The Happy Room

1. Recycle a glass lid from a used/discarded jar candle. Remove the plastic ring from the lid and discard it.

2. Stamp the Michael Strong Stamps Cloisonné Circle image and cut it out.

3. Push the image into the lid. It will bend and curl to fit inside the opening.

4. Tie ribbon around the side of the lid. Fill the opening wih clear plastic pony beads.

5. Punch a circle from cardstock, making sure the circle size is appropriate for the opening. Glue the circle to the glass rim with fabric glue.

6. Stamp, color and cut out the circle image again and attach it to the cardstock on the bottom for a “reversible” paperweight (see example on finished “bottom view”).

My dear little friend and next door neighbor, Montana (12 years old, 7th grade) came to me asking for help with a school project. Her assignment was to make a book about the Civil War. There were some guidelines and restrictions, but the design and overall theme and look were up to each student.

Before you gasp and think that I made the book for her, let me clarify a few things. Montana has been stamping with me for 1 1/2 years. She is such a little doll, much more mature and responsible than most 12 year olds, so she has full access to my stamp room and everything in it!! What a lucky girl!! Since we have spent so much time together, Montana has become quite a fabulous little paper crafter. That having been said, she did get some help from me on the project, but only for the sake of time. Every idea, technique or design in the book is one that she could do completely on her own, with no assistance from me.

So please allow me to share with you our project: "The Civil War: A to Z". I loved the project and will always cherish the time I got to spend with my darling little friend, Montana. Didn't she do an awesome job????? And please, if you love the project, be kind enough to leave a comment for her. It will mean a lot to her, as she put her heart into every minute of making it.

(note: I didn't include every page of the book simply for space sake. The pages here are some of our favorites).

If you click on the last picture of this post, a larger version will allow you to read about the making of the book. If you have questions on how we did anything that you see, please send us an email and Montana and I will be happy to respond.

I'm bubbling over with excitement about this ADORABLE project!! Wish I could claim the original idea, but like we stampers sometimes do, we CASE (Copy And Share Everything)! In this case (ya, I meant to say that) I CASED an idea I saw on the Papertrey newsletter that I receive in my email inbox regularly. So cute and I loved it so much that I did a TV segment this morning demo'ing how to make these little treasures.

I purchased the mini-bottles of bubbles at a local Dollar Tree store. You can find them in the wedding section in a box of 12 for a dollar!! What a deal!!

I used the Hanna Stamps Halloween set and stamped a 1" x 4" computer label with the bat and the text stamp "Boo". I wrapped the label around the bottle, cut an 8" length of ribbon (can you see I was lucky enough to find ribbon with the word Boo printed on it? Shazaam!!!) and tied it around the top of the bottle just beneath the lid. Lastly, I added a plastic child's ring to the bottle by snipping the ring's band apart and then pushing it onto the bottle.

Could a Halloween project be any easier?? And the real bonus is how much the kids (not to mention the adults) LOVE playing with these. And another bonus is that this is a great project for the kids to take to school if the school doesn't allow candy (I didn't realize some of the schools are implementing this policy but they are.)

Wishing all of you a Big Bubbly Happy Halloween!!! Enjoy!!!!!!

Want to make an adorable Halloween gift for someone special? I do and I did!! This darling soap container is for the owner of my local stamp store, StampWorks in Chandler, AZ. I hope she enjoys it as much as I did making it! I have a feeling all of the hard working stampers that visit her store will be using it and enjoying some great Hanna Stamps images while they're at it!!

This is an apple shaped liquid soap container that I purchased (smells apple-y too!)from a home store. To cover up the original label, I punched two scalloped oval shapes from cardstock (white and lavendar). I stamped some Halloween Hanna Stamps images and colored them in with markers and colored pencils.

Since the container had a strange shape (remember the apple thing?), I had to take a couple tries at getting the label to adhere. I finally succeeded when I took scissors and put small slits inbetween each petal on the scalloped oval (on both layers). Then, I attached the white layer to the lavendar layer and sprayed spray adhesive onto the backside of the lavendar layer. That held it in place for me while I put clear tape on top of the entire scalloped image. Voila! I added a couple of ribbons and rick rack and embellished them with a few mini-pony beads. The candy corn is a button that I purchased at Michael's; I cut the shank off of the back so I could use it as an embellishment. I glued it to the ribbon with fabric glue.

Happy Halloween Nic of StampWorks!! (the hardest working and nicest stamp store owner around!! ;)

The main image on this card is one of my favorite Michael Strong Stamps images: Gecko. I made the gecko and the circle image mulitcolored by applying dye based ink to sponge daubers and then pouncing the daubers directly onto the rubber on the stamp. The background technique is a new favorite of mine, too called "Snakeskin". I learned it from the technique based group Technique Junkies . The swirls are a Sizzix due cut which I cut into two pieces. They kind of reminded me of a lizard tongue (ewww...) so I thought they were a fun addition to the card. Look closely and you'll notice that I used several Michael Strong Stamps to create an interesting background (a tone on tone technique, which is basically a dye based ink stamped onto similar colored cardstock. Soft and subtle!) that I did using other MS stamps and two colors of dye based ink. The images in Mike's line of stamps are all designed to compliment each other, so artwork is easy to create and coordinate. Enjoy!!