Creative Scrappers Sketch #229

As soon as I spotted this sketch, I knew I wanted to use some spray ink. 

 I have had this pattern paper for a while.  Unfortunately, I don't remember who makes it.  Pink Paislee or Fancy Pants Maybe????

I started by cutting out a doily shape from the CTMH Artiste cartridge.  Then mixed up a little Cotton Candy shimmer spray using the Create - A - Shade Pearl paint and re-inker.  Love having 40 shades of shimmer spray at my fingertips without needing to buy bottles of each color.  

After spraying the background paper, there just wasn't enough contrast for my liking, so I outlined the details and sponged a little Cashmere ink on to add a little color contrast.  

I also felt the title banner needed a little texture, so I pulled out a SU embossing folder that reminded me of the plaid pattern paper.  

We couldn't have blank square openings, so quickly stamped some accents to fill them in.  

This was a great sketch to work with.  Love the movement across the page from corner to corner. 

You can find the Creative Scrappers sketch site HERE

Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!

Homemade Embossing Plate

As promised, today is all about making a homemade embossing plate.

As soon as I seen this being done, I had to run out and pick up a deep cut Cricut blade. Thank you to my friend for sharing some perfect weight chipboard with me! Thanks Sue!

First, I designed a file on the Gypsy with hearts from the AP cartridge.

Then cut the design out of chipboard with your Cricut and Trim it down so it fits through your embossing machine. I cut mine 5 x 7.

Next layer the cuttlebug sandwich. (A plate, B plate, chipboard embossing plate, paper your embossing, rubber mat, B plate, and a shim or two for extra firmness) I only showed part of the layer in the picture, but you get the idea.

Here is what you get after running through the little green machine, AKA Threads in the Highland house.

Now isn't that awesome! Think of the possibilities! Before I had the deep cut blade, I made this embossing frame by cutting the image 4 times out of cardstock and layering them together to get the thickness of chipboard.

I used it on this picture from the Five and Feisty layout I showed you in a earlier post. I love how the embossed frame on the picture made the black and white picture look almost like metal. It's hard to see in the picture, but if you look around the picture you can see it.

After all Texture and layer is the name of my game:). Speaking of "game", Emily has her fist Volleyball game tomorrow! Crossing my fingers I can get out of work early, since I went in on my day off today. Here's hoping!

Happy Crafting!

Stickle Holder

The organizer in me strikes again. I have been thinking of a way to store stickles upside down and still be in the ink tower tray. (Translation for ink pad tower = the creation station = the hub of creativity).

Here is what I came up with....

I designed a cut on the Gypsy that was 9" x 7.25" rectangle with a 3/4" circle in each inch on the mat grid. Once cut, I placed over chipboard, then used an exacto knife to make slits like cutting a pie in each circle. I extended past the paper a little because the 3/4" was just a tad small.

Next I trimmed the chipboard so that there was 1 1/4" around all sides of the rectangle template. I scored the chipboard flush with the template edges, folded them down, trimmed and taped the corners. So then I had a box looking lid to sit in the top of the tower.

This whole process would have been much easier with a deep cut Cricut blade. (Note to self.... add to "need" list.)

Ta-da!!!!

Exactly what I was looking for and free!

Since I was photographing the tower, I thought you may like to see how I store my sponges.

This side of the tower is just an empty space wanting some love. Each ink color has its own sponge. For sponges I cut up a big auto sponge that you can pick up at the dollar store. Clipped a binder clip on each one, then added a color label to one side of the binder clip and a little piece of velcro to the other. There are strips of velcro on the tower to stick the sponges onto.

The other side of the tower....

The binder clips make handy little handles. Just flip them open and no more inky fingers.

So there you have it "The Creation Station".

On the family note today. Drama rehearsal started for Emily. We have a great drama program for such a small school. This is the 4th play for her. But, oh man did she come home cranky! With volleyball after school for 2 hours, a 30 minute break, then 2 hours of drama, throw in a little PMS and Cranky is the word. She likes to do all these things, but when is it to much?

Tyler lost another book for English. Actually as he told me, "I lost my backpack, and my book was in there". Even better. Since I am always looking for the positive in things, at least it is a $13 book he needs to replace and not his actual English book. Plus, looks like he has 90 minutes of cleaning to pay for the book. Hmmmm..... we are off to a grand start for the second semester. :)

Just another day in the Highland house, Happy Crafting :).

Technique Tuesday Week #3

Make your stamps work for you.....

I worked on putting together the new Stella WOTG kit that will be available February 1st. over the weekend. I don't own the Token alphabet set they used, but liked the looks of it. I thought "self, what can you use to get a similar look"?

I found a 1 1/4" circle sentiment in the Blue Ribbon set. Here is the stamp before I did my handy work. Pretend you don't see the cut lines.

I only wanted the circle frame so that I could stamp the letters in the middle. I took an exacto knife and carefully trimmed out the inside caption. This is easiest if you stick the stamp on a glass mat. Then I had this....

I saved myself $30 by using a small alphabet set I had and doing the little trick above. The stamp can still be used the way it was originally intended, or now I can use the caption by itself, or the circle by itself. 3 looks for the price of 1!

Whenever I am looking at which stamps to buy, I really focus on the shapes, edges, etc. I like to know I will be able to use it for several projects. I can hardly wait to finish up the Rock the Block workshops so I can cut them ones apart. There are some really cool frames in that set.

I will show you the rest of the layout tomorrow. If I am ever going to keep up with my goal of blogging EVERYDAY in 2012 I have to think my posts through.

I want to throw this little story in here, so I remember to scrapbook it. You see, this is my little journal as well. We were sitting at the dinner table a few evenings ago. Zane found a stack of fishing pictures. I am sure you can imagine my excitement.... He was telling Tyler, Emily, and I all the details of the photos. Where this one was caught, how long this one was, how much this one weighed, you get the picture. All of a sudden, Emily looks at me with a little smirk on her face. She says "Daddy, how much did I weigh and how long was I when I was born?". I about fell off the chair! Emily giggled as he threw out some numbers that she and I both knew were incorrect before they even came out of his mouth. Poor Zane, Emily beat him at his own game. Now I have a perfect story to go with that big Walleye!

Thanks for stopping by. :)

Remember the texture piece

I finally finished up the page I started a couple of days ago. People often ask me "how do you have time to scrapbook". I reply, "I don't have time, I find time". For starters, I got rid of my fancy scrapbooking room, downsized my supplies, and set up an area in our family room. This way, I can be with the family and sneak in a few minutes of crafty time here and there. I almost always have a project on on my work area. For example, this page took me 3 days to finish. I didn't sit down and do the entire thing in one sitting.

I often think of the next thing I want to add while I am doing something else. Blogging and computer time is always the last thing I do before crawling into bed and after Tyler and Emily are settled in.

Granted, a scrapbooking area in a family room may not appeal to everyone, but it works for us. Scrapbooking is much more a part of my life than the T.V. and we allow that to be in there, so why not the "crafty corner" as I like to call it. :)

I love the texture on the strips of Elemental paper! I used this months stamp of the month set for the date. At first, I wasn't crazy about this set. Now that I have used it on a page, I love the looks of it. The "cold" is from my favorite alpha set Posterboard.

Here is a little better angle for the texture and dimension. Love it!!!

It's Tuesday! That means another Technique How-To

Last night while pondering what to do for the Scraproom sketch challenge, I came up with this fun idea! I am sure I am not the first to try this out, but I have never tried or seen this done. It kind of continues on from last week on making your own pattern paper, only this is with dry embossing.

First.... Cut a few random strips of paper in various widths. I chose scraps from the Elemental papers and used 1/2" to 1" strips.

Layer and adhere your strips together.

Run them through your cuttlebug in an embossing folder. I chose a stampin up' one I haven't used yet and have been dying to play with. You may need to run it through from both ends to cover the length of your strips.

Here is what it will look like after your piece is embossed. It is a bit tough to see the texture in the picture.

I then sponged Lagoon ink lightly over the surface to ink the raised parts.

I am so excited to use this on my page! Hopefully, I can finish it up tomorrow. I love the look of this!

Technique Tuesday Week #2

Well after 5 hours of messing with 2 laptops and our PC, I finally figured out the computer problems I created last night.

On that note, onto the post which was meant for yesterday's Tuesday Technique how to. Heat embossing and making your own resist pattern.

First gather your supplies:

You will need....
*Embossing Powder (I chose clear so the Colonial white paper would show through).
*Embossing Buddy (powder filled satchel that removes the static from your paper so the the embossing powder only sticks where you want it to.
*Heat tool (Embossing gun)
*Versamark (I prefer versamark over embossing ink).
*Stamp of choice
*Ink and sponges if you want to color some ink on your resist pattern. (I chose Vineyard Berry, Creme Brulee, and Juniper. One of my favorite color combinations).
*Something to catch your embossing powder. You can use a tray made just for this or a piece of copy paper works fine too. Easy peasy to dump the excess back into the container.

Dive in.......

1. Rub embossing buddy over surface you will be embossing.
2. Stamp image using versamark ink randomly on paper. Versamark is like a clear tacky ink, so you will want to pay a little extra attention where you are stamping.
3. sprinkle embossing powder over stamped images.
4. Tap off excess into catch tray or copy paper. I then dump it right back into container. You don't want to accidentally aim your heat tool at it while embossing your image. Trust me, I have done this. It's not a good thing. ;)
5. Heat your image(s). Careful here!!! The heat tool gets very hot quick. you will see the powder melt as you move the heat tool over the image. As soon as it melts, move on to a new area. You can burn the powder creating a "burnt" image. Yup! Done this one too. ;)

The picture above is after embossing. Hopefully, you can see it okay. It is not easy photographing clear embossing powder.

The final step.. Adding a dash of color.

Sponge your ink onto the embossed images. The image itself will resist the ink so only the paper absorbs the color. After applying your random ink sponging, wife entire surface with paper towel. This removes any loose ink on your embossed images.

I used the paisley stamp that is in this great Rock The Block set. This is a E sized set, so that is a whopping 8 x 10 sheet of stamps! The only way to get this set is to buy $25 in items from the Autumn / Winter idea book. Plus, it comes with the set of chipboard blocks that I showed a few days ago. The bundle is only $15 which is a savings of $29.90!

That is this weeks's Technique how - to. Thanks for visiting my humble little blog :).

Technique Tuesday - week #1

Drum Roll Please.......... As you know, one of my 2012 resolutions is to update the blog each and every day. I have decided to take it a step further and name Tuesday as Technique day. Every Tuesday I will try and show how to do something fun with your ink and paper.

Today is all about Masking. This is a very simple technique that is very effective. Masking is simply the process of covering either part of the stamp or part of the paper you are stamping on so only part of the image ends up on your artwork.

I am not very good at explaining, so hopefully the pictures help.

Step 1.
Stamp the image on a post it note, then trim around. I like to stamp it toward the top so I end up with post it adhesive on the image. Stick the trimmed image on your project where you want a "blank spot" the shape of the trimmed image.

Step 2.
Stamp the contrasting image over and around the trimmed image. Here I chose trees stamped in Gray Wool for a winter scene. Don't worry, it looks messy at this point.

Step 3.
Remove the "post it" note image.

Step 4.
Stamp the image you stamped on the post it note in the area that you masked off.

As you can see in yesterday's post, I chose to color the adorable little deer to really make him pop off the cardstock.

Here is a look at the complete Bundled Buddies set (C1472)

Brrr.... It's cold outside

Well it looks like Winter has arrived in Michigan. After hearing the wind and snow blow all night, I was very thankful I didn't have to get up and head out to work this morning.

Since winter is in the air, I thought another card with the Winter Wonderland papers was appropriate.

If you are not familiar with masking, it is a great technique to add dimension to your projects. I will show how to do this in tomorrow's post. Super easy and very effective!

The design was inspired form the Simple Expression sketch from Wishes.
Products used:
Wishes
Bundled Buddies stamp set
Wonderland level 2 paper
Black ink
Gray wool ink
Copics (Rose Mist, Pale Pink, Agate, Dk.Gray, Light Caramel, and Cashmere)
Blue buttons
and yarn from Big lots (only $1 for a skein)

Sonoma B&T papers

Today's project was made with the CTMH Sonoma papers. I absolutely love these papers! They were perfect for these pictures of Emily from 2004. The design was inspired from the TA-DA sketch in the CTMH Magic how-to book. Of course as I worked, the page took on a view of its own.

The frame around the main picture is one of the border strips on the sonoma papers. Then I added some clear buttons to hide the corner seams. For a little more dimension I added a ribbon slide and stamped the "Amazing" title on a dimensional element. The final touch to pull it all together is a little faux stitching around the page.

The flower was made with 9 circles punched with the 1 1/4" circle punch.

Simply fold 8 of the circles into thirds form a triangle.

Then adhere them all on top of the 9th circle forming a circle. I sponged on a little Smokey Plum ink and added a wooden button to finish it off. So easy and so pretty!

Embrace The Moment

Phew! What a crazy few weeks. School is well under way and we are all finally getting back into the routine again. With the holiday season fast approaching, everything will be in a whirlwind again soon. For today, I am living in the moment and had a chance to sit down and do a little creating.

My nephew Daniel is off for his training to prepare for his second deployment. This time he will be in Afghanistan for 14 months. If everyone could please keep him and the rest of the military in your prayers it would be much appreciated. Thank You:)

He has been on my mind a lot, so I decided to pull out some pictures from his last deployment and give it a whirl!

Journaling reads:
As we go through life, there are events that are truly amazing! Welcoming Daniel home from his first tour in Iraq was one of these moments. The atmosphere was full of so much energy. Seeing all the children, parents, and families welcoming the soldiers home. The tears of joy and relief, and the American pride is something I will never forget. My nephew Daniel holding his first niece Ivy after 9 months deployed. It seems like he was just a little boy catching toads. Now, look at him all grown up, serving our country, fighting our wars. So Proud!!

Tip: A great way to save paper! If you are covering up most of the base of your page, cut part of the section out that will be covered up. I then used part of this piece for the journaling area. This saved cutting into a fresh new piece of cardstock.

Items used in this layout: (all CTMH unless stated otherwise)
Typeset Level 2 paper packet - X7139B
Blue Ribbon stamp set - C1464
Milepost Shapes - Z1464
Juniper Brads - Z1363
Black Brads from Black Mini-Medley collection - Z1393
Piercing Tool Kit - Z1114
My legacy Writer Black Pens - 4275
Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge - Z1686
(Cut the circle then used decorative scissors to trim the inside for rustic edge)
Sanding kit - Z1294
Inks - Vineyard Berry, Black, and Juniper
Title - Quikutz reuse alphabet set.

I used a sketch from Becky over at Pagemaps for inpiration! Thanks Becky!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

A Twist on Journaling

At work the other day I pulled out a prescription pad and the add for Lipitor caught my eye. Of course my coworkers thought I was crazy when I said I just found the "inspiration" for my next page. They didn't see the add the same way I did. Sadly, I can't find where I put it so I can't post it. Sadness! Anyhow, here is my version...

The journaling areas on the page are my interpretation of the ad. I had to think of how to recreate it, so I am including a little instruction. Keep reading.....

A couple other things to point out first. The Letters are outlined with a Black Sharpie. No need to use extra paper and time matting the letters when there is a Sharpie nearby. Of course, I had a couple "slide offs" I needed to cover, so I added a couple quick stitches to cover them up. This added a little extra detail and no one will ever know I was actually covering a mistake.

To add another accent to the page, I folded some 1/2" paper strips and hand stitched over them. A little paper ribbon accent to fill in some space that I didn't know what else to do with.

Now onto the journaling technique..........
First grab your piece of paper, ruler, and exacto knife. I actually did all this after the page was already assembled, so I knew right where I wanted the journaling holes to be. Just be careful not to cut through all the layers.

Cut one cut down the center of where you want your "hole" to be, then make several horizontal cuts going across your vertical cut. I chose this plaid paper to make it easy to cut along the pattern lines. Cut your strips at various lengths to add a little randomness to the shape.

When your done cutting, you should have something like this....

Next, cut your strips off at various lengths, leaving at least 1/4" of each cut strip.

Use your fingers or guiling tool to roll up the remaining part of your cut strips. I found my fingers worked quite well.

I then added a little ink to make the curls stand out. Adhere to your page or a piece of paper, add your journaling in the hole.