My First Epoxy Tumbler - Neon Ombre

I am still trying to get down the whole epoxy tumbler thing and I have made a few and actually even sold 2 tumblers and have people asking me about buying some others that they want me to make. 

These tumblers are a pain sometimes because there is such a long wait between steps, like HOURS and sometimes even days depending on how thick the epoxy is and how long you want it to cure before giving it or using it. 

My first tumbler was a bit of an experiment since I was wanting to try the ombre effect and overall I liked how it turned out. It took me forever to decide what to put on the tumbler and the "enjoy today" seemed to work well with the colors. I used blue holographic vinyl and silver metallic vinyl on the little dots. 

I did learn that the camofluage of the ornginal cup is hard to cover up even with a few coats of Krylon 2X paint and primer but it didn't show through so bad that I needed to strip the cut and start over.

I'll make some more posts when I get time of some other tumblers I have done and I will get posts made of those when I get time. I have a few on the racks right now that have the first coat of glitter and need to finish up.

Epoxy Tumblers...Blame BFF Carmen

There are so many people doing the Epoxy Tumblers and it's a road I haven't wanted to go down because they just seem so time consuming to me. Don't get me wrong I have seem some gorgeous tumblers out there but I'm not one to want to spend hours making such a thing. Now with that said this post is about how I made drying racks and manual turners for priming and spray adhesive in the whole process. I blame my BFF Carmen for going down this road, and she has dragged me kicking and screaming! I used things I had in my garage to make two drying racks and two manual turners, I'll explain my reason for manual turners further down the post. I know they are by no means perfect but they work for what I will be using them for and not too shabby for the limited tools that I have in my garage. I did share my progress on Facebook and got tickled when my friend Rachel commented on Facebook "WOW!! You are the epitome of 'go big or go home' - I adore that about you!!".

For the drying racks I screwed two pieces of 1x4's together and then used a spade bit and my drill to put holes in the boards that my steel pipe would fit in. I wanted to make sure the depth was enough that the pole had enough room to be seated well. I also thought the extra weight of two boards would be enough to keep the tumblers from tipping over while they are drying.

I cut 12" pieces of the 1 1/4" pipe and then pushed pieces of Pool Noodle over the pipe so my tumblers can sit nice and snug while they are drying or while I am working with them and they aren't suppose to be touched.

Here are the two drying racks finished. The Pool Noodles can be moved up and down the pipe to accommodate for larger cups or smaller cups. I made sure to space the holes far enough apart that the larger 30 oz. tumblers can sit on the drying rack without touching.

I decided to make a manual turner for when I would be applying primer paint, adhesive and also any glitter or such that doesn't necessarily need to be on a spinner for long periods of time. As you see there are two of these contraptions. I figured why not build two since. Once again I used my drill and spade bit to make the holes and I made the holes to fit a 1" dowel rod. Now here is the cool thing...my steel pipe can slide easily off and on the dowel rod so I can then put the tumbler on a drying rack and I can use the manual turner for the next tumbler. I thought that was pretty darn smart of me!

To protect from over spray of any primer paint or adhesive spray I made a spray box out of some cardboard I had in the garage. and I was excited to realize all my little gadgets would fit in the cardboard spray box. Until I realized something else...see next picture...

One of the buildings was being cleaned out at work and this cabinet was going to go to the trash so I decided to salvage it. I was going to see about finding room for it in the craftroom but hadn't even tried yet and it was sitting in the garage and a light bulb went off in my head and I thought "dang okie! Use that for a work station for your tumbler chit!" I did have to adjust the spray box a few inches which was no big deal. The manual turners and drying racks can fit on the shelf and then I have space at the bottom to store any tumblers, paints, etc. 

And then there is this...The We R Memory Keepers Spin It and thanks to BFF Carmen I have one at my house now! I have used it and since I have nothing to compare it to I can honestly say that I like it! I do like that it has two different speed settings. I will post later when I get some tumblers completed.

Hidden Hinge Album - Graphic 45 Voyage Beneath the Sea

This is a project I did last May for my friend Yvonne for her graduation gift. She graduated with her Bachelor's degree and her and her family went on a cruise as her graduation gift and I wanted to give her something that she could use to remember the trip.

I used the Graphic 45 Voyage Beneath The Sea papers that my friend Carmen had picked up for me at Tuesday Morning, don't ask me when because I have no idea! This is the first and only hidden hinge album I've made and I found the directions on YouTube from some lady that had a wonderful English accent! It was a lot easier than I thought it would be to make.

Here is a look at the album opened up so you can see all the wonderful colors and images. I made quite a few pockets and decorated tags for the pockets and since I wanted plenty of room for pictures most of the tags had photo spaces on both the front and back of the tags. 

I tried to leave some room in place so Yvonne could write things about the pictures if she wanted. I generally try to leave journaling spaces on mini albums as I think it is nice to have written descriptions about the pictures.

There were tags in the "between" spaces of some of the pages as well. All the white spaces were included so they could be used as templates to cut the pictures to size to fit on the mat or tag in the album. This picture shows how the tags in between the pages can be pulled out. I used a variety of twine and ribbon on the tags.

This is the same pages as the picture above but I wanted to show how the tags pulled out of the pocket. It's always difficult making areas for pictures with Graphic 45 paper because I always hate covering up the beautiful paper. 

You can click on the pictures to make them bigger if you want to see more detail. There is a lot of embellishment I would have liked to have done for the album but I always tried to be mindful of not making mini albums too thick with embellishments because to me albums are suppose to be about the memories of the pictures more than just decoration.

I do like how the hidden hinge albums give the opportunity to add so many little hidden ways to add tags and photo mats so there can be more pictures. I'm not even sure if Yvonne ever even put any pictures in this album and I never thought to ask her. I did tell her I would add the pictures for her if she wanted to get them printed.

A variety of picture sizes is always best in my opinion because sometimes you might want a close up  of a person or object and the smaller photo areas allow for those kind of images. The smaller mat areas can also be used for journaling. 

As you can see the album was pretty thick by the time I finished. This picture also shows the variety of twine and ribbon I used on the large tags. Most of the cording is Maya Road cording and I love that it can be frayed out to give a bit more interest.

This is the album opened. I generally don't decorate the back of an album much because I don't like wasting great images and embellishments on something that won't be seen as much. 

I'm Back...AGAIN and Attended Cricut Meet and Greet

I know most folks probably think I have fallen off the face of the earth but I am still around and still crafting! It's been almost a year since I've done any blogging and I had honestly came to the conclusion that no one really paid attention to my blog but I recently attended a Cricut Meet and Greet in Plano Texas and while there I had some people ask me about my blog and talked about how much they always enjoyed reading my posts and seeing my projects. 

I think Facebook has taken over many bloggers as it is a lot faster to post to Facebook, and to be truthful a heck of a lot easier but it is also very easy to lose projects and information in the great highway of Facebook Social media. 

I will be trying to upload some projects I've done over the last few months and also try and catch y'all up on my life as that seemed to be something of interest to others as well *okie often wonders why people find her boring life interesting*. 

Just to prove I am alive here are some pictures from the Cricut Meet and Greet from last week. I was so blessed that BFF Carmen was able to come up from Houston and we were able to attend together. Of course some of y'all know that we will try to find any excuse to spend time together! 

I made our shirts a few days before the event and since we are both Game of Throne fans I put a little GOT twist to the shirts and there were a few people that understood the meaning of "Cricut is Coming" right off the bat. For those of you that aren't familiar with GOT one of the themes of the show is "Winter is Coming".

Ashish Arora, the CEO of Provocraft, was very excited about the new display in Michael's and he stayed busy signing the little Cricut Cuties that everyone received and answering questions. 

We had a very nice dinner after leaving Michael's and there were a lot of wonderful door prizes given away! All attendee's received some of the Premium Vinyl and while Carmen and I did receive some we both gave ours to the hotel clerk as she seemed excited about the prospect of cutting some Jack Skellington decals from vinyl.

Okay so now y'all have proof that I am alive and kickin'! 

We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board A6 Envies

The original directions call for a square of 8 7/8 x 8 7/8 paper which means you can't use a standard size piece of paper and gives you a lot of waste of some good paper. I did a little playing around and figured out how to make an A6 (card size 4.5 x 6.25) out of a 8.5 x 8.5 inch square!

Step 1.
Align left edge of your 8.5 x 8.5" square at 5, punch and score















Step 2.
Rotate paper counter clockwise and align first score line with score guide

Step 3.
Repeat step 2 and 3 and then your paper should look like this picture. You can use the corner rounder at the back of the board to round your corners at this point. I usually only round the corner of the top flap since the others won't be seen.

Step 4.
I like to "tuck" the bottom flap to make it go straight across because I just think it gives the envelope a neater look. You can see a faint line where I make a slight score mark so I know where to fold the little flap down.

Step 5.
Just use your favorite method to glue or tape your envelope together and there ya have your finished A6 envelope out of an 8.5 x 8.5" sheet of paper!