Supply storage

I made this to keep some of my crafty supplies close at hand. I honestly have so much stuff that I will forget about it if it's not in front of me so this is my solution. Here I can keep a selection of rubons, stickers, and other similarly packaged embellishments handy. I left slots for seasonal, new, and favorites. This piece is actually pretty darned big (24 inches high) so it will fit a lot of goodies. It's freestanding, however could be mounted to the wall as well and cup hooks added to the bottom to hang even more. If I had wall space, I would, lol! The piece was originally just a craft store unfinished wood piece. Glossy spray paint is your friend when working with big items like this! It REALLY didn' photograph well, but the top edge and all the front edges are actually covered in black ribbon with white polka dots (if you click on the pictures to see the gigantic version you can see the ribbon) . The papers I used are from EK's Arte Blanche line - they come 3 to a pack on nice, big rolls. This happens to be my favorite set - just love all the swirlies! The flowers at the top...well they will probably come off. I just don't know that I like them there. The labels on each bin are done with Heidi Swapp chipboard letters.

Michael's Rock Box

I'm so glad I picked up the collection pack for Basic Grey's Archaic line. I really have enjoyed using it over and over! This was a little box I altered for my son to put his little rock collection in. Just a simple $1 wooden box from Michael's and now I can (cough, hopefully...) stop finding his little rocks here, there and everywhere in my house! I love the little dirt/worms/rocks sticker and thought it would probably be a good idea to use the arrow pointing to rocks to keep Michael from deciding it would be ok to bring in dirt and worms as well. We'll see!

Supplies:

Patterned papers - Boulder and Primal from the Archaic Collection by Basic Grey

Adhesive - E6000

Metal buckle - 7gypsies

Leather strip -Tandy Leather Company

Mod Podge - Plaid

Acrylic paint - Delta Ceramcoat in Espresso Cafe Noir Opaque

Stickers - Basic Grey Archaic Collection

Little Boy's Treasure Box

This was in the May issue of Scrapbook News + Review. It's a recipe box I altered to make a little treasure box for my son, who is continually starting up new "collections". I used the Cogsmo line from Cosmo Cricket, which I think is just such a fun line! I also used an old Making Memories ribbon slide with some ribbon poking out from the sides. Not much to it - it went pretty fast and I think it currently holds excess lego pieces...

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!

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... :)

Sticker Organizer To Be

Ok, somewhere I DO have a million page protectors to finish this project but my 8.5x11's are buried somewhere in a box in the basement. This is what I'm trying to duplicate.

The original credit goes back to Britney Mellen from the book Organization Tips for Scrapbookers from Creating Keepsakes Magazine by Denise Pauley. Of course, I couldn't leave things alone and use just a plain old paper towel holder. I found this one for $3 at the dollar store. The wood was pretty bad. Here it is in its original state.

But I didn't mind since I knew darn well I wouldn't be leaving it like that! I went back to my favorite DecoArt Elegant Metallics Finish in Rich Espresso and also papers from Basic Grey's Blush line. This will sit right next to my tool spinner so of course it had to match! And that was it. I have my ring clips, just need to hunt down those page protectors and I'll try to remember to take a pic to share! Sigh - and I just might need to go get another one to alter for actual paper towels...

Gadget Corrall

It's amazing the number of little things we have in this house that need to be plugged in to charge. Technology may be amazing, but it's also a pain! I am forever losing the cords when I unplug my phone etc. and the plug falls behind the table I use for charging. I picked up this little wooden tray at Hobby Lobby ($1.50!) and thought it would be perfect with a little modification and a bit of alteration (of course) to keep these things organized. I started with the same Rich Espresso metallic paint from DecoArt that I just love and use on everything and then added papers from Daisy D's. I edged around the inside bottom with a dimensional writer from DecoArt too. I took some of the scalloped clips from Making Memories and painted those as well before attaching them (with E6000) to the corners to attach my cords to. Voila! A nice attractive place to plug in my phone, etc. where I won't ever lose the cords!

The only problem is that I planned on also putting things like my son's Gameboy there, but now he wants one of his own, lol! So much for color matching...yes, the Gameboy is in blue and my Bluetooth matches the darker red shade, etc., which is one of the reasons I picked this paper!




PS - Stop by tomorrow morning and I'll post some details for a giveaway!

Tea Holder WGB

I think I'm on a roll with this blogging thing this week! Ha - I shouldn't have said that, now I won't get around to it for another week, lol! Having a dark, dreary day here - it's trying to spit some snow out, but so far just enough to be a tiny bit annoying. So much for my son's hope for a snow day! Bad for picture taking though. I altered this little WGB (wooden gift bag) to use in my kitchen to hold teabags. I'm on a pretty big coffee kick lately (we finally have a Starbucks!), but do love the occasional cup of tea. My absolute favorite is from Celestial Seasonings and called Sleepytime. The box describes it as a "comforting blend of chamomile and spearmint". I love this at bedtime! I do not, however, like the box it comes in. So I thought I'd make myself something I DO like to hold my little packets of my favorite tea! I used Calcutta Gardens paper from Zsiage's Impressed With India? (see, there's that question again) line. This paper has a nice gradation in colors so I used one side (the lighter) for the front and back, then the darker side for the sides. It still felt kind of dark and I wanted to pep it up so I rubbed a pearl glaze from Making Memories over it. I overdid this just a bit, but still really like how it changed the look of the paper. Tip for the glazes - add a tiny bit at a time! It dries really quickly so while you can keep adding more, getting it toned down once you've put too much on is next to impossible. I used chipboard letters and a scroll from Zsiage covered in pearl blue Lumiere paint from Jacquard. My picture doesn't do it justice, but the pearl glaze and the pearl in the paint really do look striking together. I need to remember to pull my Lumiere paints out more often! I finished up with a few charms I had from the bowl I found in my cupboard a few weeks ago, again clipping off the hang tags. I had to fight the temptation to add ribbons to the top because I want to be able to get to my tea without getting caught up in ribbon, lol!

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.

Happiness is...

Catching up with old friends over shopping! I had a wonderful time on Saturday. Last week an old scrapping buddy of mine and I re-connected through my blog (isn't the Internet a marvelous thing - we also originally met online!). I've only seen her once since I moved and not much during the last year I was living in Champaign either so I haven't had someone to crop or shop with since then! I was in town to drop off my son so we met up and she introduced me to the newest LSS in town (Blessed 2 Scrapbook on S. Neil if you're in the area!). It's been forever since I've been to an LSS!! Then we went to Michael's, who had NEW stuff in the unfinished wood aisles! Yay! Below I've taken a quick shot of some of the latest stuff I picked up (yes, of COURSE I bought multiples of them, lol). The birdhouses and basket are more of my favorite - $1 items! And the chest of drawers was just too cute to pass up.

She also gave me directions to another LSS I didn't know about on my way home (Scrapbookers Dream in St. Joe) so I'm in heaven! Looks like my bi-weekly trip to Champaign can now include more than just a Michael's stop!

I'm working on one of the little baskets right now and hope to have it posted later today (of course, I'm working on about 20 other things too so it will depend on what gets finished and dried first, of course!).

Wooden gift bags make great storage!

Have I mentioned how addicted to these little wooden ($1) gift bags I am? Besides being a great way to package up a small gift for someone, they are also useful after the gift! I keep a nice little stockpile of these around and make them often. Most I end up keeping simply because they're a great little storage item. I keep several on my workspace at all times to keep things handy. I have one on my desk for pens and pencils too (not my good scrapbook pens, of course - those are stored on their sides, as they should be!). Plan to see some that I am making for kitchen and bath storage too soon!



For this particular WGB (I think I'll coin a new abbreviation today!), I covered it in Fossils of Kenya patterned paper from Zsiage's Out of Africa? line (yes, a lot of their paper collections have names ending with a "?" - one of these days I'll remeber to ask Dina if there's a story behind that, lol). As you may have noticed I have an affinity for all things sparky and shiny, so I decided to rub on Making Memories pearl glaze - this completely changed the look of the paper - try clicking on the picture for the large version to see the subtle shine (ok, I checked and even in the gigantic view my photo didn't pick up the pearly effect so you'll have to just trust me that it looks really great)! Then I picked out a few Bazzill Blossoms (yikes, I'm starting to run low on Prima's! I need Hobby Lobby to carry that line too!) and layered them with small felt flowers from Creative Impressions and some glittered brads from Making Memories. I painted the inside and edges of the WGB with DecoArt's metallic finish paint in Dark Patina (this color is soooo striking in peson!) and dabbled a bit more of it around the center of the felt flowers and on the ridges of the larger blossoms. To add the paint highlights to the flowers, I used my favorite all-purpose tool that EVERYONE has...my finger!

On a side note, I've noticed I have several readers from Champaign - can anyone tell me where Scrapbook Expressions (I think the new owners might have re-named it?) moved to? I was going to stop by when I was in town a few weeks ago and it was no longer in the strip mall out on the south side. There are some things I'm dying to get my hands on that I'm hoping they carry so if anyone can help me out, I'd appreciate it! Thanks!

Valentine's Wooden Gift Bag

Ok, trying to break away from Christmas projects still so I started a few Valentine's Day, St. Pat's Day and Easter projects. This wooden gift bag will eventually hold a wooden mini-album I'm working on that will match. The patterned paper is from Reminisce as is the "love" block which is cut from another sheet from the same line and inked with black ink from Tsukineko. The glittered chipboard hearts are all from Scrapworks. The paint is Lipstck from Making Memories. I'm so NOT a pink kind of girl, but for some reason I just love this color! The ribbon is from these cute little $1 sets of 6 mini spools from Target. And, of course, Mod Podge from Plaid and a $1 wooden gift bag from Hobby Lobby or Michael's.

A tip about the brads along the bottom. I removed the tabs in the back using wire cutters in the middle, then used a pair of flat pliers to gently squish the remaining section of the tabs in flush with the edges of the brad. This gave me something for the adhesive (I used Aleene's Jewelry and Metal Glue from Duncan) to grab onto.

Front

Back

Sides

More Christmas goodies!

I made a bunch of these wooden gift bags for teachers/bus driver, etc. and just hapened to finish these two up last night and actually remembered to get pics, lol! Both are super quick (the only thing that took a while was drying the Scribbles, which I left overnight but was able to at least tie the ribbons after about a half hour). Papers and metal charms from Flair. Ribbon from Stampin Up. Mod Podge from Plaid. I used tons of Scribbles glitter paint on these too. On the left one, every star has clear glitter Scribbles in the center. On the one on the right, I used tons more and in matching colors - red, green, gold, and clear - to embellish all the ornaments. If you click on the picture you'll get a gigantic version in which you can see some of the detail. They are filled with peanut butter cup bells and hot cocoa kisses (yummy!!!)

I DO occasionally make other stuff!

I know, I've kept this blog pretty consistently focused on altered items, but I really do other things as well, lol! I make a lot of jewelry, some of which I'm so honored has been (and will be) featured in Bead Trends magazine, and SOMEDAY I will force myself to part with and sell on my lonely, empty Etsy shop. I scrapbook sporatically (and I probably just butchered the spelling on that) even though I mean to do more! I can knit a scarf (anything beyond that is out of my league). I dabble in clay (I can make beautiful things...I just ruin them when attempting to bake them!). I stamp. I make cards. I help my son with neverending Perler bead projects. I love crafting!



So, as I frantically finish up the ever-growing number of projects I have invading my house at the moment, I thought I'd post a mini-book I just finished up the other day, and some bracelets that are way out of my style (experimenting with different products) just to have something a little different. I have a pile of altered things to photograph so hopefully I'll get to those here in the next few days too!

This is the chipboard stadium book from Zsiage. I haven't photographed the inside pages yet, but used the Vintered line of paper throughout. The cover is inked randomly with Distress inks from Ranger, and also the swirls are inked over the negatives from Zsiage film shapes. The numbers and letters are also film from Zsiage - the numbers painted with paint daubers from ranger then outlined with a Ranger marker and the letters are dabbed with Distress ink. I went a little ribbon-happy, but just loved this ribbon!

These two bracelets are really simple, using these cute little crochet-covered beads from Plaid. As I said, totally not my style, but fun!

Deck the Halls

I love Christmas - have I mentioned that? I love decorating for it. I love making and buying presents for the people I love. And I LOVE making Christmas crafts! In fact, I've been so busy making Christmas crafts this year, that for once my house doesn't yet look like an elf threw up all over it! Yet, lol! The tree is up, but very little else has been unboxed yet and if I keep making new stuff I won't have room!

But yes, I made yet another wooden gift bag anyways! I'm in love with this one too. This would be why I've had an Etsy shop for months now and have never put a single thing in it yet - I make these things then can't bear to part with them! This one comes with a few little tips and tricks I'd like to share...and my signature not-so-great photography! I used more paper from the Romantic Collection from Prima - I know this line is supposed to be geared towards romance, but every time I look at it I just see Christmas! I edged everything with a gold marker from Sakura - it's a very subtle detail but adds a nice touch to transition to the interior. I painted the interior with a metallic green from DecoArt (they really do some fantastic shades of metallics!). The holly leaves and berry brads are from Making Memories. The original red just didn't work for me, so I used gold glitter Scribbles over them.

Scribbles vs. Stickles. I have been using these like crazy lately! Both kinds. Stickles are from Ranger, and once dry, have complete glitter coverage. Scribbles are from Duncan and are actually meant for fabrics. They come in dimensional regular colors, neons, glitters, metallics and pearls. And are less than half the cost of Stickles! The Scribbles glitter gives a random glitter pattern with plenty of the color showing through from underneath (which is why I used them for this application). Both definitely have their very distinct uses though so I keep lots of both on hand!

The rubons are from American Crafts, from the Christmas Book Two MiniMarks. What I want to focus on is the design below the words. I used two scrolly rubons. I also made a mistake and wanted to let you know how I fixed it! As I was twirling them around trying to get the placement the way I wanted it, I wasn't paying that great of attention to which side was up (ahem, here's my plug for using a good natural light such as an Ott Light or Daylight lamp - I have several and just didn't have one on, which would have saved me this step...). I put the first one down and began to rub and it was upside down. So part of the design was gone. I used a needle tool to remove the rest of the section to a joint where it would make sense then repeated the process on that exact same section out of the matching rubon. Obviously this won't work on words, but then again, who's going to get a word upside down anyways?

Happy Thanksgiving!

First of all, I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving!


Next, I'd like thank everyone for playing! There were some really great ideas but I think you'll all be shocked when you see what I'm actually working on. I hope to have it up tomorrow or Saturday - think I'll finish tonight, but I'm hoping for some sunshine to get it photographed. Here's a hint though - while each of the guesses had to do with the puzzle as a whole, I actually have TEN projects that have come out of this! And it's been so much fun I'm off to Michael's again on Sunday to stock up on some more!


And on to the RAK winner! I have no idea where to get one of those cute little random number generators I've seen other blogs use so I went ultra sophisticated...I called up a friend and asked him to pick a number between 1 and 18! He thinks I'm crazy now, but we have a winner and it is comment #8! Which is A. L. Clark! While I was trying to find an email address I clicked over to her blog and I definitely want to spend some more time perusing it! I think we just might be sisters separated at birth - even our kitties have similar habits!


Go check out her blog! It is http://towerbridgestudio.blogspot.com/. And A. L., what I did NOT find on your website was an email address! So please email me at michaelcsmommy@yahoo.com with your mailing address and I'll get your package out to you immediately!


Well, I have several things I've got ready to post and might get to some of them this evening, but I'll start off with a scrap bin I altered over the past few days. I'm horrible about scraps. I keep my large pieces in nice, organized folders, but have all the little pieces pretty well strewn around my house, tucked here and there. So when I started putting together this cute little alterable wastebasket from Kaiser (have I mentioned before how much I love them?), it just hit me that here was my answer. It's a good size, yet because it's tapered, it leaves room at the top to do some rummaging when I am making cards and such. I used papers from the New England line from Zsiage. The striped paper was actually covering all the way to the bottom, which is how I was able to line up the stripes easily. The chipboard letters are Monica font also from Zsiage, covered in brown ink and a matte finish spray. I spent forever going through all my ribbons to find something that seemed "right" to me and came up empty handed. Most because they were just too busy or had a horizotal stripe that competed with the paper already being used. Then I came across a box I had of TWISTEL...remember that? I think I have every color ever made. When I unwraped it all, the variegation was just perfect with the different shades of brown in the Zsiage papers - I was so excited! Just for good measure I added a curling tag from Making Memories that says "create".



Know what else I have stored in that box? Every color ever made of Magic Mesh! Wow - I'd forgotten how fun this was to work with...pretty much assume you'll see something with Magic Mesh on it here on my blog soon!

Off to my pumpkin pie!

Tool and paint storage

Well I finally got around to getting some pictures of my spice rack filled with scrapbooking items! I used it for a bunch of things I used to have sitting in a basket that I was forever tryin to dig through to find things. Odd little tools that just didn't have any other place that was handy. Also my rulers, which I never knew what to do with (case in point, I still haven't uncovered the others as they are buried...somewhere!). I also added some of my most often grabbed paints and glazes and slid those in where the spices would have originally been - holds them perfectly!

Garage sale find finished!

Ok, so it's not really FINISHED (lots of touchup still to go), but for all intents and purposes (and wet paint), I wanted to get it photographed before it gets dark! I'm loving how this turned out! Once it's all finished and dried I'll post some pics of what I intend to use it for, but in the meantime, just wanted to show how it came out! All the papers are from the Basic Grey Blush line and the paint is from DecoArt (Elegant Finish Metallics in Rich Espresso). Learned a few new tricks working with this and found a new tool I LOVE in the kids' craft department! Four sheets of paper, about an ounce of paint (I used two coats) and some Mod Podge and my 50 cent find looks completely transformed!

Create Wooden Gift Bag

I found these adorable wooden gift bags at Hobby Lobby and wish I had picked up more because I haven't seen them there since and they're a lot of fun to work with for a small project with tons of storage useage (this one is currently in my studio holding scissors on my workspace). I used Surf & Turf from Zsiage's new line New England (which is one of my all-time favorite collections from Zsiage - seriously yummy and versatile!). It's hard to tell from the picture, but I did not Mod Podge over the top of the paper. Instead I used Ranger's crackle finish over the swirls (looks shiny in the picture). The ribbon is just a piece of stray white I had hanging around. The flower is from Prima. The letters and flower center are Zsiage's chipboard. This stuff is awesome - it has a nice white glossy finish to it. I used Ranger alcohol ink and metallic mixative over them and then the crackle finish again. I'm not sure if it's the glossy finish or the alcohol ink/crackle finish that caused it, but it ended up with a super cracked finish - deep, crumbly cracks. It's a neat look - they look almost like amber! You can see where I somehow managed to forget to pull out a "t" when first doing this so I did the "t" later, resulting in a bad color match when trying to remember how much alcohol ink versus how much metallic mixative to use. So there's my next tip - proofread yourself when doing anything that requires color mixing!