The Hidden Tree

Before my first craft show I started making a piece of wall art from upcycled materials. I took pictures of the entire process so I could show you. Then I got busy getting ready for the craft show, so the wall art was put on the back burner. I am now 100% finished with it & want to show you how I created it :)
I started with old magazines & cut each page into strips of varying widths.

then I folded each strip in half & sometimes in half again depending on how wide it was. After a very long time of folding & sorting colors I began rolling the strips. I used a broken piece of antenna to roll the strips on, but any skinny long object would work.

After rolling I glued the flap to the edge of the rolled strip & glued the rolled strip to this wooden plaque that I rescued from the trash.

After gluing the first piece & realized that I needed an outline of the tree I was planning on creating. I drew the tree & continued gluing strips.

The tree trunk is taking shape.

Now the tree trunk is finished & I will start the leaves

Look, it's a tree!

After finishing the tree I surrounded it with blue for the sky.

 Then I sprayed the whole piece with a clear coat to protect it, & here is the finished piece:

To see more pics of the finished piece, please visit my Etsy site.

So what have you been creating lately? Let me know in the comments!

Website

I have the most amazing hubby ever! He has created a website for ScrappinArt :) I am so excited! You can go to www.ScrappinArt.com & you will see my shop! You can also see any upcoming events, such as craft shows that I will be at. So please go check out my new website & let me know what you think.
Something else that is really exciting is that I have doubled blog followers overnight! So thank you loyal followers, I am grateful that you find my ramblings important enough to put in your reading list :)
Well I'm off to create, have a great evening!

Learning Experience

So Saturday was my very first ever Craft Show! It was fun, & I talked to a few vendors who told me about other craft shows to check out. I also saw how other people reacted to my booth & thought of a few changes to make from that. So overall I am glad for the learning experience, however as far as profit is concerned, I made back my booth fee & what I spent on lunch :) So I broke even. The other vendors I talked to weren't doing very well either, so at least I know it wasn't just my product. It just wasn't a very highly attended show.
I wanted to show you my booth & my apron I made for the show:
I cut freezer paper on my Cricut & ironed the letters on my apron to paint over them & make this :) I bought a full apron at Walmart & cut off the top & bottom & my wonderful sister in law hemmed it for me :)

And here is my booth :)

 I am about to mail off an application for a 2 day show in Allen, TX. So wish me luck!

Craft Show!

I made the leap! I have signed up for my first craft fair! Whoohoo! Lots of excitement combined with nervousness :) It is this Saturday, & I signed up for it 2 Saturdays ago! So I only gave myself 2 weeks to get prepared! The last week and a half I have been creating like crazy!I also signed up for & received Square so I can take credit cards ( I feel like a real business now)! I have turned our front room into a craft show booth so I can see exactly how I want to set everything up.
Tiffany (my friend I live with) & I are sharing the cost & space of a 10x10 boothbecause it is both our first times & we were nervous to try & fill a booth solo. We are still nervous, but I think more excited :)
If you live in the area I would love to see you at the show! It is at Woods United Methodist Church: 1350 Bardin Rd, Grand Prairie, TX 75052
If you can make it stop by the ScrappinArt booth & tell me hi! I look forward to meting you! Well I gotta get back to my creating! I'll post pics next week of how the booth turned out.

Date Night Mini Album

Today I posted a new mini album on my Etsy site. I created this album to record the memories & pictures from your date night with your honey ;)

I made it with what looked to me like teen themed "Love" paper, because sometimes it's nice to act like high school sweethearts again!

Hubby & I don't have many date nights anymore, but maybe after making this album we will have to plan something extra special!
 What about you? What did you do on your last date with your sugar muffin? Are you a dinner & movie person, or something more elaborate? Let us know in the comments & maybe everyone can get new date ideas from everyone else!

Pickles

This last weekend I decided to try my hand at pickling. Tiffany & I went to our local Farmer's Market bulk sale & I got cucumbers & okra at a great price :) Then it was time for the pickling to begin! For my first batch I used Mrs. Wages pickle mix, for the other batches & for the okra I used the recipe in the Ball Canning Recipe Book. I highly recommend that book to anyone interested in canning. Here's some pictures of my process, this was not as intimidating as it first seemed.

First I washed my cucumbers,

and sliced them because they were to big to fit in the jars whole.

Then I made the brine & put the cucumbers in the jars & poured brine over the top.

Then I processed them in the water canner & this is the finished product :) I was very proud! My first pickles!

Here's my second batch, I decided to use quarts for the second batch.

And the third batch :) It's so satisfying to hear the popping of sealing lids congratulating you on a job well done!

Labeled & ready to store!

Then I started pickling the okra. This is batch one :)

and batch two in the water canner

 And here are all my lovely pickles & okra stored in the previously unused space above our cabinets.

The pickles got Conner's seal of approval!

 If you have ever been interested in canning I would highly recommend it! You can do pickles or jam or fresh veggies! Have fun with it, but get a good recipe book to help you along the way.

And no I was not paid by Ball for this post, I just had a great weekend using their product & wanted to share it with you :)

Oral Surgeon, Nursing Home, Hospital, Oh My!

This has been quite a busy week! It started out on Monday I took my wonderful Sis in law, Jamie, to the oral surgeon to have her wisdom teeth surgically removed :( So I spent the rest of the day at her house keeping her company & full of meds.
Monday morning I found out that my Nanny (AKA step-great-grandmother) had had a stroke & was being taken back to her nursing home because the hospital couldn't do anything more for her. My mom wanted to go see her & did not need to be going alone, so I took her out there very early Tuesday morning. It was about a 2 hour trip & we stayed & visited for awhile & then came back home.
Wednesday I took Tiffany, ...(I don't know that I've ever explained to you our living arrangement...Hubby & I live with Tiffany & Burns, and their 2 amazing sons Conner & Elias. We live in the upstairs of their house cuz they are awesome & don't mind having weirdos living above them.) ... so I took Tiffany to the hospital to have her gallbladder removed after having her appendix removed only 3 weeks ago :( Conner went to stay with one set of his grandparents - it's always nice to have multiple sets of grandparents - and I kept Elias in the waiting room.
So as you can see it has been one hectic week! I was a little surprised to be staying home today & just working.
Jamie is recovering, still on pain meds so not back to work yet. I haven't heard anything new about Nanny, and Tiffany's pain meds are making her nauseous. Hoping & praying that everyone gets well soon!