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!

Feeling Guilty?

Our local library decided to banish overdue book fines, I for one am glad having found the occasional 6 month overdue book under a bed and then doing the mental calculation wondering if it would be cheaper to pay the fine or buy them a new book LOL! So when the librarian asked me if I could make a “guilt jar” I jumped at the chance. You see, this way guilty parties (ahem…like me) could drop in a few bucks to cover our indiscretions and the library still gets the funds it needs for postage. I used a funny disuse guy face from the Slap Happy kit from Letting delights and if you like it I have a 50% off coupon on any purchase over $5: IamBack and I hear they have some new freebies there too!

 

I wrote a little poem to go on the jar because I was afraid nobody would be familiar with the “Guilt Jar” concept. You have my permission to copy it 🙂 If you post a project with it on your blog a link back would be awesome!

 

The pencil background stamp is one I had coveted for years and I snagged it from Lost Coast Designs at the Heirloom Stamp Show in June. It comes in two sizes and This is the large one. I used my Mega Mount to stamp it on fadeless art paper, a curved stamp block will give you a better impression with detailed photo stamps like this. If you don’t have a curved stamp mount try a warped die cutting plate!

That’s all for today, the house has been neglected long enough, it is time for some extreme cleaning…yes I am having people over this weekend…how did you guess? 😀 Til next time happy crafting!

Triple Time Stamping & WOYWW!

Howdy folks! This week on Oriental Stamp Art they challenged up to try the Triple Time Stamping technique. Here is a card I made using a huge Far East set of clear stamps I got on sale for $2.50 at oriental trading company, regularly $15, score!

 

So basically you stack up 3 panels of white cardstock and stamp a design over all three, then take apart the panels and mat them with color and stick them to a card base, yep folks, it is that easy! I saw a really cute tutorial for it on this blog, I love this lady’s French Canadian accent, she reminds me of my “Grammie” 🙂

 

On the above card I used SVG cutting files from Lettering Delights and SCAL software with my die cutter.  Using the Sizzix Eclips this week had really psyched me up to do some more cutting!

For the burst of color in the background I used a color Spritzer tool (Stampin’ Up!) I have had it for a while but it did not always work for me but then I found out I did not have my marker pushed through far enough, The nib of the marker should protrude father than the “blow-hole” on the spritzer. I have now used this with all of my brush tip watercolor markers with success!

 

Since it is What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday here is a peek of my desk. The kids started school today so I have some real work laid out. I have artwork that needs to be framed in the tubes and lying flat on my workbench. I do not like to have other people’s artwork in my studio with the kids around. So all of my framing jobs have to wait until the kids are in school LOL!

 Well, I’m off to get my car’s oil changed and do a bit of shopping and have lunch with a stampin’ friend, til next time happy crafting!

Easter Dresses & new SVGs!

My mom stopped by for a visit this week and brought my twins the most lovely Easter dresses! She sewed pretty cotton dresses with matching purses, my girls were delighted and can’t wait to wear them (which will not be before Easter because my girls have the tendency to go on woodland hikes and make mud pies regardless of what they are wearing!) Even though I don’t have pictures of them in their dresses yet I couldn’t help make a scrapbook page on which I will later add a photo of the two of them on Easter (BEFORE any mud pies are made LOL!) I use my new Party Dress SVG set from Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff for die cut:

 

For the title I used the fonts LD This and That and LD Buttercream from Lettering Delights. I discovered a quick tip for welding fonts in SCAL2(like I did on the word “Dresses” with the font LD Buttercream), after typing simply select the arrow tool and drag a binding box around the word, then click weld. I am embarrassed to say how long it took me to figure that you, I’ve clicked the word and clicked “weld” (that’s how you would do it in SCAL1) and it would not weld, dragging the box around the word is key! BTW there is no cursive font better for cutting than LD Buttercream, it is nice and chunky!

 

I sent this card to my mom as to thank her for the dresses, I love the sweet apron!

 

Here is a look at the new Party Dress SVG set I used in today’s project.

 

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

WOYWW and other AWESOMENESS!

It’s Wednesday and that means time for WOYWW! Before I show you my mayhem and foolishness that is my work desk(s) this week have a look at this pretty card:

 

Now, my room is a total wreck today because the item sitting on the corner of this work table.

 

Yep,  saved some of my Christmas money and bought a Teresa Collins Stampmaker!!! (totally worth 3 exclamation points BTW) I have been wanting one for about a year!  I got the starter kit on sale at Custom Crops for $100 and I am glad I did because it is $152 now! I made the cameo stamp using the fonts DB cameo and DB cameo busts from Lettering delights, they have such pretty dingbats and fonts, I love their stuff!

 

So, the stampmaker is Totally. Freakin. Awesome!!! I played with it all morning and made a bunch of stamps. I first made a stamp with one of the predesigned negatives that came in the kit and then I printed my own negatives to make my own designs. I have wanted to make this library card into a stamp for the longest time!

All have more on the stampmaker later. I am having a couple of friends over to play with it tomorrow, I want to try making the embossing plates and stencils too. It is so much fun and honestly, I am still amazed that it works! I’ll leave you with one more sweeping vista of my train-wreck of a craft room. I’ll have to clean it up before my crafty friends arrive;) Till next time happy crafting!

A great deal on SVG sets!

Howdy folks, just a quick post to let you know about a great bundle of SVG/Cut It sets at Lettering Delights. All of the cut is sets contain these formats: ai, dxf, eps, gsd, jpg, pdf and svg so you are sure to find one that fits your die cutting machine. They are offering their SVG sets that are normally priced from $4-$6 a set (still way cheaper than Cricut Cartridges) in a bundle of 100 sets for $100! That is $1 a set or pennies an image! so if you have been waiting to snag some of these grab the bundle now, I really like the rolled roses and canning jar sets, so pretty! Oh, I even found a coupon code for 20% off that expires 2/28/12 for 20% off a purchase over $20: BundleBuyBundle so that would save you $20 on the bundle of 100 sets!

This bundle is only available at this price until Wednesday so if you want to save hundreds of dollars (about 400 bucks actually) head over to Letting Delights and grab this bundle today! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

And Yet Another Way to Make Stamps…

Happy Weekend! I hope you have a bit of time to fit some crafting in 🙂 Yesterday I showed you how you can carve your own custom stamps. Today I am going to show you another way to make stamps and yes, I made ANOTHER cameo:

Isn’t she pretty? I used thin stamp material in my electronic die cutter to make this. I found a pretty dingbat font called DB Cameo Busts for $3 from Lettering Delights and used my SCAL software to alter it a bit for cutting. Basically I removed a few nodes (there was a detail cut into the neck of the cameo that would not cut well from this material) and cut it with my Electronic Die cutter (OK folks, I cut it on a Cricut but you can’t buy SCAL for Cricut anymore and I used the Cricut stamp material but I bought it long before Provocraft bullied SCAL into not selling Cricut compatible software, phew, thanks for letting me get that off my chest LOL!)

There are a few things you need to know about using the stamp material:

1. It is a clear thin (1/16″) film you can cut with an electronic die cutter.
2. You need a deep cut blade & holder and a brand new sticky mat or the stamp material will shift and move.
3. Don’t try to cut anything too small or detailed. I had to go in with scissors to clean up this cameo stamp.
4. This materail is much thinner than traditional stamps so you have to be careful not to get ink on your stamp block because it will easily smudge on your stamping surface.

Keeping that in mind it is a fun product to work with. I bought a pack of 2 6″x6″ sheets for $6 last year from JoAnn Fabric. It was regularly $10 but JoAnn let me use a 40% off coupon (at that time anyway-I’m not sure about now because I have not bought a cricut product since they sued SCAL.) I think I might try and use the other sheet of the stamping material as a faux gelatin printing plate, I’ll let you know how it works;)

Here is another fun tip, I needed a frame to stamp around my cameo and I remembered this Stampin Up sentiment stamp I got years ago, I used a marker to ink only the frame up and stamped it, then stamped my cameo on top. I think I am going to cut that stamp apart now that I see how pretty the frame is on its own!

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Clever Customers: Mod Paperie!

There is a talented crafter I think you should meet: Thienly Azim the writer of the Mod Paperie blog. Her die cut crafts are stunning, take a peek at these projects and you will see what I mean! Check out these cute shoes (don’t ou want to wear them!) the used the High-Heel Shoes SVG from Lindsay’s stamp Stuff on it:

And look at her cute diaper favor using the Sweet Baby SVG set:

And her latest project used the Party lantern SVG set from Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff and some cute clip art svg die cuts from Lettering Delights for embellishments.

Here is a look at the SVG sets she used from Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff:

Thanks so much Thienly for sharing your amazing projects with us today! Til next time happy crafting!

Want to hear something funny {and win a die cutter?}

Howdy folks, I was on facebook yesterday and saw the most hilarious video! By know you have heard (if you are a Cricut user anyway) that they won (OK settled out of court) a lawsuit against Make The Cut (MTC_a software company who makes software that lets you cut computer fonts with your cricut.) Anywhoo, someone made a super funny music video about it:

I laughed my butt off when I saw it! BTW if you are using MTC with your Cricut now do not update the software, the new update blocks it I am told but if you already have it you should be fine. You can still buy Sure Cuts a Lot (SCAL) and it will let you cut fonts and SVGs with your cricut, they are being sued too but for now all is well, BUT you might want to get it while you can…

So, who wants a die cutter? Lettering Delights is giving away a new Silhouette SD Die Cutter,  all you have to do is enter a project in their gallery before April 20, it has to contain at least one Lettering Delight product (your choice-you can even use a freebie) and the winner will be selected by random draw so the more times you enter the more chances to win you will get! You can read the details here.

BTW Lettering Delights is still having their Dollar DAys sale so now is the time to stock up on some new goodies like fonts, clip art, doodlebats paper packs and SVGs.

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!