.

But I did tell dh that there was one thing I'd LOVE to do on my birthday: to go to the Elephant's Trunk, the big flea market about 40 minutes away in New Milford.

But a big part of the deal was to go WITH dh.  This is one thing that dh and I love to do together.  You see, dh is quite the handy man.  He can make something out of anything.  It is his therapy.  And I tend to have an eye for pretty things.  I think in our next life, we are going to be this talented lady and handy guy.   And we'll spend all our days traveling from flea market to flea market loading our truck and turning old pieces pretty again.

We didn't spend a lot - at all. I'm talking less than $30 all together.  But we did look at things and came up with "plans" for cool pieces of furniture we didn't buy this time around.  And just dreaming and planning can be fun.

Here are the few things I got Sunday:

An old book, parts of a door pull, a coin with a hole, a skeleton key, a gorgeous metal flower thingy, a wire flower frog, and what is that kitchen tool . . .  a whisk? . . . an egg separator . . . ?

The book is for an altered book class I'm taking at The Great American Stamp Store. I'm so excited - haven't taken a 'live' class in a long time!  Wonder if any other CT bloggers will be there?

Also very excited to be asked to be a part of the Jenni Bowlin Mercantile kit club DT.  I first heard of Jenni's kits a couple years back at Amy's old store - everyone was RAVING about her kits - gorgeous stuff - and unique stuff mixed in.  My first kit ever was a Jenni Bowlin kit - and then I was hooked!  So pinch me please . . . !!!!!  There are already some layouts posted on the JBS Inspiration blog using the October kit that will go on sale soon.

I love checking out other blogs - so leave a comment - even just one of these ----->   :)
and I'll come check out yours - I get so inspired by everyone I meet - irl and online!

have a great day - thanks for stopping by! - betsy

Jen Martakis Creased Kraft + One Sweet Photo = Vintage Charm

I was just fooling around with some great Jen Martakis digi paper when I found a simple way to give your photo some instant vintage charm.

It's quite simple and I'm sure all you Photoshop experts have been doing this forever . . .   :)

Here's my photo - mine happens to be a scan of a print.

and using 2Peas Jen Martakis Creased Kraft digital paper,  it became this:

Isn't this just so sweet?

It's real easy to do:  (sorry about the video quality - i've been having trouble today with YouTube and Blogger):  If you can't see the video, click "read more" at the end of this post . . . 

I applied all the versions of Jen's Creased Kraft digi paper to the same photo so you can see the differences:

I love it when you get cool results with something so easy!

Hybrid Hump Day and Nature at its Best

What do you do when you have photos of one adorable niece playing in the grass?  Scrap them, of course!

This one is hybrid and was published in ScrapStreet Magazine in August.  And here is how the layout evolved from a template:

Starting with this gorgeous Katie Pertiet template:

I moved elements of the template around to better accomodate my photos and added gorgeous digital paper to create the digi base:

and then embellished with flowers made from Jenni Bowlin Crepe Paper Ribbon:

Supplies: template by Katie Pertiet for DesignerDigitals.com, Jen Martakis Creased Kraft digi paper, Jenni Bowlin Crepe Paper Ribbon, Jenni Bowlin Rhinestone Buttons, Jenni Bowlin Stick Pin

I think my nieces were made to be photographed!  They can work the camera already!

If you're interested in making crepe paper flowers like those above, I've put my ScrapbookChallenges class on this blog.  The link is up top.

Now, something really amazing happened when we were in Rhode Island in August.  There were about ten of us sitting around at dinner.  DH had a north facing window right in front of him.  

dh:  Wow, there's a lot of dragonflies flying around out there.

eating and conversation

dh:  Wow, there's really a lot of dragonflies flying around out there.

more eating and conversation

dh: OK . . . I mean there are a MILLION dragonflies flying around out there.

dh gets up and goes outside

dh:  OMG!! You gotta see this!

We all rush out to see hundreds thousands millions! of dragonflies flying in a south/west direction.  Looking east, we could see the giant cloud of more dragonflies coming our way.

I took photos, but this was really hard to photograph.  Here's one bad photo:

and they were all flying this way:

I never knew that certain species of dragonflies migrate.  Incredibly cool.

thanks for stopping by! - betsy

Iris Folding with Little Mini Papers!

My genius, very creative, she-really-needs-a-blog-friend Audrey stopped by the other day to show me a paper folding technique she learned a local library.  It's called Iris Folding - perhaps you've heard of it?  I never had!

Here's a link to an Iris Folding site: Circle of Crafters Iris Folding .  There are a ton of patterns on that site and lots of others on the web.   You can even make your own patterns!

I tried this out with a little door hanger project for dear niece who just turned 7:

supplies: All Jenni Bowlin: Town Square Mini Papers, Vintage Sew On Buttons,  Pearl Button, Core'dinations cardstock, Border Stickers, Crepe Paper Ribbon, Label Sticker, Alpha Stickers, misc eyelets, wire, and flea market chandelier crystal.

And here's a closeup so you can see the result of the paper folding:

I found that  squares of pattern paper with small patterns work well because the design isn't lost when you fold the paper.  

Hmmmmm - squares of pattern pattern with small beautiful prints . . .  hmmmm . . .

Jenni Bowlin mini papers work GREAT for Iris Folding!  I used Town Square Mini Papers for my door hanger. 

Thanks for showing me how to do this Audrey!

And this sorry excuse for a garden:

Can still give me a sweet bouquet:

(in grandma's milk glass)

Thank you poor neglected little garden!

and thank you for stopping by! - betsy

Just One Sheet of Paper and a Bunch of Embellies

When I was in Rhode Island this summer I saw a plastic baggie tacked to a telephone pole with a bunch of little 3x4 inch books inside.  Each book was a little book of poems.  A sign encouraged us to take one, so I did!

When I got back to the cottage, I opened the little book up and saw that the book was made from one sheet of 8-1/2x11 paper, folded and cut a certain way, and refolded to make the book.

This poetry project is from a group called Origami Poems Project and they have a website here:

www.origamipoems.com

The website has a lot of info, including directions on making your own little book.

I tried the same method using my scrapbook supplies to make my niece a little birthday memory book.

I started with one 12x12 sheet of Jenni Bowlin patterned paper. This pattern is one of my all-time favorites:

and some miscellaneous embellishments:

I folded the 12x12 as they show on the website, and embellished each section with my Jenni Bowlin embellies.  I kept in mind which section would be the cover page, etc :

I cut and refolded the piece

to create the cutest little mini:

Supplies: Jenni Bowlin Aunt Grace patterned paper (from Family Tree line), vellum Embellished Butterflies, Family Tree Journaling Cards and mini papers,  Vintage Sew-On Buttons, Chipboard butterflies, Butterfly Stickers, Red Label Srip Stickers, Pearl flowers,  Banner Stickers and chipboard, and Crepe Paper Ribbon.

What a fun idea for a vacation, or a crop!  It's easy, easy, easy to do.  Check out www.origamipoems.com !

thanks for visiting! - betsy