Paper Trufflez

My Heart's a Stereo . . .

Music is such a universal language . . . it's funny how often a card I design is inspired by something I'm LISTENING to, as opposed to looking at. Was bee-boppin' to "My Heart's A Stereo" on Pandora, and all of a sudden, this idea popped into my head when I was looking at Kim's "Boob Tubes" stamp set.  Call me nerdy, but hey, when sumpin' sparks ya', well . . . sometimes, ya' just gotta run with it. *chuckle*

I used a slightly different punch than listed below, but I listed that one because it can produce similarly sized tiny hearts.

One thing I wanted to point out that I forgot to mention in the video, is that you can avoid smudging of chalk pencil work from fingertips, etc., by sealing it with a fixative, such as Krylon Matte Finish.

 Enjoy the video here, or on YouTube! And, thanks for watchin'!

 

 

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Supplies & Materials:

Boob Tubes	Large Punch, Photo Captions	Adirondack Pigment Ink Pad, Snow Cap	PITT Pastel Pencil, Medium White	NEW Archival Ink Pad, Jet Black
A5 Cardstock, Black	Krylon Matte Finish Spray	H Cardstock, Kraft	My Mind's Eye, Lost & Found Two 6x6 Paper Pad, Breeze	Paper Trimmer, Tonic Guillotine 8 1/2"
Uni-ball Impact Gel Pen, White	Martha Stewart Corner Punch, Looped Hearts

InLinkz.com

Something Wicked This Way Comes . . .

Mwuah haha ha haaaaaaaaaaa!!!

Best check it out! *wink* It's over in the CLASSroom at Ellen's!

See ya' there!

5MQ - Butterfly Hello

Just a 5MQ for today!  This is one of my all-time favorite layouts when I want to make something quick! I love this Prima paper so much I could wear it!  It would make a gorgeous sweater or skirt, no?!

 

I should make a whole stack of these for my Mom--she'd love 'em! 

No fancy techniques but I will give you a tip:  Stamp the sentiment first, then mount the strip of pattern paper where you want it along the top; trim off the excess and mount it underneath the sentiment, and again, trim off any excess flush with the bottom edge of the card. Slap that butterfly down, and Bob's yer uncle! *wink*

   

                              

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Supplies & Materials:

 

Edger Punch, Open Scallop	Martha Stewart Large Craft Punch, Butterfly	Prima 6x6 Paper Pad, Alla Prima	Neenah Card Stock, Solar White	Fresh Ink (Tuscan Olive)
ClearDesign: Truly Appreciated

InLinkz.com

Boo! Card & working with large background stamps

The booglie eyes on this ghost-guy cracks me!  I think he's my favorite character in this set by Kim Hughes. *chuckle*

I'm really liking two inks of late:

Adirondack Snow Cap (Pigment)--this stuff really is BOMB on dark card stock!  I used it to stamp the background, and I just set it aside to dry (no heat-setting, no thermal embossing) while I worked on the rest of the card.  Now, I haven't had a chance to test it on printed card stock, but I 'fout fell off my chair, I was that impressed with this white ink's performance on my initial tests with dyed card stock.

The other ink is Archival Jet Black, which is great for when you want to use water-based coloring mediums (watercolors, watercolor pencils, water-based markers, etc.). I love dye inks, but, often times the black doesn't stamp as deep/intense as I'd like.  I *really* liked how this ink stamped with red rubber images, but I was not expecting to also be this happy with how it inked up Kim's stamps, which are of high-grade photopolymer (not vinyl)!

Anyhoo, I'm always tickled when I find another ink to love, and just wanted to share!

The video shows an easy technique for working with large background stamps, and for creating "motion" with a stamped image.  You can watch it here, or on YouTube!

Have a wondermous day!

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Supplies & Materials: (I tend to dump all my bottles of iridescent glitter together into a plastic tub; the seam binding ribbon used in this design was actually from my stash, but a similar color is in a tri-color package by 7 Gypsies, or you could use white and custom tint it)

 

Halloweenies	Cling Magical Background	Neenah Card Stock, Solar White	Adirondack Pigment Ink Pad, Snow Cap	NEW Archival Ink Pad, Jet Black
Memento Marker 4 Pack, Juicy Purple	G5 Cardstock, Concord Grape	Quickie Glue Pen	Seam Binding, Nottinghill	Divine Twine, Black & White
A5 Cardstock, Black

InLinkz.com

Butterfly Thank-You

Well, golly, ya'all ROCK!  Thanks for all the good wishes!

Now, I have a purty card to share today with ya'!  And, a video to go with!   There is a spot tho, where my bed-head got a bit in the way of the camera.  Please ignore. *sheepish grin*

I fell in love with this 6x6 paper pad by Prima--the colors are an unusual combo for me and one I probably never would have tried on my own.  So nice they've taken the guess work out of that, eh?!  Anyhoo, this particular sheet of paper makes the card look more complex than it really is because they combined a ton of the patterns from the pad into a single sheet.  So cool and clever! I likey!

Happy Mundane!!! (that still cracks me every time I hear it...) 

 

 

 

All the products used in the project are listed below for your reference:

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Martha Stewart Large Craft Punch, Butterfly	Neenah Card Stock, Solar White	Prima 6x6 Paper Pad, Alla Prima	Punch, 1" Square
Basic Grey, Hello Lusc	Fresh Ink (Chamomile)

InLinkz.com

 

Clean & Simple Card: Just saying hi

Change is in the wind for me again . . .  Over the last 8 years, I have been exceedingly fortunate to work closely with Linda, and all the staff at A Muse, and I cherish all the experiences, and things that I have learned, and relationships that have blossomed from my time there.  It has been awesome!  I am incredibly lucky to have made so many good friends--people I will always, always hold dear!

"We all take different paths in life, but no matter where we go, we take a little of each other everywhere."

~ Tim McGraw

But, if there's one thing I've always felt deeply, it's that you'll never regret being there when your family needs you.  Recently, both my own parents and my in-laws have been experiencing some health issues, and they need me more. And, I will be there! *grin*

And, now, I have some other news to share!

Here's the "back story": Ellen and I have been friends for the longest time--we first met (virtually) on Splitcoaststampers.com, back in the early, early days (shoot, hope that doesn't tell our age!!! LOL!).  I'll never forget the look on the Mister's face when I told him I was going to meet "my internet friend, Ellen" for lunch and spend the day crafting. His eyes kinda bulged out of his head . . . *chuckle* I told him I'd be perfectly safe; "She's a STAMPER, for cryin' out loud!", I said.

Ellen introduced me to fresh mozzarella, basil, tomatoes and balsamic vinegar that day; I was immediately hooked. And, we've been buddies ever since! Not just cuz of the food, tho. *chuckle*  She's got a smile that radiates sunshine, and a heart o' gold! If you've ever chatted with her online or met her in person, you already know that.

Recently, Ellen invited me to be part of her Education & Inspiration Team!  And, I was thrilled to accept, because it really works well with my current situation! I'll be sharing fun ideas and designs to try on a regular basis and hope you'll pop in! Here's a peek at my first project:

If you'd like to know more, c'mon over and join me at the CLASSroom!

Pretty patterned paper . . . with some kraft card stock and a big blossom stamp, oh my!

Mod Fry Box & Card + DIE-ssecting (Not the biology class kind!)

Kind of a loooooooooong post, so I hope you have a cuppa (or ice cold beverage, depending on the weather where you are, of course) to enjoy while you're reading today's blatherings. *wink*

It started with this stuff (see above): Some tissue paper I'd gotten a long (like forever) time ago, a fry box die and some polka dot patterned card stock in slate (by Canvas Corp., I think) found at Impress (any time I find paper like this, I have a tendency to clean off the racks and leave none for anyone else, I'm afraid . . . oops! Sorry.  OK, not really.),  Primo Label Dies, and the zig zag punch.

When I bought the label dies, I had a card-making idea in mind for them.  But, when I opened the package, I could see it wasn't going to work as I had initially thought because the two labels were actually connected end-to-end.  I think I mentioned seeing someone perform a little DIE-ssection (HAH!) on their dies in order to use them in a way different than they were originally designed for. Actually, a number of peeps have done this--Cristina, Sarah, and my buddy Ellen.

Knowing they had been succesful, and, as Sarah said, being willing to re-buy them if I ruined them in my attempt, I decided to perform some surgical modifications myself. *gasp*  Be forewarned, this definitely requires some elbow grease and patience, if the die shapes are connected by more than a "tine" or "web"; these are steel dies so you'll need something that can cut through steel/sheet metal (I found some aviator snips with serrated blades), and a metal file (I used one from the Basic Grey Precision File Set) so you can smooth down any sharp edges/corners.

And, yes; I'd wear safety goggles.  Just sayin' . . . *chuckle*

 

 

I didn't actually take any pics of the surgical process itself--I was on a mission, impatient, it was 1am and I didn't really have the best lighting anyhoo at that hour . . . LOL!

Basically, I did what the aforementioned brave chicks did: scored a line with an X-acto knife, and then cut thru it with the aviator snips. Because it was a single and straight cut, things kinda happened more quickly than I anticipated (!) and the smaller die winged off over my right shoulder with just one squeeze of the snips.  Which is why I highly recommend wearing safety goggles.  After that, I filed the sharp corners down, rounding them off like the others, for a nice finish.

So, why in the world did I go to all this trouble?  Yes, yes, I'm whacked; helloOOooo!  Everybody already knows that! *rolling eyeballs* It was because I really wanted to use that shape as a "window" to stamp greetings thru. I've seen gorgeous Letterpress cards with the sentiment appearing thru a lovely little window.  And, you *know* how we crafty chicas are over such things; we see them, and we sez to ourselves (OK, more like we shrieks internally to ourselves): 

I COULD SO TOTALLY MAKE THAT!!!

 So I did. Heh, heh, heh!

 

Moving on to the fry box itself. Lemme just say, this die ROCKS!  It's wafer thin, so that's great for storage, but it cuts so *crisply*!  Oy!  I used to trace and hand-cut, then score these thingie bobs out.  If you wanna talk whacked, THAT, my friends, is whacked!  It's all one piece, so there's hardly any assembly--just fold on the perfed score lines and glue the sides up! 

And, ladies & gentlemen, because the whole die is only comprised of the outline and score lines, none of the etchings on the cutting plate of my Big Shot transfered to the paper.  None whatsoever! I was so pleasantly surprised by this!  AND, the way the die is sized and designed, you can get two fry boxes (Yes, you read that correctly:  2   !!!) from a single sheet of 8.5 x 11" card stock.

Say whaaaaaaat????!!!!!

Wait for it . . .

 

                    Wait for it . . .

 

 

 

 

 

DAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' 'BOUT!!!

 

 

WOW! You are still here???!!! This was like the Never-ending Story! You are AMAZING!!!  *wink*

Have a fabby weekend!

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The rest of the stuff used:

Stamps: "Hi There!" (Clear Design Thinking Of You Set by Hero Arts, Retired?), Reverse Scallop Seal by Impress Rubber Stamps, "4" (Birthday Builder Set by A Muse Studio), "U" (Classic Alphabet Set by A Muse Studio)
Ink:  Fresh Ink by Impress Rubber Stamps in Tomato Red, Slate & Sicilian Blue
1 3/4" Circle Punch by EK Success
Chevron Twill Ribbon by May Arts
Tissue Paper (source unknown)