Bits Of Glue, Sprinkles Of Glitter, and Paper Scraps Everywhere

I have a stash of scrapbook paper from Michaels http://www.michaels.com/scrapbooking
and some recent additions from Club Scrap http://www.clubscrap.com. So much paper and I was feeling quite overwhelmed by it. What am I going to do with all this stuff?

February I spent some time handling my scraps and making a bunch of flowers and embellishments using the Cricut http://www.cricut.com/(X(1)S(inss53exioly0t55st32dg45))/default.aspx and Sizzix machines http://www.sizzix.com to use up some of this paper and to keep from buying more stuff.

I wasn't in the mood to do scrapbooking. I have a gazillion photos that I need to do something with, but I just keep putting it off.

I thought I may make some cards. BUT - how do I start? What are the sizes of regular cards? What kinds of things can be used? I had so many questions that I needed to find some help. Doing a Google search brought up a whole bunch of stuff and I wasn't interested in reading all they had. I wanted pictures. Video would be fantastic.

Then I remembered that Google has a video tab. I hunted in there for a while and found a few things that peaked my interest. Nothing that really made me want to spend a lot of time researching. Then I came across Dawns videos and things began to click.

Dawn (I don't know her last name) is a Stampin Up Demonstrator http://www.stampinup.com and she uses Stampin Up rubber stamps, papers, inks, and whatnots in her cards and other items.

I got so excited and the creative juices began to boil over after watching her tutorials. I can do this. I really can.

Then I had a dreadful thought. I don't have any Stampin Up stamps. That almost - ALMOST - stopped me from doing cards. There was going to be some creative license taken here if cards were going to be made with what I own now and don't have to purchase.

So....here is a sample of what I was up against and the solution to this problem.

















This is Dawn's card that holds a gift card. These are photos taken from my computer screen of Dawn's YouTube tutorial for this little cute card.

And this is my solution to the problem of not having the rubber stamp for the front image, nor the hole punch to make the notch in the thing to get the gift card out.
This stamp I've had for a long time and have not known what to do with it. I think it turned out pretty good. And the notch thing I used a sunburst punch that I own. Works the same as the hole punch.

Go give Dawn's tutorials a try. They are fun. You may find all kinds of things in your craft drawers, bins, containers, and baskets that you thought you would never have a use for. Haul those goodies out and rethink their purpose.

Adventures In Acrylic

For my daughter's Christmas present, I made her this "mixed media" book. It is acrylic pieces I picked up at The Yard Store in Wichita, Kansas four about $.15 each. These are 9 1/2 inches wide by 5 1/2 inches deep - EXCLUDING the leg things.

These pieces of acrylic are cast off pieces (trash) from some project done by a manufacturing company. The people at The Yard Store acquire stuff all the time. Mostly tools, but they do have some gems hidden amongst the "stuff".

Someone may know what stamp pad ink to use on acrylic. I do not. I used what I have in my stash - mostly permanent ink pads - and they DID NOT dry. The ink was still wet three days later, and after I used the heat gun on it to "set" the ink.

Also, heat embossing is tricky on this. If you use fine powder stuff (like black or silver), all the little bits that don't get off with the initial banging and flicking will need to be brushed off with a paint brush. However - I did find a fix for the problem. Rubbing alcohol - Isopropyl Alcohol - will take it right off. I am serious. It will take off all the hard work you just did. My cover page ended up going through a bit of a total makeover when I found I could remove the heat embossed mess I had made.

Using the heat gun on this acrylic. After a while the acrylic will bend and begin to bow. Not good. The acrylic piece is VERY HOT and it is pliable. I had to put it down on my craft table and find the coolest spots around the bow and press down. I had to work my way towards the center of the bow to get the piece flat again. Lots of "ooooch, ouch, hot hot hot" mutterings went on while I did this. I'm not sure what would have happened had I just left it alone. It may have flattened itself out as it cooled. I didn't want to take the chance of it not working.

I have some course embossing powders by Personal Stamp Exchange in the Tapestry line. That worked out really well on the last acrylic piece on the outside.

I had my husband drill the three holes along the edges of three pieces of acrylic. He's my "Go to guy" when I need stuff like this done. I have tried to drill acrylic before and I have cracked it and made a huge mess. I knew he had the proper tools and expertise to do this job so I enlisted his help.

Okay, now a little bit of a heads up. I did not have a "plan" in mind of what I was going to do with this project. I knew I wanted to use the acrylic and maybe some papers, and I had a stack of pictures I wanted to use. That was the extent of my planning.

I didn't take into consideration that PAPER TEARS when ribbon or wire is worked through it. The opening and closing of the book would cause the paper to stress at the holes and all my work would be junk. I figured that out after I had the pages built. So I glued 1 1/8 wide ribbon on the edges and used clothing grommets through the ribbon and the paper to make a better whats-is.

If you plan on making something like this USE REALLY STRONG CARDSTOCK. Or at the very least, sandwich a piece of chipboard between your decorative papers. Give the pages some substance and not flimsy.

I love, love, love this photo. My daughter and her girlfriend took their spouses on a cruise. This was one of the photos they had taken before the formal dinner. I just love it.

Oh, while I'm at it. When you make something with clear acrylic - there is a backside to it. Duh. I had the front side looking pretty good. I looked at the back saw all of the glue dots and smears from attaching the burlap. Yes, I can't believe it came as a surprise to me either.

I got to paw through my stash of stickers and decorative tags to cover stuff up.


The little picture at the top left is my daughter's girlfriend and her husband. "Come here you wild thing you!" I thought this was so cute.

I have some stickers with these little kid like figures. There are x's and o's all over the page. I got them from Ebay one time when I was in the midst of a buying frenzy. Don't ask me why I thought these little guys were so cute that I had to have them. I don't know. Now I have to find things to use them in.

While I was "auditioning" them on the page, they stuck. Crap. So no background paper was used. I used some of my pens and made the "stitch" dashes around the figures. Turned out kinda cute.

This scrapbook thing is a learning process for me. You can see from this page where I used the 1 1/8 inch ribbon and the clothing grommets for a sturdier edge. I glued the ribbon down real good and pinched the devil out of the grommets so they wouldn't go anywhere.


This page I traced the flowers from a thing from Club Scrap. I have no idea what color the flowers are in real life but I thought these colors were pretty. The two oval words are from my stash and fit in the blank space between the flower and the dotted border.

The "Tabs" are from a set of stickers I have from 7 Gypsies I bought in Sparks, Nevada one time. There is a scrapbook store about three blocks away from the hotel we were staying in. I had to go check it out. Like I said in an earlier post - I am a paperholic and I have to get my fix where ever I can.

In Wichita, Kansas is a little store on Kellog street (I think) called the Scrapbook Garden. I can loose myself in that store for hours. I've find scrapbook stores in nearly every state we travel through. When we have a few days downtime and I can wonder around I find a place to take pictures, or I find a scrapbook store.


The cute sticker at the top left is a cloth sticker from Club Scrap in their "Textiles & Notions" collection. I just have the stickers. I had to touch it and rub it for a while before I pulled if off its backing paper. I could not believe it was fabric.

Yes, I know - "It doesn't take much to entertain and idiot".

My daughter's girlfriend got married in Hawaii. So cool. I'd go to Hawaii anytime - if I didn't have to go over WATER. Yes, you can all chime in now "bok, bok, bok" (chicken noises).


This was where I found out that permanent ink doesn't dry on this kind of acrylic. Yes, you are seeing the backside of this swirl image. I thought this was just the coolest thing I've seen. The view of the previous page through the swirl.

What I ended up doing - since the ink would not dry - was use Glassy Accents over the silver ink. When the Glassy Accents dried I figured the silver ink would be there for ever.






Okay, this is the end. Go have some fun with acrylic stuff.

I Have Fallen Into The Deep End

I was doing so well. Working diligently, daily, on my paperwork, doing housework in snippets of time - or taking an hour or two to get some work done, and after dinner time I would spend a couple hours in my craft room to get things made for family for Christmas presents.

Everything came to a screeching halt about two days ago. I went bonkers. I went mad. I lost control of my senses.

For about a year now I have been checking in on "Craft TV Weekly" and the Scrapbook Lounge for ideas and seeing how some really fantastic things get made. If you are a crafter and have not seen this site, go check it out. http://www.crafttvweekly.com/main.php

When I began scrapbooking, I wasn't very good at it but I gave it a try. As I got more experience and became more confident with my tools and techniques I got more excited about doing this.











While watching the Scrapbook Lounge one evening (last January) I saw a "formula" of sorts for making my layouts look better and more to my liking. Well, that started a whole new way of thinking for me and this craft I so love to do. I have so much paper - none from Club Scrap - that I figured I could use the "Design Guide" as a reference point for choosing papers. I was able to get about 15 layouts finished in a few days (minus any photos) - this was still last January when I was home tending to my husband after his surgery - and I was very pleased with them.





Well, the last time I was home, for more than just overnight, I went to http://www.clubscrap.com and looked at everything they had for sale. I was able to just look around and not be possessed to purchase everything I saw.

Friday, I lost perspective. It started out by becoming a member and selecting the "Club Scrap Jr. Paper" kit on a monthly basis. I figured for $11 a month for three months and cancel at anytime I could do that. The full kit membership - with all the embellishments, bling, rubber stamps, doo dads, and gee gaws - is well over $45 a month and I didn't want to go that far.

Everything would have been fine if I had not decided to go to Ebay and see if anyone had full kits for sale. There were six. 6 of them, I tell you. My brain fired up and I had to control myself from bidding on all of them. I only bid on two.

Getting out of Ebay as fast as I could, I went back into the Club Scrap site and looked it over. In the "Community" section is a place (Oh, my further undoing) called of all things - "Garage Sale". There is a section for Full Kits and I just had to press the button to enter. I just had to. I could not help myself.

Coming in the mail, some time within the next week, will be my very first Club Scrap Kit, then there will be two coming from Ebay (I din't get out fast enough), and I will have made a purchase from the Garage Sale at Club Scrap.

I am soothing my conscience with the notion that Christmas is just weeks away and we don't have the money to do Christmas up like we did a couple years ago. I can make things for our family. I have hundreds of photos of places we have been during our normal working. Photos from different states that I have admonished myself for not getting to and lessening the amounts of photos. I can make cards, or packs of cards, and send them to our children so they will have something to send a friend or family member for birthdays and get wells.

Then I think about my regular job. I spend so much of the year out on the road and all this paper patiently waits for my return during the winter times and after I have done all my other paperwork for income tax stuff.

It will, eventually, go to good use and I will be glad I have the tools and papers available for me to do this and be creative. This really isn't a bad thing. I just got derailed from my paperwork for about three days.

Tomorrow is another day.