Checking In

I have not posted for a bit, so I thought I'd better check in.  I have been busy beading, but the two projects I am working on have been taking forever to finish.  I am working on two necklaces.  One is peachy something or other, tangerine and brown...ick, right?  it really doesn't look bad.  I like it...it's different!  The other is bronze, gold, cream, transparent and brown with an embroidered cabochon pendant.  I'm not sure how to attach the cab.  I've never beaded a bail and attached one before, so I'm going to be winging it.  And I'm hoping the rope is sturdy enough to handle it because it looks really pretty together. 

I have to go buy some clasps for them also.  But it is getting hot here (low 100's) during the day, and the A/C in my car has been broken for quite some time.  So I don't drive during the day unless it's absolutely mandatory.  Then by the time evening rolls around, the sun has gone down and it's cooled down a bit, all I want to do is stay home.   I'm going to a Craft Night at a friend's house tomorrow evening, and I'm hoping to have at least one of these necklaces done in time to show. 

In between beading on my projects and stuff around the house, I have been busy playing with Studio J and making more scrapbook pages.  I've done quite a few, but I'm going to post just a couple for you to see a glimpse into my world.  The first page was 4th of July when we lived in Plattsmouth, Nebraska in 2006.  It was a tiny little town taken out of the pages of the books of days gone by, and they had a tremendous fireworks display down by the river.  Matthew was so scared of the fireworks.  But did you know that zombies love fireworks?  It's true.  They are attracted to the big booms.  And Matthew loves zombies.  So he played he was a zombie during some of the show to get through it all.  lol.  The pic of him with his head dropped while standing up is his zombie impersonation.  The first pic of Jeff and Sara is one of my all time favorites.  You can click for a larger view.

The 2nd one is of Sara.  We had a beauty day and I put a little bit of makeup on her, then she modeled and posed for the camera.  What a doll!  This was also in 2006.  The thing about this page is that Sara basically made the whole thing herself.  I uploaded the photos and did the clicking, but she made all the decisions on the paper, layout, embellishments, etc.  Didn't she do a great job?

She's so beautiful!!! :D  Sorry I don't have any beading to show you again.  I have been working on things and trying to get them done, but the two things I am working on are very time consuming.  So I hope you have enjoyed this little interim post and you now have a view into my little corner of the world.

Close to My Heart Online Scrapbooking

I discovered something really cool!  Online scrapbooking!  No tools to buy, paper and stickers and products to store...NO MESS!!!  I found it through my good friend Beth A. (click here to see more on her website), who is a Close to My Heart representative.  I've got a ton of photos on my computer, and last year when my desk top died I lost sooooo many photos and I was devastated.  This is going to be a fantastic way for me to get my photos into books.  All you do is upload your photos (everything is taken through for you step by step), choose a paper pack of already coordinated papers (there's a ton), choose a layout, and then start making your pages.  It's so easy because it's all drag and drop and click here and there to change colors, embellishments like ribbons, brads, hinges, buttons, etc, stickers and tags, edit text blocks and titles...voila!  You have professional looking scrapbook pages. 

This month they are giving away a free jpg file which includes 2 high resolution files of each page for you to print on your own, and one low resolution file that you can share on the net.  All you have to do is create an account and start playing.  Give it a try!  It's a lot of fun to see everything come together.  And what else is nice is that you can change paper colors and patterns with just a click, and if you don't like it you can undo it.  Unlike real scrapbooking where you have to cut up lots of paper, decide you don't like this or that, and then you've wasted stuff.  No glue.  No tape.  No paper scraps.  No crooked cropping.  Here are the two pages I made first.  Now, I did this when I didn't know to click on the different pull downs to access different embellishments and things, so it is just a little plain, but I love it and Matthew loves it (he picked out the paper pack).  Except I realized after I did it that I made a typo.  Figures, huh?  Here's my layout of Matthew's 11th birthday this year.  You can click on it for a larger view.

You can order prints of the 12x12 pages and have them mailed to you also.  That's what I'm trying to talk hubby into letting me do.  I really want to get caught up on my scrapbooking and this makes that task fun and so much less daunting.  I've made 2 more layouts, but I can't show you those since I don't have jpg's of them.  If Jeff let's me order some then I will show those to you also.  I'm getting better with a little practice.

So if you would like to learn more about Studio J, contact Beth A. here through her website.