Archive for the ‘Crafts’ Category
Doodle Mystery Solved by Tim Holtz
July 23rd, 2008
When I was in Tim’s class at CHA we got to play with his Alcohol Inks. It was my first time to use them, I’d like to play with them a little more before I say how much I like them. I used to watercolor, so I thought I’d pick it right up. One issue I had was that the palette was pre-filled and I didn’t know what color was what because they dry dark. The other issue is that we were working with a very detailed image of a bird and I was having trouble getting the ink to stay where I wanted it on the transparency.
I think I’d love using it to do washes on black and white acrylic transparencies…as long as I was preparing the colors myself.
Anyway, thanks to Tim for solving a mystery for me! We used the Sakura water brushes and he told a funny story about the first time he used them. He said he noticed the lids screwed on backwards. Evidently it was a brand new product from Sakura, the company that makes the Glaze and Souffle dimensional inks pens. So he calls them up to give them the heads up that in the US we are righty-tighty. Come to find out they have a good reason for screwing on backwards! Most people are right handed, and when you are using the water brush it would have a tendency to come unscrewed as you work!
I probably laughed a little TOO loud at this story because I was thrilled to have this mystery solved. My kids have had many Aquadoodle products and I’m forever getting frustrated with myself for tightening those dang pens when I’m trying to refill them with water! Thanks to Tim I finally have a logical reason for this and will be able to remember to open them the “right” way!
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Cuttlekids Make and Take at CHA
July 23rd, 2008
Did you know that Cuttlekids shapes can be cut with the Cuttlebug? If I knew I’d forgotten.
This is the boyish make and take from Sunday at the Provo Craft booth. It is just adorable.
The distressing is done with Tim Holtz walnut distress ink. I didn’t make one because the line was too long and it was taking at least 45 minutes per person to make. Plus I have two girls and already had enough girl stuff to bring home.
Edited: I thought it embossed, but it may only cut. Here is the sandwich recipe for the Cuttlekid dies in the Cuttlebug.
Cuttlebug pads:
(From bottom to top)
B pad
C pad
Cuttlekids die (foam side up)
Paper
B pad
Sunday’s CHA Make and Take
July 22nd, 2008
Another make and take with the Hello Kitty cart. (The “K” is Plantain Schoolbook, a Storybook letter with your own initial might look cool!) I think it is a great size to hold embossing folders in, however I think I have too tall of a stack!
The top is embossed with the new Gratitude background and sentiments combo. And the side strips are embossed with the new Border with Love set.
Tags:
Ranger Make and Take
July 20th, 2008
We spent a lot of time today in the Ranger booth, and I have a lot to say. But, we will have a long day tomorrow at the show then driving part way home. So, I’m going to just do a quick post on one of the products that we bought that we got to use in a make and take.
Claudine Hellmuth was actually at the booth demonstrating her Studio Sticky-Back Canvas, but I didn’t know who she was until after she was gone or I’d have taken a pic with her! The canvas is made with paper pulp but it looks and feels like fabric. It has a sticky back, and for the make and take they backed it with some cute black fabric. The flowers pictured here were about 8 to 10 inches across.
Here are Lisa and I making our flowers which were backed with a pin.
We’ve been told it cuts in several of the die-cut machines. So, when Lisa gets her order in I’ll buy some and test it on the Cricut. It was really fun to work with and I can see lots of possibilities for accents on cards and in scrapbooks or even in home decor.
UPDATE:
Claudine! Thanks for the clarification! This will help people understand your product. It was nice talking to you again yesterday, I’m glad I caught you in the booth! I so can’t wait to play with the canvas paper in the Cricut and will post results as soon as I get my hands on some. I’ll also try it with the Nestabilities in the Cuttlebug.
Hello Kitty Make and Take
July 19th, 2008
We got to the convention center this morning about 10 minutes before the doors opened and speedwalked over to the Provo Craft booth to do the Make and Take. We ended up each being 3rd in line. Luckily the Hello Kitty projects went faster today than Tinkerbell yesterday and we made it on-time to our Ranger appointment.
My girls are going to be fighting over this pail! It will be great for storing thier crayons or markers in.
Tim Holtz Class at CHA
July 18th, 2008
For those that don’t know, Tim Holtz is an designer and educator for Ranger Industries. He taught two classes today at CHA, it was very difficult to get into the classes. Lisa and I were a couple of lucky and excited gals.
The class was super fast paced and Tim was very entertaining. When we got there we had a huge bag of product waiting for us. Plus, thanks to Stampers Anonymous we also got one of Tim’s brand new stamp sets!!!
Tim packed eight techniques into two hours, each tag was made with a different technique. Each of us had different color samples as you can see in this picture showing both of our tag sets. Mine is in the ring provided and Lisa’s is spread out so you can see them better.
I’ll bold some Tim-isms that I captured, hoping to share a bit of his larger than life personality along with a few of his tips.
- You can use the paint daubers on any surface. You need to prime it properly the first use by pressing down on the head and at the same time squeezing the paint. Don’t bang it on the table trying to get the paint flowing, they are not hammer paints!
- Die inks are translucent while pigment inks are opaque which means you can layer pigment inks. But they dry very quickly, so never throw away the plastic vapor barrier. Yes, you can emboss with dye inks, IF you are like Indiana Jones!
- Ink the stamp before you stamp the ink. Contrary to common belief you do NOT have to store ink pads upside down because ink pads are a suspended medium. If you press the stamp into the pad it will put ink in recessed areas. Just, “tap, tap, tap and you’ll never have any weird little whoies.”
- On using the pigment pens, they are pigment so they also dry quickly. You have to work fast, scribble, blend, scribble, blend. Don’t just scribble, scribble, scribble, scribble and think hmmm, maybe I should blend this. It will already be dry. We smeared it on the back of a transparency to highlight some words.
- On working with the color washes. First emboss your image, then spray a couple of colors, one dark and one light. Then you press it with a craft iron (2 x hotter than normal irons), between some newspaper, until you see the stamped image. When it is done the newspaper will come right off. So, don’t think it is like a Band-aid and that if you rip it really quick it will be ok. It won’t. Just iron it some more until you see the pattern soak into the newspaper.
- Glossy paper behind a vellum accent acts like a light box, it just makes the image pop. You can glue vellum on glossy paper. BUT, put the glue on the paper, not on the vellum. And we’re not stuccoing a house, so if the glue clumps, thats too much!
- Helllllo Captain OBvious! I can’t remember why he said this, but it made me LOL!
The Provo Craft/Cricut Booth was Prize Central
July 18th, 2008
Cricut was giving away bags every hour on the hour to the first twelve people in line. Lisa and I got bags at 2:00. We were number 2 and 3 in line. There were four pink bags, obviously the most popular choice because the first 4 people in line chose them. Each bag has a number on it and during the course of the show people wear the big number somewhere visible. If you find the person with a number matching yours then you can go back to their booth together and draw for a prize. At 2:00 they gave away a baby bug and at 4:00 an Expression. We didn’t win.
Although BrensDesigns has already posted pictures of most of the new product on the Cricut board I’m still going to post a selection of pictures because some of my readers come from other places.
I love the butterfly on the new Tinkerbell cartridge, I cannot wait to see what other extras are on this cart! I asked when it would be released and I was told probably the fall, I believe September was mentioned. The new character cartridges will have all have 50 shapes plus 6 features. Only Hello Kitty and Sesame will have coordinating font cartridges, the Cars and Tinkerbell carts do not. Hello Kitty will have poses, phrases, accessories, and icons.
Cricut is doing the CUTEST make and takes of the show that I’ve seen! I stumbled upon Cricut Dan (Scrapbook Top 50) at the Tinkerbell picture frame make and take! I enjoyed meeting you Dan and hope to continue our discussion!
Lisa and I hope to do the Cuttlebug storage make and take on Sunday, if we understand it correctly. And I want to do the Hello Kitty one in the morning. I stood in line for the Tinkerbell one for about 45 minutes, but had to leave to meet Lisa.
For my readers that don’t know what a Cricut is, here he is, the green bug. He is the mascot for Cricut products which includes thier anchor products the die-cut machines and the equally popular Cuttlebug, an embossing machine. The purple bug is for the kiddy version of the embossing machine called Cuttle Kids.
At this show they announced new materials and a blade for using the machine to create your own embossing plates, magnets, or even stamps. With their Design Studio software you can use any of their cartridges to weld together your own custom designs! There is an independent entrepreneur that has been marketing stamp materials, he is sure to be disappointed that they’ve come out with their own.
Cricut is doing the CUTEST make and takes of the show that I’ve seen! I stumbled upon Cricut Dan (Scrapbook Top 50) at the Tinkerbell picture frame make and take! I enjoyed meeting you Dan and hope to continue our discussion!
Lisa and I hope to do the Cuttlebug storage make and take on Sunday, if we understand it correctly. And I want to do the Hello Kitty one in the morning. I stood in line for the Tinkerbell one for about 45 minutes, but had to leave to meet Lisa.
For my readers that don’t know what a Cricut is, here he is, the green bug. He is the mascot for Cricut products which includes thier anchor products the die-cut machines and the equally popular Cuttlebug, an embossing machine. The purple bug is for the kiddy version of the embossing machine called Cuttle Kids.
At this show they announced new materials and a blade for using the machine to create your own embossing plates, magnets, or even stamps. With their Design Studio software you can use any of their cartridges to weld together your own custom designs! There is an independent entrepreneur that has been marketing stamp materials, he is sure to be disappointed that they’ve come out with their own.
Holly’s CHA Pick of the Day
July 18th, 2008
My most favorite product of the day was from Hero Arts. They have come out with new TWELVE INCH clear stamp borders! This one is called “Birds and Branches”, it is my personal favorite. There are 16 different designs in 8 different sets.
Here is their catalog in case you want to see them all.
My sister Lisa is going to order some tomorrow. So if you know you want some let us know!
This was the make and take in the Hero Arts booth today. I’d never done a slider card. It was so easy and cute. Very cool how the ribbon just disapears when you push in the card, then it looks so cute just tied on the end!
Holly
Tim Holtz Class at CHA
July 18th, 2008
For those that don’t know, Tim Holtz is an designer and educator for Ranger Industries. He taught two classes today at CHA, it was very difficult to get into the classes. Lisa and I were a couple of lucky and excited gals.
The class was super fast paced and Tim was very entertaining. When we got there we had a huge bag of product waiting for us. Plus, thanks to Stampers Anonymous we also got one of Tim’s brand new stamp sets!!!
Tim packed eight techniques into two hours, each tag was made with a different technique. Each of us had different color samples as you can see in this picture showing both of our tag sets. Mine is in the ring provided and Lisa’s is spread out so you can see them better.
I’ll bold some Tim-isms that I captured, hoping to share a bit of his larger than life personality along with a few of his tips.
- You can use the paint daubers on any surface. You need to prime it properly the first use by pressing down on the head and at the same time squeezing the paint. Don’t bang it on the table trying to get the paint flowing, they are not hammer paints!
- Die inks are translucent while pigment inks are opaque which means you can layer pigment inks. But they dry very quickly, so never throw away the plastic vapor barrier. Yes, you can emboss with dye inks, IF you are like Indiana Jones!
- Ink the stamp before you stamp the ink. Contrary to common belief you do NOT have to store ink pads upside down because ink pads are a suspended medium. If you press the stamp into the pad it will put ink in recessed areas. Just, “tap, tap, tap and you’ll never have any weird little whoies.”
- On using the pigment pens, they are pigment so they also dry quickly. You have to work fast, scribble, blend, scribble, blend. Don’t just scribble, scribble, scribble, scribble and think hmmm, maybe I should blend this. It will already be dry. We smeared it on the back of a transparency to highlight some words.
- On working with the color washes. First emboss your image, then spray a couple of colors, one dark and one light. Then you press it with a craft iron (2 x hotter than normal irons), between some newspaper, until you see the stamped image. When it is done the newspaper will come right off. So, don’t think it is like a Band-aid and that if you rip it really quick it will be ok. It won’t. Just iron it some more until you see the pattern soak into the newspaper.
- Glossy paper behind a vellum accent acts like a light box, it just makes the image pop. You can glue vellum on glossy paper. BUT, put the glue on the paper, not on the vellum. And we’re not stuccoing a house, so if the glue clumps, thats too much!
- Helllllo Captain OBvious! I can’t remember why he said this, but it made me LOL!
Daily CHA Blog Drawing!
July 15th, 2008
Hi everyone! To celebrate my first trip to CHA and that I met my own deadline, with my new logo and blog banner design, I’m giving away blog candy every day for a week!
First of all I want to say a BIG thank-you to Alice Grey Trainor who brought my Scrapallier vision to life! She literally carted sketchpads and watercolors across the globe several times while she was working on the original drawing for my concept! It couldn’t have turned out better and I’ll be forever grateful! And, thank you to Chris Lo for the wonderful logo and business card designs. I am posting a link to his website here in case anyone gets their hands on my business cards and just has to be a copycat! His printing process is top secret, only he and his double secret printer know how to do it!
And very special thanks to my very dear husband Neal, who patiently gave me his feedback every step of the way.
Anyway, formalities aside, here is an example of the daily prize package:
Each day’s prize has approximately a $20 retail value! The color or style of the item will vary slightly from day to day. But each package has:
- Prima Sweet and Sassy Jar: cute multi-color/pattern flowers
- WeR Memory Keepers Designer Eyelets & Snaps: baby girl, baby boy or travel
- Studio G Series 14 “scrapbook” stamps
- Prima Flowers: bra, panties, purse or large flowers w/ chipboard center
- Jumbo brads
- Basic Grey rub-on accents
There will be one drawing for each day’s comments from 7/18 thru 7/24. I’ll be posting each night from CHA 7/17 thru 7/20 and for a few days when I return. I’m sure I’ll have a lot to share. If you happen to post on the evening of the 17th after I post about my TIM HOLTZ class then your comments will be thrown into the drawing for the 18th, I just want to give everyone at least 24 hours to post each day.
There is one catch, I don’t think I’ll have a way to print the comments from my hotel and cut them up for the drawing. So, all 7 drawings will be on 7/25.
But, you have not heard the best part….there will be a grand prize drawing for a Cricut Storybook cartridge! This is a $60 retail value, so if the winner is a friend without a Cricut then you’ll be able to choose something of equal retail value. Special thanks to my sister Lisa Ziriax, owner of Seriously Scrappin, because if it were not for the deep sister discount I would not be able to afford such nice blog candy!
Please try out my scrapbook search engine and give me some feedback. I explained what it is on my “About” page, but basically vertical search is for searching the narrow scrapbook niche versus searching the entire World Wide Web. If you put your blog address in the blog search engine and nothing comes up then just write a comment there requesting that I add your site.
Please bookmark Scrapallier so that next time you are trying to remember what Cricut messageboard member created that special .cut file you can search Scrapallier! HINT: after you seach your term look for the links at the top of the search results. Clicking on them will narrow the search even further, to a messageboard or to published scrappers for example.
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