And the winner is...

Dawn says...

Great tutorial sweetie!
I am already a follower and would be thrilled to win all this fab supplies. I am also having a giveaway on my blog...so stop by and enter.









Congratulations Dawn!
You're the winner of everything needed to make my last tag! You'll be receiving the following:

• Tim Holtz Acrylic Stamp Set - Urban Grunge
• An Acrylic Block
• 2 sets of Tim Holtz Mini Masks
• Distress Ink - Victorian Velvet
• Distress Ink - Walnut Stain
• An Ink Blending Tool
• Distress Stickles - Rock Candy
• A package of white tags
• A Tim Holtz Trinket Pin
• and 10 inches of My Minds Eye Ribbon

Thank you so much to everyone who entered and is now following my blog! I more than tripled my followers last week! You all fantastic, and I promise this won't be the last give away!

Look for new posts this weekend! Lots going on!

BIG NEWS!!!

Wait until you hear this awesome story!

I post regularly on a thread meant to promote blog hopping on the Split Coast Stampers website. The idea is that you leave a response on the thread, then visit the blog belonging to the person above you. Time after time after time, I found that I was posting after the same great lady. Her name is Bonni Rose, and she has some GREAT stuff on her blog. Just moments after leaving my latest comments on her blog, I received an amazingly sweet email from her. She told me that she had forwarded my blog address to Patti Olson, the owner of the online store Paper Maniac, because she had been looking for a Tim Holtz product educator for her design team. Bonni insisted that I too contact Patti if I was interested in the position.

At first, I was a little hesitant because I had been so focused and excited about being a Master Designer with Above Rubies Studio, but I didn't have anything to lose by contacting Patti, so I did. The rest is history.

I was asked to be the Tim Holtz Product Educator for the Paper Maniac Design Team! I am SO super stinkin' excited! I'll be posting projects several times a month for Paper Maniac, focusing on the distressed and altered art style of paper crafting!

If I don't already, I will soon have links to all of the other girls on the team on my sidebar. Be sure to check out Bonni's blog to hear her side of the story, and her awesome news, and then visit Paper Maniac and sign up for her bi-weekly newsletters!

Be sure to check the post below for my giveaway!

Rak and Tutorial: Just like I promised!

I have a very special surprise for all of you!

First of all, thank you all so much for being so great! I more than doubled the number of followers on this blog in 1 day! You won't be disappointed! Make sure you read this tutorial entirely...all the way to the end :)

This tag was made almost entirely of Tim Holtz products. If you have been following my blog for more than about 10 minutes, you probably know that I love Tim Holtz, his ideas, and his products.

Here is exactly what I used:

• A medium size white tag
• An Ink Blending Tool
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Walnut Stain and Victorian Velvet
• Tim Holtz Acrylic Stamps - Urban Grunge
• Tim Holtz Mini Masks - Floret
• Distress Stickles - Rock Candy
• Tim Holtz Trinket Pin
• Acrylic Block
• My Minds Eye Ribbon

How it's made

Step 1) With light pressure, apply the Victorian Velvet Distress Ink to the background of the tag. Keep it very light! Place a few of the Mini Masks on the tag

Step 2) With the same color of Distress Ink, apply another layer of ink on the tag. I used heavier pressure on the edges of the tag, and lighter pressure in the center to give it a nice effect. Because the masks are clear, you can see what your tag will look like when they are removed, before they are removed. That way, if you want to make any changes before you remove them, you can! When it looks right, remove the masks. They can be cleaned up later with a little soap and water if needed.

Step 3) Distress the edges of the tag with a paper distressing tool, or just a pair of scissors. Then, heavily ink the edges of the tag with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. Now is your chance to give the masked off areas a little more color if you choose to.

Step 4) Using Walnut Stain Distress Ink, stamp your main images on your tag.

 Step 5) Now, using the Victorian Velvet Distress Ink, fill the background with stamps. A neat thing about Distress Inks is that you are able to layer the same color over and over, creating somewhat of a watermark look. You'll notice that the Victorian Velvet blends well with the background that I created using the same color. 

Step 6) Rock Candy Distress Stickles can add a really neat, and totally clear, shine to your project. Apply the Stickles by squeezing some on your finger and spreading it out to a very thin layer. Stickles is meant to be applied this way, and not thick as most glitter glue. Another cool tip? You can dry Distress Stickles with a heat gun to speed up the process! Don't try that with regular Stickles though...trust me.

Step 7) Add some ribbon and a Tim Holtz Trinket Pin, and you have a beautiful tag that be given as a gift, placed on a gift, or kept as a memento of the awesome work you've done :)

Are you ready for the really cool part of this tutorial???

Everything that I used to make this tag:

will be given away to a lucky winner, whose name with be drawn using random.org this Saturday at 12pm CDT

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post and be a follower! Good luck, and thank you!!!

Hubby Gets the Credit

Good morning!

I just wanted to swing by and let all of my awesome followers know that when I reach 100 followers, I'll be giving away a super duper cool and unique RAK...and get this: it was my husband's idea! I'm going to keep it a secret for now, but spread the word! As of right now, I'm at 63 followers. I wonder how long it will be until I'm at 100 :)

Above Rubies Studio - Mini Project

Hey Folks!

I'm a little late updating this, but Megan at Above Rubies Studio posted a mini preview project that I submitted for the design team. Check it out here!

Enjoy the Journey - Finally a Teenager

I made this card tonight for one of my students. Last Friday, right before Spring Break, was his birthday and all of his other teacher's got him gifts. Luckily, he went home before I could see him, so he doesn't know that it wasn't ready in time :) I realized something very important today; teenage boys are more difficult to make things for than grown men! It must have taken me an hour to figure out what I was going to do. I searched my Cricut cartridges over and over hoping to find something to cut out for the card, but never found anything just right, so I turned to my tried and true techniques from Tim - those always work :)

The base of the card is Java Bazzill Cardstock.
The blue and brown patterned paper is from the Making Memories Just Chillin' stack.
The stamps and inks are Tim Holtz's.

A Little Birdie Told Me So

I saw a video recently, by Jennifer McGuire, on embossing resist, and loved how she did it! I've done the technique before, but never with a silhouetted image. I super duper really really wish I could find the Hero Arts silhouette stamps here, but I haven't had much luck. I substituted Inkadinkado's Birds Galore stamp set. They were the closest stamps to a silhouette that I could find, and I was pretty well pleased with how they turned out!

I covered K&Company chipboard tags with dictionary paper using Mod Podge, and dried them well with my heat tool (my impatience kicking in again). I then embossed the stamps on the tags with clear embossing powder. Using Tim Holtz Distress Inks (mostly the new colors) and an ink blending tool, I covered the tags in deep rich colors. I then took a damp paper towel, and wiped the embossed areas clean of ink. Aren't they beautiful?!?!


I'd also like to make a note that I L-O-V-E the new way that I've been photographing my work lately. I think it looks so much cleaner, and is way easier to do, than the way I was doing it before :)

Filming, DO NOT ENTER

This project has a story. As you might have read in a previous post, I moved all of my crafting stuff to my mom's house a few miles down the road. She turned my old bedroom into a craft room for us, and it just didn't make sense to keep loading up my stuff every weekend to go craft at her house, and then lug it all home to my itty bitty desk. I've also started shooting tutorial videos, which I of course have to do at her house where all of my stuff is. Well, family is always visiting, and people are in and out of her house, so it was getting semi-annoying to announce to the whole house that I was about to start filming so no one would come barging into the room...hence, a sign :)

This is a super easy project, and doesn't involve a lot. Enjoy!

Materials Used:

• Plain Wooden Sign
• Acrylic Paint
• Paper - Graphic 45
• Mod Podge, or another decoupage medium
• Stazon Ink
• Tim Holtz Stamp Set - Captured Moments 
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Walnut Stain
• Ink Blending Tool
• Foam Brush
• Cricut Expression
• Storybook Cricut Cartridge

Step 1: Paint your wooden sign a solid color with acrylic paint, and allow to dry.

Step 2 and 3: Using your decoupage medium, glue down your paper and allow it to dry. I 'allowed' mine to dry with a heat tool :) Try to keep the glue from getting on the top of your paper. That will make stamping on it later a lot easier.

Step 4 and 5: Using Stazon Ink, stamp various images on the background of your sign. The lip on my sign didn't allow for an acrylic block to fit, so I used the stamp with my hands. It made for an awesome distressed look.

Step 6: Ink over the background with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. It's amazing to watch how the ink brings out the tearing on the paper.

Step 7: Seal the background with your decoupage medium.

Step 8: I cut my words out with the Cricut Expression, using the Storybook Cartridge. The larger letters were cut at 2.25 inches, and the smaller letters were cut at 1.25 inches. Using the decoupage medium, I glued them down where I wanted them, and sealed them over with more decoupage.

It's that easy! I hope you all find this helpful! Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty - give it a try!

Mod Podge, Meet Distress

Materials Used:

• Large chipboard letters
• Brown Acrylic Paint
• Mod Podge, or other decoupage medium
• Paper, Graphic 45
• Tim Holtz Stamp Sets (Regal Flourish Urban Grunge Captured Moments Going Somewhere)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Walnut Stain
• Ink Blending Tool
• Stazon Ink
• Hot Glue Gun
• Heat Tool
• Sanding Tool
• Sawtooth Picture Hangers
• Foam Brushes
• Craft Knife

Step 1: Start with a plain large chipboard letter.

Step 2 and 3: Using acrylic paint and a foam brush, paint the letter a solid color. I use my acrylic block (for stamping) as my paint palette.

Step 4: Using your decoupage medium, begin gluing down your paper. You can use one solid piece of paper, or glue down bits of paper for a collage effect. Try to keep from getting glue on the top of the paper. This will make it easier to stamp on the letter later.

Step 5: Allow your letter to dry. If you're impatient like me, you can use a heat tool to speed up the process :)

Step 6: Turn the letter over, and use a craft knife to trim up the edges. If you want a more distressed look, you can always tear the paper off the edge.

Step 7: Rough up the edges a little with a sanding block.

Step 8 and 9: Using Stazon Ink, and your favorite stamps, decorate the front of your letter. Allow the ink to dry completely.

Step 10: Ink up the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. I also blended the ink onto the whole letter in order to enhance the torn paper edges.

Step 11 and 12: Seal your letter with another coat of decoupage medium. I used a heat tool to speed up the drying time. I am SO impatient when it comes to waiting for glue to dry :)

Step 13 through 15: Using a pencil, mark the holes for the sawtooth picture hanger, and hot glue it down.

Step 16: Hang it up, or give it to someone you love!

A Perfect Pair

You Lucky Ducks! I posted another video today on my You Tube Channel! I've recieved a few requests for tutorials on the different uses of Perfect Pearls, which is awesome because those are some of my favorite products to work with!

In this video, I used the following products:

• Ranger's Perfect Pearls - Patina Blue
• Ranger's Perfect Medium
• Tim Holtz Stamps

After the video, I added a few finishing touches. I can't wait to hear what you all think! You have no idea how much I value the opinions of my followers :)


 

Shimmer Spray: So Distressed

Hello Hello!

Good news! I'm not sick anymore! I have been super sick with some weird stomach virus since last weekend, and couldn't be happier that I'm feeling better. When I got the news that I was chosen as a Master Designer for the Club Ruby Design Team, I was SO EXCITED, but SO did not feel well. My hubby is taking me out to celebrate tomorrow :)

I finally got around to shooting a video that I've been promising on creating your own, custom shimmer spray. I did my best to not call it Glimmer Mist, which is a spray from Tattered Angels, so I got a little tongue tied in the video. I hope you like it! If anyone has any suggestions on how to better set up my camera, please let me know! I'd like to know how people shoot their videos directly over their hands.

Above Rubies Design Team: Master Designer!!!!

I told you I had some exciting news to announce today! I've been chosen as a Master Designer for the Above Rubies Studio Design Team! I absolutely cannot WAIT to get started working with Megan and the other wonderful ladies she selected!