Shouting From The Rooftops!
I just wanted to share my excitement with you all! 1.) After 3 interviews, a personality profile test, and days of anxiety DH started his new “day” job today… he’s been unemployed since mid Jan when his company shut down. Starting today at 9 am he is the new Business Manager/Controller for Digis . YAY! God is AWESOME and does watch out for us!! 🙂 A BIG HUGE THANK YOU to all who have known about this and have offered up prayers, well wishes, and positive thoughts for us! They are much appreciated! 2.) I have been PUBLISHED! YAHOOOOO! I came up with a technique called Pounced Stenciled Pearls which has been published under the name Pounced Cuts in the Technique Junkies Newsletter. YAY! If you’re a subscriber, you can view my card and the tutorial that I wrote and filmed in the subscriber only pages. Totally exciting! Here’s the card featured in the tutorial I filmed for TJ online (golden card) and the original card that I made when coming up with this technique: … back to editing photos for my studio tour……. Inky Smiles!
Tutorial: Faux Designer Paper
Creative Supplies: DCWV Luxury 4×6 paper pad BG Bittersweet 6×6 paper pad Fiskars Lace border punch Nestabilities Ovals CTMH Inks – Grey Flannel & Garden Green CTMH Stamps – Decorative Dainties Designer paper… sometimes you get this whizbang idea and you need it. But usually, if you’re like me, your whizbang ideas come at 1 or 2 am and there’s no open scrapbook stores around. (Sure there’s online, but then you’re waiting 5-7 days for delivery…. shush you there in the peanut gallery!) So anyway… you’ve got this whizbang idea or you’re totally casing someone else’s whizbang idea and you need some Designer Paper.  What do you do? You pull out your stamps, some ink, some preprinted-wanna-be-almosta-designer-paper and you make it yourself! I saw a card on Beate John’s blog that I wanted to re-create. I wanted to use this awesome new DCWV Luxury pad that I’d picked up at Jo’s recently. The problem was that I didn’t want to use ALL shiny blingy Luxury paper on the entire card front… it needed some variance in the texture. So here’s what I did: Once I decided on the overall layout, I pulled out my BG Bittersweet 6×6 paper pad and pulled out the light cream sheet that was preprinted in a distressed and grungy manner. I thought it would be super for a background for the FDP. Step 1:  Practice stamping with your image to make sure you get the desired effect. I wanted mine to be semi grunge/distressed but mostly stamped. It worked for this stamp to use the piece of foamy stuff that comes with the CTMH stamps under the paper. Step 2: Practice on a piece of scrap paper… Then, random stamp your design on the final paper/cardstock. Don’t worry about it being completely perfect because you’re going to cut up this masterpiece in a couple of minutes anyway… 🙂 Now you have a piece of Faux Designer Paper… Or semi homemade Designer Paper.. you decide. LOL! Step 3: Cut your Random Stamped FDP and create your card & send to a friend or two! Inky Smiles!
Sneak Peak: Faux Designer Paper
I wrote a tutorial this morning… this next week could be busy for me, so I’ve written up a couple of posts to share and scheduled them with blogger. Here’s a sneak peek of a card I made using Faux Designer Paper.
Tutorial: Paper Beads Part Two – Adding Bling & Stringing Your Beads.
We covered the making of the actual beads in Part One. The post was getting quite long so I decided to start a Part Two post – Add some bling and string your beads. {Continued from Part One} Adding Bling ** At this point you can also opt to add some bling to your beads. I experimented with adding Perfect Pearls glittery powder, glitter, and Stickles. Here are some photos of my experiments. Perfect Pearls: Worked on blue beads fantastically! Glitter: Sprinkle on after you dip in UTEE. Beautiful addition to red and tan beads. Stickles: Carefully dab onto dry UTEE and then dip in UTEE again. Didn’t work so great because the glue in the Stickles bubbles up and makes a nasty mess. Hints: Don’t heat too close or too long to the bead or it will glob up and the UTEE will flow like lava off your bead. (See above right photo.) And please don’t touch the bead like me until it’s cool or it WILL burn you and make a mess. Taking one for the team… ouch! Stringing Your Beads 1.) Gather up your tools & supplies: Pliers, Tiger Wire, Crimp Beads, Spacer Beads, and Clasps (I used a Toggle Clasp). If you are adding a charm, gather your jump rings and charm, too. 2.) Cut a piece of tiger wire long enough to go around your wrist PLUS at least about 4” extra. I cut a 12” length for an 8” bracelet. Lay out flat on your workspace. 3.) Start by stringing your crimp bead followed by one part of the clasp you’re using. Then fold about 1” or so of the tiger wire over the ring on the clasp and thread it back through the crimp bead. This will secure your clasp to your bracelet. 4.) String the beads. I string a few coordinating “starter” beads on. These help space out the paper beads and give some better maneuverability to the toggle clasp. String all your beads on until you have the desired length & design. End your string of beads with the same # of spacer beads that you used at the beginning. 5.) String on one more crimp bead and the other half of your clasp. Fold over loop on clasp and thread back through crimp bead and all of the spacer beads. Keep pulling the wire until it is snugged down around the loop on the clasp. You may need to use your pliers to gently tug and pull the wire to the correct length. 6.) Snip off the wire so that it ends about half way through the last paper bead. (See above right photo.) This should secure the wire so that it doesn’t pop out and scratch you. Voila! You now have a custom handmade piece of jewelry to add to your collection or to give away! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial & as always, I would LOVE to see what you come up with! BONUS RAK: I’m going to give this bracelet away in the evening on Wednesday, January 14th to a random commenter using a random integer generator. Here’s how you can put your name in hat: * Post a link on your blog back to this bracelet tutorial and leave a comment here letting me know you’ve shared. Comments will be closed at 6:00 PM Wednesday night. I will draw a random name on Wednesday evening. Inky Smiles & Good luck 🙂
Tutorial: Paper Bead Bracelets Part One
This was supposed to be posted on Friday, but our internet was out (AGAIN) and I spent the morning on the phone switching our phone service over in preparation for switching internet service. (We have VOIP phone and wanted to make sure we kept our phone number…) And then we went up north for the Draper Temple open house. (We got a special invitation because Brent is an elected official.) It was so neat, they had a great tour and a little reception at the end with a gift of the “Then Sings My Soul” cd from the MoTab Choir. The very best part of the evening was when we got to shake hands with one of the leaders of my church, Elder Eyring… What a fabuous evening! Anyway… here’s the tutorial! This technique is SUPER easy. My mom said this is a way old paper art…. she has a necklace made from old rolled up newspapers. (It’s super pretty!) I loved the bracelets at PTI, but I did not like the idea of ModPodge on a wearable item. If you’ve ever gotten something wet that was one ModPodge’d you know what I mean… ewww. I also saw these beads made on a YouTube video by Suse Weinburg, but I did not have the UTEE melting pot. Michael’s has it but it’s $34.99 and I didn’t have a coupon when I was there… Anyway… if you have an old Versamark pad, a heat gun and some UTEE and a little creativity, you’re good to go. 🙂 I hope you enjoy making these beads and I would love to see what you come up with! 1.) Gather your supplies. I used the following: s Versamark Pad s Heat Gun s Patterned paper s Spacer beads (glass or metal) s Clasps & crimp beads s Wire Snips/Pliers s Tools for rolling paper (anything long and skinny will work) s Glue pen s Ultra Thick Embossing Powder s Various glitter/shimmery powder s A mat or paper pad to protect your work surface 2.) Cut long, narrow triangular strips of paper and set aside. The # of strips you need depends on how many beads you will need to go around your wrist. Cut extra pieces for those “oops” moments. Where’s Waldo? Can you find the pink strips on that marvelous pink mat? LOL! 3.) Roll wide end of paper onto whatever you’re using to hold the bead. I switched to wooden skewers (WalMart) in the middle of the tutorial. (The embossing tool actually works great to hold the bead while melting the UTEE later….) Use glue if you need to help secure the paper while rolling. When you reach the end of the paper be sure to use the tiniest amount of glue possible to securely stick down the narrow end. If you have extra glue oozing out it will make a mess in step 5. 4.) Roll the bead on your Versamark pad and generously ink up the bead. Make sure all of the paper is completely inked up. Dip into UTEE powder and thoroughly coat. Gently tap off excess. 5.) Heat up your heat gun and hold the bead in the heat. Rotate the bead while the UTEE melts. (This keeps the UTEE from globbing up in a puddle on the bead.) Don’t hold the heat in one place too long or you may also burn the UTEE and it will turn a nasty yellow color. 6.) Let bead cool, then roll in Versamark and dip in UTEE again until you get the desired thickness of coating and desired appearance of your bead. ** Click here: ** Continue to Part Two: Adding Bling & Stringing Your Beads
A Lady’s Set: Bracelet and Cards
I have wanted to share these for forevvvvvvvvver! I finished them back before Christmas but couldn’t post them because the recipients (Tammy, Valerie & Ashley) read my blog. I work with 3 of the most wonderful ladies in our women’s organization at church. It is a pleasure to be able to serve with them. I wanted to surprise them this Christmas with a little something fun. The excitement was magnified by my friend Tammy who kept bringing up and asking me about “those pink and white cards you made on your blog”. LOL! It’s super fun to make something for someone when you know they’re gonna love it. 🙂 I simply can’t get enough of the elegant simplicity of these cards. The possibilities are endless!!! A little cardstock and some bits of leftover patterned paper and you’re good to go. (I know, I know… I just love them and I won’t post about them again for a long, long time.) I am mostly excited about the personalized, custom paper bead bracelets! I tried to choose colors that the recipients liked. They are super fun and ridiculously easy to make. (Tutorial coming.) I saw them online at PTI and liked them, but did not like the idea of using Mod Podge on a wearable item… sticky gooey mess if it got sweaty or wet. You can add glitter and sparkle to any paper of your choice. You don’t even have to worry about the pattern being “out of date” because all you’re looking for is the color… The pattern gets rolled up nice and neatly as it becomes a bead. I personalized each bracelet with a tiny metal charm engraved with the recipient’s first name initial.
Missing In Action
Hi all! I am just popping in to let you know that I am still alive and kicking… barely kicking because my energy level is nearly non existent. For several weeks now I have not had the energy to do much at all. I get up out of bed and accomplish a few things around the house, suffer through work, whatever it needs to be, and then crash out. I have not slept through the night in months… Naps have not helped at all. I have not been able to focus on anything. I mentioned a while ago (vaguely) about the issues I’ve been working on with my health and trying to figure things out. The pain in my back is still here, but it’s manageable now, but other issues are not figured out yet. I was at the dr several times this past week for some reg check ups and also for testing. Well, during that time I got the results of a couple of tests back, negative on two (YAY) but positive on one… moderate anemia due to iron deficiency (There are 3 levels of anemia – mild, moderate, and severe which requires blood transfusions). GREAT. That explains a LOT of the issues that have been going on. I told a friend yesterday and her response was, ” Well, didn’t you think that when you couldn’t get out of bed in the mornings?” Uhm… not really, I’ve never experienced anemia before. I’ve got fibromyalgia and have always thought that I was just fatigued because of it! ANyway… I am now on iron pills for a min 30 days and the dr said that I should start to get feeling better…. I am so looking forward to having energy again!! I have just felt like poodoo for so long and have let pretty much everything go, my blog, my house, my projects, etc, because I haven’t had energy to stay on top of it. I am tired of feeling like the woman who whines about all the drama in her life.. LOL! This year has been INSANE… I’m not the sort of person who has this much drama in her life.. UGH. SOOOO… I am hoping that these iron pills start kicking in and that I get to feeling much mo bettah! I am finally mostly sleeping thru the night, so that’s a start! I am working on a fun little tutorial to share with you… hope to have it up this evening sometime tomorrow. Inky Smiles!
Let It Snow
Here’s a really simple little card… I was playing around with some scraps (from partial embossing the other day) while cleaning up my office this morning (I didn’t get very far in cleaning). We woke up to about 2.5″ of snow this morning and it’s been brrr cold all day. I used CTMH cardstock, I think it’s Crystal Blue. It got mixed in with some other blues, and I haven’t found my CTMH color ring (buried in boxes still somewhere) yet. Anyway… it was partial embossed the other day for this mini tutorial and I tore some white cs for contrast. I used grey Velvet Thickers from American Crafts for the sentiment and stamped “let it” in CTMH Twilight ink and traced it with a silver Sakura Gelly Roll glitter pen. I also traced and colored in all of the raised snowflakes with the Sakura pen and finished it off with a big fat white satin ribbon. I think if I spent more time on it I could have come up with something awesome, but this was fun to just play around with and doodle and color. 🙂 I wish you could see the glitter in person.. It’s so sparkly!
Thoughts for Thursday: Friendship
“Friends broaden our horizons. They serve as new models with whom we can identify. They allow us to be ourselves–and accept us that way. They enhance our self-esteem because they think we’re okay, because we matter to them. And because they matter to us-for various reasons, at various levels of intensity-they enrich the quality of our emotional life.” —Judith Viorst (b. 1931), novelist, U.S. newspaper columnist “Friendship improves happiness and abates misery,by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.” —Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.), Roman statesman, orator, philosopher (I made these last week, but I could not share them yet because they had not gone out in the mail and I wanted them to be a surprise in people’s mail boxes.) I am having a party at my home in a few weeks with some family…. it’s a Girls Night Out of sorts. I thought it would be fun to get together and just hang out and play some games and enjoy some yummy treats together. When I saw these cards on Jeanne’s blog that she saw on this blog, I HAD to try them out! Talk about easy schmeasy!!! I went to bed after checking out her cards and literally dreamt about the colors and what I wanted to “tie on” the knots. I knew I had to get some invitations out to the girls a.s.a.p. and these would be perfect invites. The technique is called Partial Embossing with a Cuttlebug folder. It’s super easy to do: 1.) Click here to read the tutorial so I don’t have to re type it in my own words and take and edit photographs when Adela has already done such a nice job for us 🙂 After picking Mom up at the airport we ran a few errands, mainly finding the right ribbon and flowers @ Robert’s Crafts and then rushed home, gobbled down some dinner, showed Mom the progress on the house remodel and then scurried down to the studio to get workin on the invitations – assembly line style. We finished them up the next day and I addressed them and popped them in the mail. Sixteen elegant and simple invites were done in a flash!
Where The Rubber Hits The … errr…. Acrylic Block! A Tutorial
Better late than never…. I DID tell you I was working on a tutorial last week… 🙂 As I type this, I am relishing in the sound of plaster being sawed off the walls and am giddy with excitement to hear the sound of the saw riiiiiiiiiiippppppppppppppppping through the nasty acrylic bathtub and surround that currently makes up my master bath “oasis”. Hehe! We are waiting for the floor trip and stair bullnose to show up so that we can continue on with the woodfloor install. With any luck it should be here the first of next week and then the BIG mess begins. Once all the floors are in I can start REALLY sorting out my stuff and rebuilding my space. (Plus, B will might have time to build my new piece o’ furniture for the studio…. eventually.. lol!) *Deep Breath* For the longest time I simply could not get off the “clear acrylic stamps only” wagon… I LOVE clear acrylic stamps! I love being able to see exactly where I stamp on my artwork and not have to get a “crick” in my neck laying my head down on the desk trying to line up a stamp. I have found some marvelous stamped images that are manufactured in red rubber and have been “hohumming” about buying them because I really just don’t like using wooden blocks and/or not being able to “see” where I am stamping… SO…. I peeked around on the web and saw this idea and decided to try it out. I have seen the light! My eyes have been opened to a whole new RED {& grey} world !!! It works for me, so I thought I’d share it with you. I snapped these photos AGES ago, right before “The Great Flood”, which explains the InkStak in the background. 🙂 So without further rambling…. Where The Rubber Hits The …. errr….. Acrylic Block! You will need:* A sheet of uncut rubber images* Sharp pair of scissors* EZ Mount foam stuff* StazOn ink {& cleaner}* Scrap paper The rubber stamps that I am showing in this tutorial are from Missy B Designs. Missy is the daughter of a friend of mine and has some way cute {and way *snort* cheeky} designs. *All stamp images in this tutorial are Copyright Missy B Designs. Step 1:First things first, this red rubber stuff comes in a sheet that is flimsy and floppy {and a bit stinky, too}… it helps to do a rough cut around the images for easier handling. Onward and upward…. The REAL Step 1:Once you have a manageable piece of rubber stamp to work with, cut a little closer to the images and trim them up how you like your stamps. I try to trim mine with nice sharp solid edges as close to the image as possible so that I have limited “oops” stamping areas on the rubber. Toss out the scraps. Step 2:There is a {really, extremely, horribly) sticky side of the EZ Mount Foam stuff and there is a “static” side. For this step, you need to determine which side is the sticky side. (DO NOT PEEL OFF THE PROTECTIVE PAPER YET (please, cuz you will regret it, I promise… see it totally pulling at my skin? It’s not worth the hassle, leave the paper on… ok… moving on.. hehe…) Step 4:Place your stamp image with the IMAGE side facing UP and the flat side (back) facing DOWN on the EZ Mount Foam and trace it out with a Sharpie marker. Step 5:Cut the image out of the EZ Mount Foam with sharp scissors. You will most likely need to clean them with an anti gunk cleaner. It’s some nasty sticky stuff! Steps 6, 7, & 8: Peel the paper off of the STATIC side of the EZ Mount Foam and lay STATIC side UP on the workspace. Ink up the stamp with black StazOn ink, careful not to get ink on the edges {or your fingers – Black Finger Club here we come….} GENTLY press the image onto the STATIC side of the EZ Mount Foam. Place it on the EZ Mount EXACTLY to fit how it was cut out. Let the ink dry for a few minutes or you will end up a member of the Black Finger Club. Step 9:Remove the paper from the sticky side and adhere the rubber stamp, image side UP. See pics below. You should be able to see images on both sides of the stamp. That’s it! Now you have an image that you will be able to see AND line up through the clear acrylic block. If you’re careful about making sure all your edges match you will be able to get a nice lined up image even without being able to see through to the paper. This what you will end up with. You can see in the first photo why I know about the Black Finger Club… EDITED: if it’s not a square stamp (above far right picture), cut out as close to the image as possible using nice straight lines and just sort of cut around the image. It helps to match up the image to the EZ Mount if you cut in a way that it can only match up one way. (See the crown?) Also, I have not noticed that the ink inhibits clinging to the block.