Turnaround is Fair Play

Just a quick post today to mention a great stamping concept. The “turn-around” stamps from Concord & 9th are brilliant. With four turns of the stamp you have a fast-and-easy image.

The concept is so unique (it helps if you have a stamp positioning tool). You ink, stamp, then rotate your card and do it again… four times. I have only just begun to explore these stamps … and want more!!!

That’s it for today … told ya it was quick!

Happy Birthday Balloons

Balloons are such happy things! I’ve been having lots of fun with this Balloon Bundle die set from My Favorite Things (see this post for another use).

This card base was leftover from some of my watercolor experiments (so I’m not sure which watercolors I used!). The open cake is an old one from the late, lamented Stampa Barbara. The gemstones, I believe, are from Hero Arts.

Hope your day is as happy as these balloons!

Heartfelt Wishes

Hokey smokes, Rocky … it’s been a while since I’ve posted here!

Here’s a quick project made with a nifty die set — Love Letter — from Spellbinders Paper Arts: 

Isn’t that the cutest die set? (It includes the envelope, “note”, and three heart dies. (See the tiniest heart? Well, I managed to use it just once … and then I lost it! It fell onto my carpet and I thought, heck, I’ll never see that bad boy again. I looked, and looked, but no luck, even though I used my handy-dandy Spellbinders magic magnetic diamond.…)

Then over the weekend, while I was searching near my desk for ANOTHER die that I dropped (oh, brother, I need to get better at handling these dies) … I used that diamond again and, viola!!! It picked up the teeny heart!!! (And I found the other die, too. )

Anyway … here is another version of the card:

(Scalloped card is A2 Scalloped Card base from Papertrey Ink; the sentiment is from Hero Arts. But, sigh, no tiny heart.)

Ta da! Here is the lost heart. See how adorably tiny it is?

Thanks for stopping by!

I (heart) Valentines!

It’s so close to Valentine’s Day! One of my favorite card making holidays.

Here are a few that will be going out this year:

I’ve always loved these three hearts from Hero Arts. I embossed them on black card stock with Wow! Fluorescent Tickled Pink powder. The grey layer is embossed with athe Swirly Bird Cuttlebug folder. Sentiment from Hero Arts.

Below is a fast and easy card, also a Hero Arts image. (May be an old image?)

As you can see, the heart was stamped and heat embossed (two with white, one with black).

And one more, little wilder:

Also pretty fast and easy. I pulled an ink-splattered background from my stash, stamped this terrific Laurel Burch designed cat (from Stampendous!), added the box of candy (Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Crazy Birds Accessories) and put it all together.

Next post will feature a beautiful die cut floral from Altenew.

Thanks for stopping by!

More New Craft Stuff!!

What, you thought I could stop at just five nifty craft items? Hah!

Here are some others in no particular order:

Love me some glitter paste! Cosmic Shimmer Glitter Kiss from Ecstasy Crafts has an applicator right in the lid!

Glitter goes on easily with Ecstasy Craft’s Glitter Kiss, which comes with its own applicator.

I can’t wait to try these new Translucent Gelatos® from Faber-Castell:

Translucent Gelatos give a watercolor look

The BowVy (a Creativation Innovations winner) from Little Pink Ladybug uses a hot filament to slice and seal polyester ribbon.

In action:

And a new online company, Love + Lemon, lets you pick from a plethora of craft supplies to suit every need:

Check out the sparkles:

Can’t you just imagine a box of these dazzlers showing up on your doorstep?

That’s it from the show for a while. It’s February and I have Valentines to post! So stay tuned … and thanks for stopping by.

Quick Creativation Recap

Hey … what happened to January? Can’t believe we are in February already!

I have some Valentines ready to go, but first I need to do a quick report on what was new, fun, and fabulous at Creativation, the big trade show for the craft and hobby industry (a recent report puts crafts and hobbys as a $36 billion-plus industry!)

So here are some quick shots:

More Distress Oxides? Yes, please, may I have another??? From Ranger.

Whaaaa? Macrame is back? Yes, but hipper and cuter. These are kits from Plaid. There was a lotta knottin’ going on….

Plaid also has a nifty acrylic marbling ink, just dribble from a jar. This opens up such possibilities! Check out this one:

Cool, eh?

Check out Tim Holtz in the cool shades, ready to show off his new 3D embossing folders for Sizzix:

(No, it’s not your eyes … you need the glasses to make sense of the sign!)

 

Here’s a folder:

There’s more to come!

Check out my Instagram account @RobertaWax.

Layering With Dies

In the final issue of Craft Ideas Magazine, I wrote an article about layering stamps and dies. While layering stamps have been around for a while, layering dies are relatively new. I was wowed when I saw these layering dies from Birch Press Design. There are so many ways to use these three piece sets (which are sold separately or in a bundle. Spring for the bundle! Totally worth it!)

Here are two examples:

This uses the Sevilla set. The pieces were cut from peach, pale yellow and dark grey, then placed over a light grey A2 card (4 1/4 x 5 1/2″). Celebrate was die cut using a Technique Tuesday die.  (see that set here) You can’t really see the shimmer in the photo above, but using the Nuvo Aqua Shimmer brush pen on the die makes it sparkle. Yum. (And you can use the inside, leftover pieces, for other cards.)

This card uses the Dazzle die set. The sentiment circle was stamped with a Technique Tuesday Talking in Circles set. The design was stamped in Wendy Vecchi Archival Watering Can ink, the sentiment embossed in white.

I love playing around with different color combinations!

Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

Hello Honey Bear!

These Wild Things animal tags from Stampin’ Up! (A Little Wild set) are not just stinkin’ cute … they are very versatile, too!

Using the stamps and matching dies, it’s easy to make the cutest tags (which I plan to use for party favors at an upcoming baby shower!). Check them out:

See how they fold over? And have a built-in hole for a string?

But, wait! There’s more! You can also cut them apart to use on cards:

The 4 7/8 x 7″ sized card was made using the Papertrey Ink die Noted: Scalloped A1 Die Collection and Stampin’ Up! card stock. I love this die set!

Don’t forget about the back side of the stamps!

And one last idea … a cute banner would bed cute, too.

Thanks for stopping by!

More Eastern Beauties

Here are three more cards using Stampin’ Up!‘s Eastern Beauty set and matching dies:

I love the way this die pops out, adding such pretty and unique dimension.

(See the earlier cards here and here.)

Here’s the same die, different colors:

(I’m a sucker for grey and yellow!)

And one more, using just the stamps from the set:

And a close-up, showing a Wink of Stella glimmer:

Thanks for stopping by!

Eastern Beauties, Variations

I love the versatility of Stampin’ Up!’s Eastern Beauty stamp set and matching dies. I posted two cards here, but have many more to go because … say it with me … there are so many variations in this set!!!

Here’s a quick sample of the different looks you can get simply by changing the paper color and size:

For this card, and the one below, I used the dies to cut various shapes into a cover card. On the white card base, I dabbed on various Ranger Distress Inks (Victoran Velvet, Tumbled Glass, Seedless Preserves and Iced Spruce), then layered the die-cut piece on top. The dots are from the Robins Nest.

Using a black cover piece gives a dramatically different look:

(This card is a 4Bar (roughly 3 1/2 x 4 inches, smaller than the A2 size above).  I used the same technique, but using Faber-Castell Gelatos Highlighters in Starfruit, Dragon fruit, Clementine and Dry Ice. Nuvo Crystal Drops added some texture and a strip of glitter paper (Paper Source) added sparkle.

Here’s a detailed look:

Thanks for stopping by! I have one more set of cards using the same stamps and dies, coming soon!