Birthday Wishes

Yes, I have been at it again creating birthday cards for some February Birthdays. I hope you don't get tired of seeing birthday cards made with a small selection of stamp sets because there are still a lot of possabilities for combinations using these. I used my new Just Rite stamps along with the Stampin' Up balloons. These were heat embossed with black and blue embossing powder onto WC paper. I watercolored the balloons using SU! reinkers. Next came the ultra fine glitter from Barbara Trombley's Art Glitter in Nirvana, Azure and Hot Kiss. Round the corners and sponge a bit of blue on the WC paper. You now have a simple and easy focal point for a card. Back that with some SU! designer print paper and it is ready to place on a card base. The embossing folder is one I recently picked up and it is called Large Flowers, Leaves and Twirls, Ornate embossing folder set by Sizzix. I used SU! Pink Passion paper and created this A2 size card. Feel free to stop by and ask a question or give me ideas about what you would like to read about on this blog.

Celtic Knots

This is the card that will accompany my Secret Leprechaun box when I mail it. It is a simple card using Celtic Knot Stamps. This stamp set was given to me and there isn't any information about the manufacturer of these stamps. They came in a nifty wooden box with a booklet about Celtic Symbols. I wonder if they may have been sold in a book store. If you happen to know, please give me the details as I would like to have this info.
I stamped onto SU! Green Galore card stock base with SU! Glorious Green Ink. The eyelets were also given to me and I have no idea who the manufacturer is of these beauties either. Sorry about all of the unkowns but I am trying to use up things that have been sitting around my studio for a while. I also used GP white and SU! Gable Green CS. The lettering was made using an alphabet set by Just Rite. The glittery shamrocks are stickers that I think I picked up at a craft store a few weeks ago.
Have you made your cards for St. Patrick's day yet? No! Well get moving and show me what you come up with.

Secret Leprechaun box

Are you wondering what the heck a Secret Leprechaun box is used for? Some of the gals at Splitcoast Stampers Wish RAK forum are participating in a secret Leprechaun exchange. Remember the secret Angel exchange that I participated in at Christmas? Well it's the same sort of thing only the theme is based around St. Patrick's Day.

I took this heavy duty shoe box that has a finger hole in the front of the box and decorated it with photos from Ireland. I have a ton of photos from a trip I took a few years ago so I printed a bunch of them off onto standard printer paper. I applied them to the box with Mod Podge and then coated the box with several layers of Mod Podge to seal the photos.

I am happy with the results and wouldn't mind making a box like this for myself. That means that I would have to purchase another pair of Italian shoemaker shoes to get another nifty box like this. Hmmm....... I am beginning to like this idea! LOL! There are photos taken from all over Ireland on this box and memories of each and every place. What a nifty gift to house all of the scrapping goodies that I am sending.

I'll have a few more altered items that will go into this box and will show them to you in the coming days. BTW, I use boxes of this size (photo storage boxes) to house my clear stamps. I stick them onto heavy clear plastic sheets cut to the proper size that will fit the box and I also stamp the images onto card stock and place the card behind each clear sheet.  This way I can tell which sheet a particular stamp was taken from and put it back in the proper place.

Storage Solutions

I recently took a trip to visit friends and family and I took my jewelry making supplies with me. These supplies are stored in a plastic tote box and a cardboard box. The tote holds things like my wire, jewelry bags and tools while the cardboard box housed 9 containers of bead boxes like this one on the left. Needless to say, this took up a great deal of space. While shopping on this recent trip, I found a Container Store which had these smaller boxes (right). I thought they would solve some of my bulk issues with my bead storage and they did!

The new boxes are so much smaller and much more portable. This was a great solution for me since I tend to work on jewelry while I am travelling or watching my DD ball games. I can work on projects in the car and during half time while the new containers take up half the space of the old ones. One of the other things I do when storing my beads is keep the manufacturer and price of the beads in with each type of bead. This makes it easy to place a new order and price finished product without looking for an invoice.
I won't let the larger boxes go to waste since I need better and more organized storage of hardware around my home. I am constantly wasting time looking for washers, nails, screws and cup hooks. These little babies should fill the bill quite nicely for all of those odds and ends. I will also be able to see through the boxes for a quick search instead of looking high and low for one little piece of hardware. Now the big question about this is..... Will my family put things away where they found them so that the hardware stays organized? Ah well, even the best laid plans hit a snag or two!
If you have a handy way to store your beads or hardware, share them here. I have an inquiring mind and want to know what solutions you use.

Spellbinders Christmas ornaments

Earlier this month I showed you the Christmas tree in our entry hall and told you that I made some paper ornaments to go on that tree.  I also made some ornaments to give as gifts to visitors who were here over the Christmas season.  This ornament was made using the Nestabilities Labels 4 die cut set. I cut seven labels out with my Cuttlebug using SU! Handsome Hunter card stock. Then I used silver Encore ink to stamp the scroll pattern from the SU! Baroque Motifs stamp set. I finished it off using a silver paint pen to border each shape. Next, I scored each die cut down the center and then folded them in half. I glued each one of them back to back. Before I glued the last one, I added the silver cord with the glass bead at the top and a pearl headed straight pin on the bottom that had a few glass beads added to it for interest.

This ornament was made the same way but I folded the die cuts down the center the opposite way as the first ornament and used gold ink on SU! Bravo Burgundy card stock. The hanger was a piece of brass wire.

I thought I was finished using the mystery paper from my October/November 2009 blog posts for a long while. I couldn't resist reaching for this inexpensive and wonderful paper when my daughter needed a few ornaments for her tree which is done in a blue, silver and white color theme. I cut out the pieces and then ran them through my Cuttlebug using the Devine Swirls embossing folder. They were so easy to make!

This last ornament was made using SU! Bravo Burgundy card stock with gold ink and the Chintz Background stamp from Me and Carrie Lou. Why don't you give it a try? I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Heidi's Holiday Tag-Aholic Swap 2009

This post is late in coming because there have been several family emergencies this past month.  I am sorry for being out of the blog loop the past few weeks.  It hasn't rained but actually poured with one problem after another. I have many new cropping toys to play with from Christmas but I have not gotten a chance to play with them yet.  I think things should get back to normal soon and I will be able to spend some creative time in my craft space.
Today I thought I would showcase a few more Christmas tags from our swap over at Splitcoast Stampers (SCS). The gingerbread tag was created by SCS Lazorkay. Aren't those gingerbread buttons adorable? Next we have the reindeer tag that SCS stampnkat made. These are so cute! The reindeer is a die cut sizzlit from the Sissix company. Stampnkat tells me the set is called Winter Set #3. Didn't she do a great job on this tag? The ornament tag was created by SCS doxiegal. She used the SU! round tab punch at the top of the ornament and attached her circles to this tab. She said the circle was cut with a punch as well as the snowflake that she picked up at a craft store. I am always so delighted with the interesting designs that these gals come up with for the swap. If you see something that you like, you may want to stop by SCS and search for these ladies galleries. 

Christmas Decor 2009

Some of you have been asking me how I decorated the house for Christmas this year. While I don't wish to publish that much personal information on the internet, I will show you a few pics of the entry hall. This is the view upon entering the front door. The tree is nearly six feet tall and it is skinny because I wanted a tabletop tree for this room. This is the live tree that we cut at the tree farm in early December and I placed it on a library table. Most of the decorations were items I already had or that I purchased after Christmas 2008 at rock bottom prices. I assembled the tree, the door garland and the stair garland with swag over a period of about two days. I ran short on burgundy and gold ornaments so I made some paper ones for the tree. You can see them if you look closely. I used my Nestabilities labels 4 die cuts and went to town with gold ink. They turned out beautifully and if you don't mind, I'll show you more about those in a future post. The tree skirt is a tablecloth that I just wrapped at the base of the tree.

The stair swag and garland contains glass burgundy ornaments, Glass angel ornaments, gold berries, burgundy Peonies, gold hydrangea, burgundy velvet ribbon and gold ribbon. Thanks for stopping by. Stay warm and have fun crafting!