DIY Retro Fresh Kitchen Tile Style

Hi Everyone,

Can you believe that Summer is just around the corner?!  I told my son the other day that we don't really have Spring months up here because as soon as it gets warm enough for the snow to melt we seem to skip Spring and fast forward to Summer clothing, Summer BBQ's and Summer thoughts.  I said that the true indicator of Summer would be after we have one more good rainfall, because then the leaves on the trees will truly sprout and we'll see green trees everywhere.  Last night it rained by our house..not a torrential downpour but apparently enough for my predictions to come true.  The trees around our house are a lovely shade of budding green!  I know I should expect at least one more frost before its safe to plant or enjoy the outdoors as summer weather, but it's so hard when you experience Winter for 6-8 months out of the year.

My wish for everything warm and sunny was the start of where my inspiration came from for this neat technique for making your very own Scrapbook tiles, that and a little bit of home decor searching online. Stampin' UP! has this great Designer Series Paper (DSP) called 'Retro Fresh' from the Spring Occasions Catalogue (Item # 132993).  I love the colours in the paper but I'm not really a retro kind of gal, at least not for the 50-60s era, but if the 80s and 90s could be considered retro than I am all over it LOL. Anyhow, as I was looking through the papers, one of the patterns caught my eye.  It was these teeny tiny bi-colour tiles that look a little bit like paint swatches.  What they actually made me think of is the tiles that go on kitchen or bathroom backsplashes a la the 1960s, and then I thought to myself, 'wouldn't these look just like those kinds of tiles if I could figure out some way to make them all shiny like actual backsplash tiles?!'.  I immediately went through my inventory of adhesives and liquids to see if anything could produce the desired effect and sure enough, I found my Stampin' UP! Crystal Effects (Item #101055).

Now it was just a matter of putting the two together to see if this technique actually played out in real life the way it had come together in my mind..the result:

What do you think?!  Doesn't it look just like ceramic kitchen tiles!

The technique is simple enough, but it is time consuming to 'paint' each tile so I only did half of the sheet.

I thought it turned out pretty amazing actually, exactly like what I had pictured in my mind and the technique is simple enough..Just 'paint' each tile with one coat of Crystal Effects and let dry.  In order to get an authentic tile look, I coated each square individually rather than painting the whole sheet so that each square is shiny and looks bubbled, like real tile.  I only coated half of the 12x12 sheet as I just want to use the finished product for a border so I won't need to use up the whole sheet this way and I didn't want to waste it, but I know it is simple enough to do if I need to create more.

So that is my share for today, a simple technique for creating your very own retro fresh kitchen tile style embellishment!

Cheers

Dapper Diaper Cake

Good evening and greetings from that which was lost and now is found...well not really lost but forgotten for a while.  I've been a busy lady these past months and kind of forgot to prioritize my blog and post all the various creative eats and treats I've been making.  I know, yet again, bad girl *smack on the hand*.  Finally a friend mentioned that they do still watch for posts on my blog and wondered if I was ever going to put anything new on here.  That made me realize that I do have at least one person who checks this baby out so I'd better get my butt in gear and give them something to look at.

Really I do like posting to this page, I just forget now and then to do so.  Anyhow tonight, I had my creative juices flowing and I actually remembered to take pictures as I went so I thought, 'well girl..no better time than now to get back in the saddle!'  So here I am!

My mother-in-law, Mom2, asked me to create a diaper cake for a baby shower that she is attending tomorrow.  She said she wasn't sure of the baby's gender as baby is still on the way and the couple wants to be surprised so this is a 'baby-to-be' shower, but she knew that the nursery was going to be grey and yellow.  What an interesting colour combination for a gender neutral nursery..actually I think it's kind of neat and that gave me the idea to do a simple diaper cake with those colours.  Now with limited time and inspiration, I decided to do a three tiered diaper cake with a banner and paper flowers in the colour theme of grey and yellow. I didn't want the cake to be overly girly since baby to be could be a boy, hence the banner idea and, since I don't know the baby's name yet, I decided to use the title of 'wonderful' cause that is what all babies are..so here are some photos of my creative process, enjoy!  I promise not to go so long between posts next time!

the start of the diaper cake, I used 75 sized two diapers for this cake.  p.s. I didn't have enough yellow ribbon so I used yellow washi tape for the top and bottom layer!

This is the start of the flowers for the cake, I made 8 large flowers and 3 smaller ones.

 I can't take the credit for these amazing paper flowers..please check out this link to see a number of tutorials on how to make a variety of beautiful paper flowers  Moments of Tranquilty - flower tutorials and trust me, once you practice with these techniques you will never be without a flower for your papercrafting again!

This is the cake after I added the flowers, but it still needed something on top

I've only just gotten into using banners in my projects since this summer when I made my daughter's birthday cake with a banner..since then I love the unique and fun look they add!

I ran into a problem in that I wasn't sure what to attach my banner to..paper straws to the rescue!!  I had to cover them with grey ribbon to match my cake though

Completed banner...TA DA!!

Doesn't it look great as my cake topper?!

The finished Product, looks good enough to eat!

I am always giddy and impressed when a project comes to fruition and resembles what goes on in my brain. Aside from the diapers, washi tape, inks, and straws..everything you see here came from my Stampin' UP! stash of products.  I love how versatile the products were in creating this cake..an added bonus is that as good as this cake looks, it has zero calories :)

Anyhow, that's it from me for the evening.

Cheers!

Administrative Assistants ROCK!

Last week was Administrative Assistants Week/Day where I work and I felt the need to write/share a post about it this week. I have a school based job and I see three to four Administrative Assistants on a weekly, if not daily basis.  These people amaze me every day with their roles.  They are right up there with the job of 'Mother' in my opinion, because each day they multi task, manage, and care for the students and staff within the schools they work for.  They have to be organized, creative, flexible, and empathetic of a variety of situations.  Kudos to all these talented gems that we work with!

As soon as I found out that it was Administrative Assistants week with the official Day being Wednesday, April 24th..my creative brain started to percolate.  I wanted to do something to thank these special people for all the great things they do, especially considering all they do to help me function in my role and really, I feel like they do a lot!  So I went home and logged on to my Pinterest account for inspiration and along with a healthy dose of yummy goodness from the Betty Crocker Website, this is what I came up with.

These cute little purse/treat bags and this lemon whoopie pie recipe.  The only thing I changed to the recipe was that I added in about a teaspoon of Lemon Chiffon Dip Mix (from Epicure) to the icing mixture.

Beautiful and delicious treats for some truly awesome women that I know, it was truly my pleasure to give these to the ladies that I work with because I really do appreciate everything they do in their jobs and especially when they help me in mine :)

How do you appreciate your co-workers? Please share!

Cheers!

Getting Creative Again, Part 2

I've completed the card organizer that I mentioned in my blog post last week, actually I finished it the day after I posted the sneak peek.  Unfortunately it still had quite a few rough edges and as much as I liked how it came together, it still seemed unfinished.  So I started another one and deemed the first one my prototype.  I used my entire Stampin' Up! stash of designer papers to make the modge podge prototype and as much as I liked all the different colours and the fun vibe it had, I decided to try for a more cohesive look on my second go round. Thus inspiration came from Graphic 45!


It just so happened that I have been looking for some way to use my G45 'Place in Time' Paper pack and I wanted something special for my mom's birthday.  This organizer seemed like the perfect opportunity to do both!  I feel a little guilty because I really wanted to promote the card organizer as an upcoming Stampin' Up! Class but between the prototype photos I'm about to show you and the finished G45 gift photos, you will see that I haven't gotten around to a finished and fabulous Stampin' Up! version yet, not to say that I won't..just not yet and I'm too excited and impatient to wait to do a third organizer before I show you all the pics I've taken of the project(s).

Oh well, such is life..I got creative and I want to share with you all so here goes:

This is the binder that I started out with

I covered the edges with washi tape and used Sizzix adhesive sheets to adhere the Paper cover

This is what the finished cover looks like

Next I had to create the card holders themselves.  I did this by covering up file folders

two file folders were glued back to back before covering with papers

I also created a mini card holder, accordian style

I also used an envelope to create a pocket holder, great for tags

this is the layered look of the inside

and thus, the prototype is born!

 Now I want to show you what the Second Card Holder looks like.  I think having a coordinating paper pack does pull the look all together, but really I kinda like the eclectic mix of the first one too!  Either way, I don't judge..it's all crafty to me :)

The Cover isn't made from G45 papers but Little Yellow Bicycle Papers**

The finished Organizer

The inside

Now I just need to make some cards with various themes to put inside the organizer and then this gift is ready to give to my mom.  I hope she likes it!!

Cheers!

p.s.  ** the Papers I used from the Little Yellow Bicycle collection are actually from a kit I bought from www.birdsofafeatherkitco.com .  I belong to their monthly kit club and honestly I can't get through all of the great stuff I get each month from this company.  I just wanted to share the link because this is an amazing site with great deals!!

Getting Creative again!

So the expected withdrawals from the scrapbooking world only lasted a week.  It's just not in me to stay away from creativity for very long.  A few things in the last week have motivated and inspired me to get creative once more.  Let me lead you down the garden path (so to speak) along the trail to my inspirations.

It all started on Monday when I saw the empty coffee canister by my desk.  Such an innocently empty vessel just sitting there waiting to be picked up, smelling of fresh ground coffee and hinting of a wake up call.  But first..my cluttered desk space was bugging me.  I needed to find room to put away the supplies from the workshop I had taught the Friday before.  In my space everything has a place and it bugs me when I can't put something away neat and tidy.  So I spent a half hour decluttering my work cabinet and in doing so I found 8 perfectly good binders filled with old resources.  The resources I chucked but I just couldn't get rid of these 8 perfectly good binders..there had to be something that I could use them for, some crafty upcycling that would give them fresh life..so for the time being I piled them up on a chair and returned to looking at the coffee canister.  My co-worker has been faithfully saving these canisters for me, with the idea that when I collected enough I would use them for something crafty.  Well I believe that time had come because as I looked at the empty coffee canister on my desk, my mind was doing a mental tally of how many canisters sat on the shelf in my craft room.  Surely there had to be enough now to create a class around, but what to make?

I took the empty coffee canister and one of the binders home and put them in my craft room.  There they sat for a few more days while ideas percolated in my brain.  After another conversation with another co-worker around scrapbooking and papercrafting ideas, a few visits to pinterest, some time spent on my favorite crafting blogs, and reading my various weekly RSS feeds, the ideas started to coalesce into that tunnel vision I mentioned before..sitting there at the back of my brain and digging a path through my consciousness.

The coffee canister became an easter container wrapped in pretty paper and covered in paper flowers made from all the paper posies I have been punching out like crazy this week (thanks to an article my co-worker shared on waste not/want not scrapbooking tips) and filled with plastic easter eggs hunted from my family's easter egg hunt.  I can picture how each container will look, all soft and pastel coloured, or perhaps they will become container's for Mother's Day and I will go fresh and vibrant with the paper selection?!  so many visions playing around for what these will become, but for now they will sit on the shelf until I can post a finished product..their time is coming soon so stay tuned!

The project that really took hold in my creative mind, the one I had to actually try first..is the binders.  I would love to say that I came up with the idea for their final vision myself but rather I was inspired by those continued conversations with my friend and co-worker.  I could picture covering the binders but ran a bit blank from there.  It was my friend's suggestion to turn them into a card holder/organizer.  From there I came across file folders and envelopes in the local grocery store, which made me think of an idea I had seen on Pinterest about a cardholder made out of a folder and several pins I had seen about using envelopes for mini albums.  I bought those and returned home after work to play! 

I am in the midst of creating this project, which I will call my "Creative Card Carrier" (sorry, I have a think for tongue twisters lately).  I've been taking pictures of the various stages of it's development, since the idea is that once I finish the prototype, I will promote it as a class (I do after all, have to find something to do with the other 7 binders!), but for now I want to share just a teaser of how it's coming along.  My next post will have all the photos and finished project.

I've taken the opportunity to use up all my extra Stampin' Up! Designer Series Papers

Before I finish for now though, I will say this, this is a great project for getting rid of scrap or mismatched sheets of paper, I've finally found use for my washi tape collection, AND it uses far less adhesive paper sheets than I originally thought so it shouldn't be an overly expensive project to do.  I just love when ideas come to fruition and projects become a reality!

I've started this project and should have it completed this weekend, which means stay tuned next week for more photos and a final product reveal!

Cheers!