This Mothers Day Card was inspired by my Mom's love of sewing. A few years ago she bought a new Bernina and I don't think that baby has gotten much rest since in came into her home.  She's even teaching my Niece and Nephew to sew.  Anyways, this one is for her.  I used Basicgrey Stella Rose for the background.  The Mother's Day Cartridge on my cricut was utilized for the Die Cut.  And of course I thank Becca Feeken at Amazingpapergrace.com for her amazing bow tutorials.  I really like the look of the ribbon hanging off the card.  Since I'll be hand delivering this one it won't get smushed in the mail.  Although one of Becca's tips is to use a padded envelope for mailing her wonderful creations.  I added one of my homemade hat pins for a bit of sparkle.


Thanks for stopping by and I wish each of you a wonderful and very Happy Mother's Day!

I'm always on the prowl for Tips and Tricks in Scrapbooking

You know when you found a GREAT site when you check it EVERY DAY and are a little bit bummed when there isn't a new post on the weekends.  I have a few of those but the one I want to share with you today is My Craft Channel.  I've been to many many CK Conventions and one lady that always impresses me is Shelby Dredge from Embellish it.  Shelby does a daily Tips show at this site, it's usually only a couple of minutes long, but I've never been disappointed.  
Now My Craft Channel has several shows that cover many interests in crafting.  They also have a deal of the day (which I'm currently waiting for a purchase - p.s. it's a Christmas Present waiting to be completed for someone special).
Another show on this site that I wait with anticipation for....is....Photo Freedom with Stacy Julian.  I bought her book Photo Freedom a while back and promptly converted all my scrapbooks.  See my previous post here for a look.  I can now lay my hands on any layout I've done previously and know without flipping through album after album.  Bonus....I can find pictures of specific people/events too!
Anyways, I just wanted to pass this site along to you and I hope you get as much out of it as I do! 

Storing Ribbon

Ribbon, what can I say, there is so many colors, patterns and sizes!  My collection is average (always in need of growing), although I've seen some scrappers who have massive addictions, truly drool worthy.  I've seen many ways of storing it and I've tried some of those but I feel I've found a permanent home for my ribbon. 

I've tried ribbon cards like these and bigger ones like this,

plastic bags holding ribbon, leaving them on their original cards.  I've seen the ribbon holders from Simply Rene clip it up seen here and otheres seen here and here but none of these appeal to me and the way I store my supplies.

So I've resorted to these

I found these at Michaels in the crafts section.  I wound my ribbon around each clothes pin and doing this I

a.  got rid of the crease marks from those flat cards

b.  don't need to iron the ribbon

c.  can separate those collections ribbon

d.  enjoyed the relaxing task of winding ribbon

e.  admire how cute they look

f.  can grab them one at a time as needed easily

This is how I have them stored right now

but this is how I hope to have them stored as soon as I get enough jars

I'm one of those people who has to have everything in sight - out of sight, out of mind - So this works for me!  I would love to hear what works for you!

Button Tips

I just adore buttons!  But...I like them to look sewn on.  A layout with buttons that aren't sewn on just makes me crazy.  We all have those little quirks and this is mine.  With that said, I have found a few ways to make sewing on buttons a little easier and thought I would share.

My first share is using beading needles.  You can find them in the bead section of the craft store. 

They are connected at the ends and the middle is open.  I put one of my favorite gems in the center to make this point.

Often, when I have more than one button, I just thread and tie them all in a row.

Afterwards I snip the ends with my favorite Tonic scissors.  These things are super sharp and cut ribbon and floss without leaving those little snags.                                     

My favorite adhesive to use to secure buttons down is Zots Medium glue dots.                               

I hope this inspires you to break out your buttons and sew them down!!!!!!  If you choose not to sew them... well....I promise not to hold it against you!  Lol  Have a great day! 

Don't Make my Embossing Mistake

I love the look of embossing! Heat embossing especially. Now, I mostly use clear embossing powder because of the versatility:

1. With pigment ink, my embossing color is chosen by ink color. And I have a big collection of pigment ink.
2. With versamark ink the embossing color is the same as the background paper, another way to save.
3. Again with versamark you can create a resist for inking or using those wonderful glimmer mists.

Now for my mistake:
This is a great tool ..
unless... you use different colors of embossing powder like clear, white and BLACK and don't wash it between colors. I'm not a complete slob, I mean, I wipe it out but that powder just sticks to every stinking surface, up the sides and especially at the spout. My scrap space is in the basement so I avoid running up the stairs at all costs.


This is what you get when you don't wash out the tray
The clear embossing powder jar on the left is brand spankin new and the right one is my mistake.


So why did I buy a new jar when I still had some left? you ask? Well, I used the clear embossing powder with versamark on a dry embossed white cardstock and was wondering why it looked "muddy" when I was done. Thankfully I was using this technique as a resist so it didn't stand out like a neon light, once I sprayed glimmer mist over it. Here's the card I made, you can't really tell, because like a good scrapper, I covered my oops with an embellie (the flower)


See how the white on the left side isn't quite white white?
So my solution is to only use the tray for black embossing powder and use these little plastic containers (that The Angel Company Stamps come in) and keep the powder ready to use. And I labeled each one so I don't confuse white and clear embossing powder.