Thursday, May 24, 2012

BYH - May It's time for Blog Your Heart.


Stephanie touched on something I've been feeling for a while...about reading blogs. I read a lot of papercrafter's blogs. Their projects often inspire me, or just make me smile. But I have also noticed things that totally irritate me. There are some very talented people out there. But I get very, very tired of EVERY post being something about "take my class". I live on a fixed income (social security) and I can't afford to take all these classes. Yes, I get that you support your crafting that way. Yes, I get that you may be a good teacher. Yes, I get that you are very excited about sharing your knowledge. But give it a rest, please. Some of us want to learn, and there are a couple of bloggers out there that share willingly with no thought of charging. I just want to say a big Thank You to those bloggers that share with no thought of what they might get in return. I can't seem to get the link to show up, so please copy and paste this into your browser to visit Stephanie's blog: http://www.stephaniehowell.com/my_weblog">

Sunday, May 20, 2012


Another card for my daughter. The lighthouse is a stamp I used on watercolor paper and colored with colored pencils and watercolors. I used a light blue cardstock for the base of the card and inked the edges with Faded Jeans Distress ink. The little charm says "believe in love". A little blue and white bakers twine, a happy birthday stamp, and it is done!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

This was a card I made for my daughters' birthday. She loves all things "ocean" so I created an underwater scene. I used white cardstock and used Distress Inks to create the sand and water. I used antique linen, walnut stain and tea for the sand. For the water I used faded jeans, peacock feathers, squeezed lemonade, shaded lilac and shabby shutters. The shell dimensional stickers are from K&Company, and the "meg" are some letter stickers I had that I applied Glossy Accents to so they would be dimensional. The bubbles are light green and white bling I had. Inside, it says "Happy Birthday to the Answer to the Universe and Everything"...LOL...Wonder if any of you can guess how old she is now??? I love the way it turned out...thanks for looking. Forgot to mention the water scene was sprayed with Perfect Pearls mist.
Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyy! It's been a good week! My kids got me the complete set of Distress Markers for Mother's Day...they are so good to me! And my apron from the Creative Chemistry 101 class came!

Monday, May 7, 2012

Paperclay Embellishments

Have you seen the new kits out there for making your own embellishments from Paperclay? They are great but very pricey (around $32.00 for each kit!) Well, you can make your own "kit" for a lot less money and it will go much further. The kits I have seen come with 4 ounces of white clay, 2 ounces each of red, blue, yellow and brown, a color mixing chart and a couple of silicone molds.

Paperclay is a white clay that air dries in 24 hours. It can be sanded, sculpted or molded. It dries hard and sturdy, but very lightweight, which makes it perfect for cards and scrapbook layouts. This white clay can be colored while still wet. Pinch off some of the white clay and use just a couple of drops of acrylic craft paint to mix into the clay with your hands...sort of like pulling taffy. More paint can be added to intensify the color, or you can combine paint colors to create your own color. Or you can leave the clay white, and paint the item once it is dry with acrylic paints. Waterbased colorants are not recommended because they tend to bleed.

The company that makes these kits also has extra silicone molds to purchase, but again they are expensive. Do a web search...silicone molds are sold everywhere. I purchased some in an Etsy shop that were less than half the price of the kit ones. Even silicone candy molds work.

This site sells the paperclay cheaper than I have found anywhere else ($7.99!)... jerrysartarama.com. You are getting ONE POUND of white paperclay for that price, compared to the 4 ounces in the kit.

I bought 3 silicone molds from Etsy. I had acrylic crafters paint (don't we all???) The total cost for my kit...And keep in mind I have FOUR times the white clay as the commercial kit...$17.00!

You can make some really pretty embellies...I now have roses and daisies in almost every color LOL
I know that many of us who do paper crafting are on a budget. Here are links to some sites that have one great deal per day (ScrapbookSteals.com actually has 2 great deals per day)!

Peachycheap
Flowers to Flourishes
Scrapbook Steals
Cropchocolate
Scrapbook Daily Deals
Crafty Steals

These are always quality items. I have gotten paper, punches, dies, etc.