MAKE IT- MAIL IT MONDAY! Plus Bonus items!

 Hi everyone!

I finally got to spend all day yesterday creating! Felt good to play with stuff again.

I took part in the TEA CHALLENGE in the Spectrum Art Creations FB group. Did you know, January is National Tea Month?  

I chose mostly items from Stamperia to work with, predominately from their Alice line.

I rice paper sheet with four teapots from the Alice collection started it all... so I made 4 different items. Each piece enters me into a drawing for a $5 GC from the Spectrum Art Creations on-line store.

We were required to use a minimum of three items on each piece we made.

Since this is Make It - Mail It Monday, let's start with the card I made for a friend:

I used a Merry Merlot card base with a Very Vanilla mat (Stampin' Up!) then used one of the rice paper panels on top of the mat.  Aside from the rice paper, I used chip board elements from the Stamperia Alice collection and Stamperia lace.

Next item:

I've been making items during challenges and tucking them away for a future Alice journal.

This one used all Stamperia items (background paper, rice image, chipboard elements( plus I added a metal spoon I'd purchased from Spectrum Art Creations (SACs for short). The lace and ribbon were from my stash.

Next item:

I'll try to incorporate at least one memory dex card from each themed challenge, or at least one per month.

Thie background paper on here was from Ciao Bella. The rice paper and chip board items were Stamperia and the brown braid trim from the SACs on-line store. You will find the trim HERE in a wife variety of colors. I have most of them LOL

Next item:

For my final tag, I knew I wanted to incorporate a shaker element:

I used Stamperia paper for the background and the front rim of the shaker. I used trim and the metal spoon from Spectrum Art Creations. For the shaker part, I used snowball micro beads from Stampin' Up!  Guess you could say I made Bubble Tea ;-)

There's one more item not part of the Tea Challenge, but separate.

Madison owns Spectrum Art Creations. She is on the autism spectrum. Such a delight, very talented and smart. Wow, what a memory that girl has. Every once in awhile she will drop something in our shipping box for a 'Madison Challenge'. This time she gave us circles. I think there were five in the baggie.

At first I thought about a mixed media piece but then I remembered my craft Christmas tree. Most of the ornaments are from the Christmas Notebook ornament swap going back twenty years. I decided I wanted an ornament from Madison. She is sending me a copy of her handwriting. I will shrink tht and add it to one of the leaves of the ornament. Madison will always have a place of honor on my crafting tree.

That's it for me today. My left eye is giving me issues. May have gotten some cat dander in it. 

I'll be back Wednesday for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday and show off my new cat.

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

WOYWW #764

Good morning, crafty friends!

Okay, so it's almost 6 p.m. for my buddies across the pond. I've been doing author work this morning so running a tad behind.  

Here's what I'm tackling today:

As you can see, I've not put some of the things away that were there last week and added to the collection. LOL 

The rub ons and the stencil were from last week. The red pile of rubble in the back is a candle pedestal I need to glue. Silly me tried moving the cart with the hot cocoa bar items and one of the pedestals hit the floor. No worries.

I've also added one of those finger cutting blades to my list of supplies. I see planner peeps using them and they appear quite handy.  The Stampin Up stamps in the back are possibly for a future project so I pulled them out while I could find them.

I hope to have more progress and pretties to show next week.

Before I go, I have a question. Do you tend to buy things you already have because you either can't find them or forget you have them?

If your answer is yes, I invite you to my premiere on my YouTube channel Friday the 26th at 11:30 a.m. EST US. I'll let you figure out all the conversions.  Friday's video is by request from one of my subscribers where I will be talking about how I know what's in my studio. Mind you, that wasn't always the case! LOL.  I will be in the chat while the video runs so if you have questions or comments I'll be there.

That's it for my desk (and story) this week. Who's Miss Julia and why am I here?  When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Stamping Ground for all the details. Miss Julia has a long list of other studios you can peek into. No standing on an up-turned milk pail to look in the window. We open the doors wide and welcome you.  Please leave your number and you'll be among the first on my list.

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

 

TUESDAY - Getting Back on Track

 Good morning, crafty friends!

Okay, I know that's not the brightest title I've ever used, but it's true. I'm finally seeing myself back into a routine. 

I've discovered as I get older, that cold, gloomy days are not conducive to me accomplishing much. I even went back to bed for an hour yesterday morning before I attempted to accomplish anything. Something, that with the exception of a few minor household tasks, I failed miserably.

The studio is back to the UGLY stage again. No, I'm not going to show a picture. I'm still trying to figure out how I went from my beautiful empty sofa for Halloween to the UGLY chaos again.  But I'll get there.

This week is all about putting things away that are in front of me. I'm using Sarra Cannon's HB90 system to do two things. 

1 - Set tasks that will move me towards the goal of having a workable space again

2 - Use the Pomodoro timer method to work on each task. 

The Pomodoro method is doing things in 25-minute increments. Take a 5-minute break then dive back in for another 25. You can do this as many times as you want and they can be done on and off throughout the day. If you only have 25 minutes to work on something, so you only get that 1 task done. That's still progress.

That's my plan for today.  Seeing how many of those 25-minute sprints I can get done until there is less chaos.

I'll be back tomorrow to show you progress for WOYWW

Creative Blessings!

~Kelly

WOYWW 762

 Happy New Year, friends!

I've missed you all but I've just been really busy. 
I took November off from all things creative except to finish the draft of Book 2 in my series. Then December was all about decluttering the three main rooms of the house to surprise Bob when he came home on the 22nd. He was home for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years in 2023. We will celebrate Christmas after the new year next time around as he will be working for Christmas. I really wanted our big tree with the family ornaments up but I just ran out of steam.

I'm back in the studio, which is my decluttering focus for the next 21 days as well as back to work on blog posts, FB and YouTube (I'll have my first premiere of 2024 this Friday at 11 a.m. EST).

I did do a little crafting in December and lots of things just landed on the filming table. Maybe I'll have the final pieces finished and can show you next week - that is, if you're not tired of Christmas. LOL

That's it for my desk (and story) this week. Who's Miss Julia and why am I here?  When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Stamping Ground for all the details. Miss Julia has a long list of other studios you can peek into. No standing on an up-turned milk pail to look in the window. We open the doors wide and welcome you.  Please leave your number and you'll be among the first on my list.

 

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly