Creating background paper with Stamps!
January 7, 2010 by Leica · 2 Comments
Did everyone have a wonderful holiday? Are you excited the kids are back into school? I am!!!!! I love the routine and the quiet time I get once in awhile. lol. I love looking back at Christmas and now trying to scrapbook those memories while they are fresh in my mind.
Today I decided to make a couple of background pages for layouts. I began by spraying 2 different colours of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist on a 8×8. (Juniper and Candy Apple Red)
spray the lighter colour first (red)
then spray in the juniper.
Now take another plain white 8×8 and put over top and rub your hand all over to blend. Do this over top of newspaper as you will squish stuff out and you don’t want to get your workspace all messy.
Now you have to let dry for a bit. If you are in a hurry, as I often am, I will keep the top page on the other one and iron them together. This will set them while keeping the most shimmer on the page.
Now I chose to use The Deck the Halls, ornament stamps. I picked one and stamped it repetitively all around the edges of the page. I didn’t focus on the middle as I knew that I had a 5×7 going in the middle.
then I sprayed the mist on some tags. Let dry. I always spray a few different colours at the same time, that way I can try a few different colour combos.
In this case I chose red. So then I took the stars off the same stamp set and stamped all over the tag, leaving room for a little journaling.
Now assemble!
I added gold ribbon to emphasize the glimmer mist tone.
I had fun going in and colouring parts of the ornaments with glitter glue and smooch. I of course finished off the page with journaling, Prima bling. thanks for checking it out.
Leica
Hey, who took my glass?
December 29, 2009 by Marci · 7 Comments
How many times have you heard THAT this week? With Christmas and Holiday parties and dinners, we’ve all heard that 100 times. You pick up your glass of wine, take a sip, put it down for a minute and then turn around and its gone.
“Is that my glass?” you ask.
“Um, I don’t think so. Gee, you know I’m not sure” they reply.
And there you both stand trying to figure out whether your sister is drinking your Chardonnay. If only there was a way to be sure….
Enter the wine glass charms!
I saw some for sale in Macy’s a few weeks ago – a set of 6 for $20. I had them in my hand and was going to buy them, and then I thought to myself, I could make those…
So I went to my local craft store and picked up some “Shrinky Dink” plastic, a package of elastic wire, some beads and headed back to my craft table to get started.
I grabbed a few sets of festive mSB Stamps and got to work. I started with a couple of snowflakes from the ”Let it Snow” set. I stamped my images onto my plastic sheet using black Stazon Ink – this is CRUCIAL…you MUST use Stazon ink or you’ll be in for a world of frustration. Take my word for it…
After stamping my image, I used a 2 inch punch to cut out a circle shape, and a scallop shape. I used a hole punch to put a hole in the top of each one so that I could later string my wire through it. If you have a crop-a-dile, use the bigger size hole as it will shrink down when the plastic melts. If the hole is too small if will close up and you’ll have no way of putting your wire through.
Now bring on the heat – if you’re like me and you have a gas oven, then you can’t bake your charms. Instead, pull out your heat embossing gun. Using a pair of tweezers or a small embossing stylus, hold the plastic in place as you heat it. Move the heat tool around so that you don’t scorch the plastic.
As the plastic gets hot and starts to shrink it will start to curl up and flop all over the place. DO NOT PANIC! It will fix itself when the shrinking process is done and flatten back out. The result will be a much smaller, much thicker piece of hard plastic. You may need to flatten down a little bit, so just take a stamping pad or a book and put it on the charm while its still warm.
Once I felt confident with doing the snowflake charms, I got a little braver and used some of the stamps from the “Deck the Halls” set. I used Copic markers to add some color and then heated them up and shrunk ‘em down. (note: If you’ve never used “Shrinky Dinks” before you have no idea how much fun you’re missing!)
Once you have all of your charms made, then you can string them with beads or whatever you want to decorate them and make them your own. Make sure to use “Elastic Wire”, this is key to getting the charms to stay on the stem of the glass and not keep falling off. You can find it in the jewellery making section of any craft store for under $3.
When you have the beads strung, cut the elastic wire and tie a series of knots. Multiple knots are important because as you stretch the wire to pull it over the glass bottom it will pull on the elastic. If you only have one or two knots tied they’ll just pull out and your beads will fly all over the place….again, trust me….I found that tying about 12 knots one on top of the other worked perfectly.
And there you have it, a beautiful, one-of-a-kind wine glass charm! Try tto make each charm a little different, add beads to some, add bling to others, let your creativity run wild…the point is for each one to be unique so that when you pick up a wine glass you know who it belongs to 
Have a wonderful, safe and prosperous New Year. Here’s to 2010!
Marci
myStampBOX Design Team
‘Twas the Night Before Christmas…
December 24, 2009 by Jolene · 2 Comments
It’s Christmas Eve, and many of us are knee-deep in family, friends and good cheer. Thanks so much for stopping by our blog today for this fun stamping tutorial. Here’s a layout I made about the tiny Santa that lives in my house.
1. Stamp three different ornaments using embossing ink and emboss with gold powder.
2. Hand cut each image along the edge of the embossing, using extra care around the hook part of the image.
3. Cut a strip of striped patterned paper. Stamp sentiment with red distress ink in ivory area. Stamp birds in between text.
4. For added interest I trimmed the top and bottom edges of the strip with faux postage scissors.
5. Use text paper as the layout base. Tear an L-shaped piece of holly paper and adhere to upper left corner. Ink all paper edges with red chalk ink. Adhere stamped sentiment strip near bottom of layout. Distress photo edges, mat on red cardstock and adhere to layout above sentiment strip. Adhere tinsel garland with glue dots as shown.
6. Adhere handcut ornaments using glue dots or foam tape, tucking ends of “hooks” over garland. Further embellish garland with flowers and brads.
The final touches on this layout are a journaling card with a few details about the photo and a vintage-style mitten to hold the card. It was fun to showcase the Deck the Halls stamps from myStampBOX with the unexpected twist of birds from the Tree for All Seasons set. The ornament stamps have such bold lines which make them quick and easy to cut out. Mix and match your papers and embossing powders for endless combinations of holiday fun. Maybe if you’re good, Santa will bring *YOU* some myStampBOX stamps tonight! Merry Christmas! – Jolene
Supplies: Deck the Halls, Tree For All Seasons, Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Ink & Fired Brick Ink, Warm Red Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink, Gold American Crafts Zing! embossing powder & Black Slick Writer, Making Memories Mistletoe Collection papers & brads, Making Memories Vintage Findings mitten, garland & paper, Bo Bunny St. Nick flowers, Jenni Bowlin journaling card, Fiskars scissors, Bazzill cardstock.
Winter stamps & glass
November 17, 2009 by Leica · 8 Comments
Happy Winter! Is it snowing today where you are? It is for me and I love the big fluffy white flakes. So it was so inspiring to break out the snowflake stamps and play around. So here I am , watching the snow fall, ready to scrap our first snow days pictures and all I could think of was how pretty the snowflakes looked on the glass. So a light popped into my head and thought let’s do something with microscope slides. So off on this adventure…
- skill level: medium
- time: 30 min (or less)
supply list to create the slides:
- microscope glass slides
- silver embossing powder
- versamark (embossing ink)
- 2 shades of alcohol ink (I used Wild Plum & Stream)
- My Stamp Box -”Let It Snow” stamps
- 2 felt pieces
extras to actually complete the layout:
- Tattered angels Glimmer mist in patina (a shade of light blue)
- white cardstock
- Robin’s Nest dew drops
- purple & blue ink
- liquid adhesive or pop dots
Stamp the images onto your slides. Then sprinkle the embossing powder on them. I used Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) cause I like the thick effect, a finer powder gives you more definition in the stamp image.
Then I took 2 different pieces of felt, one for each colour. Dab on the back of the slides (opposite side to what you embossed). If you want add a bit of colour to the front as well for more intense areas. you can even do drops from the bottle. Be careful this stuff stains. (I recommend taking off your rings)
Now if you would like to do the layout.
Step 1: Spray a hint of the glimer mist on the background, however amount you would like.
Step 2: Then stamp layered images of the stamps all over the layout. I like to vary the intensities. On a few I outlined with a black marker to make it pop even more.
Step 3: Then attach the slides along the bottom. This will look good if you decided to put them all in a perfectly straight line or not.
Step 4: Place the photos on.
Step 5: Journal. For this I just wrote down the side of one of the photos. Nothing major. I really wanted the photos and accents to be the focus.
Step 6: Add the finishing touches of Dew Drops.
Thanks for being creative with me today! Have a wonderful winter day.
DIY Shaped Cards
August 30, 2009 by Tracey · 16 Comments
I created three different shaped cards today to show you just how quick and easy they can be. All you need is a shape to trace (template, piece of chipboard, etc.), or if you are the adventurous type you can draw your shapes freehand.
NOTE: All of my cards were made using templates from the Maya Roads website.
To make the first card, I simply cut out two identical heart shapes . Because my paper had the word “love” on it, I decided to cut a heart out of the front shape so this word love shows through from the back.
To put the card together, I simply attached the front and back with a brad. The card will not open in the traditional manner, but will simply slide back and forth to reveal the interior. Quick and Easy!
I used the “He Says, She Says” set to stamp the sentiment.
This next card opens and closes in a more traditional manner. I folded a piece of black cardstock in half and traced a flower onto the cardstock making sure that one petal was just slightly over the edge of the fold. Because I added flower petals to the entire surface of the front, you can’t even tell that one petal is a little shorter.
Here is a picture of the card opened and laying flat.
And here is a photo of the card when it is closed.
I used the “Oval Office” set to stamp a sentiment for this card.
The final card is a gift card. I traced two identical stars, decorated them and attached them at the top with an eyelet and ribbon detail.
I used the “Deck the Halls” set for a sentiment on this card. The “O Christmas Tree” set would also be fantastic for cards of this type.
So what do you think? Are you ready to embark into a world of making shaped cards? I know I’m hooked.
Stamping on Glass
July 11, 2009 by Marci · 4 Comments
I don’t know about you, but I love visiting my local dollar store. I always find something I can alter or stamp on.
In one recent trip, I found this great star shaped glass dish. As soon as I saw it I thought about the small star stamp in the “Deck the Halls” set and I thought up the most fun idea. To create this project you need a glass dish (preferably star shaped), Stazon Ink, Stamps and an acrylic block. You will also need a roll of masking tape…Intrigued?
Affix the small star cluster stamp to your acrylic block. Put it as close to the edge as possible so that have more control over the placement of your image.
Apply the Stazon to your stamp, and then stamp the image onto the glass. For shaped pieces, such as a star shape, its very easy to go around the shape on the flat surface. Place your forefinger on the inside of the dish and your thumb on the outside to keep the block securely in place. This is important because the glass is slippery and you could easily smear your image otherwise. Stamp your image all the way around the dish.
Now, you’ll notice that I was only able to stamp my image on the “flat” parts of the dish. How am I ever going to get the stamp images on the points and angles? Good question….and I pondered that myself for a few minutes. This is where the masking tape comes in!
Remove the stamp from your acrylic block, and attach it to a piece of masking tape. The tape gives you the ability to make your stamp flexible, allowing you to stamp your image onto curved, square and other “not flat” surfaces. You can apply the tape directly to the glass. Let it sit for about 5 seconds before removing it. Continue around the dish so that you get all of the “pointed” surfaces covered.
Now, for the interior corners…take the tape off the stamp, and reapply it to the FRONT of the stamp, covering up the bottom portion of the image.
The reason for this seemingly strange application is two fold – first, it allows you to overlap the image with the image you already have stamped, making it look more natural. Second, it gives you greater ease of application. Stamp your image on the interior corners all the way around and fill in the blank space you have left on the dish.
You can turn a cheap dollar store trinket into an expensive boutique store item…using the stuff in your stash and a little ingenuity.
Thanks for visiting! See you next time,
Marci 
