PaperFections

Lockhart Apron Recipe Holder

Wow, the month totally got away from me (how about you?) and I realized I never got around to trying the project I had in mind for Karen Lockhart's Stamp of the Month over at Ellen Hutson LLC. You still have a few hours to scoop up this terrific deal and then you can make one of these recipe holders, too! I started by stamping the apron with Tsukineko's Tuxedo Black Memento ink onto these coordinating BasicGrey Sugared papers, then cutting them out and piecing them together. Before cutting out the overall red apron, I glued a thin piece of chipboard to the back of the paper so I could cut everything out at once and have it all match up perfectly. The side apron ties were colored in with Copic Sketch marker R39-Garnet and the sides of the chipboard also colored with this marker, just to finish it off nicely. The dish towel is popped up on dimensional foam tape to give it a 3D effect: I glued a clothespin to the back of the chipboard apron, to hold a recipe: And because it bugged me to have the naked wood of the clothespin showing and not matching everything... Read more →

Birdhouse Ornament

Sorry I've been a little busy with month-end deadlines and didn't get the time to post some more of my Spellbinder projects like I promised. Here's another one that was on display at CHA, using some of those new preview dies that will be shipping to retailers in September: It's a little 4.5" tall wooden birdhouse from the Dollar Tree that I covered with Fancy Pants (Holly Jolly collection) papers, using Beacon Adhesives' Zip Dry Paper Glue -- love this stuff for alterables! The exposed wooden areas were painted with Making Memories Bordeaux acrylic paint -- it really does match the burgundy in the papers better than it looks here. Now for the fun stuff -- the little bird is the smallest in the Nested Birds die set of three. You can view all those new die releases in one spot on the home page of the Spellbinders website HERE. I used the reverse stenciling technique (ink your die and then cut with it) -- this gives that nice solid color around the outside embossed edge of the die. Bird is backed with thin cereal box chipboard to give her stability and attached to the house with very thick pop... Read more →

Inchie Lamb Birthday Gift Set

My baby turns 6 tomorrow, so I wanted to make her something special, handmade from me. She LOVES any kind of animal and jewelry, so I decided to put the two together for her in this soldered pendant: I started with an Inchie Arts 1-inch White Inchie Square and stamped Karen Lockhart's Itty Bitty Rose Border and LuLu Lamb with Tsukineko's Tuxedo Black Memento ink -- I loved how these two small images fit so well together! Then I colored the images with these Copic Sketch markers and Silver Copic Atyou Spica glitter pen: Actually, this is the point at which I began wondering what I wanted to make with this sweet little lamb Inchie! So I got out my soldering supplies: and found 1-inch Memory Glass squares that fit perfectly over the White Inchie Square. I wanted to use the Wavy Edge Copper Foil Tape around the edges, so some of the green edge of my Inchie would still show through. It was a snug fit with the 1-inch glass pieces sandwiching the Inchie Square, but the copper tape just barely did fit properly! Before sandwiching, I colored the back of the Inchie Square with some of the same... Read more →

Sunshine Alyssa

This is a 12-inch scrap page I did for Spellbinders that was on display at CHA-Summer . . . I think it's my favorite to date! My sweet 5-year old is a professional poser for the camera now, since I've had one in her face ever since she can remember! *smile* This photo definitely captures her personality to a T . . . that contagious smile warms everyone's heart and melts mine! I started with the teal background paper from Fancy Pants (About a Boy-Expression) and then cut out the floral design from another pattern (Fancy Free Clair De Lune-Ornamental) and adhered it to the teal. The Spellbinders Sunflower 2 was die cut from cranberry Fancy Pants paper (Holly Jolly-Flurry), along with the Labels Two. Remember, these newly released dies will be available from your retailer sometime in August -- Ellen Hutson LLC should be carrying them all. Excalibur Font was used to cut the title lettering (on the Label). Pink crystal gemstones accent the label. Labels Triodies were used to cut out computer generated journaling words. I'll have some more Spellbinder projects to share with you over the next few days, so check back in! Read more →

CHA Releases - JustRite Stampers

One company that some of you may be familiar with that has gained popularity since January's Winter CHA show has been JustRite Stampers. You've probably seen lots of samples using this fabulous "new" monogram stamper on some of your favorite blogs. I made a monogram sample for my Spellbinders CHA die preview here. If you click on their site link above, you'll see just how much they've changed the consumer side of the company in just 6 short months . . . I was very pleasantly amazed! The company actually has a 100-year history in the commercial stamping industry but just started using its knowledge of stamping products in 2004 to introduce stamp making technology to crafters. They've redesigned their stampers, added new shapes and I believe about 32 new products to the line just since January! You can read all about it and see the newly introduced products on their blog. The newly-redesigned Monogram Stampers, including the green one in a new oval shape! Two more new products released are new font sets for the Monogram Stamper: A great, classic font (Brayton) and a beautiful script font (Trompe). They come in convenient stacking trays and each set contains letters,... Read more →

Ranger CHA Releases

One of my favorite companies (as well as yours, I'm sure!) had several new releases at CHA, my favorite being a new sticky-back canvas and Studio professional-grade acrylic paints by Claudine Hellmuth: Their make & take was done with the canvas, which is like a cardstock that can be painted, run through your printer, stamped on, die cut (woo-hoo!) and then the backing peeled off and the canvas stuck to your project. For the make & take, they stuck it to fabric, die cut it, and then we got to use the new Studio acrylic paints to paint it and make a flower pin: The paints dried in about a minute with the help of a heat tool. They come in these colors: They also used the canvas to display the Adirondack Dimensional Pearls and how well they work together: And also with the Adirondack color washes: Also new are additional METALLIC colors of Distress Crackle Paint (ohh-ahh!): And finally . . . new designer colors of Stickles glitter glue: These will be available in Tim Holtz's Distress colors (and not as sparkly as regular Stickles) as well as Suze Weinberg's Glitz colors. More later! . . . . Read more →

Asela's Flowers for Daisy & Divine Design

I fell a little behind this month on my Divine Design challenge usually posted on the 8th of each month (< you can click on that link to read about my past ones). So when my friend, Asela Hopkins, asked if she could send me her new stamp set to play with, I knew this set would be perfect for my next challenge and I waited just a bit longer to share this with you all, until the set would be released for sale this Thursday, July 24th through Gina K Designs. If you don't happen to know Gina K, she started her stamp company with a vision of helping others in need and wonderful causes that help them out. You can read all about her past campaigns here. I've been fortunate enough to design for this sweet lady in the past and finally got to meet this spunky little spitfire in person this past weekend at CHA. Let me tell you -- she is one funny lady and an absolute sweetheart! You can follow the release of Asela's special stamp set over at Gina's blog. Be sure to find the post where she's giving away one of these stamp... Read more →

CHA Paper Releases

Here are photos of some new releases of papers at CHA-Summer. This is just a small sampling of what I got to see -- there were a lot of booths I just never made it to! But I thought those of you who share my paper passion (including my friend, Stanna!) -- I knew you'd love seeing these!. I was very pleased to see FIVE new paper collections from one of my favorite manufacturers, BasicGrey. I can't wait to play with these (click on any of these photos for a larger view)! Just a few of the MANY collections at Rusty Pickle that caught my eye: Another of my favorite manufacturers, Websters Pages, has two new collections (drool)! I loved the "paint chip" samples they had and was honored to get to meet Brandin O'Neill, whom I've had the pleasure of chatting with at their new online community, inspireMe (waving to Brandin!) They have some chat forums there, along with a fabulous gallery using their products. Below are Inspired (left) and Reflections of Nature (right): Jenni Bowlin has some cute new 4-inch chipboard alterable books, along with 4-inch scaled down patterned paper collections to use with them -- pure genius!... Read more →

CHA Sneak Peek-Saturday Evening Post Rubber Stamps

Licensed exclusively by Cornish Heritage Farms! I adore vintage Santas, so I loved CHF's first choices to release. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T Read more →

CHA Sneak Peek - Tsukineko Versamark

Two new Dazzle (shimmer) COLORS of Versamark -- Champagne (gold) and Frost (pearl). Ohhh, the possibilities! Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T Read more →

Tsukineko Memento

New/additional colors of Memento inks and new -- MARKERS! Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T Read more →

Tim Holtz at CHA

The usual hub-ub surrounding Tim's demonstrations at the Ranger booth! Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T Read more →

Test Post & CHA

Testing a post from my BlackBerry tonight because I'm unexpectedly without Internet service -- ugh! I'm leaving in the morning for CHA in Chicago and hope to bring you some reports, if this works out! That bowl of beautiful Rainier cherries you're hopefully seeing somewhere on this post are one of my favorite fruits of the season and my dessert tonight! Talk to you again soon! Sharon Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T Read more →

Soldered Ornament

Woo-hoo, I finally soldered! I took a few stained-glass classes about 12 years ago where I learned the basics of soldering for that art form, so it all came back rather quickly for me. Here's a holiday ornament I made for Ellen Hutson's In Touch Newsletter that you all should have received yesterday. At the bottom of the newsletter, there's a coupon for 10% off all the Simply Swank soldering supplies that she carries -- that's what I used for this ornament. If you don't receive her newsletter and would like to, go to the homepage here, scroll to the bottom and sign up to join the mailing list. If you need some pointers on soldering, you'll find a great article written by Debbie Olson on Ellen's In Touch blog this month. If you scroll down to the bottom, you'll find another great soldering tutorial done by Ellen. If you have any questions about this ornament, just leave them below in the comment section and I'll answer them. Read more →

Housekeeping

Sorry for all the possible FeedBlitz notices and multiple Google Reader pings you may have received from my site today. I did some housekeeping (better here than in my actual house, LOL), moved some things around and changed my blog banner yet again -- told you I get bored easily ! In an attempt to have my site load a little faster for you, I tried uncluttering my sidebars a little and have now relocated some items. You'll now find pages with helpful links for Spellbinders and Copic located in the upper left sidebar, under my photo, listed under "Pages". I hope to be back later Wed or Thurs with some artwork to share . . . happy Hump Day! Read more →