Follow Up to Bling, Jiggle, Bling, Bling: More Bling

I know I said I would show you more Bling a long time ago. I’m just now getting around to it. I’ve been working on things around my house (hello life), SSD projects, my CU roomie gifts and packaging up the charms I showed you previously and getting things ready to go to Creative University in a couple of weeks. OH I also made a fun PAPER scrapbook layout that I can’t show you until after CU as well. I’m entering one of the art contests with it… can’t share just yet. tee hee. I know, I’m awful!

I can’t show u the roomie gifts yet, but I will schedule a post for while I am gone so that the roomies don’t see them ahead of time. :)

In the meantime, here’s a little of what I’ve been working on:

These charms were SUPER fun to make and I needed a cute way to “present them” cuz you know, it’s all about the packaging, right? haha! Anyway… I didn’t want to spend hours and hours cutting and glueing so I created these little cards in PSE 7, printed them out on super heavy weight card stock (base weight from Gina K Designs). I poked holes with my paper piercer and strung some 24 gauge wire thru the holes to attach the charms. Worked like a charm, pardon the pun. I think I need to work on my printer colors/calibration or something because that ribbon is supposed to be a rich chocolately brown, not almost black.

Well now that we’ve got some charms we’re gonna need something to attach them to…. At least, that’s what I thought as I created some for myself. I didn’t have a “blank” charm bracelet so I figured I’d make one for myself.

Here’s what I came up with:

These bracelets are full of all sorts of silver colored (not sterling silver) jingle bling jingley bits and baubles. I’ve sold several to some CU attendees and will be offering them in my Etsy shop once I decide on a name and finish setting it up.

The bracelets are made in 7”, 7.5”, and 8” lengths and they can be custom fit as well. Each bracelet has at least 7 clear Swarovsky crystals (2 different types) on it. They are finished off with a giant decorative toggle attached to the bracelet with 2 jump rings for security and a dangling charm that coordinates with the bling on the bracelet. They can be worn alone or with charms attached. No two are exactly alike. :)

I have two that I wear a lot. One has charms on it and one is simple , as it is.

Hope you’re having a bling, jingle, bling, bling day!

~Inky Smiles

T is for Trish & the Star of the Show is K

I have a few things to post this week. I've been remaking some of my fav (recent) projects with different papers and designs. (I hope you don't get sick of them, but sometimes when you find a fun thing to make your creative muse is AWOL you make it over and over... especially when they are good for gifts!) I will share them this week... Here's the first: a remake of my little chipboard calendar with the BIA machine. The possibilities are endless with these little calendars... This one goes from May 2008 - May 2009.

I was privileged to be able to hang out for a couple of days over the past couple of weeks with my friend, Trish's daughter, K. We were making a fun little project for T for M's Day. T and her dh, T, are going to Canada tomorrow for a work thing for dh T without the munchkins.... K and I thought it would be fun to put something in T's suitcase... I am pretty sure K put it in the suitcase or gave it to her mom early yesterday... meaning: It's been given, T is in Canada (or an airport along the way) and I can post safely now! YAY!

{Click on photos for larger view}

K & I had a BLAST hanging out together to create this calendar. I dreamed up the design, K picked out the papers and did the actual assembling of the calendar. We did our own little photo shoot the first evening in the freezing cold... poor K was such a good sport!

Here's some photos of K's creative adventure. For an 11 yr old, she's pretty good with the Fiskars Fingertip Craft Knife and mastered the ATG pretty quickly.


Supplies:
CTMH Papers, Brads
CTMH'ers - whats the name of the paper kit??? Simple Pleasures
Fiskars Threading Waters Punch & F.Craft Knife
BIA machine, Owires, 4x6" Chipboard Covers
We R Memory Keepers Ribbons
Maya Road Chipboard letter "t"

Enabler Alert - Bind It All Supplies are Here!

Hey friends!

I have a big old honkin stash of Bind It All products in my inventory that are now available, including covers and red OWires. I am still working on our store revamp, but thought I would offer these products to you now.

Orders over $100 ship FREE (free shipping within the US) until December 15 th, 2007. Hurry and take advantage of this great deal!

Click the image to view the prices. Contact me at inkysmiles @ gmail.com

Happy Halloween, Mr Mummy!

I am generallly soooo not into Halloween (this year I'm ok with the cutsie, silly stuff), but I saw this idea on a Bind It All group I belong to and had to copy it... she copied it from a post she saw on twopeasinabucket.com, too. LOL! Anyway... I finally sat down and decompressed a little bit with some crafting tonight before a meeting I had at my house for church stuff. (Big huge change coming in my life... details a little later, maybe tomorrow.)

This cute little guy is a 4x4" chipboard and cardstock book. I handcut 4" chipboard covers (my Bind It All covers are not here yet) and painted them with black paint, then covered with black cs (inside of covers) and white textured cs, torn and inked in black for the outside covers.



The eyes are just circles punched from cs. The "boo!" letters on the front are the coolest new thing... VELVET Thickers from American Crafts... I just picked them up on Friday from the American Crafts warehouse... SWEET STUFF!




The inside base pages are cardstock that I cut 3 7/8" square and then created pages on them with various cardstocks and embellishments. Mini books are so much fun and relatively fast to make once you decide on the paper combos.









Materials used:
Bind It All Machine - Zutter
5/8" Black Owire - Zutter
Chipboard - Graphix
White textured CS - Archiver's brand
Green, Purple & Black CS - CTMH
Misc patterned papers - CTMH "Happy Halloween" (retired) & American Crafts
Misc ribbons -American Crafts, CTMH, generic brand

White Galaxy Marker, Black Marker - American Crafts
Misc embellishments - CTMH
Click on photos for larger view.

Thoughts for Thursday plus ART!!!

Jeanne Tomshack sent this quote to me today. She picked it up from a morning quote from Change Your Life Challenge (it's for getting your life/house in order in a positive way. I think this applies to us in many aspects of our life and especially in our crafting. Dream about it, then be bold in doing it.

Here's a little something I made this week. It's bold and it's fun.

I used a 7 1/8 x 5 1/4" chipboard notebook, painted it black, punched with my Bind It All machine to match the existing holes and reused the existing wire.

I stamped the Playful Petals in black ink on white cardstock, then let it dry over night. The next day I used Liquid Glass and doodled on the petals and then sprinkled the micro beads all over the LG. I let that dry for several hours and then cut out the individual petals and laid them out until I liked how they looked. The center of the flower is popped out with a pop dot.



- The paper is from American Crafts.
- Black ink from CTMH
- Pewter brads and eyelets from CTMH
- Clear microbeads - picked up at Michael's
- Liquid Glass from CTMH - Black embossing powder from CTMH
- CTMH Stamp Sets: From Me To You, Simple Stitches, Treasures of the Heart, Playful Petals
- Ribbon from American Crafts, CTMH, and others.

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." **

Buried In Bind It All Products

I am swamped in Bind It All Products from Zutter Innovative... YIKES!!!! (This little machine is the coolest thing!!! Look how tiny it is!!)

I got my second shipment of product for the big sale I 've been holding... We are completely sold out of chipboard covers already (and so is the manufacturer until 2nd week in Oct).... They are also out of 3/8" black wires until who knows when... So I'm trying to figure out substitutions for the assortments I put together. I'm frantically answering emails, filling orders and planning on another big order. This is CRAZY (yet so fun)!!!



This is the cool little bag that you can stash your new little friend and assorted goodies in....

Stay tuned for more artwork....