Color Chart Reference Mini Book

Happy Sunday Everyone!

I hope you are having a blessed day!

Today I have a fun little project to share with you that was not only fun to make, but had me thinking outside the box on materials and final use.

I recently came across these awesome vinyl ID badges from EID Badges.  I've used these before in jobs I have had for their traditional usage -- to hold your corporate ID badge and/or key card.  These are super nice quality, top loading holders.  They have holes at the top for a chain and a slot to attach a lanyard or key fob.

As I was looking at these, I realized they would make nice "pages" for a mini album/brag book/photo album.  However, I'm not a big scrap booker, and most of my pictures that I carry with me are on my phone.

And then it hit me.  These would be perfect to hold color swatches of all the mediums I use in my arts and crafts projects and would be easily portable in my purse.  That would give me a quick and easy reference when I'm out and about and have that 40% coupon burning a hole in pocket or stumble across a great sale.  So I set out to make my mini color reference charts.  This is going to be so much easier to carry with me instead of all the bigger charts and books I currently have going in my studio.

These particular badge holders hold a maximum insert size of 3 x 4".  I cut some Neenah solar white card stock and water color paper to 2 3/4" x 4".

Then I got busy making color charts.  I made reference charts for my Copic markers, Tombow brush markers, Inktense blocks and pencils, Stampin Up ink pads, Distress ink pads, Color Bloom sprays, Dylusions Sprays, Gelatos and my new Neocolor II wax pastels/crayons.

For the covers of my book, I doubled up some chip board and covered it with some sturdy and super pretty printed card stock.  I used some scrap pieces for the inside covers.  Since this booklet is for me and is just going to get thrown in my purse, I just used my ATG gun and tape as my adhesive.  Normally when making an album for someone else or to list in my Etsy shop, I would use a combination of wet glue and Scor Tape for extra security and staying power.  For my binding method, I chose to go simple and sturdy with eyelets and book rings.

Since this booklet is going to live in my purse and got jostled about, I knew I needed to keep the decorations and embellishments to a minimum.  I would normally use lots of pretty ribbon and lace and paper flowers on my covers, but those would obviously not stand up to the rigors of living in my purse!  Instead, I selected some pretty buttons from my stash and stacked and hot glued them to the cover for a little extra interest.

The real "beauty" of this project and binding system is that at any time, I can add bigger book rings, more pages, and additional charts as needed.  Plus, the charts can be easily updated since they slide in and out of the badge holders easy peasy.

For a closure to the booklet, I simply used a pretty pink (and sturdy) hair elastic.  How's that for repurposing??  :)

I hope you enjoyed this project and it encourages you to think outside the box on both the materials you use and the final use for something.  I did film a flip through and explanation of this project as well.  Please click on the image below to view the video. 

Thanks for looking at my blog. I appreciate all the wonderful comments everyone leaves. Happy Crafting!

WOYWW 315 / Doodle Mania / Design Team News

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

It's a rainy day here in south Texas as we continue to deal with Tropical Storm Bill.  While the coast has had it much tougher, I've just had waves of rain yesterday and again this morning.  So thankful, as it could have been much worse.

What else is happening on this Wednesday?  Well, WOYWW, of course!  Scratching your head and wondering what I mean?  WOYWW stands for What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday and is hosted by the lovely Ms. Julia over at Stamping Ground.  Lots of creative souls link up photos showing their work spaces.  It's a ton of fun.  Make sure you pop over there and check it out.

Lately I have been fascinated with doodle art, flowers and hand lettering.  Zentangling interests me also, but I think it might be a tad too tedious for me.  I'm a big fan of Joanne Sharpe's work (check her out at Whimspirations).  When I saw she was doing a new online class this summer called Bloomin' Doodles, I took the plunge and enrolled.  Our first class was Monday, so what you see on my desk are some "inspiration" pieces and my first stab at doodling some of the motifs I found around my house.

 Here's a closeup of my attempts.  Not too shabby, but definitely room for improvement.  I'm looking forward to class number two today!

You might also notice that my home made video camera stand is also on my desk (the pvc pipe contraption).  That's because I was also filming a video yesterday.  I was recently selected to serve in round two of the Design Team for the Kraaft Shaak.  I'm super excited about this opportunity, and Monday my box of mixed media goodies arrived!  As a design team member, we are given these items to use in our monthly projects.  Amazing stuff!  You can get these fun mixed media kits as well at the Kraaft Shaak store.

Have a giggle and check out my video where I investigate my box contents.  And stay tuned for my DT projects in July, August and September!




Have a fabulous week!

Thanks for looking at my blog. I appreciate all the wonderful comments everyone leaves. Happy Crafting!

Tag It Tuesday Linky Party

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

It's time for our monthly altered tag linky party!

This month's theme was On The Wings Of Summer.  Birds, butterflies, dragonflies, bumblebees...all the winged creatures you see flying about during the months of summer.  I chose to focus on butterflies because.....well, because I really like them!

As always, my tag started as a basic #5 manilla shipping tag.  This month I did not use a gessoed one.  I just used one straight out of the container!

For my background, I sprayed three colors of Dylusions Ink Sprays on the tag, followed by a general spritzing of water.  Then I just moved the tag around and let the colors blend.  Boy, are those inks super saturated with color!  I think I'll get some empty spray bottles and make some diluted versions of them.  Then I'll have the best of both worlds!

My next step after the tag was dry was to take my Dylusions Floral Medley stencil, place it over the tag and then spray with water.  I lifted the stencil, let the water sit for a bit, and then blotted it off.  This is the basic process of "ghost" stenciling.  I really love this effect.  I really like this stencil, too, and I'm not the only one!  I had some for sale in my Etsy shop and they sold out immediately!

Next, I took some soft gloss gel and mixed in the Art Ingredients purple mica powder.  I used this with my Dina Wakley "Daisies" stencil.  I don't know if I didn't mix the mica powder long enough, but I did notice that I had a somewhat spotted effect.  Maybe that's normal.  Either way, it turned out ok.

This is a different tag, but it shows the flecks of mica powder better.

Next up, paint splatter!  Of course!  I know many people use diluted paint and a paint brush, tapping the brush against another one to get the splatter.  I, however, have always used the old toothbrush method.  And I've had this little kids' toothbrush for ages for just that purpose!  Just dab it in your paint, and run your thumbnail through the bristles and voila!  Splatter extraordinaire!

I die cut some embossed butterflies with my Sizzix Embosslits "Beautiful Wings" from some coordinating colors of card stock.  Since bling is the thing for me, I had to dress some of the butterflies up.  A few I colored with my Wink of Stella pen.  A few I coated with clear glitter glue.  The big ones I coated completely with Liquitex Glass Beads.

I also added some Art Ingredients Glass Beads in Crystal randomly on the corners of the tag.  These were attached by adding some matte gel medium and then sprinkling the beads into it and wait for it to dry.

Then, it was just a matter of attaching my butterflies, adding some pink bling I had in my stash, and attaching some pretty ribbons!

Now it's your turn!  Link up your beautiful tags below, and be sure to visit the other participants and give them some blog love!  Have fun!



Thanks for looking at my blog. I appreciate all the wonderful comments everyone leaves. Happy Crafting!

Salted Backgrounds Tutorial

Happy Thursday Everyone!

Recently, I decided to do a little experimenting with a background technique I had never tried before.  That techninque is making fun, mottled backgrounds with salt!

I was going to try both epsom salts and table salt (sea salt version), but my epsom salts were already a pretty fine texture so I decided to just use that.  For my foundation, I used Strathmore Watercolor paper.

I decided to test a variety of color mediums to see how they reacted to the epsom salts.  Each time, my process was exactly the same -- I thoroughly sprayed the watercolor paper with plain water and then applied the color medium of choice.  Then I applied a sprinkling of the epsom salts and let the whole thing air dry naturally overnight.

The color mediums I used were Color Bloom Sprays, Dylusions Ink Sprays, Gelatos, Lindy's Stamp Gang Sprays, Stampin' Up Reinkers, Distress Paints, Distress Ink Pads, and finally (on camera on the video below), Distress Reinkers.  Here's a picture of all of my experiments drying.

Let's look at some close up photos of each of those individual experiments (click to enlarge).

Color Bloom Sprays

Distress Ink Pads direct to paper

Distress Paints

Dylusions Ink Sprays

Faber Castell Gelatos

Lindy's Stamp Gang Sprays

Stampin' Up reinkers

Of the above six color mediums I tried, I was the most pleased with the effect I got with the Stampin Up reinkers.  That was the exact mottled result that I expected.  However, I will say that the happy little surprise with each one was the shimmer that the epsom salts left behind.  After all, bling is a good thing, right??

For my on-camera experiment, I used Distress Ink reinkers.  All of my previous experiments were allowed to air dry.  As I worked on camera, I decided to try drying with my heat gun.  All the research I had done said NOT to use a heat gun because it would leave a cloudy residue.  So why not test that?  Well, below are the pictures of that.  The blue/green card is the one I did on camera and attempted to dry with my heat gun.  Because it was taking too long, I didn't finish on camera.  So after I finished filming, I briefly spritzed that card again with water and left it to dry.  Then I did another card with the Distress reinkers and did not apply any heated gun air to it at all.  The results were quite different.

When I removed the salt from the example on the left, there was very little mottling effect.  I was kind of disappointed, as I thought I would have the same pronounced effect I had with the SU reinkers.

Above is the example I had tried to dry with the heat gun.  Everywhere there were epsom salts, they kind of dissolved and remained soft and somewhat mushy on the paper.  You can see the detail of that in the above photo on the left side.  If I went to wipe this off, it simply smeared the overall effect and wasn't very pretty at all.  Moral of the story -- don't use your heat gun!

So sit back, relax, and watch the video!  Have some fun playing in your craft room today!




Thanks for looking at my blog. I appreciate all the wonderful comments everyone leaves. Happy Crafting!

Tag It Tuesday Theme for June

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

It's time for a new theme for our Tag It Tuesday adventures!

It's hard to believe it's June already and the year is about half gone.  Before you know it, we'll be talking about "those" holidays that occur later in the year.  But not YET!  It's still time to celebrate Spring and Summer and all that goes along with those warm months.  Of course, here in South Texas, they're all pretty much warm months!  :)

Our tag theme for June is "Wings of Summer."  Think birds, butterflies, dragonflies, bees, etc. -- all the things of nature we see flying about during the summer months.  This theme is also the same theme as the swap I'm hosting over at Junk Journal Junkies on Facebook.  If you're interested in that, come join the page and then click on the events tab to find my swap.

Here is some inspiration for you.

Have fun, and as always, don't be afraid to think outside that darn box!  The link up post will be published on June 16, so you have plenty of time to get creative!  I'm looking forward to seeing your fantastic creations!

Thanks for looking at my blog. I appreciate all the wonderful comments everyone leaves. Happy Crafting!