Watercolor Stamping

Hi Everyone,

In addition to seeing tons of new companies and products, the CHA show is also always a great resource for new crafting techniques (or old techniques with a new twist). One of these new (at least new to me) tips I discovered was a way to make your stamped images take on a watercolor effect. This is such a simple technique, I was amazed I hadn't seen it before.

All you need to get started is a fine mist spray bottle filled with water, a rubber stamp in the image of your choice, and water-soluble markers in the colors of your choice. I am using the Tombow Dual Tip Brush markers and a cling rubber stamp from Hero Arts.


Use the brush tip of the marker to color in your image. You do not need to be real meticulous about it, but be sure to get a good amount of coverage on your stamp surface.


I like to start with the lighter colors and work up to the darker colors so I don't inadvertently stain the tips of my pens with darker colored ink.


Once you have the stamp covered in ink, just spritz the surface of the stamp with water-a couple of squirts should do the trick.


The ink will bead up on the surface like so:


Then stamp your image onto your paper of choice.


Lift away your stamp and you have a lovely "water-colored" image


You can use a little more water to make a more abstract image:

You can also stamp on various textures to create a different effect. Here I stamped on Sundance Felt paper. I found this to be more reminiscent of the type of paper used in traditional watercolor.


This is a great twist on traditional stamping technique and is perfect for some of the holidays coming up this spring like Easter and Mother's Day!

Happy Stamping!

Amanda

CHA Show in Review

I was lucky enough to attend the Craft & Hobby Association's Winter show in L.A. these last few days and O - M - G: so much stuff to see!!

We really did see some great, amazing new product; a TON of super cute new scrapbook lines; some innovative new stamps and embellishments; ideas for new tools and cardmaking; craft kits; the list goes on.

In this blog I want to include just a smattering of what we saw (which is still a lot!). I do not have pictures of any of the scrapbooking lines because there were just too many to choose from and I wanted to share pictures that showed off some of the great vendor displays. But if you get the chance, check out websites for Cosmo Cricket (Social Club collection), My Minds Eye (Lush Collection), and Pink Paislee (Hometown Summer) for a look at my favs.

The show definitely ranged from the outlandish and gorgeous displays (dresses above) to the simple and innovative ideas. By the way, they said the dresses above were made with the help of a curling iron. . .an idea to try!

One of the first booths we saw, Canvas Corp, had some great basics including chalkboard surfaced tags and place cards, cork you can cut (w/ adhesive backing), and tiny bags. Simple, but great ideas! And check out the packaging in their little cork rounds (left): adorable!

Speaking of adorable, the new Martha Stewart lines are just that (above). Their new punches and especially their embellishments are very springlike. The collage above is a very small peek of what's to come. Luv the cake! EK Success also had a great punch that you can use, then weave ribbon (right) into your project. . .awesome!

In addition to some favorites, there were also quite a few new companies showing some innovative product. We really loved the creativity behind a stamp maker out of Germany called La Blanche. Their display was like walking into the pages of Alice in Wonderland. Their product had a certain sense of whimsy mixed with the cerebral. It will be interesting to see how this company evolves. This smartly dressed rabbit (right) visited their guests. They also had a display that I previously posted on Facebook.

Another new company (at least new to us) was Hot Off the Press out of Oregon. They had an innovative paper called Color Me Paper that had a raised design that allows artists to ink the background, wipe off the color, leaving the raised design in the color. They also had some great templates and paper jewelry kits that I hope to carry someday soon (no pics, sorry).

Kan Ban was another new company out of England that had some interesting, high quality card kits and some pretty papers. I loved the coffee card kit and the butterfly paper, pictured above.

Two companies that we have always loved: Hambly and Stampedous did a great job of showing how traditional papercrafting techniques can be applied to home interiors. Stampendous smartly embossed these vases and Hambly used their papers to jazz up lamps from IKEA. We had previously blogged about this idea, but it never gets old and it's so easy! And, yes, they had the infamous washy tape. And, yes, I saw how awesome it was. But, no, they weren't giving out any samples. :( But it ships in March and we'll be one of the first to have it!

And speaking of favorites, I hope you saw the amazing quilling I posted on Facebook. The quilled image to the right was also on display in the Quilled Creations booth. It's hard to see in the photo, but the petals are quilled too! They have some neat tools to assist in projects like this that I hope to carry soon, along with some impressive quilled jewelry kits. They are really, really neat! In addition to the necklaces pictured here, they have kits for tiny quilled roses that are very pretty too.

We also saw a lot of great craft kits, especially for kids. They are coming out with a line of American Girl craft kits which has something for the child and a match for the doll, like this set of felt teddy bears. Too cute!!

There were some also really neat ideas for basics like this Create a Card spinner. It's a collection of simple mix and match designs that makes cardmaking accessible to all skill levels. I really liked the design and colors in this concept.

One of the "ah ha" products that we saw was something called a Gluber that is being developed by Cosmo Cricket. This is essentially a giant glue dot but it's so genius we had ourselves asking what has taken so long to get something like this. It will be sold separately and in kits designed by Julie Comstock (who we met and she's great!). There's many uses of the Gluber but the most obvious is making quick and simple paper or fabric flowers. We made one in less than a minute and it was fabulously cute. This last picture shows a form covered with the rosettes that were made with the kits. Luv it!!

I know this is a lot of photos crammed into a small amount of space. And they were taken from my phone and are not the highest quality. But hopefully you see the fun and innovation that is coming our way and you are as excited as me to see it. Thanks to all the vendors for showcasing such great stuff! --Kim

Spooktacular 3D Halloween Card

For this project you will need 2 sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 card stock paper, glue, a paper cutter, an xacto knife, a bone folding tool, a ruler, a Halloween stamp, a frame stamp, embossing powder, an embossing tool and some fun stickers for embellishing your card.

You can use any color and style of paper you like, but I used orange and black Stardream paper. For the fence I used stickers by Stampendous. The flying witch and crystal spider stickers came from the Making Memories Spook Alley collection. This is a lot of ingredients, but I assure you that this is quick and easy and the end results will be bewitching!

Start by cutting the orange paper down to two squares that are 5 1/2 inches by 5 1/2 inches.

With the bone tool, score two lines down both the left and right side of the orange squares. The first score should be 1/4 of an inch in from the edge. The second score should be 1/2 of an inch in from the edge. The end result is two scoring lines on each side of the card (creating two fold lines). Do this to both of your orange squares. TIP: Scoring is an important step when working with card stock so that you can insure that your folds are clean and straight and it prevents your paper from cracking.
Next, stamp the frame on one of the orange cards. The frame should be centered high so there is space to stamp the Happy Halloween below and it should be stamped so that the scored edges are on the right and left of the frame. After the ink has dried, carefully use an xacto knife to remove the center piece, leaving the outer frame line and a hole in your card.Next, stamp the Happy Halloween below the frame with clear ink, cover with embossing powder, and then use the embossing tool to heat the powder. This creates a raised, glossy effect on your "Happy Halloween". TIP: Before using the heating tool, I like to clean up the excess embossing powder using a small brush. Remember, once the powder is heated, you cannot remove it, so be sure the powder appears how you like it before heating it up.

Now, fold the scored edges so that you have two right angles and the card sits raised up when placed flat on the table. Do the exact opposite fold on the remaining orange square which will become the back of the 3D card. Once folded, cut down a piece of the black card stock to fit the inner folds of the back piece. Glue the black card stock in to create your background.

Now you can embellish the card with stickers. I like to create the folds in the card before embellishing so that I can play with the placement of the stickers to get the optimum 3D effect. For this card, I put the flying witch sticker on the inside of the card, stuck directly to the black card stock. I cut down the fence sticker and placed it on the outside, lower part of the frame.TIP: the back side of the sticker fence will still be sticky, so I dabbed the back of it with a Q-tip dipped in alcohol to remove the adhesive. This will prevent the card from sticking together when its folded together and mailed.

Next, glue the the front and back together before adding the final touches. Assembling the card is easy. Glue the outer lip of the back side of the card and carefully place the front side of the card so that it is aligned with the back. Be sure the front and back of the card aligns on all sides and that the card will stand on its own before the glue sets. Also, be sure that the card can fold in so that the final product will fit in an envelope. It will fold down to a mailable thickness, trust me! But you need to make sure it's perfect before the glue dries.
As a final touch I added the sparkling spider sticker to the outer corner to enhance the 3D effect.

Faster than you can say "trick or treat" you have an amazing card! The end product will fit in a standard A2 envelope. Keep checking in for more fun Halloween ideas in addition to the great ideas we've already had, like the frankin' fun card, the lanterns and the candy wrappers. And do not forget about the Crafters' Challenge!

Happy Crafting --Kim