BIRTHDAYS = GIFTS!

Since it’s still my birthday week, I thought I would write a bit about gifts. I love giving and receiving hand made gift items. Don’t you?

Not long after I started scrapbooking, I saw a sweet photo cube gift idea in a 2008 issue of Scrapbooks, etc. magazine. I loved it and decided to “lift” it to suit a specific purpose. My purpose was a Mother’s Day gift for my wonderful mother in law, Arlene. Now keep in mind that during our 2007 Christmas visit, she casually mentioned that the only photos she had of us were from our wedding, GASP, 18 years before. I guess we had been too busy behind the camera to get caught in front! Well a star was born (my husband) and I think the cube turned out pretty well.

Now it's time to let you in on what I did, how I did it and what I used.   The original magazine project called for a Memory Makers brand photo cube but I couldn't find one in my local shops.  I improvised with an upside down chipboard box, top removed (now holding post it lables and notes on my desk).   Lightweight enough to ship but stable enough for tabletop display.  You could also use a 4 inch section of a 4 x 4 post with edges sanded and corners filed off, especially if your not concerned with shipping fees.  I had to ship and the only 4 x 4's at my house are supporting a deck!

The first step was painting the box with celery green acrylic from Americana paints by DecoArts.  I then cut rectangles and a square of Provo Craft patterend paper and inked the edges with gold pigment ink from Rubber Stampede.  I attached the rectangles and square to the box with Modge Podge and sealed with several additional coats.

The cute shaped frame was part of a set from Martha Stewart brand mats that I bought on clearance at Michael's.  I covered this one with patterned paper from a Paper Impressions paper pack.  All of the other mats were made from coordinating paper from the same pack.  The initials are naked chipboard from Making Memories painted with gold acrylic from Plaid.  I'm not sure who manufactured the butterlies or the ribbon but know that I picked each up at Hobby Lobby.  The silk flowers were a gift and I dyed them with a bit of tea before adding  the Spare Parts round metallic mini brads and adhering with Fiskars glue dots.

Hope you have enjoyed my little photo cube.  It could be "re-lifted" and adapted to any holdiay or other gift giving occasion.  You could also flip it upright, line the inside with archival paper and decorate the lid for a mini photo storage box.

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I will post once more (late on 9/11 or early 9/12) before the big drawing for the Birthday goodies.

Don't forget!  I have a guestbook at the bottom of the page so please shout out your location!  Thanks again.

WHERE TO PUT ALL THE ATC’s?

ATC’s are really mini works of art and I find them very inspiring. When I receive a package from a swap, it’s like opening a birthday present! Incredibly thrilling! I look through them and am amazed at the creativity. The conversation with myself usually includes “Wish I had thought of that!”, “Wonder what adhesive was used?”, “How did they do this technique?” and on and on.

After participating in a few swaps, display and storage questions arose. The precious, little cards are too pretty to hide away in a drawer or box and they stimulate my own creativity. I thought and thought—maybe a tree type thing? Nope—too big for my space. Maybe a clothesline? Hmmm, that might work. Or what about a teeny tiny shelf? So off to the hardware store and this is what I ended up with.

I found plastic ceramic tile starter strips and screwed them into the wall. They have a little groove along the horizontal edge that most of my ATC’s fit right into. A few of the ATC’s in my collection don’t fit exactly—they are thicker and made with multiple layers of cardboard or include fibers or top heavy embellishments. For those, I added a little rolled up painters tape stuck to the back of the sleeve and the wall to hold them upright. (I was concerned about the tape pulling the paint off the wall but after a month, it’s still intact.) The best part of this project: it was CHEAP! An 8 foot length was less than $5. I just cut the strips with a hacksaw to the desired length and cleaned up the cuts with a bit of sandpaper.

Since I only have a few free feet left, I started thinking about long term storage. I visited a local sports card store and found bunches of cardboard storage boxes—all different sizes and price points! I bought a midsized one for $4. As soon as I personalize my plain white box, I’ll share a picture with you! I don’t want to put any of my treasures in a box but my wall space is limited. I plan to rotate the display and am anticipating how much fun that will be. Just thinking about it brings back memories of playing with dress up dolls. I’ll just be playing dress up the wall!

If you’ve joined the ATC brigade, let me know how you display and store yours! The birthday RAK is still up for grabs so leave that comment, or another, here and become a follower if you aren’t following yet. Thanks for stopping by!

THEY WANNA MAKE ME GO TO ATC REHAB

But I say NO, NO, NO! Anyone who has ever crafted an ATC knows exactly what I mean. They are super addictive. I’m participating in four swaps this month!

For those of you who haven’t succumbed, they are 2.5 by 3.5 inch Artist Trading Cards meant to be traded among an ever growing community of artists and crafters. Yes, traded--not sold. It’s a sharing thing!

Any arts and crafts media is acceptable—collage, watercolor, rubber stamping, fabric, photography, embroidery, oil paints, etc. Whatever makes your heart sing is okay as long as you adhere to the size rule. I save cereal boxes and cut those for my card base but you can buy precut cardboard ATC bases or even use old playing cards. The front is your artwork and the back provides the space for the title, edition or series number if any (1 of 20, etc.), name of swap, your name and contact information, date created and any other information the swap host requests or you want to include. A few that I’ve received have cute little poems or personal notes on the back.

This is one of my earlier efforts and is titled Hunka, Hunka Merman. It was part of a mermaid swap hosted by another blogger. “He” came from a magazine ad for watches, photocopied onto matte photo paper. The watch is why he has an embroidery floss wrist band. I added little beads to the band as I sewed it on. The background paper and his tail are from a ProvoCraft slab. His hair is made from unraveled twine with a little peat moss glued here and there. The hair was rather unruly so he ended up with a ponytail holder made from a bit of jewelry wire and the Fiskars Itty Bitty Cassette Punch sun shape.

A wonderful resource is Bernie Berlin’s Artist Trading Card Workshop. Her book is full of techniques, trading information, and inspiration. She recently shared her art on FiskarsTV (http://www.fiskarscrafts.com/tv/). It’s Episode 99 and definitely worth viewing.

A big THANK YOU to everyone participating in the Birthday RAK! Your comments warm my heart. I’m thrilled that you have joined the celebration. We are still celebrating so leave a comment for a chance to win the RAK. Become a follower for another chance. Thanks, Amy Winehouse for today’s post title.

Gotta run! My ATC addiction is calling.

THE CELEBRATION CONTINUES WITH A LAYOUT!

Welcome and welcome back to Traveling Down A Crafty Road! Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes and comments. The RAK winner will be chosen on 9/13/2009 so keep them coming.

I made the following layout to honor my parents and there’s no better time than my extended Birthday Celebration to share it with you. They have passed on but left us with wonderful, loving memories and many boxes of photographs and keepsakes. While attempting to sort through the myriad “stuff”, I came across their Bride/Guest Book and all six of their wedding photographs. Buried treasure!


The background patterned paper is from The Paper Studio. The gold charms are Favorite Findings from Blumenthal Lansing Co. Fiskars lace border punch was used on one side of the cardstock mats. I used two different ribbons and added some floral embellishments I put together. Here’s a close up of the flowers


The flowers were very easy to make. I used an EK Success flower punch and outlined the petals and center with Stickles. A self adhesive rhinestone went in the center and some fun fiber was adhered to the back in pinwheel fashion.

Thank you for visiting. Have a wonderful Labor Day! Until next time, happy crafting!

CELEBRATE WITH ME!

Today is my birthday! I am now 50 something—at least for the next nine years, LOL! This photo was taken at our first birthday party. I’m on the right and that cutie pie on the left is my twin brother. Happy Birthday, Bubba!

I want YOU to help me celebrate! No cards, mini books, or layouts today. I have something else “sweet” in store—blog candy! I want to give one of you a birthday present—straight from me to you! It’s a bit progressive but so easy. I know you will want to do it. Here are the rules—

* Become a follower of my blog—you get one chance to win,
* Comment on this post—you get another chance to win,
* Comment on additional posts from this one forward until 9/12, midnight CST—you get one chance to win for each post you comment on. I can promise at least 5 additional posts between now and 9/12/2009.
* A winner will be drawn on 9/13 and announced on the blog.

So you can have at least 7 chances in the “birthday bucket” if you want. Go for it! A little spreadsheet will keep up with your entries and I’ll rely on random.org for the winner. I’m looking forward to giving away . . .

NOTES: Because of the size and weight of the package, I must limit this prize giveaway to US residents only.
The quality of the photo does not accurately reflect the quality of the prize. Argh! Lighting issues here--it's raining!

Thanks for joining my birthday celebration! Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of the page to sign my guest book.

BRICKA, BRICKA FIRECRACKER SIS BOOM BAH - FOOTBALL, Part 2

Did you enjoy the mini cd album from my last post? I enjoyed making and posting it! One of the sweet benefits of scrapbooking is the opportunity to relive treasured memories again and again.

Remember this from my last post: “Everything is held together with a jump ring with pretty ribbon attached (more about that in Part 2, stay tuned!)”? I didn’t tell you how I got the jump ring in there, did I?

There are quite a few web tutorials on this type of mini album so I won’t bore you with all that. I learned two things from the web:
1. Save the unsolicited advertising and obsolete user guide type cd’s.
2. Save/rescue : ) a spindle from some new cd’s to use when drilling the hole for the jump ring. That’s right, folks, get out the power drill! Gather all the cd’s you will need for your album, stick them on a spindle and drill them all at once so the holes all match. Just hang the spindle a good third off your surface so you don’t drill through anything important like your kitchen counter or dining room table.
Something I encountered but never saw any warnings about anywhere was the Mylar coating usually on one side of the cd. Some of the Mylar coatings are very easy to remove. If they are, go ahead and do it. You may need to use a bit of sandpaper here and there. I encountered a problem with this and had to redo a page or two because of peeling Mylar. Go ahead and get rid of it if it's peels easily.

Now let’s move on down this road. I guess it’s Part 2 of Part 2? What should I put this little mini album in? I needed it to go in something structured since there were no page protectors and I didn’t want it beaten about. Besides I needed to ship it to Iowa!

I found a plain, round chipboard box at the craft store—not too expensive, a little wider than the cd’s and a good 3 inches taller. Perfect! It gave me the room to cushion the cd’s with extra tissue and bubble wrap for shipping and would give him room to add tickets and other ephemera afterwards.

This is what it looked like once it was completed:

I painted the entire box, inside and out, with red acrylic. The stadium photo and Alabama Crimson Tide (MS PowerPoint Word Art) are adhered and sealed with Modge Podge. That’s hounds tooth check ribbon around the rim of the top part--homage to Bear Bryant and his hat.

Thanks so much for coming along on this journey with me. Next post will be extra special, so do check back!

RAH, RAH! SIS BOOM BAH! aka FOOTBALL, Part 1

Football! Hard to believe but it is that time of year. Whether your team consists of peewees or professionals, I wish you a successful season!

Most of my extended family loves University of Alabama athletics, especially football. Last season one of our nephews and his friend came down from Iowa for a whirlwind weekend visit of football fun. Christopher is definitely a devoted, enthusiastic, and passionate Alabama football fan! And this was his first “live and in person” game.

To commemorate the weekend, I made a cd mini album for him.


I used Provo Craft patterned paper scraps and card stock as a base for the cd’s, adhered with a Xyron adhesive tape runner. Then I added photos, stickers and word strips created in MS PowerPoint. There is a pocket page for some nifty little tags. The tags are card stock and include the fight song, a map of where we parked (it was a long walk, LOL!), coach info, and other cute stuff. Everything is held together with a jump ring with pretty ribbon attached (more about that in Part 2, stay tuned!).

Having our nephew as a guest in our home was wonderful—it had been more than 5 years since he had been here! Sharing time before, during and after the game with him, seeing all of that through his fresh eyes, made it a special moment in time for us.

I hope you will drop by for Part 2 of this post topic. Thanks for taking a look today and why not sign my guest book! Just scroll to the bottom of the page. Please feel free to leave a comment—I read each and every one of them.