DIY Lightbox!

Have you ever needed a light box? Chances are sometime in your crafty career you will need a light box for embossing, tracing or as I am going to show you in this video lining up stamped images to make perfectly spaced backgrounds. I have so many little filler designs that came on full plates of stamps from About Art Accents and I always wanted to make pretty stamped background paper but I always went a bit crooked. I used my homemade light box and was pleased with the paper I stamped like the ones on this card and tag…OK don’t look too close, Mine is not perfect per se but better than any other attempt I have made and this was my first try 😛

As a bonus if you put a sheet of white vellum or thin copy paper on the light box you can use it to view slides…remember them?

All you need is an acrylic “box” frame and a string of white Christmas lights.  I love these frames, I use them to store wood mounted stamps and projects in progress, I bought a ton of these at a dollar store once and it had been a good investment! I said in the video that I would share the link to the website where I printed my graphs: http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/ I used the Square Multi width graph paper and the circular Polar Graph one. There are other grids and graphs to choose from and play with too, have fun! I adjusted my line weight (thicker) to 3px, 2px and1px for the square grid and 3px, 1.5px and .5px for the circular grid. I changed the colors to black for both of them because I wanted to make sure I would be able to see my lines through my cardstock. If it doesn’t look right just try agin, it is free and fast to use. You can even save your grids to your computer if you like. I printed my grids on ink-jet transparency but vellum and light weight white copy paper would probably work just fine:)

Here is a close up of the sentiment I used on the card. All stamps are from About Art Accents, seam binding is from Sew true and the pattern paper I used is from the Kioshi line from Basic Grey.

This set qualifies for the following challenges:  ABC Challenge, Creative Card Crew, Divas by Design, Truly Scrumptious, Bearly Mine, Everybody-Art-Challenge, Cupcake Craft, Ooh La La Creations,  and the tip challenge at Oriental Stamp Art Yahoo Group.

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

PS if you want a more detailed tutorial on dry embossing with a lightbox you can read Carla’s tutorial here.

Make your own pearls, glimmer mist and rolled flowers…

I think my favorite part of scrapbooking is making homemade embellishments, why buy store-bought ones when they are so fun to make? I’ll share how I made the elements on this page:

The title element on this page was a lot of fun. I used self adhesive glitter fun foam (grab this on clearance at the craft stores after the holidays) and cut them with steel rule dies from Sizzix. (Actually this was a steal, I bought 3 different sets of alphabets that were normally $100 for $1 each at custom crops, can you believe that deal!?!) I always have my eye out for versatile thick steel rule dies because U can cut felt, chipboard, foam and more with my Big Shot. Another bonus is because each of the letters has a frame around it you get 2 letter for each one you cut. Here is a title block I made with the leftovers:

Notice the glitzy background on the title block? I saved the scrap paper I used when I glimmer misted my embellishments and it was so pretty that I saved it and used it here. If you want to make your own glimmer mist you can read my tutorial here.

I love crepe paper, it is so frilly, pretty, feminine and cheap! I pleated a strip for the title border and then tied a length of my homemade crinkle seam binding on top. Note the homemade bakers twine on the knot and on the title strip (thanks UKMaryanne for that tip!) To make a rolled flower I simply took an 18″ length of crepe paper and twisted it so i had a cord then I covered a scalloped circle die cut with low temp hot glue and starting at the middle I coiled the crepe paper pressing it into the glue as I went. For the pearls simply squeeze out circles of high temp hot glue on a non-stick mat and let dry, then dust it with pearl ex and glue them to the flower. I sprayed my flower with cheap hairspray (Aqua Net aerosol) before attaching it to my layout to keep the pearl ex stuck on good! Works for chalk too! Oh, before I forget the homemade button card tutorial is here.

I dug into my old stamps for this layout too, the name/date stamp is several years old and the flourish next to the flower was one of my first stamps from PSX about 10 years ago! Using what you have already in a new way is the best way to save money and be creative when you are scrapping! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

BTW this page qualifies for the following challenges: Get Hippity with Ippity, Kaboodle Doodles, Make it Monday, Pollycraft, Stamp with Fun, By the Cute & Girly , Scrappy Frogs, Catch The Bug, Sweet Stampin(rolled flowers are new to me:), Crafty Ann’s, Just Add Ink, Paper Cutz , Craft Us Crazy and Digi Doodle Shop’s Best

TGIF and 40% off!

I think every kid in town (or my town at least because they started school this week) is saying TGIF right now! Even if you are not in school you can thank goodness it’s friday and take advantage of 40% off everything at Lindsay’s Stamp stuff!

Here is a quick leftover card I made using a magnolia stamp from the Fancy Flowers Digital stamp set, I had colored it a while back put it was lavender and white so I simply colored over it with a light pink copic marker to make it match a card base leftover from making my daughters birthday cards. Also I added a spray of glimmer mist! The crinkle seam binding ribbon is from the batch I made in yesterdays video and the strip of printed fabric ribbon was from a roll I bought for 10 cents years ago and I’m glad I finally am finding a use for.

I added highlights to the flower with a white gel pen and put dome homemade flowersoft in the stamen (recipe at the end of post), the Just a note stamp is retired PSX.

Be sure to swing by the Lindsay’s stamp Stuff shop at MyGrafico to save 40% on EVERYTHING but do it soon because the sale ends at midnight!

This card qualifies for the following challenges: Aly’s Sunday Challange and Stamptacular Sunday (pretty in pink), Bee crafty (anything goes), Cowgirls Sunday & Craft Den (flowers), Crafty Cardmakers & Wild Orchid (sparkle),  Belli challenge (old stamps-the PSX one is 10+ years old!), Creative Friday (monochrome)and Stamping royalty (rhinestone)

Homemade Flower Soft recipe: Rub to styrofome balls together so make tiny flakes. Divide them up into small jars or baggies and add a couple of drops of ink (I used Ranger Alcohol ink) and shake the baggies until well mixed. To apply to your project simply add glue or dimensional paint (as I did to the flower stamen) and sprinkle the faux flower soft on top and gently press the fluff into the glue. Let dry completely.

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!