Inchies at Gingersnap Creations

Long time, no post!  Sorry for being so *gone* - as the rest of the world sends their children to school and gets lots of crafty time, mine are now home on their first quarter break (we go to school year-round here, and I love it, so no complaints).  So I've been a chauffeur more than a crafter, LOL! 

Anyway, I'm back in time to have a little fun with Gingersnap Creations.... the new challenge is Inchies.  I saw some 1" wooden cubes in our big box store the other day, and inspiration struck.... how about some inchie dice?  This is a fun idea to make and have sitting around on an end table or desk... just roll the dice and you have a revolving art display.  I must confess, originally I had planned on showing you about 6 dice.... but that's 36 inchies.... I'm not quite there yet, LOL! 

The technique is really simple - just make your inchies to your heart's content, then use gel medium or Modge Podge or some strong craft glue and adhere them to the cubes.  I did 5 sides at a time, leaving everything to dry before sticking the 6th one down.  It's kinda nice if you keep a theme or a color scheme in common, but there's lots of room for creativity here if you're tired of making your inchies into cards.  I used stamps, clip art, vintage text, vintage music, embossed images, paper flowers, and even a little bling (it makes them sit a little unevenly, but I'm okay with that).  I'm thinking of making a Hallowe'en themed set, then if I'm not inchied-out, I'll try for Christmas.:)

Hope you can play along at Gingersnap Creations.... all you need make is one teensy tiny little piece of art. ;)
I'll leave you with one more pic of the dice in a different arrangement.  Have a great Wednesday!

Pull Out Some Punches at Gingersnap Creations

It's time for the Wednesday Spicy Supply Challenge over at Gingersnap Creations, and this time the challenge is to use Punches.  I know that I sometimes tend to neglect my punches, so this was a fun one.  I wanted to keep with the current "Ancient Ages" theme at GC, so I pulled out my (sadly retired) Cornish Heritage Farms set called Reach 4 the Stars.  I stamped some images and my sentiment onto some Basic Grey "Basics" paper.  Then I made a masterboard of sorts with lots of the astronomy images from the set.  I used circle punches (3/4", 1", 1 1/4", 1 3/8") to punch both from my masterboard and from some black cardstock.  Then I just adhered the circles in a random order, using the black circles as shadows.  Oh, and of course, I distressed all the edges of everything in one way or another ;).  A little spinner from Sir Tim seemed appropriate to finish it off.

I hope you have time to pull some punches and play along!

Butterflies at Tag Tuesday

A fun little tag for Louise's Tag Tuesday "Butterflies" challenge over at Kard Krazy.  If you like butterflies, (even just a little bit) you will want to check out Louise's *gorgeous* butterfly tag book - Oh! My!  Absolutely stunning. (Be sure to check the challenge post and her newer post, which shows the inside.)

For my tag, I used my new Butterflies 2 Defined stamp from Red Lead (they are *so* becoming one of my fave companies, I tell ya.... another addiction), and some absolutely yummy paper from Crate Paper (the new Restoration Line, makes my mouth water).  Some Copics, lots of distressing (in both ink and edge distresser form), some rub-ons, some brads, some crochet trim, some vintage text.... all favorites. 

Hope you're having a fantastic weekend - the weather here is gorgeous (finally "only" in the 80s, LOL!).  I'm being naughty and doing nothing but reading outside on the deck, crafting, and watching the US Open (go Roger!).  Hope you're getting inky. :)

Paintchip Scraplings with Gingersnap Creations

Happy Friday everyone!  It's the beginning of a long weekend here in the US, and I am very much looking forward to some relaxing family time.  Today I'm sharing the scraplings I made for the current Gingersnap Creations art swap.  We were to use paintchips on our scraplings, but that was the only rule.  Now, as I visited other Gingersnappers' blogs, lots of folks kept remarking about how addicting these were.  I really didn't think anything of it, until I starting making them myself..... oh my! Yes! They are addicting, LOL!

For my scraplings, I used the rose spray from Stampin' Up's Elements of style on four of them.... the white ones are embossed, the brown are StazOn.  The birdie scraplings have stamps from Crafty Secrets, Cavallini, and Stampington.  Then I just started embellishing with rhinestones, pearls, glitter, microbeads, vintage text, punches, baker's twine.... yes, addicting! :)  You can click on the picture to make them bigger... I used the side of the paintchip that had the paint names for some of them, especially if they fit the theme, like "Rambling Rose" and "Rose Embroidery" and "Aviary" - so fun!  I may have to make more of these and add magnets to the bottoms, so that they can be bookmarks, with a little note inside, or maybe even a "library card" grid inside, so that you can lend out both the book and the bookmark, and have your friends "sign in", maybe even give the book a rating.  Lots of fun possibilities.

Hope everyone has a restful and relaxing weekend planned, and that Hurricane Earl doesn't ruin it for anyone! (Our skies are sunny, about 250 miles away from the storm on the Carolina coast).

Ancient Ages at Gingersnap Creations

Hello everyone..... sorry for being a bad blogger recently.  I am back in the saddle with a little project for Gingersnap Creations' new theme for this month - Ancient Ages.  What a fun one this was for me.... I absolutely love Greece, and have been collecting Greek images and ephemera for a while, intending to use them in a few scrapbooks of our trips.  One was finished a while ago, the other..... well, let's just say at least the photos are organized (but still in the box...... from 1997... yeah, that bad!!!).  Anyway, I used a stamped image of the Erechtheion temple in Athens (from Echoes des Voyages), text from an article on Greek currency from an 1887 issue of Atlantic Monthly Magazine, along with some astronomy stamps (CHF), a Greek key punch (Fiskars), and some paper with a map of Greece.  Oh, and that little Greek key paperclip from Stampin' Up.  This will get tucked into a scrapbook someday, I swear!

I hope you can join us - as always, the theme is waaaay open to interpretation, so you can have lots of fun with it.  Hop on over and have a look.  Happy Wednesday. :)