Sneak Peek: sealing the deal

This, my friends, is the answer to your ink jet running dilemma. When I have something home printed that I'm worried might get wet and then run or bleed, I spray a light coat of this cheap aqua net hairspray on it and it seals in the ink so it doesn't run if it gets wet-I mean, a little wet. Obviously if it gets soaked it's going to ruin your paper AND run. But anyway, it works well. Just make sure you hold the hairspray about 12 inches away when spraying and then only do a light coat. If you're worried, do a couple light coats.

sneak peek: laminator

So, whenever I right "sneak peek" I always seem to write it sneek peak and then I have to go back and change it. But sneek just seems more sneaky with two ee's rather than an a doesn't it? Or maybe I just think too much about weird stuff.

Anyway, I really like my laminator. It's not a hot laminator, and it's not a big one, but it's fast and easy, and fairly inexpensive. It's the xyron 5" creative station, not to be confused with the sticker maker. It has cartridges that change-this is the double sided laminate. I also have the permanent adhesive (it turns anything under 1/16"  thick (roughly) into a sticker). I really need to get the magnet/laminate one. It laminates on one side and puts a magnet on the other.
Anyway, you just stick things into the front and crank the side arm thing around and out comes your stuff on the back. The best part is it doesn't require a plug or batteries. It just uses pressure. Anyway, I found it's very useful. The only downers is that the laminate isn't very heavy, when I cut things apart it can make my scissors a little sticky, it's max width is five inches across, and the laminate is very slick and doesn't adhere well to things (esp. a hot glue gun-peels right off). But I still love it and use it all the time. It's perfect for flashcards and things the little buddy is going to play with.

and no, I wasn't paid to say this . . .

Ta-Da! my mom cave

My little crafty space has been needing a cleaning for awhile now. But, it's finally clean, and all I want to do is go sit in my room and stare at it. Too bad I don't have time!

My favorite thing about the mobile I made from Craft Paper Scissors, by Patricia Zapata of A Little Hut, is the little orange seed beads under each white flower. I love looking up at it!

One of my favorite paintings. I love the brightness and the tulips. I painted it while I was still in college and had that sort of time.

my 12x12 scrapbooking open stock paper. I like to arrange it by color because usually I'm looking for a specific color. I use it for all sorts of crafts, but especially making cards since I don't really scrapbook.

These drawers I've organized using the bottoms of gallon milk jugs. They've worked perfectly and it was a good way to recycle them. Plus, they were free!

I always think it would be fun to display my ribbon out in the open, but I can't find a good way I like that's still easy to use them. Especially when I need to take one with me somewhere. For now, the drawer will do.


Anyway, there it is, obviously I could use a chair and a lamp. . . of course you know my first preference, but it's always a work in progress!

FF-Fall Memory Game and other tid bits

You guys have had some really great ideas so far for freebie fridays, and I'm definitely going to use some of them. If you haven't yet entered my first giveaway, you can find it here. It ends next Friday, November 5th.

So, for today I've put together a little Turkey Day game to keep you, or the kids, busy while you wait for food :) But, for those of you who may not celebrate Thanksgiving, I've tried to stick kind of close to fall themes. You can download it here. (It's mainly dark brown, but it would print well in black and white if you don't want to use color).

 The three year old buddy and I had fun playing it last night. He did fine for awhile but the 18 matches may have been a little much for his attention span. He was pretty excited about me pulling out the pennies though. He grabbed a hand full and said, "money, money, money" mimicking Ham on Toy Story. I had a good laugh. So if you're playing with preschoolers, I might recommend playing the opposite way: start blank and have them find the matching images and cover them with tokens. That seemed to work better for the buddy.

In other news, I've finally cleaned up my crafting space enough to dare show it to you! But, for your enjoyment, here is the "before" aka. regular look, I'll post the "after" on Monday. (and by "after" I mean the clean, spruced up, want-everyone-to-think-it-always-looks-this-good version).

I promise I didn't make it look worse than normal. I honestly went in and just took a picture. It's terrible, I know.

Sneak Peek: Camera

Sunsets are my favorite, but with all the trees here and kids who go to bed early I rarely get to see one. I 've got to document it!

So I thought it would be fun to do a couple little "sneak peeks" into stuff I use. I always love reading about that on other people's blogs and so I thought I would share as well. I don't have a nice DSLR camera, although I would LOVE one (hint hint hunny). For now I use a Cannon PowerShot SX100 (which are actually on sale this week at Target-at least in Ohio-no I'm not getting paid to say that, I just have a little addiction to checking their weekly sales). Anyway, I really like it for a point and shoot. It's an upper end point and shoot, or was 3 years ago when we bought it, and it has a few nice features like macro. It works, that's most important, eh?