New monkeys

I redid yesterday's card using Hammermill paper and it's much better.  So now we know, even though it says that it doesn't bleed, sometimes it does!!!

The left is yesterday, the right is today.

Which one do you like best?

The other thing I have to learn to do is to write down my color combinations as I use them.  Because I forget when I go to sleep!  LOL!!!

Lucy's jeans:  B00, 32, 45, W3, and denim texture with colorless blender.

Lucy's shirt:  R29, 00

Lucy's hair:  E29,21,09

Lucy's skin: E000, 02, R20

Monkey barrel:  E08, 18, 21, W3
Monkeys in the barrel:  E25, E11

Monkey in front:  E000, E21, 25
Paws: E000, 02
Lips: R29, 00
"Tickle me Terry" with terry cloth and colorless blender

So even if you are limited in the colors of copics that you have, you can still do a lot of fun things!  I'll grow my collection over the winter with my 40% off coupons.  :o)  I think it's important to note as well that each of us will develop our own copic style.  I can already tell I like a "watercolor" look, not a pure blended look.  I'm going to prefer glitter on top of my stickler.  I'm going to like the pink/turquoise/green combo that I use with alcohol inks.  But it's going to be fun to just play.

Mom's teacup and the Abbey Retreat

If you remember, a year ago, I went to the Abbey Retreat and created and amazing teacup in honor of mom.  Well, this is the 1 year anniversary of her "running" to heaven, and I was inspired by a brand new Sizzix teacup die.  Boy!  Was I inspired!!!  (I bought the die at the local Stamp House  719-275-8422)

Isn't this adorable?  I used mostly Bo Bunny Press stuff....lots of die cut cardboard.  I cut the cup in chipboard and covered both sides.  Some of the silk flowers are from old hats.  I used Memory Box dressform die cuts.  The paperclip dress forms are Maya Road.  Prima flowers.  Distress Inks.

I titled this on "Make things happen".  I know that mom would have just loved it!

So on Sunday, I did a demo of how to assemble the teacup.  Used my Xyron 910 to adhere adhesive to everything.  It's really easy to prep and get the stickler down and dried before you even start!  For this one, I really used leftover scraps and I love how it came out!  You almost have to ask, "where's the teacup?"  LOL!

You can look at these from any side as everything is covered or hidden.

I also made an entire journal and several cards....I'll blog them tomorrow.  It was a fabulous weekend.  My first time to stay on campus and I'm so glad I did that!  I scrapped til about 10:30 at night and was back in the hall by 7:30 in the morning.  Several old friends and many new ones - a real treat!  I already have the next one marked on my calendar - Jan 31 - Feb 2, 2014.  If you book before Oct 31, you get 10% off!!!

How much can you put on a 2" x3" piece of paper???

Every third Thursday since last December, I've hosted the BackRoom Babes here in town.  It's a girls night out and I take a product or technique and show how to do it.  We've been swamped with 25 - 30 women every month!

I started out trying to put everything on an ATC and soon realized I simply can't keep up with myself!  LOL!!!

I really like how this one came out.

Here's what I used:
embossing folder
3 different dressform die cuts
spool diecut
fiber
crystal bling
pear bling
velvet flowers
distress ink
button
sentiments cut from scrap paper
diecut scissors
stickles glitter
background paper

It's on a 2" x 3" ATC sized card.

So how many products can you use on an ATC?

I like the message.....be silly....laugh....giggle.  I need to do more of the first one!

"They" will never know it's a Bible!

In countries all around the world, Bibles are being taken away from people.  Have you ever thought that it might happen here one day?  I decided to camouflage an old Bible and I don't think anyone will ever suspect it's a Bible (well, unless they started to read the contents!

Found an old 1901 American Standard Version on ebay.  It's my preference.  A better translation than the KJV.

But it was in bad shape.

You can see that the signatures are coming apart.  Now, if you know how to build signatures, you can repair them....just rebuild them.  My problem is that this paper was printed in 1901....and the paper is really fragile.

and the thread they used in the signatures were very, very fine.  So you can see here how they are broken.

I used fine silk thread to rebuild the signatures....carefully pulling through pre-existing holes.  It worked!

I then covered the book with leather book liner.  This is very, very thin leather usually used for the inside of a book.  It is too thin to be tooled, but it can be distressed.  The leather is usually a very pale shade of pink.

I used a scrap of leather to decide what shade of alcohol ink to use to get the shade I wanted.  I settled on a mix of Caramel and Butterscotch.  Have you ever mixed alcohol inks?  I used a makeup sponge to apply the ink to the leather.  I love the distress look I got.

 Inside the front, I covered the title page with sheet music and added a coordinating library card

This is inside the back cover

This is the first page you see.  Nothing saying it's a Bible

But it gets better!  I was at a thrift store and found this bag.  It is buttery soft leather - oh so yummy!  I don't know if this was used to carry arrows or what, but it was too great to resist!  I fell in love with the twisted, beaded fringe down the side.

And of course....I cut into it!  GASP!!!

Punched holes across the bottom, rethreaded them, and turned it into a book bag for the Bible.  

If you saw this would you even suspect there's a Bible inside?  Great to take camping as well.

I used a bit of the leftover scraps from the bag to create a cool front for the Bible.  You can see the distressed leather, how the tongs tie around the Bible and loop into a Buffalo head nickel button.

Finally, I used distress ink to ink the edges - they were sort of red and now they're more brown

I have a total of $18 in the bag and Bible.  It took about 4 hours to cover the Bible and make the bag.  Not too bad for a Sunday afternoon.  Give it some thought - I think it's a really great idea to camouflage a Bible.  Just in case!

Watercolor distress ink and copper - fun stuff!

I'm up in Eagle visiting with 2 of my sisters for about 5 days. It's always a time to play and experiment! So, this last weekend, we were watercolor painting....on watercolor paper. And then Colleen wanted me to show her neighbor how to watercolor paint on copper (I've shown that earlier on my blog). But then we decided to combine the copper with stamps, ink and paper....and I like our results!

So, first, wet the watercolor card with clear water. Then take a sponge foam rectangle and ink it with broken china. Stipple the ink onto the edges. Take a brush and more water and "paint" the ink into the center of the card. Pretty cool!

Here's the same thing with Vintage Photo ink. Quick. I like quick cards!

Here's a close up of the copper. The fun thing is that you will never get the same look twice. The frustrating thing is that you will never get the same look twice! Use stazon ink to stamp on the copper.

And I couldn't end our play session without showing how you can "paint" by using heat on the copper. This one - I may just have to frame!

The 4 of us Moore girls grew up playing together. But I think playing with my sisters these days is more fun that it ever was!!!

Who invented purses?

They hurt my shoulders. They annoy me. They are always in my way, so I just don't use them! I have a tiny wallet that goes into my pocket, my keys go into my other pocket. And that's all I need. It's so much fun. When I'm in a store, people ask me for help. They think I must work there since I don't carry a purse!

Years ago, when working in an office, I decided that the reason women never got promoted was because they carried purses - they were late to meetings looking for their purse, they had to go back and get their purse, whatever it was they needed was in their purse in the locker and we all had to lock them in our desks which took more time to get us to a meeting than the guy sitting next to us.

I happen to love purses and will carry one when I wear a dress (no pockets) (really rare event!) or when I absolutely have to have a pair of slacks that don't have pockets in them. But.....when I was a kid - I thought it was very grown up to have a purse! And I wanted my purse to match my dress, or my shoes, or my belt....it just had to match or it wasn't right!



So, it's quite true - no outfit is ever complete without the right purse!!!

Brand new Melody Ross papers that I just love! BLine designs stamps (the sentiment and the pattern). and of course, a purse charm!!!

Another simple card, simple layers (doesn't that look like fabric right out of the 50s?) and simply fun!!!

Beautiful borders

But just not borders - great embellishments for cards, envelopes or layouts!

all done with Ranger Distress inks and crystal Stickles:

so they all sort of coordinate....

on the daisy border, I put the stickles in the center of the flowers....

on all the others, I put the stickles on while the paper was still in the die - let dry, then pull out

Just a fun quick way to make up borders! I think I made at least 50 of these at the show this past weekend.

Another brilliant idea!

I love using cut n dry foam with my distress ink pads and Ranger has their inkssentials blending tool & foam. It's the foam with a strip on the back that attaches to the velcro on the ink applicator.

I like to use the same foam for the same color, but am constantly having to hunt for the right color to go with my ink pad. So, it hit me....velcro the things to the ink pad!!!

Pull it off when you want to use that pad....

You can still stack them up because the pad will nest inside the bottom of the pad on top of it.  Perhaps a little wobbly, but I'm happy with that because now I can find the color right when I want it!

Pull it off the ink pad and attach it to the applicator and ink away!

Because I travel a lot to teach (like the show tomorrow) - this is going to be absolutely perfect!  I use some old Karen Foster clear zipper cases to put my stuff in....so I can see what's inside.  It's just too bad that they don't make these any more - I think they are wonderful!  Fortunately, I bought a ton when they were on closeout.
I can get 16 pads in here....more than enough for any class I'll be doing!  Can't wait to show this at the show this weekend.  Today was Basement Babes day here and the gals just loved my idea!

I have to confess - those Babes sure saved me today!  We got so much done!  36 kits for After Midnight stamps, each kit has 12 pre-cut pieces of paper in it.  Amaco sample boards made up, Demo boards made for After Midnight Stamps, Wonder Goo labeled and bagged, paper cut for this weekend....and yes, samples of the new folded flowers which I will start posting tomorrow.  Oh!  What a wonderful day!  Thanks to all "my" babes!  You are just the best!

20 second cards

Literally, about 20 seconds or so to make these cards. Used the Cuttlebug cut n emboss butterfly. Cut the bottom one, embossed the top in the card. Stamped and inked with distress ink on cut 'n dry foam squares



Embossed the diecut flower and stuck it inside. Just so fast and easy!



Same process, just different location for the cut and embossed dies....and different shades of distress ink.



Sort of bent the wings so this one pops up a little.



By positioning the folders and using 1 at a time, you can emboss both on a single card. Just too fun!



We made about 10 cards in less than half an hour....so just a really quick, fast way to pop them out. I think the stamp on this last one is going to be my life motto! LOL! Just too fun!!!