Some creatures can't 'resist' temptation! ;o)

Once upon a time, there was a scary snarfy
little creature lurking in the shadows...



....sniffling & sneaking up on her prey...



...and she couldn't resist devouring it! ;o)




Here's what Miss Mouse has been eating
in her spare time:


(I guess there's only room for one spooky kitty around here!)

It's a Halloween decoration
("No Duh!" hey?)
It's the size of a standard A2 card: 5-1/2" x 4-1/4" +the border.


There are holes pierced right through it...



...so that the light
sparkles through like stars...



...when you hang it on a lamp:


(I used chain to hang it, so there's no fire hazard
& just stuck the chain over the finial at the top of the lamp shade)

Wish you could see the sparkly star action in person;
it looks much better in real life.



It started out as these pieces:


I made this thinger for the Simon Says Stamps
resist challenge at Lily Pad Cards here
and tried to come up with a new resist technique
for the background...

So next post here will be a tutorial on how to go from
this piece of patterned paper:



to this texture:



The cat is an image from Claire Keay's Halloween extras.



I pasted a circle behind it in photoshop & coloured it as a moon
with distress inks (Mustard Seed & Pumice Stone)
then painted over that with shimmer paint.

But the cat got covered in shimmer, which looked awfully schloppy
at first, then turned out to be a happy accident when I scratched off the
paint and made fur texture on him (using a paper piercer):



It left some shimmer so it looks like he's kind of sparking in the moonlight.


(It's goofy, but I'm obsessed with texture).

The Fence:

The fence was cut free-hand from a digi patterned paper that
I made using Hero Arts Woodgrain digital stamp printed in beige
on Kraft cardstock:



The fence posts have wavy cuts in them to make them look more spooky:



To give them more grainy texture, I score lines in them using a paper piercer
(following the lines of the printed woodgrain).



The Mini Banner:

The teeny "BOO" banner was made by:

1) Typing BOO in a word document in red leaving space around them "B O O"
2) Printing it out on watercolour paper.
3) drawing triangles around them in pencil, cutting them out & erasing the pencil.
4) Piercing around the edges & stitching with yellow thread (by hand).
5) Adhering the banner triangles to the fence.
6) Piercing & stitching around them to add the blue bow & banner thread.

The Spider Web Border:



The spider web border at the bottom was made using an EK Success

large spider web edger punch (that was sent to me by the lovely Megan)
Thanks Megan. I love it!

I especially like that the web is wide enough that you could add doodling,
or little spiders in the center like these gem guys:



They are made of thread & black gems, like this...

1) Threading a needle so it has 4 'layers' of thread
2) Piercing two holes in the spider web center
3) Putting the needle through the front so it leaves the thread ends on the front
4) Holding the ends in place & bringing the needle back out front again
5) Adhering the thread at the back & trimming it at the front
6) It should look like 8 legs when you stick gems on
7) Adhere one black gem for the spider body & a smaller one for the head

And That's that!
Hope you're having a lovely day,

Want to buy this project? Stamp out cancer Auction (secret box canvas)

So I have an evil plan, for a good cause:
breast cancer fundraising.

I'm going to try and entice you guys to buy this thinger
by adding elements to it bit by bit,
and by customizing it to your taste as much as I can.

Today is day 3 of Skipping Stones Design's

second annual Blogs 4 Boobies fundraiser
And it's a series of auctions!

my piece up for auction looks like a card in this photo...



...but it's actually a canvas on wood
(renewable resource archival-quality wooden canvas)



It measures 6 inches by 6 inches
and is decorated with:

• Gesso,
• Watercolour paper,
• Heat-embossed vellum
• Canvas,
• Hand stitching
• and heat-embossed pieces on all 4 sides.

I made little wee embossed flowers for it
(from the Stampin' Up Birds & Blooms die).
They have paint-distressed snaps in the centers...



...but left it customizable,
so what would YOU
like to see on this?:



I'll be making a couple different flower options and
sending them to the winner...
....so if that's you, then
you can choose which flowers you like best
and keep the rest to switch out for a new look to the canvas,
or use however you like.

If you don't like flowers, then
you can put whatever you'd like on it. :o)



If you'd like this wooden canvas
to come live at your house,
You can bid on it in the comments
-just say how much you'd like to donate, and be sure to
leave your email (or send it to me at melstampz@gmail.com)
pretty please.

The bidding ends on the 23rd, so until then
I'll keep adding details to this project to try to entice you. :o)

&

Please check out all of the great
projects for auction on Day 1 & 2
(linked up here)! (You can read the "rules" there as well)

Please visit these talented ladies
who are also auctioning cards off today:

Skipping Stones Design blog (all 3 days' designers are there)
You can bid on all 3 days worth of projects until Aug. 23rd!

• Rae Ann Barthel
• Karen Baker
• Pam Hornschu
• Jennifer Ingle
• Ria Johnson
• Stephanie Mino
• Kandi Phillips
• Wendy Price
• Julia Stainton
• Taylor Usry

Don't forget you can help just by shopping, too.

This project uses these two of my ultra fave stamp sets
from Skipping Stones Design:

Timeless Textures and Grunge sets:




I know my family is far from being the only one to be
fighting cancer in its different forms,
so thank you in advance for helping however you can!

Please spread the word & please remember
to get screening for early detection,

P.S. This wooden canvas has a secret box compartment hidden
in the back too. (I'll reveal photos of that soon.) :o)

Craft Room pictures & Organizing Distress inks

Many of you have been kind enough to wonder over the years what my space looks like. I can never seem to manage photos of the whole thing, so instead I thought I'd share it piecemeal. This little corner is a fave--one that gives you a little peek at my reformation from complete slob to relative neatnik:

It used to look (shamefully) like this:............But lately it looks (mostly) like this:

versus

------Mess.....................................versus.........................................Bliss

Do you find crafty cleaning to be a guilty pleasure?

For the last year or so (since we moved) I've been putting more time, bit by bit, into the space and have almost stopped feeling guilt over that. (I've always felt like I should be crafting & blogging tutorials or doing general house-keeping instead of prettifying my craft studio, but having a clean space feels oh so NICE!)

The lay of the land:

The space is about 8 foot by 9 foot. It's the master bedroom of our 700 sq foot condo (she says with a guilty snicker of happiness). The furnishings were done on the cheap [using pieces we already had: 99% mismatched Ikea beaver-puke (particleboard) pieces] ;o). And it's a blissful thing to have "a room of one's own!"

I thought I'd include a pictorial here of one of the little projects that has added to the organized bliss: ink labels...



My Sweetheart spoiled me with 8 new Distress inks and other goodies for ye olde upcoming birthday. (He keeps teasing me about almost being 40 and calls me "OLD." Can you imagine!?! I'm a spring chicken! :O) His thoughtfulness makes up for his sassy nerve, though.)

Don't crafty gifts make getting older a little bit easier? I never shop anymore except on holidays, so it's an extra big thrill. (I will love these inks that much more: talk to them, feed them and water them, give them goofy nicknames, pet them! teeheehee). Thanks, Honey!



1...pictorial for making distress ink labels
2...a break down of my craft studio corner: "colour shelf"
3...some ideas for curtains: 2 kinds for a creative closet
4...pencil sharpener storage idea

(love up your inks)

make Distress ink labels:

• inks you want to label
  
• paper (i love Paris Bleedproof)
• computer & ink jet printer
• clear embossing powder & heat gun
  
• strong double-sided tape
• wax paper or acetate (or something similar)
• water & a rag
  
• Microglaze or other sealer
  

Step 1} Make Do It Yourself label "stickers":

A) Print the labels with ink names. I wanted four of each name so that all sides of the ink pad are labeled, that way I can just shove them back on the shelf willy-nilly.

For labels that won't smudge: heat-emboss label names onto paris bleedproof paper (using an inkjet printer or print on a lazer printer if you have it.

B) Cut the labels and adhere them to wax paper with strong double-sided tape.

C) Adhere the label "stickers" to a piece of wax paper temporarily to make them easy to ink & work with.

Hopefully you can see why I like the paris bleedproof paper in this photo
(it let's you heat emboss the printer ink!)
(You can read more about that digital embossing technique here if you like).



Can you see how the letters are slightly raised? That's clear embossing powder & it means no smearing when you ink it up:



Step 2} Ink the labels. I applied the matching distress ink colours direct to paper and then blended with a little water.




Step 3} Seal the labels so they will stay nice & clean and not absorb other colours of ink when you work. I used Judikin's Microglaze. It's got a nice waxy quality that makes it a good waterproofer. I rubbed off the excess with a rag. Alternatively, you could use mod podge, gel medium, or another clear sealer. Just be sure not to stick the labels permanently to the wax paper, of course. ;o)

and there you have it...



Custom ink labels.

Step 4} Then simply stick them on the ink pads (all four sides):

...and here's the shelf where they live,
with their close neighbours the other inks
(sorted into rainbow-ness):

They are all on old shelves (20 bucks a piece back in the day).
I wasn't worried about damaging the shelves, so the
scissors hang on push pins that are stuck everywhere to
hang things from. It's so nice to have everything within easy reach.

The shelves are conveniently located at the left of my main work desk:



They are actually along the inside of the closet
(I needed the space, so I took the doors off)


(for 2 curtain layers in a closet)

One convenient thing is that I put up a curtain rod,
high up in side the closet, so that it can all
be closed off for a more clean look.

Hopefully this picture also gives you a better idea of
how the desk is arranged in the closet area:



(The desk is stuck into the closet so that part of it is
tucked away against those shelves
& the curtains hide the shelf of hoard-y goodness.
It's a beveled glass piece from an old broken Ikea coffee table
on top of a junky drafting table hidden with a vintage table cloth.
Working on glass is a joy, since it cleans up ever so easily.)

The other gray shelf there blocks a big bright window
which may seem crazy but is actually a good thing since it not only
increases storage, it also affords a little privacy from
my hundreds of neighbours who are in the condos right out there.
You can see into peoples' places across the way alarmingly clearly.
(Translation: secretly stamping in my pajamas!)

There are extra sneaky curtain clips left empty between
the ones that are holding those white curtains:



Why? The spare clips make it so that I can quickly clip up a
painter's drop sheet that will serve to protect the clean curtains
when I get to painting large canvases etc. (Eventually!)

Here are some other things that live on the shelves:

And this is another one of those little random organizing
things that makes me strangely happy.

A pencil sharpener & shavings holder:

It's a little tray that fits in the palm of your hand
(but really it's a lid from an antique bell jar)
It makes for a great thingamabobber to sharpen pencils in.
Works to catch the shavings for dumping in the garbage bin later.
It's glass, so it has a lovely heft to it, but any little container would do.

What's your organizing style?

Things work better, I find, if I plan for my style of organizing (slightly lazy with a chance of intermittent cleaning sprees. Kind of like the weather. In other words, I often save my cleaning for a rainy day--As you know, it used to be that I saved it for a blue moon!) ;o)


Well, thanks for letting me ramble!
Hope you are feeling wonderful.