Happy UnBirthday!

• Welcome to the first Moxxie Blog Hop!  
• 
  
• Join the Moxxie Muses the first Friday of every month to be 
• inspired and your chance to win a complete collection of the line we are featuring!
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Starting off our series of Blog Hops is the Super Duper Fun

Very Merry Unbirthday!

All you have to do to be entered to win this awesome prize is 

become a follower of each of the Moxxie Muse's blogs, leave 

a comment saying so or that you already are a follower.  

That's it...super easy!

Earn an extra entry by liking the Moxxie Facebook Page!

Just leave a comment there too and double your chances of 

winning!

https://www.facebook.com/GotMoxxie

• Ready, Set, Hop
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• Got Moxxie
• Susie Bentz
• Patti Hamil
• Cathy Harper
• Michelle James You are here
• Rebecca Price
• Misty Rushlow
• Mary Pat Siehl
• Dana Tatar
• Rhonda Van Ginkel
• Ange Weisbeck

A Very Merry Unbirthday to you!  Thanks for participating.  My Unbirthday project is a fun card.  This line has so many possibilities with all of its colors.  I just love working with it.  My card includes several layers which include some of the fun patterned papers and few of die cuts.  I added some stickles to make it sparkle.  I hope you like it!

Remember the cut off for commenting is Monday, August 6th at Midnight CST to be eligible for the prize drawing.  The winner will be announced Tuesday on the Moxxie Blog.  You can check back there to see if you are the big winner.  Good luck and happy hopping!  

 Your next stop is Rebecca's blog so click on her name in the list above.  Have a great time!

Until next time,

Michelle 

Fabric Covered Storage Boxes!

I need to give credit where credit is due.  This is NOT my idea.  I saw this on Sew Many Ways blog.  I love her blog.  She has great ideas.  So, definitely go check it out when you get done here. 

I am going to give you a step-by-step tutorial of how I made them.    I hope you enjoy it.

Supplies needed:

Box
Fabric
Spray Adhesive
Ruler
Scissors
Pen
3 in 1 Glue by Beacon
Pipe straps, screws and nuts (hardware store)
Crop a Dile (or something to make holes in the box)
A little time

Start with the box.  If you purchased the box assemble the bottom part but cut the tops off so you are left with the sides and the bottom.  Shown in the picture above.

Measure your fabric and cut out the pieces you need.  You need two extra inches around, two extra inches on the top and 4 extra inches on the bottom.  If your box is really wide you may need more than 4 inches on the bottom.  Make sure it will meet and overlap a little on the bottom.  Or you could cut another piece of fabric to cover the open space if needed.  I used my ruler and pen and drew lines onto the fabric to cut.

Then comes the fun part.  You may want to move outsides for this part because the spray adhesive is sometimes gets out of control.  I forgot to move my scissors out of the line of fire and they were a little sticky.  Yuck!

Leave about an inch or so hanging over the side edge when you start, then spray one side and lay the fabric down nice and flat.  You can lift it and place it back down if you get some puckers or folds.  Continue the next three sides.

Then you can move back inside for the rest.

I started out trying to tuck the edge under and glue it down, but gave that up because it was thick and I have no patience.  So I ended up just cutting the fabric even and gluing down the side edge.  This became the back of my box so it wouldn't show.

Next comes the bottom of the box.  First you need to cut away any extra fabric be sure to angle the cut  slightly into corner so it doesn't get bulky on the edge.  Can you see the angle in the picture below?

Lay opposite ends down, then cut away the extra fabric on the other two sides taking care to angle your cut again. The picture is horrible but you can see the angle of the cut.

 After you have the bottom of the box done, you can focus on the top part.

My edges were not even...not sure how that happened.  LOL.  Anyway, it is an easy fix.  Just trim them even all the way around.  You will need to cut into the corners so the fabric will lay flat.  Be sure to angle toward the corner again like you did on the bottom to avoid bulky fabric in the corners.  I noticed on Sew Many Ways that her fabric is trimmed or finished right at the top of the box instead of rounding the top and turning it into the inside.  You can do whatever you like best.  Adhere the edges down.

 
Be sure you are working on the front edge of the box.  Hold the pipe strap up to the box and mark where you want to punch the holes.  I used the Big Bite Crop a dile for this job.  It worked great.  It will punch right through the cardboard and the fabric.

Place the screws through the holes of the pipe strap and add the nut on the back.

I loved the idea of the metal rim tag held on with a metal ring for the label so that is what I used too.

There you have it.  Such a great way to get the color and size of boxes you want for your space.  Here are some of the others I made for my room.

If you would like the entire tour of my craft room, you can find it and tons of other fun ideas on the Moxxie Blog.  Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time,
Michelle

Fish Stories

Well, I can tell you right from the start Jeff and I are NOT fishermen and we never have been.  So...the boys were only got to fish when my dear Uncle Bud would offer to take them.  He is such a nice uncle.  Anyway, this is one of those times and I can't believe I actually got some pictures from the event.  Lucky, huh?  Especially now that Moxxie has this great fishing/camping line.  You can't help but love it and the two pictures that I had worked really well.  I am very pleased.

What do you think?

I hope you enjoy your scrappy day!

Until next time,
Michelle

Another Fun Moxxie Layout!

I just love this Midway Madness line.  I posted earlier a birthday card and fun little gift package made with this line.  You can see that post here.  This time I found some pictures of Brian (my youngest) when he was little and we visited Camp Snoopy in the Mall of America.  I remember he had such a fun time on the rides.  We were there with my Cousin and his kids from California and it was a blast. 

Here is the second page of the layout.

And, here they are together.

 Aren't the embellishment fun?  These are some of the stickers and die cuts from the line.  The papers I used are:

Carousel
Which Way
Carnival
Clownin' Around (reverse side)
Ticket to Ride (reverse side)
Black Cardstock

Embellishments are
Midway Madness Cardstock Sticker MM-2227, MM-2228
Midway Madness Die Cut Sheet
Red and yellow ribbon

I inked the edges in black, added some stitching with my sewing machine and tied some ribbons to the border stickers before adhering them to the page.

Not only did I have a great time making the pages, I loved looking at the old photos of Brian.  He was such a cutie.  So sad...now he is a teenager!  Not such a cute attitude anymore.  LOL!

See you next time,
Michelle

Gotta Have Faith, Faith, Faith!

One of my friend's grand daughter had her First Communion and she let me use her awesome pictures.  I, of course chose the Faith line from Moxxie.   This line is soooo pretty and easy to work with.  The colors and designs are beautiful.  You really have to hand it to the Moxxie designers.  They do an awesome job on all of their products.  Anyway,  I wanted to make a sort of "brag" book for grandma to show off to her friends.

I got the book at Dollar General for $1 I think.  It may have been $1.50.  At any rate it was still a great deal.  I was surprised at how many pages it had.  I only had about 19 pictures so I decided to put a decorated page with a picture on the right side and left room for journaling on the left.   I wanted the pages to be simple but pretty and I think I achieved this look.  Below are pictures of the book, the front cover and a some of the pages.  Tell me what you think!

The pictures ended up being the main focus of the project and Grandma and Grand daughter LOVED it.  I was thrilled.  I gave them some white linen card stock pieces cut to fit and inked on the edges so they could write their story and add the journalling.  They were going to work on it together.  I am just hoping I get to see it!

I hope you liked it too!

Until next time,
Michelle

Moxxie Midway Madness!

Wow!  I am loving this line of paper.  There are so many choices of fun to play with.  I wanted to create a birthday card and a small gift you could give to a co-worker, a teacher, or, geez...even your mom!  LOL!  I think my mom would love it. 

Here is the card.  All of the products are from the Moxxie Midway Madness line except the ribbon, the folded piece of white cardstock and the black accent cardstock.

Papers:  Funburst, Which Way, Ticket to Ride
Die Cut Shapes:  Round popcorn bucket
Stickers:  Swirl, "A Grand Affair"

Here is the gift!  Are you ready?  

 

Cute, right? 

Papers:  Funburst (reverse side), Which Way
Die Cuts:  Popcorn, border
Sticker:  Snacks

I wrapped the microwave popcorn package with the paper and cut the edge with the scallop blade on my trimmer.  The M&M's are in a little plastic container.  I have had this for a long time so I am not sure where I got it.  A tic-tac container would probably work though.   I tied the M&M's on with a ribbon but I still needed to use a glue dot to keep it from sliding when it is picked up. 

Just a short, little, fun post.  I hope you enjoyed it!

Until next time,
Michelle

A Lot of Work...A Little Fun!

The Work
I have been working like a crazy person around my house organizing bathrooms, the dining room, the cupboards, and my craft room.  It will probably always be a work in progress but it is progressing along nicely.  Here is the latest room I have been working on.

This is my downstairs laundry/half bath.  It was a junk-filled mess with lots of cleaning products and other things that were really old and totally not used by us.  See how awful  This is a before picture of my cupboard above the sink.

Here is the after!

First I scoured the house for containers  I can't believe I had these just sitting around.  Whatever.  Anyway.  I sorted, tossed, and then tossed some more.  I also got out the label maker because some of the containers I found were not see through.  I even have one container that is empty.  I call that "room for growth".  LOL! 

On the bottom shelf I have my hair dryer and next to it in the square container are all of my hair products and my curling iron, which, yes I do use from time to time.  In the shallow purple container is my make up bag, and the brush set.  I love this because I can pull out the entire container...make myself "beautiful" I use that term loosely, then put it all back into the purple thingy and shove it right back in its place.  Love, love, love.  Anyway, next to the make up are two smaller containers for lotion, chapstick, nail polish, perfume and whatever.  Above that I have labeled containers for cotton balls, dental floss, combs, and some medications.  Then on the top in the blue and white container and kitty things that don't get used very often and the taller bottles such as nail polish remover, baby oil and alcohol.

OMG what an improvement this has made in my mornings.  So easy peasy!  This bathroom does not have a shower but I got in the habit of using it to put on my make up a bunch of years ago when the heat upstairs in the summer was so unbearable that my makeup was sweating off my face as fast as I could put it on.  Downstairs was much cooler and I have been using it ever since.  It probably sounds weird but it works for me.

Then I tackled the cupboard above the washer and dryer.  I have to admit I forgot to take a before picture so this shows the process in the middle.  But as you can see there are still a lot of weird cleaning supplies that I had not used for years and were really old.  The cupboard now is still the cleaning supplies but only the ones I currently use.  I don't have a picture of  inside the cupboard.  It is still not pretty.  Just the cleaning supplies.  No fancy containers because I like to be able to just pull out what I need.

The white container on the right side of the shelf houses my iron that I use all of the time, so I wanted it to be accessible.  In with the iron is my Febreze and the cleaning brush for my Norwex Dry Mop.  The middle basket holds hand towels and the basket on the left holds rags for cleaning, etc.  The basket on the far left is a small laundry basket holds dirty laundry like dishtowels that used to get thrown onto the floor until they got washed.  Gross..I know.

That was the work part...but balancing work with fun makes a great life, right?  So....

The Fun
My craft room has been undergoing a huge revamp as well but I really needed a day of crafting.  So, Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, I packed my bag and went to my friend Kathy's for some crafty business.  I working with the "Hole in One" line from Moxxie.  This line is wonderful.  I love green and brown so it worked perfect for me.  It is really hard to see but my favorite paper is called "Tee Off" with the guy swinging the golf club.  It is a classic golf shot from a time long ago.

I wanted to make a desk display with photo frames and this is what I came up with. I used clear plastic frames from the dollar store and a recycled photo paper box for the base.  Then I got to use all of the fun stickers and die cuts to embellish. 

The picture at the bottom is a close up before the photos were added.  This was a really hard project to photograph because of the clear plastic frames (reflections) and the different heights of the frames.  I thought it turned out fun.

You can find a complete tutorial of the project on my guest post on the Moxxie Blog!  I hope you will visit.

Happy Crafting,
Michelle