The Good, The Bad, and The Fugly: Sweet Crafty Action

Apparently July is my "getting stuff done" month. I felt extra guilty after my nightstand post because I'd realized how many things I promised I'd get done for Jeff, but didn't. Plus I have all these plans and ideas, but I always put them off thinking I need money to do them. So last night I got busy and finished off Jeff's book. All it took was putting in the pictures from the party. So it didn't take long, but I still feel monumentally better. And now I'm super excited to give it to him so he can remember the day forever! Here are a few of my favorite pages. *Disclaimer--I took all the pictures I'm posting today with my phone camera. I'm having issues uploading pictures from my regular camera so I just didn't want to bother* **Disclaimer 2--I am NOT a scrapbooker. These are probably around the design level of a middle school student, but the fact I did it all by hand makes me proud anyway. :)**

This is the cover of the book (sorry it's a little blurry)

The first page of the book

(The little can says "Bug Be Gone" lol)

Of course I had to throw in some good cowboy decor!

The last page of the book.

I covered the areas that have comments just to

keep his privacy. But they are on several pages

throughout the whole book. Just think of how many

people came to the party and you'll have an idea of the

amount of comments!

After I finished the book I was sitting on my couch relishing in my accomplishment when I started to think about the picture of us that I printed to put in a frame for myself. I found a black frame I already had and decided to put it up right then. I already had a picture of me and my niece on the wall so I threw this one up diagonal to it. The wall had looked kind of empty before but now it looked really weird. So I looked around and noticed I had another picture of me and my friend, KJ, in a black frame elsewhere in the room. Throw that sucker up there too! Now there was just one more empty space. Here is how the dialogue played out in my brain:

I should spray paint some frames black and just keep putting pictures up here...Wait! I actually have extra black spray paint...and a silver frame that matches nothing in my decor [I use the term decor loosely]. I'm spray painting right now!

Then I remembered a cute tutorial I found where someone made peony flowers by holding circles of tulle over a flame. (I can't find the exact site anymore but there are tons of tutorials online. And of course looking for that link I found a dozen more ways to make adorable fabric flowers.) I still had wrapping paper from the nightstand redo so I sprayed adhesive on a 5x7 piece of posterboard, stuck that to the wrapping paper and cut out around the edges. I made my tulle petals and glued them together with hot glue. I had more buttons that I didn't use in Jeff's book so I found a big black one and glued it in the middle. Then I glued the whole mess to the wrapping paper board. At this point I looked around and wondered if one of the small white buttons would fit inside the big black one and it did! But the glue gun was already unplugged so I stuck that one on with a glue dot. Today during lunch I checked that my painted frames were dry and slightly sanded some paint off the silver one. Just to make the details stand out. Put the whole shebang together and Voila! Well....almost. I realized my frame didn't have a hanger. So back in goes the glue gun plug and I glued a little piece of ribbon to the back. Up on the wall and it fits in perfectly! I'll get this apartment decorated someday...mark my words!