Crayon Roll

I've never heard of crayon rolls until recently-someone gave my son one as a gift and I thought it was so cute. So I did what every person in the world does-I "googled" it and came across the instructions on this blog (http://www.skiptomylou.org/2007/04/25/on-a-roll/). I made the felt one for a friend's daughter, she loves ladybugs. It's not perfect but I don't think it's too shabby for my first one. And I used a sewing machine, yay! I don't think I'll make another felt one as the shape had a tendency to morph throughout the stitching. I bought some cute jungle material to make my son a larger one that holds more crayons to use at home. I'll post it when it's done.

How many days to "glow"?

A friend of mine is going through radiation therapy for breast cancer. Her husband told me I should come up with some kind of countdown so she wouldn't have to make big X's on the calendar. He said I'm crafty and made sure I didn't misunderstand it as "crappy", haha! He was kind of joking but I thought it was a great idea. I was going to see her today so I threw something together really quick late last night. She jokes and calls her radiation her time to "glow" so I ran with that pun. She has 38 treatments so I took 4 sheets of business cards and stamped them like a OSW with SU's Burst Into Bloom stamps and Gable Green/Pretty in Pink/Positively Pink/Lavendar Lace ink, Lavendar Lace marker. I also used a binder clip, misc. CS and misc. ribbon. On the back of the business cards, I printed some inspirational quotes I found online and added a few jokes, a card with her husband/sons/grandson's names on it, a half way there and you did it card. Some were serious, others were funny, like "You Glow Girl!" and little things to make her giggle. I know I could have done a million different things to make it bigger/better but I didn't have a ton of time and I think it turned out cute because of what was printed on each card.

My Unmounted Stamp System

Okay, I am going to try to explain how I use SU stamps unmounted. I can't take credit for this system-I learned about it from someone at SCS. But, I've had people PM me with questions so I thought I'd take a few pics to explain it. The examples here use SU Happy Winter and Spring Solitude stamp sets. I purchased the Tack'N'Peel from Joanns.com and I already had a bunch of CD cases at home but you can purchase them most anywhere. The slimline cases do not work.

Storage in CD cases: Before I use the stickers, I make a photocopy of them and tape it to the front of the CD case. Then, I take the label and adhere it to the spine of the CD case so I can see it at a glance on the shelf (I adhere it to white paper first so I can see it clearly).

To keep the stamps in the case, I adhere as much vinyl cling as is needed to hold all of the stamps in the set, the sticker adheres to the vinyl cling (I used to use vinyl cling on my blocks to stamp with but it wasn't as sturdy as using Tack'N'Peel).

Step 1: Trim the stamp. I try to trim it in a way that gives me a hint as to where a certain place is in the stamp. For example, the t, k and y on this stamp stands out when trimmed.

Step 2: Adhere the sticker to the stamp. I stick the design sticker on attempting to line it up using the t, k and y as guides.
Step 3: Trim the sticker. I've tried to adhere the sticker and trim that and the stamp at once but my alignment is not very good (it wasn't when I used wood blocks either).

Step 4: Stick on block and stamp away! I've tried adhering the stamp to the block several different ways but my favorite is to use Tack'N'Peel on the blocks. That's all I use now. That stuff is great!

I used to adhere the sticker to white paper first then stick it on the stamp but my placement was always off. I got lucky a few times but not enough to continue doing it that way. Here's an example of what that looks like:

Although the design stands out against the white, I can see it just fine against the grey foam and it's one less step and less hassle.

Here's a side view of the block with Tack'N'Peel and the stamp:

Well that's it, I hope this makes sense. I love using this UM system. It works great for me. If you're interested in it, try one stamp set and see how you like it.

P.S. If I buy stamps that are already wood mounted, I pop them in the microwave for a few seconds to pull the stamp off of the wood block. Then, I make my own "sticker" by stamping the image on vinyl cling using StazOn ink. I do have some where the foam came off of the rubber and those work just fine by sticking the rubber image (without the foam) on the Tack'N'Peel.

Treat Box

I made this for a friend for her birthday. I love finding reasons to use my JustRite Stamper. When I first put the T and Tricia's Treats on there, there was too much space between the letter T and the rest of the words so I took a chance and trimmed off some of the rubber around the T so the words would fit more snuggly. It worked like a charm! The 2nd picture is the bottom flap of the card, opened. I wanted to make it a little different from a typical card shape but also wanted enough room to write a note. I used: misc. PP from Michael's (scraps from another project, the colors worked great for this project), SU Bashful Blue paper, blue Sterilite box, JustRite Stamper, Chocolate Chip ink, SU Curvy Verses, flower from SU Seeing Spots, stickles, and scallop punches.

Photocopying Scrapbooks

At the crop last night, we discussed the cost of photocopying our 12x12 scrapbooks (among "other things", haha!). I googled this and found an interesting article. Check it out: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Scrapbooking-2602/2008/6/12X12-copies.htm

The article led me to this website, the prints are very cheap as compared to $10/page at Kinko's. I may have to order a print to check out the quality: http://www.scrapbooksplease.com/

Time Well Spent

I made this card for my friend, Jennifer (took me a while to upload). The sentiment read "Time spent with friends is time well spent" from SU's Time Well Spent set (as well as the flower here on the front). I used chocolate cs, cream cs, Making Memories pp, Cuttlebug A2 flower embossing folder (with my pasta machine, hehe), chocolate chip ink, Twinkling H2O's and misc. ribbon. I sanded the embossed image so it would show up better. I really like the way it looks. I'm not sure I'm happy with the card overall, it's not bad but it's not my fave. I'm still trying to get the hang of my Twinklers.

Lil' Rebel

I made this for a friend's ds and dil. They are expecting a baby boy in August and they are huge Ole Miss fans. The baby's room is in an Ole Miss football theme,...can't wait to see the pics of that! How cute! I made this onesie card using this tutorial: http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2008/02/05/create-your-own-onesie-card-tutorial-and-important-note-please-read/
I "hung" it on the bag as if it were on a clothes line, not sure why it just seemed like a good idea at the time. The card was really easy, I couldn't believe it.

I also made the new mommy a coupon holder for baby coupons since she'll receive a ton. I guess I came up with this idea on my own. I thought of how grocery store coupon organizers work and went from there. I'm one of those people who believes that no idea is new...but I haven't seen one like it that I know of (please correct me if I'm wrong). I used the Bind-It-All to bind it. To be honest, I just look for things to bind, hehe!

There are 6 pockets: diapers/wipes, formula, food, medicines and creams, bath/body and misc.

And yes, that's my Scor-Pal in the background. I almost love it as much as my JustRite Stamper! :)

Thanks for looking!