Reece Bunco Fridge Calendar

Do you have an event that you look forward to every month? Well, aside from my scrapbooking and crafty get-togethers, I look so forward to Bunco! It's Mom's night out to just have fun!

You can make your own fridge calendar with chipboard, cardstock and The Angel Company's new Reece Soar With It Collection. It would also be great for kids' sports schedules. If you'd like to print calendar sheets, GO HERE for a free program. You can also make fun invitations with the new Celebration Invitation set. Heather's got a cute sample here. This set was given as an award at TAC's recent Seminar. If you have a sample with this fun set, leave a comment with a link to your creation. There are countless things you can do with it! Below is a peek at the fun from our last Bunco night. (I hope you gals don't mind --- or is it "what happens at Bunco stays at Bunco?" Oops. )

Embossed Leather Journal

Who says embossing powder is only for paper? I found this leather journal to give my husband for Father's Day and I wanted to make it more special; more personal. I also wanted it to be subtle and classy. I used Versamark ink and Transcendence embossing powder to add his initials and a flourish from TAC's Flourish stamp set. This shiny raised look is so much fun--it's like magic. If you've never tried embossing, you should!

The basic steps to embossing are as follows: (click the photos below to enlarge.) 1. Load up with ink and stamp image. 2. Sprinkle image with powder (for some applications, I like sprinkling right from the bottle.) 3. Shake off powder (I shake mine into an empty stamp container and the same powder can be used over and over.) 4. If necessary, use an artists brush to sweep away extra powder. 5. Heat image with an ebossing gun, moving around until the whole image is shiny and raised.

I also like Transcence powder the best (and I think The Angel Company is the only one who has it) because you can use this powder with any kind of ink! If I had decided to give the initials more depth, I could use my favorite Burnt Umber Palette ink and the same powder would work. This gives you the ability to match the color of your project, because even dye based inks would work. It comes in a large bottle and it lasts forever. I've been stamping for five years, I use it a lot and I still have the same bottle!

Well, tomorrow I'm off to Kansas to see the new catalogue and attend our annual seminar. Keep an eye out for some sneak peeks . . . .

Kamalaht Chalk Board & Embossed Stones

I made this chalk board a while back as a gift. It's a little bit of form meets function, with its cool Kamalaht accents. (I really wanted to keep it for my kitchen!)
It's also magnetic, so I made some little embossed stone magnets for it, starting with those polished stones you find in the floral section of the hobby store. I used black ink and Transcendence Embossing powder. You could use black powder, but I seem to keep Transcendence right within arm's reach. The great thing about it is you can use it with any kind of ink. You have to work fast with regular ink on paper, but you just stamp, sprinkle, heat and whatever color ink you are using has that glossy, raised look. The other nice thing is that those stray sprinkles of powder that manage to get left behind are clear, so they are almost unnoticeable.
Aside from magnets, I think these stones would make nice little "worry" stones with encouraging messages. You hold or rub your worry stone as you think or pray on your troubles and it helps you let go of worry.
Forget your worries and check out Heather's blog! She's giving out candy!