Happy New Year!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Looking forward to 2008? I am :) New baby, maybe a new house, new adventures - it's going to be good!

I've already made several resolutions - most of them involve cleaning and organizing our house ... some involve scrapbooking. I would like to finish at least one page a month. Justin is 3 1/2 and I haven't finished his baby book!

I made some Christmas gifts that I really liked, but in the distraction of the holiday season I didn't take any pictures. So, I hope those people enjoy them!

I hope everybody had a good Christmas holiday. We did! The calendars were a big hit :)

Does anybody know anything about photographing layouts? I've tried to photograph the pages of my son's baby book and just haven't had much success. The flash bounces off the photographs used. (Did anybody look at the pictures of my mom's hanging scrapbook? It's a perfect example) If you don't use the flash it looks dark and grainy and the colors never turn out right ... I would really appreciate any hints!

So, I'll start posting what I've done and work up to the newest ones. Maybe I can get a layout done a week or so ... maybe. I'd really like to finish his first year as soon as possible so I can move on to other family photos :)

This is the opening page of Justin's baby book. He was born July 26th, 2004.
I did this layout last summer with Moniqua. It's using random baby papers that I had from who knows where. I really liked the star background paper. I do know that the green paper is the Close to My Heart Cocoa Cafe collection because Moniqua let me use it.
I've earned that people are supposed to credit the manufacturers of the supplies, but I didn't take notes ... I'm still bad with that.

Anyway ... this starts my baby book series. Stay tuned for the next page. Same bat time. Same bat place. Same bat blog :)

Journal and Clipboard - Glitter Quilting

A friend from church wanted me to make her a matching journal and clipboard. She said she would like anything I made ... so I made this:

front of the clipboard

back of the clipboard (much more detail)

Front of the journal

back of the journal

I pieced together squares of paper and added glitter glue in a stitched pattern to resemble quilting. I stamped a swirl pattern and then traced with the same glitter glue.
I used a gorgeous cream lace to trim both. I love it!

Christmas calendars!

I've been working VERY hard over the past few weeks on a Christmas project for our families.

History: Last year I made a scrapbook calendar for both my mom and Kevin's mom. It required tons of photo printouts, paper and embellishments (as well as a LOT of tape and glue). It made a complete mess of the living room for weeks.

I have enjoyed making digital graphics for the last few years and have made several of my own posters and wallpapers. Kevin thought it would be a good idea to make a digitally printed calendar with my own graphics instead of scrapbooking.

So, I procrastinated. December really snuck up on me. I finally realized that I had no time, and started about two weeks ago making Christmas card graphics, organizing photos, selecting photos, creating graphics, etc.






I now have a complete calendar - well, two calendars. I have a version for my side of the family and a version for Kevin's side of the family. We thought it was important to include any pictures of other family members that we had (sweet memories) instead of just doing our kids.

So, I have created 17 custom graphics. I have uploaded them to my photo album. You may view them ALL by clicking here.

I ordered them through cafepress.com. It was the first place that would place the graphics the way I wanted (printed to the edge without a border) and at a very reasonable price!

I now have a shop there (just the basic one, though) and the Hornung Family version of the calendar is currently available. If anybody would like an item with one of my graphics, just let me know and I'll add it to my shop for you! The Heald Family version will be made available shortly ... just in case you're interested :)
http://www.cafepress.com/craftiejessie

So, check out the graphics and let me know what you think! I really hope you enjoy them. I put a lot of work into this.

Hanging Scrapbook

I put the photos in the gallery of the Hanging Scrapbook I made for my mom.

I LOVE this album. She hung it up using ribbon and it looks great!

So maybe the teaser image is just ok, but believe me, you want to see the rest! Go check it out here!

December Craft Fair

Well, my church had it's second annual craft fair on December 1st.

Last year, I had a broad assortment of items ... hat box dolls, scrapbook albums, journals, hanging scrapbooks, paper bag albums, squash books, picture frames, etc.

This year, due mostly to limited time constraints, the only new thing I made was a bunch of paper ornaments. I bought a kit from K&Co. where you punch out the die cut patterned pieces and assemble and decorate them yourself. It was a lot harder than I thought! I only finished 30, but I sold 28 :)

Here's our table. I shared with my sister, who made the bows and the wreaths. She's an extremely talented florist!

My youngest sister is sitting behind the table. She very graciously agreed to keep me company that day :)

Here are the ornaments:

I didn't get any better pictures. Now I wish I had, but at the time, I was had had enough of the whole thing and just wanted to get it over with :)

And this is my sisters and myself:

Altered to protect the innocent :) Plus, we look better if you can't tell what a long day it was :)

Binder Album

My friend Moniqua is having a workshop with Maya Road Lunch Box Binder Albums and Close to my Heart products. I created the prototype to encourage people to sign up (so if you're in the Eastern Connecticut area - come!).



Check out the gallery for more pics. The only non-CTMH items are the album itself and the ribbon. I painted the edges for a more finished look.

Heart Binder Album and Box

Hello again :)

I made a wonderful heart binder album and matching box for my friend Angie for her 40th birthday. Her favorite colors are green and blue, so I tried to stay with those colors, but I couldn't resist throwing in a little purple :)

I'm only going to post one photo, but you can view all of them in my gallery here.

I used lots of embellishments, but had to cut back when I noticed they were making the binder too wide for the box. I actually had a very hard time closing the binder rings when I put the finished pages in. Next time I'll know. I used various paper and fabric flowers, lots of really cute vintage stamp stickers, some vintage paper elements, ribbons and fibers, the cutest beaded hatpin, etc.

I did a crackle finish on the box. You can't really tell. I was expecting it look much different, but I'm still happy with the way it turned out :)

Kevin's Accordian Album

I made this for Kevin for our 5th wedding anniversary.

I used Basic Grey Vagabond papers. They've just discontinued it, but I love it because it's so masculine, yet so full of possibilities. It's perfect for Kevin.

The card uses stamps from Close to my Heart. I came up with the heart pocket idea myself :)

There is one page for every year we've been together plus one intro page, one for the future and one for love notes :)
I wish you could see the details for every page. I put a lot of love into this project and I'm very pleased with the way it turned out.

This was my first attempt at an accordian style project. I wanted it to stand up on Kevin's desk at work. I attached the chipboard pages with hinges, but I only used one per fold. It wasn't as sturdy as it could be, so I've since redone it with two hinges on each fold (I should probably take new pictures - lol).

You may not be able to see it, but there is a hinged journaling block on most of the pages. I put a magnet on the last number of the year that holds the journaling block closed while it stands up. Behind the year I have hand-written the highlights from that respective year.

Anyway, honey, if you read this, I love you!

Altered Tin & Accordian Album

You may have guessed that my selections are completely random. I'm actually posting things as I find pictures. Most of my pictures are on my personal computer and not my laptop ... but I'll get to them eventually :)

Anyway, this is a wedding gift for a friend. It's an altered tin and accordian album. I've since learned that you can buy pre-made accordian albums, but I made this one myself by cutting and gluing cardstock together.

The tin was a gift card tin ($1) from Walmart that I covered with paper, ribbon, flowers, fibers and stickers. Gluing on the ribbon was tough.

You'll probably notice that I made glue fingerprints on the metal words. I didn't mean to, but at the time it was unavoidable. I'll figure out how to do it cleanly someday. It probably involves tweezers and patience. The latter is something I really struggle with :)

Cards

These are 'Thank You' cards I made for our Windham Bible Training Center graduating class to sign and give to our teachers.

They all have a common embellishment - the star that I bought at Walmart - yes, Walmart. I got the ribbon there, too :)

Believe it or not, four of the cards were made using paper I got from the Dollar Tree. So, they were relatively inexpensive cards, but very cute. Lots of love went into them.

It was fun to create these cards and I like how they all go together.

Explosion Box - More to Adore Paper

This is actually my latest creation.

It's an Explosion Box that I made (mostly) at Moniqua's last workshop in late August.

It features CTMH More to Adore Paper in great pinks and browns. It was a very romantic theme and I'm actually going to give it away as a wedding gift (thus the accompanying card).

Intro

Well, I finally got around to starting a blog. I was hoping to create a more professional gallery showcase, but never got around to it. So, due to several requests, I'm using this blog to display my latest and greatest crafting projects.

I absolutely love to scrapbook and do crafts. I just wish a had more time!!! I'm always looking for new projects to do.

I would love your comments, suggestions, ideas, etc.