Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Magnificent Magnets

Magnificent in the sense of inexpensive, easy and any theme you want to make.




You will need 2" white vinyl blind slats. Browse around a home improvement store in the area where they cut blinds to fit. If you cannot find the free ones to recycle, buy a small box for around $7. This will be enough to make hundreds of magnets. While there, buy the 3/4" ceramic disc magnets. Eight for less than $2 and they are heavy duty.

Use a dedicated pair of big scissors and cut the blinds in 2", 2.5" or 3" pieces, depending on the size of your graphic. You save and use the pieces with cord holes too. Use fine sandpaper or an emery board to smooth out the cut edges and round the corners. Wipe them off with a damp towel.

I do one of two things to prep: Cover the edges and part of the front edge and back with a Krylon metallic leafing pen and seal with Aleene's Paper Glaze. Or paint them completely with an acrylic paint. You may want to leave them white.

If I could draw or sketch I would. But I can't, so I print the graphics, laminate the page (Xyron 900) and trim. I run them though a Xyron 510 for adhesive and BAM!, you've got a magnificent magnet. A glue gun or Beacon's 3-in-1 will work best for the magnet piece.

Your cropadile will easily punch through this material so the possibilities of how to alter are endless. 

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Halloween Crafts & Tips, Oh My

I started out the month behind-- being out of town the first of October. After getting through a tough project and over a short sick spell, I am even more behinder. (I know, that's not a word.) I am in a composing funk as well.

I am highlighting a link to some fantastic crafts and tips for the Halloween season. This is my designer friend, the fabulous
Brenda Pinnick's Blog that can always be found here on my list of Designer Blogs. Brenda has made a cute ghost card using her Sizzix clear stamps. HER stamps, as in she designed them, Sizzix made them and you can buy them. These are from her Halloween collection. She has several die themes with Sizzix. Her paper sets can be found on QVC.

Be sure to check out the other links Brenda provides in her blog for more Terrorific Tuesday projects. I hope you find something inspiring make. Margot Potter's run with scissors charm bracelet is on my list :)

Happy October!

Monday, September 22, 2008

Shades of Autumn

I was googling for some pictures of autumn and have linked some favorites below. When fall arrives each year, I think of watching Martha Stewart's shows in the 90's. She used to have the best fall decorations, crafts and recipes. I think she still does.

I copied part of a 60 Minutes commentary by Andy Rooney. He says:

I think if we had a vote, fall would probably be most people's favorite season. Some people who like fall call it autumn. I never use the word "autumn." It sounds pretentious. The down side to fall is it's the beginning of the end of everything. Flowers die, the leaves dry up and come off the trees, water in the lake gets too cold to swim in and vacation's are over. First thing you know someone's trying to sell you a Christmas tree.

Here are the pictures linked on that page. They are a few years old, but are gorgeous, adorable, unusual. Kids and pumpkins just go together, don't they?

Quilled Fall Leaves and Instructions

Enjoy the autumn season :)

Saturday, August 23, 2008

My purpose, to meet goals

This new Blog is work in progress. My attempt to finally have a blog, perhaps a link in a few peoples' favorites some day. This is what I visualize.

My current problem to keep this up and going is, I have too many deadlines at the moment, and several commitments I made without thinking how much time they would take. I did meet a goal this week. An important, long-term goal. At a SCD seminar one year, I can remember thinking how wonderful it would be to be so busy I had to turn down work. I couldn't imagine being in that situation and visualized it. I thought it would be the ultimate success to be able to pick and choose who I wanted to work with and in what medium, in lieu of having to accept everything offered.

I made a decision to turn down a big project this week. A really terrific opportunity with a good company. I could have squeezed it in, but I know what the results would be. It was more difficult to do than I expected.