One exhausted Fairy...

When I saw this image I was sooo excited to color him using my Copics - very soothing for my harried soul!  Amazing how your mind goes lazer focused and all else fades into oblivian.
Then I finish the card and lo and behold, the christmas decorations are still not up, don't have my presents purchased yet, and my husband's birthday is next week... heavy sigh.  Think my priorities are messed up??  Ya think??












Back to the card... don't wanna think about the other...

• I matched the blues in the image to the base card and then added in the traditional reds and greens.
• Mounted panel on a 1/4" black mat.
• Sprinkled on the ultra thick white EP and heated it from the bottom to create a little snow.
• Fussy cut the bottom of the wings, candy cane and his foot so they would hang off the edge.  
• Used a Corner Chomper to round three of the corners.  
• Added a very sparkly blue fuzzy ribbon and layered the matted panel over the top.

I also did this version that has been covered with a dryer sheet and fine glitter. Way too much glitter layered on and the image is lost in it - wasn't happy with it at all!  

Create wildly and color with abandon!  
[and do the shopping later].
~ginny







CHALLENGES:
Sweet Stampin' – Fave Xmas Colors [Blue & Green]
SheepSki Designs #8 – Show us Your WINGS
Crafty Girls Creations – #41 - ATG Always
Scrapper's Delight #72 – ATG Always
Pile it On #136 – Large Sentiments & /or Things with Wings
Through the Craft Room Door - ATG Always
Crafting From the Heart -#185 ATG Always 
Get Creative Challenges – #64 – Holidays  TOP FIVE
Crafty Sentiments - ATG

Shopping our Stash L:13 – SOS #331–Sno Much Fun Everybody Art Challenge #413 – Everything Works Crafty Creations - #355 – ATG Always Winter Wonderland – Red & Green Xmas

Kit xChange to the rescue...

I have been stamping for 40 years and I have a 'RubberRoom' that is about 100 sq. feet [10' x 10'] - you can understand that I am constantly looking for ways to organize and utilize every square inch!
These are three ways I have tried to organize my thin Die Cuts... [left to right] a binder with magnetic sheets, a wire desk organizer and a box with magnetic sheets layered in it.

 OLD SYSTEM

This is a close up of the wire basket... you can see it is a pain in the wazoo

 to find the die I want - or just to look thru them for an idea!

So here is the deal... there was a Scrapbooking Convention in Sacramento recently and at the Kit xChange booth I spotted the word "Organization" and stopped to talk to the very personable owner and designer, Alicia Klein. Her idea and product arose from a need to organize her jewelry, but the product has sooo many other possibilities!  As we exchanged ideas and I told her of my need to organize dies, Alicia graciously offered to set me up with a system to review.  
It has taken a while to start the organizational process - but I finally have some pictures to share with you:

Kit xChange System

 









This is what I came home with - a binder, three 'pages' of felt covered boards and two packages each of a set of medium and a set of large specially made bags - all designed by Alicia.  

Small bags

These bags have a zip seal to secure even tiny beads and Velcro melded into the tops that will adhere to the pages or the inside cover of the binder.  As you can see on the right, the bags will layer nicely, one right after another.  
I cut out the picture of the dies and the manufacturer from the original packaging to file with the die.  TIP: I could usually get two dies in each bag so that as you lift each bag you see the picture of the other die in the bag [pictured - two different 'Happy Birthday' dies in the same bag].
My system will be to label each row with subject matter: 'Sentiments', 'Shapes', 'Flora', 'Fauna', etc.

Large bags

I even started a row of rubber stamps and their coordinating dies.  The large bags were big enough to hold either sets of acrylic or fairly large red rubber stamps as in the cup cake seen on the right.

Add caption

And...
If the binder doesn't work for you for reasons of space availability... you can take the individual pages out and attach them to a hanger or rod.  You have the front and back of the hanging boards to use and the hanger can be hung on a wall, in a closet or even over a door [my choice]!  

My opinion?  This system will work nicely for my smaller die cuts.  I am able to organize so many on this hanging board system and as you can see it takes up so very little room!  Also, it certainly appears that the hanging boards are strong enough to accommodate the weight of front and back covered with dies - and even to add another two pages hanging off the bottom!  
My only suggestion is that larger bags would be very useful.  My plan instead will be to use magnetic pages in the binder to store the larger [thin] dies.  

 I encourage you to go to the Kit xChange web site ASAP because there is a

Black Friday Sale

Nov 24 - 27, 2017

While you are there - check out the Travel Organizer Envelope 
[looks like a purse on a shoulder strap] if you want 
something to carry your current projects!

Create wildly and color with abandon!

~ginny

Fall Apples in 3D...

Featuring another Mo Manning image called "Apple"... this card utilizes 3D paper sculpting to allow the image to pop off the page and give it depth.  The 2nd layers here are her head & hair, both forearms holding the apple, the cuff on her jeans, the apples on the ladder and, of course, the basket full of apples.

• image was printed out two times on Neenah CS 
• colored them with Copics
• fussy cut & sculpted individual sections to be elevated
• the edges around each cut piece are all individually colored with the darkest Copic color being used for that section of the piece.  
• mounted sections from 2nd sheet using foam tape
• the image panel and mat were die cut using Lil Inkers stitched circle dies  
• the mat circle was embossed with an E-folder to provide a little texture  
• a slot punch was used to punch two holes in the front of the base card [2nd hole is under the little bow]
• ribbon matching the apple colors was run thru the slots, gathered & tied with matching cord that is tied in a small bow 
• two corners of the base card are punched with a 1/2 in. Corner Chomper 

A little easier to see the depth with these two photos.
The inside has two stitched ovals by Lil Inkers stamped with the sentiment by Country Impressions.

Create wildly and color with abandon!  
~ginny

CHALLENGES:
Through the Craft Room Door - ATG Always
Addicted to Stamps & More - #266 – ATG Honourable Addict

Crafty Sentiments – Fave Stamp/ image  [ANY of the Mo Mannings are my fave!] Penny's Challenge #353 – ATG Creative Knockouts – L:8- #218 Embossing Aud Sentiments - #192 – Bingo + Sentiment  [Die Cut/stitching/Ribbon] Inspiration Destination #135 – ATG AI-Art Impressions Challenge #220 – 3D Really Reasonable Ribbon  #175 – ATG w/ ribbon or trim Crafty Girls Creations – #41 - ATG Always Scrapper's Delight #72 – ATG Always