Granddaughter UPDATE!!

Just had to share a couple of photos of the grandbaby :)

This first one was taken at 2 months old as she was ready to take a nap. I just love this one... her mom caught her with her eyes still open, not wide open, but enough to see how big and beautiful those eyes are going to be!

 

 

 

And this next one shows her in her first "car".... at only 11-1/2 weeks old!... Yep, that's right.... 10 days shy of 3 months old, and she has her first Jeep! LOL!

 

 

 

Her mom did put a rolled up towel behind her to tuck her in the seat of her new walker, but what amazes me is her head control.... she hasn't needed any support at all for weeks before this photo was taken! The doctor says she's very strong and advanced for her age, and I can see why! And of course, I already have her down as being a little genius, too, so we'll see!!

 

Thanks for letting me gush over this little preciousness! Can't wait to see her up close and in person again... hope that won't be too long, but it's already been 2 months since they were here :(.... time sure flys by....

 



Storage for Spellbinders and ALL Thin Metal Dies!

I am so excited to finally have found a solution to storing all my metal dies!!!

You know what jewel cases are, right? They're the hard plastic cases that hold CD's and they have what I call a "nubbin button" inside that fits in the center hole of the CD to hold it in place. Well, in case you don't already know, that "nubbin button" insert is removable, but it's a pain to do and if you're not extremely careful, you can break at least several fingernails! (you can guess how I know this, lol)

Well, there is a company online that sells King Size Jewel Cases without that insert in them... YAY! The cases are bigger than a normal CD one, about the height of a DVD case. I found out about these from Amazing Paper Grace - Becca Feeken's Blog. The company now also has pre-cut adhesive-backed magnet sheets that fit perfectly inside!

I must say that these are just wonderful... take a look:

Spellbinder Nestabilities

The links to these cases and magnet inserts are:

Cases: click here

Magnets: click here

When you attach the magnets to the inside of the cases, make sure they are in position correctly BEFORE you stick them down.... that adhesive is very strong, and where you put them is where they'll stay.... ain't no moving 'em... just sayin' :) !!!
The magnets hold the metal dies in position so well, and work with all the different thin metal die brands that I have! As you can see, I photographed these all standing up, and I even held them upside-down and shook them, but the dies stayed in place!

These next 3 photos are all still Spellbinders, but just the different 'lines' they carry.

Spellbinder Labels Twenty

the NEW Spellbinders  Majestic Elements

Spellbinder Shapeabilities

Here are some of the other metal die brands:



Poppystamp/Memory Box Dies

Memory Box Dies

My Favorite Things (MFT) Die-Namics

Cheery Lynn Dies (in a regular size CD case)

The magnet sheets cut easily, and since I had several regular size CD cases on hand, I purchased extra magnets and cut them to fit. You can see a few finished cases in this next photo:



Regular Size CD cases

AND.... these King Size cases can also hold cling-mount rubber stamps. I have a few of those as well, so I just ordered some of the cases for them and used them without the magnet inserts!

Cling-Mount Rubber Stamps

I know these cases can take up a little space, but since I already had an old CD/DVD bookshelf with adjustable shelves in my scrapbook room (that my sweet hubby had repainted to match my room), I was able to rearrange a little bit and clear off 3 of the shelves to accommodate my new storage cases. Each shelf can hold 23 of either size, regular or these King Size! I don't have anymore of the regular cases... I used all 23 I had... and I've already placed a second order for more of these King Size cases and magnet sheets!

I'll have 8 spare cases left when I'm done, so I guess that means I can only get 8 more sets of metal dies, right?.... Who am I kidding?.... I'll be clearing off another shelf on the CD/DVD bookshelf before too long, lol :)

Get More From Your Spellbinders

Back on July 17, 2012, I posted a video from Christina called "Starting Your Spellbinder Collection". It showed what would be a good starter set of Spellbinders to purchase. The starter set would allow you to spend your money wisely and still make a variety of beautiful cards! If you missed it, you can check it out here.

Now in the next video, Christina shows how to get even more from your starter set. (You don't have to have the Spellbinders die-cut machine

or even get the big size of metal embossing sheet that she uses. These suggestions can be adapted to your machine and metal dies of choice.)

  





Watch on YouTube: HERE

I use the Spellbinders dies in my Cuttlebug! You just need the extra "C" plate for those skinny metal dies. So, the 'sandwich' layers are different when running it through the machine, but the results are the same! Remember though, the Cuttlebug can only take dies, embossing folders, etc. up to 6 inches wide. So I just watch what I purchase, so I know it will fit. You can purchase all the longer cutting/embossing plates you'll need for the longer dies (an A, B 2-pc set, and C plates). That's what I did! :)

Train Lover vs. Bookworm

My best friend, Carol, is a bookworm... can that woman read!!!... vs....
Her husband, Tom.... he loves trains!!

My dilemma .... what to do for an anniversary gift and card? I had to give this some thought, especially since for the last several years, no, for all of them (LOL!) I've made mostly "girly" cards. So I had to finally take Tom into consideration as well (sigh!) After all, it is his anniversary, too!

What to do, what to do?.... I had already decided that I wanted to give Carol a gift card to Barnes & Noble (she likes to go in there and just smell the new books before shopping... sniff, sniff!... I guess sort of how my hubby likes to go into Wilson's and just smell the leather! LOL!). And if our area had a train museum or something, I would have gotten Tom a gift card to go there, but, alas, nothing of the sort in the area :(

.... the closest thing to anything transportation here is Cadillac Ranch, and that's FREE! Although, we do have trains running through town. I hear their whistles all the time. But I couldn't just send Tom out to the tracks to watch trains, even with good advice 'not to play on the tracks', could I?
So what's a girl to do?

THIS:

I decided to cover a paper mache "BOOK" box for Carol

and do the matching card with Tom in mind.

I've had this CTMH Sweet Home paper for some time now (it's retired). When I saw the paper mache book, I knew I had to cover it in this paper, because for some reason, the striped B&T patterned paper reminded me of story books my Grandmother had when we were growing up. Each book had 3 or 4 stories in them, and those stripes just brought back good memories for me :)

I attached the paper to the box with Mod Podge for Paper, letting each section dry thoroughly before moving on. It was pretty time-consuming to get all the pieces just right, because I had to line up the front cover's side binding with the back side (I'm OCD that way!!) and I went up and over all the edges with the papers. It probably would have been a whole lot easier

to just put the paper to the edges, and color the edges with matching markers!!!

When the paper was done, I covered the entire outside of the box, in stages, with a layer of the Paper Mod Podge... I like it better than the regular, because it's a lot less tacky when dry.

I thought the card turned out well. I got the idea for it on SCS... you can see it here. I found the train image online and printed it out with the sentiment,

in Indian Corn Blue (using RGB codes), above it. I inked all the edges of the pieces before glueing them together. I even inked, lightly over the sentiment, my own "steam" coming from the train stack, which helped give the illusion the train was in motion.

I made Carol a matching bookmark, and put everyting inside the book box, including the card, for them to open.  I added a "Discover" gift card for Tom, so he could use it for anything his heart desired, as long as the entity accepted Discover!

Here's some more photos of the project:

The spine I did with the striped paper. I cut all those pieces separate

because the "leather strips" were bumped up on the box.

All I did to make the 'leather' was color the bumps with several layers of the

CTMH Barn Red marker (old style), right on the paper mache.

It worked perfectly!

Carol loved this yellow B&T in this set, so I decided to do the inside with it.

If you look closely at the bookmark (or click to see bigger image),

you can see how I lined up the skinny blue strips with the yellow pattern.

That blue print was on the backside of the yellow in the kit.

The angle of this photo is off just a little, or you'd be able to see how the

striped 'binding" lines up from the front cover with the back cover... LOL!

And of course, I used I AM ROSES for all the flowers and leaves.

A few small ones I painted with the Lindy's Stamp Gang Magical Micas,

but most are the color they came!

Also, none of the photos show it, but it sure was a challenge to cover the curved inside binding edge at the top and bottom of the spine (you know how hard-covered books have the binding slightly curved out from the actual pages of a book.... well in going up and over those edges, the cut of the paper had to be arched... a straight cut line just didn't cut the mustard!

Whew! I'm glad it's done! But all in all, it was worth the time (and trouble)!

Hope ya'll like it, too. :)