Guest Post: Rochelle from The Lying Quill and a Giveaway

Guest Post: Rochelle Reynolds from The Lying Quill

Rochelle is an amazing stay at home mom following her dream. We all had dreams when we were younger. If you ask children what they want to be when they grown up the answer might be, "ballerina, astronaut, superhero." As we grow our dreams change, become more sensible. But Rochelle has kept her dream alive and is living it today.

Rochelle has provided a few tips and background to her journey of fulfilling her dream. I hope you enjoy it and are inspired to live your dreams as well. Take it away Rochelle.....

All of us have talents, something that we love, and frankly, just HAVE to do.  Crafting. Music. Weight-lifing. Knitting baby boots while watching Silence of the Lambs (you might need some counseling). Gardening. Tanning. Sewing. Writing. Why yes...I do believe that's me!

cover design: Jason Johnson

After six years of plotting a fantasy novel and two years of rewriting and revising, I submitted my 146k word 'baby' to a round of agents. Twenty or so. Someone had to bite, right?

I cut my novel down to 114k words, and then came round two, three, four...I mean, you'd think the odds of getting represented would be in my favor after 65 submissions. Everyone was offering words of wisdom and consolation. This author was rejected 15 times. So-and-such got 25 rejections. Kathryn Stockett had 60+...

After ten years of plotting three novels, one short story compilation and self-publishing two books, I decided it was time to share this knowledge, however little or great it might be, with those out there like me...who have a passion for something and refuse to give up!

Whether you are submitting a fiction or nonfiction book, the process is basically the same.
1. Find agents
2. Submit to said agents

cover compiled by: Jason Johnson

3. Read rejection letter(s)
4. Lock yourself in the hall closet then bawl hysterically
5. Submit some more
6. Feed children (oh yeah...I forgot about thems!)
6. Look longingly at agent-published books and daydream about being on Ellen, making a fantastic dancing entrance
7. Move on to other projects...

In honor of going public, there will be a book GIVEAWAY - y'know, a FREE book actually two books will be up for grabs. You must enter the giveaway by June 1st. Go to The Lying Quill for helpful websites, tips on finding agents, the process of submitting a book and finding optimism with each rejection letter - or what I refer to as a slap in the face.

Happy Crafting...and Writing!

To enter to win 1 of Rochelle's books:
1. become a follower of A Couple of Craft Addicts
2. become a follower of The Lying Quill
3. Leave a comment about something you like from The Lying Quill

Dinosaur Play Date at Oopsey Daisy

Today you can find me over at Oopsey Daisy sharing my fun dinosaur themed play date.

I've talked before about the wonderful Alison of Oopsey Daisy.  Her blog is one of the first that I ever started following.  She has inspired so much creativity in my home!  Oopsey Daisy has a wide variety of fun projects and I love that Alison shares so many kid friendly activities!  I had the opportunity to meet her at Creative Estates earlier this year.  She definitely was one of the most friendly and nicest girls there! 

I was absolutely thrilled when Alison asked if I would like to participate in her summer camp series!  Please stop by and read about our dinosaur themed play date!

Thanks to Oopsey Daisy for allowing us to participate!

 

The Ticket Journal

A couple of years ago I stumbled upon a box of ticket stubs.  My husband had kept every single sporting event ticket stub he ever attended.  He is a major sports fan so his box was full of ticket stubs.  Full.  I wanted to make something for him to save all his ticket stubs in one place.  I came up a very simple idea that he absolutely loved.  His ticket journal was so much fun to make and I smile each time I see my husband add another ticket to his book.   

I started with a basic journal I picked up from Michael's.  You could easily make your own with a three ring notebook and card stock instead if you don't want to purchase something.  I embellished each page of the journal with sports related paper and stickers.  I made sure each page had a variety of sports so each page would be versatile.  I didn't want any one page to appear designated for a particular type of sporting event.

Once I had the entire book filled with fun pages, I started adding each ticket with sticky photo corners.  The tickets remained undamaged and removable.

I had fun looking at all the old tickets knowing they were from some of my husband's favorite memories.

I used clear sheet protectors for each page because I didn't want any tickets to end up damaged or lost. 

We currently have a small box holding the ticket stubs to events my daughter has attended with us.  I'm looking forward to adding her first ticket journal to my handmade Christmas gift list!

My husband's book was designed specifically for sports related events but there are so many options to make the book appropriate for other ticket stubs.  A theatre or music related book would make a fun gift!

I'm posting this link here.

 

Robot Journal

I had a lot of fun making a gift for a friend's son last week.  It was his third birthday and he really likes robots.  I made him a robot themed notebook because he is very creative and I thought it would be fun for his mommy to have something to save full of his masterpieces. 

I'll share step by step instructions to make this project fun and easy. 

Supplies:

-piece of cardboard (this will be your journal cover so the piece should be large enough to be folded in half for a front and back cover (I used the front of a cereal box but keep in mind my journal is approximately half the size of a letter size notebook)

-fabric (enough to completely cover the front and back of your journal)

-Mod Podge

-hot glue gun (any other glue would probably work just fine but I LOVE my glue gun!)

-felt (enough to completely cover the inside cover of your journal)

-paper (enough to fill your journal)

-scissors

Optional:

-a friend with a cute kid having a birthday because this is the cutest birthday gift ever (obviously that's only my personal opinion)

1) Completely coat your cardboard with Mod Podge.  Don't worry about the size for now, you will be trimming it later.

2) Press your fabric directly onto the coated cardboard (back of fabric is pressed down).  Then give the top of your fabric a good coat of Mod Podge.

3) Let it dry (I left mine alone overnight but I'm sure it doesn't take that long to dry) and stare in awe of Mod Podge's mystical powers.

4) Trim your cover to your desired size.  Remember that you will be folding the piece of cardboard in half to make the front and back cover.  Don't cut two individual pieces to serve as the front and back.

5) Flip your pretty fabric covered cardboard over and cover it in hot glue (or your preferred glue).

6) Press a piece of felt onto the gluey (is that a word?) side of the cardboard.  Trim off any excess felt.

7) Fold your cardboard to make your journal cover.  The binding should be approximately one inch (depending on how much paper you plan to put in the book).  Measure in from the outer edge so you  remember to fold on the binding instead of directly in half.  I found it to be pretty easy to fold using my rotary cutter guide to press the edge of my fold as a guide.

8) Pick out the paper you want to permanently glue into your journal.

9) Cut it to fit your journal.  The dimensions are obviously dependent on the size of your cover.  Just make sure your pages are slightly smaller than your cover so the paper edges don't meet the edges of the cover.

10) Generously apply hot glue to the binding of your pages (I was skeptical too but this actually holds all the paper together). 

11) Apply more hot glue to the edge of the paper and push it onto  a strip of felt.  My felt was two inches wide but yours might end up being different depending on the overall size of your journal.

12) Use hot glue to attach the sides of the felt to the paper.

13) More hot glue!  Generously apply it to the felt that reinforces your page binding.

14) Push your gluey (there's that silly word again) felt back into the book cover. 

15) OPTIONAL - I chose to cut the edges of my paper because I wanted the journal to look interesting.  Remember this was for a three year old's birthday gift.

16) Embellish the cover to make it fun.  I used a wooden robot I had picked up from Joannes specifically for this project.  I also glued on the birthday boy's initial (cut from scrap felt).

You're done!  Now do what I did - wrap it up, sign a card, and run to the nearest post office to mail your belated birthday gift.   That's an optional step too.  You could always just look at your pretty new journal and smile thinking about all the wonderful things that will fill up the pages.

I'm linking this post HERE.

 





Fun Find Friday - "you're right" accordion book

I have a big folder titled "craft to do" on my desktop. It's a place to store all the fun tutorials I've found online but have yet to actually try. I love Fun Find Fridays because I'm able to look through my folder and take advantage of all the wonderful tutorials creative minds are willing to share. This week I found a tutorial on accordion albums. Such an easy and pretty paper craft. I can't believe I haven't taken the time to make one before! Eighteen 25 made cute brag books with hers.

For the original post, go here

This week I had lunch with a friend that told me about a really funny gift she recently gave her husband. For their wedding anniversary, she gave him a book that listed the translation of "you're right" in fifteen different languages. She told him he could use it anytime he didn't know what to say to her. Hysterical. She had found the book at a used bookstore and wasn't sure of the author. I looked online and unfortunately didn't find the book. My wedding anniversary is next weekend so I decided to try and make my own little "you're right" book for my husband. Don't worry, I'll get him a nice gift too. :)

I started by making an image for the cover at scrapblog.

My pages are 4" x 4". If I ever do this again, I'd probably make them slightly larger. I just cut several 12" strips of paper and made a trifold with out any measurements. Then I glued the book together following the tutorial. It was EASY!


I had found some translations to "you're right" online (not sure of the translation site but there are a zillion out there). If you're interested in making something similar, you can paste the image below onto a word document to print.

I cut my translations out and glued them into the book.


Cute!

I'm still interested in finding the book but this will work for a silly anniversary gift.