Paper is taking over the world.

Hi friends just a quick update on some of my storage solutions. After all the mothers day cards I made I had a bunch of housework and rest to get caught up on. I have to admit I was sort of tired of all things crafty for a a week or so. There was paper pieces every where. Ever walk through the house and then realize you have little tiny pieces of paper scraps stuck to the bottom of you feet? What a mess. It's all organized now and back to somewhat normal. This is what I did.
Part of putting it all away took some doing. With all the cards being made recently I had scraps galore. And everyone knows that even the smallest scrap can be used, besides I'm cheap like that. So whats a crafter to do? Make a scrap box of course.

 For the smaller scraps I have them organized by color and by shapes. When I cut out designs I often make mistakes,  have extra pieces, to big to small, or just doesn't look right. For the small scraps, like under 8 inches, I put them in a box. There used to be just a big pile of a mess. Now there are tabs for each color. There are also separate tabs for things like squares, circles, hearts etc. I find that I can grab them easily when I just need a small piece of a certain color. Then I put all the tabs into a photo box. It still needs decorating, but that's for another day. The box sits on my craft table, which is way to messy for me to show you.
Each tab was cut using my silhouette. Then the coordinating color inserted into the tab. It would have been a lot easier to just do some print and cuts. But not as fun!

My larger pieces are stored by color in 12 x 12 scrapbook page protectors.  Not so sure this method is going to work for the long run, but it's alright for now. I then put them into a magazine style box, more on that below.

Much better then the big pile of messy paper I had going on. This one still needs covered. 

So that's what I do with the scraps. But your asking, Tracie what do you do with the unused sheets. Well those are in my homemade magazine file boxes. I got some free flat rate shipping boxes from the USPS.  Gotta love me some free stuff. 

 I cut them into magazine style holders and then covered. I tried a few methods of covering them. All pink of course. Painting them was tedious and I needed several coats to cover up the printed boxes. The paint also weakened the integrity of the box, surprise cardboard doesn't like getting wet. But this worked the best. Sure wish I had thought of using spray paint.

 So I began covering them with pink wrapping paper. That so did not work.

The paper was easier, but I foresee them ripping in the future. The wrapping paper also bubbled heavily with the glue. Could have been that it's the cheap dollar store paper, or that I put to much glue.  Who knows. Needless to say I did not use this method for the rest of my boxes. They all need a label made for the colors they hold, but they are the basics- red, blue green, multi-colored etc.
They are all on my little book shelf for easy access. I liked them on the top shelf so I could just pull the paper out from the top without having to remove the entire box.

The bottom shelf holds my other photo boxes that I store things like glitter, glue, paint etc. For now they have little hand written labels. so much to do, so little time!

I have several friends with Birthdays this week, so I have been making a lot of cards. I can't post them yet because then it will ruin their surprise. However as soon as I give them out I'll share them here. I am using a few of the new designs. Some that I came up with, and some just regular shapes.







I Link up Here: Not just a Housewife, Clean and Scentsible,  Skip to my Lou, I Heart Nap Time, Blooming Homestead,  Alderberry Hill, Tatortots & Jello, A Night Owl, Craft-O-Maniac,  Thats whate Che Said, Crafts Ala Mode, Say Not Sweet Anne, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Mad in Crafts

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Better Late then Never?

I was off work for the last few days and got some major cards designed. Mothers Day is coming up soon so I wanted to get started. My designs are done, I just need to put them together. I also decided to finally paint my living room. Boy did it need it. I'll take some pictures as soon as I get everything put back to where it belongs.   Be sure to subscribe by email, Blog Lovin' or Facebook to see the updates. In the meantime I used my resting between coats to make some home decor.

Better late then never, or so they say. I am not to sure of that. If you know me at all you know that I am ALWAYS late. I do not do it on purpose, and it really stresses me, (and my bosses at work) out. No matter what kind of planning I do it seems something always comes up that makes me 3-5 minutes late for everything. Not just work, but EVERYTHING. Believe me I have tried to make myself better. Setting the clocks ahead,  getting ready ahead of time, alarms, calendars, nothing has worked. This may not help with the clock situation, but at least I will know what day it is.
I am just a little late in the game, (surprise) but I made an adorable super easy calendar this week. I cut with my cameo of course. Maybe someday I will get over the fascination with this machine and show you some non Silhouette stuff. Don't count on it anytime soon, I haven't even scratched the surface !

Pay no attention to the date there, I sure didn't before I took the pictures. 

To change the date I just need to turn the little blocks for the month and date.

I used the 3d box calendar by Lori Whitlock for the cut files and added my own colors to match my family room.
For my sanity as well as all the people I affect lets hope my tardiness improves. Sad when I think I deserve a brownie button for getting somewhere when I am supposed to.









I Link up Here: Not just a Housewife, Clean and Scentsible,  Skip to my Lou, I Heart Nap Time, Blooming Homestead,  Alderberry Hill, Tatortots & Jello, A Night Owl, Craft-O-Maniac,  Thats whate Che Said, Crafts Ala Mode, SayNotSweetAnne, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating

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A Split Family Tree on Canvas

Let the vinyl projects begin! I have been waiting for a shipment of vinyl that I ordered. Finally it has been received  sorted and is ready to be used. I must admit my first project was a little ambitious, maybe even a little scary. After a few mishaps it turned out great. Without making you hold onto your seats for a minute longer, I bring you a split family tree.

This is for a friend who wanted her kids names displayed on 5 X 7 canvases. Yes she has 6 kids, that's 2 more then me. I don't know how she is still sane.  I love the font that I choose. Very swirly. 

For those that are interested I finally remembered to take some photos along the journey to show you what I did. For those that aren't interested, indulge me and look anyway just for my amusement.

Here is the back of the canvases. Just simple white canvases that can be bought at any craft store. My favorite go to place is Michaels. 

 I painted the canvases with a few coats of acrylic paint in her favorite color, green. To get the vinyl to stick to the uneven surface, I also applied a thin coat of Modge Podge. The Modge Podge had to sit for a few days to cure. The waiting killed me. I mean I had all this vinyl and wanted to start cutting. 

This next step requires a little bit of additional information. I messed around with a few different vines and leaves on Silhouette Designer Edition. we wanted the vine to wrap around all the canvases.  I finally ended up with a tree design. Lovin the heats with the tree. Coming up with designs is the hardest part of crafting I think.Getting it to separate on all the canvases turned out to be another problem. No matter what I tried in the software the design always came up wonky. I asked for some help on one of the craft groups I belong to, and a lady came up with the perfect solution.  Here it is.

I used painters tape on the back of the canvases to hook them together. Genius.  

Oh how exciting, the cutting of the vinyl has began. This is the inside of the Silhouette Cameo. In short terms, it's like a printer that cuts instead of prints. 

It is next to impossible to see here, but the tree design is being cut by the blade. 

The vinyl I use come in rolls or sheets The sticky part of it is stuck to a carrier sheet. The small intricate design came out perfectly. The weeding (removal of the extra vinyl) on this one was really easy. After the project was weeded You add a transfer sheet to the front. And scrape over it to make sure it sticks. They make a transfer tape for this use, but contact paper works wonderful also. And is much, much cheaper.

With the vinyl stuck to the transfer sheet you peel off the backing and the design really shines. 

I then took the design and moved it over to the connected canvases. I used a squeegee to firmly attach it to the canvas. Even with the Modge Podge I found that the vinyl did not want to stick down and little pieces kept coming up. So frustrating. I din't let it stop me and continued anyway. 

After the vinyl finally stuck I used a X acto knife to cut the design between the canvases. I kinda feel silly that I didn't come up with this, It would have saved hours in front of my computer.

Isn't that font fabulous! Absolutely amazed by the small details that the Silhouette can cut.  With all their names applied I saw there were still little pieces of the vinyl that didn't want to stay down. Modge Podge to the rescue again. I added another coat on top of the entire design, and let cure for a few more days.

They are all ready to be given to my friend. she saw them already, so I am not spoiling the surprise. She is such a wonderful mom, and now can display he kids special names that were picked just for them. 

Linked up Here: Not just a Housewife, Clean and Scentsible,  Skip to my Lou, I Heart Nap Time, Blooming Homestead,  Alderberry Hill, Tatortots & Jello, A Night Owl, Craft-O-Maniac,  Thats whate Che Said, Crafts Ala Mode, SayNotSweetAnne, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating

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Welcome

Thanks for taking a chance on looking at my blog about the fun I have making crafts.

Precariously Pink is the result of my love for PINK, and precariously means to depend on chance circumstances, unknown conditions, or uncertain developments. Anyone into crafts will tell you that they are precarious. Sometimes your plan turns out great, other times not so much. So happy I get to share with you.

I enjoy paper crafts, card making, vinyl, and my wonderful new Silhouette Cameo. This thing is amazing. If your into any sort of crafts I highly recommend getting yourself one of these babies. Here is a quick link to check out. Silhouette America.

I'll soon be posting some pictures of a few of the projects I have already created. With any luck I can figure out how to link my blog to my Facebook page, store site etc., that way I can bug everyone at all hours of the night and share. Go ahead, click one one or all of the subscribe to links and you'll get word when I make any updates.

Tracie

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