Where'd I go?

If you wondered where I've been this week, as there has been a serious lack of posts, here's the culprit:

These are all the books for my 2 8-10 page research papers, my 5-6 page mini research paper, my 2-3 page short analysis paper and discussion board posts for 2 classes..  And that was just from the earlier part of this week.  I still have 3 essay tests and discussion boards for 2 classes to do, all by Sunday night.  Homework has literally taken over my life these last 2 weeks.  I have seriously not had time for anything else.  Can you say stressed?!

The good news is, once Sunday is passed, things will simmer down a little and I will once again have time to craft and blog {and shower :) }  And I've got some fun things lined up to show you once I get them done-I'm excited!

One More

I'm making one final plea:  If you haven't already, please, PRETTY PLEASE, take a second (literally, a second) and head over to Snap to vote for my entry!  It really is super-fast and would mean the world to me!  I am entry #9.  

And to all of you wonderful readers who have already voted for me, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!  I am so grateful for your love and support.  You really have no idea how much it means to me!

Here the link to the voting:

http://www.snaptheconference.com/2011/05/contest-voting/

SNAP! Voting

Just popping in real quick on a break from my mountain of homework.  I wasn't able to get on yesterday because of said homework to let you all know this, but the voting for the Snap conference contest started yesterday.  Voting will be open until Wednesday, so if you could just take like 5 seconds from your day to bop on over and vote for me, I'd more than appreciate it.  Best thing is, you don't have to follow Snap's blog, or be a member of their site or sign up for anything, so it really does only take 5 seconds.  Just click on the link, click the "Vote" icon under my entry and you're done!
I am entry #9-Courtney @ Scraps and Scribbles.  And here's where you go to vote: http://www.snaptheconference.com/2011/05/contest-voting/
Thanks so much!

I am...

I'm over at the I am... blog today.  Come on by, say hi and see what I am... is all about!

My First Attempt at Glazing and Some Pretties

I tried my hand at glazing for the first time last week and I must say, I'm quite pleased with the results.  

Last week, I gave you all a sneak peak at some projects I was working on.

They're all finished!

I attached the birdhouses to the candlesticks and glazed the frames.

Here's the frame before.

And here it is after some paint and glaze.  I love how the glaze brought out all the neat details of this frame.  Right now, it's sporting my spring printable from Very Jane.

Here are my birdhouse pedestals.  I sanded the houses to give them a worn look and then glued them onto the candlesticks.

Here is a before of the other frame I glazed.

And after.

This one is waiting for something to go in it.  But I love how it turned out!  Isn't amazing what a coat of paint can do?!

{Who's That} A Slip Shop

I'm so happy to introduce you all to an amazing Etsy shop, A Slip Shop!

Got a dress or skirt that could use just a couple inches more on the hem?  A Slip Shop has you covered-literally!  I asked shop co-owner, Kaity, to share a bit about A Slip Shop, how it got started and the lovely ladies behind it.  Here's what she had to say:

We are two stay-at-home moms who really enjoy fashion and we wanted to share something we love, our slips, with anyone interested. The shop began back in November of 2010. 

I really wanted to start an etsy shop and I wanted to do it with a girlfriend so we could have some fun, and make a little money on the side. I convinced Jene' to get involved and that's when we began researching and creating our product. We had a concept of what we wanted the slips to be and then we went to work to make it a reality. 

It was important to us to be able to provide a custom slip that could be tailored to each individual in size, length, and style (straight or a-line), as well as, provide a variety of options to accessorize any dress or skirt and add a little flair to one's ensemble. 

These slips are simply gorgeous!  I have a couple skirts and dresses that are in need of a A Slip Shop slip!  Stop on by the shop and see all of the prettiness for yourself-I guarantee there will be a slip you'll love!

A New Winner

The winner of the Freschetta giveaway never got in touch with me, so it means it's time to choose a new one.

Courtesy of random.org, the new winner is

#7 Sue D.

Yay Sue!  Please email me at scrapsnscribs{at}gmail{dot}com by Friday with your info so I can send you your prize.

{Hand-made Goodie of the Week} Paper Flower Wreath Embellishment

If you weren't able to get over to She Wears Flowers last week to see what I shared with Tammy's readers, here's what you missed:

 Last fall, I made my first ever wreath.  If you've been following along for a while, you might remember it.

When spring finally rolled around, I wanted to make a pretty little something for my wreath, and since to me, flowers scream spring, I made an embellishment out of paper flowers.

Pretty and simple.  To make your own, you'll need:

Paper-I used scrapbook paper and some book pages for mine

Something to cut circles with-you could find something to trace or use a hole punch.  I used this handy-dandy gadget that I picked up a Michael's a while back.  It's by ek.

Glue

You're going to begin by cutting out 20 circles per flower for the petals.  Decide how big you'd like them.  For my small flower made out of book pages, I made each petal 1 inch.  Using my handy-dandy circle cutter, I cut out 20.

Then gently rolled them around a toothpick to curve them, like so.

Then I cut out a 2 in. circle to use as a base.  Start gluing your petals to your base as pictured above.

Slightly overlap them a bit.  Once you've come full circle,

Add your next ring of petals, gluing them down so that the top of the inner ring is just about the base of the outer ring. Repeat until you reach the middle.

Taking 3 of your remaining petals, cut them into leaf-like shapes.  Then arrange them in the very center of your flower.

Ta-da!  Repeat with the rest of your flowers.  For my larger flowers, I made the petals 2 inches and the base 4 inches.

Since they were going to be hung outside, I wanted to protect them from getting ruined.  I coated them with a clear protective spray.  I found this at Michael's.

Let them dry completely.  Then arrange them how you'd like them on your wreath, glue together where they over-lap and attach.  For mine, since the embellishments are interchangeable, I attached two pieces of velcro to the backs (you can find out more about that in the original tutorial.)

Hang and enjoy!

I'm really happy with how it turned out.  It adds a nice touch of spring to our front door.

Now my front door is all dressed up and ready for spring!

SNAP! me to SLC next April!

I don't know if you all have heard about the biggest thing to hit the bloggy/crafty world this coming April.  If you have no clue what I'm talking about, then you haven't heard about SNAP!

SNAP! is a creative blogging and social media conference going on April 19-21 in Salt Lake City.  The guest line-up is simply amazing.  Some of the lovely ladies who will be at SNAP! include Char from Crap I've Made, Becca from Blue Cricket Design, Jen from Tatertots and Jello, Mique from 30 Days and Jessica from Allora Handmade, just to name a few : )

I would so love to be able to go to this conference.  Only one small problem.  It's expensive!  As I'm sure many of you can relate, money is tight around here and it's only going to get tighter as our family grows (for those of you who don't already know, we're expecting our second child early November.)  Well, the nice folks over at SNAP! are giving you and me an opportunity to win an all-inclusive pass to the conference.  Isn't that nice of them?!

I'd so love to win this.  This conference is right up my alley!  I know I would have a blast and learn a lot to help my blog be more awesome, which would benefit you, my lovely readers : )  The conference also falls right before I'll be graduating from college-wouldn't that make a great graduation present?  And as a mom, as I'm sure many of you can nod in agreement to, I don't really ever get a break.  This would be such a way to have some Courtney time and to just recharge my batteries.  Plus, I have all kinds of family in the Salt Lake area, so I could visit with them AND I'd have a place to stay, which would eliminate hotel costs.

So, that's my plea and I hope when voting opens, you all will cast your vote for me.  I can't express how much this would mean to me.

Voting opens up on SNAP!'s site on May 22!

{A Glance} Projects in Progress

I wanted to give you all a glimpse at some projects I'm currently working on yesterday, but due to my dog chewing through our cable, our internet was down.  Don't ask.  But it's up and running today, so here they are.

Oh, how I love spray paint and its magical transformative powers.  You may recognize some of these goodies from my recent thrifting post.

This pretty frame got a coat of white and tomorrow it's getting glazed (I found some at Lowe's today-I knew they wouldn't disappoint!)

And this one got a coat of lovely blue and will get glazed tomorrow, too.

My candlesticks are now brown and are going to be used to

Turn these babies into pedestal birdhouses!  Or, bird castles as the little man calls them.  As soon as they are dry (they both had to get second coats today) and after a little sanding to roughen up the edges, I'll be putting them together.

{Who's That} She Wears Flowers

I'm blog swapping with the lovely Tammy from She Wears Flowers today.  She's here sharing a great organizing project.  Take it away, Tammy!

I’m so thrilled to be swapping blogs with Scraps and Scribbles today! I remember when I first discovered her blog and I couldn’t stop reading! She does so many fun things!

I’m Tammy from She Wears Flowers where I blog in the hopes that I can inspire others the same way I am inspired when I read craft blogs. I love to sew, wield the glue gun and spread on the Mod Podge. I am pretty willing to go with whatever crafty idea pops into my head. Most of my projects have tutorials and I tend to stick with quick, easy and very satisfying projects. I hope you’ll stop by and see what I’m up to!

Today’s project is super simple and has been fabulous for my kitchen! I have a really small kitchen—really small—so space is at a premium. Unfortunately, I probably don’t use it very well. I can’t reach the stuff in the little cupboards above my fridge so this is where I shove the stuff that I don’t use often—like cookie cutters and decorating supplies.  And by shove, I mean shove. (So embarrassing!)

I decided to do something about my mess and I started with all of those cookie cutters. I have a lot (Notice I didn’t show the other side of that cupboard? Much worse than this one!) so I thought I’d share how I organized them and made it easy to find one when I need it.

Materials

(I always seem to start with all of my materials, take a picture, then add more later—sorry!)

cookie cutters

binder

paper

plastic sleeves for binder

binder dividers with tabs

marker

cardstock

cover for binder (printable in instructions)

containers for cookie cutters

vinyl labels or regular labels

Instructions

Sort your cookie cutters into piles and decide what labels you will need. Since I used plastic shoe box sized containers, I wanted each pile to fit in that size box. This helped determine my groups.

Label your tabs for the dividers.

I put my dividers in alphabetical order in my binder. This helps when I am looking for something if the binder gets really full.

Trace each cookie cutter onto paper. (This is a great job for older children!) I only used one side of each paper and didn’t worry if I had some pages with big spaces. That way, I have plenty of room to add more as I buy them.

Insert each page, back to back, in the clear sleeves and put into binder in the right section.

You can flip through easily to see if you have a certain cookie cutter or to decide what you want to use for a project. The sections will coordinate with your containers so you will be able to find your cutter easily. Now I can quickly figure out if the frog is in my animal box or my fairy tale box without having to climb on a chair to pull them all down—I just check the binder first!

This also comes in really handy when you are using a different shape to make something. (Like hearts for ladybugs, for instance.)

Make a cover for your binder and then store it with your other kitchen books.

You can print this cover for personal use. Click the picture below to enlarge it and then print.

(You may want to copy the jpeg file into another program so you can change the size to make it work. I can’t figure out how to get it to print the right size. This file was made as an 8.5 x 11 inch size, but it tends to change by the time it is printed.)

You can also try HERE for a pdf version.

Label your box so it is easily identifiable. I labeled mine on one end and the top.

There you go—done!

Your cookie cutters are separated into groups in containers that are easily accessible and a binder with all of the information also easily accessible. Here’s to hoping that when I get on the chair to reach above the fridge for something, I will actually be able to find it quickly!

Not the most exciting project, but so exciting to have these cookie cutters organized and the cabinet clutter tamed for a while!

Thanks for swapping blogs Courtney!

I hope to see lots of you at my blog soon!

Thanks so much for coming by today Tammy!  I hope you all check out Tammy's amazing blog!