Paper Towel Flowers?

Say that again? Today's Try a New Technique was making your own flower embellishments out of paper towels.
You can find the instructions here : TLC Paper Towel Flowers

In between hacking (this damp bug has got a grip on me) I made this gift tote and coordinated gift card holder as a gift for a friend. The flowers are pretty darn easy to make; it's the drying time that caused me to tap tap tap my foot. I did break out the heat tool to speed things along, though :). I used a Caribbean reinker in a little spritzer bottle to spray the paper towel. The sparkle on my flower comes from the sparkly button instead of glimmer mist or adding sparkle to my reinker concoction. There's probably 6 - 8 layers of paper towel here - our generic paper towel separated when it got wet but the single layers worked just fine. I ran them through 3 sizes of Nestibilities circle dies and trimmed the largest circles with wave scissors to make them a bit smaller and more in keeping with the flower size I needed.

Tote instructions are forthcoming in a future Scor-Pal tutorial. Gift card envelope was made to coordinate with the tote. The Caribbean ribbon is adhered to the back of the envelope and is tied in a bow to keep it closed.

V.~

Supplies are:
Stamps: SU! Riveting
Ink: SU! Cool Caribbean, Certainly Celery
Paper: Cool Caribbean, Certainly Celery
Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye
Other: Scor-Pal, Scor-Mat, Scor-Tape, Wide striped ribbon, Caribbean grosgrain, Basic Gray button, Scallop and Circle punches, Wave scissors, Dimensional foam

I'm Nuts About You~

Stamps: Nuts About You by Our Craft Lounge
Ink: Memento Bamboo Leaves, Potter's Clay, SU! Crushed Curry
Paper: Gina K's Pure Luxury Pumpkin Spice, Fresh Asparagus, Pure Ivory
Other: Nestabilities Circle and Scallop dies, Cuttlebug D'Vine Swirl embossing folder, Wide green ribbon, Button, Hemp, Kraft Tin Tie Bag

A quick note as I've been under the weather all weekend; the medallion was placed on the ribbon by sandwiching the ribbon between 2 Pumpkin Spice circles, a bit of glue on each side of the pumpkin circle but not on the ribbon itself, and the medallion stays put without having to glue it to the bag.

Have a great day!
V.~

Baby Thanks~

Completely inspired by Amy's series of Top Note Cards.
Thanks, Amy!


At the time I was wondering if I should spend the $$ on that exclusive SU! die, but decided not to at that time. Then the Nestabilities Labels 8 came out - it's perfect, almost identical in shape to the one die from SU! but I got a nesting set of 6 graduated dies for just a bit more $$. Plus they take up much less room in my cramped space.

This is a set of 8 thank you cards/envelopes in a decorated clear box for my
neighbor's soon to be here grandson, Alexander.
Patterned paper is 3 Bugs in a Rug.
Other cardstock is Neenah Solar White, Gina K's Rocket Red, SU! Wild Wasabi and Blue Bayou.
Boats are punched from the patterned paper with a circle punch before matting with a blue mat and adhering to the green tag shape with dimensional foam. A pop of red gingham ribbon and black stamped sentiment from CHF round this fun set out.

V.~

Easel Card Place Settings and My Observations~

One protoytpe down, 19 to go~

It's time to make the place settings for Thanksgiving this year. I thought mini easel cards would be fun and embarked on the prototype this morning. I used the OCL Nuts for You set for the Happy Thanksgiving sentiment as well as for the 2 leaves. Names are generated on the computer and then punched out with an oval punch and are matted on a larger oval. The other shapes are Nestibilites Dies in scallop circle and circle shapes. I'll use assorted stops - rhinestone brads, buttons, and jumbo brads - as well as various ribbons to bring a bit of variety to each one. Don't tell anyone but the patterned papers I am using are from a Halloween collection by My Mind's Eye! The colors work perfectly for fall. Gina K's Pumpkin Spice, Fresh Asparagus, and Neenah Natural White round out the cardstock choices. Memento Bamboo Leaves, Potter's Clay and Versafine Vintage Sepia are the inks used.

If you'd like to create a smaller easel card just remember this simple rule, the base needs to be double the size of the easel panel. For this place setting, the base is 2-3/4" x 5-1/2" and is scored at 1-3/8ths and 2-3/4". The easel panel is 2-3/4" square.

Speaking of scoring, there is a new board on the beach. There's much talk on various paper crafting forums about a new scoring board out on the market, it's produced by EK Success for the Martha Stewart line. I did purchase one to compare it to the Scor-pal, my scoring tool of choice. I'm not sure of its availability in stores; Michaels is where I found the one I bought to make my comparison.

Features:

• Molded plastic form, off white Martha signature color
  
• 1/8" score lines across the bed of the board
• A top fence and left fence with screen printed numbers and lines
  
• Hinged door at the top to house the companion scoring tool; inside of the lid is a quick reference guide for cards and boxes
• Envelope guide with storage on the backside

My observations:

• Low price, especially when combined with a coupon
• Lightweight
• Score channels are shallow due to their proximity to each other
• Score tool is skinny and uncomfortable to use, reminds me of scoring with a plastic knife
• Score tool already wearing down after trial use
• Tool, for the most part, stays in the track for light and medium weight cardstock, the same can't be said for thick (Gina K) paper, the tool has a hard time finding and staying in the track.
• Tool jumps tracks on many paper types if pulling the tool fast (as accustomed to with the Scor-Pal)
  
• Directions for cards/boxes that are inside the hinged lid are cumbersome to read due to lid angle and small font
  
• Horizontal ruler is accurate, vertical ruler is not.
• Envelope guide creates envelopes that are larger than industry standard for those sizes. And in one instance, top and bottom flaps exceed the heighth of the envelope, so it will need to be trimmed after initial scores and cuts, eliminating the desired pointed flaps.
• The screen painted number 2 on the envelope guide is already rubbing off from sliding in/out of the backside holder
• As a righty, I am accustomed to using the right fence on the Scor-Pal for those smaller scores that are less than 1.5" This board has no right fence to secure the paper.

Happy Monday!
V.~

Happy Halloween!

The witches fly
Across the sky,
The owls go, "Who? Who? Who?"
The black cats yowl
And green ghosts howl,
"Scary Halloween to you!"

Gourd Vader, Edward, and a Birthday~

After a fairly prolific week of stamping last week, this week has been rather dry. It's just a busy time - my mom's birthday is Sunday so it was a must to get her card finished before the weekend. I started her card this morning and finished in between taking Morgan to the doctor and picking Brett up from school. Luckily, what we thought could have been worse, is just a virus, but it's been making her life miserable for the last few days.

On Monday Brett's teacher assigned each child a small gourd with instructions to dress up the gourd in a costume of their choosing. No glue, pins, or markers on/in the gourd. There will be a "parade" of sorts tomorrow with judging, and more importantly, prizes for best costume, most original, etc. Brett, being a Star Wars fanatic, wanted his to be Gourd Vader. Using a few of my craft supplies, a photoshopped mask glued to cardstock, felt and cardstock for his outfit, and a red straw saber and Vader was complete. He's pretty awesome, if I do say so myself!

In addition, Brett's Halloween costume has been coming together. He is a big Tim Burton fan, loves all his movies, and this year decided he wanted to be Edward Scissorhands. The "dressed for public" Edward Scissorhands. So it's been a week of thrift shopping, creating faux scissors (painted chipboard for safety after initially considering the real thing) sewn on black gloves, making suspenders with the safety pin closure, and more in order to complete his costume. Now, mind you, he will be a blond ES as he tried on a wig and the look on his face was priceless, he's pretty sensitive to odd textures and I could tell that wig was a big nope! ES costumes are available online but we couldn't find anything related to ES at the Halloween store or big box stores, plus it's more fun to see how creative you can be when presented with making your own, isn't it?

Anyway, that's been my week in a nutshell..... :)

V.~

Supplies for the card above:
Stamps: Kind and Caring Thoughts, Warmest Regards by SU!
Ink: Memento Rhubarb Stalk, Pear Tart, SU! Sahara Sand
Paper: Gina K Pure Luxury White, Chocolate Kiss, Green Apple
Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye The Merry Days of Christmas, Fancy Pants Christmas Carol (yes Christmas papers, but they work well for other days as well)
Other: Green satin ribbon, silver mini brads, sand marker and ink spritzer, Dimesionals

Butterfly Thanks for a Cause~

A stamping friend asked if I'd be interested in donating a stamped card, altered item, etc. for a silent auction that will benefit a woman who was struck by a car while collecting her mail at the mailbox. Absolutely. Something many of us do everyday, get the mail, and to have it bring one's life to a standstill is just unimaginable.

I made this tote and coordinated cards set this morning to send off for the auction basket. I needed the tote to be able to arrive safely and not crumpled so I used a clear card box and covered it with patterned paper chipboard. Kendra posted this design some time ago and I've used it a few times since, it's a wonderful way to present 6 - 8 minimally embellished/layered cards and envelopes

For this project, one sheet of patterned paper (My Mind's Eye) was used to complete the box and cards; the pink strip (in lieu of ribbon) is the reverse side of the paper. Turquoise, Kiwi and Vanilla cardstock round out the cardstock choices.

The butterflies are punched out with the Martha Stewart Classic Butterfly punch and attached with dimensional foam. Butterfly "trails" are made free hand with a piercing tool. The butterfly on the box itself has a pink button body with turquoise wax thread antennae.

Piercing at the card bottom is done with the Tim Holtz Design Ruler - I just love that ruler - it's a centering ruler and it's so easy to make sure your pierced holes are evenly spaced across the card.

Thank you sentiments (2 variations) are from SU! and are stamped with Soft Suede before punching out with an oval punch and matted on a scalloped oval.

Ribbon handles are threaded through Cropadile holes and secured with a grosgrain knot of coordinating ribbon. Now, just a bit of bubble wrap and into a Priority Mail envelope and off it goes!

I hope that Amber gets loads of donations!

V.~