All Paper Arts

I needed some power steering fluid for my car which sent me going to my very least favorite super discount store. I rarely smile when I have to go there especially the one closest to me. However, Today I am glad I did go. I found some great stuff on clearance. I think most of you know I am a big Xyron fan. I really think their adhesives are tops. So check out the runner I got for only $4.50! Yep I said $4.50. Plus I got a refill cartridge for dare I say it? $2.00!!!! Can you believe it? Then I found a snazzy hot pink accordion folder for $2.50 and some ribbons, stamps, and stencils for 75 cents each! I wish I had more of the pink folders. I could use them to carry paper into for crops or for keeping clients works in progress in. Oh well! I had fun and spent under $14.00. The runner alone would have cost me about that.

Life is so serious sometimes.
Every now and then we need a reminder to just have fun. Just do something totally silly! He are pictures of my girls just being silly, silly, silly. I had finally given up on trying to get some good serious pictures of them. Now I am glad I jsut let them do their thing. I can’t wait to do a project with these. I thought maybe if I wrote about them I would get inspiration on what exactly to do. Luckily, I am going to a crop this Friday (I hope) so I have a couple of days to come up with something. Until then I am just going to take them out when I am feeling too serious.

Here is a sample of a card I keep around for those times I totally goof. I know you are thinking as much as I make cards how could I forget a birthday. Well, it isn’t that I forget the birthday it is I don’t get it mailed on time. I have to tell you being able to pay bills by phone or online is like the best convenience in the world for me. It isn’t very often that I am alone to go wait in the lines of a post office to get stamps. It is inevitable that when I do go to the post office their easy pay machine is broken or out of stamps. So I usually have stamps very sparingly for only a couple of bills I can’t pay any way but snail mail. So you see it is having stamps that keep me from sending my cards out on time not because I forgot. Yes, I know now there is a way you can print them on your printer but I am not comfortable with that. With my luck my ink would run out.

This is the what the bookmark looks like. This one hasn’t been colored in yet. Someimtes I leave them uncolored so the recipient can color them.

Okay, I have been meaning to tell this story for a couple of weeks but with all that has been happening I totally forgot. My husband usually gives me a hard time about all the gadgets and stuff I have for paper arts. Usually he is just kidding because my stuff cost hardly a fraction of the stuff for his hobbies hunting, fly fishing, fishing, and electronics. Well a few weeks ago I over heard him telling his uncle he might have to stop giving me a hard time. Why? Well before my whole tranny problems (which are fixed BTW not nearly as bad as we thought) the same truck wouldn’t start one day. This wasn’t great because it was a Saturday and the whole family was about to go geocaching together. Like I mentioned this was a Saturday and the truck was in our garage so it wasn’t exactly like our mechanic was open and we could get it there very easily. So, DH decided to call his uncle who for some reason gets great fun out of working on cars as a hobby. His uncle pin pointed some possible problems. In two different cases we ended up having to shrink wrap some wires under the hood one for a battery cable and one for the starter under the car pretty close to the fuel line. When I asked my husband how he was going to heat shrink the plastic coating on the wires he told me he’d just use his torch. Okay, I don’t know about any of you but I get really scared with the fact that a car has gas as well as other explosive chemicals all throughout it. So I looked at him and I said I think I know something that will work (and won’t involve open flames). He asked what it was and I told him my embossing gun. “You’re what?” “What does that do? I don’t think that will work but go get it”. Since I know how to use it he gave me the pleasure of trying it out. Sure enough it did the job! That’s right that silly heat gun I have to melt embossing powder onto cards or whatever worked. You should have seen my husband. “Hmmm, not a bad idea I guess those tools have some use after all.” So ladies and gents that is how one of my paper art tools saved the day. Or at least that is how I like to think of it. So, I ask you do you see any reason for him to deny me a home book maker that is coming out or just came out. 

Here is wishing you all a great Holiday this weekend whatever holiday it may be.

This card was one I made at our last card party. It was Lori’s design. The stamps are from stampin’ up!

Here is a little composition book. I got at a $ store. You know the one where everything is $1. They come in packs of 4. It has a cute funky design but here is what I did. The ribbon can be used as two bookmarks. Wouldn’t this one be great for your favorite gardener? How about this one for a basket stuffer?

Here is what the second punch I ordered can do. It is called a slit punch. This is a very basic example. As you probably noticed because it isn’t embellished up! Simply use the punch in four corners and slide in your photo. Now I can change out photos whenever I want. I can see using this for cards so the recipient can take out the picture or using in frames so you always have a matt.

The anticipation is over my punches are here! I am just now getting them out to play with. Here is a picture of the spiral punch in the middle of a job.

Now here is the my first paper art project I have made using the spiral punch. This is the front of a little baby boy book.