A Beautiful New Arrival

WELL! ! ! Aloha!

It’s been a very long time; six month have passed and so much has happened. Unfortunately, not much of it has been crafting. In lieu of crafting, I have achieved my Office Assistant Certificate, my Administrative Professional Certification, got a new/old job, went full time at my new/old job, and I became a gramma. I’m driving a truck again. While it’s not clerical, it is helping me to pay bills and, maybe, getting some accrued bills paid off!

Hopefully, at some point, I will get back to doing some awesome crafting. I have begun a quilt and am planning many scrapbooking pages of baby Casey! Accomplishing some of that should appear in here at some point in the near future…at least not six more months from now!

Until then, here are a few pictures:

Until we meet again ~ Thanks for your patience and for stopping by!

Scrapbooking December Birthdays – adult man-child o’mine

Aloha, my scrappy friends!

At this time of year, one might expect to see demos and examples of Christmas layouts. However, I have to take care of first things first! So, even though I have a sister whose birthday is in December and I always thought that was unfair because, invariably, SOME one combines her bday presents with Christmas ~ I SWORE I’d never have a child in December. Well….I never PLANNED to have a child in December. Any guesses when my very first child was born??? Hint: See the following Pre-Christmas layout.

I do strive every year to keep his birthday separate from ‘The Big Day’; but with each year the green and red appears earlier and earlier, it’s difficult to do. We’ve always waited till AFTER his birthday to deck the halls, put up the tree, start the baking and shopping and wrapping. When he was young, we actually tried to give him the option of celebrating ‘His’ day in a different month, with the caveat that he could have a cake and presents on his ‘substitute’ day, and I’d even make him a bonus cake on his birthday – but not 2 sets of presents. That didn’t work out very well… However, I still to this day try to make a point of trying to celebrate his day and not let it slip into the season.

This year, with a tight budget, I told him that I was going to just make a big pot of spaghetti with some garlic and Parmesan french bread, and have his brothers and all their girlfriends over for dinner and cake.

How Ben ‘Celebrates’ 33!

The journaling says: Ben’s 33rd Bday. He told his brother what he wanted for dinner (my homemade pizza), but he didn’t tell ME. After 32 years of baking birthday cakes for him, he didn’t tell ME that he doesn’t eat cake anymore (he’s dating a gluten-free vegan). It may not have been a ‘perfect’ day, but we did celebrate the passage of time with family ♥

Next: I am currently working on a video of the mini-album that I made for my mom for Christmas. It turned out better than I expected and adorable!!! There’s your preview of coming attractions.

I’d also like to take this opportunity, as long as we are talking “sneak previews”, to share my favorite Christmas gift with all of you. This came from my 2nd son and his wife:

MUCH Aloha to all! and a Happy New Year!

Creek Walk ~ Scrapbooking a Double Page Layout with 30 Pictures !

Aloha to all my Crafty Friends!

Just a little update:

This week I sent off the embellishments from the  contest that I drew the 2 winners from 2 weeks ago. Each package has 12 different florettes, several of which were in the video on how to make them, and then I added a few more. I’m still amazed that they are traveling all the way to India and want to say thank you, again, to Konica and Jesse for participating!

We still have our house guest, borrowing my craft room, as she works on lining up her ducks for the next phase in the adventures of life. This week, as we talked, she mentioned that being in nature really helps her to relax and feel connected, so I told her about the creek by my house. I love the creek; I love watching the seasons and cycles of wildlife and water. I like having a place to get away from the traffic without having to go too far from home. Throughout the seasons, I have taken quite a few pictures of the characters and points of interest along the path. Someone has a collection of different varieties of exotic chickens. There is a massive bee population in one of the trees that you have to make sure you stir clear of in the summer. Boysenberries ripen along the steep drop to the creek all summer long. Squirrels scamper across branches, leaping from limb to limb, when they aren’t stopping to bark at you. As I shared it with her, I decided that’s what I would share with you this week too.

For this double paged layout I squeezed in THIRTY pictures. Of course, many of them are small 2×2 inch closeups of some of the highlights along the path. The larger photos are ‘approximately’ 3.5×5 inches. I trimmed each one to be as close to a proportional match as it needed to be to fill the spaces that opposed the 2×2 block groupings. It’s as simple as that. I fit in a little journaling and felt that with so many pictures, extra embellishments would just look cluttered. It seems like a lot to hear that number, but each photo I didn’t include felt like a sacrifice. I’m pleased by having sorted and chosen just these 30 precious memories and made a cohesive layout. I hope you agree!

Remember, you can click on each image to enlarge if you would like to see the 2 inch photos of leaping, or up-side-down bird-seed-snitchin’ squirrels, ducks, turtles, mistletoe, cranes, berries, grapes, rusty old red truck, and various flowers!

This coming week is Finals for me, and I’m not sure if I might take a break for a week or two, with Christmas and job hunting on the horizon. On the other hand, I might be so happy to be out of school that I’ll throw a party on the island! At this point, that would be a loveliest surprise! We’ll have to wait and see!

Until then ~ Mahalo and Much Aloha ~

Remember, during What can sometimes be a hectic time of year, take time to ground your self with some physical activity and reconnect with the serenity and gifts of nature.

Mele Kalikimaka!

 

Not Scrapbooking, For a Change ~ Quilting!

…Although, I’m Sure I’ll Scrap It at Some Point!

Aloha, my crafty friends ~

This week there has been a change in the  population of my island. We have a visitor who washed up on the shore last Wednesday. She is hoping a rescue ship will sail by sometime in early January. In the meantime, she has set up a lean-to in the middle of my island. The plan is to have access and be back to playing there next month.

In the meantime, with limited access on the island, I’m going to pull an older project out of my treasure chest to share with you this week in the form of a beautiful Rainbow Quilt. This quilt was an eleventh hour decision to be an attention-getting raffle quilt for  an event that I was privileged to participate in two years ago. (Note the length of my hair back then! HA!) I bought the fabric and threw this together in a very focused and concentrated effort, working on it each evening; I had to put it together in about three weeks.

As this project happened two years ago, before this blog was a twinkle in my eye, this will merely be a ‘Show & Tell’ post. My best guess is that the strips were 2 1/2 inches, and the individual blocks were 6 1/2 inches? Instructions for this pattern, Irish Chain, are pretty easy to put together and prolific on YouTube in a range of measurements to your liking. Mostly, you’ll get the motion of  the quilting process, and we’ll establish that I may go into more detail on another quilt project sometime in the new year!

This quilt was a raffled to help my  ELCA/RIC church, meet our neighbors at the Gay Pride Parade in Guerneville, CA, in 2012.    It was titled Rainbow Sherbert and was won by a lovely lady from Santa Rosa.

So, that’s about it for this week. I am looking forward to getting back to the island. I may have to sneak in closer to Christmas.

For now, mahalo for stopping by ~~~

~ My Isle of Entropy ~

Scrapbook Embellishment Winners: Where Are You?

Aloha my crafty friends!

So, two weeks ago I posted a blog and video about making some of your own embellishments and offered to send some to two people who cross-referenced themselves in comments to that blog. I said that on December 1st I would have a drawing from those names and announce the winners. I’m pleased to announce that we have some winners!!!

Konica and Jesse ! ! !

Now I just need you two to check you Facebook messages and email and get back to me. Congratulations and thank you both so much for participating. Who would have thought this blog would have reached so far. Totally exciting!

So, while I wait for their response, I’d like to share with you my proudest accomplishment and share that winning feeling. Here are two pages that I did in the past, but cherish as much today as when I put them together.

These are my four sons~ Ben, Jeff, David, and Michael; circa 1989

 The little tag inserted into the top of the page says~

When I was in 3rd grade my girlfriend’s dad asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up?

The page answers~

The only thing I ever really knew I wanted to be: Your MOM

These are my four sons on the best Mother’s Day, so far; circa 2011

The insert says~

Mother’s Day 2011

I told the boys that for Mother’s day I wanted them each to prepare a course for dinner from scratch;

all plans were up to them to coordinate. They each brought a course:

Michael ~  Green Salad with feta cheese and strawberries

Ben ~ Crab Ravioli with Fettuccine Sauce

David ~ Salmon with Raspberry Sauce

Jeff ~ Chocolate Cake * decorated!

You Guys Rock!!!

I hope to hear from my winners soon. I hope that all of you are planning a Mele Kalikimaka. I’d love to hear your plans!

Feel free to share your Crafty Christmas plans in the comments.

 

Mahalo & Aloha ~~~

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving Card & Custom Envelope

Aloha, crafty friends!

Perhaps this isn’t what you were expecting as a Hallmark-ish version of a Thanksgiving card. However, technically, is is every bit of a really appropriate giving of much thanks!

My oven has been dying and unreliable for several months. For the most part, we’ve been putting off the repair and getting by with the stove and the microwave until I’m out of school and …well…. employed! However – the holiday season is upon us! How can we go through Thanksgiving (and Christmas) with no pies and cookies, and an extra heat source in the house that has the bonus of smelling heavenly! So, when my sister asked if I could bring the pumpkin pie for turkeyday, I had to throw in the towel on being a house-repair-miser. (And, believe me, this is only the first of several that were/are on my ‘once I’m re-employed’ to-do list.)

So, Social Media Maven that I now am(bwaahahahaha), I went on Facebook (currently the 3rd largest search engine in use) to find a reliable local repairman. I found Richard’s Appliance Service in Santa Rosa, CA. They advertise: “Your Time is Valuable, so we provide fast service and we’ll call ahead at work or cell… No waiting!” I called a 9:30am; they were at the house at 1:30pm. Sean did a great job and now I am Holiday-Ready and genuinely SO very grateful to have my oven working again that I thought they rated a personalized card! Here goes!

To celebrate my newly repaired oven, the second the repairman left I immediately started baking cookies, of course! With this card in mind, I took pictures. (Taking an acceptable picture was the most time consuming part of making this card! Those pans of cookies just wouldn’t settle down!) I uploaded the pictures to my computer and created the front of the card with MS Word 2007 <–which is a bit difficult once you are used to using 2010!!!

Next, I set out to create an envelope big enough for my card, which means an adventure in my craft room. YAY! Here are the supplies that I used:

With large cards I find it’s easiest to make an envelope using 2 pieces of paper appropriate for covering the size of card you made and taking into consideration a coordinating print. if desired. After printing my card out, I folded it and trimmed it down a little to about 5 x 8 inches. Since my card was going to men, I felt I should use craft paper would give it a masculine feel. For the envelope:

Trim one piece of Craft paper (or your choice of cardstock) a 1/4 to 1/2 an inch larger than your card. This will be the ‘Back’.

Trim a second piece of paper to 1/2 inch larger than the first  on 3 sides, and 1  1/2 inches on the fourth side. This 4th side will be the opening of the card pocket. This piece will be the ‘Front’ of you envelope.

Next, I used my Martha Stewart Scoring Board and scoring tool to gently compress the pending folds of the envelope at the 1/2 inch and the 1  1/2 inch measurements. Then I cut out the corners using my corner rounder on the 1 1/2 inch flap, and pressed the folds with the scoring tool and glued the smaller  piece of paper in place as the back of the envelope.

I wrote my letter of gratitude (Zig Archival Ball pen – purple) and used the Tsukineko Terra Cotta,Walnut Ink spray  in my fancy-schmancy spray box. I had to dry it a bit with my heat tool because it stayed wet for quite a while! (I don’t think I had this problem in the summer. Hmmmn…)  I sponged the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Aged Mahogany and Dusty Concord. Next I used my favorite go-to rubber stamps with the Dusty Concord distressed ink on both the envelope and the card.

I’m so grateful that you stopped by to visit today.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family, friends and Aloha~

Mahalo~

PS. Don’t forget to check in next week to see who will win the Give-Away from last week. If you haven’t entered yet – You and your crafty friends still have till December 1st.

Crafty Friends Embellishment Give-Away Contest

Aloha ~

Here is a quick demo of how I make my florets AND instructions to participate in a give-away that I hope will encourage people to visit my fledgling blog  and let me know you were here, converse, comment! Share the scrap booking aloha! The instructions for the Give-Away will be posted down below. Participation will begin on 11/12/13 and the drawing will occur on 12/1/13. The 2 winners will be notified shortly thereafter. Have your crafty friends c’mon over and play along! ~ myisleofentropy.wordpress.com

http://youtu.be/Lfy-u77ku4o

Obviously, I’m not a professional videographer ~ Sorry, my film card reached capacity while demonstrating, so there is a Part 1 followed by a shorter Part 2:

http://youtu.be/8KKiID-dZx4

The Rules:

1. You and one (or more) of your crafty friends will BOTH view this post (per chance several entries.)
2. Next, each of you leave your own comment at the end of THIS post and include your friend’s name – a version of it that they use in their comment so that I will recognize them as your crafty friend when they post.
3. On December 1st, I will cross reference the comments of this post and find the ‘friends’ who participated. Those sets of names will go into a drawing and one set of friends will be chosen.
4. I will announce the name of the winners shortly after 12/1, contact you for mailing instructions, and ship 5-10 of florets each to you and your crafty friend!

It’s as simple as that. Bonus, hardly anyone knows about my blog, so your odds are REALLY good! Go ahead, email your friend(s) and share my blog. I’m really excited about hearing from you and building community.

Good luck and lots of Aloha!

Halloween Scrapbooking – Things That Go BOO in The Night

Aloha!

This week I’d like to introduce you to my 3rd son, David.

We like Halloween – A LOT! He gets that from me, as well as his crafty imagination…I like to think so, anyway!

This Halloween David decided on a ghost costume. Since one of the hats he wears is an electrician’s apprentice, I think these ‘eyes’ he made were the inspiration for the whole plan. He used VERY strong tape to attach them, and they are wired to a battery pack that he slipped into his pocket. He went dancing in this costume several times, won a “best of” contest, and then sat in wait on the front porch. As you can see, with the lights on, it’s a bit mysterious. But then…he crouched to the side of the porch and waited, very still, while his girlfriend opened the door to mid to large sized trick-or-treaters.

BOO!

My main project for this week’s LO  was to make some of my own embellishments. These included my mini-ghost replica and florets. I used some of the fabric that was left over after I sewed David’s costume – some black tulle, white ‘sort of’ netting fabric for the mini. Initially, I just put a staple through the underlying tulle, corrugated cardboard (I had saved it from some packaging) and the background paper. However, then I didn’t like the raw edge of the netting and I wanted the eyes to stand out more. I tucked the netting edges under the black tulle and adhered them with Tacky Glue.

This week I made bunches of  ribbon and lace florets; more about plans for them next week! For this layout I used two of the lace florets and adorned them with bejeweled spider buttons. Attaching them with pop dots was super easy!

The words were cut from one sheet of Martha Stewart paper and the 3 green bits came from a clearance package of Rusty Pickle punch-out sheet of die cuts that I bought on sale a few years ago. I used Martha Stewart Glitter Glue to write the title; the BOO is from Recollections Glitter Die-cuts on clearance after last Halloween – for that added sparkle! The finished project was fun and easy.

I hope you like it; Let me know!

Mahalo, and Happy Haunting!

These Are a Few of My Favorite Sites ~ Scrapbooking and Card Making

Aloha everyone!

This week I want to do a round up of a few of my favorite scrapbooking and card making sites/blogs. Essentially, what you can do with one, you can do with the other regarding technique. It’s just harder to fit a scrap booking page into an envelope.  ;o)

Some of these are the sites that I go to almost everyday… or at least once a week. As I go through mine, I think it would be GREAT if you thought of yours and would consider sharing them in your comments.

Here goes!

Websites:

Two Peas In a Bucket (There is a new video every morning, Mon-Sat.)

Scrapbook.com (I love the gallery here and shopping, though I like to compare their prices with Amazon.)

Michael’s Crafts  (I’m on their email list, I get more coupons than I can use! if I ever go to the store and can’t find anything to use it on, like if everything I want is already on sale – then I give it to someone else in the store.)

Joann Fabric and Crafts  (Locally, their scrapbooking isle was just reduced dramatically; so they have a very limited selection where I live, but sale prices are pretty good, they are great [and quick] online,  and they are fantastic about coupons.)

Beverly’s Fabrics and Crafts  (This is the only place that I can buy Graphic 45 locally.)

Pinterest – GREAT site for inspiration!!! and most pins click through to directions…and new sites to explore! First – get yourself a beverage and a snack – You’re going to be having fun in here for a while!

Blogs and YouTube Tutorials:

Pretty Paper, True Stories  (No secret, Shimelle’s one of my ‘favourite’ Garden Girls at TwoPeas!)

Limor Webber – Mixed Media Goddess! I LOVE watching her tutorials on YouTube!!!! ALWAYS inspirational!

Ideas for Scrapbookers   Pam Callaghan and Cathy Dippolito – a completely free blog with lots of great ideas and talented contributors

A Beautiful Mess – not specifically about scrapping, but a very fun site to visit!  According to the sisters who co-author this site, it’s about lifestyle: “On A Beautiful Mess you’ll find daily inspiration for crafts, recipes, fashion and decor. We love sharing projects that make life a little bit sweeter.”

Scrapbook – this one seems to have stopped posting in 2011, but has a large archives of what look like good articles on scrapping.

Thinking Inking  – A nine-part series by Jennifer McGuire (from TwoPeas) called Thinking Inking going over all kinds of techniques for Ranger Distressed and Alcohol Inks. Really cool!

The Artistic Avenger –  Baby Wipe and Re-Inker Card Making Tutorial by carriejoeg  aka  http://www.artisticavenger.wordpress.com

YouTube Tutorial  – Absolutely GORGEOUS vintage tag done by Luvleescrappin

YouTube Tutorial  – Altering Vintaj blanks with Alcohol ink by pdmaxfield. Can be used for jewelry, or scrapping embellishments.

Besides these sources, I listed a few card making tutorials in my last blog for the Never-Ending card. Once you get onto Youtube and start looking at directions for cards – you can be shipwrecked for days!

So, there you have a few sites and blogs to keep you busy. As I said before, I’d LOVE to hear about your favorites, too! Please share them in your comments. If I get a bunch, I’ll consolidate your recommendations into one easy to search blog sometime in the future. I believe we are all grow as we share information, passion, and creativity.

Until next time ~ Aloha

My first Never-Ending Card ~ Graphic 45

Aloha!

This week I’ll be showing you my first attempt at a Never-Ending Card. My pictured instructions are very elementary; the instructions are well covered on YouTube, as are many finished cards. By all means, take a look at all you can find. They are really fun, and quite varied! You’ll be amazed at all the ways they can be embellished. For mine, I pretty much just let the Graphic 45 paper do the talking – It’s so beautiful!

These instructions illustrate two 6 inch pieces of card stock. It would be easiest to score each piece as shown by the dashed lines in the drawing, then cut through the exact middle. (Clicking on any photo will enlarge it.)

 

(I drew in the lines only to make it easier for you to see.)

Once cut, two strips will lie horizontally, and the other set will lie vertically. I like using Glossy accents because it gives me a little time to wiggle the paper into place perfectly, and then dries really quickly. In this picture, I actually used too much glue ( I wanted to make sure you saw it.) You really only need a trace amount, making sure it does not go out of it’s boundary square.

Very carefully glue and square the corners of the vertical and horizontal pieces up together. When setting up the second set, make sure that the seams sown the middle match perfectly.

Give the glue a few seconds to dry, or use a very strong tape of your choice. Now you are ready to play.

Decorate as you choose; embellish. Some people add pockets and coordinate them to be as decorative when being revealed from the back side as much as the front. I’ve used a double-sided border sheet from a 6 inch package and written a letter in the blocked area. Additionally, I like to make an envelope to match.

You can see the  progression of the card here.

To see my completed Wizard of Oz Birthday card on

–>YouTube <–Click here!

See my 2nd try, an 8x8in St.Patrick’s Day Card to m’ ma,

Click here –> YouTube,too! <–

Illustration of folds and areas to be embellished:

Here is an excellent and very clear YouTube video of the making of a Never Ending card from another crafty lady, Robin Messenheimer. Thank you to Robin for her inspiration.

I appreciate you coming back to visit, too. Please leave comments and let me know if you are going to try one. I’d love to see it!

Mahalo ~ Mary