All the talk about Etsy...

so I started a little shop of my own there. Not that I expect it to be very fruitful because 1. I don't give my stuff away. My time is worth money. And 2. It doesn't look like it generates much traffic. However, the listing price and fees are super cheap so I can afford to give it a trial run. I only have two things listed right now. Not that I don't have more that I could list, but I am just trying to get a feel for the place right now.
Here's the link if you want to check it out:KristieGK.etsy.com

My Bear Elements jewelry box.

I worked on this last night. I haven't done anything to the inside yet. I plan to finish it later tonight.
Materials:
I used Basic Grey patterned papers to cover it. The papers are so much prettier IRL. I hate how the green tones look putrid yellow in the picture. I also used Doodlebug Paper Frills around the lid and at the opening. The faux handles are brads from The Paper Studio. I popped off the brad prongs- they came off real easy- and I adhered them to 3D foam pop dots.
Of course there are flowers! LOL Lil' Davis pink Tinseltown glitter flowers, Heidi Swapp and Prima Daisy Crazy ones. There is a Making Memories jewel brad in the center of the flowers. You know me; I love me some bling. LOL

That's all for now. :)

A Documentary LO.

It probably doesn't mean anything to most people. Products are invented all the time. But this isn't just any product. It is mine and I thought it a good idea to document exactly what the Sweetdots are, how they came to be, and how they ended up in production for marketing. It really is an interesting story how it all began and I want my great, great, great grandchildren to be able to look at this LO and know all about it. That is why I've included a picture of myself and made sure to note the year among other key facts. Hopefully someone, someday will come across this LO and think for a moment. How cool of "granny"! LOL :)

Sweetdots arrived!

Got them in the mail today-finally. It's nice to see the difference between my original handmade design and this new machine made version. They are very cute! There are 88 colored background discs, and 86 alphabets & numbers to each pack. There are B&W, pastels, earth tones and brights. Each pack costs $5.99.
I've taken a few pictures of them so that I can make a LO about my "Sweet" invention.
Anyone interested in ordering them can do so at www.littleblackdressdesigns.com or go to your local scrapbook store and tell them they NEED to get these in stock! LOL

Altered ABC container.

This is a gift for a young girl that just got bit by the scrapping bug. It is filled with Thicker-like letters. I think she's gonna love it.

My cube.

Click on the picture to read the description. :) This little puppy looks simple but it took me 6 HOURS to make it because it was not a pre purchased box. Oh just read the description! LOL

Sitting by the Fireside.

My DS Alex took these pictures yesterday and I wish you could see them IRL. The detail in the fire/flames/ash is so amazing! I knew I had to scrap them. Caleb was sitting watching the fire. Can you believe it was warm enough to be outside on a January day?! I don't know that I did such a great job on the LO, but the pictures sure are beautiful so that makes up for it.

I like these kinds of LOs that are self explanatory. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind to journal. I can take the simplest topic and write up a book on it. LOL But sometimes it is nice just to create a LO and go with the flow when no "report" is necessary. KWIM?

Anywho...I use three different lines of stamps for my title. (Sitting) is Fontwerks, (by the) is Making Memories magnetic letter stamps, and (Fireside) is Technique Tuesday Tall Timberline letters that I stamped over some orange patterned paper and colored in flames using my black Slick Writer.
I have sooo any stamp sets that I have vowed to USE them this year. I am really bad for pulling out pre painted chipboard and sticker letters because, lets face it, it's MUCH faster and zero mess. LOL I have this thing... I hate getting out the stamping block, ink pad, sorting through the letters, getting all the letters stamped on -CROOKED! Then cleaning the stamps and putting them away. WHEW. It makes me tired just thinking about it! The only great thing about stamps is that they are non consumable. LOL

MBSC 1994!

Told you I really do scrap LOs. :) This one is simple but I like it.
Alex had this picture in his wallet and I enlarged it for this LO. Of course it lost some of its clarity going from a little wallet to a 5X7 but not too much. Can you believe this baby (Caleb) is now THIRTEEN?! Holy moly time flies.

Altered Band-aid tin.

Soo simple. I covered this in Blueberry papers from Bo Bunny Press, a Sweetwater mini tag, a couple ribbons and some paint. (click for larger image.)

My altered Maya Road chipboard drawers. :)

LOVED working on this! Paper Loft Well Worn Field of Daisies and Blueberry Pie patterned papers, 3/16 white eyelets, (set with my good ole Crop A Dile!) and ribbons for handles. I just love these drawers and it's addicting. I could see making more of these.

Check me out. I'm a cartoon!

LMBO. Maybe I'm having too much fun playing with my new Kodak photo editing software but I love turning pictures into cartoons lately. The only bad thing about it is that no flaw goes unnoticed by the black lines. My teeth don't really buck out like that IRL. Must've been the way I was holding my lower lip. Who cares anyway! It's all just for FUN! :)

Creativity put on hold.

This past Christmas my friend Karen and I decided to make tons of different candies. We enjoyed it so much that we agreed to make it a yearly ritual. Of course, me being the overly obsessed scrapper that I am was not happy having our recipes printed out on plain ole 8.5X11 printer paper and hand written in a little notebook. No, no, that simply will not do. LOL
So I decided that I wanted to make a little candy recipe book where all the recipes could be together collectively and make things easier for next year. I even bought the perfect little chipboard binder book made by Maya Road to put them in. The book has room for 16 recipes and each page is removable, which I think could come in very handy!
Tonight I took down my little book and began contemplating which patterned papers I wanted to use. Sadly I didn't get very far before I realized that Karen took all of the recipes home with her.
I won't be able to get them for quite a while because her new job keeps her away from home for several weeks at a time. :( I was so looking forward to making the book but it's not gonna happen for a while. My creativity was totally put on hold. Hurry home Karen! :)

My Book of Me

This is just the front and back cover and a shot of it open to the first page to give you some idea of the design I went with for my book. It is not finished. It's a work in progress. I didn't want to rush through this because I don't want to forget any vital information or gloss over any fun things.

Can you tell I like things to be very feminine? LOL Maybe it is because I am the only girl in a house with three men! :) One might also think that pink was my favorite color from looking at the blog layout and all the pictures I've posted, but it isn't. You'd probably never guess that it's black! LOL

CREATE

This is wall art I made from MM 8" chipboard letters. They've been painted, glittered, textured, blinged with jewels and there are butterfly charms, a large dragonfly charm, a white watch face, and white Prima flowers on the letters.
I decided to put it on the wall in box shape rather than having it stretch out across the wall. It made my room appear smaller when we tried it long ways. LOL BTW, the large jewels are from Imaginisce and they are clear, not colored like they look in the picture. All of the bling is clear. All of the charms are silver.

I had a lot of fun making it. Maybe some day I'll do INSPIRE to put on my other wall. :)

Mini Keychain Album

I DO scrap layouts-I swear. I've just been on an altering kick lately.
I made this little bugger from scratch but most of my other altered things were alterable items I purchased. They are just sitting in my drawer and pilling up, so I started feeling a little guilty that I bought so many and had not worked on any of them yet. You should see the pile of plain chipboard books and containers I have that are calling to me to DO SOMETHING with/to them.

Anyway, back to the mini keychain album...
I made this a couple months ago but just now got around to making pictures of it. Partly because I just got a decent digi camera back at Christmas.
I had seen these little albums on ebay and a few other places. Every time I saw one I thought they were so cute and they have some kind of charm about them that made me want to make my own. So, here it is. I made it with velveteen sage colored papers and Treehouse Memories Queen's Diner pp. I inked it all over and it has machine stitching. There are metal word charms throughout by Karen Foster and Pebbles, Inc. As well as some really cool mirror embellies from Imaginisce. (click on pic. for full view.)

My Altered Wood Box

This took me most of the day to make but I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. It measures 8LX8W.5X2" deep. Just thought I'd share.

Spool Albums

Have you ever seen these? They are made by altering empty ribbon spools. I've heard them called spoolies too.
This is one I made in a love theme cause I am all about the love baby! lol
They are tons of fun to make! For me the most time consuming part was cutting out all the circular pages. The reason it took so long is because one page is made up of three circles. (for example: to make 10 pages I have to cut out 30 circles. -Two patterned papers and a chipboard center.) I wanted the pages to be strong and so that's why I did it that way. Another reason for the time consumption is because I don't yet own a Wishblade! One day I will though. You just wait and see. ;)

Part of what you can't see from my pictures here are all the numerous little embellishments that I have scattered throughout the pages. There are charms -most of which were easily attached on to the binder ring that holds the book together. There are also sticker quotes, rubons and things of that sort.

If you're the type that likes to alter things or like me you LOVE making mini books, then I think you would really enjoy making one of these. After I made my first one I was addicted and have since made about 8 of them. Give it a try. If you have any questions you know where to reach me. Smiles!

Click on picture to see it larger.

Sketch 10

This is the last sketch I have for now. Do you notice a resemblance to the LO in my profile?
The quote on my profile LO reads: I am not my hair. I am not this skin. I am the soul that lives within. What will your quote be?

Sketches 8 & 9

I hope you're not sick of the sketches. I have one more after this one- for now. ;)

sketches 6 & 7

Enjoy!

The Eyes Have It.

Have you ever made a layout about yourself using a photo of just your eyes? What was the topic? What did you have to say?

I could see (get it? SEE- lol) doing a layout about how I see the world and the things around me.
Maybe it's about the things I've seen-past tense. How the world has changed. How much we have progressed?

Maybe it's not about what you see at all. Maybe it is just about your eyes. Did you "inherit them" from your Mom, or one of your grandparents? Another good topic for a photo like this might be a dedication page to your child(ren) stating that- I love you even when I can't see you.

Ok well, that's about all the ideas I have. LOL This all came about because I was thinking along the lines of a Book of Me page. If you have suggestions please feel free to comment and share them with me. :)

Free printable set #1

My son Alex and I designed these patterned papers. It was a lot of fun. We had a good time combining our creativity. I love the end result. I'm very happy that Alex can appreciate this kind of art. He rocks!

Can't you just see a LO or cards made with these? I plan to use these to make a layout later today. I will post a picture of it when it's finished. :)

I want the pattern printables to be a regular part of the theater so from time to time I will be adding more designs. You are always welcome to print and use them (for your personal use only.)

If you use any of my patterns let me know. I'd love to see them, and if I chose your layout to display here in the theater you will receive a little something from me.
I would also like to have a few contests using the designs in the near future if my little blog gets more readers. LOL

sketches 4 & 5

Feeling frisky? Here are a couple sketches for the dare devils. Depending on your topic the white dots could be interpreted as bling, minibrads, punched holes, or a different patterned paper. (click images for larger view.)

Sketch 3

Here's a sketch that's easy peasy. The edge stitching could be machine or pen stitches. It's up to you. I didn't designate a patterned paper for this sketch because I personally would like for the flower/button bouquet to take center stage. If you want to go with a pattern, that's cool too. Make it your own and have a good time. Remember that the flower stems could be drawn on freehand, sewn on, or they could be made from ribbons. You could take it a little farther and make stems using your Chatterbox flourish stencils OR stamping them on with those clear flourish/doodling stamps we all seem to have now. :) I have also drawn my stems on a scrap piece of cardstock, cut it out, ran it through my Xyron and made a stem set that way too.
Notice how the title is wavy. I did that to go with the free flow feeling of the bouquet. It's really simple but I like how it turned out.

Sketch 2

Here's one for the button lovers. A bunch of different colored buttons clustered together is very eye catching. Kind of like the primitive version of bling. lol Play around with your white pens and try your hand at making some of the buttons polka dotted or striped. It's fun and adds your own creative flair.
I drew this sketch with the intention that it would have two similar/ coordinating patterned papers for the top and bottom halves, but remember you can change it around, mix it up and make it YOUR way. Don't feel like you have to make an exact duplicate.
Hope you like it!

What's YOUR surefire creative booster right now?

Almost everyone has that one embellishment or product that they reach for time and time again. You know what I mean. It's that thing that makes your heart sing and makes you smile just to know you own it. LOL Funny as it sounds we scrappers are quite serious about our love of certain products.

For me right now it is Prima flowers! I am so in "love" with the new Crazy Daisies I can't put it into words. LOL
I am not ashamed to admit that I ordered SIXTEEN tubes of these in almost every color you can think of.
I don't even care if I never get around to using them all. In fact it is safe to bet that I won't. Still,... just looking over at them makes me happy. I am a lover of all things beautiful. I like to surround myself with beauty. It is no different when it comes to scrapbook embellishments.
I am also a complete BLING fiend!! I can not get enough of it and use it every chance I get. I hope that the bling, flourishes, doodling, and chipboard don't phase out too quickly because I feel like this is "my" thing. My nitch. I've never felt this comfortable with any other "fads" in the past.
But enough about me. What must have item(s) have you drooling with delight right now?

Sketch 1

I'm dedicating this first sketch to my best friend Karen. She likes a lot of "stuff" on her pages and doesn't like to cut her pictures up into tiny squares. So Karen, this one's for you! ;)

It is based on a 12X12" scale. Single page. You can include or omit whatever you like. Feel free to print the sketch for your own personal use. Interpretations are as different as snowflakes, so have fun with it and if you complete a page based on this sketch I would love to see it!

A new year. A new blog.

WELCOME!
Grab your favorite beverage and sit a spell!

As most of you know I am a hopeless, incurable insomniac. It's not something that I am proud of but it is part of who I am. During all those extra waking hours is when I find my creativity to be at its ultimate peak-if you will, so don't be surprised when you notice my entries were written in the wee AM hours. LOL It is also how this blog came to be so appropriately named. :)

Why the new blog?
I decided to start a blog that is totally dedicated to family and scrapping because that is who I am as well.
Here I will post my layouts, altered things and anything that I find to be inspiring.
I will also post my very own layout maps. Poems, quotes, and other inspiring things of that sort.

I look forward to having discussions about various scrap related products that are on the market and product previews too. I hope you'll share any great articles that you've read as well.

I want this to be a FUN place to visit every day. I hope it will be a blog that you bookmark and refer to when you have something creative to share or even if you need to vent about scrappers block. :) (OK so scrappers block is never fun, but it comes with the territory!) LOL

So there you have it.
*layouts
*altered art
*sketches
*poems
*quotes
*discussions
*product reviews
*quizzes
*challenges
*games
*and whatever else my mind drums up! :) -scary I know!