Hat's Off to Ribbon Tutorial

Every year the Manhattan Woman's Club has a Reciprocity Meeting where we invite guests from other clubs. This year's theme was "Hat's Off to Women" and we were all asked to wear a hat to the meeting. It was held at the BEAUTIFUL Jacob Henry Mansion in Joliet so I wanted to be a bit fancy. I found this very plain hat at K-Mart and I really liked the silver around the edges.


Well, those who know me know I can't just wear a plain hat. So I got out a bunch of my spring colored flowers and started playing with different combinations. I kind of knew I wanted pink and purple because those are my favorite colors at the moment but...


...let's just say I had a variety of flowers to choose from. Yes, that's my inner hoarder peeking out again!


Of course, I had to replace that goofy string tied around the hat with a beautiful ribbon. I recently discovered that you can color just about ANYTHING with Copic Markers so I grabbed this White Stitched Grosgrain May Arts Ribbon (WA01) and blended my pinks and purples in a sort of random way, just going from light to dark and then back again. And you will notice, you can still see the "stitching" on the ribbon too!


I tied my beautiful ribbon around my hat and left the ends long to dangle from the back of the hat. Then I hot glued my chosen flowers and leaves to the hat and sat back and realized something was still missing...


So I pulled my Copics back out and colored the brim of the hat too! This time I paid attention to make sure that I didn't have the colors in the same places on the ribbon and the brim. The whole time I was coloring I felt like a "bad" kid who was coloring something I wasn't supposed too, LOL! But when I was finished, I knew it was the right move, the hat looked fantastic!


Here's my very fancy 3 year old modeling Mommy's new hat! I think it looked pretty great and I got a lot of compliments on it too. Hat's off to you!

Our New Baby!

That's right, we have a new.... FUR BABY!!!!



This is little Lacey our new 7 week old Australian Sheppard puppy! Yes, we are nuts. The basement flooded a couple weeks ago so we had to clean it out and our new couches are being delivered tomorrow, so in the midst of all this chaos... we decided to add a puppy to the mix!

Well, at least I have an excuse to use more of the DCWV Pet Stack that I bought.....

Echo Park Paper Beach Baby Layout

Today I'd like to share a layout I created with some of the gorgeous paper from the Echo Park Paper This & That Graceful Collection. I took these photos of my daughter building her first sandcastle in WI a couple years ago. I used a bit of Bakers Twine to tie up my banner which I cut with my Cricut using the Country Life Cartridge. I also used my Cricut to cut the word "Beach" from the Ashlyn's Alphabet Cartridge. I used my Tim Holtz Distress Inks to ink... everything and of course I used my Pink ATG to stick everything down. Thanks for stopping by the blog today!

Never-ending Card Fun!

 I recently learned how to make Never-ending Cards and was talking about how much fun they are with a friend and she asked me to create one for her. She was going to surprise her daughter with a Disney Vacation for her birthday and wanted to let the card do the talking so this is what I came up with!

This is the first view of the card, I used my Memento Tuxedo Black Ink to stamp my Snow White (her favorite princess) and then colored her in with my Copic Markers. The "5" is cut with my Cricut and I stamped the background on the white pieces with a variety of clear stamps and Close to My Heart Baby Pink Ink. I inked alllllll of my edges with the ink, on the whole card. Then I used my Stardust Gelly Roll Pure Glitter Pen to add the glittery swirls to the 5. To get to the 2nd "page" of  the card you simply open it from the center to reveal...

...Page 2! The princess here are cut from a sheet of patterned paper and I used some vellum stickers as an accent. I used my Stardust Gelly Roll Pure Glitter Pen to add glitter to my stickers and to my stamped phrase that reads "Where does a Princess say 'Dreams really do come true'?" To reveal the answer you fold back from the center again and the answer is....

...Disney World (of course)!If you'll notice that one page 3 your side images stay the same. It's one thing you will want to remember if you decide to try one of these yourself! I used more stamps and of course that amazing Stardust Gelly Roll Pure Glitter Pen for more - GLITTER - really, you can't have too much glitter, ever! From here you simply open the card out from the center again to reveal...

...the final page! I spent a long time coloring in these beautiful princesses. I used my Copic Cardstock and Copic Markers and practiced the techniques I recently learned. The images are all stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, of course. I left the 2 center squares blank so that my friend could write her own personal message to her little girl because I'm sure this card will be a treasured possession for a long time!

I even created a custom envelope with my Scor Pal, with a Velcro closure (I cut it into the shape of a heart) for the little girl to be able to keep her card in! I stamped all of my images in pink on pink cardstock and again used my Stardust Gelly Roll Pure Glitter Pen to add a touch more glitter. As I side note, you will want to make sure you are using a STRONG adhesive for this project. I would recommend either your Pink ATG or my favorite - Scor Tape! I hope you will give making a fun, interactive card a try soon!

Mosaic Book Box

When I started this project it was going to be a quick and pretty little box. I had a very simple idea in my head for what I wanted to do... and then I found myself adding a little more here and doing a bit more there, and found myself spending many hours creating this little box.

It started lift and a plain wooden "book-look" box that I had purchased a couple years ago, on clearance for $.29. I had purchased several because they were so cheap and cute. Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I decided to FINALLY alter one of them.

To begin, I sprayed the "Pages" part with lots of Glimmer Mist. I started with the Walnut Gold, added some Coffee Shop and then finally some Tattered Leather. Then I used my Black Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber to paint the rest of the outside of the book. Then I decided to work on the inside of the book first.


I started with some fabric remnants that I picked up at a local craft store. I loved the silky patterned one so I simply used my Scor Tape and adhered it to a sheet of chipboard that I cut slightly smaller than the inside measurements (to allot for the fabric's bulk). Then I used my Glossy Accents to adhere this piece to the inside bottom of my box. Did you know that Glossy Accents is an excellent adhesive as well? I then repeated this to line the inside of my lid. Next a grabbed the music note fabric and cut small pieces of chipboard to do all of the inside sides on the box. Since the music note fabric was plain white cotton I wanted to make it co-ordinate just a bit more. So, I grabbed my Bazzill Splat Mat, my Heat Tool, a Mini Mister filled with water and my Glimmer Mists! First I sprayed the ribbon with water to make the dyes soak in better. Then I randomly sprayed Mel's Diner, Wheat Beer and Meadow Green all over my fabric. I used my Heat Tool to dry it and then cut it to cover my chipboard and used more Scor Tape to adhere it. Then used the Glossy Accents to attach all the pieces to the sides. I also used some giant binder clips to make sure my pieces stayed tight to the surface to dry.


Next I started working on my cover. Remember the Mosaic card I posted here a few days ago? Well, this is the original project that I had cut all those pieces for. I just cut strips from my Echo Park Paper "For the Record" 6 x 6 Paper Pad. This technique would really be great with any of Echo Parks lines! Then I inked all the edges of my pieces by swiping them over my Walnut Stain Distress Ink Pad. Then I very sparingly added Glossy Accents to the back of each piece as I created my pattern. I made sure to leave space for my title piece. Then I used my Glossy Accents to cover each piece of paper to give it a glass tile look and let it dry.


For my title, I had picked up these really cute "mistables" at a LSS a while ago and they've been sitting on my desk waiting for just the right project. I think this qualifies. So I used my Wheat Beer Glimmer Mist to cover the whole thing. Then I used my Barn Door and Walnut Stain Distress Inks around the edges. Then I added a layer of the Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint. When it was dry I added more Walnut Stain Distress Ink to the cracks (just liberally apply it with your Ink Blending Tool and then use a damp cloth to wipe off the top). Then I added 2 layers of chipboard behind it to raise it up a bit more. After I adhered it to my box with more Glossy Accents I then added the Glossy Accents to the top of this as well.


So here is where I will mention what I will call my "Glossy Accident"... I had actually already completed most of my box when I was adding that final title "tile". When I set it aside to dry I didn't realize that it was sitting at the tiniest angle... and when I came back to it to take photos I gasped. The Glossy Accents had slowly traveled over the edge of my tile, through the other tiles and down the side of my box. Well, I'd invested too much time in this box to toss it aside and start again, so I decided to roll with it and disguise it as much as I can! So I added Glossy Accents to the whole top of the box. First I very carefully outlined the whole top of the box with it and let the outline dry on a completely level surface (yes, I checked it with a level to be certain). Then I filled in the rest of the "grout" space with a thin coat. When that was dry I added one more layer to all of my tiles to be sure they all stood out. I love the finished effect!


Ok, so now I will tell you how I decorated the back of my book box. I wanted it to sit flat so I needed a flat design. I created a stencil from one of the shapes in one the For the Record papers. Then I used my White Adirondack Paint Dabber to fill in my shape. When it was dry I removed the mask and then I randomly added my Glimmer Mist using the Wheat Beer, Coffee Shop, Walnut Gold and Tattered Leather to it. Then I painted the Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint over the area and when that was dry I added Scor Tape around the edges, peeled off the backing and covered it with antique gold glitter. A quick simple way to make sure your glitter goes on perfectly straight!

Here's a look at the spine of the book. I simply added my paper (this was a 12 x 12 sheet from the same line) and added some May Arts Velvet Ric Rac to the edges. After that previously mentioned "Glossy Accident" I added the Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint over the top as well to mask that little boo-boo.

I's so thrilled with how my little book box turned out, now I just need to find some special treasures to tuck inside!

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Mosaic Look Card

Hey everyone! I wanted to share a card that I created with some leftovers from a really fun project that I've been creating! I used free-hand cut squared from the Echo Park Paper's For the Record 6 x 6" Paper Pad (but really you could use ANY of their beautiful lines for this project). I just cut up a whole bunch and then inked the edges by running them across the Walnut Stain Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad. Next I started randomly gluing them down to form this the mosaic pattern. Well, that of course wasn't enough so I used a few stamps from my stash to add a little bird here, a butterfly or five there and the word "Hi!" so I can use this card for any occasion.



Well, it looked pretty cool but of course I felt it needed more... so I pulled out this package of "spritz screens" that I picked up on clearance somewhere I decided to use the bird shape. I just wanted a subtle pattern so I grabbed my Walnut Gold Glimmer Mist... and after 2 spritzes I realized - I'm going to need ANOTHER bottle, LOL! Well, I grabbed the plain gold and misted and then got called away buy the kids. Well, there my card sat for several days, with the screen on top and the Gold Glimmer Mist in blobs all over the screen. Well, when I came back and took off the screen I thought the effect just wasn't big enough, so I laid my screen back down and grabbed the Walnut Stain Distress Ink again.



This time I used the foam applicator to add a bit of ink around the image so it would pop more and still have the beautiful glimmer. Well, I liked it but... I thought, "I wonder if I can use the screen like a stamp and put some of that Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint on my card? That would REALLY finish it off nicely!" So, I grabbed the bottle, coated my screen really well and slapped it (carefully) into place. Then I smooshed it down REALLY well to make sure I got the Crackle on good. Well... I must had waited a tiny bit too long (like 10 seconds) because when I started to peel my screen up, the paper started to come too. Luckily I had started pulling up slowly and when I realized what had happened. I simple smooshed that screen right back into place and LEFT it there! Well, I LOVE the way it turned out! The Glimmer Mist that had dried onto the screen looked like I was trying to do it that way. And inking around it really made it pop just right. It's funny how some times the accidents in crafting and experiments really can make all the difference! Oh, and for those who were worried that I no longer have that screen... you can all sleep easy because I had purchased two boxes thinking maybe I could use one as some sort of page accent! Yep, my inner hoarder paid off... now I've gotta place an order for some more Walnut Gold Glimmer Mist....

Have You Seen This???

I'm very excited to share with my readers this AWESOME new product from Ribbon Carousel! It's their new Ribbon Carousel©, what an amazing idea!

Here's the stats straight from the source: The Ribbon Carousel© is made out of White Marine Board Plastic (High Density Polyethylene), giving it a textured top with smooth scrolled edges. Each Carousel comes with 8 Clear Acrylic rods allowing for many different configurations. You can use it as a 4, 5, 6 or 8 post Carousel, depending upon your individual needs.


The Ribbon Carousel© holds up to 60 rolls of 3/8" ribbon using 4 rods, 40 Wooden Spools or 16 spools of your favorite Baker's Twine using 8 rods. It SPINS around on a Lazy Susan, allowing you to access your ribbon and twine easily! This easy-to-use organizer is compact, with a footprint less than 7" square on your workspace. The Ribbon Carousel© holds ribbon spools of any size up to a 4" diameter. Minimal assembly required.

I'm sure my long time followers remember that I'm a bit of a ribbon hoarder, and being on the wonderful May Arts Ribbon Design Team has only contributed to my growing stash. I'm pretty sure I will need to order several of these... or if anyone is looking for a good gift for me, LOL!