Sunday, June 29, 2008

Just can't stop creating with the June kit!

I had to share one more creation I made with the June kit. I LOVE that felt piece from Prima.




...and the scalloped vellum journaling oval is from the upcoming July kit - check it out! It's perfect for your summer pictures...

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Hi......


This months kit has some simply glorious papers. I love the rich colors...the beautiful patterns...well...I just love it all. And what I love the most is being able to use up every ounce of scraps...so that is how my card began. Because of the rich colors this could so easily be a masculine card.
I just trimmed the black grid paper down to that a small fraction of the blue patterned paper peaked thru. The felt in the kit is so fun to work with and very easy to adhere. A little touch of zipdry and a few minutes to dry and your card is ready to sign and seal. Have I mentioned how much I love the felt letters!


Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Having fun with Gel-a-tins

In this month's Therapy Kit, you've probably noticed by now a fabulous stamp set by Gel-a-tins--you may have wondered how to use this stamp set--well, I'm going to show you a fun way to make your own "patterned paper" from the Core'dinations cardstock. You'll need:

cardstock (I choose the teal colored)
Gel-a-tins stamp set from the Therapy Kit
black ink pad
ruler
pencil with eraser

I cut the cardstock for my card 6x12 inches. Using my ruler, I lightly graphed one inch by one inch lines across the front of my card, making a graph pattern.


After making my lines, I stamped the damask shaped stamp onto the cardstock, staggering the images as I worked my way up the card.



After the ink has dried completely, lightly erase your graph lines off of the card, being careful not to rub the stamped images with your eraser.

When I was finished, I added some patterned paper to my card, layered some hand cut Pink Paislee flowers (from the May kit) with the Maya Road metal blossoms from June's Scrap Kit, and within 20 minutes had a really fun card to give to a friend!!



Happy Scrapping!!

~~Kary

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

New in the RX - fun alterable album!

I LOVE this fun summer album! You will too! It's new in the Rx store! I'm not going to show you the whole thing (tease...tease), but here's a little something to get you even more excited about what you can do with the July kit!









Everything you see here is from the July kit (except that itty bitty piece of black waxed cord :)). Don't you just HAVE to HAVE IT!?!?!

Monday, June 23, 2008

July Sneak Peek!

This kit is JUST what you need for all of those summer pictures that you've already started collecting! Enjoy the sneak peek!

Snips & Snails & puppy dog tails...

A really easy mini book to do with the June I am a Scrapaholic kits this month. The pattern papers are perfect for all types of mini albums and are really easy to use with different color embellishments.









Products I use from the kits are
Scrap Kit
Dream Street Papers: Remember the Moments
Core’dinates Cardstock: French Roast, Reflecting Pool, Seaweed
Maya Road Trinkets: Metal Flowers
Maya Road Trinkets: Metal Blossoms
Prima Marketing Whispered Words Black Velvet (alphabet)

Addict Kit
Prima Marketing Voila Die-cut Ribbon

Card Kit
Deja View Wonderful Words Rub-ons: Good Times
May Arts Black Ric Rac
Petaloo Flora Doodles Mini Jeweled Florettes

Other
Black Board Arrow book
My minds eye gems
Love Elsie chipboard buttons
Black pen


Friday, June 20, 2008

Fun with JudiKins Diamond Glaze

This month's kit includes to super fun and versatile JudiKins Diamond Glaze and Art Quest Mica D'lights flakes/powders.The possibilites are endless with these products.

For my card, I used some chipboard stars as templates to create with the kit products.

First I placed the Bo Bunny "party on!" rubon from the kit on the Dream Street paper. Then I placed my star and outlined it with the JudiKins Glaze.


I lifted my star off the paper and applied the powder.


It dries really fast so no waiting around!


Then I used the diamond glaze to apply the mica flakes. "Dot-Dot-Not a lot", as my son says! :)


And presto! You have a quick and easy party invite. :)

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Altered Hanger




I just LOVE the hanger included in this months kit. It is so fun to play with and so easy to alter. I used the pattern paper from the kit and adhered it to the hanger. Once all the edges were trimmed I went back over the edges with a sanding block and some Ranger Distress ink.
The keys are coated with Ranger Distress Crackle Paint from a previous kit. Once that had dried I inked it and doodled in certain areas.
The keys were glued down with ZipDry and then the felt flower and button were glued down on top of that.
I can't wait to see what you make with this super cute hanger. Time spent altering this hanger: 20 minutes (including drying time of paint)

Monday, June 16, 2008

Using Mica flakes to color an image

I'm going to show you a really fun technique to try with this month's kit using the Mica flakes. It's a bit more involved than just using it like glitter, so be prepared to roll up your sleeves and have some fun!!

You'll need these items:

Mica flakes
Stamp of your choice or a black and white image (I used my Prima hybrid digi-kit for my image)
Clear adhesive (I used my Xyron machine)
White cardstock
paintbrushes with soft bristles
Kraft knife (if you want to cut out an image)
Transparency sheet



The first thing I did was choose an image that I wanted to use on my layout--I used a Prima digi-frame and printed it out onto a 3M transparency. Feel free to use whatever image you'd like for this technique! You can stamp an image onto the transparency, just be sure to stamp it on the ROUGH side of the sheet.
After printing the image onto the transparency, I ran it through my Xyron to add adhesive to the back of the image--


don't worry if you don't have a Xyron--you can use any clear adhesive on the back of your image!! Just turn the image over and start adding your adhesive! (Be sure to give it a good, clear coat)


After peeling off the backing of my frame,

I starting adding (on the sticky side of the image) the Mica flakes to areas that I wanted color--using a smaller brush for the smaller areas on the frame


For larger areas that I wanted color, I used a larger bristle brush and swirled the Mica onto the image--


I added different colors to give the frame a bit more "oomph"--


After adding the Mica flakes to the areas I wanted, I gently shook out the excess onto a paper towel and attached the image onto a white piece of cardstock:


Now, for my image, I wanted to create a frame for this photo of my son, but you can use whatever image you want!!
I trimmed the frame from the cardstock and used my craft knife to cut out the frame where my photo is going to be. I inserted this photo of my son hugging a tree--

Now I have a beautiful frame that highlights this photo on my layout--

See how the Mica flakes just melt onto the image and really make this frame "pop"?

I hope you enjoy trying this with your Mica flakes and can't wait to see your creations in our gallery!!

Happy Scrapping!!

~~Kary

Sunday, June 15, 2008

OFBC June Challenge

Here is your new sketch and sample layout for this month's challenge.

Do a layout about where you live, your home. You may either do your current house and what you love about living there or the house where you grew up and the memories from it.





Don't forget we are now offering prizes for this challenge. Be sure to check out the website for more samples of this sketch done by our design team.

Alicia

Saturday, June 14, 2008

More BLING with the Mica Flakes

I wanted to sneak in a new card. I used Judi Kins Diamond Glaze too with the mica flakes. I stamped the Autumn Leaves flourish and then completely outlined the image with the Diamond Glaze. The DG has a very fine tip so it is pretty easy to get it in little places. While it was still competely wet, I poured some of the Mica Flakes onto the wet glaze. I let it just sit there for awhile and then later came back and poured off the excess that didn't stick into the glaze. I really like the very subtle color and subtle glitter/gleam look that I got with this.


Friday, June 13, 2008

Jazz it up with Judikins!



If you've seen that little white bottle in the store and passed it up, you might want to give it a second thought. Its much more then just a "dimensional adhesive" as the bottle proclaims. I consider Diamond Glaze to be one of those "must have" scrappers tools, its so versatile that you'll reach for it time and again.

I use Judikins to make my own glossy embellishments by covering chipboard, paper, stickers and whatever else I can think of. Diamond Glaze dries to hard shell, that looks wet even though its completely dry. You can use it over loose glitter to keep it from coming off, of you can use it as a base adhesive for things such as Mica Flakes or Powder, or you can simply use it on patterned paper to make a dimensional looking embellishment.

To use it as an adhesive, simply cover the area that you want, then sprinkle your mica powder or loose glitter over top. The thicker the layer of powder the more coverage. When the glaze dries simply use a paintbrush to remove the excess powder or glitter. It will be embedded into the glaze, so you'll have a sand paper like texture, but it won't rub off over time.



To use it as a hard coating, simply pour your mica flakes or glitter onto your embellishment, then squeeze a thick layer of Diamond Glaze ontop of it. You'll know its completely dry when the cloudiness is gone and the glaze is completely clear. It will dry to a hard shell protecting whats underneath.



If you haven't tried Diamond Glaze, you don't know what you're missing. Grab yourself a bottle and go crazy!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Inque Boutique Felt

The Inque Boutique Felt in the June Scrap Kit has endless possibilities!

I used the house and windows shapes to create this fun card. The shapes were perfect for my "We Moved" card and super easy to work with!




The felt shapes can easily be attached to your project with craft glue, brads or even staples. For my project I actually ran the shapes through my Xyron machine very easily. I adhered the house to the card and the windows right to the front of the house.

The felt shapes can be easily trimmed as well to accomodate any project.
Use your felt shapes on your next project and upload them to the IAAS Gallery! We can't wait to see what you come up with! =) Mary Jo

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Maya Rd Trinkets flowers

On this layout I have used a handful of Maya Rd Brass flowers to accentuate the flowers I cut from the Dream Street Papers. I thought of just glueing them on, or adttaching with a brad through the centre, but I didn't have the right colour, so rather than try to match it, i thought I'd go with a colour to match the cardstock and the only thing I had was threas. I love the effect I ended up with by sewing between the petals. It made a second little flower shape inside. It was quick and easy to do too.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Some "GOOD THINGS"!

I get to tell you about a couple things today that are just plain "GOOD THINGS". We scrappers have a knack at finding new supplies that we sooooo need and so here are a couple more.
First - Core'dinations cardstock
Second - Autumn Leaves clear flourish stamps

Just the name Core'dinations tells you something about what sets this cardstock apart from the rest - it has a "CORE". They have a wonderful selection of colors and the paper has a great look and feel but each color comes with it's own CORE so even with this dark brown paper that I used for my two cards, the CORE is a lighter brown color. Even if you only wanted to use this cardstock as your main cardstock, it is so worth it but the added feature of the matching CORE makes for something fun to play with. When you tear or sand this paper, that CORE color is exposed. For my first card, I embossed a design into it with my Cuttlebug embossing plates and then I sanded that design so the sandpaper took off the high points of the embossed design, exposing the other color.

For this card, I used the Tim Holtz Tonic paper distresser on the edges and that just slightly exposed the CORE shade.
This card also gives you a glimpse into what makes having a flourish stamp or two a "good" thing. I say a stamper just can't have enough flourish stamps, they are so versatile. For this example, I simply stamped this Autumn Leaves Flourish stamp one time on a coordinating paper and cut that out. I then accented it with bronze Stickles
For this card, I used my flourish stamp to basically create my own background paper. I used a Dream Street paper from the June I Am A Scrapaholic kit and stamped the one flourish repeatedly using a green ink until my paper was completely full. I gave the design a little bit of accent with a green watercolor. That was it, I now had my 0wn piece of paper to accent my card.
You know you want these!!! Linda


Sunday, June 8, 2008

A little something from Scenic Route

In my kit this month I got some chopboard frames from Scenic Route and as you can see I have used them on this card. They came nested together. I simply separated them and files the rough edges. I then covered them in pattened paper and sanded the edges to neaten it up. I layered them on top of each other so that it built higher with each layer. I love the symmetrical look I achieved and continued it with the paper in the opposite corners. The Maya Rd brass flowers were the perfect size. I just added a little green dimensional paint to their centres.


By Alicia

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Whispered Words


In this months kit there will be an awesome pack of letters...whispered words by Prima Marketing. 203 pieces of Flock Alphabets. I am a alphabet junkie from rubons to chipboard so I was very excited to see this package.

I think my favorite thing about them is that there are so many different sizes of alphabets. There is only one 8.5x11 sheet but it is slammed full of lower and upper case letters. The flocking gives it a very soft feel but yet is easy to peel and stick onto your projects.

Give these letters a try and I am sure you will fall in love with them like I did :)

Friday, June 6, 2008

June Kits

I fell in love with Dream Street Papers Remember the Moments line by Amy Teets the moment I saw it! Honestly I loved all the releases by DSP in January but I knew I had to make a kit with this paper line.

As many of you know we also had another line from Dream Street Papers in April and I usually don't use more than 1 paper line from any company in the same year but I couldn't help myself this time. So with that said, you can be on the look out for a mini kit from another DSP line any time now. It will not be a regular monthly kit though. It will be a smaller kit and you know me there will be add-ons so that you basically can pick the size (and cost) of your kit.

One thing I loved about Amy's line was that I could do masculine or feminine layouts -even young or older type layouts. I have to say the turquoise Mica Flakes are my favorite embellishment this month. I don't know why. I think just because it's different and the color looks so good with the papers. It certainly isn't what I normally envision when I think of Mica...you know that brownish translucent stuff. And the Mica D'lights are very cool and impressive texture. Watch for a tutorial by design team member Kary Lewis using the Mica products and glue pad.

Prima Marketing has done an amazing job with the Whispered Words font...IMHO. I just love these. Not only is the font fun but they are also very easy to work with and complement the patterns in the papers very well.

Watch for other tips and product reviews from the design team members.