5 Cards & 10 Fun Techniques with 1 Stamp Set!

Hi friends! Have you ever bought a stamp set and made one card with it and then never inked it again? Maybe I am the only one guilty of this but I know I feel better when I find many ways to use one supply. The other benefit is that you end up with a whole bunch of cards from one crafty play session so if one technique fails you still can feel good about what you made. I find that trying new things, even if they fail, spark new ideas!

We will do the following techniques (in no particular order)

1. Resist: Heat emboss resist
2. Resist: Versamark on Glossy paper
3. Rainbow Brayer technique
4. Leftover ink brayer technique
5. Coloring: White gouache on kraft paper plus colored pencil
6. Coloring: Alcohol marker on cardstock
7. Background Technique: Stamping with clear in and chalking
8. Selective Glitter technique
9. Background Technique: Using pigment powders
10. DIY Domed paper dots

Here is the technique packed video!

This tutorial is sponsored by Top Flight Stamps! SAVE 10% off your next order with coupon code: thefrugalcrafter10 *USA orders of $50+ ship free!

Supplies:

• Stamp set: Scrapcosy #4 by PaperArtsy 
• Watercolor paper
• White neenah cardstock for markers
• kraft cardstock 
• Glossy white cardstock
• Cardbases or cardstock
• Versamark ink 
• Versafine black ink
• Ranger Archival ink Sepia
• Memento ink in Rich Cocoa
• Quickie glue pen
• Fine clear glitter
• Rainbow inkpad
• Soft brayer
• Ball end stylus
• Colored pencils 
• Brush pens (Waterbased)
• Alcohol markers
• Pigment powder such as PaperArtsy Fusion, Ken Oliver Color Burst, or Brusho 
• Clear embossing powder
• Glitter embossing powder
• White gouache

Here is a closer look at the cards:

I hope you try some of these techniques the next time you are crafting. If you don’t have the exact supplies I used try the technique with the most similar product you have before buying new. There are so many products that can do double duty in our stash and trying them out is half the fun! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

DIY Ombre Backgrounds Using Mini Ink-Pads! {Stamp School}

Hi friends! Today’s tutorial is going to help you get more use from the supplies you already have and save you some money too!

I love to make gradient backgrounds with my brayer and rainbow ink pads. I do not, however, like how expensive the rainbow and ombre ink pads are and if you think about it they are kind of limiting in their use. I had a brainstorm the other day: How about we line up the mini ink pads we already have and use them instead of rainbow pads? And guess what? It worked like a charm! If you have Versamark (resist or other embossing ink) you can stamp a design on the paper before inking for a cool resist look. Ready to play? Watch the video to see how!

Video!

This video is sponsored by Rubber Stamp Tapestry! Use coupon code: LINDSAY17 – 20% off peg stamps and peg stamp sets on orders of $10 or more. Coupon expires July 3, 2017
OR
Spend $50 or more (on ANYTHING) and get our Garden Veranda Peg Stamp Set FREE! Use coupon code: VERANDA at checkout! Coupon expires July 3, 2017

Supplies:

• Glossy Cardstock (Kromecote) *Glossy photo paper will work but the results will be a bit different, the stamped image will be lighter but not as white as with glossy and the ink will have a harder time to blend but it is still a pretty look.
• Stamps from Rubber Stamp Tapestry: Sunny Daisy, Brambly Rose, Falling Leaves and Uplifting Sentiments
• Dye based mini inks (Memento)
• Versamark ink (clear resist ink)
• Versamark pen
• Soft 4″ rubber brayer (Speedball)
• Other items for cardmaking: Cardstock, frame die, adhesive, button

 

Tips:
1. Make sure the Versmark ink is dry before you brayer on the ink.
2. Use dye inks for for brayering over resists.
3. Tack down your inkpads to a stamp block for easy of use. I used poster putty for this (AKA blue tack)
4. If you are using regular cardstock or photo paper keep in mind that the Versamark Watermark pen will not work, go for the Versamark pad.

I hope you give this a try, and let me know what you think! Have a great weekend and happy crafting!

 

Wanna win some fishy stamps? It’s giveaway time!!!

Hello friends! What an awesome night, we just got back from watching the Penobscot Theater’s presentation of Narnia, it was a delight and the play was done entirely by children, well done kids! My kids loved the performance and it is inspiring to see other children work hard and accomplish things I think, a better accomplishment that beating a high score on a video game anyway. 😀  So now I have another fun thing to do tonight, give away some rubber stamps, yay! Check out the beautiful stamps from About Art Accents I used on these cards and envelopes:

All you have to do is leave  a comment on this blog post for your chance to win. I’ll pick a random winner next Friday. If you don’t want to wait you can buy them here, be sure to use my coupon code (Lindsay10%) to save 10% on your regular priced purchase. I have to confess, I’ve had these stamps on my desk for about 2 months. I really loved them but I wanted to do them justice. “Enough!” I said this week, I’m just gonna play with them, and so I did! Watch the video to see how I made the stamped panels for these cards. We are going to have fun with glossy cardstock.

I had a viewer ask if photo paper can be used in place of glossy card, well sometimes it can, I always say give it a try and see but for the techniques I showed you tonight you need glossy cardstock like Kromecoat because it had a plastic coating that repels the ink a bit rather than glossy photo paper that promoted quick drying. Don’t despair if you don’t have glossy card, be resourceful, look through the magazines and junk mail in your recycle bin. Find ads and glossy pages that are mostly white and experiment! You would not believe the amount of “art supplies” we routinely toss away! Another tip, if you have a copy shop or printer nearby you can purchase Kromecoat for about 25 cents a sheet. Don’t let lack of money stop you from creating, it just means you need to be more creative! Here is a close up of the cards:

I used a Ranger resist pad of the jellyfish, you might be able to use your embossing ink-pad for this too as long as you don’t get too much ink on the stamp, embossing pads are spongy while the resist pad is firmer. Either way make sure you dry the paper well before inking. The pattern paper I used on both cards are from the Taj-Mahal mat stack from DCWV, I like the mat-stacks because I don’t waste any paper, they are perfect for layering on a 5″x7″ card.

I hope you found my creative play today inspiring. I hope you try these techniques and I really hope you leave a comment to win these fab stamps from About Art Accents! Have a great night and til next time happy crafting!

WOYWW:Make your Own Roltap Mini Brayer!

mwahahahaha! That is the evil laugh I make when I figured out how to duplicate a store-bought tool or supply…I’ll get to that later but first here is a pic of my work-space for Whats On Your Workdesk Wednesday.  Hmm, I’m sure there is a desk under there somewhere….

Quick Tip, see the dumbbell on the back of my tripod? The back leg is raised up so when I tip my camera down I get a straight-on birds eye view shot of my work area with little parallax (perspective) distortion. Then I can flip the video around if I need to later with no weird angles. The dumbbell keeps the tripod from tipping over. Speaking of videos here is a quick tutorial showing you how to make your own mini brayer similar to the discontinued Roltap I used in yesterdays tutorial:

Are you feeling a little bit like an evil genius too now? Go ahead and let out an evil laugh if you like, feels good huh? If you want to see what other crafty people are up to check out Julia’s blog for more WOYWW fun! Til next time happy crafting!

Creative play with a new “old” tool & lattice edge cards!

Well helllooooo my crafty friends. I snuck down to my craft room to play a bit yesterday, here are the results:

I even made 2 videos! The first is how to make the lattice edge braid on the edge of this card. BTW the can can girls stamp is from Lost Coast Designs. All you need is cardstock, scissors, a pencil and a ruler. A 45 degree angle is handy too if you have one, if not take a paper square and cut it from corner to corner and you are in business! Let’s make a lattice edge card:

Well, that was easy huh? I got rummaging around, as I often do, in my studio drawers and came across a tool I got years ago called a Roltap. It is like a tiny sponge brayer and I used it to do some nifty techniques, watch as I finish this card! I also dusted off the color dusters, stencil brushes and chalk!

So, then I got to thinking, I wonder if Colorbox still makes Roltaps because now I see how cool it is I want more so I have one head for each color family. No such luck, I guess I’ll have to come up with a frugal replacement…I’ll keep you posted! That’s it for me. If you have any questions on anything I posted today feel free to leave a comment, thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

 

Let’s play with chalk, ink and tags!

Howdy folks! This was my one successful craft of the day 🙂 I’m glad I started out making this bunch of tags because everything else I touched broke, was ruined and just ill-fated in general..I even broke my oven cooking dinner tonight, geesh, I guess I just need to stay away from anything technical today. Ha ha! But no fear, this project is delightfully low tech using supplies you probably already have and if you ruin a tag or two you are only out a penny (well, 1.27 cents to be exact!)

The tags are the Unstrung Merchandise Tags from Papermart and they are so handy, I use them all the time and I love that one side is matte and the other glossy making them perfect for all sorts of techniques..well, see for yourself:

Have fun and make a batch of these, I tucked them in my gift wrapping station so I will have a pretty tag at the ready the next time I wrap. I hope you enjoyed this quick project and til next time happy crafting!

Fun with brayers and another shaped card!

Happy weekend folks!

I was playing with scal and my cricut  and made this card:

Design by Lindsay Weirich, Stamps: About Art Accents, Ink: Kaliedacolor, Paper: GP

It was so easy, I used a free dingbat font called butterflies I think, selected a butterfly and clicked “blackout” and “weld” in scal, then copy and pasted it, flipped the second one and rotated it and placed then on the mat touching at the top of the wings. Make sure both parts are welded before you cut. After it was cut I stamped butterflies and text in clear ink and heat embossed them then used a brayer (A soft rubber roller) and a rainbow inkpad to apply ink over the butterfly and the embossed areas remain white. I stamped the fairy (About Art Accents) with SU! black and watercolored it with M Graham &Co paint, trimmed and mounted it to the bottom of the card. Easy and fun!

Tomorrow I will introduce you to a “hot” new craft, til them happy crafting!

Published again!

Not that I want to toot my own horn (OK I’m Tootin’ here!) I just really love this card and I have waited months to be able to share it with you, see it was in the May issue of Vamp Stamp News as part of their stamp masking challenge and they want to keep their stamp art as fresh as possible for their readers so I waited til now to show you (cuz the June issue is now available and I think it’s OK 😉

Stamps: Crafty Secrets, Inkadinkado, Paper: DCWV, Die Cuts: Cricut Accent Essentails cart

I had a ball making this card and can you blame me the stamp is darling, it is by Crafty Secrets. First you stamp the girl/swing on a die cut shape then again on a scrap and cut the scrap out, place the scrap over the girl, ink up a brayer with a blue Kaliadacolor ink pad and roll right on over, then stamp a larger script stamp in black on that. Remove the mask and color with pencils. It’s really quite easy!

If you have never had the pleasure of reading VSN check them out, there is a list of stores that carry it here and it is only $4 an issue! If you subscribe it is less and it is packed with hard core stamping info. You can still order the May issue from the website if you want to learn more about masking, in the June issue it is all about die cutters (and yes, I have a card in there too but you will have to get the magazine to see it 😉 It is a good investment if you are considering a die cutter purchase in the future. BTW I have no affiliation with VSN except being lucky enough to be published in there from time to time, it’s just a good magazine I think you should check out.

Have a great weekend, I hope the sun comes out after a week of rain, if not we will just have to stay inside and craft 😉 Till next time Happy Crafting!

Stamping with photo realistic stamps

Don’t you just love beautifully detailed rubber stamps? That is until you stamp with them and your image is smudgy, too light and completely missing in parts. Well don’t blame the stamp, I’ll show you how to get a great impression with any detailed stamp and it is shockingly easy!

Stamp: Sunday International, Paper: DCWV, Card by Lindsay Weirich 2008

Isn’t this a wonderful stamp, the lady’s expression is so hysterical. To get supreme detail I stamped her on Stampin up Glossy Cardstock.

Ahhh, nice and crisp!

This is a printmaker’s trick and it will work whether your stamp is an unmounted die (just the rubber, no cushion), on a clear block or a wood mounted stamp. First lay your stamp on the table with the rubber facing up. Next use a brayer to roll over you ink pad and ink up your stamp. If you don’t have a brayer just tap your inkpad on the rubber like always, you may get a few uneven lines but it will still be better than the normal way! And Finally lay your cardstock on top of the stamp being carefull not to move it and rub over the paper with your fingers giving smooth, even pressure. Lift off the paper and marvel at your perfectly stamped image! This works so well that i rarely buy ez-mount foam anymore since this method always yields perfect results. Try it, you’ll be amazed. Until next time Happy Crafting!