White Ink

After raving about Stampin' Up!'s white craft ink I knew I would have to show an example of what I meant. I used a stamp from Stampin' Up! and first stamped it with another brand of white pigment ink. That one is on the left side. Then I took the same image and used Stampin' Up! Whisper White craft ink and stamped that right next to the other one. That one is on the right side. I took the picture in two different spots also just to show that it wasn't where I took the picture that made the difference.


So there you have it! I am just amazed at the difference between the two inks!

Organization: Ink Pad Storage

In my never ending process of organization, I thought I would share the latest way I store my ink pads. This method may change after a while when I need to move things around again, but for now this way is working for me.


These are just the 8 1/2x11 sterilite drawers I got from Wal-Mart. Each type of ink pad has its own drawer: 1)dye inks, 2)distress inks, 3)chalk inks, 4)slow drying pigment inks, 5)fast drying pigment inks (like Brilliance), and 6)craft inks and StazOn (which is currently empty at the moment.

I usually buy the little cat's eye or cubes if I can because that way it's more economical to be able to have more colors and it's also easier for me to store. These drawers sit on a shelf, which is behind where I work.

This one is my dye inks:

This is my distress inks:

I am still so confused as to what kind of inks to store upside down, so I just store all of them upside down. The only thing I hate about this is that you can't see the color of the ink pad. The Distress Inks have the name written on the bottom, which is a big help, though.

These are my chalk inks:
What I am going to try to do is stamp a small circle and then punch it out, try to write the color name on it and attach it to the bottom of the ink pads. I just haven't gotten around to doing that yet.

I used to store my ink pads in hard plastic pencil type cases I got at Staples, but I outgrew that. I rearranged all my other stuff to make room for this new ink pad storage set up. So far it's working! But I have a small space and I am constantly having to re-organize everything in order to make the most of my space.

Lazy Days of Summer?

Who came up with that phrase? Because my summer has definitely not been lazy! Especially since being back from vacation. Unpacking, laundry, errands, grocery shopping, bill paying, visits from friends and family - hasn't left me much time for crafting or blogging! So for now here is an old layout I did from when my boys were 8 months old. Every month for their first year I would take a picture of them with this huge monkey to show the progression of their growth. So for their first year scrapbook, I would start the new month off with a layout of the boys with the monkey. All the journaling goes on the other pages so that's why there isn't any on this page. Just a quick, simple layout. If I remember correctly the patterned paper on the top is Basic Grey and the bottom is Junkitz. Oh, and yes I do have 2 boys but this was right before their first haircut, so I know my one son's hair is a bit long. He was born with a head full of hair!

Hopefully once I get a bunch of things done and taken care of I can get back to creating and can devote more time here.

Will be back soon!

I know I haven't written much lately, but we just got home from vacation and I am trying to catch up on getting back to realty, which includes a ton of laundry, and grocery shopping since we had no food in the house!

We all had a great time at my mom's and I miss her already. We went to the beach a couple of times, blew bubbles, visited lighthouses, saw ponies, went swimming, got ice cream, and the boys put together a "movie" for their Grammy. Now it's time to get settled back home.

Mother's Day Revisted

Well, here I am the last day of vacation before we head home and I miss my mom all over again. We had a great time and were sooo busy I feel like I need to rest just from this vacation.

Since this is my last day here I thought I would share the card I made for my mom for this past Mother's Day. I didn't take a picture of it before I sent it to her, but she still had it out so I took a picture of it now!

I used Wild Card Cricut cartridge for all the cuts, and then I distressed it all with Ranger Distress Ink - although I can't remember which color I used. I cut the matching scalloped envelope, but my mom didn't have that anymore so I couldn't get a picture of it. The cardstock was just some 8 1/2 x 11 paper I have had for a long time and was trying to use up.

We hit the road early in the morning so I better get some packing done! I am sad to leave, but I am thrilled to get back to all my scrapping stuff! I have a bunch of ideas that I can't wait to get started on.

ABC Baby Album

A while ago a friend of mine had her first baby, and as a gift to her I made her an ABC baby scrapbook album. She is a Kindergarten teacher so I knew the ABC approach would fit her perfectly. This is just a couple of the pages from the album.
I did it in 8x8 and used Basic Grey Oh Baby Boy line of patterned paper. The cardstock was the matching Bazzill. I don't remember the measurements for all the pieces, but to make it easy on myself I used the same basic setup and just rotated all the elements. This made cutting the pieces easier and putting it together on the page go faster.
The white paper is 4x6 and that was where she would put the picture; and the strip of paper next to the letter is where she could write the word that went with the letter and picture. Along with the album, I gave her photo corners and photo squares so she had her choice on what she wanted to use. I also included a black acid free marker and a list of suggestions for each letter.

Sorry the pictures are bit blurry. I took these pictures a while ago and now I don't have the album anymore (obviously) so I couldn't get clearer pictures.

A Very Somber 4th of July

I'm sorry I haven't written in a while. I had all intentions on sharing more stuff I brought with me, but I guess I haven't been "in the mood"

I hope everyone had a nice 4th of July. Here on Ocracoke we had a horrible tragedy and I just feel so sad. The morning of the 4th the truck that was carrying the fireworks for that night's show exploded. My mom's house shook and the sound was so loud, we had no idea what it was at first. When we went outside we saw a huge plume of white smoke up in the air, almost like a mushroom cloud of smoke. 1 person died at the scene, 3 others at the hospital and 1 is in fair condition. All 5 victims were from the pyrotechnics company. 2 local fire fighters were being treated for smoke inhalation and exhaustion, but they have been released from the hospital.

I can't help but feel so sad right now. Those people were just doing their jobs and were trying to set up a great event for everyone to see. My heart goes out to their families and friends. All these thoughts have been in my head and I just needed to get them out. I will be back soon with more creative things to share, but thanks for letting me talk about this!