So, I have removed my TagExtras.com website and will no longer be making (or sharing) my sets of tag extras.

For anyone who is interested I’ve gone back to crafting and I’m now making handmade journals. Some of the journals I’ve been making are called glue books and some could also be used as a daily planner because almost all of them contain lots of writing space. My shop can be found HERE and I’ve already added a few journals for sale there and will be adding a lot more just as soon as I can create some flip through videos and previews for each of them.

Besides journals I will also be adding all sorts of supplies for journal makers. Items like fabric, handmade ephemera packs, yarn, lace and decorative trim, vintage book page packs, coffee dyed paper, old books, etc… I might also be doing a de-stash where I sell some tools that I purchased for crafting but have never found a use for them. It’s funny when you’re out and about and you find craft items from thrift shops, yard sales, etc.. and you take those items home and stick them on a shelf or throw them in a drawer somewhere but you end up never using them, lol. That’s the story of my life. I have so much craft stuff that sometimes it’s actually hard to do any crafting at all because of it.

Anyway, I think I’ve jabbered on for awhile so I will let you go for now. Thanks for stopping by and hugs, PL (aka Mod Girl)

If it wasn’t for crafting there are many times where I didn’t think I would ever get through the day. My mother-in-law passing has hit us pretty hard and we are trying to get through it the best ways we know how. Hubs likes to talk it out and I like to sit in my craft room and do some crafting. I don’t know if I ever mentioned this or not but lately I’ve been into making a lot of junk journals.

I’m working on one right now that I started on a few days ago. The junk journal started out as an old book that I found at this little old mans yard sale. It’s an old 1942 University Of Carolina year book. What caught my eye about the book was the cover of it. It has raised 3-d letters on the cover of the title of the book and covered in creamy navy blue leather. I was somewhat surprised to see that it was in such good shape for it’s age. So, I remember picking it up and looking through it at all the wonderful images of men and women from the 1940’s. So much nostalgia, lol. So, the little old man saw that I was interested in the book and shouted the price at me, “$5.00” he said. Well, you better believe that I snatched that book up faster than you could imagine, lol.

So, I gutted the inside of the book because I wanted to use all the images from the book in my crafting. The spine was in really great shape but I reinforced it just the same because I plan on either selling it or using it myself. Now, I have Roku on my smart tv and I can get youtube on it too so lately I’ve been watching lot’s of junk journal tutorials. I don’t watch them to learn how to make junk journals because I’ve already figured that part out, lol. But I like to see what everyone else is doing in the junk journal world. So, after watching a few of them, youtube shows you some other videos that may interest you.

Well, I was looking at a few that caught my eye and one channel in particular was called The Rebookery where she was making these junk journals using vintage stuff that she found at thrift stores and other places. I really liked how she worked on creating her journals and while I was watching some of her videos I kept looking at that 1942 year book I had purchased from that little old man and decided it would be a good idea to try out her style of creating using  that year book. So, the past few days I have been sitting here crafting like a maniac.

However, I realized that I would have to do some of the same things she did in her videos with this book because the book cover was so big that regular scrapbook paper was too small for it. So, I started sewing pages together just like she did to make them bigger. And I also added fabric ruffles and fabric borders on some of the pages. After that, I went into some of my really old fabric stash and grabbed some old stuff that I thought I could use to make some pockets to add to the pages.

I have to say, I’m really having a good time creating this junk journal. It has been so much fun to go through old stuff that I never thought I would ever use. I’m putting lots of it into this junk journal and so far it’s turning into a big fatty, lol. I have some really old playing cards, gift cards, vintage lace and other items that I plan on adding to it too. It’s going to be so scrumptious when I get through with it, lol.

And, if I can get my video camera to work right I will take a few pics of the junk journal as soon as it’s finished and add them here so you can see what it looks like. I’m quite proud of it and I do believe this is some of my best work. There is a lot of love poured into this junk journal and if it doesn’t sell, I have no problem keeping it for myself, lol.

Thanks for stopping by and hugs, Mod Girl.

A few days ago we got the call that my MIL passed away. Hubs took it very hard and he’ll be going to the funeral next week. His sisters and his late mom live in AZ and we live in NC so he will need to fly to get there. We can’t afford 2 plane tickets so he’ll be going on his own.

I know there are many women (and men too) who don’t get along or even like there MIL. I did. In fact, I loved that crazy old lady and I will miss her terribly.  Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t agree all the time on things but I think that’s how it’s supposed to be. You think one way and someone else thinks another way. And, you don’t stop caring about that person just because you don’t agree on something.

I don’t like talking about my personal life mainly because my early years were pretty devastating to think back on. And I didn’t have a close knit family upbringing like so many other families did. So, when I met my soon to be MIL years ago, she welcomed me with open arms. She didn’t judge someone by what they said or what they thought. She always looked at someone by the actions they took. And she always told you how she felt about something even if you didn’t want to hear about it. She put it out there and held nothing back. She was sweet, she was kind and one of the nicest persons I have ever met.

I keep remembering the funny times we used to have and that always brings a smile to my face. Before she moved to AZ to be near her daughters she lived here in NC right down the road from us. It was a wonderful time. We would have a family gathering every weekend where we would visit and talk about things that were important to us while eating a really good home cooked meal and as soon as dinner was over we would bring out the dominoes or cards to play. Mom usually did the cooking but there were times I would bring dinner over and give her a break from cooking. FYI, I’m not the best cook in the world and I do my best but she didn’t care in the least because she knew it was something I did from the heart and she always gave me a big smile and told me how I was such a good cook.

Mom had a little cleaning business at the beach which is about an hour from us. In the summer time on the weekends, hubs and I would go help her clean condo’s. The work wasn’t always that hard and we would end up having something funny happen on the way to work or on the way back home almost every day, lol. One time in particular we were on our way home and it was raining really hard and I kept hearing a weird noise so I looked out the rear window and saw sparks were flying like crazy. I started to scream and told mom the car was on fire. She started to laugh and said it was nothing. It was just the exhaust pipe had been jiggly for awhile and now it was scraping the ground. And then she said she could still drive without the exhaust pipe so there was nothing to worry about.

Her car was really old and it was huge with 4 doors and the paint was peeling off and there was rust all over it and she said it was the best car she ever had. I remember lifting the back seat floor mat one day and seeing the ground below, lol. The hole wasn’t big enough to fall through and was at a place where you didn’t have to worry too much about it. And when I would tell her that she was driving a rust bucket of bolts she would just laugh.

That’s the type of person mom was. Hubs used to tell me stories about his mom growing up and how she hit him over the head one time with an iron skillet. lol. He was in his teens and was getting snarky and talking back to his mom one day after dinner and she kept telling him to be quiet but he wouldn’t listen and then he said the next thing he knew she picked up her iron skillet and hit him up side the head with it, lol. Well, he was out like a light and mom was screaming and crying thinking she had killed him. He came too and looked at her and said damn, Mom! why’d you do that for? So she hit him again for swearing, lol.

And you know, I think when you lose someone you love, in order to get through the pain you need to remember all those things that made you love that person to begin with. It won’t make the pain completely go away but it’s sometimes better to laugh about life then to cry about it all the time.

I get asked this a lot; “How do you make tags so fast?” Well, there is no secret behind my making of tags. Usually when I’m offering a tag (either in my own group or someone else’s) I open my psp graphic program and open the tag template of the tag I just offered. That way, I can just add names to all the tags and send them back (very quickly) to the member who requested them.

Now, there are many times where I won’t make the tags as fast as that for a number of reasons. One because I’m busy making new tags or Two, because there is always a time limit on the tag and most of time it’s anywhere from a few days to a week.  That’s when I wait until I have more tag requests come in and then I’ll make them all at once to save time.

But, on quick tag offers, I ALWAYS have the tag open in psp so I can add names to them very quickly. I think members appreciate it more when they can get they’re tag back as soon as possible. Plus, I think it takes the anxiety away from members who might wonder if there tag request ever went through or not. And the way that online groups are sometimes ,you’re not always sure of that.