The SU ink topper

 Hi friends.  Well, I did it.  I spent quite a bit of time yesterday and today putting it together, but I finally finished small rack for the top of my SU ink storage.  I have 15 older ink pads which didn't fit in the main rack, and whenever I wanted to use them, I had to literally dig them out from where they were stored.  Now, they are with all the others.  I store all my inks alphabetically, but for the moment, I'm not going to incorporate these into the rack with the rest, for the simple reason that I've gotten so familiar with the position of the inks in the rack, I don't really have to look for them.  I know certain ones are at the top or bottom, etc.  I may change my mind on that later.  

Since there was plenty of space, I added slots for the ink pads, an open area on the side of those for the few refills that I have matching these inks, and a deeper spot in the center for markers.  

Because there's a bit of a well in the top of the wood rack, I added several layers of corrugated cardboard beneath the new storage rack, so that it sits above the wood.  Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to use the bottom slots.  

Here's the picture.

Thank you so much for visiting today.  Have a wonderful day.

And the gazebo on top

Hi friends.  In my last post, I showed you my new ink storage unit, which now houses all 120 of my distress and oxide ink pads.  I wanted to make some sort of cover over the top to keep the dust off the items stored there.  So I decided on an open gazebo.  Without going into all the detail, I made supports, both vertical and horizontal, from 2" wide chipboard, folded into a square tube.  I added decorative sides and a slanted roof, with a little decoration on top.  Not being an engineer, the roof was totally guesswork, and I was thrilled that it worked on the first try.  The gazebo lifts off for easy access to the supplies stored beneath it. 

This is the full unit.  My distress inks are on two sides, and distress oxides on the other two.  I store them alphabetically in vertical columns.  I have room enough to add 24 more ink pads.  These are the regular 3" pads.  So far stored on top are blending brushes and blender pens.  I'm not sure what else will go there yet, but most likely things that I use all the time, so they are within easy reach. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Have a great day. 

My new ink hotel

Hello.  I know it has been a long, long time since I posted.  Maybe my life is just that boring?  Well, I don't think so, so I guess I have no excuse.  I know I'm a big procrastinator.

Anyway, for mother's day my daughter made a new header for my blog as you can see.  I had completely forgotten that I'd asked her to make one, so that was a nice surprise.

Six years ago I created an ink pad holder for my distress ink pads.  You can see it here.  Well, it wasn't too long after that Ranger introduced some new colors, so all my inks didn't fit in the holder.  Then, they also produced all the colors in distress oxide inks.  These are the things I put on my wish list for my family to buy as gifts, so I now have the full set of those as well.

So I decided that it was time to make some new storage.  I wanted all the distress inks in one place, so I started construction.  Now be advised I'm not an engineer, and I design as I go, so the final product is certainly not perfect or even designed well, but that's OK by me, as long as it works.  My husband kept calling it a roach hotel, but I think ink pad hotel is a much better description, since we do not provide housing for roaches here.

I should warn you that this will be a long post with lots of photos.  I wanted to give a lot of the step by step procedure that went into the making.

I built the entire unit from cereal box (cracker box, pizza box, etc.) chipboard, corrugated cardboard, and tacky glue.  There is also a small amount of stamped cardstock.

I started by cutting pieces which would hold the ink pads.  These are cut 2-1/2"x8", and scored at 1", 4" and 5".  I taped the edges together.  The ink pads will hang out the front by about 1/2", so I can pull them out easily.  The total unit will hold 144 ink pads, so that's how many I cut and folded. 

Yes, that 2nd picture is the whole bunch!  Then I started gluing them into towers of 12 each.

The next step was to add extra chipboard on the sides for support and then glue towers together in sets of three. 

As I said earlier, I design as I go, at this point, I thought it would help if they were brighter, so I painted all the insides with white acrylic paint -- not spray paint, because I didn't have any -- with a brush.  A lot of work, but it made such a difference.  After I finished painting, I added a back panel.  These were already white on one side, so I didn't need to paint them. 

Because of the way I was going to put the towers together, one side needed some decoration, so I stamped white card stock with ultramarine stazon, and then sponged places with azure stazon, and coated them with matte mod podge to help keep them clean.  I attached these panels before gluing the triple towers together.

Now, since it's obvious that with four sides, the unit needs to turn, so there is access to all four sides.  I had an 8-sided lazy susan that I decided to use.  There is a small indented cavity on the top, so I decided to utilize that to keep the unit from sliding off the base.

Since the towers act like walls, there is a large open area in the center.  I did the same stamping procedure to cover the top around the opening. 

I built a base that fit into the cavity, as well as up into the open area of the storage unit.

The unit sits nicely on top of the base.

I thought it made sense to use that open area on top for additional storage, so I made a partitioned box to hold my blending brushes, and some other items (which I haven't figured out yet).

Since this box was going to be sitting at the top, I needed to add some braces for it to rest on.

I added an additional flat square made from two layers of corrugated cardboard on top of the braces, and the box sits on top of that.

Here is the completed unit.  The base is not permanently attached to either the unit or the turn table, and the storage box on top is also not permanently attached.

And here's a photo with some ink pads in it.  I did not fill it with all my ink pads, because I thought it would be too heavy to move, and it needs to go into a different room -- as soon as I clear a space for it.

Thanks so much for taking time to visit today.  I hope you enjoyed the process of building my ink hotel.

Edited to add:  Please see my next post to view the unit with the gazebo dust cover on top

patchwork

Hi friends.  Friday's mix-ability challenge on SCS was to make some patchwork.  As a quilter, how can I resist such a challenge.  This is a mixed media challenge and requires that at least two different mediums are used. 

I pulled out a bunch of scraps and leftovers from other projects.  Then I used a square punch to make the blocks.  I used some corrugated cardboard, burlap ribbon, some inked and embossed pieces, stamped cardstock, some prints from my gelli plate, and some melted crayon that was just an experiment. 

After gluing all the blocks on my card, I added faux stitching. 

The flower was already stamped and colored.  I just needed to cut it out.  I attached it with dimensional foam tape. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

house #1

Hello friends.  The challenge at Motley Soul Mixed Media Art for the month of April is houses, sized at 4"x6".  This month has not been a very creative one for me, so this is my first house, and the month is nearly over.  I think my mindset has been in that mode where everything I make needs to be a masterpiece (even though I know that's not true), and therefore, my mojo simply stalls, and I can't create anything - very frustrating.  So I'm happy that I was finally able to get my first house made.  About half way through, I pulled some words (spring, red, & song) from my inspiration jar to help me move forward. 

I started with my usual - recycling some chipboard from boxes.  I glued two layers together and covered one side with an old book page.  After painting over it, but letting some of the text show through, I added some Tim Holtz tissue tape around the edges. 

This past week I worked on three handmade stencils - (my finger is still sore from pressing on the craft knife).  First I drew what I wanted on paper, then traced it onto some plastic.  I'm using some sort of film sheets that were a headed-for-the-trash rescue.  I used one of the stencils on my house - the big flower in the background.  It's really made for a larger project, but I think it's a fun addition to the house.  After I put it on, I decided I needed some features, so a lot of got covered up, but that's OK. 

First I used a Tim Holtz brick stamp along the bottom and one side.  

I cut a door and window from patterned paper and added some details.  The flower pot is also patterned paper with a bunch of punched flowers.  

The roof is also a rescue.  Some months ago, we bought a new sofa.  Parts of it were wrapped in one-sided corrugated cardboard and plastic.  Of course I had to save some of the cardboard that was in good condition.  I've learned to ignore the sighs and eye rolls from family members. LOL 

I cut off the roof angles and then highlighted the ridges with vintage photo distress ink. 

I hope you like my house.  Thank you so much for stopping by. 

masculine card

Hello friends.  The month of March seems to be flying by, and today I realized that I hadn't yet made anything for the zoo challenge for this month at OWSE Yahoo group.  We're supposed to use an animal seen at the zoo.  Well, my collection of stamps doesn't include many animals, and it's been a long time since I've visited a zoo, but I'm pretty sure you can see deer there.  So I pulled out my deer stamp from Biblical Impressions and made a masculine card.

I have boxes which become a catch-all for leftover paper scraps, images, etc., and often I'll just pull out some of those things to start a project.  That is exactly what I did for this card.  Everything on this card, with the exception of the stamps, ink, and brads, was found in one of those boxes.

I stamped the card base with a leaf stamp from Paper Inspirations with peeled paint.  Then I stamped flannel plaid (SU) over that with rusty hinge.

The deer and sentiment (unknown) was stamped with jet black archival ink.  I colored in the letters with a tea dye distress marker.

I used a corner chomper on the rust piece and added vintage photo on all the edges, as well as over the ridges of some torn corrugated cardboard.

I added some brads and tied a piece of red raffia around the cardboard.

Usually I struggle with masculine cards, but this one went together fairly quickly.

Thank you so much for stopping by. 

20 hearts - #1

Hi my friends.  More snow!  I was going to go to the grocery store this afternoon.  I clicked on weather.com and found out that the snow which had just started was going to accumulate 2-4 inches.  So I decided the time to go to the store was immediately.  I'm glad I did.  The radio station I had on in the car said 4-7 inches expected.  I don't mind the snow.  I don't even mind shoveling, but I do not like driving in it.

The February monthly challenge at Motley Soul Mixed-Media Art is 20 4"x4" cards that each have a heart, all different.  I finally got started and have my first one finished.

I started with a piece of junk mail cut to size, coated with gesso and some old paint that is rather lumpy (great texture).  Then I added a piece of pattern paper and stenciled over it all with peacock feathers 6"x6" stencil from The Crafter's Workshop and two colors of paint.

I stamped a script stamp all over with jet black archival ink.

For my heart, I cut a heart free hand from corrugated cardboard (part of the protective packaging on a sofa we purchased a few months back - I just had to save what was in good condition).  For some color on the heart, I added some paint, gesso and ink.  I also cut a tiny heart out with a craft knife.  Behind the opening, I put a piece of card stock coated with paint and wrote the word 'love'.

For the fringe behind the heart, I used a pair of scissors that has five blades for cutting fringe (or herbs in the kitchen) to cut some narrow strips of brown paper bag.  I added vintage photo ink and scrunched up the ends and stapled the pieces to my base.

I thought it needed some faux stitching, so that was added with a white gel pen and a black Pitt pen, which is kind of washed out in the photo.

The words were printed from my computer, sponged with tea dye and vintage photo distress inks and glued on.

Because I thought the card was too flimsy, I glued it onto a piece of cereal box chipboard. 

21 cards - #15

Hi friends.  Wow!  I'm on number 15 already for the monthly challenge at Motley Soul Mixed-Media Art.

Please refer to this post to see how I made the base for my cards.

I used my Inspiration Jar again and pulled out the words - tissue paper, corrugated cardboard, and doodles. 

I used faux silk technique.  I started by stamping a piece of white tissue paper with stamps from SU set greenhouse garden.  I used real red and rich razzleberry ink.  Then I crumbled up the tissue, flattened it out but not completely, and then glued it to my card with gel medium.  I also coated gel medium over the top of it, using a minimum number of brush strokes to keep the ink from bleeding too much.  Then I dried it with my heat gun, because I didn't want to wait for it to air dry. 

I spritzed one side of a piece of corrugated cardboard with water, so it was easier to peel off the outer layer and let the ridges show.  I die cut the dress form (Tim Holtz sewing room die) out of the corrugated cardboard.  I painted it black, leaving some of the original color to show through.  When that was dry, I tied a red grosgrain ribbon around the waist, trimmed out part of the stand and glue it to my card. 

I used a black pigma pen to add some doodling along the edges and in the flower centers. 

The sentiment was computer generated. 

Thank you so much for spending some time with me today.  Have a wonderful weekend.