What I have been up to

Well, I finally finished my new craft box that I plan to use to organize my stamps and miscellaneous items. I got the box from IKEA and planned on decorating it for months. Finally I did it. Okay, working with balsam wood sucks. I had serious splinters, but I guess you get what you pay for. Once it was together that wasn't such a problem. I mod podged the paper on and gave it a bit of a classic look. I am always looking for ways to use those stacks of paper (you know... the massive ones that make so much sense at the time), and this seemed like a nice way to do it. The colors all go well together, and if it gets botched up, then it wasn't my expensive paper. I absolutely love American Crafts Thickers, so those are what I used to create my words. I used rub ons for the paisley and smaller flowers, but the larger flowers took some creating. I used chip board flowers and coated them with three coats of gold acrylic paint. On the third coat, while it was still wet, I sprinkled the gold glitter on. After brushing off the extra and letting it dry, I sealed it with glossy mod podge so that the glitter won't end up everywhere. I am quite happy with how it all turned out. It might even have been worth the splinters.

Last Friday, I also went to an evening crop with my friend Caitlin at the local Archivers. Those are a blast. I need to learn to pack better, so I am not taking too much, but I really think that I am actually improving. Plus, I am getting better on using what I have and not spending oodles of bucks that I don't have while I am there. Now, I know that isn't the best for Archiver's, but they get my cash at other times. Anyway, I was happy to create 6 out of the 10 cards my grandmother was ordering from me. Look here:

This one has an Asian motif. I outlined the blue flowers with a glitter marker to give them a little stand out, which you can see here:

This one has a nice touch of sparkle and glitter. Where can you go wrong with that? Okay, you can, but that is way over my level.

I was excited about this one. I finally got the stamp to work all the way across. The fact that I had this on glossy paper just creates a nice accent to the rest of the textured paper.


This was my first working attempt at the Versamark resist. It is so shiny and smooth on the glossy paper. My first real attempt used pigment ink instead of the dye ink. Beyond being messy, it had the color of poo-brown when things blended together. Not something that you really want for your cards. The Kaleidescope dye ink pads are really nice. I now have one, but I can definitely see myself collecting more of those.

Another resist card on the glossy. This time, I decided to have my message in the stamps and the pop out being more of the art. My grandmother was going to send this as a thinking of you card, which I quickly stopped. Nothing like seeing a pretty card without your glasses and not realizing that thank you so much is all over the card.

This one turned out classy. It was a little boring until I decided to add the rhinestones the sides of the circles. Once that was done, I think it has an air of classiness. I definitely like the texture of the cardstock.

Well, guess I will catch up with more later.
You know what Friday is??? It is bead mecca. My annual pilgrimage to Milwaukee for the Bead and Button show. I can't wait... 8 hours of wandering through beady goodness. It is like Christmas in June. I am so excited.