Hair Clip Tutorial

Good day! I hope all of you are having a great week so far! Mine has been busy and is going to be that way at least for another 5 days! Ava's birthday is on Sunday and hubby and I kept asking her what she wanted. The only thing she could come up with was a horse...a real horse. LOL

"Mom, we had pigs, why can't we have a horse?"

Leave it to a 4 year old (almost 5) to rationalize getting a large animal! Anyway, I ended up deciding to get her a pink DS. When Jolee got her red DS last year she passed her pink Gameboy Advance on to Ava. She was thrilled! She plays it regularly but since there is no light in it she strains to see what she is playing. We decided that it was time to move her up in the gaming world. She is going to flip out! I'm so excited to give it to her!

Now moving on to the hair clip/bow/barrette tutorial. I'm sure there are many acceptable ways to make these clips but this is the way I choose to make mine. This would be a great idea to do if you are giving an outfit or dress as a gift and made matching bows to go with it.

I am a very visual learner so I took photos of every step.

28 Gauge wire (30 or 26 gauge would work too) and a 2" barrette

Choose the ribbon you want and cut about 6" of wire off

Open the barrette

Remove the piece from the middle

Fold your ribbon under

Take the other end and fold it under as well

Place your ribbon on top of the clip and make sure it is the length you want it

Cut your ribbon

Place it on top of your clip

Wrap the wire around the ribbon and the clip

This is what it will look like

Next do the same steps with a smaller piece of ribbon

Place the ribbon on top

Wrap the wire around to attach both pieces together

Wrap the wire around for the last time and twist it a few times to hold tight

Snip off the ends of the wire and place the piece you removed back into the clip

Glue whatever piece you want in the center (I chose a button this time)

Ta dah! Your finished piece

Hubby is going to pick up his bike from the shop today (it's been there for months because of winter). I cannot wait to go riding this spring! Anyway, I need to go clean out a spot in the garage to put his bike. Hope my tutorial was good enough for you all!

If you decide to make any of these I'd love you to put your links here in the comment box!

Have a great day!!

Pull out those crayons ladies!!

About a month ago I saw a thread on Splitcoast about someone trying crayons with Gamsol. Knutsen24 is who started it but no one ever showed any results. So, I decided to take matters into my own hands thinking that surely they would in no way comapare to the Prismacolor pencils I paid $1 each for! I'll let you decide for yourself!

I used 'Pip & Oggy' from the Doodle Factory Creatures that I got from Starving Artistamps to demonstrate.

The first row uses Rose Art crayons. I found these to blend very easily and retain most of their true color (not diluted when pulled out with the stump). I think they blended so easily because of the large amount of wax in the 'cheaper' crayons.

The second row I did with Crayola. I noticed that it lost a lot of the brightness once I blended and it also didn't blend as easily.

The last row uses Prismacolor pencils. Of course I love using my Prismas! They get a little bolder once blended with the OMS and they blend so smooth.


Okay, so you can decide for yourself but you know I have to tell you my opinion! When it comes down to it crayons are a great fill in if you don't have any Prismacolors or the exact color you want or need. One big drawback with the crayons is the control aspect. They don't have as fine of a tip, nor can they have one really. Here is how I rate them:

Prismacolors
Rose Art crayons
Crayola crayons

So, if you are looking for a cheap (and I mean cheap!) way to achieve the look of the Prismas with OMS I would highly reccomend picking up a big pack of Rose Art crayons (and a good sharpener!) the next time you hit the store!

Oh, and one more thing, POST LINKS TO YOUR RESULTS! I wanna see! Show me! Show me! Show me! Now go try!

How I use my rubber!

If you googled sex-ed then you are in the wrong place! However, if you want to know my tips on how to use those unmounted rubber stamps, you're in the right place!

I have never used Ailene's tacky glaze and can't really say how well it works but I do know how well Tombow Mono-Multi works! I LOVE it! So, here are the steps!


1. If you don't have it already, go buy Tombow Mono-Multi glue!



2. Turn your stamp over and remove the cap on the Broad Tip end.



3. Apply a good coat of glue to the back of the stamp. By good coat I mean so you can see white, but not runny.



4. Let the glue dry about 5-10 minutes depending on how big the stamp is. You'll know when it's dry because the white parts will have turned clear.



5. You will be able to feel how tacky it is. The stamp will now adhere to the acrylic block without leaving any mess anywhere or having to be washed after you use it! I have stamps that I have used on a regular basis for about a month now and the back of my stamps are still very sticky.



6. No need for foam cushion if you have a mouse pad or fun foam you can slide under the paper you are stamping on.

As of right now I prefer unmounted with no cling because when I use this Tombow glue, as I am cleaning my stamps on my scrubber NONE of them fall off. I can scrub them as hard as I need to and they stay right on the block!!

Hope I have helped anyone who might be wondering how to mount these stamps! If you have any questions then don't hesitate to ask! Have a great weekend!

Product Talk Thursday-Chalk Ink

I think my last nerves are slowly peeling away this afternoon. Don't worry, this isn't a vent. I'm not really 'mad' about anything. Just seems like the kids are doing every single thing possible to make sure I get up every 30 seconds. KWIM? I just want to sit down. I have tried to post this for about 2 hours now but I keep having to get up. I need to pick up around the house too. Fold laundry and such. I'm am really not looking forward to it AT ALL! I took them to a butterfly house and park this morning with my cousin Tiff and her kids. They all had a really good time. We took some bread to feed the ducks but there was only one on the pond. We did see some Blue Gill though so I threw a piece in to see if one would eat it. They were on that bread like stink on a skunk! It was pretty neat. I had half a loaf that was starting to get stale at home so we fed the fish and turtles for about 20 minutes. I was walking around passing out bread to strangers telling them to feed the fish with it. They probably thought I was a lunatic! Oh well! Anyway, we had a really nice morning but man Clinton is at that age where he wants down to run around all the time. And he had to stay in the stroller most of the time and was pretty mad about that. Mark my words, the next time I am at the store I am buying a child leash!!!!!

So, onto the product talk! I asked a question on SCS about what chalk ink people prefer and I would say the front runner is Colorbox Cat's eye Chalk Ink. Several people also said they loved Versamagic. I did a quick comparison sheet on Colorbox and Versamagic so you could get an idea on what they look like on different shades of paper. I did it in white, a light pink, a medium purple, and a dark black.

As you can see they all look beautiful on white. They both dry quickly and are true to the color shown on the pad you purchase. However the darker the paper, the less the Colorbox stands out. It really fades into the background on the black. The Versamagic loses most of it's color on darker papers but is still gives a pretty visible image.

The price of the Colorbox per cat's eye is slightly lower than the Versamagic dew drop. You can get an individual cat's eye from Eclectic Paperie for $1.99 each and the dew drops for $2.39.

I have a few of each but if I had to choose one, it would be the Versamagic. Their array of colors is gorgeous and I love the tiny bit of shimmer it gives when you stamp with it.

***
Here is a quick card I did for the SCS sketch challenge. I wanted to use some bright summery paper. KI Memories did just the trick! I used my Cropadile (again!) and of course I stickled it up too!

• KI Memories paper
• Pumpkin Pie CS
• Ribbons and Bows Oh My! ribbon
• eyelets and cropadile
• brad
• stickles

I got a House Mouse stamp yesterday at Hobby Lobby. It the two mice with the Christmas lights wrapped around them. They had it clearanced for $2.87 so I figured I had to try it out for that price. House Mouse really isn't my style but I love all of the cards everyone else makes with them! Plus I am making Christmas cards this Saturday at my cousin's house so we can get a head start on that holiday that sneaks up on all of us! Can't wait to sit down and stamp for hours and hours without my kids!!! If you have any House Mouse Christmas cards I would love to see them! Share a link if you can so I can get some inspiration!!!!

Tiny miracle and clear stamps

Just wanted to share a quick card. My husband's cousin is having a baby shower soon and I wanted to just go ahead and make it to have on hand.

• Studio G clear stamp set (Joann's $1 set)
• MME patterned paper
• Chocolate Chip CS
• Sage Shadow, Chocolate Chip ink
• Cuttlebug flower die
• circle punch
• ribbon
• pop dots

I also wanted to share a tip that Amy S. shared with me the other day about the acrylic/clear stamps. She said to use a pencil eraser (don't use a white artists eraser, those don't work) and drag it all over the surface of the stamp. The next time you ink up you will have a much clearer image.

I did a comparison of before and after to show you what a difference it makes! Make sure you click the pic to make it bigger so you can really see. It might not be a ginormous (love that word) difference but it definitely is noticeable on a card you've worked hard on!