Welcome home, Marj!


And welcome to baby Paul, Joanna Penfield's newborn son and Sue Moffat's newest grandson. Joanna is the wonderful person who sets up Recycled Rubber every month, and tallies up all of the store credits earned. The staff was re-enlightened as to Joanna' valuable service because they had to set it up this month. We appreciate Dianne and her husband who set it up and tore it down.


By the way, Judy Daugherty's granddaughter was indeed born last Friday night. Judy is just beaming over Claire Sparrow Daugherty; Sparrow is a family name from Judy's side of the family.


More fun from our Saturday class with John Petersen with Tsukineko USA/Imagine Crafts . . .

John pointed out that, contrary to popular practice,
you don't always have to use embossing powder
with Tsukineko's Versamark ink. You can
jut apply it to the paper and achieve that 'shiny' look!

In these photos, John is showing how you apply
ink to paper, stamp your image with Versamark ink on top,
followed by more ink to paper on top of that.

You can apply the ink to paper directly with the
ink pad, or use one of the new Imagine Crafts'
Ink Blushers!

Now we're going to see how you get a '2-for' from one stencil and two sheets of decorated card stock. A stencil is placed on one piece of card stock. It's sprayed with Goosebumps (choose Clear, Matte or Shimmery). When you lift up the stencil, immediately place it spray-side down onto another piece of card stock and press.

Both pieces are then ready for another layer or two of Memento ink colors to rub over the stenciled images. The first piece of card stock will reflect the colors you've applied and blended, and the stenciled image will be the base color because the Goosebumps acts as an embossed resist surface.


The base color of the second piece of paper under the stencil will remain on all of the areas that the Goosebumps stencil mask was applied to (i.e. the framing). The image itself will reflect the colors of Memento that you applied and blended.


Cool, huh? Totally!




From Graphic 45's blog . . .

"This first tag was made by Yuka Hino and features our new collection Olde Curiosity Shoppe. Yuka did an amazing job of layering contrasting colors and paper patterns in this fun tag. It is packed full of gorgeous, old-fashioned charm. Plus it contains an awesome statement, "Be Unique." With the new Graphic 45 collections its impossible to be ordinary! Behold this marvelous creation!

Supplies:
Graphic 45 Papers Olde Curiosity Shoppe: Olde Curiosity Shoppe, Race for Time, Optical Oddities, Bazaar of Wonders,Butterfly Speciflcs Graphic 45 Staples: Trim Staples, Staples package Scrapbook Adhesives By 3L: MyStik™ Permanent Strips Dispenser, 3D Foam Squares - Black, Small
Prima Marketing: Flowers
Making Memories: Alphabet
Ranger Industries: Glossy Accents, Distress Ink
Tsukineko: Ink
Sewing Machine

Here is a classic tag by Nancy Wethington that features Kraft Reflections. You can see how marvelously Kraft Reflections looks in conjunction with Graphic 45 Metal Staples. It's a match made in craft heaven! The subtle color pallet of Kraft Reflections is just perfect for creating unique tags such as this. Kraft Reflections contains so many classic Graphic 45 images. Your projects will radiate with vintage charm and style! 

Supplies:

Graphic 45 papers:  Feminine Heart; All Decked Out; Tea For Two; Before Your Time;
Bits and Pieces

Graphic 45 Staples:  Geometric Metal Door Plate; Metal Tag

Graphic 45 partner products:  Colorbox Decades ink

Other products: miscellaneous flower and rhinestone; Maya Road hearts;
Krylon gold leaf pen

Here we have an adorable and beautiful Little Darlings tag by Gloria Stengel. This tag is so elegant and fun. The soft colors and gorgeous vintage images of Little Darlings is just perfect for creating amazing tags! Gloria used some wonderful embellishments and paper layering to make this tag such a precious work of art. Here is what Gloria had to say about it!

"I used Graphic 45 packaging to create a "tall tag" that can be used as a gift tag. I use a marker to color the little girl's hair to be darker. The original image is very pale hair, and I wanted my little darling to have darker hair. You CAN use Copic Markers to alter your Graphic 45 papers!" -Gloria Stengel"

Supply List:

Graphic 45 Supplies: Graphic 45 papers:

Little Darlings: New Arrival, Bundle of Joy, Peek-A-Boo, Heaven Scent, Kewpie Cute

Graphic 45 Staples: Trim Staples, packaging from Metal Door Plate Staples

Copic: markers

Martha Stewart: Butterfly punches

Maya Road: leaf trinket pin

Making Memories: flowers

Wild Orchid Crafts: paper roses

Really Reasonable Ribbon: pink wrinkle ribbon

Craft supply: pin and large bead, wooden clothespin (could be replaced with Graphic 45 Metal Staples clothespin)

Adhesive: Beacon Adhesives Fabri-tac glue; hot glue; white glue, Scotch 3M tape runner

From the Memory Box blog . . .

First Bloom of Spring

by Jean Okimoto

"Water-coloring, color-pencilling or other skill-required coloring techniques are a bit beyond my reach. Luckily, Dave, Theresa and the other Design Teamers are great at that!  Here's another version of my favorite quick, easy and always unpredictable spritzy background technique.

Vintage Dreams G1838, Dogwood Branch F1848, Distressed Garden Record G1848 and Wishing You Combo B1853 are the stamps featured here.  The delicate accent is cut with the Valencia Border Die 98290.  View the 2012 What's in the Box Collection here.

Several people have asked about Cuttlebugging with our intricate, detailed dies.  I've removed my painters tape spot-shims from the dies and use the Memory Box Metal Adapter Plate instead - without any paper or cardstock shims either.  Remember to place the Adapter Plate, die and cardstock behind the printed instructions on the A, B, and C plates - not flush w/ the edge that enters the machine.   This allows the stack (others call it a sandwich, but that makes me hungry!) to feed into the machine easily, without using excessive force."

Flutter by, Butterfly!

"After watching Dave's Ombre Glitter Heart Card Video, which you can view at http://davebrethauer.typepad.com/stampcolorcreate/video-tutorials/, I made my own version and then started looking through my dies to see what else I could glitter up in a similar fashion.  Voila!

Dies

• 98264 Darla Butterfly 
• 98265 Vivienne Butterfly

How To

• Cut one Darla Butterfly 98264 from pink Mulberry paper and set aside.
• Cut one Vivienne Butterfly and Body 98265 from Bubblegum Moroccan cardstock. Poke out the little pieces from the intricate wing design and set these detailed wings and the body aside.
• Take the cutout frame and put clear packing tape on the back to cover the opening in the frame.
• Turn this frame over. Adhere the Vivienne Butterfly intricate wings to the packing tape in the opening of the frame.
• Add glitter, tamping it into the tape with your fingers.  I used Stampendous Pink Ultrafine and Tourmaline and Sterling from Martha Stewart Crafts.
• Carefully cut around the edges of the butterfly.  Layer the glittered wings onto the Darla Butterfly cut from the pink Mulberry paper.  Use a glue dot or a drop of white glue (I like Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive or my Coccoina glue stick) to join the two butterflies and to add the body on top.
• Cut a strip of Bubblegum Moroccan cardstock and adhere it to the front of a Velvet Rose notecard.
• Tie a pale pink organdy ribbon around the card, centered over the print paper.
• Add three little white pearls in the upper left.
• Pop dot the butterfly onto the lower right of the card front.

 This card has so many potential uses--birthday, thank you, wedding/engagement, sympathy, and more--by just varying the sentiment inside.  

Happy Stamping!"

 

That' it for tonight. I have a few things to finish yet tonight before I watch Smash. Tomorrow's another big day of decisions . . . light fixtures for the new house and indoor paint colors.


Calendar note:  Inchies Club meets this Wednesday from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Art 'n Soul. Which reminds me .  .  .  have you signed up for Lisa Lee's Inchie Cube Class this weekend? It happens on Saturday . . .


Lisa Lee with Inchie Arts is doing one of her terrific classes at Art 'n Soul  on Saturday, February 25 from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. It's going to be a lot of fun . . . there's still time to call the store to sign up at 360.357.6820.

"Art cubes, photo cubes, sachet cubes, ornaments, the possibilities are endless when you learn how to create a finished cube with Inchie Arts Squares. We will explore how to construct a cube and then experiment with different ways to decorate and embellish using a variety of art techniques."


At this class, you'll bring 6 photos of your choosing (or other images) that you want to use on your cube that can be cut down. You'll also be asked to bring a small paper trimmer to size down your photo to the appropriate size. Look at these random samples from Lisa. Real samples are at the store.