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Monday, March 31, 2008

It's about time!




I can't believe that I have been such a slacker....well, ok, maybe I can believe it but I'm still sorry that it's been so long since I posted anything. What can I say, it's been a busy month! But today I have a little time to devote to playing online and figured that I should get my blog updated.



As a thank you for waiting so patiently for something stamping related, I'm going to share a picture of a project I completed last week. My wonderful OLDER sister, Susan, picked up some of the "some assembly required" wooden tray organizers for me at Ikea several months ago and I finally got around to playing with them. I plan to use this tray as a holder/organizer for my SU classic ink refills as they are currently all jumbled in a box which makes it rather challenging when trying to find a particular color. The wood came in a natural finish with a light varnish on it but I painted over it with white Gesso (acrylic) paint before stamping. I used the Stampin' Write markers (classic inks) direct to stamp application to stamp with the little cherry sprig from Tart 'N Tangy then sprayed with Krylon acrylic spray sealer (matte finish) before applying ModPodge. If you carefully do a very light coat of ModPodge after first spray sealing then the classic inks don't smear or bleed. If you want a heavier coat of ModPodge then you need to go back and apply a second coat once the first coat is dry. The decorative paper I applied on the inside compartments of the tray is from Summer Picnic Designer Papers which is available in the current Occasions Mini. I love the way the cherries in the paper match the stamps!






Here is another photo of a similar Ikea item, this one a wooden desk organizer which I left in the natural finish before stamping. The colors don't show up as well on the natural finish as they do on the painted white background. I had to use StazOn inks to do the stamping for this one before of the slick finish. I made this well over a year ago but it still looks great and I keep it on the back of my stamping table all the time. I used images from "Doodle This" stamp set, the big doodle image seemed perfect to put in the corners.






This week-end I had the opportunity to participate in a big Open House at the Scott AFB Arts and Crafts Center where I teach stamping and scrapbooking classes as an independent contractor. I especially enjoy being able to go to the Open House and show people what they can do with stamping....it's so fun to see the looks on their faces while they watch a card created before their very eyes. I got a big stack of "single layer" quick and easy cards made while demonstrating two step stamping AND I managed to get about 20 Christmas cards embossed with Merry Christmas on the front and a Christmas sentiment on the inside. So, 20 down and about 70 to go! Before you get too impressed, I have to confess that these are the cards I started for Christmas 2006 and have yet to finish! I got all of the stamping and watercoloring of the images from Festive Friends done by Oct/Nov of '06 and then things got a little crazy and I didn't work on them until after Christmas when I managed to get the background wheeled on to the front. This week-end I worked on trimming the images to get them layered (yet to be done, sure hope that I have enough Cranberry Crisp cardstock from the 2006 In Colors to do it!) and I started embossing the greetings in gold. It looks so good! Maybe I'll have them finished in time to actually send them out for Christmas 2008? Wouldn't that be something!

After the Open House, I came home and my husband and I rolled up our sleeves to move EVERYTHING out of our kitchen as the home remodeling began early this morning. We spent most of Saturday evening and all of Sunday afternoon and evening "shoveling" and I finished up this morning just as the construction crew arrived. We are excited to be getting a beautiful new kitchen but ugh, getting everything out and stashed something was a headache. Where did we ever get all that stuff???? We'll be weeding out a lot of it when it comes time to put everything back in place but this week-end we were scrambling to haul it all out and there was no time for sorting. It will be weird to be without a full kitchen for so long (they estimate 6 weeks) and I suspect that after a while, even our 17 yr old son will grow tired of carry out food. In the meantime, I will enjoy not having to wash dishes since the only sink available will be the one in the bathroom! At least now I won't have to spend a lot of time thinking about what to fix for dinner....it's either PBJ's, Cheerios or carry out! At least, that's my plan! I will have a "makeshift kitchen" set up in the dining room with our fridge, a toaster oven and the microwave so I can still make my hot tea in the morning (one must have caffeine if one is to endure the noise of all that banging and hammering!) and we can have the occasional microwave entree from Sam's Club. As they started tearing things apart this morning, I realized that I hadn't taken any "before" photos so I ran in with my camera and snapped a few shots....will have to remind myself to take pictures as they go along.

2 comments:

Sharon Bridwell said...

Jan, such cute projects! I guess I need to make another trip to IKEA (like I need a reason..LOL). Thanks for sharing!
Sharon
www.roamingstamper.blogspot.com

Staciestamps said...

These projects are gorgeous. Thanks for the inspiration!

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