Mini Makers Challenge

Welcome to my blog. What a beautiful fall day we are having. During our week of rain I started working on this entry for this months Mini Makers Challenge HERE   

The front of this journal, was a 2 year old Halloween tag I made from free handing a house on some mat board I purchased at a resale shop.  The tag has been in my fall box of goodies as I never gave it to anyone at the time.  So I've repurposed.

So it is now the cover of this Mini journal and I had just enough mat board to make the back side. I used rings to bind it. The "Happy" Witch was made from paper, yarn for her hair and her face was distressed tissue paper.Her little broom a skewer and some twine bristles. 

 The paper with the netting was embossed with a huge spider web, but not showing up so well in this photo.

 Most of the backgrounds are kraft paper, with applied gesso. 

 A little paper bag for a few tags. 

 A burlap wide ribbon for a pocket 

 A little paper bag for a pocket                              Some card stock folded for a pocket

Another paper embossed with Halloween wording.

And the rear door. for entry.

Thank you for stopping by. Have a great week enjoying what you love.

WOYWW #489

A warm Sunny Welcome.. It's great to have you stop by to see what's on my desk this Wednesday. Ms. Julia over at the STAMPING GROUND  and all her visiting desk sharer's will welcome you also.


Have a few of the corrugated leaves painted.  Will continue with the flowers, when I know more about the theme of my use.

Applying gesso to some kraft paper for pages in a couple of journals.

 And some of the trims I've gathered up for the same project.

I plan to tea/coffee dye papers today.  I posted how I did it outdoors on packing papers but this will be inside on copy paper. Too much wind here for any outdoors work. Will also post the process when I finish up. Have the whole day to make a mess. DH is in the field taking out corn.  Beans by Friday?

Thanks for stopping by and for all the great comments last week.  Hope you are enjoying some good weather. It is finally a bit "Fall-ish" here.  

New Creations

It's been a dark, rainy, cold few days around here. But have enjoyed catching up on many projects.

A birthday card for a dear friend. 

A CD used for a retirement card for a man who collects records.  And is a huge Beatles fan 

"NO MORE 8 DAYS A WEEK"    thought up by my DH.   He's so clever.  

The blue and green was the one side of the CD  so I  made a HAPPY RETIRE MENT message.

And no doubt will have some Sunshine time coming up in their travels.

And another card for our Sister In Law

I prefer to make lots of  layers on all my cards, but with  postage costs and special visits to the Post Office I decided it's time to just simple layers with paper.  If I can deliver in person I can be lots more creative. 


THANKS  for visiting, have a wonderful week. 

WOYWW #488

Welcome fellow deskers and special visitors.  With all the doom and gloom outdoors I've had some time to begin projects sitting here and there.   This is the day we share our work spaces and our hostess Julia at the STAMPING GROUND has details on her blog. Just in case you want to visit others or partake.

This is packaging I received from ordering some essential oil products. Some parts of it are large enough I thought I could re-purpose it into items to use in my card making or journals.

It has a lot of texture and I hope to use some of my new inks--baked oxides or sprays on them.
Will keep you posted.

You might be interested in a few other posts from this past week. Hit my "Home" button at the top and you can scroll about.  Re purpose of  packaging and my "Nice Day" version of using tea/coffee stain. And more about my "Hinge" Journal .

Thanks for stopping by, Sun is forecast for Thursday, so drying out, improving attitudes, being able to have a clean vehicle and dry shoes will be most welcome.  And maybe I'll be motivated enough to make rounds commenting. Last week was a totally depressing week. Couldn't muster up the proper attitude to do quite a few things.  Keeping my fingers crossed. 

Excitement at the Mini Album Makers Challenge.

What a wonderful surprise this early Sunday morning.  My "Metal Hinged" Junk Journal  was chosen as the Design Team Favorite for the month of September  over at the "Mini Album Makers Challenge" and blog hop. 

                                          Winner at Mini Album Makers 

A huge "THANK YOU" to the entire Design Team for this honor.  Please stop over and see the other five  chosen for their unique and beautiful entries.  I am always amazed at peoples creative talents in creating. And "Junk Journals" have no limits.  New, Used, Frilly, Funky, themed for your days pleasure. 

Photos and Design information are here on my blog, by clicking here  September Challange 

Thanks to  everyone for all the lovely comments and inspiration along the way. May your days be blessed.

REUSE OF PACKAGING PAPER Tea and Coffee Staining

Welcome, a few days back we had Sunshine and No wind.  I had received a package and the paper stuffing inside made  me all energized to stain it.

I save plastic ice cream containers and these are labeled as Coffee Dye and Tea Dye.  I use instant coffee/water and add left over coffee from the pot to replenish.  I use 6/8 tea bags various kinds to boiling water and leave in this container in my refrigerator until I need to use it either for fabric or paper.  Working outdoors was fun and easy clean up. 

This paper was one long sheet, crumbled within the box .  Maybe 24 ft or so. Made 4/5 ft lengths to work with on the table. 

I took my dyes, paper, brush to the outside patio table and  applied the coffee to some and the tea to some.  At the time never thought of doing both on some paper.   I then left it to dry in the sunshine.

Here I took a few wet teabags and dabbed them around. 

When I brought them in I literally  hung them on  hangers

They are now folded, waiting to be cut and used in my paper makings.  Was a good creative day.
Thanks for visiting. Have a fun filled day. 

WOYWW # 487

Happy October !  Dark,  gloomy, misty, cool, but things will improve hoping sooner than later.
It's the day to share our work space...over at the STAMPING GROUND is where you can see more. Other places to visit or even share your own.  It's addictive.

My desk shows lots of goodies from a thrift store for under $1.  I've been sorting papers for making another journal. With the holidays approaching I have to get a few cards created also.

Last week we had great weather, 3 funerals and visits with lots of families losing loved ones.
I took some time to paint some wooden things waiting for a sunshiny day and no wind.

Even the little yellow moths were enjoying some time out.  There were 3x as many here until I closed in on them for the photo.  

We have had many birds stopping by for water, bugs, bread crumbs on their way migrating south.
And Bailey our cat loves watching them from window to window.

Wishing you all a great week, have a happy WOYWW kind of day.

WOYWW #485

Welcome, I am running late. It is a dark, cold, raining morning.  It's a fly by Wednesday and I'm sharing my desk with a great group at the STAMPING GROUND

My desk has nothing, was a busy week mostly away, but my DH went to a farm sale and brought me home a treasure.

The old wooden sorting bin. Have wanted one for a long time. He power washed it, I sanded a few rough spots and cleared off a space on my sewing table, which now I think will be used mostly for making journals. Wood and Fabric. He is a true blessing.  Makes my spirits bright. 
After clearing away a few things, I also sorted some old tattered lace and doilies and got a sewing machine to work !  Today will be fall/Halloween items to make a few things also.

I did empty one box of fall decor, arranging here and there

Have yet to put out my witch collection, but the week looks dreary so can get a few things inside done. 

Thanks for visiting and the input on larger, darker print. I totally agree. It seems better.  Thanks for the comments last week too.  Enjoy some great time doing what you love. 

Mini Challange--Mini Journal

Excited to share another "Mini Challenge Journal"  over at  Mini Album Makers Challenge

I was inspired by Anne @ Redanne  who created a vintage looking domino album,  just the cutest of a "MINI" I've seen in a while.  Please do pop over and visit her, I'm sure you will enjoy it. And she lists all the info on the giveaway and September challenge at the Mini Album Makers blog.  

My "Mini" measures 1 1/4"W x 1 3/4"L .  I have had the image stamp shape photo for a long time and sorry to say no idea where it came from.  I added a little wooden bird in the corner. 

 I then cut an oval shape paper accordion giving me 10 mini oval pages. I distressed the pages with Tim Holtz distress ink, Vintage photo

The next challenge was finding mini images. I found some tiny bird like stamps on card stock I had in a folder of images. And some tiny stick on flowers, I placed in a few corners 

I then found some tea dyed scrap ribbon for the closure.           

I had so much fun making this. Not realizing how hard it would be to find "MINI" images. Ideally hand lettering, or free had drawing would be ideal.  Not any of those talents within my fingers. But the challenge was a fun one and I thank Anne for her blog post for this challenge. 

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you enjoyed your visit.

WOYWW #484

Welcome to our Wednesday sharing of the work spaces.  Ms Julia at the STAMPING GROUND is our hostess and she has all info to partake or peep about others from all over the world.

I am trying something with Bold print and one larger font. I have been having trouble seeing some of the blogs I visit and thought this might be easier.  What are your thoughts?  

Sorry for not many visits, we've had stress, some fun visits and many days away. Prayers are appreciated for our young friends who have an early little girl, who is in special care only weighing in at 1 lb 2 oz. Ellie Grace. Thankfully,  Her mother Ivy is improving with the help of the very best doctors in Iowa City to get her thru this traumatic event. My facebook page has some photos.

Also for a neighbor gal who was air lifted to Mayo for critical issues following an ATV accident. A belt broke on the 4 wheeler, flipping on top of her. 

My desk:

 Tiny little feathers I picked up while we attended the Spencer fair.  They came from parakeets, which were caged and by paying $3 to go in a large wire cage and you could feed them from a stick with birdseed attached.  Lots of colors and lots of birds.   I thought it a bit out of the ordinary, but if I was a bird in a normal cage this would be an adventure, but could result in being too heavy from eating so much. !!  I did not take my phone so missed some good photos. But we walked from 11 am to 5:30 pm looking and looking.  My legs are wore out.  We did take in a few musical tributes, good fair food and wonderful sunshine and cool weather.

Here are a few left overs from my 1st journal  a "Hinged Journal," now completed and shown on the post just below this one you will find photos of the inside.

  Also the red cap by the little plastic container is from Celery Salt spices. I take the red cap off and soak the container to take off the label.  With the 3 different size holes, you can use this for glitter, water, etc.  I started doing this last winter. I soaked cotton balls with Essential oils and used it for helping me clear my sinuses.  Some oils were so strong they melted this plastic.

Have a wonderful week,  THANK YOU to all who commented last week. I will be around this week, I have one day to be here, as the calendar is full.  He's anticipating field work in 2/3 weeks so we cram in short trips before the work begins!