For the Love of Buttons!!!

My sister came last month for her yearly summer weekend with me and we of course had to go to Goodwill and she kept looking at a bunch of tins and talking about how she loves tins but she didn't like any of the ones they had at the time and so the tins stayed. The next week when I was in there the tins were still there and some gal was looking at them and I noticed she opened one and told the person she was talking to on the phone about the tin and said "it's got some stuff in it". I couldn't see what was in there but I was certainly curious and my memory banks immediately thought of all the grandma's that would store buttons in jars and tins and was hoping beyond hope that the contents of that old rusty tin held those little bits of plastic treasure. Luckily she put the lid back on the tin and walked off. I immediately zoomed my buggy two aisles over and picked up the tin and took of the lid and LO AND BEHOLD it was filled with BUTTONS!!

Being one not to want to over look leaving treasure behind I picked up each tin to see if there was something else in the others and I did find two more tins that had buttons in them. I could have cared less about the tins and they actually went back to Goodwill last week but I was thrilled with the contents! There were even some buttons still on the cards and there is no telling how old the buttons are as some had started crumbling around the edges.

There were other things in with the buttons and this picture shows an old campaign button and some other little items that were in the tins. One of them is a Jr. Red Cross pin and another is a little Knights of Columbus *at least okie thinks that is what it is* pin. I have no idea what the share a ride jingle bell is about. 

The buttons were quite dirty from being in the tins as the tins had rusted so of course I had to wash all of them before starting the task of separating, organizing and storing. These were all the white and off white colored buttons from the tins and was really pleased how well they washed up. The biggest part of the buttons were white but there were some colored buttons in the trove.

Adding so many buttons to my stash called for an overhaul of storing many of my buttons. I knew I would need more storage options and found some cute little jars at Dollar Tree that worked out great. The tall jar holds buttons that I will be using more vintage type projects. And yes....I was that meticulous about my organization *okie wonders if anyone really expected anything less*. 

Oh and I want to show you what I did with the buttons that were still on the cards! Instead of taking them off of the cards I decided to use a shadow box I had purchased, and before you ask yes it came from Goodwill as well, so they can be displayed. I used some Graphic45 Steampunk Debutante paper for the background and then just 

I thought I was done with ever buying buttons but then the other day this jar of buttons were just sitting on a shelf at Goodwill and I couldn't resist putting it in my cart. Now before you judge just know this jar only cost me 99 cents...HOW COULD I NOT TAKE IT! Plus this jar has a lot of colored buttons and I might not have those colors! 

And So It Begins...

SCHOOOOLLLLLL! Monday marked the beginning of my 15th year of counseling at the Alternative School here in town. I can't believe I have been there that long working with those dang bad kids! *okie cracks up laughing*

My regional director often teases me about me always saying the kids aren't bad but I do try to find something good in each one of them and over the years I can only think of maybe 3 who didn't seem to have any redeeming qualities. When I first started at the Alternative school it was because I needed a job and that is what was available. Somehow that quickly changed as I started to get to know the students and their issues. Of course I dreamed of making a huge difference in so many lives and they would go on to be successful productive adults but the reality is that if a student is able to make it to graduation it's almost miraculous.

I still feel if I can help just one kid each year make positive changes then my job is worth it. It does get frustrating when kids don't want to do the work to make the positive changes and I have to tell them I don't have a magic wand and if I did I would whack them over the head with it.

The amount of work that it takes me to get back in the groove each school year is enough to make me want to jump off a cliff. It takes me a good 3-4 weeks before I have my scheduled settled and all the intakes and treatment reviews done because while doing all that I still have to keep seeing the clients I have. It might be okay if it was something I could quit at 5pm but it's not. Most of the time I am still working on paperwork or schedules until almost midnight. I dread it every year and every year I say it is my last year but somehow I continue on. I guess deep down I know in the long run it is worth it because no matter how much I bitch about all the paperwork I absolutely love what I do and working with those kids.

For those who have me on Facebook you have been warned....THE SUPER BITCHING WILL BEGIN!

Ice Cream - Layout

I love ice cream and have been quite depressed since our stores quite carrying ice cream. Okay that might not be totally true but in my book unless it's Blue Bell it isn't ice cream. I have heard rumors that they are starting production again on a small scale and I hope they expand quickly because a bowl of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla sounds so delicious right now!

Now I have to be honest with you folks and tell you that most of the layouts I'll be posting this week were designed with my friend Carmen in mind. She has the most gorgeous granddaughter and in almost each of these designs I could just see little Kaci's face in the photo areas with her beautiful smile. I have some photos of my own of her and I know I am going to have to make a bacon layout because I got some great pictures of her eating bacon.

Anyway I really loved this ice cream cone I found on the internet and that is what prompted this layout.


SVG USERS - Remember to select all and resize to 12x12 if you want the pieces in the size they were designed for the layout.

Days of Summer - Layout

As promised I am getting the layouts I've designed recently posted this week. I think all of them are summer themed so they might be great for those who are getting their kids back in school and have a little more time to sit down and scrapbook.

The first one is Days of Summer and I think it would pretty much be good for any pictures of summer activities. Of course the colors are only a suggestion and I do the colors on the pieces when I am designing because it is easier for me to visualize the layout that way. If you would like more photos in the layout it would be easy to change the photos and size around. 

SVG USERS - Remember to select all and resize to 12x12 if you want the pieces to cut the size they were designed for the layout.

Well I'm An Idiot!

I was talking to my friend Carmen about reasons I haven't been blogging much and the number one reason was because my new laptop didn't have an SD slot for my camera card. I never even thought about checking for one when I purchased the laptop back in February because I thought it was just standard on all computers these days. I know I could use a cord *okie wonders where that cord might have ran off to* and hook up my camera but that would be quite a pain. It's torture for me to get pictures from my phone to the computer because I usually can't get them off the phone to the laptop very easily or quickly *okie is so technology challenged at times* and most of the time I have to email them from my phone to myself and then upload to the computer and then edit. I have tried bluetooth in the past and couldn't get it to work and when I email them to myself they tend to sit in the outbox forever in a day. The best way I have to do it is post the pics to Facebook and then save to my computer. I just don't like change much and I was use to popping my card out of my camera and popping it into my laptop with no problem and getting the pictures that way. Heck I haven't even hardly used my camera for that reason.  

Yesterday morning I was looking around the edges of my computer to count my USB ports because I wanted to know how many I had as I have been looking for card readers that hook up to a USB port because I knew if I was able to get my SD card directly connected to the computer I would use my camera more often, especially since I use to use it almost daily!  I noticed a slot in the front of my computer that I never noticed before and I am sure I had quite a puzzled look on my face as I tried to see what the little icon next to the slot was and as I looked into the slot with some light I thought "HOLY CRAP! IS THAT AN SD SLOT?". I never thought to look at the front of my laptop because the SD slot on every other laptop I have used was always on one of the sides, never in the front *okie is quite convinced Toshiba puts their slots for gizmo's in different places just to frustrate people*. 

I grabbed my camera and took out the SD card and popped it into the slot and it fit perfectly. Then a little notification popped up and POOF it was asking what to do from that drive. Now I wouldn't normally tell this story because it makes me seem like such an idiot but it was too funny not to share. The best thing about it is that I can start using my camera again and get pictures edited without having to jump through 3 flaming hoops, getting in a cage with two man eating tigers and make cotton candy for a crowd of 500 before I even get the pictures to the computer. 

I am going to blame the computer company for this because I don't remember my laptop coming with a manual, as most things don't anymore as they tell you to download it online, so I will just say I wasn't made aware of this feature and save myself from idiocy! 

True Confession

So I likely need to make a confession to you guys and tell you the true reason for me not being around as much. I have an addiction. I don't know how to stop and to be honest I am not sure I want to stop. It's not always daily but other times it can be more than once a day. In reality I likely have many addictions and probably have most of my life but this one is fairly new and can be quite time consuming because it in many ways enables some of my other addictions. I could try denying it, minimizing it, rationalizing it and even justifying it but none of that is going to help me admit there might be a problem. My friends and family are no help because they are enablers and often encourage me to continue the addiction. I think my friend Carmen might be the worst of the enablers as she encouraged daily occurrences of the addiction while I was in Houston and I know when she comes to visit soon we will likely reveal in the addictive behavior on a daily basis. 

Here I am, with my head hung in shame to say....Hello, my name is okie and I am a Goodwillaholic.*okie takes a deep sigh and holds it for a second to keep from crying* I feel so much better since I got that out. I didn't use to be a Goodwillaholic but it just became easier and easier for me to slip into the depths of the addiction. I think it all started back in February when I got a Canon Pixma Pro-100 wide format printer, which retails for over $400, for $36. The box was open but it looked like everything was in there, and it was. The printer works great, my daughter uses it more than I do, so it was a really good deal.

While this was likely the start of my addiction I have since that time gotten quite a few other items for really good prices and that just keeps my addiction going. Just recently I found 3 tins of buttons and that lead to me having to reorganize all my buttons, which deserves a post of it's own and I will do later. I also got some Sterilite drawers that fit perfectly in my craftroom closet. So you see my addiction to Goodwill also fuels my addiction to organization. It's all a vicious never ending circle. I got all 9 of the big drawers for $18! I was thrilled when they fit perfectly under my shelving in the closet. I still don't have everything organized in the closet because my squirrel problem but at least I do have places to put things in there.

Okay I would love to tell you more about my addiction but I think I need to go organize something now.

A Little Weekend Project I Did

I had gotten my entertainment center from a Facebook Garage Sale site back in the fall and it was dinged and scrapped but since it fit the area for my TV and also the price was great I figured I could make it work. Instead of repainting it I went with distressing it because...well let's face it...I'm lazy! I really did like how it turned out though, so much so I am in the process of painting other pieces for my living room and distressing them. A couple of weekends ago I thought I would practice on a table that was purchased at a garage sale about 20 years ago for $3.

I didn't take a picture when the table was together before I started but here is a picture after I took it apart and was in the process of sanding it. It is solid oak and had been painted grey and when I bought it I decided to strip it and stain it but well, that didn't work out all the way so it's just been sitting in my living room all these years looking like crap. You can see the grey on the inside of the table. 

I wasn't sure how many coats of paint I would need to do but this is after one coat and I knew another coat would help. I used Glidden black onyx flat and had bought a gallon since a quart just seemed like a tease, plus if it worked I knew I would do some other pieces. I've never done this type of thing to furniture before and was a bit leery of how it was turning out. 

After the second coat I thought it was looking a lot better. The flat finish wasn't floating my boat though. I did paint the inside of the table and the drawers because I didn't want it to look crappy inside and I felt the table deserved a little respectful beautification.

After letting all the pieces dry I went over the edges with my sander to distress it and I did have to hand sand a few areas. I knew at this point it was going to go great with my entertainment center and I would for sure being doing another end table and another little table I have in the living room. I got a spray can of poly-acrylic sealer but I don't ike how it turned out so I will have to get a regular can of sealer, in a satin finish I do believe, to finish it up.

And here it is all put back together and in it's place in the living room! It looks great after I added the new handles The old ones were wood and I couldn't get the grey paint of them.

My list of furniture to repaint is:

end table

coffee table

2 dressers

desk

2 night stands

I might need more paint and sandpaper!

It's Been Awhile...Let's Catch Up

So I had a fabulous time in Houston with Carmen, two months ago now *okie hangs head in shame* and once I got back I got busy with decorating my kitchen/dining area and then they canopy got put on my deck and I was busy with getting it cleaned and stained *okie thinks she needs to break open that other an of stain and finish staining the posts and sides* and I just haven't been doing any noteworthy crafting. Although, I do have some layout designs that will be posted soon. And of course I have been organizing *okie listens for the shock gasps from the crowd but instead hears the chirping of crickets*...okay so maybe no one is surprised about that one.

I am going to make a confession here, I have a huge fear of commitment. That explains all my failed relationships but also many other things in my life, such as trying to decorate my house. I'm always afraid once I get something then I won't like it so my house has always been a bit sparsely decorated. I finally decided to go with a bit of a French Country theme for my kitchen I was able to start purchasing items and to be honest I purchased most of them at different Hobby Lobby stores while I was in Houston because Carmen and I found a few aisles that were either 80% or 66% off and let's face it...I LOVE A BARGAIN!

Almost everything in this grouping was purchased in Houston. The little shadow box on the bottom of the shelf was made years ago at a class that my friend Linda and I went to in Moore Ok. The little green jar was purchased at Goodwill here in Ada and the Pewter goblet next to it is from a Goodwill in Houston. I still have to finish the long blue pieces and I'm not sure if I will keep the picture in the frame that says Lemonade. I got it for the frame. The shadow box in the lower left of the grouping had mounting foam and burlap in it and when I found the pitcher urn thing at Goodwill I decided to take the burlap out and then put in some paper and added the urn. I got the large clock at a Goodwill in Houston and it was marked "as is, decorative only" and was 5 bucks. I know you can get the cloc mechanism pretty cheap so figured I could fix it. Once I got it back to Carmen's I took it apart and put a battery in it. I did have to adjust the hour hand but other than that it worked perfectly! SCORE! My friend Kat since me some wheat for the tall pitcher on the top of the shelf. The grouping looks like it's a little high on the wall but that is because I didn't want people banging their head on the shelf if they are sitting at the table. 

I wanted a shelf for over my coffee maker for my creamers and this worked great! As you see I haven't done anything with the frames I put up yet *okie wonders if anyone remembers the comment she made earlier about fear of commitment*. I may have told y'all but I don't remember so I will say it again, the creamer jars came from Ikea when I was in Houston in the spring and I cut out vinyl for the flavors of creamer. I got tired of trying to remember which one was which when it was time to refill them. The little green hen was purchased on the same trip from a thrift store. Everything else on the wall came from my trip in June and from Hobby Lobby. Oops, except the red jar behind the creamer containers, got it at Goodwill here in town. 

I am quite proud of my decorated kitchen and dining area now. I spent less than $200 for everything in the pictures and retail it would have easily been over $1,000 *okie thinks decorative pieces are totally way overpriced*.

I'll post some of the other things I've been busy doing in the next few days. School starts on Monday for me and I will be swamped for a month and will likely need to do some crafting to de-stress in the evenings so hopefully I will be posting more.

Going to Houston!

I've been so busy with work, trying to work extra so I don't have to use vacation time, because I am going to Houston in a few days and I haven't been crafting much. I'm going down to see my friend Carmen again and I say again because I was down there in March for a week. Most of y'all know about Carmen and how we met on the Cricut Messageboard some 7 or 8 years ago and became the best of friends. We talk almost every day and for hours on end and have been for about as long as we met on the MB. 

I chose to go at this time because our friend Lori is having her Craftapoolza *okie knows she spelled that wrong and spell check won't spell it right either* and my friend Donna who use to live in Houston will be in from Saudi and attending the *okie tries to spell the word again 5 different times and gives up* thing so I figured it would be a great time to see several of my friends as well such as Demita and Karen, not to be confused with BFF Karen who was suppose to fly in to Houston but has gotten side tracked with house hunting. 

I'll try to get some pictures of the cards my groups made in the next day or two. They really love making the cards and we do birthday cards every June. I would post more but I got paperwork to do and a list of stuff I need to get together and get in my trunk so I don't forget anything!

When It Rains...Wall Quote

I'm not sure why my friend Amy has me make wall quotes for her when she has a machine and could cut it herself *okie wonders if Amy is just lazy about weeding*, but anyway she told me the other day she was needed a new quote to go with a picture. She sent me a quote and then told me what size she wanted.

I'm sure it will look a lot better on the wall when applied permanently but of course I couldn't do that for the picture since I have to send it to Amy. I really can't remember what size it is set to in the file you can download and since this is something people would want to re-size for their own use it doesn't really matter. This particular one is approximately 24 inches wide. I had to cut it in two pieces since the height was too tall for a 12" mat. 

I had shared the design on Facebook for Amy's approval and a few people asked about the file so thought I would make it easy and just have it available here instead of having to email it to people. 

Once again if you download please at least leave a comment so I know my files are used. Thanks! 

Celebrating Freedom - 2 Page Layout

I have often said to myself, and probably a few others, that I think I enjoy designing projects more than making them. I love to come up with layout designs, whether the idea is in my head somewhere or if I am putting a spin on a sketch I see in a book or online. This particular layout sketch just screamed "I WANT TO BE PATRIOTIC" to me when I saw it online and so I made it what it wanted to be. 

Here is the list of dimensions for the base and stripes:

• Blue base - (2) 12x12
• Red stripes - (2) 12 x 1.5, (3) 12 x .5, (1) 8 x .5
• White stripes - (2) 12 x .75, (2) 12 x .5
• The photos sizes are suggestions.

The scroll cut is what I will be using for adding my date and journaling when I get ready to cut this layout. 

SVG USERS - Remember to select all and resize to 12x12 if you want the pieces in the size they were designed for the layout. 

Dear Bill Gates

Dear Bill Gates,

I have been a fan of Microsoft for years and haven't even considered a fruity computer, ie an Apple, but with my recent purchase of a laptop that has Windows 8 installed I am considering some fruit salad for my computer needs.

You see Mr. Gates with your latest wonderful updated program I can't find a damn phucking thing on my computer unless by some miraculous stroke of luck I have been able to actually short cut it to the desktop. Speaking of desktop, why must I have to wade through little screens on the big screen when I turn on my computer to find my phucking desktop?

I understand some people are APP happy but I am not one of those people. I have Apps on my phone and I would like programs on my computer. Maybe this means I am not savvy or chic but I do not care to be, I prefer to find what I want where it is suppose to be and be able to access the things I want with a click of a mouse. But, no, instead I spend 30 minutes scrolling and scrolling back through the phucking red screen only to realize I have to hit the phucking down arrow and then scroll for 2 hours through the little windows to find the program, oh excuse me, the phucking APP, I am looking for. Sometimes by the time I find it, sadly, it is already time for me to go to bed so I can go to work the next morning and then I have nightmares about little windows coming after me.

I often use the Paint program, oh sorry, Paint app, and do you know it actually took me 3 phucking days to find the damn thing the first time! I will say I am quite impressed with myself because now I can usually find it within a minute. BUT, only because of the search feature, or is that an App as well?

I can't remember how to shut down my damn computer half the phucking time. I truly miss being able to click in the bottom left hand corner and a nice little menu coming up and being able to conveniently seeing what program I want to open or turn off the computer.

I could go on and on but I'm afraid if I keep typing I will accidentally end up erasing everything I have typed as that has happened several times and one time I lost half my email contacts because I hit something and I have no idea where they went. But one last thing...I want my old calculator back! Ya know, the little one that looked like a calculator! I hate the phucking whole screen calculator and I was able to get it down to half a screen one time but I didn't like that either.

I hope this letter find you having a terrible day.

Sincerely,
okieladybug
who wishes Steve Jobs was still alive and kickin

Together We Make A Family - Layout

So while digging around in my files I found this layout I made back in January and never posted *okie thinks she should write sticky notes sometimes for her to keep track of her life* and thought I should get it posted in case anyone would want to use the file.

One of my first loves of paper was Basic Grey and while I still love it I have slowed down on buying it because...*okie looks from left to right and then right to left, leans closer, puts her index finger to her mouth and whispers* let's face it, I dont really have much room left for more paper. The papers used in this layout is from their Origins Collection and was probably the first collection I ever bought. 

I wanted to make the tree a little more interesting and stole the idea of using the buttons from my friend Carmen who made me a card years ago that had buttons embellishing the tree on the card. These particular buttons are from the same collection, I believe I have brads for this collection as well. That is one thing I love about collections, being able to have matching embellies and not having to dig through everything to find something that matches. I also thought the buttons were more interesting than cutting a bunch of leaves out of paper...*okie takes a deep breath and ponders for a moment then sighs deeply and hangs her head* okay I'll tell the truth...I was just too damn lazy to cut a bunch of leaves and put them on the tree and branch. Are you happy now? Are you happy that I admit I'm a lazy crafter??? *okie pouts for a second and then raises her head and puts her nose in the air* But you have to admit that the buttons are a very creative idea!

I liked the idea of the title swerving with the tree branch and that took a little finagling *okie is amazed she spelled that word correctly and knows it is correct since spell check didn't underline it* and right now I can't remember exactly what I did to make it curve. I might have adjusted each letter separately and then welded them together. 

I hope someone does use the file because I think it is a nice design. 

If you download please leave a comment of "thank you", "downloaded" or even "kiss my ass bitch" so I know my files are getting used. If they aren't being downloaded then I don't want to go to the time of converting them, uploading them to Google Drive, editing to share and then posting them. 

Birthday Banner - My Friend Nancy

So yesterday I posted the masculine banner and today I'm posting a more feminine birthday banner, the one I made for my friend Nancy. We had a get together for her birthday at a mutual friends house, who makes like the worlds best fajita's by the way, and I made a banner with her favorite colors of maroon and teal. Well I added a little silver and cream to the mix as well.

First off let me say it is very difficult to get good pictures of a banner because it is so dang long, so please bear with me having the banner in 3 pictures. 

The flags of the banner are cut out of heavy cardstock and the letters are done in vinyl. I also cut some flourish designs to add on the flags that the flowers are on. I had some sheer ribbon that I used for the bows at the ends of the banner. 

I pulled out some of my precious Petaloo flowers to add for decoration and while I hate using those flowers I figured Nancy was worth the sacrifice.  Big brads were used on a few of the flowers and then brads with crystal centers were used for the others.   

I didn't laminate Nancy's banner because I wanted to sew it together with ribbon and wasn't sure how my Janome Sew Mini would do with sewing through the lamination. Not long after it was hung up I was wishing I had laminated it because the air was very humid and the paper started curling. I might try a small piece of paper laminated through the sewing machine just to see if it will work so I will know for future references and if it does then there will likely be no end to my creating banners that can be stored and reused! 

Birthday Banner - For a Guy

While I haven't been posting in the last few months that doesn't mean I haven't been crafting....okay I've been crafting very, very, very little *okie hangs head in shame* but on a positive note my stamps are all organized! So what do y'all think of my stamp set up now?

Oh yes this post is about a birthday banner for a man *okie is quite amazed at how fast squirrels tend to distract her*! I've made two in the last month or so and while they were both banners they were quite different.

Today I want to share the one I made for my friend Eric. A few of us who hang out at happy hour *okie suddenly realizes she probably needs to post about that as well and thinks  there is a lot she hasn't shared and wonders how long it will take to catch everyone up with the going on's in okie's life* decided to surprise our friend Eric for his birthday and my task was to make a banner and a cake. 

I used 8.5 x 11 kraft carstock for the base of the banner and was able to fit two flags per sheet. I wondered what I wanted to use for the lettering since I really didn't want to waste paper on something that might be thrown away and I came up with using vinyl and in colors I have quite a bit of. This also made it easier for me to laminate the flags since I wanted to try out the laminator a friend sent me.

Since happy hour consists of $1 beers I thought it was appropriate to use beer mug images on the banner. Here you can see the images a little better. It was easy to layer the mug images and the letters. 

You can also see where I laminated the pieces which I am glad I did since Eric said he was going to keep the banner and hang it in his man cave. I trimmed around the pieces with my guillotine cutter so that went pretty fast. 

When I was in 8th grade my mom sent me to cake decorating classes at the local Junior college and I completed all the courses they had available and I then earned extra money decorating cakes and since I lived in a rural area I had a pretty steady income of extra money for a 13 year old. My Aunt Betty and her family moved to Oklahoma when I was 15 and she too could decorate cakes and she taught me how to make a bikini cake using heart shaped pans and baking some batter in mugs that have a fairly round bottom. 

For Eric I decided a bikini cake was the way to go! I was a bit disappointed in it because it should have been smoother but I have concluded that my little Hamilton Beach hand mixer is no match for making decent decorator buttercream icing. While I was not pleased with the results I will say the cake was a bit hit anyway! 

So now y'all can see that I'm a jack of all trades, or is that a jackess? Not to be confused with a jackass of course!

Updated Stamp Storage

Yesterday I told ya that after I got the closet organized and then my stamps organization updated I decided to change how the stamps were stored and today I am going to show you the pictures. 

So this is how my stamps looked when I finished the closet. If ya look close you can see some boxes on top of the crates that have stamps in them that needed to be unmounted and there were the ones on the bottom shelf that needed to be cataloged. Every time I slack off on keeping my stamps cataloged and organized I swear I will never do that again and then I do it again! One of my driving forces for getting it done this time is that there is a sale next weekend and I needed to know how much room I had left for storage so I would know if I could buy any or not. 

It's hard to see in this picture but I also have labels on the spines and like the ones I do because it gives them all a more uniformed look. 

Here is a close up of the cases and you can see more clearly how the spines are labeled. I also type in a brief description and since some of the stamps have coordinating framelits or thinlits I store them in the cases as well and added that to the spine label. 

The label at the bottom is on the outside of the case and coordinates with my catalog so I can easily flip through my catalog and then go to the shelf and grab the case the stamp is in that I am wanting to use. 

If I have framelits or thinlits I store them in a case and use a magnet sheet to keep them in place. This particular one was a bundle so it is together. They are in the catalog the same way so I can find them easily. 

Since I was lazy and didn't feel like cutting each framelit or thinlit, and to save space as well, I drew inside the framelit or thinlit and slid the paper in the case, I repeated the drawing in my catalog as well. 

I was down to my last few cases when suddenly I remembered I had some board out in the garage that the carpenter left when he was fixing the eaves and wondered if it would work for shelving in the shelving *okie wonders how that even works*. Let me see if I can explain that better...I wanted to get rid of the crates as they were taking up some space but I wanted to be able to use the space above the stamp cases because we all know that storage space is precious property. 

It definitely opened up some space, made it all look neater and gave me a little more space above the stamps for storing something....not sure what yet but I will think of something! I will likely paint the wood pieces and since they are not permanently put together it will be easy to take them out and paint them later on when the weather gets nicer. 

For new readers if you are interested you can check out my STAMP CATALOG and see how I able to find stamps easily. 

Organization Is Not For The Faint Of Heart

Okay so we all know that I have a fascination for organization, whether it is my paper, markers, stamps, cutting files, vinyl...well it really doesn't matter what it is I always feel I need to organize it and always look for a better way to organize. Organization is not for the faint of heart, but to me it is always worth it in the long run. 

I had recently reorganized my vinyl, I'll make a post about it later, and the shoe cabinet where I use to keep quite a bit of my vinyl in was empty and I wondered what I could put in there. After looking around in my craftroom closet, which was still in disarray, I thought about the giftbags I have to alter and thought I would try those in the cabinet. 

I had the giftbags in two different boxes and a few bags, I said my closet was in disarray, but was able to get all of them in the cabinet and it still shuts nice and neat. Most of the giftbags where bought in bundles and I never paid more than a dime for any of the bags. I haven't altered any bags in awhile and maybe that can be put on my list of what I want to craft next, right after getting my mini albums done that I've been working on for months and replenishing my gift card boxes. 

So once I got the gift bags in the cabinet it lead to another thing, then another, then another...ya know how it goes. 

until I was moving everything around, going through boxes that have been packed up since I moved and making a more thorough mess than what I had in the first place. All these things on the shelves were moved about 10 different times!

I kept changing things until I had items on shelves that looked okay to me and fit well, that also called for me moving shelves up and down a few times.

Finally after a few hours, okay more like 10 hours or so I got things straightened up enough to please me for now, I could still stand to get some better storage items for a few things. I'm always looking in Goodwill and clearance aisle's for storage and sometimes I get lucky enough to find some good ones. This is the right hand corner of the closet and most items in that corner are ones I don't use or need to get to often. 

This is the left hand corner of the closet and the boxes on those shelves are Really Useful Boxes I got at Staples years ago and right now they hold things like ribbon, envelopes, card inserts, cording, etc. The two shelves at the bottom hold scrapbooks and a few catalogs or books for crafting.

At the top of the closet are boxes that hold items for altering, such as tumblers and there are also a few boxes that hold completed projects such as mini albums and frames. I will either find something that looks more pleasing or eventually decorate these boxes so they look nicer. 

The red bins now have labels on them so I can grab the one I need without having to pull each one and go through it. 

These white boxes are what I store cards in and use to keep giftbags in two of them. These came from Walmart about 5 years ago and I think I picked them up for $1 each on clearance. I like having the label frame for identifying what's in each box.  The cabinet in the lower left hand corner of the picture is the one where the giftbags are stored. I can't believe I can see the floor under the shelving now!

I worked on my pegboard storage a few weeks ago and it looks a bit better than it originally did. The shelves in the picture are were I store my stamps using little plastic crates I found at Walmart for $1 each, they are originally to store DVDs I do believe. The black boxes contain envelopes, binding wires, silk flowers, adhesives and other things. 

This is the view into the closet with the door open and yes that is empty space there! AACCKK! I will eventually get rid of the wicker baskets and replace those with something else but I was getting tired and left them for now. 

Now ya would think I would be happy with this closet after all this but alas, NOPE! I started working on updating my stamp organization and then changed how my stamps are stored a bit which I will post about tomorrow!

The Chit I See on Facebook!

I'm going to tell y'all something that some of ya know and others may not...there are some true crazy arse people in the crafting world! I will give you some examples of the chit I see on Facebook.

1. THEY STOLE MY IDEA AND I'M GOING TO SUE! - No honey there are very, and I emphasize very, rarely any original ideas anymore. We might thing we thought about it but somewhere out there if you dig deep enough you can always find that someone else was doing it long before you even thought about it. And unless you are Disney, a University or some other big company with a copyrighted logo ya probably don't stand a chance in hell in winning a law suit.

2. I ONLY SUPPORT (insert a cutting machine here) AND YOU CAN'T TALK ABOUT ANY OTHER PRODUCT - some groups go as far as kicking out members who dare bring up another company in their group, which is their right but my good gawd get the corn cob out your butt and realize there are different strokes for different folks and if you expand your mind a little ya just might learn something.

3. I AM AN EXPERT ON (insert cutting machine, craft, etc) AND YOU SHOULD DO WHAT I DO AS THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO DO IT - Bullchit! I call bullchit! The old saying goes "there is more than one way to skin a cat" and I don't know who came up with that saying and since I don't find that very nice I will say I do know there is more than one way to do most anything. My friend Carmen and I argue about this all the time as she wants me to try it her way and I don't want to because I like doing whatever it is my own way...we agree to disagree, of course after bitching at each other for 30 minutes.

4. YOU ARE BREAKING THE LAW BY MAKING THAT PROJECT BECAUSE IT HAS A COPYRIGHT - So many people are screaming at others about how they are using copyrighted images and even go as far as threatening others with turning them in. SERIOUSLY? Personally I think those people are the ones who are jealous and can't figure out how to make a copy of an image. And yeah, I can and do use copyrighted images at times. If Disney wants to come and take away my vinyl because I put Minnie Mouse on a tumbler for a friend then let them come on.

Okay I could really go on and on about the silly chit I see and I have almost given myself headaches at times with the eye rolls that go on. I think some people truly forget that all this area of crafting is a hobby for many of us and while we take our hobby seriously we don't want to be told we are going to hell, the police are coming after us or we will be banished from the crafting world just because we want to use different products, try new things and make new friends.

Maybe y'all just  need to ignore me right now since all the rain we have been having has made my brain soggy and is working on putting me in an extremely irritable mood.

Using Make The Cut with the Cricut Explore

I have said it many times and I will say it again...I FREAKIN LOVE MAKE THE CUT!! If ya didn't hear me I can yell it a little louder *okie cups her hand behind her ear and hears someone in the back say they didn't hear her*. Okay this is for you in the back I FREAKIN LOVE MAKE THE CUT!!!

Now with that said and out of the way I shall continue. I believe we all know how much I have enjoyed reviewing the Cricut Explore and how well I think this machine cuts but I absolutely abhor the software and how it has to be connected to the internet to use. BUT, with the magic abilities of Make The Cut I can make my design safely without an internet connection, export as an SVG file and then upload into Cricut Design Space for cutting. This takes out a lot of worry about if I'm going to lose connection or if their server is going to have problems and crap out on me for whatever reason while I am designing. I also don't like the glitchy movement I get a lot of the time with the CDS program. I like nice smooth movement when I'm designing, I can tolerate it during cutting since that is all I am using the program to do. 

I apologize for the poor picture quality and I hope it is clear enough to get my point across. I got a new computer a few months ago and it runs Windows 8 *which okie hates* and I'm still not use to all the new crap...half the time I can't even find what I need on this damn thing. 

First off I get my design all on one mat in MTC. I always add a 12x12 base layer to my design I am going to import into CDS and I will explain that in a later step. 

• Make sure all the layers are unlocked and visible. There is a little "eye" and "lock" icon in the bottom right hand corner where you can hide/unhide and lock/unlock all layers at once or you can do each independently next to the small mat preview seen on the right hand column on the screen. 

• Select all your layers by either clicking "edit" and then "select all" or drawing a box around all the images with your mouse.

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• Export your design by clicking file, export, Sel to SVG file
• Name and save your file

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• Open Cricut Design Space
• Click on Upload Image
• Click Upload Vector
• Find your file
• Click Open

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• Make sure correct file is checked
• Click on Insert Image

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• Click the Edit tab
• Resize image to 12x12 to maintain original design ratio

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I hope I explained that well enough, I'm not so good at explaining things to others and most of the time it's just easier for me to do things and then send it to them than trying to explain how to do it. I really wanted people to see how easy it is to use the most awesome program in the world, Make The Cut, with the superior cutting machine, the Cricut Explore.

My Oh My! It's Been Awhile...

I guess when you get out of the swing of a routine it is hard to get back in it and that is what had happened with me blogging. First off let me say thank you to all those who have inquired if I am okay. I am fine and dandy but haven't been doing much crafting in the last few months. I have done some things here and there but nothing fabulous, outstanding or new. I do have some stories to tell, even though they might be out of date by now I will try to get around to posting those, such as my trip to Houston back in March. I will be taking another one in June since I love driving my new car and the miracle of audio books keep me from dreading such drives.

Sometimes I forget that there are some folks who just like to read what I type up and post, which is still beyond me most of the time, and I figure I won't post anything if I don't have anything crafty going on. I will try to keep up more...*okie makes the Girl Scout oath gesture* I promise.

So with that I leave you for today and I will be making a post tomorrow about how I used Make The Cut with the Cricut Explore because I am starting to get a lot of inquiries about the ability to do such a thing due to the huge amount of frustration that people are having with the software that you are suppose to use with the Cricut Explore. I still honestly believe the Explore is a superior cutting machine and I want people to love the machine as much as I do, even if they hate the software...like I do.

Okay I'm off for now to type up a post on the whole subject!