De-Stashing and Organizing

Good Morning!

I don't have any pictures today but I have been organizing and de-cluttering my crafty stash.  Wow, I feel like a squirrel that has been stashing away acorns in a tree!  I have to admit I found a bag from Target in my stash that had facial cream, yep, not supposed to be in there!  We are completing our basement so I have all my crafty goodness in a temporary room and it is not working out so great.  I have been crafting at our dining room table and am ready to have my own crafting den!

How do you organize and inventory your items?  I have stamps organized by brand in a big plastic shoe box and then divided with an index card with the title of the subject it falls under.  While I thought this would work just as is, I think I will need to stamp out a key of the stamps and the location of them in a binder so I can see the images. 

I also have some Unity Stamp Company kits that are quite large and they have stamp storage containers that are 8.5 x 11 inches that would work great for these and now I wonder if I should use these for all my stamps and then place them in a nice bin.

I have started to use Evernote to keep track of my stamps.  It's like a word document but online.  I have an account so I can log in at my computer and it's also linked to the app on my phone so if I'm shopping, I can see what stamps or crafting items I already have so no duplicates are purchased.  I do need to complete the process of inventory but thought this would maybe help others.

I am always looking for storage ideas and ways to improve organization so please share below!  I am specifically looking for punch storage and washi tape storage.

Have a great day!

Growing in Unity Blog Hop

Good Morning!  It's a beautiful day for a Blog Hop!!!  Let's Hop right into it!

I made a mixed media page out of an old phone book.  I have to admit this is my first time doing mixed media inside an old book.  A couple months ago I made a mixed media front cover for a different book but this was very similar.  The only difference is that I pasted together 4 pages to add some stability since they are glossy pages and very flimsy.
 

I had this old phone book laying around so I thought I would re-purpose it into my mixed media journal.  There are a lot of pages in this book, a couple hundred, so it should take me a while to fill.

I used Mod Podge to paste together 4 pages to add stability to the page.  The pages are glossy and flimsy so the pages wrinkled but I don't mind the texture that it created.

Here are the 4 pages pasted together.  Once the paper dried, it was much firmer and easier to work with.  You can see the ripples in the paper and it created a cool effect in the end.

I used some acrylic paint to cover the page.  I used the cheaper brand of paint which was a little watery.  I covered it with three coats to where I wanted it to be.  Once the paint was dry, I used all Unity Stamp Company Stamps to cover the page randomly.  All the stamps that I used were from Grab Bags and Freebies from orders.  I stamped the middle sentiment on cream card stock, cut it out, distressed the edges with the ink pad and adhered to the page.  I then put washi tape around the edges and a brown ribbon along the spine.  I added yellow jewels to the center of the flowers.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and don't forget to leave a comment here and move on down to the next blog listed below:

Carly Phillips

Bygodsgracecards.blogspot.com

Have a wonderful Day!
Naomi

Here is the list of blogs below in case you did not go in order!  You can always go back to the Unity Blog and see the full list in case you get lost!

Lisa Bedigian		http://royalpumpkinart.blogspot.com/
Laura Visser Andreson		http://sandytozartdesign.blogspot.com/?m=1
Kathryn Belmonte		Kathrynscards.blogspot.com
Helen Bisesi		www.htbcreations.com
Naomi Hanson		http://woodlandfoxy.blogspot.com
Carly Phillips		Bygodsgracecards.blogspot.com
Judy Markowitz		http://scrappyonmylevel.blogspot.com/
Deirdre Smith		Glitteredroses.blogspot.com
Guadalupe Galvis		http://lupeslovlies.blogspot.com
Laura Mooney		http://happinessequalscreation.blogspot.com/
Karen Nofziger		http://karey2005.blogspot.com
Aimee Phillips		http://aimeesstampingadventures.blogspot.com
Wendy Falk		http://Hi-Regards.blogspot.com

Card Class

Good Morning!

Last Friday I held my first card crafting class and it was a success!  Lots of learning on my end too.  We made three cards with different techniques for each.  I love having a variety of techniques but giving free reign to make it your own.  Here are some photos from the class.

This Sunday, I will be participating in a Blog Hop put on by Unity Stamp Company so make sure to stop by on Sunday morning and participate!

Have a great day!
Naomi

Card Making

Good Morning!

I took a fun card making class on Tuesday evening and wanted to share with you our creations! Damsel of Distressed holds some pretty amazing card classes and challenges your creative side.

The first card we embossed the image and then used Ken Oliver Color Burst.  We sprinkled a small amount on the dampened image and then water colored with it.  Then stamped the sentiment.  The other technique we used with this card was to put a few drops of the powder on our mats and wet it with water.  We then painted the stripes on the card.  We then attached the striped piece and then raised the flower panel with foam to the card base.

The second card is a shaker card!  I have always wanted to try this out.  We took flower stamps and stamped it all over with embossing ink.  We embossed it with gold and then took a marker and outlined the word in gold to make it stand out.  Stamped the sentiment and then embossed it in gold  and attached it to the card.  We then put the acetate sheet on the back over the cut out word, glued foam around the edged of the word to seal the edges, poured in our sparkles and then glued on a back piece to seal it in.  We then glued a nice patterned paper to the back and adhered to the card base.  We attached the middle of the letters too on the acetate sheet to complete the word.

The third card was a bigger process.  We randomly stamped a background stamp.  Took some Dina Wakely Gesso and applied it with our finger to one side of the card in a circle pattern.  I made mine a little smaller so it's hard to see but it's behind the gauze.  We then applied a thicker gesso with a circle stencil over the right hand side and down the card.  We then applied Distress Stain to make a wet dripping effect and applied water to distress some more.  The gauze was then pulled apart to be messy and applied with glue.  The twine was applied with glue also at the top using one big spot of glue and wrapping it around.  The sentiment was embossed on heavy vellum and this was attached to the card.  Attach flowers and embellishments to your desire.  Attached patterned paper to card base and then attached decorated piece.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Experimenting

Good Morning!

I decided to do some experimenting with some pens, pearl watercolors, stamps from Unity Stamp Co, and ink to see how it would turn out.  Using some scrap pieces of watercolor paper, I stamped with StazOn ink.  For the top sheet I used the pearly watercolors to paint over the top and the bottom sheet I used Tombow pens to color in and then used water to color in the ink.  The list of stamps inlcude

Feather Light

Direction of Your Heart

Dream Big {Webster's Itty Bitty} 

Adventurous

Unity Stamp Company had a challenge going on for paper piecing so I tried my hand at it.  It was really fun!  I had some scrap pieces of paper laying around and got to work.  I first tamped the image from their KOTM on the card and then stamped the image on the different papers and cut out the portions I wanted.  I stamped the sentiment and then drew a random boarder with hearts around the edge.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Naomi

Class Update

Good Evening!

I wanted to update you on the crafting class that I will be holding on March 18th!  I love experimenting and trying out new techniques.  This card class is putting a lot of basic techniques together and I had so much fun creating these cards.  Here is a photo of the three we will be making in the class.

 Have a wonderful night!
Naomi

Crafting Class

Good Afternoon!

I am so excited to announce that I will be holding a crafting class in my local area!  You will make 3 spring inspired cards.  Check out the information in the link below!  I will also be featuring more of my own little videos to help inspire you so be on the lookout for those in the near future!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/card-making-class-tickets-32245401865

I have been busy watching tutorials and videos online to learn some new techniques and ideas.  Unity Stamp Company has some wonderful little tid bits of information and new ideas.  On their website, click on Quick Tips at the top.  They also do some amazing live videos on their Facebook page that are fun to watch.  Here is a fun Quick Tip video using Distress Crayons and water.  You could also use watercolor pencils and add water.

I have an update on the smooth embossed coasters that I made a few weeks back.  I put a coat of Mod Podge, with a matte finish, and they turned out really nice.  I put 4 coats on.  Unfortunately there was one coaster that lost some color by the 4th coat.  I believe it was the embossing powder because the rest are just fine.

Have a great day!

Naomi

Card Making!

Good Afternoon!

Last Saturday I signed up for a fun Valentine's Day card making class and crop!  Becca from http://damselofdistressedcards.blogspot.com/ hosted the class and it was so much fun!  I learned some new techniques and made some beautiful cards pictured below.  We made three cards but I gave one away to my husband and he stashed it!

 Some really cool techniques learned:

1. Emboss an image and it will resist Distress Ink 
2. Take the Distress Ink pads in different colors, wipe across your ranger craft sheet then spritz with some water so it beads up a little.  Take your paper and lay it on top then turn it some and lift up off the craft sheet.  Dry your paper and press it again into the sprayed ink until you get the desired effect you want.
3. Use Ken Oliver Craft Color Burst Splash to add an interesting effect.  It is a powder that you lightly tap on and activated with water.  This was used on the pink card.
4. The best adhesive to use is Beacon 3 in 1 Advanced Glue because it won't wrinkle the paper and has great adhesion.

After the card class there was a crop night and here is a sample of what I made!  For all these I used Unity Stamp Company stamps and colored pencils.

Have a great night!

Naomi

 

Challenge

Good Afternoon!

I had a wonderful week with everyone visiting my blog and projects and it was so fun to see all the responses!  Thank you for all the support!

Today I have a tag that I made for a challenge last week.  I plan to make some more because it was so much fun and easy to do.  I first realized that I didn't have any tags readily available so I found a scrap piece of paper and cut the top corners off.  The stamp I used is from Unity KOTM January 2017 called When You Smile located here, https://www.unitystampco.com/shop/when-you-smile-kom-117/.  I punched out a shape on some cardstock, took my distress tool and distress Ink from Tim Holtz and made some images in the background.  I used a bit of washi tape and colored in the image lightly in spots with a colored pencil.  I think it turned out nicely.  I would probably put a hole at the top next time and add some ribbon.

Have a great evening!

Naomi

GIU Day 5

Good Morning!

Today is the last day as a GIU girl!  My last project that I am showcasing is a candle.  This was so much fun to do!  I bought a candle from the local dollar store since they melt a little easier.  The stamp I used is from Gina K. Designs line from Unity https://www.unitystampco.com/shop/only-you/. I stamped an image on white tissue paper and then cut out the image as close to the lines as I could.  Next I placed the image where I wanted it to be on the candle and used wax paper to wrap and hold the image in place.  I made sure the wax paper was long enough so I could hold onto it on the back side to protect my hand from the heat of the heat gun.  Next, turn on the heat gun and you will see the wax start to melt and the image will become a little darker.  This is the wax melting over the image.  Once you can’t see the paper lines anymore, slowly pull away the waxed paper.  If the edge of the tissue paper is still visible, just heat up the image and melt again.  These would make amazing gifts.

Please comment below and let me know what you think!  There will be 2 random winners picked from the comments on my blog for the week to win 25 stamps from Unity!  It was fun sharing all my projects with you this week!

Naomi

GIU Day 4

Good Morning!

Today I bring you a project that was really fun and actually was a little harder to do then I had thought.  I stamped an image on a mug that I purchased at the local dollar store.  I used jet black StazOn ink.  The mug was not round but has 4 flat sides but they are a little wonky.  I’ll admit it took three tries to get the image.  The nice thing is that baby wipes took the image off and I could try again.  Once I completed the image, I set the oven to 300 degrees and stuck the mug on a pan for 30 minutes.  I put the mug right in the oven while it heated up.  Once it completely cooled, I sealed it using 2 coats of Dishwasher Safe Mod Podge.  The directions say to let it cure for 28 days.  I think the green and brown give it nice character.

Please comment below and let me know what you think!  There will be 2 random winners picked from the comments on my blog for the week to win 25 stamps from Unity!  Come back tomorrow and see what fun project I will share!

Naomi

 

GIU Day 3

Good Morning!

I have a really fun project today to share with you!  I stamped the mug image from the Unity January 2017 KOTM (https://www.unitystampco.com/product-category/kit-of-the-month-exclusive-unity-subscription/current-kit-of-the-month/ ).  I purchased some tiles from a home improvement store to make some coasters.   I used embossing clear ink and stamped the image right on the tile, poured the embossing powder over the image, and then took my heat gun and melted the powder.  CAUTION:  The tile will get really hot!  I used an oven mitten to protect my hand and any surfaces.  You could use a thick wood cutting board and put down a towel that you don’t care if it gets dirty to help protect any surfaces.  Since the surface of the tile is slippery, I am going to add Mod Podge to help seal the image so it does not come off and add some felt to the back since it is very rough.  These would make great gifts!  I have a set of 4 and an up close pictured below.

Please comment below and let me know what you think!  There will be 2 random winners picked from the comments on my blog for the week to win 25 stamps from Unity!  Come back tomorrow and see what fun project I will share!

Have a wonderful day!

Naomi