Happy Father’s Day & Easy Inky Landscapes!

Well, now, it finally feels like summer! I went out to let the chickens out and it was warm and sunny! I was up last night playing with some of my new stamp show stuff and I made a few cards, they can be for Father’s day or a manly birthday:

I enjoyed making the sponged background landscape so much that I flipped on the video camera and filmed the technique. A card like this is great to have on hand for a guy’s birthday! PS the car and gas pump stamps are by Local King Rubber Stamps.

Here is a close up of the card I made in the video:

At first I wanted to do the background with the new Crafters Workshop cityscape stencil but it seemed a bit busy, what do you think?

I had some old tourist maps that I cut for the background panel on this card, I also used the map to make envelopes, sorry no picture.

I hope you have a fun Father’s day and til next time happy crafting!

Stamps a Stencil & a Stipple Brush = Awesome!

Happy Friday folks, it is the first day of Summer Vacation and I have started my kids on their pre-TV routine: 30 minutes of IXL Math (a school recommended math program) and I have also informed them that their rooms have to be tidy before the TV is turned on! I know, I’m awfully mean, they also have to read 30 minutes (at least) a day but they don’t mind that. I went down to my studio the other day to tidy up but was distracted by the bin of new stamp show stuff so after clearing a spot to work I played with my new stash, I liked my first try so much I simply turned on the camera (which is always set up) and filmed the process. You can use whatever stamps and stencils you have, stencils with bigger holes work best, and dye based ink, You can use any large brush you have too.

Pretty fun huh? Now between this and the gelli-prints I am going to have to actually use these backgrounds before my pile-o-backgrounds gets out of control. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Gelato Resist Card!

Hey, I just wanted to clarify that I will still post quick projects and techniques through the summer. Craft Therapy you know OK folks, one more technique using the shrubbery  stamp from Lost Coast Designs. I love to see how many ways I can use a stamp, don’t you? Here I made a resist image on a page ripped from a book the library was tossing in the dumpster:

It is easy and only takes a few minutes, see how in today’s video:

If tearing a page out of a book makes you cringe you can always scan a page from a book or use a non glossy magazine page. Experiment! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Embossed & Colored Stamping Tutorial

Here is another quick technique using the shrubbery  stamp from Lost Coast Designs:

Watch the video to see how easy it is!

You can take more time than I did for truly stunning results but I don’t think it looks bad for 5 minutes of work, do you?

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Watercolor Stamping With Gelatos! (or faux-latos!)

Happy Monday, it looks really nice out today and I am happy about that because I am chaperoning a field trip that includes trekking through a bog…good times! I want to share a nature inspired card that is done rather quickly using gelatos (or gel sticks AKA “Faux-latos”, watercolor crayons or watercolor paint, they will all work!) you can make 2 one layer cards in under 10 minutes, love that!

Here is a quick video to show you how it’s done using the shrubbery  stamp from Lost Coast Designs I just picked up at the Heirloom stamp show:

hmmm, this is a really large stamp, I might use it to scrapbook any photos I take of my kids on this field trip!

I hope you liked this quick and easy project! If you have any questions just leave a comment. Till next time happy crafting!

Ask a Crafter Week 7!

Howdy folks! I taped this video on Tuesday, just now getting it posted. I’s been a heck of a week. Anyway, I hope you enjoy;)

If you have any questions you can leave a comment and I will answer them in next weeks video, if you have limited internet and want me to just respond to your comment just let me know;)

Happy crafting!

What I Bought at the Stamp Show!

Howdy folks, here is what I bought at the stamp show:

Happy crafting!

Blogging on the run from the Heirloom Stamp Show!

Howdy folks! I am at the Heirloom Stamp Show and Paper Arts Festival in W. Springfield Mass this weekend! I got permission to cover the event so stay tuned for lot (I hope) of fun quick demos from the event.  This is a great girlfriends getaway, I drove down with 2 friends and we stayed up last night and made artist trading cards for the ATC contest at the event. Here is Sarah’s:

Here are mine:

The theme is Sending You Sunshine so of course we are submitting the sunnier ones;) I got a couple of quick videos from the make and take last night (I’ll save you from watching the 3 minutes of uncontrollable laughter that Kathy shot of me driving) so here I am being all professional…yeah right.

This project was made at the Endless Creations booth:

I’ll be back later tonight with more video (hopefully) and if you happen to be at the stamp show say “howdy” Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

A New Camera & Watercolor Wash 3 Ways!

Howdy folks! I thought you might be tired of the non zooming out of focus videos I have been sharing since I dropped my good video camera so yesterday I bit the bullet and bought a new one. I agonized over the choices, decided on one, but was still hesitant to buy thinking maybe shooting video on my daughters point & shoot cyber-shot was OK, and it was OK but not really what I wanted (plus, hello, I certainly did not want to drop HER camera!) So I decided to go with a Samsung H90, it had everything I wanted (and stuff I didn’t know I wanted until I read about it LOL!) and it was what I wanted to spend (about $150) and I am pleased as punch with it. Here is a still picture I took with it:

Examples of Open Drip, Wet in wet and controlled wash.

And here is the video, testing out the camera and showing how to do watercolor washes, 2 birds, one stone;)

I didn’t edit the video, I uploaded it straight to you tube using the intelli-studio software that came with it. You can edit with the software too but I wanted to see what the raw video looked like, good enough for me! BTW I took it to my sons Little League game last night (he pitched the entire game-a shutout!!!) and I could zoom right in and get a great shot of him pitching, the camera has 52x optical zoom! Not bad for $136 including sales tax! The camera also happens to be on sale until tomorrow at Best Buy and my store had a promotion that let me save $20 more so I am one happy videographer! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

A winner and another resist card!

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone is recovering from the long Memorial Day weekend! Last week I had an About Art Accents stamp giveaway and today I can announce the randomly drawn winner: Rita Ruff! Congrats Rita, I have sent you an email so check your spam folder if you have not seen it yet! here is another card made with the resist technique from last week and some of my homemade gelatin print paper:

I use another stamp From About Art Accents on that card too! Also I scanned some of my favorite gelatin prints and I have packaged them in a printable kit for sale, if you are interested you can find them in my shop.

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!