Spunky Layout

 This is a layout that I threw together. It was the page of the week at my local scrapbooking store. I didn't like the way it was designed, as usual, so I changed it up a bit. I like how it turned out...I really need to start taking/finding photos to put on all of these layouts :)

Wild Card Meets Paisly: Me Likes

Some very special people that my husband and I know, and have known for a long while, adopted a beautiful baby girl when she was born last Saturday. They are so deserving! I made them this card today using with the following supplies:

Bazzill Basics Cardstock as the card base
American Crafts Paper - Baby Little Bo Peep
Wild Card Cricut Cartridge - Scallop Card
Reminisce Paper - Baby Girl Elephant
Paisley Cricut Cartridge - Elephant 2 (Love those glasses!)
Stamps from Making Memories (an old Christmas set, I believe)
Colorbox Chalk Ink - Chestnut Roan
Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Walnut Stain

I'll be mailing it out on Monday,so hopefully they won't stumble across my blog before then :)

Karrie Allen: My New Favorite Teacher

I know, I haven't posted in a while. I was so busy with work, and all of the wonderful CHA announcements the past week or so...but, I'm back now!

Since my last post I've taken an AMAZING class from an AMAZING woman, and signed up for another! Her name is Karrie Allen. How did I meet her? An interesting story! While selling Mary Kay, I was looking for new customers, and invited this nice girl, Michelle, from my local scrapbooking store to coem to an event. We got to talking, and realized that her boyfriend's brother had worked with my husband. Small world, right? In the following days, we discovered lots of common intrests, and she let me know that she was really nervous about the possibility of her boyfriend proposing on their anniversary. Loooong story a little shorter, he proposed, and that meant a WEDDING! Well, it just so happens that my husband and I are wedding photographers, so OF COURSE we asked if we could shoot their wedding as a gift. Talk about finding a great couple to befriend! Anywho, I came to find out, that Michelle's husband's mother was Karrie Allen, an amazing scrapbooker and teacher. Her brother is the owner of Bazzill Basics Paper Company - how could she NOT be awesome?

I took Karrie's last Razzill Dazzill Bazzill class, and I-AM-HOOKED! Her website is here, and the following are photos of the projects we made! All of the layouts were HER ideas, and not mine. If you live in the Houston area, and are looking for a great scrapbooking class, check out her blog!

I need to find some pretty green embroidery floss to finish the "Family" lettering. Gotta love Bazzill In Stitchz.

Tim Holtz CHA Video: I'm in LOVE

Check this out! I'm already saving for that new machine!

Tim Holtz CHA

Shop is OPEN for business!

Hand Me A Stamp has had some exciting changes this weekend!

1. I'm a dot com! Thanks to my wonderful husband, and lots of design work, I have an official website! Currently, it's pretty basic, but I'll be adding to it as time goes on!

2. I'm an official Etsy shop owner! I spent the evening setting up my store front and have 6 Cricut Expression Perfect Pajamas for sale! Check them out, they're adorable! More product to come!

This is just an example of Cricut Expression Perfect Pajamas! This one isn't for sale, obviously, because of copyright laws.

On another note, I spent the day with my mom. We went to Michaels, where I got a pretty sweet, and inexpensive, haul.

I am most excited about the Tim Holtz stamp set. The acrylic stamps don't stamp as well, in my opinion, as his red rubber stamps do, but how could I pass up 40% of $15?

Mariposa: My Spanish Butterfly

I caved! I don't usually post about things that I've purchased, however, this HAD to be an exception. I've flipped through this stack a few times, and after hearing people rave about it, I took one more glance. It's beautiful! Joann's had The Mariposa Stack, by Die Cuts With a View, on sale for only $9.99! When I went there today to return some sewign notions, I saw it in the back. It was the very last one. How could I resist?

In Spanish, Mariposa means butterfly, so of course this stack is filled with beautifully detailed butterflies and flowers. There are 48 pages, 24 of which are foiled or glittered.

I can't wait to see what I can do with this stack! If you haven't seen it, or want it, you may want to hurry! The stack is no longer available online at Joanns, and is one hard cookie to find anywhere else.

The Bug vs The Silhouette: My Opinions

The Cokie Pop Paper Boutique, posed an interesting question on her blog that I felt compelled to answer. Out of the Provo Craft Cricut, The Quickutz Silhouette, and the Making Memories Slice, which do I prefer? I own two of the three machines; the Cricut, and the Silhouette. The details of how each machine works is explained on her blog, so I’ll try to leave this “review” to my opinion.


The Quickutz Silhouette:

The QK Silhouette was so appealing at first! It is cheaper than the Cricut, requires NO cartridges, and has an SD slot that allows the user to make their computer generated vector files, or cuts, more portable. Being, I think, technologically advanced, I thought this machine would be well worth the investment. I ordered my Silhouette straight from their website, and after hurdling several customer service problems, received my product in about six weeks. I used the machine for a few months before moving on to the Cricut, and this is why:

1. It has an awesome program, derived from the Craft Robo program series, and an online area to purchase cut files that is updated often, however, the cuts are $2 a piece, and most look as though the designer used the auto trace tool on an image. Meaning, some of the images just don’t cut correctly. I have to give Quickutz credit though, they have been, very recently, having some awesome guest artist design a few cut files.

2. Cutting paper to fit sucks. Taking the time to cut down EVERY piece of 12x12 paper that I wished to use is so time consuming! The Silhouette mat only accommodates 8.5x11 size paper, at most. When I do my crafts, I like fast resluts, and this just took too long.

3. That baby is LOUD! I husband often described it has moose mating season in my craft area.

4. While the SD slot sounds great on paper (or internet website), it’s very limited. You can save an image to an SD card, and take it on the road with you, however, once at your location with your Silhouette, should you decide that you want to chance the size of the image, or in any other way alter it, you can’t. You must have a computer with the software loaded in order to edit any images on your SD card.


The Provo Craft Cricut Expression:

I’ve only had this machine for a few short weeks, however, I know more about it that you’d think. I’m an avid YouTube learner, and internet surfer, so from the time we bought my Cricut on Black Friday, until the time I was allowed to open it on Christmas, I did research; Lots of research. The Cricut is absolutely the machine for me. Is it the machine for you?

1. The biggest issue between the die cutting machines is the cartridges. Yes, the Cricut cartridges are an investment, however, great deals can be found everywhere! Few people ACTUALLY pay the suggested retail price of these cartridges. If you don’t want to take the time to shop around a bit, and it doesn’t take long, then this isn’t the machine for you. With Design Studio and Sure-Cuts-A-Lot, the options are endless.

2. 12x12 mat OR 12x24 mat.

3. It’s simple. Put the cartridge in, follow the handbook to find the button you want, and press cut.

4. For more advanced users, there are numerous accessories and programs available to enhance the versatility of the cartridges, and make using the machine faster. Those options can be found here, and at the Cricut website.

5. They're pretty. Mine is a beautiful black, and my mom's is an awesome red. Who wouldn't love to match their die cutting machine to their craft room?

I know this review isn’t the most thorough, but I could have written for an hour straight about each one! If anyone out there is conflicted as to which machine to buy, please feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email, and I’ll do my very best to help.

Bottle Cap Embellishment: Soda Put To Good Use

I am awake incredibly too late watching old movies with my husband, so I thought I'd go ahead and post a quick tutorial on what I experimented with this evening. My husband has a hobby, if that's what you'll call it, of trying various brands of root beer and cream soda. That being so, we have lots and lots of bottle caps lying around. How could I not find something crafty to do with them? I messed up slightly on my Bottle Cap Embellishment, but that just means that you can all learn from my mistake. Enjoy!

Materials Needed:

• Bottle Cap
• Utee (Extra Thick Embossing Enamel)
• Paper
• Small Embellishments, such as Tim Holtz's Grungeboard Mixed Minis
• Glue
• Ink
• Heat tool, or oven
• *Optional - 24 guage wire

1- If you want to use your bottle cap has a necklace, or just want to be able to hang it some where, bend a small piece of the wire like I have done, and place it in the cap. You don't have to glue it down, but you can to make sure it won't move while you work.

2 - Cut out a circle of paper to line the bottom of your cap.

3 - Glue it in. I used Glossy Accents by Ranger

4 - Press the background paper into the bottle cap, being sure to press the edges.

5 - Using other flat embellishments, create your background.

6-8 - Using pieces from the Grungeboard Mixed Minis, create another embellishment for your cap. I used the heart and crown, and inked them with Spiced Marmalade and Aged Mahogony Distress Inks by Tim Holtz. Set this aside for now.

9 -10 - Fill the cap with UTEE, and do one of two things. Either heat it with a heat gun (which could cause the powder to go flying every where), or bake them at 250 degrees in an oven. This is where I messed up. Be very, very careful not to over heat the UTEE, or it will turn yellow, like mine did. Once it starts to melt, it only takes a few seconds to completely melt through. Remove from the oven, and let it cool for a few mintues.

11 - You'll notice that once the UTEE has cooled, it only fills about half of the cap.

12-13 - Place the second embellishment that you made in the cap where you want it positioned, and cover it once again in UTEE

14 - Repeat the baking/heating process, let it cool, and you're finished!

What I've learned: Don't over heat UTEE, or it will bubble and turn yellow - no fun. Also, stop chewing my nails, people can see them in my photos.

I hope this inspires some one out there to make a bottle cap embellishment of their very own!

Time: Unfortunately Warped

My local scrapbooking store, Lonestar Scrapbook Company, does a layout kit of the week, each week. A few of my friends happen to work there, and gave me a sneak peak at this layout a few weeks before it was to be sold. I was SO excited! Millie Jones (Mother to Mr. Bazzill Basics Paper), is a scrapbooking legend around here, and she designed this page! I couldn't wait to make this purchase!

Well...I was a bit let down. When I sat down to put together the page, I found that some of the pieces of paper given were cut too short, or were too long, and the two scalloped strips were of different styles of Bazzill. I tried to make the best of it, but I wasn't entirely pleased. I do, however, LOVE the colors and the clock paper.

Lonestar Scrapbook Co: All Star Round Up

My mom and I had the BEST time today! Our local scrapbooking store has an All Star Round Up every few months. It's basically a 2 hour long class, where several instructors take turns coming to your table and giving you a 20 minute mini project to do that showcases the idea around their class that they teach at the store. The store offers a pretty nice discount on purchased product the day of the class, and you recieve the money paid for the class back on a store gift card. The projects today weren't as impressive as the last class we took, but it was still fun. It was so fast-paced that I forgot to take any pictures, except for this one, because we took it before the class actually started :)

With my discounts after the class, I made a few purchases. I got 2 more colors of Perfect Pearls (Forever Green, Blue Pantina), an UHU Stic glue stick, a package of Tim Holtz Grunge Paper (I was running low), and the Tim Holtz Design Ruler. I've heard that you have to be careful with the design ruler when cleaning it. I'll have to remember not to use an abrasive cleaner, or the numbers and grid will wipe off (or so I've heard).

More to come this weekend, promise!

Condensation Collector: It's a messy job, but someone has to do it

I have been absolutely floored by the explosion in my blog traffic and comments! I added a vistor counter to this blog last Wednesday, and it's already over 2100 hits, in 6 days! I can't thank you all enough for taking the time to browse my blog, and leave a comment; it means so much to me to wake up every morning to new visitors, followers and commentors! Some of you may have noticed that I had a special person comment on my last post. That's right! THE Tim Holtz commented on my shadow box! Yesterday, was absolutely the best day yet in my crafting career!

I head back to work tomorrow morning, so I thought I'd get one last post in before I busy myself with laundry and gathering my work supplies. Per the requests from several people, I am considering beginning to post tutorials on a few of the techniques and projects that I do. Whether those tutorials will be in the form of photos and text, or video, I don't know yet. We will see!

Alrighty, down to business:

I made this coaster as a practice project, and wanted to make sure that it was made to be functional. There isn't enough room in my house to allow me to justify another decor item, so I made a coaster that could (hopefully) withstand heat and moisture. I do think that with a few more embellishments, this would make a neat home decor item, but for now, mine is protecting my desk from the dangerous condensation dripping from my Cream Soda bottle.

Now you tell me, is this something in which anyone would like a tutorial? I'd hate to start doing tutorials that no one wanted, so I figure I'll play it safe and take some advice!

Shadow Box: A Vague Tutorial

When the 12 Tags of Christmas Finale winner was chosen, along with the 15 artistic winners, I immediately started brainstorming ideas as to what to do with the tags I had made. There was no way I was going to let them just sit on my table or in an album after all of the work I had done! I mentioned making a shadow box to my father-in-law, and the very next morning, I woke up to wood, stain, and a sander in the back yard. He just looked at me, and said, "I've got some work for you to do." I've spent the last two days sanding, staining, glueing, measuring...it's been great! He helped me with the nail gun, and cutting the glass, but he let me do the rest! I am SO proud of myself, and I now have a beautiful box to display my tags.

The Challenge: Make Something for Someone

I want to start out this entry by thanking all of the new people now following Hand Me A Stamp, either on my blog, or via Twitter. It means so much to me to recieve comments and emails from all of you! It lets me know that you're reading!

With that said, one of the blogs that I frequent is that of Robyn, My Pink Stamper. Yesterday, she and her visiting friend, Karlee, issued a challenge for New Years Day: Make something for someone else. Easy enough, right? How could I turn down such an easy challenge! So, after our New Years Day tradition of cleaning up the yard from all of the fireworks the night before, I began making my 'gift'. One of my very best friends had asked me if I could possibly make him a bookmark, after showing him my Tim Holtz tags. He loves to read philisophical/scientific type books, so this is what I came up with:

The base of the bookmarks is Tim Holtz Grunge Paper. I love this stuff! It's flexible, yet durable, and smells awesome! A friend of mine and I think it smells like leather :) I also used images printed on Bazzill cardstock, Tim Holtz stamps, and Tim Holtz Distress Ink (What? Me? A Tim Holtz fan???).

I have something really cool that I'm working on. Hopefully, it will be ready for uploading tomorrow afternoon! Again, thank you all so much for stopping by. Please, follow, comment, take my button or find me on Twitter! Adios!