Running With Scissors…

Part One:  Altered Items

This post is dedicated to Claudia F. and Andrea Mason and to everyone else who’d like to see more altered items.  I do have a category, listed to the right, called Altered States that includes every altered item I’ve posted.  There’s not a lot in there right now, but I’ll see what I can do about that in the future.  I’d also like to again thank Pattyjo and Mary R for the nudge toward chipboard.

I absolutely love altering these tins.  Truthfully, beginning to end, it’s a lot quicker than designing a card.  There are far fewer decisions to make.  My tin came from a friend but I found this site that sells all kinds of tins and other containers at wholesale prices.  This particular tin is priced at only 74 cents!  I now have a new love of chipboard, too, and even though I did take a peek in the Stampin’ Up! catalog, I’m not going to rush into buying every piece of chipboard I can get my hands on.  That was the old me.  The new me just cleaned her stamp room and doesn’t want to clutter it up again.

Before I go any further I’d like to address the ribbon spools.  The idea to alter them was completely inspired by Candy Williams (SCS user, cwilliams).  If you’re a Splitcoaststampers Fan Club member you can view what she did with ribbon spools here.  The functionality is different in that Candy dressed an empty spool to the nines and turned it into a gift bag tag.  Not just any old tag — more like an ornament.  Very cool!  The spools I altered are much simpler, ribbon intact, intended to be used as a ribbon spool — stacked, lined up in a drawer, thrown in a basket, hung on a dowel.  In this case, the two ribbon spools fit perfectly inside the tin to make a cute little gift.  I made this set for a doorprize for an upcoming Portland, Oregon SCS dinner.  I plan to decorate a gift bag for it, too, and include a couple of unaltered tins for the recipient’s altering pleasure.

To cover these Offray ribbon spools I just smeared Alene’s Tacky glue over the surface of the spool, then pressed it onto the cardstock.  I burnished it and let it set up for just a few seconds and then trimmed around the edges with scissors.  The center was cut with an exacto knife and all rough edges were smoothed with sandpaper.  I used wadded up toilet paper to smoosh ink onto the cardstock and stamped the surface with some little circles from Seeing Spots.

For the scalloped center I punched a 3/4″ hole in the designer paper, then punched with my Stampin’ Up! scallop punch centered over the hole.  Of course, I covered both sides of the spool in the same manner.

The cardstock on the top of the tin was applied in the same manner, with tacky glue, but the sides were adhered with Sticky Strip (red liner tape).  The chipboard flower was covered with the tacky glue process — smear, press, trim and sand.  I had mentioned before that I would photograph the process of covering chipboard but, darn it, I was having so much fun I forgot to take pictures — sorry!

Stamps:  Seeing Spots

Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Lovely Lilac, Green Galore, My Minds Eye Kaleidoscope designer paper

Ink:  Same as cardstock

Accessories:  Stampin’ Up! On Board Blossoms & Basics chipboard, ribbon, scallop punch, 3/4″ circle punch

Part two:  Some questions answered

As I go along in my posts in the following days I’ll be trying to provide some of the things folks mentioned they’d like to see, such as the chipboard and altered items in this post.  I’ll also begin answering a few questions at a time.

Allison asked:  “Do you have any fav paper/stamp/embellishment companies you’d like to list?” 

Well, I do get all my cardstock from Stampin’ Up! because I like the weight of it and I love all those matching inks and accessories.  Their designer papers are fun, too, because of the coordinating colors and patterns.  BasicGrey designer paper is one of my favorites, but I use so many others, too — My Mind’s Eye, Wild Asparagus, Bohemia, Chatterbox…the list is endless!  As for embellishments, I get those here, there and everywhere and I couldn’t pick a favorite company but I find a lot of fun stuff at Paper Wishes.  Most of my ribbons come from Stampin’ Up!, Wal-Mart, Joann’s.  When I want to indulge in something really gorgeous I visit Jacksonbelle Embellishments.

Linda Beth Smith asked:  “I would like to know what kind of paper cutter you use or would recommend. I seem to go through a lot of cutting blades. I use the Fiskars cutter with the swingout arm. Is there a better cutter or one that is self sharpening?”

I have the Fiskars cutter, too, and used it for a long time, constantly replacing blades.  I finally took the plunge and got the guillotine cutter sold by Stampin’ Up!  I don’t know if it’s self-sharpening, but I’ve had mine for about a year and it’s not the least bit dull.  It won’t cut your fingers but it cuts through paper like butter.  It’ll shave off the tiniest sliver and still be straight.

Kammie asked:  “What do you do when/if you’ve lost your stamping mojo? Where do you find your inspiration?”

When that happens I usually just let it go.  It’ll come plodding back sooner or later.  If I make too many duds in a row I’ll take a short break, a day or two.  I’ll visit some galleries and blogs, leaf through Paper Crafts, go shopping at the local scrapbook store, talk with my stamping friends.  It won’t be long before all the colors and fun projects get me excited again.  Maybe I’ll just go look at my stash of designer papers.  Really, nothing gets me going like those designer papers!  A lot of folks will tell you that the challenges are a great way to get going again.  Gosh, I’d say the combination of a sketch challenge and some designer papers ought to do the trick.

Jan Scholl asked:  “Do you run with scissors or will you poke your eye out like mom’s always said?”

I know this question was asked in fun, but I’d like to answer it, anyway.  Figuratively speaking, I do run with scissors.  When I was trying to think of a name for my blog all the usual things about paper, stamps and ink came to mind but I wanted something different.  When I thought about the other paraphernalia used in stamping, scissors came to the fore.  Yep, I thought, that’s me — running with scissors.  It seems like I’m always stamping on the run — a little here, a little there.  I have a full time job and it’s not easy to work in all this stamping and blogging.  A lot of the stamping takes place in my head while I’m waiting for the opportunity to get to my stamp room.  Chances are that might be about 15 minutes before I leave for work in the morning, so I may just pull out a couple of designer papers, cut a card base, select a stamp set, throw some things in a bag to work on during break times.  Writing a blog post is the same way — I’ll write a little, save it, come back later.  Yes, I do run with scissors but it’s not my preferred method of stamping.  It is possible to find time for the things we love and once in a while I have the pleasure of some uninterrupted stamping time — Heaven!

Thanks for visiting today!  This was another rather lengthy post but, as always, there’s the option of just looking at the pictures or skipping to the end.  I used to subscribe to all kinds of gardening magazines and that’s mostly what I did with them — look at the pictures.  At least this is free!  We’ll talk again soon.  Have a wonderful day!

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