OWH Non Fail Adhesives (Follow Up)

     Hey y'all, sorry it has taken me so long to post this but my son was back to school last week and having gall bladder surgery in early August put me behind a little. I was frantically trying to play catch up with his transition journal (for those of you wondering this is a journal to introduce my son to his teacher that basically talks about his special needs and what she can expect this year.) So far my son is doing great, he has lost no recess time and he seems to be handling the demands of school more maturely.Fingers crossed that this continues.
     Many of you who read my recently featured post on the Operation Write Home Tuesday Tutorial "How to become a shippers pet: non fail adhesives" have been asking about the discounted "off brand" ATG tape I mentioned that I found on the internet. It is called JVCC ATG-7502 and according to http://www.findtape.com  the per roll price is 1.93. The claims by users are that it works just fine in the Scotch ATG as it is the same 1/4 inch size by 36 yards ( JVC has their own off-brand gun as well.) I believe the cheapest price I came across on the scotch brand tape was in the five dollar per roll range. Now I should mention that since I have NOT received my pink pre-order ATG yet -I have NOT tried this tape but I certainly will be trying & reviewing it for OWH one day so stay tuned. It got 4.5 stars under the reviews section and most-if not all-of the reviews were by scrappers and they seem to love it!

     Some of you wanted to see pictures of my card liners where I had described the way I like to add a little interest using up the little paper scraps you cut off to make a 4" x5 1/2 inch card base out of a whole 11X 8 1/2 sheet of card stock. Here's a few examples of cards and their liners done different ways. This one I just took the regular computer paper in white, scalloped the side using a MS punch, over the top there I glued one of the black strips that got cut off when creating the card base. I punched a flower out of a scrap from the front designer paper and in the center of the flower popped out a dot from a regular hole punch. See now isn't that cute? Here's another...

     This picture turned out kinda fuzzy...I just got a new camera so it is the user in this case I'm sure. Below is an example of a liner I did that covered most of the card inside...you can do this to add weight when your card stock is on the flimsier side. I don't know why it is but when I started buying these card-stock specialty color packs from Johanns I realized that not all card-stock is created equal. I actually prefer Wal-Mart card-stock for bases because its fairly stiff and cheap, you can get it in primary colors, neon colors, and black and white. However if you enjoy using a broader range of colors and can't stomach the price of bazzill or pricier card-stocks you can try this method, just add a liner of heavier card-stock and problem solved!!

     So now I am off to experiment with the art of freezer cooking and advanced meal prep. I will probably be posting about it here in the coming days. I hear it leaves WA-A-AY more time for scrapping cards and of course I am all for that! Until then...Happy Scrap 'N!

Small kitchen!/What would you do?

      Hey there ya'll. Wow my posts are becoming more sporadic as I've been doing less cards for OWH lately. I just have had some other things going on and have had to focus on those things for a bit. One area of focus being "Back to school" which will be happening here in less than two weeks. My son is 8 and will be going in the second grade. He happens to have Asperger's Syndrome which presents a host of challenges for new situations/teachers/classrooms/expectations etc...and a LOT of Stress for me. Every year I go through and try and pair down papers etc.. from the previous year and believe me -there are LOTS but I have to make room for homework and after school organization-this means getting my kitchen in order.

    One thing I have been trying to do in this little house that my Mom left me is to make space. This place is at just about 1200 square feet but just feels so cramped and cluttered a lot of times. I've been trying to work on more visually pleasing organization. To be honest where the problem lies right now is CRAFTS, I just have no place for them as I have a child in each bedroom and a small kitchen and no dining room and a son who loves to use all kinds of crafts. Speaking of small kitchen here it is with original 1956 knotty pine cabinets. I have no idea how a family of 6-7 members lived in this house at one time but they managed so I suppose we (the four of us) can too but first I need more places to put stuff-like the overflow of food that won't fit in cabinets because there aren't enough cabinets. So I came up with an idea for the other side of the room -a high shelf.

        Now This is still in the process of being worked on. The bins came from walmart and do a pretty good job of hiding snacks/chips/cereal/etc... that I previously stored on this hutch stacked to the brim. Now mind you, I want to move this hutch over slightly to center with the table and move the trash bin back to the other side of the room so this wall is not crazy cluttered looking. On the other wall to the right I need some sort of bulletin board to keep school events/after school/dates/papers/etc... but I need it to NOT look cluttered as it often does when my son brings home papers and we display them. That will be my next project.

I am wondering for the longest time if I should attempt to paint these cabinets. I mean obviously I went with the "country" theme because nothing else would have meshed with these cabinets but I wonder if a more cohesive color pallet wouldn't  make this kitchen at least seem less cluttered and I do not have a LOT of money. Here's where I welcome your ideas and opinions. What would you do?