Spring-a-bration February blog hop

For our Spring-a-bration theme, I used the Sale-a-bration exclusive set, Feeling Sentimental, and used markers to ink the ferris wheel stamp in a fun, spring-y rainbow.  I also accidentally discovered a new baby wipe technique!  I was cleaning damp glue off my card front *sigh* and the wet wipe touched the ink on my sentiment and smudged it.  Rather than tear it off, I tried smudging the ink a bit more instead, and I think it has a neat, dreamy look to it.   I also used the Occasions Piercing templates available in the Spring Catalog for the banner shape.

The rainbow colors are Raspberry Ripple, Perfect Plum, Marina Mist, Certainly Celery & Daffodil Delight.

Just a tip for saving cardstock - before adhering the layers, use the paper trimmer to  

cut out the center of a mat layer for use in a later project.

I love Chinese New Year because it gives me an excuse to heat emboss in gold on red.  I used a 4"x 5" piece of Cherry Cobbler and heat embossed the image from Pleasant Poppies.  Cut that into thirds, dragged all the edges through a freshly-inked Versamark pad, dipped the edges into the gold embossing powder, hit them with the heat gun and mounted each piece with Stampin' Dimensionals onto a Cherry Cobbler base.  I may add a sentiment later, depending what I use the card for - any suggestions?

Hope you enjoyed these cards, please take a look at the lovely Spring-a-bration projects from my fellow demonstrators by using the buttons to hop from one blog to the next!

This is why I posted pics a day late...
Did not expect to be spending my day fixing my refrigerator.  That was sorta creative, but really nothing to do with Stampin' Up!    I have the project ideas in my head, but not finished in paper.


Spent a few hours this morning cleaning out the innards and lubricating the motor - took this pic to ask my Dad about how the fan blade is supposed to come off.   Apparently this thingie is called a sheet metal nut.  It's gone now, as I spent the afternoon tracking down the part, and the evening installing the new fan motor.

After all that, I really hope that it's all fine and we don't end up having to replace the fridge.

Storage - It Ain't Pretty (or it doesn't have to be)

Storage options are going to be limited by your budget and creativity.  My budget is small, but my creativity is limited only by what my husband throws away!!  I'm always saving odd stuff for a rainy day.

The previous owner of my house left shelving installed on the basement wall, but my love of punches was overwhelming the available space.  I looked everywhere for small shelves that would fit Stampin' Up! punches, but NOT cost an arm and a leg.   These do not appear to exist!  I thought about making them from foamboard, but that didn't seem strong enough. 

Then I realized that a wooden desk-top organizer that I'd had forever, was

1.  mostly full of stuff I rarely used anymore and didn't really need to be kept so close to hand

2.  turned on its side, the perfect size for punches and clear blocks!  done.

On the shelf directly over it, I created more space by cutting a couple of short pieces of 2x4 and putting a piece of scrap wood on top (yes, it's just sitting there, not screwed or glued or anything and it works great).   It's butt ugly, sure, but I paid nothing out of pocket for either of these storage solutions.   Besides, there is BARE cinderblock behind it - not even close to pretty, anyway!

On the bottom left of the photo, you can see that I snugged the punch storage just close enough to an open box of neutral ink pads to create a space for another stack of loose ink pads.

On the upper right are old spice jars with embellishments and below them, my Stampin' Pierce Mat and a 6"x6" album filled with all my Piercing Templates.  I made a short video that can be viewed here.