"Make it a Banner Day" - with Milk Cartons!

Wow. Well, the Close To My Heart "Make it a Banner Day" campaign has been so popular that they have run out of the My Creations Mini Banners! If you didn't get yours in time, there's still a chance to grab a freebie in June. It is, however, still a WHILE SUPPLIES LAST offer! Simply place a $25 order that includes a stamp set, and receive two My Creations Milk Cartons for FREE. The milk cartons are 5½" x 3" × 3" and include closure clips. Perfect for gift giving this summer! Check out the gorgeous artwork created with these:

Of course, you don't have to get that fancy with them! But have fun & use your imagination - I'd love to see what you come up with! You can place your order directly from my website at http://funforyou.ctmh.com. Happy creating!

Get Your Gimp On!

“Gimp, also called Gymp, boondoggle, or lanyard, is a plastic lacing used to make bracelets, keychains, pullies and even bookmarks!” (taken from “How to make a box styled gimp”, wikiHow.com). Before last week, I had never heard of this process. My introduction to it came at my daughter’s last Brownie meeting, where they were making bracelets to pass the time. I loved how it looked, so I immediately went home and looked it up online. I found a great article on wikiHow.com with great pictures. (http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Box-Styled-Gimp) The article teaches the square or box stitch. Since I didn’t have any plastic cording, I decided to use some colored hemp-like cording that I had from a previous project. I am going to take you through the steps here, but feel free to visit wikiHow’s website for any clarification you may need.

Step 1 – Cut two lengths of cord. This is where I got lost on my first try – the website never says how long the lengths should be. So my first attempt at a bracelet turned out to be a keychain, because my lengths were too short. If you are looking to do a 7.25” bracelet, two 5’ lengths should be sufficient (yes, that’s 5 feet). Using two different colors will also make this process a whole lot easier. Have the piece that runs left-to-right (the tan piece) cross over the top-to-bottom piece (the blue piece) in the center:

Step 2 – Make two loops with the blue piece – one strand will be facing toward you, the other facing away from you.

Step 3 – Take the left end of the tan cord and run it over the first blue loop on the left, and under the second loop on the right. Take the other end of the tan cord (starting on the right) and run it over the first blue loop on the right, and under the second loop on the left. (The tan loops come in from opposite directions and go under the loops farthest from them):

Step 4 – Gently pull each strand taught until they form a “box” pattern – blue in two opposite corners, and tan in two opposite corners:

Step 5 – Repeat steps 2-4, making sure that you keep the blue strands to the top & bottom, and the tan strands to the left & right. Loop the blue strand that hangs toward you away from you to the back, and loop the blue strand that hangs away from you toward you to the front:

Step 6 – Continue this back-and-forth weaving until your “rope” is the desired length. I added beads to mine at regular intervals, which you can also do.

Step 7 – Once your rope is complete, tie the ends off with square knots (I tied my jump rings on with the knots), then use a jewelry glue to secure the knots. Once the glue is dry, snip off any extra cording and you’re done!

I really love the look of this stitch. I can't wait to try it with a variety of colors, cording, and beads. Send me your creations at aafaa@charter.net! I'd love to see them!

The "Junk" Drawer

OK, I admit it. I am a bit of a hoarder. Not only do I have a drawer where I throw my cardstock scraps, I also have a drawer where I throw my...what to call them...unused stuff, I guess. Often times I will be working on a card, create an embellishment, focal point, border or sentiment for it, then decide it doesn't look quite right. At that point, I toss it in my "junk" drawer. It's not really junk, of course, but it's starting to look that way:

I have a set of seven different armchair images in there - all different colors and patterns - because I just couldn't get the look that I wanted for a certain card. But, of course, I couldn't throw them away! I'm sure I will use them for...something, right?

Well, this past weekend, I decided I would just take out that drawer and make stuff from the pieces. In doing so, I found that the ATC (artist trading card) format was best suited for using a lot of these items - quickly and easily. So I'd like to share with you what I created from my "junk":

For this ATC, I used a piece of random-stamped cardstock, a tag from a pair of jeans that happened to have this to/from on the back, and a die-cut/stamped star.

This one was cool - I used a scrap of blue paper and the negative space from a snowflake die-cut. I originally thought I could just sponge white ink through the die-cut, but you really couldn't see it. So I ended up sprinkling on some clear embossing powder and sponging around the image with some blue ink. I love how it came out.

Another piece of that blue paper with a pink scrap of torn cardstock (CS), and a pre-assembled "yo-yo" that I had done at a crop a ways back.

This embossed and sponged turtle image was already mounted on the brown CS and the green-striped paper. The only thing I did was adhere it to a piece of white CS so that it would be official ATC size (2.5" x 3.5")

I have no idea what that background piece was from - but I had it! I mounted that to a piece of brown CS, then used the corrugated shape and die-cut/stamped "Thanks" image on top.

This one used four different scraps - the denim border, the white border, a piece of a green flower border, and the "Made with Love" die-cut. I attached all to a piece of white CS and drew a stitched border along the edge. The next two are cards:

This was a funky one, because, for some reason, I had a card base that just had leaves stamped around an empty area on the front. Hmmm. So, I found a white yo-yo, which I sprayed with some brown ink, a cream die-cut frame, a pinkish "Congrats" die-cut, a giraffe border, and a piece of green patterned paper...and put it all together! More scraps gone!

This last one is my favorite in its stark simplicity. This uses one of those armchair images I mentioned earlier, and a strip of leftover patterned paper from a birthday card kit I made a long time ago. Cool.

Whew! I have certainly been having fun using up these scraps! I have a LONG ways to go to make a dent in this thing, but I'm going to keep plugging away. I hope I have inspired you to take a look in your "junk" drawer, and see what kinds of treasures you can find!