Bugaboo mini set Cute Skulls makes funky gift set

More than  a year ago I picked up the Cute Skulls mini set from Bugaboo Stamps and turned the digistamps into a birthday gift for a friend: A fun, funky set of stem charms in a storage tin.

I started with an Altoids sours tin (can you get them anymore? I don't know) and a can of soft pink spray paint. The paint is a wonderful Krylon product that covered the Altoids manufacturer printing in only two coats and dried completely in only a few hours.

Next I cut a skull stamp using a Cricut machine and the Cricut stamp material. I then stamped the skull with black archival ink onto the top of the sprayed tin. One wee bow and a few sticky gems later and the stem charm tin is finished!

Next I cut a piece of heavy black card stock to fit inside of the tin and covered that with pink sticky-back felt. I cut six slits into the felt and added a hitch fastener to the center for easy charm storage and removal.

The charms, each featuring a different Bugaboo Cute Skull, were printed on white shrink film and shrunk before being coated with Krylon clear.

I attached each shrunken skull to a bit of chain with a lobster claw clasp at the end to wrap around and attach to a glass stem.

And there you have the gift! That's so easy for quite a neat little surprise, isn't it?

So, if you want to take all of this to the next level as I did, print a sheet of the Cut Skulls "designer paper" and use a paper cutting machine to cut a tiny gift bag.

I also used the same die cut design from the Cricut stamp cut mentioned earlier to cut a heavy black stock skull which I employed to make a gift card that mimicked the tin with another bow and more fake gems.

Ain't it neat? I think so, too!

Although I was annoyed to discover that my friend doesn't like pink, she only has some of it because it's been foisted on her ... her personal favorite is red.

Oh well. I guess I'll just have to find another round Altoids tin!

Johnston, Housewives of Idiotville and Other Bullshit: How to stop the media coverage

A thoughtful note to those who are not aware: It is possible to see information relating to who has visited your blog. It's possible to see which posts were read, which photos have been viewed and where "they" who visited live.

And, shock of shocks, news outlets also track these things. And with much better accuracy. Much. Better.

So, please people, please for the love of Jebus and all that is magical ... please stop clicking on stories that you know are sure to be stupid.

Or at least stock clicking on the random stupidity and then following this with a full read and comment.

Go read real news ... or OFF with your head!

Especially if your entire comment will be something to the effect of "this story is stupid" or "why don't you cover the real news".

News outlets also track how much time you spend reading this shit.

Do you really think news sites can't gather the statistics of which idiotic stories you're reading, how long you're staying and the number of comments you share on these moronic stories?

Sisters. Brothers. Friends and neighbors: The so-called "liberal media" and the so-called "conservative media" ... they know what you're reading and commenting on. They know it and they sell it to advertisers.

They don't care that your comment was "... this shit be dumb." They only care that the time it took you to read the story and write that comment could be sold to advertisers.

If you want to read actual news, the things that mean something to you and to yours and to anyone besides the dimwits who populate every damn random web site between here and kingdom come ... read, really read, the few important stories in existence that haven't been preempted by items covering the bride wars of X factor.

And then comment on those few important stories. Share an opinion. Even if you're not sure what you're talking about. Piss people off if you must. Because that will cause conversation in the real world and, domino effect, more real people read the story and more real people comment and *BANG* real news gets coverage.

Especially if it's a local news outlet: Read and comment every god damn hour if it's local news, people, because local news is all important news begins.

Trust me.

Trust yourself.

Clearly there's a certain amount of coverage of stupid shit that is only because of the company which owns the local news outlet.

But you and I know that the biggest reason your local online newspaper and television coverage includes B.S. about this reality show and that contest of overeating hot dogs in who-the-hell-knows where is because you read it and commented on it the last time they wrote about it.

They're selling your reading minutes ... make them count.

Please.

Because I for one am so fed the hell up with seeing news headlines that scream about the latest reality television show that we both know has nothing at all to do with reality.

CC2C No 20: Enameled stamping

Challenge: The StudioL3 Compendium of Curiosities volume II Challenge, technique 20

Technique: Enameled Stamping, page 44

Main products used for this project: Card stock, recycled plastic, memory pin, tattered florals die, distress ink and clear embossing powder.

Project observations: Linda absolutely nails the feeling with this technique when she points out that it’s a basic one you’ll use again and again.

It’s easy to create, and can result in a classically-styled project or modern or steam punk or whimsical depending on the stamp and colors you choose to use.

Aside from the technique of the week, I used the recycling packaging technique to create a stained-glass like "good life" tag (thanks to Terry at Terry's Work in Progress for the "good life" stamp!). 

Thanks for dropping by and I hope you join this week’s challenge!