My favorite stamps from PaperTrey Ink.

I got this stamp set as a freebie in December 2013 for having a large order.  I never would have purchased it because flowers just aren't my focus.  I do like touches of flowers but not ALL flowers.  WELL-that has changed with the beautiful little set.  It is called Ruby Reprise by Dawn McVey.   I initially stamped 2 clean and simple cards using orange and yellow flowers.  My daughters really liked those cards so I purchased inks that were pink because these flowers look tropical to me and pinks just seemed to go better with the vibe of the stamps.  I stamped several more pink clean and simple cards, then added a few gems to dress them up.  I loved the pink way more than the orange and yellow cards so I decided to cut up the orange and yellow cards and use just portions of them on two different cards.  I like all three designs.  Today I noticed a border challenge at Splitcoast Stampers so I stamped the flowers all around the outside of a square card.  My border card for the challenge is the last one shown here.  This seems to be my "go-to" stamp set for now.  I just can't seem to go wrong with it.  THANK YOU PAPERTREY INK!  I LOVE YOU!

Organizing my craft room

     Last night I took round clothespins (called "doll pins" - found the wooden crafts section of JoAnns online store) and organized my ribbons.  I should have taken a "before" picture because the difference is totally AMAZING.  After winding each roll of ribbon onto the spool, I put small rubber bands (from the hair accessories department of the dollar store) around the ribbon to secure it. I found this technique several places on Pinterest.

Side view of the open drawer of ribbons

     Originally the ribbons were in the same drawer pictured below (set of 3 stacking bins by Sterlite) but the drawer was extended out, completely filled and spilling out, and the yellow basket was on the floor in front of it completely filled with ribbon spools plus I had clear containers of ribbons on the floor filled with ribbons.  I only bought a bag of 30 clothespins, but I should have bought 2 bags because I had too many spools of ribbon and had to wind two identical spools of a few ribbons onto 1 clothespin to get them all on the 30 spools.  I really would like to buy more ribbon now that I can easily see which ribbons I have.  I had a few stray long strands of ribbon that I just rolled around my finger then secured with a rubber band.

     Here are the benefits that I have found with this organizational method and some additional details of the photo.

-I can easily see my options.

-The ribbons take up practically NO ROOM.

-A rolled up bag of rubber bands is in the lower left side of picture.

-Bakers twine is in the upper right corner of picture.

-Plastic containers of embroidery floss and etc are on the right, which is actually the back of the drawer.

     My daughter is concerned that the ribbon will be curled when I decide to use it but if it is and doesn't stay straight once glued to the front of a card, I will iron it.  Seriously.  It's worth it to be able to save so much space and easily see ALL my options at once.

Operation Write Home Super Bowl 2014 Weekend Challenges

     Operation Write home is having a 3 part Super Bowl challenge this weekend.  The first challenge was to make a masculine card inspired by either the Denver Broncos or Seattle Sea-hawks logo.  I chose to use the colors from the Seahawks and a stamped bird design (which isn't an eagle, but you get the idea).

Inkadinkado Winter Birds

     I used sketch #89 which seemed to fit into the masculine theme along with the colors I chose.  I will be attempting the other two challenges this weekend as well.

     Here is the card from the second challenge.  

Papertrey Ink Ruby Reprise sentiment (free gift with purchase)

     I was suppose to create a masculine card using the color brown.  I accidentally got an ink smudge on the inside of the card on the lower right corner so I cut out another football to cover it.  No one will ever know.  (Us card makers are sneaky like that.)

I used sketch #109.

     Here's my third card in this challenge.  

Fiskars Birthday Bash