From the Vault … This Card Scores

Every so often I find some old cards I made.

Before there were embossing folders galore, I used a scoring tool to create texture on cards. For this card, I first scored one way, then the other. On the top part of the card, I scored in both directions (you can barely see the bottom cross-score, which shows up better on the bottom third of the card).

The sentiment is from Hero Arts; I’m not sure who makes the elephant, as it was stamped a long time ago at a friend’s house.

Thanks for popping over!

Fabulous Finds Friday … Spellbinders and More

There are several Fabulous Finds in the craft world today, including two new die cutting/embossing machines from Spellbinders.

First up is the Sapphire, a small, portable manual die cutting/embossing machine aimed at beginners who want to try die cutting but don’t have the budget or the space to invest in larger machines. It handles dies up to 2 1/4 inches wide. There are also some new blue dies designed for this machine, although other dies will also work. It is sold at JoAnn fabric stores.

For those looking for bigger, better, bolder, get ready for the new Platinum, a heavy-duty machine deep enough to handle steel rule dies. This means it is also powerful enough to cut up to eight layers of various materials. It can cut more than 40 types of material, just about anything you might need in paper or fabric projects, including leather, bubble wrap, shrink film, magnet sheets, burlap, cork, thin acrylic, chipboard, balsa wood, craft metal and more. (Bubble wrap??? That would be cool!)

It weighs a sturdy 14.7 pounds and has an 8.5 inch cutting base, which folds up for storage. Spellbinders is also introducing 16 steel rule dies. The machine will be available in September with a MSRP of $199.99.

To find out more about the Platinum, check out this video.

If you are a Spellbinders fan (and even if you are not!) check out Spellbinders’ The Creative Cafe, billed as “the place you come to feed your craft curiosity…”

Every Friday, there are new “menu” items featuring “back to basics” with tips and tricks; a designer spotlight (with creative stars such as Seth Apter http://thealteredpage.blogspot.com/, Becca Feeken from Amazing Paper Grace, http://www.amazingpapergrace.com/, Scrappy Cat’s Kim Roberto http://www.scrappycat.net/  and, of course, Spellbinders’ own Stacey Caron. https://www.facebook.com/SpellbindersStaceyCaron?fref=ts

There will be new techniques, too, and a “Weekend Workshop” feature.

For more information, go to Spellbinders here https://www.spellbinderspaperarts.com/blog/welcome-creative-cafe-your-menu-inspiration or here www.spellbinderspaperarts.com

In other crafty news ….

— Ranger Industries has joined forces with Susan Lenart Kazmer and her ICE Resin® brand of jewelry products. Ranger will be manufacturing and distributing Kazmer’s products. ICE Resin is a two-part epoxy resin great not just for jewelry making, but for other mixed media artists as well. I’ve used it to make jewelry as well as other embellishments, including a cool resin-preserved paper. (See one of my early posts on ICE Resin here.)

And a look at my first attempts:

Stay tuned for more Fabulous Finds, sure to get you through the summer doldrums!

Thanks for stopping by.

From the Vault — Old School Ink Pads

I recently inherited three containers of stamps and accessories from a friend. Check out these old-school ink pads:

And guess what? They still work!
Check this out:

Here are some of the old stamps, too:

Check out the old school stamper:

What a treasure-trove of images! (Thank you to Jennifer for all the goodies!)

Do you have any old ink pads or “vintage” stamps? Do they still work?

Thanks for stopping by.

Random Acts of Cardmaking

Another play date, another attempt to clean up my desk. Here are random cards made from the “slush” pile — everything was found on my messy desk or in my box of bits and pieces:

This card sat around a loooong time. So long that I don’t remember who made the paper. The stamp is from Hero Arts, the doily from My Favorite Things and the sentiment from Technique Tuesday.

The torn paper “water” is Core’dinations cardstock (left over from another project), the fishes (I think!) are from Judikins and colored in with gel pens. All I added was the sentiment, using a small alphabet set.

Next is a true hodgepodge of pieces.

Not my favorite card, but at least I used up some pieces! (Background paper by Basic Grey, bird stamp by Hero Arts, and the embossing powder is Zing! from American Crafts.)

One more:

I’ve always loved this wacky cityscape from Hero Arts. This was stamped in black and fussy-cut. The cloud background is a Darice embossing folder. Sentiment, an old one from Hero Arts. Easy peasy.

Thanks for sticking with me!

Fast and Easy Watercolor Flowers

I’ve been lovin’ the look of watercolor lately and came across these fast and easy, one-layer cards I made a while ago using the Blossom stamp from Rubbernecker Stamps.

This is a great stamp for experimental playing, trying out different coloring agents and techniques, The yellow card above was made using Faber-Castell’s Pitt Artist Big Brushes to color the stamp, then slightly spritzed to blend the colors, and stamped. The sentiment (by Impression Obsession) was stamped with Wendy Vecchi Archival Watering Can ink. (I love the softer look of the gray.)

Here are some other versions, each done with different markers or inks, including Distress, Memento and Faber-Castell Gelatos. (My apologies… they were done so long ago I don’t remember exactly which I used on what. But that’s the fun, right? Just experiment with what you have!)

(Pierced rectangle die is from Spellbinders’ Celebra’tion collection)

Thanks for stopping by! Now go play…..