Flowered Hair Pieces

For Halloween my friend Mandy was going to be going to work as a little fairy. I whipped up these cute little hair pieces using my scrapbook flowers, bling, buttons and hair clips within minutes!

Alcohol Ink Project

     Whenever you hear about the latest scrapbook trends the name Timothy Holtz always seems to be listed at the top. Timothy's innovative products have really made a lot of other companies stand up and take notice and many try and follow in his footsteps. He does have a unique style that not everyone can get into, but one that is great for getting a lot of ideas from.
     For a couple of years now when I peruse the isle's of my local stores I do always stop and ponder the uses for his products. I have always been fascinated by the Alcohol inks, but have been reluctant to buy them. It's one more thing and also they seemed to me limited in their usages. A non porous surface is the most common use for his ink products and to me not one that is easily accessible as it once was. When scrapbooking/card making was new the most common paper you could find was the glossy white paper which everyone found it difficult to stamp on because they would slip and slide and markers were messy and didn't dry very fast. With the advent of so many new kinds of papers and techniques, things have some a long way since than and non porous surfaces harder and harder to find.
     So one day as I am walking through Michael's I see the cutest little glossy book journals and realized they would be a great little party favor for my upcoming wine party. Next thing I know it I am online and ordering inks from Joanns.com since my local store was out of a good supply of choices and VOILA!, I'm in love with Timothy Holtz Alcohol Inks! Here is my instructional video on how to use the inks.

  

      It's hard to video tape yourself and get a close up, so I apologize that you can't see my face, but what does one do with just a small camera and being able to get close enough so people can see what your doing? However, the point of the video is to demonstrate how easy it is to use the inks and I hope that this helps to give you other ideas on what to do with them.

 

     To finish off the project I stamped a large wine and cheese image from Inkadinkado on to the front left hand corner of the book using black ink. Also using the stamps from the clear wine set that I used from the invitations I used the border on the top right hand side of the book, and stamped everyones name on the front using a alpha set from Stampin Up. I used an ink pad that dried easily on glossy surfaces so that it wouldn't take to long for them to dry. I continued the theme to the inside cover of the books. On the inside against the hard cover I printed out some wine tasting tips in just plain white paper and adhered to the inside cover and than again placed a stamped grape border in opposite corners. I also stamped a nice wine saying on the next page with a couple of images to make it look uniform. Since the journals themselves have lots of pages I only stamped the first 12 pages with a stamp that shows the wine variety, year of vintage, where the wine was from, and the price; just to give the girls an idea on how to complete their wine journals. 

     The journals were a big hit at the party and everyone used them to write down the different wines that we tried that night. Most of the girls at the party didn't really know how to "taste" wine and so having the tips for them on the inside really helped them. The great thing about the journals was that they could be made for any purpose. Always be on the look out for great deals in those dollar bins, you never know what your going to find.

     

Wine Party Invitations

     I am so excited for my upcoming Wine Tasting Party here at the end of the month. I made sure that I did a save the date of my guest list on Facebook, because I didn't know how long it was going to take me to make my invitations. I had to order some stamps online and knew it could take a couple of weeks to get them, but amazingly they came within a week! I was so excited to get these stamps and I'm hoping I find more uses for them than just invitations and for the party.

 So here are my invitations. I debated about buying a pre-made set that included the invites, and rating cards for the different wines and they were only $11.99, but wouldn't have been as much fun. At least I don't think. These actually were surprisingly simple to make once I got going.

      For my invitations I used: Paperhouse Productions Wine Country Collage paper, Stampin up Green and Burgundy solid papers, Celebrate with Flourish Cricut Cartridge (available only at Walmart), Glossy Accents, Recollection Invitation Stamp, and Crafty Secrets Clear Art Stamps - Wine Lovers.

INSTRUCTIONS

 
   1. First I cut out the shadow of the wine bottle and glasses in a 9 inch size from the Burgundy paper. There was some flourish on them so I trimmed all of those so they could fit easily into a business envelope.
    
     2. Than I cut the underneath shadow from the green paper, also trimming off the flourish design.       
  
     3. Lastly I used the Wine Country Collage paper to do the final layer on the top.
    
     4. I completed the layers by using adhesive. Any kind that your comfortable with will do.
    
     5. I wanted the green paper to look like a bottle so where it shows I applied the Glossy Accents and let dry thoroughly.
   
      6. With the extra green paper I stamped out the invitation and cut around them trimming off all the access green. I than stamped the decorative piece from the Wine Lovers set.
   
     7. Apply the invitation piece on the back side of the invitation.
   
     8. I used a Fiskars flower punch to create the flower on the back of the small tag attached to the bottle which was perfect for a 2 inch circle that I cut with the Cricut using the Plantin School Book, but can just as easily be done with a craft punch.
    
    9. Using my Crop-a-Dial Big Bite, I punched a hole in the tag and inserted a eyelet. Using just some gold colored floss thread I attached the tag around the neck of the bottle lifting up the layers on the front side so as to not interfere with the look of the invitation.
   
     Again, I am so glad that I made my own invitations. Really set the tone immediately for what the invitation is all about. I have to admit that at first I felt a little embarrassed about asking each of the attendees to bring a bottle of wine, but I am on a budget and I am supplying wine and all the munchies to go with it. While I will have a brief demonstration on how the wine should be tasted, this gathering is more about bringing my friends together. We all haven't seen each other in a while and I wanted just a great evening of wine, food, fun, and laughter. There's definitely no embarrassment in that!


   

Starbucks and Bling



     I'm a Starbucks nut, OK I'm just basically a coffee nut! I love hot, cold, blended, and frozen. Where I got the love for the almighty coffee bean, I'm not really sure. As a child when I would visit my aunt she would make for me special little Holly Coffee, lots of sugar and creamer. Over the years my taste for coffee has run into the uninhibited just plain black coffee of course until the advent of Starbucks. Now I love coffee anyway I can get it!
     Now a couple of years ago Starbucks came out with their insulated plastic cup. I had to have one, I searched high and low because they would run out moments after they were put on the shelves! I had a couple of them and I would carry everything in it from water, tea, and of course the cold iced coffee's. Every time I would personalize on, it always seemed to be the one cup that would crack and I would have to throw it away. This year however, they have upgraded their plastic insulated cold cups to a two layer cup that is actually removable and yes, it's bigger than the originals. Instead of a 20 ounce it's 24 ounces. I was really hoping for the Trenta 30 oz size, but still I get 4 more ounces of tea or Frappachino's for the same price as the 20 ounce!
     While on vacation this year I decided that I wanted to personalize my cup. My aunt bought a cup and we even bought one for my uncle. On a trip to Hobby Lobby I spent oodles of time in the scrapbook aisle trying to decide on what I wanted to do with the cup. While there is room in the cup for decorations on the inside it couldn't be to big. My aunt's theme was Labrador Retrievers. So a set of Jolie's with Labs, some paw print stickers (the ones that are clear except for the paw), and some cute dog sayings rounded out her cup. The Labs while slightly thick were still a great fit in the cup it's self and the inner layer screwed back on nicely. On my uncles we bought handy man Jolie and stickers, but the tool belt was a little to thick and while we were able to screw it back together it actually did scratch up the inside of the cup.
     As you can see on my cup above, I have flowers from Memory Makers which I used an all purpose acid free scrap glue called Beacons 3-In-1 All purpose glue. It's great for the heavier embellishments on any scrap project. Dries quickly and is clear. I use it for everything not paper for my projects. It's also relatively inexpensive at no more than $4.99 for the bottle that lasts a long time. I didn't have any actual individual jewels and since I love Fleur DE Li's; I found a small page of 3 of them in the sticker aisle where you will find already made bling embellishments. I had a little bit of a problem with getting the Fleur De Li's off the page so that they kept their shape and a couple of them twisted a little bit once the cup was put back together, but it's not noticeable. It's about as thick as you want to get with those cups. I also bought a sticker page of black glitter borders of different types. The one around the bottom is almost a full strip and the curly part is from another border that I cut apart and tucked underneath all the flowers.
     I think each cup took about 30 minutes to complete. I would line the outer and inner cup up together on how it would look once it was all back together to be sure that my designs weren't going to be covered by the Starbucks logo on the front or the customization strip on the back. The stickers I just stuck on there, but for any Jolie's or other embellishments even if they were "sticky" I re-enforced with the 3-in-1 glue so it stayed strong. I had so much fun making the cups, and I love the reaction that I get when I take my cup into Starbucks. The first time I took it in I was in the drive-thru and next thing I know my cup has disappeared and is being handed all around so everyone could look at it! They don't have to worry about putting your name on the cup or mixing it up with someone elses, since I frequently go in with my friend Melissa who also has a cup.
     You obviously don't have to go into a craft store to buy special supplies for your cup. You can dig into your crafting supplies of stickers, and embellishments that you already have on hand. I only did that because I wasn't anywhere near my crafting room at the time. If you own a cricut machine and have some vinyl you can even use that as an option. I think this is just a fun quick little project that can bring a smile to your face every time you use your cup. I carry it everywhere with me and I like that it has as much personality as I do.