LMac's Catered Crops

A Paper Bouquet Mat

 

Can you believe it? I made these beautiful flowers out of Paper! I took a class by the lovely Susan Tierney Cockburn on Monday at Scrappily Ever After. Cheryl's store in Temple, Texas, is one of the few scrapbook stores that carries Susan's full line of paper punches and books, as well as the tools, adhesives, etc., she recommends. The store is just full of Susan's beautiful sculpted flowers - that alone is worth the trip.

I've admired Susan's work for years and purchased her books hoping to some day master the craft. I never thought I'd be able to do it to my satisfaction, but Susan is such a great teacher. She has incredible knowledge of the paper crafting industry (and even the latest gossip about many of the paper crafting "stars.") But, most inspiring was her love for horticulture and her passion for staying true to the flower.

Okay, don't laugh, because I know this is pretty dated . . . but here's one of the three projects I created on Monday with Susan's guidance.

 

Yep, that's none other than my new husband and me - 26 years ago. Don't you love that hat and those wings on my shoulder?! And isn't Tom a cutie?! When I showed Tom this new mat for our wedding picture, he said it was a little overkill. Okay, I kind of agree. But, still, aren't those flowers just amazing? My mind is spinning with projects to make with my new flower-making skills.

Susan flew from her home in Washington State to be with us in Central Texas, and was practicing her Japanese to head to a trade show in Tokyo. It was a huge treat to spend the day with her.

Stay tuned for more projects from Susan's class. And, don't forget to come back on April 27 for our Stampin' Up! Blog Hop, when I'll be featuring the set, "Scene in a Garden."

Tipsy Tuesday - Well, Duh

Yes, we are so way overdue for a Tipsy Tuesday Tip. Do you ever hear one of those tips and think, well, duh, why didn't I think of that? Some of the best tips are the ones that are right in front of your nose, but, it took another genius to come up with it. (You know, like the tip about not running your ceiling fan when you're playing with glitter, unless you like that overall glow look.)

Stampin' Up! has always been known for such excellent color coordination (paper matches ink matches ribbon matches eyelets and brads). This year they've really stepped it up a notch so that their punches are coordinating even more with their images and accessories. Here are just a few examples:

• SNOW BLOSSOM PUNCH works with "In the Spotlight" and the "Snowfall" stamp sets
• THREE FOR YOU PUNCH works with "Punch Pals" (3 poinsettias) and "Sweet Thing" (small flower)
• STAR PUNCH can be used with the "Sporting", "Labelicious," "Wanted," and other Boho products
• WORD WINDOW PUNCH - There are 55 sets to use with this punch!

Some smart person at the recent Stampin' Up! convention came up with this idea.

Make little index cards of each of your Stampin' Up! punches. I used scrap pieces of paper that I cut down to 4" x 2 3/4" - that was big enough for the biggest punch shape. Then, with my handy-dandy crop-a-dile, I punched a hole in the top of the sheets and put them all together with a binder ring. Now, I have an inventory of all my punch shapes (I love punches). Because it's on a binder ring, I can add or delete my index sheets as my inventory changes. And, since the stamp images in the catalog are actual size, I can also overlay my index cards to see which punches work well with the individual stamp images. Genius. Wish I'd thought of it.

I color coded my index sheets so that Sky Blue is for circle shapes, Wild Wasabi for square shapes, Purely Pomegranate for miscellaneous shapes like the star, and River Rock for flowers, etc. It took me all of about 30 minutes to make my inventory index cards. Don't you just love easy tips like this?

Today is my adorable twin sister's birthday. Well, you know what that means. It's my birthday, too, and she won't let me forget it. So she sent me that great card in the picture. Here's the inside sentiment:

Wha, ha, ha! I about peed in my panties. Yes, that's me, glitter gas. Buy, that's because I've played with glitter under the fan! That's my niece's disclaimer on the bottom: "I am not responsible for the actions of my mother." Here's a shout out to my adorable sister, and a song in her honor.

Happy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday you crazy loon!
You're freakin' 49 years old today . . .
Hey, that's okay, I am too!

I love you, sis! May all your birthdays be glittery!

A Paul Simon Sing-Along

My husband and I are camped at my father-in-law's house, keeping an eye on him while at the same time occupying ourselves to keep our minds of what lies ahead. Thank you for your very kind words of support and sympathy. Thankfully, Dad is staying comfortable and peaceful. We're doing everything we can to keep him that way.

So, not being at home, I don't have access to my stamping supplies. I do have the companionship of the Internet, though, and have enjoyed all the news from this past week's National Stampin' Up Convention in Denver. Kimberly Morris of SUDSOL fame forwarded along some fantastic notes. Among the gems were these hints from a presentation by Carrie Cudney & Lori Olaveson.

Remember that Paul Simon song . . . Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover.

Okay, now sing along with me,

She said its really not my habit to intrude
Furthermore, I hope my meaning wont be lost or misconstrued
But Ill repeat myself at the risk of being crude
There must be 20 ways to use your markers.

1. Colorbook - stamp in black, then color in.
2. Opaque Coloring - stamp in white craft ink on dark or black cardstock, then color over portions with markers. (Batty For You set is great for this.)
3. Color in spots on a black and white photograph. (Lighter colors work best for this; don't color on one of a kind photos. Make copies to color on.)
4. Watercoloring.
5. Dual end coloring - pick up a bit of re-inker of a darker shade onto the tip of a marker.
6. Omitting (TIP: lightly dab with sponge dauber to smooth out brush strokes from surface of inked stamp before stamping down onto card stock.)
7. Embossing - ink stamp up in Versamark first, then color with markers then stamp on card stock and cover with clear embossing powder (EP).
8. Shading and Highlighting - start with lightest color and move to darker colors.
9. Water Misting  - ink up image and spray either stamp or card stock with water before stamping
10. Color Spritzer Background - mist a background onto card stock.
11. Color Spritzer Inking - mist onto stamp before stamping. You may want to color with lighter colors first, then mist speckles onto image.
12. Thumping - ink up image in light color, "thump" markers of 2-3 different colors onto the top of that, exhale on stamp to moisten the ink and then stamp image
13. Coloring Acetate - take page protector and cut away two sides so that it opens like a folder. Scribble with different colors of markers, then mist with water.  Close "folder" and open it.  Place two pieces of card stock in there back to back and close folder, rubbing the color onto the card stock. Remove card stock and let dry. Mist again for a lighter set of background pieces.
14. Dyeing Ribbon (This especially looks neat if you run a marker on each little edge of the grosgrain ribbon, as it makes the edges stand out by themselves.)
15. Dyeing flowers in Pretties Kit
16. Dyeing Pearls in Pretties kit - Color pearl, hold in tweezers from Crafter's Tool Kit, dip in clear EP and heat EP to set
17. Dyeing Hair! (streaks for Halloween)
18. Stencil through brass template
19. Stampin' Around wheels - color with marker, spray with mist of water, use chalk applicator to remove words or letters or other parts you don't want.
20. Tone on tone journaling

I use my markers a lot, but I sure picked up some good tips. Thanks, Kimberly. Can't wait to try some of these ideas, especially when I break out my Pretties Kit.

The Care and Feeding of Ink Pads

This Tipsy Tuesday topic includes just some basic Stampin' 101 tips for the Care and Feeding of your ink pads.

Storage:

• I'm a little slow sometimes. I store my Stampin' Up! ink pads by family color but it took me months before I caught on that there's a little code on the end of the pad to help you keep the families together. Did you know the number of dots tells you the color family? The Real Red pad here has one dot, which places it with the Bold Bright family. Pads with two dots go to Earth Elements, three dots belong to Rich Regals, and four dots go with Soft Subtles.
• Felt ink pads are best stored upside down to keep the ink closest to the stamping surface. Fortunately, Stampin' Up! designed their pad cases so that the ink pads are automatically face down when you close them.
• If you don't have the boxes the stamp pads come in (by color family), find an organizational tool that allows you to store all of your pads flat. Always store your pads level, never on their ends (especially rainbow or Kaleidescope pads).

There are lots of creative ways to store you pads, including some cassette/8-track storage systems and custom shelves. I like the Stampin' Up! caddy because, as the name of my blog implies, I like to go to crops, and our caddy is easy to tote. The small, turn-style footprint takes just a little space on my desk. When you go out to look for something, take a few stamp pads with you and make sure your system will keep the pads flat. Here are a few on-line sources for pad storage.

1. Stampin' Up! Color Caddy
2. Dek Development Ink
3. Storage Units Ink
4. Wisconsin Stamp Supplies
5. Sizzle
6. Stamp N Store

Maintenance:

• Old stamp pads never die, they just get re-inked. Re-inking is very easy and saves you money in new pads. Spread a thin layer of the bottled refill ink as evenly as possible over the pad. Start in the middle, squeezing out the ink as you draw lines on the pad, back and forth. In the areas where the ink is absorbed very quickly keep applying more ink until it sinks in much slower. You can then use a stiff piece of card stock or a  heavy plastic (an old credit card) to drag across the pad and spread the ink.
• Don't forget that the current In Color inks and paper will retire on July 1 (other colors may retire as well, but we won't know until July 1.) If you've purchased those pads, be sure to order re-inkers before July 1 because they'll only be available for three times the cost on E-Bay.
• Ink stains on the outside of the ink pad case usually clean up easily with a baby wipe or paper towel and a bottle of Stampin' Mist. Mr. Clean Magic Eraser works well for cleaning up both stamp pad cases and stained stamps.
• Do you have some stray little threads sticking out the sides of the felt pads? Trim those easily with scissors to prevent loose threads from coming out on your stamped image.

Hopefully now your pads are well fed and taken care of with a home where they can retreat laying flat with a generous re-inking and an outer makeover.

Here's where my pads retreat.

My craft desk probably doesn't maximize space but I'm very sentimental about it. It's full of family momentos such as my Dad's roll-top desk, the steeple clock he made for my Mom that chimes the hour, and favorite family pictures. I'm a sentimental stamper/scrapper so that suits me well. There are practical benefits, too, like the OTT light (love it!), the Ranger Craft Pad to protect the desk, and lots of knick-knack drawers. I'm very, very fortunate that I have a small room in the house I get to call mine. If you'd like (and I get up more nerve), I'll share the rest of the room with you this week.

Swinging Scissor Bling

Several folks have asked me to help them get or make some of the scissor charms my adorable sister made back in March. My Sis says she's got too many other projects going and I'm afraid my craftsmanship isn't worth the postage to ship them. Still, I'll take a stab at it showing you how, but only because I like you.

These charms are really easy once you've mastered wire wrapping. (Sounds like a CIA or hip-hop skill doesn't it?) Most bead stores offer classes, and that truly would be the best way to learn so you can learn the art to twisting the wire for beautiful jewelry. I started to put together a wire-wrap tutorial for you, but it requires some really close-up photos. Every time I'd get close enough for you to see the details, I'd get either fuzzy shots or these really pudgy hands - yuch. So, I did my usually thorough web browsing research and found a tutorial that best matches the way I learned wire wrapping at Austin's Nomadic Notions. Click here for The Bead Shop's wire wrapped loops tutorial.

Once you've got your loop-making skills honed, gather your supplies.

• Round nose pliers. Stampin' Up's tool kit includes bottle nose pliers which will work in a pinch.
• Needle nose pliers.
• Wire cutters. Our craft scissors will work for cutting wire, but a flush, jeweler's wire cutter will give you a closer cut for your final trim.
• 24 to 26-gauge wire. Stampin' Up! Metallic Metal Works 26 gauge silver wire works beautifully. Just remember, when you're measuring wire, the smaller the number, the thicker the wire. (It's like Nurse's syringe needles, you'd much rather have a shot with a 26 gauge needle than an 18 gauge needle.)
• Decorative beads.
• A shrinky-dink charm. I made my two charms with the Love It and Measure of a Life stamp sets. (Let me know if you want some advice on making Shrinky-dink embellishments, it's a lot of fun.)
• Either a really big clasp or one that opens out. If it opens inward you may not be able to get it onto your scissors.

Make your first loop to include the clasp, wrap the wire below the loop and trim off the excess (being careful to point down as you trim so your wire doesn't going flying into parts unknown).

String your decorative beads below the clasp and make your second loop to include the charm.

String on the charm and finish wrapping the wire above this loop. Clip the extra end of the wire, and your bling is ready to swing. Just be sure to point the wire down as you trim because the clipped wire has the bad habit of flying up and over, potentially causing bodily harm.

This is a really over-simplified list of instructions, but the nice thing about jewelry charms is, while they make great little gifts, they are really just for fun. Enjoy your swinging bling!

Tipsy Tuesday - Magic Pencil

While cruising the net have you seen those beautiful cards with that soft blended coloring, a little like watercoloring but more controlled ? Yeah, me too, and I got tired of seeing those and not knowing how to recreate them myself, so I did a little more net cruising and found some good tips. This week's "Tipsy Tuesday" topic includes these tip jems for colored pencils.

It seems that wax-based colored pencils, like Prismacolor, blended with Gamsol odorless minimal spirits is what they're using. They use them with a fast-drying die-based ink (e.g., Staz-On) on outline stamps and kind of take elementary-school coloring to a new level. After lots of practice (I hadn't colored since before Disco dancing was hot) here's an example of a card using the "magic pencil" technique with the same card pattern we did here.

There are several really good tutorials on the web for the "magic pencil" so I won't try to describe the technique. These ladies have done a fabulous job:

• Sassy and Sweet Notes Prisma Color Pencil & Gamsol Tips
• Splitcoast Technique Tutorials Gamsol Magic
• Debbie Gimbel: The Magic Colored Pencil

Primsacolors have thick, soft, wax-based leads made from light-resistant pigments that make them easy to blend. They're not watercolor pencils, though, so you'll need the Gamsol and blending stumps. The tutorials above include Internet links to purchase the pencils, blending stumps, Gamsol, Emory boards, etc. While Prismacolor pencils are lovely, they're not cheap. They are, however, easy to find at Michaels and Hobby Lobby and often on sale. I had a difficult time tracking down the Gamsol colorless minimal spirits and finally found it locally at Jerry's Artorama.

Before I started my Primsacolor collection I did a little research on colored pencils and, unfortunately for a demonstrator like me, the word on the street is that Primsacolors are more vibrant and blend better than Stampin' Up!'s pure color pencils. But, my heart went pitter-patter when I came across this document that matches the Prismacolor pencils with Stampin' Up!'s colors, so we can still match them up with our ink and papers. You can download it by clicking here:

             Download prisma_su_colors.doc

Or, you can go to Splitcoast Stampers, where I received the chart by clicking here.

The chart doesn't include the 2006-2007 In Color ink colors, so here they are:

SU Bucky Blue is the same as Primsacolor Slate Grey (#936)
Cool Caribbean is Light Aqua (#992)
Cranberry Crisp is Henna (#1031)
Marigold Morning is Goldenrod (#1034)
True Thyme is Green Ochre (#1091)
Vintage Violet: none

My other invaluable tip about magic pencil - just practice, practice, and enjoy the results.

You Crackle Me Up - The Sequel

Yesterday you learned how to use crackle medium to create a fun, unpredictable cracked wood look. Using the same technique but just changing colors you can get also get an aged leather look.

This suitcase box from Hobby Lobby has brown as its base coat and burgundy as its top coat over the crackle medium. It's embellished with Stampin' Up!'s Simply Scrappin' Tickets and Tokens paper and stickers and covered heavily with glaze to give it that smother leather texture and sheen. The sentiment is  "You Are World Class," and I made this for my daughter Caitlin when she went on her senior trip to California. Another really fun thing about this suitcase box is that our 6x6 brag book albums fit perfectly in them to place trip pictures and souvenirs, so of course I decorated one of our albums for Caitlin with the Tickets and Tokens kit.

An alternative, quick and not-so-dirty (sans crackle medium) way to create an aged wood look is to use Stampin' Up!'s Weathered background stamp, which, you can imagine, is one of my favorites. You can ink up the stamp with Versamark for tone-on-tone subtle cracks or play with different color combinations for more pronounced weathering. This card used Always Artichoke ink on white card stock.

And, finally, one more way to achieve that weather look doesn't involve ink or paint, but rather Stampin' Up!'s Weathered Timeworn Collection Paper.  This card displayed at the February Houston Stampin' Up! Regionals is a beautiful example.

There are so many fantastic ways to create a distressed look but that at least concludes our primer on crackle.

Don't forget, I'll be drawing names for blog candy on Friday morning. You can read about it here. (Sue says I get free massages for life if you guys deliver . . . so get those contributions in!)

You Crackle Me Up

I love the aged, distressed look. Honestly, it's because imperfections make it perfect, and I'm certainly not a perfectionist. Huh? Anyway, I especially like the look of aged cracked wood. So, today I'm sharing with you my very favorite technique, crackle.

This little paper mache box (you can find at Michaels or Hobby Lobby) has crackle on the big tag and suitcase (yellow on red) and on the letter V (white on red). Your base can be almost any surface: stained, painted or raw wood, plaster, but it's especially fun to put on chipboard and paper mache shapes.

A few general tips to start:

1. Crackle medium definitely has a mind of its own. That's part of the fun of it to me, so just be prepared to enjoy the process (carpe artum).
2. If you've never used crackle medium, its a good idea to do a practice piece or two to get the feel.
3. Keep you brushes nice and wet, but not so wet that the paint or medium drips. Dry brushing doesn't work well. Also, don't over-brush when applying a top paint, i.e., use lots of strokes. Single, long brush strokes work best.

Let's get cracking (sorry, couldn't resist). Here's what you'll need.

• Foam and bristle brushes.
• Acrylic paint. I used Making Memories buttercup and chocolate colors.
• Crackle medium. I tried several kinds and luckily the cheapest worked the best. You can find Delta Creamcoat Crackle at Michaels and Hobby Lobby. And, if you lose these directions, the instructions are on the bottle. If you use a different brand, be sure to follow their directions.
• A gloss, glaze or varnish medium. I happened to use Liquitex but even ModgePodge will work.

And, of course, you need something to paint. I'm using just a small round piece of chip board for illustration, and we're altering a card-keeping kit created by Caputo's Kits. I'm very sorry to say she's going out of business and the kits aren't available. But, of course, you can easily apply this project to the Stampin' Up! art journals and books.

Step 1: Apply your base coat with a foam or bristle brush and let it dry completely. Be sure to get the edges, too.  

Step 2: Use a bristle brush to apply an even coat of crackle medium. A light coat will give you thin, subtle cracks and a heavier coat will give larger, bolder cracks. Let the crackle dry until there's an overall sheen to the surface and it feels sticky/tacky to touch, about 15 to 40 minutes. The timing may vary depending on the room's temperature and humidity. If your crackle is too thick and wet when you put on the top coat, the top coat will just mix with the crackle medium and not crack. If it's too dry, you'll just get an unaffected top coat.

Step 3: This is the really fun part! Apply the top contrasting color (yellow in our case) in even strokes and avoid over brushing. Be careful not to overlap or re-stroke the area. Work as fast and smoothly as possible. Cracking begins almost immediately. The cracks in your top coat will follow the brush strokes, so if you want random cracking you can cross brush, more uniform cracking will appear if you use even, one-direction stroking. Let this dry completely.

Step 4: For extra credit you can apply a gloss or varnish. It helps give your piece a more finished look and I think also keeps it from peeling later. And, if you're just a distressing maniac (that would be me), you can ink the edges with art sponges in the original base color.

Here's the back of today's project.

And, here's the front of today's project in all its glory, embellished with Stampin' Up! stamps, paper and hardware.

 

Well, if you got this far along reading this long post, God bless you. You are my kind of seize-the-art, carpe artum reader. Tomorrow I'll show you how to use the same process to get an aged leather look and also how you can get a similar weathered look without the paint and crackle.

Tipsy Tuesday Again

Ooh . . . it's Tipsy Tuesday again. Gracious, times flies. Well, first I have to thank T.W. and Ally for leaving me two great tips to share with you.

T.W. suggests keeping SmudgeGuard handy to eliminate smudges when you're writing and drawing. "The SmudgeGuard is great for sketch artists and lefties. I bought my son one and it really works! My son is thrilled! Check it out at http://www.smudgeguard.com/." I've never heard of SmudgeGuard (and I thought I've heard of everything scrapbook or stamping related), but my husband's a lefty, so we'll definitely need to check this out.

Ally says she uses her label maker to make labels for her Stampin' Up! boxes because the labels from Stampin' Up! are too small. I couldn't agree more, especially if you're like me and store your stamp sets in a dark closet. Yes, I'm still in the closet, hiding the evidence because I'm too embarrassed to let non-stampers see how humongous my collection is. My Dad used to label everything from his file folders to the light switches. As if label makers aren't good enough tools for organization, they also make great card embellishments. Check out this card here. I love, love my label maker; maybe Stampin' Up! will put a label maker in the next catalog. A girl can dream, right?

This is fun . . . so let's add a few more. In just random fashion . . .

1. You can brayer ink onto white organdy ribbon or vellum paper to match any project. You may have to heat set it to make it dry faster, and be sure to hold your embossing gun away from the ribbon so it doesn't burn it.
2. Does anyone know why the Staz-on pads come with the plastic inside liner? Me neither, but it seems important so I keep it. Well, you can stick a poppin' dimensional or a pop-up glue dot on the top of the plastic liner inside the Staz-on ink pad and put the lid back on. The liner will stick to the lid when you take off the lid.
3. Oops, did you mount a stamp crooked or discover you need to trim it a little more? Yes, I've done it more than once. Zap your stamp in the microwave for ten seconds and you'll be able to unmount and remount any set.

If my Dad told me too many jokes at one sitting, well, I'd forget them all  . . . so I'll leave you with just these few tips today. Too many in one sitting is hard to remember let alone implement. As always, if you have a good tip you'd like to share, just leave a comment here and I'll share it next week. Thanks again T.W. and Ally.

Blog Candy Update: This has been one of the most rewarding adventures of this blog. I've received some really precious coments and e-mails, especially from some people who have experience with M.S. or a similar disease. But, the responses are still small, so that means you still have a good chance of winning. For more info, go here. I remembered, though, that I'm working Thursday night at the hospital. (My last day, in fact, but I'll write more about that later.) I don't think my patients would appreciate it if I stop to draw names, so I will draw names Friday morning (April 20) at 10:00 a.m. 

Tip Tuesday - Carpe Artem

Oh stampers, there are so many great tips out there that I thought I'd start a series we'll call Tipsy Tuesday, oops, I mean Tip Tuesday. I even created a seal for the occasion and made up a Latin phrase for our motto. That is, I hope Carpe Artem means "seize the art." (On a Tipsy Tuesday with no Latin training I probably combined words that mean seize the artist or something similarly obscene.)

I thought since Spring is so abundantly around us we'd start with Spring cleaning tips. Now, before I share these tips, let me just tell you my philosophy about stamping and cleaning: If you don't have ink and paint and glue and glitter up to your elbows, and your stamps don't have a few random ink smudges, well, you're just not having enough fun yet. But, then, I'll admit that too much mess can rub off onto your creations, and that's not good either.  In the spirit of embracing and enhancing our art, here are a few tips or lessons learned.

• Keep baby wipes handy. They work reasonably well for removing ink off your hands and for "degunking" scissors.
• Before you start embossing, wipe the interior of your tidy tray with a used dryer sheet to make the embossing powder or glitter flow effortlessly back into your container when you're done.
• Use a lint roller (the kind with the peel-off tape) to run over the table, floor, your clothes, the dog, the baby (you get the idea) after using embossing powder or glitter. It will save you from finding glitter weeks later. Personally, I just tell people glitter is part of my room's design motif - shabby chic meets diva princess. And, let's face it, glitter goes with everything, darlings.
• Line your supply drawers with rubbery shelf liners so things won't slide around in the drawers.
• Makes lots of Get Well cards to put on your mantle. When someone drops in unexpectedly and your house is a mess because you've been stamping all day instead of cleaning, they'll think you've been too sick to clean.

If you're feeling tipsy and have a few to share, e-mail me or leave a comment here with your tip, and we'll feature your's next Tuesday. Meanwhile, Carpe Artem.