He Built a Better Mousetrap

For the record, we don't have "resident" mice, but in colder weather we have passersby who try to find shelter from the cold. Archie's favorite season is winter for this reason. It's an older house (built in 1906).

The bear is holding a sign that says "He built a better mouse trap!" The buttons are from Papertrey Ink (Melon Berry) and so is the Outlines Alphabet stamp set used to stamp "sage advice" with Versamark and Hero Arts White Embossing Powder. I think I bought the polka dot washi tape on clearance (no evidence of a brand), the grid washi tape is from Stampin' Up!

The idea for the layout came when I was testing a mouse stamp I made from an eraser.  I've been thinking about it for a while. When I saw May Flaum's Camp Scrap is working on Monochrome this week, everything fell into place.

I used a pencil to sketch out all the hand writing and the food dish, and then wrote over it with a Fine Line Sharpie. Then I erase for Scotland. The thought bubble is drawn with Tropical Tangerine Stickles, and the speech bubble is drawn with Orange Peel Stickles.

There is more journaling under the photograph, and my customary pocket for more journaling under the "card" element by taping only the sides and the bottom.

As I was making this layout (in a day once I got the idea for the bigger picture and the photograph printed), I started thinking about how much easier using stamps on layouts has gotten for me (touch wood lest the mojo runs away). I think it started by participating in some challenges to use Papertrey Ink stamps by the truly talented Leigh Penner at her blog (chock full of crafty goodness) To The Full.

Simon Says Furry Friends.

Paper: Fancy Pants "Great Pumpkin"(base), Sassafras Bungle Jungle the dish was made from a piece of scrap.

Embellishments: Queen & Co. Embellishments (flower), Tropical Tangerine Stickles, Orange Peel Stickles, Making Memories Puffy Alphabet Stickers, Washi Tape, Papertrey Ink Melon Berry Buttons, Sequins.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Outlines Alphabet (Versamark and Hero Arts White Embossing Powder), Stampin' Up! Cheerful Critters set (Papertrey Ink Terracotta Tile), hand-carved mouse (Papertrey Ink Orange Zest) and x stamps (Terracotta Tile).

Spring Into Action Challenge

The challenge is to use a stamp set that has not seen any action or enough action. Scrapbooking has been on the back burner far too long, so I decided to use the Make It Market kit: Country Fair to scrap the highlights of a day I went to the fair by myself.

 Using the technique of making a stamp out of sticky backed fun foam that was part of the Ancient Rome segment of Stamp-a-faire 2014, I stamped the 12 x 12 paper using Picked Raspberry Distress Paint. I attached it to a piece of plastic packaging instead of an acrylic block.

Then I added paisley stamps with White Pigment ink. I used the rosette die to make a rosette and to make a border.

The quilt square was turned into a journal pocket (1/8 inch score tape on the sides and bottom). The journal card was made by gluing the Enjoy die cut at the top of a Monthly Moments Mini Journal Card die. I used some hot pink gingham ribbon in the border. The title is cut with the Cricut Base Camp cartridge.

Bagged and Tagged Challenge

Papertrey Ink's 8th Anniversary Bagged and Tagged Challenge. The challenge is to make a tag to go with a gift bag. I used the Tasting Tag as a combination Gift Tag and Presentation Tag for a Dachshund pin. The holes to tie the spoon on are perfect for holding the pin.

The dachshund pin is cut out of felt with the die from Come All Ye Faithful and sewed with a two tone handspun embroidery thread. My new favorite  felt pin closure is a safety pin (they just lie better on felt in my opinion). The stamps are from Come All Ye Faithful Additions and  a stamp made by cutting fun foam with the die set."Wag" and "Swag  and the silhouette on the bag are stamped with Pure Poppy ink. The washi tape was a gift, no idea who makes it but it is lovely. I didn't have a "Le" stamp, so I had to wing it with a Sharpie.

Because Simon Says All Creatures Great and Small, I'm including it there also : ).

WOYWW 297

It's the middle of a 10 day long 8th Anniversary Celebration over at Papertrey Ink. I'm working out an idea for the Spring Into Action Challenge where we use an unused or underused set. So of course it's the best time to conduct experiments lol.

This is a rather intricate secondary stamp cut from sticky back fun foam (put on a piece of plastic packaging) a technique I learned about at Stampe-a-faire 2014.  This is the result with Picked Raspberry Distress Paint rubbed over the fun foam. All the dies on my desk are from Papertrey Ink's Make It Market kit: Country Fair.

And outside it has been snowing. I treated myself to a snowplow contract. Only he's pushed all the snow from the driveway onto the sidewalk. Fortunately it was warm enough to do a John Henry through the pile before it froze. Hoping my flax survives being walked on until the thaw. The bank is  about 5 feet high, It's probably snowed about 3 feet over the last 2 weeks.

Head over to Julia's Stamping Ground to see more crafty workspaces.

Mason Jar Stamping

Make It Monday #182: Mason Jar Stamping. I don't have a lot of storage space for seasonal decoration, so I went with a jar I could make seasonal with the fillers. (How do I still not have Friendship Jar: Fall Fillers? Oh yeah there are too many awesome crafty distractions lol, especially ermergawd, the Make It Market Co. kits!!).

I painted a small newly emptied homemade jelly jar with blue acrylic craft paint. The stamp is made with fun foam using  the Stamp-a-faire 2014 1980's mini kit cloud die, and put a little Club Scrap Mounted Glue on the back. I used Ashley Cannon Newell's advice for small stamps, and used my finger for the stamp block. I could really get the Versamark in between the glass shapes.

The pumpkins are from Daily Designs, stamped with Orange Zest, the frame stamped with Plum Pudding and then the background painted with Limeade Ice. A Gelly Glaze black pen was used to draw on the faces. The tags were glued to skewers The little bats (from a Halloween kit) were stamped on Classic Kraft and attached to some wire. The "stuffing" for the jar is Classic Kraft run through a Paper Crimper and then cut into strips. The wrapping around the lip is a strand of jewelry hemp and a strand of 2-ply handspun silk embroidery thread.

Simon Says Falling in Love with . . . in my case, stamping fall : D.

Double Shaker Card

This shaker card has two separate windows. One for the acetate sheet stamped with buildings from City Scene. The second window has sequins. The windows are made with the rectangle dies for the Make It Market kit: Shakers & Sprinkles. The monster is embossed with Zing!Opaque White Embossing Powder. The patterned paper is from DCWV Indian Summer paper pad. The cardstock is Vintage Cream. The patterned paper frame is inlaid to the card front.

Simon Says Anything Goes : ).

Iron Filings

Also known as Eileen Fahleens since Princess Judy Palmer told me about them back in WOYWW Week 268. The easiest method I've found so far is to use these Shake It Pouches by Impression Obsession. And if you have the square set from Spellbinders, one of them fits it almost exactly (varies with the paper/cardstock. This is thicker cardsotck, so I opened it a smidge with the edge of a scissor. The magnet will stick to even a tiny group of iron filings. A really strong magnet is worth the extra cost, the average dollar stores set will not be very much fun at all.

The Shake It Pouches come with adhesive, but Iron Fillings are heavy and tenacious so I use Glossy Accents as a seal instead. Patience is required. Put the pouch upside down, pour in some filings, apply Glossy Accents, apply background cardstock, press the edges together (without picking it up). Set it aside to dry. Really dry lol. Make a cover mat, or cut a window in the card front. The pouches make a much lighter card than making a well out of cardstock.

UPDATED to add: I had no luck just "substituting" iron filings for shaker card ingredients because they are really heavy in comparison and very very small. So the adhesive sheets just didn't work for me. They need to be sealed in with something like Glossy Accents and then make sure there are no gaps : ).

And if you spill any iron filings, wrap the magnet in a coffee filter before you use it to pick them up. then hold it over the jar and remove the magnet. The iron filings fall neatly into the jar without having to be wrestled off the magnet.

These pictures were taken while the card was lying flat on the desk. Fresh from the salon monster.

Bearded Monster.

Rapunzel Monster.

It's a Bird! It's a Plane!

It's Super Monster! Simon Says Rock the Technique, and this is one of my favorites. Converting a stationary stamped image into an moveable one. The card is made with Papertrey Ink cardstock. Stamper's Select White for the A2 base. Blueberry Sky for the mat, die cut with the cloud from the Stamp-a-faire 2014 1980's mini kit. One cloud is painted with Picket Fence Distress Paint. The shrub pieces are all hand cut. The large part of the shrub is glued directly to the card.  The other two are attached with foam tape. The gnome is a brad from Eyelet Outlet.

It's also a puppet.

The dimension of the shrubbery hides the puppet slot. I sprayed her with Dylusions Spray after all the pieces were cut.

The foam channels are three pieces high. There is a stopper and two sides.

Stamp your image several times.  And start cutting rounded pieces.  It's better to start with too much on the piece as it can always be trimmed later.

I use a paper piercer to pivot the pieces and swivel marking where the cuts will go.

Poke holes where the brads will go (I used Tim Holtz Mini Brads).

I've got a stamp for that

The CASology cue card for Week 112 is Three. I immediately got an earworm of Three Blind Mice.

I've been hearing the phrase, "I have an app for that" for a while. I never say it because I have a "dumb as a rock phone". (It makes calls, it's what I like it to do. I also have a GPS and a camera. The downside, is it's more to carry. The upside is that if one thing stops working, the other two usually carry on.) Unlike many people in the world though, I often say "I have a stamp for that." Even if I have to carve it myself lol.

In this case I carved the mouse on a pink eraser. Really easy to cut, but I feel I have to be careful when I clean it lest I erase a leg or ear or part of the tail.I stamped it with a white pigment ink and drew the sunglasses on with a Sharpie. The card base is Papertrey Ink Classic Kraft

Party Animal

Hand-carved monster stamped on DCWV Indian Summer patterned paper and heat embossed with Zing Opaque White Embossing Powder. The hat is hand cut with a border of Milled Lavender Distress Stickles. The balloon animal and the sentiment are from Avery Elle's Party Animal. The balloon animal is covered with glossy accents. The card base is Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream.Simon Says Anything Goes : D.

Back to School card

The challenge at Simon Says is Back to School so I made this card for my daughter. I used Papertrey Ink's A Little Inspiration and Black Soot Distress Ink for the sentiment. Versamark, my hand-carved Monster stamp and clear embossing powder over the sentiment and a gold star sequin.

After the Time Travel Stamp-a-faire 2014 at Papertrey Ink this weekend, I've been thinking about tools and techniques I haven't used in a while, so I inked the edges with some Tea Stain Distress Ink. I stamped a notebook page with Papertrey Ink's It's Official and Spring Rain. The cardbase is Summer Sunrise.

Yes! I used my Paper Crimper

The Papertrey Ink Stamp-a-faire 2014Time after Time challenge was to remake a card made some time ago. The card on the left was made for the July 2011 Papertrey Ink Blog Hop.

And it was the perfect card to remake because I got to use my Paper Crimper for the window sheer! I started by cutting a square in the "wall paper"and stamping a view with a stamp from Club Scrap's Destinations kit on the white cardstock where the "window" would go. Then I used my hand-carved Monster stamp which I heat-embossed with black embossing powder. I put the wall paper on the white cardstock and ran some thin vellum through my paper crimper. I made a valence out of the same paper I used from the wallpaper and some foam dots. I die cut the couch and paper pieced the sofa cushions and pillows (stamped with the flower from Botanical Silhouettes. I order to avoid the gap in the cat that I got the first time, I stamp the cat first on the background, then on the sofa and then lined it up. I even paper pieced the picture this time. (Couch, cat and picture are from the On My Couch set also purchased at the CHA 2010 Super Show.

Stamp-a-faire2014: Explore Ancient Rome

This is for the Explore Ancient Rome with Lizzie Jones Challenge. Oh my word! So many options, I have applied embossing paste to A2 size mats which are set off to dry for the faux fresco part of the challenge. This is my take on one of the mosaic variations.

I ran the mosaic die from the Ancient Rome mini kit through my Big Shot with some sticky backed fun foam. I peeled, carefully peeled the backing off all the tiles (leaving the backing on the "grout" cut). When the backing of all the tiles had been removed I pressed a piece of acetate (the backing of a PTI stamp set) onto the fun foam. Then I removed the "grout" cut, leaving me with a wonderful tile stamp. I'll make a lovely "grout" stamp later : D.  There's a video of the whole project at post as well as a spotify playlist of  Roman music!

The background was stamped with the Make It Market Co: Beautiful Brushstrokes large flower with Papertrey Ink Harvest Gold, Scattered Straw and Wild Honey Distress Inks. I used the tile stamp with Ranger Clear Resist and heat embossed clear embossing powder over the flower background.  Then I used Seedless Preserves Distress Ink over the entire mat, wiping it off with a slightly damp paper towel. The cardstock is all Papertrey Ink Fine Linen. The sentiment "Each Day Provides Its Own Gifts-Marcus Aurelius", also from Ancient Rome mini is stamped on a banner of Fine Linen in Wild Honey Distress Ink.

I think this tile technique will also work really well on patterned paper or print outs of Roman sites, artifacts, etc. And the techniques and stamps are the solution to the problem of scrapping "Latin Days". Major Bonus!! I'm late for the Renaissance and Regency periods lol. Where's my Tardis? : D

La Vie en Rose Monster Style

Simon Says Make It Sparkle, so I did. I adhered a piece of Anna Griffin paper to the front of an A2 mat cardstock and then cut the rectangular frame from Make It Market: Shakers and Sprinkles. The pieces were then re-assembled and stamped with my hand carved monster stamp and heat embossed with gold Embossing Powder.

The two outer pieces of the mat were lined up with the A2 Papertrey Ink Ocean Tides card front and the center piece was attached to the card front. A piece of heavy plastic is glued to the bottom of the mat and the opening surrounded by two layers of foam tape. 10 mm gold sequins were added for the shaker. The middle piece will be used in another project, the "frame" is made with the Ocean Tides cardstock showing through where it would have been.

Happy Day card

It's rare that I spend two days working on a card, but for this one I did. The Papertrey Ink dies I used to make the border cut from non-border dies are the Strip Stitch die and the butterfly and "happy" from Pretty Peonies. After watching the video carefully, I promptly cut off the wrong side lol. So I had to run it through again with a second A2 mat.

I found some stunning deep brown (with glitter) paper from K&Company Classic K Specialty Paper Pad which I wanted to show through under the Strip Stitch die cut I butted the border cut up against. I also left a lot of the dots in the cut. I distressed the non-image parts of the border and the K&Company paper with the edge of a pair of scissors.

Then I stumbled across a very very old piece of  pearlized vellum paper (easily 15 years old) and cut 2 butterflies, the peony and leaf image and "happy", then stamped them with Versamark and embossed them with Zing Chocolat Opaque embossing powder (except for the leaves which I stamped in black ink and left unembossed. The butterfly on the flower is stamped and embossed whole and then folded in half. I used Scor-Tape to attach the flower and butterflies, I ran the "happy" through my little Xyron.

At first glance, it might appear that the star of the card is the Pretty Peonies stamp set and matching dies, but to my mind the even bigger stars are the Strip Stitch die (and the stamp I made out of fun foam with it) and this fabulous Sprinkle N Sparkle Cosmic Semi-Transparent Pineapple Embossing Powder. It is the tiniest little jar (I bought at the 2010 CHA Supershow), and I still have almost all of it even after embossing all this. I was really pleased with how the foam rubber stamp lined up with the border cut and matched that up with the die cut.

I put everything on an A2 card with about an inch cut off the front so the border images (especially the Strip Stitch die can be seen to best effect : ). All the cardstock used is Papertrey Ink's Stamper's Select White which is heavy enough to stand up to all the additives.

I felt bad that the K&Co paper was so covered up, so I added a small strip of it on the inside.

Make It Monday #175: Creative Card Borders Using Non-Border Dies and Simon Says Anything Goes (note to self, second entry)

Making Lemonade, Just Because : D

This card is made entirely from things previously used, that could have been better. I stamped the dog for a Make It Monday challenge, but decided to dress it up by turning it into a mat on a different card base, only I sneezed and it went on wicked crooked.

So I trimmed that one off so there is a peek of Simply Chartreuse under the Vintage Cream, but I like it. The Sweet Blush card base was going to be used for a different card but I changed my mind at the last minute and it tore a smidge... but totally covered by the new mat. I added some of the very very very thin gold tape from Papertrey Ink's Make It Market kit: Luxe Letterpress and finished it with a big "Hi-Ya" for a Just Because card worthy of the Simon Says J is for . . .

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Come All Ye Faithful (dog), a stamp made from fun foam from the Come All Ye Faithful die set (dog coat), Say It with Style (sentiment).
cardstock: All Papertrey Ink (Vintage Cream, Simply Chartreuse, Sweet Blush

Stomp for Joy

A Stomp for Joy Shaker card using clear acetate cardstock so a second entry in the Simon Says Let's Be Clear Challenge. I was inspired by one of my favorite scenes in Jurassic Park where the water starts shaking as the T-Rex approaches (I keep a glass of water by my bed, it's also useful to see if there is an earthquake). I used my monster stamp on Papertrey Ink Melon Berry patterned paper and Opaque White Zing Embossing Powder. The sentiment is handwritten because I don't have a stamp for that and I'm trying to get over the "ack my handwriting thing".

Here's a close up of the shaker with everything settled.  The little lines around the monster are left on the stamp from the carving process. I decided I liked them as they give a sort of "wood block" feeling. The ovals are cut with the Papertrey Ink Make It Market Shakers and Sprinkles kit, and so is the "sugar" used in the shaker.

Sprinkled with Happiness

This card is for two challenges: this week's Make It Monday #171: Pop Up Die Cuts and Simon Says Start from Scratch. I die cut the word Sprinkles so the bottom of the word opened to rain down sprinkles to make a monster.  The "sprinkles" are made from scratch with a glue pen and embossing powder. The monster is also made from scratch by hand-carving, but I finished it last week. The inside of the card says "with Happiness".

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream (mat) and Limeade Ice (cardbase).
Inks:image pigment (heat embossed with Zing Cricket Embossing Powder) and sentiment Papertrey Ink Ocean Tides.
Dies and Stamps: monster hand-carved stamp, sentiments Papertrey Ink's Make It Market kit: Shakers and Sprinkles..

WOYWW 266 and RAK winner

I finally finished my monster stamp and I've been having heaps of fun with it. The two images on the large sheet of paper are watercolor crayons (and spritzed way too heavily lol). The green image in the front is pigment ink which actually took off some of the Walnut Distress Stain that remained after scrubbing the stamp several times. So stamping and extra cleaning in one go lol. The monster cameo card has a lot of things going on and can be read about here if you're curious.

The close up.

The winner of last week's RAK (random act of kindness) is Heather.  If you are wanting to see more crafty spaces around the world, head over to Julia's Stamping Ground.

Cameo Appearance

Lots of white (Simon Says W is for White Challenge) and a cameo appearance using the monster stamp I finally finished carving. I used Papertrey Ink's  Background Basics: Woodgrain with clear embossing powder, then made an oval rosette out of cream watercolor paper and the Tim Holtz Rosette die (stretched out in an oval shape). The frame from Papertrey Ink's Simply Jane (stamped with Versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder). The cameo is made with a  coral pigment ink (on my monster stamp) and clear embossing powder. I'm also entering this in Papertrey Ink's July Inspiration Archive.