Cool Yardsale Stuff

I haven’t had as much time to post lately (busy with my new job and all), but I did find some time in the last few weeks to hit some yard sales with my crew.

I found this great old bridge table for $5 a few weeks ago…

It has some teal and brown in it and it looks great in my family room – you can never have enough tables or chairs!

Here’s some other assorted stuff I found last week:

That’s an old printer’s typesetting drawer in the back (I thought the openings would be perfect to store little stamps or embellishments).  The long, white item in the front is a clip board from Pottery Barn Kids – it was brand new and still in the box.  I thought it would be cute to hold my kids’ artwork.  In the upper right is a little vintage framed children’s prayer and under that is an old box containing an Amish doll.  I’m not a doll collector, but I bargained with the lady to get this for free – I thought someone on eBay might find it valuable (we’ll see if I ever even get the time to list it on eBay…if not, Emily’s got a free doll!).

I also found these other vintage treasures – games and books:

An old Pollyanna and Parcheesi game, an old Harper’s magazine from the 1800’s, a vintage camping handbook (great words and photos) and an old geometry book.

I also picked up this vintage Santa collection for $10:

There’s also a vintage angel thrown in there too.  Most of them are candles (probably from the 50s and 60s), but there’s also a stuffed Santa and a plastic one.  I thought this would make a cool display during the holidays.

Ooh – I also spent a whopping 75 cents on some old stationery sets:

That’s 25 cents for each set.  Not sure what I’m going to do with them yet, but for that price, how could I resist?

And, even though these didn’t come from a yard sale, I thought I’d share these great clearance bargains:

The letters and wood shapes are from the Target scrapbooking aisle.  The words were each 98 cents and the letters and shapes were 74 cents each.  The little 6X6 notebooks were on clearance at Staples for 90 cents each – perfect for altering!

Love shopping the clearance aisles!

I like to think that it doesn’t take a lot of money to be creative – you just have to keep an eye out for those things that can take on a new life with your imagination. 

Quick Christmas Card

Some of the members of my church women’s circle are meeting tomorrow to do a shoebox swap. We’re making holiday cards and sending them to soldiers in Iraq through Scrapbook Trends magazine’s Cards for Troops project.

Here’s my card:

I used the Season of Joy stamp set and Wild Wasabi and Ruby Red cardstock. I also added some Gable Green and colored in the stamp with markers. I also added a little rhinestone brad for some bling – I think it turned out cute!

Puppy Update

Just a quick update on our new family member, Geddy.

He’s still a little shy, but is doing much better.  He is VERY generous with kisses and loved to play with Daisy and with the kids.  He is also very fond of cuddling in bed with me – I love having two dogs to snuggle with!

Here are some new photos of our newest baby…

And here are Geddy, Daisy and Bella together – hard to get them to sit still for a photo…

Of course, Geddy IS still a puppy and isn’t always as sweet as he looks…I had my book club over on Tuesday night and he proceeded to leave a very foul-smelling gift right on the living room floor in front of everyone…sigh…but isn’t he cute anyway? 😉

SU! Regional Seminar

Yesterday was the Stampin’ Up! Regional Seminar in Philadelphia at the Convention Center – it was a blast! I was SO tired when I got home, though – it was a LONG day.

I worked as a helper yesterday – it was actually lots of fun! I got to meet Her Stamping Royal Highness, Shelli Gardner (the CEO and co-founder of Stampin’ Up!) – she’s my hero! Here we are together…

I told her that I had to take the photo really fast because if not, I might be fired…she actually got my joke! I felt like such a dork asking for a photo, but I wasn’t the only dork there – when she comes to these events, she really is like royalty. And she was SO sweet and gracious – and I just LOVE her clothes (and I told her so!).

I was surprised that there were only four helpers there for over 500 attendees. But we really didn’t have THAT much to do – we just checked everyone in, walked around and helped during the make-and-takes and ushered everyone out to lunch. We also helped clean up the tables after the seminar – it was great to be a part of the event – I really had a good time.

But I had to be there at 7:30 am and left the house around 6:30 am – on a SATURDAY! I am such a wimp at driving in the city, too – I intensely studied the map before I went and had a plan for where to park…but when I saw the garage, it just didn’t feel right – they weren’t open yet and closed at 7 – plus, it was really dark and all the spaces were marked, “Reserved” with yellow tape. So after driving through, I stopped at the gate and told the attendant that I was going to park elsewhere, then pulled out the other side of the garage. I ended up on another street and was so turned around! I found another garage, but after I got into the Convention Center, I wasn’t exactly sure where I had parked. Luckily, I did find my car at the end of the day 12 hours later, but not without lots of wandering around the city streets trying to find a way into the garage. Again, I’m such a dork!

I missed the Pitman Craft Show yesterday…but it was worth it. I got so many great ideas and took lots of photos for reference – I can’t wait to go play in my craft room!

Some Mini-Scrapbook Ideas

Just a few little ideas I was playing around with the other day…

Here’s a little ‘scrapbook’ (I guess it’s not really a scrapbook – more of a scrapfolder) made from a manila folder:

I think this turned out much cuter in person – you’ll have to trust me on that. 🙂

I used a sponge to rub Close to Cocoa ink on the folder, then stamped images from the Wanted stamp set.  I added a photo of my dog, Daisy, and stamped her name using the Wild West alphabet stamp set. Inside, I put a few photos too – this would make a nice little gift.

I also was playing around with two pocket file folders (can you tell it’s back-to-school time?  It’s all about the school supplies…) and came up with this project:

This is a white two pocket folder folded in half and tied closed with double-stitched ribbon.  I used the Creative License scrapping kit for this project…

Here is what it looks like after you open the ribbon…the folder edges are both folded in toward the center…

It then opens like a gate-fold…

Again, I think this turned out so cute (if I do say so myself)!  I must have been on a roll that day…

I used photos taken from a day at the beach in Cape May and put them all along the bottom of the folder.  I visually separated the four sections with different patterned paper and ribbon and also added chipboard letters covered with paper at the top.  Inside each pocket is a tag with more photos from the day at the beach.

Again, this would make a really cute gift…