Ten facts about me :)
1. I am married to the sweetest man alive! He supports my obsession with all things crafty and lets me be myself!
2. I have two year old princess who I adore!
3. I have three hairy children, a jack russell, a boston terrier, and a cocker spaniel!
4. My only vice is Dr. Pepper, well besides crafting anyhow ;)
5. I love to ride my dirt bike and jet ski, if I could I would live on the water!
6. I am a total hoarder of all my "good" supplies! I only use them on "special" projects!
7. My go to embellishments are ribbons and buttons, rarely does anything I make go without them!
8. If you can name a job ive probably done it! Including dog grooming!
9. I love to make party supplies, I design everything in PS to match, its a lot of fun!
10. I LOVE May Arts they are my fav!

Be sure to visit Kim on her blog, Off The Wall Craftiness.  Some of her favorite design's are pictured below:

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Latrice Murphy is a 29 year old mom and wife who has lived in the Chicago area all her life. She currently resides in in Aurora, IL. with her family of four.  She has been married to her best friend for seven year now. This mama of two sweet kiddos Annastasia (4yr.) and George Jr. (1yr) is a busy crafter who loves all things ribbon and paper. Her kids keep me busy as a bee, but she doesn’t mind. They are the reason she crafts. She loves putting those great memories in scrapbook form for all to see and for future family members to adore. A few of Latrice other favorites include baking, all things sports, and photography.  
You can find out even more about Latrice over on her blog Any Occasion: A unique mix of creativity at www.latricemurphy.blogspot.com  There you will find a mix of photography, scrapbooking, card making and cooking. Unique…yes I think so!

Some of Latrice's favorite designs are pictured below:

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So this month, we want you to roll up your sleeves & get crafting with a May Arts’ Halloween Fun Pack! 

Details Listed below:

• We will provide you with 3 yards each of all the ribbons in our upcoming Halloween Fun Pack:  MD28, EX28, EX01, EX10, KB38 & JD10. 

• You will have one month to complete a Halloween craft project.  Any craft design will be admissible.  You are limited only by your own imagination.

• One winner will be selected and awarded the following prize.  An opportunity to become our next ‘guest blogger’ during the month of April.  One blog post will be offered.  The winner will also win 3 full spools of ribbon.  Your choice!

• 10 additional entries will win a prize of 1 full spool of ribbon.  Your choice!

• To Enter: Email us at sales@mayarts.com with your idea & contact information. We will promptly mail out your ribbon to work with.   When you have completed your project, forward us a photo with a brief description of your project.   Or, better yet, send us a video of your design & we will post it on the blog.

• Deadline: October 13th, 2010.  The winner will be announced on October 22nd, 2010. 

Coming soon - May Arts Ribbon Fun Packs!

May Arts will soon be selling ribbon in these handy packs!  Each "Fun Pack" comes in a set of 6 ribbons - 3 yards per spool.  We have 4 different packs for the following occasions:

• Halloween

• Wedding

• Christmas

• Craft

Post your comments & let us know what you think!  What other occasions would you like to see us "fun pack"?

“It is with the reading of books the same as with looking at pictures; one must, without doubt, without hesitations, with assurance, admire what is beautiful."   Vincent van Gogh

Altered Books are a perfect combination of two of my favorite things.  I love books, and I love to create with paper.  If this is new to you, then you need to know that people alter books using all their crafting skills in order to transform them into new pieces of visual art.  Altered Books are part book, part word, part journal, part art, part creativity.  The old book becomes a new volume, full of pages to express yourself, to make art.

O.K. bibliophiles, catch your breath.  You know that in order for libraries and bookstores to make room for all the new releases, a lot of books have to be retired every year.  Hopefully, most are recycled instead of going into landfills.  Think of altering as a way to make an art of recycling.  My five-year-old saw me working on this project (and even got involved) and he had to be assured that I would not get in trouble with the library for defacing a book.  I showed him that this was a way to honor a book by letting it serve as a canvas for a new piece of art.

According to Wikipedia:
An altered book is a form of mixed media artwork that changes a book from its original form into a different form, altering its appearance and/or meaning.  An altered book artist takes a book (old, new, recycled or multiple) and cuts, tears, glues, burns, folds, paints, adds to, collages, rebinds, gold-leafs, creates pop-ups, rubber-stamps, drills, bolts, and/or be-ribbons it. The artist may add pockets and niches to hold tags, rocks, ephemera, or other three-dimensional objects. Some change the shape of the book, or use multiple books in the creation of the finished piece of art. Altered books may be as simple as adding a drawing or text to a page, or as complex as creating an intricate book sculpture.

Where can I find books to alter?
Library sales, book sales, yard sales, Goodwill, Estate Sales, under your bed, or a water damaged book from the basement.  You can also use: blank journals, magazines, phone books, catalogs, or your ex’s yearbook.

How long does it take?
Well this has a lot to do with you.  You could blank out some pages and let your child use it as a sketch pad, or you can keep implementing new ideas for weeks and weeks.
This is probably NOT a quick easy project.  This will take time and love.  You need time after almost every step for things to dry.  It takes time to add layer upon layer, time to dream and time to create, and that’s for each page.

What you can do with an altered book?

• Use it as a photo album

• Create a scrapbook to hold memorabilia

• Write in it as you would a journal.

• Let it become your art sketchbook or art journal.

• Design a whole now book.

How do I begin?
1. Procure your book.
2. Prep your book by reinforcing pages. A single page quite thin as a base for your art,  support is often needed.

• glue multiple pages together using a basic glue stick or any white glue.  Simply, smooth out the page and repeat the gluing process-once you are satisfied with the width of the new page, place wax paper on both sides and add pressure.  Repeat to create as many new pages as you like.

• strength by sewing multiple pages together.  Punch holes in the pages with  an awl, paper piercer, needle, or hole punches of different sizes. Use your May Arts ribbon to sew together.  When threading ribbon, fold a piece of scotch tape over an end and cut into a point.  This will make it easier to insert the ribbon into the eye of the needle.  May Arts lists ribbon by widths, any of the smaller width ribbons can be used for sewing. 

3. Remove pages to make room for your art. Cut out pages using an exacto knife or a box cutter. Pinking sheers will give a nice edge to your page. When removing pages, make sure you leave some room along the side of the binding to keep the book from coming apart.

4. DECORATE! Adorn pages any way you would like. 

• Gesso on top of a page works as a primer if using paint. 

• Colored pencils, water color crayons, acrylic paint, ink, papers, stamps, ribbons, photographs can all be used to cover or layer over the text of the book.

I have loved working on this project.  My children have enjoyed helping me, and the altered book will become a memory-working on it together.  Capturing drawing, writing and the creativity on the page-I will remember this time for years to come.  I hope they will too.  Quite often creating is about the process as well as the completed project.

Another article with the finished pages will be featured next month.

Blog Posted By: Leah Farrar-White

Details are Listed Below:

• To enter:  Post a comment.

• Start date:  Monday August 23rd, 2010.

• Deadline: Sunday September 5th 2010.  

• The prize:  1 Full Spool of your favorite May Arts Ribbon!

• We will select one entry.  The winner’s name will be posted on Tuesday September 7th, 2010.

• The winner will have 2 weeks to contact us & claim their prize.

• Domestic & International entries are all welcome.

In the world of the e-card and Facebook birthday greetings, the art of giving is getting lost! Too often people grab a gift card --at my grocery store I can get a gift card for a toy store and a steak place--and call it good. Don’t get me wrong-I like plastic money as much as the next girl.  However, when someone takes the time and the effort and the creativity – it means so much. So very much.  It can be a little inexpensive sentimental thing - wrap it in a bow and WOW!  It becomes a true gift.  So today, let’s focus on some presentation of the present!

My idea today was to use the cheerful, bright color scheme of orange, yellow and turquoise in my wrapping.  May Arts has a plethora of ribbons in this palette.  For the wrapping on this package, I used a regular box, tissue paper, double stick tape and my May Arts ribbon.  The Flower Loop Bow  was glued to the top of the ric rac band onto the present.  When wrapping take time to use a bone folder or a credit card to crease your paper. It gives your package an extra sharp, clean edge.  The tissue, bow and wide ric rac can all be recycled for another project.

Ribbons used:

• 330 Orange ric rac

• DD 5/8 Grosgrain dots

• 333 Grosgrain/horizontal lines

An inexpensive paper mache box can go from this:

to this:

I only used scraps and bits of paper from my scrap pile.  I began by selecting any paper  that fit my color scheme.  No new sheets of paper were harmed in the wrapping of this box. Using white glue and a paint brush, I collaged hand torn paper onto the sides of the boxes. For the top and the base, I traced, cut out and adhered paper.  A little bit of coordinating orange paint was used for the insides and edges. Tie a few bows, edge the box in ribbon and you have a wonderful container that can actually BE the present!

Ribbons used:

• Orange sheer C28

• Orange sheer ruffle edge 350

• Turquoise/white solid 340-04

For the next gift box I reused a box that had held soap.  The box had silver on the edges and I loved that look.  So after applying paper, I decided to emboss silver over the top to mimic the original box.  I colored on paintable paper with  water color pencils, cut the flower and embossed the edges.  I used tacky glue to adhere the flower and then embellished it with glossy accents and decorative pearls.  I made a 2 loop bow and knotted the center with silver and turquoise ribbon I placed a band of grosgrain ribbon on the top side of the box, and a sheer on the base.  I also added the pearls to the circles on the grosgrain ribbon.

Ribbons used:

• Grosgrain/ circles XJ

• Orange sheer C28

• Turquoise/white solid 340-04

• Silver  348-14-30

For my final wrapping assignment, I used a shoe box.  Yep.  I distressed the box, painted it, covered parts in scraps of paper…little sandpaper…little more paint!  CRAZY EASY!  The bow was the fun part.  I adapted the rosette bow using hot glue to layer the bow. 

Ribbons used:

• Orange lace NQ

• Yellow sheer jumbo dot 345

• Turquoise stripe 369

• Orange webbed weave WQ

• Yellow fuzzy Pom pom 346

Blog Posted By:  Leah Farrar-White

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What are your favorite Craft Supplies?  Tell us all about it & enter to win a spool of May Arts Ribbon!

The winner for our 'A Ribbon Challenge' contest is Jenifer Cowles: 

"I think that everyone did a fantastic job and the variety of projects were wonderful. As much as I would love to win, my top 3 are....

*Tattered Collage Lampshade Tutorial by Kimberly Jones- what a brillient Idea I love this and I am on the look out for a tattered lampshade.

Pillowcase Skirt by Lexi Bridges- Very cute and I add ribbon to alot of my clothing so this was a great tutorial for me.

Ribbon Puff Pillow by Holly Duffin- Beautiful and unique I have never seen anything quite like this great job.

Best of luck May Arts picking from this wonderful bunch.
Jenifer Cowles"

Jenifer, congratulations!   Feel free to browse our site & send us your send in your choice, with your shipping address, to sales@mayarts.com. We will promptly ship it out.

The very talented Creative Imaginations DT Coordinator, Cheryl Mezzetti will be teaching at Archivers Scrapfest on September 17 - 19th.  Cheryl uses May Arts ribbons on many of her beautiful classes - she especially loves our silky, wrinkled collection shown here.

You can join Cheryl  for her class called "This Brings Me Joy" mini book.  She will be using the new Creative Imaginations IOD Loolah collection, Petaloo's beautiful flowers and the gorgeous ribbons from May Arts!  The finished book is boasts a soft palette of creams, greens, red and pinks.  The finished design includes beautiful flowers, pearls, ladybugs, and other feminine touches--perfect for love, wedding, spring, summer, or friend photos.

You can sign up for her class on the Archivers Scrapfest website here.  See more of Cheryl's work or her teaching travels on her blog.