Running With Scissors…

Spring is a time of renewal and new life and I guess that’s as good a time as any for Flourishes to release their new Rock a Bye Baby set.  I see such love and sweetness in these gentle vintage images.  I really do like this set.

There are four stamps in the set, all of which are shown here.  They’re perfect for coloring with soft chalks for the delicate shading and moon glow effect.  I kept to colors that felt vintage this time around but I’ll be looking forward to trying my hand at some different looks, as well.  The crescent moon on the tin was cut out and raised on dimensional foam tape.  I haven’t decided yet what might go in the tin.  Any ideas?  I think some baby soaps would be nice, or maybe an assortment of itty bitty socks or booties.

Here’s a little closer look at the card:

I used some starry, sparkly Disney vellum by EK Success to create a night sky for my background.  It’s adhered with double stick tape under the ribbon and behind the main image.  It’s further secured with the ribbon tied through a slot punch opening in the corner.  After I stamped the sentiment I trimmed around it and snipped the ends to make it resemble a stream of ribbon.  The ecru lace added an additional touch of vintage to the design.

Flourishes has released another set today, as well.  It features lilacs and magnolias and you may imagine it’s a set after my own heart.  I’ll be sharing a card from that set tomorrow.

Now, for a little excitement…have you heard Flourishes big news yet?  They’re no longer the three Flourishes ladies many of us have become familiar with:  Jan Marie Caruso, Nancy Kirk and Sharon Doolittle.  They’ve grown to four.  And who might that fourth Flourish be, you wonder?  Well…

Gosh, I think you should take a little trip right here to find out — I wouldn’t want to spoil her surprise!  I’m truly delighted at this news and I know all Four Flourishes are, as well!

You may also want to check Flourishes’ SCS forum Wednesday, the 14th, for another one of their fun contests with a very generous prize.  They’ll be announcing their big news there, too.  It’s BIG!  And I think it means big, wonderful, exciting things in store for all of us stampers, too!

Thank you so much for dropping in on me today.  Have a wonderful rest of the week!

• Stamps:  Rock a Bye Baby
• Paper:  Not Quite Navy, EK Success Disney vellum, More Mustard, So Saffron, Whisper White, SU! Spring Flowers DP (retired)
• Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, More Mustard
• Accessories:  Stampin’ Pastels for coloring, ribbon, lace, ticket corner punch, slot punch, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

Today I made this little altered Altoid tin and notepad set using a retired Stampin’ Up! Simply Scrappin’ Kit and some K&Company self-adhesive dimensional flowers.  The tin is tightly packed with stamping type goodies but can be used later for paper clips or whatever anyone might keep near their telephone notepad.   I don’t know why it is that I love altered Altoid tins so much.  I have quite a stash of them in all colors…wouldn’t dream of throwing one away.  It must be the treasure chest appeal of them.  I feel the same way about pretty notebooks.  A person can only have so many of either so I guess I’ll just keep making them for anyone I haven’t given a set to yet.

I sized the notepad around a Meade 3×5 scratch pad.  You can buy them in multi-packs in different colors.  They have a cardboard back and I designed the cover with a band to hold the pad in place.  When the sheets are all used up you can slip another pad into the band and keep the cover until it’s all worn out or you’re tired of looking at it.

To make the cover:

1.  Cut cardstock 3 1/4″ x 10 3/4″.  Score across at 5 1/4″ and 5 1/2″.  I also cut an 1/8″ strip of cardstock to adhere between the folds for reinforcement and lined the inside back cover with contrasting cardstock.

2.  Cut the band 2″ x 7″.  Center and adhere the band on the back cover about 1/4″ down from the fold and wrap it around to the inside.  It’s important to use the cardboard back of the Meade pad as a spacer so the band won’t be too tight.  Simply open the pad and lay the back on the cover, then wrap the band around it.  Adhere with Sticky Strip or your favorite adhesive.

3.  Decorate the front as desired.

I hope I have time tomorrow night after work to make another project.  The evenings are so short and I’m making quite a mess around me with no time to clean it up.  You know how that goes!  As of Friday, the 21st, I’ll be on vacation until after the first of the year.  Can you imagine how much I’m looking forward to that?  At least I’ll have time to wrap the last of the presents, clean up the house and maybe do a little holiday baking.  I plan to spend plenty of quality time in my stamp room before I go back to work, too.  I can’t wait!  Take care until we meet again!

Hello!  Well, I’ve had a busy but fun evening.  I finished this little gift box and card tonight in between baking blueberry muffins and running back and forth to greet the trick-or-treaters.  Oh, my goodness!  Have I ever seen some adorable costumes today!  Halloween is always quite a day at work with the costume and pumpkin carving contests and employees and patients bringing their little ones around for treats.  I’m sure this day is second only to Christmas when it comes to excitement and anticipation for the kids.

This Christmas gift box started out as one of those little white boxes that department store jewelry comes in.  I used Alene’s Tacky Glue to cover it with Bashful Blue cardstock and some of last year’s SU! Christmas designer papers.  The ribbon is adhered with Sticky Strip, with the ribbon ends tied through a pewter ribbon slide.  After the papers had been applied I sanded the edges to smooth, distress and soften them.  I sanded the cardstock, too, which made it soft to the touch as well as soft in appearance.

The beautiful Peace stamp by Flourishes was stamped on an oval of Whisper White with ColorBox Sky Blue pigment ink and embossed with Stampendous Stardust embossing powder.  This EP is very glittery with a silvery cast, yet transparent enough to allow the ink color to show through.  It’s one of my favorites!  This stamp set is one of my favorites, too.  I love how I was able to make such a wonderfully coordinated set with the image in two sizes.  I rarely mount a main image without matting it, but I liked the clean and wintery look with the ovals simply sponged around the edges with Bashful Blue ink. 

By the way, there’s a Christmas brooch inside the box.  It’s the Dove of Peace studded with multicolored rhinestones.  The gift is much more special now with a little simple altering of the package and a matching card.  Isn’t stamping wonderful?  I hope you had a nice evening, too!  See you again soon!

Stamps:  Peace by Flourishes

Paper:  SU! Bashful Blue, Whisper White and double sided designer paper

Ink:  ColorBox Sky Blue pigment ink, SU! Bashful Blue

Accessories:  Offray ribbon, silver cord, ribbon slide, slot punch, Creative memories oval cutting system, Scotch brand dimensional mounting tape

ETA:  Oops!  I almost forgot to tell you…a lot of folks were asking about the set Flourished Christmas.  You went to the Flourishes site and it simply wasn’t there.  The set was so popular they plum ran out!  However, they’re back in stock — hooray!!  What a gorgeous set that is!  Enjoy!

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!

I went on a cleaning, tidying and clearing out kick this weekend.  I could have chosen a more fun or relaxing  Labor Day weekend activity, but I can’t say I regret how I spent my time.  It felt pretty good and looks even better.

When I was clearing out a desk drawer I found an old journal I started many years ago.  I’ve never been very good about keeping journals and this one ended after a few weeks’ entries.  It provided some very interesting reading after all these years, though.  It was begun at a time when we were living a little more hand to mouth than we do these days.  Our son was a school kid and we were struggling to work out a budget to deal with the new house payment we could supposedly afford.  One entry found me worrying how I was going to buy my son a new pair of shoes and still pay the bills and buy groceries.  The next entry described his shoes further deteriorated and my decision that he was more important than the bills…  I was glad to look back on that and feel proud and happy about the choice I made.  Needless to say, everything worked out just fine.

I thought I’d give journaling another try.  I didn’t want anything quite as large as a composition book so I picked up this smaller 5 x 7 notebook instead.  I was hoping I could use my SU! spiral punch for the cover but the holes didn’t line up correctly, darn it.  If you find yourself in that predicament sometime, the photo and explanation that follows may be helpful:

I first determined that the distance from the outer edge of the notebook to the inner edge of the hole was 1/4″.  I drew a straight line at the 1/4″ mark and placed my cardstock next to the binder as shown.

I simply drew dots at each spiral and then punched the dots with an 1/8″ hand held punch, aligning the edge of the punch with the line.  At each hole I cut a slit from the edge to the hole.  I could then slip the cover right over the spirals.  The white cardstock, by the way, is just for demonstration purposes.

The cover of my journal started out with Chocolate Chip.  I sponged the edge that would show with Chocolate Chip ink and wadded up toilet paper.  Yes, toilet paper — the TP technique.  For that tutorial, please click here.  The rest of it is BasicGrey Stella Ruby paper and Almost Amethyst cardstock, the latter also TP’d.  There’s some Chocolate Chip sponged around the edges for a little aging.  I used the heart from Gentler Times and a sentiment from All Year Cheer I, thinking one’s journaling is usually outpourings from the heart, although mine will be full of mundane day to day musings, I’m sure.

While I was at it I made a coordinating pencil holder from a Crystal Light container as well as an R.S.V.P. pen.  In case you’re not familiar with these pens, R.S.V.P. is just the brand name of this particular pen which lends itself well to this type of decoration.  I cut a piece of Stella Ruby 1″ x 3 1/4″, rolled it into a little tube and tucked it into the barrel of the pen.

This last photo shows the back cover of the journal covered with Chocolate Chip cardstock that I TP’d with the same color ink.  This technique is just the ticket for something like this because of the illusion of leather it gives your paper.

Well, that’s it for this week’s Ruby Tuesday project, the only thing I made this weekend.  I haven’t spent much time at all in my stamp room or on the computer these last three days and I know I’ve got some catching up to do.  I hope you’ve all been well and will have a wonderful week!

Stamps:  Gentler Times, All Year Cheer I

Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Almost Amethyst, Very Vanilla, BasicGrey Stella Ruby

Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Almost Amethyst, Creamy Caramel, CTMH Vanilla

Accessories:  Ribbon, swirl clip, 1/8″ hand held hold punch, Scotch brand dimensional mounting tape, spiral bound notebook, R.S.V.P. pen, Crystal Light container, Sticky Strip red liner tape, Alene’s Tacky Glue

I’ve never met a person more devoted to a color than the friend who will receive this gift.  You’ve probably guessed — her color is orange.  I probably should have wheeled the gift box in orange, too, but I thought it might wear out my eyes before I was finished.  I like orange, though.  I like all colors, but some in more moderate doses.

The handled gift box contains Barefoot Holler bath and body products, including foot lotion (how does that differ, I wonder, from hand or body lotion?) and this SU! It’s a Girl Thing set, long since retired, is the closest I could come to carrying out that theme.  I still love this set.  I guess the “girly” in me lives through these stamps because I’m not really the ruffly, fluffy, frilly, spike heeled kind of gal they represent.  Or maybe I am and I’m just supressing it…hmmmm…I’ll examine that later.

I used Lovely Lilac and Gable green with my Kaleidoscope (My Mind’s Eye) designer paper.  The box is decorated with the SU! Petals wheel in Lovely Lilac with a little strappy sandal charm hanging from the tag.  The shoes are colored with SU! markers.  I jumped at the chance to use more of my Sprites Primas, too.

You’re probably familiar with these gift boxes but just in case, I’ve included a photo of them in their packaging.  They come 12 to package, flat and ready to roll–so quick and easy!  I’ve purchased them at the Dollar Store, but also at Wal-Mart for not much more than a dollar.  I find them with the wedding decorations.  I love to do white gift boxes this way, too — the kind you buy flat and put together yourself.  Watching that design wheel out is like magic under your hand and they look so cute all tied up with ribbon!

I meant to tell you yesterday that I wasn’t doing Ruby Tuesday this week because of the SCS crash over the weekend that took the blogs with it.  I lost my Friday night post and wasn’t able to do my usual weekend posts so there was nothing between last Ruby Tuesday and this Tuesday.  All is well now, thanks to the SCS folks who probably didn’t sleep all weekend while I was happily stamping and Trudee was organizing her ribbons and Sherry was rewriting her post and…well…you get the picture.  Thanks for visiting!

To summarize:

Stamps:  It’s a Girl Thing (retired), Petals wheel — both Stampin’ Up!

Paper:  SU! Lovely Lilac, Gable Green, Whisper White, Lavender Lace, My Mind’s Eye Kaleidoscope DP

Ink:  SU! Basic Black & Lovely Lilac, SU! markers

Accessories:  Ribbon, gift box, both SU! tag punches, sandal charm from Wal-Mart, Sprites Primas from Jacksonbelle Embellishments, Scotch brand mounting tape

This week’s Ruby Tuesday project is just a simple little note pad that I covered with one of the prettiest patterns in this BasicGrey Stella Ruby collection.  I cut a 5 1/2″ square of the paper, added a couple of pieces of trim along the top, glued it on the front and cut around the scallops with my Exacto knife.  I sanded the edges a bit to finish off any rough edges.

Before I glued down the paper I had to figure a way to fit it over the binder because I really didn’t want to take the whole tablet apart.  This would be easy to do with my SU! spiral punch, but this tablet came to me all the way from Japan through the grace of SCS user, Militarystampingmom (Alicia), and it seems their spirals are spaced differently than ours in the US.   To mark the spots where I would punch the holes I placed the edge of the paper up against the spiral and marked the paper for the spacing.  I measured the distance from the top edge of the tablet to the holes and that’s where I punched my 1/8″ holes.  I then cut a slit from the edge of the paper to the edge of each hole and that allowed the paper to fit over the spiral.  The self-adhesive letters came with the paper pack.

I didn’t doll this up very much, partly because I didn’t have a whole lot of available time to play today, but mostly because the paper is so pretty it doesn’t need much help.  I love the scalloped shape of the tablet.  My husband said I should have taken a before picture, but that’s another thing I didn’t have time for before I hauled all the fixin’s off to work with me today.  This tablet had a slick cover on it, decorated with a kid-type character.  I’m glad Alicia had the foresight to realize it could be transformed so completely!  Thanks, Alicia!  It’s simple, not real extravagant, but I hope you enjoy this other-than-a-card Ruby Tuesday project today.  As always, happy Ruby Tuesday!

Linda B. asked a question about this tin I posted earlier which I actually meant to address in my post.  I was in way too much of a hurry when I wrote that!  My non-stamping life was waiting for me to finish.  She asked how I adhered the paper to the sides and top.  Good question, Linda!  When I do a tin like this I always run Sticky Strip (red liner tape) around the sides and put either paper or ribbon over that.  The top is adhered to the tin with Alene’s Tacky glue.  Same with the lace bow.  This glue allows a little wiggle room before it sets, dries clear and defies you to try and pull it apart once it’s set.  The paper roses, by the way, are self-adhesive.  Thanks for asking, Linda!  If anyone ever has a question, please feel free to contact me!

A friend gave me several of these tins which are discarded by the dozen where he works.  Of course, they don’t come all dressed up with pretty paper and flowers.  They start out with an adhesive label on the top which peels off easily after it’s been warmed for a few seconds with the heat tool.  He asked if I would decorate one for his Mom and I was happy to oblige.  The tins are perfect for altering.  They’re a nice size with a flat lid that slips on and off with ease.  I used the TP technique to change the silver tin to a vintage brown, using wadded up toilet paper smooshed into my Timber Brown Stazon ink pad, then dabbing it all over the inside and outside of the tin.  The rest is done with Wild Asparagus paper and my CM circle cutting system.  The paper roses were a gift from my Splitcoast friend, Sharon Johnson (notimetostamp) and the Spice Brown lace is Mrs. Wright’s hem tape.

I decided while I had this pretty paper out, I might as well make a card with it, too.  I used one of my favorite Stampin’ Up! sets, the retired Gentler Times, and some Close to Cocoa and Regal Rose cardstock.  The rose and vine image is stamped on Very Vanilla with Timber Brown Stazon and colored with markers.  I sprayed several coats of high gloss sealer on the image which gives it the look of a ceramic tile, although I know it doesn’t show much in the photo. The “tile” was mounted on a mat stamped with Linen in Close to Cocoa with Cocoa sponged around the edges.

Next came the Teddy Bear brown velvet ribbon, organdy ribbon and hardware.  The oval was punched through the top two layers of the card before they were adhered to the Cocoa card base.  I stamped the “thank you” on Very Vanilla, punched it and sprayed with sealer, then fit it into the oval on the card, so it’s slightly recessed.   I finished the inside, made a matching envelope and it’s all done!

I hope you’ll try the Stazon sometime for altering a tin.  It’s something a lot of us have on hand and I think we all have TP, too!  Rather than trying to blend the ink smoothly on the tin, I just smooshed it on there (dabbed it) so the silver is all covered but it has a really cool vintage look.  It’s super easy, no tricky technique to it.  If I can do it, anyone can!  Thanks for dropping in today!

One of the things I inherited from my Mom was her button collection.  She didn’t call it a collection, though.  Mom’s buttons were purely functional, snipped from old garments to be stitched to new.  Rather than being discarded, the old garments then became quilts, braided rugs, potholders, cleaning rags.  She kept her buttons in a Quaker Oatmeal box.  It was the greatest pleasure for my brother and I, when we were little, to sit at the kitchen table with that oatmeal box between us and explore its treasures.  There was always a favorite button for each of us, more special than all the others, and to discover it still there, among the lesser buttons was to have the security of our small world validated.  Wouldn’t it be nice if things were that simple, still?

I guess I was feeling a little nostalgic when I decided to alter this oatmeal box for Mom’s buttons.  Only Mom’s buttons will go in this box.  When I purchased this BasicGrey Stella Ruby paper from Jacksonbelle Embellishments I didn’t realize it had a dressmakers’ or sewing theme throughout and, since I bought the 12 x 12 pack with this project in mind, it was perfect!  What a nice surprise!  I did a little faux stitching to carry on the theme and trimmed (and trimmed and trimmed) until I could trim no more.  The letters that spell “buttons” came with the paper and, yes, the buttons along the front are Mom’s.  Thanks, Mom!