friendly box

Hey everyone!  Well, did you do the Week In The Life last week?  I know, I didn't supply very much inspiration around here.  Sorry about that.  I was so pooped every night that I never got on here to post anything. 

I did get my Week In The Life done though.  Well, I got all the pictures and documentation done.  This week I'll be putting it all together.  I got alot better about getting the camera out.  AND, I found the secret to getting shots of my family.............turn the sound off on the camera.  They never knew a thing!  Sometimes, (not often enough) I come up with a good idea. 

So while you're waiting for me to get that together, I have a project idea to show you. 

Medallion and Fabulous Phrases stamps.  Crumb cake, vellum, whisper white and old olive cardstock.  Whisper white craft and black Stazon inks.  Big shot, lable framelits, fun flowers die, little leaves die, paper doily die, hemp, bakers twine, tissue paper, brights buttons, polka dot embossing folder, 3/4" and 1" circle punches.


Isn't this a cute little box?  Final measurements are: 3.5" x 3.25" x  1.5".

I was going to exchange a punch for a customer and it came right before we went to Oregon.  Since she was so patient, I decided it would be nice if I made it pretty before I delivered it.

Here is how you make the box:

I used my handy dandy Simply Scored Tool.  Now, you don't have to have this to make the box, it just makes it quick and easy.

On the 8.5" side you need to score it at 1 1/2" and 7".  On the 11" side score it at: 1 1/2", 4 3/4", 6 1/4" and 9 1/2".

Then snip into the folds.  I forgot to take a pic of that step.  Here, let me see if I can label this.  Hold on.................

Cut on the white lines.  Although I'm sure you'll cut them straighter than my sad lines here.

If you want to stamp on your box, now is the time to do it.  You can't see it here but I stamped the Medallion in white craft ink on what will be the top of the box.  Grab that Medallion stamp while you can, its being retired.

 Take your most awesome Tombow Multi Glue and put the sides together.  This will be the bottom.

Then glue your lid together like so.

I used a 1" circle punch to punch out a place to grab whatever is inside.  You'll see that the punch fits very snuggly inside here.  I had to punch this little notch so I could get ahold of the punch to take it out.  I hadn't done it yet on this pic but I punched out a notch on the lid too.

Side angle

I got lucky that the punch fit just perfectly.

Then I made a cute little tag to go with it.  I cut the doily out of tissue paper.  Then I just ripped (gently) the overhang.  I left it like that because............well, I don't really know why I left it like that. 

This label was the 3rd in from the middle framelit.

A view from the top. 

View from the side.  It is a sturdy little box and didn't take long to make it.  I hope my friend liked it. 

Alrighty then, I've got to get dinner going.  I'm so glad Week In The Life is over.  I love when its all finished but it is a bugger to get done.  I'll show you when I get it done. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Blessings, b.

home for good this time

Howdy.  We are back home.  Home at least until Thanksgiving...........or Christmas.  I'm so glad to be home.  I like home.  

I have a ton of pics, of course.  But tonight I want to finish showing you the projects I made with my card ladies a few weeks ago.  Then I can get into all the other stuff.  Okay?  Okay.

Inspired by Nature and Elements of Style.  Naturals white, daffodil delight, old olive, crumb cake and CALYPSO CORAL (new In Color) cardstock.  Versamark, early espresso and old olive inks.  Big shot, beautiful butterflies die, linen thread, paper piercer, cutter kit, wide oval punch, lunch bag and glue dots.

The ladies were getting a little tired of making cards all the time so I tried to switch things up and we made a bag! 

Just keeping it fresh you know ;)

I used the In Color, Calypso Coral.  I will admit that I don't much like this color.  Not sure why.  I had bought the Color Coach add ons and one of the color combos they suggested was Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight and Baja Breeze. 

Now I tried putting those colors together and they just screamed Miami Beach to me.  That kind of art deco pastel thing going on.  Really not my style. 

BUT, my job as a demo is not neccessarily to only do things I like.  Although that makes it much easier.  I have to step out of my comfort zone once in awhile. 

So I cut up a bunch of butterflies in all three colors and let them choose which and how many they wanted for their bag.   

I layered the butterfiles and stamped the top ones using the Elements of Style swirly in Versamark.  I don't have the Calypso Coral ink yet so using Versamark is the best idea until I do. 

This is a super easy and cheap idea for giving gifts.  Just cut down your lunch bag to the desired height.  I cut mine to 5.5".  Add some cardstock to the front and back and decorate.  WaLa!  Instant prettiness. 


So keeping in the bag/box idea, we also made a 2,4,6,8 box.  Remember those?  Love them!

Wonderful Favorites (retired).  Island Indigo, rich razzleberry, baja breeze, whisper white and old olive cardstock.  Early Espresso ink.  Curly label punch, blossom bouquet triple layer punch, early espresso bakers twine, big shot, little leaves die, brads, dimensionals, scallop border punch and 1/2" circle punch.


A nice simple little box.  Here is how you make it:  sorry no pics

Take a piece of 8.5 x 11 cardstock and cut it in half.  So you have a 5.5 x 8.5 piece. 

Then put it in your trimmer lengthwise and use your scoring blade to score a line at 2". 

Then turn it widthwise and score at 2", 4", 6", and 8". 

Cut off the little 2 x .5 piece.  Then just fold up and glue.  Easy.

Let me know if you need more help with that. 

Otherwise I'm sure you can figure out the punched peices.  If you use the Tombow Multi Glue this will be a very sturdy box.  It will fit a regular size gift card nicely. 


Alrighty then.  Since coming home I've been trying to catch up on everything.  We brought a bunch of stuff home from my dad's house.  I don't have anywhere to put this stuff! 

Plus I'm going through pics of our trip.  I know you can't wait to see ;). 

AND convention is over and I've been spending too much time on the computer looking at display board pics.  I did enter the Artisan Award contest again this year and didn't win.  I guess I didn't make the finalists list either because nobody emailed me to let me know.  Oh well.  Maybe I'll try again next year.  I'll be showing you those projects soon. 

Oh, I almost forgot, Ali Edwards is doing her yearly Week in the Life project this week.  I had planned on doing it but with getting home a little later than expected and then getting a migraine and feeling overwhelmed for a day or so, I had forgotten about it.  I remembered this morning and was going to just say, "forget it.  I'll do it later"  I decided to just go ahead and start today.  The procrastinator in me just said, "WHAT?!"

I really love this project and will show you what I have so far tomorrow.  Why don't you do it with me?  Just pick up your camera and start shooting.  Today I shot:

What I had for breakfast, going to the grocery store, going to the bank, playing darts, the hubs working,  the cat, etc.   Just whatever your life is about today.  No stress, just document what you can. 

This was supposed to be a quick post.  HA!  See what happens when I don't talk to you in so long?  I get backup. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I love that you do.

Blessings, b.

band on the brain

Howdy stampers!

Ahh.......the week is over.  For the past few months my dear hubby has been planning and organizing a band tournament.  Wednesday was the day.  Our school hosted 14 bands. 

This was a huge undertaking.  So many details to consider that I never would have thought of.  I helped mostly with the program.  And the judges gifts.  And crowd control.  That was my favorite.  I had the power to deny access to the stands during performances.  Sometimes having the power is fun.  I am woman!  Hear me roar!  HAHAHA!

I have pics to share with you.  Of course the judges gifts included some stamping.  My hubby didn't see the reason for this.  He never does........

I had to put together 8 gifts.  The first thing was deciding what the packaging was going to be.  We went through several different options.  Trying to stay on the cheap side but make them nice.  Story of my life.......

I found boxes at Michael's for .89 a piece.  They were 9"x4".  I cut a rectangle in the top and adhered a transparency so you could see through them.  I tied them up with our real red striped grosgrain ribbon. 

Cute eh?  Each box had a coffee cup, Starbucks Via coffee, creamers, sugars, fancy hot chocolate, candies, Oreo mini cookies, popcorn, 2 different kinds of tea bags and of course, a set of 3 note cards, lovingly handstamped by me.  I'll show you those in a minute.  First check out the tag:

A Word for You set.  Crumb cake, basic black and real red cardstock.  Black Stazon and soft suede inks.  Dotted ribbon punch, curly label punch, 1 3/8", 1 1/4", 1/8" and 1/2" circle punches, Newsprint DSP, dimensionals and hemp. 

I really like how the tags turned out.  They were 2 1/2" x 4 1/4".  I got the music note from some craft store, I went to so many I forget where I got them.  The judges thought they were awesome.

Here are the little notecards I put in:

A Word for You set.  Crumb cake and basic black cardstock.  Black Stazon and soft suede inks.  Top note die, big shot, vanilla seam binding (holiday mini), Newsprint DSP.

These are 4x4.  I made up little sets of 3.  Each bundle had 2 that said thanks and 1 happy birthday. 

I cut the DSP into 1 1/4" strips.  I tried to get as much music on each strip.  Then it was kinda funny because when they are cut up, you can't really (ok, I couldn't really) tell which way they went.  So I hope I got them on there right. 

Here was my other fun job:

driving the golf cart around.  Super fun!  These are our good buddies that came.  I know they don't look too happy here.  Thats because of my lack of understanding how my camera works and they had to take more than 1 pic.  As you can see, the girls are used to it ;)

 16 got put to work also.  She actually looks fairly happy here.  That didn't last long, let me tell ya.

  Since we were the host band, we didn't compete but we did perform.......last.  9:00 pm.  UGH!    See that little drummer boy?  He's mine.  Notice how crystal clear my pics are?  I need something with shake stability or something.

Here we are in all our glory.

Here is our Tournament Director.  I think he's kinda cute.  The biggest detail here to notice is that he is still smiling.  Because of his planning and because we had so many volunteers, things went pretty darn smoothly.  You did a good job, honey!

Here is a shot of my desk this morning.  As I write this, it looks exactly the same.  I'll get to it later.

Yes, that is our beautiful program from the tournament on top of the pile there. 

Alrighty then.  We are still trying to recover sleep.  Who has a band tournament in the middle of the work/school week? 

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Blessings, b.

pink shaving cream?

Hidey-Ho! 
The girls and I brainstormed today on making a gift box.  15 is going to an all day birthday party tomorrow.  We got the birthday girl some candy, nail polish and an itunes gift card.  So we needed a beautiful box to put it all in.

Let me just first say, the only contribution I had was, cutting the paper and the idea of glitter.  The rest she thought of on her own.  Well, okay, I made the card to go with.

Watercolor Trio and an old retired set (on the card).  Rose red and whisper white cardstock.  Rose red classic and craft ink.  Polka Dot embossing folder (wart maker), white taffeta ribbon, clear chunky glitter (retiring), scallop edge punch, large oval punch, scallop oval punch, dazzling diamonds glitter, shaving cream and dimensionals. 

Groovy huh?  I haven't used the shaving cream technique in years.  Its amazing what kids remember!  Do you remember how to do it?  Well let us show you.  15 got all the materials together and I gave the little one the camera and said, "GO FOR IT!"

Since we were going to do a full sheet of whsiper white cardstock, I suggested she use a cookie sheet.  So fill your plate (or cookie sheet) with some cheapy shaving cream and spread it out.  You can see our can in the background there, along with a few dirty dishes. 

Then drop reinker on top.  I didn't have Rose Red reinker in classic ink so we used craft ink.  Worked like a charm!

Now usually I would use a popsicle stick but she can't be bothered with things like that.  Anyway, swirl the ink around.  But don't mix it too much.

Then place your cardstock on top.  Smooshing it down a little.

Then lift it off.  You can see where it didn't touch down in all the spots.  Thats okay.  It just has more character that way. 

I see the paper towel didn't make the scene yet.  Normally you would place your paper on a paper towel. 

Ahh.....here is the paper towel. Using the flat edge of a knife or a popsicle stick (she actually ate a popsicle so she could use the stick. The things we do for our art.) and scrape off the shaving cream.

When you scrape off the shaving cream, the swirled ink stays behind.  Cool eh?

In the meantime, I started on the box.

I thought the candy was the biggest thing to go in there.  I was wrong, it was the gift card.  Huge gift card, why?  It still all fit though.

Anyhow, I measured the candy.  2 1/2 x 5 1/2.  I added a 1/2" so the base would be 3 x 6. 

Now heres the tricky part;  I wanted the sides of the bottom to be 1 1/2" tall.  So I added 1 1/2" to each side.  I ended up with a 6 x 9 base. 

Understand? 

Then I made the top.  I added 1/16" to the base dimensions.  But then I only added 1" sides.  You always want your lid to be shorter than the base.

Okay, you don't have to do it that way.  But I do it that way. 

Does this make sense?  Same idea as the cupcake box.  Just shorter and rectangular. 

After I made the lid in the Rose Red color, I decided it was too much Rose Red and so remade the lid using the shaving cream paper.

We decided a belly band would be nicer than ribbon to hold the box closed.   I used the rose red cardstock and the scallop edge punch.  Then I used the polka dot embossing folder (the wart maker) to add a little more texture. 

This is some misc. chipboard letter "b" (the birthday girl's name starts with a b.)  I had that she covered in the Rose Red craft ink, dried with the heat gun and then applied the Tombow Multi Glue and then the clear chunky glitter.  I wanted to use the pink chunky glitter, but hey, its not my project.  I did add some dazzling diamonds so it would fill up any bare spots. 

I used the birthday sentiment from Watercolor Trio for the tag.

Nifty huh?  We liked it alot. 

Look at that gargantuan gift card! 

So I had leftover shaving cream paper and decided we needed a little card to go in the box too.

This came out as 3 x 2 1/2.  I used the scallop edge punch again on the bottom.  This is an ancient sentiment that I stamped in Black Stazon.  Same ribbon treatment. 

After I was done I realized I should have run the whisper white cardstock through the wart maker but I didn't think about it until I was done.

So there ya go.  I think it came out really cute.  I'm sure her friend will love it. 

It was fun crafting with the girlies too.  Since it wasn't my project, I just did as I was told........kinda.  Its funny too how, 15 was always the grumbler when it came to my stamping.  I used to feel guilty that it took time away from her.  That is part of the reason now why I don't really do any workshops.  Just a class now and then.  BUT in the last year or so, I think she has been seeing that its fun.  I may get her to start scrapbooking.  HA!

Alrighty then.  The hubs has been sick and not sleeping well, which means, I'm not sleeping well.  The boy had his buddies over today to swim and play video games, and I'm just pooped. 

Thanks for stopping by and checking in.

Blessings, b.

Schools out for summer!

WOOHOO!!!  Summer vacation!  I'm heaving a huge sigh of relief.  Ahhhhhh.....................

Today was the first good day at work that I've had in over a month.  We hugged, we played games, we even sang songs.  It was bittersweet seeing my 6th graders go.  They have been the biggest pain all year but I love them.  I'm gonna miss them.  Well, most of them.    I'm making something to send each of them in the mail.  Everybody likes mail.  I'll show you when I get them done. 

I did get things made for Grace's teacher and Mr. Dale.  So cute!

Tart and Tangy and Trendy Trees sets.  Crumb cake, real red, basic black and whisper white cardstock.  Black Stazon, real red and whisper white inks.  Scallop edge punch, red gingham, corner rounder, round tab punch, slit punch, hemp and misc. button.

We bought her a mini rose plant and so I made a cute little pocket tag to go on it.  This measures 4 1/4" x 3".   

I used my markers to color the apple.

I added a Starbucks gift card to the other side.  She loves her Starbucks. 

For Mr. Dale, we got him something he can use at his cabin in Bishop.  I didn't want to make a card because it would squish his gift.  So I made a box.   I like making boxes.

                                       

Angler and Warmest Regards (both retired a looooooong time ago).  Soft suede, crumb cake, basic black and very vanilla cardstock.  Soft suede ink.  Lrg. oval punch, scallop oval punch, brads, hemp and dimensionals.

I tied it up with the hemp because I knew that when we gave it to him this morning, that he wouldn't be able to put it away right away, and I didn't want the box to open and lose his present. 

                                          

                                       

The box measures 4 x 4 x 1.  The lid measures 4 1/16 x 4 1/16 x 1/2.  This is just like the cupcake box but shorter.  See how easy it is to make a box in any size?  Let me know if you don't think its so easy. 

I cut a 3 3/4" square piece of very vanilla and drew a border around the edges and then the kids and I wrote him little notes.  Then I glued that into the bottom of the box. 

You can't see them but we gave him a few flies (to fish with, not real ones.  Please!) and a couple of coffee gift cards for the drive up to the cabin.  We'll miss him.

Since it was the last day of school, we went out to dinner at Islands to celebrate.  Yummy burgers!  And now I'm all fat and tired.  So the girls and I are watching the concert from the World Cup in South Africa.  I'll be in bed by 9:00 though.  Old lady here.

Thanks for stopping by.  I have another goodie to show you tomorrow.

Blessings, b.