DIY Frame Embossing Templates {video!}

Happy Friday friends! Boy, have I got a fun project for you to try this weekend! Making Your own embossing frames! These are cardboard frames you can cut and use with your embossing folders so you only emboss a section of your card and leave the rest flat for stamping like I did on this card:

Check out this video to see how it is done!

Here are some more examples:

I’m going to keep it short and sweet today, I made up a couple more batches of earrings yesterday and I need to package them up then load up the van with my craft fair stuff. I am feeling the panic I always do before a show ”Did I make enough stuff? Will anyone buy it?!?”  But in the end I know I will be fine, even if I sell nothing I’m only out the $15 for the table and I will have lots of new inventory for next time. Wish me luck! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Calling all procrastinators! A freebie for you!

Let’s see a show of hands…who intended to, but has not made their Christmas cards yet? That many? Wow! Well don’t fear because I have 2 easy card designs that you can copy. Make them today and mail them tomorrow..well, tomorrow is Sunday, OK mail ‘um Monday.  The first card features the likeness of our favorite holiday Grinch:

I made an SVG die cut and printable sheet for the Grinch eyes, you can download it for free here. All you do is cut a sheet of green cardstock in half and fold (you get 2 cards this way) then glue on the eyes in the center of the card base. Draw on a smile, nose and angry eyebrows and glue a green feather on the forehead if you have one.  Your recipient is sure to get a chuckle when they open this card!

This next design is more traditional. Again, cut a sheet of red cardstock in half and fold in half to get 2 card bases. Then I used a rotary wavy cutter to cut 1.5″ strips of felt (I used a wave rather than a scallop blade so both sides of the cut would look the same and I would not waste felt…yeah, I know it is only .25 cents a sheet but still, why waste?) If you don’t have felt you can use paper, or cotton balls, whatever! Use a hot glue gun to attach it down the center of your card. Add a strip of black cardstock for a belt and a gold buckle. I used a large square punch to punch my gold paper then cut around it with scissors to make a buckle. I dressed it up with holly die cuts and a red sequin.

These cards are quick and inexpensive and fun to make with the kids. I hope you give them a try this year! BTW, use thick and tacky glue and not hot glue if the kids are helping! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Have Yourself a “Fairy” Little Christmas…{A Stamp Giveaway!!!}

Happy Monday Folks! I had fun stamping a card (it’s been a while, I know!) to enter into this weeks challenge at Oriental Stamp Art. They asked us to make a card that was “Holiday” and “Asian” in theme. Then I remembered that AAA/Art Neko had generously given me the Holly Fairy stamp to give away on my blog and my card was born. Fairy Christmas! BTW, anytime you shop at About Art Accents/Art Neko be sure to use the code Lindsay10% to save 10% on your order!

Wanna win it? Just leave me a comment (on this post) between now and next Sunday (the 9th) and  will randomly pick a winner on Monday. What a way to start the week! Here is a close up of the coloring. I treated myself to a set of  Spectrum Noir  markers (the Brights set) from Crafter’s Companion, they had all the 24 packs on sale for $24 and free shipping at Consumer Crafts (It was a bad time to be frugal because I wish I had bought them all!)

I was a bit hesitant because I purchased a set of the light flesh tones at ACmoore when they first came out and they were dried out. I added some denatured alcohol to them and got them working but I was not a fan. I notice, though, that the lighter colors of alcohol markers do seem to be a bit dry feeling but these seemed too dry. I thought that maybe ACmoore might have got a bad batch so for $24 I took a chance and they were all good and juicy and they played nice with my other markers. I had to use a dark brown Promarker, dark red Tria and a tan Copic. I know I need more markers like a hole in the head but I am sorry I passed up getting the other sets now

Something else I want to enable you to buy…er… I mean recommend are Pan Pastels, I picked up 3 a few months ago (magenta, turquoise and lime green) when they were on sale for $4 each because I wanted to try them. Well, they are expensive but I can see why, I tapped a sponge into the color and rubbed it on my background and WOW! the color blended in beautifully and a tap of color was all I needed to do the background! I think I might ask for some for Christmas…my Christmas list is getting longer by the moment (I also want Santa to bring me a Fire Works beadmaking torch kit!)

The final touch on the card was a game piece that I saved from Axis and Allies, hubby was tossing the game and there were cute mini airplanes and chips. I like the graphic punch the Japan chip gives and the repetition of the circle theme on the card.

Well, that’s it for me! I am in the final push getting ready for my craft fair on Saturday. Today is my sewing day. I am making juggling balls, hand-warmers and key fobs. Don’t forget to leave a comment to win the beautiful fairy stamp from About Art Accents/Art Neko! Til next time happy crafting!

Video Tutorial: Iris Folding!

Look at me going all traditional!  Today I am going to show you the “olde” technique of iris folding. It is perfect for Christmas cards especially if using metallic papers. I discovered that the metallic candy wrappers from Papermart are perfect for this as they are thin, shiny and cheap! BTW the glitter and rhinestones are from Papermart too and under a buck!

I have done this technique before with paper scraps but the result was always bulky so I would have to use foam tape at the edges of my card to even the thickness and then pay more postage to mail it but these foil wrappers are so thin a regular stamp will do! Check out the video and see how it is done:

Here are some of the iris folded cards I made. The heart was easy because it was equally wide and high and I just centered my window over the template. The tree on the right  is wonky because I had more green strips to fill in, you can see where it is jagged between the white and green, it should be a smooth cascade…

A tip I will share is to count out from the center of the iris so that you start with the same number of strips of each color. If you have 5 white, 5 gold and 7 green you simply lay down 2 strips of green before beginning the round. Make sense? I explained it in the video too but I think it is one of those things you just have to do. Here are the templates I showed you in the video. You can right-click and save them to your computer of left-click and they should take you to the Circle of Crafters website with lots of great iris folding ideas and tutorials!

Another idea is to try this with your scraps of scrapbooking and wrapping paper, you can even get crazy and mix and match for a quilted look! We are a bunch of crazy gals aren’t we! Woohoo! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Tutorial: How to Emboss Without a Machine!

Day 2, broken coffee maker. Nuff said. I did manage to hot-wire a cup by pouring boiling water over grinds in a filter again and it is nice to know that during a zombie apocalypse I will still be able to make a decent cup of coffee, because hey, without the caffeine my brain wouldn’t even be fit for a zombie. I am a regular pioneer woman! Speaking of making do without a machine I am going to show you how to emboss paper without a die-cutting or embossing machine. It will be a good skill to have when the zombie apocalypse happens…or if you just don’t want to shell out the money for another expensive craft gadget. Here is a card I made with paper I embossed by hand:

 

So by now the 90% of you who have die-cutting machine are thinking “see you later, I’ll just use my machine thanks!” But wait, if you are embossing old-school you can emboss paper larger that what will fit in your machine, like, um, say a scrapbook page. Grab a cup of coffee (If you are lucky enough to have one) and check out my video tutorial…if I seem mellow today…it would be due to lack of caffeine

 

Easy huh? If you have any questions leave a comment and I will answer them. I’m off to fix my coffeemaker, apparently the ‘leaving it alone and hope it straightens itself out’ method  is not working. Til next time happy crafting!

A Christmas Card…Seriously.

(collective groan) Yes, this is a Christmas card. I know it is early but I need to get in the holiday mood for an article I am writing so I made a warm up card:

 

I played with some background stamps and I wanted a distressed look so I made a large distressing background stamp with plastic canvas and craft foam. Watch the short video to see how:

 

This is the background I made in the video:

 

To make the 3-D element on the card I punched 5 scallop circles and folded it in half, then opened them up and folded them in half again and pinched two of the folds together like so:

 

This card is quick enough to mass produce, plus i think the medallion would be cute on a tag or scrapbook page. All of the stamping I did on glassy photo paper with water based markers.

 

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Another recycled craft supply!

Have you ever thought about dryer sheets? Beyond providing you with static-free goodness in your laundry they can also be useful in the craft room. Here I used a dryer sheet (used, thank you very much!) to make the cloud in the heavenly Christmas Card. The stamp used in this card is by Pink Persimmon.

Remember yesterday when I showed you the “Jolly” card that was published in the Winter Rubber Stamp Madness Magazine? Well, this one was submitted too but not picked. The call in the magazine was for holiday cards that had song lyrics in them. I thought of this song needed an angel, clouds, gold leaf and musical notes and rich jewel tones. I colored the angel with Promarkers then colored the wings and halo with a gold paint pen (Sharpie) and for the lyrics I printed them out on cardstock, trimmed them into strips and ran the pen around the outside, it’s really easy to edge paper in gold!

Now…on the the dryer sheets!

To make the clouds I used a glue stick to adhere a used dryer sheet to a scrap of white card stock. Then I spritzed it with metallic pearl shimmer spray and ran it through my die cut machine with a Fiskars texture plate (swirly design) then I simply freehand cut a cloud.

Other ideas for dryer sheets in the craftroom:

1. Used dryer sheets are great to wipe out glitter and embossing powder trays, they attract the static-y bits of stray glitter and powder.
2. Take a new dryer sheet in your favorite scent and cut it into 1″ squares and place one between layers when you are making a card. The recipient will have a lovely scented card in the mail. Make sure whoever you send the card too is not sensitive to scents
3. You can layer a used dryer sheet on a card the same way you would use mulberry paper. You can spritz it with spray ink to change its color too!
4. Die cut layered flowers from used dryer sheets.
5. Use them in paper piecing whenever you need a sheer fabric such as a wedding veil or curtain.
6. Place a new dryer sheet in your waste basket for a fresh scent!

You are probably thinking “Great Lindsay, now there’s one more thing I can’t throw away!”  but don’t worry or start hording, the thing about laundry is that there’s always more to do so you can save a used dryer sheet when you need it, no hoarding necessary

Thanks for stopping by and till next time happy crafting!

I’m Jolly!

Hey! I am so excited! I just got my copy of Rubber Stamp Madness (winter edition) in the mail today and I had this card published!

I used papers from my Handmade Holidays kit and a bingo card from my Vintage Christmas Labels set and as a bonus they are on sale for 40% off today {Wednesday the 21st} only along with everything at Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff so you can stock up and make a few more last-minute goodies:

Don’t you just love the cute santa and alphabet stamps I used? I just love combining digital and traditional products. It is the best of both worlds. I keep a stash of  printed bingo cards in craft area so I can stamp on a quick sentiment when I need it (I also like to keep a stash of library cards on hand too like the one in the Teacher’s Helper set, they are so handy!) Also I love printing just what I need for paper. I tend to hoard my favorite sheets of traditional papers for just the perfect project but with digital papers I can simply print another sheet. The rubber stamps I used on the above card are by Pink Persimmon:

Both sets are so versatile! I’ll show you two other cards I made with that set later this week!

Thanks for taking time out of your busy holiday schedule to have a visit and til next time happy crafting!

Batik Snowflake Christmas Cards

Do you ever get inspired by a stamp set? I took on one look at the huge snowflakes in this Tattered Angles Winter stamp set and thought “Batik Snowflakes!” The look is loose, messy, artistic and I just love the way they turned out:

 

I used a couple of methods to make these cards:

1. Stamp Watercolor paper with clear ink and heat emboss with clear embossing powder. Wet the paper with water, then paint ultramarine and mauve watercolor paint loosely over and let dry.
2. I also tried the above method with cardstock.
3. Paint directly on he stamp with ultramarine and mauve watercolor paint and stamp repeatedly on a sheet of white cardstock then randomly flick the same colors of paint on the sheet.

So after I prepared 3 standard size sheets of paper like this I cut the papers up into quarters and made my set of cards! I also used the watercolor paints to dye the seam binding I added. I used eyelets to secure the watercolored panels to the cardbases. This is a fun technique to try if you need to loosen up a bit in your crafting!

TIP: Save the non-stick backing that comes on the back of contact paper (shelf liner) to protect your work surface when you do messy projects. I like it better than my non-stick craft mat and if it gets too nasty you can simply throw it away!

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

How to make a custom die cut

Happy Friday folks! Are you doing any stamping this weekend? Well how you like to lean how to make custom die cuts to match your stamps using Sure Cuts a Lot software. I am going to show you 3 ways to make a custom mat, the first is very easy, the second is a bit more tricky and the third will require the use of a free program called inkscape. I used these techniques to cut the mats for the stamped images in this batch of 5 minute Christmas cards:

The mat I made for the stamped oval uses the first easy technique. To do this simply measure the hight and width of the stamped image and type those measurements into the properties box of scal. Then select appearance and chose a shadow of .5 to 1 and that will leave a nice border to your stamped art and smooth the edges of the design. I used an oval scallop from the free font 09 Kutups by Clever Someday.

After you size the shape try cutting it, then stamping you image on the die cut. If it fits perfectly great! If not tweak it a bit and try again. When it is perfect you want to save this as an SVG so you can use it again and again without having to test it. Simply click “file” and “Export” then type the name of the new file, I recommend including the stamp name so you will know what stamp it goes with such as Notably_ornate_scallop.svg because it matches the oval from the Notably Ornate Stampin’ Up set. ***You will use this step after any of these methods to save your die-cut to size & scale.

So basically that technique would be acceptable for any label/frame stamp you have, all you need to do is alter the width and height of your shape. You can even do it in Cricut design studio or gypsy as long as you have the cart to cut it out. I am so glad I got SCAL to use with my Cricut before it went off the market!

For your next trick we will do a simple image trace in scal2 (or scal3), you can also do this in inkscape, see my tutorial here. So first you need to find (or stamp and scan) the image you want to make a mat for. I went online to find images from the stamp set I wanted to create die cuts for. I love this stamp set (The Maison Frame set from Inkadinkado) and I have had it and used it a lot for years! I right-clicked on a picture of the stamp set that I found online then clicked “save as” to save it to my computer. Then I opened my SCAL program and I clicked the button that looks like a tree in scal and chose the file I just saved:

when you click OK the converted images will show up on your mat, now you need to get rid of everything except for the outlines that you want. You simply select the shape and go into the object menu and choose break apart, then click on the lines you do not want and hit delete.

You will be left with outline shapes that are clean and good to cut.

Copy one of the designs and past it into a new page. Measure your stamp and type measurements into the properties box. Then you can add shadows if desired and test your cut. When it is perfect export the SVG as explained in the first example. Repeat for each shape.

Sometime you end up with a stamp that has broken or sketchy lines for a border so you cannot simply trace it. In that case you need to create a file from scratch Like I did for the die cut I used on the journal block on these cards. The Journal block is also from the Notably Ornate set from Stampin Up:

Having a bit of a border allows a bit of “wiggle room” when stamping so it looks great even if you stamp a bit crooked

One of the frames from the maison frames set was good for this technique. It is a bit more advanced but one you do it you will find it quick and easy. You will need to use the free (and AWESOME!) program inkscape for this. Did you know that you can cut directly from inkscape with a Silhouette die cutting machine? Anyway you need to open the jpg that you saved earlier but this time we are going to draw our design over the calligraphy looking frame. Select the pen tool (see photo) and click on the top point of the frame, then click on each indent as shown (note: since we have a symmetrical design we are just going to do one corner and copy & past the other 3) then click in the middle of the frame and close the path by clicking on the node where you began. It it like making a child’s dot-to-dot game.

Now copy that shape and paste it, flip the second shape and line them up to make the top of the frame:

Drag a box around both of the shapes and copy and past and flip it to make the bottom:

Save this file and import it into SCAL as you would any SVG. Size it and add a shadow and test cut as above before exporting it as a final file. I like to cut sheets of the frames at a time and store them with the stamp set for quick and easy crafting! Here is a look at the frames we made today:

Please excuse my beat up Cricut mat, I’ve been on a Provocraft boycott since they sued SCAL and my mats are totally scuzzy BUT I just found out that Sizzix Eclips mats and blades will work in my Cricut Expression so I just ordered a bunch, they are cheaper too and they say the blades will last longer which is great because I just replaced a cricut blade last week and it is already dull! I’ll let you know how the Eclips mats and blades work. I’m thinking when my Cricut machine breaks I will get a Sizzix Eclips or a Silhouette because they both endorse SCAL software so I know they won’t leave the customers high and dry. I’ll probably get an Eclips because the mats and blades are cheaper.

So I fretted a bit about sharing these mat files I think I am OK to do so since they are just basic outlines and the stamp companies do not offer die cut shapes (plus they will probably sell more copies of their stamp sets LOL!) but if anyone form Stampin Up or EK Success has any problem with this I will remove them ASAP

Here are the 2 files that coordinate with the Notably Ornate Stampin Up set:

Journaling mat

Oval Note (thanks to Kay from Clever Someday for letting my use the 09KutUps font!)

Here are the 4 files that match the Inkadinkado Maison Frames set (I’m not crazy about the way the bracket-square one came out but there is a very close shape in the 09Kutups font you can use in place of it)

Maison Frame 1

Maison Frame 2

Maison Frame 3

Maison Frame4

So there you have it! You can create custom dies cuts for all of your stamps, neat huh? Thanks for sticking with this extremely long post and til next time happy crafting!