Sunday, April 20, 2014

Happy Easter + a Winner!

Happy Easter, everyone! I have a fun little project to share with you that I made while playing around in the studio the other day. It's a steampunk egg (a real one!) that I treated to Tim Holtz's Remnant Rub Resist technique. I had been thinking of doing some kind of altered egg and I thought the Remnant Rubs would be perfect on an egg. After I applied them, I colored the egg using Distress Stains. They work so well! On areas that I wanted a little more intense color, I sponged on a bit of Archival ink.

I added a stand made with a wood candlestick, along with some coiled copper wire. On the egg I added a few gears, a spinner, and some more copper wire. AND, there's a secret hidden within all those rub-ons. Do you see it? It's a D, which is one of the letters that make up a clue for Inspiration Emporium's giveaway. Be sure and check out the IE blog for all the details on this fun prize!

Speaking of fun prizes, let's find out who won the Ranger Mini Distress inks!

The Random Number Generator picked comment number 338, from Ramona:

Wow they come out of the woodwork here.....

So Shelly Darling....I told my Mother I'd give her all my regular sized distress ink pads if I got some minis.... and well it's not really a matter of if but when.

Ramona

Thanks so much to all of you who left such wonderful comments! And thanks too, to Ranger, for sharing these fantastic little minis.

As always, you can find the supplies I used at Inspiration Emporium via the links below. Remember to use my coupon code - stamptramp - to save 10% on your order!


Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have a great week!
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Thursday, April 17, 2014

Easy Easter DIY Bell Jar (From the Dollar Store!)

Hi everyone! Today I have a project for you that's been in the works for ages! Some of you might remember my Halloween Bell Jar project from a couple years ago. I wasn't totally happy with the candle jar as the cloche, and kept looking for a better idea. I was so excited when I discovered the disposable plastic wine glasses from the Dollar Tree were the perfect size! Even better, the base was removable, so there was just the matter of trimming the stem down a bit. As it happens (to me, a lot) I set it aside and moved on to something else.

Over the past few weeks, I've been cleaning out my studio and have come across lots of bits and pieces of different projects - one of them was the wine glass cloche. I decided that I'd gather together some of my new-found materials and make a sweet little Easter bell jar. How cute is that little moss bunny? Thank goodness I hoard all this junk! This project is very quick and easy and goes together in about an hour. Here's a quick tutorial for you:

Begin by die cutting a bunny from a piece of medium weight chipboard using Tim Holt's Mini Bunny and Bow die. Paint with Forest Moss (how perfect is that?) Distress paint and set aside to dry. Cut two pieces of moss in the shape of the bunny and adhere to chipboard with hot glue. Trim to shape, if necessary.

Use hot glue to adhere a bit of Spanish moss to the center of a nest (I found these at Hobby Lobby for $.99). Tie a length of idea-ology Jute String around the bunny's neck and hot glue him to the nest.

Next, cut a circle from medium weight chipboard using the largest of Tim Holtz's Sized Circles dies. Paint it, along with a wood candlestick, with Picket Fence Distress Crackle paint. Let dry completely, then glue the circle to the candlestick, creating a base for the cloche.

There are a couple ways you can trim down the neck of the bottle. You can use a rotary tool, a hacksaw, or you can do what I did. I used my heat gun to soften the plastic, then carefully cut it with scissors. I honestly don't recommend this way of doing it. You need to ensure you have plenty of ventilation, and the results are not that predictable. It's really easy to overheat the stem and warp the plastic. SO, proceed at your own risk! ;) With either method, you'll have a hole in the center. I used an idea-ology Accoutrements button to cover it and make a pretty handle.

To finish the cloche, I tied a length of Crinkle Ribbon around the neck and added Maya Road lace around the stand.  See, totally quick and easy...right? Even better, the cost is very minimal. I would estimate this project only costs about $1 to make. Not bad for something this pretty! Of course, it doesn't have to just be for Easter. There are all kinds of different themes you could use.

As always, the supplies I used can be found at Inspiration Emporium via the links below. Be sure and use my coupon code - stamptramp - to save 10% on your order.

BTW, I thought some of you might be interested in the chipboard I've been using on my projects lately. I've found that the medium weight chipboard that Amazon carries is perfect for all of my die cutting. It works beautifully with Eileen Hull's ScoreBoards dies! It comes in kraft, white (which is just on one side, the other is kraft), and black. The white is perfect if you want to stamp, ink, etc. You can find the link to that below as well.





I hope you enjoyed my tutorial - have a wonderful weekend and Easter holiday!
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Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Pop it Ups April Challenge - Mother's Day

Hello everyone! Today I'm sharing a card I made for this month's Karen Burniston Designer Challenge. This month we could choose between Mother's Day and baby themes and the DC team totally outdid themselves! Make sure you check out Karen's post on the Elizabeth Crafts blog to get a full dose of inspiration.

I chose to make a Mother's Day card for my mom, figuring I'd be ahead of the game when it rolls around next month! I used the Katie Label Pivot die and some of my favorite paper from My Mind's Eye. The card base is kraft paper that I first embossed with Karen's new Damask embossing folder. After I embossed the front, I experimented with highlighting the embossing with white paint...which didn't really go as planned, so I painted it all white and then sanded it off to show the embossing. On the bottom, I added a panel of paper and a border cut using one of the edge dies from Karen's Agatha Edges set.

Here is the card when open - so pretty! The Katie Label die is the perfect pop-up for any type of card. It comes with SO many extras so you can decorate to your heart's content.

Another thing that I love about these pivot dies is the outside decoration is also the inside - that saves time for sure! For this panel, I used one of the matching label dies to cut a piece of decorative paper slightly smaller than the pop-up. On top of that, I used another of the dies that has an embossing feature to create the green label. I highlighted the raised portion with white embossing powder. Finally, I added a die cut butterfly from the Butterfly Accessories set along with the filigree butterfly.

On this side, I repeated the same steps, but added a vellum panel with my greeting. Since I didn't have a Mother's Day stamp (out of the 1000s of stamps I own!) I printed it out and then immediately covered the wet ink with silver embossing powder. That's a trick from the olden days of stamping for sure. ;)

BRILLIANT BURNISTON DESIGN TRICK ALERT! A few weeks ago I was struggling with trying to adhere an intricate die cut onto a card. I got gooey adhesive everywhere and almost ruined my card. While whining to Karen about it she said, 'just run your cardstock through the Xyron, die cut your piece, and then peel the backing off and stick it down.' Brilliant! After die cutting the flourishes above (also from the Agatha Edges) and trying unsuccessfully to get glue on them without making a mess, I remembered Karen's tip. I tried it and my life has been changed! I defy you to find one tiny bit of residue on that flourish. Brilliant, I tell you!

As always, I love including a little Vine video to show the card opening and closing. It really shows how cool the pop-up is as well as all the other details that get lost in a picture.

You can find most everything I used to make my card at Inspiration Emporium via the links below. Remember to use my coupon code - stamptramp - to save 10% on your order! You might also notice that there are two links for the Karen Burniston dies. I've also included a link to Elizabeth Crafts, just in case IE happens to be out of the dies I've used. Please note that you cannot use the 10% discount code there, but it will give you another opportunity to pick up these great dies.


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Monday, April 14, 2014

Take Flight Tag + Mini Distress Inks Giveaway!

Hi all! I have exciting news! To celebrate the release of the latest Mini Distress inks, Tim Holtz and Ranger generously sent me a set of each of the new colors to play with. I absolutely love these adorable little ink pads! I already had the first three sets and have been using them a lot. They're great for taking along to classes and crops and I've also been experimenting with a few techniques too.

One of the thoughts I had was that they might work even better than the large pads for Tim's Wrinkle Free Distress technique. Since they're so tiny, you can really get a lot of color onto the mat, plus the smaller spots mean the color is very concentrated. The tag above was my first experiment with this idea and I love how it turned out!

I used all four colors from Kit #6 to create the background for my tag - I love how they work together. I wanted to keep as much of the background showing as possible, so I kept the rest of the tag fairly simple. I stamped the butterfly from the Easter Blueprints set on the tag and then onto a piece of Clearly For Art film. On the bottom, I cut a piece of chipboard using Tim's new Honeycomb die and then embossed it with Liquid Platinum ep, along with Vintage Photo Distress ep. I added Remnant Rubs to the cut outs and some coffee filter flowers cut using Tim's Tattered Flowers die.

How would you like to win your very own set of these fantastic inks?! *This giveaway has ended. Thanks so much for your wonderful comments!* In addition to sending me a set of the inks, Ranger also included a set to give away to one of my lucky followers! All you need to do is leave a comment, making sure you include your email if your blog profile doesn't have one. I'll leave the comments open until Friday at midnight CDT and announce a winner next Saturday. Oh, and I'll also include the tag and a few other treats. :) Good luck!

You can find all the supplies I used at Inspiration Emporium via the links below. Remember to use my coupon code - stamptramp - to save 10% on your order!





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