What I have been doing lately!

I usually like to be creative.  Two things have take time away from making new samples of anything.

First there has been talk among consultants about how people sort their stamps and how people take the plastic snap off the envelopes.  There are 3 different methods I have seen and they are to get the plastic post out of the snap - by sodering iron, drummer and pliers.  I chose the later method.

After taking off the snaps, one needs to make a slit so that the flap has a place to go.  

I have kept the stamp sets in the orgianal labels from Close to my heart in Excel but on my boxes I have put them with titles as I would use them.  This time I have combined the the boxes and excel and labeled the boxes with numbers so I can look up a stamp from the Excel and find it.  Taking off the snaps have allowed me to have 2 medium and 1 large box empty.

That has taken a while.

The second thing that happened was in January, the family noticed that 2 large shelves were bending forward.  My husband took everything off those shelves and anchored the shelves to the wall.  I am now in the process of sorting and putting things back on the shelves - not quite done before we went on the mission trip to Chatham.

Every once and a while one needs to do deep cleaning in every corner of one’s house and home.  I will keep you posted about finishing this project!

February Cards

I have a group in Portage that meets the 2nd Wednesday at noon at Pizza Ranch (you need to buy a buffet meal) and at the Baraboo First UMC on the 1st Thursday at 6:30pm.  Last Thursday we had to cancel at church and reschedule for this Thursday and I am hoping that Valentine's Day turns out OK. 

Here are the 3 cards we are making:

This card can be changed with other "critters" that I will bring to the event for those who are tired of the snow or use the penguins to celebrate our latest white fluffy stuff.

The butterflies have Gold shimmer brush on them that doesn't show up well on the photo.  There is still hope that spring will make it some time.

Close to my Heart has a thin cut alphabet.  The little hedgehog is sponged and then the letters are cut out.  You can see the color of the paper underneath showing through.  It is for those who need your hugs through paper. 

Cards are a wonderful thing to make and to share.  If you are interested in being part of either group or hosting a group at your home, let me know.  You can commit to 4 months at a time or 1 week at a time as long as there is still room in the class (as paper has to be cut ahead of time).   

February Stamp of the Month: Heartfelt Sentiments

The February SOTM, which is Heartfelt Sentiments S1902, a set of 9 stamps. 

This months Stamp of the Month is a 4 1/5 " x 5 " stamp.  There are several things to know with a larger stamp:
1. put the acrylix block on the table with the stamp up and put the ink onto the stamp from above rather than putting the ink pad on the table and tapping the stamp on top of it.
2. as with all new stamps make sure you "season" it by inking and stamping on scratch paper first.
3. larger stamps need to have pressure all over so that the stamp will come out even.  It helps to try out the stamp on scrap paper.

With the larger stamp this month, I was wondering how to use it.  Close To My Heart has great Cricut cartridges and the one I used was Cricut Flower Market Collection .  I make the watering can large enough for the stamp and small enough for the paper which meant the stamp was sideways on the can.  

I had some Heart Happy Workshop Kit  CC2197 (available through February) paper left and I used Red Shimmer trim Z4012.

I vacillate between feeling the layout worked and not sure if it worked.  I thought it would look neat to have the hearts seemingly being poured from the watering can.  You can't see the paper I used on the edges because I covered it up with heart photos and paper.  It mirrored the right side.  Let me know what you think - too crowded or did it work for you?

I used the Basic Hearts Thin Cuts Z3317 for both the paper and the photos.  I have a program that allows me to print any size photo that I want so it was easy to get the right size photos.  I used the Thin 3D foam Z2060 under the watering can and some of the photo hearts.

I used Intense Black ink Z4189 for the stamps on the watering can because I was going to paint the flowers and the ink won't run with water.  I chose to "smoosh" the cover of the ink pads and use the Small round waterbrush Z3224 to get the ink from the cover.  I tested out the colors on the mint paper and used Candy Apple Z6509 and Raspberry Z2812 for the reds and Willow Z2807 for the green as the Mint was too light.  If you really want your colors to match the paper and you paint frequently, the reinker might be a better bet but as many people only get the ink pads, this is a way of using the exact color that is on the paper. 

You could use: 1) reinker (pages 122, 123)  2) ShinHan markers (page 131)  3) watercolor paints Z3132 or 4) watercolor pencils (Page 130) with the Intense Black ink or Archival Black Z3271 as both are waterproof.

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