Adventures in Etsy-land!

So... have you ever heard of Etsy? Most of you probably have, and if you haven't... WOAH! Go check it out. :) It's basically an online marketplace for supplies and handmade things. Jewelry, sculptures, pillows, blankets, scrapbooking embellishments, albums, cards, clothes, stuffed animals, dolls, art, toys. Almost anything you can think of! And it's all special because it's made from people just like you and me, not mass-produced. I love that!

I love the concept so much that I've been mulling it over for almost a year now. I am passionate about creating things, and I love the idea that my passion can be shared with others while simultaneously helping to contribute to my family finances! From home! Doing what I enjoy.

My mother is a crafty genius. She works in the realm of cloth, mostly. She sews like crazy and collects fabric like it's in short supply. :) When I gave birth to my son, Benjamin, mom found a new niche for her hobby: making baby things. She made Ben little lovey blankets, stuffed toys, and blankets galore. One day, for Ben's 2nd birthday, mom surprised him with a one-of-a-kind stuffed robot toy. That's where it all started. Mom and I sat down several times and drafted up a cast of robot characters. The robots made us think about starting a shop of our own, together.

I love scrapbooking (have you noticed?) but I also paint, draw, and design. And sewing is something I do decently. ;) Between my talents and mom's, our little shop will be stocked with a variety of delightful things for both mom (or any woman) & kids. We're having a BLAST putting this together! Check it out:

SNOOKUMS & ME


Our Snookums & Me blog will continue to be updated with more sneaks of our shop offerings, plus some giveaways! :) Fun stuff!

Well, I better get back to my creative work. Hope you all are having an awesome weekend!
-Brook

Creative in January!

Hey Everyone!

Once again I'm here just to post about my layouts from the Mosh Posh scrapbooking kit club. :) The January kit certainly did inspire my creativity. See the yummy (sold-out!) kit below:


Here are my pages:

This one is of my cutie-pie, Gracie. The stunning photo was taken by my friend and photographer, Dawn Yap: YAP ORIGINALS. I loved the pic so much that I enlarged it to an 8x10 to make it the centerpiece of the layout. Then, those cute little chipboard frames fit perfectly in the grassy area of the photo. I "hung" them there (they're actually glued in place) and framed hand-cut hearts & my journaling inside of them. I also did some machine sewing around the paper and photo... I think it finishes it off nicely without too much fuss.


This page... oh, this page gave me trouble! You know how it is sometimes? A layout just fights you the whole way... well, this one just didn't come together quite like I envisioned it. I tore it apart (very carefully) multiple times. I even changed the photo to a completely different one. It still isn't quite right. But that's how it goes sometimes. LOL! Anyways, this page is about me when I was a baby. The title it "Cozy with my Cup" but I would have liked it to be "getting Cozy with my Cup". ;) So... here it is...
For a tutorial on how to make your own Cupcake Liner Paper Flower, visit my post on the Mosh Posh Blog here: CLICK HERE.


The pictures on this layout were also taken by Dawn Yap. Isn't she talented? :) This layout is about how my son Ben is a cherished member of our family. There is so much more to this layout than I could even write in the space I had for journaling. He is such an amazing little boy!


I love my old vintage-y baby photos. I especially love looking at them and seeing the kind of life I had as a child. What my mom dressed me in, the places we went, what I looked like, etc. etc. I have always been a HUGE fan of photos... it kind of explains why this is my hobby. So, due to my love for my old baby photos, I try to make a point to scrap them whenever I find papers that match. These papers were perfect with the green blanket I'm laying on, but not too matchy-matchy. I used some green ink (martha stewart) to ink the edges of each punched (fiskars) scalloped square. Then I used the lines of the photo to create a quilt-like design. Some squares hold something delightful inside, some are plain, and 3 of them hold the initals of my name.


Finally, I created a banner to hang above Grace's crib. It says "Grace". ;) I've never made a banner before, it was super fun. I even incorporated some fabric into the triangles. I happened to have some cream terry cloth also, the terry is the background for "r" and "c". :) Fun stuff!


Well, thanks for checking out my blog! :)
-Brook

Merry post-Christmas!

Hey everyone! How was your Christmas? Mine was wonderful!!!

This year, it was so great to see my 3 1/2 year old son, Benjamin, getting excited for Christmas. He was blown away on Christmas morning that Santa had ACTUALLY come to our house, ate the cookies & milk, fed rudolph the carrot, and left him presents. Presents he had asked him for! Amazing! :) By the way, this year I decided that Santa should only bring one or two gifts per kid (the rest of the gifts I get to take credit for... is that selfish?), and that the gifts he brings them should be un-wrapped (and out of the package) beneath the tree. After all, he carries them in his sack and brings them straight from the North Pole where the elves make them, right? :) It's also nice to have a few toys already out for them to play with immediately. It gave Aaron and I a little time to wake up and brew a BIG pot of coffee.

Actually, I was very awake by the time we started unwrapping gifts. I was the first one out of bed on Christmas morning... about quarter to 6 or so I woke up and couldn't fall back to sleep. I sat down here on the couch in the dark with the Christmas tree as my only source of light. It was very peaceful for me to think about the meaning of the holiday in the glow of the multicolored lights. It's easy to get caught up in the presents and pretend characters and forget about the birth of a Savior. The BIG reason for why we even celebrate to begin with. :) That's why I love the Christmas Eve service at my church. Every year the service ends with us all singing "Silent Night" in the dim light while holding flickering candles. The last verse we lift up our candles and our voices fill the church in praise. Mmm. It's heart warming. It's beautiful. And it's the exact reminder I need that Christmas is a simple holiday with a HUGE meaning. Not the opposite.

I realize I haven't yet shared the pages I made with the December kit from Mosh Posh! Here they are:






My mom and I are busy working on our Etsy shop. It's been in the works for a looong time. We hit a few road bumps along the way, my house flooded, the holidays approaching, busy stuff, etc. But now I have a renewed energy and I'm very excited about it. Here is a taste of the awesomeness to come: Stuffed ROBOT toys, dollies, babies, lovey blankies, bags for mommy, scrapbook albums, completed scrapbook pages (ready for your photos), cards, art, paintings, etc. A complete creative boutique for baby and mom. :) I'm psyched!!! Stay tuned for more about that!

Anyways, better go. The in-laws are in town and I have to take a trip to the grocery store to make one of my favorite meals, chicken white bean chili with corn bread and salad. Yum. :)

All about cards...

The challenge at Mosh Posh this month is a card making one. I am not highly fond of making cards... mostly because I hardly ever send them to anyone. Gosh, that makes me sound SO cold and unfriendly!!! LOL. But, seriously, whenever I think of making a card I stop myself because I always feel like it's a waste of my cardstock and embellishments. And I never have envelopes to send them in, either! I hate taking so much time and putting in so much effort on a silly little card. Especially when I can buy a beautiful one from Hallmark for a couple dollars.

:)

I'm chuckling to myself over here because I am making a case for NOT making cards! Aren't I encouraging? Isn't this a great scrapbooking blog!?! Hahahahaha...

So, it get's better, I promise. :) I sort of had a change of heart about making cards. I went out and bought a pack of plain white envelopes from Target (or was it Michaels?) and I kept my card designs simple. Actually, making cards is a GREAT way to use up odd embellishments and scraps of paper you have left over after making layouts. See? I'm OK with making cards now. Especially after this batch of 3 holiday cards was completed and I felt so proud! Proud of a card! Who knew?

This month, the Mosh Posh December kit is bursting with fun goodies to play with. Especially if you grab the add-on, too. I just grabbed some ribbon and buttons from my own stash... oh yeah, glitter stickles too.

Here are the cards:






Now, if you're anything like me and you have NO idea how to go about making a card start by cutting a sheet of cardstock to 12x9 inches. Then cut it into two 9x6 sheets. Fold those in half with the non-textured surface on the inside (to write on). This size card is easy to find envelopes for. OR if you're super ambitious, make your own envelope from lightweight patterned paper, too: MAKE AN ENVELOPE.

Do you make cards? Have any to share??? Post a link in the comments. I'd love to see your work and get more ideas now that I'm an official "card maker".

TGIF!!!

Better Late than Never...

:)

I'm late for the second week of the Mosh Posh blog hop. Sorry to confuse all of you visitors! My life has been CRAZY lately. We just moved back into our house after being away for 3 months due to flood damage. We are all (not) adjusting to being in our old routine, and our formerly familiar beds. My kids are (not) doing well sleeping in their room together after being in separate rooms for 3 months. And once again they are sick... or should I say they are STILL sick? Their ear infections weren't wiped our by the first antibiotic, so we're trying another one. I am tired-er than I've ever been but at the same time I'm thrilled at the improvements to our house. Once we are healthy and rested I think I will enjoy it even more.

Anyways, enough about my personal life! LOL!

About scrapbooking... do you love taking pictures, but when it comes time to edit them you are completely clueless about how to make them look professional? My all-time favorite quick tool is Photoshop Actions. Here is a link to the actions I use the most by Pioneer Woman: HERE and HERE. They are FREE and easy to use. My favorites are PW's B&W, BW beauty, and Fresh & Colorful. Such a quick and easy way to make your photos look like a million bucks. I use them on almost all of the photos I take when I don't have time to tweak them myself.

And just to quickly share a few ideas from my November layouts:

Cardstock is your friend!!! If you have some blank, un-used space that's screaming for some attention, grab some scraps of cardstock. A simple band of coordinating solid color can nicely fill an empty space without drawing attention away from the part of the layout you want to enjoy. Easy backstitching along the seam gives it polish without too much fuss. This vertical strip of brown cardstock completes the layout better than patterned paper, more photos, or embellishments would have and it took very little effort.


Use lists to tell the story! Not feeling like writing a paragraph of journaling every time you make a page? Try using lists to communicate your message when you don't have loads of space on your layout. Or use a list of key memories about the person, place, or thing you're scrapping about when it's becoming a challenge to write about them in a few sentences.


Can't choose one photo? Use them all!!! I had so many CUTE photos of my son during this single photo shoot that I had such a hard time choosing one or two of them for a page. I decided to use them all. To give multiple photo layouts the strength and impact of a single photo layout, try cropping them into a uniform shape and grouping them together in an organized way. Making them all black and white also helps give the group of them additional uniformity. Try using one of those B&W photo actions to make them even more stunning.


Well, thanks for dropping by! Sorry I am so discombobulated today! :)

Anyone who leaves a comment before 12 noon EST tomorrow will be entered into a drawing to get a goody from me. Hmmm... I'm thinking a package of chipboard Thickers sounds nice. :)

Congrats, Abbie!

abbie said...

So stinkin' cute Brook! You have such great ideas :)

November 12, 2009 7:11 PM

Abbie was chosen by Random.org as the winner of my pumpkin RAK. Abbie, please email me at magee3 (at) gmail (dot) com with your address. Congrats!!!

Peter Piper Practices Paper Pumpkin Painting...

Hey! Happy Thursday!!! Welcome to all of my guests from the Mosh Posh blog! Thanks for hopping over! :)

The November kit came with a fun little pumpkin shaped chipboard album by Maya Road. As soon as I saw it my mind started churning up ideas for how to use it. Make an album? Nah. Make a banner? Not this time. Attach dowels and make pumpkin decorations? Nope. Dip them in glitter and Hang them from my ears? Great idea, but nope. Smear them with icing and try to eat them? Definitely not.

What did I decide to do with them? (I know what you're probably saying: Get To The Point Already, Woman) :) Ok... I will!!! :)

Well, as a mommy who doesn't embrace dressing up in a halloween costume, I thought it would be fun to make pumpkin necklaces for the grown-ups (and kids) to wear. Something to add the festivity without the polyester witch hat or cakey face paint. Perfect!



Because painting is a hobby of mine, I pulled out my stash of paints and got to work creating folk-art style faces on each one. If painting is not your hobby, it would also work to paint the pumpkin a solid shade of orange (or use any solid or semi-solid patterned paper) and then just draw a simple jack-o-lantern face with a black felt-tip pen. If drawing is not your hobby, you can use punches to make your face. A circle cut in half for the mouth (you can even cut out notches for his teeth) and triangles for the nose and eyes.



Once I finished painting the faces on my pumpkins I traced the shape onto my Cosmo Cricket Nutmeg papers and cut them out. I covered the back of each pumpkin with a different patterned paper and cut out a stem from the brown wood-grain paper. To finish it off simply, I added a name on the back with my Basic Grey sticker alphas. Each necklace has the wearers name on the back. Then I cut some sheer ribbon and looped it through the hole in the top of the stem to make a necklace.



For children venturing out into trick-or-treating without parents or a large group, it might even be helpful to include their phone number or address just in case of an emergency. Just an idea. ;) FYI: Because the info is on the back side, it's not displayed for everyone to see.



So, now my family has matching pumpkin necklaces to wear every year!

Leave me a comment by 12 pm EST tomorrow and I'll enter you into a drawing to win one of my painted pumpkins (seen below in the nest). The back is still blank for you to decorate however you wish. :)



Thanks for visiting my blog today!!!

Now, don't forget to hop on to my fellow Design Team members blogs:

Estee
Frances
Jenny