Well sadly today I'm not starting my post off as happy as I thought I was going to...I was all excited and hyped up for the Anime Convention they have here every year around this time. Got already and headed out. Arrived and paid the new $3 admissions fee. Fine whatever. It's worth it. Get inside....disappointed. Talking about major let down.

   At first I was trying to be glass is half full not half empty type of person you know. "They moved stuff around." I told myself. Then I walked around. ALL around. Talking about crap! They have more Panels then anything! If I want to watch and talk Anime I'll jump on the Funimation Community forums and throw down there with like minded people. They had about half the amount of vendors they had last year. They didn't even have the nom nom vendors. No candy! Nowhere! WTH! 

   Of course I knew I would find nothing worth wild. I never do. No one ever have Vincent, Nanaki, or Fushigi Yugi stuff. NEVER! I did though happen to find a Fairy Tail Happy 2" pin for $2.50 not bad. That was my big haul for the day. One pin...oh goodie. 

   Though we decided to make up our convention disappointment up at the Hookah Bar! Now that was well worth  the day right there! Ahhh.....love that place! 

   Now onto the CRAFTING! 

   ^ Those are Twinchies. They are 2x2 pieces of art. 2 inchies x 2 inchies. I will have to say they were a lot easier to work with for the first time then the inchies. You get a little more room with them. These were made for my 3 Valentine Twinchies (USA) swap. They were fun and quick. I used paper flowers, Alphabet glitter stickers, Stickles, ribbon, some book pages, spray inks, a picture printed offline of a cherry blossom tree, Valentine's stickers, and some of the foam thingies you find in kids crafting areas. Like I said so much you can use to craft with in such a limited space.

   One of my more favorite fun crafts! ^ Altered Bottle Caps! These are made for my What can you make #20? swap. The group this swap was from is a group that uses other items to make something. Recycle and reuse kind of group you know. The object for #20 was bottle caps. I made some bottle cap magnets.

   Took some sharpie markers in different colors and colored the edge of the bottle cap. Found different things to put on my bottle caps. First though, I took a 1" hold punch and found backgrounds  that worked well with my objects and colors of the bottle cap and punched them out. Then I took my all time favorite adhesive! GLOSSY ACCENTS! Yes, you read that right. Glossy Accents. It makes the best glue ever! Put a little bit of that down and then put the 1"punch out on top. Ta da! You have a background. Then I took the glossy accents again and filled the bottle cap, stuck the object onto and now we wait. Wait, wait, wait, and wait some more. I usually let these dry over night. So I do them before going to bed so it doesn't seem like it's taken that long. Haha. By then next day they should be 100% dry. Then I took some flat magnets, added a bit of my Surebonder Clear 9001 High-Strength Adhesive glue. Now this stuff glues metal to metal and what not. So be CAREFUL! Imagine what could happen if you glue your finger to something...... Anywho, took a dab of that on the back and stuck the magnets on the back. Another night of waiting and WOOTS! Bottle Cap Magnets are good to go! 

   I also like to take those little metal hoop things people use for jewelry...hoop rings or something and punch a hole into the bottle cap somewhere with a nail and add charms to them that way. Makes for something even more fun. You can also do that and make charms for bracelets and necklaces. Lots of fun things to do with bottle caps besides count how many beers you've just drank. 

   Besides Zentangles, Zines, and Dotee Dolls I'm almost done talking about the crafts themselves. Then I can get into the fun part of some techniques I use for making something look a certain way. Oh and we can't forget about carving your stamps. Ugh, though that's tricky all on it's own. I've only done it a few times and it seems to take me forever to get a small one done. Haha. Though they are still really fun and help pass time quickly. Oh! Hand warmers! I love to make those too. It's about the only thing I know how to crochet. Haha. So seems I still have quiet a bit to talk about before I can go on and on about KAWAII! Sigh. Oh well. In all due time I guess.
  
 

   Alright Day two of this new blog thing. Woots. Yesterday was easier then I thought so today shall be even easier right? 

   Yesterday I left off talking about ATCs and Matchboxes. How fun was that? I think today I'll talk a little about Altered Rolos. Now, some people have no idea what a rolo even is. However, the older you are you'll know exactly what I am talking about. No, I am NOT talking about the rolo candy. Though that is some good stuff right there. Rolo is short for Rolodex. Now do you know what I am talking about? No. 

   ^ That is a rolodex. You use it to store useful information that our cell phones now do. Names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and all that other good stuff. What does that have to do with crafting? Lots. You take the paper part of the rolodex and alter it into something else. What's nice about rolos is you can go off the edge.

   Not something I didn't explain about ATCs yesterday I totally brain farted on was you want to keep your crafting on the actual ATC. You don't want to go off the edges. Why? A lot of people like to put them in the binder sleeves. Makes sense right? Well if you figured that all out on your own kuddos to you! 

   Now to continue on with rolos. With rolos you can go off the top and a little off the sides. Why? Well look for yourself at the top picture. You can have room to spare. Nothing really blacking off the extra goodies you put on it. 

   Now this rolo I made for a swap. A.R.T.(USA)~April/Butterfly Rolo. See how I went off the top and side a little? Extra room to be creative! Awesome right? They are pretty much like ATCs. The sky is the limit do what you want. The only tricky part is the notches. See the two notches at the bottom? Those should be facing down on the front. That way when you go through your rolos you see the fronts of your rolos. Then when you flip it over to the back they notches should be on top. Again this has to do with flipping through your rolodex. The info on the back will be facing you right side up. Instead of upside down.

   So, I've gone on rambling about ATCs, matchboxes, and now rolos. What shall we talk about now? Oh I know...INCHIES! Those little buggers gave me a hell of a time when I first started making them. Why you ponder? Inchies are 1x1 inch. Yes. That's all the room you get. 1 inch x 1 inch. Nothing more nothing less.  Inchies you can have some fun and go a little off. However it needs to be stick to mostly 1x1. Your embellishments are what I'm talking about being able to go off a little. Like a tiny feather or something that sticks slightly off.

   Once you get past your nervousness of trying to figure out how to add detail to a 1x1 area they are really easy to make. They are tiny so not a lot of work has to go into them. Unless you want of course. Though remember. Sometimes more is not always better. You don't want it looking like a hot mess of chaos.

   ^ Inchies. The picture on the left is the inchies of course. Well duh you knew that. See. Simple and easy to do. Those inchies were my very first set. They were for a swap called Inchies for Beginners. Go figure. Haha. You can add anything onto them just like everything else I've talked about. Stickers, ribbon, brads, feathers, buttons, flat gems, paint, straing, and everything else. Just don't STICKER SLAP! Never sticker slap anything. You are better then this. 

   The little picture on the right of my inchies is a spur of the moment set of tiny envelopes I made for my inchies to go into during shipping. 

   Since we are talking about inchies I should talk about another tiny creative item. An Inchie Book! They are just so darn cute and easy to make. 

 

    ^ That is an inchie book. Will fit almost any inchies nicely. I say almost any because your inchies that have some bulky embellishments to them will make it a little hard to close up. It's just like a book. So yeah. The thicker something is they harder it will be to close your book. You can use the Blizzard Book Layout to make an inchie book. Just make it smaller. Ta da! Inchie book. The on the edge of the binder cut a little slit on each side and you can put some ribbon through it. Fun, quick, and easy to make.

   Well that was fun rambling I had for today. So far I've talked about 4 out of 5 crafts I do all the time. There are other crafts I do I'll ramble on about later. Though I don't do them as much. Heck, maybe I'll even share a few techniques I use to make something look a certain way. Those are always the fun messes. Who doesn't enjoy making a mess? it's just the cleaning up part that sucks. But, it's never a mess when it comes to creativity it's just Creative Chaos!
   

Well Hello there

   Well it seems Blogging seems to be the new thing to do. Just like Twitter, Facebook, and all those other wonderful websites we sit and waste countless hours sitting and staring at when we all know we should be doing something productive. 

   So, here it is. My who knows how many reasons to sit on my ass and waste time. However, I'd like to think this reason isn't as less productive as the rest! Why you say? Well look at the name for my blog ---> Creative Chaos ta-da! I'm going to try to mainly go and talk about something creative. Something to do with my crafting! Besides sleeping and my kids turning my hair grey crafting is something that takes up A LOT of my time.

   However, do not be fooled. I am sure that more then once I am going to get on here and randomly talk about something that has absolutely nothing to do with my crafts whatsoever! I do have kids now. I do lose my mind more then once in an hours time. Also I wont fail to mention I am a kawaii addict. So posting random picture and talking about my oh so lovely goodies is bound to happen!

   I will admit though I am on a good start. Look! So far I have in the works a 4th paragraph of a brand new blog and not once...okay only once have I brought up the fact this is going to be used to talk about crafting and what not. Though have I posted or actually gone into detail about anything dealing with my crafting? Hell no. See this is when you know my a.d.h.d. kicks in more then I can help. (Oh look! Squirrel!) Any who.

   Crafting I love it thanks to the wonderful site Swap-Bot.com If you have not check it out yet you should. Not only can you go there and swap almost anything you can do crafting! Awesome creative chaotic crafts. So many themes! Choices! Variety! And all that good stuff. I've learned about ATCs = Artist Trading Cards.

  Now this ^ ATC was something I just made on the fly. It was for a Sender's Choice x2 swap. I love all the ATCs I make but this is on my Top Favorite's List. I love making ATC's! Totally addicted to them. They are fun and easy. You can pretty much do anything you want. Minus sticker slapping! Please, please never do that unless it's requested. Which I've only seen it happen once. Where you actually had to make 2 sticker slapped ATCs for a swap.

   Also, there are Altered Matchboxes! Now those are fun. You can either use a pre-made bought from the store matchbox or make your own. Rachel's Matchbox Template. I personally like to make my own. It feels more "crafty" and personal. Then after you are done making and decorating your matchbox you get to fill it with wonderful goodies! It's like opening a mini gift for you every time you get a matchbox in return!

   This was a fun matchbox. I was and still am very happy how this one came out. So is my partner! This matchbox was for the February Love Matchbox Swap #5. I made my matchbox using Rachel's template. Then I had some fun. I took some book pages and covered the matchbox. Took my oh so fun to play with Glimmer Mist sprays. Spritz a little here, a little there, and ta-da! Took some embellishments and placed them in all the right places and one lovely matchbox almost ready for swapping. Look here, look there, dig around in this, in that, and we've got some goodies to fill it! Snap a picture this way, that way, and like this and that. Now we are ready to swap! The hardest part to making a matchbox is letting go. Just like every thing else I make. If I'm not sad to see it go then damnit I didn't do a good enough job!

   Now what else is there? Inchies! Rolos! Twinchies! Zines! Zentangles! Whimsey Jars! Also let's not forget my new addiction....KAWAII! However, I feel I am off to a good start with my oh so new blog. I don't want to bore anyone just quite yet. Also you're mind is probably more then blown away by the new awesomeness I have shared with you! I know mine was once found. So you should digest and pick up all your brain pieces and carefully replace them where they go and come back later. Then I'll ramble on about more chaos later on!