Whirlpool of Imagination

Crayon Craftiness

Okay, you've seen them all over the internet (or at the very least, all over Pinterest)....it's the melted crayon art. I've seen some really cool and clever ones and definitely have it on my to do list.

The other day the kids were looking for something to do so why not pull out the crayons, the glue gun and the dryer, right?

It's a really easy project but fun. Take a canvas and glue crayons along the top. (I ued a small 8x10 canvas thinking it would be good for a first attempt).

Then have a go at it with the hair dryer and melt those crayons for all their worth.

Conor went with the blow the hot air in all directions process. We've decided it looks like fireworks.

Meg, the more deliberate of the two went with a more traditional look.

Now they want to try bigger, more elaborate projects......I guess it's a good thing I go crazy buying crayons on sale in September!

Have a great night!

Cupcake Reading

I am working on customer orders this week so my stash if items to show you is dwindling.

I am back today with more bookmarks. I was hoping to have them in more than two colors but so far that's all I've gotten to. So that's all you get today.

Cupcake images are so much fun to work with. I just can't help myself. This one is from Papertrey.

I went with fun bright colors. I have a few more colors in mind. But I guess that's for another day.

Got adventurous today and cooked Doro Wat for dinner. Very yummy. I forgot to take a picture though so you'll have to take my word for it!

Have a great night!

Late Valentine Wrap Up

Before February leaves us, I finally got my Valentine creations all uploaded and edited for showing. These are the treats I created for the kids to give out at school as well as to their teachers.

I went crazy with the test tubes this Valentines. The size and scale of my designs followed the size and scale of the tubes.

Here's the bucket of treats Meg took in to school.

Conor's valentine....

Here's his bucket...

Teacher treats...

That little book is a chipboard book Meg and her friend coordinated where the kids in class would say what they liked about their teacher.

I used my nesties to cut hearts out of chipboard coasters. I then covered each of the hearts with card stock.

We then wrote in the kids answers and attached them all with a binder ring.

It was a time intensive Valentine creative week (when is it not time intensive really?) but everyone was real happy with the final results so it was all worth it. And what's even better is that Valentine's Day only comes once a year!

Fell Asleep

I haven't made any altered clip bookmarks in a while and as I was looking at all those blank clips that I own, I felt the need to dress them up a bit. I pulled out my trusty Papertrey and did a little stamping.

Meg loves these and is trying to claim one for her own. She already owns THREE of my clip bookmarks so I held strong and got these into inventory. One day, I'll make her yet another bookmark from this set.

This one is stamped with my favorite blue, marina blue.

I think this one is a Stampin' Up color that has since retired.

And you know I can't make a set of ANYthing without having at least one be some form of purple.

I've got more colors swirling in my head but that's all I got to. I guess I need to leave something for another day. Have a great night!

Back to School Reading

In honor of the kiddos going back to school, I thought I'd focus on reading and those bookmarks I like to make to hold your place.

This one is stamped with a Gina K image in cherry cobbler ink.

The soccer ball image is from Spunky Stamps and stamped with real red ink.

And for those animal lovers, we have a paw print stamped with cocoa bean ink. I can't tell you who the image is from though - no markings on the stamp.

I am participating in my first blog hop very shortly. Tomorrow I'm showing a bit of a sneak peek. See you then!

Hold Your Place While Reading This Summer

Happy July 1st to you! Wait??! What happened to June? I think I missed some days there somewhere - it really feels like it cannot by July already.

My studio avoidance continues as the summer rolls along. I have a feeling that this summer I am not going to produce vast quantities of new items.

I do have a few new bookmark designs that I've created. The first one is in honor of the upcoming Fourth of July holiday.

Then there's one for Dad.

And of course summer means baseball.

And because I feel like it, here's an owl.

I've been playing a bit with twinkling H2O's today. If I get cracking tomorrow, I may have a finished project to show you. Have a great night!

Fruity Reads

I am obsessed with making altered paper clip bookmarks. I keep finding images that would work in the small space and just have to make some more. For the longest time, I've been wanting the Tart and Tangy set from Stampin' Up and finally got it this year. This is the first project I've used them for but they ink up beautifully!

Here's the first one. The apple is stamped with Memento ladybug ink.

The orange was stamped with Memento tangelo ink.

For the cherries, I decided to color them with markers rather than stamping with ink. I used Dee Greunig markers - they're my favorite choice when I want to color directly to the stamp.

Luckily, I have a place to put all these bookmarks - all my extra creations end up in my online store which is good because I only have about a million of these to use myself!

Have a great day!

Pretty Way to Hold Photo's

Who loves office supply stores? I'm waving my hand here. I know - it's odd but I could happily wander the aisles of Staples any day. And what's better than taking a plain old office item and changing it into something pretty and useful.

My anything but a card challenge today at Splitcoast was to create a way to display photo's not using frames. So I grabbed my office supplies, namely binder clips, and went to work.

I first covered the clips with patterned paper from Stampin' Up. I have no clue what paper pack as I break the sets apart when I get them. I then decided to play with some of the new Papertrey felt, blossom dies and the Big Shot. Heaven, I tell you. Those dies cut that felt like it was butter....no frayed edges, no sticking. I must get more!

I used a brad to finish off the flowers and adhered them to the clips with Scor-tape. Add a bit of ribbon as a way to keep the photo's in place and we are good to go. I used to have a bunch of these made up but sold them out at my craft fairs. I think I need to make some more and stock up the store! I just need Papertrey to start releasing those felt colors faster!

Hope you all have a great night - PTI release at midnight but I'm sound asleep at that time - hopefully there's something still left when I check in tomorrow morning....

Flowers and Bunnies Easter Centerpiece

Happy Wednesday ~ I had to check before I said that though because I have my days all in a mess, for some reason. This week for my Anti-Card Challenge, you (the general you unless you do really want to do my challenge which will tickle me to no end) were to make an Easter centerpiece. How and what you used were up to you but you got brownie points for using eggs.

I'm quite proud of mine, if I do say so myself...

I was creating this with kids in mind which is why it is a bit whimsical. I started off with the flower bucket from Target (that $1. spot is awesome) and built the flowers around those colors.

I did not have a flower die that was exactly the same as the flowers in the bucket but close enough. I used a Sizzix die and my Big Shot to make the flowers and put pieces of patterned paper in the centers. The flowers were then glued to skewers with my glue gun (haven't used that thing in a week or two and was feeling a sense of withdrawal).

Then I worked on the bunnies. I couldn't decide originally if I wanted to make punched bunnies but say this adorable image from Pink Cat Studios and decided I had to have it. The bunnies were printed up and colored with copic markers (ooops, I don't have the numbers with me at the moment). They were layered onto a scallop circle and then onto binder clips. I figure I can use them as place settings or to hold photos once I break apart the centerpiece.

The eggs are actually dyed hard boiled eggs that the kids created on Sunday. Those are a temporary addition because they will go bad once out of the fridge. I'll scatter jelly beans after I put the eggs away.

So let's build this centerpiece.

I found a plastic serving tray that was fairly flat and the right size. I first added the bucket and placed pink "grass" all around it, covering up the tray. I added the bunnies and the eggs next. To finish off the piece and to cover the tray, I pieced together three scallop borders from one of the new Papertrey scallop border dies. (I use the dies in my Big Shot and they cut like a dream, if you were looking to be enabled). And there you have, A cute Easter centerpiece and another challenge completed.

You know, participation in these challenges is low (okay, really low) but I'm going to keep plugging away anyway. I would love to have company in my journey here and hey, there may be, at some point, giveaways but only for people who are actually playing along with me!

Have a great night!

Green Jewelry

Today is Wednesday which means the next installment of my new Anti Card Challenge over at Splitcoast. You can read the full challenge over at Splitcoast but the short version is to make jewelry of some sort and it had to have some green in it.

I've been waiting to try making one of these washer necklaces for a while so this was my chance. The paper was leftover scrap so I'm not sure what it is. I added a bit of sparkle with peridot Swarovski crystals.

I was determined to make a pin and was happily going along with a leprechaun and some UTEE when I just made a big old mess! So plan B was to try out this new flower die I got. I layered the flowers with a brad for the center. I just glued a pin back to the back of it and we're good to go.

We're still enjoying the nice weather here but the rain is creeping ever closer - I think the weekend is scheduled to be a total washout! Have a great night!