Spending my new year... crafting!

How has everyone's new year been so far :) What are we in day 4 now and I want it to be Christmas again! I have spent these last 4 days crafting. I have signed up for quite a few fun swaps as well as hosting some of my own. I love button fairies. (See photos in older posts.) There are not too many swaps on button fairies so I decided to host two of my own. A Valentines button fairy and an April Fools button fairy. I also recently participated in a bright pink button fairy. I was able to finish the bright pink and Valentines button fairies, but I am completely stuck on what to do for my own swap, the April Fools button fairy. I thought I would instantly come up with an idea, but have yet to do so. I even walked around a few craft stores yesterday to see what I could come up with. How do you get inspiration?

I am also working on a few journals right now. An altered journal for a swap and a 'How to be a Stepford Wife' journal. The last one there has been taking some time I can tell you that. I feel I should be getting started on my Valentine crafts but with Swapping and other obstacles in life (aka bills) I have been putting it off.

I am still searching for a job. Where I live jobs are very hard to come by unless you want to go work fast food (trust me, I have done it before, no need to do it again). I know I have good qualities about me and I am a great employee with a lot of experience in many different areas, but still I get nothing. Or I get an offer that would have me make less than what little I am already receiving on unemployment. No Thank You! So that is what my resolution is this year... to find a good job that will support my mad crafting habit :) And thrift shopping habit too, can't forget about that one! Will be posting pictures of my fabulous button fairies soon!

Happy Belated Holiday!!

Wow... what a month. Super busy! I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday. I went on vacation for eight days and DID NOT want to come back home. I asked for "craft stuff" and that is sure what I got. Random embellishments, stickers, a craft book, a scissor set, a sewing box filled to the brim. I also came across my new obsession, Somerset magazines. Studio, Gallery, Life.... they are all so amazing and I am addicted already. Mixed-media art is lovely and I already dog-eared everything I want to try. My new years resolution (one of them at least... the list is dreadfully long) is to try all the crafts I have always wanted to try. The only thing I have to complain about is the fact that they cost $15 each. And they are impossible to find in my area without driving a ways out of my town. If anyone has any that they are done with, send 'em my way pretty please.

I started two swaps on Swap-bot: a Valentine's button fairy swap and an April Fools Day button fairy swap. I hope they are both successful as they are my first swaps I have hosted public. I have so many ideas and I will have many photos to come.

Another successful trip to Goodwill! I purchased yet another scrabble game (my 5th one, haha) a vintage bingo game, cards and pieces all included, a vintage card deck with gorgeous flowers on them and an vintage rare cookbook. I can't wait to use them all (minus the cookbook) for my attempts at making mixed-media art. Any words of wisdom, please throw them my way.

This weather....

I don't know about you, but it has been cold cold cold here. Tonight is the first night that the low might only be 31 degrees. Last night it was so cold, and rainy and everything was frozen. I have spent all of today and yesterday in the house and I am about to go crazy. I have crafts to do, but my daughter is at an age where she wants attention all the time. I really don't have the time to craft these days. Generally I do things after she goes to bed, but then I also do my homework at that time, so it takes a few days to get things done. One thing I did get done is my Step-father's button fairy. He likes airplanes and old war things, so I got some scrapbook paper for 89 cents, cut the airplane shape from it (for the wings) and crafted away. I was told by my boyfriend not to call it a button fairy, since it was for a male, so I guess I will just call it a.... button pilot?!?! I will post a picture. I think it turned out great and the first button fairy... ahem, pilot... for a man. What do you all think? I still have so much shopping and crafting to do. I need some motivation. Lately I have had zero. All I want to do is lay in bed with some hot chocolate and watch The Holiday and Love Actually. Sounds good to me :)

My First Altered Craft Item... Altered CD!!!

I think it turned out pretty good if you ask me! This altered CD is for my swap partner all the way up in Canada. It is for the A is for Altered Item swap. She stated in her profile that she likes red and glitter, so I wanted to incorporate both of those. I had never made one before, leaving the back CD altered-less, so I hope that is okay. Any words of advice from someone who has made these before would be appreciated. Did I do okay? Was I supposed to not to anything to the back? I am trying to get all of my swaps out that my partners are assigned for. I sent all ten of my ornament swaps out, had to buy more tape and envelopes for that, and all together including shipping, it cost me about $30, including all supplies. Sheesh... not sure if I want to do that again, at least when I don't have a steady income, like right now. Now I am left to just send one more swap out before Christmas. Oh craft store, how much money you have cost me. I need to still buy for two more people. It is coming up quick too. What to get them... I better figure that out quick. Is everyone done doing their shopping?

Pix of the day!!

Button Fairy for my Mom! Turned out cute!

This bag of bottle caps times two. That is how many bottle caps I now own. Anyone want any??? (Don't mind the cherrio, hehe)

The stocking ornament for my ornament swap. Using their first name initial for the glitter letter. Had to make ten of these suckers.

My crunchy taco stuffie for KrissyTwisty. Apparently it was supposed to be mini and I spaced that part. It turned out very nice I thought!

3,600 Bottle Caps....

That is what she said when I talked to her on the phone. I am not sure why she knew how many there were. Unless everyone was trying to figure out how much beer they have been drinking. I listed on CraigsList under the wanted section that I wanted bottle caps. A college girl wrote back saying she had 3,600 of them... for free. Score! I don't really need all of those, but they might come in handy next Christmas when I do some bazaars. I already have all my ideas written down. I need a year to get all of my crafts done so by next November/December I can have a booth at all of the bazaars they have around here. I guess I will just hold onto them until then. I also have been trying to finish up my ornaments for my ornament swap I am in. I was to make ten of them. It has been taking me so long because I don't get to sit much and focus on a craft with two children in the house (my daughter and boyfriend, haha). I made a stocking stuffed and added a glitter initial letter to it, a initial on each stocking for all my swap-partners. I hope they like it. I also hope that all of the glitter stays on the letter by the time it reaches them. Two of my partners are overseas so I am a tad bit worried about that. Any tips for keeping glitter in place on cardstock??? I also made my Mom a button fairy for one of her gifts. She loved the other one I made. Since she loves red and black I made her one using those two colors. I have become quite a hoarder when it comes to craft things. If I see cute images or what not in catalogs or even junk mail, I cut them out to hopefully someday use. I went through my recipe box (it is stuffed full) and came across some... whats the flavored syrups that you buy to put in coffee drinks, starts with a B maybe.... anyways, I used to get mail from them with recipes for drinks. They sent me a cute fold-out paper thing with the cut-out heads of a man and a women holding hands and then it folds out with the recipes on their bottom halves. I cut one of the woman's heads off and glittered her hair with a light yellowish glitter and her cheast part with red chunky glitter and glued that on to the button fairy. It turned out so cute. I am happy I kept that recipe book from them. It came in very handy!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! I sure did! We ate a ton and played Wii as a family and drank wine. I know, I know. Wii? I guess this is what our advanced technology world has come to. Wii at Thanksgiving. Seriously, Super Mario is addictive! The next day I went shopping for the first time ever. Got up at 3am. Expected big lines, lots of people running everywhere, and what actually did I witness first hand? Not really any lines, very few good deals, and not too many people. It was odd. I have worked the last 5 years at a retail store, and every year on that day we would have lines down the street and our whole store would be on sale. I didn't have a ton of money to spend, thank you very tiny unemployment paychecks, but I got a few things. The Children's Place and Gymboree had excellent deals and I was very excited about that. I even stopped at Joann's to pick up a few items to send my swap friend, and the Simplicity patterns were all only 99 cents. I had to get a few of those too. I still have two people I need to get items for. I need to slow down on my swapping and save some dough so I can get them gifts sometime the next few weeks. Anyone have any exciting shopping stories from Friday? I didn't think it was that bad at all like most people think. So many people hate shopping that day. Why???