My word, I am working on a zillion things at once! I need your help too please! :)

Hi there!  How have you been?  Hopefully great.  I have worked on so many different projects this week I have completely lost count.  I was fortunate enough to have friends come over and help with creating the table decor for Cort's wedding (BIG thank you to Suzanne and Rae, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!),  I have been working on jazzing up the flower girl baskets, (picked up for a quarter each in the big US HWY 12 garage sale expedition a few weeks ago), worked on ATCs for a swap at Read Lead (totally love their stamps), worked on my tutorial for my guest artist feature coming up at Scrapbook News and Review (Sept 6th, hope you will stop in and check it out), worked on a book for a co-workers reception today, working on another little mini project, working on Cort's wedding guest book, and if that wasn't enough, I decided to check out this fun fun new site - The Hive.  Here is where the favor comes in.  ;)  I posted my badge holder as a BEE project to a challenge they are having.  I am really late to the game, since the challenge ends soon.  PLEASE go check out my link and vote for me HERE (I am Pamela Sandy, and number 15).  I would greatly appreciate it!  While you are there, check out the Hive, it is a cool new site.  There are boatloads of creative talented people.  I also posted about joining the hive on my FB page, check it out HERE .  Sned me a friend request if you can't see it, and let me know who you are.  WHEWWWWWWW.......OK, that is it for the begging portion of today's post.  ;)  On to crafty stuff!!!  Look what part of my basement looks like right now (can't show you more, it is too frightful!) ~  

close up shot of some of the almost finished arrangements (26 are partially finished) ~

Here is a sneaky peek at my co-worker's gift which will be posted on the Bind It All blog the first of September, and I will share pics next week ~ 

 

I like how it turned out, I hope she likes it!  I'll explain in more detail what it is next week. I can't really share anything else right now, but next week I will have a BOATLOAD of stuff I can share.  Most of my projects are due to be posted the 1st, or are noooooooooot quite finished, or I haven't cropped the pics yet (too crazy chaotic this w/e, wooooooooooo!).  Of course the wedding decor project is ongoing, and will be for several more weeks.  ;) 

Hope you all have a fab fab fab and creative week.  Take cake, see you next week ~ Pam

Create Beautiful Wedding Decor on a Budget

Helllllooooooooooooooo!  How are you all doing?  Fab?  Super fab?  I hope so!  We have been busy collecting supplies for my daughter's wedding that is coming up October 2nd.  Last weekend I did not create anything, I was busy garage sale shopping on US HWY 12 in Michigan, a giant affair that stretched all the way to Detroit from the western edge of Michigan.  We didn't go that far, but we did go several towns over.  We got boatloads of loot, the majority of it great stuff to use for my daughter's wedding.  She came over this weekend and we got to work creating some things.  Here is a pic of what we accomplished so far ~

How do you like it?  We love it so far.  First, we took the bargain beautiful champagne glasses that I found at a garage sale for only $5.00.  Little story about the glasses ~ the lady having the sale was so kind, she only had 2 new boxes of 4 glasses each in the sale (8 glasses total).  My hubs and I were hesitant to buy them since we needed 10 for the bridal party.  She ran in her house and grabbed 3 out of her cupboard, and sold us all 11 glasses for only $5, can you believe it?  That was SOOOO nice of her!   OK, back to the creating.  I took some brown and gold thick wire and decoratively twisted it around the stems of the glasses.  Meanwhile, my daughter strung some beads that we picked up at half off at JoAnn's and Hobby Lobby (part of our shopping expedition from earlier in the week).  Once she had them strung, I wrapped them around the base of the glasses and secured them with additional fine gold wire.  Then I topped it off with an ivory organdy ribbon bow.  Here are a few close up pics ~

Next we did the cake server and knife in a similar fashion.

We started working on the table arrangements, but just briefly.  We picked up boatloads of clearance sparklie stuff last January, and will be incorporating it into the table arrangements with the half off stuff we picked up at JoAnn's and Hobby Lobby last week.  Here is one more pic where you can see the table arrangement a bit ~

We are also doing some mirrors (two per table, and the catering hall is very kindly letting us borrow her stock so we don't have to purchase any, isn't that AWESOME???). We will put glass vases, bowls, and assorted vessels on each table and have burnt orange floating candles (picked up for 30 cents each during a Hobby Lobby clearance sale in January WOOO HOOOO), ivory votive candles (purchased on sale), and lots of the sparklie glass stones, also purchased on sale.  The catering hall is letting us use her glass bowls and vases as well, isn't that kind?  I also picked up a BOATLOAD of assorted glass bowls, vases, and containers that we will be using as well.   We have lots of pretty little votive holders too, we will show you pics of those in another post.  I will be making aqua table mats out of the spaklie satin (shown above, not stitched yet), and table runners out of the sparklie copper brown organza.  As you probably guessed, the wedding colors are ivory, brown, aqua and burnt orange.  Since it is fall, we are using lots of fall type decor, such as sunflowers, pine cones, leaves, berry stuff, and more.  Kind of a vintagy chic look is what we are going for.  What do you think?  Like it?  I'll keep posting pics as we create more things.  We are on a serious budget, but want to have a beautiful wedding.  Hopefully we will accomplish our goal.  :) 

As to other creative endeavors, this week I will be working on some vintage ATCs for a swap at Red Lead, (going to use some glitter, yippee!) and some projects for Zutter.  I also have a guest blog post coming up somewhere soon, I will let you know when and where the first part of September.  I am super excited, it is one of my very fav places!  Hope you stop in and say hello. 

Well, I am off to Erica's Craft and Sewing Center, my fav, fav, FAV fabric and pattern designer will be there today signing copies of her books.  I am meeting friends, since there are lots of Nancy Halverson fans.  Check out out her newest pattern book at Erica's.  It is loaded with darling projects! 

Have a wonderful week!  Happy creating ~ Pam

A Quick Hello

Hi there!  How is everybody doing?  Holding up in this heat wave?  It has been so dang blazing hot and humid here this summer, we are all tired of the heat.  Our garden has gone completely wild.  Here is a picture from almost two weeks ago ~

Believe me, it is much more of a jungle now!  I made over 150 zucchini muffins yesterday and took them downtown and donated them to our church's inner city Tuesday night dinner and a service program for the local residents.  We also donated lots of cucs, tomatoes, jalapenos and some cherry tomatoes for residents to take home.  It certainly makes the hard work worth the effort when we are able to help feed hungry people. 

I wanted to share two pics of things I made at CHA, they were two of my favorite projects.  The first is a darling little T-shirt I made for the grandbabies (they will have to take turns wearing it) ~

Isn't it super cute?  The products are offered by SEI, and you can customize your tshirt or other fabric item by using various fabric iron ons.  I started with the green monster body and then added the giant eye, the arms, legs, shoes, mouth, tongue, and the band aid.  Love this fun new product line.  They also have ADORABLE coordinating patterned paper and items that would be great for birthday parties.  Love it!

Next, I went to the Silhouette booth over the course of the show (several day project) and made this fab apron for my daughter ~

Isn't it awesome?  I cut the saying and scroll out of velvet iron on fabric, and the hot pink butterfly was cut from matte iron on material.  The last day we added iron on crystals, using a template already cut out to speed things up.  I loved the eaase of use with the Silhouette, I currently have a Klick N Kut and it is a giant patootie pain to use.  I have never taken the time to learn how to use it, so really it is my own fault.  The software is just pretty extensive and I just haven't taken time to play with it as I should.  I love the fact that it and the Silhouette use fonts on your computer, no card purchase required.  I may just get a Silhouette though since it seems so much more user friendly to use.  It is also a loooooot smaller than the giant klunky Klick N Kut too! :)

Well, I am off to go can some salsa.  We used up the 60+ jars we canned last summer (gone before the first of the year, YIKES!).  I hope to can quite a bit of salsa this summer too, but we will have to see.  I have learned that there are only so many hours in the day.......  ;)  I have made boatloads of fresh salsa, which disappeared in no time.

Wishing you a joyful and creative week ~ Pam 

Back from CHA, that was fun! Projects to share too. :)

Hi there! I came back from CHA with lots and lots of inspiration. It was boatloads of fun meeting everybody that I have been fortunate enough to meet via various message boards and groups. It was also great to create tons of make n takes, and see all the fun new products. I am sure you have all read a gazzillion posts about the fabby new stuff, so I won't go into that again. :) I did promise to show you how I embellished my badge holder though, so here it is. 

Remember the first pic I shared?  ~

Here is my embellished portion ~

I had to include a flower and of course some sparklie danglies, and some rhinestones on the flowered ribbon.  :)  I added the wee little bee to the ribbon on the strap too. 

I have a few Zutter projects to share too.

The first one is a little notebook I made for myself. I want to jot down inspiring things I run across and save them. So here is my little mini ~

Here is the inside - just some lined notebook paper so I can scribble away.  :)

Here is my second project, a corkboard/keyholder for our camper.  We needed both things, so I combined them into one little hanging, 16" long by 8 " wide.  I found the CUTEST little camper stamps by Inkadinkadoo, just love them.  Here is a pic of my corkboard/keyholder ~

and a little closeup of the darling stamps on the bottom ~

I will take pics when it is hung in our camper, we did not get a chance to camp this weekend.  Hopefully next weekend! :)

My last project is an 8 x 8 min album I did for a very special teen volunteer.  I combined lots and lots of different manufacturers in this project.  I hope she likes it!

From the top (looks a little pinkish, is really more red)~

Some inside pics ~

I received some fun assorted old papers and things from a RAK from JulieAnn Shahinseveral months ago.  I loved the My Brilliant Ideas paper, I used it here (and the How I feel Today paper shown on a page above) THANKS JulieAnn!!! ~

Here is the back of the gift album ~

Well, that is it for this week.  I hope you all have a fabulous and creative week!  See ya next week, happy crafting ~ Pam