Alcohol Spray Inks

SO excited to share this idea I got from a FB group I am in called "A Documented Life". II started off with a trip to the Dollar Store to purchase:

When I got home with my goodies I covered my area with my homemade "Messy Mat".

I used needle nosed pliers to remove the end of the marker and take out the ink tube.

Then I wanted to remove the plastic tube around the ink tube . I didn't put on gloves for the first one and ink was all over my fingers after I was done! I did use a baby wipe to hold the ink tube but the ink still got on my fingers/hands. I highly recommend using plastic gloves.

To cut the plastic I used plain old kid scissors and cut right up the middle from bottom to top.  

After I separated the plastic from the fiber I slid the whole thing in the spray bottle.

I filled up the bottle with rubbing alcohol and waited about 20 minutes before I started to use the sprays. It was really fun using them, because they dried so quickly! First I sprayed glossy photo paper, let it dry and then stamped on it. I used another piece of photo paper to "mop up" the leftover ink on my mat.  I think of all the papers I used,  I liked the photo paper the best. When I stamped on it, the image was really clear and crisp. The bad thing is that the stamp stuck to the paper. I used a less stickier stamp for the butterfly and I was able to peel it right off.

I sprayed Heidi Swapp butterfly resist paper and swirled a baby wipe on it.

I took a Tim Holtz blending tool with a felt pad on it and sprayed several colors on it. I put the nozzle of the spray bottle right up on the felt pad.

I love the water color look without the dry time! On the stamping paper I did two circles, dabbing and straight lines  The velum looks like a stained glass (hard to tell in the photo!).

I also sprayed some sticker sheets as well for the Hi, today and airplane. The colors didn't show as bright as the photo paper, but it was still pretty. I used some stamps to stamp words/images then drew circles around today and the plane (then cut it out with a circle punch). I can't wait to incorporate some paint and other colors!

 

It was SO fun to make the sprays and play with them! I have a few more papers I'd like to try out and see how it works out. Maybe even some glass and metal.

Happy Creating,

Melissa

 

 

 

 

 

Easter Pennants

 

Yesterday was a croppin day for me at my favorite spot.. Our Lady of Lordes in Omaha. Tricia puts it on once a month. I love it because I get a 6ft table all to my self and can bring everything but the kitchen sink (without ladies saying wow-a sewing machine?) Not to mention 12hrs of creative time. Its a really fun and relaxed atmosphere too! I made eight of these pennants for a 2Peas swap. I send these eight in and get "Easter" back for a banner. The style was vintage using pastel green, blue and pink. I cut out the pennant from my silhouette on brown cardstock. I cut out lace from an old table cloth and sewed it on each pennant. I then adhered the pennant to a thick piece of chipboard for extra stability. I inked the "seed" packets and circle that's from K & Co before I adhered them to the laced pennant. I cut out the chocolate bunny and R from my silhouette. Lastly, I added buttons and bakers twine. It took me a long time to complete these, but I it think was worth it and I hope the ladies like them!

Happy Creating,

Melissa 



Valentines Day Hershey Nugget Mailboxes



My sister made these with her daycare kids, and sent me a picture of them. They were so cute! I decided I would make some for Ben & Jacks preschool teachers and the nurses where I get my iron treatments. I started out by I cutting a coordinating color of solid cardstock into 1 inch wide x 2 inch long strips. I used my corner rounder and rounded one end of the strip. I then glued that to the bottom of the nugget (it will be the open door of the mailbox). I then cut strips of patterned paper as wide as the nugget, and trimmed them into 2 inch little strips and put glue on each end. I wrapped the strip around the nugget. Then I cut the little "hand" (that signals the mailman to pick up the mail) and punched out a heart to glue to the top of the hand. I used my Silhouette to print and cut the Happy Valentines Day scallop. I think they were really easy and turned out so cute!

Gluten Free Lemon Bars

 



I found a conversion table for making gluten free flour and I wanted to try it out. For example if you need 1 Cup of regular flour then you would use 1/2 cup Brown Rice Flour, 3T Potato Starch and 1T  Tapioca Starch, and 1/2t Xanthan Gum. Happy to say it worked and these bars are the best, I had my good (gluten eating) friend Vanessa over today and she loved them! So, here is the much loved recipe:
Preheat oven 350.
In a food processor pulse together:

Above GF flour mixture

1/4 C Powdered Sugar

 3T Almond Meal (I use Trader Joes)

1/2 t Cinnamon 

1/8 t Salt

Add in the two below remaining items and pulse until mixture resembles course crumbs  

2 T Butter (Cut into small pieces)

2 T Safflower Oil

Press into an 8X8 lightly greased glass baking dish and bake for 25 minutes or until crust is lightly browned on the edges. Reduce heat to 325 degrees.

In a bowl whisk together:

3/4 C Sugar

2T White Rice Flour

1/2-1T Grated Lemon Zest (depending on how "lemony" you want your bars to be) 

2 Eggs

1 Egg White

Pour batter on top of baked crust and bake 325 degrees for 22-25 minutes. Let cool completely and then refrigerate 30 min. Remove dish from refrigerator and cut into squares, serve cold. (I topped with whipped cream) Store remaining (if there are any) bars in airtight container in refrigerator.

 

P.S

I haven't been crafting much lately :( It turns out I have low Iron for some reason which makes me insanely tired, cold all the time, and losing my hair at a faster rate then just shedding!? So I am now getting Iron via an IV treatment once a week for 4 weeks. Two treatments are done, and just two to go. Can't say I feel "so much" better..but maybe it will take till the 4th treatment. I also found out my dearest and only sister has breast cancer (she's only 3 yrs older than me!) She will be heading to surgery in the next week or two to have a double mastectomy. The hardest part is she lives about 530 miles away :( I am trying to take part in this awesome group called "A Documented Life" project on FB, so as soon as I get my butt in gear and get started on that I will post. Until then..

Happy Creating,

melissa

 

 

 

 

Big Paper Sack Scrapbook

I spent the past 3 days at a B&B for a fabulous scrapbooking weekend. I worked on a couple pages, and completed this book. I wanted to see how a big paper grocery bag would work to create a big "album". I love using the smaller paper lunch sacks, but have a ton of big bags in my closet! I co-worker just had a baby boy they nicknamed Gio (cute Italian), so I thought I would make a book for him. I don't much like the soft blues of usual boy baby lines, so I went with Simple Stories Snap Studio. Archivers is closing [SAD FACE] so they only had a pack of pocket page cards and stickers--no pattern papers to coordinate. It turns out I really like working with coordinating pattern paper..it's SO much easier to create when I don't have to rummage through my papers to find ones that coordinate. I was at a crop, so I brought limited papers and decided to leave the pages white. The book has 10 pages, 2 pull out tabs and 2 3x4 pocket pages. I lined up all the white card stock, 2 pocket pages and two paper sacks and sewed the whole stack down the middle to make the "binding". I left the pages with lots of space so they can fill it with journaling or pictures. Turns out it was just as fun to make as the lunch sack books! :)

happy creating,
melissa  

Date Book



I needed a date/appointment book for work and I didn't want to spend $14.99 for one at Walmart. So I took my old date book from last year and made pages for this year (using white out and a copier). You can find them here
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5EHbpKDNr1mbk5HSFpSYTRtNlk/edit?usp=sharing
I got the binder (Recollection) from Michaels for $6.49 (I had a coupon). My work day is from 7:30am to 4:30pm, so I made time slots for that time frame on Monday through Friday. For Sat and Sun I just did little boxes. On the side margins I created little spots for journaling about the week. "I love..", "Seriously..ugh" and "highlights". I wanted to start documenting a little more about my week..it seems I can't remember what exactly went on three weeks ago! :) I'm planning on going scrapbooking this weekend and one of my projects will be to finish decorating it. I just hope it lasts all year being toted to and from work!

happy creating,
Melissa

Organizing My Craft Stuff

Over the years I've collected a lot of craft stuff. When I'm out and about thrifting I see an item and think "I can make that into  ________ ." Then when I get home with said item, it goes into a drawer. I had so many plans for so many things, and of course no time to go along with those lofty plans.  I cleaned out all my craft items, scrapbooking stuff, fabric scraps and ephemera. I organized all the stuff into bins and made a fabric shelf where I can iron stuff on top. (I got the idea off of the Happy SiL FB page I belong to) I HATE getting out the ironing board every time I need to iron fabric, and I needed a place to store my fabric. I don't have a lot of it, but this space was just right! I want to do a little more sewing in the coming year :) Next I'm going to be making my own date/appointment book. Today is a "cold day" off from school for the kids so, I'll be working on that later on :)