Lookie what I made and another chance to win!!

November 15th, 2010

I made my own clear stamps, how cool is that!? I recently got a chance to try out the new Teresa Collins Stampmaker which allows you to make your own clear stamps at home. It’s very quick and pretty easy to use, I had a few issues with trying to make stamps with small thin lines and also making a photo stamp but I’ve since found out I didn’t follow directions and these problems should be easy to correct. I had a couple of air bubbles in a few stamps which resulted in spaces on the stamp that didn’t come out but I did get really great results on quite a few stamps. I think there’s a bit of a learning curve with it. I think playing around with it more and getting a good feel for it I’ll get better results in the future.

Here’s my review of it on Craft Gossip. And here’s the best news we are having a giveaway for one at Craft Gossip too! Click here to go to the giveaway and follow the directions, you’ll need to become a Facebook fan and follow the blog of the manufacturer and also leave a comment on my giveaway post (over at Craft Gossip not here on P is for Paper:)).

Here’s the projects I made with my new clear stamps along with the negative and stamp itself., I got most of my images from either Dover publications or copy right free images sites on the web.

I made this cute book mark with a cute image of a little girl holding a book:
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I love this bird stamp, I put it on a background I embossed with my Cuttlebug:
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This vintage spider web is such a cool image, I stamped it on vellum and then colored in on the back with markers. You can’t really tell in the pic but I also added some glitter to the web to look like dew:
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And for this stuffed sachet I stamped the bee onto sticky back twill from Close to My Heart and sandwiched a little batting between the two pieces of twill. I added the details with a small permanent pen:
(this project is out for publication)

I love my new stamps and I’m looking forward to making more, I’ll share my results with you when I do.

A chance to win

November 9th, 2010

I wanted to share a contest I’m having over at Craft Gossip with my readers here. Lark books is generously giving away three terrific paper crafting books to one of my lucky readers at the stamping blog. Follow this link over to Craft Gossip to enter. (don’t enter here it won’t count:)) Hurry the contest ends Sun Nov. 14th. Good luck!

Giddy Up!

October 26th, 2010

I made lots of pendants with vintage horse illustrations for the arts and crafts fair during the World Equestrian Games and have a few that didn’t sell so I’m listing them now in my Etsy shop. Here’s a few of them:

from vintage children’s books:

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and from a vintage dictionary:

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Halloween Rosette Card

October 14th, 2010

I’m not really sure what the official term for these accordion folded paper embellishments are that are popping up all over on cards and scrapbook pages but I’ll go with rosette 🙂 They make a cool dimensional addition to any card or scrapbook page, you could also glue two back to back with a ribbon hanger and make a fun ornament.

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Here’s what you need:
one 1 1/2″ x 11 1/2″ strip of patterned paper
two 1 1/2″ punched cardstock circles
strong adhesive (I used red line tape)
scoring board with bone folder ( I used my Martha Stewart board)

Start by scoring your patterned paper every 1/2″:

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and then accordion fold it back and forth:

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using a strong adhesive tape the two ends of your patterned paper to form a circle:

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gather the circle, pinching the top and push downwards to flatten it out:

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on the back side adhere one circle with strong adhesive:

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on the front adhere the other circle and any other layers you might want to add to decorate the front:

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I also added a fun retro looking cat stamp on my circle layers.

Here’s what it looks like from the side:

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depending on what papers and stamps you use these can be made for any occasion.

The cat stamp I used is from PSX, all others are from Close To My Heart.

Arts Fair

October 14th, 2010

I had a wonderful time at the Arts and Crafts fair in Midway the past two weeks. I met alot of great artist and lots of great people who came to KY from all around the world for the World Equestrian Games. I’ve never done a show before and it was a great learning experience if not a little tiring 🙂 I’d like to try some more shows in the future. I shared my booth with my step dad Bill, he sold his paintings, prints and note cards with his great horse designs. Here’s a few pictures of my set up and our tent. I got so many compliments on my display and I have to thank my hubby for the idea of using a vintage suitcase, it worked out wonderfully! I got the case at Finders Keepers in Mt. Sterling KY, their web address is in my side bar —>

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Come visit me!

September 8th, 2010

The World Equestrian Games are coming to KY! During the games Sept 25- Oct 10th I’ll have a booth set up in Midway (which is not far from Lexington) next to the Damselfly shop on Main Street. I’ll be selling my soldered pendants and collage art. If you’re going to be in town for the games please stop by and say Hi!

Check Off Another Dream!

September 4th, 2010

First I wanted to be published in Somerset Studio magazine, check, that happened (so exciting!) and then I wanted to be published in my favorite issue, the Halloween issue, well I can now check that off my list too! My witch collage is on page 113 of the Sept/Oct 2010 issue! I’m so excited! If you’re a frequent reader you might recognize the collage, it started out as just a HOME themed collage but it just wasn’t finished in my eyes so I later “re-worked” it and turned it into a Halloween theme and was so happy with it I decided to submit it. So glad I did!

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More Silhouette Projects

August 4th, 2010

Here’s a couple more projects I made with my new Silhouette die cutting machine. I wanted to see just how small I could get the machine to cut so I chose a simple image, the deer silhouette, and was able to cut it 1″ x 1/2″ ! I adhered it to vintage French book paper and put it inside a pre made frame. Isn’t it cute?? I want to try some more like this but soldered them.

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Next I had a wonderful wooden cigar box I wanted to make into a specimen box so I layered some patterned paper and card stock inside the box and cut out a few butterflies and a label from the same papers using the Silhouette and mounted everything inside. I love how “old world” it turned out.

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Wonderland and Giveaway

August 3rd, 2010

Over at my blogging job as stamp editor at Craft Gossip I got the opportunity to review (and keep!!:)) a Silhouette die cutting machine. I am in love with this machine, it’s amazing! The generous people at Silhouette not only gave one to me but are also giving one away over at Craft Gossip. I wanted to give my readers a heads up, so follow this link and read my review and then leave a comment (at Craft Gossip not here) to be entered.

Here is my first project made with my new Silhouette, no surprise it’s an Alice and Wonderland theme! 🙂 I made an accordion card and cut out all the fun Wonderland characters with card stock and patterned paper with the Silhouette.

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Go Look It Up

July 18th, 2010

When I was little and asked my parents what something meant they always told me to “go look it up”, i.e in the dictionary, encyclopedia, etc. It’s not that they didn’t want to help me, they wanted me to learn to use the books and find the answers for myself. Maybe that’s why I now love old dictionaries? I remember mine was red, with little cut out half circles on the pages where the letters where, funny how things like that stick with you.

Here’s a few soldered pendants made with illustrations from a wonderful vintage dictionary from the early 20’s. I added black patina to all the soldering and the backs of the pieces are their definitions.

a really cool raven:

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a fat little toad ( I just love him!):

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and a lovely bird in flight:

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