Merry Christmas

I got in the holiday spirit with these paper trees:

The trees are built on a skewer (yes, the kind you’d use for shish kabob!). The base is made of two coasters, sandwiched together. (I covered the base with torn book pages). Poke a hole in one coaster, add a little glue to the flat bottom of the skewer (not the pointy end), and then push the pointy end of the skewer through the coaster until the gluey bottom of the skewer is snuggled inside the coaster. Let the glue dry a bit, then thread the papers onto the skewer, starting with the largest size and alternating the direction of the papers (so the tree looks fluffy!). When you get to the next size of paper, add a small piece of corrugated cardboard to build the the height of the tree. Continue like that until you reach the desired height, then cut off the skewer. Add a star or a ball or whatever to the top of the skewer. Glue another coaster to the bottom for stability.

(For added dimension you can ink the edges of the papers before you start building the tree. Or if you are lazy, like me, I just sprayed them after the tree was put together.)

I used Spellbinders Nestabilities dies for all the paper cutting.

There are several well done tutorials on this technique to be found on the Internet.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Pretty Boxes, Easily Made

I love boxes and I love this box making die from Lifestyle Crafts. It was fast and easy to create several boxes for holiday gifts.

This set features papers from Basic Grey.

Here’s another, using paper from KaiserCraft:

And check out the rosettes! (See, I promised I would do something with all those rosettes I showed in my last post!)

One other cool thing about this die is that you can also make an open lattice basket. Here’s an example of the basket:

Rosettes Galore

Yes, I went rosette crazy! Once I started, I couldn’t stop!

Of course it helped that I used the Sizzix/Tim Holtz die, which cuts and perforates one large and one small rosette. So easy!

I cut a bazillion of them to take with me when I went out of town. I love having something to do with my hands while I’m waiting. So as I was waiting for the hubster, or to go to dinner, or even just watching TV, I folded the rosettes. When I got home I got out the hot glue gun and put them all together.

Stay tuned to see what I did with them!

Never-ending cleaning

Does this mess ever get better? Doesn’t seem that way.

Last weekend I decided to use up all the bits and pieces, the flotsam and jetsam that seems to grow every time I sit down to play. It was fun, and very freeing, to just use whatever was available. I made some progress, but not nearly enough!

Here are some cards made using Sassafrass Lass papers … and other odds and ends:

I think the flowers are from a Spellbinders die.

Have a great weekend!

A Few More Fabulous Finds from Carson….

Finishing up my Carson fly-by (and a fitting Fabulous Finds Friday entry!):

I was tickled by these images from (a new-to-me store) Fun Stampers Journey:

And the always beautiful designs from Hanko:

Have you tried the EcoArt boards from Rubber Stamp Concepts? They are such fun and take all sorts of paint, ink, etc.

And what show would be complete without Tim Holtz working his magic? Here he is dying some pretty Christmas trees:

Thanks for stopping by!

Revisiting the Carson Show

Oh, my … I never followed up with the rest of my photos from the Original Rubber Stamp show in Carson, CA.

Let’s take a quick peek:

A blast from my past…. when I first started stamping (and writing for the late, lamented Rubber Stamper magazine) I met Elaine Madrid of Carmen’s Veranda stamps. I was immediately in love with her quirky, artistic images. It was such a delight to find her at Carson!

Here are a few of her unique images:

Here is Elaine with another of my favorite crafty people, MaryJo McGraw, who I met while she was a demo artist with JudiKins. She has mad stamping skills and I learned so many cool techniques from MaryJo.

Also at Carson, I saw these cool acrylic overlays from Stamp On It:

The company also has a cling mount stamps at the Artful Stamper, so check those out.

And if you like big-eyed cuteness, check out Yumi & Fumi Handmade:

Thanks for coming by! There’s more Carson to come!