This & That Notebooks..

Hello friends. I have another notebook to share with you today. You can never have too many notebooks, right? And I just can't get over this mixy matchy/ Thrift Store Decor style that I've been creating with lately. It's all about combining lots of colors and patterns...and many different embellishments....and old and new items. But it all seems to work in some sort of quirky, eclectic, pieced together like a quilt sort of way. Now some of you may think I've just lost it and totally gone off the deep end. Please just humor me and say my stuff looks cool and we'll all be happy little campers. :)Many of you have left me comments like "You're so good at picking colors and embellishments, I could never do that!". Oh yes you can, honey. First off, you need to collect a stash of fun embellishments to chose from. You can't add cool stuff to your projects if ya ain't got any cool stuff in your stash. Take my notebook for example. In about a 3" square area, I've added a Carnival Ticket in Tilt a Whirl Teal, a Small Manila Parcel Tag, October Afternoon patterned paper, big honkin' Papertrey Vintage Buttons, Rustic Cream Twine, an angled piece of Simply Chartreuse felt that has been stitched and cut with the small scallop die, the word "notes" stamped from Take Note and a snippet of my Wrinkle Ribbon. Whew, that's a lotta stuff in one small area. But I love the collage look of it all. No rules. Just start creating.
Now let's look at the bottom part of my notebook. Here's where you'll see lots of mixy matchy colors and patterns on the patterned paper I chose. On this one notebook, I've used four patterned papers that are all different in color and motifs. One great way to get this look to work is to purchase papers from the same line from the same company. The papers from my notebook all came from just a few lines of October Afternoon's newest papers called Thrift Shop and Fly a Kite. The little 8 x 8 pads are scaled down in pattern, perfect for the notebooks. So cute, I am in love with it all. The ruler is also an October Afternoon stamp. Notice that all of the pieces are adhered to a Large Manila Parcel Tag turned upside down. I was so jazzed when I discovered that the large tags layer perfectly onto the notebook fronts. The This & That sentiment is also from Take Note.
You may have noticed in my top photo that I took a photo of my way cool notebook on some vintage fabrics......
I wanted to show you that I use the same mixy matchy process when selecting fabrics. Aren't these just wonderful vintage pieces? I love them so much. I chose a handful of fabrics for you as if I were going to create a tote bag or a quilting project. I chose colors that are similar like the blue and green tones.....but then I also added in a few quirky colors like the fabrics with the pinks and yellows and orange colors. Such a fun little mix of colors and patterns.

And here's a tip for you: When selecting patterned papers or fabrics, fan all the colors out like I've done below. Take a step back and then squint at your fabrics until it gets blurry. If one item stands out too much or is too bright or off, then you know you might want to chose another one in place of it. Scroll back up to my notebook photo and do the same thing.....squint til it's blurry and you'll notice that all the pieces are the same overall tone.
Okay, that's it for today folks. I so hope that you enjoyed my post. Now go get all mixy matchy!! And get ya some cool embellishments to add to your projects. And have fun with it! No stressing allowed.

P.S........Who's diggin' in their stash of Papertrey Vintage Buttons for THE BIG HONKIN' ONES now? I love those big ol' buttons!

P.P.S.......Why didn't someone tell me that Manila only had one "L"? I've been spelling it like vanilla with two L's all this time. Dang.

Shabby Blue Fabric Tags

Good evening everyone. I'm hoping to plant my peppers and tomatoes tonight if the garden dried out enough today. But first I have a few things to show you. I dug into some of my thrifty finds and had a little fun today. Here's Stanly the Stapler. I found him at an antique store. He works better than any stapler I've ever had. I love him. He was one of my helpers today.This is my new thing of string that called my name at the thrift store. Love this green color!
And these are my new creations today, using fabric from the thrift store. Jordan was my other little helper. I'm paying the girls $5 an hour this summer to help with my crafty creations. She was a seamstress today and loved every minute of her work. Together we made these adorable Shabby Blue Fabric Tags. I cut, she sewed. And she is good. I show her one time and then she takes over. Very good workmanship. Believe me, I inspect for quality. Josey slept til 11:00 so I guess she had the day off. :) Good grief, sleepy red head girl.
Anyway, we cut and sewed and assembled all morning. Such a lovely little pile of Thrift Store Decor, don't you think?
You can use these tags for almost anything. They have little safety pins at the top for easy attachability. I saved two to fancy up my blue jars that I got at an auction.
Or you could attach a tag to a little pile of crafty goodness. See how I used a Tiny Tag wrapped around the doodad? Instant personalization for gift giving. Who wouldn't love to re-use this tag for a special project? Or how about stringing together a whole set of these for an instant summer banner. Ohhh, that would be cute! Wait til I tell Jordy that idea.
They're so cute though, they might be hard to part with. That's why I included two to a package in my Etsy shop. All packaged up in a glassine envelope and Japanese masking tape. Have fun!! We've got more fabric picked out and Jordan's a sewing goddess so stay tuned for more tags. She likes this job because Josey can't sew....more work for Jordan. Which =more $ for Jordan. Hee.

Hello friend...

Hi all, it's a windy, balmy, sticky, humid, moist day here in Kansas. Sounds peachy doesn't it? My hair is all a frizzled. Don't come over.

Instead, how about I share a fun card with you made in my Thrift Store Decor style? The hubster and the reds and three other girls that trickled into our household today are all at ball practice. I decided to take a break from admiring my hair and head down to the artsy studio. I just love to see my little supplies all scattered about. Makes me happy even though I have a high humidity headache like you wouldn't believe.
I used some more goodies from yesterday's kit I put up in my Etsy shop. Today I used two of the patterned paper doodads tied up with buttons and black twine. All of my papers and stamps are from October Afternoon's The Thrift Shop line....I think I was meant to have it all simply for the name of this line, right?
The adorable flower stamp from October Afternoon's Cherry Hill line is the perfect base for the doodads when you want to create a flower scene. I just plopped the doodads right where the stamped flowers should be. The little journaling blocks that punch out from the Thrift Shop Journal Cards are so fun to create with. They give you a good starting base for your project. The bottom of card features two of the carnival tickets that come with the Mixy Matchy DooDads kit. I love to cut scraps of paper and fill in the little rectangles of the tickets, such a scrappy, cute look. Wrinkle Ribbon in two colors finish off the card with an additional button tied with black twine. (More Wrinkle Ribbon coming soon. Soon=Gimme a little while.)
Sigh. So colorful. So mixy matchy. I could stamp all day....but I think a load of girls are coming back to the house and they might like a fresh batch of cookies, methinks. In the summer, we become the pick up and drop off place for lost and wayward softball girls. I think they just come for the cookies and milk.

Okay. One more thing before I go. This week I am gonna have some sewing goodies to share with you in my Etsy shop. Some of my mixy matchy aprons and something brand new....brand new to the shop but of course in Thrift Store Decor style. New product and new concept to go with it. You will love. Stay tuned. Me and my frizz gotta split. Get it?

The List....use it

Oh my heavens. I got a load of October Afternoon goodness this week from my awesome friend Cindy at Star Lit Studio. And let me just say I've spent the good part of this May Afternoon creating. I went to an auction earlier and a bunch of poopy head, fancy pants bidders bought up all my good stuff. Pfft. I'll show them. I'll just make something way cooler than they could ever imagine buying at an auction. So I gathered up my October Afternoon goodies. And let me just say that October Afternoon is kinda hard to come by in my neck of the woods. So if you're looking for a very good selection, head on over to Star Lit Studio. The newest lines of Fly a Kite and The Thrift Shop (love the name)are now in! Cindy will hook you up. Tell her I sent you shopping her way. :)

Back to my goodies. I dearly love to create little doodads and items for little kits for myself and you guys. I start cutting circles and punching circles and I just can't stop. Today I stained some of my Vanilla Ice Cream Cone Carnival Tickets to give them a distressed look.
Next I snatched up a few kit items and went to work on a little project of my own. I used a Tiny Ticket from my Etsy shop and stamped *for mom* on it with black ink. There's something about these little tiny alphabets that I just love. You can create any message you want and I love the uneven stampy look.
And here's what I whipped up. It's a notebook, one of my all time favorite items to create. And here's the deal: It drives me bonkers when my family tells me what they need at the worst times. For example, I'm in the shower and a little red head child peeks in and says *Hi Mom, I need some bobby pins*. Or how about when I'm knee deep in socks that no one bothers to fold and I hear *Oh man, we don't have any milk*. Or it's 5:30am and Eric hollers out from the bathroom *I need some new razors, hon*. Hello people, I may be Wonder Mom but I'm not a freaking mind reader. Nor do I carry a notepad and pen... or an awesome new IPad that no one got me for my birthday..... around to take notes for you all. And I definitely don't do anything at 5:30am. News flash: There's something called The List. Use it people.

I created this little gem just for our summer lists. Groceries, snacks, ice cream, sunflower seeds for the ballgames, Gatorades, sunscreen....whatever you need, write it down sweet little family. Isn't it so cute and thrift store looking?
I love all the mixy matchy papers and embellishments on my notepad front. Here, I used a sticker from The Thrift Shop Label Stickers. I then used a little scalloped circle doodad with button and Tiny Tag from my kit.
For the rest of my notepad I used one of my all time new favorite papers called Fly a Kite from the 8 x 8 Paper Pad. This version is smaller than the big 12 x 12 size...but I love both. Seriously love. Save some for me. The ruler is made from a stamp from the Cherry Hill Clear Stamps line. Oh, it's such a cute set. I love the strawberry...and the bird...and the ruller...and the flowers....get the point? I used a little carnival ticket under a punched strawberry image too. So fun!
And here's the back of my notepads. Just a reminder that this is The List. Use it.
Just to make sure The List stays full, I used not one but two notepads from Papertrey Ink. I'm going to place my list front and center on the kitchen cabinet. Surely, the little family will get the hint.
And just to share a little of my goodness with you, I have a few kits going up in my Etsy shop shortly. I'm using a mixy matchy style here that I'm dubbing Thrift Store Decor. All kinds of goodies that I've picked up at the thrift stores to recycle and reuse for some major new cuteness. Here I've used fabric, an old cutter quilt, an old dictionary and black twine that I picked up here and there.
Kits will come with everything shown above. For my project today I used the carnival tickets, the scalloped patterned paper doo dad and the Tiny Tag. Enjoy!

Note: I'm headed up to fix supper for the family and then I'll be back to post the kits in the shop. Ta ta for now.