Howdee Pards! I am feeling loads better and had myself a super duper FUN crafty weekend! I have a tiny flower felt project, a wrap skirt share and a crafty download and print freebie that will get you so organized you won't know what to do with yourselves!
Hang on cowgirls cause this cattle drive is about to get underway!
We are going to start with the download and print freebie firstly... cause Lolly loves her some organization stuff (it's the OCD in me... a.k.a ARD (amazingly retentive disorder... it's a disease I made up to help me cope with my overly organized all the time issues)). You guys have those issues too right???
Ok I fibbed... duck, duck, GOOSE...
Actually... before we get started with crafts I wanted to share some DogChops adventures from last week...
When I came home from work on Thursday evening I was not greeted by my beloved and faithful doggies... oh heck no! They were too busy visiting with Duck Chops' girlfriend in the back yard. It seems she's taken up residence in our pool (again) and was having herself a nice little Thursday afternoon swim.
At first the dogs were circling the pool (licking their chops) and watching her like she was a plateful of BBQ ribs. They kept looking at me like "hey lady... it's great that you are home and all... but we have MUCH more pressing matters to attend to out here... we'll get back to you in a bit..." My feelins' were hurt!!
After a time she wore them out and they had to take a breather...
Duck watching evidently requires breaks.
Who knew!?!
Gettin' Organized is FUN!
I came up with some download and print freebie templates to help me get my Sizzix dies organized. I think I have just about every single flower die Sizzix makes and every time I want to create flowers (which is almost every time I do something crafty) I have to paw through the stacks of dies to figure out what's what (it's lame potatoes).
I figured it would help to make up some templates we could ALL use to help not only organize die cut shapes... but other stuff as well! Think stickles, glitter, pens, paints, inks, punched shapes, embossing powders, etc...
I think it's easier to see colors, shapes, etc... if you have them right there in front of you. That way you can hold up the items from the project you are working on to see what will work best together.
Sew... these little PDF templates will help you do just that!
I made them so you could label what you are sharing under each space. You can change the text to whatever font, size and even color you want (teal text being my favorite text color of course).
I have included a little instruction sheet about how it all works as the first page. If you have any problems with it, just let me know. We'll figure it out together!
The pages are broken up so you can accommodate different numbers of of items on each page. I created 6 different pages with space for 1 - 24 items (the boxes get smaller and smaller as the number of spaces increase)!
I placed 3 - 3/16th hole guides up at the top of each page (if you have a Crop-A-Dile - it's the larger hole punch size). My plan is to use rings to bind the pages together (with a snazzy decorated cover).
I pretty much spent the entire day Sunday working on these templates (printing them out and testing my shapes and misc products on them so see how everything will work together) so I only got to place a few of my die shapes on the pages.
Here's how I started putting things together...
I die cut my shapes using random scraps of paper and paper I knew I would probably never use.
I then ran the shapes through my Xyron to get them all nice and sticky!
The smaller shapes I just added rolled adhesive to.
(did you know that Xyron evidently comes with dog legs too?)
I edited the templates and added the name of each die in the "type label here" space.
I printed them out and started adhering my shapes to the spaces.
For my Sizzix dies I mostly used the 2 space template.
Remember... if you follow the directions on the first page, you can change the font face, size, and even color to anything you want (that seriously makes me happy)!
As I get the rest of my shapes and products added to these templates, I'll be sharing them with you. My goal is to get them ALL organized by next Monday. Ahem... lofty goals are good right?
Here are pics of the products I am going to try to get organized:
Distress Inks, Viva Decor Pearl Pens and Glimmer Mist!
(I know Glimmer Mist has color swatches on the back of each bottle... but I want to see them all together cause I think they are so darn pretty)!!!
Embossing powders...
I am going to stamp a bird shape in each box and then heat emboss it with all of my different colors...
I think it's going to look sooo neat!!!!
My glitters, Stickles, Smooch inks, and alcohol inks.
Those alone could take me a goat load of time to get through!
You can get the PDF template below by clicking on the "Download & Print PDF HERE" button!
So now I gotta share a little peep of the skirt MomChops made me Sunday afternoon! I don't have many pics as it was getting dark outside... but that one WAY up at the top is basically the gist of it.
We went to a FABULOUS fancy schmancy fabric store on Saturday and I picked out 4 fabrics for her to make me wrap skirts! I got designs from Moda and Kaffe Fassett that literally take my breath away (I am way over the top excited!!!)! She's going to finish up the rest of the skirts this week, so I'll share the other 3 next Monday!
I am going to be making embellishments for the bottom corner of the skirts (the side that hangs down in the front)... I think it's going to add something extra special to each skirt!!!
Using my NEW organization method I BUSTED out my die cut flower shape papers and compared them to the flower that was in the skirt...
(I actually changed the felt colors from this picture... the two yellow/gold colors seemed to work better together)
Once I found shapes and colors that worked well with the pattern in the skirt...
I made up this flower in nothing flat, beaded the center and POOF!
Matching flower for bottom edge of my new fabulous skirt!!!!
YAY!!!!!
I have not figured out how I am gonna get this puppy on there yet (since I cannot wash the flower I have to make it removable). If anyone has any ideas how I can accomplish this, I am all ears!
Last to lastly... here are some of the amazing projects and other neat stuff you guys have been sharing with me (YAY for crafts!!!). I totally love it when you send me your creations! It's the coolest thing ever!
Manu from Italy made up the
crocheted flower pic from my last day of Wall Flowers Week (you can see
it HERE).
Manu also made up a TON of butterflies... here are just a few of them (in teal no less).
I heart teal.
(you can learn how to make these butterflies in this post HERE)
Sedna from Spain also made up some of the flowers from Wall Flowers Week (you can see the post HERE)...
...and she sewed them to these fabulous shoes!!!!
I totally love this idea!
...and last to lastly (for real this time)
This share is totally COOL and random!
Jessie is a Raptor Coordinator at a wildlife center and she was wrapping poor baby Cooper The Hawk's" feet!
(here on out known as "Cooper The HawkChops")
...and it just so happened that the wrapping was TEAL!
GIMME AN "E" !!!!!!
GIMME AN "A" !!!!!!
GIMME AN "L" !!!!!!
WOO HOO!!!!! You gotta marvel when someone is handling a HAWK and notices that the wrapping for said Hawk's talons (mighty SPOOKY talons if you ask me) is TEAL and then thinks to themselves... "selves... that wack job LollyChops loves teal... I think I'll snap a pic of Cooper the HawkChops tealey talons and send it to her!!!"
I mean seriously. Is that cool or what you guys?!?!?!?!?!
Tealey talon hugs,
P.S. If you have any issues with the PDF, let me know... AND if you get your organization on you gotta send me pics ok!!!! You know how I gobble that stuff up right?!?!?!?!
P.S.S.T. More hugs than you can stand (with 3 tealey talons on the side).
