Society of Stampaholics

MyStampBOX Projects

Here we are on Day Two of my stint as a Guest Designer for MyStampBox stamps!

I originally was going to make some lovely Halloween candies and stamp onto them, but as I alluded to in an earlier post, the $#@% things kept burning up rather than melting properly, so I said To Hell With Them - and meant it.

(I hope they're black as tar and stinking up the River Styx as only burnt sugar can!)

I could have kept trying, I admit, but I was nauseated by the smell and just plain sick of looking at charred orange goo, so I made an executive decision to try to make something else on the spur of the moment.

(I probably shouldn't mention this, but my deadline was Friday, October 15th... that would be the day of the Candy Disaster itself, so I really wasn't kidding in my earlier post when I said I was freaking out. Yessireee, Bob! Nothing like looking down at charred sugar in your sink and knowing that was your one shot at glory.

Unless it's realizing that this isn't one of those anxiety dreams where you show up for the school picnic but it's really the day of the Science Fair and you're the only kid without an experiment. (I'm sure it was the smell of the burnt sugar that made me hope it was all a bad science fair dream, as we had to do that every year for science class. Although, if memory serves, my teacher's sugar always rose up in a straight black column, whereas my candy just layed there in a disgusting puddle.)

But that is neither here nor there!

Long story short: I found something up in Ye Ole Atelier that saved the day. I already had the other project made, so I made my deadline!

Here's the first thing I made - a Halloween necklace for Gigi. This necklace is easy to make and also pretty easy to make with a kid - just keep her away from the ice pick. This project is very quick so there's no waning attention span (which means no whining child - always a good thing)! If you don't add a layer of epoxy, your kid can wear it immediately (which was very much the desired action when we put this together for Gigi).

(These make great treats for birthday party prizes, stocking stuffers, etc, btw! You can also glue your little creation to a barrette, make earrings, key rings, wine glass charms - this stamp set is particularly well-suited to that!)

Sadly, this picture doesn't do it justice - it's much more vibrant in person!

Materials: Stamps: MyStamp BOX stamps (Boo! set); Cardstock; Ink: VersaFine, Ranger Distress; Gems: Reflections; Hardware: bottle cap, star charm, jump rings, ball chain; Other: googlie eyes, Stickles; Tools: circle punch, hammer and ice pick (to make holes in bottle cap for jump rings)

Directions:

1. On a block of wood, lay down your bottle top (interior side down, flat side facing you) and carefully place ice pick between crimps. When secure, hammer ice pick (one good blow should do it). Repeat directly across from your first hole.

2. Thread a jump ring through a charm, and then thread it through the hole in the bottle cap. Thread the second jump ring through the other hole (this is the top of your pendant).

3. Stamp web image with Ranger Distress ink (Honey), then stamp spider image on top of stamped web with VersaFIne black ink.

4. Circle punch your stamped image and use a drop of glue to adhere it to the bottle cap interior.

5. Adhere googly eyes and gems with Diamond Glaze. (You can also "fill" the cap with about 1/8" of Diamond Glaze as a protective coating.

6. Apply Stickles around the inside “walls” of the bottle cap.

7. When completely dry, thread a ball chain through the top jump ring and enjoy wearing!

And now we come to the Dudley DoRight Project... aka: The Clock That Saved My Bacon.

I like to buy things because you just never know when you might want them. (Unfortunately, I do this all too often and probably ought to invite people over to shop in my attic to make room for fresh inventory.) I do have some standards, though, and one is that the item has to be marked down to dirt or I'm not allowed to bring it home. (It wasn't always this way, but my dwindling attic real estate demanded some strict measures.)

The clock you see here was a good buy - originally about $12, marked down to $2.48 (I made a typo on the price in the picture) - and languishing in the Hobby Lobby clearance section until I rescued its ugly self and tucked it away in a box upstairs.

 

 
It seemed like a no-brainer to turn it into a Halloween clock - and if I were to have a Halloween party, I'd us this as a doorprize. Because it turned out pretty good, I think. (Much better than that stinkin', lousy candy, that's for sure.) Again, the photography isn't the best, but I was working with artificial light.

 

Materials: Stamps: MyStamp BOX stamps (Boo! set); Patterned Paper: Basic Grey, Graphic 45, Mary Engelbreit; Cardstock; Ink: VersaFine; Other: Cosmo Cricket chipboard stickers, Stickles, googlie eyes; Hardware: 12″ x 12″ square, battery-operated clock; Tools: circle punches

Directions:

1. Stamp your images on various patterned papers. Punch out images and 12 larger circles of purple and orange; layer and adhere to one another.

2. Attach googly eyes and apply Stickles to the border circles. Also apply Stickles to chipboard stickers – set all aside to dry.

3. Cut background patterned paper to 11.5″ x 11.5″ and adhere to 12″ x 12″ orange cardstock “matte.”

4. Using a template made from a small punch, draw a small circle in the center of the orange matte (do this on the back) and then cut out the circle.

5. Remove the clock’s hands and line up the hole in your background paper with the hands’ movement post – enlarge the hole if necessary, then adhere the paper to the clock face. Temporarily attach a 5/8″ scrap of paper to the end of the hour hand. (This will guide your circle placement so each is the same distance from the clock’s center.)

6. Mark 12, 3, 6, and 9 on the clock (find the center on each side) and attach your first four circles. (This helps you place your circles equal distances from one another.)

7. Attach the chipboard stickers. Apply Stickles to clock arms.

8. Once dry, replace the arms on the movement post.

I hope you've enjoyed these projects! I highly recommend the Boo! stamp set I used. Please go here to order one for yourself!

Please be sure to check out the MyStampBOX blog for lots of terrific inspiration!!!

Thanks for looking!

 

I Want These Stairs!

Just leave it to the British. They're such a clever lot.

I stumbled upon this staircase cum bookcase while wandering around in cyberspace (I was looking for the gardening section and got lost).

Standing at top, looking down....

Standing at bottom, looking up....

Just a shot of the bottom from the side....

Just how cool is this?!

I wish Spouse could build us one of these. 

This would also be a very good solution for crafters with lots of supplies. Think of it - you wouldn't even need to have a staircase that went anywhere. You'd just build this into the side of the room and stick your table in front of it, and every bloomin' thing you owned would be within arm's reach.

In case y'all hadn't noticed it before, I love anything that involves taking a smallish space and using up every bit of it so nothing is wasted.

I'm a little freakish in that regard.

Have a nice Tuesday....

Fine, I'll Plan My Own Stinkin' Intervention!

As a result of nobody stepping forward and kidnapping me, I have decided to take matters into my own hands. And since it is impossible for a person to brainwash (de-brainwash?) herself into correct behavior, I'll just have to use a different form of therapy (because Retail Therapy is not working out so good for me).

I have decided to Do Something with my attic.

For four years I have procrastinated, but now I am finally ready to go forth and Clean Up the Place. I'm even going to paint - using a cool technique I learned on Decorating Cents. I will curb my impulsive spending by focusing all of my energy on rehabilitating this half-finished, sweltering hole of an attic!

Of course, this is going to require some shopping and cost some money, you know.

But I refuse to enjoy it!

An Update on My Progress

It's been awhile since I took my vow of not purchasing any scrap or stamp goodies during 2008. Let's see how I'm doing, shall we?

On the plus side, I have been very good about going to Archiver's, loading my basket up, and then putting most of the stuff back where it came from.

Good for me!

On the negative side, what am I doing at Archiver's in the first place? Do alcoholics go to bars? They most certainly do NOT. Well, they don't if they know what's good for them.

Right. Let's get serious here.

On my birthday and Mother's Day I visited the two stamp stores in Brown County and Went a Little Crazy. But that's only because this is my gift from Spouse. (Although I don't think he's aware of just how magnanimous his gifts are on these occasions.) Also, my MIL always sends me a check for $50, so I feel that I should be allowed to spend it however I want. I will say, though, that I did not buy any paper. Just stamps and a little bit of ink.

What I cannot justify is my reckless behavior in Stamp Your Art Out when I was in Cincinnati on business these last two months (not once, but twice I went Absolutely Crazy). It was shameless. Depraved, really. A shocking lack of self-control, if you want the truth of the matter.

Still, I didn't buy any paper. Just stamps. And stamps are different, aren't they? I mean, stamps are not consumed - they last. Therefore, stamps are really tools by nature.

Which leads me to my favorite rationalization: Tools don't count. Only supplies count.

Isn't that clever of me?

So the Cuttlebug and embossing folders and the new paper trimmer (with an additional scallop wheel) and the corner rounders, etc are like eating celery when you're dieting! They. Don't. Count.

It's amazing how easily you can justify purchasing something when you view it as a permanent fixture. I mean, anyone can plainly see that tools are Investments! And not those flashy, risky kind, either. Oh, no, these are very solid, conservative Choices with a Future. Necessary, even. For where, I ask you, would Michelangelo be without his tools?! Imagine the world without David or the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel! Why, mankind would be bereft of priceless treasures.

So tools are necessary for the betterment of Mankind.

Therefore, I am making the world a better place every time I buy a tool!

(pause)

I should really run for President....

So if we don't count tools, I'm not doing too badly.

Unless you want to get all fussy about a few little packs of gems here and there. Or a bottle or two of paper flowers. Or some chipboard embellishments. Or ink. Or magazines.

Hey, I'm using those 40% off coupons from Michael's and JoAnn's and Hobby Lobby!

I really can't help it - they keep sending them to me!

WHERE IS MY SPONSOR?! HEEEEEELLLLLOOOOOO!!!! I NEED AN INTERVENTION!!!

Progress Report

Alright! Alright!

I admit it. There is NO progress. Nada. _______! (That's "zero" in Russian - which I obviously don't know.)

Instead there is this blog.

That I needed time to create.

In order to get the support I so desperately need (case in point: the lack of progress in my organization and purge of supplies).

In fact, I was so busy trying to create this blog that I didn't even have time to enter last week's HA challenge.

Now, that's sacrifice.

See? I have a very good excuse for not progressing!

silence

There go those  wretched crickets again....

Next Door to Stupid

See that title?

That should be the title of my autobiography:  Deborah Nolan ... Next Door to Stupid. (When I was in college a friend thought Nine Kinds of Hell was more suitable. That, or I'm Not STUPID! But I am older and wiser now. Next Door to Stupid is definitely the way to go.)

Actually, I'm not usually stupid, but creating a blog has been a humbling experience.  I've never felt stupider, in fact. And I hit the Pinnacle of Stupidness when I couldn't get Typepad's generic Template for Idiots to work. In a fit of  brilliance, I decided to upgrade my account so I wouldn't have to use their  stinkin' template. I also sent off a nasty, ill-spelled letter of frustration venting my rage on some poor college student who's now probably considering a career in anything but customer service.  He shouldn't give up, though! He has a real gift - his response was polite and helpful.

Dear Deborah,

Please execute a hard refresh (SHIFT + F5) to clear your cache, thereby enabling you to see the changes you've made.

Sincerely, Customer Rep Boy  

Oh.

Nobody ever told me anything about any "hard refresh" thing. Is this some sort of insider information? Is this the kind of stuff you pick up while loitering in the dark alleys of cyberspace?

I feel like a penny waiting for change.

Hey, that's not a bad title, either.  Deborah Nolan ... A Penny Waiting for Change.

And, now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go make Customer Rep Boy an apology card. 

The Pile(s) of Shame

Today I marched up there and attacked The Pile of Shame.

Well, one Pile of Shame, anyway.

This particular Pile consists of several boxes, the number of which I refuse to divulge. Suffice it to say, there are more than three boxes (as no self-respecting Pile can be made of less) and less than ten because then it would be a Mountain of Shame. These boxes hold a variety of craft items, fabrics, empty storage containers, objects I would like to “do” something with, objects I did “do” something with (much to their detriment) and any other number of items vaguely related to artistic endeavors.

(Did you catch that reference to a container containing empty containers? This is so wrong on so many different levels I can’t even bring myself to talk about it.)

Two hours later I had succeeded in accomplishing two things:

1. I purged enough stuff to fill a large trash bag. (Among other things, I mercilessly pitched all scraps of paper smaller than 4"x6".)  *yeeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhh!* and

      2.  I sorted the items into groups and then put them back into the boxes. *booooooooooo!*

Well, one has to start somewhere!

Obviously, I’m not finished with The Pile. I acknowledge that it does no good to just sort everything and then stack the boxes back against the wall again. But my past attempts at organizing large messes have taught me that the key to success is to GO SLOW. Spending too much time during one session will always end up in feelings of exhaustion and resentment and unhappiness, all leading to a very sharp case of Burn-Out. And that’s the end of your progress because you won’t go back to tackle that mess again for a long, long time.

If ever.

So the trick, then, is to work in short blocks of time. Long enough to actually accomplish something but not so long that you become overwhelmed by the enormity of the project. For me, two hours is the magic number. I spend a few minutes at the beginning working out a plan of attack, about 90 minutes executing the plan, and the remaining 20 minutes setting things to rights, carrying purged items to the car for Goodwill or to the trash can, and putting found items in their proper places.

My next step for The Pile is to go back to the boxes of now-sorted items and decide what to do with the contents. And if it takes two hours to go through one box, so be it. That’s one box less in The Pile, and if I keep it up, The Pile of Shame will become The Anthill of Shame.

And Anthills are pretty easy to demolish, right?

(BTW, now is not the time to start singing "High Hopes." My job is hard enough without you impassioning the ants with some trumped-up dream of glory involving the transport of an over-sized rubber tree plant.)