my quirky turkeys inspired by t!m holtz.

Good evening, everyone! I feel like once again, it has been FAR too long since my last update, although I know it wasn't that long ago! Things have been pretty hectic around here, as you know I was on VACAY for 10 days, where J and I got ENGAGED!! Since we've been back it's pretty much been work, work, work for us both. I did get Thanksgiving eve and Thanksgiving day off, which was nice, and got to spend the whole day with my family! I am so thankful for each and every one of them and the important role they play in my life! It was a great day...lots of yummy food, pumpkin soup and homemade bourbon croutons, just to name a few! We know how to throw down some good eats down south!!!! LOL. This weekend was of course, the shopping weekend from you-know-where, and since I work at the mall, it was some really crazy long hours. Just thankful to say it's over with now and I have the next 2 days off! Cyber Monday being one of them of course...this could either be a bad a good thing depending on how you look at it. Forecast is cooler temps and rain! Yay! So like I said maybe I can get some much needed 

crafting time in! Let's hope so!

Ok, now the part you've been waiting for. I did actually stay up until like 1:30 am Thanksgiving eve finishing these little guys! I was originally inspired by the ones on Tim Holtz's blog, that post is HERE. I was really inspired because I was like hey, ok I have that paper, and also I figured it wouldn't be that time consuming. However, even with some much appreciated help from J, I still was up past midnight doing 12 of these little guys. I think the project would have been alot simpler if  I had that die cut with the perforated slits, could have skipped like 3 steps there. But it's okay. I really had alot of fun making them and although they didn't turn out as picture perfect as Tim's, I really like them, and my family did too. We even did the game with the words as he suggested, by the end of the dinner we were coming up with all these ways you could use the words again, replacing them each year, like each person has to make a sentence using their word and you have to build on it making a story, or you have to guess what their word is...anyway it was alot of fun. My parents are saving them now in a box for us to use again next year and replace with words...maybe it will become like a little tradition for us! 

Here are a few pics of them on our thanksgiving table. Please visit Tim Holtz's blog for the detailed tutorial, because like I said my version was not as quick! I even ended up doing only 2 paper rosettes per turkey instead of 3 cause my measurements for the scalloped paper strips were off.

 our thanksgiving table...pre-food.

 I thought they looked really cute tucked inside the table decor. 

 I used  bronze stickles to hand write each word on the 'word tiles'. 

 And here is a closie. Isn't he cute?!

This is my helper,  J in the craft room. I cleared him out a spot on my 6ft table and put him to work. It was chilly out, we had the window open, the scentsy pot going, drinking iced coffee and crankin' some tunes. He says he was miserable the whole time and kept saying I was a slave driver....he had to take a break like every 15 minutes, but I have to give him credit, he did good! He helped me cut all the paper strips and make the word tile holders out of garbage bag ties, which we curled up ourselves, then colored with brown permanent marker and sprayed with caramel mocha smooch spritz. When I told him the name of that stuff...he was like uh, really? what the heck?I think I might be too manly to use this stuff.... then after he had used half the bottle, I told him it was kind of expensive, so he could buy me more for Christmas :) LOL

 giving me the evil eye for making him miss football updates! 

HA HA! makes me happy to see my man finally on the blog....he's famous now! LOL. So, as I start my 'weekend' I would like to wish everyone a great holiday season, and remember, it's all about family! :) Until next time~ VV

Supplies List:

Tim Holtz papers- 'Lost and Found' collection

burnt sienna, dark brown, and tangerine cardstock

Tim Holtz distress ink in tea dye

24 garbage bag ties

brown/red permanent marker

Smooch Spritz in Caramel Mocha

Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut

The Robin's Nest dew drops in light blue, green, and light brown

Bronze Stickles

a Bone Folder

Zots mini glue dots

low-temp hot glue gun and glue sticks

mixed media: altered 6x6 chipboard beach trip album :)

Hi everyone! I am already feeling withdrawals from blogging, and it's only been 10 days since my last blog post! Sorry for the delay everyone... I plan to update at least 1x per week but man I feel like I have been running around like crazy lately...like a chicken with it's head cut off! I have my couch re-do project still in the works...pictures to come when I'm done!!! Also I think I might post my Halloween wreath cause it's super cute and funky, and well it's just that time of year!! Work has been pretty busy, and I'm still working on projects here and there trying to get our house in shape before the end of the month...2 big things happening then, Jimmy graduates and we have out of town company from Chicago coming. So I'm not even halfway done with my list, and to top that off we're going on VACAY to Portland, OR in less than a month now too! I'm super excited about that trip but seriously I'm an Alabama girl born and raised, so I need to shop for some better fall clothes. Anyway, enough of my rattling on... I did manage to complete another small project, an altered mini chipboard album of our beach trip this summer for my other Aunt's bday, which is Dec 3rd, so I guess I'm actually ahead of the game on that one. But I completed it in just 3 late nights this week, which is pretty darn good (considering I worked 43 hours too makes me proud)! It turned out well for my first time really working with a chipboard album. Here are some pics, check it out and let me know what you think! This is the whole album, standing up cause I made it so fat. 

It's about a 6x6 scalloped square.

 These are the first 2 inside pages. I used paper from a large paper stack that I bought last year by Me & My Big Ideas called 'Fashion District'. Alot of the floral patterns in it remind me of something tropical, so I used most of the papers on this album from it. I also inked all the edges of all the pages with a Colorbox chalk cat's eye in Chestnut. Also I matted all the photos in the album with white cardstock and inked them all in different colors, depending on the page. 

 For these two pages, I inked the photos with a Colorbox chalk cat's eye in lipstick. Also I added several different textured embellishments for interest, a felt flower with a rhinestone, a 3d sticker and another flower sticker that I added some bling to.

 The title of this page came out of the 'Travel' pages kit from Me & My Big Ideas. I loved this kit because I used a little bit of everything in the kit on 2 projects already and I saved my fav papers and embellies from it for when I finally do MY beach trip album. (HA if I"m not too tired of these pictures by then LOL) To the chipboard title, I used extra pop dots and inked it in Chestnut. I also tied several scraps of ribbon and fibers from my ribbon box to the 2 sides of the title. 

 This is a close up of the first page of the album. I used my tear tool to tear paper on both edges and then matted the title and a photo of the house we stayed in with kraft paper. For the flower embellies, I used paper flowers by Prima, also a felt flower, buttons, bling, a pearl dew drop and a fish sticker which I covered in 2 coats of liquid glass to make it appear more raised. At the bottom I used small alpha stamps to stamp the name of the place where we stayed.

 For this page, I used more papers from the 'Fashion District' paper stack, also some round sticker letters from the Me & My Big Ideas kit, which I covered in liquid glass. Also I used a few Jolee's embellishments and a cut out from the 'Life's a Beach' cricut cartridge. On the sun and also the Jolee's flowers, I used Distressed stickles by Tim Holtz in 'scattered straw' and also regular stickles in lilypad.

 For this page I used another chipboard title, putting it on with pop dots and added some ribbon for simple flair. the 2 palm trees are from 'Jolee's by You' and I blinged them up with some lilypad stickles.

 Here's a close up of the letters and stuff.

 On this page, I used one sheet of 12x12 flip flop paper by Jen Wilson from the 'Breaking Free Adventure Series 1' that I bought as a single sheet, and I swear I have used it so much already! I need to find a whole pack of her stuff! I cut out the title from the 'Life's a Beach' Cricut cartridge, and added some clear turquoise dew drops for the dots of the I's. Also the journaling block is from My Mind's Eye LUSH collection in Orange. I used the rest of the Jolee's accents here, and added more lilypad stickles to the flowers.

 Close -up of the title that I cut out on cricut and added some stickles to.

 Close up of other cricut title that I added dew drops to.

 For this page, I just used some hot pink flocked letter stickers that I found in my stash, a few stickers, and added some lilypad stickles to the centers of the flowers on the patterned paper background. 

 On this page, I inked the photo and the journaling block with a Colorbox chalk cat's eye in Butterscotch. Also I inked the other patterned paper in the background with Chestnut. I layered another journaling block from My Mind's Eye LUSH collection in Orange, as well as some Jolee's accents, the oranges and the flamingo and the flower. Here's a close up.

 This page is one of my favorites, cause both of the pictures are so good and also I used 2 different colors of stickles on this page. One is Aqua and the other is Lilypad stickles over top of a clear sticker from the Me & My Big Ideas Travel page kit. I wanted to keep this one simpler to focus on the great photos!

 Here's a close up of the stickles work:

 For the last 2 pages, I used my tear tool and ruffed up the edges of several patterned paper scraps, mostly from the 'Fashion District' stack by Me & My Big Ideas.There is also a few small scraps of Basic Grey paper in there from the 'Lemonade' collection. I used paper flowers from Prima, The Robin's Nest dew drops, some bling, Colorbox chalk inks in lipstick, chestnut, and butterscotch. To add another element of texture I added one of my fabric paper clips from Pier 1 Imports to one side of the photos. Also the journaling block is another one from the My Mind's Eye LUSH collection in Orange. Here are a few close ups. 

 For the outside decoration, I used lots of fibers, notions, and ribbon to the ring itself. Almost too much cause the album barely closes! LOL! Also for the finishing touch I put a tag on there that I made at a tag swap last year at Croppin' on the Coast in Gulfport, MS. Still one of my favorite tags I've ever done! The crab has googly eyes...how could you NOT love it?!

Okay, so now all that's left for me to do is wrap this baby up and get it in the mail in a few weeks...just in time to surprise my other Aunt on her bday ;) My favorite part is when they call me, all hysterical, crying about how much they LOVE it.I hope yall LOVE it too. Until next time, scrappers~ VV