So I've been away...

a looooong time.  But I am back to show you some new storage and it rocks! 

I love the storage options available from Stamp-n-Storage!  And before you ask, no, I don't work for them, but I wish I did!  I have, starting on the bottom left, the old style lock down punch holder, the Slim ink pad holder (72) and the Standard holder (60).  On top of that from the left is the new lock down punch holder (and it is amazing!  The SU! tag topper punches or large border punches (like the stars and hearts) will fit in the center row and the other punches will fit anywhere!  In the old holder you could only put the two smaller sizes in the top and bottom rows.), then there is the Petite ink holder (48) and in it are the MINI DISTRESS PADS!!!  Woot!!  Now they aren't in a box!  To make them fit, I purchased the spacers that are supposed to go in the Blendabilities holder for washi tape.  But I didn't like them there.  So I moved them and I do like this!  YAY!  The last two items are the Blendabilities holder (but since that product line is discontinued- sad face- it now has aquapainters filled with Dyan's sprays) and the half shelf on top of the punches.  I also have a three shelf stamp shelf and another half shelf on the other side of the room.  But these were the most exciting.  Well, to me anyway!  :)  Windows?  Who needs windows?!?  I gots me a wall of punches and ink to look at!  yay!  Here is a closer-up of the mini distress pads...

Room for expansion!  (or to store the new colors in big pads until they come out with the minis...heh.)  I am pretty sure that the tins on the top will be replaced with another 48 distress pad holder, but hubby was already frowning about the two orders I placed, so give it another month...  :)  And Stamp-n-storage has free shipping too!  Yay and woot!  Plus a lot of other storage options, so if you need storage go check them out- reasonably priced and very high quality.  Hope that helps anyone in need of storage options!  :)  I really need to see if I can work for them, right?  heh.  :)  Thanks for stopping by, let me know what you think!

WOYWW? Melty Science!!

There is a bunch of goodness (yes, goodness even though it is in piles) on my desk this week.  There is a paper holder with gorgeous DSP from Stampin' UP!, my Paper Pumpkin (also SU!) which I have opened, just not put together yet, two cards and some ink sprayed rose trim, a really cute door shrine that I have been working on for two months-it might be finished one day, hiding under the pile of plastic baggies filled with colored UTEE (more about those later) and a stray piece of paper are some of Dyan Reaveley's new stamps!  (Woo!  Yes, yes, I did have to brag.  Heh.) And finally, the colorful little canvases in the front.  Ooohh, they were FUN!!!

The inspiration for my melty science was this video on Ranger's blog on making little canvases covered with UTEE- click here to see it for yourself.  I thought, "Hey I've got canvases, I've got UTEE, but I don't have the Melting Pot add-in colors or the Texture Treads, hmmm.  Guess I'll put it off for another day."  A few nights later (well a few months and a few nights)the thought popped in my head that okay, I don't have melt art colors to mix in but I DO have ink refills!  And I don't have the texture treads but I DO have rubber stamps (just a few- snerk).  So the experiment was born.  I tried Stampin' Up refills- they are great, just be ready to look at the resulting color and go how did THAT happen?!? For instance, I put in Rich Razzleberry (a pretty dark red-purple) and it came out red.  And then there was the Real Red that turned NEON ORANGE!!

Real Red refill, no really!

Craft Daffodil refill

I kid you not!  Bizarre.  I also tried a Distress refill in Mowed Lawn- very pretty and a retired Stampin' UP! craft (pigment ink)refill in Daffodil Delight- looks more mustardy and you lose the translucence of the clear UTEE, but still neat.  DO NOT use any refill that is alcohol or solvent based.  Unless of course you like fires and explosions and toxic fumes.  Not saying from experience :) Just common sense.  This time.  :)

Now to finish embellishing the canvases and pull them together to hopefully match the really cool looking idea I've got spinning in my head...we'll see how that turns out!  To join in and share your desk so we can all have a good nose about, click here to be transported across the pond (umm, that is, if you are the US like me.  If you are in the UK, then I guess you'd be going back over the pond, since you came over here to peek at my silly ramblings...err...anyway!) to Julia the Queen of the desks.  Thanks for stopping by!  I'm going to peek at some desks myself!

Wow, I've been gone a loooong time...

Here is my latest project...50 gingerbread invitation cards for a friend of mine at work.  Covered the dining room table (oh darn, guess we'll have to go out to eat!  heh.) and hubby's response?  "Hey you made a tablecloth!"  Yes, yes I did.  The card idea came from a challenge from my friend to make a card that included wrapping paper.  Every single one of those gingerbread men are stickled to the nines.  Here is a closer look at them.  And yes, thanks for asking, my hand does hurt!  :)

The gingerbread man was cut from my Cricut (Thank goodness!  Can you imagine hand cutting 50 of these guys?  eeww.)  Stuck the wrapping paper on then ran through the Vagabond (I've decided to call her Vicki)using a T!m Holtz embossing folder.  I may have mentioned before my slight addiction to embossing folders...oh, and T!m.  heh. 
The original challenge was to make a Christmas card that used wrapping paper, but you could not use any shade of red or green.  Here is my original challenge card.

The snowman is T!m's cut once with the wish and once without.  Painted the wish man with Adirondack Pearl Paint Dabber and inked the hat, arms, and nose of the other with Distress Stains.  cut out and glued the hat, arms, and nose on and made the scarf by sticking a piece of wire between two colors of Stampin' Up! ribbon.  I adhered a piece of SU! designer series paper to the back of the wish and filled in the spaces with Glossy Accents.  I found out the hard way that if you have leftover brown ink on your fingers and you wipe off excess Glossy Accents from the word wish you get a not-so-lovely yellowish staining of your Glossy Accents.  sigh.  I guess I'll keep this one for a sample.  The word was covered in stickles (love that bling!)  I put a little bit of stickles on the hat.  The wrapping paper was adhered to the card front and then Vicki (the Vagabond- remember?) embossed the snowflakes with the SU! Northern Flurry folder.  Now I have a plan for a card with ornaments, I just have to find T!m's "joy" die.  But first I have to finish my December calendar!  Thanks for stopping by- hopefully I won't be gone as long this time!  Happy stamping to all and to all inky fingers!

Day 8's tags actually ON Day 8!

Woo!  With 34 minutes remaining in Day 8 I get the tags done and photographed and posted, yay me!  I am also including a shot of what happens when you don't follow directions and are impatient and decide to dry the crackle paint with a heat gun even though it doesn't have that "skin" on it yet AND Tim expressly told you not to... yep, huge crater cracks and the color is even a little off. 

I love Distress Crackle paint but does anyone know where I can buy some patience?  I'd even pay full price!  PLUS shipping! Let me know if you find any, 'kay?  Thanks for stopping by see you tomorrow!

What's on your workdesk wednesday

 
There.  Are you happy?  It's a mess-well not as bad as I have had it.  But a mess with three finished technique tags.  And a pile of cut in half manilla folders for turning into art at some very far off future date.  Veeeery far off.  However, I'm only one day late posting the tags for the online class so huzzah for me!  Maybe I'll get today's done and posted on the same day.  But don't hold your breath.  I'd hate for you to be waiting and turn all blue and pass out.  :)  Heh.  So here is a closer view of the tags. 

These are from day 7.  All about embossing.  Sadly, there will not be any from day 6 as it requires the use of the fabulous and hard to get Distress Markers.  So since I didn't want to be Cheaty McCheaterton I haven't done those tags.  But I will, oh yes, I will.  I will have those distress markers and then I'll take over the world!   MWAAHAHA!!  oh- sorry.  got a bit carried away.  Off to hop among the desks, (click HERE if you don't know about this desk-hop lark) and if you visited me last week, never fear, I am on my way to see you right now.  I promise.  And a week late isn't too bad is it?  Right!  Off we go!

More class tags and yep, they are days late

  So now that we are on day 6 of the class I have finally gotten around to posting days 4 and 5.  That whole having to go to work thing is just yuck.  Why can't I just stay home and play?  Oh right, the whole paying for the house and eating thing.  Not to mention the purchasing of the stash.  Now I remember.  Here are day 4's fabby tags with 10% less cheat-yness!  ...yeah, I totally made up that number...it just sounded good...

And now for something completely different...okay, a little different...I give you day 5's super fantabulous tags.  And let me just say that the second one and the last one I had to do about a kerbillion times and they still never came out as good as Tim's.  Sigh.  Guess that's why he gets the big bucks.  :)

I'm looking at these and wondering why the first tag in both photos looks shorter than the other two.  If you look really closely they seem to grow in size from left to right and that's just weird because they are all the same size in person!  Yep, weird.  Hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I did making them!  Thanks for stopping by!

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday

After a ridiculously long hiatus this is what's on my workdesk:

glorious, inky, stampy goodness.  Yay!  I'm taking Tim Holtz's Creative Chemistry 101 online class and if you aren't then stop reading this and go immediately to www.onlinecardclasses.com and sign up!  It has only been three days and I've already learned a whole bunch of really cool stuff.  So go sign up.  What you see here is Day 3's techniques.  And I have to fess up...the two center tags are a little, well, cheat-y because you see I own exactly two colors of Archival inks.  Black and Coffee.  So I cheated on the first one by adding the colorful parts with the Distress inks and on the second by using (gasp!) Stayz-On inks.  but tag one and four are done with the correct products.  Here's a closer look at the tags:

Seriously, you need to take this class.  It's already awesome!  Here's Day two's technique tags:

So I'm off to post my taggy goodness on the class site, and oh yeah to eat dinner (which I did not have to cook...yay!) and to peek at desks.  If you are wondering about this Workdesk thingy, hop over to Queen Julia's blog to learn all about it!  Have an inky fun week!