My Summer project is done!....and so is Summer????

I did a 'Pay it forward' challenge this Summer and when I signed up, I knew exactly what I was going to do. I love this kind of project when I get to try something NEW!

I made some personalized note cards for each of my 5 peeps with custom envelopes and a little custom box to house each of them. I hope they're put to good use.....as soon as I deliver them.

My challenge was to get these done in the Summer and they are but I think something has happened to the Summer.........It looks like it's GONE!

Today is September 8th and therefore it is officially still Summer. This is our forecast for the next three days. The weather outside is 0 degrees Celsius or 32 Fahrenheit for my American friends. 

I can't believe it was so HOT on the weekend.

Hope you're keeping warm,

Just for Fun! My Scrap Challenge Initial

This is totally how I see myself!!!

Give your knob a NEW style!

My kitchen cabinet knobs were in style back in the '90's. .

So, here is the BEFORE picture.

Those centers actually match my counter tops. We are planning a few changes in the not too distant future but in the meantime, I thought that just changing the knobs would be a rather significant change

This is the AFTER picture and below are a few more pictures of the process.

I figured that anything 'Tim' would be an update so I started with a pad of his papers and cut this into the appropriate sized circles. But, first I had to pop out the laminate from the original knobs....(not easy) and then after cleaning out all of the residue and oils, I spray painted the brass knobs with a brushed metallic 'Oil rubbed Bronze' Krylon paint.

I needed 1 1/4" circles and didn't have that size punch so I looked through any of my dies that had a circle and found one with the correct size. In the end it would have been quicker to use an electronic die cut machine.

I used the 'Ice Resin' on top of each of my paper discs and let these dry overnight. 

And..........now here are my 'NEW' knobs!

I'm quite happy with the result and it all happened because...................I Scrap and Stash!

I got everything except for the spray paint at Scrapbooker's Paradise on Macleod Trail and the paint next door at Rona.

Resin Fun and a few Instructions

Here is an amazing product that I recently got to use for a project. The best part about this resin is that there is no measuring involved. When you press down on the plunger, the right amounts go into your container and you mix for a minute. If you've used resin before, you usually have complicated measurements and it takes more than a minute to mix.

Once you're done, with the mixing, just pour onto your object and the product is self levelling so it will just run to the edges and stop. If your surface is not level, you may get a bit of overflow but this is easy to clean up.

These next images show the product when it was freshly poured. It is very clear and there are now bubbles.

After 10 - 12 hours of curing, the items are dry to the touch and can be handled without destruction. At this time they are still malleable and can be re-shaped to suit your needs. I taped the butterfly wings below to my desired shape and waited until it was fully cured.

For me this is a great way to use up any stickers or layered stickers. I'm not much of a sticker user so this is the perfect solution for me. I love how the sticker glasses below turned out.

Here is my acetate butterfly after shaping.

 I used one of the smaller circles of my 'Perfect Squares' to shape my die cut bottle.

 Here si what it looks like when it is completely cured.

Here is the card that I made for Scrapbooker's Paradise Blog.......for tomorrow's post.......

 "Father's Day is only a week away!!!"

 You have to give this stuff a try. It's so easy to use and the results are amazing!

Storage Idea share-sies!!!

A huge part of scrapbooking and card-making is coming up with great storage solutions. The first twelve mini inks arrived a few months ago and I was never happy with the way that I had them stored. I just had them in three stacks of four and I always had to take them apart to see which color was underneath. Inevitably, every time that I picked up a pile, they would fall apart and I had to find the right lid for the right ink.

I knew then that no matter how I stored my inks, I was going to have to label them but first here is my new storage idea.

Each of these containers will fit 15 mini inks and best of all, they only cost $1.00 each.

In one of the containers, I can get 9 ink pads in it and the two mini ink 1" round blending tools.

Here si the second container with 15 inks and they are all labelled. I use a thin smudge proof photo paper for this kind of labeling so that even the longest names fit on a small area. I just use Scor-Tape to adhere them to the ink part of the containers. 

I wanted to be able to shake my box and know that my inks will not be displaced so I just adhered a layer of packing foam to the inside covers.

There is a piece of foam on the underside of each ink container and it stays in place on its own.

The best part about these containers is the ability to remove an ink without having all of the others fall over. The ridges on the inside help keep everything in place. This is all 24 inks in a convenient easy to move box. I think that I will go out and buy a couple more of these now so that I'm ready for the next releases.

I hope that you enjoyed my little tip.

Recycled Flower Power!!

I can't believe its been so long since I've posted anything and there really is no excuse. I haven't stopped creating, I just stopped sharing for a while but all this will change.

On the Scrapbooker's Paradise Blog a couple of weeks ago, I shared a layout that I created by recycling a table decor that I had made for a demo table.

Here is the original flower......

Here is the layout...... complete instructions on Scrapbooker's Paradise Blog.

I had a big hole in the center of this flower when I took it my project and it was too big for a card so I just tore off all of the petals, shaped and overlapped them together in the center and stapled everything together.

And this is the Card that I made with the rest of the flower......

I was going to share my 'New' storage idea for my mini Distress inks in a couple of weeks but I will share this next week on this Blog. I can't wait to show you and so far it has been working great for me.

Until next week,

Glitter and Ruffles!!!

I had a lot of fun making little works of art with Molly. I pulled out the 'Creative Palette' from Stampendous and this is the first thing that we did. This was our test piece. I forgot to take pictures of the canvases that we made but they came days after this project. She had a huge smile when she saw me pull out the Palette.

TIP: I did find that the absolute cheapest acrylic paint from the craft store works best with kids. You don't have to use any paint retarder as the paint takes forever to dry.

It also happened to be my beautiful daughter's 31st birthday while I was there and she loves Banana Cream Pie so I insisted on a bit of pomp and ceremony even though the pie had already been delved into. 

TIP: Alas, no pie will ever come close to Mrs. Kent's and although this was a genuine effort (bakery bought), it was no rival.

GLITTER anyone? Could these shoes be more gaudy?

Lunch and shoe shopping with Molly yielded these. The look on her parents face when they saw them was priceless but they knew that this was her style and they believed me when I said it wasn't my fault.

This five year old has her own sense of style. She takes her clothes selections and lays them out on her bed as they would look on the body to choose her outfits. I only do this for special occasions about once or twice a year but she does this every day! I love this picture of  Molly and her shadow walking with such fierce confidence.

Ember on the other hand is just happy to have a dress with a skirt that spins and swirls. LOVE it!

When I took this picture of Ember, I could only think of  the Stampede. She pulled  out the boots and sat down to pull them on and they were just perfect with the outfit so as a true Calgarian, I just started shooting pictures of my little Cowgirl. So fitting that we were in Texas.

This is how I kept busy for two weeks in Texas. 

Until next week,

Doodle Fun!!!

I have to admit that I just can't watch television for the sake of just watching television......I have to be doing something else at the same time. The television is just really background noise but I do have my favorite shows that keep me the most entertained. My favorite show is 'The Voice' right now. I'm so glad a new season has just started again. I love the banter that goes on among the judges and I enjoy the incredible talent. 

I'm usually at home in my Scrap Room working away to keep busy but when I'm in a hotel room, I need something to keep me busy there as well. On my recent trip to Montana, I brought paper, markers with several nib widths and colors. I just doodled away while being obsessed with the Olympics.

Here is my original sheet that I used to teach myself how to do this:

............and here is what I did with my doodles.

For Scrapbooker's Paradise Blog, I put together a little how to that will help you get started so that you too can Doodle away the time!!!

I just got back from yet another trip. I went to Phoenix with my PMS group. This would be the 'Pre-Meditated Spending' club. There are 10 of us in the group and after 18 years there are still 6 originals in the group. This was our first trip together and I needed nothing to keep me busy with this group. We laughed so much and so hard and we really had the greatest time. Some of us got bad news from home while away but together we all got through it. We saw a sign........

"I Laughed so hard the tears were running down my legs!"

......and we knew it was about us.

The Botanical Gardens were AMAZING! The Chihuly exhibit that runs until May 18th.

Here's a link to the Chihuly pictures that I took. I find the idea so inspiring that I think I will have to base an upcoming project on one of these pictures.

Have a Great Week,

I finally finished my Box!!!

 Here is my Kaiser Box that I started some time ago.

I actually had all of the drawer fronts done except for two and all I had left was the actual box. I do LOVE how these turned out in the end. My biggest reason for the procrastination was trying to decide on the last drawer pulls. In the end I chose the faucet knob and the zipper pull.

I was going to paint the box but I was inspired by the Kaiser Baseboard papers and I'm so glad that I chose this different wood grain for the back portion. I'm so happy that the back is completely finished.

I took 3 sheets of the main paper and there are no folded edges here as all the pieces were cut to fit and glued on individually. The top piece actually has 3 pieces that are joined and the joints are not at all visible.

Here it is all finished and put together. LOVE IT!!! I can't wait to start the next Kaiser box.

hope you enjoyed it!