I made a little something for the Memory Box Outside the Box Household Blog Blitz. We were supposed to take something we found around the house and use our stamps on it, so I decided to decorate some soap dispensers. (I like to do this anyway during certain seasons because it's fun and easy.)
You can go here to see the supplies and instructions.
Thanks for looking!
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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!
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When Gigi had her 6th birthday, she wanted a costume party.
Given that I love my fellow humankind and didn't want to inflict any more pressure on the parents of the attendees, I suggested we have a hat party - which turned out to be a good compromise.
I wanted to make her invitations in the shape of a top hat, but I couldn't find any templates online. I decided I would just make one myself, and this is really easy to do if you have a computer and access to clip art. I did a search for top hat and had literally dozens of options. I picked the one I wanted and put it into Photoshop Elements, where I basically turned it into an outline of a silhouette and increased its size. Then I printed it on cardstock (remember, it was just an outline by that point) and cut it out!
It was like buttah.
(I highly recommend this in the future - it's much easier than what it sounds.)
A few months ago I decided to submit my template to Stamper's Sampler for their Tempting Template feature, and they published it in their DEC/JAN 2010 issue. (I found this out while flipping through the issue in line at Joann's - my first thought was one of outrage that someone else had submitted my idea... and then I saw my name beneath and immediately felt vindicated... and rather full of myself. It took everything I had to keep from sending Gigi down the line with the magazine to announce, "Lookit - My mama made that!" Hee-hee!)
The submission deadline for cards made using this template was January 15th, but unfortunately, I missed it. I decided I would finish my card anyway and possibly submit it at a later date or to another publication. And here it is:
SUPPLIES:
INSTRUCTIONS
Although I have a few bottles of Glimmer Mist, I've quit buying it because it's criminal to pay $7 for what is basically water and Perfect Pearls! You get the exact same affect (as far as I can tell) with the homemade version below. You are limited only by the Perfect Pearl colors in your collection, and if you do the math, I think you'll find it makes more sense to buy a variety of the Perfect Pearls. (I bought both my Mini-Misters and my Perfect Pearls with 40% off coupons, so my savings were even greater! The Mini-Mister came out to about 65 cents, and it's reusable. The scoop of PP cost about a dime (if that much. That sure beats the tar out of $7!)
You can make as much or as little of each spray as you need, it keeps indefinitely, and it takes a lot less space to store if you use the Mini-Misters. This one's a no-brainer and requires no skill at all to create, so give it a shot!
INGREDIENTS: Perfect Pearls, water, Ranger Mini-Mister*
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When Hero Arts decided to do a massive ATC exchange, some of us were invited to be responsible for a group of ten swappers, be the collection point for their ATCs and then distribute them. Although some of us signed up to flesh out those groups that were shy of ten participants, we weren't all able to fit in, so we decided to have a swap amongst ourselves. And here are the oh-so-fabulous results:
From Lucy Abrams:
From Cathy Andronicou:
From Jenn Biedermann:
From Kelly Booth:
From Lin BrandyBerry:
From Shari Carroll:
From Judy Jung:
From Tracey Kuzniak:
From Jennifer McGuire:
From Sarah Moerman:
From Deborah Nolan (me):
From Kathy Racoosin:
Thank you, ladies, for these beautiful pieces of art!
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Here are the photos of my Advent Calendar tags. I will need to make a base of some sort, but I'm not sure what the right answer is. All suggestions are welcome!!!
I'm thinking you might want to just look at them via the photo album located in the left margin. It's cover photo is the first tag (see photo below). Just click on the album, and don't let the thumbnails fool you - the design format dictates they be square in size (which looks like the top and bottom of each picture are missing). Just click on the thumbnail or the progression arrow, and you'll see the whole photo.
Spouse is watching The News Hour on PBS. This is where we get our news. If you're reading this, I ask you to do two things:
God bless you all.
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I did it!
I finally won one of the challenges at the Hero Arts blog!!!!
I've won an honorable mention three times over the past six months but the actual places eluded me.
Until now - and I won First Place! Can you believe it?!
You should see the cheese-eating grin on my face!
The challenge this last week was to create a decorative item for the holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc). I have been meaning to make an Advent calendar for years, and I've been hoarding a stash of laminate tag samples (I got them from a hardware store that went out of business) for just this purpose. Also, the Hero Arts holiday stamps this year have been stupendous, so this challenge seemed like the right motivator to finally get down to some serious Christmas crafting.
I have NO DOUBT that my creative marathon would never have yielded such results had I been pegging away at my old crummy, plastic table. Because I had the space to spread out and actually act on my creative impulses, I stamped up a storm. I embossed...A LOT. (Something I rarely do because you really need to have enough room to lay out everything or you just get a big, fat mess.) In addition, I stamped, of course, but I also played with various kinds of stamping. A few tags ended up in the trash, but that's okay! I got into a bag of ribbons that I have been grasping like gold for over three years because I don't know who manufactures them and the scrapbook store that sold them is now long gone. (In short, I've been saving them for something really special, and this was the project that finally pried my fingers open.)
I got out all my buttons - and let me just say this: If anyone sees me going anywhere near a cash register with a bag of buttons in my hand, I want you to shoot me. Or, if you aren't packing, slap me upside the back of my head - HARD. Nobody should have this many buttons unless they're building costumes for a Cecil B. DeMille epic set in Victorian England (those people had buttons on their undies, for crying out loud!). I got into all kinds of stuff I haven't used because I simply didn't have enough table space in the past.
I didn't get all the tags done before the deadline that Sunday night, and I had to take a picture of them using artificial light, so the resulting photos stink. I made the last eight tags yesterday and added some finishing touches to the earlier ones, so today I traipsed out to the porch to take new photos outside in the beautiful natural light that smiles kindly on all its subjects.
HA!
After uploading them, they were washed-out and pale. So I tried shooting them on the stairs up to my attic - the light looked decent. Uploading revealed that the light was not decent and my photos were muddy and blurry and too dark. Since I had to go pick up Gigi from school and take her to karate, I gathered up my backdrop, camera, gorilla-pod, and the tags to see if I could get some decent shots while she was learning how to kick bad-guy butt.
You will never believe where I ended up taking the pictures. After trying about seven different shooting spots in and around the car, I stumbled upon the perfect location.
Are you ready for this?....
Scroll down....
Yes, the kid's car seat!
I wrapped my gorilla-pod around the driver's seat headrest and aimed at the tags on my folded-up backdrop by standing outside the car and reaching in through the window to press the button. I'm sure any random passersby had to be wondering what on Earth I was doing, leaning in the window, pulling out, opening the door, bending over, stepping back, shutting the door, repeat.
25 times.
Tomorrow I'll post the results!
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Hey, give me a Standing O! I made something – eight somethings, actually, and I used stuff I already had. No extra purchases. Wooo-whooo!
One project down, five-hundred-and-eighty-seven-thousand to go.
I made party invitations for Gigi's sixth birthday. She wanted a costume party but I felt that was asking too much from parents who have barely recovered from Christmas. I suggested a hat party instead, and she’s on board with that. So, given my resolution to start slashing my stash, I thought I’d make her invitations. I also thought I’d make them in the shape of a hat – a Mad Hatter type of hat, to be precise. And I thought there would be no problem finding a hat template on the web.
Hahahahahahahahahahaha.
HA.
Nary a hat template could I find. I did find a sort-of bonnet, but it also resembled a sticky bun. So I ended up making my own template using clipart as a base for the pattern. I used PSE, and it took a lot longer than I anticipated.
Which brings me to a theme running throughout my life: nothing ever seems to be easy. You know how they have commercials where people take a peripheral out of the box, plug it into the computer, and ta-da! – instant computer magic? Or when some Martha Stewart-type says, “and now you just [whatever] …” and there’s this perfect thing sitting on the table?
That never happens to me.
So, it stands to reason that creating the perfect hat template would take me – like – all day. However, I’m really happy with my pattern, and it was worth the eight hours of my life that I’ll never get back. Hmmmm. I’m supposed to be working on curbing my inner perfectionist, and I think this is one of the reasons why…. Anyway, I’m going to submit my template and finished card to Somerset Studio for their template section. If it gets printed, I’ll get a complimentary issue.
Not to mention Fame. And Glory.
Okay, not to change the subject, but there’s a television show playing that I’ve heard of but never seen. It’s called American Gladiators, and these people are crazy. I can’t even believe what they’re doing to one another. Or how beefed-up they are. I mean, these people are like super-people or something. I'm just going to go back to pasting my little pieces of paper together now....
P.S. I'll share my hat invitation as soon as I figure out how to load images. Since it's me we're talking about, this could take awhile.
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