Reddiker Woodes

Found Items Shadow Box for Constance

I have his this project sitting on the shelf literally for months to get done. First I had to get Constance's room finished, which meant taking all of the old wall paper down, putting up new, doing the trim and arranging the furniture to actually display what I wanted to do. Her bedding will be done by Bunny and then her room will be done. She's had a lot of stuff in her room that was jus random and after the years really didn't belong there, but the stuff she needed didn't' have a place. So what's the best thing that a scrap booker can do who owns dolls? Add the two together.

I have been in love with altered art and found objects for a while now but haven’t really had a chance to get anything done until now. I was looking at an old shadow box I had in the doll room and decided now was the time to get one done and make it for my Constance.

So a quick trip to Hobby Lobby to get some really cool moss and some other items and pulled out my huge box of altered art supplies and Constance now has her very own miniature bookcase of goodies for her room and her room isn’t as cluttered.

Here is the box how it started out.

In progress.

And finally done. I’m so happy with how it turned out and I think Constance is happy also. See below pictures.

 

Each individual box was customized just for her and can come out and be rearranged, but right now I like how they are set up.

 

And with the plastic dust cover and lid.

 

Inside Constance’s room for size along with Izzy and Joey to see how tall it is.

 

Joey has already asked for one in her size.

Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010

2010 even sounds good on your tongue.  I have several little customs that have to be done before the stroke of midnight on New Years eve.  Getting rid of all of the garbage in the house from all of the wastebaskets, getting the bathroom cleaned, cleaning off the writing desk, getting rid of old food in the refrigerator, sweeping all of the floors, opening all of the windows to get out the stagnant years worth of air, and the release of balloons. The release of the balloons is a fun one and you can adapt it to what you want.  We usually get three balloons (now that Little Man stays up he gets his own balloon) and is very happy about it. Although he doesn't get to release it at midnight, 9PM is close enough for him. Our balloons are green for wealth and prosperity for the up coming year, and his is blue for health.  We write little notes attached to them, and with the being helium release them around midnight to the skies so our wishes for the coming year can be fulfilled.  It's a great family moment and with this past New Years Eve being a Full Moon, Blue Moon and Lunar Eclipse, the magick of the night is nine times stronger. 

So the last of my 365 project ended with the balloons and I couldn't be happier. One I still can't believe I took a picture a day for a year, so I'm very proud of myself and that when we released the balloons they all went together over the houses and up into the starlit moon sky.

 

And with this last decade going out on such a high note. I've decided to put away our usual blue/silvers of our Christmas decorating and will be going with the traditional red/green for the house.  We've been out in the last couple of days and I've found BARGAINS galore on red/green ornaments, stockings, tree skirts, and large outside ornaments for the tree. Straightened out our storage room and found all of the red/green from the last several years of buying and all we need now are about 18 sets of LED lights for the windows and I'm done. I'm so happy I can't stand for December this year to start so I can decorate :)

So for awhile, blue and silver you are hereby retired.

 

 

 

Like I Don't Have Enough To Do

365 Project Picture

Exactly. With the wedding, honeymoon packing, phone calls, picture taking a day, making gift bags and the holidays I decided to take it upon myself to give Little Man a better work/play area.  Eventually we are going to remodel the living room and push it out an extra two feet, but until then I'm stuck with the configuration that it's in and it's not a good one. I love the couches and furniture that we have, but the way the built in entertainment center is, the lack of wall space, the much too huge picture windows (that take up an entire wall) and the useless fireplace, I can only move furniture to one or two places.  

Little Man stays down in the living room for most of the time.  He's only in his room for movie time and basically to sleep, at least until he gets a little older and really starts school. So that means he needs some work space for playing, schooling and writing.  Since he's not in pre-school yet, every day for the most part for at least an hour or more, we go over lesson plans.  I think I've talked about this before: ABC's, numbers, states, planets, phonics, and even starting on the periodic table. (I didn't learn it in school, but learning it now) and why not have him be the smartest kindergarten kid I know.  We've had his original table for a little over a year or more, and it holds his dry erase board, chalk board combination, and we can put his computer on the table, but it was getting small for doing his legos, coloring and cutting. And it needed more space and for us to utilize the other couch.

 

So his own little corner with everything he needs.  Moved the couch back to the picture window and put him by the fireplace.  This was all good till I kept looking at it, and it just seemed way too small.  So off to Target to look for either another table to add to this or a bigger one all together.  After much searching FireHoth came up with two black tables that took maybe about 10 minutes to put together, I found three small blue bowls (everything in the living room has to match other wise it wont be conducive to grownups) to put his crayons, dry erase markers, and magnet letters in.  Brought back out his four 24x24 square Lego pad, three baskets for animal toys, puzzles, Legos, and paired down his crazy car collection.

Now it not only looks like a piece of furniture that belongs in the living room, it's got ample room for him to play and do everything he needs to do during the day. We even bought a stool for us to use to sit on that has storage in it, so us old folks don't have to sit on the floor.  He has a designated place for coloring, legos and all of his toys.  The dry erase board will go in a few months.  The space where the fireplace is, will hold a piece of plywood with chalkboard magnetic paint so that way he'll have a bigger drawing space and can use the chalk indoors, and a dry erase board will be put along side of it.  Might as well use the space for something useful. I'm just overjoyed with how this has turned out.  Now no more moving one game, or activity off the table to do something else and a permanent place for his MacBook.  Everything has baskets and he has his own little place all for him, and we can still do school work where I can actually sit with him.

Papers, Stickers and 12x12's Oh My

It's been a project on the back burner for at least a year, if not longer.  But I'm finally starting to get back into my my spiritual life and grounding myself.  So much has been going on that I've lost track of what I need to do for myself on a daily basis with meditation and centering and making my soul more peaceful.  Well, I got a bug up my butt several weeks ago, and decided once and for all to combine my love of scrap-booking and spirituality into one.  Here is just a hint of the pretty papers I found for my project and the rest can be read here on Down the Rabbit Hole.

Cards, Cards, Cards

While sending out dolls and other various items, I realized that I was running out completely of Thank You Cards.  I did a quick search of my office and came across an old set of Lisa Bearnson Sampler Card Kit.  With some spare time, and after almost a year of having them, I finally got them done.  They are cute and easy and I think after the first of the year might get back into the "Cards of the Month" club.  It's nice to have some hand made ones around and they were very quick to make.

Paper Fetish?

Confessions of a Bibliophile...

Even with my love of technology and having a computer and the iPhone, there is just something so rewarding about writing with a nice pen on quality paper in a bound book.

My love of journals and little books has really taken me to new heights.  I was looking the other day for just some scrap booking supplies and stumbled upon these cute little 5x6 size dairies or journals from Korea.  FireHoth and I both have a fetish for lack of a better word for journals, day timers and notebooks and these are by far the cutest I have ever seen. This is stock picture of one from online.

Each page literally tells some sort of story in it's pages.  They all come with sheets of stickers, full color and so detailed.  They are a little pricer than most, but so worth it for everything that is packed into them.  These to me are better than Moleskins.

There are several different types that are available and I wound up getting four total. I got the hardcover and soft snap versions of the Alice In Wonderland ones because I just couldn't make up my mind.

  

A golden radiation sticker. This makes me laugh.

Cheshire likes it.

All three that just came in.

The Mint Tarot one (can be purchased in Chocolate, Cream and Pink)

And the Pinocchio Hard back edition in Carmel (can be bought in Violet)

The contents of each is pretty much the same for all:

Contents - 1 page

Icon Manual - 2 page

Magic Message - 2 page

Calendar - 2 page

This Year - 2 page

This Month - 2 page/14 month=28 pages

This Week/Cash Book - 4 pages week/14 pages =280 pages

Free Drawing space - 24 pages

Free Note Space - 42 pages

Blank Notes - 22 pages

Cash Plan - 24 pages

Information Page - 6 pages

Diagram - 4 pages

Subway Train Pages - 2 pages

Image paper - 22 pages

Personal Data - 1 page

Total 464 pages roughly

I'm starting to realize my love for Japanese culture and know that if we were to ever get to the Orient/Hong Kong, I'm going to have to have an empty suitcase for all of the cool things to come home with.

KEY WORDS:

Korean Diary, Japanese Craft Books, Planner, Diary, Scheduler, Notebook, Korean, Urban Diary.

Mini Wheat Stage

So for the last several weeks I've been racking my brains out trying to do pictures of all of the tinies and things that come in for them, without having to make the trip up to the doll room and leave Little Man to fend for himself for minutes out of the day.  Although, he doesn't even know when I'm gone when I do go upstairs for something, I don't want to leave him alone for long periods of time, just to take pictures.  So what a good mother does, is makes a new stage within eye shot of him. 

I had been looking at room boxes, porches, foam board, and the like, and just didn't see anything that I liked or wanted.  Just when I was about to give up, I remembered that I had bought a diorama type of triptych a couple of years ago and dug it out of retirement.  I thought one, that I had thrown it out, two, thought if I still had it, it would be damaged. Neither was the case. 

This is basically just three binder boards, taped together.  The person that I bought it from, had the main side decorated in an Oriental theme, with windows cut out.  Here Little Wall-E demonstrates the coloring of it.

   

On to the kitchen table, a color theme, a few sheets of scrapbook paper, some double stick tape, and ribbon, and I came up with the best little stage, that's moveable ever.

   

I knew that I needed it to be downstairs so like I said, keep an eye on Little Man, make sure he's not changing the stations on the television, or bringing up the internet on his computer.  I had cleared the top of both of my bookcases off in the library from Christmas, and have never put anything back up, temporarily using them for pictures.  It faces an east window, so by the time I get up, the sun has gone from it, and just natural light pours in.  I still need to move the little shelf behind it and the pictures, but it's pretty much in a place that is high up, not much traffic and stationary.

   

Night shots, with flash, and Pearl trying it out.

    

I don't usually go with such muted, neutral colors, but thought because of either the outfits that will be showcased, or furniture, and even dolls, I didn't want it to take away from what I was actually taking the pictures of.

    

Now with all of the extra dollhouse furniture that's not being used, I can change it out whenever or just use no furniture.  Here are some of one of my birthday presents from FireHoth and Pearl in the daytime.  The red picnic table was suppose to be for Claudia and Bethany, but I like it on the new stage instead. Brings a little color.

    

I had some nifty little wedding enhancer LED lights from Michael's and now I can have instant light on the back of the stage.  I'm so happy with how this turned out and it was so simple.  Now when things come in, I can get pictures right away and have another stage in the house.  the Mini Wheat Stage.

    

Tile Project?

Yahoo, my next swap project came in the mail and I can't wait to start it.  I opted for just the small version of my Scrabble Tiles, and really want to get going on them, considering I have a stack of Inch sheets just waiting.

   

New Favorite Colors

I was so happy when I changed my doll room and my craft room to happier colors, and I keep finding new color combinations that are just so pretty.  The newest one still incorporates happy, upbeat colors, with a touch of black, but the combination of the four of these is just so slick and so modern.  You might not be able to see it, but the white is actually Ice white.

   

   

We've been wanting to redo our living room and haven't' been able to figure out a good color combination.  We have been going with browns and blues, and although I do love those colors, something was missing.  Since our living room is adjacent to the kitchen and the kitchen will eventually be redone also, all of the colors need to flow.  Right now the kitchens main colors are black and red, which doesn't go that well with the browns/blues of the living room, but when you put in white and aqua, they all work together.

I've been seeing these colors now everywhere, and really love them.  Even these little boutonnières for a wedding are pretty.

My Colour Lovers Palette.  Go make your own now.

A Little Holiday Cheer

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 

So with the start of the holiday season, I was actually able to get my little ATC's done. They are pretty simple, but I couldn't be happier at how they turned out.  Once I figured out the exact design for them, it was like doing them in an assembly line.  I colored the background with the colored pencils I had, then did a very simple swirl stamp design, then added the chipboards, epoxy stickers and Christmas Jewels.  Now all I need to do is put the little hang tags on the back, and I'm done. YAHOOO.  I've been wanting to do these for such a long time, and now that I did these, I'm already thinking about the ones for Valentines day.  

Here they are, and I took pictures of each one, and put them on one of the dolls little easel boards.  Oh, I'm just tickled at how they turned out and am so happy that I got asked to do these.  I'm already thinking also, on how to incorporate these into the wedding as little favors.

   

My Eight landscape ones...

  

    

  

    

...And my 12 portraits

   

   

   

   

   

   

It's a good thing I got these done now, because the DIY Scrabble Tiles are on their way to start, and those are going to be extremely fun.  Here's a sample sheet of my Nightmare Before Christmas ones, in keeping with the holiday theme.

I've got Twilight, Steampunk, Witches, Edgar Allen Poe, Faery, Botticelli, and Alice in Wonderland ones to start with.