It's all in the presentation...

I hope you are having a great weekend - we finally had some nice weather here.  We were able to get outside a little to enjoy it - my husband did some spring clean-up in the flower beds and I admired his work!  The irises are about six inches tall - it won't be long until they are blooming again.

 

The iris bulbs that we have growing outside the front door have a beautiful deep color and are special to us since they came from Grandma's garden.  It will probably be another month until they look like this.

We have several other iris varieties in the garden - I think this pink one is so delicate and pretty.  Many of you mentioned gardening as one of your other hobbies.  I love to look at the gardens and take photos but my husband is the one who does nearly all of the actual gardening.

You are probably wondering what is going into the boxes today...so I won't keep you in suspense.  It is another "separate but equal" day with three slightly different sets of items added to each box.  I can't seem to get enough of the Martha Stewart Crafts products.  I enjoy the papers, the glitter, the punches (oh so many punches!) and the stamps.  I have added a Martha Stewart stamp set to each box today.

Christmas Tree

Heart and Flower

Monogram and Frame

Whenever I think of Martha Stewart I think about her emphasis on presentation.  Paying attention to the small details can definitely make things feel more special.  It doesn't take much time to add a little something and rise above the ordinary.

 Here is a simple example.  I wanted to return a pie dish to a neighbor who surprised us with a special treat.  I was taught that you never return a dish empty so I wanted to bring it back with cookies.  Instead of putting the cookies in the dish and covering them with foil or plastic wrap I used a cellophane bag, stacked the cookies and tied them up with a ribbon.  

ribbon, ribbon and more ribbon!

If you are a regular reader of my blog you know that I have a weakness for the ribbons that are available at Costco.  They are very reasonably priced and come with many beautiful designs.  Most of the ribbons have wired edges but it is simple to remove the wire for papercrafting (here is a LINK to a post showing how to remove the wire).

The only "problem" is that the ribbon comes on 50 yard spools (well, it is Costco sized!) and so it takes a long time to use up the ribbon.  So - I try to share my ribbon whenever I can so I can buy more in new colors and patterns!  These three are all nice for spring projects.  I used the glitter daisies on the right for the cookie package (and also have a card sitting on my craft table waiting to be assembled using the same ribbon).  The center ribbon is a sheer pink with glitter silver dots.  On the left is the ribbon I "had" to buy so I could give some to my friend Shirley ("Okieladybug"), with Cricut green dots and cute ladybugs!

I cut off a couple of yards of each of the three ribbons and added all three to each of the boxes.  There should be enough for quite a few cards or to make a bow on a nice package. 

 

These boxes are getting very full - I should probably make a list of all of the items inside so you can keep track.  The sets might get shuffled when I wrap everything for shipping so there will definitely be an element of surprise when the three lucky people open their boxes!

Instead of reposting the directions for the giveaway, I would ask that if you have just come upon this celebration week and want to start at the beginning you go to Wednesday's post HERE and work your way forward.  The rest of you already know how to play along!

Here is the question for Sunday

What "little" things do you do to try to make your daily life more creative and artistic?  Do you like to set a beautiful table, arrange flowers and place them around the house, keep your linen closet tidy with sheet sets tied up with ribbon? Do you think attention to the small details can make your routine tasks seem less dull and repetitive?  How do you try to lead an "artful life"? 

That's a lot of questions and you don't have to answer each one directly - just share your thoughts on the general topic if you can.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and be sure to check in Monday to see what else is going in the boxes - one of the items might make you laugh...

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Some new rubber stamps...

The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well.  Several of my blog friends have started ventures selling products and I wanted to tell you a little about one of them today.

Shelley is a wonderful artist with great coloring skills.  Her blog Heartstring Designs has some very helpful videos she has made about coloring with the Copic markers.  She also shares many other projects.  Shelley has designed some beautiful stamps that she is now selling through another blog.  Her blog for the stamps is called Shelley Bean Stamps.

Here is one of her more complex images - in black and white and also beautifully colored.

I am not an expert at coloring - in fact I only own 2 Copic markers (!) so when Shelley asked me if I'd like to try her stamps I did not choose one of the complex images.  I opted for this small rose stamp.

 

The stamps are red rubber and come trimmed ready to mount on a piece of adhesive cling foam which is included in the package.  You then use them with clear acrylic blocks.  It is simple to mount the stamps and Shelley even provides a video that you can watch to help you with the process.  Here is a LINK to her video page.

I made a rather inept attempt to do some shaded coloring in the stamped rose.  Then I decided to try some other ways to use the stamp.

I decided to use the stamp to make an overall background on the card.  The cardstock and matching ink are from Papertrey Ink - the color is called "Scarlet Jewel."

This ribbon is actually brown but it blends in very nicely with the inked background.

I stamped the image on ivory cardstock in the matching in and cut the image out with a small petite scallop circle Nestabilities die.  This showed off the image nicely.

I decided later that I should have use a paper with less contrast to the base card so I found some pink K & Company paper from a large box of loose sheets that I got on sale. I layered it right on top of the cardstock circle.  The color was a great match to the card.  This quick card could be used for many things.  For now it is a simple notecard.

Please go to Shelley's sites to see her more of her work and find out about the stamps she is selling. Once again her blog is Heartstring Designs and the Stamp Blog is Shelley Bean Stamps.

She also has great news to share - her beautiful baby granddaughter was born today!

The Cuttlebug Challenge Blogspot is hosting a week of Christmas Festivities culminating in a day long "Christmas Around the Clock" event on Sunday, July 25th.  Please click HERE to go to the Cuttlebug Challenge blog and get all of the details.  The beautiful card above was made by Design Team member Bonnie - you can visit her blog Love, Light and Peace  to see all of her lovely work.



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A quick organizing tip

I hope you had fun on National Scrapbook Day.  I know that there were many stores and websites hosting special events.  Unfortunately, I had plans that prevented me from scrapbooking today.

I thought I would quickly show you what I did with some of the frames I bought at the rummage sale.

These were the inexpensive frames that are sold at many discount stores - and often show up at tag sales.

When you remove the cardboard box that holds the items in the frame, you are left with a nice tray that is the perfect height for holding wood mounted rubber stamps.  They will fit in the jet max cubes that are sold at Michael's, one per shelf.  If you remove a shelf, you can stack three in the space.  They can get heavy so you may not want to do this on the upper shelves.  If you bought your jet max cubes at A. C. Moore, they have cubes with four shelves instead of five and you can fit two per shelf for a total of eight per cube.  You can see the edge of the cube to the right.

I don't have many wood mounted stamps (certainly nowhere near the amount I have seen in some scraproom tours!) so I think that I will be able to use this system for all of my stamps.  I may ask my very handy husband to build a case with spacers at exactly the right height for the trays - in his spare time! 

I hope you are having a great weekend - the weather is beautiful here in New England.