Playing Catch Up

Hi Everyone! Hope your Memorial Day was great. We've been in and out of town so much this last month and had so many changes with things in the house ... well I just needed some time to clean and organize a bit. Still not done but moving in a positive direction.

So ... I've not posted for a few days. Ya I know ... you missed me. Don't worry, I gotcha covered! Here in one place are the posts for Tuesday and Wednesday. No more chit chat now. On with the important stuff.

Tip Tuesday -
Long ago in a far away land I learned to stamp and then learned to emboss. I learned to emboss over a toaster!  (Told ya it was long ago - didn't have heat guns back then!) Once heat guns were available for stamping instead of stripping paint & wall paper (did you know that's how they started out?) and I got my hands on one I learned a few tricks. Here's one today:

• Grab a piece of cardboard, any cardboard: old cereal box, the cardboard from a pack of Designer Series Paper or the back of an old notebook. Doesn't matter. 
• Make sure the piece of cardboard is at least 5" x7" in size.
• Cover the cardboard with aluminium foil. Make sure the shiniest side is facing out. One side covered completely is all you need.
• Get a clothes pin.
• Now you have your own embossing "platform". The foil reflects the heat back on the paper and helps to heat the embossing powder faster. Also helps prevent that nasty buckle that can happen when embossing without a platform. The clothes pin holds the piece waiting to be embossed in place and helps to keep from getting your Inky Pinky too toasty. 

This is mine. Use it all the time.

Wednesday's post -

Now I know that I usually share scrapbooking pages on Saturday but I wanted to get this one sooner. See the background paper was made with a stamp that is being retired and I want you to be able to get it before it's gone. 

Supplies:

Extreme Elements Stamp set

Whisper White 12 x 12 cardstock

Calypso Coral ink

Calypso Coral card stock

Lucky Limeade card stock

Top Note Die

Big Shot

Decorative Label Punch 

Adhesive

• Stamp in random pattern on Whisper White card stock using Calypso Coral ink and the large splotch from the Extreme Elements stamp set. 
• Trim a piece of Calypso Coral card stock to fit your photo and randomly stamp the splotch  from the Extreme Elements stamp set  using Calypso Coral ink. 
• Adhere photo.
• Using the Big Shot and Lucky Limeade card stock, cut a Top Note Die and trim off a small portion of the top. Adhere the cut edge under the photo.
• With a scrap of Lucky Limeade card stock, punch a Decorative Label and cut in half.
• Adhere to the top right corner of Calypso Coral card stock.
• I stamped the year on top but you could do anything that works with your photo.
• The Top Note Die is used for your journaling.

Remember, if you need any of these supplies, just click on the name of the item and it will take you directly to my shop. If you have any questions just leave me a comment or send me an email.

BTW, that's my adorable granddaughter. She was showing off her amazing bubble blowing skills. I love 8 year olds!

Enjoy!

Tip Tuesday – Embossing

I’ve got 2 tips for you today. The first is for embossing and the second tip is for cutting with Stampin’ Up! Framelits.

Tip 1

Embossing Buddies are no longer available. The manufacturer doesn’t make them any longer. We’ll I’m gonna share a little trick I learned a loooooooooooong time ago – long before the invention of embossing buddies.

Back in the dark ages when I started stamping we didn’t have any of those “new fangled fancy toys” to help with embossing. I didn’t even own a heat gun when I started embossing, I used a toaster, but that’s a different story! Static electricity was around even then though and it would mess with your embossing powder sticking making it stick in odd places that you didn’t want. What to do?! We’ll we just took an old drier sheet – one that had been used – and rubbed it on the card stock. Took the static right out and you could emboss all pretty!

 Gather used drier sheets and hide them in your craft area. Otherwise, your family will throw them away.

Rub the drier sheet on your card stock. Be sure to rub the entire.

 Stamp image and pour on embossing powder.

This is the image with the left side still covered with embossing powder and the right side had been melted into the image already. 

Entire image is embossed with no random areas of embossing powder.

  Tip 2

When using the Stampin’ Up! Framelits or any of the metal edged dies (think Nestablities) use a bit of painters tape to hold the paper and die in place. The tape will not pull up the paper or ink when removed, therefore not interfering with stamped and colored images.

Stamped image with Framelit adhered with painter's tape.

Here's our freshly embossed and cut image sitting on some Wisteria Wonder paper, in keeping with our Wisteria Wonder Week theme. The image is clean with no random embossed areas and the cut is even and centered. 

We'll take this image and dress it up on Friday for our fast card.

The Labels Collection Framelits and the stamped image (Bordering on Romance - clear mount) have been carried over from the Occasions Mini. Stop by my shop to place your order.

Now, aren't you curious to try out these cool tips? What are you waiting for ... grab your supplies and make something.