My mom has these two frames in her house that are magnetic and super cool for pictures. I love the idea of having a place to share pictures with visitors and that is easy to change. I like my framed pictures but I thought this would work well and easy to change. I saw her frame and thought, “I could make that for a lot less.” So here are my directions to do, just that.

What you’ll need:

1  12×12 frame
1 12×12 sheet of magnetized metal
1 flour sack towel
double-side tape

Note: I got my supplies at Craft Warehouse for under $15.00

Step 1: Place double-sided tape along one side of the 12×12 metal sheet.

Step2: Lay the 12×12 metal sheet on top of the white flour sack towel.

Step 3: Adhere the flour sack fabric to the double-sided tape.

Step 4: Complete steps 1-3 for each of the four sides.

Step 5: Flip the 12×12 metal over as shown below.

Step 6: Flip your 12×12 frame over and remove the backing.

Step 7: Remove the glass too.

Step 8: Place the covered metal in the frame.

Step 9: Place the cardboard backing back on your frame.

Step 10: Your project should look like this.

I can’t believe that it turned out so great! I can’t believe the money I saved either. The original frame, that my mom has, now costs $50.00. I spent $15.00 and about 30 minutes.

I’ve made two of these already and put them up on the wall as you come into our home. I love them because I can put new pictures there for a while. Once I’m bored with them, I print new ones and post them… the best thing is I can use the pictures for my scrapbook pages later.

I had my interview yesterday and I felt really, really great about it! I walked out of the interview feeling like I really nailed it and blew them away with a few things. I think the only thing that could not be as strong as maybe they’re looking at is my Flash and Captivate examples. It was hard to give them examples because everything I’ve done is confidential to the outside worlds so I had to make some simulations and things. SO who knows, now, it’s the waiting game. I’m hoping I’ll know by Labor Day.

I’m home alone this weekend and I honestly don’t mind. Eric’s in Bend, Oregon golfing with his friends in the annual golfing tournament. It was so funny when he left he was making comments like, “we might win this year because the team that usually beats us won’t be there”. Gotta love that logic! The one thing though that sucks when Eric is gone is that I can’t sleep,I didn’t get to sleep until 2 am today. Not good, I don’t do well without sleep. Last night I just went to our favorite place, Taco Del Mar for dinner, came home and watched a little TV.

Oh, I got my scrapbook pages organized too. A while ago I bought Stacy Julian’s The Big Picture and I really liked her idea on how she organizes her scrapbooks and what makes it so easy for her to not feel pressure to get more pages done. She doesn’t scrap in chronological order. It made me think about all the pictures I have that I haven’t used in pages, you know those ones that were too small, too big, etc. I made some cool dividers for my photo box and started sorting. It was pretty eye opening to see how many pictures I have of people or events. So my plan going forward is that I’ll print out pictures to do a page and if I don’t have the right size, I’ll keep the picture and file it in the box. What’s going to be cool too is that I plan on using the pictures in the box for other scrapbooking, like doing a whole page on Eric and having a bunch of different pictures of him. Sort of exciting.

The other thing I got out of book that I’m choosing to implement right now is how she organizes her albums. I’ve got three albums now but instead of by year I’ve done them in three categories; one for people (all about Us), one for our trips (places we GO) and another for the holiday celebrations, weddings and things (family CELEBRATIONS). What’s cool too is that I found tabs and use those for each of the different topics and since the albums are 3-ring binders, I can add pages anywhere. The super cool things too is that the ton of page protectors I have fit in the album so I didn’t have to spend money on that. Oh and the other very cool thins is that the albums are only $20 rather than the post bound I have that are from $35-45. so I’ll be saving money

SO I’ve been working on my scrap space trying to get it just the way I want. I think I’ve finally gotten it done. It’s still in the office and still in the closet, mostly but I’ve added some things and made some improvements. Here’s some pictures:

This is the new addition to things. The upper left is a new hanger for all my paints. It’s made from the wire racks pieces you can get at Target, some wooden spools and ribbons. Right next to it I just put in a little shelf. I have three containers for all my ribbons. Purple, blue and green in one container, yellow, orange and red in another and then brown, black and white in another. I’ve also got stacking containers that hold all the brads, eyelets and things separated by color as well. Sorting by color should make finding things easier. You’ll see under the photo printer are two 12×12 hanging file cabinets. I bought those for all my paper and another on the right of the computer as well. Why three? One for colored card stock, one for themed paper like holiday, family, etc and the last for printed paper by color.

The other picture shows all the things in my closet. I made some changes there too. I got these great 12×12 clear organizers to put things in. I took all my small boxes and tried to use the new ones as much as possible. I have a separate drawer for each color (9 in all) so again it should be easier to use my embellishments and easier to find them. We’ll see how it goes.

Spending the time to get my scrapbook area was really nice. Yeah, I’m a “neat freak” but I’ve been in a funk and didn’t really want to scrapbook but now, now that everything is all organized, clean and nice, I’m ready to spend time every week scrapping. Heck, I have a ton to do. I’m still scrapping 2004 and our wedding receptions.

In other news, I’m seriously, I mean SERIOUSLY considering moving my blog to Typepad. Why? Well, I really like the layout options and ease of putting additional things on your page. I’m sure I could get a similar look here but I don’t really know how to do it and I’m really looking for something simple and easy. If, and when, I move, I’ll let you know so you have my new journal link. Don’t worry those of you still on LJ because I’ll keep and account so I can comment on your blogs.

Today is our first full day here in Massachusetts, or “Mass” as the locals say. Kyle, a colleague I work with, and I got up at o dark thirty to jump on the plane from Portland and headed to Seattle. Once we were in Seattle we got to sit for 2 HOURS while our plane got fixed. Apparently the tail rudder had a hydraulic problem. By the time we got out of Seattle it was 10:45 PST and we were off for a straight shot to Boston. Yeah!!!! Unfortunately, or fortunately Kyle and I didn’t sit in the same aisle or anything so we each did our own thing. I was lucky enough to sit next to a couple from Portland, Maine… or “Partlan, Mane” as they say here. They were so nice but I just wanted to laugh at the accent because it sounds so funny. I couldn’t help hearing Natalie’s voice in my head to , “stop it, don’t laugh” I kept myself under control. So during the 5+ hour flight we talked a bit and then I read. I read a bunch of articles about KM, org health and the best article ever, ‘the Passive-Aggressive Organization.

Our landing as a little nuts. The wind here, in Boston, was so strong that we landed on one wheel, then teetered to the other wheel and then jumped a bit and finally had a smooth landing. I was bracing myself for a rougher landing. I wasn’t sure what was happening. Once we got our luggage and all we got the car and headed to the hotel. I thought we were pretty good, directions wise, because we had the Neverlost system. It should be called the ALWAYS lost because we got lost with the darn thing I think 3 times. On the way our to Hudson we had to pass through several tool booths which just blew Kyle away. It was so funny because we’d stop, give a guy money, go to another stop, pick up a ticket, next one… pay.. We finally got to the hotel and got comfortable and then went to dinner at naked Seafood. Great restaurant but not so great dessert. Kyle had a girly drink. Something called like a Juan Ricardo or something. I just remember thinking it was funny that he’d 1) ordered a girly drink and then 2) ordered one names after a person. Then it was back to the hotel. I think I stayed up until midnight here because I couldn’t sleep and I had a ton of things to do.

This morning we ate at the hotel and I realized that we couldn’t stay there for 10 days. I guess the place is usually pretty nice but they’re in the middle of renovations so their restaurant is in a conference room and the food was terrible. So I picked up the phone and called Holiday Inn and we had our rooms in no time. Kyle and I packed ourselves up and left to the new hotel. When we got to the Holiday inn they were so nice. They even put us in rooms right next to each other. Yeah!!!

We finally go to Hudson site about 8:30am here, which is 5:30PST. I couldn’t believe it. One of the people working on this project, Jenny set us up with our own cubes. She rules. We couldn’t find her desk at all. The site pole numbers don’t make sense. We ended up on the outside perimeter of the fab when a guy, helped us find her desk. I was so glad he helped us because there would have been NO way we would have found her. So this morning was spend getting ready for the day and all. Lunch we went out with a group of 5-6 people here and now, we’re in the training sessions for the day. Kyle is upfront teaching and I’m back here, doing this. I sort of want to make faces at him and get him to laugh but I’ll wait until tonight and watch him have a few drinks.

This weekend was CRAZY. I worked the scrapbook convention for two days. I got up on Friday morning and was at SBA (Scrapbook Attack) by 8 am. Then I had to drive to the convention center on the other side of town to work at the convention until 6 pm. I figured I’d have fun and it would be hard?. I just didn’t know how much of both. I was working in the booth and trying to get people to stop. I always get that job because according to Sam and Sheri, I’m good at that. So people would be walking by and I’d say something like, “Have you heard about the great deals at Scrapbook Attack today?”. People would then stop and I’d make my sales pitch to them and encourage them to stop, buy or at the very least check things out. I had a great time doing it but it was hard to be “on” for 8 hours. After working the convention until 5 pm I had to drive to the store and work the crop until midnight. It was such a long day I was so glad when it was time to go home. Saturday was the same thing, up early, work like crazy and then drive over to the store to work until midnight. By Saturday night I was so tired I couldn’t see straight. I couldn’t believe I’d done it to myself, deprived myself of a weekend and sleep for what? helping out some great people. Sometimes I have such a hard time saying no to people. I’m never going to do that again.

The good news is that I don’t have to work Saturday nights anymore. Now I’m just working Sundays noon to 5 pm which is great. It still gives me a weekend and a break but I still get in a few hours to help feel the scrapbook habit.