May/June Layout Challenge on Mini Album Scraps

Hiya! I just posted a new layout challenge on Mini Album Scraps. If you are not already a member of the site, feel free to join - it's free!

This time I thought it would be fun to do a layout sketch challenge. This challenge will run from May 21 - June 30. I think challenges are a great way to try a new style or technique, without committing to a swap.

For this challenge, I picked a sketch that I thought would be a fun for smaller photos. So many people are scrapping their instagram pictures and this sketch seems perfect for those types of photos. Remember, there aren't any rules! Just have fun, create something you like, and try to use the sketch as a general guideline. You can create a layout in any size, you are not limited to only a 12x12 page.

I found this sketch here:

Head over to Mini Album Scraps to participate in the challenge. The challenges are posted in the events section! I can't wait to see what you all create!

Happy Scrapping! Pin It Now!

YouTube Giveaway Challenge

Hello crafty divas! It's that time again...I have reached over 650 subscribers on my crafty YouTube channel, anhannaford. I can't believe it! When I started making videos, I would have never imagined that I would have 10 subscribers. A little over a year has gone by and I have 650 subscribers! The crafting community on YouTube has been such a wonderful addition to my life, it is such a supportive and welcoming group and I have made so many new friends. I feel so lucky to have found this community and become an active part of it.

To celebrate my milestone, I am hosting a giveaway challenge! Check out my video, which explains how to enter and the challenge rules.

I hope you will play along! You never know...you just may win the prize!
Happy Crafting! Pin It Now!

New Stuff Happening

So...I am not all that great at keeping up with my blog. I would like to be better at posting and that is a personal goal I have set for myself. I know, I know - I have said this before...but I am working on it :)! But, I do appreciate all of you who still follow my blog!

On the crafting horizon, I haven't really been doing too much in the way of creating. As most of you know, we have been remodeling our den and building in a desk area. The construction has been complete for about 3 weeks. Then we chose a paint color (which I asked about in a previous post), the color we chose was Valspar Newsstand from Lowe's. It looks amazing! It brightens the room, while giving it warmth. I made over my pair of dressers by painting the body in Valspar Fiddlehead Fern, also from Lowe's. Then I covered the drawers in fabric and modpodged over the top of the fabric. I LOVE how they turned out! Then, I moved my crafting stuff out of the guest bedroom into the new built-in desk and shelves. Weeding through all of my supplies and then organizing it all in a functional manner has proved to be a challenge, but I am nearly done! Most of the artwork is hung, and the mantle display is complete. We hung new blinds and picked up our new chair. So, the room is almost finished! The couch will be delivered on Monday, and in the meanwhile I have a few other little things that need to be finished up. Then I can breathe a sigh of relief when the project is complete! This has been an overwhelming and rewarding project, we basically did an overhaul of the entire room, and it is the room that we spend the most time in - so we put a lot of thought and detail into its design and function. I can't wait to share the final room tour with you! Here are a few sneak peek pics...

Needless to say, there hasn't been a lot of time for creating. I did complete one project for a swap with a crafty friend. We decided to swap an altered canvas. I had so much fun making this project! It was simple too. I bought a 12x12 artist canvas at Michael's and painted it with a light blue acrylic paint from my stash. Then I got out all of my mulberry paper flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and started hot gluing them to the canvas to create a luscious heap of flowers. I continued sticking flowers in all of the nooks and crannies until I was satisfied. Here is out it turned out:

I loved it so much, I bought another canvas to make one for our house! My next project is a pincushion for a swap that I am hosting at Mini Album Scraps. I have until May 30th to finish it, but I need to get started on it. I think I am going to use a tea cup as the base of the pincushion. I will definitely show you the finished pincushion in a future post.

Another exciting development is my new YouTube channel, audreyswifelife. I am so excited to have started this channel. It is a casual, vlog style channel where I can share just about anything. I am still going to continue my crafty YouTube channel, anhannaford. I just wanted another way to express myself and ideas outside of crafting. To accompany audreyswifelife, I started a Facebook fan page and Twitter. Just click on the links to follow me! Also, I am still LOVING Pinterest! It is fun to look at all of the pinboards and make my own pinboards. You can find me on pinterest as well, click here.

Well...that about sums it up. That is what is happening with me and my crafting! I hope you all are finding time to enjoy the spring weather!

I would love to hear what you have been up to. Any crafting projects? Gardening? Spring cleaning, perhaps? Pin It Now!

Help Me Pick Paint Colors...

Our favorite room to nestle in, is our den. This is what the den originally looked like when we moved into our home 4 1/2 years ago. I decided on a grey and black color scheme, so I painted over the paneling with a medium grey tone. I used red as the accent color.

The TV was in a closet

Over the course of the last 4 years, the den has seen many changes. The biggest change being new flooring. We put in laminate flooring about 3 years ago. It was such an improvement from the old, dingy Berber carpet that used to span the whole house! I also decided to take out the red accents and replace it with turquoise.

As we live in our house and grow as people, our space needs to change and grow with us. My decorating style is much more refined now. I used to believe that more is always better, however my attitude has changed...I now hold the philosophy that "less is more". And, so I started my quest to embrace the "less is more" mindset in our spaces. I started with our porch and I love how it turned out! I am incredibly motivated to see how the den turns out. If you haven't seen the video of the closet renovation, click here.

Our "new" den will become the "hub" of the house with the addition of a long craft desk, computer area and shelving. We want the space to feel inviting, cozy and bright as well as functional. To create a more soothing atmosphere I am going to lighten the color of the walls and furniture. We have the couch and chair picked out. Here is what we decided on...

custom chair upholstery

I am in LOVE with the chair upholstery, and the couch cushions are down! So luscious... With the two major items purchased, I have a jumping off point for the remainder of the room. Our new desk area is nearing completion and it is time for me to paint. I want to paint the desk nook a lighter color, and the walls a slightly darker shade. I will paint the trim the traditional crisp white. I am going with tan/cream/beige family. I can't decide though! I have it narrowed down, but I need some help. Please leave a comment and let me know which colors you think I should paint.

So here are the choices for the desk area:

Down Comforter

Deep Cowslip 1

 

Craft White

Lemon Pearl

Candle Light Dinner

Froth On Top

Now for the main wall color... Here are the choices:

Sun Drift

Ticket Stub

Newsstand

Deep Cowslip 2

Creme Brulee

Creme Brulee

I have chosen green as the accent color in the room. Our adjoining kitchen is green, so it will transition the two spaces nicely. I am going to sprinkle shades of green throughout the room in decorative pieces, throw pillows, baskets, etc. But, I am going to paint the television stand green. Which shade do you like?

Everglade Glen

Fiddlehead Fern

Thanks in advance for your comments! I can't wait to see what color you all like best. They are all starting to blend together, so I really appreciate the help!

Have a wonderful weekend! Anyone else doing some painting??

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Hello Again!

Well hello there! I can't believe it has been almost two months since my last post! Where has the time gone? I know that life has been busy, but February and March passed in the blink of an eye. I hope you all have had a plentiful and productive February and March.

Over the past two months, I have been doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I am crafting a lot, and taking a picture every day for Project Life (which I will post about later). Aside from crafting, I have been really interested in organizing and decorating. Which leads me to my next point...

My blog is going to change a little bit. The focus will still be on crafting and the bulk of my posts will be about crafty projects, products and storage ideas; but I am also going to blog about organization, decorating and gardening.

I recently bought a book called, Organize Now. I am obsessed with this book! I take it everywhere and anytime I have a spare moment, I thumb through it and get new ideas. It is a step-by-step guide to organizing your home. It has checklists for every room. I totally recommend this book to anyone who likes lists and needs to get their home organized. The lists make any organizing project feel do-able and easy to follow, and checking items off of a list gives me a great sense of accomplishment.

Last week, I decided to tackle my first organizing project...our porch! We love our porch. We built in on to our house the first summer we lived here. It has the best investment that we have made in our home. It is a wonderful place to have your morning cup of joe, read a magazine in the afternoon, listen to the birds or eat a casual dinner.

Here is our porch BEFORE...

Most of our Spring and Summer is spent on our porch, so it was fitting that I get started on it right away. I knew that I wanted it to be a light and airy, with a clean feel. I am tired of clutter and excess "stuff" complicating our space. I kept the pink and green color scheme because it coordinates with the attached mudroom. I wanted the spaces to flow easily. Knowing what I wanted the space to feel and look like, I started shopping for furniture that would fit into my budget. This room makeover was done relatively inexpensively. I looked at Target, Walmart, Crate and Barrel, and finally Lowe's. We found the faux wicker chairs and loveseat in the garden center at Lowe's. The chairs were $60 each and the loveseat was $98. I thought that was a great deal for comfortable, nice looking, weather-resistant furniture.

Our porch AFTER:

To give everything a crisp feeling, I put a fresh coat of white paint on the wood and did a thorough cleaning of the brick wall and floor.

A few years ago I made the throw pillows out of a weather resistant fabric that I bought at JoAnn Fabric. The pillows were easy to make and I love the colors/pattern. Keeping with the pink and green color scheme, I spray painted several side tables. I got the spray paint at Hobby Lobby. I used Krylon indoor/outdoor, gloss finish spray paint. I used "watermelon" on the table below, and "ballet" on the other two tables. Each can of spray paint was $4.99, and I used a 40% off coupon on 2 of the 4 cans that I purchased.

We love to grill in the summer and eat on the porch, enjoying the blooming flowers and chirping birds. We needed a dining table, but we didn't want the typical outdoor table. For this purchase we ended up back at Target. It is a counter-height table with a frosted glass top and two coordinating counter-height chairs. The table and chairs were on sale! Love that! The table was $69 and the chairs were $49 each. The table creates a casual atmosphere, yet very stylish.

The constant sun exposure makes this the perfect room for plants! I needed to pot some of my plants, so I headed to TJ Maxx in search of decorative and durable pots. TJ Maxx is one of my favorite places to shop for home decor items, especially pots. Their selection is unique and very well priced. I bought 4 pots, some Miracle Grow potting soil at Lowe's, put on my garden gloves and easily potted several plants. All of the art work are pieces that I had. I just went "shopping" in the other rooms of my house to see which items would fit best on the porch. I didn't have to spend any money on the wall decor. Don't forget that you have treasures all over your home, so shop in you own home. It saves money and reuses stuff you already have!

So, there is my redecorated, organized, clutter-free porch. I had a lot of fun thinking about what I wanted the space to look and feel like. It is so rewarding to see my vision come to life. We will enjoy the space for many spring and summer seasons to come!

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Basic Grey - Winter CHA 2012

Why oh why do the scrapbooking companies keep coming out with such wonderful products? With CHA being twice a year, that leaves all of us avid shoppers and scrappers making wishlists a mile long! Each time a new paper collection is released (by any company), I think..."what else can they come up with that I will like better?" But, without fail they never cease to amaze me.
My all time favorite papercrafting company is Basic Grey. For those of you who know me, that is not a secret! I have been following their blog and website and I am already eyeing their new collections. The CHA Winter 2012 collections are high on my wishlist! I love the papers, not to mention all of the beautiful embellishments! They have 4 new releases (not counting Kissing Booth - which I have and LOVE). The 2 collections that will ship first are Konnichiwa and Plumeria. In fact, you can pre-order them at Stop and Scrap. Then, in April they will ship 2 more collections - PB&J (love the name!) and What's Up. Click on the titles below to see the entire collection.

Konnichiwa

Plumeria

PB&J

What's Up

Hopefully I didn't tempt you too much! It is fun to see all of the new products that will be coming out in the next few months! What are you drooling over from CHA 2012 so far? Pin It Now!

Organzing, Organizing, Organizing

Wow! We are already 10 days into the new year. 2012 has been busy so far! I have been bitten by the organizing bug. I stumbled across a new blog IHeartOrganizing and she has so many great organizational tips. She makes everything look so perfect...it is contagious. So, I have been cleaning out the closets and drawers around my house. Things get stashed away throughout the year and now it is time for them to find their proper home.
Now that our living spaces are organized, I am tackling my craft room. I am trying to take inventory of what I have and purge the items that I no longer use. This is proving to be a more difficult task than I thought. Also, I have realized that I have A LOT of stuff! I need to use what I have, because I have plenty of supplies to create beautiful things.
For inspiration, I have watched a lot of YouTube videos to get crafty storage ideas. There are so many wonderful videos out there, I have found 2 specific videos that answered two of my biggest organizational dilemmas.
First: Paper Storage - This has always been a problem for me. I love paper and buy paper collections, but never found a practical way to store the collections. I tried pizza boxes, but they were too bulky. I have tried the stacking trays, but they don't really organize the paper by collection. So, I watched this video and she suggested using 2 Gallon Ziploc bags to store your paper collections and embellishments together. I am LOVING this! It is working out perfectly.

Second: Stamp Storage - Another perplexing storage issue. My current system of just sticking them in binders of bins is not working. I don't really know what stamps I have, so I don't really use them. So...again, I turned to trusty YouTubers for some advice, and I found this video. Wooden stamps are my favorite, but also difficult to store. This video is GENIUS! She suggested using VHS cases. I placed an order online at BagsUnlimited for 25 clear VHS cases (be sure to get the one's without the hub). I have filled all 25 cases, and today I placed another order for 50 more. I am grouping them by theme and then stamping out each image onto a piece of white cardstock and then labeling each VHS case with a title, so that I can easily locate any stamp. Next, I wanted to tackle my clear stamps. I decided to go with the CD jewel cases. Many people have been doing this and it seems to work for them. I ordered 50 clear CD jewel cases (without the tray) from BagsUnlimited as well. I quickly filled all 50 cases with my clear stamps, and went to Staples to get some more. I have all of my clear and cling stamps in CD cases. I numbered each case and made a catalog sheet using the acetate image sheet and put it in a page protector.

So, naturally this led to making a stamp inventory binder. So, when I am looking for a particular stamp I can flip through the binder and find the stamp I am looking for and what case it is located in. This is time consuming, but I think it will all be worth it in the end. I am happy with my results so far! I will do a video of my new organizational systems when they are complete (hopefully by the end of the week).

I still have some other items that I need to find storage solutions for...does anyone have any good ideas for scrap paper, Sizzix dies and Spellbinders dies? Anyone have any good organizational tips in general for crafty supplies? Pin It Now!

Goodbye 2011....Hello 2012!

Happy New Year everyone! First, I would like to say thank you to all of my followers and subscribers. 2011 was a big year for me, with a lot of new things...blogging being one of them. Starting this blog has been a wonderful adventure for me, I love sharing my craft projects and hopefully I have inspired some of you to tap into your creativity. I can promise that 2012 will be filled with new ideas, inspiration and adventures. I hope all of you will continue the journey with me.

As my husband and I watched the Times Square New Year's Eve party, I couldn't help but reflect on the year gone by and imagine the possibilities for the year to come. We talked about the highs and lows of 2011: we DID a lot, ACCOMPLISHED a lot, LEARNED a lot, and most importantly LIVED a lot! 2011 was a full year for us; however we both agreed that 2012 was going to be an even more exciting year!

When the ball dropped at the stroke of midnight, I immediately felt a sense of renewal. I love the first day of a new year. There is something refreshing about a clean slate and a new beginning. When I was a kid, I loved the start of a new school year or grading period. It gives me a sense of vitality and motivation to redirect my focus.

Mark and I enjoyed the day at home. We took down the outside Christmas lights, packed up the Christmas decorations and took down both of our Christmas trees. We wrote our Christmas thank you cards, watched some football, and we even crafted together! (We covered 30 spiral notebooks with designer paper, a piece of ribbon and a tag - we made them for my friend's middle school writing club) We talked to our families on the phone and wished everyone a Happy New Year! It was a wonderful way to ring 2012. Throughout the day though, we talked about our hopes, dreams and goals for 2012.

So many people set New Year's resolutions and they are pushed aside by February. I prefer to set new goals for the year and revisit them throughout the year, so as not to loose sight of what I want to accomplish. I have two facets to the goals I set. Some are crafting related, while I also have personal goals. Let's start with the crafty goals...some of the things that I am going to strive to do in 2012 are:
- Blog more consistently
- Create tutorial videos for my YouTube channel
- Write scrapbooking product reviews on my blog
- Post detailed instructions for my projects on my blog
- Use the things that I have in my stash before buying new supplies
- Complete Project Life (I will show my progress throughout the year)
- Open an Etsy store for my crafting supplies and my handmade items
Now for the personal goals...2012 is going to be the year that I:
- Reach my goal weight, using the Weight Watchers PointsPlus Plan
- Make exercise a priority
- Learn to cook some healthy recipes
- Keep my paperwork, closets and cupboards organized
- Read more
- Take time to just BE

These are some ambitious goals that I have set, but I feel rejuvenated and confident that I can do anything that I set my mind to. Throughout the year, I will post progress updates and let you know how things are going.

I would love to hear your goals and wishes for 2012!
Best wishes for the year ahead! Pin It Now!

Top 10 Scrapbooking Products of 2011

As 2011 comes to a close, I have been thinking about all of the projects I have made and products and tools that I have added to my crafting arsenal. There are so many tools on the market to help us create with ease. Of course, we all have grown to love certain products/tools more than others. I would like to share my top ten products from 2011 with you. Please keep in mind that these products may have been on the market for a while, however they were new to me this year. I will try to include links of where to purchase these items, but I would always recommend doing a web search to find the best price! Saving money means you can spend it on more crafting goodies!

 

10. Wild Orchid Craft Mulberry Flowers - I am in love with these mulberry paper flowers! While they are more of a product than a tool, I must admit that after my first order this year I have used them in almost every project I have done. Each flower is handcrafted with detail. They add interest and dimension to any project and they come in every size and shape imaginable! I like ordering the white flowers and then coloring them myself with glimmer mists, but I also like purchasing their colored flowers as well.

 

9. Tim Holtz Ruler - I didn't understand the big deal about Tim Holtz's ruler until I actually purchased one. It really is a cool ruler! I love that it is clear, and one side is metal edged for cutting against. It is easy to read the measurements on it - I couldn't live without it!

 

8. Scotch ATG Gun - Before buying my ATG, I was using all sorts of disposable double-sided tape runners. I needed something that would accommodate more adhesive and the ATG was the prefect solution. I do not buy the acid-free refills, so that keeps the cost of the refills lower. Also, I was introduced to www.thetapedepot.com and they sell ATG refills for a very reasonable price.

 

7. Crop-O-Dile by We R Memory Keepers - I know this is not a new tool, however it was new to me this year. This tool has so many functions, I think it is well worth the investment. I like the two different diameters of hole punches and it sets eyelets too!

 

6. Cinch by We R Memory Keepers - I will admit that there is a learning curve to using the cinch. I certainly am not an expert yet, but I love being able to bind mini albums and calendars. This tool was a wise investment for me this year.

 

5. Scor-Tape - Until this year, I had not used scor-tape. After I bought and used my first roll of it, I was hooked. It tears easily, so you don't have to cut it with scissors. It comes in a variety of widths, but most importantly it holds your projects together beautifully! I usually purchase mine on eBay.

 

4. Hot Glue Gun Helpers - These little tools are genius! I love using hot glue, however I am always burning myself. Well, not anymore! I love these and would recommend them to anyone who likes using hot glue on their projects.

 

3. We R Memory Keepers Corner Chompers - These corner chompers are sturdy and make a clean cut each time. They are easy to use and each tool has 2 types of corner designs. These are a must-have for me.

2. Fiskars SureCut™ Deluxe Craft Paper Trimmer (12") - I LOVE this paper trimmer. I use it daily and it has many handy features. I like the swing out arm that allows you to measure 12"x12" paper. The platform is 6 1/4", which is convenient for making mini albums and cards. The wire guide shows you exactly where you are going to make the cut.

 

1. Martha Stewart Scoreboard - This is probably my favorite tool that I purchased this year. I use it for everything, and I especially like the 1/8" increment score lines.


So there you have it, my Top 10 Tools of 2011! I would love to know what your favorites were this year! Pin It Now!