Twitter Card Challenge - Stencil

This week's card challenge, set by me but is run by Jess over on Twitter, was to use a stencil on your card.

So.....why did I choose to use a stencil when it took me almost half an hour to finally settle on one!!! Anyway, I like this stencil -  the Texture Shine Designer Stencil by Memory Box so I decided to use distress inks and blend them from Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey and finally Squeezed Lemonade.

Now what! I sat there thinking and thinking and thinking some more until I decided to grab my stamps and have a look through to see if something jumped out at me. It didn't take long LOL. I found the perfect stamp set by Simon Says Stamp called "Sunnier Days".

I stamped the umbrella onto plain white cardstock using Tuxedo Black Mememto Ink, coloured in the umbrella with a couple of orange/yellow shades of Copics (sorry, can't remember which ones) and fussy cut it out.

I then stamped the "Wishing you sunnier days" sentiment onto white cardstock using Vermillion Ranger Archival Ink, cut it out, rounded the corners using a 1/4" rounder and adhered it to another white piece of cardstock with dimensional foam dots and inked edges in Spiced Marmalade.

I decided it needed a bit more "pop" so I stamped the vertical border heart stamp using Vermillion Ranger Archival Ink just in line with the umbrella.

I adhered the sentiment piece so that it was held in place by the hook of the umbrella handle.

Next I matted the card top to a piece of orange cardstock and adhered it all onto a 4 1/8" x 5 1/4" piece of white cardstock in a top opening card style. And finally I decided I wanted to put a few half-backed pearls in the bottom right corner to finish it off.

Phew! That's this week's challenge done and dusted - and early!!!

Bye for now!

Find some manners people!

Sorry everyone, please humour me here, I need to vent!

We have an awesome online crafting community with a multitude of awesome talented crafters who share their ideas, projects, tutorials and products. There are so many who provide us with thousands of hours of streams, videos, blog posts, etc. that we can CHOOSE to watch or choose NOT to watch, participate or NOT participate, buy tutorials or NOT buy the tutorials, the choice is OURS, and OURS alone. That's right - we have a choice!

When I like a project for which someone is teaching a class - free or paid, or someone records a start-to-finish on YouTube, or from a blog post, I always try to mention that person from whom I saw the project first. I have bought kits and tutorials from many crafters, some of which I have thought were a little underdone, a lot of bang for your buck, etc. but I choose to learn from this and I choose whether or not I buy more from that person. I do NOT go complaining about it to everyone who will listen. If I have a problem with a tutorial or project I go directly to the owner, I do NOT use any social media platform to air my grievances, nor should I! That, to me, is rude and unnecessary! We are supposed to be grown adults here, this is NOT a playground for complaining or for bullies to thrive!

So to those that are whining, bitching and basically being very open and rude about it, remember that YOU have a choice! Exercise your right to choose what you watch, what you buy, who you befriend, and stop bringing everyone down with your nasty comments and innuendos! Sorry, but it's just been so rife lately that I just had to say something before I exploded! By the way, to those that choose to ignore a hello from someone - you are also being RUDE! Please think about your actions, they do hurt people, particularly those that are feeling vulnerable at the time.

To those that totally ignore me, or anyone, I ask that if you have a problem with someone that you go to that person and talk about it - you really do NOT know all the circumstances behind someone's actions, you do NOT know what that person is going through, you do NOT know how your lack of consideration and thought will affect that person. So please do NOT believe the things one person says without going directly to the source first! We all have bad days, we all have good days, some of us are going through stuff about which you have no idea! Please do not treat anyone less than the respect we all deserve!

Having said all that, the number of good, generous, thoughtful and caring people here in our online crafting community far outweigh the negative people, and for that I am truly grateful! There is enough room for us all to enjoy this awesome paper crafting community!

Thanks for listening and please stay positive!

Smiles
Jen

Travel in Time with the Scrapadabadoo Design Team

Hey everyone!

We have some exciting news for you all!!!

Four of Scrapadabadoo's Design Team Members - Zandra, Jani, Ashliegh and myself - are streaming live starting from 1:30pm on Saturday 31 March 2014 (USA PDT) at Scrapadabadoo Crafts Ustream channel!

We will all be using the new gorgeous Prima paper line "Time Traveler's Memories"!! I love this paper! It's so me!

I start streaming at 6:00pm (USA PDT) making a "time capsule" to hold a multitude of mementos of my grand-daughter, Amelia's "life moments". HERE is the tools & supply list if you want to craft along with me or make it AFTER you watch me fumble through it LOL. The full cutting guide will be available on the day of the stream.

I intend on filling this up and giving it to Amelia (my only grand-daughter) on her wedding day. I will be continuing streaming on Scrapadabadoo's Ustream channel creating a few items to be included in the time capsule, so stay tuned for more details of those!

Example made from KaiserCraft's "Timeless Classics" but using Prima Time Traveler's Memories at Ustream show

To find out what time we will be streaming in your time zone click here!

To find out more information on the Travel in Time with Scrapadabadoo, visit Scrapadabadoo's blog here!

For a "sneak peek" at the other projects check out the Travel in Time video on Scrapadabadoo's YouTube channel HERE.

We hope you can join us!

Happy scrappin'!

Ink Tower for Kathy Orta (Paper Phenomenon)

Hi everyone!

I'm so happy I have finally finished Kathy's ink tower and posted it to her already! Kathy should receive it this coming week some time!!!

So, how did this all come about? Well I made myself an ink pad and reinker storage unit for my Ranger Archival, Memento, VersaFine, StazOn and ColorBox ink pads as well as storage for my reinkers. Kathy saw what I had made and said that she needed one for her ink pads and reinkers.

So....after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, finding out from Kathy what colours she wanted, how many ink pads, were they distress ink pads or larger ink pads, how many of each, blah blah blah, I came to the realisation that Kathy needed storage for both distress inks AND larger ink pads. So off to the drawing room I went!

Kathy had the ENTIRE set of distress inks and also had other larger ink pads. I didn't have a design for BOTH - so yes, I had to CUSTOM BUILD one for Kathy lol.

It was easy enough as I had written instructions for both the distress ink storage unit AND the ink pad & reinker storage unit, I just had to combine the two.

Given that there are 48 distress ink pads I had to make it to fit all 48, plus add another section for the larger pads, then there was the top section to hold 50 reinkers! So this wasn't going to be a small project! It ended up being almost 2 feet tall with the spinner attached and the handle on the top section!

I used KaiserCraft "Precious Moments" paper as it had the white, greens and pinks that Kathy loves, I sprayed the raw chipboard (almost 20 sheets of 12x12) with a white primer, then sprayed it with various shades of pink Glimmer Mists.

The tower was made in three separate levels - the first level holds 12 large ink pads, the second level holds 48 distress ink pads, and the top layer holds 50 reinkers (only 25 distress reinkers and room for 25 other reinkers).

The handle was made from Kraft-Tex, sprayed with white primer and then various shades of pink Glimmer Mists. I used a buckle from Tim Holtz Ideology and the spinner was bought from Scrapadabadoo.

Once it was all complete I had to find a box big enough for it to ship it to Kathy - what a mission that was! In the end I used the box that I had been spraying my pieces into, cut the middle section out, used the top and the bottom, joined them together with almost 2 rolls of packing tape, covered it with brown paper and shipped it off!

Now to wait for the moment she receives it!!!

I did put a note in a card to Kathy asking her to NOT look at it too closely LOL. The stress of making something like this for someone who does it for a living - aaaaarrrrggghhh!

For the original distress ink storage unit measurements click here
For the original distress ink storage labels click here
For the inkpad & reinker storage unit cutting guide click here
For the Ustream recording of the original distress ink storage unit click here

So here are some pics of the project!

 

Smiles
Jen

Scrapadabadoo DT Project - Paper Bag Mini Album Using Tim Holtz "Wallflower"

Hi everyone!

In my Design Team package I received some kraft coloured mini paper bags, so I thought what better way to use them than to make a paper bag mini album. Not just a mini album - a gatefold style mini album.

I used only 8 of the 20 you receive in the packet from Scrapadabadoo (currently on sale! Click Here) so maybe there might just be another project using the paper bags lol. You could most certainly use more than 8 with this mini album though.

I cut the paper bags down to 5", matted them using the amazing Wallflower paper by Tim Holtz, added some mini pockets, used the WRMK File Tab punch to add to the tag tops but you could also use the Tim Holtz File Tabs, and then had fun creating the covers!

There are two spines to this mini album and it closes with a metal closure just like this one from Scrapadabadoo (click here to see closure).

Since the cover of this mini album has two spines I had to join the paper pieces together in order to get a piece long enough to cover the outside covers & spine. However - I added a touch of Kraft-Tex to the spines to cover the joins! I only have the kraft coloured Kraft-Tex but Barrie & Carol carry all three colours - check them out here! But I had fun painting, dry embossing, rubbing Inka Gold, Gilder's Paste and other wax-based mediums onto the Kraft-Tex to totally alter it!

So I wanted something more than just a plain straight edge to the Kraft-Tex so I decided to take another piece, punch it with the Iron Gate On the Edge die by Tim Holtz. WOW! That really made a difference to the look of the front of the album. This Kraft-Tex is so so easy to use, manipulate and to work with!

The addition of the Wood Shapes - Flags by Studio Calico really make the pages stand out! I stamped onto tissue paper using Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black and adhered it to the wooden banners using Studio Multi Matte Medium by Claudine Helmuth - so so easy! Looks like it was stamped directly onto the wooden pieces!

I must say that this Wallflower paper by Tim Holtz is very versatile (and it's like a never-ending paper pad! I'm still making projects with it!). Just look at the difference in contrast from the Mini Distress Ink Pad Storage Unit to this Paper Bag Mini Album - chalk and cheese in colour tones! So whatever look you're going for, I'm almost certain you will find it with this paper line!

OK, so I have written an instruction document (click here for the full instructions) as well as just the cutting guide (click here for the cutting guide only).

If you decide to make this paper bag mini album I'm sure we would all love to see how it looks. I love seeing the same project used with the same paper line and having them come out so totally different!!! I think this is very possible with this collection. Please share your finished paper bag mini albums on the Scrapadabadoo Crafts Facebook page here.



OK, onto the next project :)

Smiles
Jen

Twitter Card Challenge - Make it Sparkle

Hi everyone!

So, as it was my day to Stream today I thought why not kill two birds with one stone and make this week's Twitter Card Challenge...so that's just what I did LOL.

BUT, I didn't like the card that I made during my stream, so afterwards I cleaned up my work area (just enough to get by LOL) and made another card.

This time, instead of using Watercolor Paints, I just used distress inks with water to create the background, the stamped vine (Hero Arts Ivy woodmounted stamp) and the sentiment background, as well as the butterfly.

Speaking of the butterfly, I first stamped it using Ranger Archival Ink in Sepia, then stamped it again using the IndigoBlu FlitterGlu, rubbed in some Mega Flakes and when dry, painted all over the mega flakes and bare areas of the butterfly using Distress Ink in Peacock Feathers.

The "Fluttering by with my Best Wishes" stamp is from the Beautiful Wishes stamp set by Creative Expressions. I stamped it using Onyx Black Versa Fine ink, die cut it using the Lovely Labels die cut collection by Clearly Besotted Stamps, then with the die still sitting on the cardstock I inked it up with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink.

I then dabbed on some glue dots using the Sakura Quickie Glue Stick pen and sprinkled White Fizz Design Glitter by Allison Ellison Designs. Attached pop dots and added it to the card front. Mounted it on white cardstock, then onto the pre-made/bought card base.

When the pressure was off (off-screen) I really enjoyed the process :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Smiles
Jen

Mini Distress Inkpad Storage Unit - Design Team Project for Scrapadabadoo

Well I have been busy lately making yet another storage solution. This time I've made a storage unit for the new Tim Holtz Mini Distress Inkpads. It holds 48 of the mini inkpads (yes, I know Tim Holtz hasn't released them all yet - yes, YET LOL. We all know he will release the entire distress ink palette for his mini's, just a matter of time.

The storage unit also holds at least 8 ink blending tools and has four drawers to hold your foam pieces, daubers, or whatever else would fit.

AND of course it S P I N S!!! LOL

Another advantage is that it has doors on the unit which makes it perfect for portability!

I have uploaded a few videos of how I made this unit up on YouTube and you can see the first part by clicking HERE.

There is also a Cutting Guide & Basic Instructions pdf document on my blog under the HANDY LINKS section, but you can click HERE to download it and save it to your computer.

When it came to determine what paper to use to cover this storage unit I looked no further than the new Tim Holtz Wallflower paper!!! I had sprayed the raw chipboard (after I had primed it first) with Tattered Angels Glimmermists in Sea Glass, Turquoise Blue and Jazz Blue as well as a light spray of Cocoa Bean Copper by Lindy's Stamp Gang. The Tim Holtz Wallflower paper was a PERFECT match of paper to compliment the blue sprays.

I must say also that the kraft-tex is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G material! It colours up really well with sprays and is so strong that it's what I will use for my hinges from now on!

Now my storage units are not true storage units if they do not have a spinner attached, they are a MUST for my storage units as they allow you to hold a lot of product in a tiny space but still have easy access to it all! I have searched Australia high and low for the plastic spinners that Barrie & Carol sell over at Scrapadabadoo to no avail, so whenever I need a restock I will definitely be ordering from Scrapadabadoo!


Happy building :)

Here is a list of what I used to build the storage unit, each item has a link directly to the product on the Scrapadabadoo web store:


Chipboard
Plastic Spinner
Tim Holtz Wallflower paper pad
kraft-tex
Sprays (I used Glimmermist but you could use any type of sprays, Lindy's would be awesome!)
Gesso (I used a primer but you could easily paint on some Gesso)
Brads
Closures
Kraft Cardstock
Scor-tape
Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive
Magnets