No Time To Stamp?

Keyword ssnotime82 -There is no time limit. You can play this challenge and upload yourproject at Splitcoastand/or your Blog, anytime at all! You (and that means anyone and everyone, blogger or not!)can play as many times as you like!!! The point is to keep it simple, quick and have fun!!! Please link back here.

Hang it Up! This time of year I’m itching to hang out the laundry (and I know, you city folk don’t do that!), but lets hang some things up this week. I love a little hanging tag or hanging charm. Or make a project that *hangs*, or stamp am image of something this is hanging — you get the idea — a loose interpretation is always fine and fun!!! Let’s just get busy and *hang it up* — and have fun while you’re at it!!!

Check out the greatsamples for the Stamp Simply Challenge today on the blogs of these designers:

• Jenny,April Guest Designer (Jenny has BLOG CANDY today!)
• Janine
• Jennifer
• Julie
• AJ
• Becky
• Dee

Please bear with us as we are all uploading and linking on Thursday night.

You can see all Gallery Submissions here.

What wonderful samples!!! Thank you girls!!! Much appreciated!!!

Heres myhanging creations for today:

I made two things today, using up some more of my seed packs! And since I had hanging clothes on my mind, I chose to use clothespins today — the large one that I altered for notes and the tiny ones clipped to the top of my seed packs! I’ve always had sort of an attraction to clothes pins — LOL — real ones, I mean - I don’t know why — I just like them!!! This was a fun project that would make a great little gift for Mother’s Day or any early springtime gift!!! Oh, almost forgot, I used the label maker for the sentiments so I could play in Julia’s Ways to Use It Challenge today over at SCS — it was to use labels in your work– and I did!!!

Here’s alittle cleaner view of my door hanger and clothes pin holder with all the seed packets removed. I used Mod Podge to adhere the DP to the wood. I like using it for this type of work — it dries quickly and holds tightly. In just a few minutes I was able to sand all my edges nice and smooth and I then used ink to DTP the edges for a more finished look. These went together very quickly — a fun and quick little project to try!!!

A closeup of the top of the hanger. You can see I DTP’d the edges in a more yellowish ink to bring out the bit of yellows in the paper. My two color ginghams went well with this paper. They are 7/8″ May Arts and are available in the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store along with other May Arts ribbons. My buttons are adhered with mini glue dots.

To form the pocket on the bottom I just cut a piece to size, stitched the edges at the machine, then attached it on 3 sides with red sticky strip. I then added the ribbon to finish it off nicely! And my label maker provided the wording, in compliance with Julia’s challenge today. And it wasn’t until I got to this point I realized there was NO stamping on thisproject — and that’s OK.

And here’s the clothes pin which is upside down and used as a note clip. Very quick and easy little project. The hanger and the clothespin are by Creative Imaginations in their Bare Elements line available at Michaels.

Stamps: None

Paper: Margo by K & Co (Michaels)

Ink: ColorBox Chalk Bisque

Accessories: May Arts 7/8″ Gingham available at the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store, Seed Packs, Sewing Machine and Thread; from Wal-Mart: Buttons, Sanding Block, Mod Podge, Dymo Label Maker; from Michaels: Creative Imaginations Bare Elements Door Hanger and Clothes Pin, Jolees tiny clothespins, Zots.

Thank you all so much for stopping in again today. Hope you have time to think about trying this challenge– it’s a fun one, wide open to your own interpretation!!! Wishing you all a wonderful weekend, filled with whatever it is that pleases you!!! Thanks — see you soon!

Welcome to Day 2 of Stamp Simply Celebrates! We sure had FUN yesterday, and there’s more on the agenda today. Please let me remind youthat:

Anyone can play ANY of the challenges by ANY of the hostesses during our 12 days of Stamp Simply Celebrates!!! You DO NOT have to have a Blog to play uploading your project to SCS (Splitcoaststampers.com) is not only permissible, but HIGHLY ENCOURAGED. When doing so, use the KEYWORD SSC08. Thanks!

And here are the special events for today:

Becky Oehlers - Hemidemisemiquaver Design - Today Beckyoffers us a beautiful Featured Project showing ussome of her over-the-top Gift Packaging Ideas. She also has some BLOG CANDY to share. Be sure to check it all out over at Beckys place today! You will surely be inspired!!!

Darlene Pavlick - Dars Crafty Creations - Darlene is hosting afun Challenge today! If saving postage is of interest to you be sure to check it all out over at Dars today. In addition to Dars Featured Project Post Cards, youll be able to see all the wonderful samples her designers made as well as all the entries to her challenge that will be popping up over the next many daysso many sources of inspiration!!!

In addition to Dar’s above, check out these Blogs for some wonderful Post Card inspiration: Janine, Dee, Heather, Leslie, LeAnne(Please bear with us all through the night as we are uploading — should all be here and upby a.m.)

And I have some more BLOG CANDY to share today as well! Today’s generous offering of Blog Candy is compliments of Scor-It and Marco’s Paper, and I have a project below to show you a simple home decor project I made using my Scor-It and some speciality paper from Marco’s Paper, but first, here’s the Candy offering:

Being offered is a Scor-It Mini with Tote, along with 10 sheets of Cardstock for Accordion Cards. What aGREAT offering!!! Thank you Scor-It and Marco’s Paper!!! The Accordion Cardstock measures 5.5″ high x 25″ long (how fun!!!). It is a beautifully smooth and white paper in 65# weight, giving you so many options for use!!! I have never seen cardstock in this length before, and I can’t tell you how elated I was to find this paper from Marco’s!!! I know you’ll love it, too!!!

To be entered for this Blog Candy drawing, all you need to do is comment below and tell me if you’ve ever made an accordion card before (or accordion tags and an accordion album) and if so, what did you make? Personally, I LOVE making them — they are SO fun and the recipients always LOVE them!!! This post will be closed for Blog Candy entries at 6:00 p.m. EST on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2008. Shortly thereafter a random winner will be selected by random.org. The winner will be posted both on this thread and at Party Central. OK, now on to my project:

Here’s a full and opened view of this accordion card project on a desktop. It’s another one of those long projects that is rather hard to photo and capture much detail, so I’ll show you close-ups below.

Here’s sort of an overhead view of the accordion card. It measures 5 5.” high x 24 inch long (I cut 1″ off the 25″ paper). It is scored every 6″ to give me thefour panels I needed for my four seaons. Each panel is 5.5″ high x 6″ wide. This can be folded and used as a card and then later expanded and used as a home decor item. OH, just think of all the different themes these could be made in — your children’s photos could even be inserted — HOW FUN!!!

As for supplies used, the background paper is from my stash from some LSS years ago. It is the same Brushed Metallic that SU does (or used to ) sell, only the color marked on the sheets is Bronze. It’s so pretty and goes so well with copper embossing powder. All embossing powders used are by SU, mostly retired by now I think. The ribbon is a beautifully soft May Arts satin. The stamp is my old Winter Woods by Rubber Stampede and the words are from Season by Season by SU. A Petite Oval Nestability by Spellbinders was used for the seasons.

I’ve used these trees a lot lately and this is the same copper/silver embossing that I’ve shown you here and here. The white paper used on this project is from Papertrey Ink, and the silver matting on my winter scene is the Brushed Silver Metallic from SU.

My spring trees are embossed in SU sage embossing powder, and before heating, I sprinkled on some Dazzling Diamonds. When you do this, not a lot of the DD stays on, but just enough gets stuck in the nooks and crannies of the powder so that it bakes in when you heat emboss and gives it just a hint of glimmer, which looks very nice IRL. Matted in Sage Shadow.

My summer trees are done exactly as my spring trees, only I used olive embossing powder by SU, and matted in Old Olive.

My autumn trees were double embossed. I sprinkled Rust embossing powder on the bottom, shook it off, added the Mustard embossing powder on the top, then before heat embossing I sprinkled on some Garnet Glitter by Martha Stewart. Again, just a hint actually gets left and baked on, but it’s just enough to snazz it up a bit IRL.

To score this 25″ piece of accordion cardstock I started by finding my midpoint with the ruler. That is 12.5″, so I marked it lightly with a pencil and scored there. Since I wanted mountain and valley folds for my accordion card, I flipped my paper over and see below:

I then lined my score line up with the 6″ mark and scored. I did the same on the other side. I now have all my score lines made. I folded it on the center score, brought it to the paper cutter, and cut off that approx. 1/2″ that was *extra* on the ends. By scoring first and cutting last, I get my ends exact. When you score a piece many times, you do loose some length, so rather than try to account for that, I just do my scores first, then cut — makes it easy!!!

If you are wondering what to get a stamping/scrapping friend for Christmas, why notconsider a Scor-It? They come in 2 sizes, so there’s a style and price to fit each need. I honestly don’t know what I would do without mine, and I do have both sizes. You can read all about them at the Scor-It site. They also provide a list of retailers. I do know that Marco’s Paper carries the Scor-It, and Joan’s Garden most often has them in stock as well. And remember, Marco’s Paper has this fun Accordion Cardstock and also carries all the fun Mirricard (mirrored paper) that I’ve been using alot lately - really LOVE that paper. And I’ll have more Mirricard projects coming soon!!! And I will say one thing about shopping at Marco’s Paper — there is SO much there, you just don’t know where to begin. I’ve linked to the home page, and I have found it easiest, when looking for paper, to click on the Pricing Guide on the left - then you’ll get to a listing of all the types of paper — then you can go from there — at least that’s how I found it the easiest to navigate when looking for specialty papers!!! Other products by brand name are listed on the home page. Hope that helps!!!

And that about wraps it up for today again. Thank you so much for stopping in, and I hope you checked out all the links above to see all the projects some of the other girls did! Hope to see you back tomorrow for some more fun!!! Thanks so much!!!

And our WINNER is Lyn, #16. Congrats! Lyn!!! Here’s what she had to say:

Lyn S

Thanks for sharing your lovely project!

I havent made an accordian book before..the nearest Ive come would be a star book that I made for my Mother. It featured scrapping our family heritage and she just loved it!

Dec 2, 1:22 AM

Thanks so much everyone for playing along!!! It is SO MUCH APPRECIATED!!!

Well, we just upoaded my last post for this week of Guest Blogging over at the JustRite Blog!! And I must say, my last project is a FUN one!!! Here’s a little sneak peek:

You can go on over to the JustRite Blog to see the entire project with instructions! And you can click here to see a box for this project. And they also just listed a HUGE SALE. You can click here and also here to read all those fun details!!! What a great time to stock up on supplies!!!

And I also just posted our Stamp Simply Challenge for this week. It is one post down, so hope you can check it out - it’s a fun one!!!

As always, thanks for checking in — have a great weekend coming up!!!

Hi everyone — guess what? I am the Guest Blogger this week over at the JustRite Blog — how fun!!! Here’s a little sneak peek of what I’ve got going on over there today — a fun home decor project with a full tutorial –

You can see this project in full by clicking here. They also interviewed me, and you can read that here if you have a lot of time on your hands — LOL!!!

Hope you like this project and give something similar a try yourself! Let me know if you do — I’d LOVE to hear from you and see your versions!!!

Thanks much for stopping in!!! I WILL have creations on THIS blog this week as well, so please check back in daily for new creations as well as links to what is happening over at JustRite!!! Thanks so much — hope your week is off to a good start!!!

Oh, and today is Monday, fun things happening at Joan’s Garden — I think she even has some JustRite products this week — be sure to stop in and see what Joan is up to!!!

Keyword ssnotime60 -There is no time limit. You can play this challenge and upload yourproject at Splitcoastand/or your Blog, anytime at all! You (and that means anyone and everyone, blogger or not!)can play as many times as you like!!! The point is to keep it simple, quick and have fun!!! Please link back here.

For todays challenge we are going BACK TO NATURE and will incorporate natural elements in the making of our card, so go outside and gather up whatever you can find — twigs, needles, leaves, sand, flowers, grains, etc. The list is truly endless. Let your creativity run wild!!! Also remember that for any of the Stamp Simply challenges you ARE permitted to do any type of 3-D project. We are not limited to cards only.

Alternate: If you don’t have access to the *natural* items you’d like to use, you MAY use an artificial item (flowers, leaves, etc.), or you may STAMP the image if you don’t have access to either the real thing or an artificial item. See, EVERYONE can play this challenge!!! Just create away and HAVE FUN!!!

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:

We’d like to thank Darlene Pavlick for playing with us and being our November Guest Designer! Thank you so much, Darlene!!! We loved your work and even more we loved getting to know you!!! Thanks much!!!

We’d like to welcome our new Guest Designer for the month of December, Cathy Tidwell, known as Cathy, or just CAT, orcatdidit on SCS. Welcome, CAT!!! Cathy played in our Stamp Simply Blog Anniversary Party in September and won this guest spot, and we are SO GLAD to have you CAT!!! Can’t WAIT to see all your wonderful creations. You can check CAT out at her blog, Cat’s Creations.

And we’d also like to welcome a new permanent designerto our Stamp Simply Challenges — AJ Otto — better known as just AJ, or willosmama at SCS. We are SO HAPPY to have you joining us AJ!!! It’ll be a treat to see your creations each week. You can all visit AJ at her blog, The Willow Garden.

As always, please bear with us as we are all uploading this Thursday evening -all samples should be here and up by Friday morning.

Check out Cathy Tidwell’s sample here.

Check out Julie Koerberssample here.

Check out Dee Jacksons samplehere.

Check out Jennifer Bucks sample here.

Check out Janine Orchards sample here.

Tammy Hershberger is taking theday off - have fun, Tammy!!!

Check out Becky Oehlerssample here.

Check out AJ Otto’s sample here.

You can see all Gallery Submissions here.

Are those great samples or what!!!! Thank you girls!!! Much appreciated!!!

Heres myproject for todays challenge:

I know this is a bit more involved than my usual quick card for this challege, but it’s just where I ended up — and that’s OK!!! I have this garbage can full of pinecones in an outbuilding, thinking I should bring some in for use in holiday crafts. Well, before I knew it I was making a can to keep a few in on my craft counter. And how many pinecones will I actually put on cards — LOL!!! Well, probably NOT too many, but at least it is here to perhaps inspire me for some other holiday projects. Here’s how this project started:

A can of nuts that I decided to repurpose, some electric fence wire (yes, I know you all have that just laying around — LOL!), and my crimper. Do you remember many years back when the crimper was the big rage and we all had to have them? I do, and I’ll admit, my crimper gets used for only 1 purpose — and that is to crimp paper to act as padding and protection when I mail a card with bulk. And it does work really good for that!!! But I thought I’d try to use it on a project today. Just bear in mind, the crimper is only about 6″ wide, so you are restricted to crimping pieces to that width. My can was just under the width of my crimper, so it worked here. You’ll need to measure around your can. Mine measured over 12″ so I had to piece my crimped paper. Remember, you loose a fair amount of length when you crimp.

After wrapping my can with the crimped paper, I made my PINECONE strip, using JustRite 95 pt. Brayton Font. The 5varieties of font available by JustRiteare made to snap into their Harmony Rectangle Stampers, allowing you to create any word or sentiment you so desire. And because they are snapped into the gridded surface, all your letters are perfectly aligned, every time. This truly is the easiest way to create words and sentiments. And my CREATE hanging on the handle was stamped with the Harmony Classic Oval II Ensemble. As I often do, I used the center image and omitted the border ring. There are so many options with these ensembles. And as I’ve showed you before, I did cut all the excess rubber around the word Create. Doing this gives you a perfectly stamped impression each time, without any ink collecting on extra rubber. You can read about conditioning and cutting your JustRite stamps on this SCS tutorial, or you can read a much more wordy version of the same tutorial here.

Next it was just a matter of putting it all together. My husband drilled holes in the can for me. I just inserted the wire, bent it on the inside to stay in, formed a curved shape and did the other side. Can you see in the photo how I have the grommets? Well, it may appear the grommet is actaully attached to the can, but it isn’t. Once my crimped piece was made and sized, I marked the holes on the can onto the crimped piece, and then I just attached my grommets to the crimped piece. This can has a really wide lip and I couldn’t get my Cropadile into the can to go thru the can itself, so this worked. Once you run the wire thru, it looks as though it is attached to the can itself.

And see that brown textured paper? It is tree wrap from the hardware store, to wrap around the trunks of little trees. A huge roll for practically nothing. I really like the texture and color!!! And the trees on the bottom were punched with some tree punches out of a velveteen paper, run through my Xyron X and adhered. Then I wrappedhemp twine above the label, just for a bit more interest and texture.

Here’s a nice big bow on the side. The ribbon is tied to the handle and the pinecones are strung on a length of button thread, kind of like stringing popcorn, then tied to hemp. But I also had to employ the use of glue dots to make them stay where I wanted them.

And here’s the Create up on the handle. In keeping true to this challenge (LOL), I created that somewhat different background on the Create panel by rolling mypinecone in a brown ink pad and then rolling it across the paper - a rather messy technique that I’m sure I will never have use for again - LOL!!! My Create is cut, embossed and matted using the Petite Oval Nestabilities by Spellbinders. I attached a piece of hardware and then hung it on the handle with a ribbon. Done!!! Now, I hope this inspires me to actually USE those pinecones on something — LOL!!!!

Stamps: Brayton Font (95 pt) used with Harmony Rectangle Stamper and Harmony Classic Oval II, all by JustRite Paper: SU Very Vanilla, Kraft, Handsome Hunter, Tree Wrap from hardware store, unknown Velveteen Paper Ink: SU Basic Brown and Kraft White Accessories: Recycled Tin Can, Electric Fence Wire, Wire Snips, SU Jumbo Brass Eyelet, Cropadile, SU Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware, Large and Small Pine Tree Punches by Emagination, Pinecones, Checked Ribbon, Hemp Twine, Needle and Button Thread, Petite Oval Nestabilities by Spellbinders, Large Glue Dots, Xyron X

Thank you so much for stopping in today!!! I hope you can find some time to CREATE something that you enjoy, whatever that may be!!! Wishing you all a wonderful weekend ahead!!! My next post will be some more of the quick and flat Christmas cards, assuming all goes as planned — LOL!!! Hope to see you back again!

Today I’d like to share a super quick way to perk up your bathroom! Using purchased shower curtains I made a new window valance alongwith adecorative shower curtain and valance. I spruced upa wall with a stamped item that I made 2 years ago, and I filled the room with the aroma of sweet smelling potpourri!!! My bathroom is sparkling clean, fresh smelling and just calling me to take a long, hot bath with a good magazine!!! I’ll start with the wall decor:

I made this framed item2 years ago as part of a contest being run at the Limited Supply Challenge at SCS on Labor Day weekend. When made there was a small framed piece to coordinate and several cards, but they have all since been given away. This piece has never been used, so I figured it high time it have a place of honor on a wall — and it’s place of honor is, appropriately, above the throne — LOL!!! Actually, this sits on top of the cabinet above the toilet. I made this using SU Petal Prints. You may see the SCS uploads for this piece and all the coordinates here, and here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Next I’ll show you the window valance, and if you can sew 3 straight lines, you can easily make this valance for any window in your house!!! If you can sew on a card, you CAN make this valance. Here it is:

Making this valance is Sew Simple you won’t believe. There is a tutorial at the end of this post.

Next I made a decorative shower curtain and valance. This was really hard to get a decent photo of asdue to the size/location of the shower within the bathroom I could not get far enough away to capture it all, but I hope you get the idea. I use 2 rods to accomplish this. The decorative side panels hang on a double rod. What you do not see is the shower curtain that actually pulls closed when you shower. That is hung on the inside hooks of the rod and is tucked behind the panel on the right. The decorative panels you see do not close. They are there merely for appearance sake. Then a bit above this rod I have a tension rod on which the valance is hung. Instructions will be at the end of this post. Here’s the pic:

This photo of the shower curtain reflects most accurately the true color of my bathroom walls — a very relaxing sort of seafom green. And here’s where the sweet aroma comes in:

Do you recognize the monogrammed gift bag of potpourri from this post the other day? I won’t keep the monogrammed bag of potpourri on my counter as it is a gift item, but I just displayed it here for the photo so you can see how lovely the potpourri looks when contained in clear glass — love the natural and earthy look it brings to the area. And that’s another idea if you want to add a bit more to your gift bag of potpourri — include a beautiful class container for the potpourri!!!

OK, now that’s it for my squeaky clean, sweet smelling bathroom perk me up. On to the instructions. To do my window and shower as pictured, I needed to purchase 3 shower curtains. Shower curtains work perfectly in the bathroom — they are a great weight and texture, they wash, wear and hang well, and all done in prints well suited to a bathroom!!! Your choices really are much narrower than shopping in a fabric store, and that’s a good thing — makes it easier to decide!!! Plus, by using a shower curtain, a lot of the work is already done for you, as you will see below. I got these shower curtains from Shopko. They were $35 each at full price, but I got them on a good sale, which is also a good thing!!!

My Sew Simply trick for today is how I did the window valance. Now, had I just made my curtain using 1 thickness of the shower curtain, hemmed the bottom and made my casing for the top, my curtain would have been rather *see-through*, and I don’t like that. I most often line my curtains so avoid that issue, and I make all my valances so they are self-lined. Basically, I make a tube, resulting in an automatically lined valance. Here’s how:

For the size of my bathroom window, one width of shower curtain works perfectly. Neatly cut the plastic part with the holes for hooks off the top. Measure down and cut so you have a 36″ longpiece. This is what you are working with, and see how your sides hems are aleady done for you? Very cool!!! I’m using a piece of white fabric with black stitches on my examples just so you can easily see.

Photo 1: Bring your raw edges together and sew with about a 1/2″ or 5/8″ seam, thus creating a huge tube.

Photo 2: Iron the seam down against the back side. So what is the back side? Well, on a plain piece of fabric it doesn’t matter. But on a print, you must pay close attention.When making a tube, one side will be the right way, and the other side will be upside down — look at my floral pattern. See how the flowers/stems are the right way — well,the flowers/stems are upside down on the other side.

Photo 3: Turn your tube right side out, so the seam is on the inside. Measure 3″ up from your seam line. This is the TOP of the curtain ruffle. Adjust it all nice and straight so there is a consistent 3″ from the seam line to the top of the curtain. Pin as shown so it’ll stay in place. Now, machine stitch justa hairabove the seam line, or experienced sewers or quilters would stitch-in-the-stitch. Run a second line of stitching 1 1/2″ above this line, which would also be 1 1/2″ from the top. That’s IT. Your sewing is done!!!

Photo 4: Take your valance to the ironing board and press neatly, getting a nice crispedge at the bottom (hem) and top (ruffle). Insert rod, hang, neatly adjust ruffles evenly on rod and admire!!! (That’s the fun part!!!)

Now on to the shower:

This valance was made in a more traditional fashion as I was not concerned about the sun shining through it and making it look too flimsy. There is no light coming from within my shower! To make this I needed 2 widths of the shower curtain sewn together. Start with another new shower curtain, as you won’t have enough with the one you’ve already cut in to. Again, remove the upper plastic band with holes, then cutyour piece23″ long. And cut two pieces that size. Sew them together on the short edges so you have one very long piece.

Rod Pocket and Ruffle: My tension rod is quite thick around, so I needed to make my rod pocket 2″, so I also increased my ruffle to 2″. At the ironing board press under 1/2″ along the top long edge (again, be mindful of the direction of the print pattern). Now fold the top down 4″ and pin in place. Sew down along the pressed edge, and then run another stitching line 2″ up from that, which is also 2″ down from the top. You have just created the rod pocket and top ruffle.

Hem: To hem your shower valance, press up 1/2″ at the ironing board, then turn up 2″ and stitch into place. You are now done!!!

Shower Curtain: To make the decorative side panels I merely cut the 3rd shower curtain straight up the middle and hemmed those cut edges to the same width as the factory sewn edges so they match. You will have 6 holes on top of each for hooks. Hang them up and your projectis completed!!!

I know I’ve strayed a bit from the usual card making posts, but I’ve been cleaning and sewing, so just thought I’d share. I have sewn my entire life, but much LESS so now that I’ve been making cards — LOL!!! Can’t do it all - but I surely do enjoy a small sewing project from time to time, and it is wonderful when I can combine the two!!! Wishing you all a wonderful weekend — see you soon!!! Thanks so much for taking the time to stop in!!! Just wish I could offer you a cup of coffee — LOL!!!