Charms, Charms everywhere!

Let the madness begin!

I’m counting down the days until I’m on Freedom of the Seas and Crafting with Tim Holtz and all my friends.  While I’m counting, I’m creating . . charms, that is!

Almost done!

I’ve joined the charm swap (really out of my comfort zone, but I’m challenging myself) and at last count we’re up to 31 swappers!  Thought you might like to see what I’m creating.  One of the rules of the swap was that we had to use Tim Holtz products in our charms.  Here’s what I came up with.

I used 1inch memory frames and cut up some Idea-Ology paper from the Lost & Found Stack.   Tore a strip of solid paper and adhered it to one edge and stuck a tiny flower down with Stickles. Printed one of my favorite sayings from one of his stamps to use on the back of the charm and added a bead at the bottom.   I can’t wait to see what every one else made!  I know just where the charms are going.  More about that in the next post. 

Adding beads

There’s also a general swap going on that’s a little less structured.  You just sign up, create what you want and meet to swap.  There are ATC’s, charms, tags and mini-albums coming to be traded.  That should be fun too.  I created something different for this swap.  It didn’t need to be a Tim product, and since I wanted to play with Shrinky Dinks, I did shrinky-dink charms.  I used the image from the Scrap Map page that advertised the Holtz Cruise, jammed a bunch of them together on one page and printed it. Experimented with shrinking these down with my heat gun instead of a toaster oven.  I won’t be using the oven any more. Like the control I have when I do it with the heat gun! 

Before they get shrunk, the still need holes for the jump ring

As they came out of the printer

in the box to get a spray protective coat!

Had to play with it a while to get it right but now that I know what I’m doing, I’m thinking it’ll make a cool class for Paper Niche. 

Florida State Album

Cover with the Tattered Florals flower

Finished the FSU Photo album and I promised I’d show it to you.  It was really fun to put together, and it was the first time I’d done a gatefold album.  Really Cool, opens from both the left and the right. 

It’s a chipboard album and I used black chipboard for the base.

 The back page measures 6x9”.  There are 4 pages that measure 6 x 8” and two pages that measure 6 x 4 ½”.

  All of the papers co-ordinate, I used some from 7 Gypsies, Teresa Collins, and Graphic 45.

 The flower on the front was made from really wide ribbon I got at a scrapbook convention about 9 months ago.  I die cut them with Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die, added some black netting and finished it off with a button sewed to the middle

 I like it!

Remembering Summer

Embossed Metal Technique(middle) and UTEE (right)

Way back in May my husband and I took a river cruise down the Rhine from The Netherlands to Switzerland.  We went from Amsterdam to Zurich and, yes, I ‘m doing an album and, yes, the title IS “The Rhine, from A to Z”. I couldn’t resist!

 Anyway, albums aren’t the only way I like to showcase memories.  I’m doing more and more display piece.  Lot’s of reasons why. They hang on the wall or lean on a shelf and one can see them as they walk past. They’re faster to put together (theoretically anyway). You don’t have to open them to look at them. And finally, they hold more than just pictures, as you can see by the one I just finished for my September Class at Paper Niche. 

beeswax technique

7 Gypsies Paper Tape on the edge

When I designed this class, I wanted it to be about creativity, individuality and learning new techniques.  So this class will be very loosely structured. We’ll explore using beeswax, incorporating UltraThick Embossing Powder (UTEE) and ways to emboss metal to bring that look to the piece also.  Students will be encouraged to bring photos and ephemera to class to incorporate into the piece as it’s assembled. Can’t wait to see the results!

 Look for it soon on Paper Niche’s Blog, I’d love to see you in class!

7 Gypsies Goodies

September Class Raw Materials

This week I’m working on my September class for Paper Niche.   The base is going to be a 7 Gypsies Shadowbox Letterpress Tray and I’ll be using lots of their products too.  Theme will be travel but it can easily be turned into one for Family photos.  Got half way through it and my Mojo left.  Just flew out the chimney.  I’ve learned that when that happens, it’s best to put it aside until Mr. Mojo returns, so that’s what I did!

In the mean time I started on a new item for my ETSY store and one I plan on taking with me to Art Shows this fall.  It’s a Gatefold Chipboard Album that I’m putting together and the theme is Florida State University.  Lots of Gold, Garnet and black. Really Yummy!  You’ll get photos of the finished project but I thought I’d show you what I started out with for the September Paper Niche class.

Don’t forget that I’m teaching the Liberty Album at Paper Niche this Saturday.  Still some spaces left if you’d like to join us. 

Family Photo Tray

I love Bo Bunny’s Timepiece Collection; it lends itself to so many creative ideas.  I’ve been making Photo Trays for universities for a while now and they’ve been very popular.  I’ve used the Collection for DREAM wall hangings and had some leftover paper, so I decided to see what it would look like as a wall hanging.

 I LOVE it!  Has a ball figuring out what to add to it and am really pleased with the result.  I used a vintage key that I brought back from London last year, an antique folding ruler that I took apart, some grungeboard to create gears, one of 7 Gypsies ocular lenses that I altered with a watch face rub on, and a memory frame with a memory capsule that houses some of Tim Holt’s Gears.

 A Tim Holtz Memo Pin suspends the memory frame.  I snipped off the pointed end and rolled it around jewelers pliers to create a hook.  I drilled a hole in the frame and looped it through.  It’s suspended with glossy accents. 

It’s finished off with a Tray Label Holder from 7 Gypsies.  The “Family” label was easy: typed and printed on the computer, misted with Perfect Pearls Heirloom Gold and tucked into the Holder.  Liked it so much that I created a few of them.  Listed one on my ETSY site and it sold in about a week.  So I just listed another one.  I'm on a roll!