The Prettiest Bunny Bottom (Tutu Much)

Okay, if you blush easily then whatever you do

don't read this patterned text paper...



It says "and a provokingly short petticoat
to display the prettiest..."

then it cuts off.

So, you might ask,
"to display the prettiest..." what?

I guess, it's the prettiest bunny bottom:



(I did not plan this "cheekiness," honest!)

The text paper is actually Halloween paper with
the story from Sleepy Hollow.

Weird!

The only thing a little bit different with this card from the usual
(other than that accidentally silly text)

is the layered shadow stamp part:

It was such fun to stamp a little differently.

Well, and the tutu is a little out of the ordinary, for me
(it's made by stitching on ribbon):



Whenever I get to make anything mini it gives me the giggles. :o)

Here's the inside of the card:

I don't usually buy stamps (Lately, I stick with the instant gratification of digital images since I'm impatient & usually sloppy at stamping) but when I saw the bunny sets at Cat's Pajamas I knew I had to have them. They just feel artsy on top of being cute...

This clear stamp set has a bunch of dancing bunnies

(even the name of the set is too stinkin' cute):

Tutu Much! heehee

I found myself drooling over
the amazing cards that the
Cat's Pajamas design team made.
All that gorgeous colour!

...make this Ballerina Bunnies card:

• Tutu Much clear stamp set from The Cat's Pajamas
• Archival Black Ink (Ranger)
• Cardstock: Black, Speckle cream, River Rock, Gray
• Spellbinders Nestabilities die Label 5
  
• Misc. patterned papers
  
• Clear embossing powder & heat gun
• Copic markers, Prisma Colour pencil crayons,
  
• White gel pen, Sakura glitter pen, black permanent marker
• Silver thread, needle, paper piercer
• Sticker sentiment from SRM Stickers
• Black & silver organza ribbon
  

Step 1} Cut nesties label 5 die shape. Then trim it (I used two nesting shapes: one for image one for mat).



Step 2} Stamp and heat emboss a bunny, colour her & cut her out. I used Copic markers: Putty and a mix of Warm Gray & Cool Grays.



Step 3} Stamp three more bunnies on the white shape and colour them too. To make a shadow for the star of the Bunny Wabbit Ballet,colour it in with a dark gray marker (I used Copic marker: cool gray no 7).



As you can see from the image above, I overlapped the stamping. Since the front bunny is coloured in with a dark colour it's okay to overlap. Gives a little depth to it. :o)



Step 4} Adhere the die cut mats to some patterned papers.

I just cut a piece of of paper in weird shapes. Though somehow, in hindsight, it ended up looking like a bunny tail. I covered it with a bow, cause it just looked odd!



Step 5} Pierce around the mat, if you want to faux-sew or hand stitch. (You guessed it! I'm hand stitching...)



Step 6} Sew around the mat, if you like. This is silver metallic thread



Step 7} Stitch some sheer organza ribbon onto the bunny's tutu (To give the ribbon a little curl, I melted it very very gently with a lighter first-especially the ends to stop them from fraying.) Add glitter pen to the other two tutus.



Step 8} Assemble the card:

A) Stick the bunnies onto the label shaped mat.
B) Add a little white hello sticker (SRM sticker sentiment)
C) Cut and add a scallop (top & bottom) punched from gray cardstock
D) Doodle on the scallop White gel pen then glitter pen & little black hearts
E) Add a mat (River Rock S.U. cardstock)
F) Stitch on a bow
G) Stick all of that onto a folded card (This one is a piece of black cardstock cut to 6-1-4 x 6-3/4. Scored down the middle & folded it makes a 6-1/4 by 3-3/8 card to fit a really common envelope size from the office supply store).



Step 9} Stamp a few bunnies on light cardstock for the inside of card. [I stamped in light gray ink on River Rock cardstock & coloured with pencil crayons (white and beige)]

...and that's it!

Blogger thumbnails for those who like to click 'em:

Thanks for hopping by! ;o)


P.S. These bunny bottom antics are unsolicited. Just stamps I couldn't resist buying.

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Craft Room pictures & Organizing Distress inks

Many of you have been kind enough to wonder over the years what my space looks like. I can never seem to manage photos of the whole thing, so instead I thought I'd share it piecemeal. This little corner is a fave--one that gives you a little peek at my reformation from complete slob to relative neatnik:

It used to look (shamefully) like this:............But lately it looks (mostly) like this:

versus

------Mess.....................................versus.........................................Bliss

Do you find crafty cleaning to be a guilty pleasure?

For the last year or so (since we moved) I've been putting more time, bit by bit, into the space and have almost stopped feeling guilt over that. (I've always felt like I should be crafting & blogging tutorials or doing general house-keeping instead of prettifying my craft studio, but having a clean space feels oh so NICE!)

The lay of the land:

The space is about 8 foot by 9 foot. It's the master bedroom of our 700 sq foot condo (she says with a guilty snicker of happiness). The furnishings were done on the cheap [using pieces we already had: 99% mismatched Ikea beaver-puke (particleboard) pieces] ;o). And it's a blissful thing to have "a room of one's own!"

I thought I'd include a pictorial here of one of the little projects that has added to the organized bliss: ink labels...



My Sweetheart spoiled me with 8 new Distress inks and other goodies for ye olde upcoming birthday. (He keeps teasing me about almost being 40 and calls me "OLD." Can you imagine!?! I'm a spring chicken! :O) His thoughtfulness makes up for his sassy nerve, though.)

Don't crafty gifts make getting older a little bit easier? I never shop anymore except on holidays, so it's an extra big thrill. (I will love these inks that much more: talk to them, feed them and water them, give them goofy nicknames, pet them! teeheehee). Thanks, Honey!



1...pictorial for making distress ink labels
2...a break down of my craft studio corner: "colour shelf"
3...some ideas for curtains: 2 kinds for a creative closet
4...pencil sharpener storage idea

(love up your inks)

make Distress ink labels:

• inks you want to label
  
• paper (i love Paris Bleedproof)
• computer & ink jet printer
• clear embossing powder & heat gun
  
• strong double-sided tape
• wax paper or acetate (or something similar)
• water & a rag
  
• Microglaze or other sealer
  

Step 1} Make Do It Yourself label "stickers":

A) Print the labels with ink names. I wanted four of each name so that all sides of the ink pad are labeled, that way I can just shove them back on the shelf willy-nilly.

For labels that won't smudge: heat-emboss label names onto paris bleedproof paper (using an inkjet printer or print on a lazer printer if you have it.

B) Cut the labels and adhere them to wax paper with strong double-sided tape.

C) Adhere the label "stickers" to a piece of wax paper temporarily to make them easy to ink & work with.

Hopefully you can see why I like the paris bleedproof paper in this photo
(it let's you heat emboss the printer ink!)
(You can read more about that digital embossing technique here if you like).



Can you see how the letters are slightly raised? That's clear embossing powder & it means no smearing when you ink it up:



Step 2} Ink the labels. I applied the matching distress ink colours direct to paper and then blended with a little water.




Step 3} Seal the labels so they will stay nice & clean and not absorb other colours of ink when you work. I used Judikin's Microglaze. It's got a nice waxy quality that makes it a good waterproofer. I rubbed off the excess with a rag. Alternatively, you could use mod podge, gel medium, or another clear sealer. Just be sure not to stick the labels permanently to the wax paper, of course. ;o)

and there you have it...



Custom ink labels.

Step 4} Then simply stick them on the ink pads (all four sides):

...and here's the shelf where they live,
with their close neighbours the other inks
(sorted into rainbow-ness):

They are all on old shelves (20 bucks a piece back in the day).
I wasn't worried about damaging the shelves, so the
scissors hang on push pins that are stuck everywhere to
hang things from. It's so nice to have everything within easy reach.

The shelves are conveniently located at the left of my main work desk:



They are actually along the inside of the closet
(I needed the space, so I took the doors off)


(for 2 curtain layers in a closet)

One convenient thing is that I put up a curtain rod,
high up in side the closet, so that it can all
be closed off for a more clean look.

Hopefully this picture also gives you a better idea of
how the desk is arranged in the closet area:



(The desk is stuck into the closet so that part of it is
tucked away against those shelves
& the curtains hide the shelf of hoard-y goodness.
It's a beveled glass piece from an old broken Ikea coffee table
on top of a junky drafting table hidden with a vintage table cloth.
Working on glass is a joy, since it cleans up ever so easily.)

The other gray shelf there blocks a big bright window
which may seem crazy but is actually a good thing since it not only
increases storage, it also affords a little privacy from
my hundreds of neighbours who are in the condos right out there.
You can see into peoples' places across the way alarmingly clearly.
(Translation: secretly stamping in my pajamas!)

There are extra sneaky curtain clips left empty between
the ones that are holding those white curtains:



Why? The spare clips make it so that I can quickly clip up a
painter's drop sheet that will serve to protect the clean curtains
when I get to painting large canvases etc. (Eventually!)

Here are some other things that live on the shelves:

And this is another one of those little random organizing
things that makes me strangely happy.

A pencil sharpener & shavings holder:

It's a little tray that fits in the palm of your hand
(but really it's a lid from an antique bell jar)
It makes for a great thingamabobber to sharpen pencils in.
Works to catch the shavings for dumping in the garbage bin later.
It's glass, so it has a lovely heft to it, but any little container would do.

What's your organizing style?

Things work better, I find, if I plan for my style of organizing (slightly lazy with a chance of intermittent cleaning sprees. Kind of like the weather. In other words, I often save my cleaning for a rainy day--As you know, it used to be that I saved it for a blue moon!) ;o)


Well, thanks for letting me ramble!
Hope you are feeling wonderful.

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1 minute rainbow doily (using DIY shimmer mists)

This doily was a little old, a little frayed and a lot
in need of some oomph,
so in less than a minute it became this:

A lot more colourful!

I used these
homemade shimmer sprays:


More yadda yadda about how these were made, here.

The colours blended together so nicely:



(You wouldn't believe how quick it was to make it)

And if you spray over some paper,
you get nifty leavings:



Though next time I think I'd try to use thinner paper to spray it on,
since I'm trying this fun technique out...



...and the watercolour paper I used was a little too thick
to lay perfectly under the embossed bit.

Oh and I'm bursting at the seams with happy!

No more trying to grow potatoes in pots!

Today is a big day for us: we're going to go pick out our community veggie garden plot! It's been 2 years or so on the waiting list, so though Charles can't kneel, dig, or otherwise partake in getting dirty, we are SO looking forward to growing our own veg. together for the first time!!! He can have fun passing me plants 'n' seeds and bossing me around, right? heeheehee Our dear friends have a plot there as well, so we'll get to shoot the breeze about veggies. And I'll get some much needed exercise!

Hope your weekend is shaping up to be a fabulous one,

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