MFT Idol Contest--Final Four...Again?

[First of all, I want to thank everyone who has voted for me and helped me get to the Top Four in the MFT Idol contest. Please don't forget to vote for your favorite Idol contestant (hopefully me!) from 10pm EDT tonight, May 19th until 10pm EDT tomorrow night, May 20th! There's a lot riding on this contest. Not only will one of the Top Four win the contest and the awesome prize, but someone (maybe the same someone) will be awarded a 6-month term on the MFT design team. I really want that someone to be ME, so I really need your support! Thank you! PS: May 20th is my birthday, it would be an awesome birthday present ;-)]

No, I didn't forget to remove the reminder to vote. It's there intentionally. Yeah, in a strange twist of fate, I'm back! Last week I thought I'd gotten the fewest votes so I "went home." Seems that's not the case. Seems there was a "glitch" in the voting last week and after recount by the guys at Splitcoast, I *did not* get the fewest votes. And since it was not possible to get a clear idea of exactly who *did* get the fewest votes, we're repeating last week. With another project. And this week it's double elimination. And a whole new way of voting (see next paragraph). So, YIKES!

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MFT Idol Voting Process
*All votes will be private messaged (PM'd) to the user name MFT Votes.
*All votes will be manually tabulated and announced as soon as they are counted.
*All votes will be stored for a minimum of one week in the event an audit is needed.

Your vote will count IF:
*There is only one vote per SCS User Name. If there is more than 1 vote, only the first vote will count.
*The SCS User Name casting the vote was created BEFORE March 15th, 2009.

Why the changes? We are getting down to the nitty gritty, the FINAL FOUR, with a DOUBLE elimination this week. There's a lot up for grabs, we want to make sure that the voting process is fair for everyone, and since the original intent was that the IDOL be selected by our MFT/SCS Family, we are implementing safeguards to make sure the IDOL is selected by fellow stampers!
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I thought I'd been doing perfect packages all along in the contest, LOL, but that's the actual theme this week--Create the Perfect Package. Well, let me tell you, I'd accepted that I was out, and stress-free, so imagine having to get my brain back into competition mode! I should get handicap points, right? ;-)

OK, so I started thinking about the theme. I'm thinking you could look at it two ways: as strictly the container or the entire package. Never one to go the easy route, I, of course, chose the entire package. Naturally. So. I've done gardening, spa day, baby, breast cancer, party--what's left? Hmmm. Jewelry! I haven't done any jewelry yet! So that's what this project is: jewelry + package = The Perfect Package, right? Right!

I started by looking at my stamp sets to see what would work well for jewelry. I'm a flower kinda girl, so I naturally gravitated to the flower stamps. I chose Spring Sprouts because they're kinda funky and very cheerful. And they are flowers. I don't usually do funky so this was fun to do for a change and it gave me an opportunity to bling it up a bit. And I'm thinking it would make a great set for a graduation gift.

I didn't want to put my jewelry in a box, or a bag--I wanted a "case" that would resemble a real case in a jewelry store--you know, the ones the jeweler opens up with a flourish to show you "the perfect piece"? So I made a case to open like a book, to show you the Perfect Package.


Here's a closer look at the outside of the case.


I got the bright idea (sorry, no pun intended!) to go glitzy and used this mirror finish cardstock. Looks awesome in real life, but it's a bear to photograph! The base layer is the mirror finish cardstock and then I managed to sneak in a couple of layers, which you know I love! Next I tied a fancy blue ribbon around so I could tie it together (to increase the "flourish factor", LOL), then I made lots of double layer flowers from the set and attached them to the case front with 3M foam squares. The flowers were stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Gina K Pure Luxury 80lb paper, colored with Copic markers (see below), cut out, and the two layers put together with a clear crystal brad. Next I punched out leaves with a Martha Stewart punch and stuck them in and around randomly. Finally, I added some clear rhinestones to balance the corners.

Here's a close up of the flowers:


Now for the inside. With careful measuring, I made a template for the inside mounting pieces and only had to do my template once!! Yeehaw! That was pretty amazing in itself, LOL! I wanted this "case" to have some dimension and "heft" so I made it 1" thick. Because of this, each side "pouch" had to be close to 1/2" thick, which gave me space in which to stuff the extra necklace and bracelet length. I had so much fun with the shrink plastic last week and Flopsey that I decided to make some shrink plastic pieces for my necklace, bracelet, and earrings set. First I stamped on white shrink plastic with Staz On Graphite Black and colored carefully with Copic markers (carefully because Copics will smear Staz On on this medium). Then I cut the pieces out with Nestabilities dies, punched holes in the earring pieces, and shrunk them in the oven. Here's a picture of the inside of the case with the jewelry in place:



The necklace and bracelet pendants are just alike--here's what they look like up close:


And the earrings:


I think most of this is pretty self explanatory, and you can see the size of the stamped image before and after shrinking. The blue DSP is from the SU! Spring Sale a Bration catalog called Delicate Dots and I think it echoes the flower design really well. You can see I was able to sneak some more layers in here on the inside ;-) I couldn't find jewelry findings to use for a backing for the shrink plastic pieces--my local craft store is small and very limited (and we had one day less to work on our projects this time) so I had to improvise. I simply cut some of the heavy silver cardstock with Nestabilities dies and used that as the backing, then used regular jewelry findings for the rest. Check out the earring holder: I used the slit punch and a 1/16" punch for them. More flowers along the inside of the case spine, a flower on the necklace section, and rhinestones everywhere help to finish it off.

Here's a couple of pictures of the little 3" x 3" card I made to go with the Perfect Package. It's a mini version of the case with a sentiment from Sassy Sayings and some inside decoration.




And the Copic markers I used:


I'm so glad you took the time to stop by today. You know I appreciate it! I sure hope you think I've created "The Perfect Package" and will vote for me. Here's the new voting process again:

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MFT Idol Voting Process
*All votes will be private messaged (PM'd) to the user name MFT Votes.
*All votes will be manually tabulated and announced as soon as they are counted.
*All votes will be stored for a minimum of one week in the event an audit is needed.

Your vote will count IF:
*There is only one vote per SCS User Name. If there is more than 1 vote, only the first vote will count.
*The SCS User Name casting the vote was created BEFORE March 15th, 2009.

Why the changes? We are getting down to the nitty gritty, the FINAL FOUR, with a DOUBLE elimination this week. There's a lot up for grabs, we want to make sure that the voting process is fair for everyone, and since the original intent was that the IDOL be selected by our MFT/SCS Family, we are implementing safeguards to make sure the IDOL is selected by fellow stampers!
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[So, if you are eligible to vote in this contest, please don't forget to vote for your favorite Idol contestant (hopefully me!) from 10pm EDT tonight, May 19th until 10pm EDT tomorrow night May 20th! There's a lot riding on this contest, now. Not only will one of the Top Four win the contest and the awesome prize, but one (maybe the same someone) will be awarded a 6-month term on the MFT design team. I really want that someone to be ME, so I really need your support! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me and I'll try to help! Thank you!]

~Recipe~
Stamps: Spring Sprouts, Sassy Sayings (MFT)
Paper: Mirrored silver card stock (craft store); Whisper White, Old Olive and Delicate Dots DSP (SU!)
Ink: Staz On Graphite Black; Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: 3M foam squares, ribbon, jewelry findings, shrink plastic, crystal brads, flat back rhinestones, super sticky tape, 1/8" and 1/16" hole punches (craft store); Copic markers; Word Window punch (SU!); oven; Scor-Pal