LIFE IS A SONG AND A RAINBOW

Hello my junkie friends!!! 

I was in Michael's Craft Store a few weeks ago and they had a big display in the papercraft area that stated "Rainbows and Unicorns are the Latest Fun Fab in Papercrafts".  From what I've seen online and in many markets, they might be on to something.  

In light of that statement and motivated by the word "fun", I have been looking at my stamps through rainbow colored glasses lately and what I might have stamped in black or darker ink awhile ago, I chose this silhouette #S613 "Birds on a Fence" to turn it into a rainbow image.  The sentiment is #DF647 "Life is a Song".  I thought the two worked well together, especially with this technique.  

The technique is one I saw the fabulous Kristina Werner do in a recent video.  It intrigued me...so here's my version.  I tried the technique her way and then I changed it in a small way, but it worked so much better for me.  

Instead of applying the inks with the ink pads direct to the stamp, I used my finger daubers, loaded it with the ink color then applied it to the stamp to the portion of the stamp where I wanted the color, then I stamped it.  Without cleaning the stamp, I applied my next color (with a different finger dauber dedicated to the particular color family I'm using), some of the color from the previous color incorporated itself and I got a lovely blend from them.  I did this with each color up the rainbow spectrum.  

I hope this makes sense.  It's really easy to do and it's such fun to watch the results take place.  

What I think is fantastic about this technique is it can be used with line stamps or solid ones.  So have some fun....let those rainbows flow and have some stamping fun.  

Cheers,

   
  

Winter Has a Beauty All It's Own

 Many of us complain about winter, and the ice, and the snow.  But it does indeed have a certain beauty that no other season has -- despite its drawbacks.  If I never had to go out in winter I would enjoy watching the snow and all -- if I could stay warm.  Thus, I go to Florida in January where I can be warm.  But I have a ton of family and friends who LOVE winter, love snow, love being out in the cold weather.

I tried to capture that winter beauty in my card.   I chose to use black card stock and detail silver embossing powder.  I used Technique Junkie Retro Sparkles - http://techniquejunkies.com/retro-sparkles/ and the new Technique Junkie January Release Beauty of Winter - http://techniquejunkies.com/beauty-of-winter/.  Both were stamped on black card stock and heat embossed with detail silver embossing powder.

I used Star Dream silver text weight paper for layering.  The sentiment in punch out, and the silver punched out twice to layer behind the black piece,  A silver ribbon and bow is added.

Have a great day no matter how cold or warm your winter is!  And get inky!

Judy Jackson

Love Knots with Shadows

Today's tutorial shows you how to create a shadow effect using a stamp positioner. I used my MISTI, but any stamp positioner will do! I've included some coloring tips, too, to help you heighten the shadow effect.

I was inspired to create this by the most fabulous shadowing post I have ever seen - from TJ Designer Cheri Weston.  Cheri shows how to create a triple shadow HERE - you would swear the golden image was raised if you didn't know her tricks! Her actual artwork is below (the gold and pink Love Overlay sample).

To start, stamp the Love Knots image on white (or neutral) card stock. I placed the paper squarely in the corner so that I could gauge where to move the paper for the shadow. I used blue VersaFine Ink. Note that I ended up stamping a few pieces of paper before I was satisfied with my shadow - I would suggest stamping a couple of pieces for practice.

Move the paper 1/16" to 1/8" up and to the left. Hold the paper down firmly with the magnets. 

Clean the blue off the stamp, and reink with grey (I used Memento Grey Flannel Ink). Stamp onto card stock.

 o highlight the knots and the shadows, I used Copic Markers to color the images. First I used a  medium blue to color the blue knots.

 I traced over the bottom of each blue rope with a darker blue ink, then used the original markers to blend. Note that I only traced the areas along the areas where the shadow appeared beneath it. Use the shadow as a guide for tracing.

 In case you missed it, this is the piece from Cheri. Isn't this an amazing piece of artwork? You can read about how Cheri did it HERE.

This week starts a month of intense travel. I am blessed to be able to go to CHA (now renamed "Creativation") this week. I come home for a day, then drive my booth from CT to TX for the Plano show (26 hours in the truck by myself - bring on those books on tape!). I have some exciting new products coming to the store in the next few weeks - watch for them here.  And then, I hope to bring you some things back from Creativation, too.  2017 is going to be a great year!

Bear with us!

The store is most definitely open while I am away. Nancy, Andre and I have been working on keeping a healthy stamp inventory - but there may be some instances where we run out of stock on a thing or two. We will mail as much of your order as possible immediately, but there may be a day or two (or three) of delay if we are out of stock on an item. It may not happen, but if it does, we beg your patience! I hope we inspired you today! Pat Huntoon

One Cat Short of CRAZY

Hey Junkies,

The Crafty Nurse here today with one cat crazy card!

I used the Misti stamping tool to create my card today.  The great thing about this tool is when you have a solid stamp, you can still get a really crisp image.  It also helps when you are doing more complex masking like I did here with the January release stamp "Cat Crazy SD701."

I started by stamping each of the "Crazy Cat's" onto my card front.  They were done in Archival Inks in Sepia, Black Soot, & Hickory Smoke.  I then masked all three of the cats and placed the Art Anthology Stencil called "Cracked" over top and stenciled in using Vintage Photo Distress Inks.  I stamped off 3 more of the black cats and then cut out the word "crazy" which I used as my sentiment.

To finish off I created a ground for my kitties to sit on with watercolored distress inks and finished off with more distressing on the edges.

For those crazy cat lovers and stampers alike, I hope you've found a little inspiration today and look forward to seeing what you do with your new Technique Junkies stamps.

Happy Inking,

The Crafty Nurse

How to Create Polished Stone Embossing

Hello folks.  Beth Norman here with a Polished Stone Embossing Technique.  I haven't seen it done before, but that's not saying it hasn't been done.  When I got my hands on Heart to Heart, and Like Stars, I knew I wanted to do something that gives a nice impact that says, "wow."  Why don't I used blending solution you may ask.  Simply put, I can't find it in my stamp studio.  You know how that goes--LOL.

When I tackled this technique I asked myself two questions:  1) Can Polished Stone be done without blenduing solution, 2) Will embossing powder stick to glossy cardstock.  In both instances the answer was clearly a "yes."

Supplies:  Alcohol Ink, felt and blending handle, glossy cardstock

Drip alcohol ink in a random pattern on your felt

Pounce color onto glossy cardstock, covering the entire surface

When you run out of ink, reapply

Two examples of Polished Stone

Supplies for embossing:  stamp, Polished Stone background, VersaMark, embossing powder, heat gun, embossing buddy

Stamp out VersaMark over your stamp and stamp onto your image.

Tip:  when using a large background stamp place your paper on top of your stamp as shown here.

Cover your image with embossing powder and shake off

Heat emboss embossing powder.  She the bits of purple coming through the open spaces?

Your piece is now ready to embellish as desired.  In real life the purple really shines through.

Be Mine times two...

Hello All Lanette Here!

I just wanted to share a couple quick cards that I made using one of my favorite stamps from this months new release. 

I just love these hearts! 

TJ Products Used:  Technique Junkies Love Overlay  , Spectrum Markers,Kaiserkraft bling, Ranger Archival Ink American Crafts cardstock & glitter tape

Here is a better look at the stamp I used today...

This really is a must have for anyone who will be making valentines this year!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! 

I hope that I have inspired you in some way!

Love Potion

Happy Thursday Junkies! Pam here today to share another project featuring the fun and fantastic TJ January releases-and just in time for Valentine's Day.

Today's project features 2 of the January sets:

Love and Poison 

Messy Love

The Messy Love background was created as a resist using Alcohol Inks on Yupo paper and Archival ink.  This is a super fun technique that is featured by Tim Holtz in Creative Chemistry 3. I love how it gives that "negative" effect.

The Love and Potion set pairs well with this background and was stamped with Versafine black and clear heat embossed.

Hope you enjoyed today's project and that it provides a bit of inspiration for your Valentine's cards.

Embrace Imperfection!

Pam