Tips and Tools

Oppps, lol, I meant to publish this tomorrow! I guess you get 2 long posts today {blush}

***Yesterday I mentioned that I tried the SU equivalent of the Stickles. As you can see below, the SU is pretty much the same color as the Star Dust Stickles.

I was a bit disappointed when the SU one arrived since I already have 4 bottles of the Stickles! Why??? I am not really sure since one bottle lasts a really long time, lol

To my suprise though, the SU one dries much faster!!! I added quite a bit of this glitter glue and it dried completely in less than an hour, WOW! This was WONDERFUL since I am a very impatient person and tend to smear the Stickles due to my refusal to wait long enough.

***Talking about glue, do you add a blob of glue to a paper and use a toothpick to adhere small items like pearls and gems? Well, here is the perfect solution.

 I LOVE these small glue bottles. They come in 3 different sizes with the metal tips having slightly larger hole in each size. You can fill with your favorite glue and finally enjoy adding those small pretty embellies to your project. These tips really make a tiny glue dot, perfect for non-adhesive pearls and gems. This is what I used for my ornament yesterday as well as adhering the thin cord.

You can find these from  The Golden Egg Of Idaho (they will only charge actual shipping and are super fast) or the Eggery Place. You can find some less expensive, but I would not recommend purchasing the tips seperate from the bottles or kits offered elswhere. These ones come with a pin that fits inside each metal tip. This is important because, not only do they fit perfectly...but, also are stainless steal. Stainless steal will not rust as the nickle plated pins do. I had the darndest time finding stainless steal pins and none that were small enough for these tips. Before adding the metal tip on the ones from The Golden Egg, make sure to cut the plastic tip down to the ring, leaving the ring in tact. The Eggery Place bottles should be cut much less. the tips click on the plastic bottles diffently.

***These are my all time favorite tweezers. I love the pointy tips each have. The smaller ones are just fabulous for thing like turning pearls and gems when they flip over. Being smaller, there is more control when using them. These can also be purchase from the Eggery Place.

***I have tried so many of those sticky type tools made specifically for picking up pearls. gems and beads. I did not like any of them. None seemed to work well for me, not even the wet spagetti trick. Then I found these at Pizzaz Aplenty.

They are called Gel Pickers and they are perfect. They are only .30 each! You can also purchase a package of the embellie gellie to make your own. I like buying the individual ones when I place an order since they last quite a while before dust gets on it causing the gel to not stick.

***Lastly, I have a couple of trick that I have learned and want to share with you.

To prevent cord from fraying you can give it a light coat of mod podge. Simply add a little to 2 of your finger tips and run the cord between them. Let it dry for a few minutes and you will not be able to tell. Any shine/glimmer from the cord will show through perfectly.

For my ornament yesterday, I only had white inridecent cord. I really wanted to use this kind for the egg, so I decided to try and color it with my copics (even after adding the mod podge) I ended up with colors that matched perfectly with the pearls and gems.

***Another thing I use mod podge for is to coat the paper around small holes. For the ornament yesterday, I gave 2 thin coats to the top and the cord is not going to rip the paper without a really hard pull.

WOW, what a long post, lol. I hope you were able to learn something new.

{{{HUGS}}} Sandy O

Winter Birds Ornament

I made this adorable Christmas ornament from Nicecrane Designs yesterday. If you have not visited or purchased from here before, check it out, really. Ignacio is such a wonderful artist and person to deal with.

I love the shape of this ornament. while taping it together I learned that the ATG is definitely not the way to go, lol. Finally I thought of my scor tape and, WOW, how much easier that was. The best part of the scor tape, compared to the red line tape, is that it is ripable (no scissors needed) and the liner does not cling to everything.

There are different pictures on each side of the ornament

The cord, pearls and gemstones are all from Pizzazz Aplenty. Another wonderful site for embellishments. Judy is such a sweetheart and a pleasure to deal with.

If you click on one of the photos, you can see that I added some glitter glue to the snow. This time I tried the SU equivalent of Stickles.

Here is a photo of the ornament from the top. I just love the effect that the pearls and rhinestones add. I would have used all pearls or all rhinestones...but...I did not have the color or size I needed in both. Looks like I need to place an order, lol...Judy, here I come!

See the two edges that are a bit bent? Those are 2 I tried using my ATG for. As you can see, with the scor tape I was able to keep the edges straight.

Since I printed the ornament out on white paper, the edges were white. I fixed this with one of my Copic markers. It worked wonderfully.

Have you made any Christmas ornaments yet? I REALLY would love to see them and maybe glean some ideas ;o) Leave me a link if you would like to share and I will leave you some love!!!

{{{HUGS}}} Sandy O

Rosebuds

Finally, my first card since July! I really felt so lost when I sat down to make something in my craft room after all this time. Then I thought...why not start with some of my favorite embellishments.

Although I have not been able to do any paper crafts, I spent loads of $ on stocking up and new to me embellishments. One of my favorite newbies are the cute little rose buds I found at Pizzazz Aplenty, along with the paper (except the green paper used on top), jewels, pearls and ribbon.

Aren't they just so cute. The green paper under the ribbon is the ruche paper from Paper Temptress. It adds a wonderful texture without having to emboss :o)

I added quite a few of the buds between the roses, too, as well as some of the white things, lol (I have absolutly no idea what to call them!). I have seen lots of crafters adding cute things popping out of the flowers and thought it would be difficult, but to my pleasant surprise it was not.

The lacey background paper I saw at a local scrapbook store and just had to get. I was not sure if I could cut the 12 x 12 sheets for cards. It seems to have worked out well, though 2 sides are die cut and 2 sides are straight. Next time I think I will cut the 2 die cut sides straight, I just did not think of it this time.

The layer and base are pretty shimmer paper and looks really pretty in the light. I love using this type of paper. It just seems to add that "extra something" as opposed to regular flat paper. To bad the colors are limited but one can make do.

Aren't these butterflies adorable. Penny Duncan makes them in a few colors as well as some dragonflies. The die cut circle is made form on of the Marianne Design Creatable Dies.

I hope you like this one. I will be able to spend my day in the craft room today, yeahhhhhhh!!! Wish me luck, lol!!!

{{{HUGS}}} Sandy O

What Has Kept Me Busy

Hi Everyone. WOW, it has been to long. I have finally finished the first item that has kept me busy the past couple of months. The first thing is the tiny paper flowers my mother and I made to sell at an egg art show. I have posted some of them before and you can see them by clicking flowers in the left column.

I have to say up front that I did not make the egg. The flowers inside, which are called punch flowers are what I made.

If you look closely, you can see the white trillium's scattered between all the roses. These are extremely time consuming, but are so very pretty. I am not sure if they could be used for cards, since they are so very small.

There was also an egg using the morning glories we made, but sadly I did not think to take a photo of it.

What else has kept me busy? Well this cutie has

This is my grandson. This photo was taken when he was 19 months old. He is now 22 months and his cubby cheeks have really slimmed down, but I just love this picture.

I babysit him for 11 hours on Mondays and Wednesdays. PHEW!!! It is so much fun to watch him as he makes me laugh so much (even when I shouldn't laugh at his antics) For sure, 11 hours does seem to really drag after the first 5 hours though...thank God for naps, lol

Now that the babysitting schedule is set and the flowers are finished, I can finally get back to my beloved card making, yeahhhhhh!

Thank you all for sticking with me through this time!!!!

{{{HUGS}}} Sandy O (grrrrrr...still have not figured out why me siggie is not working)