New Blog Address

I've been trying to combine my scrappy blog with my personal blog and have not had any luck. I would keep this blog and just start adding personal content, but I decided that sometimes it's just easier to start with a clean slate. Plus I think it would be benificial to get out from under the buisiness name.

Here's my new blog address:
http://www.jenniferlongenecker.blogspot.com/

I will be moving some of the content from the blog to the new one.

Creativity Push

I had a little creativity push this week. A dear friend of mine from church asked me to make a whip similar to the cat 0' nine tails used on Jesus to be displayed at the Good Friday service this Friday. I really had no idea what to do so yesterday I decided I was just going to do it. Not that anyone wants to know how to make a whip, but I'm going to tell you how I made it so you can see how the creative process worked.

I picked up a bag of scrap leather strips from Hobby Lobby. Once I was ready to get started I had to determine what exactly I needed. I already had the leather, but I didn't have a handle. I remembered that the kids had broken several croquet mallets so I went outside and found one and sawed it in half. I chose to use the end that had the three color strips on it.

I then sorted out my leather strips. There were a bunch of shoe string sized strips and then in the middle of the clump of strings I found some wider strips that I thought would be perfect and there were exactly 9 of them. Coincidence? I think not.

I started by hot glueing the larger strips to the end of the handle. Once that was done I took several of the shoe string sized strips and glued them over the top portion of the larger strips to cover up the ends. I then tried out the whip on an old table. It didn't sound or feel very powerful so I decided that the tails of the whip needed to be bound a bit more. I took shoe string after shoe string and hot glued them down the larger strips of leather until I got the feel and look I was happy with.

Finally I covered the color strips on the handle with some of the shoe string pieces to make a grip for the handle. I wasn't happy with the overall look so I left it and went and picked up the kids from school.

When I got back I decided that I didn't like the wood showing through so I got some electrical tape and covered the whole handle. The leather underneath gave it a really cool effect. Once that was done it looked better but the tails of the whip seemed to be bare so I went into the garage and found 9 rusty nails and used the shoe string leather to attach them to the ends of each tail. Here's the final product.

Some Assembly Required February Challenge

I'm not sure if I posted about this site, but there is a brand new blog that deals with the altered arts. Each month they post a challenge to alter a particular object. For those who participate their name is entered into a drawing for a great prize. For the month of February the challenge was to alter a cigar box. It took me forever to find one, but I finally did and here's how it turned out.

Sorry the picture is so small. I just realized I deleted the larger pics accidently. The journaling on the front says "Strength comes in numbers." The journaling on the inside cover says "When a man stands alone he can be easily broken, but when he stands together with his family and friends nothing can break him." The L side has a broken pencil attatched and the R side has seven pencils bound together. We recently used this object lesson with our kiddos and I wanted them to have a constant reminder of that lesson.

BTW the March SAR challenge is to alter a letter or a word.

Scrapbooker Online turns 3!!!

In celebration of Scrapbooker Online turning 3 they are hosting a weekend crop starting February 29. Get your pictures read and come join the fun. For more details click here.

I'll leave you with a pic of a bird I altered yesterday. Nathan found the bird in the clerance section at Target. It was all blue and not something I would typically pick up, but I saw what it could be and just had to get it. Here's how it turned out:

In order to get the paper to cover the bird and not drive myself crazy with measurements and cutting I decided to use the paper mache method. I cut the paper into small strips and the crumpled them up to make them softer and more moldable. I then attatched them to the bird with Mod Podge. After the strip was attached I applied more Mod Podge to the top and rubbed the strip with my finger to make sure all the air bubbles were out. Once the bird was finished I painted the base and hot glued some Making Memories leaves to the base. I then added flowers, brads and gems to complete the look. I'm so happy with how it turned out.

Unmounted Stamp Storage

I used to keep my stamps in the original packaging and they barely fit into a photo box. I decided that I really needed a new way to store my stamps so this is what I came up with...




This lunch box is roughly half the size of the photo box I was using and it fits all of my stamps with plenty of room for future stamps. It can also fit my acrylic blocks but I'm not sure I want to do that at this point.

Here's what I did:
1. I bought a lunch box from Hobby Lobby and altered it.

2. I took some laminating sheets and ran them through the laminator.
3. I cut the laminated sheets to fit the box, in this case the sheets were cut down to 4x7 sheets.
4. I took all my stamps out of the original packaging and sorted them by category. ie: journaling stamps, swirls, sentaments, flowers, etc.
5. I placed the stamps on the 4x7 laminated sheets using the front and the back.
6. I made tabbed divider cards for each catagory.
7. I placed all my stamps and dividers in the box in the order I typically use the stamps.

Need to try something different.

Ok. I've kind of lost my blogging mojo so I think it's time to try something different. You know how some people have an idea jar on their scrap table for when they need a kick in the pants? Well I think that's what I need for blogging. I think I'll make one of those. So what could go in it? Maybe color schemes or color meanings? Maybe featured LO's from some of the message boards I'm on? Products I love? New techniques? Project step-by-steps? Well I'll get to thinking about that and I'll be back soon with some more frequent posts.

It's been a while....

I'm sorry it's been a while since I posted. We took a quick trip down to South Padre Island and then we had some birthdays to attend to. The boys turned 8 and Zach wanted to get a dog and Austin wanted to get a cat. Well to make a long story short the dog did not work out and now we have two new cats. With taking care of all the animals and trying to keep up with the LOAD challenges I keep forgetting to sit down and blog.

Here's a picture of Jamie. She's a 14 week old Lab mix. She's a very cute and sweet little girl but unfortunately we are NOT dog people.

I still haven't gotten pictures of the cats but will try to soon.

On the scrappy side, I was introduced to a kit of the month club that I hadn't heard of so I decided to check it out. Their kits rock and are one of the best priced kit clubs I've seen out there. Check it out for yourself and you will find that you are Simply Obsessed. They are also currently looking for 5 new design team members. You can check out the call info here.

Here's a clock I altered today.

to make this clock I simply used a clock that we hadn't really been using and took the glass off it. I then glued the lace cardstock onto the top of the Fancy Pants True PP. I set that aside to dry while I punched circles from some Scenic Route Background paper. Once the circles were all cut out I put the numbers on each circle using Making Memories rub-ons. I then added my signature broken boarder to each circle. I then measured the inside of my clock and found a circle the right diameter which in this case was a lid from a plastic mixing bowl. I turned the pattern papers over and traced the lid on the back of the paper and cut it out. I then used a ruler to draw a vertical and horizontal line down the middle of the circle to determine the center. Once the center was determined I used the smallest CM circle cutter and blue blade to cut a circle in the middle. I then added photo corners to the paper and slipped it over the clock hands and affixed it to the clock. I then attatched the numbered circles. To cover up the exposed part of the clock under the hands I used an Urban Lily flower cut out. I cut a small circle for the center and then slipped the flower over the clocks hands and attached it to the clock.

Ok so that description would have been a lot better if I had taken pictures for each step. I'll try to do that next time I alter something.