Oranges Bookmark for Doodle Pantry and a Challenge with Prizes!

What a fabulous new release Laurie has for you today! I love the fruit images some companies have released as rubber but of course, you are tied to an exact size when stamping them.

For this bookmark, I needed a size much smaller than most images available as stamps. Doesn’t it work perfectly with  the size of the Eyelet Pendant I used as a base? Notice the pearls I used, the yellow ones in the flower centers are coloured with Y35 Copic and two little white was ones dot the flower center of the Eyelet Pendant (right near the edges).  In case you are wondering, this is the type of bookmark that slips over the page you are reading and the tail helps it stay on. I could also add magnets to the inside of the bookmark to help it stay on; I’ll try it out, then decide.  Here is a view of the full length bookmark complete with ribbon tail.

I used sheer 1” white ribbon and the loveliest soft velvet ribbon from May Arts. TIP: Any time you use glue on sheer ribbon, make sure you keep in mind that glues can seep through or remain tacky through the sheer ribbon so- 1) protect your work surface (and the junk on it! hee hee), 2) make sure there is no dye ink or paper bits on your work surface that might be picked up by the glue, 3) use a glue that dries completely if the sheer ribbon will not be backed by something else, not a 2 way glue that becomes repositionable when dry (ask me how I know!) or a dry tape which will stay tacky and never really dry, 4) use a glue that dries clear, 5) use a glue that doesn’t dry too stiff.

In this case, I used Beacon’s 3 in 1 Advanced Craft Glue which is easily my favourite craft glue for almost any purpose. If this was on a card with a backing, I might have used Glue Arts Ribbon Adhesive which I quite like. It seems pretty wimpy at first but it holds really well. I keep it on the spool and apply it directly to the ribbon or lace (even bumpy, uneven lace!), never cutting  the backing until I am finished with it.

The oranges were really fun to colour but I admit it was hard to get the shine on the orange looking quite right and I am not certain I got the shiny spots in quite the right place! :) Do you see the dimpling on the oranges? I coloured them then put a wee bit of Blender solution on a terry washcloth and dabbed the Blender on the oranges only (If I was thinking smarter, I would have coloured the leaves after colouring and dabbing the oranges but I managed to keep the Blender off the leaves and stem.)

OK, OK, I know you are anxious to hear about the Challenge! Visit Laurie’s blog, Clearly Delightful, to get all the details. Not only does every participant get a free image of their choice, you could win FABULOUS blog candy! Trust me, you want it, I sure do!! So make a card or project using the Challenge Theme: Pearls, Bling or Buttons. Have Fun!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Image: Oranges and Cherries-Doodle Pantry
Paper: white CS-Taylored Expressions, DP-Nook and Pantry by Basic Grey
Accessories: Copics: E08,35,37,47, Y35, YR00,02,16,20,61,68, G28,85, Blender solution and pen, pearls-Dollarama, ribbon sheer-stash, velvet rickrack-May Arts, Eyelet Pendant die-Spellbinders, foam dots-Jody Morrow

Adorable Baby Goat for Clearly Delightful Blog Challenge and Doodle Pantry

I am so excited to reveal that I am now on the Doodle Pantry Design Team! Laurie Wilson draws the best images and she is selling them in her own little store: Doodle Pantry. I am in LOVE with the image I got to use for this month’s release, Baby Goat.

I decided an image this babyish had to be put on a card in the softest blues and greens I could find, especially since that is Laurie’s blog challenge this month, use blue and green in your project. Each month Laurie has a challenge on her blog, if you play, you get a free digi image! I played before and got the nicest images, good quality and so easy to use! You can even use Word or Publisher to print them out, no need for fancy or difficult to use software. So make sure you visit Clearly Delightful today and book mark the challenge, you have one week to play. Make sure you check out the other images she is releasing today!

 
It really is worth it to play. Please visit Clearly Delightful to see all the details for the challenge.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamp: Doodle Pantry
Paper: white CS-Taylored Expressions, green, blue CS-unknown, possibly Bazzil
Accessories: buttons-Jesse James, silk ribbon-May Arts, pearls-Dollarama, Copics W00, 01, 03, 05, 07, R11, Y21, E33, B60, foam dots-Jody Morrow, blue ribbon, safety pin-stash. washer-Making Memories, vintage lace

Clearly Challenge Card-“Green” Beaver!

First off, I have to apologize for not posting lately! I don’t even have a decent excuse, I just seem to keep running out of time! Sorry!

This card is for two ‘Clearly’ Challenges, first for Clearly iStamp to use primarily green on your project and second for Clearly Delightful which was a sketch challenge! I find it a fun challenge to combine challenges, I’ve seen some people do up to 10 challenges at once, I can’t even think of that many things at once!.

I used my airbrush system for the background, I didn’t need any masking because I cut out the beaver and popped him up on foam dots. I’m sorry I don’t have the Copic colours because I coloured him ages ago. I probably used E 31, 33, 35, a darker brown and the branch looks like E08 maybe? I hope you like it!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Spring Critters-CDS, spring-SU!
Ink: Memento brown, celery-SU!
Paper: celery DP, vanilla, banana CS-SU!, white CS-Taylored Expressions
Accessories: Copic markers, Copic Airbrush system, celery ribbon-stash, blossom Nestabilities, buttons, twine-SU!, foam dots-Jody Morrow

Love it or Hate it? the Saga of a Shaker Box

OK, heads up! This post is going to be long; I am not writing this later, I already know it. I’ve been trying to write shorter posts lately but this will have to be an exception.

PTI released a new Template, a set of Shaker boxes. Great, I love shaker boxes and unfortunately don’t have any real ones so paper versions are perfect! I wanted to combine a few challenges as well so I started with yellow paper to go with a baby theme. The template pieces printed beautifully and I was ready to cut them out. If you have ever tried to attach a straight piece of paper to a round/oval one, you know the round one needs a ton of tabs cut beyond the desired shape to fold down and glue to the straight piece.

So this was part of the lovin’ of this project. Don’t care about my idea? then skip this paragraph, just know that I came up with a clever idea to save time! I realized the last thing I wanted to do was to cut all those tabs from the template (I always trace templates even if they are supposedly printable directly to the CS or DP.) and then trace them and cut them from the cardstock. And they aren’t hard to cut freehand if you have guidelines.So,  I cut around the outer parts of the tabs on the piece, called a tabbed oval, not down around each one, then I cut double slits, very close together along the score line in a few places and I removed the sliver of paper. Next, I printed up a second set of ovals, from these I cut off the tabs, cutting on the score line.  After that, first, I traced the untabbed oval on the CS, second, I over laid the tabbed one, sighting the pencil lines through the slits and traced around it. So what I ended up with is two concentric pencil line ovals, now all I have to do it cut little v’s out of the paper, from the outer oval to the inner oval which creates tabs. I know, this  may not make sense but if you buy this template it might matter to you! If you want, I could take pictures of the pieces to show you.

So here is the hatin’ part. I put the whole bottom together using the oval lid as the oval bottom. Not only didn’t the sides line up but even if I had chosen to leave it and cut a new oval lid, the lid wouldn’t fit! So I sat there for a few minutes wishing a bottle of Undu would miraculously appear in my hands and finally tried peeling it apart; yes this was crazy having used red line tape but strangely it sort of worked but the pieces ended up a bit mangled. Then I put it all back together, CORRECTLY.

Now I was back to liking the project at least. It looks really cute from the outside, the little blue brads I chose look cute on the yellow CS. Now all I have to do is put in the liner, seems easy right? Nope, for some reason, probably the amount of ‘distressing’ the parts of the box received before assembly, the liner wants to bulge in places and crease in others, seriously?? I finally had to cut the liner twice to make it fit and this was after it was red line taped in (not so forgiving on thin DP) so no, the edges do NOT overlap and the error is NOT hidden! I did look really nice from the outside though so I was back to loving it. It is amazing how closely it resembles a real Shaker box!

But now I decorated it. Oh no. {{SIGH}} Do you have any idea how hard it is to get paper on straight when working with an oval? And I HAD to chose a graphic sketch to work with! I figured because it was a circle sketch it might work well. And it would have helped if I’d had a straight line as a reference. On top of that, I find it a bit boring, maybe because I am so used to popping up, Nestabilities, border punches, paper piecing and Copic colouring; none of which I used here. The good news is that I can still enter it in a Laurie’s challenge #2, CDBC2 on Clearly Delightful to use a duck on your project to get a gorgeous fluffy-looking baby duck digi image she designed but I know I won’t win! I encourage you to enter too! The sketch was for Mojo 123 and Stamp Simply Challenge #125 to make a baby project.

Thanks to anyone who made it this far!

Enjoy (maybe), Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamp: stash
Ink: Scattered Straw Distress Ink
Paper: barely banana, white CS-SU!, DP-Dollarama
Accessories: buttons and twine-PTI, yellow trim-stash, SU! markers