STAMPYRA

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Cleaning Day

10:25 PM

Today was a really busy day for me. It wa time for spring cleaning. The weather was perfect. Joey got up to go to work at 5 am, so I just stayed up after he was on his way. I cleaned my entire house except my bedroom. The funny part is that My intention for today was to go through my bedroom & find some clothes and things to give to Goodwill. I didn't even get to the bedroom because I opened up all of my doors & windows because there was such an awesome breeze. I ended up haveing to put the cats in the bedroom so they didn't go exploring. They are indoor cats so I couldn't have them outside. So, my house is shiney clean and ready for spring. Tomorrow will be my day to go through my bedroom.
A few days ago, I went through my stamp room and purged. If anyone is interested I have a list of my items that are still for sale. I posted over at Club Posh & got a great response. There are still several great deals to be found! Let me know if you're interested & I'll send you a list. Just send me an e-mail at stampira@juno.com. I've got more stuff to list. I was just really busy cleaning today.
Here is a quick card I did with a cute Stampendous owl stamp I picked up at Michaels. I will come in tomorrow and add the supplies. I am wiped out and ready to go to bed.

My You Tube Video's

1:22 AM

I've finally done it! I uploaded some video's to You Tube. I started with my stamp room. I figured I'd show everyone where I create before I get into some tutiorals. I ended up doing three parts because of my cold. I just kept coughing so I had to shut down my camera a few times. On top of that, my cats were fighting & the lighting was bad. My husband though it was pretty funnt to watch. I'd love to know what you all think. Please watch them & comment on them. Then, let me know what you want to see me doing for future videos. The next thing I plan to show is the mini paper bag book I made for Char. Here are the links to my videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et5pgz-53GQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLuWSGi6CDU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdJKdHZKmAU

Shabby Chic Flowers

8:45 AM

I joined a swap at Club Posh. It isn't due for a while, but I got to thinking about it yesterday. I need to make 6 A2 cards with the Shabby Chic ok. Hat isn't too much of a stretch for me because I love the look. Each card needs to have a flowers ribbon, a bow & a button. Fine, Fine, fine, what a button? I don't work well with buttons. I did one card with a faux button on it & it was ok. Ii can do a faux button, so we'll see how that turns out. I've been over at you tube again. So, whats new? Right. It has lead me to a new addiction http://www.ustream.tv/ They have no time limit on the videos! People are doing actual classes over there. I've been watching FollowingThePaperTrail (Laura who is followthepapertrail at you tube) and NsSnowAngel at U Stream. NsSnowAngel did some really cool flowers. So I made several of her flowers for the swap card. I used all paper scraps and limites supplies I had on hand to make them. I wasn't familiar with the Diamond Dust before i started seeing it on You Tube. It's not really a glitter. It chunks of plastic. They look like sanding sugar you put on cookies & cakes. I found mine at Michael's in the adhesive area. I got my jar with the 50% off coupon & paid $4.50 for it! What a great deal. They are fun and easy to make. Here's my version.

I have a close up view of them at the end of this post. They're just so pretty.

Here is what I used. Diamond Dust, Rhinestone brads (or any brad, I used sage green), Glimmer Mist (I used Pink Azelia & Moss Green), Shimmer Spritz Sparkle (I got it at JoAnn's. It's made by Tsukeneko & comes in packs of two in Mini Misters.) Crystal Lacquer, Vintage Photo Distress inkpad with a dauber, Mat pack & paper piercing tool. Light colored scrapbook paper scraps. I used some old Anna Griffon papers. Then you want some way to cut out your flower shapes. I used a flower from my slice. You can use punches or your cricut. You can even cut them out yourself.

Here are my flowers. i know they're hard to see, but I wanted you to see how I cut them out. I used the Basic shapes cartridge from my Slice Machine. I cut three flowers in 2" & two in 1". This is where you can really have fun finding the perfect shape & combination fo flowers for your project. Mine are all the same for the swap, but I plan to try different one's later today.

Anoter not so easy to see picture, btu thought I shouldn't leave it out. Spray your flowers wirh glimmer mist, or something similar. I then sprayed them with a layer of the Shimmer Spritz over the wet flowers. You can leave out this step & just use water. Maybe you have Perfect Pearls, just add a few pinches to water & make yout own mists. Whatever works for you, just get them wet.

Nowyou want to roll your flowers up into little balls. Do this step while they're wet. Then dry each one with a heat tool. I like to hold each one with my paper piercing tool. They will shrink from the heat. Be careful, they can burn.

Carefully unpeal each flower heat until they're completely dry. . Here are the one's I used to make each flower. Use your mat pack & paper piercing tool to add a hole to the center of each flower. Use the dauber & Vintage Phote Distress ink to add some brown to the edges & raised areas. Now you're ready to put them together.

I added the flowers to the brad one at a time. I put a little drop to the back of each flower to hold them together. They moved around when I didn't so this step. I applied some drops of the crystal lacquer to the petals & applied some Diamond Dust. Here it is all finished. JIL

Mustang Card

7:57 AM

I know I've mentioned it her before, my husband Looovvveeeeesssss Mustangs. Not the horses, the cars. We have two. A 2005 & 1965. They're his babies. He's going to school to become a mechanic & has some great teachers. He had an especially great teacher & he asked me to make him a card to give him. I've been waiting for this day with supplies in reserve. Last year, Clear Dollar Stamps released some cars and one of them was a 1965 Ford Mustang. I had to buy it! It was my first image I purchased from them & I really like the way it stamps. My husband picked out a piece of paper in Mustang Blue and away I went. I colored the car with my Copic markers as I look out the window to determine what parts are chrome. This card came together really fast. My husband & his teacher were happy with how it turned out.

Stamps: Clear Dollar Stamps-1965 Ford Mustang. Hero Arts- Thanks You

Inks: Brilliance Starlight Silver, Versafine-Onyx Black

Papers: Stampin' Up! White Shimmer Paper & Bermuda Bay Cardstock, Black Cardstock

Accessories: Copic Markers, Silver Eyelets, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder-Diamond Pattern

My New Slice Machine!

3:03 AM

I've been wanting a die cut machine for years, but I haven't broken down and bought on- until now. I did a lot of research and decided that the Slice would be the right machine for me. It's small & will cut out anywhere on my paper. I just make a template for the shape I want to use and place it where I want it on my paper & then line it back up on the glass matt that came with the Slice. I made some flowers today. I had made some like this with my Prima paper flowers, but I was inspired by a You Tube video from Laura. Here is the link to her video. http://www.youtube.com/user/FollowThePaperTrail#p/u/1/8VkrTLC9BAs Be sure to check out her videos. They're great. She inspired me to get back into making mini books. I made a mini paper bag book & love how it came out. I put up some pics soon. Here is my flower that I made with my Slice machine.

So, like I said, I cut my flowers from the Slice. I made two flowers at 11/2" and one at 1". I used the Seasons cartridge that came with the Slice. I also used some patterned papers. This is a great way to use up those paper scraps. I heated up my Melting Pot with clear UTEE & added my flower. I used the purple tweezers that I got with the UTEE tools to take the flower out of the pot. It doesn't melt even though it's plastic. I set it one my non stick craft mat from Ranger. I did this with all three flowers. I had kinds shaped the petals of the flowers first.

As you can see, they aren't perfect when they come out of the melting pot. I use some scissors to cut of anything I don't want. You can really see the extra piece on the red flower. Then I heat up the flowers with my heat tool to smooth out any weird spots. I then used my heat tool to make the center of the first flower sticky and added the second flower to it. Then I do the same with the smallest flower. Then I heated the center of the smallest flower to add a hinestone that I colored with a Copic marker.

Here's the finished flower. I really love how they end up!

This is a view of the template I use to line up my Slice. I use a piece of white paper to cut out the shapes I want to use. This piece shows the 1", 11/2" & 2" flowers. I use the template with the piece of paper I want to cut from. One I decide where I want to cut, I lay it down on the glass mat lining up the white template to where it was when I first cut out the shape. Then I remove the template leaving the paper exactaly where I want it. I just love my new llittle tool! JIL

Tim Holtz Style Rose Tutioral

7:56 PM

Happy Saint Patrick's day! It's been a while since I did step by step directions for a project, so I thought I'd do one today. My project is not green, but I hope everyone likes it. Please share a comment with me if you like this project. You can see Tim's tutioral for this project at http://www.timholtz.typepad.com/ in the sidebar to the right that is labeled 12 days of Christmas 2009.
My flower is much smaller. I used the Stampin' Up! 5 petal flower punch and then trimmed off the points of each petal. You can really make it work with a huge variety of flower shapes.

This is a variety of flowers I made using this technique. I used the Sizzix flower layers #6 for the larger two flowers. I used the Stampin Up! scalleped circle punch for the green flower & the Stampin' Up! five petal flower punch for all of the other roses. The small blue flower was done with a cut down SU! punched flower. I want to make more & more. They are really easy to make & use very little supplies.

I made this tag for Char and added a rose made with the SU! five petal punch.

Here are the supplies you will need to make the flower I am making. You really just need paper and scissors. I have been making the flower from paper templates I hve made to resemble the punches & die cuts listed. I used patterned scrapbook paper scraps, Glimmer Mist, Crystal Lacquer, Vintage Photo Distress Inkpad with a blending tool (mine is an old rubber stamp with velcro), Small point scissors and a paintbrush (anything round will work.)

I cut out four flowers. I used the SU! five petal punch shape & cut the petals down and then made it into a template. I drew the template onto the back of my scrap of scrapnook paper. I sprayed the paper with Glimmer Mist & heat set it. I then cut out all four flowers. I edged them with the Vintage Photo Distress ink & Blending tool. I cut a slit in two of the flowers, cut out one petal in one flower & two petals in the other flower. Discard the single petal. In this picture, it's the petal that isn't distressed.

Attach one petal on each flower over top of the petal next to it. Your two flowers ith the slit will become four petal flowers, the next three & the next two. I attached them with Crystal Lacquer.

Use your paintbrush to shape your petals. Shape each petal aroud the barrel of the paintbrush or any small round object you have. Smush the two four petal flowers into the table & cut the tips off of the bottom of each of the other three.

Put a dab of Crystal intot he center of one of the four petal pieces ad nest he other four petal flower into it. Nest the three petal piece into tat and then the two petal piece on top of it. Apply a dab of Crystal Lacquer before you add each petal. Roll the smallest peice around itself to form the flower center & put it in the middle of the flower. My hands are covered with distress ink and glimmer mist-lol!

Here it is finished. Isn't it awesome? Especially when you consider that it cost me next to nothing to make it. I did all of my work on top of my Ranger non-stick craft sheet. Love it! Let me know if you have any questions on this technique. Be sure to do a search for it on You Tube if you want to see this rose made live.

Enjoy! JIL

Father Knows Best

10:25 PM

I'm sure if you read my blog, you've noticed that I keep it pretty muchstamping related. I'll share a few things about myself and my family, but this blog was made to share my love of stamping with others. Char told me I have to post this on my blog because it is somewhat stamping related. Because of it, my husband refuses to bring me to Michaels again. I really don't blame him! You won't either.
Yesterday (Sunday) was a day for us to relax. I was putting together my first paper bag mini book & Joey (my hubby) was playing X-Box. After I made the cover for my book, I realized that my book would fit the cover better if it had another set of pages. I broke it to Joey that we need to get more mini bags at Michaels. After we woke up my son, we all headed out. The first Michaels we went to had the bags, but no chipboard books that I wanted. The one's they did have were marked down to 50 cents and I really wanted at least one. So, I convinced them that we needed to drive to another Michaels. When we got there, they had one of the books I wanted and I happily headed to the car. When we went to get into the car, my husband ripped his earing right out of his ear! Now, I say ripped, because I realize some of you may be thinking that his earing pulled out of his ear, but it actually pulled right down through his ear lobe. It started gushing blood. He still says he didn't even feel the earing come out, he just felt something on his neck. The girl that checked us out at Michaels was soooo helpful. She got him antiseptic wipes and bandaids. I will always appreciate her concern. We ended up taking him to the ER to have his earlope sewn back together. He felt that part!
After our ER visit, we went over to my parents house. I have to tell you all that I grew up in a wonderful suburban household. My parents have very traditional values. You know, no tattoos, no piercings, no long hair on men. My father feels that tattoos lead to infections and earings are an accident waiting to happen. They've been telling me this forever. My parents lost it when they realized my tounge was pierced. I wasn't a teenager, I was 32. LOL! My husband has all three of the no no's on my dad's list. As I told my father what had happened a smile came over his face and he looked at my husband and said, " I told you so. I told you so. I told you so!" So see, father really does know best. My husband has removed all of the earings from his ears and swears they aren't ever going back in, Of course this was all my fault because I made him get off his X-Box and leave the house to go to Michaels.

Posh Pandas

11:58 PM

I've been away far longer than I planned. I really need to get a schedule for blogging. I have been busy stamping so I have a bunch of things to show you. Ill start with my Posh Pandas. I got the Chinese set from SAM right after christmas. I got it out a few weeks ago & just love it. These panda's are one of my favorites. I did a card & an ATC with the same design. I made the ATC for the Animal ATC swap over at Club Posh right now. These wer really fun & simple to make.