a card a day: june daily challenge

I have loved doing the photo a day: in may challenge this past month (will share the final few photos later today :)). I love that I was completing a fairly easy challenge to capture one moment per day. For me, it was a good start to getting used to an everyday challenge.

So for June: I have decided to create a small card each day. 

The cards are 3"x4" and I cut them from white cardstock (only takes 5 sheets - 6 cards per sheet), and I decided to round the corners. Random challenge, you say? :) I used to have a cute little scrapbook calendar that had a "layout a day" every day of the year. I knew there was no way I could possibly do a huge 12"x12" (or even 8.5"x11") layout per day (I've also seen creating a "greeting card" a day! Fun!). So I started thinking on a smaller level. I like the idea of creating a mini-layout each day. The 3"x4" parameter will be challenging, but also good to have the constraint. I also mainly chose this size so that they could fit in my Project Life album. Or possibly into a little mini album. However, I'm not sure how I will put them all together yet.

What will each card be like? At this point, I have thought of a couple ideas and themes - I plan to do each color in the rainbow. And also like the idea of creating cards around one word, like vintage, or paper, or washi tape, or map, or a thought or emotion: happy, excited, think, discover. Things like that. I will also do a lot of randomness, I'm sure - whatever I'm feeling like creating that particular day :) I will use bits and pieces I have around my workspace - bits of paper, maybe pictures or words from a magazine, washi tape, sewing, anything really! I'm thinking this will also be a good way to use up some scraps :)

So, would you like to join in? Whether you are able to complete a card every day, every other day, etc., the point is to flex your creative muscles by creating. Creating a simple and small card. I'd love to see what you create! I've set up a flickr group here. Feel free to post pictures of your cards, or take a look at others. Alright, June begins tomorrow. Let's get started! :)

workspaces: Xenia of saturdayAMvintage

Today's workspace is that of Xenia Feere, owner of etsy shop saturdayAMvintage and blogger at saturdayAMvintage. I came across Xenia's shop awhile back and instantly fell in love with all of the vintage paper and odds and ends she finds. I order her scrap paper packs every now and then and it is always a fun treat to receive in the mail :)

1. Tell us about yourself and your creativity - ie. what you make or do, what you blog about, your history behind your creativity, etc. My name is Xenia, and I run a little shop and blog named Saturday Morning Vintage.  My shop is filled with vintage finds with a strong emphasis on vintage ephemera – old tags, flashcards, labels, and other paper. In addition, I offer handmade journals made from a variety of new, vintage, and found papers – scrapbook paper, vintage sheet music, office paper, pages from old books, and more.  My blog also has a big focus on vintage ephemera and other paper.  I share projects of my own, along with highlighting other small businesses through my weekly "Affordable Finds" feature and periodic interviews.  I've been collecting paper in some form since I was a little girl and don't anticipate it stopping any time soon.  It started with stickers and has evolved to vintage paper for the time being.

2. Tell us about your workspace.

Much of my free time is spent scouring flea markets, estate sales, and thrift stores for vintage paper and other interesting things.  Thankfully I have a separate office to house all of my finds and provide some creative space.  It's a small room, but fits a lot.  I couldn't find a simple desk I was happy with, so I purchased an unfinished tabletop from IKEA, stained it a dark shade, and attached some legs.  I like to do most of my work on the floor so I only needed room for my laptop, cup of coffee, and some basic office supplies.  The rest of the room is filled with a bookshelf lined with old books, a wall of IKEA cubes containing craft supplies and shop inventory, and a metal cabinet that holds my shipping supplies.  The room has an itty bitty closet, but an open area above the closet that runs the length of the room.  All of my extra inventory is stored up here in 14 crates that are organized by category and labeled with hanging tags.  

3. What is your favorite thing about your workspace?

From a visual point of view, the vintage pull down map is my favorite.  I found it in an antique shop in Ohio while my fiance was temporarily working out of state and I came to visit.  I fell in love with the colors and the price was unbelievable.  Unfortunately I didn't have any way to get it home with me to California.  However, a few months later it was waiting for me under the Christmas tree!  My fiance went back to the antique shop and bought the map, and then shipped it to California without me knowing.  The best part is that he couldn't find a shipping tube that was large enough so he pieced together his own with lots of shorter tubes and lots and lots of tape.  Clearly a lot of love has gone into bringing this map into my office.

From a practical point of view, the shipping station is my favorite.  It holds all of the wrapping and shipping supplies for my shop - boxes, bubble mailers, tape, scissors, twine, and even mini paper packs I like to include with orders.  I can wrap, package, and weigh an order using just supplies housed in this old metal cabinet.  It is very convenient and saves me a lot of time.

4. What is one thing you can't live without in your workspace? I can't live without color!  Even though I really love seeing others decorate their space with mainly neutrals, I'm always drawn to colorful pieces for myself.  When my vintage book collection grew too large and I had to buy a bookshelf, I picked this one from IKEA because I loved the bright red.  The crates above my closet that hold extra inventory are olive green, and the boxes and baskets holding craft supplies in my cubes are various shades of orange.  The vintage map pulls together all of these colors - another reason it's my favorite!

Thank you, Xenia, for sharing about yourself and your fabulous workspace!

*All images are by Xenia Feere. 

starting on the quilt.

One of my goals this year is to make a quilt. I decided it'd be fun to make a quilt for our little one (who will be here in a couple months!). I've been collecting little girl clothes from consignment shops, Goodwill, thrift stores, etc. to put into the quilt. Gently used clothes, fabric pieces, etc. that are too worn in some places, or have a stain here or there, but still perfectly great for using the rest of the fabric.

I've made a  few quilts in the past (including this one for my hubby when we were then dating :)), but am by no means an expert, or expert sewer for that matter. So basically I'm just cutting out rectangular strips -- some 3" wide, some 4" wide, but all are varying lengths. It definitely takes awhile to cut the pieces apart, to work around buttons, seams and such, so I'm doing a little at a time, here and there. We'll see how long it takes :) 

Any tips or ideas from any expert sewers out there? Any recommendations for super sharp scissors? I'm using a Fiskars rotary blade which is working well for the majority of the cutting into pieces. But as for using scissors to take the clothes apart - I'm using Fiskars scissors, and they are definitely not made for lots of fabric cutting. As I'm not sewing a whole lot, I don't want to make a huge investment in cutting tools, but it would be nice to know of some well priced options for where I am at with my sewing :) Any advice is well appreciated! :)

memorial day.

a very heartfelt thank you to all of the service members and their families today as we think about those who are serving and remember those who are no longer with us. we are grateful for you, your families and your sacrifice for our country. thank you so, so much.

photo a day: update

I haven't posted an update of my photo a day: in may progress in awhile, so here are the past couple weeks (go here to see the first part of the month). I believe I've only missed 2 days out of the whole month, and plan to include journaling on those days instead. I've really enjoyed capturing a picture each day - of the random events (hanging out in the hammock, shoveling mulch, etc) to the not-so-random events (graduation, Mother's Day, etc). I think it's really neat how a picture can bring back memories surrounding that snapshot in time - be it a mundane event or a big memorable event. Just looking at the picture of my hubby shoveling mulch from the wheelbarrow brought back the memory of a funny conversation we were having as he was shoveling. Love that! :)

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June is almost here! Are you interested in advertising your blog or business on my sidebar for the month of June? Go here for more details and feel free to email me at: thecreativeplace (at) gmail (dot) com :)

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+ am thankful for all of your sweet comments, emails and well wishes about my hubby's graduation and trip to Haiti. thank you, thank you!!

+ am glad to have made it to the weekend. my mother-in-law if coming for a couple days to keep us company and help out with my babies while my hubby is out of the country.

+ am thankful to have gotten an email from my hubby late last night saying all was well.
+ am missing my hubby, but am really grateful to the Lord he had the opportunity to go to the DR and Haiti.
+ am in "trying to be productive mode" while I have alone time in the evenings after my sweet babies are in bed. last night, this included a late evening dinner - a noodle bowl from Trader Joe's, some fresh berries, and amazing lemonade. fancy, I know ;)
+ am thankful for all of the people I "meet" via blogland and etsy - crafters, bloggers, customers. it really is neat to connect with people all over the globe!
+ am excited to try out this recipe, this recipe, this recipe, and this recipe this weekend.
+ am inspired by this gorgeous rainbow quilt and am trying to decide if I have enough scraps to pull off making one.
+ am thinking about how i just spent a fortune on printer ink yesterday - why is printer ink so incredibly expensive?!
+ am loving this super fabulous mini book and the DIY instructions in the post. now all I need is PVA bookbinding glue.
+ am anxiously awaiting the mailman arriving today - expecting some hard-to-find October Afternoon paper from this fabulous company that had excellent customer service when there was a problem with fulfillment of my order.
+ am working on another custom wedding book like this one, and possibly about to start yet another one :)
+ am loving this cute little DIY pencil pouch. now if only i wasn't scared of sewing zippers. maybe soon ;)
+ am thinking about and planning some 5"x7" art journals. no real theme or anything, just an art journal with tons of fun papers - new and vintage. trying to decide if it would be ring-bound (can add pages), or wire bound (can't add pages).
+ am thinking i have way too much paper in my workspace right now (is that even possible? to have too much paper?! ;)). maybe a destash giveaway is in order for the near future :)
+ am thinking i might have to try this ciabatta recipe. soon.
+ am sad that we lost a lot of our plants in our garden to a crazy and unexpected hailstorm the other day. working on trying to salvage a few of the plants :/
+ am craving Thai food like it's my job. I honestly think I could eat Thai food every.single.day. and it doesn't help that we have an amazing Thai restaurant two miles from our home. the manager knows us and knows our order. haha :)
+ am looking back through this list and thinking it's funny that there are so many projects and recipes I want to try. I feel this way all.the.time. ;)
+ am wishing you a wonderful weekend! and to those in the U.S., have a great Memorial Day weekend :)

workspaces: a new series

Welcome to a new post series: Work Spaces! I will be sharing different workspaces of other bloggers/crafters/shop owners I have "met" via blogland or etsy once a week for the next several weeks. 

Today, I am excited to introduce Iara of Baers Garten and her workspace. Iara creates beautiful mini album kits (I snagged this gorgeous kit a couple weeks ago and love it), journaling cards and embellishments, and also creates digital scrapbooking kits.

1. Tell us about yourself and your creativity - ie. what you make or do, what you blog about, your history behind your creativity, etc. Hi, my name is Iara and I am the artist behind Baers Garten Designs. I am a former scientist, now WAHM to two girls and a boy. I am Brazilian but live overseas since 2000. After some years of globetrotting, our family now lives in a small town near to Cologne, Germany.

I am a memory keeper. I love to write down the everyday tales of my family and things I want to remember. I scrapbook, I write art journals but mostly, I love to make mini albums. I have the dream of creating mini album kits combining my digital designs and the beautiful products from my favorite manufactures for a long time and this dream has come true recently with the openning of my etsy shop. I love the process of creating a series of embellishments with a special theme in mind and having the final product in my hands. I love to create digital kits too but there is nothing like touching your creations.

I started my way into the world of scrapbooking through website decoration. I started designing such graphics in 2002 and had lots of customers who wrote that they used my graphics for scrapbooking. When I was pregnant with my daughter I decided to make a pregnancy album and found two peas in a bucket. I was sold :) In 2006 I started designing for digital scrapbooking. Please be sure to visit my digital store to give a look in my digital designs :)

2. Tell us about your workspace. My workspace is a dream come true to me. After years of creating and scrapping in a small desk in my bedroom and having all of my supplies stored in boxes in my closet I now have a room for my own, which is not very high, hot in the Summer and cold in the Winter, lol, but all mine. My husband built it for me under our roof last year. I love this place so much. As it is located under the roof it does not have high walls to put bookshelves for my supplies - I really would love to own a expedit :) -  so every corner must be planned and furniture may adapt. I have a very large desk, in fact it is our former dinning table: I convinced my husband that we needed a larger table to accomodate our family of five and guests and when he asked what we should do with our former table he knew that he did not have a choice ;) The table is quite wide so I created a small shelf to have my everyday supplies close to me as organized as possible. For storage, we cutt some old shelves and adapted them to fit in the "dead space" on the floor. It is really stunning how much it holds: there are enough place for albums, books, boxes of small supplies, my journals, magazines, canvas, kids at supplies... it is everything there. These shelves used to be in our living room when we moved together 12 years ago. I love to re-use that furniture and to keep it in the "family" :)

3. What is your favorite thing about your workspace? There are lots of things I love about my work space: the amount of natural light - there are windows in both sides and is always beautiful there, even in the gray days. I love that it is big enough to have a place for a second desk for my kids, and I love to have a dedicated sewing corner and that I do not need to close the sewing machine and put it away after every project (as I did for years). I am very grateful for my studio.

4. What is one thing you can't live without in your workspace? I can't live without my two Alex drawers from Ikea. I have an Alex and a Vika Alex with casters. They hold my papers, my punches, my stamps, my embellishments... everything is so organized thanks to them. I just open a drawer and find what I want to use, I use it and put back in the drawer, this way I always have an almost clean desk. I am a very organized person, a messy desk makes me crazy. And when I am ready I can put them under my table/desk.

Check out Iara's etsy shop here. Or stay up-to-date via Facebook here. And don't forget to check out her blog here - she shares tons of inspiration there :) *All images courtesy of Iara of Baers Garten.

wednesday.

My hubby left very, very early this morning with a team of men from our church to go to the Dominican Republic and then on to Haiti. The team consists of five men and they will be in the DR and Haiti for a week. He traveled in December as well, and is grateful to go back and work on a long-term project and to take some video footage that will be part of a some videos for HaitiLove.

Praying for them as they go - praying for safe and smooth travels. Praying for a wonderful and fruitful time with the people there. And of course, continuing to pray for the sweet people and children there. Excited to hear about their time when they return next week.

Fabric Covered Buttons

I've heard of people making their own fabric covered buttons and have been looking into figuring out how to make my own. Well, I was at Wal-Mart the other day, looking around in the sewing section and happened upon a little "Fabric Covered Button Making Kit" - Yay! It was less than $2.00 for a kit to make five covered buttons, so I decided to go for it.

I had some fabric scraps on hand and used them to try out the kit. I was amazed at how easy it was. These are SO incredibly easy to make. As in, it took less than one minute to make each! 

All I did was cut out a 1.5"-ish circle of fabric and followed the directions on the back of the package.

 Simple enough. Put the fabric in the little thing-a-ma-jig, then put on the top button part.

Push that down into the white thing-a-ma-jig, then lightly push the fabric towards the middle.

Put the back of the button on, use the blue thing-a-ma-jig and push down to snap into place. 

And voila! A cute little fabric covered button. You could add these to a bag or tote, or maybe to an apron? 

I found these on etsy - they are flatback, so maybe if you used these "flatbacks" they could be used on a scrapbooking page or in a journal?!

If you would rather order a kit online, this shop has kits with 10 buttons to cover for a very reasonable price - or flatback kits here. So fun! :)