Tuesday's Tip

I love rubber stamps. I use them in all my paper art projects, so I have quite a selection of images and sentiments. Even with a plethora of sayings, I sometime come up short. Has this happened to you? I found a fun and funky way to use my stamps and stickers together. Stamp the words you want and fill in with stickers. I like to use the mini letters to spell out the sentiment/fill in the words that I want. it is also a great way to use your stash!

Ready to be Creative

I have been nursing a back injury - specifically, a lower back strain. Lucky me, it happened just as I was leaving for (a 6 hour drive to) CHA Anaheim. Once I returned home, I tried to rest a bit and continue on with class ideas and samples. Well, that was not too successful! It was difficult to concentrate, although I did get some play time in (with the help of large and frequent doses of Advil!). February has not been a good month.

Thankfully, I am nearly back to normal after seeing a massage therapist. I was missing in action last week...but I am ready to go this week. Hope you all had a better February than I did!

Acrylic Watercolors

I have been playing with watercolor crayons and my acrylic blocks, making backgrounds for cards. I decided rather than spray the crayoned blocks with water, I would spray them with mists.

I colored with 3 different blue watercolor crayons. Then, I sprayed the block with Sea Glass Glimmer mist. Unfortunately, you can not tell from the photo, but there is a slight shimmer to the background. This is a fun and addictive technique - just remember to use a lot of water or mist.

Acrylic block Watercolors

I was playing with my watercolor crayons and acrylic blocks, making backgrounds. A simple and fun technique that takes no time at all. You can color on your block with the crayons, spray well with water, and stamp the block on paper.

For the above card, I colored in blocks on the acrylic block. I stamped the watercolors onto paper and allowed it to dry. Then, I trimmed and stamped to make the card. You can also color in a specific pattern to be used with a specific stamps.

I placed my block onto a rubber stamp and colored in the image.

I sprayed the acrylic with water and stamped it on paper:

Here is the completed card:

Tuesday's Tip

I have seen a variety of seasonal items on sale recently, especially stickers. You can get great prices on sticker sets at your local store. One way to get more mileage from holiday - actually, all - stickers is to cut them apart. you can mix and match a variety of greetings.

Some Final Photos

Just a few final photos from CHA, the it will be time to move on. A note - I strained my back just before heading to CHA, so my creative time will be limited...poor timing for me!

These next couple of photos are from Graphic 45's Little Darlings paper line:

These next 2 are from their Olde Curiosity Shoppe - which I LOVED:

And, some bird love form the DCWV people - all made from paper!

New Line from Ranger

Ranger has picked up the Dyllusions line from the UK. I remember seeing advertisements for Dyan's stamps, sprays and paints in the UK stamp magazine "Stamp It". No paints at this point, but there are a set of very brightly colored sprays, rubber stamps (by Stamper's Anonymous) and stencils (made by Crafter's Workshop).

Took a photo of the sample display - I think the artwork looks a lot like Teesha Moore's work:

I must say, I like the bright non-sparkly colors of the sprays. I was able to try them out at the Crafter's Workshop booth and they spray wonderfully. Fairly fine mist, no huge blobs and no clogs (like another brand). I have been using Crafter's Workshop stencils for years - and love the new designs (as well as some of the stamps).

CHA - Pink Paislee

I was in the Pink Paislee booth at CHA looking at the new paper lines. For a soft travel look, they are coming out with London Calling. This line would work for almost any travel photos - including most of Europe.
However, the line I was excited to see was Christy Tomlinson. Christy owns Scarlet Lime on-line store and does wonderful texture-y work. I have been following her blog for awhile now. What I love about her - free style, the fact that she uses her fingers a lot! No neatly manicured nails in her videos - she is keeping it real! I am not the only one with paint and ink all over! She was demo-ing with her new line of papers and rubber stamps (made by Unity).

She made a canvas using papers, paints, mediums, stamps, etc. She was fun to watch and was great at giving people ideas on how to use and teach with her lines. Very refreshing from watching many demonstrations with designers who simple made things. Below is one of her finished canvases:

The images are from her paper line. And, below are the papers...

You can check her out here. Congratulations to Christy - what a great adventure!

Stamping Gear

I was watching a demonstration in the e.k. success booth at CHA that I thought was pretty clever. As a veteran of the many generations of stamp positioners, I know they came be tricky. Stamping the same image in a circle using a Positioner can take practice and some time to get right. Soon, you can purchase the Stamping Gear for some fun projects from scrapbooking to card making to canvas/wall art.

The above photo is of the Stamping Gear. It will retail for $39.99

The kit contains a circular gear, an oval gear, center pieces, a stamp handle and 4 sets of foam mounted rubber stamps. However, you could use any non-wood mounted stamp as long as it fits onto the stamp holder. I was thinking words and alphabet stamps might be fun.

Here are some samples in progress. You could stamp a scrapbook page, card, canvas, fabric, and wrapping paper. What do you think?