She Who Stamps & Scraps

Stencil Girl Products Blog Hop

I'm so happy to be joining Jessica Sporn in a blog hop featuring one of her designs for Stencil Girl Products. Today I'm using the Borders stencil along with Natasha May, Maria McGuire, Maggie Nemetz, and Judy Shea.

You might wonder if I used the right stencil at first glance, because I didn't use it as a border at all... I chose to use one section repeatedly and randomly across the pages to add interest and texture to my background.

I started by adhering bits of leftover 6X6 Basic Grey papers to a spread in my Dyan Reaveley art journal, and then added layers of Distress Paints. After the blues dried, I dry brushed white in places, and it looked like this:

Next I used a makeup wedge to sponge white paint in places through the Borders stencil:

I used more stencils in the background before pulling out some extra large Donna Downey stamps (Delicate Flowers measures 8" and the word 'dream' measures 4") and inking them with a mix of Archival ink and Distress Paints.  I love that the DD stamps are sized so well to fit the DR journal. 

I added tiny stickers to spell 'big' and heat set the sentiment below with clear embossing powder:

Washi tape down the middle, more stencils and paint all around:

I really enjoyed using Jessica's Border stencil this way.  She has a fabulous collection out with Stencil Girl.  Be sure to see her blog and visit the other people in the hop.

Simon Says Stamp and Show is looking for participants to use a stamp they love but don't regularly use, and for this project I chose a small delicate flower from Wendy Vecchi's Studio 490 (She Created Art) line.  It fits in perfectly as filler between the XL Donna Downey stamps.

Thank you for stopping by!

Marjie 

Art Journaling Class in Connecticut

(Susan S, Me, Evelyn, Judy (owner), Debbie, Alison, Susan, Cindy, Betsy)

What a great day at the Great American Stamp Store in Connecticut on Saturday! Seven women joined me for a whole day of journal play, and it was a lovely group. We took our time and made several pages using layers of stamps, paints, gesso, stencils, etc.  

This was an idea from one of my journals for the ladies to work with silhouettes:

I built the page up with layers of paint and inks, and used my  Xyron 5" Creative Station to adhere the magazine clipping of a silhouette:

Here are Besty and Evelyn working on their silhouette pages:

 And Debbie, done with her silhouette and prepping her next page:

Susan's fab silhouette and embedded tags pages:

And look what Cindy did with her embedded tags:

So cool how she fanned them in the center!  Here she is in person:

I'll be back at Great American Stamp Store in May, and hope to see you then!

Marjie

 

Art Journaling with Tags

Here are some deep thoughts from Dyan Reaveley's sentiment stamps, included on an art journal page that began, oddly enough, last October.  I made this page then: 

It's one of my favorites. I love the colors and how heavy the page is (loads of extra heavy gesso embedding the tags), and that I used so many different materials, including some very old ones. And also because it made all three of my sisters wonder which one I was talking about!  

Once you make an odd-sized page, though, you need another idea for the back of it. Slowly over these last few months I've added bits of 'mop up' to it.  Stencils and paint really built it up and then I thought to number the sentiments, like rules to live by.

 And don't you love Dyan's sentiment stamps?

If you read the older post you'll see my rave review of Julie Fei-Fen Balzer and how I got the page with embedded tags idea during one of her classes. If you get the chance to take a class with Julie, do!

And if you're in New England and you have time tomorrow, come join me at the Great American Stamp Store for my art journaling class... there's one seat left!

Thanks for the visit.

Marjie

Linking to Art Journal Every Day.

Photos and Metal and Flowers... oh My!

This is my spin on a layout I spied on Pinterest a few days ago by Kristin Cronin-Barrow.  If you'd like to see Kristin's layout, it's the newest pin on my Scrapbooking Pinterest board. I used Basic Grey papers that I customized with stamps and stencils.

The half circle on the left is stamped with the Darkroom Door Measuring Tape background stamp, and the one on the right is inked with jet black archival ink through a TCW elevator gate stencil.  I used the smaller version of that stencil to add interest to the yellow background paper. I edged the letter stickers with black soot distress ink and painted the wood frame black:

After running all the photos and blue sections through my Xyron® 5” Creative Station, I put the rick rack through the smaller Xyron® 1.5” Create-a-Sticker.  

I added faux stitching around the edges, Prima flowers, and Tim Holtz's Idea-ology ornate plate, flowers and brads.  The metal brings me to the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge this week.

Thanks so much for the visit!

Marjie

 

Idea-ology Ornate Plates

Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber - Pitch Black

Distress Ink Pad - Black Soot

Darkroom Door Delivery

What a happy mail day to find a box from Australia, full of fantastic new stamps from Darkroom Door!  I had to abandon all plans for the afternoon and get inky immediately. I colored Mr Bright Idea with Distress Markers and a water brush and roughed up his edges with my distressor.

I used the Measuring Tape background stamp to fill my XL tag, and inked it up with a variety of distress and archival inks by Ranger.  Tim's sentiment is embossed with clear powder, as is the old fountain pen.  I added a key tied on with twine as a note to self - it's key to imagine beyond what you may think is possible.

The design of the Mr Bright Idea stamp blew me away and I thought Tim's sentiment went perfectly!  Here's a peek at some of the other goodies:

I can't show you them all as some are sworn to secrecy for a bit longer, but it's very safe to say I'm loving what I've received and look forward to playing with all of them.  Linking to Paper Issues and Creative Every Day.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Marjie 

 

How to Use Xyron Adhesives on Selected Parts of Your Projects

Hello! Welcome to followers old and new. I made this jumbo today using stamps, stencils, inks, paint, and water soluble crayons. I used my Xyron® 5” Creative Station to adhere the image and corrugated cardboard to my tag, and I'll share below how I kept her party hat 3-dimensional by controlling my adhesives.  I started out with these parts: 

Then I stamped the sentiment and covered it with embossing powder:

Heating the power brought the sentiment right to the top of all the layered stamping and stenciling beneath it:

I stamped and cut out the hat separately and ran it through the Xyron® 1.5” Create-a-Sticker:

I adhered it behind the hat the girl is wearing.  Next I put that stamped image (with two hats) through the machine, and after it came out I peeled off the 'dummy' hat and the main hat had no adhesive. So it's totally popped up and dimensional, yet the rest of her is really tacked down with adhesive.  Cool?!?

Here she is:

And here's a close-up of the corrugated cardboard, all inked and painted and distressed:

I love being able to put dimensional items like that through my machine. Be sure to visit the Xyron blog to see lots of other ideas.

I'll share this today at Creative Every Day.  Thanks so much for visiting!

Marjie 

Art Journal: Relax

Simon Says Stamp and Show is looking for 'something messy' this weekend, and that's my middle name when it comes to spray inks.  I love having inky fingers and have to remember when I teach a class to offer gloves to those who feel differently.  I was drawn to the birds challenge at Fashionable Stamping Challenges so I made some trees for these little ones to perch on.  The trees are gesso through a stencil:

I had a rough day today starting with a fall on the ice in the driveway and ending with a speeding ticket (42 in a 30!).  When I came home to finish this page I decided the message to myself should be RELAX.  Or as the officer said, "Slow down, Ma'am."

Also linking to Art Journal Every Day, Carolyn Use Your Words group and the light challenge at Creative Every Day. Thanks for visiting!

Marjie 

And then the little bird said... Fly!

I am loving the new extra large Donna Downey flower stamps. I made this spread in Dyan Reaveley's Dylusions art journal, using Tim Holtz's Tissue Wrap, Donna's Wayward Blooms stamps, Dylusions Ink Sprays, watersoluable crayons, a water brush, chipboard, a Stampers' Anonymous butterfly stamp, a Studio 490 sentiment stamp, and a few of Tim's metal Idea-ology pins.

 

Donna's flowers are 8" tall and are sized just right for Dyan's big journal. After adhering the tissue wrap to the journal, I stamped the flowers in jet black Archival ink. Then I colored them with Water Soluable Crayons and blended the color with my water brush.

Next step.... bring on the Dylusions Ink Sprays!

Last step was to add my painted/inked chipboard letters and the stamped sentiment.

I'll link to Creative Every Day and Journal Journeys Challenge 16.

Thanks for visiting!

Marjie

Altered Books Challenge ~ Love is the Only Gold

Today we're kicking off a new challenge at eclectic Paperie working with Altered Books. I started by gluing together a few pages in an old book, cutting out a window, and coating the top page randomly with a turquoise paint glaze.   

The Wendy Vecchi yahoo group has a Four Letter Word challenge (a nice one!) and I used Tim Holtz's new heart stamp from the Valentine Blueprints set for my four letter word. I stamped it on a painted/stenciled heart, cut away the blueprint marks, and heat embossed it with clear powder. I used the #14 stamp from the same set on this project, also without the blueprint marks.  (Note: I love the blueprint stamp collections and will use them 'whole' on other projects, but it's good to remember you can use selected parts of any stamp as well.)

I used loads of Tim's and Wendy's Studio 490 stamps to layer up my background using Distress Inks and edging everything with Ranger's black paint dauber. Speaking of paints... have you seen Tim Holtz's new Distress Paints?!?!?  I ordered the whole set from Eclectic Paperie and they arrived last Saturday... I am like a kid in a candy store.  Loads of projects in the works with these!  They really are very different than any paint I've ever worked with... you can see Tim demo them here.

My last step was to attach my heart to the page with XL eyelets using my Crop-a-Dile and string, and then to paint the subsequent page orange so the heart would really pop. I've had that tool for ages and I still use it... I love that it cuts right through grunge and heavy book board.

Simon Says Stamp has a fairytale theme this week and when I googled fairytale quotes I found love to be a resounding theme.  It sure is the happy ending! "Love is the Only Gold" (Tennyson) was the one that spoke to me.

Splitcoast Stampers has a new mixed media challenge, looking for Yin Yang - a combo of shiney and matte.  My paint is matte and the embossed heart is shiney.

Many thanks for the visit!  I hope you'll pull out an old book and join us in the eclectic Paperie challenge.

Marjie 

Scrapbooking, Thanks, and Big News!

I hosted a Scrap-IN at Michaels on Saturday (more commonly known as a 'crop') and enjoyed catching up on some pages.  This page includes a new stencil from Ronda Palazzari, a favorite Stampers Anonymous border stamp, and the brand new #14 from Tim Holtz's Valentine Blueprints set.  I used the '14' to mark my son's age last year.

My friend Anita recently had a very generous giveaway on her blog and I was quite lucky to win the set of Tim's new stamps.  Anita sent such a beautiful (inside and out) package, including one of her very own handmade tags... what a very happy mail day!  Thanks so much, Anita!

On to the big news... last week I received a wonderful phone call announcing I'd been selected to join the Xyron Design Team.  I'm incredibly honored and excited to join this team.  I've been using Xyron products for over a decade, and I am a true believer.  I have three different Xyrons in my work space and use them every week. I cannot wait to start working with the team!

Thanks so much for visiting today.  I hope you have a great week.

Marjie