Meet Upcycled Scrapbooking, Week 36

Hi Everyone! I'm Jen from Upcycled Scrapbooking. I am very excited to be a guest blogger for Tammy today. Please be patient with me as this is my very first "guest" post! YAY ME! (maybe scary for Tammy *wink* LOL)

I love Tammy's blog because its fun, real and "upcycled!!" just like I like it!
So a little about "me" or rather "Upcycled Scrapbooking..family".
I started blogging in 2007 (beachmonkeys.blogspot.com)when we were adopting our son from Guatemala (we have 17yr old biological daughter) and wanted a way to let our out-of-state family keep up with us. I am also a homeschool mom of 14years and now our son is 4yr old and is homeschooling, so I decided to start a "Scrapbook/paper crafting" blog called Upcycled Scrapbooking this past June 2011.
I cannot tell you how much fun I'm having and looking forward to 2012 with new projects, tutorials and ideas for families everywhere. I hope you will want to stop by, share your projects and maybe even do a guest post for me.

I grew up with frugal and very creative parents. Going to St.Vincent's, Goodwill and thrift stores was normal shopping or "treasure hunting" as we called it and now my 17yr old daughter loves to do on her own. I'd watch my parents stretch a dollar and decorate our home and not once did we feel we had any less than anyone else.
My other "love" is to organize.I LOVE to organize!! My husband and daughter say I'm OCD but I dont think so, I just think I love to organize. What do you thinK? LOL
We recently redid our pantry and cupboards and i've never been more happy!


My 2nd love is paper crafts! So I created Upcycled Scrapbooking blog to share and hopefully teach others through my love for creating paper crafts.  I want to create things that fit any budget and re-use items we already have. So I save all my containers that things come in that are reusable chipboard. (oatmeal, cereal, snack boxes.. they all get saved) and i keep them in my craft room sterlite drawers.
One of my favorite projects was a Altered Book Mini Album.
I had some old 100 year old books that the pages were falling out, so i took them out and make a mini album of my son. It was really easy! I will be making more of these this coming months, so you might want to join me! Start collecting old books (pages are so brittle you can tear out and unreadable or stained, etc. Also purchase at garage sale, goodwill or thrift)



This christmas I had so much fun creating some project that anyone could make as christmas decor projects. Poinsettia ball from garage sale/goodwill flowers and whiffle ball.


These are two more I really loved having. My snowmen are still hanging around since winter is just getting started here in Georgia, LOL.

• A 12 day advent using coin envelopes I made to count down to santa.
• 
  
• a fun snowman decor craft using ping pong balls and cotton balls and glitter.

This is using salt shaker from dollar store and i just used black fingernail polish for hat, ping pong ball for head and cotton balls and glitter and buttons.


I love making new things out of old.
I hope you will come by my blog and check out some of my projects. I sell tutorials for some of them so you can see step-by-step photos and instructions on how to make a project. I also have YouTube Channel with videos showing you how to make things.

One of my favorites I have in my purse right now is a WALLET MINI ALBUM made from 1 sheet of cardstock!! (and some clear contact paper to keep it clean in momma's purse)
I have 3 different ones I made. The first brown one looks like luggage so its my summer vacation photos. The blue one is of my 4yr old growing up and it hold 25 photos!! The pink one I made for my 17yr old daughter's purse to put her friend and youth group photos in.


You will find my designs tend to lean towards "clean and straight lined" not too much froo-froo, and that's just my TYPE-A personality and need for things to be organized but don't let that stop you from being who you are and designing and decorating to your style. I hope you will stop by and say HI!! I love meeting new people and becoming followers of their blogs so please come by and comment and leave your blog link to stop by and see ya!

Thank you so much tammy for allowing me to be a guest host!! I hope ya'll enjoy your week and stop by in 2012 to share with me your projects and ideas!!

Progress

I'm making progress on the armoire, and I just wanted to share with you what I've accomplished so far.

I may not have attended online school for design, but I feel like I have a knack for it.

This is what it looked like when I brought it home.  Notice all the stickers, really stickers?  Then written in marker was the phrase "Change how you see, not how you look."  Again, written in marker, so it had to go.  It all had to go.  I couldn't paint over it, the paint was peeling, so it had to come off.

This was taken after I pulled the stickers off, see, some of the paint came off too.  She's still madly in love with it, even tho it look like this. 

Finally where we are today, after stripping it for 4 days!  lol  It was actually pretty easy, there's just a lot to strip, and the dog can't live in the kennel forever!  lol  Poor Stanley.

I still have some paint to get off from around the handle.  I can't figure out how to get the Bakelite handle off.  Hubby will be home in less than a week, he said he would help.  I should have the paint by then too.  I need to fill some dings, not all of them, just the big ones.  I want to keep some of the character. 

When I'm finished I share all the info about my special mix of paint that the fine folks and Robyn Story Designs whipped up for me!  Love them!!

And the WINNER is....

Cassie from http://primitiveandproper.blogspot.com/!!!!  Congrats Cassie on winning the Maison De Stencils Give Away!!! 

Thanks to everyone who entered.  I have another Give Away right around the corner, as soon as Type A hits 800 I announce the new Give Away!!  Stay tuned.

For some reason Blogger won't let me link...I'll check back and see if I can fix it later.

Hunter Gatherer #10

Maison De Stencil GIVE AWAY!!!

Hurry don't miss out on the GIVE AWAY, I'll be announcing the WINNER soon!

Wow, time share what we have been hunting and gathering.  I finally have some lovelies to share.  Thanks to my bestie, we went shopping Tuesday. 

I can't help myself, I had to put the mannequin by the clock!  I just love the clock, I think I would take family photos with it!  lol  No REALLY.   The hunted item is actually the mannequin.  I got it for a steal at HomeGoods of all stores.  It's not shabby and old, but for the price worth it.  Her name is Jezebel.

Check out the huge mirror I scored!  Love itI  I love mirrors, I'm some what of a mirror whore, and really love GOLD!  

I totally fell in love with this little table/book rack.  It needs a paint job and has to live in the garage until we move.  I swear one day there will be a new(er) house...I haven't given up hope.  Hubby will be home soon and he said we could go house hunting!

 Party On Friends, Show me your fun finds, or Christmas presents! 

1.  I would LOVE it if you became a FRIEND of my blog, it'll make it easier for you to find the party.

2.  If you would like, you can link back to the party, I have a button for this too, but don't sweat it.

3.  Please link as much of anything you want, no limit.  Etsy shops and Give Aways too! 

 

I'm partying over at Stylish Once Again!

Anything Goes #50, Higlights #49

Maison De Stencil GIVE AWAY!!!

I can't believe this is the 50th Anything Goes Party, and the first for 2012!

I'm so excited, thanks for partying with me every week!  You guys ROCK!

Here's last weeks Highlights to prove it.

Homeroad

Hating Martha

Artsy VaVa

Pondered Primed Perfected

PARTY TIME ~ NO RULES

1.  I would LOVE it if you became a FRIEND of my blog, it'll make it easier for you to find the party.

2.  If you would like, you can link back to the party, I have a button for this too, but don't sweat it.

3.  Please link as much of anything you want, no limit.  Etsy shops and Give Aways too! 

I have my Facebook page up and running now too if you would like to pop over to my side bar and like me on Facebook that would be wonderful!!

 Party On!!!

 

Meet More Bang for Your Bucks, Week #35

my husband Ben and I

Happy New Year! My name is Kelli and I blog at More Bang for Your Bucks: I write a little about spending less and saving more, and a lot more about my faith, my family, and whatever enters my mind that day! I am so honored to be Tammy's very first guest blogger of 2012!


When I first started thinking about this post- and let's be honest, Tammy had to remind me on Saturday!- I knew I wanted to write about the word "refresh" to coincide with the New Year. It has actually been a few years since I have made any New Year's resolutions (something about not even making to midnight awake took away the excitement, I guess!), and I decided this year I want to do something different. (Oh, and I did make it to midnight this year!)


Instead of having one huge goal for the whole year, each month I am going to challenge myself to either give up something for those 30ish days, or challenge myself to do something specific everyday for that month. I feel that breaking goals down into chunks will make the success of following through more promising! For example, during the month of January, my family and I will be giving up eating out, with the exception of my daughter's birthday.


So with this idea in mind, I want to give you a few ideas to think about as we start afresh this New Year, in hopes that you will find refreshment this January!

Source: google.ca via Rachel on Interest

1.) Refresh your ideas about money. Take a look around you at your possessions. Do you really need to buy a bunch of more "stuff" this year? Consider going on a "buying freeze" for a month or so and either save the money or invest into a worthy cause. For only $35 a month, you can help feed and educate a child through World Vision. This is the price of a (relatively inexpensive) pair of jeans, or seven coffees from Starbucks. Wear your old jeans a little longer, and buy a bag of Starbucks to brew at home. Our family is going to try to be much more intentional this year of thinking outside our needs and wants, and focus on those who really don't have necessities. My weakness is Hobby Lobby, can I get an amen?

Source: blogs.psychcentral.com via Ashley on Pinterest

2.) Refresh your commitment to the relationships in your life. I lost a valuable friendship in 2011 for reasons that I still don't understand, and it has made me all the more thankful for the lovely friendships that I do have. Assess your relationships. Do you have at least a few friends that you can be truly honest with, that love you unconditionally, ones that you don't have to constantly worry about the security of your friendship? If so, you are one very blessed woman. Be sure to pour into these relationships and let them know how much you love them! Don't take for granted that they know how much they mean to you.
If you don't have rich friendships such as this, I pray that you find them this year. Life is not meant to be lived alone!

Source: tinywhitedaisies.tumblr.com via Angie on Pinterest

3.) Refresh your ideas about thankfulness. Am I the only one that gets annoyed by the after-Christmas commercials? I cringe when I hear, "Didn't get what you really wanted this year? Well come spend even more money after Christmas at our sale!" I really want to take time to enjoy what I do have this year- and it's not going to be easy. There's always something better, newer, flashier that is competing for our attention. A practical application to this idea is to write thank you notes for the gifts you did receive for Christmas. That is going on my list for today!
Friends, I hope that 2012 is a wonderful year for you. Not because of what you acquire or accomplish, but because of the people that you meet, help, and love. Oh, and I'd love for you to make a visit to my blog! :) 

My First Give Away of 2012!!!

Laura from Maison De Stencil is offerning two stencils to one lucky WINNER!

Check these out, they are fabulous!  I would love one of each.

They offer any and every style of stencil you could desire in a variety of sizes, they even do custom stencils.  You are only limited by your imagination.

The WINNER gets to select one 12 in x 12 in and one 5.5 in x 11.5 in stencil.  I think this is gonna be harder than you think, trust me, you'll want them all!

The give away is open to US residents.

Enteries:

1.  Leave me a comment that you are a friend of Type A.

2.  Leave me a comment that you LIKE Type A on Facebook.

3.  Visit Maison De Stencil and leave a comment telling me one of your favorites.

3 chances to WIN!  The WINNER will be announced next Sunday Jan. 8th 2012!

Good Luck!!!