It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

OOOOH Friends! Nina Perrin of Purple Faerie Paper Crafts invited me to be a Featured Artist on her blog and newsletter... HOW COOL IS THAT??? Here's the article I wrote for her. What an honor!! Thank you Nina!

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

My fall decor has returned to its storage boxes. We've put the lights on the outside of the house, Christmas tunes ring out of the stereo, we've pulled the garlands and nativities from their boxes under the stairs, and we started putting the tree up this week. So far we have 8' of artificial evergreen glory with about a zillion lights that Brent neatly wound through the branches. With any luck we will have the ornaments and ribbon on it tomorrow night and can finish up the Christmas decorating. My parents are visiting with us for the month of December. This year we will introduce them to one of our favorite family traditions: Santa Cookies. The making of Santa Cookies is quite the production, but the end result is FABULOUS! But, before we get on to making Santa Cookies for our friends and neighbors, I must tackle my messy studio in preparation of "The Great Card Making Adventure".

There's something extra special about giving handmade gifts and cards for Christmas. I mean, it's fun and all to pick out a box of pre-printed generic cards at the local stationery store, but there's something extra special about a card or a gift when it comes from your hands and heart. This year there are a few things I will be making to give to close friends and family. I will be making a fun desk top flip calendar using a digital design from www.jessicasprague.com. I will digitally add the photos and create the calendars, then print them out and will add traditional elements like brads, flowers and ribbons to the printed project. For the "art part" of each month, I will put a photo of myself, Brent or Sadie or combination of us with other family members. Each page will be adhered to chipboard and spiral bound for easy flipping. I think that this will be a hit with the grandparents and great grandparents.

This year I will be making a couple of different cards to send. (Variety is nice when making a large quantity of cards.) One of them will be a revamp of a card I made using the "Tons of Tree's stamp set from Skipping Stones Design this summer and posted on my blog. I drooled over the Tons of Trees stamp set since I first saw it and decided I had to use it. I used a "new to me technique" - mixed media...I used FELT on a card...way out of my crafting box. LOL! I'm adding a little ribbon to the eyelets and a little more texture on the Kraft brown areas. I will send this card with our family Christmas letter, which I also needed to tackle this weekend.

Christmas is fast approaching. It's time to pull out our paper crafting supplies and get cracking on our gifts and cards. I hope you have much fun this year crafting marvelous holiday paper crafts! Here's to a blessed and joyous Christmas and a prosperous New Year! Inky Smiles!

Merry (early) Christmas!!!!

Card Organizer -Made With Bind It All Machine

World Card Making Day is tomorrow, October 6th. I haven't really been in the mood (ie had a whole lot of/any time) to make cards this week, but I saw an organizer like this on the blog of a fellow SCS girl. I just HAD to make one!!

Here's my note card organizer & a "tutorial". I made this very quickly this morning and part of last evening with some leftover paper from a CTMH Level 2 Kit: Just Chillin a 1" Owire from BIA and some pieces of leftover mat board.

(Click on any photo for a larger view.)





Based on my example, you will need:
BIA Machine
Adhesive
* 4 pieces 12x12 cardstock
* 5-6 pieces of 12x12 patterned paper
* 1 - 12" length of 1" dia. OWire from Zutter (You will use 6.5".)
* 2 pieces of 6 1/4" x 8 3/4" Chipboard or Matboard
* Miscellaneous ribbons, embellishements and extra CS to decorate the cover and/or insides.



Step 1 - Score at 3 1/4" Step 2 -Score at 6" Step 3 - Cut off 1/4"
** **

Repeat this on each of your 4 pieces of cardstock and then:

Step 4 - Cut 4 - 3 1/2x12" strips of pattern paper to coordinate with your cardstock. - Adhere to the front of the folded up flap as shown in the picture and fold excess over the top. This gives the edge a cleaner look and decreases the likelyhood of you snagging the paper when removing or adding cards to the pocket.
****


Step 5 Cover your chipboard or matboard pieces with patterned paper and decorate as you see fit. I wrapped my covers and added a bookplate type covering on the insides. You can see this in the left photo. This photo also shows the finished measurements of the covers and pocket pages.



Step 6 - We're ready to punch some holes!
- Set up your Bind It All - make sure the extension arm is pulled out.

- Set your paper stop guide to C for the cover.
Align the cover in the BIA and press handle, flip the cover over and do the other side.




- Set your paper stop guide to D for the inner pages.





- Align the inner pages in the BIA and press handle, flip over and do the other side. DO NOT PUNCH THE FOLDED SIDE!




Step 7 - Bind your book!
- Select the Owire that matches your book and snip off the appropriate length. For my book, I used 6 rings on each length (6 holes).


- Face your covers to each other and load on the OWire.

**



- Set your dial on the BIA machine to 1" and place the wires and book in the machine and press
the handle. Be gentle, don't smash the wires.



VOILA!! Tie some ribbon on those wires, load it up with the cards you've made and you're done!

(thank you for the idea - Lisa S @ Splendiforous Creations!)

**I am working on the tutorial in PDF form and should have it in a couple of days. Please email me at inkysmiles@gmail.com and put "BIA Card Organizer Instructions, Please" in the subject line." **

A Question of Ink...

Several people have asked me in the comments and via private email about the storage piece that I have my stamp pads in. Here's the scoop:

The stamp pads are stored in an InkStak custom built to fit CTMH or SU! stamp pads by my husband, Brent which we sell through our store, Stamper Storage. InkStaks can be customized by adding additional rows or adding or deleting columns. InkStaks can be easily wall mounted (we include instructions & hardware) or set on a desk or shelf. The beauty of the InkStaks is that their tops can be an additional shelf in your craft area. InkStaks are shipped "au natural" so that you can paint or stain them to match your decor. You can view more information by visiting Stamper Storage

Sketch Challenge 001

Everyone else is doing it, so why don't I?

Thought I would try my hand at a sketch. This one is very random.

Your challenge is to create something fun with this very basic sketch. I have suggested elements for the card -OR- layout on the sketch!
If you want to email me a photo of your creation, I will post it here on the blog -OR- post a comment with a link to a photo of your creation!

Come on... be brave!!! I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Inky Smiles!

Erin

I Got Tagged....

I got tagged today by KATHY! LOL! So I guess I better play along... My only problem is that I don't know 8 ppl with blogs! LOL! I guess I can just tag as many ppl as I can. :) And btw, Kathy, I'm tagging you BACK ! HA!


Here Are The Rules:

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Ok, here are some random facts/habits about me:

1. I never attended highschool on US soil.

2. I am addicted to Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis.... I tape every show so I can fast forward through the commercials. SOoooOooO sad that SG-1 is in its last season.

3. I am a KLUTZ - I broke my right ankle & leg sliding down a fabulous concrete banister in Berlin, tore up my right knee (new ACL in 2005) rolling a snowmobile over on Tower Mountain in the Heber City area, and knocked my hip out of place after falling off of the Utah State Capitol Building.

4. I've always wanted to swim with dolphins - I ADORED Flipper - Instead I swam with the Beluga whales at Sea World in San Antonio, TX for my bday (from Brent) in 2006. Dude, that was sooooo stinkin fun!

5. I backpacked Italy with 2 girl friends (Jill & Kelly) and celebrated my 19th bday in a little pub in Florence, Italy.

6. I dream of owning a gift shop of some sort.. especially one that sells fun international collectors items like Erzgebirge woodworks from Germany, etc, and really cool home decor.

7. I like powdered ranch dressing mix (Hidden Valley only, no imposters) sprinkled on my popcorn (popped in a Whirly popper only). I am a popcorn snob. LOL!

8. I hate to be sweaty.. I don't like sweat running down my body or especially my face. I think this is why I prefer swimming for aerobic exercise!


I have tagged the following:

Susan
Brenda
Kathy
Erin B.

How lame is that? LOL! FOUR BLOGS! *sigh* I need to make more friends... at least friends with BLOGS!

Ahh and now I shall blog... blog, blog, blog...

So I've never had a blog before, but I thought it might be fun to try it out, since soooo many people are doing it nowadays... (Yeah, yeah... if your friends jump off a cliff, does that mean you have to do it, too?) LOL!

My name is Erin. I am a former Army Brat which means Dad was military and we were nomads... traveling from place to place every 3 years or so. We moved to Germany in 1986 and stayed until 1994. I was almost 21 when we left Berlin. I like to think of Berlin as my "hometown" because that's where I spent most of my teenage and early adult years.

I moved from Berlin to Utah in 1994 on a whim, found some roomies and stuck around for a bit more college. I met my sweet husband, Brent (Accountant, City Councilman, & Woodworker Extraordinaaire - www.stamperstorage.com), in 1999 and married him that same year. We currently live in a small-ish (not so big, not too tiny) town in southern Utah County in a cute little house with a darling Furrbaby named Sadie (red & white border collie/australian shepherd something mix, aka adorable mutt).

By day I am a humble (ha!) bookkeeper and office manager for a high end landscaping company. For fun, and to support this paper and ink habit, I am an indepedent consultant for Close To My Heart and sell scrapbooking and stamping supplies (stamps, papers, tools, BLING aka embellishments, etc.) I love CREATING with paper and ink. I am highly addicted to the smell of new paper and squish sound a nice new ink pad makes when you first ink up a stamp. I found ACRYLIC stamps with CTMH and can not go back to rubber on wood. I love being able to see through my stamps and be able to put my image exactly where I want it. Ramble, ramble... :)