My prize arrived…

Yay, the prize I won arrived yesterday, and I assembled it very quickly… I won it by just entering a prize drawing at the Best Craft Organizer booth at the  Creating Keepsakes Convention in Mesa on April 14th. Normally I don’t enter contests like that any more, because I’m just not interested in the product, or know I won’t use it. But this was one of those booths where I drool over the organizing storage possibilities they have, so I would definitely be interested in winning a free one. And it happened! They phoned me last week to say they had drawn my name! Now I can’t say I’ve never won anything any more…

This is the cabinet I won… a $172 value!

Okay, another new start! LOL

Hmm, how many times should I re-start before I just give up??? Well, one more try.

I think this time, it’s just been easier to use Facebook to keep folks updated; at least it’s easier to upload photos there. Anyway, I’ll try one more time.

Also I’ve been busy for the past almost-year with house guests that I hadn’t been used to before; less time to be free to just be crafty and/or post anything!

This time I may just not wait till I have something “crafty” to show, but chronicle other things as well. We shall see.

To start with, here are some photos I took while experimenting watching the annular eclipse of the sun that happened Sunday evening. I had never tried the pinhole-in-a-paper-plate trick before, and when it worked, I was very excited! Always been a fan of celestial events (as well as extreme weather events…)

Here’s the setup

Here is the crescent-shaped sun showing through the hole.

Awesome, right? I was quite proud of myself. That I tried it out, first of all, and secondly that my camera actually could take a passable photo of the result.

Restart: My latest project

Wow, three quarters of the year has passed! Sorry “life” gets in the way of posting… anyway, on to new things…

The August Club Stamp kit’s magazine had a great idea for making your own mosaic tile stamp, which I was itching to try. I’d just seen two weeks prior a video on YouTube about it, and forgot to bookmark it to come back to. When it showed up in the Scrap Rap, I knew it was time to try.

I spent many hours at a crop last weekend cutting up the leftover scraps from the unmounted rubber sheets I’d gotten in my latest pizza box into very small-size “tile” pieces, and mounting them directly on a big unused wooden block.

About mid-way through it, I thought I’d better test it in case it didn’t work. Sure enough, the rubber pieces were of varying thicknesses, and without cushioning under them, the experiment failed miserably. Even putting a lot of cusioning underneath the paper I was stamping on didn’t help at all.

I’d spent all day getting that far, and know I didn’t have anything I could use for cushioning with me at the crop, so I had to abandon the project at that point.

The following day at home I found some sheets of fun foam in my newly cleared out craft room, and knew they would be perfect to use for the cushioning. I cut two thicknesses, mounted them on the block, and then set out adhering a second set of scraps to them. This time it took several short sessions over the span of the week to finally finish it…

Second try at the stamp

Let me say at this point that next time I try it, I’ll go about it differently, to save a lot of time: this time I had put the semi-tacky adhesive (Mount-It) on the back of the whole sheet of rubber images, and then covered it when dry with a sheet of wax paper before cutting out the images I would save; that’s my normal way of preparing unmounted images for use. When it was time to cut up the scraps into little tile pieces, each of them of course had the wax paper covering on the back. It was quite time-consuming to remove every little piece of wax paper on the back of every little piece of rubber scrap!  So next time, I’ll use the “sticky box” method of putting the adhesive on the back of the pre-trimmed images, leaving the scraps adhesive-free. When it’s time to make the stamp, I’ll mount the fun foam pads to whatever I’m using for a block, and spread the Mount-It adhesive all over the foam sheet–that way adhering the little pieces will go much faster!

Stamp focal images

Okay. With the stamp complete, now I turned toward the image I was going to use it on. I stamped some  images from the Versailles collection on some plain generic white cardstock.

Then I covered the mosaic tile stamp with Versamark ink, and stamped that on top of the image.

Overstamp and emboss

Then I used clear embossing powder to sprinkle on top, and heat embossed it.

After it was set, then I used the Club Scrap Sandstone ink, direct-to-paper, to rub over the whole piece, getting it into the grout cracks inbetween the tiles.

Then wiped off excess ink sitting on top of the glossy tiles to brighten them back up.

Below is the final card…

(The glossiness of the tiles doesn’t show in this photo because the angle of the camera avoided the glare.)

Final card

Looking forward to using the stamp in a few different ways…

Happy New Year!

Wow, the new year crept up on me! I was going to at least fill in the past few months with some catch-up posts, but didn’t have a chance before the calendar ticked up one more year… sigh…

Oh well, I’ll still do that–there were a few crops and projects I wanted to show before I move on very far — BUT– at least for today, New Year’s Day, I wanted to get one post done and out of the way.

I decided to re-inaugurate my “Project 365″ for 2011, and spent a part of the day recording my first video blog post for it. (There’s a link to it at the right of the text menu above, so you can move back and forth anytime you wish. But just for today, I wanted to post the following video in both of them… this one has a crafty tip at the end anyway!)

Enjoy — and – HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Fun fest at Peggy’s annual fall crop

 

Thursday Therapy annual fall crop at Peggy's

 

 A great time was had by all … our Thursday Therapy group always looks forward to our annual crop at Peggy’s house near Prescott. Saturday’s crop was no disappointment, especially on such a beautiful, breezy day.

Sharon wins!

 

Sharon expresses amazement that by being the winner of Gale’s game, she wins ALL the little gifts that we contributed to the prize pot!

 

Cindy and I also worked on my favorite project of late, more “Paper Luggage” pieces…

Cindy chose “Wild, Wild West” embossed cardstock, which gave the rich look of a hand-tooled leather suitcase.

I decided to try some papers from one of the Michael Strong paper collections — I thought it looked pretty cool. My only problem was keeping a straight line on the hand-drawn brown stitches on the lid sides … Oh, well, it’s clear it’s hand-made!  LOL

Last weekend crop…

Ooops, getting behind here… sorry I neglected to post about what a fun time we had at my house when Diana and Paula came over for a day of general project-making (Oct. 10) … I’m happy Diana had just made it back to the Valley to settle in for the winter season… Thanks to both of you for making my Sunday a crafty one!

Paula, Diana & me

We had a yummy dinner at Wildflower Bread, too. (Followed by mixed berry shortcake dessert back at my place…)

Club Scrap’s “Holiday WOW (Weekend of Workshops) announced

Yippppeeeeee!  We had such a good time at the last WOW, how could I not get excited about this new one, geared toward the holidays??

A no-brainer on my calendar!  All local crafty-types are invited to my house for a crafty holiday workshop!  Loads of fun, friends, food, gifts, goodies, and of course, fabulous Club Scrap holiday projects to work on!

If you’re interested, just register for the event by clicking above, and then shoot me an email at LynnMath@aol.com. We’ll probably do Saturday at my house, and possibly Sunday in Tucson if there’s interest down there. We’ll see how the scheduling works out!

Is it November yet??

Another Suitcase…

Here’s another class sample I made of the Paper Luggage project. I’ll be teaching a class in it at Peggy’s crop on Oct. 16.  It’s so dang cute!

I used the “Fabulous Findings” Cricut cartridge to cut those adorable buckles on the straps. The luggage tag is from the Expressions Junior kit woodmounted stamp.

September kit — “Adobe”

is here, and is it ever gorgeous! Especially for those who love southwest themes–just perfect! The September calendar to the right gives a little taste of the beauty of the digital kit…

Not only that, but HQ this week just released a new Crafter Classic, “Concrete Playground.”  To see a glimpse of the Assembly Line layouts suggested for it, check out my website, http://www.foodforcraft.com/chp_WSimages_10.cfm. I’ll have a supply of them available by Saturday, September 18th.

Sorry I’ve been a bit quiet lately… The Club Scrap Retreat in August was of course wonderful, but I’m not free to talk about it until the October Retreaters have had their chance to experience the surprises of it, also. However, I guess it won’t hurt to post the annual photo of Mary and I at Club Scrap Headquarters!

And also maybe post a few pictures of the fabulous things my brother Tom does in his new business. Mary and I met him for lunch just after she picked me up at the airport in Minneapolis and before we headed out to the retreat. Tom was able to fill me in on his latest business venture, involving taking care of trees. He always was a fantastic woodworker; then he became a certified arborist. Now he can take care of trees at all stages of life, and he has a special feeling for trees with which people have an emotional attachment. For example, if a tree was lovingly planted to commemorate the birth of a child, or the passing of a loved one, and now needs pruning or to be cut down, he is able to  take the wood saved from that tree and carve beautiful mementos from it that the family can keep as heirlooms. What a fantastic idea, right?

Here are a couple of examples:

Let me know if you’d like more information on his company…

Well then, since I got back home from the retreat,  I’ve been busy getting my house ready to host open crops on Sundays–have had a few friends over and had lovely times.  If you find yourself with some free time on Sunday afternoons, feel free to come and play with me! Just RSVP via email by Saturday night… LynnMath@aol.com.

Also I’ve been tweaking the specifications for my “Paper Luggage” class project … I discovered that the original directions were fine for holding A2-size greeting cards, but my A2 envelopes are too tight a fit, so I’m increasing the dimensions by a quarter of an inch to accommodate both cards and envelopes very comfortably.

“Paper Luggage”

Here's the suitcase card file box closed

I just had to take a break from getting ready for the Club Scrap Retreat next week… I SHOULD be working on my friendship swap pages and my reception mixer items … BUT … well, you see, there’s this THING I have for BOXES. And didn’t Club Scrap go and put another box project in the August kit!  (Instructions in the Scrap Rap Newsletter.) So it’s been CALLING OUT TO ME this past week, and I just couldn’t resist it’s siren song any longer.

This project was submitted by a VERY talented Club Scrap Crafter (consultant) named Diane Villegas, who turned it into a workshop project (which is what I intend to do with it!) 

This is just SO STINKIN’ CUTE !!! Above is the cardbox closed. It will hold regular A2 sized greeting cards, and will make a terrific gift.

Suitcase open with some cards inside

Here’s the suitcase with a few cards and envelopes inside.

The papers used are from this month’s “Arts ‘N Crafts” theme kit, but the project can be easily adapted to any cardstock desired.

Okay, who’s up for making this little beauty in a workshop? Email me if you’re interested in hosting or attending a “Paper Luggage” crafting workshop — LynnMath@aol.com .

Whew–glad that’s out of my system. Now to get back to my Retreat preparations!