Life Ring mini album...

 Good Monday to you all! Well I told you all on Friday that I would show you the outcome of what I made after showing what was inspiring me on Friday. Let me first say. I will never make another one of these EVER again and I'll explain why at the end of the post. But after fiddling with it all weekend I actually really like the outcome. My pictures aren't  the best in the world the rings are actually centered and not all wonky like they look like they are but I wanted to show you the outcome and maybe it might spark some imagination of your own to try one.

 I used chipboard of course for my pages and there are 4 in total even though I only showed 3 of them. I used DCWV Nantucket paper pack and then a variety of embellishments from other collections. I didn't want much 3D embellishments because I was afraid that it wouldn't lay flat enough for me.

So that I could get more pictures on each ring I made little flaps for some of the pictures so that I could layer the pictures and get more real estate per page. This album held 62 pictures and in my book that's what its all about is the pictures. I've decided that I'm not going to make anymore mini's anymore unless I add the pictures as I go because I find that once I've made the mini's I have a real hard time going back and adding the pictures. So why make them if I just sit them up somewhere with no pictures in them right? They are pretty to look at but basically useless. I really need to get back to my 12x12 layouts as well and try my best to get caught back up in those. I worked for years to get caught up in them and then just dropped the ball when I started making mini albums. I haven't done a 12x12 layout in so long that I'm sure I'm really rusty at it. But back to this mini, after it was done I was glad that I had acted on my impulse and made it...now seeing the end result I'm glad I'll say. But the reason that I'll never make another one is because it just about killed my hands cutting the chipboard. I used scissors and an exacto knife (yes and I still have all 10 9 fingers, just kidding) My hands hurt so bad this weekend trying to finish this project up that I swore I'd never make another one and that is what gave me the drive to finish it up. I have arthritis in my hands and they are still swollen today from this project so I have to know my limits. The circles that I cut are quite large almost 12" across and I printed off the wallet sized photos for the album. For the circle template I simply used the larger mixing bowl I had to get the large circle and then used the largest Creative Memories circle template I had to make the inner circle. The 4 straps around the front I used seam binding and the rope is some type of soft cotton rope or twine that I had in my stash. Matter of fact, I ONLY used what I had. I didn't run out and buy anything new for this project. I only used what I had and made it work for me.
I hope that you enjoy it and that its sparks an inspiration for you to make one or to look at things in your home for inspiration in your paper crafting.
Have a great day everyone!

Did I miss the memo or something??

Hi everyone! If you all are wondering why I'm once again a follower on your blogs it's because I was looking at some of the blogs today that I go to all of the time and it was saying "follow this blog" and my picture wasn't there...is was as if I had never been a follower or something so I don't know what in the world has happened but once again, I'm a follower. That may have very well been user error and I deleted myself from everyone or maybe blogger booted me off because it had been so many months since I had posted something or who knows what happened anyway, hopefully the problem is resolved if not then I'm double the follower :)
So are you wondering why I posted a picture of this chair cushion AGAIN? There is a reasoning to my madness because I wanted to show you what inspired me for the project that I'm working on now and it doesn't have anything to do with sewing but it sparked an idea. I'm not sure how it will turn out but good, bad or extremely ugly. I promise I'll share my outcome with you.
So here is a question for you...what inspires you?
Have a great day everyone!

More handmade camera mini albums and a little short story....

 Hi everyone! I hope that your all having a great day. I thought that I'd share with you the other two cameras that I made and finished up this morning. I wasn't feeling very well yesterday. Between the pollen popping out here and my muscles aching something terrible. I figured that I needed to give my body a bit of a break and rest yesterday. So here is how I changed up the decorating of the cameras this time. I literally only used what I had in my stash and didn't buy one thing extra to make these. It made it more fun to do that..it was liking finding a really good treasure at the junk store or something.
The chain I used on this one was something I salvaged last year when I cleaned my closet out and was tossing stuff.

 Ok you tell me...what is your eyes drawn to first in the above picture? Is it the lens that I have covered in the filmstrip sticker with old images or is it of my metal buddies? The armadillo? Well for me it's both but believe it or not those armadillos hold a memory for me. Suzie sent me two of them and said that she thought that I might find some use for them....oh she was sooo right! I can't say that without telling you all the story though. See I'm in upper east Tennessee and I've seen a lot of wild little critters here but for some reason when I first went to Oklahoma I always wanted to see what an armadillo looked like because we don't have those here. Well the first trip poor little Suzie slowed down on the interstate because I screamed ARMADILLO as I spotted a dead one on the side of the road. Now why I wanted to see one is beyond me because I'm not that big on wild critters, I'm not a hunter or anything like that it was just something I wanted to see...kind of like tumble weed or something. Anyway, before I went last year she was telling me what a mess an armadillo was making of their yard and they weren't having much luck getting rid of the thing. They are apparently a real problem and just cause havoc to your yard. So as I was sitting on her porch one late night last summer I kept hearing the strangest noise I had ever heard in my life..it was a clickity clackity nose. Suzie had gone in the house to get her something to drink I believe so there I was all alone sitting under the little twinkly lights on her pergola and listening and trying to figure out what this strange noise was when all of the sudden I spotted it! Oh My Goodness it's the armadillo!!!!!!!!! I couldn't scream because I didn't know what this elusive critter would do if he heard some half cocked hillbilly screaming at the top of her lungs...would he dart at me or would he run..what would he do? He was right in front of me when Suzie came outside and I quietly whispered.. "armadillo" and pointed in it's direction. Suzie looked and said "oh that's not one that just Gracie" (her cat). I thought to myself boy oh boy my night meds must of really kicked in because where I'm from cats not only don't look like that but don't sound like that either. But then all of the sudden she looked again and said "YES THAT'S IT, lets get it!" So inside she went to get her hubby's pistol but Charlie...as I named him, was already on the run. So what better way to try to catch an elusive wild animal that to hop on a bright pink golf cart and chase him all the while trying to aim a pistol at it. Uhhh may I just say here that plan was never going to work out not to mention it wasn't exactly safe. So he got away that night even though we went back with the help of Don and set a trap for him. We checked it the following day but Charlie was smarter than that because he wasn't in it. The next night then as I was sitting out late under those same pretty twinkly lights of the pergola just enjoying the peace and quiet I hear Charlie on the move again and went inside and told Suzie that he was out there. So her and Don shot into action and needless to say Charlie rein of havoc was put to an end that night. But not before I checked him out good. For those of you who have never seen one but wondered (if there is anyone) they basically look like a possum with a hard rigged shell that isn't solid..it's actually kind of interlocking which is what makes it do the clickity chackity noise. I'll show a picture at the bottom if your interested.

 But for now back to the cameras....I wanted to tell you the story of Charlie so you would get the armadillo thing and since my pictures of that trip went in the mini album inside I figured it was the perfect thing for decoration.

 Then I thought I'd show you another version of the camera. I might should mention that the cameras themselves are handmade as well. I talked about that in my other post with the shabby chic camera.

 I made my handle for this one using some of my mixed beads and such...

 The pearls that are around the camera lens are some that my mothers friend Nancy had sent us and they came from her mothers stash and I just love them. Thanks again Nancy!

Ok here is Charlie. I held it up because I live with two avid hunters and for some odd reason when they kill something they always want to pose with them. It was taken more to be a funny so I could show my husband, son and brother. Poor Charlie...I should of named him Earl. (insert Dixie Chick song here). This is probably the only time in my life that you will EVER see me that close to a wild dead animal EVER! By the way, that tshirt I have on...that is where Carrie Underwood went to school and not far from Suzie's. It's where we make our runs to Sonic at! Yum!

Have a good day all!

Mixed Media Art.....Candy Creek

 Hey everyone! I'm back with my last post of the day. If you all have been reading my blog you all know that around this time last year I decided that I was going to take some painting classes...?? Well shamelessly I posted the outcome and still laugh at my work. As badly as I want to know how to paint it just isn't going to happen. I'm apparently not one of those people who know how to "color within the lines". I've been told that I have a heavy hand when it comes to painting and that I don't hold my brushes correctly. I don't hold a pen or pencil the way others do either but that's only because when I was in kindergarten I was a little lefty and back then that was apparently a no no because my teacher would tie my left hand behind my back and make me write with my right. So I just hold my brushes, pens, pencils different......oh well back to the canvas at hand and to tell you where I was going with the above little story.

 I found with mixed media I don't have to "stay within the lines" or brush this way or that way or roll the brush in the vanguard roll or whatever its called. Mixed media to me seems to be more of a manner of expression more than worrying if you have something perfect. I may be wrong on that but that's the way that I feel about it and I love it. I did this piece at the wee hours of the morning as well and I refused to go to sleep that night before it was done! Many years ago I did paper piecing to go in my scrapbooks..I'm not sure if they still call it that or not but anyway that's how I made my little girl on the canvas and then the butterfly I found in a paper pad I had and I fussy cut that and stuck it on there. I just kept adding things I loved...well it doesn't have everything I love on it but it has a lot of it.

Ok so are you wondering now why I made a sign that says Candy Creek? It's not just because that's the name of my blog and such. I'm thinking about doing youtube videos and I know most of the girls and guys have their sign so people know who it is they are watching. I was thinking if I can get up enough nerve I may try it. I'm not a shy person at all but for some reason getting on camera and doing that scares the living daylights out of me. I guess because maybe I'm my own worse critic on things and I know that they are a lot of people who have nothing else to do but to sit and diss others on the videos. I suppose that's with everything in life though..they are always going to be haters. Constructive criticism is much welcome but just to be downright ugly and mean and put people down just to be doing it is totally uncalled for in my book. So I thought if I went ahead and made my sign and kept looking at it sitting my craft room then it would give me the incentive to jump in head first and go for it.
So what do you all think? Would you like for me to do my tutorials in videos for you? Or do you all understand and get more out of the still picture tutorials? Let me know...I need some feedback here please.
Hugs to all...I'm off to the craft room to finish up some things.

Clothes pin magnets...

Hi everyone! Just thought I'd share these little magnets with you all. I don't remember if I told you that I was trying to build up some inventory of all my craft work so hopefully I can do some fairs this fall or maybe even possibly late summer. That's why your seeing some of my things in the packaging. I'm not sure with my health if I'll be able to pull it off or not but I'm not going to say that I can't until I try it and it's something that I've been wanting to do forever so I'm going for it full blast. If I can't do the craft fairs then Etsy here I come! Other than the birthday gifts I showed in the last couple of posts I'm planning on selling those things. Its not only going to be just paper crafts though..remember I do jewelry and sew as well but I figured that I needed to get the paper crafts out of the way first and then move on to sewing and I've already done a little bit of jewelry making. Ohhhh I made some bookmarks as well...well they are bookmarks or fancy bubble blowers..which ever you want. I'll have to take pictures of those and show you as well.
Ok well that's it for this post.....one more to show you and I think that will be it for today. Go fill your iced tea back up and come on back and sit a spell.

Shabby Chic Camera mini album...

 Happy Birthday Suzie! Hey everyone! Here is something else that I made for Suzie for her birthday which is today as a matter of fact! Woo Hoo! Like I said in my last post Fiona was the lady that I watched making one of these and just had to make one for Suzie. Fiona had actually used a balsa box..like the ones that you get at Michael's but after looking high and low for one I couldn't find one anywhere and was so disappointed and had started working on something else when all of the sudden it was like Fiona had read my mind and she did a video on how to make your own. I used a little bit different material to construct mine and my measurements are different but none the less I did it! (you get a peep at Suzie's husband Don in the camera lens. He is the one that's always taking pictures of us when I visit them so I felt that it was only appropriate that he be in the spotlight of the lens)

 At the time I didn't have any of the gorgeous laces that she used so I had to go with what I had and this was it. I really love how it turned out though.

 I was in the middle of making this one night and it was the wee hours of the morning. I was having so much fun that I didn't want to go to bed. My mind was going 90 to nothing as I fell asleep that night morning thinking of what kind of goodies I was going to put on it and I couldn't fall asleep until I had that all worked out in my head.

As you can see in the back it opens up and I filled it full of my pictures from my trip to Oklahoma last year after I took these pictures to share with you all. I hope that she enjoys it as much as I did making it. Matter of fact....I have a couple more going right now that I can't hardly wait to get to today! I have some new laces and such that I found too and have been taking pictures of the process in case anyone wants a tutorial on how I made it and what my measurements were. Of you can go to jennings644 and watch Fiona make one. I may post my tutorial anyway because my measurements are a bit different and lots of you like looking at the blog but chose to remain silent so since I can't read minds and I see that my tutorials get the most traffic then I guess I'll post one for you all. It would be nice if you would give me some feedback on things though.
Have a great day everyone and I think I have something else to show you...two more things I believe.
Oh and thank you again Fiona for so much inspiration!

Another mini album with tab tops for Debbie..

Happy Birthday Debbie! Hi everyone! I made this little mini for Debbie for her birthday and didn't put any pictures in it because she loves taking pictures of her adorable and I mean adorable little nephews. I can't tell you all just how cute these little fellows are they are just too cute for words. But anyway, I thought that she would enjoy putting the pictures in herself. The album is complete all that it needs are the pictures popped in. I didn't take any pictures of the inside of this mini because it's one that I've showed you all before. I have just used different papers of course. But wanted to share at least the outside with you.
Have a great day and oh by the way...I'm not done posting today yet. I have something else that I want to show you that Fiona inspired me and taught me to do so go grab you something to drink and come on back and sit a spell.

3D Mixed Media Canvas Art....

 Hi all and Happy Birthday to Suzie and Debbie!! I've been itching to share with everyone these canvas's that I made but had to wait until I knew that Suz and Deb got their packages. I had the most fun making these and am really starting to love mixed media stuff in general. I made another mixed media canvas that I'll share with you in another post but for now let me explain these. First off let me say that I got my inspiration from watching Fiona on youtube. She is Jennings644 on there and if you haven't seen some of her work yet then your missing out because she has totally inspired me to try new things. Of course no two of these are the same and so I did do a few things differently on mine.

If your wondering....yes those are real tree limbs that I added to sit my little birds on. So now a piece of Tennessee is in New Jersey and in Oklahoma! . I will post on here how I cut the canvas's and added the music paper if anyone would like to know. Just leave a comment below if you would like me to put a tutorial on here. I did take some pictures while I was making them just in case.
Hope you enjoyed looking and Fiona, thank you so much for inspiring me. Your an amazing crafter! Plus HAPPY BIRTHDAY again to Suzie and Debbie. I love you both to pieces and hope that you enjoy your gifts! (pssst yes I have more of their gifts to share with you)
Stick around or come back soon because I have more to post...today!
p.s. Suzie sorry I forgot to paint the eye back in your bird after I painted it. Will you do that for me with a speck of black paint please? Poor little birdie

Painted boxes and some earrings...

 In between everything else that I've been doing and since my paint was already out and I was waiting on it to dry a little (without the assist of my heat gun) I took the opportunity to go ahead and paint these cardboard boxes that I've had forever to use to put some supplies in. The large one I put my dimensional flowers in so that they don't get crushed and the small square on I'm using to put my mulberry paper leaves and smaller flowers that are also dimensional. I was really trying to take the pictures so that the "flowers" aka mess that I painted on the tops didn't show but they still did. Sorry to blind you all

 Remember I told you all that I WASN'T a fine art painter in an earlier post tonight...well I'm not a tole painter either even as hard as I've tried and as much as I'd love to be. That is just something that I can't seem to get the hang of. But the stripes and polka dots are cute I think and since these aren't going to be given as a gift and only used by myself to house my things...then I'm ok with it. Just thought I'd share.

Here is some earrings that I've made in the last little bit as well. Like I said I can't show you what I've been working on the most recently because they are gifts but I'll be sharing all of that once I know the birthday gifts get to the recipients.
Have a great night all and I'll be back soon!

Recipe books

Here is a project that I saw several years ago wrote down all the measurements and finally got around to making. It was inspired by Marion Smith and so help me I can't find a link anymore for it but she works with Prima if that helps. I believe in giving credit where credit is due but all that my notes said was who inspired me to make these. If I find the link I will add the link to this post. They were fun to make but took quite a bit of paper. What's a recipe book though with just a couple of places to put recipes right?
I have one more post to share with you all but then I'll have to stop until I can get what I've been working on the most recently on. Reason being is because they are birthday presents that haven't received those intended for and I don't want them seeing them on my blog and ruining their surprise. I'll be sure to post them though because I have been having an absolute blast with them.
If you not asleep yet from trying to catch up then stick around cause there is more to come.

A few cards I've made lately....

 Ok so for all you really good card makers out there that do the cards that are interactive and such, this post will bore you all to pieces. I'm am not and never have claimed to be a wonderful card maker like say......oh lets take Barbara from over at Barbara's World of Whimcees that you can link to on the right side of my page. But these are some that I've made and even though they aren't interactive or over the top they are handmade and I made them.

 If you never try something then how do you know if you can do it or not. Kind of like me taking the art classes last year. (uhhhh yeah....I'm NOT a fine art painter! and that I know for a FACT!)

Here are some more that I made as well. They are all blank on the inside. I packaged them up and will be selling those whenever I get enough inventory together to do a craft fair. I have a long way to go before I'm going to be able to do that but I'm working as hard as I possibly can. Remember those 2 monster card thingies I bought last summer? Well I have to have enough cards to at least fill one of those up! Needless to say I have more cards to make but I'm so bad about getting burned out if I do nothing but the same type of project over and over and never changing it up that I'll just shut the craft room light off and not walk in it again for.....TO LONG!
More projects to share tonight?......why YES I do so stay tuned!

More mini's....

 Yep more mini's! When I told you all that I had been busy I wasn't just whistling Dixie! Good thing is with me feeling as bad as I have over the past 6 months or so I figured I could sit and work 15 mins, stand and work 15 mins...walk that off around the house and then sleep while I was laying flat. Actually, doing these crafts has kind of helped me forget about how bad that I've been feeling but I'm going into all of that cause that is just being a "negative Nellie" and who wants to hear that mess all the time. So anyway back to the mini's at hand. These are mini that I've made before as well. They are the ones that I told you about that Elsa from Just a Few Designs taught me how to make. You can find her blog on the right side of my page and if you haven't yet please check her blog out. She is such a good teacher and has really inspired me to get in my craft room and create!

 Here is another one...

and another one.
Thank you Elsa for doing a tutorial on how to make the little pages in these mini's. It is quickly becoming one of my favorites.....if it isn't already!
More posts to come....YES tonight! Can you believe it?

Here a mini there a mini....

 Remember several posts back I told you all that I had been busy busy and was trying to stay ahead so I'd have something to share with you all more often rather than sporadically? Well the problem with that is...I wasn't stopping to take time every day to post what I done the day before and such. The reason I wanted to stay ahead is because when I get sick or go down (like what happened to me this winter) then I don't have anything to share with everyone and I feel that my blog and followers (the few I have) have given up on me. So I'm going to try my best to do better. Anyway, here are 3 more mini's that I did recently.

 They are all 3 the same kind that I believe I called my file folder mini's and I showed months ago with you all the insides and I think that I did the tutorial on how to make.

As far as a tip that I learned along the way with these mini's...well it's not really with just this mini album it's for any paper crafting. I know that a ton of you all love butterflies and love to incorporate them in your projects as much as I do and that about as many of you all have the same Martha Stewart punch like I've made the butterflies in the above mini's with. Well here's the tip...now when I'm cleaning off my craft table getting ready to start another one and I have just snippings of paper. You know the kind that aren't really large enough to do anything with for another project but you still hate to throw it away....just keep your butterfly punch out and use up those scraps. I simply keep mine on the table and as I digging thru the piles of stuff putting things away and I run across a scrap piece to small to put in the scrap drawer I punch it right the butterfly right then and put it in my butterfly jar. You can see in the above pictures how I layered 3 punched butterflies and made them 3 dimensional. So don't feel guilty anymore and by all means try not to waste that expensive paper. Oh I might should note...I kept saying in the above pictures...what I meant to say was the middle picture is the one I layered and the one that I punched myself. The butterflies in the top and last picture came from a paper collection that I had and all that I did was add stickles and glossy accents to those. Sorry I didn't mean to confuse anyone. I just have used a lot of the punched butterflies lately that I've layered and put on projects.
Geeeesh! That shopping trip today took more out of me than I realized I think.
More posts to come in just a little bit. Hopefully I can stay focused enough to type something that sounds remotely knowledgeable.

It wasn't me! (so she says)

 Ok this is for all those ladies and gents out there that have pets that seem the darndest things happen to them and get blamed for it. Here is one of those instances. See while I was busy as a bee in my craft room, Zoe was in the living playing and minding her own business when all of the sudden it started raining little shreds of paper everywhere. Of course since she was the only other living creature in the house besides myself at the time and the ONLY one in the living room she was instantly blamed for it.

When I walked in and asked Zoe what had happened, this is the look that I got from her. That is the look as if to say "what it wasn't me! I don't know what happened!" I'm sure she was totally innocent in the whole ordeal too. I mean seriously could anything this sweet EVER do anything like this? Uhhh huh that's what I thought! So now I'm on high alert for the invisible paper shredder person that is sneaking in our house. BEWARE you all might have one as well.
More craft posts in a little bit...stay tuned.

Zoe's mini albums...

 Hi everyone! Thought that since I can't do anything else but lay on the heating pad and rest after my day out shopping at Michael's HUGE sale today I would try to catch you all up on what all I've been doing lately. Oh by the way, if you haven't heard about the sale.....you need to go see for yourself. It was amazing and I believe I have given new meaning to shop til you drop. Thank goodness that there is a bench at the front of the store because that's where my mom had to go sit and wait on me to find all the things that were on my list. I'm wondering had I went and joined her on the bench for at least a 15 min break if I would of been able to shopped another couple of hours or even another hour. I'm afraid that she would of given me a switchin' (that means spanking in hillbilly terms) had I been any longer than I was. She wasn't real happy with me as it was because I had taken longer than she thought I'd be. Sorry mom...those deals were just too good to pass up but I had fun getting to spend time with her.
Ok so now back to what I've been doing. Remember I was blessed with my little dog Zoe back in December. Well with all of the pictures I have been taking of her I wanted to make her a mini album to put all those in. I wound up making two for her though. The first one I made and then enjoyed making it so much that I decided to do another knowing full well that I'd fill them up.

 I haven't taken any pictures of the insides of them. The pages inside aren't anything new from what I've done before so I want bore you all to death with pictures but I did want to point something out that I made on the outside for my closure for the second album I made for her. You all know how much I love butterflies. Well I had found at the Dollar store the cutest little bobby pins that had a pearl flower at the end of them and had no idea what I was going to do with them when I bought them last summer. But I figured it out...they make PERFECT bodies for butterflies! Look at the picture below. Super simple and I hadn't seen that done anywhere else and didn't know if anyone had even thought of it so thought I'd share that. I've always loved to look in unusual places for things to use in a different kind of way and the bobby pins weren't an exception. I think that these were intended for little girls for sure but don't walk past the little girl stuff. You wouldn't believe what all I've found and use from the little girls section not only in hair accessories but in the little girl or boy for that matter toy section. El Cheapo Toys not fittin' for kids works great sometimes in mini's or on other craft projects. I don't know if they still sell them now but years ago before the rhinestone bling stuff became so popular I used to buy bling from the toy section that was intended for little girls to peel and stick on their fingernails. You never know what you might find.

Stick around....there's more posts to come TODAY!