Winner Winner Pinner Pinner!

Janine — you have won the Pinterest book!

Thanks to everyone who took time away from looking at Pinterest to play!

More Mosaic Madness

In my last post I showed how to use scraps of paper to create a design.

Here are a few samples. I have not added any greetings to these — I may leave them greeting free, or I can add something geared to the recipient once I am ready to send.

And here’s a little different slant (hee hee, get it? Slant?) — same idea, different execution. Just put the papers on a diagonal.

Thanks for stopping by!

Scrapalicious Mosaic Cards — a Tutorial

A few months ago I re-discovered an old technique that I learned YEARS ago in a cool class taught by the talented folks at Magenta. It uses long, thin pieces of paper to create nifty patterns. Aha, I thought! Another way to get rid of my scraps!

Making these cards, I found, is very Zen-like. Simple and fun and you can’t go wrong. (And did I mention … you can use up your scraps? Grin.)

Take a look:

Here’s how you do it:

1. Cut some long strips of paper, about 1/4 inch in width. I generally use scraps.)

2. Run a piece of flat card stock through your Xyron machine. (You can use other adhesives, but I found this to be the fastest, easiest method. However, you can also line your piece with double sided tape or use any double sided adhesive sheet.)

3. Lay down your dividing lines. This should be a solid color. I generally use black, but every so often I go wild and use white or metallic.) Start with a longer piece placed diagonally across the card, which sort of divides your paper in an upper and lower half. Then add shorter pieces going the other way to create a grid:

4. Start filling in the blank areas with your scraps, laying the strips in a herringbone pattern. Let them hang over the edge, you’ll cut them and use THOSE pieces to fill in smaller gaps.

5. Continue to fill in the areas, alternating directions and strips.

6. When the piece is all filled in, flip it over and trim the ends:

7. Mount your piece on a card front. Add a greeting, focal point, etc., or keep it plain.

My next post will show some examples using this technique, and a variation.

While you’re here, check out my earlier post and leave a comment there for a chance to win a Pinterest book!

Have fun!

Fabulous Finds Friday — Pinster Winster

A book featuring Pinterest pins?

When I first saw the book Pinterest Perfect! (published by Walter Foster), I thought, “Why do I need a book? Why not go directly to the source?”

But have you ever gone down that rabbit hole, disappearing into a never-ending spiral of great ideas and fetching projects? Where one pin leads to another … and another … and before you know it, it’s Easter and you completely missed Valentine’s Day?

Anyway, this book is a wonderfully curated collection of inspiring ideas, complete with step-by-step projects, creative tips and techniques directly from the artists, and hints on how to use Pinterest as inspiration. The book is broken up into eight sections, from paper crafts and doodling to mixed media and “crafts.” There are also empty pages ripe for sketching, brainstorming, note taking, doodling, etc. Skim the book with sticky notes in hand for marking favorite pages. Read it order or sip and glide as you will, randomly selecting a project here and there.

Here’s a peek inside:

Curious? Intrigued? You could win it! I have a copy of the book, donated by publisher Walter Foster, to give away! Just leave me a comment by July 28 on what you love about Pinterest and a random generator will pick a lucky winner. Sorry, you must be in the continental U.S. to win.

Have fun, and thanks for joining me today.

All the News Fit to Wear!

When my friend and former news reporter colleague had a birthday, she requested hand made gifts only. Brilliant! Right up my alley!

Since we are both writers, former reporters and newspaper junkies, this gift was easy:

I used a Formica chip left over from a long-ago remodeling project and collaged pieces of newspaper. I gold embossed the edges and added some pretty yarns, bling and a pin back.

But I couldn’t stop there … I packaged it (and another bracelet) in this box:

After collaging the box, I sprayed on some gold Perfect Pearls for a little sheen. I added a flower topper made from … that’s right … newspaper, which I cut using a Tim Holtz flower die. So easy and effective!

Here’s a photo that shows the other piece, a bracelet. I used a wood bracelet blank and covered it with pretty paper and a few strategically placed gemstones:

Are you as addicted to Pinterest as I am? Come back Friday for a Fabulous Find … and a giveaway!

Fabulous Finds Friday — The “Celebra’tion” Continues

I’ve been going on all week about the Fabulous Find of Spellbinders‘ new Celebra’tions™ set by Richard Garay and showing off some cards. Perfect for a Fab Finds Friday!

Here we go:

Dontcha love that texture background on the sunshine-y paper? It’s made using the fabric pattern embossing folder. I ran the panel through my Xyron to get good adhesion before placing it on my card base. The white panel for the greeting was cut using a Pierced Rectangle die. (I’m going to use this die a LOT!) It was stamped using an old Hero Arts sentiment (Hip Hip Hooray) and colored with Staedtler’s Triplus fine line markers. (Coloring brings me back to my childhood and the fine tip on the marker makes it easy to color inside the lines.) The white panel is mounted using dimensional foam tape.

The presents are stamped on white scrap paper in Memento Tuxedo Black then colored with Distress markers, fussy cut and mounted using foam tape. And of course there’s some Stickles!

A relatively fast and easy card.

Speaking of fast and easy … how about some quick tags?

The green tag is made using the smaller Pierced Rectangle die, the green card stock from the collection and the vase/flowers from # Sweet. The green string is also from the collection.

The purple dotted tag is all from the Sweet Treats set. I love that this set has the die AND the matching stamps. Notice the little slit in the top of the tag? Makes it easy to attach to a ribbon, etc. I used Distress markers to color the cake stamp so I could get multiple colors on the cake. Add a rhinestone to the flower and you’re good to go.

Thanks for “celebrating” with me this week.

More Celebra’tions

In my last post, I showcased some fun selections from Spellbinders’ Celebra’tions collection by Richard Garay.

Here are more:

This card features a piece of pretty patterned paper as well as a rosette made with the rosette die. (I added a dollop of Stickles Glitter Glue to the center). The stamp is from the # Sweet set and is colored using bright gel pens. The white dots were added to the green layer using a white dot pen from Faber-Castell (one of my must-have tools!). The patterned and purple pieces were cut using the Pierced Rectangles die (the green was a leftover!).

This pretty paper does all the hard work on this card, making it fast and easy to put together. The stamps are from # Sweet (the flower was heat embossed in black and fussy cut, then colored with Distress markers), Stickles gives sparkle on the flower, and I edged a strip of the patterned paper using a Stampin’ Up scallop edger. The gems are Dew Drops from the Robin’s Nest. (attached using Ranger’s Glossy Accents.

I made this a top folding card by cutting the patterned paper about a half inch longer than my base, then I scored the top of the patterned paper and attached that overlap to the back of the base card.

There are a few more coming!

Fabulous Finds — More to Celebrate

Several posts ago (here) I featured a few of the new Spellbinders’ Celebra’tions stamp/die/ink/etc collection, created by designer Richard Garay.

I finally had a chance to play with some of the goodies in the collection. Here are a few of my experiments, using stamps, dies, string, paper, ink and an embossing folder, all from the collection:

I first die cut the large and medium rectangles (LOVE that perforation!). (Green paper is from the collection. Yummy colors.) I stamped the vase and flowers (from the #Sweet set) in VersaMark, embossed in black, then colored with Distress Markers. A touch of yellow Stickles added some sparkle. I splattered a dash of the Luscious Silk ink (the bottle comes with a built-in brush) over the white background, tied a piece of blue Linen thread around the white panel and mounted it to the green panel.

The text frame was stamped in Lime Green, the words in Memento black. I fussy cut the piece then added it to the card using foam tape.

The process was similar for this one:

BUT …. I ran the purple piece through the fabric embossing folder — I love the look. (I’ll have a better look in another card.)

I’ll show a few more cards over the next few days.

Thanks for stopping by!

More Gelli-licious Mono Prints

In my last Fabulous Finds Friday I raved about Gelli Plates.
Once the prints are made (I do a LOT at one time) putting the cards together is fast and easy, two of my favorite words.

Here are some more cards I made:

The prints work well on their own, or you can add sentiments:

Remember I mentioned scraps? When I trimmed my papers to fit my cards, naturally I had scraps. Did I throw them away? Nooooooooooooooooo! Here’s what I did with them:

Thanks for coming back!

Fabulous Finds — Gelli Art!

This is a perfect example of what happens when I am afraid to try something and then I do … and I become addicted!

I am now addicted to the Gelli Plate by Gelli Arts. I finally tried it while writing an article about mixed media techniques for the Fall issue of Craftideas magazine. (Shameless self promotion alert! Besides my article, the issue has three of my projects, with a fourth featured in the enewsletter.)

The Gelli Plate looks and feels like gelatin, but is a durable, reusable, easy to clean surface that is used for monoprinting. The simple version: spread a drop or two of acrylic paint on the plate. Use a brayer to spread the paint into a thin layer across the plate. Use a soft object (stamp, bubble wrap, brush, stencils, etc.) to create an imprint. Add more colors if you like. Place plain copy paper on top of the painted surface, rub gently, then “pull” off your print. Not perfect? Add more paint and put on another layer. There are NO mistakes!

Here’s what I made (these are not the ones printed in the magazine.)

Here’s some of the pulled paper:

And a few cards:

Just plain …

And with a sentiment:

Sentiment by Kaisercraft.; sequins from Lawn Fawn.

Stay tuned for more ideas … including how I used up the leftover pieces.

Thanks for stopping by.