Let’s Make Jewely from Old Paintings!

Hi friends! I had a stack of half painted pictures (aka step outs from filming my Craftsy class) but I couldn’t bear to toss them. I figured I could swatch paint on the back or gesso over them and paint with acrylics on top but then it hit me! I could die cut them with tiny dies and turn them into unique light weight earrings! You could also use lightweight cardboard (cereal box weight) to make these if you don’t have old watercolor paper hanging around.

Watch the video to see how easy it is to make these. Use the small dies you have and make something truly unique!

Video!

Supplies:

• Watercolor paper or thin cardboard
• leaf dies
• watercolor paint
• clear ink
• embossing powder (UTEE)
• gold embossing powder
• gold ink
• mica powder or aqua bronze (optional)
• glass glitter
• beads in fall colors
• gold eye pins and ear wires
• round-nosed pliers
• Heat tool

*note if you don’t have embossing powder and clear ink you can use clear nail polish or any other clear sealer that is non toxic.
**Affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp used, thank you for your support!

If you want to see what the painting in the project came from check out my Craftsy Class at 50% off

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Let’s Shake it Up with Shaker Cards!

Today I am using some shaker dies from Simon Says Stamp to make quick cards:

Watch this video to see how easy it is!

Supplies:

• Kite Shaker card die
• Umbrella shaker card die
• Foam Tape
• Shaker beads
• Scrapbook paper
• Cardstock
• Dry adhesive (I used ATG tape)

I hope you enjoyed this fun project! You can also uses these dies for paper piecing if you don’t want to make shaker cards and they are great for using up paper scraps. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Rub on Resist!

Hi folks! Just popping in quick to share a quick and easy technique using supplies you probably have in your stash and if not I’ll tell you how to substitute!

Thanks for watching! Have a great Sunday and til next time happy crafting!

Ombre inking!

Howdy friends! This week at Oriental stamp Art there was a sketch challenge. The challenge was to make a card with strips of cardstock in various shades of the same color. I hit my scrap bin but could not come up with the colors I wanted so I did what any self-respecting crafter does (no, I did not go the the store) I figured out another way!

I love the look. All you need is ink, masking tape (I used painter’s tape because it is less sticky) and a stipple brush (I used a color duster by Judikins but any hog bristle brush will work). Watch the video to see how I made this card!

In the video I mentioned 2 companies i have loved for years. I find Asian paper and embellishments hard to come by and when I find some I like I am afraid to waste it. I was looking around at Lettering Delights yesterday and found beautiful Asian papers, clip art and svg die cuts. They have a nice feature on their site called the “Try Me Now” tool and you can see all of the items in a set up close and if you purchase the set you can easily print them right from the site. You should download anything you purchase just in case but you can print your stuff with a click of a button! No opening software and knowing how to use it just click on the image, paper or what have you, type the size you want and click print, easy as pie! and in the case of paper you save a lot of room on your hard drive! Did I mention easy? If you have purchased anything from lettering delights in the past you can log in at the site and it is all there! You can even type out titles and just print that, it is amazing I tell you! You can go play with the try me tool even if you have never bought anything, be sure to checkout the monthly freebies while you are there and sign up for the newsletter because thy have coupons sometimes! They are have a dollar sale on some of their stuff right now too.

The other company I love is About Art Accents, I love their Asian stamps from the delicate nature stamps to their bold paper-cut stamps they offer a great stamp for whatever theme Asian card I want to make!

If you have any questions on the techniques I shared today just leave a comment! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Stamp Huffing, Chalk Backgrounds & OSA Sketch #227

Howdy folks, Today I made a card using several products I bought at the Stamp Show last weekend:

I used stamps and dies from Local king Rubber Stamps, A background stamp from Rubbernecker and ginkgo eyelets from the $1 bin at Eyelet Outlet. I also used this weeks sketch at Oriental Stamp Art.

We have a month long technique challenge at Oriental Stamp Art too, this month it is stamp huffing. I made a quick video on how it is done. You need dye based ink pads and/or watercolor markers, it is a really pretty look.

I used the first stamped image as the focal point on my card and the second generation image (2nd huff & stamp) on the rectangle in the background. I die cut/embossed the focal image as well. I am not typically a fan of dies to match stamps (it just makes me feel a little too lazy) but the intricacies of this stamp plus the fact that the die embossed the image too sold me on the set (the buy 4 get one free deal at the show helped matters too!)

I used one of my favorite background techniques, poppin pastels, on this card with a big tapestry stamps I scored on clearance at the stamp show from Rubbernecker. Look how easy the technique is, you can do this with any stamp or ink up a bunch of smaller stamps to make your own background. Any soft chalk will work for this!

One more tip!!!! OOPS envelopes!

Have you ever made a mistake scoring an envelope and you have an extra crease where you don’t want it? That happened to me with this one but I did not want to waste the paper so I folded the envelope right (I have 2 mistake creases in it) then ran it through my die-cutter in an embossing folder (basket weave from Darice) and you cannot see the mistake, only a pretty texture!. This might be best for giving the card in person in case the texture fouls with mail sorting equipment. Anyone know how an embossed envelope would fair in the mail? That’s it for me today. I’m glad I had as chance to play with my new goodies from the show. Til next time happy crafting.

 

Thank God I married a man who can cook!

Happy Christmas eve folks! I am just popping in with a quick post as I need to ready the house for Christmas Eve guests. My honey is making lasagna, deviled eggs and he already made veggie and chicken soup, I am making my famous rolls and veggie chili and each of my kids want to bake something. I’d say I need to supervise them in the kitchen today but really it is the other way around LOL! I’m no hero, or martyr, when it comes to holiday entertaining  if someone offers to bring something I accept, I use frozen pies (I found 2 vegan Sara Lee pies at the supermarket yesterday-Score!) because, let’s face it, Mrs. Smith and Sara Lee know a heck of a lot more about baking than I do!

As I worked on holiday projects this year I would die-cut the scraps into tags, and I am glad I did because when it came time to wrap I couldn’t find the peel and stick variety I bought last year. I like these better any way…that does not mean I am above using office printer labels for gifts in a pinch…see…nobody’s perfect 🙂  So, folks, my advise for today is not to get hung upon the details. Christmas will come whether or not your dishes and gift tags match, if extra people come over and they have to drink from jelly jars, so what, (if you-know-who can sleep in a stable your guest will survive drinking from a Mason jar) welcome them, make room, and oh yeah, one more piece of advise; marry a man who can cook! Merry Christmas and til next time happy crafting!

Tips for thin detailed dies!

Howdy folks! Yesterday I told you about the Mega-Mount being my biggest stamp show splurge. My other big splurge was a doily die from Cheery Lynn. I had a coupon for 20% off so after tax I paid $19. I was not cheap by any means but I have been wanting an intricate doily die for years and I had dozens to pick from at the show and this was my favorite:

 

I am very choosy when it comes to dies. I like to buy thick dies that I will use hundreds of time that will cut felt, metal, burlap and matboard. I only have a couple thin dies because they only cut paper/cardstock and thin materials and I have an electronic die cutter and SCAL software to cut whatever I want from thin materials. The one caveat of the electronic die cutter (I have a Cricut unfortunately) is that is cannot cut fine details and it snags my softer papers.

 

Thin intricate dies take a bit more patience to use though. I knew this before I bought the die so I was prepared to spend the time to learn how to get a good cut. Here are my tips:

• Place a piece of waxed paper between the cardstock you are cutting and the die.
• Try cutting the die with the normal plates you would use for a thin die.
• You will probably need to shim it. I used a sheet of rubber gasket and a couple of sheets of paper, you can keep checking to see if it is cutting, cut it with the cutting blades facing up so you can see if you are cutting the paper or not.
• Each time you send it through the machine crank it through and then back so it passes through twice.
• If you see at one section is not cutting place a small piece of cardstock under the cutting pad in that area to apply more pressure.
• Flip the die over and run it through the machine again to ensure a good cut.
• Some people swear by using a metal shim in their machine. If you have some metal flashing or coilstock left over from a project you can use that (for free!)
• To store your dies you can put magnet sheets in a picture album and the dies will stay put (see photo)

 

Stamping Tip! I fell in love with the marker technique I learned at the stamp show from Local King Rubber Stamps and I wanted to try it on one of my cheap clear stamps but the ink kept beading up.  So, I pressed the stamp in a light blue ink pad and then colored over it with my watercolor markers and it worked like a charm!

Oh, one last tip! Look at your design in a new way! I took the smaller center doily and cut it in quarters to make the corner element on my card. Think outside of the box…er, die! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

My First Creatopia Page &WOYWW!

Happy Wednesday folks! I spent a lovely rainy day yesterday playing with my new Xyron Creatopia. Here is the page I made:

 

Stamp by About Art Accents/Art Neko.

I used the large embossing rollers to emboss an entire sheet of kraft cardstock then dry-brushed pastel yellow paint over it. I used the rotary cutters to cut scalloped strips and the smaller embossers to emboss the dots on the strips. I used the die cutter to die-cut paper, cardstock and burlap. I tried out everything except the adhesive because that would require me to look at the manual since I have not used so much as a sticker maker before LOL!

 

Tip: I saved the burlap bag that my basmati rice came in and cut a strip to make the ruffle under the main photo. I painted a piece if burlap to keep it from fraying before I die cut it in a heart shape. Place the burlap between a piece of wax paper to keep paint from transferring to the die and to keep fibers from unpainted pieces from going everywhere.

 Since it is WOYWW I snapped a photo of my desk during my creatopia experiment:

 

I have since cleaned it up and found a permanent spot in my craft room for the machine (it is about the same size as my Cricut expression!) Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Thanksgiving Sale! 50% OFF!

Who needs black Friday when you can shop at home in your jammies? I myself plan to stay in my PJs til noontime today and work on some crafts with my kids 🙂 Hubby always has to work til 2pm on Thanksgiving so the kids and I watch the Macy’s parade and make stuff, it has kinda become a tradition! If you are looking for some fun crafts to make (SVGs, templates, digistamps, printables, etc) check out the 50% off sale today at Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff. Here is a fun SVG set I made for traditional 3-D snowflakes. I learned how to make the snowflakes traditionally but folding and cutting was tedious and time-consuming (it took me over 30 minutes to make 1) so I designed an SVG cutting file and now I can make these in 10 minutes, they are easy enough to make once you get the hang of it that my kids can make them and they are so pretty hung from fishing line like I did here:

I think I will add some glitter to them too. You can find the 3-D snowflake SVG kit here and it is 50% off today!

 

Don’t miss the 50% off sale at Lindsay’s stamp stuff AND MyGrafico today only. Happy Thanksgiving and til next time happy crafting!