Weekend Stamp Projects And A Tip

I was feeling pretty good today so I managed to get in my scrap room and do a little stamping.

A while back I was at AC Moore and saw these rulers for $1.00 and said to myself "I bet I could stamp that". If you are a stamper I am sure you can relate to that phrase while looking at something. LOL I bought just one (I will now be going back for more) and this is what I did to it. (Try clicking on the picture to make it bigger for a better view). The center strip on the ruler that I stamped is wood. I used black and red StazOn ink to stamp the images. Then I figured coloring in the flowers would be best with sharpie markers, but I didn't care for the darkness of the ink on the ruler. So I went with colored pencils. It can be a little tricky because of the grain of the wood, but I think it came nice. If I were going to use this ruler I would probably coat the wood with a layer of Mod Podge. The stamp sets used were double line doodles and Garden Whimsy, from the new Stampin Up catalog.

The other thing I played around with is this cute Stampin Up jumbo wheel called Dilly Dally Party. Yep, I said wheel, do you see it? Here is a hint: It is no longer on a wheel. LOL A few weeks ago a fellow Stampin Up Demonstrator, Martha, brought up a question that involved removing the rubber from the wheels and mounting them on blocks of wood. When I read that it was a total OH MY GOSH, WHAT A BRILLIANT IDEA THAT IS kind of moment for me. I hate the wheels!! Okay, maybe it is fear and not so much hate, but either way I have been keeping my distance from those pesky wheels. However this year there are so many in the catalog that I would love to have...... and now I can.

Because the rubber is more tacky on the wheel rather than stuck tight it is easy to remove.

Just locate the seam on the rubber and carefully cut it with a sharp craft blade. Get a block of wood that is a little bigger than the stamp - The one above is a jumbo wheel and measures 6 3/4" long by about 2" wide. My husband had a piece of scrap wood about 3/4 of an inch thick that he cut down and sanded real nice for me. To attach it to the wood you could use double sided foam like that you find on most wood mounted stamps. If you don't have that I suppose you could glue the rubber to some craft foam and then adhere it to the wood, or just glue it straight to the wood if you wanted.

Hubby has some real strong double sided foam tape that he used to adhere mine to the wood. And there you have it. If I had thought about it I would have stamped the image on the wood with StazOn ink before mounting it and then seal it so that I had a picture reference on the wood. I will do that on the next ones and will probably just stamp a piece of paper and attach it with Mod Podge.

Now of course mounting all the wheel stamps like this is not necessary like for example Hot To Dot or Watercolor Joy. Unless you want some of the patterns to be in nice straight lines. For me, mounting the wheels on blocks are good for ones like Neighborhood and Spooky Skyline or Daisy Fields.

So if you are like me and just can't seem to get the wheels to roll right on your paper, this is a great solution!!! Thanks Martha!

Cuttlebug Shmuttlebug

It seems that dry embossed backgrounds on cards has become quite popular since the Cuttlebug hit the shelves. The cards I have seen using the cuttlebug embossing folders are really neat. My cards don't usually have a lot on them so they tend to come out looking a little dry. The embossing gives it a little something extra. The problem is I do not want to purchase a cuttlebug machine at $99.00. Actually I don't want to purchase the cuttlebug for any amount of money, but I don't mind paying $4.99 for a cuttlebug embossing folder. So, how can you use the cute cuttlebug embossing folders without having to buy the machine (or any other cuttlebug compatible machine). Easy! Go in your kitchen and pull out your wooden rolling pin. All you need is that and a little spritz bottle of water and you are good to go.

Cut your cardstock to the size you want.

Spritz a little bit of water on each side of the cardstock.

Place it in the embossing folder and put a little piece of tape at the bottom to keep it shut.

Put the embossing folder on a surface that has a little give. I put a piece of cardboard down on the carpet and lay the folder on the cardboard. It seems to work better for me than doing it on a table.

Roll the rolling pin over the folder a few times with some good steady pressure. I roll it a couple of times in one direction, then turn the folder and roll a few times in the other direction.

Remove the cardstock and give it a few minutes to dry from the water spritz.

Here is a birthday card I did for my brother using a happy birthday embossing folder.

Cool eh? Now here is the best part! If you have an AC Moore near you they have cuttlebug stuff 40% off this week! The folders only cost me $3.00 each!

A Friday Tip:

Did you know you can dye Stampin' Ups dazzling diamond glitter?

You need:
Small container (have any empty brad or eyelet containers around?)
Reinker
Water
1 + 1/2 tsp. Dazzling Diamond glitter
Tooth pick

In your container put 1 drop of reinker and 2 drops of water and mix together
Add 1/2 tsp of glitter and mix with tooth pick or close lid and shake it up
Add 1 tsp or glitter and mix or shake again

The glitter will soak up the moisture and become 'fluffy'. Leaving the container open for the day will help get rid of some of the fluffiness.