A call for tubes

or "will I ever learn?" LOLOL! Oh me! Why on earth do I throw anything away? Because it's always the day after they pick up the trash that I get my "brilliant" idea!!! I get my metal from Amaco and it comes in clear plastic tubes. Michaels carries it around here:



and yesterday, I threw out 15 of these tubes! I have always stored my twinkling H2o pots in them....and today, I thought, oh! why not store my perfect pearls in them?



and once that cell in my brain kicked in....it was like...oh! I could store my glitter in them, too!!!




But alas, I have used up all my tubes storing my twinkling H2o pots. See how wonderful? They just fit perfectly down into my storage drawers, I pull them out and I can easily see what I have!



Dare I email my good friends Dawn and Elaine at Amaco and ask them for empty tubes? Hmmm.....what else can we put in them? A really good way to market a product...maybe they could just start selling empty tubes? With the tops on these, you can also hang them on pegs on a pegboard wall. I used to do that....until I decided it was just something else to dust!

Got tubes? I need them! LOL!!!

Texture tutorial - how to make door handles

As part of the Ranger Design Team this past year, I had the honor of attending a weekend retreat with all the other designers. Robin Beam, Suze Weinburg and Tim Holtz were the facilitators and it was just nothing short of a dream weekend!!! While there, I think my brain was overwhelmed....I learned so much! And now, perhaps time to share and pass it along?

One of the things Tim did to add texture was show us his little hammer that he now has for sale thru Advantus. But when I came back home, I created my own version of it! I went to Lowes and purchased 2 rubber mallets for $1.98 each. On one side, I hammered in a bunch of "u" shaped nails:



On the other side, I stapled those big heavy duty staples into it.



On the next hammer, I did tiny round head brass nails. As you can see, I started pretty close together and then tapered them out....so if I hammer with each side of this, I get a different look. You can cover a pretty large area as these were the large mallets.



Next thing I did was ask Accucut for the die that cuts hinges. Now, I don't have an accucut machine, but there's a local shop and we did some trading and she let me bring it over there and cut tons of hinges. You need 4 of the same hinge to make one of these little door handles (did I mention yet that's what we're making? LOL!)



Seems like I never take enough photos, so just use your imagination for the next few steps:

1. Using a glue stick (cheap one from Walmart), glue all 4 pieces together, one on top of the next.
2. Spritz the top with water
3. Pound into the top....it will give it texture.
4. Shape it to look like a 3D hinge. Let dry
5. Finger rub some perfect pearls across it. Using black paper and silver pearls.....it looks like an old metal door handle!



And here's a closer look at them:



Now, one of these days, I'll do something to put these handles on....just wanted to share this fun little technique. I'm sure you could use the hammer on any chipboard embellishment....just spritz the piece, hammer into it and go from there!!

You know, with all these tutorials that I'm posting, there's really no excuse to not play, is there? OK....send me what you do with this technique and I'll post it here!

Ornament Play!

It's that time of year to rush out to the store and buy up all of those clear ornaments that come in shapes you can use all year long! These make fabulous window catchers, gift package adornments....and I've even seen a bouquet made from them!!! I'm going to share 3 techniques....but hey...the fun comes in the embellishments! This one was decorated with Spellbinders Daisy Delight die, Amaco pewter, and some Posh Impressions metallic ink painted on with a toothpick.



The first technique is using Perfect Fabic Medium and Perfect Pearls:

1. Mix 1/2 t Perfect Fabric Medium in 1/3 c water. Shake this mix well.
2. Pour some inside the ornament and swirl around. You will need to remove the top first. Coat the inside completely and pour the excess back into the container to reuse. Shake the ornament until there are no blobs inside.
3. Drop in 1/4t perfect pearls, 1 color at a time and swirl around. Use as many colors as you want.
4. Let dry overnight, then add the cap.



This ornament was done with blue perfect pearls:



I put a simple ribbon around it, and added a star to the side.



This next technique uses embossing powders (glitter or fine).

1. Mix 1/2 t Perfect Fabric medium and 1/3c water, swirl inside ornament again and pour out excess.
2. Use 1/4 5 glitter embossing powder or fine embossing powder and swirl around inside the ornament. I recommend you limit this to just 2 or 3 colors. I used green and gold for the next sample.
3. Heat from the outside with a heat tool, holding th eornament with insulated tweezers or pliers. Work over a wood block so you don't destroy your wood surface with the heat. If you want thicker layers, repeat steps 2 and 3.



To decorate this one, I stamped on colorwashed silk, painted with colorwash and foam nibs, cut the image out and adhered it with Glossy Accents and used some bindi rhinestones as accents.



For all of these, I colorwashed white silk ribbons to hang from the top. I simply stuck a silk flower on this one with some bling in the center!



For the final technique, we will use UTEE and EP. I've taken a few photos trying to showcase the supplies you will need for each technique.


1. Again, 1/2t Perfect Fabric medium mixed in 1/3c water, swirl inside the ornament, pour out excess.
2. Mix 1/2 t embossing powder with 2 T UTEE. The pour this into the ornament and swirl around. Limit this to 2 colors only.
3. Heat from the outside with a heat gun following the suggestions above.

Note: UTEE mixes will run inside as you heat it, so you can control the pattern by moving the heating gun closer to or away from the ornament.



And for this one, I simply added peeloffs to the outside. Just so quick and so easy!



Where I live, Hobby Lobby will put these glass ornaments at about 80% off the week before Christmas! So run, don't walk, and get your ornaments today...I particularly love the little ones..just about 2" in diameter...they are great for embellishments and package decorations all year long!

So what's your excuse for not playing today?