ATC Storage, Re-Covered Recipe Card Box

Just thought I'd post a quick picture of something I made several years ago.  This is a recipe box I found in the $1 aisle of the craft store.  It was an avocado green color (not my favorite), but I knew I could re-cover it and use it for storing ATCs I have made for swapping.

I bought a bunch of these and used this as a make-and-take project for a round-robin crafting event with my local club.  Each person had to bring all the makings for something easy to assemble with instructions.  Everyone would sit around the table and each be working on a quick and easy project until they were done and then switch out for another one when someone else finished as well. 

I prepared all the boxes ahead of time with the edges painted with gesso and precut all the strips of papers (of various styles and colors) to size.  It was a little more complicated for everyone to do quickly than I had anticipated.  Everyone in the club did attempt to finish and if they did not, they finished at home and brought it to the next meeting for show-and-tell!  No two boxes turned out the same and each one reflected the taste of the person who made it as I had provided variety of preprinted papers and coordinating alphabets.

For the detail on the top, I used precut and preprinted alphabets from a scrapbooking stack.  I coated them with ultra-thick embossing powder and while still hot used a scrollwork stamp to press a design into them, leaving the stamp in place until everything cooled.  I only use actual rubber stamps for that kind of technique (not vinyl as I am not sure it can take the heat without melting the stamp itself).  Once cool, you can easily pull the letter off.  I used some Vintage Photo Distress Ink to make the embossed design show up a little more.  The embossing powder will resist the ink which will only be taken up on the bare areas of paper exposed by the scrollwork design.  Decorations are brads and paper flowers.  Letters are mounted on pop dots on another piece of preprinted paper rectangle trimmed at each corner with a punch over an ivory textured paper.

It has held up quite well over the years.  The gesso at the edges has chipped slightly here and there, but I feel that gives the whole thing a well-loved look that adds character.

Birthday Club

I am also participating in a year-long swap in which each person makes a birthday card for every other member.  Some months have more birthdays than others, so how many I have to make in a month will vary.  I thought this was a good way to get back in the habit of doing greeting cards and may actually even send out some to family members for a change!  It brings me back to the "brilliant" reason I started stamping...I would save sooooo much money on greeting cards.....who has been there, thought that?

My first effort was very simply done as I had not been doing cards in a while.  Fortunately, I started getting a grip on organizing my stuff at the end of 2012 and into this month, so most of my supplies were readily handy.  Going through things also gave me a chance to see all the things I bought because I loved the colors or thought they were cool and I would use them on some project some day. My goal for this year is to only use things I already own in making all these birthday cards.

This first one was done based around the color of the circular sticker I used (and inspired by the colors and shapes in the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Retro Grunge paper stash).

I used a piece of waxed-paper resist embossing I had already made a while back (see my other blog post about that), some coordinating ribbons, paper punch, pop-dots, and some cute charms I had of an old-fashioned rubber stamp with an ink pad.  I heat embossed a birthday saying on the inside of the card as well, just a simple "Best Wishes for a Wonderful Birthday" a PSX stamp.

I don't mind using stickers in my creations, especially when they are the more intricate ones that are now made for scrapbooking and not just the neon color cutesy ones for kids to collect.

This color combination (yellow, red, and orange with a bit of Vintage Photo Distress Ink) was definitely one I would not normally pick, but I liked the saying on the sticker - "Another year older, another year better" - so tried to coordinate my papers and ribbon to all work together.

Whew...two blog posts in one day.  Now onto working on more birthday cards.  Check back if you like my creations as I will be posting more often as I get each card made and mailed off to its recipient.

ATT Christmas Ornament Exchange

I participated during the 2012 holiday season in a Christmas Ornament exchange.  I used a lightweight small wooden birdhouse from the craft store (from the $1 bin) and decided to cover it with papers.  This was for the All Things Tim Yahoo Group, so use of Tim Holtz products, techniques, and/or stamps was encouraged.  Here is a picture of what I made...

I used ArtQuest Perfect Paper Adhesive to attach a preprinted tissue to the house.  The roof panels are the technique I will describe below. 

1. Take a strip of metallic tape (hardware store purchase) and attach to a lightweight cardstock (either a tag or piece of  manila folder).

2.  Using Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Inks and a felt applicator tool, apply three colors of alcohol inks in layers to each tag.

 The uncut and unembossed sheets looked like this...

3. Using Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Tiny Tabs and Tags die cut, cut tag shape. Cut enough tags so that they slightly overlap around the circumference of the roof. 

4.  Using Sizzix Texture Fades Riveted Metal embossing folder, send each tag through your embossing machine (two at a time can fit in the folder).

5  I drew a straight line about 1/4 inch from the bottom of tag to use as a guideline for decorative scissors.  This gave it a nice edge, and trimmed up the length of the tag as it was hanging a little too much over the edge of the roof.  I used the leftover edge pieces to glue around bottom ledge of birdhouse.

This is what the tags looked like before I glued them on...

5.  To apply tags around the roof of house, use ArtQuest Perfect Paper Adhesive.  I applied one tag at a time, keeping pressure on the tag by hand until the glue set (very fast, maybe 1 minute), and waited about 5 to 10 minutes before gluing down another.  This allowed me to be sure each tag had conformed to the shape of the roof and had no loose ends.

For finishing touches that I did not get a picture of (unfortunately), I bought a piece of fake floral pine, berries, and tiny real pinecones and I force the stems of that into the hole at the top of birdhouse where the rope for hanging is coming out.  I also used Ranger Stickles (Stardust) in a light coat over the preprinted tissue to add some sparkle.  I was very happy at how it turned out and my swap partner told me she really liked it.

Halloween Tag

My first Halloween swap with the All Things Tim (that's Tim Holtz) Yahoo Group.  I made five of these and am expecting back 5 different ones from other participants.  Sure hope it gets to the swap hostess in time.  I had lots of fun doing this and tried out some things I had not done before, but had learned in Tim Holtz's Creative Chemistry 101 class.

One of my own ideas for a different technique was to take the Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations folder that has lots of Halloween words and the number 31 and just use that number.  I embossed it onto Coredinations paper (black with a purple core), sanded it so the purple would show, and put Ranger Glossy Accents over the inside of each number just so the inside is shiny.  The edges of the paper are torn to reveal the purple core.  To make the number really stand out you can send it through the embossing machine again after it is sanded, but before you apply any Glossy Accents to it. 

Making more Halloween items and hoping to be posting again soon.

Tip:  I have found that any time I use the Coredinations with embossing folders, it is better to send it through a second time once you have sanded it, as it brings back the sharpness of the outlines that the pressure from sanding takes away.

Hurricane Isaac 2012

I am very fortunate to have been in an area that did well surviving this storm.  I think the worst part of it is not only sitting through the high winds and driving rains, but worrying about if a tornado should hit or if the street starts flooding.  It is also not fun having various members of your family have to go off in different directions and not being able to get to them to help if they need it.  Losing electricity for several days is also not fun (food in the fridge spoils if you don't have enough ice and coolers) and temperatures can get uncomfortably high.  Additionally, high heat and high humidity are not a good combination for the elderly as A/C pulls moisture of the air.  When you don't have that and have breathing problems, it is not a good combination and can be life threatening.

Unfortunately, many people nearby my area did not do well.  The suffered the same nasty surprise in Plaquemines Parish as the people of the 9th Ward (where I grew up) and other parts of New Orleans did in Katrina, in that houses that have never flooded before now have 8 feet of water or more, with some water up to rooftops.  I can't imagine anything more scary than having to climb out on a roof when water is rising and the high winds and driving rains are still battering the area as many of these people did.

When the house my family owned in the 9th Ward flooded, volunteers from Catholic Charities came to help us clean it out of all the thing that could not be saved.  I hope to be able to find an organization that is accepting volunteers, either to help clean out houses or to help take care of pets of people who cannot house them due to having lost their homes.  Anyone who reads this, please consider donating to an organization that is helping the people of Lousiana or to any state (Florida and Mississippi as well) affected by this very damaging storm.

Below is an ATC I made for a swap about angels back in 2006, after the Catholic Charities volunteers came to clean out the house.  I don't even know many of their names, but their hard work and willingness to help really made a difference that I will never forget.

Taking Claudine Hellmuth's Class

I am fortunate to be able to take another online class, this time by Claudine Hellmuth via www.bigpictureclasses.com .  The class is entitled Composition for Collage.  My first piece for homework for the class is below, entitled Hearts and Flowers.  I used canvas inked with Distress Stains for the background, the woman image is from Claudine Hellmuth and I printed it out on iridescent paper, the flowers are iridescent brads on paper flowers with ribbon stems, and the bottom border is a preprinted paper from my stash.  

Thanks for checking out my blog.  Comments are always welcome and appreciated!

A Wax Paper Resist Embossing Technique

I saw a video on Tim Holtz's website (timholtz.com) where he uses his stamps that coordinate with his embossing folders to create a raised, stamped background image.  I then watched a video at a later point from www.StampTV.com in which a wax resist technique was done.  I liked both techniques and thought of a way to incorporate parts of both into my own wax resist embossing.  So many people are out there trying techniques and making videos and blog posts, I can't claim to be the first one to try this; but, I can honestly say I have not seen it anywhere before.  I taught it to my local stamp club members when I was in charge of leading the class for our meeting and they really seemed to like it.

I used cardstock cut to size to fit in embossing folder, wax paper cut to size to fit in embossing folder, Distress Inks and Tim Holtz ink applicator from Ranger, embossing folder, craft iron, heat-resistant ironing surface/teflon craft sheet (I used a folded towel to protect surface as well). 

My steps for getting the wax onto the cardstock are the ones as shown on StampTV, so please go to YouTube and look at her excellent wax resist video if you want to know how that is done.  Her videos are very well done and there are lots of great things to learn there!

Once I have the two pieces of cardstock with a wax pattern now melted into them, I then used the Tim Holtz Distress inks to color my paper as I like, and I got something like this below.  Please note the background paper is made using a Provo Craft Cuttlebug embossing folder, however, the image is not raised at all because the cardstock did not go through the embossing machine, only the wax paper used to make the pattern did. 

Taking this to the next level, I then used part of the idea from Tim Holtz's video and sent an inked image through the embossing machine so the image is raised.  By taking my cardstock that has been heated so the wax melts and creates a pattern, then inking it with Distress Inks, I could then line up the cardstock with the pattern in the embossing folder so that when I sent it through the machine, it looked something like this...

What is the benefit to this, you may ask?  In my opinion, the wax paper is giving an entirely different texture to the image by creating areas of voids where the ink does not absorb into the paper (resist).  I really like that it gives me an entirely different look from my embossing folders.

I then swiped a darker Distress ink over the surface of my embossed and inked cardstock, just to hit the high points.  This example uses same embossing folder, but colored with different Distress Inks.

And, finally, I tried one where I did not line up the pattern when I embossed it and swiped a black ink over the raised portions.  This one is probably my favorite!

I think it really adds a level of complexity and interest to what already is a very interesting embossing folder pattern. 

Tip:  When using embossing folders with words or numbers, you are going to get a reverse image on your second piece of cardstock as in the below example.  If you notice the numbers on the bottom are backwards on the cardstock on the left.  That can still be something you can use somewhere and isn't necessarily a throw away.