The BagBox

I made a box. Or maybe it's a bag. I dunno so I've dubbed it The BagBox. :) I had this idea, you see. It all started when I had to sit in traffic today - a FRIDAY, and not only is it FRIDAY, when traffic is supposed to be lighter than my other reeediculous 4 days of commuting, but it's the FRIDAY before a 3-DAY WEEKEND for the government, so WHY WERE ALL THOSE PEOPLE ON MY ROADS?!?!

So anyway, as I was sitting in traffic, I thought I needed to make a box. A box with handles. There's templates out there for boxes with handles, but they require cutting, and I'm not interested in mass-production cutting. Not.

So back to my idea. I wanted to make circular handles without cutting. I thought I'd use nested oval Nestabilities, and they'd be easy peasy. So tonight I grabbed a hefty piece of DSP from my Heaplet and cut and scrored the box, but I realized I'd need a big piece of paper to cut the handles, and I didn't have a big piece left. What to do ... what to do... I took the easy way out. Lookie:


The BagBox. It's really a box but it doesn't have a top, so it could be a bag. I think if you put a pretty piece of tissue paper in there it could hold almost anything small ... like a gift card ... or a jewelry box ... or candy.

The handles are just strips of the remaining DSP:

See the handles? I just attached them with brads to the front and back of the box, er ... BagBox. You can kinda see the brad under the ribbon.

Here's a peek at the inside of the BagBox:

Once you put a piece of tissue paper in there, you're all set.

And yes, I know I could make this with one of my bag dies, but everyone doesn't have the bag dies, so this was my effort to show you one can be made without the die. Plus, my dies have a decorative top edge, and I wanted it plain. I may still try one of these with a die, too, just to see how it goes.

And yes, again (you guys are so smart) this is just a variation of the 2-5-7-10 box we made at September's Stamp Camps, but I wanted mine to be narrower, so I adjusted the measurements* a bit.

Oh, and you may be muttering to yourself that I don't "do" 3D stuff, and you'd be correct. I think I'll still make a few of these, though, for my November show. They could work for Thanksgiving place setting treats. :) If they don't sell, I'll use them for my peeps. It's almost Buckeye season, after all. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

*Measurements:
Base piece 5 1/2 x 10 1/2"
Score at 1 1/2, 4 1/2, 6 and 9"
Score 1 1/2" on the long side to form the bottom
Handles are 1/2" wide and I think 8" long (play with it)

HYCCT - A Sketch

As I post this, Twitter is streaming the news of Steve Jobs' passing. Even though I own i-nothing, I am still very, very sad. I almost delayed posting tonight, but decided it's better to show cancer who's boss, so here we go.

Today's Hope You Can Cling To challenge at Splitcoast is this sketch:

The two circles are supposed to represent "the girls". :) Here's my take on it:

This is about the 6th incarnation of this card. It started out pink, then I started taking stuff away and changing layers and it ended up ... green. Isn't card-making fun? You never know whatchya gonna get!

I'm pretty proud of how much stash I used here. Card base is Bazzill, the patterned paper is Basic Grey euphoria (like you didn't see that one coming), the stamped circle shape is Waltzingmouse as is the flair thing under the PTI sentiment, Kaiser Kraft paper flowers, SU button and twine, and SU Basic Grey and Certainly Celery ink. Oh, and Nestabilities to cut the circle (I got it centered!!!!!!) and the popped-up (hopped up) panel for the sentiment.

Phew! I'm off to post this at SCS and to address the envelope for my first batch of cards to UT MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Thanks for stopping by!

PS: RIP, Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

SOS Challenge #20 -Thank You

This week's theme at Shopping Our Stash is Thank You or Thanksgiving, and my card is truly in the spirit of this challenge blog - ALL STASH!

Back in September I took a Saturday and did some major purging of s-crap from the Captain's Quarters. Along the way I re-discovered this piece of very very very old Basic Grey paper and declared it "Fall colors":

This card is 99% scraps, er ... remnants, and yes, I am very proud. The blue is SU Bordering Blue (I think), the brown strip is from a piece of Core'dinations paper (it has a really cool green on the other side, but I digress), and the base & sentiment (by Hero Arts) are on some Naturals White. The tiny piece of orange is Cajun Craze, and I didn't have a scrap of that. ;( Oh, and the ribbon was already tied! I must have taken it off a failed card intact. I just cut the loop in back and taped it to the card. EASY!

So there you have it - a scrappy Thank You card! Now go into your stash, find something you haven't used in a while, make a Thank you or Thanksgiving card, and come link up to us at Shopping Our Stash so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

Two More HYCCT Challenge Cards

One of the Saturday challenges for the Splitcoast Hope You Can Cling To (HYCCT) stamp-o-rama was Encircled With Love, where we were asked to make a round card. I failed to execute this partly because my largest circle Nestability is maybe 4" and it's toooo smaaaaall for me to deal with. It really needs to be larger, I think, especially since we're mailing all of these for people to use. But tonight I decided to use my big ole circle cutter and I cut two 5" circles. I'm much happier with myself now.

Here's the card:

Simple simple simple. And mostly round. I never said I was any good with that circle cutter. And anyway, it looks "hand-made" now. :) I cut the DSP at 4 3/4. I was actually going to use the other side of the paper, but when I flipped it over to apply the adhesive, I decided I liked this embossed side better. I added a Hero Arts sentiment and called it done.

In case you are wondering, I scored the back circle about 3/4" down, applied a strip of red sticky tape, and stuck them together. It flips open nicely, and the front is still flat.

Today's challenge was Real Men Wear Pink where we were asked to make a manly card with pink on it somewhere. I took out my 12x12 pack of Graphic 45 "manly" papers and chose a strip of three of the old cars. They are actually too big for an A2 card, so this is 5x7:

The patterned layer is the back of another piece from the same pack. Do you see the pink? Check out the tires on the top vehicle. :) I tried to add a sentiment, but it just destroyed the symmetry, so I opted to leave it sentiment-less.

I'm off to post these over at SCS, and I'll get a package of them sent out to the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center later this week. I hope to send them weekly so the patients and families get some all month long. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Hope You Can Cling To - You're My Inspiration

Today's Hope You Can Cling To challenge on Splitcoast is to take inspiration from the pics posted (bikini top cakes) and make a card. The only requirement is that it has to have (gah!) pink in it. Yes, I may throw up before this month is out, and it's only the 2nd! Sigh.

I immediately thought of my "You know you're getting old when ..." stamps from GinaK, and just needed a "bra" to go with the sentiments. I've made one from scallop punches before, but this time I wanted to use pink felt. Lookie what I did:

This was HARD, people. One of the challenges with this craft is knowing what adhesive to use with different materials. I chose red sticky tape, which may or may not have been my best choice. I put it on the felt; ran the lace around the edge, clipping the curves as I went; put more tape on and folded the circle in half. Done. I did that twice. Done done. I used more red tape to hold the thing to the paper. About 5 pounds of tape - sure hope it stays stuck.

The pink satin ribbon is from my stash. The brad is SU (also stash ... like I'll use pink brads ...). The paper is Basic Grey euphoria (still out). Sentiments by GinaK.

That's it! I've only missed one HYCCT challenge so far - a round card, but it's the weekend, and by starting on a weekend, I think they've instilled false hope in us that we can keep up. There will be one challenge per day for the rest of the month. I should fall behind by tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sketchy Stash-diving

As I've cleaned and purged in The Captain's Quarters the past week or two, I've salvaged a few "perfectly cut" pieces of DSP with the intent on using them to make ... cards. Then I spotted this sketch from Splitcoast (Wednesdays are sketch challenge days):

and I was all set. Today I made three cards based on this sketch using pieces left over from something else. Here's the first one:

Three really pretty pieces of paper. I just layered them with Basic Black, popped them up on Dimensionals, wound that 1/8" taffeta ribbon through the panels, and stamped a sentiment (Paper Smooches). Done.

Second card:

Again, three pieces of DSP. I layered them on Cajun Craze (didn't feel like getting into my retired colors stash to find the Dusty Durango so I declared this "close enough"), popped the panels up on Dimensionals again, wound some retired 1/4" Old Olive twill around the panels, stamped the same sentiment (hey, it was out) with Old Olive onto Very Vanilla, layered that with more Cajun Craze, and called it done.

The third card:

This one was a little more challenging. I flipped over the middle panel because three of that red panel was making me dizzy. Instead of individual panels, I layered all three pieces of DSP on one piece of Bashful Blue. I couldn't decide on red or blue ribbon, so I used both, because I could. Then I realized the blue layer was too short for the card, so I cut the card base down by 1/2". Done.

There you have it: three cards from one fabulously enabling sketch. And all those pieces of DSP are now off my table. Yay!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jingle Belles Rock #40 - Peace

This week's Jingle Belles challenge is Peach on Earth, wherein The Belles have asked us to incorporate a Peace Symbol or the word Peace into your design ... or create a card that evokes Peace for you (snow, forest, etc.). I chose to go with the word "peace" and I made this:

There is NO stamping on this card. I got the idea for the design/layout when I saw this sketch at the cardabilities blog:

Naturally, it's last week's sketch, but still, it's pretty much at the top of my pile of sketches, and still in my frontal lobe, too. I broke out my new Basic Grey nordic holiday 6x6 paper pack for the patterned papers (I may have to marry that green dotted piece - looooove it!) , the lace is from Webster's Pages (not from the massive Groupon stash, no no no, it's from some new stuff I bought at the LSS...), the letters are Thickers and they have glitter, the button is SU, and the round sticky things are from my stash - Pebbles, I think.

Here's a closer shot so maybe you can see some of the sparkle:

I'm pretty happy that those round glittery things sorta go with the Thickers. Actually, I'm pretty happy with the whole card! I came out exactly like I'd planned it in my head, and that almost never happens! (yay, me!)

Today is Sunday, and except for laundry and maybe a trip to the grocery, I have no plans except to get crafty. Hopefully I'll have something bloggable later today.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hope You Can Cling To - Bling

For the Hope You Can Cling To bling challenge on SCS, I used this sketch from Clean & Simple:


to make this:

I've (obviously) still got my Basic Grey euphoria papers out. Maybe if I do enough challenges this month I'll disappear most of it. A girl can dream.

So all the patterned papers are Basic Grey, the sentiment is A Muse, the die used on the sentiment and also the bottom scallop are MFT, and the top strips were made with the SU Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch. Oh, and the heart bling is from A Muse (really old - like years).

I may be all stamped out today. Or maybe it was the miles walked early this morning before all that RAIN. Or maybe it's ALL THAT RAIN, that's still coming down. I might have to go to bed early and rest up for another crafty day on the morrow.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hambo Hoedown - CASE the Gallery

This week's Hambo Hoedown challenge is to use this Dragonfly image:

and CASE a card from the Hambo gallery (http://www.hambostamps.com/gallery.htm).

I kinda backed into this one. I actually had an idea for a technique I wanted to use with the dragonfly, so I found an embossed image in the gallery to CASE - the chipmunk card in the Animals gallery.

Here's my card (I made two - one for each sentiment provided with the image):

I stamped a script text image over the printed dragonflies and heat-embossed it using white EP. Then I dragged three different inks over the images - SU Lucky Limeade, Pool Party and Island Indigo. I love that color combination! I cut out the images and put this one on one of my hoarded MS tags.

The DSP is SU Beyond the Garden, and the card stock is Island Indigo and Wild Wasabi. The button is SU.

Here's my other card:

Just a different doily/tag and sentiment.

I used this sketch for both cards:

but of course it is LAST week's sketch so it's too late to link. I may comment over there, anyway.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hope You Can Cling To - Pink Critters

I'm playing along with this year's Hope You Can Cling To event over on Splitcoast, so throughout the month of October you'll see some posts for the various SCS challenges. And yeah, I know, a whole month of (gah!) PINK!

The first challenge is to use a pink critter on a card. It was easy for me to select my image since Lisa (PaperGrace Designs) enabled me to purchase a cutie kitteh digital image from Sweet & Sassy Stamps. Check it out:

I printed it on a piece of Basic Grey euphoria paper and cut it out. All the other patterned papers are from the same Basic Grey 6x6 pack, and the pink layer is SU Pink Pirouette that I embossed with an impressions plate. The sentiment is from the Paper Smooches Birthday Buddies set, and the button is SU.

I had to make the kitteh's nose pink, so I used some of this stuff:

I just put a glob on some scrap paper and applied it with a toothpick. Yes, I have a container of toothpicks on my desk ... doesn't everyone?

Since it's World Card-Making Day, I plan to be crafty all day, so stay tuned for more posts! Thanks for stopping by!