Love Tag

Good evening once again fellow scrappers! Summer has officially begun--let the humidity begin. Many of you may cringe when I say that--but here in the East coast--I prefer the Fall/Winter over the summer. UGH!

Today's post is actually a tutorial that I have provided for Stamp Enjoy. They have a collection of tutorials that you can find here. You can find a printable PDF tutorial for this tag here.

I used a couple of stamping techniques on this tag & lots of inking. The primary technique I used was on making the background of the tag. I used the 'resist emboss' technique. With this technique you heat emboss a stamped image--usually with clear embossing powder. Once the image is embossed it will 'resist' any inking done over the image. Here are some more highlights.

This clear butterfly is a stamp by Stamp Enjoy titled Butterfly in the Grass. I stamped on a piece of acrylic, cut out the image & then added some Stickles.

This is a slightly different version of the Glass Flower tutorial that I've shown in the past. You can find a tutorial on Glass Flowers in my blog here.

The 'Love' tag was made by first heavily spritzing it with Smooch spray & then stamping it with a Stamp Enjoy stamp called Love.

Finally the flourishes were made by using the Elegant Flourishes die by Tim Holtz. They were cut from grunge board, inked, heat embossed with distress embossing powder & inked yet again.

For a step-by-step tutorial on how I made this tag--feel free to visit the Stamp Enjoy blog under the 'Tutorial' category.

Thanks to all of you who take the time to stop by--it's always so very much appreciated.

Till my next post...

It's No Fairy Tale Layout

Buenas tardes fellow scrappers! Today's page is a trip down memory lane for yours truly. Yep, that's me in the stroller some many moons ago. This page is actually a letter for my future child(ren). They say scrapbooking can be used to send letters to those that have passed & to those that are yet to come. So with this picture I've taken the opportunity to send a message to my 'to-be-child(ren)' regarding a very important lesson that I've already come to learn. Journaling reads as follows:

I know you don't currently exist & I'm not sure just when you'll arrive. What I do know is that I already have a message or you that I hope to pass onto you when the time comes. You'll refer to this piece of advice quite often in your journey called life.

Unfortunately, life is not a fairy tale. I've discovered that life is more like a storm--you'll find yourself basking in the sun one moment & then be shattered on the rocks the next--but it's what you do in those moments that you're shattered that defines you & makes you stronger. You'll have your ups & your downs--your laughs & your sorrows--& your own mistakes will be your best lessons. Yes, life is no fairy tale--but every second of every minute of every day is so very much worth living.

So I got a bit philosophical or maybe Shakespearean--but I base my advice on my own experience! Before I go on any further--just some tid bits on the supplies used on this page.

Once again I used a sketch from Creative Scrappers to design this page. All papers are from the Bittersweet collection by Basic Grey. I've had these papers just about forever & finally found the right page to use them on.

As usual I stamped the entire background--this seems to have become my 'must' technique on my pages lately. I used a combination of stamps. Here is a closeup of some stamping. The clock & circular texture designs in pink are stamps by Stamp Enjoy. The small script stamp is by Prima.

Other stamps used on this page are by Stampers Anonymous.

On this closeup you can also see the hand stitching I did along the borders of the page.


A closeup of the chipboard flourish. This chippie is by Maxine's Melange. To get the texture you see here, I first painted the chipboard in black acrylic paint. Then I heat embossed it with clear Star Dust embossing powder. In person, this flourish is very 'blingy'!

I added the title along some of the scrolls of the chippie.

A closeup of the flowers. The large dark pink flower is by Prima. The two smaller flowers were handmade by me. I refer them as 'frosted flowers' because the glaze on the vellum give them a frosty look. They were made with hand punches, vellum, inking & some glaze. To see a brief tutorial on how these flowers were made, please go here.

I tucked small white twigs of baby's breath (also known as gyp) underneath the flowers.


Finally a closeup of the lacing. This fabulous lacing technique is by my scrap buddy Natasha. I've been wanting to use her 'twisted lace' technique for a while now & this page gave me the perfect opportunity to do so. If interested in learning this lacing technique, please go to Natasha's post here. She did a great tutorial on this lacing technique. Thank you girl!

Thanks to all of you who stop by--I appreciate your visit so very much! Hope you didn't mind taking this brief trip down memory lane with me.

Till my next post...

Swipe Technique For Distressed Background

Here's another quick stamping tip. Want to get a streaked, distressed look on your page?

Simply take a distress ink pad & just swipe it down your page from top to bottom.

NOTE: Only swipe from top to bottom--not up & down.

Keep swiping from top to bottom until you get the distressed 'streaky' look you desire!

If you're nervous about trying this out on your project--practice on some scrap paper first...after all, practice makes perfect...

Have fun!

Using Masks for Stamping

Time for a quick stamping tip...if you want to get a collage of stamped images shaped into a particular shape--try paper masks!

This circle collage you can find on my 'Brothers' page.

Here's how I went about creating this circular stamped collage.

With any circle cutter, cut out a circle in the size you need it out of sturdy cardstock as shown here. Keep both the positive & negative cut outs...because you'll be using both.

With the negative piece place it over the area you wish to stamp. Then start stamping. NOTE: Clear stamps work best for these kinds of projects since you can see where you are stamping.

Make sure that wherever you stamp part of the stamp is on your page & part of the stamp is on the mask as show in the picture here. For areas where the stamp goes past the mask--just tuck another piece of scrap paper beneath it in order to protect your project from unwanted stamping.

Make sure you keep your mask in place. If you can't seem to keep your mask in place--just use small pieces of masking tape to help you keep your mask still until you're fully done stamping.

Here's my finished stamped circle collage. As you can see, I combined several stamps into one & even changed up the ink color I used. If you take a look at my mask, you'll see remnants of my stamping.

Finally, to accentuate your circle--take your positive circle cut & place it over your stamped collage. Then either trace around the circle with a colored pen or take your ink tool & start inking around the circle.

For my circle collage I chose to ink around the circle with Spiced Marmalade distress ink.

Us this tip to make stamped collages out of circles, squares, hearts etc...

Hope this helps some of you try out some stamping today on your projects!

Till my next post...