Archive for the ‘Tools of the Trade’ Category

I had the privilege to go to a Tim Holtz (this is his blog) workshop when he was in the area a while back. Stamp Asylum (this is their blogspot) in Plano had a great turn out.

It officially started my Tim Holtz fever.  Oh, I liked his stuff before (thanks to my bff, Phyllis) but this workshop really kicked it into high gear.

I officially made myself a Tim Holtz drawer in my Jetmax cube mania.  One reason is because I had accumulated so much of his “stuff” I needed a place to keep it organized.

And it is the first drawer at the top of that set of Jetmax cubes.

It is already stuffed with Tim Holtz “stuff” to create with and of course you just have to have the “stuff”.

Actually, I am so impressed with his line.  It is true quality “stuff”.  No, I don’t get paid to say that or get anything free from them.  Just a good honest opinion.

For me I like the fact that he takes the time to plan the “stuff” out so it works with each other and they can be used with each other in several different ways.  It is also planned that the new works with the old.

I’m loving the grundge paper so much more than the grundge board.

I even have a notebook especially for his stamps, which by the way are great Christmas and Birthday gifts (thank you Phyllis).

Yeah, he is such a nice guy and I love the fact that he takes time to take pictures with people he barely knows.

Thanks Tim for all your inspiration and sharing your gift!

I took the Vagabond out of the box and Henry had to get in it before anything or anyone else could touch it.

So cute!

It came in this box in  the box above.  This is not as big as I thought it was going to be.

It is really a cute way to promote the machine.  For those of you that are asking …I love it! But wait it looks like a new suit case not a well traveled one.

Yes, it comes with all the stickers that you need to make it look authentic.

Now that is more like it.  It takes a little getting use to and I have not figured out all of the sandwiches and shims that you need but it makes embossing a lot easier.  If you have arthritis this is a must.

I need to get my February calendar done so I can get it posted.  Phyllis beat me and I’m was suppose to have this up by the 22nd.

Shucks!  I am having all kinds of trouble getting my pictures off Picasa onto my blog.  It tells me that they have uploaded and posted but when I go in to pull them into the post, they are not there.  They are hanging out in cyberspace somewhere.

Unfortunately, my IT guy (my great SIL) is not available until next week.

So, I’m posting items of what is already uploaded to my media files.  Aren’t these stamps so cute and they only cost a $1 each at M’s.

Click the picture and take a closer look.  I will tell you I do not walk into M’s that I don’t search out where the $1 stamps are and check out any new ones.  They (in my opinion) are a steal at a $1 for the quality.     Thanks M’s!

As most of you know I have a “Woman Cave” full of Jet Max Cube.  I was so excited when I walked down an aisle at M’s and found the dividers for the Jet Max Cube drawers.

They come looking like this but it is pretty obvious how to put them together; however, they also have a page that gives you the instructions.

They make the drawers look so nice and neat and they really do help keep all those little things in their place.

What better way to use such an awesome drawer than for all the “Distressed” stuff from Tim Holtz.  Now everything I need is right in one drawer.  Yeah, I don’t have any of the new colors but when I get them I’m just going to stack them up in the like color cubes.

I almost have the little monkey card done (it is so cute).  I was going to upload some pictures and make it a two part posting because it is a little long, but Picasa is not working tonight (ugh!).  I don’t know if it is because of my laptop or Windows 7 or something else but I can’t get the pictures uploaded.  I’ll try again tomorrow.

This just blows me away.  About once a year I get a package in the mail from Kable Products, in Fairfield, Ohio.

I received these Kimberly Hodges, Embossed Stickers.  They are really cute but for the life of me, I don’t know how they got my name and address or why they send it to me.

At my church (Elevate) we are currently in the process of 40 days of kindness leading up to Easter.  I don’t know if I’m just more aware of random acts of kindness because I’m doing my best to pass them out or if because I am showing the love, God is returning the blessings.  Either way if you sent me this RAK, thanks it absolutely made my day.  I can’t wait to use these on a card or maybe include them in my GS or GD’s albums.

Also, if you sent me this let me know I would love to return the blessing to you.

Over at Cardzforu.blogspot.com, Mary showed where she  found these ruled index cards at Walmart for about $.97.  You can take them and cut them in half and they make perfect little journaling cards.

A little bit of inking on the sides, a rub-on or a hole with some ribbon in it and you have the perfect size of journaling card.

You can change the color by simply using distressed inks to add a little color or maybe mist them with some Perfect Pearls and a little distress re-inker.

I’ll try this and show you how they come. Hmm, I’m wondering if I could get these to work for making a flower.  I’ll try my hand at that too!  Can’t wait to see how these come out.

The two small ones are $1 stamps at M’s and the large one is various definitions.

The larger one I got with the M’s 40% off coupon and I’m going to be using it for a background stamp.

There are some new techniques with distressed inks that I want to try, so keep tuning in to see where these stamps show up.

If you haven’t seen my “Woman Cave” here is the link.  I fell in love with these JetMax cubes simply because they house all the stuff you need for crafts in a very orderly way and there are so many versions of the cube to meet every organizational need you could have for a craft room.

Since Christmas and my Birthday I ran out of space to store some items so I decided to add more JetMax cubes.  These cubes run about $29.99 retail (or as I say $30.00) at M’s; however, I wait until I get a 40% off coupon and they are not on sale (when they put them on sale they are usually only 30% off).

My TV sat on my desk and all of the drawers underneath it are full of Cricut cartridges.

If you look underneath my desk you can see the edge of my printer.  It is setting on a plastic two shelf stand on rollers.  Needless to say the printer is bigger than the stand and so it shakes when I use it to print.

Ok, I confess I’ve added 3 new JetMax cubes to the 21 I already had making me a grand total of 24.  I added this 3 drawer underneath the TV.  Yes that is Barefoot Contessa on the screen.

I decided to see how long it would take me to put this little 14.25″ square box together.  Now let me say before I begin this is one of the easier ones because it doesn’t have any drawers (with a bunch of little screws).

So it is 3:45 PM and I snap a picture of the clock.  Honestly, this is real time stuff…..I know you are on the edge of your seat.

Since I have put so many of these together, I have figured out there is a simpler way to put the initial box together than how the instructions says to do it.

I put the bottom and the sides together holding them in place while I slide the back panel in and then put the top on.  I then screw the top into place, turn it over and screw the bottom into place.

Here is the finish product.  This one is going directly under my printer with the longer slots horizontal to hold the paper for the computer.  I have 8.5 x 11 white paper, some pink paper and some paper that has been printed on one side.  I’ll recycle that paper for test cuts or test printing.

Drum roll!!!!!!!!   Yep, this took me no time at all, of course I used an electric (ok, battery operated) drill.  Thanks Phyllis & Joel (it was my Christmas present 2 yrs ago).  Nothing like having friends who understand your love of power tools.

Slipped it under the printer (of course I added the little 4 drawer JetMax cube as well) and it works perfectly.  It steadied my printer and the cubbies are perfect for my paper, ink and photo paper.

I’m not paid by JetMax to advertise their product; however, every dealings I’ve had with this company (they are here in TX) has been very pleasant.  Out of  all the JetMax cubes I have bought only one was missing some screws and a handle.  I called them and they sent the missing items to me no charge (not even postage).  This is a great product and I wish I had thought of it!

There are literally so many combinations you can arrange with these little cubes.  My favorite are the 4 drawer and the 3 drawer.   Some of them even come with little dividers so you can corral all the tiny stuff.

Hmmm, I wonder where I can add the next group of JetMax cubes?

I couldn’t resist, Henry was so “chillin out”!

Ok, so I got this card magazine and it showed a marker that when heated with a heat gun it would puff up and look like snow.  I couldn’t find it in the stores so I went on-line and ordered three of them, 1) One for my BFF, 1) for my Mom and 1) for Me.

Like any other paint pen you have to open it hold the tip down until the stuff starts running.  Yea, it started rather fast and so I’m calling this my “snow cloud” (not)!

Here is a tip… it doesn’t work well if the items you are using it for (ie “snow”) is too faint.  You need to have a dense amount so there is enough product to puff up.

As you can see this is way to faint.

Looking at this picture you can see where I put dots around the punched out border.

Second tip, it is best to let this product dry overnight, before you use the heat gun to make it puff up.

Unfortunately, you can’t see how much this puffed up, but in real life you can definitely see a difference.

Now, let me tell you I went through all this trouble (ordering a pen, having it shipped, paying shipping cost, etc.) only to find out that liquid applique does the exact same thing.

Hmmm, I wished I’d know that first.

By the way, I don’t get paid by Marvy to review this product.  I just thought it was a cool pen and I would let you know that it works (only negative is waiting until it dries).

If you hadn’t been in M’s lately you might not know that MS has come out with some new items.

This is a large, deep border punch and runs about $17.99.  I don’t buy these items without my 40% coupon.  Why pay full price?

When you take it out of the box it is all folded up and all you have to do is just push down the “wings” on each side and it will make a large border stamp.

Absolutely beautiful!  These are larger than her normal border punches and they go deeper into the side of the paper.  There are several new designs for this size of punches including a heart with cross hatching in the center of the hearts.

This one compliments the dollie border punch very nicely.  She also has a new group of punches that comes with an acrylic stamp and the punch to match it.  Then she has started grouping the corner punches with the border punches.

If you haven’t checked her line out in awhile be sure to take time and see what she has released.  Also, some of the border punches that you could not find are on the shelves so don’t let this season go by and miss the one you’ve been looking and waiting to re-surface.

No, I don’t get anything from MS to push her products, I just like the quality and designs