More Inspired Blueprints Sketches

Here's bonus sketch at Inspired Blueprints, using Rosa Moka, Jenni Bowlin and Creative Imaginations paper; elements from Prima; Stamps are the School Rock Star kit from Unity Stamp Company. TFL! Wendy



And Sketch 1: Our First Snowman, using old school Basic Grey Blitzen, stamps from Unity Stamp Company (Jolly Little Winter kit), Maya Road and Autumn Leaves

Hip Hop Thursday 10-30

Welcome to Unity Stamp Company's Hip Hop Thursday for this October 30th. Just one more day til Halloween!! Are you ready???

If you haven't joined me from Heather M's blog, start at Angela's blog. (The preview of the November KOM is up as well as pictures of the 5 new singles released today!!) From there, follow the hops through the DT blogs, through all of the fabulous Unity samples, and some blog candy at the very end.

This week, the FABULOUS Tinkering Ink sponsored us. I just LOVE Tinkering Ink. Their product lines are always just so fresh and innovative, very cutting edge. Check out their blog for fabulous inspiration.

As you can see, I went all out and used every bit of the product they sponsored, and pulled out my stash as well.

1) This first card uses AJ's fabulous Simply Said kit

2) My next card uses June's Kit of the Month, Bliss and A Birdie

3) This one uses the newly released today single - Sleigh Ride and the Birds of a Feather Kit

4) and last but not least, I did a layout with MuffyVan/AnneMarie's Sketch #2 over at Inspired Blueprints, with September's Kit of the Month - Friendship, Love, Miracles, of which limited quantities are still available (yay!!)






As always, Angela has some fabulous Hip Hop specials for today only. Check out her blog for the specials. Angela's blog.

Your next stop is Laura's blog. Hip Hop!

more layouts

Sharing some more layouts...

1) Lombard Street

This one is channeling my inner Ali Edwards... :). PP is 7 Gypsies and ScribbleScrabble



2) Yellow Belt 1

(as you can see, I worked on belt ceremony layouts this weekend)

Wish, and School Rock Star kits from Unity Stamp Company. PP is Pink Paislee Vintage Moon



TFl. Wendy

a productive weekend

I had a rough week at work last week and entered the weekend emotionally and physically exhausted. I desperately needed to reorient my brain, and as I often do at times like that, I took refuge in my scrapping. At times like this, I am very much a purposeful scrapper - creating layouts that tell a story to remind me of what I cherish. More than just the artistic release, I need the remembering....

And so, when I could fine a moment, that's how I spent my weekend. I did a lot of scraplifting - pounding through a bunch of pictures that have been sitting on my desk waiting for their stories to be told, without the stress of having to worry about the design part (I tend to do this with pictures that are harder to scrap because of distracting elements, colors, etc..., since I already know the design is awesome - best chances for a pleasing layout IMO). Every now and then, a mojo lift had me going off on my own for a layout. I did 10 layouts total - and went through a bunch of supplies. Awesome layouts, a smaller picture pile, and such relief on that supply hoarder's guilt. Anyhow, here are two of my "my own" layouts from the weekend... I feel better today and ready to tackle the work week...

TFL. Wendy

(I love the BENDINESS of clear stamps... it almost makes up for the slight non-crispness of the images you get from them)



My DD and her white solid belt ceremony in TaeKwonDo



Just a funny story in our house we want to remember...

tagged

I was tagged by martha. List 7 things about myself....

1) I've been a cutter/paster and crafter all my life. I started scrapping in the af/lf way when my son was born 8.5 years ago; was introduced to StampinUp! right about that time.

2) I used to be a CTMH demo. I found out quickly I love creating, but I'm not a very good salesperson; now I'm just a good customer... :)

3) I am very rule driven in my day job as a lawyer. So in my creative life, I purposefully try new things all the time - I never wanted to limit myself with artificial rules of style or anything. Polar opposites....

4) I'm happiest when covered in glue and paint

5) scraping and stamping are as much a therapy for me as they are an artistic endeavor. I need the creative outlet to relieve the very high stress of my work.

6) i do most of my creating in the very wee hours - i try and so something before work if I can to orient my head for the days work - i wake up at 4 am - its the only way I can find time for myself to create a bit

7) i am a tool lemming. if you say you love it, I'll probably have to try it immediately... hee hee!!!

I now tag anyone who is reading this and wants to play along... Happy saturday everyone.

friday reval 10-24

And the theme this week was "tricks." Click on the layout to go to my gallery for specific product info. (Unity links appear below)

1) Frightful

For my first layout, I cut out a few words from my die cut/lace cut word sheet. Then, I dripped orange paint off the edge of a toothpick from the tip and let it drip down like 'blood' - it takes a few hours to dry.






This was a hard layout to do - how much more mismatched could the colors in these pictures get??!! But I had to tell the story about how my DD insisted on DS's costume instead of her own fairy one... She was so pleased with herself.... I chose a very neutral background paper - this is the Creative Imaginations narratives die cut paper - enough of a pattern and edging to keep it from looking too flat.



2) Ready for the Parade

For my second layout, after I had cut out words from the middle of my die cut sheet for my first layout, I had a perfect frame left over for this layout.



Because the words were kind of busy, I triple matted my focal photo with white, orange, and black, and then bracketed them with photo corners also from the orange paper.

I also needed some more Halloween themed paper - but didn't have any - so I simply took the right color in the printed paper, and then stamped my Halloween themed stamps to make my own.

all stamps are Unity Stamp Company - Unlucky 13 kit (Halloween) - also, the Growing In Unity Kit (tree) complete with Googley Eyes. Thanks to Jennifer Buck for the idea...

Hip Hop Thursday 10-23

Welcome to Unity Stamp Company's Hip Hop Thursday!!

If you haven't joined me from Linsey's blog, start at Angela's blog. From there, follow the hops through the DT blogs, through all of the fabulous Unity samples, and some blog candy at the very end.

My first project is splitcoast's cardsketch 199 - SCS199 - using the Fall Festival kit



My second project was another card for the card auction at Lifetimemoments charity auction - this is another jumbo card, using the Little Princess kit (my apologies for the wonky picture - the exposure was off and I can't seem to fix it...)



As always, Angela has some fabulous Hip Hop specials for today only. Check out her blog for the specials. Angela's blog.

Your next stop is Jeanne's blog. Hip Hop!

Tutorial: Inks

I am doing a series of StampTalks at lifetimemoments, a basic stamping 101 type thing. This is the first in a series. Today, we’re going to talk about inks.

There are several basic kinds of inks in stamping:

1) Dye inks - this is the most common of the inks. It is a basic fast drying ink. They are very affordable and come in a wide range of colors. Popular brands include Adirondack, Stampin Up!, Close to My Heart, and many others. Ranger’s Distress Inks also fall into this category but they are a slower drying ink that allow for a lot of water manipulation. Check out Tim Holtz’s blog for many techniques with the Distress inks.

Dye inks are my basic go to color inks because they clean up easily with a wetwipe. They often come in a felt pad. These inks are not a long term color fast ink (but that’s very LONG TERM… its fine for every day application). I store my dye pads upside down so the ink stays at the top of the pad. These work best with paper applications.

2) Pigment inks - These are much slower drying, thicker inks that can be made of different components. They are much more color fast. The downside is they take a lot longer to set, which gives rise to potential for smudges. Some absolutely require a heat gun to dry completely. These inks are perfect for embossing. My favorite is to emboss a colored pigment pad with clear powder - it sets the ink and the color but I don’t have to worry about the ink bleeding if I am coloring with another marker. These pads are normally sold with a sponge pad and are very juicy. I store these pads right side up, since they are so juicy already. Pigment inks are typically a little harder to clean - sometimes a wetwipe will work (i.e. Versafine, ClearSnap chalks), but sometimes you need an actual stamp cleaner solution (you can buy these where they sell the inks).

Versafine is an “instant dry” pigment pad (and my favorite…) They come in a fairly limited range of colors, though.

Clearsnap’s Chalk Inks are also a fast drying pigment ink that clean easily. They dry to a matte like finish, and the colors are very nice and the colors sit on top of each other (i.e. they don’t bleed together and muddy up). These also come in a very wide range of colors, from very small pads in the cats eye variety, to mini pads that measure about 1.25×2.25 (I have these), to full size pads.

3) Solvent Inks - The most common of these is Stazon. This is a permanent alcohol based ink that can stamp on any surface, including non-porous surfaces like glass, plastics, metals. These are fabulous for altering buttons or embellishments. You need StazOn cleaner to completely clean this ink off your rubber stamp. This formulation is strong, and I caution against using this ink too much with clear stamps (though I still do use them) and never use the Staz On Cleaner on your clear stamps. Just use a wetwipe and consign yourself to a stained stamp. It’ll still stamp just fine next time you use it.

What ink to use? This depends on your application. If you are hoping to alter something non-porous, your only choice is really the solvent ink. But what about every day stamping - a direct paper to paper card or layout? To me, that is a matter of personal preference. The dye inks have the best range of color and are the most affordable, and the easiest to clean up. The pigment inks last longer in the long run, have a less color range, and take longer and more effort to set.

There is a difference between the stamped image you get using a rubber stamp and a clear acrylic stamp. Rubber stamps carry all the inks very well. A clear acrylic stamp is not as uniform, and the inks definitely “sit” different - I find that it varies slightly among my different brands of stamps. I almost always see a slight “pooling” of the ink that results in a slightly un-solid image. I know many inks say they are formulated for clear stamps. I personally don’t see it.

Below, I test stamped an acrylic stamp using several different inks that I own (CTMH, Adirondack, Archival Ink, Chalk Ink, Distress Ink, Staz On, Memento, Versafine). This is not meant to be exhaustive, as I don’t own all the inks in the market. I purposefully chose a stamp with both fine lines and solid lines so you can see how the inks reach to it -

Two Step Stamping

friday reveal and embossing velvet cardstock...

The theme this week at lifetimemoments was fuzzy textile stuff.

The velvet cardstock from Doodlebug is so fun to manipulate and texturize.

Here, I've done most of it already, we're going to work up the last bit.

For this technique, you need a red rubber wood mounted stamp. I have never tried this with a red rubber UNMOUNTED stamp, so I do not know if it would work. Spray the part of the velvet cardstock you will be embossing with water.


Place your rubber stamp rubber UP on your ironing board

Place your cardstock, the part you seek to emboss, velvet DOWN facing the red rubber. Put your iron over it - hold for about 5 seconds - lightly move back and forth, pressing down the entire time - you will see a very faint image of your stamp - no more than 30 seconds....

Voila. Done! Set it aside to dry.

Once it is dry, you can use it as any other paper. Because this is paper backed, you can shape it, crumple it, etc... Because it is paper backed, you can also run it through a die cut machine (I used both sizzix and sizzlets).

NOTE: if you somehow re-wet it, the emboss will not stick around (as i learned when I tried to "distress" one of my die cuts with ink - the total wetness of it left me with no pattern - though when I just worked up the edges, it was ok).

Stamp is from Unity Stamp Company - Distressed Dots

Here are my layouts: Click on the layout title to go to my gallery and find them with links to the products used....

Birthday Present 08



Snow Day


Closeups of the emboss


TFL! Wendy

hip hop thursday 10-16

Welcome to Unity Stamp Company's Hip Hop Thursday, this beautiful fall October 16th!

If you haven't joined me from Patter's blog, start at Angela's blog. From there, follow the hops through the DT blogs, through all of the fabulous Unity samples, and some blog candy at the very end.

This week I had to work on a welcome to a beautiful new baby girl my friend just adopted. I used the Growing in Unity kit.



My second card is part of my donations to the Charity Auction over at lifetimemoments that will start on Monday. A group of us are donating cards for a collection auction. These are 5.5"x8.5" (letter sized folded in half - apparently you can get envelopes for these at every office supply store), very large... It was fun to work on a larger space

This is the beautiful new Prince of Peace single...




As always, Angela has some fabulous Hip Hop specials for today only. Check out her blog for the specials. Angela's blog.

Your next stop is Amber's blog for more Unity goodness. Hip Hop!

hip hop thursday 10-9

AHEM.....

SING IT WITH ME!

I WANT CANDY!!!

DA DEE DUM DUM DUM DUM!

I WANT CANDY!!!

DA DEE DUM DUM DUM DUM!

YEAH!

HELLOOOOOO everyone! and Welcome to Unity Stamp Company's Hip Hop Thursday! If you are joining me from the lovely Christi's blog, CONGRATULATIONS!! You've come to the last stop of this week's hip hop thursday blog hop!

[If you haven't joined me from Christi's blog, start at Angela's blog. From there, follow the hops through the DT blogs, through all of the fabulous Unity samples, til you end up back here...]

YEPPERS!! I've got the candy! [I've got the cccccccaaaaaaannnnndeeeeeeeeeee. I've got the cccccccccaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnddddddddddeeeeeeeee. YIPPEE!!!]

SOOOOO, leave your comment here, and I will pick a winner tonight and post to the Hip Hop thread at the Unity forum for a free set of Jolly Little Winter kit.

I so love the adorable penguins in this set. This is splitcoast cardsketch 197. The paper is Basic Grey Obscure, and the cuttlebug embossing plate.



I was feeling very seasonal this week, and so this is the trick or treat peeps kit. The paper is glitz designs, and a cuttlebug embossing plate.


We've got some adorable new releases today, and some great specials, so check out Angela's blog.

Thanks for playing this week!! HIP HOP!!

hip hop thursday 10-2

HELLOOOOOO everyone! and Welcome to Unity Stamp Company's Hip Hop Thursday! Its an intimidating week for me this week, to follow the fabulous work of Anne Marie, Unity's October guest designer, and someone whose work I have long long admired!!

If you haven't joined me from Anne Marie's blog, start at Angela's blog. From there, follow the hops through the DT blogs, through all of the fabulous Unity samples, and some blog candy at the very end.

It was my niece's 3rd birthday and I only had butcher paper in the house. BOO! Yes, I turned into that aunt!! and so I desperately tried to spruce it up with some unity goodness!! Cupcakes a la Yummy to the rescue! I used it as a tag to try and spruce up that boring-to-a-3-yr-old kraft...


For the next project, I made a necklace out of the October Kit of the Month Thinking About the Good Times and the Something Within kit




As always, Angela has some fabulous Hip Hop specials for today only. Check out her blog for the specials. Angela's blog.

Your next stop is Sarah's blog for more Unity goodness. Hip Hop!