Anthologies Connection

It's June 1st and you know what that means...reveal day for the current month's kit at Anthologies! This kit is called "Take Flight" and includes papers from the Queen Bee collection of Pink Paislee, along with lots more fabulous goodies. Did I spy some screening, a wine cork and some funky yarn in those boxes? Fun, fun stuff. Check it all out on the Anthologies website here, order your kit before they are gone and spend some time perusing the fantastic gallery of projects created by the Connections Design Team this month!

I'll be MIA for the next few days. The Great American Scrapbook Convention is in town and I'm off to a 12-hour crop tomorrow and shopping on Thursday. Can't wait to see what's new - hope my pocketbook can stand it!

Let us Remember

those brave soldiers, past and present, who sacrifice so much so that we may be free. Happy Memorial Day!

Inspiration Challenge

I'm down to the wire again! I'm participating in an online "inspiration challenge" mingle which is due the end of the month. Well, technically I guess I have one more day...

The original inspiration piece was this darling ruffled flower pillow. I love the color combination and the flower.

Here is the project I made for my partner. It's a small chipboard hanging painted "Tiffany blue" and covered with two coordinating cream, brown and blue patterned papers. I used my new EK Success border punch on the center border and stamped some flourishes. The C monogram is pearl art metal embossed with the Cuttlebug and mounted on chipboard. The flower was made with several layers of sewing pattern tissue folded in a strip and then cut along the folded edge with my new Martha Stewart fringing scissors. The strip was then coiled into a flower shape and glued to the monogram.

Gotta get this in the mail!

Craft room and storage

I'm always looking for new functional and pretty ways to store my stash of supplies. Here are a few I've gleaned from different sites - I have mentioned the source if I know it.

Here's a cute and easy ribbon storage idea from Amber at Givers Log using an assortment of candlesticks.

Check out this wonderful embellishment storage - I believe it is 6' tall by 4' wide!

Love this idea for storing lever punches using a curtain rod. Wish I had more wall space!

Jars of goodies stored in an old wooden soda crate (scrumdilydilly.blogspot.com).

Check out this beautiful old library card file. Susan at westcoastcrafty.wordpress.com stores her jewelry findings in this!

Another great ribbon storage solution using wire baskets hung on the wall. (Pretty too.)

A very functional way to store buttons and tiny embellishments using the inexpensive plastic "floss containers." I like how the boxes are labeled!

And one of my favorites for storing craft paint bottles (momto2GRITs at 2Ps) using two wire racks held together with ribbon and hung on the wall:

Hope this gives you some clever ideas for storage.

Art-O-Mat

What is an Art-O-Mat? It's an old vending machine refurbished to dispense small works of art by various artists! There are many locations throughout the country where these can be found, but I just discovered that one location is just a few miles from where I live and is actually in the town where I previously lived, Keller, TX! (So, any locals reading my blog, check it out!)

You can find out more about this clever idea at www.artomat.org. As for the Keller location, it is called Art251 (www.art251.com) and is in the Keller Town Center (251 Town Center Place). As I understand it, there is a size limitation (it's in a vending machine-duh) and most are priced at about $5. What a great way to support artists and receive a tiny work of art in return. I can't wait to see this firsthand!

Sharing

Here are some random vintage ephemera images for your use. You can click on each image to enlarge, then save to your computer. If you use these in your artwork, I would love to see what you do with them! Emjoy.

A few more wedding pics if you can stand it

my four girls - all grown up