Hot Glue - How Fun!

Saw a youtube accidentally on Mod Podge Mini Melts and it looked great, but the greatest part came when I saw they sell finger covers made of silicon! As most of you know, last summer (or was it a year ago?), I had a major accident with my glue gun and burned myself rather badly. I hated having that gun defeat me. I watched a lot of videos before I went to Amazon and the place I bought from is "Stuff4" who was nice enough to combine my shipping costs since I bought a mold, the gluesticks and the finger protectors separately.
On youtube I saw a gal coloring hot glue with crayons - well, you have to have a mold that you are pressing the glue into but it does work - even I did it first time. Not the best but certainly useable. The molds that Mod Podge makes are the first like that I have ever bought or used. They are great and very detailed. Then I watched a video that showed a gal making stencils and stamps with hot glue. I was amazed that I could do this and also found one making those little dots we are all using on our scrapbook pages and cards. So here is my take, I am practicing using glue sticks as they are cheaper by a lot. Perfect pearls makes a wonderful glimmer and shine on anything I make. Your finger and a tad of water assures you get it smooth and lovely. Having purchased all the colors available when I first started in 2010, I have plenty of product and colors to play with. (After organizing all my stuff, I am done "hoarding" and want to use it!) So here is my results from my first play with both the mini melts and hot glue. These are all made from mini melts white.

The blue is Tim Holtz paint. For some reason, they stay wet a pretty long time. The other color you see is Twinkling H2O done with a tiny paint brush. I loved the look. I trimmed these with a craft knife on a cutting board. This was my first attempt at anything. The blue one has a bit of regular glue in it as there was some left in the gun.

These were my next try. All made out of glue sticks. I am not quick and tried these drops over glitter as opposed to sprinkling glitter over the hot glue. Not good. But the drops came out pretty good. I think I may buy some colored glue sticks next time I get out. I used a gray crayon on the gray ones and a  pink crayon on the pink ones. They cooled very matte and I didn't care for it, so I used Perfect Pearl pearl color over them. Dipped my finger in a tad of water and then pearls and "painted". I also tried lightly spraying the glue, but that is too much water. These are the first gray embellishments I own. These are very small and I put them in baggies and away.

These four are the results of trying to make stencils/stamps with the glue. They are colored from the spray inks and regular inks I tried them with. I sprayed through them onto an art journal that I had prepped with gesso. It worked just like any stencil worked with the exception that these are very easy to lift off. Then I tried them as stamps (tried both sides) the back, flat side is the only side that works well enough. Believe it or not, they clung to the Tim Holtz blocks good enough to stamp an image. It wasn't an image that I liked well enough for all the time it took to make these. I won't be stamping again, I don't think. I would rather use my real stamps or my multi media junk to stamp with. They did show stamping with acrylic paint and I only tried ink. Maybe next time I will try paint. So while I was all messy, I decided to use my glue creations one last time and here is the double journal page I made. I used some pink glitter and tried different ways to get it to stick after having put it on the page - I know backwards, and what was I thinking? Ended up with Mod Podge matte on my fingers pressing it over the glue. It worked to some degree. Then I put matte iridescent on with a brush and sprinkled more pink glitter. It worked much better. Of course!

The black is acrylic paint and the pink lace has distress ink on it. It is not really white in those spots, just very shiny. I think its so pretty in real life that this photo isn't the best. Hope you enjoy this and I know I am going to be playing with the glue until I get it right. The mini melts was much easier to use and less trimming than the glue. I also found that my little scissors works better to trim than the craft knife. I like the heart the best and will be making that again. Hugs to you all, Barb F

Another Really Old Photo

This photo is close to 20 yrs old. My grandson was all dressed up and acted the same. He was just so cute and when I came across it in my photo sorting for the Scraprack class I am taking, it went into my have to scrap pile. Honestly, there are not a lot of photos that made it into this pile. I kept thinking about the photo and just knew I was going to make a page pretty soon. You know how that is - find something you just have to use and it like burns a hole in your "pocket"!
Since he looks so grown up, I didn't want to use the kid type papers I have. I pulled the colors out of the photo and realized that it was pretty much the same colors as a collection I had. It is called Reflections by Echo Park. I only have a few collections and I have managed somehow to keep them together which is why I was able to tell you the name. I have used quite a lot of the papers and didn't have a whole lot to choose from. When I saw this book text paper, I knew that was going to be my main paper. Almost all of the stickers came from that collection. The white cherish the moment is part of the paper. I had some neat paper clips that I decided to use. The border paper for the journalling and photo is another paper that looks like wood. It is not very distinguishable but the color is exactly the same as the benches. I had to take the photo on my table so all that wood in the background is really wood. The page ends with the dark brown border. I just adore being able to find things so quickly. If you haven't heard about it, go to thescraprack.com and sign up for the free organizing class of 2014. Do it soon or it will be gone for another year. I think its the best system for organizing that I have found. I do not use any of their products, just the ideas. However, there are a couple that I have been eyeing for over a year now. I am going to the Megameet (hopefully) and they are one of the vendors, so I am going to be able to see in person and then decide. The gal who does the class, Tiffany, is constantly saying to try to use what you have. I do not buy anything anymore until I know that I have a place to put it. Then when I get the new stuff, I know exactly where to put it away. Amazing! But it makes doing anything a pleasure. I have enough things that I need to sort through (she says if you already have things in a system that works for you, don't reinvent the wheel).  So far, all the work I have put into this class has paid off in huge rewards. It also gave me back the desire which I had lost due to that eye operation. I still can't see as well, but it no longer is dragging me down. I have lots of cards to make for March and beyond so I will be back to posting when I make them. Hugs to you all, guess if you are following me, you get the bonus posts? Barb F

Knew it!

I knew that as soon as I did a post on this journal page, I would finish it. It needed something  but at the time I did it, I could think exactly what. As soon as I saw it online, it hit me - the wheels in my head go round and round - that old song kids used to sing at school. Well I just related it to scrapbooking and shazam! (Haven't heard that one in awhile). The page had a way to finish it. I used my doodling pens in the same colors as my pages as well as black. It is hard to see in the photo but there are some other colors of words. Let me know what you think, please. Does it need anything more? Any ideas? Hugs to you all, Barb F

Lots of Catchup

 First things first, right? This is a birthday card for one of our grandsons. He is going to be 8. I have been organizing along with the lady from TheScraprack. com. I don't plan on buying a unit but am thinking about some of the other products. Will maybe get to see them at the Megameet in May in Novi, MI. In the meantime, her free online class is wonderful!
Getting back to the card, I had a goal to use stickers on a card - never did it before. My vision is still not right but I think Edwin came out ok. He is fussy cut and on dimensionals. My other goal was to use up as much paper as I could. This is a pretty hefty card. I used way more paper than I ever have. Its a little different for me, but I like it as I hope he will.  I do have lots to share as I have also been scrapbooking and working in my art journal.

This is the card open

This is a 12 x 12 scrapbook page. The center of the page is a very old photo album that one of my daughters sent me. I have been sorting photos (see the class I mentioned) and found it. Decided to not reinvent the wheel and use it as is. Since I reorganized my paper and embellishments, it took me probably 5 minutes to pick out the papers and embellishments!! How great that was and not only that, my desk is clear so I had lots of room to work!!
The round things are sequin like things that I turned up in the organize. I was going to journal some but then realized I had nothing to add, that the title did it all. The photos have a date stamp on each one. She wrote a little caption about each photo on the inside back cover.

With the photo book open. See how the photos cascade?

Another 12 x 12 of my newest grand baby. Again I didn't journal. There is a lot going on here. Lots of little stories about the embellishments. I bought little alphabet beads years ago and finally found a really good use for them. I found a wooden banner that fit her name. Used a pink ink over it and didn't care for the look so I added stickles over the ends. I was subscribing to an English magazine that always sends a goodie with the magazine. (It is pretty expensive, but a fab mag). They sent a bunch of punch out gorgeous paper. I used a lot of it on this page. Also see the little wooden family? The proud Papa here is the little boy in the photos on the page above!!

And here is an art journal page in progress. I used acrylic paints and lots and lots of stamps. Had a really good time with it. Started with stencils and just kept going. I know its not finished but one of these days I will know why and finish it.
I sure hope this post helps make up for my absences. I have been doing things, just not as much as I was. No excuses, but seeing and handling all my "stuff" has sure helped me get back on track. Guess that is my mojo. I am one of those "neat" people, love to organize if it makes it easy to find things, since I can't remember much anymore. Now I don't have to waste all of my time looking for things.  Next time I will share my room with you - as a matter of fact, I forgot I did a video and put it on youtube so my daughter could see what I had done. Its pretty long, but you can go see it if you wish, my name on youtube is Barb F. Fancy that!
Looking forward to hearing from you. Need a lift up from all this snow!! Hugs to you all, Barb F