Confessions of an Audiophile

I love to listen. I love to listen to my kid. I love the sound of my Haldane spinning wheel, which a fellow spinster described as "the sound of liquid wood". I love the sound of my hamster Neptune working hard in his wheel late at night. I love to listen to birds in the backyard. I love to listen to music of a great variety. I especially love to listen to podcasts. One of my favorites, the Craftborg (We are the Borg, lower your shields and surrender your ships) is no longer in existence in its audio format and the last video was in Jan. 09).

So imagine my joy today when I discovered a newish podcast called "Paperclipping Roundtable. You can listen to the lastest podcast at Scrapbook Update (there's a little speaker and an arrow). Or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and you can download all 21. The first one is how the former editor of Simple Scrapbook is scrapping now. The latest one is storytelling in scrapbooking. So if you are in need of something different to listen to while you walk, clean, or just plain sit, give the Paperclipping Roundtable a try.

Also, let me know if you have any podcasts to recommend :  ).

Hello Kitty!

I had to make a door prize for a mother/daughter event, and I was wracking my brain when my talkative cat came in and mewed at me and it hit me, "Hello Kitty"! So I made a picture and a bottle stuffed with Hello Kitty stuff (thank you crafting message board).

It was a snap to design with the Gypsy of course, but the colors were hanging me up. It's fine for me to substitute patterned paper, but I thought true Hello Kitty afficiandos might want more traditional fare. So I took some Club Stamp Basics white cardstock and used ink pads to get the colors I wanted. Ok I did take license with the sun and made the outer bit orange. I had to use terrifically tacky tape on the bottle label due to the heat and humidity. One strip on the top and one on the bottom and it worked like a charm.

I waited until I took the picture to put the glass in to keep the glare at a minimum.

AC Moore used to have a Hello Kitty section that was totally fabu, but not anymore. However, Target had a lot in their dollar section and Michael's had a section ranging from $1 to $5ish. I used a 3-liter bottle I found at a dollar store.

By the way, if you can't find your non-stick work surface, freezer paper makes a pretty durable substitute (as long as you aren't using flames lol) surface that's easy-peasy to clean up for multiple uses.

I just couldn't wait for the new cuttlebug folders!

I've pre-ordered the rose and carnation quilling set for the cuttlebug. But I just couldn't wait, so I made these.

I used my Gypsy and made some variations. Going from top clockwise, I used rows 5, 6 and 2.  The main difference between row 2 and 3 is the width of the quilling band (I know almost nothing about quilling so I have no idea if that's the correct term).

It's very important that you use a thin paper for these to work. This is definitely a project that will not work with cardstock. You can download the file here. Because there is a lot of welding, it is a lot faster to cut if you delete the cuts you aren't working with. If you want to try them all just realize it's going to take about 10 minutes for the "cut" icon to appear on your gypsy after you hit the cut button.

The last tip I have is these are lot easier to make with a quilling pen (it has a little notch for the paper to fit into. I got one at Hobby Lobby for $3.99. I tried wrapping around skewers, pins, piercing pins, but it just slipped too much for me. Let me know what you make!  : )

I'm a Guest Designer!

Ok, I might be a little superstitious, but I didn't want to say anything until I saw it for myself. I am a guest designer on Above Rubies Studio's Gypsy A to Z DVD.  I admit, I totally skipped to the guest designer gallery just to check. BTW, if you order now you get a free Tipsy for the Gypsy, be sure to check your envelope for it lol.

My cute as a button mat is featured in it's basic form.

Then I cut it out of fancier paper and used it in a layout and it became what I call my momma bird layout.

The cut file is available here. Ok, now I can settle in and watch the entire DVD : D.