Scrap for Joy: September 2011

Saturday, September 24, 2011

My first Design Team Project

I have sung the praises of Say It With Letters for years....I love their shapes and letters because they are so well made and easy to work with. I am thrilled to be included in the current Design Team. I am in with a great bunch of uber talented women and I hope you'll take some time to visit their blogs and see what they've done with their assignments, and visit the SIWL Etsy store for your own shapes and letters.

How lucky and excited I was to see my first assignment....leaves!!

I always say that the hardest part is choosing the papers to use in any project. I wanted a fall look but also wanted it to coordinate with my spiffy new dining room. We R Memory Keepers had the perfect line with Autumn Splendor which I ordered from this on-line retailer, Scrapbook Steals. I loved the fall colors of these papers because in addition to the golds, oranges browns, etc., there was my beautiful blue, too.

Trace and cut the papers

Mod Modge all of the papers to the shapes and then Mod Podge again on top of the papers...it gives it a nice finish.

The leaf and acorn embellishments were made using the Cricut (Storybook cartridge to those of you who are interested in such things) Twine was tied on to the middle leaf and some berries added as well.

More views showing how I'm using them on my table...

Do you use flamless candles? I bought some to use at the Craft Show last year (didn't want to burn the place down) and I really like the look of them.

Here is the rest of the design team:

Joyce Gleason (that's me :D )

I don't know what you have on the docket for next time Deb, but I just want to say Thank You for sending me wonderful shapes to play/work with. I had a lot of fun

working on them while humming..... The Falling Leaves!

XOXO

Joyce

Thursday, September 22, 2011

I (finally) Pinned It and Did It!

I'm sure by now, many of you are familiar, if not obsessed with Pinterest. It is a mechanism for capturing and saving inspirational ideas to bulletin boards that you create. On my sidebar, you can see a link that will take you right to my Pinterest boards. On of my dearest friends, Marie of Spun by Me has started writing posts called "I Pinned It & Did It", showing projects she has created using inspiration found on Pinterest. I thought this was a great idea and wanted to jump in too! It's taken me a while but here is my first attempt.

Mamie Jane's blog is so inspiring that I think I've pinned more from her site than any other. Jane can take the most unassuming item and repurpose it to be extraordinary. I have named her The Queen of Repurposing! Click the link and hop over there...you will be amazed! I always come away scratching my head and thinking, "Wow, I never would have thought of that!" There are so many projects that I would like to recreate but I started with an easy one.

Jane posted the tutorial and the photos (here) for this adorable pumpkin made with a skein of crochet cotton

How cute is that?

My take on that pumpkin....

a piece of branch, gathered from the yard for a stem, wrapped in coarse twine so that the stem doesn't slip right through the hole. The stem is wrapped in wire and the wire curled around a pencil to make tendrils, and then ribbon and a plaid paper leaf are added.

It is a dark and gloomy day today so the lighting is not what I'd like but I think you can see the details.

Thanks for your inspiration Jane! Your projects with crochet cotton alone could fill a book chapter....a book, that's what you need to do....write a book!

Thanks for stopping by today. Now go find some inspiration to pin!

I'm linking to this party...

xoxo

Joyce

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Thank you, thank you and a Wedding

THANK YOU #1: I want to thank all of you who took the time to leave words of encouragement over my joy at being chosen to be part of the Say It With Letters design team. Your words mean so much to me! I hope you've had a chance to visit Deb's blog and see the wonderful work of the other design team members. I am so honored to be counted in with this group of talented women. New things will be popping up in the SIWL Etsy store soon and next week I will be able to share my first project with you. I'm having so much fun!!

THANK YOU #2: Everyone was so helpful in voting for the "knob" choice for my repurposed glass jar. Some of you were very firm in your choice and I considered all of your suggestions. I was leaning toward the glass knob and then I read my friend Meri Wiley's comment, "It depends on what the purpose of the jar is going to be, I guess. Personally, I like them both and can't really pick between them." The purpose of the jar...Aha! I wanted to use this wonderful jar as the storage for all of my beautiful bits and bobs of lace. When I placed the lace into the jar the choice became very clear to me...

The flower is the perfect knob I think.

The Wedding:

David & I are just back from a trip to Wilmington, North Carolina where we attended the wedding of the daughter of very dear friends.

We had a wonderful, relaxing trip. The photo below is the view from our hotel room. We had perfect weather while we were there.

That solitary figure is David soaking up the sun. I can't spend a lot of time in the sun because I burn to a crisp while he could stay on the beach for hours.

All of the festivities took place at a beach house that the bride and groom rented for family and friends.

After everyone left town, we were able to spend a day with our friends (the parents of the bride) before we all left to go home.

David and Gary got some fishing in...

Style setters...no?

My sweet friend Sims.

Of course we didn't manage to get any photos of the 4 of us together!

OK-I'm off to get caught up on my blog reading and working on 4 different crafty projects.
I'm trying to limit my on-line time so I can get some crafting done in preparation
for the upcoming craft fair.

XOXO
Joyce