a little test...this is only a test...

Hello Everyone ~

I've been a litte frustrated to say the least. Some of you have contacted me stating that you havent been getting the automatic updates when I post to my blog. I didnt know what to say as I didnt know how to fix it as that is a 'Feedblitz thing' and out of my control ;o(

Sooo tonight I was reading the blog of "Inking Aloud" and she had posted the following in her post today:
"Feedblitz issues should be solved now (thanks, Feedblitz tech support!). If you have subscribed to Inking Aloud through Feedblitz but haven't been receiving regular updates, you should start to see them. Thanks for your patience."

Sooo....I am just conducting a little test here --- Just to see if you, and I, are back to receiving our notificaitons when I post to my blog ;o) If NOT, then I will need to conatct Feedblitz tech support and see what I need to do.....*humm tapping finger on chin* .....here's hoping it works!!

IF it works ... I really have posted a few new projects! Please, check em' out!!

~ ~ ~Many Stampin' Thanks!

BIA CD Grad Book

Here is the little Bind-It-All CD book that I have made for a awhile now --

I made it for a high school girl that we know that graduated this year from high school. I wanted to give this CD binding a try and thought this would be fun!!

I took some regular plain CD's and used a circle cutter along with the SU! printed playhouse papers and went circle crazy. I was not able to cut exactly the size of circle I needed to fit the CD exact, so being a little smaller than the CD is OK -- gives each 'page' a bit of a shine, right? *wink wink* On the back of each CD I just used a circle punch to cover the hole of the middle of the CD. I thought about covering each side but then thought .....*humm*.... it would be fun if I left the back side blank and suggested to Tille that she could use a Sharpie marker and write her comments that would correspond with the pictures on the other half of the 'page'. OR even let her friends write their comments too!

The 't' on the front of the album is from the chipboard SU! Simon lower collection. I then just covered it with the paper and 'sanded' it around the edges -- that is such a fun and easy technique!

I added a tab to each page just to add a bit of flair to the edges of each page and I just love to use my tab punch at every chance I get! I wrapped a little piece of stitched ribbon around the tab and placed a diamond brad in the center to gather it a bit too. I added a fun stamped word to each page and taped it to the CD. In the following pictures you can also see how the tab looks on the back side of the CD.


I tried to stagger out the tabs so when the book was closed they looked spaced out .






This was a blast to make and really didnt take much time at all!! The last thing I did was add some fun SU! ribbon to the spiral binding just to dress it up a bit too!

I plan on making more of these in the future!! These could easily be done with more pages too --- that all just depends on how big of a spiral binding you have --- the ideas are endless!!

~TFL & Enjoy~

A Bloggers RAK Thanks!

I want to take a moment and give a big *shout out* to SCS'er Debbie, debbiemom23cs, for the neat card she sent me last week!!

She said in her note that she did these for her stamp club and she cased this layout from AmyR on SCS ~ ~ I'm lovin it ;o))

Please check out Debbies blog when you have a moment!!

I was hoping to get this posted late last week but we've been busy busy busy around here but that is no excuse!! I have a BIA CD book project done that I want to get posted too --- maybe tomorrow night!!

~TFL & Enjoy~

~ Fun Family BIA Blast ~

My little cousin Annie is had her graduation party this weekend.

My Mom and I *snuck* in to her house last Sunday afternoon while she was away and took pictures of her cat and dog so my Mom, her Aunt, could create a collage picture frame gift for her ~ ~ ~ It turned out supah' cute ;o) I also took the opportunity to snap a few pictures of the rest of the family -- Mom, Dad and brother doing silly things that our family does. It was just a blast taking the pictures but even more fun putting this brown bag album together!!

I, of course, had to use my bind-it-all machine again for this project *wink wink* Here is the front of the album (yes -- there really is a spiral under 'neath that ribbon!)

This is a simple 'brown bag' album. This album is done with the normal size brown bags you would buy at any store. ((In earlier posts you have heard me *er I guess 'read about' me* talking about the little brown tea bags --- I didnt use those for this project.)) Just simply take a brown bag and fold it in half. That 'pouch' then becomes where you can insert a tag or something of that sort.

Throughout this album I used the Stampin' UP! Timeworn Collection Relics Paper as my 'theme' paper -- it worked really well! I cut those in squares and just randomly mounted them to each side of the page using my ATG adhesive gun. *LOVE that adhesive by the way!* I personally mounted all of my paper squares to each page and then used my bind-it-all to punch the holes and spiral bind the book. THEN I started to insert my pictures and decorate the front and back covers. The reason I prefered to do it this way is then I knew for sure where the spiral would be and I could work around it with no problem. Otherwise I may have attached a picture too far over into the 'binding zone' and ended up with 'holes' in it --- make sense? Doing it this way worked out great for me personally.

Like I mentioned before, this was intened to be a silly book -- and that it was so the pictures are fun!

We took some sticky post it notes and cut them into a mustache and gotee and started to color them in and then placed them on Annies picture on the wall and Tom colored them as I snapped his pic --- *messin' with his baby Sistas' picture ya' know* lol

When I developed some of the pictures for the album I had them done in 'Sepia' and some in 'Black and White' while of course others were done in color. That gave the bag album a different effect in itself.

This is the back of the album. I used the Cricut to cut out the Sun. I printed out the saying "The future is so bright it burns my eyes" on my computer and printed it out on Only Orange cardstock and then cut it out with my oval cutter.

Here are the tags that I did that actually slipped into the openings of the bags. I used a total of four bags for this book -- thus four openings. (I didnt post all the picutes of each of the pages of the book here, just a few to give you an idea of the what the book looked like)

So each brown bag would have 'four pages' technically. So this book had 16 pages from beginning to end.

I matched up funny sayings with the pictures for that page that the tag was going in. The base of my tag was done with a large Sizzix die. I then mounted it to another piece of cardstock and cut around it to make it larger to 'fill up the bag space'. I then added ribbon and cord to finish it off. I printed out each of the sayings again on my computer -- in Word using two columns and different fun fonts. I used my SU! Cutter Kit distressing tool around each of the sayings just to add a bit of texture before mounting them to the tag face. Here are my sayings, including the one on the front & back covers as well as one from I used on the inside pages --

Crazy is a relative term
in my family

I know you are but what am I? You’re not the boss of me! I’m telling mom! Mom said! I called it! It’s mine! I dare you. Get out of my room. Can I have a bite? He’s touching me!!!

Families are
like fudge… mostly sweet
with a few nuts.

Life is a great big canvas and you should throw all the paint on it you can

We do not remember days, we remember
Moments

Life isn’t just the front page – it’s the comics, too

The future is
so bright it
burns my eyes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Annie loved this little gift -- she has the sense of humor that the rest of her Dad's side of the family does too ;o) She even took it to her graduation party and had it sitting on her table with the rest of her treasured belongings from growing up. I had many people come up to me at the reception and tell me what a fun and awesome book it was -- and ...?how did I do that? ... how fun!!

~TFL & Enjoy~

More Fun Flowers!

Here is what I have been working on lately!! I thought these would be fun to give for Mom's day and I made one extra too --- I am still deciding who to give those to ;o)

I chose 'dynamic duos' colors again:

Ruby Red/Cameo Coral

Pumpin Pie/Apricot Appeal

Taken with Teal/Tempting Turquoise

Brilliant Blue/Bashful Blue

Perfect Plum/Pale Plum

Once again I used Jiminy to help with this task, you know my Cricut! lol This is the 'doodlecharms' cartridge and it's the 'flower 2'. I cut them out at 3" using the shadow feature.

I had to play with my new Bind-it-All tool and did this with my coasters. This was FUN!!

I covered each coaster with the Rustic SU! timeworn collection paper. I cut each piece into 4" by 4" squares and used Modge Podge to glue each piece on. I let them dry and then used the sanding blocks to sand each side...giving it the rustic look!

Then I punched them with my BIA and used ribbons to string the 'pot' together!

Next, I used glue to glue a blank coaster to the bottom and secure the sides. I also secured a piece of the green floral foam to the inside bottom at this time too.

Then I took some Glorious Green cardstock and ran it thru the shredder to make it look more like grass for the pot.

Just like on my other flowers I used the BBQ skewers and painted them for the stems. I also used the stampin' dimensionals to build up the sides of the skewers to hold the front of the flower to the back of the flower. (Please see my other post for detailed pics of this)

I had fun decorating the center of each flower again ;o)

~TFL & Enjoy~

Out with the Old....In with the New

Have you seen the Stampin' UP! retirement list that was posted on May 1st??

Check it out here!!

You can click on how you want it sorted -- by page number or in abc order by stamp set name.

WOW ~ ~ ~ Is it evah' long! My shelves are gonna' be bare for awhile. My Mom's shelves will be plenty full though!! I always take my retired stamp sets over to her stamp room ... you know that makes room for new rubbah' for me ;o))

This year I told her though that she is gonna have to go thru the years and years of me doing this and decide what she does not want/use anymore and I will get 'rid' of them ... making room for 'more of the newly retired' sets for her! lol I have never sold a retired stamp set but I think I just may start that process. Gosh I think I have stamp sets clear back to 1997 --- geesh! We will have to see what Mom wants to part with! ...Maybe when I tell her that I have 99 stamp sets and 16 wheels headed her way she will be a bit more willing to give up some of the really really old stuff, suppose?

So have you had a chance to take a look at the retirement list yet? How many stamp sets/wheels will you be 'loosing' this catalog year? Just out of curiosity, even if you are a SU! demo or not, what do you do with your retired sets? I'd love to hear from you ---- post away ;o) Thanks for sharing!!