Rubon Booklet Storage

I altered this little wooden gift bag to hold my rubon books from Making Memories. This keeps them neat and tidy because it fits them perfectly! I matched it to the alcohol ink carrier I had made and both are featured in my new article at Scrapbooking.com Magazine in the brand new June issue. All the items used are the same as for the ink carrier and still, between the two projects, I think I still came in under $10 in supplies!

Love Frame

This was another project I did for the first issue of Scrapbook News + Review using the same window frame from Walnut Hollow as the clock I shared yesterday. This time I simply painted it black. I cut Prima papers to fit each window opening and actually just used masking tape to attach them to the back of the frame. My intention was to be able to pull these fully decorated inserts out of the frame and rotate them with other seasonal looks, but these papers happen to look nice in my living room so for the time being, I've just left it, lol! The chipboard letters are from Zsiage, covered in Prima paper and edged with a gold pen from Sakura. I used the same pen to edge these silk flowers from Michael's and layered them with tiny gold heart brads,

Window Frame Clock - working with sketches in altered items!

This is a clock I made from a scrapbook layout sketch for the first issue of Scrapbook News + Review. A lot of sketches really lend themselves well to altered items, whether you use pictures or not. For this one, I happened to use pictures, but I could have just as easily made each of the blocks just a coordinating piece of patterned paper, a quote, whatever works for the piece.

I started with an unfinished window frame from Walnut Hollow. It actually changed color a couple of times and got crackled before I ended up with what I was looking for. The window frames will fit a 12x12 piece of paper behind it exactly but I decided to use a piece of acrylic for the backing. Then I used a 6x6 piece of the same acrylic on the front of the frame to add my clockworks stuff to.

To add the clockworks itself (also from Walnut Hollow), I had to drill through both acrylic pieces and the window frame. With a large hole. This was NOT easy (if you've got someone handy with tools who knows of the proper drill bit to use, ASK THEM for help!!) and I definitely have to put the PSA out there to wear eye protection!! In retrospect, it would have probably been easier to use a blade and taken the time to carve out the holes that way (except in the wood frame - that took a drill just fine). Other tips - make sure you use a piece of scrap wood behind the acrylic when you drill. I also used a couple of pieces of masking tape in an "x" over the drill hole as a guide and also to help keep the acrylic from splintering as badly and flying everywhere. Kind of. Pretty sure a different drill bit would have helped, but I used what I had.

From there it was easy sailing. I used tiny screws to attach the back piece of acrylic. I made guide holes for the screws using my trusty Forster hand drill (see the bottom of this post for more info on this handy tool!). The hand drill and it's tiny hole went through the acrylic beautifully. I then matted each of the photos on coordinating pieces of patterned paper from My Mind's Eye and edged everything with a copper leafing pen (Krylon) and arranged them according to the sketch. I also edged the 6x6" piece of acrylic and used the leafing pen to color my clock hands and stamp the word Memories onto another piece of edged paper from MME.

I set up the center 6x6" acrylic piece and used the clockworks to secure it into place (with some more adhesive behind that piece of pattered paper as well, just to be sure it wouldn't turn since the clockworks is like a big screw). I used some old decorative brads from Making Memories with the prongs clipped off as my clock "numbers" and set them by turning the clock hands to find the right placement. I love the way it looks against my gold walls in my living room!!

Tried to photograph it from underneath to show the way it's layered with the 6x6" center piece on top of the frame and the larger piece beneath it.




So has anyone else tried altering using sketches? Try it! There are tons of gorgeous sketches out there. Round sketches (see Becky Fleck's Page Maps) are great for regular round clocks. 8.5"x11" ones are great for clipboards. Remember the elements shown in the sketch aren't necessarily what you have to use for your project. Replace pictures with patterned papers or embellishments. Replace journaling with a quote, or some other element that will make up the right size.

The very first thing I ever had requested for publication was actually an altered wooden gift bag done from a sketch for the newly released Scrapbook Blueprints 2! You can actually see my project in the preview PDF there on the website. As you can see there, I replaced the top three photos with flowers and the journaling at the bottom with a quote tile!

I'd love to see what you've all done with altering based on sketches! Link me up if you've done one or do one in the future!!

Scrapbook News + Review is up and running!!!

It's been a bumpy ride with some of the website issues but I've been sooooo very excited about being a part of this new magazine! Both the website and the first issue are now up and running and ready to go and I am extremely proud to be involved! We have a talented staff and our editor, Caitlin Koch, has worked very hard and I'd like to give her a big thank you and a round of virtual applause! If you haven't been by yet, come join the fun! Scrapbook News + Review is a monthly online magazine packed with articles, layouts, altered items, cards, reviews, and much more! Besides the magazine itself, the website has a news portal that is updated daily as well as a forum and gallery - we hope you'll come join us!

We also have a Myspace so if you're active on Myspace, come say hi and join our friends!

Alcohol Ink Carrier

Look for this in the June issue of Scrapbooking.com Magazine!

I've had my alcohol inks stored in a drawer for quite some time now and always forget about them. I like having my supplies visible - I'm one of "those" people who has to SEE my stuff to remember to use it. I also rarely create IN my dedicated space these days so even when I remember, I've got to drag it all out to the dining room or whatever square foot of surface space I've invaded for the moment. So I thought I'd use one of these cute little wooden baskets from Hobby Lobby (they run about $2.50).


They fit PERFECTLY! I fit 16 little bottles of alcohol ink (I have both Ranger and Jacquard brands if you're wondering about the different colored bottle tops) plus my big bottle of extender solution and then there was room to tuck the little pads in along the side. I didn't like just laying the applicator over the top of everything so I grabbed a chipboard shape from the Chippies line from Zsiage, hung it by a ribbon and the applicator hangs perfectly from it! The ribbon is actually strategically glued in a few spots to make sure it stayed where I wanted it and didn't come untied.



I used Molten Madagascar paper from Zsiage's Out of Africa line and another Chippie on the side. Both of the Chippies have been decorated with (shhhh, I cheated) glossy black spraypaint and glittering crystal Scribbles. The flowers are from Doodlebug and also accented with the Scribbles, some flower sequins and some black Stickles. If you click on the picture below you can see how sparkly... :)

Mellow Birdhouse

As seen in my article in the May issue of Scrapbooking.com Magazine!

Found some of Basic Grey's Mellow line at Creekbank Creations when I was there and couldn't pass up these two for a birdhouse! Added my usual bunch of Primas (the bottles with these tiny flowers hold a LOT - no matter how much I use them the bottle never looks touched, lol, gotta love that!) and some dots of Scribbles in Iridescent Golden Brown. I grabbed Scotch 2-way Scrapbooker's Glue to attach them and found a huge drawback to this glue. If you click on the picture to get a closeup, you can see especially at the top peak where the glue pulled up the brown paint underneath and it soaked through. Luckily for this birdhouse it went with the rustic charm of the papers, but I won't be using that glue over unsealed paint again!

Bead Trends March/April 2008 Issue

Well, I haven't gotten my copies yet, but I flipped through this last night in Michael's and this magazine just keeps getting better and better! The photography in this issue is simply stunning! I have four pieces in it - two necklaces and two bracelets - and I was just amazed how the photos came out! I'll get the page numbers up here once I get my copies and can sit down with it.

One piece, in particular (Wood Dreams necklace) really stood out. I knew just how gorgeous these stones were (they're yellow wood jasper) in real life but MY photos of them didn't relay it. The pics in the magazine - WOW! They really show off how incredible these stones really are!

Oh, and there's a bracelet (In Full Bloom) made with scrapbook supplies too - remember those plastic flowers American Crafts did in those cute little canisters? Yup - they made a really cute stretchy bracelet!

I can't even put into words how excited and honored I am to have had my jewelry featured in the first three issues of this magazine! I'm sad I won't be in the next two (a submission date got moved up and I didn't notice since I had it written down elsewhere), but am currently preparing submissions for the next one! Wish me luck!

Another Birdhouse!

As seen in the April/May 2008 issue of Ready Set Create E-Zine.

Not really holiday themed this time, although I suppose it could be Spring or Mother's Day, lol! Papers from Paper Studio and I just went dot-happy with the Scribbles 3D paints in watermelon, lime, lemon and crystal over the dots on the paper. Again, I had to use chalk (pink) to tone down the bright red bird. I hand-cut the scalloped parts of the roof paper (green and red) to make them stand out. I also added lime Scribbles paint over the edge of the green scallop. This was such a busy paper I decided not to add anything else and just go with the flowers!

Spring Basket

As seen in the April/May 2008 issue of Ready Set Create E-zine. I'll put the pictures back up when allowed!

Yes, I am REALLY wishing Spring would hurry up and arrive! I'm just not a winter person. I don't like snow, despise cold, and want to open my windows back up!

This basket is one of the $1 ones I discovered the other day at Michael's. I rolled up tubes of Lucy Lines paper from the So Girly line from SEI (here's a tip - this technique does NOT lend itself well to thick, double-sided paper like this - next time I WILL go back to using a nice thin paper...) and glued them all around a basket I had already spray painted (such a time saver, especially objects with lots of weird surfaces like this) white. For reference, this particular basket took exactly one piece of paper to cover in this fashion. Because I was having such issues with the tubes staying rolled, when gluing them on, I made sure that both sides of the seam were touching the glue, then wrapped the whole thing with rubber bands to keep it in place while drying. I then wrapped some trim around the basket, ribbon around the handle, tied a few bows, and added a cute little tag from the same SEI line with a sentiment stamped on it. Stamp from the Springtime Swirls Kit from Sugarloaf (now Inque Boutique but don't know if they still carry this particular See D) and the ink is Chestnut Roan Chalk ink from Clearsnap. Trim from Making Memories, ribbon from All My Memories.

A few published pieces

I wanted to post these since they are able to be shared again. Both were in the October/November issue of Ready Set Create E-Zine.

This clock was a wedding gift for a co-worker. The papers are from Bo Bunny. Flowers from Prima. Plaque and clockworks are from Walnut Hollow. The rubons for the name and date are from EK Success. The beads are blackstone from Cousins. I used the pearly glaze from Making Memories over an off-white paint from Plaid. The Mod Podge is also from Plaid.



For this candle holder I started with an inespensive glass vase from Hobby Lobby. Using Mod Podge, I covered it with paper from Zsiage's Confuscious Say What? line. The Peace cutout is from another piece of paper from that line. The flowers are from Prima. The coin is from Tsukineko.

Brrrr! Got our first snow!

Luckily there wasn't much snow, but it still makes me want to curl up inside and do nothing but craft all day! I still have a bunch of projects I keep meaning to post but haven't gotten around to photographing and with this dark, dreary day I don't think today will be the day either, lol! But I do have a frame I wanted to share that I made up a few weeks ago.

As seen in the February/March issue of Ready Set Create E-zine.

I really love this paper from Zsiage - it's from an earlier line called Flouristics and the paper is called Tantalizing Tulip. I've used it on several altered items - it has such rich colors (that brick red just makes me feel warm!) and a really lovely design to it. The flowers are from Prima. The gem brads and gem stickers around the inside corners are from Making Memories. The chipboard sticker is from MAMBI. The film letters are from Zsiage - I painted them with the same paint I used for the sides of the frame and found it matched TOO closely to the paper so I edged them with a silver marker from Sakura, which played nicely against the gray in the paper design. I used glossy Mod Podge as I wanted to keep an elegant feel to this.



I hope everyone is staying warm!

Christmas Wish List Clipboard

As seen in the December/January issue of Ready set create E-zine!
Along the same lines as me and my endless list-making, I decided to try and actually be organized for Christmas this year and put all my son's requests together, as well as whatever wish lists I can drag out of the rest of my family. I am really loving the new American Crafts line for this Christmas (see my earlier posted Christmas Frame for more from this line)! The paper, ribbons, vinyl stockings and candy canes and chipboard letters are all from this line. Mod Podge from Plaid, of course. I further embellished the letters with Scribbles from Duncan and the stockings and candy canes with a snow writer from DecoArt. I wish my photography skills were better so you could see just how fun the snow writer looks! It really looks like snow with a little glisten to it, rather than glittery like it looks in the picture because of the glare - sorry!

Christmas Frame

As seen in the December issue of ScrapStreet Magazine online!

I love doing these little frames. I picked up a ton of $1 wooden frames at Michael's and whenever I feel the need, I just grab some paper and my trusty Mod Podge and whip one up!


For this particular frame I used patterned papers, ribbon, a white vinyl tag and chipboard Thickers letters from American Crafts, glittery green Stickles from Ranger, and an epoxy tag and holly flowers/berries from Making Memories.

And now, 9 months after the fact, I finally have a place for Michael's picture with Santa from last year!