Monthly Archives: January 2012

Tuesday Techniques – Trapped Embossed Resist

31 Tuesday Jan 2012

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One of the best, easiest, and most effective techniques I know is Trapped Embossed Resist. It takes a few steps, but it is easy, the results are always amazing, and it can be used for pretty much any project.

Supplies + Clear Embossing powder

You need a fairly small scale background stamp (I like text or script best for this but try what you have), a stamp with a good amount of both solid and open area, two colours of ink, VersaMark, and Clear Embossing Powder. Oh, and a heat tool, that helps with the embossing part!

First, use your lighter ink to stamp your background.

Stamped Tag

Next, ink up the other stamp with VersaMark and emboss with clear powder. Keep in mind that we are trapping the original design behind the second design, but still want to see part of it so VersaMark and clear embossing powder are a must, anything else will hide what we did first!

Clear Embossed Tag

It’s hard to see, but look at the shine! You’ll see the magic in just a minute….

Next, take your darker ink and rub the inkpad all over your surface. Really get it on there, you want to cover up any of the script that is not covered in embossing powder.

After that, I spray with a light mist of Perfect Pearls Mist. This is totally optional, I just like the shine, plus, I always use Distress Inks so I like how they blend when they come in contact with water. A side bonus is that it makes it easier to wipe the excess ink away!

Using a paper towel, wipe the ink off the embossed areas. You should have a beautiful, two-toned design to go play with and make into an embellishment, tag, card background, whatever your heart desires!

Completed Tag

See how the purple ink covers the pink so you don’t see any of the script, except where it’s trapped under the embossing? Awesome!

My favourite combos are Worn Lipstick and Dusty Concord, or Wild Honey and Barn Door Distress Inks. The fun is playing with different combos and stamps!

Now, go play and try this out, and please let me know if you try it – I’d love to see what you come up with!

Enjoy the storm, a snow day is a good day to hunker down and get inky!

S.

Goodbye and Hello

30 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by in Classes, ScrapBook, Yearlong Album

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Yesterday was the last class for the 2011 Year Long Album at The Paperie. And as much as I loved the project and the papers, I’m glad it’s finally over  and I can say goodbye to it and hello to the 2012 Year Long Album. As I told the girls yesterday, by the end of the year, I am so done with looking at the same papers! That being said, what we used was perfect and looked amazing – October Afternoon and Cosmo Cricket Collection Packs (these looked like they were designed to go together!), October Afternoon Label Stickers, American Crafts 12×12 Modern Album in Cardinal, and We R Memory Keepers page protectors. Then we added to the base kit as we went along – some of the extras were Perfect Pearls Pigment Kits, Technique Tuesday stamp sets, and Sticky Back Canvas.

Here’s a quick look at what we accomplished over the past year:

Album Cover

Inside Cover

The October Afternoon Collection Pack came with two of these die cut houses showing the outside and inside of the house. They may have been my favourite part of the kit! We added some gingerbread trim, cut open the door and added a dog on a rug. For the back cover, we flipped the house over and added our own family pictures to the living room!

October

This is one of a favourite spreads – I love the canvas pumpkins and ghosts! The Distress Inks over the canvas gave an amazing texture. The leaves are Kraft Glassine and Perfects Pearls and have a great shine and colour in real life. As you can see, I haven’t quite finished putting all my pictures in the album. With the exception of December, they’re all printed and ready to go, I’m just a month or two behind!

Getting fat!

Between each double spread, I inserted an 8.5 x 11 page protector to hold the kiddies art pieces, birthday cards, loot bags and party invitations I made, and all sorts of bits and bobs that normally get stuffed into a cupboard somewhere! The album is a great place to store them and keep them organized but it leads to a very fat book – and I don’t have the November or December stuff in there yet, yikes!

However, apart from another hour’s work inserting pictures, it’s finished! Now, onto the next one, I have big things planned for the basic kit! 😉

2012 Year Long Album Peek

Have a great one – the weather is beautiful for sliding here today!

S.

M and her funny sayings…

29 Sunday Jan 2012

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So I was teaching today (more on that tomorrow) and when I got home I was talking to M.

Me: How was your day?
M: Good, I guess.
Me: What did you have for lunch?
M: Well, Daddy gave us beans, but I didn’t eat them all.
Me: Why not?  You like beans.
M: Well,  I just wasn’t interested.

Ah, four year olds!

image

M in her new specs

S.

The Trip of a Lifetime

27 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by in Classes, ScrapBook

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This past October the owners of The Paperie offered me the trip and experience of a lifetime and sent me, along with one of the owners, Chris, to Houston for the Collins Group Rep Show. To say I was overwhelmed and way too excited the whole time would be an understatement! I took classes from Tim Holtz, Jennifer McGuire (who publicly announced her pregnancy today!), Shari Carroll, Candy Rosenberg, and Cheryl Mezzetti, to name a few. The techniques I learned, the people I met, and the fun I had were just over the top.

In return, I came home with a promise to teach classes based on what I had picked up. And I had more ideas than I knew what to do with! We started the series of Houston Classes a couple of weeks ago with a full weekend of workshops. I taught 3 classes on Saturday and a full day Tim Holtz Class on Sunday.

Saturday morning was Hero Arts – Stamp and Emboss where we made 3 cards – a faux watercolour, a faux letterpress, and a trapped embossed resist.

Trapped Embossed Resist

Next up was Impression Obsession – One, Two, Tree (my personal favourite) where we again made 3 cards – one with alcohol inks, one with acrylic paints, and one with Distress Stains.

Distress Stains and Sparkle Embossing Powder

Finally, I taught a tag workshop with The Crafter’s Workshop Stencils. We made 10 tags, full of different techniques and everyone went home with the recipes on the back and the two stencils so they could recreate the fun we had!

Balzer Designs Stencils by The Crafter's Workshop

The Tim class on Sunday was the Holiday Artful Journal, one of the exact classes Chris and I took while we were away. The big treat in this one was all the product everyone took home – stains, mists, paint, Glue n’ Seal, and a finished mini album!

Tim Holtz Holiday Artful Journal

There was lots of laughing, a bunch of giveaways, and some great projects made. I can’t wait to do the next class in the series – Kraft Glassine Mixed Media Mini Album. That’s coming February 12, 2012 at The Paperie – and here’s a peek!

Glassine Album Sneak Peek

We’ll be playing with Distress Stains, Alcohol Inks, Cork Paper, Sticky Back Canvas, and more!

Have a good one, everybody!

S.

Things on Thursday

26 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by in Family, ScrapBook, Things on Thursday...

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It’s been a big week around here:

1. I started this blog! (Big cheers! Confetti! Yay!)

2. The cookies we made yesterday were yummy, yummy,yummy – even gluten free!

3. I got fun eye candy mail, 3 magazines from Northridge Publishing – Create, Simply Handmade, and Cards. Love how beautiful these books are.

4. I’ve been creating! I was in a rut for, oh, a million years or so it seems, so it feels really great to be doing stuff just for me again.

5. I finished the Year Long Album 2011, typed up all the instructions, and have almost finished getting all the pictures in there. Nice to have this one clued up, since the 2012 class is just around the corner!

6. I finished the Kraft Glassine Album for the class I’m teaching in February. Once again, instructions are typed up and I have all the pics in. Nice to be ahead of the game for once!

7. I signed up for this online class and am pumped to start! I love Amy Tan’s style and the list of special guests is awesome too. Also, I have three Paperie kits and one Studio Calico kit mostly unused and waiting to be played with – I need the push!

8. The big one this week is especially big for M. She had her follow-up appointment with the optometrist and the news was not what we were hoping for. As a result, we’ve started patching her right eye to get her left eye working better. Sigh. Tell me if any four-year-old would make this easy, because my daughter is not! She loves pirates though, so we’re really pushing that angle (please forgive the bad pic – I think it was taken on D’s cell phone!).

M, acting the pirate and not wanting a picture taken!

And that’s my week so far, lots of fun and not so fun things happening. To let you go on a good note, here’s a LO I did using a little of the November Paperie kit – lots of Amy Tangerine (can you tell I love that Amy Tangerine stamp?), some October Afternoon, a bit of  K&Co. Smash, and a touch of Studio Calico! As always, click on the image to see a larger size.

All You Need is Love & Dirt

Here’s hoping your week is already, or is becoming, just as interesting as mine!

S.

Randomness…

25 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by in Family, ScrapBook, Yearlong Album

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As I write this, it is raining (again) and the snow is being washed away (again). This winter has been bitter cold, or snow storming, or raining. In other words, impossible to get outside and play! So, we’re all feeling a little housebound. To try to combat that this morning, the kiddies and I made these. They’re just about ready to come out of the oven and boy, do they ever smell good! My mouth is watering to think of a cold glass of milk and all that chocolatey goodness! I think this may have to be an after nap snack as I’m pretty sure all that sugar is not good for sleepy time!

On a completely different note, Ella’s newest favourite napping spot is my misting box. Since I do the majority of my crafting on the kitchen table (sorry, D!), I try to contain the mess by misting in a box. Normally, I would just spray away – colour makes everything better! – but others in this household simply don’t agree with me, for some odd reason.

Anyway, this hasn’t been an issue until lately – I’ve been using a lot of red and let’s just say that it’s not totally permanent, hence the fancy pink paws that Ella now sports! It doesn’t seem to bother her but it does bother Rosie who is reluctantly cleaning Ella for the first time ever. I did double-check though and the mist, thankfully, is non-toxic.

Ella in the pre-red box

Finally, I’m hoping to get some more work done on the 2012 Yearlong Album tonight. As a treat, here’s a look at the album cover, with a curious visitor included! 😉

2012 Album Cover (& Ella!)

I’m loving Simple Stories (oh, the new CHA-W goodies!) and American Crafts Modern Albums!

Hope you are all having a good, if rainy, day!

S.

Tuesday Techniques – Glossy Accents

24 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by in ScrapBook, Techniques, Tuesday Techniques

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First, let me say big Thank You to everyone for the great welcome! I felt pretty special! 🙂

I participated in an online crop this weekend and, in the process, rediscovered an old technique that I love. And so Tuesday Techniques was born! On most Tuesdays (you’ll notice I didn’t say all!) I’ll show you a technique that I love to do. It may be an oldie but goodie, or it may be new to me. Whichever, I hope it will inspire you to try it out, play, and have fun!

Today, we’re pulling out our Glossy Accents!

What??? You don’t have Glossy Accents??? Run, run I say, to the nearest Scrapbooking store and buy it up! And if you’re here in Newfoundland, head on over to The Paperie and support our local LSS! Go on, I’ll wait…

Have you got it now? Good! This will become one of your favourite liquid adhesives (I may or may not have glued together everything from chipboard to children’s toys to broken appliances with it…) and, my favourite part, it’s an amazing dimensional glaze. With Glossy Accents, just about anything can be made to look like an epoxy embellishment. The way I use it the most? Little letter stickers. They just pop right off the page when they’re raised and shiny.

Ok, here goes…

Get your supplies together. I like altering basic chipboard so I started with old Maya Road chipboard letters and some Studio Calico Mister Huey’s.

Supplies

Mist away, let the letters dry a but, then cover each one in Glossy Accents. Just squeeze a generous layer on there and smear around with the tip of the bottle. It stays where you put it so no worries about a big mess. Also, it will look cloudy but don’t worry about that either because it dries completely clear.

Covered in Glossy

Now go away. Leave your letters alone, don’t even think about touching them. Just be sure that little children and cats cannot get anywhere near them – I suggest the microwave. Really.

Come back again in a hour or so. My letters are pretty big, and I put a heavy layer on, so they did take quite some time to dry. Little letters or embellishments with a lighter layer will dry pretty quickly.

Finally, use your Glossy Accents to adhere them to whatever project you’re working on (great glue, remember) and you’re done!

Completed Tag

 

Look at that shine!

And you can add more layers, if you want the letters to be even more dimensional.

Easy, but what an effective step to add. Enjoy, and let me know if you try it. I’d love to see how you shine up your next project!

Knock, knock….

23 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by in ScrapBook

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Hello?

Is any one out there?

I’m finally here!

First, please forgive the look of the generic blog – I’ve had some harassing (you know who you are!) to get this done already, so it’s still a work in progress.

Second, I’m not sure where this new journey is going to take me (or you!) but I guess we’ll see over time as I stumble along and try to figure this whole blogging thing out. The only thing I know right now is that it’s sure to be a mix of family, scrapbooking, my art, kiddies, and random stuff that may make no sense at all but will hopefully be some fun in your day!

To start us off on the right foot, here’s a little eye candy of my baby…

(Seriously, that blond hair? Those blue eyes? Total heartbreaker!)

G, February 2011

Lots of fun product here – Ranger, Echo Park, Amy Tangerine, EK Success, Fiskars, Stampin’ Up, and Cosmo Cricket. This was for a LO Tag so thanks to all the talented chickies before me for the inspiration!