Hey Jodi!!!

Jodi, Jodi, Jodi - never leave something at my house! LOLOL!

Jodi made a bracelet out of Friendly Plastic and it was gorgeous. Except something major went wrong when we went to shape it and it got a major air bubble on the back side....



which made a major boo boo on the front side!



So....she left it here. Hrumph!!! Now, do you think that was a hint for me to fix it for her? OK, Ok.....I did it!!! First, I softened the bracelet in water and then put it on the griddle upside down and let it melt totally.



Then I took a flat mat (I actually used a cut mat from the Sidekick Diecutting machine), greased it up and flattened the back out until it was near perfect.




Next I pulled it off the Silpat sheet, flipped it over....and flattened out the top



Then I trimmed up the edges 


By now, it's cool enough to handle and cut with scissors


Put it back on the griddle and let it soften one more time

Drape it over the mandrel and shape it.   It came out perfect!!!

No bubbles, no dents, no impression, no boo boos.....

A perfect fit - a perfect bracelet.  Aren't her chevrons just wonderful?

I am now completely convinced that you cannot ruin a piece of Friendly Plastic.  To be quite honest, I thought this was going to be trash....but by using these techniques....I've now totally saved it and even turned it back into a wearable piece of art.

So Jodi.  Since you left it here...is it mine?  

LOLOL!!!

Eight Nights of Lights - Night 5

Tonight is the 5th night of lights. An evening of gratitude - thankfulness for the blessings we have. When we were little, mom would dress us up and the 4 of us girls would sing in church. One of my favorite songs was Bless This House (by May Brahe & Helen Taylor c 1927):

Bless this house O Lord we pray; Make it safe by night and day;
Bless these walls so firm and stout, Keeping want and trouble out:
Bless the roof and chimneys tall, Let thy peace lie over all;
Bless this door, that it may prove ever open to joy and love.

Bless these windows shining bright, Letting in God's heav'nly light;
Bless the hearth a'blazing there, with smoke ascending like a prayer;
Bless the folk who dwell within, keep them pure and free from sin;
Bless us all that we may be Fit O Lord to dwell with thee;
Bless us all that one day we May dwell O Lord with thee.

Can't you just imagine the 4 of us standing in front of our tiny little church of about 50 people, singing this song on a Sunday morning?



I do like the various traditions that go with the 8 nights of lights. How rich is your life right now? Perhaps not in the sense of money...but in blessings. Celebrate tonight by sharing these blessings with others by simply doing a good deed.



My life has not always been easy....but it has been blessed. No cancer in mom or my sisters to date. Oh! What a blessing!!! Only one brother-in-law has passed away....sort of a miracle with 5 kids and 5 kids-in-law most over 50. No major disabilities - most of us are still in fairly good health. And we all live in the same state, so we can see each other most any time we want. My children are healthy. Now, I call those blessings!



I have a warm home, warm clothes, a full refrigerator, and time to play. Those are even more blessings. And I have way more than I need. I'm sure that you do, too. Why not take what you don't need and donate it to a charity? Find one thing in your life tonight that you could give away tomorrow. And give it away. Your good deed. Your Mitzvah.



Every now and then, I even have a little extra money. (that's above and beyond the 10% I give from my income). I send those gifts to the American Red Magen David for Israel. 888 Seventh Ave, Ste 403, New York NY 10106. It's the "Red Cross" in Israel and they work to assist in so many ways. Scripture says that "I will bless them that bless thee" and I believe that applies to Israel and Jews. Yes, Israel gets my "tithe" and my "gifts". And my life continues to be blessed in ways I can't begin to explain!






So with the blessing of "time" - tonight we'll see more than just "one" tecnique as I just didn't know when to stop!!! Remember your Mitzvah.


And a mini bonus video on how to color ribbons, lace, pipecleaners and glitter to match any project you are working on:




On this 5th night of lights, may you take a little time to reflect on your blessings,

Eight Nights of Lights - Night 3

When I was a little girl in Sunday School, we sang this song:

This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine, this little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. And it went on verse after verse after verse. Shine til Jesus comes again. Shine all over Perkinsville. ...we just made them up and sang it forever!



My blog has become my little light and while it may not shine all over....I hope it brings a little light into your night. Now, light can be fun stuff, education, wisdom, quirky sayings....it can mean all kinds of things. I hope if nothing else, you find my comments interesting and/or entertaining!



Tradition states that the first 2 nights of Hanukkah are important celebrations, but tonight the festivities become quieter and you spend time with immediate family, keeping the focus on tradition. I've just spent the past 2 days with mom - quiet and peaceful. Moments filled sharing memories and making new ones.



I gave up the hustle and bustle of this holiday season a few years back. And I absolutely love it! Because now I have the luxury of time....time to share this fun tutorial with you!!!




You can purchase black hot glue at After Midnight Stamps. Click here for Accent Scrapbooking's website.The snowflake blossoms are from Creative Impressions - another Colorado company. Swarovsky crystals are from Creative Crystal. And all my backgrounds are done with Ranger products. Credit for much of this technique goes to my good friend, Sherri Burrisk. I just "altered" it a bit! Who would have thought that a little alcohol ink or powdered mica would make hot glue embellishments this cool?

Tonight, may you find peace and joy with your family. May your little light shine a little brighter this 3rd night of lights!

Queen of Flakes

Some days, I just sit here and crack up! "Queen of Flakes" - ok, that's SNOW flakes - not me! LOLOL!



I started doing Tim's tag today....but I think I got totally side swiped! I don't do Christmas, and I didn't have any grungeboard that I liked, so I decided to use acrylic crowns to start with. From Accent Scrapbooking - great local Colorado Company! (If nothing else, I LOVE Colorado companies!!!)

I think the crackle distress paint turned out fine on acrylic. For the top one, I used a very light coat of antique linen crackle paint and put cranberry alcohol ink over it. For the bottom one, I used Aged Mahogany Crackle Paint with copper alcohol ink over it. I decided I liked the bottom one best.



This is one of my fav things to do....put a bunch of stamps on the same block. Using After Midnight snowflakes here, really small because remember, this is just an ATC sized card.



Keep in mind that they will stamp in "reverse"



I actually ended up covering the entire card with snowflakes.



I didn't have a sentiment stamp that I liked, so I used a versamark pen and wrote my title, then used Queen's Gold embossing poswer on it. It just didn't pop enough, so I outlined it with a black sharpie pen. All of the snowflakes are from Creative Impressions in Colorado Springs.

I used a water brush and painted Stickles on the stamped snowflakes (be sure to stick the brush in water right after you finish this one!) and I used Stickles to embellish the crown. Oh, and I did get a rubon in the background - but it's almost completely covered up.

So I think I did all the steps Tim did....but it sure looks different! I have so much stuff I just can't see going out and buying what he uses....so I'll just keep on making modifications and play with what I have! Learning how to alter someone elses instructions just makes it all the more fun to play!!!

Blossom fun!

When you are at a show, you have a limited amount of product with you. So I brought some blossoms home and decided to play a little harder! For this one, I ran some acrylic paint on the back sie of the tag. Stamped the dragonfly with blue stazon ink. Used a white pen on the top and stamped "Explore" with black stazon.

Notice the blossom...all blue, but I've used nylon, mylar, and felt. Not sure if you can see the difference in the layers or not. A total of 6 blossom layers and the glitter brad. I swear I could sit and make these all day long!



Here, I used a small acrylic flower. Put a piece of scrapbook paper behind it. Stamped the girl in black Stazon and then used the white pen over her. Isn't this just great for a card or as a page embellishment?

This blossom has 5 layers, using 2 leaves on the bottom, nylon, felt and mylar again. I really like this one!



This is about a 5" flower. I made one big blossom in the center. It has 7 layers including a felt snowflake and a transparent snowflake. The little blossoms are made up of just 3 layers.

I put the acrylic flower over an older piece of Chatterbox paper that had a floral print on it. Took the white pen and just outlined the flowers on the paper, added dots and leaves. So easy....so much fun!



OK, I promise I will stop for now! No more blossoms this week! Well....maybe....I don't know if I can stop! All of these went our as "store" samples....maybe I need to make some just for me!!!

More Talk About Images

As promised yesterday, today's blog is all about the new stamp company and what I did with their stamps at the show yesterday. But first, I need to let you know my sources!

Accent Scrapbooking was at this show and on Friday, I picked up some clear acrylic tags from them to play with. Now you all know how much I love the acrylic word books I get at Scrapbook Your Life! - but I think you will also enjoy all the clear acrylic items this company has as well!

The blossoms and brads are all from Creative Impressions.

And I'm using Ranger's alcohol inks, jet black Archival ink, and new white pens. If you can't find the white pens near you, I still have some for sale here, just $3.00 each.

As you can see, a lot of white pen workon the top, stamped images on the bottom, I even used the white pen over on the mylar flowers. It was so much fun!



If you want to purchase any of these stams from Talk About Images, just email them at talkaboutimages@yahoo.com

The swirls are the only stamp not from them, it's from MSE.

Love the vibrant background colors in this one. You will see each came out a little different. And notice all the different flowers I attached to the top ofeach one....endless possibilities!



I liked this one so much I kept it! Most of the others were given to Accent Scrapbooking or Talk About Images as samples for future shows (or to put on the mouse trap at home!)



Here's on that Leesa did....no alcohol ink...just snowflake stamps. Really cute!



Which inspired me to do this one. Now...you will not find this stamp anywhere. One of these days, we are going to talk about ALTERING stamps! YIKES! Yep...we alter everything else that we do, so why not alter stamps? Terry, Lisa's hubby, gave me a big collage stamp that was marked bad and said, "here, cut this up!"....so that's just what I did! I cut out the elements from the stamp, then make a new collage that worked just fine on these little tags.



I know some of you would never even consider taking your stamps off their wood. Let alone cut them up! I know...have you picked yourself up off the floor yet? :o)

You will need to stare at this one. Half is yesterday's technique on the bottom and the other half is white pen on the top. Can you tell the divison line in the photos? Pretty 3D looking in real life!



Like how I can make the blossom on the top match any ink I put on the tag!



Look what a dark colored felt snowflake does to this blossom! Oh, forgot to mention..you won't find the dots on the stamps either...I added a lot of "embellishments" to the stamps!



Creative Impressions makes these really big brads that you can stamp on. Can you tell that I just played all day long???



Another altered stamp on the bottom border of this one. Are you starting to see the possibilities here?



Believe it or not, I didn't photo everything I did! I showed how to alter the color of the brads with alcohol ink...and there's one tag where we used the metallic inks and made a matching brad. I guess I was just too busy having fun to get a photo of everything!

I met so many really nice new friends at the show this weekend. And yet again, I met someone who knows somene else that I am good friends with....so that "less than 6 degrees" is still at work in my life!

Tomorrow....more things to do with blossoms.....and maybe we'll talk more about altering stamps! (GASP!) Right now, I best go tend to the weeds in the yard before the local HOA inspectors come knocking at my door! Just know, if it were up to me...the weeds could take over...I'd much rather play in my studio!