Question. I went to a yard sale the weekend before last, and someone was selling a ton of scrapbooking stuff.  I filled a bag and she gave me a price for the whole lot. So getting to my question…do you think this was worth $40?

Here is what I grabbed:

12 x 12 Stack, 3 packs of 12 inch border paper, two 8×8 mat stacks, 3 4×6 mat stacks, card stack, adhesive mat stack, about 50 pieces of 12 x 12 paper (in the holders in the back), a bunch of craft yarn, 6 mini photo albums full of stickers, 4 coupon holders of organized stickers, 2 wood stamps, a plastic container of die cut paper, journaling papers, epoxy bubble stickers, some binding rings.

I like the way she organized her sticker collections. The first was a coupon holder that she organized all of her alphabet letters.  Then as you can see labeled on the spines, these are photo albums in plastic sleeves that had gems, and other puffy stickers. Full of them.

In this photo above, there are 5 more mini photo albums full of organized stickers. Two wood stamps that didn’t look used, a plastic container with some cut paper shapes.

Here is a close up of the paper stacks. Each of them hardly have any paper out of them. Some were new.

In the back corner, is the 12 x 12 sheets of assorted but organized by theme paper. I’m estimating at least 50 pieces. The assorted yarn spools, had thinner yarn that I thought would be nice to sew onto scrapbooking pages.  I thought $40 was good.

Then, below, about 2 weekends ago, I came across a new craft size pack of warm and white for a buck, a color box pink ink for 50 cents, 2 jars which I used to store the jewelry you see in.

The bags of costume jewelry were a dollar a piece so I bought all five that she had.

If you look closely there are some really pretty unique pieces.  See a couple I pulled out below to take a photo of.

NOW, to the reason I actually bought the jewelry

I frequent a blog ‘burlap and denim’ and she made a framed art piece by fashioning costume jewelry into  a christmas tree to hang on the wall.

Actually, I can see making a large circle or some other shape  for my bedroom wall.

Here is a link to the blog article: http://burlapanddenim.com/2011/11/costume-jewelry-christmas-tree/

I had never heard of this craft before. Here is my favorite one that a blogger named Amanda did over at her blog Burlap and Denim:

I had a spark of inspiration while shopping the clearance racks at Christmas Tree Shops recently. I found some flameless candles there covered in some semi torn and nicked up decorative thin paper.  So seeing that the paper was coming away from the candles, I saw that it could easily be removed and thought they would be great to re-purpose and decorate for a craft fair I’m preparing for in March.

So since I got them, I’ve been trying out a couple ideas some working, some not so great. Here is one that I made up for a little birthday gift for my sister with some bits and pieces I had on hand.

Christmas Tree Shops clearance racks I think are my new favorite place to shop! 

I started with wrapping and glueing the candle with some burlap I had on hand from when I did my flower arrangement.

I can’t recall where I got the star wire and the home spun scraps are from the homespun rag quilt I made.

Here is another idea I had to wrap some of the candles with a crocheted wrap. The white paper is my guide for size and length to wrap around the candle.

Here you can see what some of the papers looked like on these candles. It is so easy to remove.

Another plus about them that my sister pointed out after giving hers to her this past weekend, was how bright the candles lit and flickered.

Needless to say, I had to go back and buy…eh hem…30 more

Once I finish a good sized batch of them, I’ll have another post to show progress.

I made a two toned scarf before but the accent color was a bit more sporatic. I wanted to see if I could figure out a pattern to make the colors more even and consistant through out the scarf. With a couple starts and restarts, I came up with this design that I’m pretty proud of.

The pattern allowed the accent color to remain on the inside and the main color on the rest of the scarf.

So I thought i’d share how I did it in a tutorial post.

Two Toned Loom Knitted Scarf – Tutorial

Materials Needed:

• Knitting Loom with yarn pick (I use the purple knifty knitter. It comes with a pick)
• 2 full skeins of yarn – Main color and accent color (I used Loops and Thread Charisma)
• Scissors
• Crochet needle to cast off and finish up the ends

If you are not familiar with how to start knitting on your loom, here is a video on how to cast on your yarn to your knitting loom .

You would start by finishing one row of your main color before adding in your accent color.

My pictures start in the middle of the scarf, but these steps are the same as in the beginning and repeated until you have run out of either the main or accent yarn.

Step One: Start with a finished row of the main color of yarn. In this case, it is grey. My yarn ends are both on the left.

Step Two: While holding your main color yarn on the left with your thumb, wrap your accent color in the direction around the pegs indicated by the orange arrows, and in the order of the sequentially numbered pegs. Your accent color only goes on the inner pegs.  The accent color always starts and ends on the left.

Step Three: While holding the wrapped accent color (completed in step two) proceed to wrap the main color over all the pegs. You’ll be left with two loops on the outer pegs, and 3 loops on the inner pegs. Your main color yarn will end up on the right. You can’t see it in the picture, but I hold the main color yarn end on the right by pulling it down underneath the loom and hooking it on my left hand ring and pinky fingers and pull firmly while using the pick in the next step to pull the yarn over the pegs.

Step Four:  Next you’ll need your pick tool, and pull the yarn loops over the pegs. On the outer pegs, pull the bottom loop over the top loop and over the peg. For the inner pegs, pull the bottom and middle loops (2) over the top loop and over the peg. When you have pulled over the the inner loops (2 colors) be sure that the main color is near the peg, and the accent color is on the inside as indicated in the picture below. This will ensure the accent color remains only on the inside of the scarf.

Here is what you will be left with when you pull all the loops over. Your accent color will still remain on the left, and your main color is on the right.

Step Five: With your main yarn on the right side, you’ll need it to be on the left again so wrap your main color in the direction around the pegs indicated by the orange arrows, and in the order of the sequentially numbered pegs. This will also give you your main color starting row (as I mentioned in the beginning). You’ll be left with two main color loops over each peg.

Step Six: Take your pick and pull the bottom loop over the top on all the pegs.

You’ll now have your main color row with your yarn tails both on the left side. You can now continue and repeat steps one through six until one of your skeins runs out.

To finish your scarf, you’ll need your crochet needle to cast off the ends. Here is a video on how to cast off and finish your scarf.

You’ll be left with a nice length, two toned loom knitted scaft. I made three of these as christmas gifts this past year.

Let me know if anything needs clarification. Happy Knitting!

Okay…I realize it’s the middle of January but I realized I never posted my resolutions for this year like I did last year. Achieving some of my list last year, I think I did pretty good.

This year I have a list of projects that I want to note right now as ‘projects I have in mind’ that I may even start a page for my site like a ‘to do’ list to keep track of just how many ideas I actually come up with and how many I actually get done in one year.

2012 New Year ‘Project’ Resolutions

Here are my ‘project’ resolutions to complete this year. Both personal and crafty:

1. Get those 1000s of digital photos printed already! Can’t scrapbook without printed pictures…geez!

2. Get moving on adding my photographs to my stock photography website http://www.lifestock.co

3. Scrapbook more (once #1 is done!)

4. Finish my curtains!

5. Finish my quilt!

6. Finish my crochet blanket!

7. I want to start making designs as .svg files for people to download and use in their personal cutting machines. I got a Silhouette Cameo for christmas this year so since i’ll be making them anyway I thought I’d share some on my site for free and in my online store.

8. Redecorate my craft room. Thats the plan! I think it’s in dire need of paint on the walls and more color. It’s so grey and white that I can’t take it anymore. I see such pretty rooms out there I want mine to be as well.

9. Post a video tutorial. I have an idea for a video tutorial, but the last time I tried it didn’t work. I have a great idea involving coordinations paper but i’m saving posting it until I can actually record myself doing it successfully.

Was hoping to round my list off with a top 10, but right now I can’t think of a 10th one so for now this will have to do as my to do list of 2012.

Wish me luck!

p.s. Thank you to everyone who visits my website! I get visits from all over the world and it’s so great to see that! Have a great year!

At the craft fair this year, I received a special request for more post it holders so I snapped a few pictures of them so I could remember the designs. This batch compared to the last batch I did, have more color to them I think and I added some ‘Just for You’ setiments.

I had to make a mix of feminine and masculine designs.

I like the ones with the addition of the mulberry paper flowers I made.

Here are some close ups of some of my favorites. I love this color green.

Here is a close up of one of the flowers.

This paper has textured glitter dots.

This flower paper below is DCWV. My favorite brand of paper.