Everyone has a story to tell, here's mine sprinkled with some creative projects along the way.
Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back again.



Friday, February 27, 2009

it's been a while

gosh has it really been a whole week since my last post? time sure flies when you're having fun. And fun was just what I had last weekend. I was off from work last Saturday and invited a couple of my girlfriends to scrapbook with me. We didn't really do much scrappin since we had our kiddos around but the chatter was great.
I was ambitious and made page kits to accomplish during the crop and finally after a week, I managed to finish them off. Whew! This is by far the longest time it took me to finish a page. Imagine a whole week! Well let's just say that I was draggin my feet to get them checked off.
Here's what I made....

Take me for a ride

These are pics of the family when Mitch and Marcus was getting ready to hop on the motorcycle for our Stake's annual father and son overnight camp. This page really didn't take me that long if you calculate the actual time I worked on it. I love that Picassa can make cool photo collages for me. A couple of clicks and this collage of pics is what I got. Isn't it cool? And the best part, it eliminated the time I need to crop them. Woohoo!

I wanted to add some personality to the handcut circles so I added some machine stitching.


I loved this circle chipboard accent from a making memories pack. I cut it out and used the space inside for my handwritten journaling.


I didn't have a bright red alpha set and I wanted the foam feel so I painted my white thickers red to match my other accents. I added a line of paint on the top and bottom of the page to create a feel of tracks that the bike makes. More handcut circles with stitching here too.

Pretty Pig tail girl

this layout was a long project for me. I usually sketch out what I want to do with a page but this one evolved into something different. This page is about how at this time (March 2008) I finally got Maddie to put her hair up without too much fuss.


I used an old floral pattern paper here so to give it a little more life, I handstitched some of the flowers of it.


the title is a combination of thickers and die cut letters


to create a visual triangle, I added layered flowers in the same color as parts of my title. Flowers were created in the Cricut expression.

There was this one time!

this one was about Maddie's "first haircut". She and Marcus got a hold of some scissors and decided to chop away at her hair.


The title was inspired by a movie quote. I used the line that was made famous in American Pie. Remember that girl that kept on saying.... "there was this one time, in band camp!" I thought of adding some laugh here. *wink*


I gave the ghost shapes more color by adding paint to them.


I kept some strands of her hair when this happened (of course I did, after all I'm a scrapper) so I made a handmade pouch for it by stitching some plastic onto the star accent.

a Dora invasion

this one was about Maddie's toddler bed when we first set it up. She was so excited in sleeping in it.

I added a lot of texture here with the buttons, plastic and felt alphabets.


I added white paint to the green background for some soft feel to the page. Handwrote the journaling in this scallop trim from Creative Imaginations.

and then on Sunday, I played with some scraps and made two cards...

I'm so thankful for you

I've had the bird rubon for a while now, I'm glad I'm finally finding a use for it. The card sentiment is from a text paper from Teresa Collins.

live.laugh.love card

You can't tell but I actually sprayed the light brown flower with glimmer mist. It was originally white, too bad you can't see the fun shimmer the mist gave it.



ok so there you have it. Hope you find some inspiration from here and create this weekend.

Till next time,
Grace







Saturday, February 21, 2009

lots on my mind

Oh don't you just love life?! It's full of surprises and things never seem to slow down. I'm feeling that right now. There's so many things on my mind right now. Here's a sampling (pictures + words) on what's keeping me busy....

My table is so messy!!! I went scrapbook shopping yesterday (Friday). I'm so surprised at how much stuff I got. See this table, it's brimming with things!


Some of them are for my class next Saturday. Oh by the way there's still spots. Check this post for more info on that. Here's a little sneek peek.



But the rest was just for me. I went to the ribbon store and got a little to crazy. Here's a pic of the computer table with my trims. This is a before picture of them before they were all neatly organized and put away. See this post to know how I store them....


I also used up my prize from winning the Tallmouse contest and stocked up on the basics (cardstock, pattern paper, adhesives, letter stickers, etc) All fun stuff.

After the "fun" stuff was put away, I started making my class kits for next week's class. I'm so excited about this. I think there's going to be a little of everything for everybody. Lots of easy techniques, cute ideas, ways to cut cost, etc.


So there you have it. A little peek at what's on my mind.

Till next time,
Grace

a ribbon storage solution- the "ghetto" way

Did that title grab you??? hehehehehehehe.

If you've read my post about my scrap space you've probably learned that although I admire those spaces that all storage containers coordinate or was custom made, I know my reality and that it is finding things around the house that will work.

Such is the case with my ribbon storage and I'm here to share my "ghetto" way of organizing them.

I was in a shopping mood yesterday (friday) but more of that in a diff. post. Anyways, although I like the look of "brand" name ribbons, I get the bulk of my supply here. It's ribbon heaven. And the best part are the prices. They sell the ribbons, trims, laces, ric racs, etc by yard. You cut your desired length and the price ranges from .20 to 1.00 per yard. Yes you heard me right .20 cents for a WHOLE YARD!!! I love that place. Oh and right now they're having a deal that if you come between 7 am and 11 am, you get an extra 10% off your ribbons.

So here's what I brought home...


And because I needed to put them away, I thought I'd share with you all how I store them.

I do it three ways.....
Ribbons in spools are put in the bottom basket of this rack....

I also have some in clear containers.

Trims that are thicker than 1" are folded and placed inside snack size ziploc bags. I made a hole on one end and connected them all together with a key ring. I told you "ghetto". It works for me though cause the clear bags let me see what I have and bec. of the ring, I can hang it up anywhere I want and they're all in one place.




and then for the smaller ribbons, I use this...

tape and scrap chipboard

I roll each one up and tape the end


then organize them by colors here...

This is a toolbox that I've had for a long time. At one point (about 4 years ago) all my embellishments fit in this box. Yes can you believe those times. It's sounds so ancient since I can't hardly fit all my spools of ribbon here!

So there you have it. If you're looking for an easy and inexpensive way to organize ribbons, try my "ghetto" way. *smile*

Till next time,
Grace

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

trying out new things....

I got tagged by a good friend (Rochelle Spears) and I liked the idea behind the tag so even though I NEVER EVER participate in these things I'm going to break my rule just this once....

Here's the deal....
just go to the place on your computer where you store your photos, then to the 6th folder, then the sixth photo. Take that photo, put it on you blog & tell it's story. So here is mine:

Now for some reason, I had a hard time picking a picture cause when I went to Picasa, the sixth picture from the 6th folder wasn't a picture of a person but a project and I really didn't want that. So I went to "my pictures" document/folder and in the 6th folder, there was no 6th picture! I know I'm making this more difficult for me than it should be so I just went to the first folder (2004 pictures) and picked the 6th picture.

One thing that made me wanna do this tag is bec. this picture is one of those almost forgotten ones. It brings back a lot of memories for me. From what we were doing at that time (we were at Grandma Tolman's house swimming) to how little my son looks in this picture. I think he's just a little over a year old here. And comparing it to the way he is now, man! he's only 5 years old and yet he stands a little above my stomach when measured!

So there, now I know I'm supposed to pick people to tag and really don't know who to tag to get them to do it so (i'm breaking a rule here again) whoever wants to participate, have at it and leave me a comment on what you got/picked/did so I too can be inspired!

OH and on a side comment- I don't have anything against Tagging. I like to read what people have to say in their tags, I think they're fun but I just don't have time to do em and to tag other people. So I hope I don't offend anybody. If you like to tag, I say, tag away!!!!

Till next time,
Grace

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Valentine "family" date

days before the big "hearts" day, Mitch and I were contemplating on what we were going to do to celebrate. We've made a decision a few years back that we won't have dinner that night cause we don't want to be amidst all the crowd. Not that we don't like crowds, we just know that restaurants will be more pack therefore harder to get seated fast and if we wanted to watch a movie, the pack crowd will turn us off too.

We usually celebrate the day before or after but since those days won't work we settled for Saturday morning. A friend gave me the idea of a "breakfast" date. I liked it and decided that the whole family should go on this date. This way we don't have to find a babysitter and we can have some much needed bonding time since that's hard to find nowadays with our schedules.

So the plan was made- breakfast at IHOP. I have a coupon so we thought it was a good idea. While passing by the Norwalk Cheap theater, I saw that they had Madagascar 2 showing so that was added in the plan to. After breakfast we were going to see the movie. Everything sounded so good in our heads. Even when I told Marcus the plan, he got all excited.

Then Saturday came.....

We went to Ihop. I got the stuffed french toast. yum, yum, yum!!! And took these photos.....





Marcus took this one of me and Mitch. Another budding photographer in the family.


The kids' faces lit up when they saw their fun food!

So we all enjoyed our breakfast and when it was time to pay, I busted out my coupon and the waiter sadly said that they can't honor the coupon. I guess I forgot to read the fine print. Darn those fine print! After a sigh of disappointment we paid the $38 (including tip) that we owe. Mitch and I was inshock at our bill. Imagine for a family of four (2 being very small children) we can spend that much in one meal. I guess that's why we don't eat out that much.

So just a little setback, I say to myself..... I was even amused at the car when Marcus busted out his toy camera and started shooting at Maddie and me. Very cute!


Since it was still early for the movies, we headed to costco to pick up a sensor light. Again we had a coupon! Yep, that's part of my life now- coupons and I love it.


So after running a few errands to pass the time, we headed to the theater. I go out and look at the movie times and guess what------- no Madagascar 2. I didn't realized it was already out on DVD therefore it's not going to be in the theaters anymore. Aarrggghh, what happened to me? I didn't make sure all the details were squared! So we went home. Kids were sad. But I told them we'll watch Bolt that afternoon. The first screening, I said. Got home, Mith did yardwork, I went on the computer, kids played with neighbors and before we knew it, we've missed the first screening.

By this time, nobody was in the mood to watch a movie. Everybody was occupied with a different thing. After Mitch got done with his tasks, he just went to the video rental place and got Madagascar 2. So that night, we watched it at home.

I guess not everything was lost. We did get our breakfast date done, eventhough more expensive that what we've anticipated and we did get to watch the movie, just not in the "big tv" like Maddie had hoped for.

So there you have it, hope you all had a great Valentines day. Hopefully more "romantic" and better planned than mine.

till next time,
Grace

and the blessing keeps on rolling....

I know my family's probably sick of all these "scrapbook" posts but before I share pics of my valentine date here's one last share of happy news.

I got this fresh from the mail today (March issue of Memory Makers magazine)


and found this on page 83. that's me! Sorry for the bad picture. I was feeling lazy to get my camera out so I just scanned the page.



then I borrowed my mom's March issue of Creating Keepsakes


and saw my first photograph published on page 28. That's Marcus' back by the way. Oh and in the mag we edited that bar on the bottom left hand side.


Ok so now that that's out of my system, I promise some pictures of the family coming soon.

Till next time,
Grace

Monday, February 16, 2009

get a LOAD of this....

SoCalScrap.us has decided to clear out about 90% of the store.
There are huge discounts! HUGE!
You don't even have to worry about the shipping because all the money you save will cover it and more!
Check out all of the sales categories.
EVERYTHING .25 cents !!!!
EVERYTHING .50 cents!!!
$1 bin - Everything is $1!
****20% Off Sale
****30% Clearance Sale
****40% Clearance Sale!
****50% Clearance Sale!
****60% Clearance Sale!

Even if something is not on sale, you will always save at least 10% off the MSRP.
You can't go wrong at SoCalScrap.us!
Come and get your scrap supplies now before someone beats you to it.

oh and if you spread the word about this, you might just get this...


learn more info here.

Till next time,
Grace

OLW- FUN

Over in one little word challenge blog, the word for this week is FUN and I just so happen to have printed a picture that resonates the word. Here's what I came up with....

Sing along fun


I just wanted to mention too that the pattern papers above and below the picture are actually from a catalog I got at CHA. Some of the paper lines were meshed together into one really cool paper and I cut them out for this project/page. But before you try this yourself make sure you check the acidity of the paper. I used a ph tester pen to make sure that the papers was acid free.


the flourish was cut from the Home decor cricut cartridge


I'm enjoying handwriting in my pages lately. It's so freeing and make for a fast page too.

Thank you for looking.

Till next time,
Grace

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Be Inspired #18

I've come to be so addicted to the Cuttlebug blog. Their design team are so talented and I love that they inspire me to bust out my cuttlebug machine more. For this week's challenge, it was to make a shaped card.

Now I'm not a great card maker. I'm always stumped with how to make this tiny thing all pretty and nice. But here's my try...

My friend card

I used the cuttlebug bloom dots embossed folder for my background.


An "aerial" view of my card. LOL. The butterfly was cut from the home decor cricut cartridge. Made it "fly" by adding pop up dots.


The half frame and sentiment was also cut from the cricut. Used scraps of pattern paper here plus a ric rac.

Thank you for looking,
Grace

6 pages for $6

Nowadays what can you buy for $6? A pack of meat at the grocery store; or a meal at your favorite fast food joint; or maybe your kids’ shirt at the local Walmart. Well what if I tell you that for that same amount you can make 6 scrapbook pages. Yes you can! Pages that will, if you add your most memorable pictures, will complete perfect memories for your family to enjoy.


Let me show you how to make cute pages that won’t break the bank or leave a hole in your pocket.

So come and join me on February 28 (Saturday)

at 2:30 PM

at my home


Contact me for more details….

Grace Tolman

562-716-8568

graceelainetolman@yahoo.com

*space is limited
*must provide your own paper trimmer/cutter and adhesive.

My scrap space REVEALED!!!

So like I said in my previous post, I got a shelf from my mom (it was actually my brother's girlfriend's old shelf that they gave to my mom) and got me into a "reorganizing" mode. I've been in that mind frame for a while but I was waiting on redoing it since I knew I was going to need more storage solutions.

Anyways since I got what I needed......Here's what I did......


As you can see, I just moved everything around. I decided to use all the wall space I have onto the right side. The white shelf in the middle is the one I got from my mom and it was the perfect height for that spot cause that way I didn't have to move that sword set that my husband built from scratch. I know it doesn't really fit into the "scrap" space but I thought it was a cool addition since it has the Tolman family crest on it.

And here's some of my favorites about my space right now.....


The computer table didn't move. I love that I picked the spot so close to the computer since a lot of my work time is spent here too.


We got this Hello Kitty table as a hand me down from a family in our ward (church). This is where my kids can "scrapbook" while I work. Marcus also does his homework here. Believe me, the big hello kitty doesn't bother him a bit! LOL The magazine holder/storage stores some of his workbooks and flash cards. I used an American crafts embellishment container to hold their crayons.


One of the main reasons why I wanted to rearrange the space was bec. I felt like I wasn't using my peg board to its fullest since part of it was covered by the shelf. So now that everything was moved, I was able to hang more stuff onto the pegboard. Here I have my finished projects put up before I file them away. I used sheet protectors and shower rings to hold them up. And then I used more hooks to hold minibooks and altered projects. Oh and kids' artwork too.


I used a photo board, hung vertically to display my cards. Hunged it up with ribbon onto the pegboard.


Sitting just below the card display is my card storage. I got this about a couple of years ago at Marshalls. It's a small file folder. I liked it a lot cause it's very feminine looking and I believe it only cost me $2. I made tabs so I can file my cards according to the season/sentiment.


Here's what's underneath the pegboard. A foldable work table/storage that I got about three years ago. Imagine, this table was my work table before also the only storage unit I had. This just makes me gasp at how much I've accumulated in the last three years. Next to it is some more drawers. By the card storage are my paperworks like idea notebook, journals, clipboard where I save all my submissions paperwork and other stuff. The first drawer hold all my business stuff and things I've put in my etsy store. That way it doesn't get lost with all the rest of my personal projects. Underneath that is memorabilia like cards, ticket stubs and other stuff that I might want to include in my pages in the future. Then in the last drawer I have fabrics. Those are not all of my fabrics though. Most of the bulky ones are stored somewhere else.


I got this metal basket from Costco. This was a Christmas gift from last year. I store bulky items here like punches, wood stamps and ribbons spools. There's more ribbons stored in recycled clear containers on the bottom.


I've had this shelf forever too! So here, my faves are: my scraps file; I have a basket that's filled with minibooks or items that I thought would be a good base for mini albums; a little basket (the purple one) that stores all my journaling embellishments/pads; I have another basket that I put adhesive on and that striped box is where I store my pens. Down on the bottom left shelf is where I have empty boxes and containers that I wanna alter. I don't want to say I'm keeping junk but to some people, I might be!


on the bottom right I have my sewing machine and containers filled with threads and sewing notions/supplies. I made sure that my machine was easily accessible since I've just realized how I like sewing on my pages now.


and here's the white shelf. I used this to house my cuttlebug machine and dies, bind it all machine and wires, stamps, new stuff, small embellishments (stores in the black container all the way in the bottom and other miscellaneous. That mailing box turned into vertical storage housed all the catalogs I got at CHA. I have a few ideas with them in mind so I'm keeping them for right now.


I used the top of the shelf to display my fave pics right now. I don't think they're the pretties pictures of the family but they're my fave right now. I also have my year's mantra on their and the Tolman crest on the background.


I made a place where I can easily drop off new stuff that I get. This will hopefully make me use some of them up before I file/put them away. It's also nice that it's situated just behind my work space so when I'm making a page/project, I can just turn around and find a piece of item that I can play with.


down on the bottom floor, I have my container of ink pads and on top of it is a basket wit minibooks and small projects.


One of my faves in this space is my skylight. This space used to be so dim. What a difference a little light can make in a room and it's sitting right on top of my table which makes me extra happy. My dear hubby put it up for me when he did our roof. He's definitely a keeper! *wink*


Now we go on on the third shelf. This is another hand me down storage solution. I gotta love family and friends that thinks of me when they're throwing unwanted items :) On the top I have another file folder where I file all my alphabets. I have them filed by colors so it's easy for me to pull out the ones I needed. Beside is my folder of tiny scraps. This is seperate from my other file folder cause this is where I start when I make a card. Bec. the papers are itty bitty, I needed a smaller storage solution for them. I didn't want the small papers to get lost in the big folders.


Then I have my growing number of recycled food jars that store all my embellishments from buttons to flowers to chipboards to ribbon scraps to bling


I have a big clear container to hold my paints, a smaller one for stickles and my one and only glimmer mist (I'm sure that collection will grow soon) and behind it are my foam brushes.


And here's how I store my papers. As you can see, I used priority mail boxes as my containers. I made three of them kinda pretty then got non creative with the rest. Maybe in the future, I'll work on the others. Right now they're divided into cardstock, then pattern paper sheets (single ones that are subdivided into theme categories, then kit or set packs. The last two containers have my stickers and rubons stores. Down on the bottom shelf are my magazines, templates and a little collection of books and magazines that I've been published in. *wink*


And finally my work table! This is where all the "magic" happens. Hehehehehe. This is an oval dining table that I just happened to call my own. Nobody took it away from me so I'm owning it! I love the large space of it, so when I'm working I can put stuff aside without having things on top of each other too much. On one side is a little container for trash and then on the other is a box where I'm going to put things that needs to be put away in a later time.

So there you have it! My space, my creative spot, my scrapbook corner! Whatever you wanna call it, it's the place that makes me happy. :)

Oh and incase you're wondering where all my finished pages go....

It's stores in this shelf located in the front room of the house. I wanted it to be easily accesible to family and friends when they come. This is an old photo that I took about a year ago. That spot where the flowers are, it now has a big basket that holds all my minibooks in and that row of 12x12 scrapbooks have been extended to the top shelf (the one right above it). I'm telling you I'm just growing, growing, growing. Almost to the seams!!!

Till next time,
Grace