Green Horned Unicorn

Sketchy Thursdays 6.24 - Cannonball

It's that time again! Here is the latest sketch up at Sketchy Thursdays:

And here is my page:

A fun trio of photos capturing my nephew, Caden, cannonballing into the pool during a recent visit. I love the middle photo with his knees all tucked up into that perfect cannonball position! I used a lot of my Sassafras scraps for this one, along with a Green Horned Unicorn Big Bloom to anchor it all. I sort of wish I had opted for paint splatters as opposed to the mist splatters, but I still like the bright, fun, summery feel of the page. 

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back with birthday updates in a day or two :)

The 34 List

Today I am celebrating the 5th anniversary of my 29th birthday. Yup, that's right, I'm the big 34. Seriously...how did that happen?! I don't really get too caught up on the age thing, it is what it is afterall. Plus, they say you're only as old as you feel. So really, I'm like 12...ha :)

See you later 33, it was a wonderful year! Let's hope 34 is even BETTER!

In honor of my big day, I came up with my 34 List - 34 things I want to accomplish before my next birthday. Some are serious, some are just for fun. So, in no particular order, here it is: 

1. Learn how to properly use my sewing machine
2. Finish my art journal
3. Spend more quality time with Nate and the furkids
4. Paint my studio file cabinet green
5. Hang art in the extra bedroom (aka, Pet Room)
6. Adopt a friend for Shawna
7. Exercise more regularly
8. Finish my 2009 Christmas Album
9. Start planning a wedding (hint, hint Nate)
10. Pursue more creative opportunities
11. Find a kitchen table that suites my taste
12. Start to run again
13. Go to Hawaii
14. Include fresh vegetables in my cooking more often
15. More weekend getaways with Nate
16. Make it home to see my family more often
17. Visit Yellowstone again
18. Go snowboarding this winter
19. Finish my Master’s degree
20. Read more books for fun
21. Keep my blog fresh and fun
22. Keep dreaming up crafty ideas for my shop
23. Design a Green Horned Unicorn plushie
24. Make more time to hang out with friends
25. Start teaching scrapbooking classes again
26. Plan a trip with my bestie
27. Keep more fresh flowers in the house
28. Learn how to safely and properly groom the furkids
29. Continue to grow GHU
30. Learn how to crochet
31. Plan a big pool party
32. Buy more vintage
33. Eat at more yummy restaurants from Drive-ins, Dinners and Dives
34. Enjoy life…just because I can!

To celebrate my day, Nate and I are going to dinner at Zinc, a French Bistro in North Scottsdale. I've heard a rumor that they have the best French Onion soup and serve killer martinis. I can't wait to find out if the rumors are true! 

Before I go, I also want to wish a very happy birthday to my dear friend Robin who is celebrating today as well! I hope you have a wonderful day :)

DIY Magazine Coaster Results

Happy Summer! Today marks the first "official" day of summer, but for us PHX residents, it seems as if it's already been here for a few months! I always love the arrival of the summer solstice, not only because I LOVE summer, but it's arrival means my birthday is right around the corner too...like tomorrow. At my age, I'm not sure whether to be excited or scared!

This weekend, I wanted to be creative. Like really, really wanted to make something cool. I tried like crazy to get into scrapbooking mode and finish our Cali Mini Album. But, alas, my scrapbooking mojo eluded me once again. 

So, to feed my creative need, I decided to play with a few of the magazine tutorials I posted in my Friday Finspo 6.18 post. I set out to make the coasters similar to those in the How About Orange tutorial, and came up with these:

I loosely followed the directions, wove my mats and finished the edges according to the instructions. When I was done, I found that i didn't really care for the edges. They seemed a little loose, like they might easily come undone. To solve this, I stitched a line around the outside edges on the two larger mats (the two pictured in the back of the photo above). I LOVED how this finished them off and made them feel more durable and sturdy. My sewing machine didn't love the stitching quite so much, but stuck with me and powered through all the layers of paper (they are each comprised of 8 magazine pages total)!

On the third mat, I used smaller strips and stitched a grid by going down each row. I really like the design and texture it adds. It also serves as a great way to pull together a scattered pallet.
I ended up experimenting and making a lot more coasters over the course of the weekend. It's a really fun way to use up magazines that would otherwise hit the recycle bin. I can't wait till we entertain again, so I can pull out my new stash of green-friendly coasters and show them off!

Happy Monday :)

Ps. To any fellow Phoenicians, do you know of any good craft shows in our area? I've lived here for 6 years and NEVER hear of any! We have lots of art festivals (Tempe, Fountain Hills, etc.) and an awesome First Fridays, but I've yet to come across a good craft show. Just curious...

Finspo 6.18

For this weeks Finspo, I thought I'd continue with the magazine theme I've carried throughout the week. However, instead of showing images of magazines and what not, I decided pull some tutorials from my bookmarks list and share them with you instead. Hopefully these projects will inspire you to get crafty and make green-friendly crafts with your old magazine stash!

First up, is a cool magazine bowl from A Little Hut. 

This lovely repurposed placemat project can be found on The Pink Couch (Tara is amazingly talented!). 

Head over to Abstract Octopus Attack's Flicker page to find out how to make this completely awesome box.

Lastly, are the recycled magazine coasters and magazine gift bow tutorials, both from How About Orange (one of my favorite daily reads).

There are many, many different recycled magazine tutorials out there. So if you don't see what you're looking for here, I'm sure it's out there somewhere!

I don't know about you, but there's going to be paper flying because I'm getting CRAFTY this weekend! Have a good one. See you Monday :)

Sketchy Thursdays 6.17

This week, I have a special Sketchy Thursdays page to share! First, here is the sketch:

Now I'll explain the layout why my layout is so FUN! You see, I'm fortunate enough to live in the same city as Sketchy Thursdays Co-Founder Heidi and fellow DT member Julie. Last weekend, we all cropped together and Julie and Heidi came up with the fun idea of all three of us using a photo of ST Founder Diana on this weeks sketch! Fun, right?

Well, here is what I came up with:

A darling little page featuring the beautiful Diana and her adorable son. I used up a bunch of my favorite American Crafts papers I had been saving for a while. I think the layout turned out pretty well. It doesn't hurt that the photo was so stinkin' cute to start with :) 

Be sure to check out Heidi and Julie's blogs to see what they created with the photo. Also don't forget to check out the Sketchy Thursdays blog as well and see what all the other DT members came up with too! It's a fun sketch to play with, so get your scrapping supplies out and take part in the challenge :)

Stop back tomorrow for some magazine themed tutorials! :)
  

What a Girl Loves - Upcycled and Recycled Magazine Goods

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I subscribe to many, many paper magazines. Although I pass on and recycle the issues I'm finished with, I sometimes feel a bit guilty contributing to the death of so many trees. To make myself feel a little better, I went in search of goods created with upcycled and recycled magazines. Here's a few that I found that I'm totally loving:

 As pictured left to right, top to bottom:

• Magazine Coaster Set by Rubbish Remade
• Magazine Bowl by Twin Robot Love
• Recycled Magazine Orgami Lucky Stars by Miso Pretty
• Upcycled Envelopes and Note Cards by Scrap Bits
• Paper Beads by Art Spell
• Upcycled Gift Bows by X3 Inspireme
• Magazine Clutch by Spessarite Sole
• Orange Mini Stick Frame by Color Story Designs

Pretty cool stuff, right?! Tomorrow look for a new and really fun Sketchy Thursdays page and on Friday, a changed up, magazine themed Finspo :)

My Question to You - Magazine Roll Call

I, like many others, subscribe to a slew of magazines. The current count is at 9. As much as I adore online magazines like Lonny and Scrapbook Trends Online Edition, I really just long to put my fingers on the smooth, glossy pages, write notes to myself, and use Post-it tabs to mark my favorite pages. 

My favorite magazine of all time is Ready-Made. I anxiously await it's arrival and set aside time to sit and devour each and every page. The tone of the magazine is fresh and fun and I love the focus on Indie business, DIY, and green friendly practices. 

Aside from Ready Made, I subscribe to Real Simple, Creating Keepsakes, Scrapbooks, etc. Every Day with Rachel Ray, Martha Stewart Living (if you're reading this, don't hate me Sarah!), Better Homes and Gardens, Somerset Studios Art Journaling, and Lucky (I must note that Lucky is not by choice, it's the subtitue I recieved when my beloved Domino was discontinued).

Now, you might be wondering where all of this rambling is going. You see, although I already subscribe to many magazines, I feel I that I just might be missing out on something good! That's where you come in. I'd like to know, what does your subscription list look like? Any faves or recommendations that I MUST have?! Please share :)

Ps. Check back tomorrow for a magazine inspired What a Girl Loves!!

Weekend Schmeekend

I had quite a fun weekend! On Saturday morning, Nate and I headed over to our friend's house for a World Cup party. We were able to catch up with many good friends, eat some good food and have Bloody Marys and beer for breakfast! We learned a lot about soccer and were pleased when the US ended the game in a tie.

Saturday evening, Amber and I headed out west to attend a crop with Julie and Heidi. It was my first chance to meet Heidi in real life and Amber's first chance to meet both Julie and Heidi. It's always fun to meet blog friends in real life! Here are a few photos Julie was nice enough to take and share:

Me, Amber, Julie and Heidi

Sketchy Thursdays Girls!

We had a ton of fun at the crop! Thank you so much for the invite Julie! 

While I had fun at the crop, I wasn't very productive. I did manage to finish a super fun Sketchy Thursdays page that I'll show you on Thursday, but other than that, it was a bust as far as actually getting something done. I tried like mad to get into a groove on the Cali mini documenting Nate and my trip. But alas, I'm left with just the covered binder (which I covered at home on Friday...LOL).

I decided to use the new October Afternoon Thrift Shop line. I LOVE the colors and patterns. They will work perfectly with our photos, once I'm able to decide what I'm going to do. Hopefully this week I'll figure out!

Sunday was a day dedicated to much needed R&R after three weeks/weekends of visitors. I read three magazines, floated around in the pool and even took a nap which is a HUGE rarity for me. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Happy Monday :)

The Weekend

The weekend is upon us! I’m looking forward to some relaxing, a little pool time, a World Cup party, scrapbooking with friends (meeting some new friends), and spending time with my man! Not too shabby of a weekend lineup, eh?

If you haven’t already, head on over to These are a Few of my Favorite Things and check out the current challenge. TAAFOMFT is celebrating their one year anniversary as well as their recent publication. In honor of this, they have not only one, but 28 prizes in total. That means 28 winners…woohoo! AND, Green Horned Unicorn is one of the 28 sponsors! I’m offering up a Vegetable Garden Bloom Bundle to one lucky winner. Head on over and play along :)

 

Also, check out my good friend Joanna's Cookie Contest! All you have to do to enter is dream up a yummy cookie combo for a chance to win!

 

 

In place of Finspo this week, here a few of my favorite photos from this past week/weekend (please don't mind the unedited shots!):

 

Next week, look for a full line up of posts here at GHU! Yup, five days of blog posts! My poor little blog is feeling neglected, so I’ve decided to give it some much deserved attention. Happy weekend :)

Sketchy Thursdays 6.10

The Sketchy Thursdays 6.10 Challenge is up! Here's the sketch:

Here is my page, titled Hey Good Lookin': 

I used Hambly, Basic Grey and October Afternoon Papers. I made the blue fabric flower from Moda fabric and printed out the Kitschy Digitals Stacked Flowers. The photo is from our Cali trip and was taken at the cabin retreat where we stayed two nights. Kind of reminds me of a Senior Photo :)

Thanks for stopping by!