See....I did come back :)

I told you I would! I am really proud of myself, as I have been sticking with my goal of regular stamping and although I wish I could do even more, at least I am doing something!

Mostly I am working on ideas for upcoming classes, this always keeps me on track, so making sure I have something scheduled will keep me in my scrap room for sure! I have an "Asian Inspiration" stamp a stack coming up, and have been designing asian inspired cards for the last couple of weekends. I love all things asian, and have made quite a few that I really like -- now the difficult part will be narrowing it down to the 5 I think will work best for a SAS! That is always the hardest part for me! Since I have really only been stamping stuff for classes, and since blogs are boring without photos, I guess I will give you a little peek at a couple of the asian cards I have designed. If you have an opinion, share it! Maybe it will help me decide if these two should make the cut for the class...

Although I rarely use retired products for classes, for my asian SAS I found that in order to get a variety of cards, I needed to - we only have a couple of current sets that are truly "asian" available at this time - however I have dozens in my collection, so I had a great time playing with some old favorites!

This first card uses the set Dream Gardens, as well as retired Background Bamboo II and sentiment from Essence of Love. The techniques used here include embossing, masking, and brayering. I saw a number of cards using this set with similar brayer techniques that helped to inspire this card over at splitcoaststampers.com - I love finding inspiration there!


This next card uses the Retired stamp sets Asian Artistry and Embrace Life, and sentiment from Fabulous Phrases. I used Watercoloring and a Paper Lantern technique which adds an asian flair in my opinion - I love the Rich Razzleberry, Pink Pirouette, Pear Pizzaz color combo!



Thanks for looking :) Have an amazing day!

UPCOMING CLASSES

I've announced the dates for several upcoming classes for the rest of the year - hope to see some of you there!

All of my classes will be held at ROUND TABLE PIZZA located at 10054 Bruceville Rd. in Elk Grove, CA

The following classes are $40 to participate, we will make 15 cards with envelopes. Lunch (pizza and soft drinks) is included in the fee.
Classes start at 1:00 pm, and you can stay until you are done or until closing time!
All materials are provided, you bring your own ADHESIVE, and a sharp pair of scissors if you have them.

Classes are as follows:

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 11
Christmas Stamp a Stack - GET AN EARLY START on your Christmas cards!
Registration and payment due by August 28th

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 25
Asian Influence Stamp a Stack- my take on asian inspired designs, a personal favorite!
Registration and payment due by September 1st

SUNDAY OCTOBER 17
MORE Christmas Stamp a Stack - Better really get to those Christmas cards now! Cards will not be duplicated from previous class, you are welcome to attend both
Registration and payment due by September 15th

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 6
Grateful Stamp a Stack - the perfect time of year to make thank you cards, fall colors, thanksgiving and all year thank you cards.
Registration and payment due by October 5th

I am offering a $10 discount for anyone who wishes to attend all 4 classes and registers by August 28th!

Wanna come? Email me at kpaisley1@gmail.com to register and get payment info

Space is limited to 1st 15 paid participants :)

I am designing cards like a fool for all these classes, but I don't want to spoil the surprises, so I won't share just yet....but maybe I will give a little sneak peak before classes begin, since I am so excited with all my fun new stuff, I want to share!!

My SCRAPPY SPACE

Since I have not posted since we moved to our new home, I never shared with you my new scrappy space - I thought I would share some photos of my wonderful, fabulous, fantastic room that I really really love! (and hopefully will start using a LOT more!!)

Of course my ONLY requirements in moving to a new home were that I wanted my own craft room - one with a closet and a door. My new room does NOT have a closet, or a door, or even WALLS... but I love it anyway, and you make do with what you have! It is much better that what I had before, and I have been able to take the time to make it exactly the way that I want it. It functions beautifully and I have plenty of storage space! And yes, someday maybe I will move to a space with a door, but this keeps me very happy for now. The home we moved to has a large loft area upstairs that I have claimed as my space - there is only one full wall, and then the rest of the room has half walls above the entryway and stairway, and one wall is all window - it's a nice open and airy space, but designing a room without walls made things interesting - I am used to going "up" for storage ideas etc.

Here is the work area where I scrap/ stamp etc. We used JETMAX cubes from Michaels to create the Desk support, and my husband installed countertop purchased from Home Depot to create the L shaped Desk. As you can see, I put the computer in my scrap space - which means I have to share with the kids! I may decide to rethink that at some point, but for now I enjoy having them share my space with me :)

I have storage on the wall around the window for punches and for primas/ flowers, and on the windowsill for buttons and doodads. I have lots of drawers under the desk for storage as well. It's hard to see in this photo, but I used rain gutter from Lowe's for ribbon storage - I LOVE this better than any ribbon storage I have ever used before!


I had my husband help me to create a standing height work space here - we cut a pair of JETMAX cubes in half to make the space taller, and mounted the countertop above that. I use this space for paper cutting, and using my BIGSHOT for die cutting, which I prefer to do standing up. There is lots of room here for paper storage, and the drawers house my dies, embossing folders, etc.

This is the one full wall in my room - I still need 3 more JETMAX cubes to complete my storage unit - I have all of my goodies in here! And I love that I can label what is in the drawers and everything is out of sight, NO CLUTTER! I recently unmounted all of my stamp sets, and they are in the Univenture binders sitting on top of the shelf unit - I am amazed at how much stuff I fit in such a small space!!


My husband helped me to get creative here too - since the JETMAX cubes are smaller than the width of the countertops, it bothered me that there was empty space between the cube and the wall - he helped me to create a "door" at the spaces where the desks come to an open end to finish it off and close up the space. But since is it a door, I can access the space for storage.


We created this rolling accessory cart to slide into this space and make it perfect useful storage while hiding an ugly clutter mess! This was part of an old broken craft table that was on the way to goodwill - we repurposed it, it fits perfectly to hold my stickers, rub ons, etc.


He also helped me to build this hidey space under my main scrap/ stamp space so that when I am in the middle of working on a project or page, I can set it on the pull out and slide it under the desk to keep my workspace clean without having to really put anything away - I can put quite a bit of stuff on here to keep it out of sight, then pull it right back out when I am ready to get back to work!

Hope you enjoyed the tour of my space! I'll be back soon :)

Back to the blogging world....at long last!

Hello to my friends, and to anyone else who may happen upon this post and share my thoughts! It has been such a long time since I have ventured into blog land, but I am finally ready to get my feet wet and maybe even jump back in! Yes, you read correctly...it has been a year and a half since my last post. And a very interesting, busy year and a half it has been. I won't even attempt to catch you up entirely, that would be silly. But a few important things are worth explaining.

As my posts before I disappeared indicated, we moved, and at about that time life got pretty crazy around the Paisley household! We are all settled now, and quite happy in our new home, living happily and sharing our space with my mother in a beautiful neighborhood. Kids love it! But in addition to moving my life took a few strange turns, and as a result my scrapbooking and crafting really took a back seat in life. So I did not just stop posting, I really stopped scrapping. I have done a few things, and have tried to keep up here and there - but I have done very little photo taking, developing, scrapping, purchasing, etc. during this time, and am just now really getting back into the swing of my absolute favorite fun thing!

Back in February of 2009 I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Of course, I knew that there was SOMETHING wrong for some time before this, but around the end of the year in 08 it became evident that I had a real medical challenge, and this is what the doctors found. It has taken a bit of time and some trial and error with medications etc. to get me on a good path to feeling like myself. A few months after this diagnosis when medications did not really resolve the problem, and when symptoms continues even when inflammation was better, it was determined that in addition to RA, I also suffer from Fibromyalgia.

I know that many of you may appreciate the challenges of chronic pain and chronic fatigue, and may even suffer some of these challenges yourself. It has been a long road for me, but I am happy to share that I have found ways to control my pain through dietary changes that have allowed me to minimize medication needs and feel well most of the time. There are still struggles, but I am finally feeling consistently well enough that I am able to enjoy my hobbies again, and to appreciate those things in life that I love most, to spend quality time with my children and family, and to be present in my days every day! (well at least almost every day!)

So now that I CAN enjoy my hobbies, I really want to begin to share them again. I can't guarantee that I will be back to frequent classes, posts, design teams, contests, etc... but I am going to try challenging myself to at least twice monthly posts and that means I need to make something to share at least weekly! AND I am scheduling classes again, which always makes me happy.

So keep a watch out for new things, I promise it wont take a year for the next post! But if I am not always timely or on top of things, just know that I am trying!!

I did have a Stamp a Stack recently, so I thought I would share a couple of the cards that we made in that class, as I don't have much else to share right now...



STAMP SETS: Elements of Style, Because I Care
INKS: Brown Stazon, Daffodil Delight, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze
PAPERS: Early Espresso, Daffodil Delight, Confetti Cream
ACCESSORIES: Top Note Die, Lg Oval Punch, Oval Scallop XL Punch, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Sponge Dauber, Daffodil Delight 1/8" ribbon, Blender Pen, Dimensional Adhesive

STAMP SETS: All A Flutter, Fabulous Phrases, Friends 24-7
INK: Marina Mist, Elegant Eggplant, Soft Suede, Brown Stazon
PAPER: Soft Suede, Marina Mist, Bashful Blue, Sahara Sand, Perfect Plum
ACCESSORIES: Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder, Distressing Tool, Modern Label Punch, Bashful Blue Ribbon, Early Espresso Ribbon, 1 1/4 Square Punch, Dimensional Adhesive

Well, that's all for today - I will check in again soon (really!)
Have an amazing day!