Constellations Blog Hop

Prelude: Can you believe the first month of 2015 is nearly over?! I guess I've been having a LOT of fun, because time has really been flying lately!

I'm so happy to be part of Club Scrap's blog hop featuring the January 2015 collection, Constellations. To start from the beginning, click HERE for the Club Scrap blog. There you can find a list of all the bloggers showcasing their Constellations creations this month. If you are following the hopping order and you just came from Hetty's blog, Craft Chaos, you are in the right spot!

As it is the day before the hop, my Constellations creations are simple. I've been needing to make some birthday cards, and the "Make a wish" UM stamp from the Art Nouveau sheet really caught my eye. At first, I was going to look through my collection stash of stamps for one featuring candles, but then I got a song stuck in my head. Can you guess what it was? It's from Walt Disney's Pinocchio, and it's called "When You Wish Upon a Star." Are you familiar with it? If not, here's a LINK to the song sung by Jiminy Cricket. There! Now you've got the song stuck in your head, too! (You have to get something from reading this blog!) 

Anyway, I opted to use stars instead of candles for my cards. Here they are.

This card (we'll call it Card #1) uses a base and panels from the set of 3.5x5" cards in the Constellations Greetings to Go pack.

 

This card (let's go with Card #2 for this one) uses the same base card, but I cut a Burgundy panel from the Constellations half pound of paper pack. (If you can get one of those packs included with your kit, do it! Those smaller papers really enable you to reserve your 8.5x11 and 12x12 papers for pages and larger projects.)

For Card #1, I used Spellbinders A2 Curved Matting Basics A dies--the two smallest dies.

After lining up the panels, I placed the larger die on the top panel and taped it in place. (Tip: Instead of using tape right off the roll, stick a piece to your jeans or sweater to get some lint on it--really helps when removing it from your paper!) I ran the White panel through the diecut machine.

Once the window was cut in the top panel, I lined up the smaller die on the bottom panel. Placed a piece of linty tape again, and ran the Black panel through the machine.

My "Make a wish" greeting was stamped on the card base--I used the window in the Black panel to line it up. I sprinkled black glittery embossing powder on the greeting, heat set it, and added a star brad.

I didn't snap pics of this part, but on the White panel, I stamped a couple lines of stars in random areas, sprinkled with silver embossing powder, and heat set. Both the Collection UM Rubber and the Art Nouveau UM Rubber in the Constellations collection have the tiny star stamps (I opted not to cut mine apart, then I laid the long stamps side-by-side on the acrylic block.)

As I mentioned, I used the same type of base for Card #2, but with a Burgundy panel. Instead of die cutting a window, I used the White die cut from Card #1 for the greeting (same stamp with the black glittery embossing powder). The star stamp is from an OWH stamp set by Hero Arts. (Silver ribbon is included in the Greetings to Go pack.)

Here's Card #2 again. I love how the ribbon makes it look like a gift and how the metallic silver is repeated in the stars. Makes me smile!

This year, I'd like to add some information about my craft room and how I organize my large amount of supplies. I have to admit, it's really too big to call it a craft "room." In our last house, I crafted in a room that was about the size of a small walk-in closet. When we built this house (the first, and hopefully last house, we've ever built), I knew I wanted a large, expansive place to get creative. I call it a craft "studio," as it is quite large!

So, this month, I'll share how I organize my Club Scrap unmounted stamps. (I do have some other companies' stamps, but they haven't been organized quite yet--at least not photo and blog-worthy organization.)

My stamps are kept in binders on a counter. On the left, I have holidays and occasions, so I only have to pull out one binder if I'm working on baby or Valentine cards. I made tags out of metal tags inked with alcohol inks. I then made labels that tell me either the holiday/occasion included in the binder or the months/years inside.

The other supplies I use are Club Scrap's Mount-It adhesive, Tim Holtz scissors (mine have black duct tape on them because a puppy got hold of them a few years ago), basic sheet protectors, and white card stock.

After putting adhesive on them, I store my stamps on the outside of the page protector with the plain white card stock inside for a bit of stiffness (but not much bulk). I use the index sheets included with the stamps to print out TWO pages (at 100%). I use one under the stamps--really helps me to know if I've forgotten to put a stamp away--and another on the left side so I can read the text.

Since Club Scrap has reduced the number of sheets of stamps with each collection, I'm able to put the largest one by itself on one page, and then after that I have the Borders & Backgrounds sheet and the Art Nouveau and Greetings sheets below. Just two "pages" per collection in my binder. I'm now able to fit an entire year of stamps into a 4" binder.

(As a bonus pic, here's one collection's 4-sheet UM stamps with Mount-It on it (I use my finger to spread it out--I feel there is less waste than using a paint or foam brush). This set is ready to cut out and place on the page protectors with the copied index sheets inside. 

Hope you enjoyed my Constellations' "Make a wish" cards and the little tour of my UM collection. If you leave a comment below (and I read them all!), let me know what area of my studio you'd like me to feature next month. I promise to get it all cleaned up and organized before snapping photos!

The next stop on the Constellations blog hop is Ann's blog Crzymom's Tidbits. Can't wait to see what Ann has in store for us!

Until next time, hoppers!

Lisa Kay