StarLitStudio

halloween printers tray & goodie bags

7gypsies printers tray and Echo Park Apocathary papers & stickers used.  The big haunted house is a Jolee's sticker.  The lower center flower is metal and very kewl - from my grandparents (or maybe my Pop-pop's parents), along with the keys.

I deconstructed the printers tray to give me what I wanted - using force and my fingers I pushed over a few dividers, and with a hobby blade simply removed any remaining particle board.

I created the labels for the glass bottles using Distress Walnut Stain ink and water..

Ink up the labels with Distress ink and an ink blending tool, spritz a couple of pumps of water into your hand, then flick the water in your hand onto the inked labels.  Wait about 4-6 seconds then blot with a clean, dry towel...

...and this is the end result - lovely, aged labels. 

Photo above is of the treat bags for the neighborhood kids - mini kraft coffee bag features a Quietfire stamp - these bags house a Reeses (gotta have a peanut butter cup in there), Dove chocolates, M&M plain package and a Snyders pretzle pack.  I have 70 ready to go; I only had 70 bags.  Only a paper crafter would understand that yes, I had these bags just sitting around.  lol...more candy and pretzles are set aside as extras - one year we had over 150 kids...that's a lot of chocolate!  The weather dictates the volume of kids, and with the snow, well, we'll see how many this year.

 Happy Halloween!!

country landscape die

This simple & clean design will comprise a few of our holiday cards this year.

Spellbinders labels 8 and Memory Box Country Landscape die used.  Card bases are made from Crimson and Dill cardstock (Memory Box).  White cardstock is from Papertrey Ink.  Card sizes are 5-1/2" x 4-1/4".

No waste!  White layer is mounted with foam tape.  Happy Sunday!

dave's trees

Saw this card on Dave's blog - used the leaf canopy die and the twiggy tree die and simply recreated it, using a Key Lime card base and envelope, tree uses Vanilla Bean cardstock and the white is Parchment (all Memory Box).  The white die-cut canopy layer is mounted with foam tape.

Then I made five more....

...and a bag to coordinate.  Bag front die is from Papertrey Ink; I used a sturdy, small white lunch bag between two die cut bag fronts from Key Lime cardstock (Memory Box), and a bit of linen thread.

This will make a great gift this upcoming winter.

Speaking of winter, here in New Jersey we got hammered with snow today, and it's still coming down...

This pic taken around lunchtime - it's now dinnertime and it's still coming down - maybe six to seven inches right now.  With the leaves (and aw shucks they were just starting to change color) still on the trees lots of limbs are down. Lots of work for the tree trimmers next week.  Hope you are warm where you are at and best wishes for a great weekend!

teacher gifts for autumn

I enjoy giving a little something to the teachers (and school secretaries, nurse and so forth) at my younger children's elementary school.  I'll deliver these on Monday, Halloween, and I opted to create something related to the season versus the holiday.

Here's a close up.  I used up patterned papers and Prima flowers purchased years ago.  Burlap is from etsy.  Notepad and sentiment (Autumn Abundance) are from Papertrey Ink.  Large two inch diameter tags are covered in retired Daisy D papers.

This Altoid-style tin is for the lone male in the group - chocolate Reeses pumpkin enclosed.  Felt is Papertrey and die is Sizzix Tattered Leaves, and the honkin' brad is from Bazzill.  Best wishes for a great weekend and happy trick-or-treating!

sidewalks print tray

In digging out some old supplies I found this white, six panel tray from 7gypsies. 

Using October Afternoon Sidewalks I created this altered piece.  Getting my thrill out of this line before Farmhouse and Holiday Style arrive, and then those lines take over my creativity.

Other 7gypsies retired goods used, along with some idea-ology products.  This was a fun project.

It is what I look at when walking into the art room - and I love that photo of the five of us! 

Up since 5:30am - did not eat breakfast  - not hungry and body needed a run.  Plus I can't eat then run or - well, let's say that's not a good thing.  Plus with the braces on my teeth I gotta brush after I eat anything, so I just don't.

Got all kids on their buses, hit the gym, ran a 5K and did weight training.  Hit the steam room and showers.  Grocery shopped for the week on the way home.  Put the cold stuff away then shipped packages for the store - mailcarrier comes in late afternoons on Mondays - usually do this before I hit the gym. And it's only 3pm!

I love Mondays!

100th birthday card

My 14-year old daughter has taught my mother how to text, and mom shot me one last night during dinner.

Mom lives in a retirement village, and the mom of one of her friends/neighbors is turning 100.  Mom texted, asking me to create a card for this centenarian.

It was a Friday evening, and all five of us were at a very noisy, and very busy Chilis, enjoying dinner together as a family.

With three kids, all of whom text, we have a rule at home - no texting or phone use at the table, or you get your phone taken away.

So while I attempted to text my mom back, my DH promptly took my phone from me.  With a smirk no less.

These are the rules, after all...

This layout is from Mish's card in her post here.  Sidewalks 8x8 pad used, a French doily, and Papertrey felt, butterfly & number dies. Happy Saturday!!

dull folder plus scraps is win

I had a pile of paper scraps from a paper line (Sidewalks) and since they were all from the same line they all coordinated - that made this project very easy for me.

A folder was needed in my attempt to stay organized, and a box of white ones from almost a decade ago are still here - my days as a Stampin' Up demo - we would use the (then new!) jumbo wheel rollers on these.

I collaged the Sidewalks paper scraps into this - now one could add ribbons, machine stitching and/or all sorts of embellishments to this, but it is unfortunately not going to be on top all of the time, so I kept the surface flat to allow stacking.

I love using scraps and random shaped paper pieces in projects like this.  But what I really liked was I didn't have to think about coordinating them - I was free to use them all and wasn't restricted by fear of what looked good next to what.

I saw this photo on Mish's post here and this inspired me to do this project:

I so want to try this.  Need to go make more scraps - ha.  Best wishes for a great day!

boxed card set with book text

An old copy of The Pony Express was used for the text - the owl is from a set of three from Hero Arts, and the card concept was adapted from this previous post.

There's something about tearing up an old book that makes me feel naughty.  I think it's all those years of not being able to write in books in school, and caring for them - covering them with paper grocery bags, combined with my admiration, love and respect of all things vintage.  Or maybe it's just the delightful ripping sound - who knows.

Cards were created assembly-line style - sentiment was computer generated...I'm finding I am doing this more and more.  The laser text doesn't smear and has a quality sheen to it.

Card bases/envelopes are from an Italian company, Arturo (Dick Blick), in Gray.

The presentation - in a clear-lidded box (nashvillewraps.com - #SB738)...

...and with the lids, decorated.  Papers are BasicGrey Origins, dies are Spellbinders with Want2Scrap bling.  Gift sentiment is A Muse.  I need to try their new cling stamps - all I have are their ones from years ago.

Hope you are having a great week, and many thanks for your kind words, advice and private emails regarding yesterday.  Today is better, and I have learned much!

every once in a while...

... a person will enter my life via my store, emailing me asking for something I can not give them, accuse me of being snarky, rude and snippy, and make me want to close the store so I do not have to deal with the public any longer.

Was it her time of the month?  Is it mine and I'm being too sensitive? 

Do you know we take a loss on shipping every single day?  Do you know we don't charge full retail for 99% of the items in the store?  Does anyone even care?

I don't operate the store to make money - I operate it because I love the products that I sell.  And I LOVE papercrafting and the hobby.

Which makes me wonder, why share the sandbox if the mean girls are throwing sand all the time?

Time to rethink closing the playground.  Or just wait out the cycle of the moon.

How do you deal with mean people?

 

more pretty notepads

I've used 5x8 lined notepads from staples.com, and created flip-top style covers for some - side flip style for others. 

The teacher notebooks feature a cute holder for a mini mechanical pencil (also staples.com).  Paper is October Afternoon Schoolhouse; stamp (teacher's notes) is from Papertrey Ink.

The notebook top is a piece of 5-1/4" x 8-1/4" chipboard that I neatly and carefully covered with the pattern papers.  The chipboard (or cardboard - use what you have) adds heft and a quality of durability to the notebook.

Here's another one - using a ripped portion of my spare 1936 issue of Gone With the Wind.  Gotta watch the text though - don't want to use anything inappropriate, and with GWTW, well, you gotta watch the text.

October Afternoon Sidewalks used above, and some Prima flowers.

This notebook opens like this:

If you're a lefty like me, or are sitting in a meeting where seating is tight, you'll appreciate this style of opening.

Another one using Sidewalks.  And a jumbo metal rimmed tag.  Stamp is from Papertrey Ink, giant ric rac is from May Arts. 

I used Baby Blue Liquid Pearls on the flower image on the tag, and a Spellbinders die in Memory Box Gourd cardstock.

Another one:

This notebook is similar to this one I did last year.  The Want2Scrap pearl bling and the new Spellbinders (labels 22) dies kick this up a notch.  I am still in love with this Weathervane line from October Afternoon. 

I need to get over it cuz they just ain't makin' any more.

Close up of the lovely Lockhart image Basket of Leaves (5019).  Colored with Copic markers - coloring always puts me in a happy mood...something about coloring probably remind me of Kindergarten, and dang if those were not happy times...Kindergarten was and is the best!

I digress...last one - using Weathervane again...paper piecing is fun when using fun images like these...

And a close up:

This notebook uses the Weathervane die cut pieces - I sanded the edges to get rid of the hanging paper nodule and accented the edges with Walnut Stain Distress ink. 

I love me some notebooks!