WASHI TAPE

Washi tape originated in Japan and you can now find versions of it everywhere.  Even though the tape may not be made in Japan the name is still used.  Art n Soul in Olympia offered a class in making washi tape this past Saturday.  Marcia and I signed up a month ago and yesterday we took part in the 3 hour class.  I have to say that the instructors where very, very organized.  As the following picture shows we used Scor-Tape in a 1/2" width, the tape comes in various widths.

We began by laying out pieces of the tape on wax paper and applying color to them.  Archival, Brilliance or Chalk inks seem to dry the best on the tape.  We set these out to dry and in the meantime we made other cards using commercially made washi tape.

For this card we crisscrossed different tapes and stamped an image on top.  Tip:  keep small scraps from your projects by putting them on an acetate sheet.

Various patterns of the tape on a rectangular piece of cardstock which we ran through the embossing and cutting machine using the kimono die cut.

Napkins, YES! Napkins.  We had a three ply napkin, separated the layers leaving just the layer with the image.  Choosing the images we wanted to use, we turned the napkin over and glued our tape to the back.  After cutting around the tape edges, we had a strip of tape with the chosen image on one side.  We peeled the back of the tape and attached it to the card.  

This card speaks for itself....beautiful.

Finally our washi tape was dry we stamped our images on it and applied it to our card.

This is the bonus card we didn't have time to make but they gave us the napkin we need to make the washi tape and complete the card.

A Washi tape class for the Inky Fingers in the future?

INKY FINGERS TEA PARTY

Dawn hosted our Inky Fingers Tea Party this past Sunday.  She had a lovely silver tea set and a variety of teas.  The guests brought scones, home made jams, cookies, little tea sandwiches and other treats.

There we all were with our tea, little pinkies up in the air, pretending this was Downton Abbey but much noisier and without the servants. 

When time came to begin our projects, Angela first showed us how to make the calendar we had seen on her blog.  Dawn had done all the work of scoring and printing the calendar pages.  Thank You!

Dawn had an adorable birthday car for us to make as well as 3 other beautiful Asian inspired  cards.

Being at Dawn's was like being at Michael's, she had so many supplies to choose from, and all you had to do was ask for something and you can bet she had it somewhere.  Thank you Dawn for hosting and sharing your creative ideas with us.

VALENTINES DAY

Continuing with my punch art fascination, I made these Valentine treat bags for the grandkids.

They were so much fun to make!  It was hard deciding which ones I wanted to do, so with the laptop by my side and Pinterest open, I pulled out my punches and Voila!.  I didn't have any heart punches and had to cut templates first and cut a little here and there to achieve the look I wanted.  Lots of blogs out there with punch art ideas so give it a try.

Meet my little friends

Three days at home avoiding passing this miserable cough on to others and, other than a new book read and one old one finished, this is what I have to show for my time.  My cute little friends the OWLS.

Lots of great owl punch ideas on Pinterest.  Having no inspiration for making cards this was the perfect little project.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to Christine!

 Caryl made an awesome cake for her sister.  It's made up of cupcakes and owl cake pops.  Adorable!

 Check out the little owls' feet.

I bet you can guess where she got the idea.........

FRIENDS DAY

Marcia came over today to work on the prototype for her son's wedding invitation, and to make some Valentine cards.  She used the Martha Stewart heart punch that can be positioned anywhere on the paper.

The cards turned out great.  Now she is ready to send these to all her sweethearts.

I spent most of my time trying to make a card I saw on Pinterest.  I printed out the pattern but it didn't work even with two great minds working on it.   Marcia measured and remeasured the cuts and folds and it was not coming together.   It was so frustrating to make that when I transferred the photos to my computer I named the folder FRUSTRATING CARD.  I can tell you this, I will not be making it again.  After all the pain I just have to post the dang card.  I think I will be deleting this pin from my board.

Marcia and I had a nice lunch and even did a little shopping at Willow Tree.   She bought earrings and I got the cutest decorative bird's nest with three little blue eggs inside.  

  

INSPIRED BY PINTEREST

I have a board on Pinterest full of cork craft ideas so this holiday season, since I happen to have a big bag full of corks,  I decided to make a couple of things for our Homemade Christmas with the daughters. Wait, wait, let me clarify that I didn't drink all the wine that went with the corks.  It just so happens that a couple of years ago Christine and I went to a Spanish restaurant in Seattle and in talking with the bartender we asked what they did with the corks...voila! she quickly produced a big bag of corks for us.

Along comes Pinterest and all the pins with cork ideas, including furniture, so I just had to do something with my corks.

Ornament

Yet more proof that Pinterest is the best thing on the internet, and addictive too.