Four Ways Friday #73 - Satin Ribbon

For this week's Four Ways Friday I want to show you four ways to use your 5/8" satin ribbon!

I LOVE using satin ribbon to make ribbon roses!  Here I used some Old Olive satin ribbon and a hot glue gun to roll this rose.  I may try to make a video to show you how I made the rose - it is still an imperfect science for me and every rose comes out different!  The petals are from Awash With Flowers.  I stamped them with Wild Wasabi ink and cut them out and adhered them to the stamped, sprayed, stenciled and embossed tag :)  The "U" was die cut from chipboard using the Big Shot and the Serif Essentials die.  The "just for" is from a stamp in the Just Believe stamp set.

Roses aren't the only flowers you can make with your satin ribbon!  I found a few really good tutorials on YouTube for how to make gathered flowers.  You can see them HERE and HERE.  To make my flowers I used Whisper White satin ribbon and then sprayed them with various colors of ink mixed with water in small spray bottles!  I love that you can use the Whisper White ribbon to create flowers of any color!  Very economical!  I added brads and buttons for the centers.  Can't wait to use these on a project!

Your ribbon makes gorgeous flowers and it can also be used as a hangar for ornaments!  I created this ornament as a 42nd anniversary gift for some friends.  The ribbon is sandwiched in between pieces of embossed chipboard.  I ran the chipboard through the Big Shot with the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder.  I then sponged some champagne shimmer mist paint over the chipboard.  Prior to adhering the pieces of chipboard together I hot glued pieces of waffle paper to the back of the chipboard pieces to create the "fringe."  A touch of glass glitter, a vintage brad, some ribbon roses and a bit of stamping with gold heat-embossing finishes the look!  Here are a few close ups so you can see the details more clearly:

Your ribbon can also be used with fabric to create a quick and easy bulletin board!!!!  Here is a picture of the bulletin board I created, along with a video to show you how to make one!

Here is a picture of the back of the board (oops!  I forgot to show that in the video!).  I just cut a piece of 11" x 11" chipboard and hot glued it onto the back of the bulletin board.  Then I added a cloth picture hangar.

I hope you've enjoyed this week's Four Ways Friday!!!!  Wishing you and your loved ones a wonderful holiday season!!!!  May you have a peaceful and love-filled weekend!!!!!  Let me leave you with a picture of what I woke up to Thursday morning :)  It was a day filled with shoveling :)

Extreme Elements Gift Tag

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Some Days It Takes Awhile To Get Started

I'm writing this post at night after a day of spending time doing who knows what in the craft room!  It seemed that by noon I had written a few thank you notes, taken Buddy for a walk, and had breakfast.  Not what I would call a particularly productive morning.  I felt a bit like Michael's car - it's a diesel and you have to turn the key part way and wait for this little light to go off before turning the key fully.  You have to let something in the engine warm up before just starting the thing.  Well, I was that engine today - I just had a hard time getting started.  The afternoon went a bit better - I got down to the business of creating (and watching Law & Order in the background...not sure that this helps with my creative energy, but I sure do seem addicted to the old episodes!).  Once I started creating, time seemed to move differently and I felt like my time was being well-spent - like my engine was humming.  I guess it's just another reminder that some days it takes awhile to get started, but once you do, you'll be warmed up to head in the exact right direction for yourself :) 
Can you tell that I'm on a bit of a tag kick right now?! :)  I've really been enjoying a break from traditional cards and playing around with techniques and lots of ink on the tags!  This tag started out as a vintage vanilla tag.  It then got sprayed, stenciled, and sprayed some more with various colors of ink (Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler, one of the brown colors - I can't remember which, and So Saffron).  Next I did a bit of stamping using the Extreme Elements stamp set.  First the small dots with Early Espresso ink and then the large "splat" with VersaMark and then gold embossing powder (heat embossed).  I then stenciled a few additional circles using champagne shimmer mist paint.  I die cut a piece of chipboard using the Top Note die (just a small piece of chipboard placed strategically on the die before running it through the Big Shot).  The chipboard was stamped with a greeting from Afterthoughts (retired) and heat embossed with gold embossing powder.  I then stenciled with champagne shimmer mist paint and sponged the edges before gluing the chipboard to the tag.  I punched a piece of watercolor paper with the designer label punch and then cut it and sponged the edges.  I added a few eyelets with the crop-a-dile before adding the pieces to the tag with glue.  A few pieces of fiber were added to the tag for a bit more shimmer.  I hope you like it!!! :)

Nature Walk Painted Transparency Card

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that distinguish me from a doormat. - Rebecca West, writer
I saw this quote in a book called The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women written by Gail McMeekin and it really struck me.  Maybe it struck me right now because I have recently been noticing how much I hate bras!  Yes - I confess!!!!  I know, I know - they are a necessary evil at times - or at least we've been led to believe they are.  But I can totally understand the Burn Your Bra movement back in the '60s!  For some reason bras make me feel trapped or "contained" - two things, as an artist, I seem to loathe.  So maybe my current distaste for bras right now goes well beyond the bra itself.  Maybe it is much more about a desire for freedom - a need to release myself from any limitations or bounds that I have put on myself in my artwork and, maybe even, my life.  So while I am here at home - undershirts and tank tops, here I come!!!!  And maybe, when I do need to wear them (I haven't quite decided what the criteria is for determining when is a "yes I need to" day and when is a "no way in heck will I wear one" day), I can take the metaphor of the bra into my art making - maybe on those days I can set certain limits on my artwork and see where that leads me.  Maybe I can see both freedom and containment as ripe seeds for growing some art!  Phew - that felt good :)  Now let's get on to some art :)
Yes, I do seem to be in love with this bird from the Nature Walk stamp set right now.  Maybe it's because in the midst of winter, painting this bird makes me feel like spring inside :)  This card was created by stamping the bird image, using Jet Black Staz-On ink, onto a transparency/window sheet.  I then painted the back of the image with acrylic paint.  I stamped the kraft tissue paper using a stamp from the Elements of Style stamp set and Crumb Cake ink.  Can you see the score lines on the card?  I love adding these lines using my scoring board - they create a wonderful frame for your stamped and painted transparencies!  For more details on how I created this card, feel free to watch this video - the steps are the same - I just used different stamps and paint colors.  You can also skip the step of stamping on the tissue paper and instead adhere designer series paper to the backside of the transparency/window sheet.  Here is a card I created using designer series paper in place of the tissue paper.  Enjoy!

Transparency Gift Tag

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.   Albert Einstein

This quote stands on its own.  It doesn't need any commentary from me.  What it does need from me is my attention.  Oh to walk through my life as though everything is a miracle - this is the prayer I have for today.  I wish the same for you :)
Today's tag was a lot of fun to make!  I began by using a retired SU stamp set called God's Beauty and stamped the butterfly onto transparency/window sheet using Jet Black Staz-On.  Next I painted the back of the transparency with acrylic paint...and even added a few dots of acrylic paint on the front of the transparency to highlight the body of the butterfly.  A piece of chipboard was die cut using the Circles #2 die.  I then cut off one of the edges of the circle and stamped the circle with the sentiment from Elements of Style using Jet Black Staz On.  Next I turned my attention to the tag where I sprayed with ink (I mix drops of ink with water in small spray bottles and spray the tags) and sponged the edges.  I used a stencil and sprayed with Elegant Eggplant ink to create part of the background design.  I then used some sequin waste - which I use as a circle stencil - with Frost White shimmer paint to create the dots on the tag and on the chipboard.  Next, the chipboard was adhered to the front tag with glue, as was the butterfly.  I then took some paper flowers (non-SU) and sprayed them with a variety of ink colors.  I added adhesive pearls to the centers and then drizzled some Crystal Effects on the flowers and on the tag to adhere some orange microbeads (non-SU).  The flowers were also attached to the tag using Crystal Effects - it makes a wonderful adhesive!  Finally, I sponged the strings at the top of the tag and also sprayed some pieces of natural cheesecloth with ink.  I tied the cheesecloth pieces through the tag.  I added one final touch - a spritz of black ink with the spritzer tool - somehow that brought everything together.  Here is a picture of the back of the tag - it got sprayed too :)  I hope you like it!

Stamped, Sprayed & Painted Gift Tag: A Video!!!!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  You Don't Always Have To Plan Ahead

Today I am sharing a new video with you.  My hope is that it will become part of a series that I am calling "Process Stamping."  Usually when I create a video, I first create the project I am going to share and then I prepare to film myself making the project for a second time.  I always know, in advance, what I am going to be doing - it's all planned out.  Well this time I decided to not plan at all!  Instead, I set up my camera and turned it on and then just sat down to create from scratch.  As a result, I'm not narrating this video - instead I just put captions to share some important tips and info.  Beyond that you will just hear some jazzy music and you will see me in my own creative process - going step by step into the unknown :)  I admit that I edited out the time when I was just sitting trying to figure out what I wanted to do next and I also sped up sections where certain steps were repetitive or just took a bit of time.  I would love to hear your thoughts on this video format to see if I should continue with this series of Process Stamping.  It was a new journey for me - a journey that has so far taught me that you don't always have to plan ahead.
Here is the video - feel free to let me know your thoughts! :)