Green Altered Cigar Box

I've finally got another jewelry box finished, except for the protective coatings. This one looks a lot like the first one I did, because the lady who ordered them wants them all similar. I don't like the corners on this one as much as I did the first one, but I don't have any more of those corners.

I've started the third one, but it's not as much fun to make the same box over and over again. I like variety! :-)



Sorry this view is blurry, but I've got so much going on that I hurried with the photos.



This is how it looks open. I added pale gold Core'dinations Pearl CS for all the bottoms, and the top of the box, but decided to paint the dividers. It looks neater than covering them with CS.



This is the box with the top layer of dividers removed.

I'm a little Behind....

A lot is going on now, with still moving my mother, (we have to go back to Massachusetts again next weekend), college graduations, and having to finish those jewelry boxes, so I haven't had anything to show you.

I'm also way behind on my visiting, but I'm still here.

I'll be glad when I can get back on schedule. Hopefully in a few weeks we will get the shop open, then I will be able to get some more new card making things. I need some of those gorgeous new dies!

I hope everything is going well with all of you!

Hugs, Kathi

Roses and Butterflies Twisted Easel Card

I have been working on those commissioned altered cigar boxes, so I don't have a new card to share. Instead I'm uploading one of my very early cards. I think it was only the second twisted easel card I ever made.

As I was looking through my old card photos for something to post I ran across this one, and even though it's different from the cards I make now, it actually was quite pretty in real life. I put it into my shop at the time, and someone bought it the first day. I think if I was making this card now, I would probably add more embellishments, but in those days, I didn't have much to work with.

I have no ides where the rose graphic came from, it might have been from Dover Publications. I do know that it is matted with gold mirror card and mounted onto some Anna Griffin paper in my stash.

Finished Mini Album to go with Cigar Box

I finished the mini album which goes with the cigar box I posted a few days ago. The cigar box will have to wait though, I had to start the other two jewelry boxes because they were commissioned.

The front of the album is done with a copper colored pearlized CS from Core'dinations. The lighthouse is from JustRite, and is stamped using VersaMark onto a pale gold Core'dinations Pearl CS, and embossed in gold. All die cuts were done with Spellbinders. The tags at the top and bottom are for labeling with whatever the recipient wants.

I only photographed a few of the pages, but they are alternating pages made with DP from K&Co, white CS, which I distressed with Antique Linen and Tea Dye, and made journaling lines with a gold Gellyroll pen, and white CS distressed with Antique Linen and lightly stamped with gold ink. There are four different stamps used for the various pages, Portland Head Light from PSX, a fish shack and boat from PSX, a clipper ship from Stampendous, and Bass Harbor Head from an unknown company.

The stamped pages can be used either for journaling, photos, or memorabilia, and the DP pages can either be left as is, or photos or memorabilia added.

This album is quite small, 4x7, to fit into the cigar box, so the recipient may want to use it more for a journal than an album.

Went to AC Moore Again and got some Marker Storage

First, it's been a busy few days, so I'm really sorry I haven't been to visit. Hopefully I will get around to see you guys in the next couple of days.

Anyway, the lady at the cigar shop who has been saving boxes for me finally got two more of the Robusto boxes. She wants me to make two more jewelry boxes for her like the first one I made, so I think I will be very busy trying to get those done. I did manage to get the cover finished on the album for the cigar box I posted the other day, and made a few pages for it, but her jewelry boxes will have to come first.

I make the dividers out of basswood, which I used to get at a local craft store, but unfortunately, the new owner is not good about ordering things, so we had to go all the way to AC Moore for basswood.

While there, I got this marker storage tray from ArtBin. (It's the square thing with the Spectrum Noirs in it). Some of you will probably remember that I talked about ArtBin's wonderful customer service a month or two ago. Their customer service was even better than I told on my blog. I don't want to say what they did for me, because there are so many people who might take advantage, but I will say that they are an unbelievably good company!

The storage tray has clip things to hold it in place about half way up the inside of the Double Deep Super Satchel, the Super Satchel Semi, or the Marker Storage Satchel. To use the markers, you can place the satchels vertically without them falling out of the holes, so you can easily see and reach your markers.

My Copics are still in the 36 marker case, which exactly fit into one of the divided cases of the Super Satchel Double Deep. I don't have a large selection of markers yet, so I keep my one Copic Refill, and the Copic Syringe things in another compartment, and 6" origami paper and paper stacks in another compartment.

The double deep is exactly the right height for Copics and Spectrum Noirs, so they won't fall out when carrying it. It is too short for things like distress markers, but I would rather have the exact fit for the markers I have the most of than have it deeper and have the markers fall out of the slots.

AC Moore also had Spectrum Noir pens on sale for $7.88, so I bought a pink set and a blue set. I like my Copics better, but I have to send away for them, and they are more expensive. At this price for the Spectrum Noirs, I couldn't pass them up!

They also finally had the refills for my ATG, so I got two of those!

Then there was the Managers Special on a portable file folder thing with 300 sheets of 12x12 Nicole CS. I hesitated on that one, because I'm really fussy about my paper, but a lot of it wasn't bad. I really wanted the zippered file folder thing though, because I've been trying to figure out a place to keep my Christmas papers. I figure I'll keep only Christmas papers in that, and it will free up space for the paper I use the rest of the year, as well as keep the Christmas paper protected.

I also really wanted something easy to carry when we go out to New York at Christmas time. I usually go wild buying paper that isn't sold at JoAnns and AC Moore when I get out there, but it's always a struggle to get it home without messing it up. I will be able to take the paper out of it when we go to visit, then put all my new paper into that to get it home safely.

It was a fun trip!

Altered Cigar Box and Mini Album

For a few days I have been working on this altered cigar box and mini album. The top photos show the outside of the box. The stamps are from JustRite and Our Daily Bread Designs, and were done on a pale gold Core'dinations Pearls CS. They were stamped with VersaMark, and embossed with gold EP.

The stamps, which were cut with Spellbinders Labels Eight, were all framed with gold mirror card cut and embossed with Decorative Labels Eight, and shaded with Distress Tea Dye. Anchors were punched with a MS Punch.

I haven't done the inside yet, but it will have a compartments for a pen and other memorabilia. On top of the lower compartments will be a tray, which will hold the album.



This photo shows the front of the album. It was done using a copper metallic CS from Coredinations, which was the closest matching paper color I had. The cover isn't finished yet, but it was done using the same technique as the box, and uses a JustRite stamp.

I'll post more pictures when I have more done on it.

Flowers and Filigrees

I'm not sure I really like this card. I started out with a really complicated idea for a mini album, and worked on it for hours. It never came out right, so I decided to make a card instead. Since it was late when I started the card, I tried to rush. I also didn't have any ideas in my head for the card. I just grabbed one of my digital stamps and colored it with Copics, and went from there.

After coloring the design, I fussy cut it and went around the outside with a gold Gellyroll pen.

The panels behind it are Spellbinders Decorative Labels One, and Decorative Labels Eight, shaded with Brilliance Sky Blue, and outlined with the Gellyroll gold. The design is mounted dimensionally.

These were mounted onto some linen textured blue CS from my stash, and matted with gold.

The card was finished with some Liquid Pearls and some little roses and rose buds from my stash.

WOYWW #204

Gosh, I can't believe it's Wednesday again already! This is the fun day when we all get to snoop around each others craft spaces. If you want to take part, go visit our fearless leader Julia at The Stamping Ground!

For those who tried to find me last week, my number changed three times. First, I was 105 in the morning, then 110 in the afternoon, then 108 the next day. Sorry for the confusion! edit: it happened again this week. Yesterday I was #129. Today, I'm #128.

My desk seems to have many of the same things on it every week. I have to clean it off every session, but it seems to have so many of the same things because apparently these are the things I use the most.

This time I have three little desk cups instead of two. I got five of them at a dollar store last year, so rather than using my coffee cups to hold pens and other things, I use these. My brushes are still in one, but I divided my blending things into one cup, and anything I use frequently to draw with in another.

You can also see my latest trimmer. I got it for half price, and it is the one I like the best of all the ones I have. I still have to use my old ones sometimes though, because this one doesn't have metric measurements. This is the first Fiskers trimmer that hasn't had them. Sometimes I wish paper crafting would switch completely to metric so we all could be using the same dimensions and tools. I have used the metric system quite a few times for cards, and it seems to be a lot easier than fractions of an inch. Yeah, I'm in the US and used to our system, but I still find metrics easier for measuring. I've always found measurements like 7/16, 3/32, 3/8, etc a real pain. It's so much easier to get used to .3, .4, .5, etc.

My Yes! paste and cup of water with the paintbrush I use to spread it are always on my desk, and so are my antique box of frequently used things and my drawers of most used stamp pads. My little jar of Ranger nibs is also still there, along with another jar containing some makeup applicators I found at Walmart. They are cheap, and have a pointed end and a rounded flat end. The brand name is Swisspers. They come in a little plastic bag with 80 applicators, and work quite well.

On top of the drawers is a hanging file folder over stuffed with blue CS. You can also see a card I was working on, as well as one of the dies I used on it, a metal ruler, a pencil, my box of daubers, a gold Gellroll pen, my coffee cup, and a blade holder thingy.

Don't envy me too much on the daubers, they are getting worn out, and the last time I got any I bought two of the three packs. Unfortunately, our JoAnns and AC Moore must only have old ones, because they crumbled rather than blended. I bought the first pack at AC Moore, and when I went to JoAnns, I decided to buy another pack, so I thought I would have enough to last a while, but both packs were crumbly. I don't know what the girls in Bangor, Maine are using, but so many of the supplies there are really old. I've pretty much given up on Krylon pens. They are $8.69 each, and are dried out when you buy them. Some of the PenTouch pens are just as bad, which is why I've been using my gold Gellyrolls lately.

The blade holder is there because I worked for hours trying to make a mini album with complicated pages. It was something with flip and fold pages I had in my head that I never got quite right. Anyway, you must know how it is when you keep trimming something and then you inadvertently trim off the sides with the folds!!! After that, I decided to make a card instead!

I'll try to get around to as many of your desks as I can, it's still really hectic here!

Embossed and Ribbon Friendship Card

For this card, I knew I wanted to do two things. I wanted to color, and I wanted to use this ribbon, which I bought over 20 years ago, when Wright's Trim still had their outlet store in Massachusetts.

Anyway, I really liked this lavender ribbon with the woven roses. I mounted it onto a card which was embossed with a Spellbinders M-Bossability, and matted with a lilac colored card. The embossed layer is Core'dinations Pearl.

I had a specific JustRite stamp in mind for this card, but I can't figure out what I did with it. I've looked every where, and the only thing I can think of is that I got it mixed up with the paper the last time I used it, and it is somewhere in a paper stack. I have too much paper, so I still haven't found it. Luckily, the whole set is missing, which means I had cleaned the stamps I used from the set and put them back in the package, so it will be easier than trying to find one little clear stamp. Anyway, I used this JustRite stamp instead. It was stamped on more pearl CS with VersaMark, and embossed in gold. I was planning on using Copics on it, but my purples were the wrong shade, so I used Gel pens instead.

I fussy cut around the stamp and mounted it dimensionally, then used a gold GellyRoll to accent everything. The card was finished with a little bow and some Liquid Pearls.

Oval Cameo Card

I finished this card very late last night.

The card is made using Spellbinders Floral Ovals. I wanted the card to be shaded with Brilliance Rocket Red Gold and Delicata Golden Glitz, but the red gold wasn't quite gold enough, so I shaded over the top of it with the Golden Glitz, and it gave a really pretty pink gold shimmer. I wish it showed in the photo.

The card is embellished with a pink pearl, some gold Liquid Pearls, a Cameo from my stash, and a string of tiny gold pearls for a frame around the cameo. All the dies were outlined just inside the die with a gold Gellyroll pen.

Yellow Irises Card

This is another card I made in spurts while helping my mother. I took two photos of it because it's hard to get the effect of the shimmery papers. The card looks different from either of the photos, because it's shimmery and flat at the same time. The flowers in the background paper also make the iris look a little weird in the photo because of the way they capture the light. In person it is an interesting effect.

When I started the card, I knew I wanted to use this MS PATP which I only used once, so I cut out a 5" sqauare with it. Then, I had some of this pretty Hana Fubuki origami paper, and decided I wanted to make a pretty springlike card in green and yellow.

I cut the inside square with green, then the outside one with yellow. I knew I wanted to mat it with a shimmery spring green and yellowy gold, so I went around the smaller mat with some spring green PearlEx paint I had made. I didn't realize the color shift would be so much, and sometimes it was a pretty green, but at others, it was a brown gold, so I went over the PearlEx with a green Copic, and it stayed a nice shade of shimmery green with only a little color shift. For the next mat I used paint made from PearlEx Sparkle Gold.

When planning the card I had also decided to use a Spellbinders Floral Oval for whatever I would put in the middle. I decided on one of my favorite JustRite stamps, this iris. I stamped it onto the yellow origami paper with Memento Bamboo Leaves, and embossed it with clear EP, then colored it with Copics. I cut the iris with a Spellbinders oval which was as large as the floral oval, then cut the floral oval out of white CS. After cutting that, I cut the center out of the floral oval with a smaller oval so it would be an open frame, and mounted it over the iris layer.

Last, I went around everything with my Gellyroll pen, and accented it with two Prima flowers and some Liquid Pearls.

You touched my Life Card

Still really busy with my mom, but I worked on another card in between everything. I started this one early this morning, and finished it after dinner tonight. I'm afraid it's not one of my better ones.

I've had the DP for a number of years now, and always wanted to do something with it, but I didn't really know what I wanted to do. It was a 12x12 sheet with a bluish, greyish, greenish frame and flowers in two corners, and is linen textured. I cut the top corner to 5.5 x 5.5 and matted it with matching solid colored linen textured card stock.

The sentiment is from JustRite, and is stamped with VersaMagic Olive ink. It was cut and matted using Spellbinders Squares and Marvelous Squares. My gold pens are all empty, and the stores where I get them are two hours away, so I had to used my gold Gellyroll pen to accent it. The pen is pretty, but you can't get thick enough lines for it to show up well. I went around all the dies and paper layers with it, as well as tracing inside the dies.

I wasn't really sure how to finish this card, and dinner was almost finished cooking, so I quickly added a bunch of Liquid Pearls. I shouldn't have rushed so, because they didn't come out very even. I wasn't really sure what to put in the blank space in the bottom corner, and I got the pearls too close together. After dinner, I added a bow, which actually is almost the same color as the paper, but the lighting and the phone's flash made it look like it is bright green.

Tomorrow, when the Liquid Pearls are dry, I will probably go over some of the smaller ones to make them match better in size, and look straighter.

I don't really dislike the card, it is quite different from most of my cards, and it will probably look better when I straighten out the pearls, but it's not my favorite.

Fish and Coral Card

I'm still really busy helping my mother, so I didn't get a card made today. This is one I made last summer that I never uploaded.

The DP is from K&Co. It was outlined with gold, matted with dark green CS and mounted onto a white card. The fish is also K&Co and was mounted dimensionally.

The sentiment is from JustRite and was stamped with black and embossed with clear EP, then cut with a spellbinders die, shaded with blue ink, and accented with gold. It was mounted dimensionally a little bit higher than the fish.

Purple Flowers and Lace Card

Today I still had a lot to do, but I was having severe withdrawals from creating, so I did this card in little bits all day long. Sometimes that's not a good idea, because when I went to photograph it tonight, I realized that I put the sentiment on in the wrong direction!!! Right now, the card's fold is on the bottom! Luckily all I will have to do is cut the card on the fold and attach it to a new card, and it will be fine.

I had no idea what I was going to make for a card, so I went through some of my older papers, and found one that had lilac photographs all over it. I decided to frame the lilacs with this MS Punch Around the Page, so it would look like an old fashioned hanky under the lilacs. After mounting the lilacs, and matting everything with plain lilac paper and gold mirror card, it looked like there was too much white, so I shaded it with Brilliance ink, and liked it better.

I went around the lilacs with a gold Gellyroll pen because my PenTouch pens are pretty empty, then decided to color in the punched flowers with the same gold.

The sentiment is from JustRite, and was stamped with VersaMark and embossed with gold EP, then cut with Spellbinders Labels One. It was also shaded with the same Brilliance ink and mounted dimensionally onto a little doily cut with Decorative Labels one.

Last, I added some Prima and Recollections flowers, and some leaves I punched with a McGill punch. I wish I had done more to the leaves, but by that time, I was late starting dinner, so I just added gold to them. I also kind of messed up the sentiment by trying to outline it with my almost empty PenTouch pen.

Last I added Liquid Pearls, and tried to photograph it. That's when I found out the fold was on the bottom. It could have been worse though, the card is really very pretty in person.

WOYWW 203

We have been busy moving my mother, so there is nothing on my workdesk today.

My favorite part of snooping is seeing what everyone has for goodies, and how they store it, so I thought I would let you see most of my collection of Spellbinders, a few of my Marianne Dies, and a few Cheery Lynn dies, and how I store them. I have more, but I ran out of magnets, so they are still in notebooks.



All except the last photo are magnets mounted onto those cube things you get at Michaels. I just took whatever I had for magnets and attached them either with push pins, or double sided tape. These are temporary, since I move to our summer gift shop as soon as the weather warms up, and I will have to organize them all over again.

The bottom photo is a foam core board with magnets on it. I really like being able to see most of my dies, and being able to hold them over each other to see what works and what doesn't for mixing and matching. This would be a great system if I didn't have to keep moving everything. I would really like to completely cover a big surface like a door with magnets so I could display them all! In the second row of photos, you can see all of my flower dies organized together. In the first row, I have a side that is mostly the Spellbinders motifs and accents type sets.

I think where I have to move everything a few times a year, I may get more foam core and more vent magnets so they will be easier to move, then organize all my dies according to type, rather than having them on the sides of the cubes.

Anyway, if you have enough room, this is a really easy way to use your dies, and always be able to easily see what will fit with your projects!

If you don't know what WOYWW is, go on over and visit Julia at The Stamping Ground!

Strange, I was #105 this morning, but I just refreshed Julia's page, and I've jumped to #110 after putting my number as 105 on everyone's blogs this morning. I guess Katie will receive a lot of visits! I woke up this morning, and someone told me that I'm now #108, so my later visits and comments are sending everyone to Rhonda!

Warm Wishes and Roses Embossed Card

We unloaded the U-Haul, set some furniture up, took the truck back, got groceries, and are finally home again. I can't wait until I can get back to card Making!

Here is another card I made a while back but never uploaded. It was a bit of work, and I was really disappointed with it when I got it done, although it looks better in person than in the photo.

I used a Darice EF with Brilliance Sky blue, and used the letterpress technique to emboss the background. It looked quite pretty, so I matted it with white CS shaded around the edge with the same blue, and mounted it all onto a white card.

I wanted everything on the card to be embossed, but knew I needed something fairly simple because the background was so busy. Then I found this old Sizzix EF in a notebook. It is really meant for Christmas, but since there is no holly or anything on it, I decided it would work for any occasion, so I used the same technique for that, cut around the frame, and mounted it onto a Lacy rectangle from Spellbinders Romantic Rectangles. It was mounted dimensionally onto the background.

I had a terrible time finding anything I liked with it, and embossed a ton of things I ended up not using. The lesser of the evils was this rose I embossed on a light table using an Anna Griffin Stencil. The stencil is actually a large rectangle, with more roses on the top, but all I wanted was the rose with some kind of a frame. I finally decided to use parts from the big frame on the same stencil, and make them fit the rose. I shaded around the rose and frame with the same blue ink and various shading tools, trying to leave the raised parts white, but it came out messy looking because I couldn't get the ink smooth enough.

Since I had already done so many things I didn't like for the card, and had run out of ideas, I stuck this one on dimensionally and added some Liquid Pearls and called it good. I just wished it had looked as pretty as I had pictured it looking.

Butterfly, Bow and Flowers Card

We got back from moving some of my mother's things up to Maine from Massachusetts about an hour ago. We aren't going to unload the U-Haul and take it back until tomorrow, and will have to make another trip back down again to get more of her things sometime soon, so I probably won't be making as many cards until things settle down a bit. I also may be slow about visiting you all for a few weeks.

Anyway, Here is another card I made a while back that I haven't uploaded yet.

This one is another of my digital stamps colored with Copics. The butterfly was done twice so his wings could be raised. All of the papers under the stamping are Core'dinations Pearl shaded with Brilliance Sky Blue except for the darkest blue one. That was a pearlescent blue from my stash. After coloring it, the stamping itself was shaded with the Brilliance ink as well.

They were cut and embossed with a Marianne Creatables die and Spellbinders Marvelous Squares, and the pearls are Liquid Pearls.

I hope to catch up and visit you all soon!

Nautical Album

Sorry these photos are so blurry, but I ran out of time. My mother has always gone back to her home in Massachusetts for the winter months, but now she is moving up here permanently. She wants us to move her in a U-Haul rather than hiring a moving Company, even though it's an 8 hour drive, and we might have to make it more than once. Anyway, we're leaving tomorrow morning, and I'm not sure when we will get back, so if you don't hear from me for a few days, that's why.

Anyway, I had to take these photos really quickly, and didn't do a very good job. I think I will put this into a cigar box decorated with nautical papers and things. I will probably decorate a pen too, and include it.

I thought it would make a nice vacation album. In the cigar box, I'll probably make a pen holder for the pen, and a large compartment for small keepsakes as well as the album.

The covers are made from Mat Board cutouts from picture frames. I have a ton of them, and never wanted to throw them away. They were too nice.

All the DP is from K&Co. The lined pages are white CS which I colored with Antique Linen Distress Stain. I just daubed it on, straight from the bottle using a circular motion. Since I don't have a journaling stamp, I drew the lines with a gold GellyRoll pen, then I lightly stamped a bunch of little nautical stamps into the corners using gold ink. The plain pages were done the same way, only I didn't draw lines on them. I stamped two different Maine lighthouses lightly in the centers of one side, and other nautical stamps in an all over pattern on the opposite sides from the lighthouses. I figured they could either write, or add photos to those pages.

There are some pocket pages and two flip out pages as well. I used my Cinch to bind it.



This is the cover. I used a JustRite stamp and cut it with the matching die. A title could be written in the center.



I may use the other large stamp from the same set for the page on the right. It also would have a large space in the center for writing in.



A flip out page, and a journaling page.



A journaling page and one for photographs.



A pocket page and a page for either journaling or writing.



A page for journaling or writing, and one for photographs. Sorry it's so terribly blurry.



A journaling page and one for photographs.



A journaling page and one for photographs.



A pocket page and a page for either journaling or writing.



A page for journaling or writing, and one for photographs.



A journaling page and one for photographs.



A journaling page and one for photographs.



A pocket page and a page for either journaling or writing.



A page for journaling or writing, and one for photographs.



A page for journaling or writing, and one for photographs.



A flip out page, and a journaling page.



A page for journaling or writing, and one for photographs.



A page for journaling or writing, and one for photographs.



The back cover.

I can't wait to decorate the box for it! See you all when I get back!