My Stampin and Scrappin Space

Mini Book Bug!

2010-02-10T05:42:00.000-08:00

I have been well and truly bitten by the minibook bug. I joined a swap on the Scrapbeach. Here is a video of my book:

I hope you enjoy

World Card Day

2009-10-04T12:36:00.001-07:00

In celebration of world card making day, I participated in many of the card challenges on splitcoast stampers. Here's a card I made that was meant to use a quote as the main image. I love this quote by Voltaire. I used the acrylic smash technique they highlighted on the splitcoast wednesday technique this week. And a paper herringbone background.

This might be my favorite. I set up my sewing machine so that I can get to it easily. I love sewing on my paper projects but my son can be a little agressive with my machine. I'll just have to keep an eye on him.

More sewing. And a lighthouse image. That is one of they types of images I can't resist... I buy every lighthouse I find. This is probably my favorite lighthouse ever... it is an image of the yachina head lighthouse in newport oregon. I've been there several times. The sea birds are so plentiful there. And if you go at the right time, you can whale watch right from the bluff that the lighthouse sits on. That is a wooden washer wrapped with hemp.

I love these butterfly stamps from TAC... they are my favorite ones. I had done that cloisonee technique a while back and they were just sitting on my desk. I added them to this card. I love that paper from the henna club scrap kit. Gorgeous.

More henna paper with another all-time favorite image... the castle from the provential set. This one is pretty simple, actually.

This paper was left over from a card I did earlier this week... so I did this stand up card for a challenge. That stamp set is TAC... it goes so well with this paper.

I really love how this card turned out. I really love the pink flock I used to accent the stamping. This is just luxurious.

Finally, a challenge to use a country's flag as inspiration. The french flag is featured here... with the carte postale stamp set from stampin up to finish it out.

There are my world card day cards. It was fun making all these cards. I should get back to scrapping soon! Or finish a mini book I have in pieces on my desk.

Steal It!

2009-10-02T07:41:00.000-07:00

I put this together for the monday splitcoast embossed foil technique challenge. I love these pictures of my son in my work shoes!

Pretty simple, really. Cut the circles out with punches. Put alcohol inks on them foil. Then I wrapped the circles and embossed them.

Flourish Valentine

2009-09-26T07:55:00.001-07:00

Last day of daily Caardvarks sketches. I really liked this sketch.

The flourish on the black is The Angel Company. The paper is mostly stampin up, although 3 of those hearts are club scrap.

Count Your Numbers

2009-09-26T00:16:00.000-07:00

Finally got last Saturday's Scrap and Stamp Challenge finished. Here's a layout about my son.

Our sweet boy has autism and sometimes he gets so upset that he can't think straight. When that happens, we say "count your numbers" and quite often it will help him gain a measure fo control.

Chalkboard Leaves

2009-09-25T21:18:00.000-07:00

For today's Caardvarks challenge:

I meant it to be a bit cooler. Those squares are all the way through to the center. You can barely see the shadow of it, but I stamped leaves that were meant to be seen on the outside. I thought the gold glitter was a little more transluscent than it actually was... I didn't want to use white. But that gold is pretty darn opaque. Darn it. Oh well. I sparkes nicely. The leaves are scrapgoods stamps that I stamped in white and chalked with pearlescent chalk.

Floral Friends

2009-09-24T22:07:00.000-07:00

Today's Caardvarks challenge sketch:

Got my club stamp in the mail... so I had to play with it. Everything here came from that kit. The inside is decorated with the stencil technique that they detail in the newsletter. This is a pretty simple card really. Stamped and watercolored the three flowers. Stamped the greeting and bird. That's it really. Much more simple than my usual.

Cowboy Birthday

2009-09-23T20:26:00.000-07:00

Another day of caardvarks challenges. This one is fairly simple because I had a lot to do today. But this is probably in my top 10 favorites of stamp sets of all time. I love, love, love that foal. He is the cutest ever.

Nothing fancy other than a little bit of masking. Sorry about the scan. It is too dark outside to take a good photo of the card and I used some pop dots to raise up the main image and the tag. Stamp set is the angel company. Paper is club scrap and fancy pants. The tiny "happy birthday" is stampin up.

Faux Enamel Butterfly

2009-09-22T10:17:00.000-07:00

Here's my card for day three of caardvarks:

I wanted to try a technique from last week's splitcoast stampers technique challenge: Faux Enamel. It was fun, but I think it does take some practice to perfect. I like my butterflys though. I also tied in today's color challenge: Crushed Curry, Basic Black, and Razzleberry.

Stampin Smiles!

Of homemade embellishments!

2009-09-21T13:30:00.001-07:00

Well, day two of the cardvaarks sketch challenges... This card became an opportunity for something I LOVE to do... make my own embellishments. The splitcoast technique challenge this week was to make homemade buttons. I found some little (I mean very little) scraps of some of my favorite My Mind's Eye paper and made 3 buttons...

I'm also really excited about the new canvas embellishments I've been seeing in the scrap stores lately... but not so excited about the price. So I went to my JoAnns... bought a big chunk of canvas... and pulled out my big shot. The fabric flower was made thusly: I cut it out. Then I got it really wet. Then I dripped "Stream" colored adarondak ink (from those giant spray bottles) onto the center. I sprayed it with coffee colored glimmer mist, focusing on the edges. Yum. I also sprayed glimmer mist on the giant photo corner. I'm so glad to use these! They've sat in my stash for over a year.

Well, being rather pleased with the results, I decided that I would make a scrapbook page... because I get to keep those. I give cards away. It's a constant dilemma for me.

Similar stuff here. Same stampin up stamp set. Used up the last scraps of that paper. I even liked the title of the paper line: "tres jolie" (very pretty in french)... so I made it into an embellishment. The stamp set was an old stampin up set. The little circle I used in the center of the flowers came from the Angel Company. Paper is bazzil and club scrap.

Those little brown flowers are just saturated in glimmer mist. If you want the canvas to have a dilute look (like the large flowers) get it wet before adding the ink and then blot with a paper towel. If you want an intense look (like the little brown flowers) saturate dry canvas with the ink.

Those alpha stickers are again really old stash finds. They came from an old club scrap kit (like 5-6 years old-- score one for using up the stash and scraps from the scrap box!)

Cardvaarks!-- Day One

2009-09-20T18:40:00.001-07:00

Cardvaarks blog is doing a 7 days of sketches challenge. Can I keep up?

Here's todays entry:

I also used some inspiration from today's featured stamper challenge on Splitcoast. Have a great stampin' day!

A Little Love Card

2009-09-02T14:31:00.001-07:00

See... I can make cards! I just don't make them as often as I scrap. Lots of embossing here and some glossy cardstock. This was made for last week's splitcoast stampers card sketch challenge.

So Behind...

2009-09-01T19:32:00.000-07:00

I'm so behind in posting my creations. I did some scrapping last week and forgot to post it.

Here's the first one. It was primarily prompted by the ScrapSaturday challenge blog to scrap my scrappy place. From there, I encorporated this week's splitcoast technique and color challenges.

The technique is masked frames. Basically, you put a mask in the middle and stamp around it to create a frame. I have two frames on this layout: a large square one behind the entire layout on the background and one on the stamped embellishment at the top of the page.

Other stamping of note: The top embellishment, the title letters, and the brad at the bottom of the page are all embossed with a really pretty "valententines" glitter embossing powder which has a mix of light pink and dark pink as well as the glitter. It is gorgeous in real life.

This layout began as a response to last weeks split coast color and technique challenges. This invite has been sitting on my desk for a while and when I saw the color challenge (real red, chocolate, and kraft), I new this was the perfect combo for this invite that I recieved for a cousing of mine.

I stamped the paper with the grid technique that was this month's technique challenge. I didn't have any magic mesh, so I used some "grid" ribbon I had. I painted it with white paint and "stamped" it onto the paper, Then I stamped the flowers and leaves in red and chocolate craft ink over the top of the grid. Then I cut it up to use on the layout... under the title... on the envelope under the journaling... and die cut as a flower in my layered flower (who need prima when you have a big shot?) The photo corners are cuttlebug embossing folders that I cut out and cut in half... then sprayed with glimmer mist for that little extra bling. That little heart is the stamped paper cut out with dimentional adhesive, then a little punched flower with a touch of bling.

A blank layout. This one kind of gave me fits for a while. It was in response to the featured stamper and the scrapbooking inspiration challenges. I embossed the suns and the title letters with a cool pepper colored embossing powder. Then used adarondak pads and a sponge to give it that lovely glow. I love that pressed flower sticker from my stash. It fits so perfectly. Hopefully the pictures for this one will come soon.

I made some cards also... I'll upload them tomorrow. I love these challenges because they force me to get creative with my stamping on layouts and soon I've found more and more ways to encorporate stamping into my layouts that make them totally unique and totally me. That's why I love stamping... it gives my layouts something that prefab die cut stickers just can't.

Whimpsical Halloween

2009-08-22T17:34:00.000-07:00

Halloween Whimsey!

I did this one in reponse to splitcoaststampers regular Saturday inspiration challenge. I was inspired by these moth killers: http://www.pylones.com/famille.php?fid=349 They are made by a company called Pylones.

It's all pretty straight forward, really, except for my little bats. For these, I hand drew a template, then traced it on scrap paper. The bodies are each heavy cardstock. The wings are lighter weight specialty paper from club scrap (some vellum, some metallic, some crape). I stamped the bodies and wings with a glue pad and then flocked and glittered them. Then I used pens to make the eyes, mouthes and dots on the ears.

I'm really in love with this layout. Those bats are darn cute and they were fun to make (although I was wanted a die cut near the end of the hand cutting). I don't generally do a lot of paper piecing, but this one was really fun. Hope you like it. Stampin smiles!

Maze Book

2009-06-20T19:58:00.001-07:00

Stamping Greetings...

My Autistic Son is making us crazy today. Really crazy. How appropriate that I spent a couple of hours today working on this cute little maze book. I got the pattern off of an old TVWeekly Webisode with Trisha Morris from Club Scrap... the maze book. I used up a bunch of scraps and extra tags from the concrete jungle kit to make it... along with some scraps of basic grey paper, and some small pieces of some of the most luscious paper I own... some handmade paper from the club scrap citrus kit. I actually cut into it recently so I had the scraps laying on my table. I find that scraps get used up if I leave them sitting on my table.

Anyway, here's the cover of the book. I made the "button" out of a bead from the kit and some wire. I stenciled on the flowers with Adirondack Denim (used throughout the book). Then some dimensional glue and bling... and a sticker from the kit.

My husband has a special talent... he takes truly AWFUL pictures... Really. I finally found a use for one.

First way to relax... riding my horse.

A page about reading... I read quite a bit. At least an hour a day.

Next comes gardening. My new home in the country is sure needing a LOT of gardening and yard work. Good thing I enjoy it!

Would we all do paper crafting if it didn't lower our blood pressure... I used a picture of the other mini-book I made recently. I resolved to make more minibooks in the future. I LOVE this format. It really releases my creativity.

Next comes tea. Ninety percent of what I drink every day is some form of tea.

I love critters... and we have a lot of them. Three dogs, a cat, 2 horses, a tree frog, and about 30 fish. Horses are #1 but they can't cuddle with you in bed... that's why they made small dogs.

Finally, sewing relaxes me. I enjoy the steady rhythm of sewing quilt blocks together. Mindless yet completely creative. Very relaxing.

There is my Mini-book on the things that help me to "Exhale".

Stampin Smiles!

Concrete Jungle-a-thon

2009-06-19T06:45:00.001-07:00

Yes, I used it all. There are no embellishments... no 12x12 sheets... hardly any fibers... and only about 1/3 of the stickers, tags, and cutouts left. That is my goal... empty that box. You will see that I'm an embellisher... so I went to LSS to supplement my box. I bought a couple of sheets of pattern paper from basic grey and bo bunny... some sickles and black bling... some black felt flowers... a sheet of basic grey rub-ons... and a cheap $1 stamp set. You will probably see those things throughout this posting.

My first project was to create the little book described in the scrap wrap. It was a very cute little project. I modified it a bit to give it a spine. I used some scrappers twine to tie the pages in so they don't accordion out. Also to add some beaded bling.

Here's the interior view of the book. I added tags also, which does make the book stick out of the little box container a bit. But, I kind of like that. And I know I like tags!

I had run out of photos by the end of my adventure, so I made one blank layout. I modified one of the ABLS layouts in the scrap rap for this one.

Here's my cute nephews. That paper is basic grey and MME. I did a version of that ribbon technique from the scrap rap here. Stamps are Autumn Leaves, stamped with white, and outlined with a glaze pen.

This is one of my favorite layouts. I made the title block with a piece of chipboard covered with that shiny paper and stamped with staz-on... those are a club scrap alpha and an old stampin up stamp. The little heart pendant came from mys stash (must use the stash!)

This is NOT the most attractive picture of my daughter. She licks her face compulsively sometimes and this causes an ugly rash. It was in full flower at the time. But it was an important picture because of how our sweet kitty Aimee had attached herself to my daughter. Unfortunately, Aimee was subsequently killed on the road. It makes this layout bittersweet. But we all loved Aimee deeply so it was important to do. That cog paper is bo bunny and it was just so appropriate for the urban jungle theme. I used it up too. Aimee was kind of a princess of a cat so I tried to convey that with the layout.

This is a very favorite picture of my kiddos. It was taken last December, if you can believe it... for my son's birthday party. It was unseasonably warm that day. I spent a while on this layout working on the beading and embellishments. I stamped that little tag we got in the embellishments pack and embossed it. The crown with some bling on the tag... I love the way the pattern papers frame the photo.

Love this picture of my dad reading and my daughter. I don't remember the manufacturer of this pattern paper. I love that stamp made by angel company that I used on the tag. I have used it a lot over the last year. I colored it with a glaze pen.

Jack turned 5 this year. These are his official 5-year-old photos scrapped. I stamped those circles then decided they needed a little glitter glue to pop. That punch is a Martha Stewart border one.

Pretty much all concrete jungle, except for the rub-on. More of those autumn leaves alpha stamps. I like them, but clear stamps just don't stick well. I wonder how long they will last.

My son has some cute ways of talking. For the longest time he said "strom pooper" for storm trooper. He is obsessed with star wars. That stamp is from Scrapgoods...

I didn't stamp on this one, but I embossed chipboard with a "malachite" colored powder.

Here's Jack's 5th birthday. The "birthday" is a rub-on. I put some glitter glue in the openings of the chipboard.

Well, as you can see, concrete jungle is almost history. I wasn't super excited about the papers when I got them... a little too industrial for my tastes. I really don't care for the girl and boy signs. But I loved the colors. That was cool. And I have to remind myself that in reality, most of the patterns get covered with pictures anyway... What I did love is that club scrap included a broad variety of textures of papers. That was something I had always wanted before when I was a member. This was an infinitely usable kit and I will enjoy the layouts I have made for a long time.

Honestly, I have found that you can enjoy the papers far more if you actually use them. In the stash, they just get forgotten. And then purged at some later mystery time. Don't purge your favorites. Use them and enjoy them. There are ALWAYS new papers come on the horizon that are as cool or cooler.

Stampin Smiles....

Scrappin Crazy

2009-06-18T21:20:00.001-07:00

Greetings! It's been FOREVER since I've updated. I know that. Moving. Working full time. Gardening on an acre of weed infested chaos. Horses. New puppies. Special Needs Kids. 2 of them. Need I say more?

I finally got my scrapping place set up in the new house and just went of a creative frenzy. My first piece was to scrap this sweet photo of my nephew's christmas picture. Am I the only one who scraps all those pics we are given in the mail at Christmas? I like using christmas products!

I'm stamping more and more on my photos now. My collection of Staz-On has grown exponentially this last year (gotta love all those yummy new colors). Stamped and flocked his name too. With glitter flock. Looks cooler IRL. I kind of like how the N is upside down.

I bought this pattern paper for this sun shine. So of course I had to fussy cut it and totally trace every cool line with my secura glitter pen.

Here's the layout in it's entirety. That piece of the title was also part of the pattern paper. I stamped a lot with my brilliance white pad, which I had forgotten is very opaque on photos but not so opaque on paper. Next time I'll use that stampin up one (messy, but the most opaque on paper I've found). Brilliance is ideal for stamping on pics though because it dries well. I traced all those letters and colored in the flowers with a secura glaze pen. Again, cooler IRL.

Another one of those Christmas photos in the mail. This time my other sister's boys (my daughter is the ONLY girl in this generation in our family). Those flowers were made with uber cheap sequins I got out of the Jo Ann dollar spot. I folded them in half for dimentional effect, added a paper punched flower in the center, then yellow bling, and some martha punched vines from scrap paper. Too bad that when I finished it was really '08. Doh! I'll have to write an extra little journaling to that effect somewhere on this layout because I seriously doubt I'm going to fix the '07 without some SERIOUS tagging...

I LOVED this picture of my sister's family. It deserved some of my most favorite paper... something I had been hording for YEARS... namely that gorgeous club scrap handmade paper. From the citrus kit oh so many years ago. I love how that wavy pattern paper compliments the theme. And I used stickers for the title! I have so many letter stickers that just rot in a pouch. Seriously. I need to just bust them out and force myself to use them up. They are so easy to use. I used poppin pastel for that swirl on the background cardstock.

Well, I hope you enjoyed. I actually just rejoined club scrap and will have about 12 layouts to show you from the new kit soon.... but I need to go to bed tonight. Maybe tomorrow I will get those uploaded. Stampin smiles!

2008-12-17T17:07:00.000-08:00

Snow Dog

Here's a layout featuring our new papillion puppy, Doby. He is just 6 months old. This weekend, it snowed heavily and we went out with the kids to make a snow man. Doby went mad with delight, running and snuffling snow and just having a great old time. That deserved a layout so that when he's a grumpy old man sleeping under the covers (like Winny there in the picture), we can remember these sweet puppy days.

This layout was done to satisfy 3 challenges on splitcoast... the color challenge (grey, baha breeze, Kiwi kiss...), a card layout challenge, and a challenge to make a "tag punch star" technique. I don't have that punch so I used a scallop circle punch and a plain circle punch to do the same. That was a fun way to do this technique and I think it turned out really cool. I love those velum scraps from club scrap (probably going to have to resub to them eventually if I start to run out of scraps hahaha... run out!)

Used a lot of glitter glue on this one. And some way cheap snowflake sequins that I got out of the Joann's dollar spot.

2008-07-29T14:21:00.000-07:00

A Whirlwind of Challenges

This week, splitcoast stampers has had the "Dirty Dare '08." I decided to take the dare, with an extra caviat... I wanted to do as many of the challenges with a scrapbook layout as I could. I had loads of fun. Here are the layouts I made this week!

This was a combination of a layout challenge, a color challenge to use primaries, and a challenge to use a cupcake on a layout. Whew! Nice to get these birthday pictures from 2005 done!

I accidentally cut off the right side of this layout, but it continues with the same blue. This was the combination of an inspiration challenge (to get inspiration from a blog), a layout challenge, and a "create a scene" challenge. Since I don't have any "scene" stamps, I did paper piecing. I watercolored background and added the trees and sun. For the trees, I used a glue pad to stamp on the flourish and added flocking. I love that stuff. The flourishes on the journaling block where colored in with a glazing pen. I added some pretty bling.

This is another bunch of pictures needing some attention. This pink and black challenge was perfect. I stamped the flower on the background paper. I also stamped the flower on cream paper and then watercolored them in. Then I used a glue pen to pen in the details and added black glitter.

Here's another layout with my sweet little nephew (he was here for a week with my sister and her husband from Tennessee this summer). It was a masculine challenge, a distress challenge, and a color challenge. I added the idea of using a technique from the famous and wonderful "Technique Junkies" newsletter.

This is a special layout. I always enjoy the annual family picture. This one looks relaly layered, but it's only 3 layers deep. The background blue is that great coredinations bazzil paper, masked, sanded, and stamped. I stamped on the ribbon with staz-on. I used a great template to create that corner detail. The challenge was a vellum challenge. You will see a vellum journaling block at the bottom as well as the butterfly stamped on vellum and then dry embossed to raise the image.

Not a lot of stamping here. Amazing. This was a layout challengeand a stitching layout. I handcut the flower on the right side. The 2005 numbers were made with a template and a white souffle pen and a zig painty. The only stamping is the little leaf detail under the ribbon flower.

This was a combination of an inspiration challenge and a layout challenge. That tag flower is one from my stash that I made several months ago when I made up a bunch of them. This is actually a very simple layout.

A ribbon challenge and a technique challenge here. This one is fun and represents my favorite kind of scrapping... taking stamping techniques to create a totally unique and cool layout with convensional scrapping supplies. Who needs premade embellishments when you can make cool stuff like this with stamps? This was 100 percent stash! Oh, and I used craft ink to do this... many of those "dye" ink techniques can be done with craft ink. I just prefer craft ink for it's rich intensity and opacity.

Well, thanks for coming along with me for a week of crazy scrapping my heart out. It was fun. Thanks splitcoast for all the cool challenges.

2008-07-28T13:26:00.000-07:00

Tag Book

Here's a tag book I made to celebrate my daughter's kindergarten field trip. It includes lots of acrylic pages and alcohol inks. It's interative.

Top cover has an embossed flower filled with alcohol inks to give a stained glass look. The small plant tag is a version of the old packing tape technique. I covered the back in ultra-sticky tag then adhered a photo to it. Then, using water, I washed away the paper backing so the plant image is semi-transparent.

Here's a shot of the cover with the clear piece pulled back. Used some white pen work to highlight the word field and to write on the tags.

First inside page of tag book. There is an open up letter on the left and an interactive page flap on the right. There is paint, stamping and tags here.

Under the flap you will see the little flowers I made with yarn and punched out pattern paper. Also journaling under the flap.

Next page, on the left a circle with fibers and bling. On the right, there is a clear page with some butterfly stamps and alcohol inks. Also pictures on the page.

Turning the clear page back, there is journaling and more pictures.

This demonstrates the hidden interactive journaling tag.

Next page, on the left is a glittered butterfly. On the right, pictures and journaling.

This demonstrates the flip up hidden picture interactive part of this tag.

Next page, on the left is die cuts, tags, and bling. On the right is a clear page with alcohol inks and pictures and rub ons.

Turning only the clear page reveals more pictures, journaling, and artwork.

Next page, there is journaling, chipboard, bling and on the right, an interactive picture flap with chipboard and bling.

Under the flap, pictures and journaling with some more chipboard and bling.

And on the back, a dedication to my daughter's teacher (it's a gift for her).

Kindergarden Layout

2008-01-31T10:12:00.000-08:00

Been a long, long time since I made a post here. I'm going to try to be better. I need the incentive.

Here's a layout I did for the splitcoaststampers scrapping challenges. It was last weeks sketch with this week's inspiration and themes. It's a piece done for my daughter's kindergarden school pictures.

The inspiration challenge called for these stamping stragies: create a deco border with stamps (stamp along the edge and then cut it out for a decorative border), find a new way to use your stamps (like a journaling stamp for a background), emboss with your stamps for embellishment (theme challenge also called for this), use scraps from your stash, make your own transparency, create your own die cut by cutting out a stamped image, and stamping with paint.

I used a club scrap stamp to stamp with craft navy in and heat emboss to create the border. I made the flowers by stamping a leaf stamp, cutting it out, and arranging it in a circular way (this covers both use stamps in a new way and make your own die cut). I made the transparency title by stamping the word with staz-on and stamping paint on the back. The pattern paper came from my stash.

Here is a close up of the tag embellishment where I stamped the leaf and then used water color to blend and soften the colors. I used the stampin up craft ink, rose red. You can hardly see it, but I also used my sakura glitter pen to trace the swirls for a touch of added bling. I put a sequin in the center and applied it with my ka-jinker. The little plastic things were white ones colored with timber brown staz-on.

Here's a close up of the title transparency. I stamped on it with a club scrap alphabet uisng Olive Green Staz-On. I then stamped on the back to create a semi-opaque background with a club scrap stamp and making memories paint.

Adventures with Acrylic Paint

2007-06-29T20:49:00.000-07:00

Adventures with Acrylic Paint

Well, this one is kind of complex, so it warrented a blog to explain the steps. Nearly all the materials for this layout came from this June's scrapgoods kit, as did the technique used for the background paper.

First, I used a punch to get the flower outline shape. I punched about 6 of them with some heavy cardstock. Then I applied temporary adhesive to the back and let it dry to sticky. I laid it on the dark blue cardstock and used the cloud blue Adarondak paint dobber to dab over the mask. I lifted the mask up with an exacto knife and repositioned and continued. No, I didn't cover the whole thing, only a 2" band around the outside because that is where people would see.

Next I cut the two large background papers and inked the edges with denim distress ink. Then I applied them to the layout. I stamped the flourish with staz-on. I dyed the square brads blue by rolling silver ones on the staz-on pad (I'm slowly collecting the whole line cause they are so darn useful).

This monogram is kind of detailed. It is a clear on printed on transparency. I turned it over and took a paint brush dipped in water based acrylic varnish and then dipped it in pearl ex. You'll need to mix it a bit on a scrap piece of transparency but it only takes about one drop of varnish and one to two dips in the pearl ex to create enough to do the whole job. Then I painted it into the areas of the transparency. Be sure to DO THIS ON THE BACK of the image as the black parts of the image will be on top of the pearl ex and the detail will be far better (plus, you don't have to be as careful). Next, after it dried, it needed to be protected or it would chip off. So, I laid the entire transparency piece on one of those ultra tacky tape sheets and cut it out. I had my transparency "sticker" and I applied it to the layout.

This one was a lot of work and has a lot of detail. It's so me. I love to work all kinds of subtle details into a layout. And this one was a challenge because I didn't like how the school too horizontal pictures that left all that white space. Ugh. I had to fill it. White space tends to make me anxious. I once subscribed the simple scrapbooks magazine and sent the invoice back with a note: "too simple for me." LOL. I wish I were a simpler scrapper, but I'm driven by my art to do ones like this.

Easter Bunny Layout

2007-06-08T16:21:00.000-07:00

Here's one of my latest creations. I'll do a step by step discussion of how I did this. Most of the materials used in this layout came from the fabulous scrapgoods June scrapgoods kit. It's so lovely.

The first step was to create the swirly background. I use a sketch from a sketch artist on a board I know. Here is a link to the sketch: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xYxNdQZzWOM/Rl5nEukuFkI/AAAAAAAAABc/jMOWJ7dmIBo/s1600-h/skissa5_1.jpg and here is a link to her sketch blog: http://gettinsketchy.blogspot.com/ I turned her sketch on it's side to make it suit my photo.

Then I did the background by taking a template from club scrap and "tapping" adirondack "cloudy blue" acrylic paint though it. When it dried, I took a glue pen and hand penned a line on the swirl and sprinkled it with glitter.

For the flowers, I used a stamp from scrapgoods and used yellow embossing powder that came with the June EP101 kit. I embossed them on vellum and cut them out. In this detail picture, I stacked two of the large flowers, added a button, and tied it all together with silk ribbon.

For the faux "ribbon" on the right bottom of the layout, I used the dymo-style tape new from hot off the press with their new embossing tool. I cut the end into a swallow tail pattern. For the "button," I took a plain silver 1/2" brad and coated it in ultramarine staz-on. Then I dipped it in molten UTTE and then into microbeads.

For my final close up, I'd like to talk about the title. I took a stampin up alphabet and inked it with Versamagic "aegean blue" and then stamped it onto a dry swirly background stamp. Then I stamped it on a heavy, glossy white chipboard and cut out the letters, leaving a white border. I coated the letters in glossy effects glue. I made the "easter" tag out of shrink plastic. I used an angel company alpha to stamp the letters.

I hope you enjoy this layout!

Stamping Backgrounds

2007-04-24T07:51:00.000-07:00

Stamping Scrapbook Backgrounds

Since I started out a stamper and then became a scrapper, stamping and scrapping always seemed to be joined for me. In fact, in the beginning, I seldom used pattern paper.

This is an example from my beginning work and typical of it. First, I stamped the background. Then I used the same stamp to stamp the accents or embellishments. I used the same set to create a paper "ribbon" border also. It's simple, but I still love the fresh green and white color scheme and the emphasis on the pictures.

This is a recent layout. It might be hard to see, but I stamped the large blue card stock with a darker blue image all over. I'm not much for a lot of "white space" but all over stamping seems to break up that blank area and give it a bit more visual texture.

In this layout, the background stamping is a bit more sophisticated. I stamped the background with leaves and watercolored them in... I used the same flower stamps to create the embellishments over the text block.

This is one of my favorite layouts. It is my scrapbooking manifesto layout. I used a lot of simple collage stamping and masking to create the backgrounds and title blocks.

This is a very recent layout. The background stamping is subtle. They blue-grey strip of card stock going down the middle of each side has stamping. I used the same stamp as I used in the giant ampersand and the accent circle. I love the way I used the same stamp in background and in accents. It really helps tie the whole thing together.

For my last layout in this blog, I have included one where I took a fairly sophisticated stamping technique and made a background paper. I love this layout of my Grandma's wedding. The gold tones in this background paper makes this layout very special. Generally when I do this, I just make one large sheet of background paper and then cut it up and use it like regular pattern paper. If you want to learn more about these more advanced stamping techniques, I would refer you to Technique Junkies Newsletter. It is a great resource for learning more stamping techniques.

I hope this has shown the range of ways you can use stamps to create backgrounds, from stamping all the background to stamping just a bit to help tie the layout together. What I love about stamped backgrounds is that they are often less busy than background paper. As I've grown more sophisticated in my work, I find that I am mixing pattern paper with stamping more and more. I like the balance and contrast that it offers me as a scrapbooker.

Creating Your Own Embellishments

2007-04-21T08:32:00.000-07:00

Making your own Embellishments with Stamping

One thing I love about stamping is that it allows me to create my own embellishments that are inexpensive, match my layout perfectly, and are completely personal and creative. I tend to buy only plain embellishments: plain tags, plain brads, plain slide mounts, plain chip board. Then I modify them to fit my layout, usually with stamping techniques. Some embellishments are very simple, like this little tag. I just wanted a little accent, so I puddled embossing powder and stamped into it.

Here's a copy of the layout in full. As you can see, I did very little stamping overall. Just the tag here and the title. I almost always stamp the titles of my layouts because I have tons of alphabet fonts (they can be inexpensive if you know where to buy them ;) ).

The only other kinds of titles I usually make are chipboard. This stuff is addictive. It is just my kind of embellishment. Simple and cheap and easy to alter. On these title letters, I painted the chipboard with acrylic paint, then I stamped the snowflake in a vanilla craft ink. After that I added 2 layers of Ultra Thick Embossing powder, then glitter and a third layer of UTEE. How I did this was when the second layer had cooled, I inked heavily with versamark, then I sprinkled on the glitter and then added more UTEE. Then I heated the whole thing. The glitter became embedded in the UTEE.

As you can see, I also stamped the little tag at the top. I just stamped the words and inked the edges with distress ink. Simple.

Here's the layout in it's completion. Again, the stamping is a subtle but important addition for me. Could you get this look without stamping? Perhaps... but I love the feel of paper crafts and stamping and just getting my pinkies inky.

This next example may look hard, but in fact it was very easy. Layering stamped images has become all the rage in the stamping world and that's all I did here. On these slide mounts, I started by painting them with acrylic paint. Then I stamped the words with different "christmasy" phrases in red craft ink. Then, I took a stripe and stamped with a gold ink over the top. It's kind of hard to see in this example, but you can kind of see it in the "ho, ho, ho" slide mount.

Here's the layout as a whole. The slide mounts and the title are the only stamping you'll see here. I think you can see a theme here.... I'm trying to learn how to incorporate pattern paper into my scrapping right now and I'm doing less stamping of backgrounds. I used to have only cardstock and stamp it all, but lately I've been working more and more with pattern paper. I do still occasionally stamp backgrounds, but that is a topic for another blog.

In this example, I needed two focal points. The top photo shows altered brads. I stamped white brads with Staz-on, then I rubbed it around a bit before it dried to give it a distressed look. I sanded some and finally I sealed them with sealing spray (which frankly had a solvent base and thus further gave the staz-on a "distressed" look... next time I'll use UTEE to seal them).

The altered tag has several things to note. First, I painted a simple chipboard tag. Then I added a little strip of pattern paper at the bottom. I stamped all over with a flourish in chalk ink (I think). Then I added the brads at the bottom. For these brads, I used regular cheap school brads and painted them with acrylic paint and stamped with brown Staz-on. For these, I sealed with diamond glaze. Not the best choice as the water base of the diamond glaze tended to destabilise the acrylic paint. Next time UTEE. The dragon fly was part of the awesome pattern paper I was using. I cut it out of the paper and put it on the tag so that it could be a focal point. That dragonfly made me buy the paper and I needed it to be prominent in the end product!

Here's the layout in completion. I love this layout so much with the combination of pattern papers. I made this one out of scraps from other project! That made it even more special to me.

This will be my last example... and it is sophisticated in it's use of stamps. This is from a middle period of my scrapping (a couple of years ago), when I still hadn't really learned to use pattern paper. I pretty much stamped everything. As you can see, I stamped the twill here with craft ink. But more notably, I made this title with something that is called "faux weathered metal" technique. I took plain chipboard and painted it with a rusty brown color. Then, using versamark, I stamped the title with UTEE. I used a versamarker to crate the line border and again, used UTEE. The UTEE is important as if you use it without layering it, it is kind of nobby and inconsistent. Then I painted it with three layers of cream acrylic paint. Then I rubbed off the paint with a wet towel to expose the letters and make the edges seem distressed. These are so cool in real life. I just love them.

Here's the layout as a whole. If you look carefully, you will see that I stamped plain white paper with vanilla ink to create the background paper behind the focal photo also.

Honestly, I'm still learning. In my early layouts, I tended to stamp an image and color it in and that was my embellishment. I still love those layouts, but I find I'm becoming more sophisticated in my use of stamps... finding ways to mimic expensive embellishments yet making them my own and making them perfect for my layout. I hope you find this useful... whoever you may be.