gift card card

A friend of mine from high school has a daughter who is getting married next week. We cannot break away to travel to the wedding, but I do appreciate the invitation. (And I will miss the chance to see my friend, who I haven't seen for years! She moved across the country, and I seldom make it 'home', even though it is 'only' a 10-hour drive.)

This is the card we are sending to them. It is plum and cream, because the invitation was printed on cream paper with plum ink. I am guessing that plum is one of the bride's colors.



I wanted to send the bride and groom a gift of some sort, but not knowing what they need, I decided a gift card may be just what they can use.

The card I made for them holds a gift card. The layout for the card, with the little slot to hold a gift card, was shown to me by my Stampin' Up demonstrator, Pauline. She got the idea from Dawn' Stamping Thoughts, who showed how to make the card via a video demonstration. I changed the dimensions a bit, so that my card fits in an A2 envelope. The LOVE layer is popped up on dimensional dots, and it holds the card closed. The upper flap on the card folds down and tucks behind the LOVE layer.



The Applebee's gift card in the photos is not the card I will be sending to them. I need to run to the grocery store to see if I can find a Target gift card. (I can't run to Target to buy the card, since there is not one here, but there is one near where the bride and groom live. If I can't find the appropriate gift card, they may end up with an Applebee's gift card. ;-) )



Stuff used:

Stamps: LOVE and internal sentiment from old Inkadinkadoo "Wedding" set; Flower from Stampin' Up "Fifth Avenue Floral"
Paper: Classic Crest Neenah Classic Cream, Stampin' Up Pale Plum and Perfect Plum
Ink: Colorbox Frost White with Stampin' Up vanilla embossing powder
Other: Corner rounder punch, Stampin' Up Word Window punch, dimensional dots, red sticky tape

raspberries

One of the few things I like about July is raspberries. When we moved into our house, one of the first things I planted were some raspberry canes. We didn't plant a lot, but we did plant enough canes so we can enjoy fresh berries most every summer. This year has been a pretty good year for our raspberries.



We usually enjoy our berries over ice cream (if there are a few berries) or under ice cream (if there are a lot of berries), but the other day, Ed suggested I purchase cream and make "those desert things". He meant shortcakes. Good idea! I forgot how pleasant it is to make old-fashioned, biscuit-type shortbread from scratch.

I left the shortcakes in the oven about a minute too long, so they were a little bit too brown, but Ed didn't seem to mind. He said it was a good meal. Yes, we had raspberry shortcake in place of dinner last night. We will eat something healthy tonight.

sea breeze and silver necklace

This necklace started out as something different, then changed directions as I worked on it.



The glass beads are from a set I picked up at Michaels for $2.00. The box had some ugly silver beads but the glass ones looked nice. For this necklace, the beads are strung on eye pins, which are joined together. Half way up, the seed beads are strung on regular beading wire.

I never had luck bending wires into loops in the past. Then I purchased the correct tool... round nose pliers. Boy, what a difference the right tool can make! I love my new chain nose pliers too.

Pretty soon, I plan to work on the necklace with the pendant that I was going to use for this one before I changed my mind.

gold leopard beaded necklace

I purchased a gold leopard pendant at Michaels in June when it went on sale.

When we were out of town for a funeral later that month, we went to a big Jo Ann store to look for some stuff for Ed, and while we were there, I looked at beads. I found some wood tubes on clearance. After we returned home, I purchased the small round wood beads to compliment the tubes. After completing the leopard necklace, I had plenty of beads left over, so I made a second necklace that can be worn with the one with the pendant, or worn separately.



The pendant looks like copper in the photo, but it is an antiqued gold color. Ed told me that he likes the "back" side (shown above) of the pendant better than the "front" side (shown below). When the pendant was attached to a card for display, the shiny side was showing. The "back" side has a texture to it, and I think I like it better too, but both look good.

beaded necklace

Jo Ann has had beads and findings on sale for about a week, and it prompted me to do some beading projects. Sometimes I want to work on a project I can do on the sofa in the living room. The living room is cooler than my craft room. It has been hot lately, so I haven't been spending much time in my craft room.

I made this necklace last week. I wore it to Pauline's retirement party, and she noticed it and liked it.



The striped glass beads are ones that I purchased at Michaels a couple of years ago. I liked them, but I had no idea what I was going to do with them. Then I started laying them out with black seed beads, and the project told me it needed gold beads. So, I purchased some gold filigree beads, and when they were placed between the glass beads the design felt right to me.

shack roof done

I finally got the short roof glued to the shack!

And the upper window and trim is glued in place too!



See how real it looks, with the ribs running the correct direction?



If a 1/12th scale person stands under the edge of the roof and it rains, the little person will get wet, since the water will run off the roof, instead of pooling up on the roof and seeping into places it should not. :-)

The exposed rafters may be a good place to attach some hanging flower baskets. Hmmm....



I didn't show this before, but this is how I did the upstairs ceiling. I glued the strips from a bamboo place mat to pieces of card stock, pulled out the strings that held the mat together, and cut the strips to length to fit between the front and back walls snugly. I painted the strips then glued them to the shack.



I wanted a smooth transition between the walls and the ceiling, and I think I obtained my goal. I did not want to simply wallpaper or paint the underside of the corrugated roof piece, since there would be little ledges at the tops of the side walls. If you look the pictures from my previous post, you can see little spacers glued on tops of the walls, and they are glued outside of the ceiling. At the side edges of the roof, there is a 1/8" space between the ceiling and the roof. At the top, the ceiling and roof do touch each other. I fussed with and adjusted the curve of the ceiling so that the spacing of the slats was even and there were no big gaps.



The shack is ready for occupancy.

Building was fun. The accessorizing will be less fun. I have some tricky things to create from scratch.

shack roof attachment

Last week, I worked on the Shack's roof. While the paint was drying on the new section, I glued some strips of siding to the overhang, so that when little people look up at the overhang from the ground, they will see wood, not the backside of the cardboard roofing. I also attached a piece of wood, cut from the kit's die-cut leftovers, to make a little brace to help support the roof and keep it from sagging in the middle.



A funny thing is that I cut and stained pieces of wood for the overhang, and while they were drying, I looked for the window trims I knew I had cut and stained earlier. I found that I had aready cut and stained some wood for the overhang too, but I had not glued it to the shack yet! This is why projects should not sit neglected for too long! A person forgets where she left off! Oh well, it wasn't a big waste of time, and I didn't waste a lot of wood by making two sets of the same thing.

I also glued the big curved roof to the shack.



Of course, I had to use clamps. I stuck skewers through the corrugations in the areas I used the clamps to keep from smashing the corrugations. I also was reminded why I had not glued the upper window 'glass' and trims in place, since the window opening served as a good place to position clamps.

retirement card

My Stampin' Up demonstrator and friend, Pauline, is retiring from her day job, and her retirement party is today. Of course, I had to make her a card.

I used a stamp from one of her favorite stamp sets, "Sketches", which was available for a short time, long ago. She had never purchased it for herself! She knows she can borrow mine any time.



Inside the card, it says "Congratulations, let the relaxation begin (happy retirement)"

Stuff used:
Stamps: Stampin' Up "Sketches", sentiment inside from "Congrats"; outside sentiment from "Kitty Silhouettes" set by Stampendous
Paper: Stampin' Up Bashful Blue, Naturals Ivory, Close to Cocoa
Ink: Versafine Vintage Sepia, Prismacolor pencils

TCPTUES67

This week's The Cat's Pajamas Rubberstamps challenge is hosted by Carole, who challenged us to use this sketch to make a card.

Last week, I used Alma's newest stamp sets to make my card, and I wanted to use the "Happy Camper" set again, but this time I wanted to use the adorable squirrel (my favorite stamp in the set) and use a woodsy theme. Then the card took on a life of its own. I am sure that Alma would never have thought to combine her stamp sets this way!

The squirrel, trees, and some of the grass are from the "Happy Camper" set. The mushrooms and another grass are from the "Spring Fling" set. The "Bang" text is from "It's a Western Thing" set.

I strayed from the sketch a bit, since I made my card a "standard" A2 sized card, instead of making it square.



No squirrels were harmed in making this card. Traumatized, maybe, but not harmed.

Stuff used:
Stamps: The 3 sets described above by The Cat's Pajamas, "Big Pieces" from Stampin' Up and a pencil eraser to make the targets, Papertrey's "Faux Ribbon" to make crosshairs
Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar white and Classic Cream; Stampin' Up Creamy Caramel, Old Olive, Summer Sun, Chocolate Chip; acetate sheet protector from my stash
Ink: Versafine Onxy Black and Vintage Sepia; Timber Brown Stazon (to stamp on acetate) Stampin Up: various inks from the Earth Elements family and Real Red; Prismacolor Pencils
Other: 1 3/8" circle punch, circle Nestabilities, Cuttlebug "Forest Branches" embossing folder, glue dots for adhering the acetate to its frame and the card.

...somethings old

When my parents downsized two years ago, Ed helped clear out Dad's shop. Dad got to keep a few of his hand tools, but most of his things were given away. Some small power tools were set aside for my nephew, and Ed took some stuff too, of course. When Ed was tinkering in the garage a couple of weekends ago, he came across some of the things he had brought home.

Little boxes can be fun to open! Let's look inside!



The Dremel box contains....



a Dremel!

This one looks very similar to Ed's Dremel, but Ed's tool is not variable speed. The copyright date on the booklet says '82, so this tool is not all that old. It also explains why Dad asked me if Ed's Dremel was variable speed when I talked about using it. Ed does have a speed controller, which the dremel plugs into, so I thought that is what was meant by 'variable speed when Dad asked about it. I had not realized that Ed's Dremel was inferior!

----------------

The contents of the burgundy box contains....



An old moto tool! I am not sure how old this thing is. It is not a Dremel brand, but I cannot figure out what brand it is because most of the label has been worn off, and the letters that do remain on the label don't fit the name, Dremel.

Gosh, the old box is so much cooler than the modern plastic ones. My moto tool came in a blister pack. Ya get whatcha pay for. I was wondering how to store the bits and pieces that came with my moto tool, and I considered making a little box to hold them.

----------------

This brings us to the next boxes. They look handmade, and look like things my dad would have built.



Remove the paper sleeve, swing open the lid....




Omigosh!

All those bits so neatly organized! And he even sized the box to hold a little tin and a little box that hold little wheels and such.



The box is made of balsa.

My idea to make a container to hold my fake Dremel's bits shows that wanting to make little boxes to hold stuff must be a genetic trait.

Below is another example of a custom-made box to hold tools.



These boxes sure beat having tools rolling around in the bottom of a drawer! Those drill bits are dangerous!

I will share more of Dad's tools in a later post. We are waiting on some new parts for one of them. :-)

Somethings new...

I am waiting for paint to dry, so I thought I would take a few pictures.

This week, two mail order packages arrived for orders I had placed last week.

I placed an order with Rockler for some 1/8 inch thick exotic hardwoods. There were many to choose from, but I showed some restraint and ordered only 5. These will be scroll-sawed and turned into ornaments, similar to these and these, which I shared here last December. Hopefully, in October, I can pick up some more wood. It turns out that there is a Woodcraft store in Spokane, and if I time things right, I may be able to stop in there after I attend the Spokane miniature club's workshop which I have signed up for. Woodcraft stores carry exotic hardwoods. Actually, our local Ace store has recently started carrying hardwoods, but the packages are too large (and too expensive) for my needs. Not that this wood was cheap! I already have all the 'cheap' varieties!



These woods I got from Rocker are (from left to right): Spanish Cedar, African Mahogany, Kiaat, Bolivian Rosewood, and Narra. I am not sure which is my favorite yet, since I haven't put any though the saw yet. (Not only does wood need to look good, but it has to behave. )

These boards measure 5 inches wide by 24 inches long. They are bigger than I need, but after I cut ornaments from them, I can still admire the beauty of the grain, and maybe use them for other projects. :-) Once we have a table saw running (more about that some day) I will have more options for cutting wood.



An order from Micro-Mark arrived too. I like to catch their summer sales, since just about everything is some percentage off. I re-stocked some of my basswood. (No picture, since I already put it away.) I like that the strip wood comes in packages of 2, 5 or 10, because I can keep the strips and scraps together in the packages and not lose track of what is what.

I also ordered some small tools: A square, some drill bits, and a pin vise. I already had a square, drill bits, and a pin vise, but not in these sizes. What I like about this new square is that it is thinner than my 'normal' square so if I lay it over a 1/16th inch thick piece of wood, it lies flat on the table. I have always had to hang the edge of the square over the edge of my table when I wanted to used it as a cutting guide for my X-acto knife, and the edge of my table has nicks in it to prove it! My other pin vise is smaller and holds smaller drill bits. This new set holds bits up to 1/8" diameter. Now won't have to borrow Ed's drill bits when I need a larger size.





Speaking of borrowing Ed's tools.... I won't have to borrow his Dremel as often anymore, since he bought me my own little moto tool a couple of months ago. It cost all of $9.99. We figured that the bits alone were worth the price. I like the small size, since it can fit in my toolbox when I go to a workshop. There are times when I have needed to drill holes at a workshop, and this tool should make the process much more pleasant!

Happiness is....

Happiness is finding a package in the mail from a friend!

When I opened my mailbox today, I was delighted to find a key to one of the parcel lockers, which meant I had a package. The package was tubular, and when I saw it was from Kat, I knew exactly what it was.

(Envision me skipping with joy to the house, waving the package like a baton. Well, okay, so I didn't actually skip, but I am sure I had a big grin on my face.)

I haven't been near my worktable for weeks and weeks until today, when I placed the cylindrical surprise upon it to take this photograph.



You can see that I left a mess. At the time I stopped working on the contents of my shack, I had every intention of getting back to it the very next day. It really does look like a mess to me instead of "the evidence of creativity". However, the contents of the tube may contain the motivation I need to get back to working on the shack!

(Insert drum roll here.)

It is a piece of corrugated cardboard! And it matches my cardboard roof pieces perfectly. (Mine has been painted, so of course the color is different right now.)



Kat decided she was going to use something metallic for her Greenleaf's roof. She offered to send me her large piece of roofing since she had no need for it. I did and do want it, since it is big enough to cover the short roof area, with the ribs going the right way! I had pondered over and ranted about the design error on Day 28 and Day 41 when I was building the shack. By the way, I never did hear back from Greenleaf about obtaining another piece of roofing. Either Greenleaf ignored my question, or the reply was deleted as spam.

I plan on letting the new piece of cardboard relax for a day. It remembers being wound up in the tube. Kat shipped it the best way possible, since it arrived in perfect shape. I hope to clear off the table and get the new piece cut to size, then I can paint it and get it glued to the shack! If the shack has a roof, it will be more noticeable that there are no contents yet!

Thank you, Kat! You made my day! My shack probably thanks you too! After all, it is your fault I ordered the kit. (Blame, credit, it is all the same when it comes to enabling other miniaturists!)

TCPTUES66

This week's TCP Tuesday challenge is hosted by Susan, who challenged us to use one of Alma's newest sets, Happy Camper.

This set is so fun! All the stamps are adorable, so it was hard to choose which ones to use. I finally decided to use the Skunk stamp, like Susan did, because it fit the sketch I wanted to use. The layout is based on the SC236 sketch challenge over at splitcoaststampers. When I am in a card-making rut, the sketch challenges often helps me find a place to start. This time I actually stayed with the sketch.



I had to have the skunk hold a flower. Some flowers stink, so the flower and the sentiment go together nicely.

I used the flower stamp in three places-- I masked the skunk's hand so that the flower could be held; I made the background on the pink layer by randomly stamping the flower all over; and I also stamped the flower below the sentiment.

I like black, white, and pink together, and I had to add a bit of gray to make it feel right.

I made the skunk a girl skunk by coloring her stripe pink.

Stuff used:
Stamps: Skunk, flower, and sentiment all from "Happy Camper" set by The Cat's Pajamas Rubber Stamps
Paper: Stampin' Up Basic Black, Basic Gray, Pretty in Pink; gingham paper by Making Memories; Neenah Classic Crest Solar White
Ink: Versafine Onxy Black, Colorbox Frost White, Prismacolor pencils, Cool Gray 40% Prismacolor marker

TCPTUES65

This week's The Cat's Pajamas card challenge is hosted by Jen, who challenged us to use the color combination of Teal, Sunshine, and Raspberry.

I don't have any inks or papers that are technically called "Raspberry", so I had to make due with what I have.

It is funny that these colors were screaming for me to use the "Relaxing" stamp with Sprinkle in her floatie with her favorite beverage. But after seeing that many of the TCP design team members used that stamp for this week's challenge, I decided to challenge myself to do something different. Sprinkle did insist on being on this card, though. I even stamped her 9 times! Cats do have 9 lives, after all.



I had the layout of the card in my mind before I worked on it. I calculated all the measurements so that the borders would all be even. Then as I was cutting square after square and tossing them onto the card front in their approximate locations, I decided that I liked the wonky placement. I had already glued the "Meow" part of the card by the time I made this decision, so I let the Meow be orderly. The squares with the pink mats are all lined up "properly" too, so there is some continuity.

Stuff used:
Stamps: The Cat's Pajamas "Little Sprinkle", and letters from the "Nightie" set
Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Stampin' Up Summer Sun and Taken With Teal, Pink paper from unknown source
Ink: Versafine Onxy Black, Palette Claret