I'm Still Alive

This poor little blog has been so neglected. I've been working hard over the last couple of weeks to schedule my life though, so my hope is that I'll start posting more to my little cellar here and give you some things to look at.

So some news before I get to the cool project I want to share with you. Have you been to ASB lately? There's so much cool stuff going on over there, you should really check it out. K&A Die Cuts sponsored the creative teams for a month, and they made some awesome projects with them. The digi store has also been going strong for a few months now. Be sure to check out the new kits that were just released so that you can get them on sale! Last but not least, we have a new newsletter, so that you never have to miss any of the fun stuff going on over there. It also has tutorials and inspiration in every issue, so you should go sign up!

Now... on to the cool project I want to share with you!

I was dollar store shopping this weekend and I came across this cool little set of spice drawers. It had a wood cabinet and six ceramic drawers that fit into small slots. It was neat, but pretty beat up; the white paint was stained and pretty nasty. The really bad thing was that the drawers were filled with these seriously icky candles. They smelled horrid, like an old man's cologne or what people used to smell like before bathing became popular. Just awful!

I thought it had potential, so I bought it.

The first thing I did was to take all of the drawers out and throw them in a 250 degree oven for about 20 minutes. That didn't melt the wax completely, but enough so that I could pull the candles out of them. My house smelled like Louis V's palace for the rest of the night. I should have waited until it warmed up outside so that I could open a window.

While the candles were melting I put a coat of blue paint on the cabinet. The nasty white just wasn't doing it for me.

Here's a picture of it at this stage.

I didn't take a picture of it before I started working because it was just too gross... Plus I forgot.

It looked good at this point, but it still hadn't met it's full potential yet. So I pulled out some vellum paper that I purchased at the last Leader Paper Sale (I don't buy anything full price), my white Staz-On pad, and a pretty flourish stamp. I stamped up the patterned vellum with white flourishes and attached it to the top and sides.

It was still missing something though, it was just a little too pristine with the fresh paint and pretty paper. My sanding block to the rescue! I roughed up the paint so that the white underneath showed through, and viola! perfect.

This is my new gorgeous set of spice drawers. They still need to have the final sealing coat put on them, but I have to wait for it to warm up a bit outside before I can do that.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do with them yet. Tiana thinks I should give them to her, but that's not going to happen. I may use it as a jewelry box, but I'm not sure.

And the moral of the story? Spend lots of time at the dollar store, and be sure to look past the gross exterior to the potential that lays hidden inside.

Hugs,

Big News and a Freebie!

You have to suffer through my big news before you get the freebie. Sorry, but that's how things work! LOL

My big news is that I've opened a digi store! John and I thought it would be a great way to defray some of the operating costs of A Shade of Blue, and so all proceeds from the store will be put back into ASB for hosting, upgrades, and prizes.

I'll be releasing at least two new kits each month, and the cool thing is that the first month a kit is available it will be on sale for 50% off! That's just $2.50 for a full kit! If you don't want to purchase a whole kit, the papers and elements are available separately for just $1.25 during the first month.

Not a bad deal, huh?

This month I have two kits that I just love!

Pretty in Punk:


and

Winter Chocolate:


Click on the picture to be taken to the product page in the store.

If you'd like to see some cool pages the Digi team has made with these kits, check out this post on ASB:
February Project Share

Ok, I've made you wait long enough!

A while ago I made a freebie kit called Cherry Cheesecake, in fact, it's still available here, and here. It's been my most popular kit, and so to celebrate the opening of my store, I've expanded it with an add-on pack!



This add-on includes:
5 Papers
1 Tissue Overlay
1 Brass Frame
1 Brass Nameplate
1 Brass Photo Turn
1 Chipboard Nameplate
1 Chipboard Photo corner
1 Chipboard Photo Turn
1 Chipboard Journaling Tag
1 Chipboard Bracket
1 Paper Flower

And you can get it here:
Cherry Cheesecake Add-on

I would like to ask that you do not distribute the direct download link to this file, instead, share the link to my blog. It's free either way, and no extra effort. Thanks so much!

And last but not least... As always, I love to see what you do with my kits, and I love to hear your comments. Link me up if you make something, so I can give you some love in return! Or, drop into the ASB forums some time, and say hi. We'd love to meet you!

Enjoy!

ASB Design Team Call

I wanted to give you a heads up! ASB is looking for a new design team, and for the first time ever we're holding a public call!

We need all types of papercrafters, stampers, scrapbookers, and digi designers, so if you fall into one of those categories, give it a try! All you need to do is upload 5 samples of your work, so it couldn't be easier!

Check the ASB Challenges blog, or the ASB Forum for more information!

Good luck!!

Flower Clip

I have a quickie Freebie for you today.

I made this clip to match a freebie kit I'd downloaded awhile ago. The kit is Pink Paradise by Amelie Scrap. I'd give you a link if I had it, but I didn't keep that info on file. Anyway, I figured that you might get some use out of the clip too. It's just a little thing, but it's kinda cute. :)

Here's the page I used it on:

And here's the link to download:

Flower Clip

Enjoy!

Sing the Blues - Elements

Have I made you wait long enough for the elements pack yet? I don't want to overload you all at once! LOL

Here it is, I hope you like them!

This pack contains:

4 Bookplates

2 Tags

5 Twill Ribbons

3 Word Art Sayings

2 Stamps

2 Negative Photo Frames

1 Flourish Frame

1 Chipboard Flower

1 Photo Corner

Download here:

Sing the Blues Element Pack

If you make anything with this kit, I'd love to see it! You can upload it to A Shade of Blue, or email me a photo!

Happy Scrappin'!

Sing the Blues

I promised you new music, and I'm finally ready to make good on the threat. lol

The band has been revamped, and we put a couple of rough clips up on the MySpace page. Now they're really rough, just quickie recordings made in the basement, so don't judge us too harshly. We wanted everyone to get a glimpse of the direction we're moving in though, and as time goes on we'll add more clips, and improve the recordings that are up there.

We have some great songs that we're working on that aren't even ready for a rough recording yet that I can't wait for you to hear. One is a fractured fairy tale, and another is a Heart-type hard rock song with an opera intro. I know it sounds strange, but it works! lol

Oh... the new band name? ChupaRosa
Pretty cool huh?

It's a flower that blooms in the American Southwest, it's called a "Sucking Rose" because it has a petal that looks kind of like a tongue. I really like the slightly twisted variants of roses, hence my nickname StormRose. I totally relate, because just like me everything looks fine and good on the surface, even beautiful sometimes, but underneath there's something not quite right. Describes me to a T.

To celebrate the Band's passage from the Blues into something else (we're not quite sure what it is yet) I have the start of a new Digi kit for you!

It's been awhile, I know...

In my defense, I've been working on a kit that was just stumping me. I didn't make a single element or paper for it that I liked. So I'd work on it awhile, and when nothing clicked I'd just walk away. Well, yesterday I decided that instead of walking away I was going to start a new project. A kit built off of a paper I made awhile ago...

That one sparked, and within an hour I had 10 papers made.

I have to remember to move along when I hit a creative roadblock. I have a really hard time setting a project aside when it just isn't working.

So here it is... I hope it was worth the wait!

This zipped file contains 15 papers:
5 Solid Textured Papers
5 Grunge papers
5 Patterned Papers

Download them here:Sing the Blues Papers

The element pack will be posted Tomorrow, so keep an eye out!
Enjoy!

How was your Weekend?

I had a really good weekend. This horrible, awful funk I've been in is finally starting to lift in earnest, and for the first time in a really long time I felt really good about life.

On Thursday, John twisted my arm and told me I had to buy a Cricut. lol Ok, well, that's not quite how it went, but it sounds good doesn't it?

I've been eyeing the Cricut since it came out, but the price, and the fact that I already own every die cut machine known to man, has kept me from purchasing it. John had a couple of side jobs last week and we had some extra cash, he spent some on new bass stuff, and then threw the rest of the wad at me.

Well, Jenna HAD to get new clothes. I swear she grew 3 inches over the summer. So I took her shopping for some new school digs, and while we were at Wally World I saw they had the Cricut at an awesome reduced price. I didn't buy it, but I drooled for a bit before going home.

I talked to John about it later that day, since I did have enough money left over from clothes shopping, and he talked me into it. In the end he said I had two choices, I could buy it, or he could. So I ran back to Wal-Mart before I picked the kids up from school. It's very cool, and I've been playing with it all weekend. The picture at the top of the page is a popcorn box I made to give out some special Halloween treats in.

On Saturday we had our weekly band practice. The new drummer Paul is working out really well, though we still miss Jim, and the new music we're doing is just awesome. I think we're all really excited to be playing our own music, and the direction we're going in. I actually can't wait to get some rough recordings done so I can share it with you guys.

Sean and I make a good writing team, John's happy to be able to make his own bass line, and it's all coming together faster than I thought it would. We have 3 new original songs that we've written in 2 weeks, and I'm proud of each one of them. That's an unusual thing for me. lol

John thinks that at our next rehearsal in 2 weeks that we can throw some rough recordings down so that we have something new to put up on our MySpace page. I'll let you know when we get them up.

On Sunday we did the whole Americana thing, and spent the day outside. The girls rode bikes, hula-hooped, and blew bubbles.

I got this great picture of John, I managed to snap it about 2 seconds before he flipped me off. He hates getting his picture taken, so I have to be sneaky. I think I'm going to make a scrapbook page titled Ninja Photographer with some of these shots I've managed to sneak.

He's going to beat me for posting the picture here, but it'll be worth it. lol

Watching the girls hula-hoop was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. Jenna can't keep the hoop up for longer than a couple of seconds, but she does the cutest little shimmy thing with her butt. I wish I had a video camera so I could have caught it. I was laughing so hard, but trying not to let her see because she gets offended any time she thinks someone is laughing at her.

Tiana can only keep it up for a few seconds too, but I managed to catch this picture that makes her look like a pro. She does do really good job hula-hooping with her arm though!

John made us all ice cream cones later on, and we sat on the porch laughing and talking. It was fun, and relaxing... It was just nice spending time together.

So that was my weekend, I hope you had a good one too!

Hugs,

Anne