Fabric Heart Pocket

Hey Everyone!

It's so good to hear what you want to see. I'm making a list and will get to work on them for you. Very soon you should all be seeing some of these techniques that you requested.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I tried to squeeze too many techniques/projects into the book so today I have one of the extras that didn't fit. It's a fun and easy project which incorporates fabric by way of Streuter's GlueFilm.

NOTE: The GlueFilm may darken the material. If you're using a light colored fabric you may want to use fusible web or a spray adhesive to attach it to the chipboard.

Supplies:

Thin Chipboard

Vintage Sheet Music

Fabric

Streuter Clear GlueFilm

Heart Pattern (I free-handed mine but there are loads of patterns on the net)

Wire

Eyelets

Vintage Applique or other embellishment

Craft Iron

Ink Blending Tool - Ranger Industries

Distress Ink - Ranger Industries

Needle & Thread (optional)

Paper Piercer (optional)

Crop-A-Dial - WeRMemoryKeepers

Instructions:

1. Cut the following using the heart pattern: 2 hearts from sheet music; 2 hearts from fabric; 2 pieces of thin chipboard; 4 pieces of GlueFilm.

2. Distress edges of sheet music using the Ink Blending Tool and Distress Ink.

3. Layer the following in this order:

Front half of the pocket - fabric face down, GlueFilm, thin chipboard, GlueFilm, sheet music - face up. Iron this stack of materials to melt the GlueFilm and adhere all of the layers together.

Now repeat the same steps for the back half of the pocket.

4. (optional) If desired, poke holes around the outside edge of the heart which will become the front half of the pocket. Sew a blanket stitch around the entire heart.

5. Attach applique or other embellishments to the heart that will be the front of the pocket.

6. Punch 2 holes in the heart which will be the back of the pocket. Secure eyelets.

7. Glue the 2 hearts together by applying adhesive or GlueFilm along the bottom of the heart. Don't apply glue further than half way up the sides so the pocket can be opened once finished.

8. After the pocket has dried or been secured with GlueFilm, twist and attach the wire.

This neat little pocket is now ready to be filled with whatever your heart desires.

Well, tomorrow the reporter and a photographer from the local newspaper comes to interview me about the book. I'm very excited but at the same time very VERY nervous! I am SOOOOO shy...no - seriously, really I am - LOL!!

Wish me luck - I may need it....I'm already shivering with nerves!

2nd Chance Blog Give-A-Ways

I'm finally getting caught up around here. I've had some goodies that should have been mailed a while ago that I'm just getting to now (don't worry...everyone who won something that hasn't rec'd it will be getting something extra in their envie!!).

Hels, Cabbie, Liza & Trine -

your goodies and extras will be going out in tomorrows mail!!

As I was packaging things up I was surprised when I realized that I have several unclaimed goodies setting here....namely 3 packages of bamboo tiles and 2 sets of the new Distress Crackle Metallic Paints!

I can't believe people too the time to enter then didn't take the time to send me their addresses...

odd....

SOOOOOOOO

I'm offering them up to you all!!!

What do you have to do to win???

It's really easy, just tell me a technique that you'd like to see demonstrated

AND

if you win, send me your snail mail addy so I can actually send it to you!

That's it!

Doesn't get much easier huh?

*****As an added bonus you will be able to enter more than once...you will earn one entry for every technique you post!!! So, come on...let me here what you'd like to see!!*****

You'll have until March 1st to post at which time I'll draw at random 5 lucky winners...you won't know what you're getting ~ it'll be a surprise so come on and post post post! And be sure to check back next week so you know who won!

Hope you've had a wonderful weekend!

Sad news - LuminArte...

I heard some sad news yesterday that I wanted to be sure and share with you all....LuminArte - the makers of Twinkling H2O's (my personal favorite!!), Radiant Rain and Primary Elements is going out of business. I had heard rumors about this very thing but I was hoping it was just talk. Unfortunately they have updated the front page of their site and it's true. They are offering a 40% off sale I suppose to clear things out so if you're a fan of any of these wonderful products I would suggest you grab them now while they are still available.

I know I'm going to update my color chart to determine which colors I have and which ones I don't and try to fill in at least some of the gaps before they are gone. I will dearly miss this wonderful color medium option as I know many of you will as well.

If you've never tried Twinkling H2O's this is the perfect time to give them a try but hurry...if you find you love them then you'll want to stock up before they are gone.

Faux Batik Dyed Flowers

Ask and ye shall receive!!

I got to thinking about GailnGA's request about doing something with colored flowers.

You could stamp on them with Archival or other permanent inks...

But then I thought about trying a variation on one of my favorite techniques - Faux Batik!

Again, the supplies are pretty basic:

Supplies:

Flowers to dye

Clear Embossing Ink - Ranger Industries

Clear Embossing Powder - Ranger Industries

Stamps

Spray Dye Ink - Glimmer Mist-Tattered Angles; Adirondack Color Wash - Ranger

Embossing Gun

Instructions:

1. Ink your stamp up very well...you want to be sure to get good coverage as there are no second chances on flowers.

2. Stamp the flower - if your stamp is smaller than the flower, re-ink and continue stamping until the flower has been covered. Don't worry about the ink drying out, embossing ink stays wet for quite a while.

3. Place the stamped flower in a tidy tray or box top lid and sprinkle the clear embossing powder over the whole flower...

make sure you cover the entire piece since you can't really see where all of the ink is.

4. Heat to melt the ep's. Move the heat gun around frequently so you don't scorch the flower.

5. Once the flower has cooled, spritz with your favorite spray dye ink....

6. (optional) If so desired, you may place the flower between two sheets of copy paper and heat with an iron to remove the embossing powders. I thought the embossed images were pretty cool so I left them. The shiny images gave the flower more dimension.

You'll end up with a flower that has taken on the color of the dye with the original color peeking through where the images have been embossed....

Of course this works with white flowers as well but it just doesn't have the same pizzazz that colored flowers offer.

And once combined with solid colored flowers they really make the finished flowers pop!

So there you go GailnGA ~ a fun technique to try with those big tacky colored flowers ;) I hope you give it a go and let me know how you like them.

Good luck and have fun!

~

Ye ole weatherman is predicting anywhere

from 2-8" of snow for our area this weekend.

I had hoped we were done with the white stuff but I guess Mother Nature has decided we need a bit more.

Ahhh well...such is life in Indiana!

I hope you all have a safe and relaxing weekend!!!

Tie Dyed Flower ?'s & more....

I had a few questions about the tie dyed flowers so I thought I'd post them here as well ...

Q ~ Are they stiff when dry?

A ~ Nope, you don't use that much paint and the water dilutes the paint enough that it is still very soft and pliable.

Q ~ Can I use paints other than the dabbers?

A ~ Yes you sure can...I would suggest applying it with a sea sponge or something similar. You are looking for a light coat, not total coverage. You want the splotchy effect that a sea sponge would yield.

Q ~ Why don't you cover the whole petal/flower?

A ~ You only use a light coat of paint because once you mist the paint with water some areas will be darker while other areas lighter giving the tie dyed effect.

Q ~ Will it work on colored flowers?

A ~ I think it will...I've never tried to dye colored flowers before. I would suggest trying it on one to be sure of color fastness since I'm sure every mfg. is different and I don't know what type of dye they use.

I also wanted to give you a heads up...if you happen to subscribe to or pick up Stampington's - Somerset Studio check out the inside back cover. Streuter has a full page ad in this months copy and all of the ATC cards along the top are mine!! I finally got a copy and am tickled pink! Love how the ad turned out :) I don't have any photos of the cards or I'd share them with you. I will take a pic of the ad though and post it as soon as I get a chance.

Hope you had a great day....

Going to be sharing a few more ideas for dying flowers tomorrow so be sure to check in!

See you then!

Tie Dyed Flowers

I was in a flower swap last year ~ you know where each person sends in one type of flower and they get an assortment back. Well, everyone was talking about what color of flowers they were going to buy to trade. I was the odd ball...I bought white flowers. I always buy white flowers!

Why?

Because I dye my own to match whatever project I'm working on!

Today I want to share how to make Tie-Dyed Flowers.

I LOVE making these...there is no set in stone color combo ~ you can make them any color under the rainbow ~ whatever your heart or project desires.

Supplies:

White Flowers - silk, mulberry, paper, etc

Adirondack Acrylic Dabbers - Ranger

Mini Mister (filled w/water) - Ranger

Heat Tool (optional)

Instructions:

1. Dab desired colors of paints onto the petals. Be sure not to over-lap the colors...you'll end up with mud if you do.

2. Once you've got the flower covered, mist with an ample supply of water. You want enough water to dilute the paint so it runs together.

3. Carefully lift the flowers off the craft sheet and place on scrap paper to dry or speed drying with a heat tool. (Be careful not to scorch the flowers!!)

After the flowers have dried they are ready to be used alone or paired with other flowers!!

Now the reason I love these flowers so much is they can be paired with your rubber stamping projects and match perfectly!! No worries about trying to find a pre-dyed flower to fill the bill!

Pretty cool huh?

Quick, easy and it matches perfectly!

Couldn't ask for more.

Look like something you'd like to try?

Well, post a comment here and I'll put your name in the hat for a chance to win an assortment of white flowers and a couple paint dabbers!

You have until 2-25 to post at which time I'll draw the winner using random.org.

Good Luck Friends!!

Rubber Stamps & Paint Clean-Up

Deb e-mailed me asking how to get paint off of rubber stamps once they have dried. I have had this happen a time or two ;) Here's what I do..... I like to get a shallow pan and put just a bit of hot water in the bottom of the pan...just enough to submerge the rubber die section...not the foam. I also add a drop or two of Dawn dish washing liquid. Let it set for a few minutes then take an old toothbrush and brush away the paint which has loosened. You may need to soak it again but it will come clean.

To help prevent this when I'm working with paints & rubber stamps I keep a towel, squirt bottle filled with water and my handy dandy toothbrush. I simply place the stamp on the towel, give it a few squirts, brush any paint from the crevices and wipe dry. I do this when I'm done of course but I also do the same thing if I'm making more than one impression.

Since we're talking about rubber stamps & acrylic paints I thought I'd share a project I made with them.

ETC! Altered Journal

This is a journal that my mom gave me for Christmas a couple years ago. Well, it was laying on my desk one day and I set it aside to work on something. I didn't realize until later that I had placed it on a still wet project soooooo it was in need of a fix.

I decided to create a whole new cover for it and this is what I did....

First, I stamped on a piece of green Club Scrap cardstock using a Postmodern Design background license plate stamp and Adirondack Acrylic Dabbers.

Then I covered each letter with 3 different layers of paint letting each layer dry before adding another.

I added a bit of binding tape along the edges (7gypsies & club scrap) to finish it off.

So even though it started out as a duh moment,

I love how the "fix" turned out!

Hope everyone is staying warm & dry ~

we're experiencing another Indiana weather moment...

cold winds and ice!

Going to be a nasty start to the a.m.

BRRRRRR.....I'm soooooo ready for Spring!

Take care everyone and have a great day tomorrow!

Happy Day...

Hey all!

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day weekend! My sweetie surprised me with a very nice day out. He started the morning by telling me to dress nice...meaning - don't put on your cleaning attire - LOL!! I've been trying to get my house put back together after months of the guys doing the cleaning.

So we ended up spending much of the day in Mishawaka where we visited 2 scrapbook stores; Borders and ate lunch at my very favorite restaurant - Don Pablo's....mmmmm love them fajitas!

It was a great day!

Yesterday was spent cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning. I finally can see my kitchen table again, have a place to sit and eat and everything smells wonderful thanks to Lysol, Murphy's Oil Soap and Febreze! I am only in mild discomfort due to my day long cleaning spree but it's worth it...I was about to go nuts not being able to clean things how I like.

Today I wanted to share a scrapbook lay-out I made about my sweetie which incorporates a bit of stamping and a whole lot of UTEE. You'll see what I mean....

Always & Forever

This is a 12x12 lay-out that was created by cutting 2x2" squares from pattern papers and chipboard squares. Each of the pattern paper tiles was inked using clear embossing ink then covered with 3-4 coats of clear UTEE. The solid colored chipboard tiles were inked using a black embossing ink then covered with 3-4 coats of either black or red UTEE. I love using black ink under colored UTEE - You can see in this photo below how the black ink comes through the UTEE creating a whole new effect.

Sorry about the blurry stamped image on the photo...I was using a stitching program and I so don't get along with technical stuff like that. Chalk it up to operator error... ;) If only they would make some of these programs idiot proof - LOL!!

Anyway, I hope you had a wonderful weekend and here's to a fine week!

Take care all!

ATC Holder - Additional Examples

Hey Hey Hey!

As promised I have several more examples of some ATC holders I've made in the past.

These particular holders are all very feminine...3 of them were covered in pattern papers from a variety of mfg. and the fourth was stamped and stippled with dye inks.

As you can see there is no limit to the type of embellishments you can add to spice the holders up a bit. I love to add fringe along the back side of the flap...I think it gives it that extra little something by incorporating a bit of flash and movement.

I made this ATC holder for a guy using the Dimensional Pearls. The clasp is one of the Basic Grey magnetic clasps which I alcohol inked to match the cover.

If you will notice the variety of designs you can use for the front flap. You can leave them square; round the corners; trim the edges to look like the top of a shipping tag and so much more. I have made scallop edged flaps but when you go to cover them it is very time consuming as you will need add several tiny relief cuts so the paper will conform to the rounded edges.

As I mentioned before you can create this type of holder with virtually any size of envelope available. The only thing you will have to keep in mind is the larger the envie, the larger the cover. Once you get up into the large envelopes (6x9 and up) you're probably going to have to go to the larger sheets of paper or rolled papers to get a piece large enough to cover the chipboard without having to piece together several sheets.

As to the measurements for the chipboard, here is what I do.... for this example I'm going to be using a 6x9 envie folded in half giving me a pocket size of 6 x 4 1/2". The following are the sizes I'd need to cut the chipboard

Flap - 3 x 7"

Top - 1 to 2" x 7"

Back - 5 1/2 x 7"

Bottom - 3/4" to 1 3/4" x 7"

Front - 5 1/4" x 7"

The size of your cardstock; canvas; pattern or specialty paper would vary depending on how wide you make the top and bottom pieces.

All directions to assemble remain the same.

These types of holders make great gift card organizers and if you use tyvek envelopes to create the pockets these holders will last for a very long time!

Hope you have enjoyed these critters and give em a try sometime!

Take care and have a great evening everyone!!

ATC Holder - Step 2 & 3

I will get to the ATC Holder in a sec...I just wanted to clarify a little something before we continue. Trine posted and a couple people e-mailed me yesterday that Club Scrap had a project similar to this in one of their kits last year. I wanted to be sure and let you all know I did not copy their kit and call it my own. Nobody suggested I had but you never know.

I originally designed this particular envie style holder back in 2005. At that time it wasn't designed for ATC's - it was larger and was meant to hold a years worth of greeting cards (using different envies of course). I played with sizes and in 2006 I designed the ATC size holder for an ATC swap the members of Ranger DTU were hosting.

Whew....I feel better now - you know, the whole Catholic guilt thing gets the better of me even when I'm not doing anything to be guilty over - LOL!!!

Anyway, on with the Holder....

Step 2 - Creating the Envie Pockets

1. Since all of the envies are bone dry from setting overnight you will need to fold each envie in half. Be sure to crease the folded edge with a bone folder.

2. Trim all envies to 2 1/2" wide - BE SURE NOT TO CUT OFF THE FOLDED EDGE!!! You want to trim off what was the ends before the envie was folded. I have gotten in a hurry before and just cut that puppy right in two. If you do by chance cut off the wrong sides they are still usable but not nearly as nice as the folded pieces. You'll just have more gluing in the next step.

3. Apply a small line of dry adhesive to the center of the envie.

4. Continue to add the rest of the envies adding a small line of adhesive to each as you go. Be sure to apply glue to the centers of each folded section as well.

You should end up with a stack that looks something like this.....

That's the end of Step #2!

Step #3 - Cover

Now when I originally created these folders I used stamped & painted tag board or cardstock as the covering for the holder. By using a bit of book binding tape to reinforce the folded areas it held up very well. BUT...I happened to think about Ranger's new Sticky Backed Canvas and thought I'd give it a try today. It worked like a charm!!! It is designed to accept paint very well and since it's already sticky it makes assembly a dream. Very quick and easy and no need to use the book binding tape! I will include how to work with both in case you don't have the Sticky Backed Canvas ava.

1. Paint the canvas as desired using Dimensional Pearls and the IBT with foam. Once dry stamp if desired using Archival Ink.

Cardstock -

Canvas - you will notice the canvas tends to curl when you apply the paint. Not to worry, once you remove the backing paper it flattens right out.

2. Cut 5 pieces of chipboard in the following sizes:

Flap - 1 1/2" x 4"

Top - 1" x 4"

Back - 3 1/2 x 4"

Bottom - 3/4" x 4"

Front - 3 1/4" x 4"

Cut the cardstock or canvas to 5 1/2" x 11.

3. (cardstock) If you wish to strengthen the joints of your holder with book binding tape, position the chipboard pieces on the cardstock and mark where each fold falls. Remove the chipboard and place a strip of the book binding tape at each fold mark.

4. Adhere the chipboard to the cardstock using dry adhesive or remove the backing paper and carefully place the chipboard pieces in order on the stick back canvas.

5. Cut notches at each fold and at the corners.

6. (cardstock) Crease along all edges and folds with a bone folder.

(both) Adhere each flap to the chipboard by folding over and securing as shown.

7. Cover the inside of the holder with cardstock or the remaining piece of sticky canvas. Crease each fold with the bone folder.

8. Adhere the envie pockets to the inside of the holder.

9. Decorate the holder as desired.

10. Add closure of your choice. - Ideas might be magnetic closures; Velcro; button & string; snap; etc.

11. ENJOY!!!

So there you have it...a fun ATC envie pocket holder to keep for yourself or give as a gift! Remember you can vary the number of pockets by adding or removing envies.

Tomorrow I will share a few examples of other ATC holders I have made and give you some ideas about how to create larger and smaller holders by varying the envies and chipboard sizes.

Have a wonderful evening everyone!!