January 2012 – Created by Jess

Rubber Stamp Masking Trick

A few years ago I learned a neat trick for making layers with rubber stamped images. This is a really easy and fun way to give dimension to your designs. You can use stamps you already own to come up with fresh new ideas. The best part is you don’t need to buy anything special, all you need for this trick is a post-it note!

The first thing you stamp is going to be the top layer of your final image. I chose this word stamp for a Valentine card I’m making. Using black ink I stamped the image onto my white paper and also stamped it onto a post-it note. When you stamp on the post-it, get as close as you can to the top so that your image is over the sticky part of the paper, stamp on the not sticky side.

Now you should cut out your post-it note to the outline of your stamp. In this case, I will not be stamping anything below the original stamp so I don’t need to cut it out completely. Place your post-it cut out, called a mask, over the original stamp so that it covers it and sticks to your paper.

The next stamp you use is going to look like it was stamped first and is behind the original stamp. I have chosen a little robot with a heart. I inked my robot in red. Using clear acrylic blocks and clear stamps is the easiest way to get great results. However, with a little practice and maybe a couple mistakes, you can use your wood mounted stamps as well. Now that your second stamp is inked up, line up the image over the original stamp and when you have it where you want it press down. You can see in the picture on the right that the robot stamp left some ink on the post-it note. If you had not cut out a mask, you would have a pretty unattractive image with overlapping stamps.

Peel away your mask and reveal a clean image. See how the robot is standing behind the lettering? Pretty cool, huh?! I finished stamping my image and colored in a couple spots with gel pen. I used a little red brad to attach the arrow so that it moves back and forth on the meter. I mounted the white paper image onto a card covered in red paper with metallic red hearts.

Valentine robot card — Robot Valentine Card

I finished the card by stamping ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ inside. This card is cute and interactive, the best part, a professional looking image. Enjoy!

Valentine Bird Houses

On a recent trip to the fabric store I found myself wandering all of the aisles. It never matters that I have a small list and don’t really need anything else, I always have to look. I found these unfinished wood bird houses for $1 each. At that price I had to get a couple! I’ve seen them before, but not these particular ones. I really like the roof on the square one and the little heart shaped doorway on the traditional shaped birdhouse is too cute. I decided these would make a fun Valentine’s decoration.

Before the fun creative stuff, I used a little bit of sand paper to smooth the edges of these birdhouses. I didn’t bother making them perfect on all surfaces, just enough to avoid splinters. Once you get them sanded, wipe them down with a damp cloth to get rid of the wood dust. Now you can have fun with this project! I decided I wanted to paint these pink for the main background color. Unfortunately, I didn’t have pink paint on hand. I had to mix my own but I managed. I painted everything even though I knew I was covering some of the surfaces with paper and some with glitter. I always like to paint a surface to match the glitter I’m going to use, then you can’t see the little gaps as much.

The pink was a little darker than I wanted once it dried. I planned on glittering the heart one so that didn’t matter. The other one needed a little something. I have a giant bottle of gold sparkly craft paint, when you use just one coat it adds a nice transparent gold shine that helped to soften the pink. I painted parts of the square birdhouse with the gold.

I decided to glitter all four sides of the heart birdhouse. I found this glitter at the fabric store, it’s called ‘Bubblegum’. I put the birdhouse in my tray to catch the excess glitter. Using a paintbrush and regular Elmer’s white glue, I glittered one side at a time. I like to pour a lot of glitter then lightly tap it down with my finger. I let it dry a few minutes and then shake off the extra glitter. Pouring the glitter back in the bottle to use later is one of my favorite things, it always surprises me how little glitter it actually takes to cover a surface! There is no reason to throw out perfectly usable glitter.

For the square birdhouse I decided to paper the four sides with this light brown paper. The pattern is lightly embossed with small silver hearts and circles with the heart cut out. I really like the soft shimmer that the silver paper and gold paint add to this. I cut all four side pieces to size, the front piece has the doorway and perch areas. I used a 1″ hole punch for the doorway and a 1/4″ hole punch for the perch, both were just the right size. I used Elmer’s glue and a paintbrush again to cover the back of each piece of paper and stuck them on. To finish the bottom of each birdhouse I cut squares of brown velvet paper to size. I also have this paper in black and use them to finish the bottom of decorative items, it adds a nice extra touch.

I wanted to have a little bird for each house. I went through my rubber stamps and used to trial and error to find just the right birds. I also had to test out a few colors of ink and paper to get ones that I feel compliment the houses. In the end, I’m happy with the little bird in a nest tucked inside the doorway of the square house. The glittered house was a little tricky but I finally found the perfect bird to fly into this lovely house, I think the red ink really helps the bird stand out, that and I used a little foam tape to mount it. I added a bit of Elmer’s glue just to make sure it doesn’t actually fly away!

The finishing touches came next. I painted the roof trim and perch white on the glittered house. I then used a heart shaped punch to punch out hearts for the roof. I glued them down in a pattern on each side of the roof. I used about five coats of Mod Podge to seal them down. For the square house I added a white stripe to the roof, and painted the underside edge of the roof white and the top of the base white as well.

I am very pleased with how these two birdhouses turned out. For just $1 each, 99 cents for glitter, and stuff I had at home, I was able to make a couple of really cute decorations. This project can be as quick and easy or as time consuming as you want. Make something simple, make something intricate, it’s up to you!

Great Storage Products

I’d like to share a few more simple products that have helped me be creative while keeping supplies in their place. You might remember the Snapware storage container I use to keep my stamping blocks and ink pads in. Well, that is the same one I use as a sewing box. I love this container because I can keep all these supplies together yet separate and it is compact and has a handle. I can pull this box out of the closet and use it wherever I’m sewing. I keep all of my small tools in the top section. It’s great for pins, markers, rotary cutters, labels, and any little supplies you have. The middle section is where I keep small notions and my button box. In the bottom section I keep all of my spools of thread. This box keeps things organized and makes working on projects easy.

Another product I like is one I didn’t know I needed until I had it. It’s a ribbon storage drawer. I had made my own cardboard pieces to wrap ribbon around and had them all sitting in a bin. It worked fine but could get messy. I saw this ribbon drawer and decided it wasn’t too expensive so I bought it. The slim design comes with plastic boards to wrap your ribbon on and the front of the drawer has a slot for a label. I really like how it doesn’t take up much space and can stay on the shelf. Now I can just slide out a drawer without pulling the whole box out to find what I need. This box was made by Cropper Hopper, they have some new styles now so I don’t know if you can find this same box anymore. You can still buy the card inserts which are a big help even if you don’t have the drawer to match.

The last thing I want to mention in terms of storage is paper. I have a lot of scrapbook paper! The storage method I like best is using upright plastic holders. These are made by Cropper Hopper and hold 12″ x 12″ paper. I have a few of these that I keep on my desk and they are great. I like having my paper close by because I often need lots of different designs. Having them at a lower height makes them easier to flip through to find what I need. You can buy or make organizing inserts with tabs to label and sort your designs too!