Treat Box Project

I used my trunk box die cut to make the little treat boxes to fill with kisses and mini candy bars...

I used a beautiful background stamp from Innovative Stamp Creations and stamped the white die cut with maroon ink, then used the same ink and my stipple brush to color the box...I added green ribbon with a beautiful maroon/red flower with a clear crystal center...

Maroon ribbon with a white silk flower...

Gold wire edged ribbon with maroon silk flower...same box, different ribbons...I only had time after work today to make one to show...I am going to do these as some swap gifts at the womens club Christmas party in two weeks...I think they will like getting these little treats...Check out my studio blog to order the plain white die cuts, http://thestudioinpreston.blogspot.com

Another wooden ATC...these are so fun to make

I painted my wooden ATC with brown oxide colored acrylic paint, why that color...cause it was the first brown paint I saw in the box...LOL...I just used a sponge, dipped it into the paint, and rubbed it all over the wood piece...thats my idea of basecoating, when I am in a hurry...

My pictures are a little out of order...but I left them like they were...This shows the detail of the bottom half of the ATC...I added some metallic gold ink sponged lightly onto the corners and little up the sides...

You can see the metallic gold on the top corners and trailing down the sides a bit...

I used redliner tape to attach the picot edged cream colored satin ribbon around the edges of the ATC...I made a little quicky bow from some light pink organza (Really Reasonable Ribbon) and added it to the top of the ATC with a glue dot...

I love that new border punch from Martha Stewart...I added all the elements except the flower with Ranger Glossy Accents as my glue, then applied a thin coat over the entire piece, I glued the flower on with a pop dot, after the front was dry...The collage image is from Lisa's Altered Art images...patterned paper scrap and bazill cardstock used...I rubbed some off white and a touch of metallic gold paint, kinda hit and miss over the dark brown basecoat...I don't know what made my photos yellow so much, I will take some better pictures in day light later...

For a Wooden ATC and Inchie kit, check out http://thestudioinpreston.blogspot.com This kit will be for a limited time only...

Wooded Inchies...

I had fun with these little babies today...I only got two finished to show ya...but got more in the works...these are the tops of the ones I got done...

these are the sides...one is painted with gold paint, one has brown paint, dragged over the off white back ground...

I started by basecoating each wooden inchie with off white paint, I glued the kitties on each side of that inchie, then color the sides and just around the edges with gold metallic paint, the other just has the gold paint on the edges, not the sides...

This is the other side of each inchie...these are from the inchie sheet from Lisa's Altered Art..she has some awesome collage sheets to create with...

Wood and ATC's...

I have had these wooden pieces cut for about a year...they got put in a box...and of course, outta sight, outta mind...I used to paint similar size pieces as shadow box art, way back in my decorative painting days...I will have to find one of mine and show ya someday...the art I kept is packed up too...anyway...I cut these the size of ATC's...I was going to paint them...but decided I would do some collage stuff to them...I kinda got carried away with this first one...I have two more started, and will make pictures when they are finished...Oh, and I also did some inchies...

This is the top of the 2 inch thick ATC...I am working on two 1 inch thick ones...can't wait to see if they turn out like I am hoping...I glued the piece of lace down kinda randomly, then added the leaves and flowers...

This is one end of the ATC...I love that Martha Stewart punch...I glued the punched pieces down with Glossy Accents...

This is the other end of the ATC...I did not want the ends to be alike, as the sides are different as well...plus, this was an experiment piece...I figured I would make all my boo boo's on this one...LOL...then maybe not make so many on the others...yeah, right...

I just love the collage sheets from Lisa's Altered Art...Oh my...I have been wanting to use this one...and it was perfect for this side of my thick wooded ATC...I used my fence die cut, rubbed some brown paint and then spattered it with black paint...I was after an old wood fence look...Oh, forgot to say, I started by basecoating the wood ATC with off white paint...then I painted the back ground with blue and green and added a few clouds...see, I told ya I was gonna paint them...LOL...anyway...I then added the brown to color the edges and let the sponging, kinda vinette around my background painting...I also spattered the background...I spatter stuff alot...I cut the girls image out, and hopefully made them look like they were sitting on that fence...then added the words across the top...I coated the whole thing with Ranger Glossy Accents...I love that look...and I went to school with a gal that was just like that one in the crown...

I love birds...so any excuse to use those beautiful bird images from Lisa's Altered Art are fine with me...I colored this side with the blue and green paint, kinda smeared all together, to make a more teal or aqua look to it...I added some gold paint sponged onto the edges kinda randomly...I added my collage pieces, then sealed the whole piece with Ranger Glossy Accents, then sprinkled on some Beadazzles...I added the flower after the piece was dry...

Mini Snowman Ornament

I used a 1 1/4th inch round punch and the smallest scalloped nestie I have to make this mini ornament...I stamped the adorable snowman images from The Stamping Studio onto each round shape, colored with chalks, added a coating of Glossy Accents, colored the scallope shape with blue ink and when the round pieces were dry I glued them to the scalloped piece with the Glossy Accents...I added the thin gold thread for a hanger between one side and the scallop, then glued...I have another Snowman ornament in the works, but he was too wet to photo today...so will show him tomorrow...The ornaments are for a swap I was in...and I am late, late, in getting mine done...but they will go postal on Monday...

Mini Book Kit

Mini Book Kit now available at The Studio In Preston http://thestudioinpreston.blogspot.com

Samples coming soon...

Frame Book Project...Original design project by Debbie Bankston

I have had this project on my drawing board for a while...I finally got the chance to get it underway...I started with the chipboard die cuts shown...I covered each with pattern papers...

I punched the holes for binding with my bind it all...I love that machine...if you don't have one...and love to make books...oh my, you need one...I centered the holes in each frame die cut as well as the file card covers...

I used one of my file tab punches to make the neat little page turning tabs...I glued these tabs between the two frames...I decorated each frame, then glued them together back to back...

These are the two scalloped frames...before adding embellishments, but with the file tab in place...I used red liner tape to secure the frames together...

I still have some "foo foo" to add to some of the pages, as well as some fibers, ribbon to the coil binding...but I just had to share what I have finished up to this point...This is the cover of the book...I used the awesome word stamps from Innovative Stamp Creations to do most of the journaling in the book...the photos are from mountain vacations from the past 3 years that my wonderful husband has taken me on...

The passport to adventure stamp is from PSX...all the others from Innovative Stamp Creations...I finally got a couple of the Martha Stewart border punches...Oh my...I love those things...Donalda and Claudia can take credit for that...LOL...they have done some gorgeous stuff using them...

I wanted to create lots of dimension with the embellishments...I love layering and the frames lend themselves to layers being added...

I love the way the different sizes and shapes of the frames create added interest in the book as well...there are so many possibilities with this book...from birthdays, holidays, baby, and just because...as well as vacations, those are some of my favorite books to make...

Having the variety of frame opening sizes was nice, as it let me choose such a variety of photos for the book...

I still have to finish the back cover, inside and out...and have a few more bits and pieces to add...but, I am so tickled with how its come together...and its nice to see my drawings and pages of notes and ideas to try, finally come to life in a finished piece of art to share with my family...

I will be offering a Frame book kit on my studio blog, if you want to check it out and all the other die cuts I have http://thestudioinpreston.blogspot.com/ If you have any questions about my project, email me at debbiesdiecuts@yahoo.com

Mini Flower Book Project

Oh my gosh, this was so fun to finally get one made...This is one of the projects, that has been on my to do list for a while now...I saw something similar, can't remember where now, but I knew my Sizzix flower die would work to make one...I cut the flowers from chipboard, covered with pattern paper...I punched the holes with my Crop a Dile and used a clear snap ring as a binder...

After I covered each chipboard page with pattern paper, I sanded the edges, then sponged on a bit of brown ink...I cut the scalloped flower centers using my small round scalloped spellbinder die...and sponged brown ink around the edges..

I used my 1.50 and 1.25 inch circle punches to punch out the faces of the family members I was using in this book...

Here are the basic parts I used...The chipboard flower shapes, pattern paper used to cover the chipboard, and the scallops and round shapes for the centers...

Anniversary Gift for hubby

I made this matchbox/nugget box filled with candy as a little anniversary gift for my hubby...Our 5 year anniversary of our first date is tomorrow...it was one of the best days of my life and next to our wedding day, is still the most special to me...I used a background stamp from Innovative Stamp Creations to stamp the box sleeve with brown ink, then dusted on some teal blue...I love it...its very pretty in real life...not sure why its so weird looking in the photo...I stamped the sheriff star in brown and colored it with teal, cut it out and added gold glitter dots on the star points...

I used my smallest scalloped spellbinder die and a 1.25 punch to make the covers for the mints...Stamped words are from a set of images from Innovative Stamp Creations...Notice the little box is bulging with goodies...

Here are all the candies with there stamped covers...He loves Batman, and collects wolves...so i think I covered all my bases here...The candy bar on the bottom is a kit kat bar, the snack size, two of these will fit in the box, but I wanted more variety, so decided to add some of all the goodies...I am going to be teaching these next week at my Scrap n Stamp at The Studio day...Be sure and check out my studio blog at http://thestudioinpreston.blogspot.com for lots of die cuts and http://www.innovativestampcreations.com for some awesome images to use in your stamped art...

File Card Recipe Book Idea

These two pages are just the beginning of my book...I used 3 of the file card die cuts, covered them with coordinating pattern papers and computer generated the recipes onto white 24# laser text weight paper...I tore around each recipe, as I like this look, colored each with ink and then layered each onto coordinating colors of cardstock...I will go back and add some other foo foo to each page after I get it done...The book will use 3 file cards and 6 recipes and bind it all binding...I will show ya the book again after i get it finished...

Coaster Book Project

I needed a quick b'day giftie for a friend tomorrow...favorite color is yellow and loves daisy's...was I in luck...I had a few scraps of yellow papers , so I covered the coaster with the pattern papers, added the ribbon to the front cover...punched the bind it all holes...
I added the post it note pad and a calendar pad I just got from Sky Blue Pink...these little calendars are gonna be great for some of my other gifties I will be making...I added a couple of dimensional flower stickers from a K & Co sheet...

Gingerbread Afternoon...

Along with creating my new book project in the next posting...I was in a Gingerbread mood this afternoon...LOL...well...a gingerbread painting mood anyway...I found two of my wood cut out painted gingerbread men a few months ago...I keep finding all these little treasures from my past, as I continue to go thru boxes that have been packed up for years...I painted these wooden cut out gingerbread men for years and sold them at craft shows, took special orders for them...etc...I loved making them...well...I wanted to do something similar with my gingerbread men die cuts...so I cut them outta chipboard, painted them with acrylic paints and did a cheesey job, if I do say so...of painting one...I could not find the brushes I normally use...so was improvising with some cheapo paint brush...I will be finding my better brushes this week... This is before the sealer was applied...she got a little shiney on my after that coat of waterbased varnish was applied...LOL...
I am going to paint some more...but I have to find the brushes that I do my decorative painting with...
This is the pair I kept that I did in 1989...I used to have a set I did in 1985...but gave them to my sister in law...they are kinda scuffed up...but I am going to put them out this year at Christmas, since I am changing my usual blue and silver to red and gold this year...I just decided I needed a change...hubby likes his blue and silver...but I like to throw him a curve every now and then...LOL...if I get some more painted soon, I will share them...

Mini Envy Book Project-Original Design by Me...

These are the parts I started with...I used my mini 2.5 x 2.5 envy as my base measurement for the book...I cut the covers just a tad wider, and long enough to allow for the file tabs to be added to the page inserts...I punched all my Bind it All holes, before I begin coloring the pieces with ink...I wrote down the measurements and left them at the studio...dang it...I will get them tomorrow and fill in the blanks for ya...sorry...it was one of those afternoons...
I started out coloring the file tabs and the chipboard covers with archival ink...I just used a piece of sponge to do this...

I used a stipple brush to color the page inserts...I chose pink, because I will eventually put some photos of my new granddaughter in this little book...
I did the envelope pages in teal with the stipple brush...
The next few photos are the steps for gluing the envy...I glued the rounded top flap to the inside of the envelope...

I then fold one side in, apply some glue to the edge,

then fold the other side over...
apply a tad of glue to the bottom flap and press in place...be sure, you do not get any glue on the holes...you wont be a happy camper...
These are the 3 finished envy pages...You can make more pages...I only needed 3 for this mini book...
I scored the file tabs and then glued them in half...

Now, I worked on my center page insert first...attach the file tab in the center of the page back, then attach the page front...
Now, trim off the top and bottom edges of the other two file tabs, and attach to the other pages...
I forgot to photo the other one...this is the last page...see, how the cut off file tab is lined up with the bottom edge...just line up the other one at the top edge...
This is all three pages, lined up on top of each other...see how the file tabs look...
I put all the envy's together with the covers and used the Bind it All to bind them...

This is the book opened to the first page...
This is page 1 opened showing page 2...
I started adding the pattern paper layers, this is the cover so far...
This is the inside cover and the outside of the envy's...
I added the teal layer to the back side of each envy...this covers up the seams and gives me more photo or journaling space...I hope to add photos next week...and show ya those pics when I get it done...

Check out my studio blog for a pack of the mini envy's I used to make this book...along with lots of other die cut kits...if I can help you further holler at me debbiesdiecuts@yahoo.com

http://thestudioinpreston.blogspot.com