What I Did On My Summer Vacation

It's always great to go on vacation but there's also something wonderful about coming home ( I love my bed!).  We had a great two weeks away visiting my mom, friends, brother-in-law, colleges ( $$$) and I got to visit some great creative shops along the way. I blogged about a couple of them or tried to from my phone our the i-Pad ( still not convinced it's the best thing since sliced bread).  I got to go to two of my favorite bead places, Beads Galore and Scottsdale Bead Supply and stocked up on some great things to play with later.

Last year, one of my BFFs gave  my mom a present for Christmas that my mom fell in love with and wanted to give similar ones to a few of her friends. It was one of those glass blocks with lights inside like you see here So she asked if I could make them and if I minded doing any crafting while I was on vacation. HELLO? A chance to be on vacation AND use a glue gun?! In addition to the opportunity to go to craft stores including one I don't have at home? Bring. It.

I'd seen these glass block projects but hadn't made any and now I'm hooked. Maybe they're not new news but they're still fun to play with and there are endless possibilities. There are a variety of places you can get the blocks. Least expensive is your HW store but they typically don't come pre-drilled to put the lights in and I wasn't about to do glass drilling ( I understand you can go through several drill bits). So mom and I used our Michael's 40% off coupons and bought the more expensive ones they sell there ($16.99 pre-discount for the large one) that come with different closures for banks, lights, or simply plugging the existing hole. So started with this: 

Used a variety of ribbon (some from mom's recycled stash ... re-use, re-use!) stickers ( red and gold block) , Christmas picks from Hobby Lobby, and 1 string of 100 mini lights per block and ended with these:

She wanted one for a friend who wants to keep this out all year round, and the friend wanted black and white which I love working with so that's this one:

which I kept really simple using only black and white polka dot ribbon and two vinyl pieces I brought with me that I'd picked up at JoAnns on sale for $.50 !

Crafting on vacation?! WIN-WIN!  And mom now has a glue gun :)

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Outrageous Olive Oils

Awesome shop!

I was trying to mobile blog so I could upload a pic but no luck. So anyway, the is the most incredible olive oil shop in Old Scottsdale that has every flavor olive oil and balsamic vinegar including you guessed it... Chocolate! I didn't love the chocolate balsamic vinegar...shocking I know...no chocolate olive oil though.  But several other flavors are coming home. http://www.oliveoilarizona.com/

Fun Store!

If you are ever in AZ, make sure to make a trip to Mesa to visit Mystic Paper. http://www.mysticpaper.com/

It's a wonderful shop filled with all kinds of scrapbooking goodies, found items, ephemera etc. Classes have been taught there by Tim Holtz and Claudine Hellmuth. I took pictures on my phone but dont know how to upload them from my phone!

31 Days Write Create Be Challenge

starts today! Brief post. Blogging from my phone and bately know what i'm doing!

I'm Not Sure What This Says About Me

It's Friday night and I'm a little bored so I did this writing analysis thing. It analyzes a sample of your writing and tells you who you write like. Ready?

I write like
Stephen King

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I'm actually quite amazed because Stephen King is one of the most prolific writers in modern history and I  have read a number of his books and surprise surprise with movie references, love "Misery" and "Dolores Claiborne" among others. But let's face it, the man can write some seriously scary and twisted stuff. I'm relieved  that the analyzer thing didn't come back with "no match go back to school". Anyway, it's a bit of fun. If you want to play, go here:


http://iwl.me/

I Triple Dog Dare You!

I love the movie "A Christmas Story". Even though TNT or TBS or one of those "T" channels shows it for 24 hours every Christmas, I have it on both VHS and DVD. And, as I've said, I can pretty much relate anything to a movie quote. So when I stumbled across what I'm posting about, the scene from "A Christmas Story" where Ralphie describes the "oh no he didn't" moment of going straight to the triple dog dare popped into my head. I'm just twisted that way.



So while making my blog rounds this morning, I was over at Diary of a Chocoholic  which led me to Leslie, over at her blog Words Of Me Project who has a wonderful challenge up:




So for 31 days, starting July 26, I will do just that.

• Write...Blog or journal
• Create...on the go or in my space
• Be...in the moment, happy, content, appreciative

I triple dog dare you...will you take the challenge?

Getting Ready For Vacation and Tuesday Hops

I'm sure normal people just go on vacation but not me. Maybe it's knowing that I'll have limited time to make things while I'm on vacation that I have to make things for my vacation? So I'm either prepping projects I can work on while on vacation or making things to use on vacation. Anyone else do that? One of the things we like to do is keep track of the things we do on our vacations. It's easy to think you'll remember so that when it's time to scrapbook that vacay, you'll just know but HA! The older I get, the easier that sounds and the harder it is. So I started keeping travel journals which I can refer back to when doing my scrapbooks or when I just need a mental vacation. This time of year is perfect to find these:

 

And, as you can tell by now, if they're on sale like they often are at back to school time...I buy multiples! I think I got this last year as a pack of 2 and they were 2 packs for $1 or something. 

Trace the shape onto your choice of scrapbook paper. I went outside my usual neutral pallette:

and cut out a front and back cover in  coordinating papers. I Mod Podged these onto the composition book and tore some other coordinating papers to collage on. I had some chipboard frames I picked up on clearance that I covered with a scrap of the coordinating paper:

I didn't want to put a lot of heavy embellishments on my journal because it was going to be in and out of my bag so I used a combination of rub-ons, clear alphabet stickers, and things left over from other projects that were printed onto clear label paper to decorate. Of course I couldn't leave it blingless, so I had to put some self adhesive rhinestones on it :) 

Welcome to those stopping in from :

 
Update to respond to a question from the comments:
I tore a wide strip of a third piece of paper to cover the spine. Applied Mod Podge to it and folded it over the front and back so about 1/2 of it shows on each side. Hope that makes sense!

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