Wow, totally out of loop!

So I have been out of this loop since 2009, and I miss it soo much! I have a beautiful home after moving from Colorado to VA and now to Portland OR within 2 years!

Here are some current pics of my workspace that I just posted on splitcoaststampers. douthit5 is my post name there. I think I finally found a way to organize things within reach. I admit it....I want to sit and craft and not get up too much. I have spent hours trying to figure out how to store things for cheap! I don't want to spend wads of cash on this. I also spent 2 days coming up with a way to really access and use my Papertrey Ink stamps to the fullest. I admit....ADDICT! Love these stamps because they make sense, and I can see where I am stamping. Wood blocks are so yesterday...but so are those CD cases!

Here is a rack that I bought from IKEA, so cheap! It's from the Kitchen area for pot storage, but everything is within reach and not on the back of the door. I have the stamps in rows of common punch image. Smallest to largest at the back. It works and it was cheap and it is right in front of me. The bar wth the buckets below are also IKEA as well as the button jars and two drawers and the desk. Okay...IKEA addict too...JEEZ!

but cheaper than Target and Pottery barn. I spent under $100 for all of these things! Hey, if you are willing to pay shipping, for a flat fee of $10 bucks for a tank of gas and time + what real shipping is and I will ship you anything from IKEA as long as we don't get too crazy and I can load it in my car. You pay me by Paypal and we go from there. Seriously...this store is key for storage!

I have a tutorial coming up that I hope will help those of you trying to figure out how to store these stamp sets effectively!

Here is my solution!

AHA Moments!

As I was sitting down last night to thumb through the new Pottery Barn Catalog, I opened up to a lovely room filled with red and white and a variety of checkered bedding, and floral covered cushions etc. It inspired me. I ran to the craft room and opened up my really red pad and began wasting lots of grid paper from Papertreyink that I JUST bought... : (

I grabbed a striped stamp I bought from SU and after I got it and tried to use it, found it to be kind of ugly. I have several stamps sets that seemed like such a good idea when I saw them and the cute card or project that was made with them, but when I try to implement a project using them....ug! Serious UG.... LY!

so I grabbed this striped background out of frustration, and stamped my stripes, then rotated it and stamped again without re-inking. The photo doesn't show it all that well, but you get the idea, it really looks good in person, I promise! I felt like I just put some lipstick on my pig ha ha ha!

I only used Really Red ink, Really Red Marker, white craft and red and white paper. I tried super hard to only use Stampin UP stuff, but broke down on the ornaments and the sentiment, I used Papertreyink!




So the ornament..... I used a Spellbinder nestability to create these. How cool is that. I am sure somebody has already figured this out, I figured it out purely by accident : ) but what a great accident!

I essentially cut out the die on my bigshot. Remove the die and re-position it to narrow the frame and create the ornament. You can make it as narrow or fat as you like, and then line up your points/curves and re-cut it. What you get is a great little ornament that you can decorate any way you want it. How cool is that!







After digging through my PTI sets I found the squiggles and starburst pattern. I made the plaid with the marker and two way glue to add the glitter. I just put some pearls and rhinestones on the ornaments and I really like how they turned out!

The layout is part of the Splitcoast Sketch Challenge SC251 today!


Anyway.... have a great day! I sure will!

Better Late Than Never!

Lately I have been inspired to craft. As you can see it's been a while since I have had the time or the desire. I haven't bought anything new, just pulled out some of the stuff I have had laying around and started stamping. I have to admit the ladies over at Papertreyink really are wonderful, and they have some amazing projects and beautiful cards. I love those stamps.

I wanted to just post some of my latest cards. They are out of sync with the season... which is funny because everyone over at Splitcoaststampers.com has posted halloween, christmas, fall, winter, but not much spring stuff.... ha ha . go figure! What's that saying "better late than never, but better never late!" Oh well.

It's fun to experiment with the background stuff and create my own designs. That's probably why I like Papertreyink so much, those acrylic stamps are just so much easier to use and create those kinds of designs. So here is my sampling of Better Late Than Never cards! enjoy!

Head Pain!

Today is a muffled day! I have a terrible head cold, and have no energy. I have so many things to do today, but can't seem to get motivated. Guess I'll go up and craft something...yeah, that's it! That's the ticket!

In the meantime, I have been spending alot of time over at Splitcoast participating in all of the weekly challenges. Here is a card I made last Sunday for the Featured Stamper Challenge



This was such a fun card to make! I started by stamping my image (which I love by the way) onto white cardstock, and then embossing it with clear embossing powder. I then used and Inkssential blender tool, and blended in Distress Ink Fired Brick. It just makes the image POP and I love that color! After I cut it to the size I needed, I took the leftover scrap that had no color applied, and used that as part of the background. I used Tim Holtz's technique to dab distress inks on my stamp, misted it, and then stamped. I love that you can get a watercolor look with just a spritz of water. The colors just blended so nicely. I then used an aquapainter dabbed in some Distress Ink, and then just kept pulling the brush apart to make it spatter. Subtle, but so fun. Crazy Card was the inspiration, and I just essentially used her layout to create this card.

Now I am off to play!

PS.. Most of the supplies I am referring to, I have recently purchased at Rubbernecker Stamps. They have alot of the Ranger products, and the Inkssentials all in one place, and if you look closely at their website, they have some fantastic sales going on right now... Nestabilities etc. On Tuesday's they have a treasure hunt, and usually have a stamp for free if you make a purchase....How Cool is That!

Distress Inks!

Did I mention how much I enjoy working with Tim Holtz Distress Inks? They can do so many cool things, and the last two cards I have just really played with the stuff to get an idea of how they react. Since they are water based, they will react every time you spritz, stamp, splop water on them. Splop...nice word! ha!

So I am going to show you how I got my chicken wire background image for my Old Strawberrian card. Here are the supplies I used:

Tim Holtz Distress Ink Re-Inkers Peeled Paint
Perfect Pearls
Mini Misters
Rubbernecker chicken wire stamp
Paper

To mix the Distress Ink with the Perfect Pearls, I use 1 full dropper of ink, and then 1/3 tsp of perfect pearls. Add water to the E on the side where it spells Ranger.

Then mist the paper with this combo:

I blot off some of the color, but you can also use a heat gun to dry it. Once it's dry, mist up your rubber stamp with water

And then stamp image onto paper. You will see the color lift right back off the paper, it's like bleaching the image without having to use bleach! HOW COOL IS THAT?

Then heat set it and the image becomes even more apparent:



While the image is still wet you can emboss it. That's another great thing about these inks. You don't necessarily need to use a seperate embossing pad to emboss with. These inks stay wet for several minutes, so it would allow you to stamp several images, and then go back and sprinkle them with embossing powder.

More on the techniques later. I need to actually make a card! haha!

Wintery Days!

Don't you just love the paper, the swirls the trees?? I just finished working last weekend for Rubbernecker Stamps, and this tree set was one they sell. I love it, and we did the coolest demo with it which I will have to post later. I got to play around with the Distress Inks from Tim Holtz (ranger industries), and just love that they react to water. Sadly I forgot that when I when to soften my tree by spritzing it... ha ha! Those were not Distress Inks. Anyway, the blender tool that I used is also from Ranger, and it comes with two pads. They absorb the color, and then you lift up the inside edge as you scuff the edge of your paper. I just love the look and how soft and wonderful it is. I may have to demo that tool here as well....awesome, and for $5 it's worth it!

I stamped the large tree in kiwi, then wento over it in old olive. After I cut it out, I used the liquid applique to soften the branches with "snow" which by my looking at needs a little help...oops!

I used several dimensionals to pop it up. I also stamped the smallest tree in the package, and stamped again for a softer image behind the darkest one. I lightly tapped again on my color, and then stamped again, and then the lightest image. I cut a piece of acetate, and mounted it over the top. Once I had my card figured out, I cut a circle on my Belle Rose paper by laying the large tree on it to determine where to cut the circle, and I used my nestabilities and cuttlebug to cut that out. I attached the trees, and then mounted it on the white cardstock. I should have edged the white cardstock before I mounted the images, but oh well, that's the way it goes! Anyhoo, I used Fired Brick to get the red color, and it matches the Belle rose paper so well. I just think it made the whole thing look like the Belle Rose paper and images were laying on a bed of snow. I used Papertrey ink Blush to use as the card. I went back over it and stamped the white swirl with white craft, then I just embossed it with white embossing powder, and mine had silver speckles in it too. I think it just looks so wintery.

Hope you like it.... stay tuned for a tutorial on some of those Distress Inks. If you have never seen them or understood what makes them so cool, I will show you.