Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Hallowe'en

Remember when stencils were all the rage and we all bought a ton?? Well, now they seem to just sit there as I don't really use mine anymore. Then I discovered this cool technique!! It's using Distress Inks and those stencils and gives an awesome background.

First, create a background using Distress Inks and an Ink Blending Tool. Then put a stencil over top and spritz with water. Heat set a bit (be careful not to melt your stencil), then remove your stencil and either heat set or set aside to dry (I'm impatient, so I heat set). As it dries, the areas where there was water will lighten. It gives you an awesome tone on tone dimensional background.

I did this technique for my Hallowe'en card. I used a harlequin stencil and I really like how it turned out! And it worked out so well because the little postmark stamp fit perfectly in my bottle cap!!

Monday, October 29, 2012

Product Focus: Ranger Heat It Tool

When I first started stamping, I bought a Marvy heat gun and it worked great. It eventually died and I replaced it with another Marvy and it was great too. My mother then wanted one so she could use it to thaw out the horse trailer locks if they froze on their trip down to Florida (they haul the horse to Florida every December and then back in April). She wanted to use it with her Eliminator. Well, the new one wouldn't work, so I gave her my old one which seemed to work with her Eliminator and I had the new Marvy one.

I hated it. The cord on this one was so thick and it wasn't easy to move around, so I thought I'd try the Ranger Heat It tool. It was a good thing I ordered one because not long after it arrived, my Marvy died. I was pretty mad because it had only been less than 6 months (my other ones lasted forever, so not sure what happened with this one). Well, part of me was mad because it was so new and the other was happy because I hated that heat gun.

I love my Ranger Heat It tool though. It has a much wider heating area and so I find I don't burn stuff if it takes awhile to heat. And it's very  nice to hold. Best of all, however, is how quiet it is!! I was doing a demo this weekend while I was at a Retreat and you could barely hear it.

Even though I rarely heat emboss, I use my heat gun all the time to heat set ink and to dry backgrounds and I am so happy with my new Heat It tool.


Friday, October 26, 2012

Excited!!

I scan all of my scrapbook pages. Well, I don't personally scan them, but I take them to the local scrapbook store and pay them to scan them. I am somewhat paranoid about something happening to my albums. I know I could recover all the photos since they're backed up, although any of the old photos would be lost (pre-digital age). But what about all that work? And all the journaling and memories? So, I figure if I get the pages scanned, then at least I can get them reprinted if I ever need to do that. They wouldn't be as nice, but at least the memories would be preserved. So, I scan the pages. But I usually wait until I have a bunch (and am finished a section in a scrapbook) to take them in. In the meantime, however, I still want to share them, so I take photos of them. The problem with the photos, however, is that I can never get them exactly square and straight, so when I blog them, they don't look all that great.

Yesterday I bought a large format scanner! I am so excited. I had wanted one several years ago, but felt I couldn't justify it and then when I decided to get one, I found out the one I had been looking at was discontinued. Since there are so few large format scanners, it was now going to be double the price. I couldn't justify that much money, so that idea went bye. Recently, though, I discovered another one in the same price range as the original one I was eyeing and yesterday, I ordered it. I'm so excited! I'm going to be able to scan my pages and blog them much nicer now. And I won't have to wait to take them in to the store to do it.

I'll also be able to offer a scanning service for those who want it. I haven't finalized prices, but I'll announce that later. I highly recommend getting your pages scanned since it would be very sad to lose all those photos, work and memories if something did happen. It also makes it easier to share albums. You can scan yours and just get it printed for family if they want a copy. It won't be as nice as the original, but you get to keep the original, so since you did the work, that's totally fair!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Metallic Distress Stains

I finally had some time last week to play with my new Tim Holtz Metallic Distress Stains and I love them. I shouldn't be surprised, since I am always impressed with any product Tim comes out with, but these are really cool. They have a gorgeous metallic sheen, but they're still water based, so mix well with his other Distress Products. I thought they might be cool as a resist, but since they're water based, that didn't work, but it opened up new mixing possibilities.

For this technique, I put down some Metallic Distress Stain and then some regular Distress Stain on my non stick craft sheet and misted with water. Then I placed a piece of white cardstock and smooshed it around in the stains. I pulled and twisted until I got the look I wanted and then put it aside to dry. It looks so gorgeous!! The metallic is nicely marbled throughout the background.





For this card, I used Aged Mahogany Distress Stain and then overstamped it with the same colour Distress Ink so it matches perfectly. The background stamp is an awesome brick background from Unity Stamps and then the butterflies are from Tim Holtz. I added a few Candi and called it done.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Sleep Tight


As I was playing with my paper pack for my club last month, I came up with this simple layout. It was just sort of cutting and placing things down until I liked how it looked.



I had some washi tape that went with the pack and it was fun to just add it in places to add some dimension. The flowers were actually printed on the paper and I just cut them out.


Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Hallowe'en Goosebumps

I had fallen behind on my monthly techniques and so sat down in September and came up with 4. A couple of them used Goosebumps which I hadn't played with for awhile. I really like that stuff even though it's messy and goes against my sticky messy rule (ie: I don't do things that are sticky or messy). Anyway, I spritzed some on my non stick craft sheet and then used it as an ink to stamp on cardstock. When it dried, I added some Distress Ink overtop and buffed it off the Goosebumped area. I love it. I love resist techniques, so I'm always excited to play with a new one.





This card was made with a cool Hallowe'en set I just got in. I am not a big Hallowe'en person, but I thought with kids, it would be cool to have a few stamps.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

What's New

I spent a good chunk of yesterday unpacking my new order and then the doorbell rang and it was another order. Talk about fun!! So, today, I wanted to share some of the new stuff that arrived yesterday!!

Some new M-Bossabilities from Spellbinders (these ones are bigger than the regular ones)

Holiday Magic


Tweets & Twigs


Winter Wonderland


I also got some new tinsel from Tim Holtz

Silver


Black


Autumn



Winter


And I got a very cool new embossing folder set from Hero Arts & Sizzix

Christmas Words & Dots


And what would a stamping addiction be without a couple new stamps?

Stay the Course (I loved these words)


Country Road (What a great masculine set)









I literally just got it all opened and reconciled so I haven't priced anything yet, but if you are interested in anything, just email me and I'll get it priced for you. I also have limited quantities of these so if you are interested, let me know and I will pull it for you.