My weekend

Sunday, Sharon (my mother) and I went to a scrapbooking store about 30 minutes south of here. Here's what I bought:
Some stickers, the small ones on top, are shades of green alphabet, I thought a perfect size for ATC's. The next ones are some really cute sentiments. Then there are some chipboard stickers that made me think of Hawaii, hoping they'll help get me started on my Hawaii scrapbook. The last ones were just cute, they're a bunch of pet stickers.

On the bottom is a cut-out of a cruise ship, then a tiny Hawaii license plate and some coral stickers, I was hoping to use these in my Hawaii scrapbook as well. The butterfly stamps have spring words cute into them, and I thought they were cute.

There's a packet of Maya Road chipboard pieces, it includes 2 types of dress forms, scissors, needles, spools, hangers and sewing machines. I don't know what I'll do with them, but I love chipboard and shapes. The top is a packet of blue rub-on letters, another perfect size for ATCs. I decided to buy some yellow distress ink, I was thinking of blue or green, but I have SU ink pads in those colors, and I figured they'd work just as well. The bottom piece is a couple of butterfly notecards, those I bought to include in a swap I'm in. I'll let you know more about it in the future.

These is another sheet of rub-on's, they were 75% off, the main reason I bought them, plus rub-on's are fun to use.

Here are the papers I bought, they're all 12x12, in various patterns and shades of blues and greens. I believe those are my favorite colors. I don't know what I'll do with these, but I'm sure I'll come up with something.

When we were paying, my mother filled up one of those cards where you spend so much and then get X amount off your next purchase. It was $10 off her next purchase. She told me, she'd give it to me and then I could pay her off, how nice of her was that?

And she hasn't let me forget it either. Yesterday, I brought home a brownie from the library, because my supervisor had baked them, after eating it and saying how nice it was that I brought it to her, she asks where her $10 is. It sure makes me not to want to do anything nice for her.

Yesterday I went to our local antique mall to look for a vintage tin, for the Vintage Tin Swap I'm participating in. I did find 3 very cute tins, and I don't know which one I'm going to use yet, so I didn't want to ruin the surprise by putting a picture up. I'm so happy I found some, ever since I heard about the idea of this swap, I've been going to garage sales (I usually don't by myself, but because I wanted to participate in this swap and I also want to see if there's anything I can't keep my hands off) to find the perfect one, and I haven't found any yet, I even went to the Salvation Army store Tuesday looking for one. Now I have 3 to choose from.

Stuck!

I'm having a hard time creating anything lately.
And I really should be creating something. I thought maybe it was because I was limiting myself to the supplies I have, as I'm a little short on $$$ (working on paying off an $1100 loan from my parents that covered a medical bill from Feb), but I do go into JoAnn's and Hobby Lobby and get stuff from their clearance, and JoAnn's $1.00 bins. I have also bought some stuff on skybluepink.com, not that long ago. But I really haven't done anything with them.
I love reading all my art blogs everyday, I'm thinking I should participate in some challenges, there are tons floating all over the internet, I like the simple sketch ones, but that reminds me of Stampin' Up nights my mom and I used to go to. Our demonstrator would have the project and all the ingredients laid out, and it seemed like everyone except me, followed the project to a T. I've never been like that, I hate doing exactly what everyone else does. And the funny thing is, people would always say how cool and different mine was.
I was thinking of taking a glue book class from Mary Green, it sounds pretty fun and you get access to a whole bunch of images. And I've noticed being (ok it's online but still) with other crafty people always helps me get into the creating spirit. I would need to decide about that pretty quick, as it would start on Sunday.
I am participating in the Treasured Tin Swap through Dreams Intertwined, but that doesn't include a lot of creating, we're supposed to find a vintage tin and fill it up with goodies our partner would enjoy and then send it to them. I will be adding the button to my sidebar very soon.
It seems lately, the only time I make something is for my collageatc's yahoo group, and that's once a month. This month, we're doing a Scavenger Hunt, which means I send them a list of things to find in their stash (they're not allowed to buy anything) and use those. I haven't started even looking for elements yet. My crafty closet is so messy, I know it will become a daunting task at sorting stuff and getting rid of it, because there's not a lot of room for organizing in there.
I'm thinking I should do that and do another giveaway soon. There is a currently a multi-blog giveaway going on at Twice Remembered Cottage, that anyone can join until the 29th of May, but then I'd have to get myself organized. So, that probably won't be happening.
I have been trying to visit more garage sales this season, cause it's always fun to go to those, and it's a nice cheaper way to get supplies.

Any suggestions on what to get me going creatively?

Fabric ATCs

For my CollageATCs group, April was fabric month. I had originally envisioned everyone sewing at least one ATC, but by the time I remembered to send an email, I already had one packet back from someone.
I decided I would just go ahead and sew all of mine. I took 10 pieces of the largest fabric from my packet and used them as backgrounds. I ended up blanket stitching around the fabric, with a piece of quilt batting in the middle, and then gluing a piece of paper on as a backing.
Starting in the lower bottom left corner and going clockwise. I used the background piece from my packet, sewing the blanket stitch in brown thread and then sewing the buttons on with a turqouise thread. The buttons are from numerous mixed button bags from Hobby Lobby. I used the background mosaic looking fabric and the two butterflies from my packet. I used a light green thread for the blanket stitch around the outside and a variegated yellow thread for the chain stitch to attach them to the fabric. Marilyn was part of a napkin, but I liked the image so much, I included it in the packet. I chose a piece of pink matboard as the background and glued a piece of black lace to that, and then put Marilyn on top of that. I colored her hair with chalk.

Starting in the lower left hand corner and going clockwise. The background fabric was stitched onto the the quilt batting with a simple running stitch. The dragonfly is a sticker. The golden butterfly and the background fabrics were from the packet. I attached the golden butterfly with orange thread and a chain stitch. The background geometric fabric was from the packet. I attached the plastic snowflake with some light blue silk thread. The background flowers and the red shirt were both from the packet. I had bought a packet of die cut people at a garage sale and thought that would be perfect for this piece, I couldn't decide on what to use for the skirt, so I ended up using a piece of blue paper. The cat is a button. Everything except the dragonfly is from the packet. I attached the wavy red fabric with a chain stitch in blue thread following the waves in the fabric. I attached the gold butterfly with pink and orange thread and a chain stitch.

Starting in the lower left hand corner and going clockwise. I thought this quartet looked like they were singing happy birthday in a restaurant, so I added the "Happy Birthday" sentiment to a piece of fabric in the packet and the birthday cake button. The background is also from the packet. The butterfly and background are both from the packet. I attached the butterfly with a chain stitch in green thread. The background is from the packet. The bat is a button, and the flower is from a note someone sent me. The background and the butterfly are both from the packet. The butterfly is attached with a chain stitch in variegated yellow thread.

Goodies in the mail

In March I won Susan's 30 day anniversary 50 followers giveaway. I received my package in the mail yesterday. I was walking home from work and saw this white box on my porch, I was thinking, "Now what could that be". When I saw the return address, I knew what it was. Here is what I won:
The items are, starting in the bottom left hand corner and going clockwise: a fleece humane society blanket, 2 note pads, a picture frame, an art calendar, a card from Susan, and some art she made.

Here there is: candy corn stickers, 20 white cards, CD labels, Jolee's Bridal dimensional stickers, Home Organization & Storage book, haunted house diecut, Birthday Girl and Graduation bookmarks, and a photo album.

In this picture: decorative tags, a party invitation, halloween, and friends bookmarks, white ribbon, another bookmark, tea candles, more tags, and some printed twist ties.

Here there is decorative paper on the bottom row and some vellum, and alphabet stickers on the top.

Thank you so much for the wonderful goodie packet Susan.

Brightest card I've ever made

I think this wins as the brightest card I've ever made. But, I'm trying to brighten someone's day, and if you got this in the mail, how could you not be happy? Plus, it's an unexpected thing, so that always makes a person happier, right? Well, as long as it's not a bill.

I'm unsure if you can read the stamp in the bottom, it says "A Friend is a Keepsake of the Heart". I'm still trying to figure out focus, but, this time I used my camera phone, which I believe came out better than the actual camera. I also used the Auto Contrast button in Picasa and the Sharpen Button. Those helped a lot, but I'm still learning.

Since I don't make a lot of cards, I thought I'd try using a sketch, and since I was making it with a sketch, I thought maybe I'd try a challenge sketch. So, here's the sketch from Crafty Sentiments, and I just found out that you're supposed to use blue, which I did. I actually tweaked the sketch a little bit, so I hope that works out OK. I used one strip on the side, instead of two, and I flipped it 90 degrees, and then added my text on the bottom, or kitty-cornered from the diagonal piece.

So, here are the challenges I'm entering this in:

Crafty Sentiments - Sketch
Stampin' When I Can - Stickers, the heart is a sticker
Stacey's Stamping Stage - Colors: Only Orange, Green Galore, Yo Yo Yellow, and Pixie Pink, or something close to them, I hope mine are close enough.
PaperPlay Challenges - Stickers, once again, the heart

Book Sale Finds

One great thing about working at the library is when we have books donated, I get to look at them before they are moved back to the donation room. And last weekend we had one of our semi-annual book sales, so I was really looking at the books we had coming in.
Somehow I have managed to screw up the order of these pictures, so bear with me. I also want to apologize if any of the photos are blurry, they always look so in focus on my camera and then I open them on the computer and they're blurry, I haven't figured out how to fix this yet. If anyone can help, I'd really appreciate it.
This book below, I got for $10 which I thought was a pretty good deal. Inside it I found a bunch or 4 and 5 leaf clovers. But I have no idea what to do with them, anyone got any suggestions? I've never seen tiny 4 leaf clovers, let alone big ones and 5 leaf clovers as well, I'm so glad someone found them and decided to press them and then happened to forget them and I got to have them.
The inside of this book has tons of information on household items. The copywright dates are 1948 and 1950. I had originally planned to use pages for artwork, but I think I just want to keep it.

Here's the front of the book, it's called The Everyday Reference Library.

This book, was a plain white book, inside I found it to be 365 Days of Nature and Discovery. Looks like a great book to alter, or use some of the pages inside. I paid $2.50 for it.Here's what a few of the pages look like:

Here's the front of it:

This book is the Autobiography of Santa Claus. My mom collects Santa's, and though I figure she'll never read this book, I thought it might be a nice addition to her collection. Now, as long as I don't lose it before Christmas, that would be great. This book was $.50

This is the inside of Nature in America, it also had a lot of fun pictures in it. This book was $.50

And here's the cover of it:

I bought this book because I'm trying to cook from scratch more, and I thought this might be a nice easy book to start with. This book was $.50

This book, I decided to buy for my father, who's a big MASH fan. This book was $4.00

This is the inside of a book called Ghost Towns of the West, also had a bunch of really cool pictures. Plus, I always liked looking at abandoned buildings. This book was $2.50

Here is the cover for that book:

I spent $20.50 on all these books, which I think is a great deal, considering they were all probably about $20 each or more new. Plus, I get to support the library, win-win solution for all.

WINNER!!!

Paper Giveaway Winner
So, I put the 5 names in a bowl, and my guinea pig started chewing on one, and that one turned out to be Nancy.

So, Nancy, please email me your address, so I can get this bundle out to you.