COVERED NOTEBOOK

COVERED NOTEBOOK

A lot of people are covering books for kids before school goes back.  Why make it just for them!

Covering (in my case cheap) notebooks with those scrapbooking papers you bought five years ago and never quite got around to using, is a great way to get them out of the cupboard.

I've added a frame with a couple of split pins and a simple die-cut with a black rhinestone centre to the panel of paper on the front of my notebook, and put a simple piece of the same paper on the back.

If you have a big stack of your own notebooks ready to go, why not make some for family/friends.  

DOUBLE EMBOSSED SMALL CUTTLEBUG FOLDER

SMALL CUTTLEBUG FOLDER "BUTTON"

I was sorting out my embossing folders when I found a business card holder book (storage tip) filled to the brim with little Cuttlebug folders.

I don't know why I haven't used them for years as I could instantly think of 101 great things to do with them.   (Suspect its more likely I've improved over time than they have).

Here's one simple idea which was just to ink up the folder with Versamark run it through with paper inside, and then heat emboss with gold embossing powder.  I used my circle punch to cut the central emblem from the folder and there we are -  a cool little embossed "button" to use on a card.

DOUBLE LAYER STAMPING ON A BOOK PAGE

TWO LAYER STAMPING ON TEXT

A couple of weeks ago I posted an example of stamping onto a book page.  This is fine with a solid stamp, but works less well with a stamp that has fine detail such as this typewriter from Rubbadubbadoo, which tends to get lost amongst the text.

One solution is to make a background stamp - I used fun foam cut with deckle scissors - stamp over the text with this, then stamp your feature stamp on top using a darker ink.

I whipped this example up fairly quickly and would probably use a lighter brown for the background and a very dark cocoa brown for the typewriter if I was making for a "real" project.

MAKE A BACKGROUND STAMP

STAMPING ONTO BUTTONS

STAMPING ONTO BUTTONS

You might have noticed that I've been doing lots of experimenting lately with inks and various surfaces. This is another example.

I was fairly confident that Versafine would work on wooden buttons but as most of them are plastic, wondered how Staz-On would go.  (I know that this does not involve paper but my intention is to use the buttons for papercraft projects so......)

The red button was fairly flat and the stamp was OK, although it was really hard to stop it slipping on the shiny surface.  The second button, even on the reverse (shown) had a bit of a curve (as do most buttons).  I tried using an acrylic stamp without a block so that it could bend with the surface, but wasn't able to hold it well enough and as you can see, I ended up with a blodgy mess (its supposed to be lace).

I think my conclusion is that unless there's a compelling reason I won't be stamping onto plastic buttons and if I need to add some pattern I'll just reach for my Sharpie pens and draw on the design.
After all, how hard can it be...................

STAMPING ONTO METAL WITH STAZ-ON

BLACK INK STAMPED ONTO METAL

....Just thought I'd share how cool Beethoven stamped onto the reverse of a Diet Coke can (using BLACK Staz-On) looks.......Lots of jewellery potential here!!!

STAMPING ONTO BOOK PAGES

Quite a while ago I shared an example of printing onto book pages.  Stamping onto book pages is even easier!!!!

The bird doesn't exactly go with the text (from a John le Carre novel) but if you were thoughtful you could make some more meaningful pairings between stamp and background.

SUPER SIMPLE CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT

SUPER EASY CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT

I'm a bit prone to sifting through the paper bin at work and "rescuing" potentially useful bits of this and that.  Every now and then, I feel compelled to make something with them just to show that I'm not just a crazy paper hoarder. (Yes, all right, I know the two aren't, strictly speaking, mutually exclusive).

Anyway, should you come across some perfectly good strips of light card in the bin or otherwise, you can use it to make an ornament by cutting one piece the length you want it to be and then cutting long strips of differing lengths, folding them in half and securing them at the top and bottom.  A staple would do, but I've drilled holes with my new screw punch and used a split pin to hold the ends together.

I've added some twine as a hanger at the top, threading it through the hole before the split pin went in. A lot of variations are possible using the same basic principle, but I'll leave that up to your imagination.

SHADOW STAMPING WITH ACRYLIC STAMPS

REVERSE STAMP BACKGROUND

Oh dear, this is not an original idea but I can't remember where I heard/saw it.....I'm happy to add an attribution if anyone could suggest the source.

Anyway its a simple but fabulous idea - just use a tiny bit of double sided tape to stick your acrylic stamp upside down on your stamping block, and then use it as a "shadow" for underneath the image.  In this example I used silver underneath and crimson on top.  You'll have to take my word for it that it looks better in reality.

(I probably shouldn't mention that a little lick and stick is a speedier way than double sided tape to stick the stamp onto the block for the first step.)

COLOURED PENCILS ON WOOD

COLOURING STAMPS ON WOOD.

O.K so last week I worked out that Versafine stamps well on wood.  The next issue is deciding how to colour it.  The images were stamped onto a piece of sticky-backed cherry wood.

I did some little samples first.  (Bottom right corner) Alcohol based markers bled very badly into the wood.
Water based markers were OK but a bit overly bright for what I had in mind.  I finally settled on pencils, and was pleased with the results.

I was interested in the top example as I think with a bit more thought you could get a nice faux intarsia effect.

STAMPING ON WOOD WITH VERSAFINE

WOODEN SHAPES WITH VERSAFINE STAMPING

Most articles reccomend using Staz-on when stamping on wood, but as I wanted to use an non-water based varnish on another project, I was interested to see if a water clean-up ink would do the job.  (A solvent based varnish makes Staz-On bleed and blur).

I'm pleased to report that Verafine does the trick beautifully with only the tiniest amount of bleed, even although the text on the stamp I used is tiny and very finely detailed.

Its hard to see the size of these wooden shapes from the drawing, but the clock is about 2.5cm wide (i.e. they are little).

Right now for the next project............

DOUBLE STAMPING

DOUBLE STAMPING

This is a bit like kiss stamping, but instead of removing colour you add it by using an inked background stamp to stamp onto another fairly solid stamp inked with a contrasting colour.  You then stamp with the latter so that the outline of the solid stamp is filled with the pattern of the background stamp.

I was happy with how well the black pattern showed up on the pink ink, although I think I'd use other colours if I intended doing anything other than playing with this technique.  I'll be playing with it a lot more though, as it has lots of possibilities, especially if you make your own "solid" stamps from fun foam and die-cuts.

NAIL POLISH MARBLING

NAIL POLISH MARBLING

R. Maria Sabina wrote an article for Craft Stamping magazine outlining this technique and I couldn't wait to try it!  Basically you just drop some nailpolish on top of water, swirl it with a toothpick and print off the result.

As with most things it wasn't quite as easy as this.  The author did address most of the issues I had but of course I read the article properly after
the issues arose.  So, for fellow skim-readers here's a few tips.

Firstly unless you have a very warm room, use lukewarm water - most of the nailpolishes I used just sank in little drops to the bottom - something I ascribed to the brand (which did make a difference) but was probably a temperature issue.

Secondly, as mentioned, all the polishes I used were of the cheap and chips variety (no more that $2.50 per bottle) but there was a lot of variation between brands - some just sank, others created a "skin" on the top of the water, and a couple of the brands seemed to interact with each other to make a sort of lumpy mess.  In other words - buy one bottle of a single brand and do a test run before you get carried away.

Thirdly gloss card has bolder results than matt but the latter still gave a nice albeit more subtle result.

And lastly......wear rubber gloves, or you'll be typing up your blog posting with dark green fingers!!!!!

Despite making a bit of a mess of the whole thing, I was. overall, pleased with the results, and might give it a go again soon, having learnt a few lessons from the first attempt.

VASES FOR PAPER FLOWERS

REPURPOSED JARS - TWINE VASES

The papercraft aspect if this project are the flowers in the vase - the lilies that have featured previously, and the little text flowers that were made by stacking up three layers of two sizes of retro flower punched book pages.  The layers are secured with wire threaded through a button and twisted underneath to form stems.

Actually the flowers are a bit of a pretext to share these little vases (made from an empty jam jar and herb container).  I was feeling a bit overly tired and wanted something that involved a minimal amount of brainpower (since I'm not very good at sitting in front of the TV and doing nothing with my hands) and saw these in a craft book from the 1970s - all the go back them, and making a revival now, I think.  Just pick a jar, get some string, and wind, coating the jar with a thin layer of tacky craft glue as you go.  I had some hessian trim in a contrasting colour to add as a feature but this is optional.  If you like to fold paper flowers or want a container for pens and pencils these are ideal - very low cost and even lower brain power required.

CORK STAMPING AS DIGITAL PAPER

I haven't done any digital bits for a while so I thought it was about time.  I keep some examples of things that I really don't like as well as ones that I do (although not as many of them!).  It sometimes helps to try and work out what it is that you don't like, so that you can produce more work that you do.  (If that makes sense).  My start image was this rather horrible concoction of stuck together papers and brown paint stamped on with a cork so.......what don't I like?  Well, for starters the colours are foul, the white panel is too stark and the cork stamping just looks like muddy blodges.  so can it be saved??

I opened up the picture in Elements and started with the colours which just don't work together.  I played around with variations adding lots of blue and green until it looked a bit better.  The cork stamping still looked a bit splodgy and messy to I went into the filters gallery and from the Pixelate section selected and applied "Pointillise" which introduced a little order to the "blodges".  Last of all I just used the elements cookie cutter tool to cut out a butterfly and there you are...!!
Truthfully, I probably won't ever use this background again, but I had fun trying to make it at least semi-presentable!!

ACCORDION FEATURE FOR CARD

TIE WITH A RIBBON

I really like little accordion books, and there's no reason you can't adapt them for cards as well.  This little book ties closed and features Darkroom Door stamps, but the format is handy if you're making a card that lots of people want to sign - just make the book a bit bigger if they want to add their "best wishes" as well.
Just an aside....the feather is a Couture Creations die that I've chopped up a bit to make a bit more "feathery" and I've tied two together with wire - white card on the bottom and  velum on top. I've added just a teeny spray of water to the vellum to make it curl slightly - again, it just gives a little more body to the die cut.

ACCORDION FEATURE FOR CARD