Creative Chaos

Getting ready for Black Friday at Paper Tales.........

Every year it's the same thing.....people camping out in front of the store.....waiting for days on end.....rushing through the doorway to get the great deals.  And, then, we tell them that "the Target down the street was the one with the 40" flat screen for $120 dollars....but hey, our halloween paper is 30% off!"    Maybe this year I can entice them with my ornament class that I whipped up over the Thanksgiving break.....

Gotta run! karin

 

 

Almost finished.......

I'm having so much fun with these Melissa Frances chipboard houses.  I'm almost done....I just need to put the finishing touches on them......

 

Before:

After:

Back to glittering......Talk to you soon!  karin

Melissa Frances Monday.........

I'm painting......

I'm glittering......

I'm searching high and low for my mica glitter........

I'm experimenting with some tulle ribbon.......

I'm gluing.......

I'm creating.....

 I'm making progress.....

Talk to you soon!  Karin

Melissa Frances Monday......

in the making.   I've been slowly priming my little Melissa Frances chipboard houses.  I love these little things.  It reminds me of my grandma's house at Christmas where she would have all these little Putz houses glowing under the tree.  

First though I want to invite you to go over to the Melissa Frances blog for a giveaway.   Melissa is celebrating her debut video "Timeless Creations with Melissa Frances."  Here is the episode in case you missed it. 

 

All you need to do is leave a comment on what crafts or projects you would like to see in the future.   

Of course, the CEO of Tomfoolery, who is also under the false impression that he is on the Melissa Frances design team, had to get in on the action.  He insisted on outside window panes and a brown roof much to my dismay.  I relented when we compromised on a soft green exterior.....

Can you tell what my favorite color is this season.....

That's it for now!  I'm off to Paper Tales.....Talk to you soon!  Karin

Long time no see......

I can't believe it's been so long since I've last posted.  Ack...it's been almost two months.  I have a good excuse though.  I've been subbing non-stop since the start of school, plus teaching an afternoon craft class.   I love it, but it leaves me so little time to be creative.  However, it gives me tons of fun little things the kids say and do.  Like this...... 

Adventures in Substitute Teaching: Perspectives of a 1st grader.......

Said in the most serious and earnest voice she could muster during her name presentation...."And Maya Angelou is really, really, really old.  AND, she's still alive! Can you believe that? 

Of course this statement resulted in at least 15 hands being raised.

"How old is she!?! asked a 6 year old who wondered how one could be old and alive at the same time.

"Well........I think she's like 28 or 30 years old or something like that!" 

Which I suppose is good news for Maya Angelou.  However, It's bad news for anyone else over the age of 28......not to mention it makes me dead for the the past 20 years...... 

They are so funny.  Anyway, in other news my poor little mini van was in a bit of a fender bender a couple weeks ago.  Ugg....Here was my post on facebook that morning.......

Oh..... Mr. Speedy McSpeedster....if you think you're getting away with that accident this morning, you have no idea who you are dealing with.  All my years of watching Judge Judy will finally pay off.....I'm working on my airtight case right now.  The only thing that would have made my morning better was besides your expired insurance that you would have had a suspended license, a broken lease and an unpaid cell phone bill.  And....don't give me basically.....I don't want to hear basically.....

I told my insurance adjuster that I was SURE he was going at least 40-50, possibly even 60, miles an hour down my street.  I even had the skid mark to prove it!   When the adjuster told me that he was going around 32-35 mile an hour, I demanded a recount.  After he told me there was nothing to recount, I took my minivan down to the shop and picked up my rental car......

A Camero! HA....Justice was served!

So anyway, I'm doing a long term sub job and working at Paper Tales. In the meantime, I worked on some journal pages for a round robin that I had absolutely no business signing up for.  I'm so far behind it's pathetic.  Lucky for me, others are behindtoo so I I feel better.  Once i start working on the pages I have so much fun and wonder why I waited to long to get started......sigh....

Time for bed.....I'm working at Paper Tales tomorrow so I'll take some pictures of the new expansion.  It looks so fabulous.  It's hard to imagine how we lived without the extra space.  Talk to you soon!  Karin

 

 

Ok......So.....

This week has FLOWN! I ended up substitute teaching for kindergartners last week.  It was days filled with wide eyes...endless questions....even more endless stories...and a puddle of pee on the floor..... in which I stepped.  Yep.  I did.  However, I now feel like I have been officially  indoctrinated into the world of kinders. Although exhausting, I love the kinders.  You just never know what you are going to get day to day.  Watching them in their natural habitat aka the playground is hysterical.   I love when someone would breathlessly run up to me with all the urgency of someone who just spotted a fire and say....."So and so just told me neener, neener, neener."   Oh dear.  Not the dreaded neener, neener, neener.   Sigh....

 I caught my breath this weekend just in time to sub all the rest of this week.   This time it's 3rd and 4th grade....hopefully all bathroom breaks will be taken in the restroom! 

So anyway, normally on Monday I like to do my Melissa Frances Monday post.  Unfortunately, I haven't finished any of my current projects so I'm going to share some fun creations from the other design team members......

This one is from Melissa Phillips.  I adore her work....although I do believe she has some sort of secret she is not sharing with the rest of us.  That being how to stretch a twenty four hour day into thirty six hours....She not only has endless inspiration but actually follows through on it and creates amazing projects.....

Next up Rachel McAffee.......

I love how she mixes all the embellishments together and comes up with an inspired work of art......

 

I love this Journal from Emeline Seet to Melissa for her 50th birthday.  Gorgeous......

And rumor has it she is coming to Paper Tales to teach in January.....

 

The next layout is by Evgenia Petzer ........

I love her layouts.  She has this way of layering everything in an effortless way.....Beautiful.....

 

Ok....that's it for now!  I will be back with the rest of the design team tomorrow.  I need all my rest for those third graders.....Talk to you soon! karin

 

Melissa Frances Monday......

I'm running out the door for my first day of subbing this year.....Kindergarteners!   I should be filled with plenty of fun stories by the time I return this afternoon.  But I did want to share some picture frames I created using Melissa Frances papers and embellishments.    Also there is a fun little announcement on her blog too.

Frames are so much fun to make......

Ok....gotta run!  There are little 5 year olds calling my name.  Talk to you soon!  Karin

Before I head out the door......

to Paper Tales, I wanted to share a class I will be teaching.  A little glittery, spiderwebby box......

I'm thinking about doing some kits to sell in my long neglected, spiderwebby filled Etsy shop. What do you think?   

I've also been working on some halloween tags to do a class.....

As was working on these tags I realized that I work on a very small comfort zone island.   Before sitting down at the table I pulled out all my old stampes I bought last year but didn't have time to use....all my new stamps I bought this year and have yet to use and the stamps that were given to me by a lovely blog reader of mine who no longer had use for them........

So what do I do with all these old and new halloween stamps just begging to be used in new and creative ways.....

I use the same three stamps that I used last year.  Ridiculous. 

Although in my none creative defense, I did some embossing with this really cool embossing powder I got at Paper Tales.  So maybe all all hope is not lost.  

Oh speaking of Paper Tales......



The expansion is moving ahead.  The floor and walls are painted.........

We're getting there!  Talk to you soon.....Karin

Melissa Frances Monday on a Thursday.......

So it's no secret I love to make gift tags.  I think it's because of the obvious...quick and easy.  But I also think it's because they can be little works of art on their own.  Whatever the case, I had a little tag fever and finished up some projects on my desk........

Here is one of the resin angels from Melissa Frances along with paper wand embellishments from the new collection........

 Some old school stamps from Melissa Frances.  I love this border stamp......

I'll be back with more progress on the Paper Tales expansion.  I keep forgetting to take pictures. 

Talk to you soon!

Time for a cupcake....

So a few posts back I briefly talked about my obsession with fake cupcakes.  I've seen them around blog town and have always been facinated with them.   So, when Paper Tales selected  "Sweetest Day" for its Shop Hop theme back in July, I knew I had my excuse to figure out how to make these babies.......

They are so much fun to make not to mention addicting.  I could make enough of them.   Although the boys weren't as thrilled with them when they sadly discovered that they couldn't eat them.

Yay!! Mommy's making cupcakes!! We have the best Mommy!  She rocks!" exclaimed happy children everywhere.

"Whahhh!! Why do you have to make fake cupcakes! What's the point! We want a new Mommy!" exclaimed children in my household.

Whatever.   I had bigger fish to fry than children who weren't getting their daily sugar quota.  I needed to figure out how to make fake sprinkles.  

So, in order to share the happiness with people that acually appreciated fake cupcakes, unlike the bitter and morose people in my household, I decided to have a class at Paper Tales.......

 

So much fun! 

I'll be doing another class soon.  I think when we move the classroom over to the other expanded side.   Ok...gotta run...talk to you soon!  Karin