Thanks for the patience in waiting for my stamp sets! I work on them when time allows, and they will shortly be done. All the packaging is in and it's awesome!!! I'm so excited to get going with everything! I've got tons of ideas, on multiple sketchpads that I'll be sharing with you soon! I have been slowing down the last few weeks because I'll be taking my interior design licensing exam next week. This exam is an extensive 16 hours over the course of two days. It's expensive, so I'm really spending my time studying for that right now because I only want to pay for it once, but in a week it's over and I'm going to hit the stamp images hard. I already have most of the images in the proper program, and I'm just making final adjustments and tweaks. Again, thanks for your patience and understanding!
Erin
3.29.2008
Transparency Card
This is a humorous birthday card I made for a card swap! We're looking for more people to sign up so let me know if you're interested! We meet once a month and it's tons of fun!
I cut a transparency into a standard card size, then cut a piece of patterned paper to fit inside it, with 1/4" borders. You can kind of see the border of the clear acrylic around the paisley paper. Then I printed the sentiment on cardstock in a coordinating color. Mat the inside sentiment and tape inside the card. You're done!
I cut a transparency into a standard card size, then cut a piece of patterned paper to fit inside it, with 1/4" borders. You can kind of see the border of the clear acrylic around the paisley paper. Then I printed the sentiment on cardstock in a coordinating color. Mat the inside sentiment and tape inside the card. You're done!
3.21.2008
Paper Globes
These are way fun and simple to make! However, I can't take credit for the idea. A talanted lady by the name of Heather Bailey created these. She's got the tutorial on her blog if you click on the link. (It's an awesome website!) Mine are much smaller than hers and I've added some fun brads to it also. Her pattern uses fairly large sized circles, and I felt a little lazy and didn't want to cut the 20 circles needed by hand. I used the largest circle punch I had and made a miniature version. It's about 3" in diameter.
I could see a bunch of these hanging from a chandelier for a party, or off of the mantle to make a garland at Christmas time. I also made a variation where the center was made of green vellum. It also turned out really nicely. I created these for the contest at my local scrapbook store. I decided not to turn in the one with the vellum, and accidentally got disqualified because I didn't use any of the vellum. Oh well!)
I could see a bunch of these hanging from a chandelier for a party, or off of the mantle to make a garland at Christmas time. I also made a variation where the center was made of green vellum. It also turned out really nicely. I created these for the contest at my local scrapbook store. I decided not to turn in the one with the vellum, and accidentally got disqualified because I didn't use any of the vellum. Oh well!)
Flower Brooch
Here's something else you can do with the ribbon trim shown below. Make a flower brooch. This one is fairly easy. Just cut a piece of trim 5" long. I used the same looped ribbon fringe, but any fringe should work for this project. Tape where you are going to cut and cut down the middle of the tape to keep it from unraveling.
Take your 5" piece, wrap it around in a circle to make a flower shape and hot glue gun the ends together. To hide the seam and top of the fringe, I cut a circle from some wool felt that I had a scrap piece of. I adhered that to the top of the flower and attached a pin on the underside. I pinned it on the front of the card as shown below: 
This way the card can be sent and they can remove the flower and have a little brooch to go on a bag. (This one is a little to big to wear, but on a bag it would be really cute!) The finished card size is 6" square, so you can see how big the flower is. If you use a smaller, shorter fringe, you'll get a smaller flower. 3.16.2008
Easy Coordinated Ribbon Tutorial
Ok, so I love mixing different colors of ribbon for a project but sometimes it can get to be expensive to buy multiple widths, colors, and textures, just to get a few that coordinate. So here's another option:
When you buy it, make sure that it has loops at the bottom, and is not cut. If it's not looped it will not work. I bought about one yard for $4.00. This particular fringe has four different ribbons in it. If you are cutting fringe, wrap the area that you want to cut with some tape. Then cut in the center of the tape. (See picture below.) This will keep both sides from unraveling before you're ready to unravel it.
After you've cut off a piece to use, start unpicking the top that holds the fringe together. A unpicker (don't know if that's the right term) or a pair of scissors with sharp points should work well. As you unpick it it, you'll get pieces of ribbon. I usually wrap these around a small piece of foam core to keep it from getting tangled. Now you have 2 yards of 4 different types of ribbon. (Yep, you doubled what you had because it was looped back on itself.) You can use just one, or all on a project.
Here is a card I made with all of the ribbon. There were two pieces that were about 1/4" wide and two that were 1/8" wide. It is also shimmery. (You can see this a little better in the close up at the bottom.) I printed out a sentiment on a piece of cardstock in a color to match the ribbon and matted it on a piece of dark red paper. I wanted a little more dimension on the card, so I folded up the matted cardstock to give it a little frame around the sentiment. (You can see that a little better on the closeup below too.) The sentiment says: "Hope is the ability to hear the music of the future. Faith is having the courage to dance to it today." I really like this quote!
Hope you enjoy it!
Looped Decorator Fringe
You can get this fringe anywhere that sells home decor fabric. They have some at all the major craft chains and if you live in the suburbs north of Dallas try Childress Fabrics. (They have two locations, try their Frisco location.)
It will look like this:
When you buy it, make sure that it has loops at the bottom, and is not cut. If it's not looped it will not work. I bought about one yard for $4.00. This particular fringe has four different ribbons in it. If you are cutting fringe, wrap the area that you want to cut with some tape. Then cut in the center of the tape. (See picture below.) This will keep both sides from unraveling before you're ready to unravel it. 
After you've cut off a piece to use, start unpicking the top that holds the fringe together. A unpicker (don't know if that's the right term) or a pair of scissors with sharp points should work well. As you unpick it it, you'll get pieces of ribbon. I usually wrap these around a small piece of foam core to keep it from getting tangled. Now you have 2 yards of 4 different types of ribbon. (Yep, you doubled what you had because it was looped back on itself.) You can use just one, or all on a project. 
Here is a card I made with all of the ribbon. There were two pieces that were about 1/4" wide and two that were 1/8" wide. It is also shimmery. (You can see this a little better in the close up at the bottom.) I printed out a sentiment on a piece of cardstock in a color to match the ribbon and matted it on a piece of dark red paper. I wanted a little more dimension on the card, so I folded up the matted cardstock to give it a little frame around the sentiment. (You can see that a little better on the closeup below too.) The sentiment says: "Hope is the ability to hear the music of the future. Faith is having the courage to dance to it today." I really like this quote! 
Hope you enjoy it!
3.10.2008
Page in a Bag Contest
So my local scrapbooking store has a contest once a month where they give you a bag of supplies and you have one week to make a project. It's been challenging because sometimes they are not the supplies that I would normally use. These were the supplies for the month:
And here's what I made with it:
And here's what I made with it:
3.08.2008
Votive Holder Tutorial
Click here to download a PDF tutorial of how to make the project: The finished project is about 5" Tall, but depending on the size of your lid, it can get larger or smaller.
I promise it's really easy! Let me know if you make it! I'd love to see what everyone else does with this idea. Thanks!
3.07.2008
What can you make with this?
Ok so I've got a LED candlelight (which I love! You get the flickering of a candle without the heat or flame), the top to a can of alfredo sauce (yum), and a piece of spring green vellum. I'll post in 24 hours what the final product is, I'm just making sure the tutorial is easy to follow. While we're on the matter of tutorials, I'm sure you've noticed the new tabs at the top of the page. Bear with me as I'm still working on getting everything together. But here's a question for you. When I do the tutorials, would you rather have them as just another blog post, or as a downloadable PDF that you can print out and follow? Let me know as I'm trying to decide what format to offer them in.
Thanks!
3.05.2008
Big Changes are happening
As I prepare my business website for my stamp line I'm transferring all posts of a more personal nature to a new blog:
Edited to remove link to personal blog
This blog will continue to have lots of crafting projects, tutorials, and other features while the new one will have more personal family related stuff. Please make sure you add the new blog to your RSS Feed. Also, please excuse the dust as I renovate this blog. If you click on a link that doesn't work, please let me know as this is my first real attempt to make major changes to the html code! Thanks everyone!
Erin
Edited to remove link to personal blog
This blog will continue to have lots of crafting projects, tutorials, and other features while the new one will have more personal family related stuff. Please make sure you add the new blog to your RSS Feed. Also, please excuse the dust as I renovate this blog. If you click on a link that doesn't work, please let me know as this is my first real attempt to make major changes to the html code! Thanks everyone!
Erin