Another swap down. Two or three more to go then I'll be making quilts for awhile. I have some pictures of a great mini that was sent to me for the Halloween mini swap. It is made by Becky Hurley from Arkansas. My work PALES in comparison! So to make up I promised her I would make another one. I will be sending out the lil' monster that I made today. (10.01.2012) the official deadline to send out our creations. So without further ado here is the most awesome mini from Becky....

This is the book/box that Becky packaged the mini in. If I come across one of these in the stores, I'll definitely be buying a couple.

 The next few shots show different pages and the photos do not do this book justice. Like the cameos on page one: they are the hologram photos, tilt one way and see a normal couple, tilt the other and see skeletons. Creepy!

Lots of flips for photos and journalling. Tags that can be tucked away here and there.

 She made some dangles that hang off the end of the middle page made with bats and little jewels.

I like the dress form witch. That is cute. And the dangle that Becky made for the spine of the book. 

A poison bottle and bats and a spider web charm.

So that is the Halloween mini swap. I'll post my mini(s) that I made when Becky receives them. I do not want spoilers. That is all for now. Posting this rather late at night. Up early to ready my son for school; maybe. We'll see in the morning. Finishing an embellishment swap tomorrow and sending everything out. Kinda liking these two in one swaps, everything done in one! LOL 'Til next time.

It has quite a while since I last posted here. Pretty much a month. I have been busy with my son's school, meetings and fundraising. I used to work there and now I am a parent. So that has been taking up most of my time, getting to know some of the parents, reacquainting myself with some of the parents who still have children attending. Getting my Freedom School 'legs' back so to speak.

On another note. I will no longer be selling Close To My Heart products. I have taken down the link on this page. I am in the process of getting a business open. There should not be much competition with one Local Scrapbook Supply store in the city of Cornwall (ON. for those of you who live in other countries with cities named Cornwall) and another in Akwesasne which is only ope for select hours. I already have accounts set up with BoBunny, Graphic 45, Ranger Ink, Petaloo, Prima, Simple Stories. Most of these companies are not sold in either of the stores that I mentioned. Later on, I would be looking into setting up an online store. Nothing big. Just taking advantage of the internet.

I have become addicted to swaps on Life on the (Scrap) Beach community site. My first swap was a mail art swap which asked crafters to alter envelopes with art of any kind as long as the envelope was still functional. We then sent our finished project to the host of the swap and she divides the projects amongst participating members. The second one was summer/vacation themed mini album swap. Then the embellishment swap which is pretty neat, because you can 'de-stash' while getting new items in return. The ones I am in now are a Halloween Mini album, a tag swap and another embellishment swap. These last ones are all Halloween themed. Oh and there is the ribbon swap (all ribbons) and the advent/12 days of Christmas swaps. So as you can see quite busy.

As with all my projects, I will posting pics here. I am not one to do videos, but who knows? When my store if fully functional I may just do a tour of the shop!

Stay safe and keep creating!

Hi peeps.

Thought I would share some things going on around here. First off, we now have 12 eggs from my girls. Just tiny little things, but I am assured the hens will lay larger eggs as they mature. My hubby built them quite the nesting boxes. I jokingly said this what you get when you have an ironworker build something out of wood. LOL.

Not bad, though. We bought these in the scrap bin at our local lumber/home/construction store. He made two and when they were installed the girls loved it. I found the first egg on top of the chippie mansion and another in the crevice between the 'mansion' and the house. 

Not a very good picture, but it shows the boxes installed and already the girls are inspecting our handiwork.

I am signed up for a local program here through our the Community Health Program at Kanonhkwatsheriio (our clinic here in Akwesasne). I just wanted to share what you would get in their Green Food Box program. The cost of the program is $10 and you get the seasonal fruits and vegetables. And sometimes if you are lucky you can get some extras, which I always share. This month I got lots and lots of carrots, cucumbers, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, bananas, and oranges, and much more.

The hubby and I went for a ride on Sunday. Stopped at a roadside market and bought some peaches. First thing that I thought of was" PEACH JAM". Made two batches, one stove top method and one freezer method. I adjust the sugar amounts; way too much sugar in the recipes. It has not impacted my jams so far, not that the product last long in this house... LOL.

Nothing too crafty going this week. Just repairing a quilt for the Akwesasne Freedom School's Annual Dinner and Quilt Auction going on this weekend, August 25 & 26. I volunteered for the quilt auction, donated one of my quilts and will be there most of both days. So looking forward to seeing how the quilts fare this year. Have not been involved since I worked there. Going to be quite different to be on the other end of it.

Hope you all are enjoying your day and making the weekend a good one, be safe and share a smile!

Another Day, An Empty Day

Does it ever diminish? My son started school on July 30. I thought; Hey, now my house will be clean. I can start making more quilts and begin my designing career making mini albums and greeting cards geared to my community specifically.

Let's break down my days so far: Up at 5:30 make lunch for the hubby; do the dishes from the night before, wake my son up at 7:20. Get him dressed and ready, out the door by 8:15. Walking after wards and then home by 9-9:30AM. Sounds pretty impressive up to now, right? Make my coffee and sit down to watch some Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I promise myself it is only one episode...Three episodes later and I look a the time. Crap Nuggets! It is now 2:30 and I am eating lunch. Leave the house for 3:15 to pick up my son at school and then home by 4PM. Hubby-dear gets home around 5-6PM, so supper has to be started by 4:45 the latest. Oh and lets not forget the two dogs and the two cats and the 12 chickens who need to be fed and watered. Aaand, I let the chickens out of their pen for a walk-about in the evenings for about an hour or two, then back inside they go.Then it is bathing my son, cleaning/straightening up the rooms that he terrorized before putting him to bed. I get to at least sleep in on weekends, 7-7:30AM is usually the time that my son now gets up.

While all this is going on, I have this little itch in the back of my mind: Sakoianihsaks....What is he into? No. Wait, he is in school. Ten minutes later; same thoughts. I actually caught myself walking through the house thinking I would let him stay home tomorrow. Does it ever Diminish? At one time I remember thinking, I can't wait for him to go to school. There will be soo much done. Hunh! Not yet.


Another unrelated note. The school that I have sent my son to is holding their Annual Dinner and Quilt Auction on the weekend of the August 25 & 26. I worked here for about 8 years. Wow, 8 years. the parents of the school volunteer at this fundraiser; it is our responsibility to provide additional funding for the running of the school. It was quite the job to get everyone to commit to various activities, but when the time came; the parents stepped up and got the job done. Now I have come full circle. My son is now attending school here and I have volunteered for the quilt auction. I will have my own quilt that I have made donated as part of my effort to help out.  

The school's curriculum is based on the Ohenton Kariwhatekwen (Word before all else). It is a full immersion school of the Mohawk language. I chose to send my son here because I want him to have the chance to learn his language and be able to communicate with the elders in the community. I'll have a link to school's website and some more info listed here soon.

The time for me to pick up my son is rapidly closing in on me. What have I done today, you ask? Well, woke up this morning at 5:30.....

Does it ever diminish, this feeling that I have to have my son by my side? Can you tell me that?  Oh and I still have not gotten to designing my cards and minis yet. Thanks for stopping by and taking a stroll through the cluttered paths of life.

Update on the Mini Album

Well, here is the 'finished' item. There is one page that I was not happy with so I took the paper off and am replacing it.

This is the cover. Can't really see them, but I put silver glue in the middle of the stars, Liquid Glass (Z679), Close To My Heart, on the butterflies. Paper flowers from Petaloo, Mulberry Street; no-name brand from Auntie Em's, and Recollections. Crystal flourish by ZvaCreative. Paper pack, (Zippadee and Blue Ribbon discontinued), Sparkles, Clear assortment Z1752, Shell from Sea Glass by K&Company. The binding ribbon was from my sewing stash. The little lady bug came from an embellishment swap on Life on the Scrap Beach.

This is the Back cover. The paper roses were rubbed on a stamp pad to give it the red tint and then I added Glitz Glitter Gel in Stardust (Z1313) to it.

This is one of the pages with a mini-mini attached, more space to add keepsakes and whot-not.

 

 A pic of the mini-mini sort of open.

 The front cover has a handmade envelope attached for hidden journals, keepsakes, etc.

 The flowers are handmade, the butterfly is layered with three pieces (Prima Flowers).

 The tags are Journaling Spots Journey (X1409 discontinued)

 This page show the top flap open with Top Coats (Z1211discontinued) as a top loading picture frame.

 This page has multiple flags for photos and more journaling. Another handmade envelope made with Cricut cartridges.

Inside back cover with another envelope.

 

I used Martha Stewart border punch in Vintage Heart Lace for the binding strips. On the tags I used KaiserCraft stamp set in Flourishes C5721. The tags and binder strips were inked three colors Cranberry Z2116, Desert Sand Z2118, and Honey Z2162 all CTMH. The flourish was 2nd generation stamped in Outdoor Denim Z2130 then I traced it with Liquid Glass and sprinkled Martha Stewart glitter in Lapis Lazuli and Brownstone. I roughed the edges of the papers and inked with TH Walnut Stain. For my adhesives, I used Hallmark 450 Quick Dry adhesive, 1/4 ATG tape and Pink ATG gun, and 1/4 Sookwang Scor-tape.
Forgive me if I forgot to mention some of the 'ingredients' to this mini, it was not on purpose.

I kept the pages and tags open without photo matting and journaling for my swap partner to decide what she wanted to there. I hope she enjoys it as much as I did making it. I started out make single and two-page scrapbook layouts for my sons thousands (joking) of pictures. Then I started to search Youtube for ideas on different techniques: flowers, inking, stamping and the sort. This lead me to page construction for mini albums then to specific album/altered art projects to where I am today. I still make the layouts; I do have three more photo albums to fill in addition to the two I have filled already. You can take a peek on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Awenhniseronkion.king to see where I started out and how far I have come.

I am still working on linking Youtube videos of my favorite designers channels and Ustream channels. Hopefully I can figure this out soon. Thanks for reading, tomorrow or next, I will be writing about a quilt that I am helping my Auntie quilt. It will be donated to the school where my son attends. Stay tuned.....

 Hey All, Me again. Today I am working on finishing a mini album for a swap. Need to get it out by the end of this week! Eeeeee! Where did the time go? Waking up at 9AM with my 3yr old does not help! LOL. Here are some sneak peeks of the mini. I hope my swap partner likes it... After this project is finished, I am off to the fabric world to finish up two quilts that I will be donating to our local quilt group's effort. They are trying to get 180 baby/crib quilts to gift to the daycares in the community. I foolishly promised two; four months ago. Deadline for this is ....next week! Nothing like cutting this short!

 

Here is a shot of the back of the mini. I was trying for the corset look. It is a summer/vacation type album but I also took the liberty to play with the feminine. I am making masculine feeling layouts, cards, and minis since I am surrounded by males in this house. At one time even all the pets were male! :)

I was inspired by Kathy Orta from Paper Phenomenon and her paperbag mini album. I don't remember what it is called, but I can post the link.There is lots of places to put tags and photo mattes, journaling and all sorts. Little pockets to stash keep sakes, tickets from the plane, show park rides. That sort of thing.

Here is one of the tags that I am working on. I found this really elegant and feminine flower/scroll stamp set by Kaisercraft. C5721 \Flourishes. All I did was stamp the image in second generation technique in a contrasting color; blue in this case. Then I carefully traced with glue the image and sprinkled on the glitter. Again, in a contrasting color.

I kept the theme of the tags and the binding hinges the same, colors and all. 

 Here you can see what I mean about all the places to put your pictures and keepsake items. This is basic construction phase, I have yet to be adding the embellishments and all that jazz.

This is a mini mini! LOL. Again with the mottled colors and stamp from the same set. The lil' tag fits in the top loading pocket you see in the mini page.

 This is a page with another mini-mini attached right to the page. I am debating about putting tags in all the page slots. May just leave a couple open for keepsake stashing.

I hope you like this peek into my world. As you can see I am a bit of a messy crafter, you should see my hands sometimes... ink everywhere. Again, I am in the learning stages and creating helps to let loose all the lil; demons out before they drive over the bend. LOL Thanks for peeking.

First day doing a blog about what I like to do. Being creative with paper, fabric and sometimes food.

A little bit about me. I am a stay at home mom of one very smart little boy. It is because of him that I became addicted to scrap-booking. I filled one album with just layouts of my son during his first year with us. Then I found Ustream and Youtube. Following the instructions provided by other crafts people, I started to make mini albums out of cardstock and paper. I was instantly hooked. Now, not only am I able to highlight pictures of my son, but I can showcase these pictures in an album that I made. I don't want to mislead you into thinking that I am this phenomenal paper-crafter. I am just beginning here. I will post pictures of all of my creations here, mini albums, quilts, and some jewelry.

I learned my love of quilting from my mother. I miss coming home and walking into a living room turned into sewing studio. I still have the quilt she made for me: Grandmother's Garden done in red, blues and white with a flannel backing. It has gone bare in some spots, but still warm and full of love. The quilts that I make now are just to try and pay the bills, but in the near future I want to start making more works of art.

Not much of a jewelry maker, but soon I hope to have some items that will make you go: Oooooh! LOL.

I also am an independent consultant with Close To My Heart. A scrap-book supplier out of Utah. There will be a link in the sidebar, somewhere for you look/browse an online catalog. Through that link you can either order right there, you will pay s&h and taxes, and your order will ship right to your door. Or send me an e-mail and I can process the order, by doing it this way I can offer discounts to you. E-mail me for details: awenhniseronkion@hotmail.com.

Well, I guess that is all for today. I will be working on getting this blog up and perfected. I have to decide which pics to show or just say to heck with it all and show everything. Hmmm.

I will post links from the many influences on my creativity. To all that I create, I thank you. Please do not think I am claiming designs as my own, I am not. I will name and post links to websites/youtube/ustream sites.

I know that this is a lot of pictures, but hey, it is my first 'blog day' after all! I'll post more tomorrow. And hopefully get a good handle on this blog designing. Hope I get some followers, ;)!