Delayed Gratification

My middle name is not Patience. Nor is it Self-Control, or Forbearance. Imagine my chagrin when this came right in the middle of our moving saga:

You wanna know what's in that box?

 It's the Holy Grail for some crafters...

Via

The Silhouette Cameo, a die-cutting machine that cuts designs from paper, vinyl, and fabric. Here are some examples of what it can do, all from the Silhouette site. It does fabric, glass etching, scrapbook pages, temporary tattoos, and vinyl decals. Can you hear the angels singing?

Via

Via

Via

Yep, I won this in a giveaway from Amy of The Idea Room! Thanks Amy - winning was quite a surprise.

I won it back in November, but it came while I was in Florida, basking in the warm sunshine of the Sunshine State. This is so exciting...especially since I only entered that one giveaway and figured I would never win it. I even bought one on Black Friday (since winning one was a long shot anyway). The ordered one was on backorder and came about two weeks ago...

...so now there are two in the house. And we're in the middle of moving. And my office is packed up and looks like this:

Yes, this is getting painted before putting it on the market; not everyone likes Gator colors :)

I'm going to sell one of these for what I paid for it - $230 plus shipping. If you'd like it, just send me an email and we'll work it out.

As for my own Cameo, it'll stay in the box and will have to wait to be played with until we land somewhere...can you imagine anything more agonizing??

Someone's Getting Some New Art - Giveaway Winner!

A huge thank you to Ashley at Illuminated He{art} for creating a custom work of art for my giveaway!

Without further ado, the winner is:

Congratulations Jackie on winning a fabulous painting! I'm sending Ashley your email - enjoy!

Thank you to everyone who participated!

Art is the Key

This giveaway is now closed. I will announce the winner on October 24, 2011.

One of my new bloggy friends is Ashley over at Illuminated He{art}.

Ashley recently took the leap from career girl to full-time artist and I'm so excited for her! It takes a lot of faith and support to live your best life and based on what I see so far, she's on her way.

We started chatting and thought it would be fun to swap a project in a giveaway. My contribution was this upcycled frame:

It was from an estate sale, was a dirty brass color and was framing a dated flower print on a black velvet background. I spray painted it, added a stamped fleur-de-lis on plain cotton duck and now it's quite the statement piece. I'm on the hunt for another one just like it (to keep for myself!) The lucky winner is also getting a $20 coupon to my Etsy shop.

Now for the giveaway...

Ashley is painting a custom piece of art and is graciously giving it away to one of our readers! She features her art on her blog and she has a unique style that I love. Here is what one lucky winner will win:

Don't you just love this? Two current trends - a skeleton key and a map...awesome! 

It's an 8x10 original oil and mixed media on canvas, so there will be a slight delay in shipping as Ashley wants to make sure it's completely dry before packing it up and sending it to our lucky winner. It'll be worth it though, don't you think??

This giveaway is now closed. I will announce the winner on October 24, 2011.

To enter:

Be a follower of my blog

Additional entries:

Visit her art and tell me which painting is your favorite

Follow Ashley's blog

Leave a comment below for each entry.

Good luck to all of you!

Giveaway starts today and runs through Oct 23rd at noon.
I will announce the winner on Monday, Oct 24th :)

(By entering, you understand and are agreeing to the Official Rules below)

Official Rules

No purchase necessary to enter this giveaway; the only means of entry are outlined above. Must be over the age of 18 and be a U.S. resident, odds of winning are determined by the number of eligible entries and will be determined by Random.org, JunkyVagabond nor Illuminated He{art) are liable for technical difficulties associated with entering this giveaway, by entering this giveaway you give Junky Vagabond the right to publish your name and/or likeness, Void where prohibited by law. This giveaway originates in the state of Michigan. Still reading? Wow - good for you! Now go enter the giveaway!

I'm Giving it Up...

The blogging world is full of creative types changing their worlds in their own unique ways. Some have kept their full time jobs and are blogging part time, some are stay at home moms doing amazing DIY projects in their homes, others like me have made the leap into this full time.

While I've been having fun selling/upcycling vintage pieces in my Etsy shop, my bigger dream is to be an artist and create art that others will actually buy. However, the title of the post is just a tease... the thing I'm giving up is not the blog, the art, the junk, or the shop! Take a look at this:

Isn't it adorable?? It's become one of my favorite pieces, but anyone who owns a shop knows not to fall in love with their creations.  I'm giving it up for a giveaway at Ashley's blog.

Ashley of Illuminated He{art} is one of the artists/bloggers I've met virtually who is actually creating and selling her art. She's one brave lady and has jumped in with both feet. She's creating amazing art and realizing her dreams. You have to see her paintings!

We decided to have some fun and host a giveaway of each other's pieces on our blogs. She's hosting a giveaway of the one-of-a-kind Junky Vagabond vintage frame on her blog, and I'll be hosting a giveaway next week of one of her original art pieces.

Go check out Ashley's blog, enter the giveaway, and show her some love. I can't wait to host the giveaway of her art - you could win an original piece of art of a new artist...how exciting is that??!!

What are you waiting for? It's a giveaway!!

My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Giveaway!

When I was first approached to host a giveaway for My Memories Digital Scrapbooking software, my first thought was, 'I'm not really a scrapbook type of person'.

When I step into the scrapbook aisles at the craft store, it's intimidating! Too many options and doo-dads and patterns and...just too many decisions for a waffler like me :) They're wonderful to look at...if someone else puts them together.

Then I took a look at www.MyMemories.com and saw all the possibilities. I was hooked almost immediately! And if you don't already know about this software, I want to introduce you to it with a giveaway AND a discount for their scrapbooking software and online scrapbook store. Thank you MyMemories.com for giving me one to review and one to give away!

To start the whole thing off, I downloaded the software. For an instant gratification junkie, this was perfect. From a technical standpoint, this software works with both PC or Mac, it even works with several design and photo editing software packages like Adobe Photoshop. The download was simple and easy and it was up and running quickly. Now what?

Well, what I LOVED about the software are the designer templates that come with the My Memories Suite. For a beginning scrapbooker, it was quite a head start on a project. Pick your favorite from over 1500 background papers and get started. If the pages that come with the suite aren't enough, there are TONS available on their website. What it comes with seems like plenty to me though and they have 4 PAGES OF FREE downloadables available - gotta love free!

The software is very user-friendly and I had a five-page scrapbook created in no time. Since most of my pictures are already on my laptop, it was pretty simple to add photos to the scrapbook pages. Once I had the basic pages up with my pictures on them, it was on to the options.

Options are what sent me running and screaming intimidated me at the craft store - embellishments, Word Art, shapes, text, and background papers. Having it all digital simplifies things. Over 1300 embellishments and even music and video options are included in the Control Panel - just click, preview, and decide which ones fit your project. This is heaven to a 'show me' type of person; show me how it'll look before I pay for commit to it.

And the best part? There are several different ways to share your album: print it, export it to JPG, make it into an interactive album*, a movie, a DVD-video and more! Check out this YouTube video for an overview of the software (just in case I didn't cover everything this amazing software does).

I exported two pages of my album with the JPG option to 1) see how it works and 2) show you my first digital scrapbook. (I'll apologize right now to any serious scrapbookers out there - this was my first project, so please be kind!)

Honestly, every time I open this software, there's more to see and do! Here's the full feature list for those practical, bottom-liners out there: MyMemories Suite 2 Full Feature List.

Still not convinced you need a scrapbooking software?

• What about using this to create fun backgrounds for your altered art projects? Choose a fun background, print it, and glue it to something. Then frame the whole thing. Instant art.

Background paper, Ribba frame, Dracula = fun Halloween art!

This is a quick print out to show you some of the options 

• Create custom cards for a more personal touch.

• Take an embellishment (I love the one on the first page of my scrapbook), print it, and transfer it to a furniture project. 

Ok, free-handing scrolls is extremely hard. It kinda looks like what I printed out...right? Oh well, I'll get better at this...

• Same with the word art and text - the fonts are fun and would make your painting projects easy to customize. 
• Make a movie or video slideshow of all your vacation photos, adding music and narration to not only see your memories, but hear them as well. 
• There's even an option for ordering a photo book or calendar online from your creations through a professional printing service. 

Ok if I haven't sold you quite yet, here's the fun part: one person will win a free download of My Memories Suite 2 digital scrapbooking software. This is a $39.97 value (but really is priceless to all of us crafty types, isn't it?)

Here are the details on how you can enter to win this software suite and start making projects the same day; do one or do all for your chance to win! (Make sure you leave me a comment for each one - just to make sure I catch all your efforts! Please make sure I can get to your email address to contact you.)

1. Go to www.MyMemories.com and tell me in a comment what your favorite digital paper pack or layout is
2. I would love it if you would follow me on my blog, but it's not necessary - no pressure here :)
3. Leave a 'Make Me a My Memories Maven' comment on this post
4. Blog about this giveaway and link back to this post
5. Follow My Memories on their blog,  on Facebook, or on Twitter
6. Write a post about the giveaway on Facebook and link back to this post 
7. Tweet about the giveaway and link back to this post
8. Check out their videos on YouTube and comment on one here

That's 8 ways to win your own My Memories suite. They are also offering for all my readers a $10 discount code for the purchase of My Memories Suite Scrapbook software.

Plug this code in at checkout:  STMMMS72079 

And there's even more to love: once you've downloaded the software, you'll get another $10 good for the MyMemories.com store! That's a $20 value - pretty sweet, huh?

I'm really pretty excited about this software and hope you are too! It's not just for scrapbookers - it's for anyone who loves to create :)

The giveaway starts today and goes through Monday, Oct 3rd at noon. I'll be announcing the winner on Oct 4th. Good luck and thanks for entering :)

You will have until Oct 3rd @ 12:00 PM Eastern Standard time to enter this giveaway. The winner will be chosen by random.org and announced here. If the winner has provided an email address I will contact you. If you don't provide your email, you will want to check back here and see if you are the winner. The winner will have 48 hours to contact me or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is open to those living in the US. You must be 18 years or older to enter. The featured product {s} in this post were provided to me free of charge by the manufacturer or pr company representing the company. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and not influenced in any way by anyone. By entering this giveaway you agree to have your name and comment published as the giveaway winner.

*Some of the Sharing Multimedia Output options require a free plug in available from www.MyMemories.com. If you decide to download this, simple and easy prompts help you download the plug in.