The Law of Attraction

For a long time I have been using the laws of attraction to help bring success and things into being for my life. Some times it was little things like getting a front row parking space and sometimes it was bigger like getting more money. Recently, the law of attraction was made popular by the book: “The Secret”. After reading the book, watching the DVD (which in my opinion is better than the book at getting the concept across), and researching the Law of attraction, I have found that it’s something that I’ve come to believe in; mainly because it really works (it does for me anyways). If you’re unfamiliar with this concept, you can read more about it here (scroll down to the section that says “Overview”).

Some might say that it is just a form of prayer and that it’s really God who provides (I believe this also) however, prayers are when you ask for something, and the law of attraction is where you believe you already have it (in order to get it). It’s a more proactive approach (if you will) to prayer. With the law of attraction if you ask for something, you’ll always be asking and wanting it, but if you believe you have it, you will have it. Therefore I’ve altered my prayers in more of a matter of fact tone thanking God for all the things he WILL provide for me, instead of asking. I may sound arrogant, but try if for a few days if you don’t believe me. Start with something small and see what happens. As with prayers, it may not happen right away, but eventually you’ll find things coming to you from the oddest places (read my side story below). Some may say that it’s purely coincidence, but it’s worked for me too many times to count. Like I said, try it for yourself, what have you got to lose?

Anyways, I hadn’t really thought about that in a while, and the other day I was thinking of how badly I needed a small bookcase/shelf for my room to replace these plastic tubs. I was visualizing the color of the wood and where it would go and what it would look like. I didn’t focus on trying to get one, just on what it would look like and such. I didn’t realize how hard I was focusing on having it, but I just knew that it was something I thought about during the day and right before bed.

Guess what? 2 days later I was sitting at work when the facility guys were wheeling out the exact book case I had envisioned. One guy said to the other that they needed to get rid of it and asked if he knew of anyone who wanted it. I spoke up and said I would take it off there hands. Imagine that! So now I have this really nice and sturdy bookcase just like I wanted in my room. It makes my room look so neat and tidy that it’s inspired me to organize and purge more stuff!

A side story to go along with this post. I have many, many stories, but this one is one of my favorites!

Last December, my mom was using the law of attraction to get money. Her mantra was “Money comes easily and frequently” and she was focusing on how awesome it was to have money and the feeling associated with it. About a week went by and nothing happened. Since it was around the holidays she wanted to cook up some family dishes and borrowed my Grandma’s old recipe box from my Grandpa (my Grandma died a few years back). My mom took the box home and began sorting through it. When she reached the “seafood” tab, she noticed something stuffed down in the bottom and pulled out an envelope. When she opened it, there was $400 in cash!!!!!!! When my mom called my Grandpa, he said that must have been a secret stash from decades ago, and that my mom could keep it! With the extra money, my mom was able to get the gifts she wanted for our family! Pretty cool huh?!

I know, I know....

I'm sorry I've been away so long. July is a terribly busy month for me. Not only is it my birthday month (the 4th of July for those inquiring), but it's also the birthday month for 13 of my friends. On top of themed birthday parties, drinks and other birthday excursions, I've been dealing with other things as well.

My boyfriend got a job way up north and will be leaving in 12 days. Aside from helping him pack and get stuff for his new place, it's been heart wrenching. Thus, I have been spending much of my free time with him and not crafting.

I have several projects I was using to distract me, but then I got a job call for a temp to perm position. Add that onto my BF leaving and birthdays and I've had virtually no free time whatsoever. I'm so glad that I got this job (it looks like it will go perm), but I feel like I've been behind in my projects.

Right now I have these going on (please note I've listed the project along with the supplies I'm using) :

Natalie's baby album - various paper lines: K&Company "wild Saffron", and other primary colored paper themes. Further details can be found here.

Chrissa's 1st year scrapbook - which has more memorabilia than pictures (baptism cap, first finger painting, ultra sounds, announcements etc.)

Camping Album - Colorbok "Friendly Forest" - DCWV "Green" - K&Company "Wild Saffron"

Renaissance Faire Album - DCWV "Once upon a time and other fairy tale mediums

Disneyland Ablum - Jolee Any land/princess/character embellishments

Altered book with the theme "predictions" - Anything dealing with fortune telling like: gypsies, crystal balls, elements: sun/moon/earth/fire/air/water, tarot cards, zodiac, palm reading etc. - I like sepia and bold jewel tones (think Gypsy colors!)

The Mermaid's Trousseau - SO EXCITED about this swap. My friend is hosting this exclusive swap and I was lucky enough to be invited! The details are found here. This swap has become my top priority and I have some lovely projects in the works. I'd post details here, but I'm afraid my partner for this swap might see what I have in store for her! Don't worry, I'll post pictures later.

I know this entry is short and without pictures, but please realize that I have A LOT going on. I promise that I will be up and writing soon. August is just around the corner and by then I feel that I'll have a firm grip on my new schedule. Until then.... please be patient with me and enjoy your summer!

Recent Projects

*remember to click on the picture for a larger image view (sorry some of them are blurry)

Well folks, I've been working a lot lately and not in the professional sense! Birthdays, graduations, swaps you name it! I've been making a lot of different items and thought I would share some of the high lights with you!

This jointed mermaid was created for my friend Polkadot P. I really like the way it turned out. I know a lot of folks get really detailed with their dolls by adding more 3D embellishments, but I like the simplistic look only paper can give.

The cool thing is, if you take out the brads out of her clam-shells, fins, and tail you can flip them over to reveal other coordinating patterns. I also made 3 parts to her hair so their is lots of movement to her.

I've been slacking on my homemade cards lately, so when a few birthdays came up, I tried a new style.I started making these fold out cards. I've only made a few, but I need to branch out with some different ideas. The Giraffe one got great reviews! I find that putting googlie-eyes on anything makes it 10 times cuter! The Giraffe was done in bold marker and I chalked in the back ground to give it an airbrushed effect. These are really fun and different and VERY easy to make. One of these days I'm going to sit down and make a bunch of them to keep on hand. I'm having a hard time finding ideas for these cards. I've thought of doing other animals like a wiener-dog, snake, alligator and maybe something naughty for a bacholorette party (I'll leave it up to your imagination)! The Pinocchio card was made for a friend of mine who is really into Disney. She thought it was pretty funny. I think if I ever remake this card, I'll draw some leaves coming off his nose. I had to make it in a rush, so the close up of the picture might reveal a few errors on the paper. If you have any cute fold-out card ideas, I would love to hear them!

Another project I worked on was a creative Matte frame for my best friend's little girl's first birthday. Her baby room is done in a jungle theme so I thought (since I'm poorer than a church mouse) that I would make her something for her room that would last through the years. I first bought two mattes. The bottom one I lined with DCWV glitter stack paper and the top one I chalked with various yellows and greens for the back ground of the "jungle". On watercolor paper I painted bright animals and added glitter. I used really cute tropical letter stickers to add in her first name and birthday. This picture doesn't do it justice!!! I figured that mom could put in a family picture from the party, or a picture of baby Paige eating a messy cupcake! The frame was a HUGE hit at the party. Little Paige liked it and I love this picture of her pointing to a lion. I know that this frame will be on the wall for a long time as it has her baby theme and hopefully a cute 1st birthday picture! Oh, and for those of you wondering, yes Paige is really 1 year old, but is the size of an average 2 year old. She got her dad's genes and he's built like a linebacker!

I think my favorite new project has been Matchbox fills! I really had no idea what they were until swap-bot had a bunch of listings for them. Basically, you take an empty matchbox, decorate it, and fill it with tiny items. You can make different size matchboxes depending on what you want to fill it with. I found that making the matchboxes from scratch using the template on swap-bot found here: http://blog.swap-bot.com/rachels-matchbox-template/was way easier than trying to cover up an old one. The one shown here, was for a summer themed 32 count matchbox fill swap (BTW 32 count means that the matchbox holds 32 matches). I think anything "sun" colored reminds me of summer so I stuffed this matchbox full of yellow, pink, orange and white items. Some Disney, spongebob and hula hello-kitty stickers were added to represent various destination vacations (beach, Disneyland etc.). I have seen a few pictures where people had only filled their matchboxes with a few items, but I stuffed mine as full as I could get it! I hope my swap partner likes it! Since I had a lot of fun with this project, I whipped out a few more in different colors and themes! when things slow down, I'll host a matchbox fill swap myself! I love brads and tiny embellishments to use in my projects so the more the merrier! I also find myself saving small odd items for future fills.

Those are just a few things I've been working on lately (outside of regular scrapbook projects). I've had a lot of fun experimenting around with different projects. I've been getting so much inspiration lately that I've been full of ideas!!!!

Miss Nat's baby book

So, a VERY close friend of mine entrusted me with the task of "re-doing" her baby book. It all started when we were having a discussion about the proper care of pictures and how when you leave them in the 1980's peel and stick style albums that your pictures will yellow and tarnish with age.

Being the crafty person I am I offered to re-do her book and I went over to her house and sat down with her, her mom and sister and took apart her album. Each picture was numbered and had a brief description written down. This way I could re-piece the album in the same order. Since her folks thought she was going to be a boy, her baby colors where mainly primary and had a train theme. Since Nat was a tom-boy in her youth, I've honored the album with the same themes: Primary colors and trains. Granted there is a splash of pink and secondary colors (green, purple and orange) through out, but I think she'll be happy with the look. To keep the baby album personal, I've kept the detailed picture list and left spaces for her mom to go back and "journal" who was in the pictures and the events. This way the baby book will be written in her mother's hand and have a more personalized touch.


This task was given to me about a year ago and I'm nearing the end of my journey (well mostly). I feel like I've gotten to know baby Natalie very well through her little smiles and gestures only a beautiful baby could display. Although her album is mostly complete, I'm having a hard time wrapping up the rest of the book. There are several pictures still waiting to be placed. These are pictures I wanted to do a special layout with, but can't seem to commit to paper. I'm sure Natalie would say that she doesn't really care and that she REALLY wants her baby book back (and I would to after a year), but I'm starting to feel the pressure. In some ways, I feel like I slacked off on this project, but then again I've put a lot of time into it. I told her I would have it for her Spiffy Graduation party, but now I'm not sure I can deliver on the deadline. Every day I go over it adding little embellishments here and there and I've even re-done a few layouts I'm unhappy with. I'm normally not this much of a perfectionist, but this gal is someone I consider a best friend and "okay" is not good enough. I'm not hoping to inspire tears, but in the years to come when she shares this book with others, I want it to shine!


I'm frustrated because each time I open her album, I see a design flaw or realize that one layout isn't as detailed as another. I'm hoping I can kick it into gear, but I don't think I'll have it finished by next weekend. I know that I have all the time in the world, but being creative is like writing and sometimes I get "writer's block" in the creative sense. Some days are better than others. UGH! Well, for now, I keep adding to it and hope she'll end up loving it anyways! I'll keep you guys posted....

Poppies!!!

So, a really cool gal (MonkeysInk) from swap-bot sent me a fun package for a recent swap. Inside was a really fun (and might I add beautiful) mini album along with the template. It was so different and fun that I decided to make one for myself using the Autumn Leaves "Pretty Poppies" collection. It's odd because I've never seen this style before and I considered myself pretty up to snuff with the latest and greatest templates. To keep the gift of scrapping rolling, I'm posting the link for the template of this album here

what's great about this album is that it's VERY quick to make. Paper bag albums and chunky books are time consuming, but I was able to whip this out in just a few hours. I think they would make awesome gifts for baby/bridal showers or for any holiday. I love how this album turned out, but I might pass it a long in a swap along with the template to keep the inspiration flowing. In fact, I was so inspired by this mini-album, that I'm trying some other new projects too. Thanks again MonkeysInk for such a wonderful inspirational piece!

This is the Cover (the back, not shown has a giant Red Poppy)

The view after you untie the ribbon and open the first page

The view after you open the right panel

The view after folding out the center; with the 2 side panels closed and the center opened

The view with the 2 side panels open

Paper Doll Swap

I just signed up for a new swap on swap-bot.com It's a very cool website if you haven't already visited. Anyways, the requirements for this swap are to go to this website: http://www.theenchantedgallery.com/paperdolls.html and create a doll for your partner from one of the templates. When I first saw the site it got my creative juices flowing! I was so excited that I couldn't wait for the swap so I made a proto-type. I used K&Company paper (as it is thick and sturdy and also printed on both sides) to create a mermaid. I loved the idea of having a jointed doll and the whole thing only took me a half hour to create. I love that you can pose her arms and fins. "Teach" made her do the "I'm a little tea pot" dance. It was pretty darn cute. Anyways it was so easy and turned out Amazing! The cool thing is that she is reversible. Since the paper I used for her fins, tail, clam-shells and flower are reversible, you just have to take out the brads and flip the paper to create a different look! I love these dolls and I think I will make a bunch of them to send out as thank-you gifts for people. I also copied and pasted the templates and shrunk them down to create a smaller doll.

For my partner's doll, I used "Basic Grey: Scarlet's letter" paper for her skin and the fins/tail/hair from "DCWV: All dressed up" paper line. I kick myself for not taking a picture before I mailed her out as she turned out so beautiful. Her tail was the black/white/silver/pink large polka-dots and her fins and clam-shells were the same colors, but in stripe form. I found some cute pink and black mini polka-dot ribbon given to me by my "Ro-Bot" friend and used it in her "hair" which I made out of black and pink polka-dot paper. The brad in her tail had a silver rhine-stone and the mermaid was so cute! I hope my swap partner likes her!

How sad...

I feel sad for the hypocrites. Mostly because they spend so much energy in whatever endeavor they're dwelling on at the moment. Like a scorned lover that says she's done with her leading man forever and then turns around and stalks his every move.....that's not so bad, but when the leading man says he would never do any such thing (it having been done unto him) turns around and does it to someone else.

Why can't these simple minded folk see that they're perpetuating the cycle? Maybe that words are too big for them to understand. I find it interesting that such childish behavior comes from those trying to retaliate or get that one last jibe in. For instance a situation where you were stuck with someone and got all your anger and terse words out while in the situation and once it was over had moved on. Then perhaps 2-3 months after all is over and done with, you get a harsh letter. At first you're wondering what it's all about and then realize they were still upset and couldn't let it go after you had moved on. Sorry too little too late. You are so over with everything, but sadly realized that they weren't. They have NOTHING going on and have to track you down and jump through hoops to deliver some message as if to say "see I got the final word"? I suppose it means more to them, than it does to you. After all, if you had cut ties and communication lines to wipe your hands of a mess, you would think it would be enough to deter these childish antics.

I guess it just goads me how people who had their every movement stalked online (every blog, profile, website visited) and hated every second of it, do the same thing to someone else. I think they like the drama and attention. If they don't have something or someone to worry about they are bored and unhappy. I couldn't give two shits about who they monitor. It just shows they're vain hoping to find something on themselves to document and discuss.

I guess the moral to this odd little blog is, no matter who gets the "last word" in, you can tell who really won or who is the bigger person by their actions. If someone has already moved on from a situation why dredge it up again WAY after the fact? It shows cowerdise and childishness. Move on people..... because even if you say you have, obviously you haven't.

And this will be the last I will speak on the subject.....