Cracked Glass Technique or How to Use Your Freezer for Stamping Projects

This is my first attempt at trying the cracked glass technique.  You stamp an image, stamp over the entire panel with VersaMark ink, and then heat emboss with clear embossing powder or Ultra Think Embossing Enamel.  Then while it's still hot, you add a few more layers of UTEE.  After it cools, you should be able to "crack" the UTEE and make it look like cracked glass. 

Except that it's about 95% humidity today.  So my embossed panel was kind of limp and bent instead of cracking.  So like any good woman, I took matters into my own hands and stuck it in the freezer to make it harder.  LOL~  Strange as it sounds, it worked.  Except that I was a bit overly zealous with my cracking and it looked more like shattered glass.  But this project is nothing if not extremely forgiving.  I just reheated the UTEE and it all melted right back together.  Back into the freezer and a slight more controlled cracking and I could live with the results. 

You can see the cracks a little better in this picture.  I swiped some orange ink over the cracks and rubbed it in to highlight them a bit.  And that's all there was to it.  Easy peasy, really. 

PTI Wildflower Garden stamps, Mint Motif background stamps on the cracked panel.  SU Daffodil Delight cardstock.  Memento inks. 

Look at that!  It's not even last minute this time.  Okay, off to water my flowers; it was almost 100 degrees here today.

Nothing like the last minute....

So every Monday there is a new Make it Monday.  Of course, I seldom get around to actually MAKING anything and when I do it's always last minute.  Like today.  It's Sunday.  I have less than 12 hours to actually "make it" for this contest.  LOL~

I knew that I had to use a reinker in a different way.  And the lovely Jenn showed us how to use Perfect Pearls and a reinker in a miny mister to make our own glimmer sprays.  Score!  I have all of those things already.  LOVE when I find a new way to use things I already have.  It's so much easier on the wallet.  Thanks for that Jenn!!

I pull out an old miny mister that already has the white Perfect Pearl in it with water.  So I add some reinker and spray away.  I thought I was a smart cookie because I actually remembered to put my non-stick thingie down before spraying.  Yeah.  Still made an enormous mess and accidently "misted" pieces of another project.  Well, okay then.  Every Copic colored flower needs a green shimmery background, right?  ;-)  After a few swipes with a Mr Clean Magic Eraser (truly magic!), I'm back in business. 

I decide to cut a frame from my glimmered cardstock with a new set of Nestabilities.  It takes two passes to cut (turned 90 degrees on the second pass) and one to emboss since it's so detailed.  Still have no idea what to do with it.  Now I pull out the stamp sets that I assembled yesterday.  One of them is the new PTI anniversary set.  It didn't really "grab" me when it was debuted.  Bummer since I got five of them, LOL~  But it's growning on me.  I decide to use it on this challenge.  I stamped the stems in Memento Cottage Ivy.  I add some flowers in Pearlescent Coral and Hibiscus Burst. 

Now for the crowning touch.....I added three resin flowers that I made using molds from Etsy, Ice Resin (thank you Betsy Veldman for the suggestion) and PTI reinker.  I think I threw some Stampin Up Dazzling Diamonds glitter into this batch too. 

Well, there you have it.  A last minute, seat-of-my-pants creation.  It's really hard to see the shimmer in the background as my lights at night stink and I was too lazy to drag out the 5D Mark II to take awesome pics.  Sorry!

Happy stamping and I hope to be back soon with some Waltzing Mouse creations!!! 

Tea and Crumpets

I think I should have been born British.  I *love* tea, tea pots, tea kettles, tea cups, and even the thought of sitting down to a meal call "tea."  So when I saw this adorable little baggie to hold some of my favorite beverage I had to make one.  The fact that it's in honor of the 2 year success of one of my favorite stamp designers is just like icing on the tea cake. 

I started with a Stampin Up! patterned paper appropriately enough called Tea and Crumpets.  I have no idea what a crumpet is, but it sounds cool.  I used the WM tea pot stamp and embossed it with copper powder which I think looks like a copper kettle.  I used my Copic airbrush to color a white PTI doily cut out to match.  A few more stamps from the same WM tea set, SU trim, and a SU antique brass brad finish off my creation.  Isn't it cute?  The ever talented Claire designed the template and generously GAVE it away for free. 

Happy Anniversay WM and congrats to Claire on her continued success!!!

ETA  OMGoodness!!!  Thanks so much for all your lovely comments and thanks to Claire for such a great prize.  She is such a sweet and wonderful person.  Here's to many more years of business success for her and Waltzing Mouse Stamps. 

She lives!!!

Hi everyone!  Yes, I'm back to update my SORELY neglected blog.  I've finally taken a break from scrapbooking to make some cards.  I bought the $5 grab bag from the Stampin Up! clearance rack (I think they are still available) and it came with lots of bits and pieces of carstock (pre-cut), cards and envelopes, ribbons, buttons, and designer patterned paper.  So I put on my creative hat and decided to see what I could come up with, trying to maximize the number of cards I produced. 

This first set was fun.  My son is 8 and has been invited to MANY, many birthday parties this year.  So I decided to make up some cards that are good for young boys.  Some of the Crumb Cake cards came with the grab bag and I just cut and scored some additional paper from my stash to make up the extra.  The More Mustard, Real Red, Old Olive, and Confetti cardstock pieces came as is in the grab bag.  I used a chevron stamp from Waltzing Mouse on the Old Olive paper, an Impression Obsession Cover a Card background stamp on the Real Red, and another grid background stamp from Waltzing Mouse Stamps on the More Mustard.  The guitar and video game stamps are from Papertrey Ink and are only $5 sets.  Love them!  With matching SU inks, I think they are adorable!  BTW, I stamped in Versamark first and had no trouble with SU ink on clear stamps.  ;)  I got 4 of the guitar cards and 3 of each of the video game cards.  10 cards and counting. 

This may have been my most frugal use of patterned paper, EVER!  The Stampin Up grab bag came with ONE 8.5x11 sheet of this paper with the stars, polka dots and blue grid.  I wish I had taken a picture before I cut it up, but alas, hindsight is 20/20 and I didn't.  I cut some matching cardstock in Old Olive, More Mustard and Bashful Blue to make the card bases.  Then I added the patterned paper with the dotted circles from my stash.  I pulled out the coordinating stamp set that I got free during Saleabration last year and some Old Olive ribbon from the SU clearance rack.  I used SU stars and circle punches for all but the largest star.  That is a Sizzix die that I used in my SU Big Shot.  I totally CASE'd these designs from the SU catalog.  LOL~  I got 4 of EACH of these cards so now I'm at 22 cards. 

These were interesting.  The Rose Red card bases, the Certainly Celery and  Very Vanilla pieces, and the Tempting Turquoise ribbon came with the grab bag.  This is not a color combination that I would normally pick, but I decided to step out of my box and try it.  I added the pink trim from this year's Saleabration Ice Cream Parlor kit and the SU sentiment stamps.  The background on the sentiment panel is from a Hero Arts background stamp.  The die cut flower is a Marth Stewart punch and the rhinestone is from SU colored with Copic markers.  I got 5 of each of these.  So 27 cards now. 



Again, the card bases, cardstock pieces and ribbon came with the grab bag.  The polka dot trim is from the same SAB Ice Cream Parlor kit as the last card.  Again, I used a SU set with matching SU inks (Certainly Celery and Tempting Turquoise).  The Pink Pirouette butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch, but would look just as nice with a butterfly from the SU butterfly Sizzlet.  I was just too lazy to get it out and use it that day.  I also made 5 of these cards.  32 cards now. 

The grab bag came with a sheet of cardstock stickers that I used on these cards and the next two as well.  When I ran out of those, I pulled out the coordinating stamp set (To You and Yours) and stamped some images on cardstock and punched them out with my 1.75" circle punch.  I added the strips of patterned paper from my stash.  The Crumb Cake cardbases came with the grab bag.  I think I cut the Mellow Moss ones from the cardstock that was in the grab bag.  Simple, but perfect for mass mailing cards like Christmas cards.  I got three of each, so I'm at 38 thus far. 

More of the same.  I got 3 of each of these cards as well.  So that brings my total to 44 cards from a $5 grab bag.  Not bad, if I do say so myself.  All the cardstock, ribbon and patterned paper that I used from didn't add more than $2 to the cost of my cards.  So for about $7 in Stampin Up product, I got 44 beautiful cards.  I've already used on of the star b-day cards (my son had a party about 30 minutes after I finished them, LOL) and one of the guitar cards for a guy at work.

Well, I hope this marathon post makes up just a bit for my long dry spell.  With spring here, I think I'll be creating more and hopefully posting more too.  If you want try your hand at a grab bag creation, contact your local Stampin UP demo for information on how to get a grab bag.  If you don't have a demo, there is a demo locator on stampinup.com  Have a great day!!!

Muse, where are you???

My muse, my inspiration has been in hibernation this winter.  It's been gray and overcast and downright yucky here this year.  I don't function well without plenty of sunshine, so my creativity has been about nil lately. 

But sometimes things work in very odd ways.  This is what was sitting on my scraproom counter today. 

I've been scrapping my caribbean cruise pictures, so I have tons of blue/aqua embellishments laying around.  And my 11 yo is a Junior Scout.  I have 47 boxes of cookies in my pantry, LOL. 

So I decided to take this color palate and run with it. 






And this is what happened. 

I was playing around with different sandwiches in my Big Shot using Embossing Plates and these were the results.  Not bad, I think.  Misting the cardstock with alcohol seems to really give a much better result and deeper impression. 

Anyway, I hope this spring like color palate means the rebirth of my muse.  I need to make about a jillion masculine birthday cards for my office, so I really need to get a move on. 

Everything PTI, except the scalloped apron punch which is Fiskars.  I can't find my PTI scallops dies!!!  Now I'm on a hunt.....

Later gators!