Just a fun little road trip

We are on our way to Nebraska! Family reunion and a much needed girls weekend! I will post more today!

Traffic on a vacation, stinks. You just want to get out of town.

Food a must for all road trips.

Garage Sale Tomorrow!

CRAFT SUPPLY GARAGE SALE!

If you like crafting, scraping or stamping this is the sale for you. We have over a hundred items for under a dollar: ribbon, string, paper, markers, etc. Brand names for many items, including October Afternoon, May Arts, and Stampin' Up. Retired demonstrator is selling of demonstrator products and supplies including SU exclusive catalogs, die cuts, stamp sets and ribbon. Lots of craft supplies and vintage finds. We have priced items to sell so come early before what you want is gone. There are over 3 of us that got together to put stuff into this sale. I hope those who live in MN can come.

If you do, please say that you saw the add on the blog! You may just get a little somethin' somethin' :)

Tuesday Tip: Handmade Fabric Scrap "Box"

My tip is... you need to make one of these for yourself!

The really easy instructions are here to make this great fabric scrap "box".

Here's how mine came out, I am definitely going to make more.

Tuesdays Tip

Marker storage

You probably already know this but, you should ALWAYS store your markers nib side down. So that the ink will always be at the tip of the marker. And for all double-ended markers you have, store those horizontally.

I found this great marker storage pouch at a... you guessed it a thrift store. But you can get it here. I love it!

It is 3 sided, but I keep it in the pouch and use the inside portion to hold my watercolor pencils, and Stampin' Up blenders.

Tuesdays Tip

Drawer string storage

I use bakers twine and cotton twine a lot in my crafting, I always ended up misplacing it or when I did find it, it would be all knotted up. So I found this great set of drawers while I was out thrifting. It is really small so it sits on my desk, but it was perfect to hold my different weights of twine. I put 2 balls in each drawer and had the tail stick out the drawer. Now all I need to do is pull the tail and the ball unravels itself in the drawer. Just cut off what I need.. .and off crafting I go.

Tuesdays Tip

"Garbage Bowl"

Not to get confused with Rachel Rays garbage bowl. But the purpose is somewhat similar. Mine is stuff you want to keep... not toss.

If you craft and scrap like I do, I am working on half a dozen projects all at once. So instead of putting things away where they go right-away, I have this cool enamel bowl that sits on my desk. That way I can toss the things I am not using right away into it, and off of my work surface.

It just sits on the corner of my desk off to the left (because I am right handed). It keeps things at an arms reach but out of the way of my current project.

Then when that creativity burst subsides a bit I can take the bowl off of my desk and put the items back where they belong.

Altered Book Club

So I got sucked into another club. I don't know why I do this to myself. Probably because I am an artist, and love to share with other artists.

Besides all of the online card contests I enter, and the ATC (altered trading card, see older posts) I now am a proud member of a group held here.

Have you heard about Altered Books? Here's a great site to visit to find out more.

Anyway, I had Julie's book for the month and I chose "O" for my letter. Oh, the theme of her book is the alphabet (very partial to this theme) see this post I collect anything that has the entire alphabet on it.

So this is what I did for her book.


My name and letter choice for the front cover (this part of the book has the name a letter choise for everyone who's worked on her book).




Someone peaking through the faux wood tree. Whoooo could it be?





It is Mister Owl.
I think he turned out really cool...and he's one-of-a-kind. My husband drew him for me and I cut him apart and paper pieced him back together. And as you can see I weaved his chest. Really easy to do.



This is the back page (of the 4, I took up).



And this is what her entire book looks like. Jam packed with peoples art. How Fun!

(p.s. you might have seen that owl in other projects of mine. After he was done for this project, I scanned him into the computer and saved him as an image. For a recent card project I turned him pink.)

Tuesdays Tip

Stamp Pad Storage

You probably already know this but, you should ALWAYS store your stamp pads upside down. So that the ink will always be at the surface of the pad. It is wonderful now that Stampin' Up has designed their pads this way. I also found that a old VCR tape or cassette tape rack works wonderful to store your stamp pads. I have a small VCR rack on my shelf above my desk to hold my stamp pads.

Even my small "sample" sizes of Stampin' Up stamps are stored upside-down. I labeled all of my stamp pads so I know what is what.

March of the Tools Tuesday tip re-do

This Tuesday's tip is...
Using a 1" flat iron (made for your hair) to iron ribbon.

I use ribbon a lot in my crafting and it is stored in cardboard cards in a Prism Box, so when it comes to using it, it is wrinkled more often than not.


I found that it is a lot quicker to heat up my flat iron than the full size iron.
The ribbon MUST NOT contain any plastic (should be silk, cotton, twill or something natural).




Your iron should be on a medium setting. And you need to clamp it quite tightly while you slowly pull your ribbon through it. A thicker ribbon might take a couple of times to iron, but it is a lot easier to pull it through, than getting out the ironing board and iron.

Just beautiful

I don't know how I can say that about tape, but I just did.




I don't remember which blog I found this great tape on but, once I saw it I knew I needed to have it. The tape is from Japan and comes in all these wonderful yummy colors. You can order it from DesignWithinReach. (Feb.28 I just called and they are all out. You can contact customer service and ask about it. Also check out Kamoi Kakoshi Co, for ideas for uses) I ordered mine about a month ago. I am going to use it scrapbooking and cardmaking. I'll probably find a lot of places to use it. (it comes in a smaller sample pack of these colors, 1/4" wide, mine are a set of all the colors 1/2" wide)

Tuesdays Tip

Tuesday's tip is the use of 3M removable Command hooks. I am addicted to these 3M hooks, especially the Utensil ones. I use them all over my studio. I was always misplacing my scissors, so now I have a 3M hook right in front of me, above my desk. Now my scissors have a home. For you this could be on a wall, or the side of a cabinet.

You can see other places in my studio where I also use these hooks. The best part is if I re-arrange my studio these hooks will come right off.

Finds #3

So I ended up at a couple thrift stores this weekend. One because my girlfriend and I ended up getting lost (no, not lost... going out of our way). While trying to get to a scrapbooking crop. We found this really cute thrift store with unbelievable prices. We also stopped at old reliable Salvation Army. Here's what I found:



Great old corsages, the one with white and pink flowers is made for a expectant mother to wear at her baby shower, it's made of baby socks. And the other one is just way cool. I'm not sure what I am going to do with them, but could not pass them up for 99¢.



Two Glitterville Dept. 56 hat boxes. Department 56 made this line for Halloween (but you could keep these out all the time), I have found quite a few pieces while out thrifting, and now seem to have a small collection. For 25¢ each, brand new in the box.



My other "could not leave the store with out" finds.
Pavlova Linen wall hanging, great graphics and wonderful pink color.
Glass bunny
Old mini pastel Easter baskets
Fuzzy pink duck
50's Heart game
Postcards
Small ABCDE chalkboard
Wrislets used for holding wrist corsages
Warning...utilitarian purchase, Fiskers paper trimmer blades

...and that cool old "look what we found" dry cleaners bag was used at one of the thrift stores for wrapping up breakables (I should have asked if I could buy a few from her).

February ATC

Here's February's ATC. Theme: A Song in my Heart





I scanned in an vintage Valentines card (the kitties), and cut them to size. As the background I used old vintage sheet music, all of this is mounted on a old BINGO card. I wanted my ATC to be interactive so when I glued down the train kitty, I only did the sides and bottom, that made a pocket where I could tuck in that other kitty (the one that is making a valentine). I attached that kitty to the card through a silver eyelet tied with red and white bakers twine.

January ATC

In January I joined a local ATC group held here. It is a warm and welcoming group, I feel honored that they let me in (I think they've been trading for a while). I had never done ATC cards before, and they were a blast, and even more fun is to see what others come up with. The shop hosts the group and gives us a theme for the month. January's theme was Minne"snow"ta. I forgot to post my ATC card from January so here it is...


I used a Minnesota Map as the background. I included a tag with a snowman made of buttons, and a sewn paper snowflake. And as a rule something on the card must be stamped, so I stamped I (heart) MN. I aged the entire card with Weathered Wood Distress Ink from Tim Holtz.