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

My Take on Tim's January 2014 Tag

Thought this year I would keep up with Tim's 12 tags of 2014. This was lots of fun and due to my constant organizing lately, I was able to actually find stuff I had!! For those of you who are still following me, thank you, and here is a kind of blow by blow of what I did. First I cut a tag from Tim's Sizzix tag die - it also is what I cut that bookplate shape from. I don't particularly like using stain even though I have it so I just used antique linen distress over a gear stencil that I just bought. Sorry I don't know whose it is, maybe Heidi Swapp? I did do the edges in black soot and when I realized I didn't have black soot paint, I used chipped sapphire instead. So I also went back over the edges of my tag with chipped sapphire distress so it would go together. I did have grungepaper and the foil paper and followed his directions but used my bookplate and the piece it cut away instead of his pocket watch. I have a lovely embossing folder with stars on it - probably my favorite shape. Since I am in the process of organizing my stickers, I found the rub offs quite easily. Of course before last week, I didn't even know I had them! I also have never used rub offs, so it was a bit of a guess according to watching people use them on youtube. I loved it! Also didn't realize you got more than one sheet in the package.  Then I was going for some word stickers and remembered some that were gold and thought I would change things up so I could use them. Turns out, they weren't stickers and they included silver and there were 2 sheets of different words each color!Don't know whose they were or where or even when I got them. I cut out what I wanted - they are on black paper, leaving a tiny bit of black showing and glued them on. The TH mirrored stars are my favorite things so I put some of them on also. There were some places begging for something so I stamped the TH line of stars where I needed a touch. The little charm at the top is a tiny type but I stamped a star and put the clear thing over the star and cut it out. I glued it in place after tying a ribbon on the tag. I am going to make an art journal page with the tag . I decided that I have enough tag books for awhile and now I will use that tag as an embellishment in my journal.
As a little bit of an update - I haven't improved much on my vision and its very difficult for me to color. I do it only for very special things. I have gotten more into scrapbook pages and art journalling as they are much less precise. I miss coloring and have so many birthdays to do for but if I can find another way to make a card, I have been. Sorry again for being so absent - it did really upset me that I wasn't coloring. Here's hugs to all of you!!!Barb F

Photo coloring

This is my oldest child many moons ago. Liked coloring a couple of things in the background and her little bonnet. My, they don't wear bonnets anymore, do they? Look at how cute she posed.

Fashionista

One of our many kids birthdays - this gal loves to shop. The image is Dyan Reaveley's Dylusions. I absolutely fell in love with this stamp set - not sure if the hat I chose to use belongs to the guy figure or one of the gals but I liked the feather. Colored it with copics even though I stamped it in archival ink. Surprised the heck out of me that it didn't smear. I used that Tim Holtz distress glitter on the belt and hat band and used the Sakura Glaze pen on the feathers after I colored them. You can actually feel the lines in the feathers. I also used it on the feet. Since we are hand delivering this one, I used ceramic roses. They are super hard, don't know where I got them but they were the wrong color of blue so I recolored them in copics. I stickled them. Have had these forever as they are pretty deep and would never make it in the mail. Used some edge paper punches and a leaf punch. The card is a light gray. I used weathered wood distress to ink everything so it made it like it all came from the same place (paper wise), but it didn't. On the inside those cute fashion gals was just a strip on some 6 x 6 paper I found in my stash. I didn't want to use the rest of that sheet. I stickled a

couple of the skirts and one of the tops. The bottom is a piece of each paper I used on the front. I stickled in between spots here and there to give some pizzaz. So here are the copics I used (best that I remember as I picked up the wrong paper). B01, B02, B14, B0000, RV29, RV23, C3. The perfect greeting on the front came from a "fashion" stamp set by Stampingscrapping.com. They have little dresses on that set as well as some dies to cut them out. Of course I have them. Silly. But I chose to use this stamp.
I am recovering well from my eye surgery even though things are still blurry in that eye, I am allowed to drive now! Yayyy!!!!!! Prisoner let out for good behavior! I also found that I don't have to strain to see anything. Either I can see it or not. And for the most part, I can see it. I do not have the halos at night anymore which makes my sight better. The blurry is only in one eye.
Have been taking the Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 102 and though it is super fast paced, I have been loving it. I managed to do through day 3 (see previous posts if you want to see the tags I did). I have learned a whole lot of new techniques using the things I already had. I only had to buy a couple of things for the class. We used stencils and I am thinking that I NEED at least a few of Tim's new line. I have so many now that I am considering making a system similar to my dies, stamps and embossing folders so I don't have to look through all of them to find what I want. I think all that excess handling deteriorates them quicker.
Jennifer McGuire has recently done a video on her ink storage systems. It is just wonderful! I went right away to the new place, Organizemore.com. And I just had to order the storage unit for 48 inks and reinkers( I found that the TH paints or stains also fit where the reinker goes.) I decided to order sage green as how cool is it that I could have a color in my room! It will be a few weeks until it gets here and then I will see how I like it. I probably will order another one if that works out so I can get all my ink where I can readily see it. I made an ink swatch card thing (see February 20, 2013 Some odds n ends). Now I think I will glue them to card stock and put them in my notebook. I use the cards a lot since I stamped each one on the card stock I usually use to copic color on.. I know exactly what color each ink will be when dry. It is easy to move them around but not so nice when I drop them! I think if I was going to do it again, I would just order my ink and stamp each one in that order on a cardstock sheet and put it in a notebook - only problem with the notebook thing is what do you do when you get new stuff? It wouldn't be in order anymore. I know by the stamp I use what kind of ink it is, etc - and how would I put all that information in a notebook for each stamp? I have my cards organized by color since that is best for me to chose which color (say red) that would go best with what I am doing. Maybe I will leave well enough alone. But I do need a place to put my ink pads. Guess I have rambled long enough. Hugs to you all, Barb F

Distress Glitter

In real life, this looks like it was dusted with diamonds!! This is just a trash piece of a box cut out with the TH Sizzix steel rule die. I just can't bring myself to put that bird behind the cage.  This is the rock candy glitter. I am not a fan of glitter as it goes all over the place and its not worth the effort. BUT THIS GLITTER!!!! OMG!! It doesn't stray from where you are and even goes back in the jar nicely. I didn't have it on everything when I was done! I am truly in love - but it still will not replace stickles in my heart! I only bought the one kind (they do make colored distress glitter) as I didn't think I would like it, but I knew I would need to try it for the class. I love it to pieces! Colored my stuff with distress ink first.

Faux cracker glass

Oh this technique is so neat - I did it on the TH vials as well as a piece of plastic packaging that is colored with TH alcohol inks. Let me tell you about those alcohol inks - awhile back they sold a cute TH container that is a metal box specially to hold the inks. I had to have it and of course I filled it - including a pen which by the way I have learned they are going to discontinue that refillable pen, so if you have been thinking about one, you might hunt one up before they are gone. The black ink on this is archival - had to see the difference.

Day 3

The red/blue one was done with distress stains and the green/yellow/gold one was done with distress paint. Both were done with a brayer! Super neat technique! The one with the butterflies is called smudge stamping and what a cool technique that one is! Its done with a Tim Holtz stamp set and distress ink.

Embossing with stencils & Ink mono print

The left one was done with a Dyan Reavely stencil - see I told you I love her stuff! and distress ink. The red one is also done with one of her stencils and distress ink.

Stencil sketching

This technique is going to be a favorite one! Got to use my distress markers here as well as some stencils. The letters are from a Dyan Reavely one and the stamps are Tim's. Of course distress ink.

Stencil stamping & embossing through stencils

Both have distress ink ( all my tags have distress ink even if its only around the edges). The first is done with a Wendy Vecchi stencil and Tim Holtz stamps. That plane is my most favorite stamp of my entire collection of stamps! The dotted one is using a Dyan Reavely stencil which so far of my huge stencil collection all of hers are my favorites. I am dying to get Tim's new stencils - especially the star one!! Anyhow I used Ranger's embossing powder on this one.

Mixed media layering & Paint mono print

Look closely at the leaf stamped tag and you will see layer upon layer upon layer! Done with distress paint, distress ink and stencils. The red white and blue tag is distress paint and stencils.

Happy 21

Our grandson turned 21 and I really wanted to make this a special card. I haven't colored since I had my eye operated on and was a lot leery of doing so. I couldn't find the just right image in my entire stash (which is huge) so I turned to digital images and found this one on Makeitcrafty.com. It was perfect for him. I was so surprised as how much easier it was for me to color now compared with before! Anyhow I did keep track of the copics for a change and will list them at the end. The star paper was made with the Tim Holtz foil sheet, embossed and painted with his paints. Loved this technique. I bought that foil twine for the class and it was perfect to use. Of course I stickled some things - look for the silver on his buttons and I made him have tap shoes! The "greeting" is one of my favorite sayings and is cut from spellbinder's scalloped ovals. I pop it up so it could lay on top of that twine. I colored it with Peacock Feathers as it matched everything else.  The inside of the card is below (the color is not real good in this photo).

I made some more peacock feather paper and used a border
punch on it and took a strip of the background striped paper
from the front. That star is another piece of that colored
card stock cut from a sizzix thin die. I figured that the star
would match the stars on the embossing. Those numbers
are metal and altered with paint and stickles. They were
actually 1/2 separated by a horizontal bar. I broke them apart, filed the edges and altered them. They look like brads are holding them in place (there are brads in use) but I did glue them. The edges of the star is stickles and it is on dimensionals. Happy Birthday is done with a white pigment ink. I think this maybe wouldn't have been quite so nice if I wasn't taking Creative Chemistry 102. And here are the copics: E00, E11, R20, BG05, BG13, BG15, C2, C3, C5, C7, B39. Hope you enjoy this. It was really fun to make. Hugs to you all, Barb F

Industrial technique

This was my only try and I decided that I wasn't going to try it again today as I was covered with paint when I got done! Good thing I was wearing my apron!

Eroded Metallic - day 1

I used blue sapphire paint on this one as I don't have black paint.

Day 1- colored crackle

My first tag for today I decided to do the marbling technique with the paints again as I really wasn't too fond of yesterday's tag. Since I put my crackle pieces aside to dry, I knew I would put them on this tag. I have a bunch of grunge shapes and thought I would actually use a few - have been hoarding them for just the right thing and decided to finally use them!  Since I want to post all my tags to the class, I am just posting the photos for the other two I did today. So much fun. Hugs to you all, Barb F

Day 1 of Creative Chemistry 102

What a wonderful class! If you want to be a part of this, it's not too late. Onlinecardclasses.com. You do have to pay for CC101 (preferably read it all and listen to the videos before you start on CC102). before you get a code to allow you to register and pay for CC102. Its a little confusing, but so worth the effort! Can't tell you how, but these are all done with using Tim Holtz' distress paint. The little metal tag I embossed using a vintage folder on my Vagabond machine.The blue one is done with a paper I made awhile back using Dyan Reavely's new spray inks made by Ranger. They are so pretty!!  I love that I can make such a neat embellishment of metal. I colored that tag with distress inks. I dearly love learning new things using stuff I already have. Hope you enjoy- Hugs to you all, Barb F

Scrapbook cover page

I never made one of these before. DH went on a trip and it was very important to him. He traveled Route 66 and took a million photos. I asked him to chose one of them for his cover page. I blew it up to what looked like a decent size and then I ordered a paper collection from Twopeasinabucket.com. It is called Wild and Free and I ordered it mainly because it looked western themed and it has a wonderful page full of horses. DH saw a herd of horses cross the road in front of him so I figured it was perfect. However, it has a lot of pink in it. It is gorgeous but mostly unusable for this. So I was stuck. I knew I wanted to use that horse paper but nothing seemed to go with it. Then I remembered an old travel collection that has a black and white paper that reminds me of a lot of roads.

I put the photo here so you can follow along. That background is black. Then I found some red card stock and stamped it with red memento ink "route 66" It is an old Tim Holtz stamp.  I dug out any stickers I had with black, red or aqua (the horses, remember?). That "wheel" at the bottom left had an orange center which I covered with a red enamel dot.  The H card was an embellishment that I didn't like the rest of, so I pushed it under the photo.  That is true also of the word one on the top right. I love that font that the route 66 stickers came in. There were little dot things that were in the center of all the o's that kept sticking to my fingers, so I  finally just stuck them here and there on the page. I kind of followed them along with black enamel dots. That "road trip" is also from the same Tim Holtz set. I double framed the photo - it is gray and then aqua. It was a matter of trial and error and using what I already had. I can't imagine how hard it would be to go to the store and buy stuff just for one project . It would take forever to go through all that. I edged my papers with Vintage Photo as usual and also decided that the white behind the horses was too much so I added a little ink to that also. That strip goes all across the page. I didn't know where the photo would end up and its better to have too much than not enough. 

So let me tell you how I add to my stash - I go to places like Two peas and only check out their clearance stuff. That site does a wonderful thing - they arrange products in their clearance by % off. How can you pass us wonderful papers for pennies? They ship in a larger than 12 x 12 box and everything is in perfect condition. I order stuff that is new while I am at it that I just have to have but the shipping isn't too bad and it comes pretty quick. I do the same with several companies that I have come to rely on. Like Oozak - I get all my ink and refills from there as well as their clearance stuff. And Stampingscrapping.com - they have great products by them as well as a real clearance section arranged by price. I also use Simonsaysstamp.com and a few others. I am taking a Gltter Girl class at Two peas right now and will start the new Tim Holtz one on Onlinecardclasses.com on Monday. So excited about that one. My vision is still a lot blurry and I still haven't tried to color as I am still having a bit of trouble with my depth perception. Hope you enjoyed this post. Hugs to you all, Barb F