Whirlpool of Imagination

Butterfly Grid

You know when I get stuck on a technique, I seem to do nothing but that one technique for several card designs. Yesterday I tried the grid design from the Technique Junkie newsletter and I'm back again today with another one.

I decided to make this one monochromatic after reading the Daring Cardmakers challenge of one color cards. Everything on this card is a shade of blue except for the grid lines. I felt they needed to be black for better contrast.

For stamps, I used Paper Trey Ink for the 2 step butterflies and tiny flowers and Green Grass Stamps for the sentiment. For inks, I used all shades of Colorbox Chalk Inks: Ice Blue, French Blue, Prussian Blue and Blue Iris. The squares that I colored in are colored pencil and baby oil for blending.

I originally had the grid lines thinner on this go around but I have to say, it just didn't look as good to me so I went back over it with the heavier line. I think I am liking the heavier line all in all.

I can easily see myself getting stuck on this technique - I'm going to have to go back into the newsletter for another one!

Grid Flowers Hello

Today I'm trying to get my weekly flood card (swap at the Stamp Shack) made early - I'm only a week behind on these! On top of that, I got my Technique Junkie newsletter yesterday. Whenever I get a new one, I feel the need to try one of the techniques!

This grid technique is really easy although a bit time consuming. I wanted to watercolor with my crayons instead of pencils but I didn't have the colors I wanted so the pencils took a bit more time.

Basically, I stamped the flowers randomly. I then drew the lines. Colored the spaces in with watercolor pencils and finally stamped out the hellos.

I usually use Palette Noir ink but today I reached for my versafine ink pad. I was a little disappointed in the results - the ink definitely smudged in places. I also want to try this on true watercolor paper to see what kind of results I get. I may try the versafine again then to see if I notice a difference.

The flower stamps are from Aspect of Design (I got them from Blockhead Rubber Stamps) and the sentiment is from TAC.

Quick Circles

Today the kids played at the playground after school for two hours!! I am pretty tired tonight (and my legs are sore from standing!) so I wanted to make something but didn't have the energy to put much into it.

Because of this, I went with a design I've used before; just changed the orientation, colors and added some ribbon. All stamps for this card are from Spunky Stamps. I love the circle set and I like combining the colors to make a quick and easy background.

All inks are chalk inks today. I haven't played with them lately but always reach for them when I do circles.

I've recently started reading blog updates on Google reader. Its so convenient but I've noticed that its real easy to not leave comments. You just read the updates one after another and move on. Since I know from experience that comments feel great to get, I am going to make more of an effort to visit the sites and leave the comments rather than read and speed on by!

It's a quick one tonight - I've got a little tightness in my IT bands in my legs and desperately need to do some stretching! I'm hoping for some quiet studio time tomorrow (please!! its been in short supply lately). Night!

Going Out of My Comfort Zone

I am a member of the Cornish Heritage yahoo group. As as member, you have a chance to participate in monthly challenges. Usually certain CHF stamps are offered at a discounted rate - your requirement if you take advantage of that discount, is to create a card using only those stamps and sometimes there are other stipulations as well. This time for March, we had to use the provided stamps and we had to make the card BRIGHT.

I had a really tough time with this challenge for several reasons. First, while I adore many of the CHF backgrounds, on my own, I would never have bought the jelly beans. It would have just seemed a bit too busy to me so I struggled with that.

Second, the color requirements kind of threw me. I tried various color combinations which just looked bad. In general, I don't work with a lot of brights so I found that tough too.

I finally decided to add the black mat so that the bright colors I did use would "pop" - yes, that term is overused but feels appropriate for my purposes here.

The bunny is colored with colored pencils and blended with baby oil. The eggs are all colored with Tombow markers. I decided to use markers to get that bright feel, as opposed to pencils. All stamps are obviously from Cornish Heritage. Yes, after the fact, I noticed the uneven matting on the right side - honestly, it looked perfect when I was fitting the pieces together!!

I'm glad I tried the challenge - this was a tough one for me and I've been mulling it over and stamping/throwing things out for several weeks now. Now I just need to gear myself up for the next one!

Crystals Anyone?

I recently picked up some flatback Swarovski crystals at Michael's. I've seen an increase in their use lately and waited to give them a try.

Some of the prettiest places I've seen the crystals is in the centers of flowers so I figured that would be a good place to start with them. I thought of this stamp by Frantic Stamper right away. The flowers are watercolored - something I just don't do enough of. I used watercolor pencils and a wet brush. I have a waterbrush but unless its almost out of water, I get huge blobs of water coming out, even when I don't squeeze it. I like the control of the regular brush and since I'm doing this at home, I don't need to worry about ease of use when traveling. The background harlequin is from Cornish Heritage and the sentiment is from Spunky Stamps.

I got a good hour in the studio this weekend, so I've made some progress on other projects. I will definitely have one to show tomorrow - I struggled mightily with the requirements of the Cornish Heritage March challenge, but I've almost gotten a card done.

Sweet Daisies

My daughter is a Daisy. For those of you not familiar with that, it's the kindergarten version of Girl Scouts, a step below Brownies. For this week's meeting it was my turn to bring snack. So my creating time last night was in the kitchen, not the studio.

I found this recipe at the Family Fun website. I tried to link it directly to the recipe but, for some reason it didn't link properly, these are the Flower Power Cupcakes.

They were easy to decorate but I bought WAY too many marshmallows!! One tip I would suggest after making them:

The recipe tells you to cut the marshmallows into thirds after squashing them. I found that was a bit too fat and the flower did not look at that natural. Instead, cut them into fours and they are a much better size. Also, clean off your kitchen shears every few marshmallows - they get really sticky after a few and then don't cut as great. (Think sticky glue on your crafting scissors!)

Well, it's been a long week and I'm happy its Friday. I'm hoping for some studio time this weekend - I think I need a little "me" time.

Peep Jars

Sure, you've probably seen various versions of these so if you continue reading on, its purely for my take on this project.

I originally found this project posted on Splitcoast Stampers. I honestly have no idea who thought up this project but I have seen many others' take on this.

Stamp credits: The small card that contains the cooking directions is 3 x 3. The bunny is a TAC stamp and the flourishes along the corners are from Spunky Stamps. I used CTMH ink (second generation stamping on the flourishes).

First point, this is actually a great project to do with kids. Meg had a friend over for a playdate when we tackled this - two five year olds and a very enthusiastic three year old worked on this together. And I must say, the mess was minimal. The kids helped me each step of the way when it came to crushing/packing etc.

First the recipe and then some more remarks:

Reduce 1 sleeve of graham crackers to crumbs and layer 2/3 of the crumbs in a 1 qt. jar.

Place 8 marshmallow bunny (or any design, depending on the season) peeps standing up, facing out around the inside of the jar pressing them against the glass, but don't squash them.

Carefully, spoon the remaining crumbs in the center of the jar to support the bunnies, pressing down to keep it snug.

On top of this, pour 1 1/2 cups M&M's.

Spoon 1/3 cup brown sugar into the center of the M&M's, gently pressing with a spoon. Decorate the lid of the jar in whatever way you want.

Cooking Directions: Empty the jar contents into a bowl. Snip the bunnies into bits with kitchen shears or cut up with a knife. Return the bunny bits to the mixture and mix well. Melt 1/2 cup butter, add 1 tsp vanilla. Pour this over the dry ingredients, mixing well. Pat into a greased 8 x 8 baking dish. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Cool completely and cut into bars. (Option: Leave the bunnies while; combine the remaining ingredients and place the bunnies on top; bake as directed).

THIS RECIPE IS SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT THAN WHAT YOU MAY SEE ELSEWHERE. After reading some threads from people who had actually made the recipe, they recommended cooking it longer (original recipe only states 15 min). I also recommend COMPLETELY cooling this before trying to cut it into bars. While the recipe is still warm, it just crumbles into a big mess. Even when completely cool, the bars may not be perfect but at least they are doable.

We cooked these up yesterday - The kids were anxious to try them so we cut them too early and got kind of a crumbly mess. Later on, when cooled, I found it easier to cut. I myself found this recipe a bit sweet (although it didn't stop me from picking at it and eating far more than I should have) but my kids both liked it.

A Ribbon Frame

I'm back!! I'm dealing with some late afternoon crabbiness so I took myself out of the room for a few minutes just to keep my patience intact!!

This next little project was inmspired by the Plaid Company website.

I'm on the mailing list for Plaid and they recently sent out an email using Mod Podge. Their frame was painted an spple green and they used green ribbons attached with the Mod Podge. My original plan had been to try the same project but paint the frame pink and use pink ribbons. When I started to lay the ribbons down, I just didn't like how the colors were looking. Its hard to tell from the picture but one of the ribbons (the one that laid crooked - couldn't get it to lay straight no matter what I did!), is a green with pink stitching and matched the painted color perfectly. So I picked another coupld of green ribbons and attached them to the frame. Rather than using Mod Podge, I use red line tape to attach the ribbons and then once everything was down, I applied two layers of Mod Podge to seal the project. I like the idea and I like the project - I just don't like how some of the ribbon kinked on me - I'm going to experiement with different types of ribbon to see if I can notice a difference. I also want to try to adhere the ribbon with my UHU twist glue - I'm curious how that will hold and if that will make a difference.

Got my free iced coffee today - ended up getting a few bagels for the kids as well. I knew I wouldn't get out of there without something for them!

Happy Spring!

Good morning all! I wanted to take a moment to say Happy first day of Spring!! (even if it is darn cold this morning). I have one or two projects waiting in the wings so I'll have a post later on today with at least one of them completed.

If you are a coffee person, apparently for today only to celebrate spring, you can get a free iced coffee over at Dunkin' Donuts. The trick for me will be to get in there (have Conor with me all day) to get the coffee without him asking for donut!

I've also decided not to fight with Meg this morning about clothes - she is dying to wear short sleeves today so I'm just going with the flow and making sure she has a sweatshirt with her as well. I just need to keep saying to myself, "pick your battles"! Talk to ya later!

UHU Twist Glue Review

A couple of posts ago, I talked about the UHU glue stick that I had received. Today I want to talk about the UHU twist glue. I had never used this glue before so it was totally new to me. The glue itself has two parts. When you open the cap, they is a small, narrow dispenser for those small items that need just a dab of glue. Then if you twist the top, you end up with up with a larger surface area, similar in size say to an oval glue stick. I found uses for both applications of glue.

Right before I received this glue sample, I had been reading Maria Filosa's UHU project blog. One of the entries by Maria was a mosaic box she made for Valentine's. That provided the inspiration for this next project.

You know how you go to the craft store and items are on sale. You're not sure what you'll do with them, but because they are on sale, you just have to have them. That happened to me with the terracotta pots. They were on sale at AC Moore for 15 cents each. Really, 15 cents, there is just no way I can pass that up! So they've been sitting in my craft closet lonely and abandoned. Well, I decided to create a mosaic pot using my UHU glue. I originally painted the pot a light color and started to attach the glue - well, it looked horrible. On the bright side, the glue worked awesome - those pieces of paper were not coming off for anything!!

So I pulled out another pot and painted it a deep chocolate color. I then cut up some patterned paper in various shapes and glued it onto the pot in a mosaic fashion. I would absolutely recommend this exact glue for this project or any where you have small irregular pieces you are gluing. I twisted the glue to get the flat larger area of glue, squirted the glue up and then ran my paper across the top, covering the back with glue. It was ridiculously easy and worked like a charm. My hands had minor bits of glue on them, but for me, that was nothing. I am usually a BIG mess maker! To finish up the pot, I sprayed it with a sealer and added the flowers. I would wholeheartedly recommend this glue. It went on with use and stuck with aggression.