Whirlpool of Imagination

Never To Lose My Place Again

Recently there was a discussion on Splitcoast about Papercrafts magazine not being as inspiring as it has been in the past. For months now I have felt that this is true. Not for the types of cards showcased in the magazine but the fact that that was ALL that was being showcased in the magazine. When it was first published they had wonderful projects and project sets and really lived up to their name of "Papercrafts". I honestly think now they should change their name to "Card Crafts" because that is all that is published. In light of that........I have decided to go renegade and start a new weekly challenge on Splitcoast.

The challenge will come out on Wednesdays and is called the Anti-Card Challenge, ACC for short. Each week I will present a scenario and you will be challenged to make something. The one thing for sure that it won't be, is a card. Anything else is far game. This is this week's challenge.....

Here's my first take on the challenge.

I adore making these paper clip bookmarks which is the first thing that came into my mind. The flower is from Verve and stamped with Memento tuxedo ink. The flowers are colored with copic and prismacolor markers.

Copic: B14, Y15, Y38, YR04, YR09, R24   

Prismacolor: cerulean, raspberry, parma violet, violet

Here's take two.

As soon as I got this set from Papertrey, I wondered about this set of dots. Let me tell you, they are sized PERFECTLY. I used Memento ink for these ~ Danube blue, tangelo and rhubarb. I hunted around for the right colored brads but my buy and stash mentality served me well and I was able match the colors pretty well.

If you play along with my challenge, let me know on the SCS thread. I would love to see what you do. Have a great night!

Starting to Pull Out the Green

I have a quick, small project for you today. This weekend was super busy and I didn't get a chance to touch anything in my studio the last couple of days!

 

I already did a bunch of hearts bookmarks so I thought I'd try for St. Patrick's images this time. The stamp is from Storage Units, Inc. It's stamped with Memento tuxedo ink and colored with a crimson red prismacolor marker and spica pens.

Spica: olive (07), gold (11)

Super simple but I really like how these turned out, I even snagged one for myself rather than uploading them all into my store!

Update on Meg's project ~ it's finished and ready to be passed in tomorrow. I plan on taking pictures in the morning and I will show you the timeline masterpiece tomorrow.

Have a great night!

Animal Bookmarks

Have you gotten tired of the cuteness that is the little Papertrey animal Valentine stamps? I am really liking that set and can't stop playing with it! Remember how I've been on a bookmark roll? Well, I figured why not make some adorable animal bookmarks? Check it out...

Here's the set of four that I've played around with so far. All stamps are from Papertrey, stamped with Memento tuxedo ink and colored with copic and prismacolor markers.

These were all done the same as the heart bookmarks a few days ago.

These images are perfect size for this type of project and look adorable in person. And I got the cuteness approval from Meg so we know that eight year olds will like this project too!

Have a great night!

I Heart to Read

How many of you have multiple books going at once? That's me - my mood dictates whichever of my ongoing books I want to read. Many times I just fold over a page and close the book but I do also have the habit of leaving the book open. Meg has developed that habit as well. At any given time she has 4 or 5 books going and every single one is left open wherever she was last reading it. After closing one too many books, I decided it was time to make some more clip bookmarks. I will warn you though that between this post and another post later in the week, I've got A LOT of bookmarks to show you.

Last month I really liked my snowmen so I decided that themes throughout the year would be fun. Since I'm in the Valentine's groove, it's hearts today.

These all have the same image, a great heart from Verve Visual. The only thing that will change is the ink color and background cardstock color. This heart is stamped with Memento danube blue ink.

Memento bahama blue ink

Memento ladybug ink

Stampin Up melon mambo ink

Palette violette ink

Memento ink (I think plum)

Told you I made a bunch of these! Some answers to questions:

1) I get these at Staples. I know they are a bit pricier there but my Walmart has never had them so I go where I can.

2) I use my glue gun to glue the cardstock to the clip. Meg is currently using one so we'll see how durable it is even with kids.

3) I do add cardstock layers to the back so that it looks nicer and I think this helps with the gluing because it is glued to both sides.

I'm off to do some stretching - have a great night!

Let's Fill My Little Tree

Happy Wednesday! I had every intention of blogging last night but then I got caught up in the 30th Anniversary special (made 4 years ago but I'm a little behind) of "Happy Days". The cast was all there and boy, did I remember most of those clips - very funny!

So anyway, when it was over, I was off to bed rather than blog-land. Today, I've got myself here before I even look at the tv guide!

This week I've been working on ornaments. We have two trees in our house. The first is our regular big tree with all the usual ornaments. The other is a smaller tree I use for craft fairs in which everything on it has been made by me. I decided it needed a little filling (expecially with something besides all those glitter ornaments Meg and I made).

Today its a little tin ornament....

 

I had printed off a bunch of these candy cane fairies from Pink Cat Studio which is why you are still seeing them! The fairy was colored with copic and prismacolor markers.

copic: E00, Y13

Here hat and the bottom of her dress were made sparkly with clear stickles.

prismacolor: crimson red

I then cut out the fairy and pop-dotted her onto the patterned paper (Bobunny evergreen dot). THAT layer was then pop dotted (4 layers of mounted tape) onto the tin. I then used the cheapy coarse clear glitter that the kids have to fill in the bottom of the tin to make it a shaker of sorts.

Today, for some reason, I'm feeling cranky. I'm not sure why - I've got the holiday 'stuff' mostly under control and the kids, while they had their moments, were fine. I'm just out of sorts - I think a good nights sleep and lots of coffee in the morning will turn my mood around. Hope you are having a good day and aren't cranky like me - have a great night!

Glitter, Glitter Everywhere

This entire month I've been wanting to make some ornaments but was too busy trying to get the cards out the door. Now that those are done, I've been working on a few ornament projects. In the past, I've really liked the finished glittered reinker ornament but have found the process really a pain. I decided to give it a go again this weekend and this time around it was easy peasy! In fact, Meg saw me making these and decided she wanted to make some with me too.

So Meg and I present to you the following glitter reinker ornaments (with most colors chosen by Meg, BTW):

Here are two more pictures with the reinker and in most cases, glitter color breakdown...

 

1) CTMH key lime ink + MS (Martha Stewart) peridot glitter

2) CTMH autumn terracotta ink + MS fire opal glitter

3) CTMH crystal blue ink + MS turquoise glitter

4) SU pomegranate ink + SU glitter (pinkish color - didn't have a name on it)

5) CTMH orange ink + MS fire opal glitter

6) SU brilliant blue ink + MS turquoise glitter

1) Memories mint ink + MS peridot glitter

2) CTMH bubble gum ink + unknown pink glitter

3) CTMH smoky plum ink + MS clear glitter

4) CTMH holiday red ink + MS red glitter

5) CTMH hydrangea ink + unknown lilac glitter

6) CTMH sunkiss yellow ink + AI (Art Institute) tangerine glitter

A few notes:

a) Meg is eight and was able to put in the ink, swirl it around and shake the glitter around - I did help her with putting the glitter into the bulb and sometimes the darker inks are harder to see when the entire ornament is covered inside

b) We used 35 drops of reinker for each ornament. The glitter amounts I eye-balled.

c) I did let Conor shake the last one but at six he was too impatient for the other parts of the project.

This experience was much more enjoyable than last year so I will definitely make more of these. It's fun to experiment with the different colors - you don't know what you'll get. I've had to hold Meg back or we would have made another dozen so it's fun for kids too.

Thanks for visiting me today - have a great night!

Pretty Paper Tree

Today we had a lovely day trip. Mo and I took the kids into Boston to the Children's Science Museum. Wow, what a place. The initial drive for the visit is the Harry Potter special exhibit. Meg and Conor are obsessed with all things HP so that was a must. Very cool exhibit - if it makes its way near you, the detail is amazing. We also had a grand time exploring other parts of the museum and didn't even make a dent in all the exhibits - we'll be back again another day! Luckily for my blog, I do have a project to show even though I didn't do a lick of creating today.

Last year the paper Christmas trees were all the rage. I had started one but the holiday obligations got to me and I never got to finish it. I put it away for this season and decided this week to finish it up.

These are not difficult but time consuming (and those pins can be rough on the fingers!). I started with a plain styrofoam cone. The paper used is all from Basic Grey, the Wassail line - Snow Storm, Cranberry Sauce, Falling Snow. I cut strips of this paper into 1 x 3 inch strips and loosely folded them. Using straight pins, I just worked my way row by row up the tree. The stars on the top are made with Spellbinder star shapes.

Right now this tree is currently residing with my Dickens Christmas Village as the town tree - looks kinda neat in that role actually.

I am fading fast after our busy day so I'm off - hope you have a great day!

Snow, Snow, Snow

Apparently the snow day dance that Meghan did worked - no school today! This was what we were treated to this morning.....

The kids went outside for a little while, threw a few snowballs and made this.....

So, in homage to the snowman in our backyard, I am showing you my snowmen project today. I was in the mood to make some cute little clip bookmarks this afternoon. The hardest part of the whole project is usually deciding what stamp to use! Today I went hunting for snowmen.

I made three different ones, basically the same with just a change in colors. The snowman stamp is from Elzybell's. It's stamped with Memento tuxedo ink and colored with copic and prismacolor markers.

Copic: E39, YR16, R24, R29   Prismacolor: cool grey 50% & 80%

Copics: E39, YR16, B06    Same prismacolors as above.

Copics: E39, YR16, G05, G09  Same prismacolors as above.

Here's the group of three. I used nestibilities to cut both circles and clear stickles for the "snowflakes". I use a glue gun to attach all the pieces. Not only do I have the front piece glued to the clip but I also cut a scallop circle from the appropriate color to glue to the back of the clip. I like how this finishes the project off as well as makes me more comfortable that the glue will stick with use.

As I write, our little snowman has been washed away as the rain followed the snow. We've even had thunder and lightening to top the night off. Here's hoping for warm enough temperatures to keep all that mess from freezing over again. Have a great night!

The Turkey Says Sit Here

Happy Thanksgiving to all my U.S. friends! We had a lovely day here today. Everyone came to our house and except for the turkey being completely cooked in 2 hours (YES - two hours for a 20 pound turkey at 325 - I know - sounds impossible but completely true!), all went well. And now I am in my warm pj's and the day is winding down.

I wanted to do a little something for the kids that would be cute but I was short on time. I had some extra turkeys colored (digi stamp from Pink Cat Studio) and I knew I wanted to use those. I decided to go with cute little place cards for their spots at the table.

Have you ever made something and afterwards you just look at it and it makes you smile. That was me and I must have made some gleeful sounds too because Mo commented that I was"sounding really proud of myself over there." What can I say??? I like cuteness.

 

This is an altered binder clip made into a place card.The turkey is colored with copic and prismacolor markers and if you go back a few days, I have all the colors I used listed. This was an extra sheet of turkeys that I colored just in case.

The clip is covered with paper from Flair Designs. I don't know what pattern though because I pulled this out from the scraps pile. I placed a small amount of mounting tape on the back of the scallop circle at the bottom in order to adhere the picture to the clip. It's hard to see in this picture, but on the left side there is some ribbon coming out a bit. Let me show you the back and explain.

Usually I make these binder clips to be photo holders and the prongs need a little something on them to keep them tight so the photo (or in this case, name card) will stay in place. Normally I just tie the ribbon and voila. This time I tied the ribbon and actually adhered it to the rust scallop circle. This: 1) keeps the ribbon in place from the front and makes it look cute, 2) keeps the photo and/or name card from slipping down and 3) adds another point where my image layers are attached to the binder clip.

Here are the two I made along with a (slightly lopsided) scallop circle pumpkin. I made the pumpkin in a hurry and didn't have time to really fiddle with it. I will go back and fix that for next year!

Now I must get myself to bed. I am joining the throngs for my yearly Black Friday shopping adventure. Now, I'm not getting up and out at 3am. Nope, the alarm will go off at 5am and I will be at my mom's for 5:30am. I figure with so many stores opening really early, the crowds will be manageable by 6am!

Have a great night!

A Sweet Tree For Halloween

Happy Halloween! It's a "dark and stormy" night right now but luckily the trick or treaters got some candy before the rains came. Today we are talking lollipops. The kids had their Halloween parties at school yesterday so I made lollipop trees for the class treats. These are super easy, make great centerpieces and look fun when finished.

I first worked on the lollipops. The lollipop itself is from Oriental Trading. They usually have nice flat lollipops for the various holidays so I always look there first when I want to make lollipop covers.

 

Here is the first of two lollipop cover designs. The circle words and pumpkin are two different stamps, both from Elzybell Stamps. I first stamped the words with Memento tuxedo black ink. The pumpkin was then stamped in the center with the tuxedo black and colored with copic markers. I cannot seem to find my marker notes so I can't give you the copic numbers I used. If I find the notes, I'll come back and edit this. The white layer was punched out as well as the orange scallop layer. The back of the lollipops just contains an orange scallop layer to finish out the look.

 

Here are the second set of covers, again using Elzybell stamps and tuxedo black ink. The vampire is colored with prismacolor black marker, copic E00 marker, and his teeth have just a touch of lipstick spica (#21). They are put together exactly the same as the pumpkin pops.

Now for a way to present them.....

 

Here are your two basic supplies, a styrofoam cone and a terra cotta plate. Using spray paint, I painted the cone black. The styrofoam will soak up the paint so I usually reapply about 4 coats of paint. I decided to brush on acrylic paint for the plate although I could have spray painted that too. The plate is painted both inside and out. The only part I didn't bother with is the bottom. Once both parts are completely dry, I used a glue gun to adhere the cone to the plate. Once it was in there securely, I used shredded paper all around the bottom of the cone to fill in that area.

 

Here is the finished tree. The lollipops are placed at angle all around the tree. I've found that around 21 pops fit comfortably without mashing them together too much. Luckily, that's how many kids are in both classes. The tree needed something for the top so I painted two wooden bat shapes black front and back, as well as along the edges. Then I "stamped" the shape in a glue pad and dumped glitter all over the front. Using my glue gun, I adhered both shapes to a plain lollipop stick. The bat is then stuck into the top of the tree to finish off the look.

This is one of my favorite ways to display decorated lollipops. It's fun and festive and relatively easy.

Hope your Halloween was loads of fun - have a great weekend!