Make Your Own {Custom} Colored Ribbon

So, how many times do you go riffling through your ribbon drawers, shelves, containers, baskets, and more looking, searching for the perfect color ribbon?! Well, if you are like me, then the answer would be oh too often!!!

I have oodles of ribbon, always want more, and get incredibly frustrated when I don't have just the right color. Even though I want more, I'm running out of room to store it and wouldn't it just be nice to actually use what I have in a better way??

Last night, as I was creating a card, I was looking for a particular blue in a narrow width and after doing one of Tim's digs, I couldn't come up with any! Not even a scrap.

Suddenly, I glanced at the bag of Sharpies! I remembered some cream satin ribbon in the width I was looking for and started grabbing the ribbon, the bag of Sharpies, case of Bic Mark Its, and my random small collection of Prismacolor Markers.

Trying several of my blues out, I found the correct one (which happened to be a Bic Mark It). The ribbon was 100% polyester and took the ink from all three kinds of markers brilliantly! I just ran the markers along the length of the ribbon. It dried instantly and did not come off on anything. It did make the ribbon a bit stiffer, but that worked in my favor as the ribbon held the bow's shape when I tied it. There are other options, including reinkers and ink pads, but this is so fast and not messy at all!

I must admit, I am rather excited to know that I can make just about any color of ribbon that I need, which can come in really handy when you are crafting at night and the option to run out and get the right color is not available! And it was uber cheap as well! That 50 cent roll, was on clearance for 10 cents when I bought it some time back. So, my length of custom colored ribbon that I used cost me all of a fraction of one penny!!

Oh yes, and just in case you are worried, I am still creating and crafting! I started a new painting last week, have been making some cards (which I'll get up here soon), and tweaking some other creative projects. Hubby has been building some models with our kidlets. My son painted a ceramic kitty that he has been dying to put a brush to for awhile now. And I just bought my daughter her own set of paint brushes as she wants to paint too! So, there has been lots of the creative and crafty going on here and I'll definitely get some of it up soon. :>

Hubby just called..........the chicken, rice, and veggie soup that he and our Princess have been making all day is ready! What's for dinner at your house tonight?

Stop the presses.......

........I stamped a card! Waaahooooooo! I know its been a bit and I'm so sorry for that. Life has just been a wee bit busy and the first thing a lack of energy seems to zap, is my creativity. Grrr... Now, even though, I still feel as if I am a cat chasing her tail some days, I decided to craft some time for myself to ink up a stamp that I've had sitting out for awhile now. I absolutely love the detailed images of Mostly Animals stamps and this sunflower is from my stash from back in my early stamping days......about fifteen years ago.

Did you know that you can emboss with your Distress Inks?? Remembering hearing (okay, so I didn't hear it...I read it!) on the 2Peas stamping board (a couple of years ago) that you can emboss with Distress Inks, I thought it was about time I finally try it out for myself! Even though they are dye inks, they do stay wet long enough to pour on embossing powder and heat. Sooooooo....add another dozen ink colors for me to emboss with....yay! (There are way more than a dozen colors....but that's about the number that I own.) Does this add to your collection of colors to emboss with? Or are you an uber cool stamping encyclopedia and already have this knowledge incorporated into all those fun files in your brain?

Even though I had much more elaborate plans for this beautiful stamp, once I stamped and embossed her, I found that I liked the detailed line image so much that I chose to leave it as is. Wanting a bit of color on the card, I punched a trio of butterflies to flit up the card from some Stampin' Up! DSP left overs I had on my table, inked the edges with the same Distress Ink, folded them up, glued them on, and added a touch of bling for some sparkle. Actually, while the pic doesn't show it, there already is a bit of sparkle embossed into the image. Do you remember that orange glitter I had covering my old stash of embossing powder, glitter, and flocks? Well, there was a touch of it left on the rubber of my sunflower stamp that I absolutely could not get off.......until I stamped it on my card and then it was embossed in for a permanent home. Now, I'm really glad its there as for some reason, it just works!


Here's one more trip down memory lane..............back in May, I shared with you some wonderful Strawberry Charm of and from my sweet boy. Well, here is strawberry number four....kind of. That plant has flowered and fruited many times now. But, the noisy blue jays that visit us in our backyard every afternoon this year have been eating them all summer long!! My sweet boy got so excited every time he saw a "pretty white flower" because he knew that a strawberry that he planted, watered, and nurtured would follow that he could eat. We kept encouraging him to keep taking care of it and more would come. Well, either the blue jays found something more interesting to eat or the tomato cage with the reflective strips tied on is working or my sweet boy's timing has improved because he has been able to reap the benefits of his care taking as he harvests and eats the last four ripened strawberries from his charming strawberry plant. Now he wants to grow tomatoes, eggplants, lettuce, zucchinis, and a whole host of other fruits and vegetables!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bashful Blue - Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper: Stampin' Up!
Stamp: Sunflower - Mostly Animals
Ink: Tea Dye - Distress Ink
Punch: Butterflies - Martha Stewart
Other: clear embossing powder - Stash; Hemp Twine - Stampin' Up!; Bling - Me & My Big Ideas

KWerner Color Inspiration #55...my 1st time playing along!

Amazingly, I have never played along with one of Kristina's color challenges before. But, that ended today. I have a couple of new books by my bedside and I am so tired of pulling the nearest thing to mark my page....a paper clip, a barrette, and my old standby, a kleenex! So, a bookmark seemed to be calling my name.

With Kristina's colors in mind, I riffled through my stamps and pulled out quite an assortment that have most definitely not received the love they deserve. First, I cut a piece of More Mustard down to size. Next, I stamped an antique map of Africa. Then, I stamped the sentiment and the Tim Holtz clock with Versamark and embossed with russet embossing powder. I stamped some vines randomly all over the cardstock (these were not embossed) for a tone on tone effect.

Not wanting to add any cream cardstock to the bookmark, I went through my options to include the color. Cream ink? Nope, don't have it. Cream rub-ons? Nope, none in a shape that would work for me. Hmmmmmmm.......what else do I have?? Then it came to me!! Prismacolor colored pencils!!! PC914, Cream, at my service! I know this seems so simple, but its a major light bulb tip moment for me!!! With my pencils, I pretty much have any color that could be used in a color challenge, even if I do not have it in ink, cardstock, or ribbon! I used the cream colored pencil to color the edges, as you would ink the edges with an ink pad. This light bulb moment just tickled me oh so pink....er, um, cream colored?!

I finished the bookmark off with a Making Memories pebble clip at the top and matted the stamped More Mustard carstock on to a piece of Really Rust cardstock. One thing I want to note, I know that the embossing powder looks a bit different in color to the cardstock, but they really are the same color in real life.

I typically do not collage stamp. Yet, I had so much fun here and really like how it came out.....not to mention, all of the unused stamps and supplies that are feelin' the love with this simple little creation! :>

Supplies:
Cardstock: More Mustard, Really Rust - Stampin' Up!
Ink: Versamark - Tsukineko; Weathered Wood Distress Ink - Ranger
Stamps: Antique Maps - Sunday International; Decorative Flair (vine) - Stamped In Ink; Sentiment, Special Occasions - Marcella by K&Company; Clock, Life's Possibilities - Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous
Embossing Powder: Russet - The Herbarium
Embellishment: Travel Pebble Clips
Other: Prismacolor Colored Pencil

Moxie Fab World Citrus Color Challenge

As I began pulling colors for the Moxie Fab color challenge, I saw just how many different directions we can go! I realize its more Moxie FAB to use current and new products, but I ended up with a couple of retired SU In Colors, River Rock (which I never liked, until now...yes, Elise, you can thump me now!) and Wild Wasabi, in combination with a current color from Papertrey Ink, Lemon Tart. There are several other combinations that could be made from current SU colors or using Lemon Tart, Spring Moss, and Ripe Avocado (or New Leaf) from PTI, and a huge number of combinations from Bazzill or any number of great companies out there with great springtime launching into summer colors!

Planning in my head what I wanted to do, I grabbed a one inch circle punch and started punching out Lemon Tart and Wild Wasabi circles. I started arranging them on the River Rock card base to match that picture in my head and no matter how hard I tried to put them in a larger circle, they kept inching back into a line......acting like the caterpillar that they looked like sitting there on my card. So, I decided, why fight it?! A caterpillar it is. Running the circles through a Xyron, made it easy to attach them to each other and the card. A little TIP: If you take a stylus and trace around the outside (and the inside, if it has any cutouts) before you remove the top liner/cover, you will not have any of those annoying little Xyron webs that used to drive me batty!

Looking for antennae options, I pulled out my Love & Happiness rub-ons that were an SU sellabration goodie a couple years ago. I'm embarrassed to admit, I had not used them yet, not a one!! Actually, I'm really horrible about remembering to use rub-ons!! Oh the horror!! I have them. I love them when I see them. I admire them on other people's projects. But, I forget to use them!! Consequently, it may be a very simple card, but I'm proud that I did indeed remember to check out my rub-on stash!!! I cut out one flower stem (in Old Olive, I believe), that I cut into two pieces and used that for that for the antennae stems and two little dots for the antennae bulbs. I then cut the same two dots from the Chocolate Chip sheet and used them for the eyes. And voila, a little rub-on personality for my caterpillar!

"Thank You so much" is a sentiment from Dawn McVey's fabulous set, Damask Designs and was stamped in Wild Wasabi. The edges were all inked with more of that great color (too bad it is no longer). After I completed inking the card, the sentiment was beginning to get lost, so I took a Spica Glitter Pen in Melon and traced over the top popping the sentiment back out and giving it just a little bling!

Time to get one kidlet down for a nap and convince the other that the sun really will eventually come out today.....it is 2:30pm on June 1st, afterall! Oh well, I took advantage of it being cooler as well as all the gardening inspiration that I'm finding on so many blogs this week by pruning and weeding out back this morning. We transplanted a graphed apple tree that will have six different kinds of apples.....once it starts producing fruit. Its a happy little guy and I love looking at him out my kitchen window. Even though its getting late, I want to at least get my herb garden going and hopefully, get back to growing some veggies. I SO do not have a green thumb, but I get points for trying, right? What are you all growing in your gardens, this summer? (Or, if you are on the south side of the equator....hi Sarah!....what do you like to plant during your growing season?)

Supplies:
Cardstock: River Rock, Wild Wasabi - SU!; Lemon Tart - PTI
Ink: Wild Wasabi Classic dye ink - SU!
Stamps: Damask Designs - PTI

Embellishments: Love & Happiness Rub-ons - SU!; Melon glitter pen - Spica by Copic

Other: 1" circle punch - EK Success

Happy Birthday to You, Elise!

Easter was a religious holiday, a bunny hopping egg finding day, and a friend's birthday! I met Elise through the wonderful world of scrapbook retreats and she became my 'friendly Stampin' Up! gal' as well. She is a sweet woman who is incredibly artistically talented. I am inspired everytime I get to watch her work! And now that she has her own blog, I do not have to wait for the next retreat to see what crafty & artsy goodness she is up to! Lately, she has been playing with Tim Holtz's fun fragments and giving me all kinds of ideas. By the way.....that workshop that Tim is talking about on his blog?? That's where Elise is right now...today!!! How Awesome is that?!! I am So looking forward to seeing what she's learning from Tim, the man, today!!



Rummaging through my stamp collection with Elise's birthday card in mind, I wanted to pull stamps that she may have not seen before. She is a stamp-addict, like most of us in this stampy blogosphere, so she's seen a lot. Then I came accross Marilyn, by Stampsmith, and thought she would be perfect! Since this card was going in the mail, I didn't want it to be too lumpy and bumpy, so I kept my design fairly flat. Something that I really liked was that the ribbon points on the card fold flat in the envelope, but pops up a bit when taken out. On the inside of the card is a piece of PTI's vintage cream cardstock with a strip of Bitty Dot paper to coordinate with the front of the card. I'm horrible about remembering to decorate the insides of the cards, so I was really glad that I did this time! :>

Here's a little mailing TIP: If you have brads, bling, or bumps that do not make your envelope thicker than the 1/4" max, put clear packing tape on the back of the envelope so that the post office machines do not get caught on your embellishment and you do not have to put additional postage on it for hand proccessing! Someone from the Stamp Shack sent me a birthday card this way and I thought it was ingenious! I even went to the post office to ask about it and they said, yup, it will keep your postage down to a single first class stamp as long as you do not exceed the size or weight limits. Too cool! (oh yea.....Elise, apologies for the lint and whatnot that was on the first piece of tape I put down....I didn't realize the packing tape had been sitting out so long!! :>)


Supplies:
Cardstock: Vintage Cream, Dark Chocolate, Plum Pudding - PTI
Patterned Paper: Bitty Dot Basics - PTI
Stamps: Marilyn - Stampsmith
Ink: Close to Cocoa - SU
Ribbon: Sweet Blush Satin - PTI
Embellishments: Flowers - Prima; Light Pink Flower Rhinestones - KaiserCraft

Eggs! Eggs! Eggs!!

Dyed eggs, plastic eggs, and of course, some Easter egg shaped cards for my kidlets!



You would never believe where I got the inspiration for these cards! A piece of cardboard, the packaging from a potty training Disney Princess toilet insert (you know, the kind so that little tushes don't fall in :>), was just about to make its way to the recycling bin when I turned my head to the side and saw it....the perfect egg shape to make a card with!

I cannot freehand cut shapes out, but by tracing the inside 'egg' onto cardstock, I was able to make egg shaped cards! A little Tip....if hand cutting layers is troublesome for you, put a little bit of removable adhesive in between the layers (I used a Hermafix Dotto that just rubs off) and then cut them out.

These both are very simple cards, but I had fun putting them together and enjoyed the smiles on the kids' faces when they got to see them completed on Sunday morning. And because they know Mama's supplies so well, the cards were from Mom and Dad and not the big Bunny! :>

For my son's I cut circles with my Coluzzle from PTI's Bitty Dot paper. At first I layered the circle evenly, but later moved them off center. Looking at it now, I realize it kind of looks like a bunch of eggs.....while it works with the theme, it definitely was not my intention! He loves bunnies, so it was an easy pick to grab this oldie but goody out of the stamp stash. (The block, rubber, and foam all look like PSX, but it isn't marked.) I punched holes on the side and laced it up to put the front and back together.

For my daughter's, I tied each set of holes individually for a series of lilac bows. The rest of her card is simple as well....more Bitty Dot papers, flowers, Dew Drops, and some Pearl Ex interference, violet, for sparkle.


Supplies:
Cardstock: Blue & Pink eggs - Pacon (inexpensive Costco pack from a few years ago); Vintage Cream - PTI
Patterned Papers: Bitty Dot - PTI
Stamps: Bunny - Unknown (maybe PSX??)
Ink: Close to Cocoa - SU
Ribbon: Blue - Offray; Light Orchid - SU
Flowers: Prima
Bling: Orchid Dew Drops - Robin's Nest; Violet Interference Pearl Ex - Jacquard for SU; Pink Spica pen - Copic

Cupcake PlayDays

I've been in a daze of cupcakes, sprinkles, frosting, and fun these days. No, there aren't any great smells wafting in from the kitchen, more like the paper, ink, markers, and Crystal Effects kind! I wanted to make a birthday card and knew I wanted to use the one and only cupcake set that I own. I made several cupcakes using both markers and alcohol inks. What I am sharing today is a card made with a cupcake using Bic Mark-It Permanent Markers and Prismacolor Markers. Hopefully, the alcohol inked ones will make it to paper soon.

I stamped the cupcake, colored the frosting with the Bic markers and the wrapper with a Prismacolor marker. But, my cupcake was in serious need of some sprinkles! Not happy with any of the embellishment options I already had (bling, dew drops, brads, etc.), I opted to color some white cardstock with both kids of markers, punch them out with a hole punch, and then add Crystal Effects to the top of them....super easy! By far, the most difficult part was not touching them and waiting for them to dry! I also did not have the right shade of yellow cardstock to stamp the "Happy Birthday" sentiment on, so I again colored white cardstock with the same yellow marker I used to color the frosting, stamped the sentiment, and trimmed it out....voila! matching yellow cardstock! I had so much fun making my sprinkles and more than half of them did survive the drying process (and my impatience AND curious kidlet fingers!). I am so excited that I can make these little embellies in any color that I have a marker for!



Supplies:
Stamps: Inkspirations (no longer in business) - cupcake & sentiment; Papertrey Ink - Polka Dot Basics
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink - Stampers Select White & Pure Poppy; SU! - Pacific Point
Patterned Paper: Yellow w/polkas - stash (from about eight years ago...no wonder I hold onto stuff!)
Ink: Versamark, Versafine - Onyx Black, Bic Mark-It & Prismacolor Markers
Other: Ribbon - stash (from a great swap), SU! - Crystal Effects, foam squares - Target $ Spot