Friday, August 28, 2009

Friday Fun Challenge #46

This week Sara challenged us to make something wearable or usable. I had a jewelry kit in my cabinet i was all set to use, but it didn't leave much room to actually stamp something. So I went to plan B domino magnets.




I have had these dominoes for a while now and decided to crack open the seal on the box. This was really a fast project. I pulled out my Copics and my Airbrush and layered on some color onto the dominoes. I then pulled out my black StazOn pad and went to stamp the image from Pocket Silhouettes and oops. I'm not sure if it was because my ink pad wasn't very juicy or if it was because I know Copics and StazOn don't play nice, but instead of laying down color, only a little black stayed down and a few layers of the Copic ink were pulled off. I actually kind of like the effect, but it needed more. So I used my Brilliance Coffee Bean pad and stamped again and then heat set it. Nope, still needed more. I then used my White Brilliance pad to stamp the final image. I think over all there is a lot of depth to the color and images because of the layers I applied. Finally, I grabbed my red sticky tape and was happy to see that it was the perfect width to go around the tile. I had some gold leaf flakes sitting around and applied that to the tape. It gave the tiles a wonderful finishing touch.

I was going to add a pin backing to these, but can find them right now, so I added magnets instead.


Details

Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes
Paper: NONE
Ink: Copic Markers, Black StazOn, Brilliance Coffee Bean, Brilliance White
Accessories: Red line tape, Gold Leaf, Magnet, Hot Glue

Don't forget to use keyword FFC46 if uploading to a gallery and please link back here. Check out the other Friday Fun Girls' creations. Kim is sitting this one out, but you can still leave her a little love.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Ribbon Storage

A few people have asked me to post pictures of my ribbon storage lately so I thought I would take a few shots. This has been a work in progress and I want to thank Becca at Amazing Paper Grace for her inspiration to get me more organized. I made a few changes to her system, but the thought is generally the same. I am so happy to be able to see my ribbon and as you know if you can't see you you wont use it. This has taken me a while but I packed up a bunch of spools and ribbon to take with me on my trip last weekend and had plenty of time in the car to wrap ribbon and get close to being done with this project.

The first shot is one of my small containers that I use for short lengths of ribbon. I use the tab punch and cut some small spools from card stock to wrap my shorter lengths and keep them closed with small rubber hair bands. These hold about a yard of ribbon each pretty nicely. Don't tell my girls I have been using their hair bands....ssssshhhhhh. I also have a second box, so don't think this all of my ribbon.


Now here is what I use for my larger lengths of ribbon. Rather than cutting pieces of mat board I decided to use some chipboard coasters I had in my stash as spools. I cut them in half and added the holes in order to hold the ribbon in place. It was a great way to use up the coasters I had....now I need more. Oooops. Who knew I would ever go through 200+ coasters much less be able to do it by using the majority of them for my ribbon. This was cheap and easy to do.

This is what a single spool looks like once rolled. Notice I tucked the tail of the ribbon through the hole in order to keep it in place. For some really wide ribbon I did use the hair bands again. For 1" ribbon the spools will hold over 5 yards without becoming too bulky. Thinner ribbon and sheer/satin will hold more per spool.

This is the 3 drawer storage cube I have. I have had this for years and it was most recently just holding some extra stuff that in reality was not put away properly. I cleaned it out and it is now FULL of ribbon. I will be buying another some time this week to hold more.

At this point I have the spools separated in 3 categories, patterned, grosgrain and satin/sheer. I think I will be arranging by color once I have the second cube and finish off these last few spools of ribbon I have left. Each drawer holds approximately 50 spools of ribbon. That is A LOT of ribbon!!!!

This is my patterned ribbon.
The satin sheer drawer. Do you think I have enough of the gray striped? I plan on using it for my Christmas cards this year. I don't know how I will use it yet, but it will be on there.
And now my grosgrain. I guess I need to flip a few of the spools over to keep all the tails pointing down so they don't get snagged. But this was after I just added all the spools I wrapped this weekend, so I was working quickly.
And there it is. Like I said before, I like that I can see all that I have and it is all the same size spool. I did like my old spool holders that were out on my desk, but those didn't work too well once the little fingers made their way up onto my desk. We had a few ribbon capers last year. These drawers and boxes are stored in my cabinet now, along with everything else I use, baby locks securely in place. :)

Tell me what you think.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Friday Fun Challenge #44

Hello all! This week our challenge was to make a card that was anything bit the usual shapes. I decided to make a free standing pop up card since I haven't made one in several years. You can find the tutorial here.







After inking up my image with Crushed Curry, I used my spritzer tool and Dusty Durango marker to add a little accent color to the stamp before applying to the paper. After that I sponged and distressed the image panel. The rest of the card was just assembly. Thanks for looking.

Details

Stamps: Razzel Dazzel
Paper: Razzelberry Lemonade, White, Crushed Crurry, Dusty Durango
Ink: Crushed Crurry, Dusty Durango
Accessories: Dew Drops, Prima Flowers, Large Brad, Flower Brad, Double Stitched Ribbon, ScorPal, Spritzing Tool.

Be sure to use keyword FFC44 when uploading and link back here. Also check out the other Friday Fun Girls creations.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Happy Birthday Team Ft Meade

Today Team Ft Meade met in Glen Burnie to celebrate Michelle's, Tracy's and Amanda's Birthdays. As always, the company was great and the stamped items were inspiring. My girls seemed to enjoy themselves too. As we were getting in the car the twins asked if we could stay and go shopping. I said no it was time to go home. Then Mackenzie said that she really liked mommy's friends and wanted to see them again. "Next time mommy we will stay with your friends and go shopping and you can leave." I guess I was the downer. ;)

When there is a birthday in the group, the birthday girl always gets a beautiful hat to wear. I was tasked with making one for Tracy, whom is the QUEEN RIBBON WHORE. You need to be careful when out shopping with her, she will knock you over to get to a good deal on ribbon. This is the hat I made for her.

Isn't it beautimous???? It is a bucket hat underneath and the ribbon is layered over the top. Then, by happy accident I made a little ribbon flower to go on the top.


I couldn't get a good shot of her wearing the hat. This is the manager of CiCi's leading the restaurant in Happy Birthday.

These are the coasters I made for Amanda and Tracy. I used Pocket Silhouettes and Ginger Blossom designer paper. The coasters are like mini picture frames and the images just slide in the back, you can tell a couple of them got a bit slanted as I was taking the pictures. I swear they are stamped straight, I just didn't get the time to make sure they were straight in the frames.
I also used the Ginger Blossom paper to create the gift bags. It all coordinated so nicely, if I do say so myself.

For Michelle I decorated a small vase or a votive holder with Love and Happiness Rub Ons and included a box of blueberry scented candles.
I love these little baskets I found. I actually bought about a half dozen to use as gift bags and for summer entertaining.

Happy Birthday ladies. I think I may need to hide next year as I am sure Tracy is going to get me back for the hat.

For more pictures of the day visit the Stamp Maryland Blog

Friday, August 7, 2009

Friday Fun Challenge #43

After taking last week off while some of the Friday Fun Girls were at CHA we are back this week and welcoming back Sara to our ranks. Sara had back surgery and has not been in her craft room lately, but she is coming back and we are glad to have her with us and she even gets to be the Friday Fun Hostess this month.

This week our challenge is to BLING IT UP!

I just saw the tutorial for Shadow Box cards a few weeks ago and decided to play around with one. As I was making it and had the inside of the window already cut out, I decided I could just as easily make it a pocket card as well, otherwise where would you sign it?

So where do I start explaining this one? I cut the window/insert with my Cricut. I stamped the Circle Circus images and punched the larges circles with the scallop punch and used my paper snips to cut the rest of the pieces. I need more small circle punches. I used the Copic airbrush and Y19 to add some more color to the images, and then sponged Rich Razzelberry around the edges. I also used my Copics to color some white grosgrain ribbon before tying it onto the pull out tag.

I added more accents with the white flurishes from the Priceless set and used my rhinestone brads to add the final details in the center of the circles and layering it all with dimensionals.




Details

Stamps: Circle Circus, Holidays and Wishes, Priceless
Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Crushed Curry, White, BasicGrey Eva
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Crushed Curry, Copic RV99 Y19, White Craft
Accessories: Rhinestone Brads, Cricut Cartridge Accent Essentials, Scallop Circle Punch, Copic Airbrush System, White Grosgrain Ribbon, Paper Piercing, Stampin' Dimensionals

Remeber if you want to play along, please show us your BLINGED projects by adding a link in the comment section here or by using keyword FFC43 on Splitcoast Stampers. Be sure to check out the other Friday Fun Chicks.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Inky Impressions 2nd Design Team Call



Hi all. I found the cutest little girl stamps last week that I just had to order, and they happened to have a design team call as well, so I figured I would apply just so that I can get the chance to play with these little girls. Here is my first card using Inky Impressions stamps.

Isn't she just adorable? When Mackenzie and Reganne saw the images they were convinced they had stamps made that looked just like them. I had to get that sentiment too. The girls will often say, "Mom, did you forget to remember..." I swear these stamps really were made just for my girls.

Here is a shot of which markers I used to color LiLi.

Details

Stamps: LiLi's Birthday Cake & Awe Shucks... by Inky Impressions
Paper: Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, White, Eva by Basic Grey
Ink: AMuse Black, Copic Markers
Accessories: Cuttlebug Flower Die, Rhinestone Brads, Thick Purple Ribbon, Purple and Pink Rick Rack Ribbon, 1-1/4" Circle Punch



Since my Inky Impressions stamps just arrived yesterday I prepared a second project earlier in the week using my newest Bella, Fashionistabella.
I am really proud of this little sewing kit. I don't normally sew on my cards because I don't want to go through all my sewing supplies to find everything. I figured that by making up this little tin I would have just enough to sew on my cards. This particular kit will be going out as a RAK so I added some ribbon, thread, needles and button.

Oh, but look at that thread. Yes, I made the thread card using my spiral punch. I feel so innovative.

A shot of the markers I used.


I actually used the E74 with the airbrush system to color the top metal edge of the tin. I love the way it colored the tin but left the metallic effect. I didn't get a good picture of the side of the tin to see the ribbon I wrapped around it. Sorry about that.

Details

Stamps: Fashionistabella
Paper: White, Perhaps by Basic Grey, Rose Red
Ink: AMuse Black, Copic Markers
Accessories: Buttons, Copic Airbrush System, Hinged Window Tin, Corner Rounder, Light Olive Grosgrain Ribbon

As you can see I have had a fun couple of days playing with some new toys. Thanks for taking a few minutes to look.