Life's Little Moments

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Fresh Vintage Blog Hop

I met designer Eileen Hull at CHA-S this year and when she asked me I was more than happy to participate with this blog hop using her Fresh Vintage dies from Sizzix.  Here is the first die I was asked to use:

 

I used my new Imagestamps as they fit the large dies perfectly.  They are currently available from Scrapbook.com.

Products used:

InLinkz.com

Seam binding ribbon

Black dot paper-Scenic Route-no longer available

Letter stickers-Making Memories

Clear Embossing Powder

Old book paper

Click on the Sizzix Fresh Vintage blinky icon to see what the other designers have done with the Album die.

FAQ about the Fresh Vintage Blog Hop:

How do I hop around to see ideas using the current featured die? 

Every Tuesday and Thursday between September 27-November 3, 2011 there will be a new Sizzix Fresh Vintage die featured on 6-10 of the 75 participating designers' blogs. The navigation buttons for "Hop Back" and "Hop Forward" will allow you to easily hop around and see projects featuring whatever the current die is, since those buttons are programmed to navigate only to the blogs that are participating for that die. On the next Tuesday/Thursday, the buttons will automatically reprogram themselves to navigate to the blogs that are signed up for the next featured die.

What if I start at a designer's blog that isn't one of the 6-10 signed up for that die? 

No problem! Simply hit either the "Hop Forward" or "Hop Back" button on the Fresh Vintage navigation widget from any blog's sidebar and you'll automatically advance to one of the participating blogs. 

Can I go back and view the ideas for a previously featured die?

Of course! Go to Eileen Hull's blog and find the "Blog Hops" link at the top of the page. It will bring up her blog posts where you'll find direct links to each participating blog along with a thumbnail image of the project.

Where can I buy the Sizzix Fresh Vintage dies, by Eileen Hull?

You can visit Sizzix.com to find a local and online retailers for Sizzix products. Also be sure to visit Oh My Crafts, one of this blog hop's sponsors, (between the dates of September 27-November 3, 2011) and enter for a chance to win a Flower Layers #9 die! 

The Blog Hop has ended and the navigation widget is no longer in the sidebar. How can I see the ideas?

Go to Eileen Hull's blog and find the "Blog Hops" link at the top of the page. It will bring up her blog posts where you'll find direct links to each participating blog along with a thumbnail image of the project.

So excited!!

Fun to finally see something you created come to fruition.  YEAH!!  I love being to think up images and  having the computer skills to create them.

http://store.scrapbook.com/products/?t12-13=photocentric+inc&date=20110830

Just Write?

     

I love pens-this is just a small part of my collection. I love, love my Zig pens for journaling on my papercraft projects. When these first came out I would buy 5 or 6 assorted pens whenever they were on sale or I had a coupon.  It took me almost a year but I think I have every color of the writers that were produced. I have one that finally stopped working this year that I used for almost ten years.  I have lots of other pens, including lots of white jelly roll pens and a very, small collection of Copic markers.

As a child-I was told to quit drawing my letters when we had to learn cursive handwriting.  Art was my favorite and in elementary school I was told I was very talented but all I wanted to do was draw and paint.  In High school I had lots of pens and pencils as I was in the advanced art class and became the layout editor of the yearbook.  As Graphic Design student in college-I learned to manually spec type by hand. I loved learning about typography.

Even now a majority of my projects contain my handwriting.  I think a lot of having pretty handwriting is just practicing over and over and over.  My maternal grandmother had beautiful penmanship and my paternal grandmother was a school teacher-I so love that I saved all the letters they wrote me over the years.  I think some of my favorite letters were the ones from my paternal grandfather-he had lost one of his ring fingers and he always used to trace his hand on the letters he sent me.  Wow do the memories flood back just thinking about that! So keep writing!!!

 

Crystal Laquer

I recently recreated this bracelet using Crystal Laquer from Sakura-I have had some of this for years and never thought to use it for jewelry.  I had done almost the exact bracelet using some of the other resins available on the market but I was having a hard time without overfilling it so this worked perfectly.  Great thing with this is that I already have a UV light-the TC Stampmaker LOL.  Love it when I can multitask.  So I made the stamps with the Stampmaker, stamped them, colored with Copics, put them in the bezels and filled with Crystal Laquer.  It was different from several of the 2 part epoxy type resins-like Ice Resin but it gave a nice effect as it was slightly more dimensional.

My New Stamps

Earlier this week I had the chance to debut my new line of Imagestamps at the CHA Summer show in Chicago.  I designed the logo, packaging and the stamps.  It was so excting for me to finally see something I designed available to the public. 

They are large background and texture stamps for cardmakers, scrapbookers, mixed media artist.  They are about 5.25 x 6.125 and fit the large Photocentric acrylic blocks and there is also one set of larger border stamps which are over 7" long.

They are the ones in blue and will be available in retail stores.

Creating?!

I think I liked creating these stamp images almost more than I love making them.

Here are a few projects I did with this set:

I absolutely love this kraft and white polks dot paper from We R. I love the contrast with the black ornate frame.

Unlimited possibilites with the 12 x 12 Notations Collection from TCD.

I am working a couple travel journals from Europe and Hawaii that I hope to share this week.  One is bound with binder rings and the other is done with the Cinch machine.

My Summer Vacation Album

My family and I had the chance to go home to Hawaii last summer for a family reunion with all my brothers and sisters.  I am the oldest of 7 kids. My dad rented a huge house right next to Sunset Beach.  The water was amazing-for those of you who don't know the North Shore can get over 20 foot waves in the winter so you can really only go in the water near there in the summer.  Well, unless you are a surfer. The scuba diving was great too-visibility was about 75 ft-we saw lots of turtles and a small shark.

For me going to the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor is an extremely overwhelming emotional experience-maybe its because of my ancestry or maybe for another reason-I really don't know.  This time we went on a tour of the USS Missouri (it was interesting to learn that the Missouri is facing opposite the remains of the Arizona-the beginning and the end of WWII) and out to the museum at Ford Island and I got some amazing photos of the old control tower.

When I saw this paper line by We R Memory Keeper-I knew it was the perfect line for this little album.  The pictures in this book are mainly ones of my kids and a few places we went.  I took several hundred pictures so this doesn't even begin to cover them.  I used a grungy/beachy feeling font as it went with the look I was trying to get of a book that had been out in the sun and sand.  I made all the stamps on the TC Stampmaker. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Art Journal?

 
 

This is the cover for my current art journal-I seem to have several of them going at any given time lately.  This one is a little more formal than my other books are as I am actually doing a project about myself.  Generally I seem to do projects with everyone else in them or about everyone else but I decided I needed to put myself in something so my posterity will remember something about me-if not at least what I looked like.  I used paper from several different lines that I really like  right now:

Portrait Collection from Crate Paper

Notations from Teresa Collins

Tres Elegant by We R Memory Keepers

I also used tissue from some patterns I no longer need for the ruffle and attached it the back of some white cardstock with Sticky Strips tape runner from Thermoweb but I wish they were refillable as I hate throwing it away.  I really like this tape runner as it works great and is easy to use.  I then put the Crate Paper to fit over the white cardstock and added the TC notations tag.  I stamped the word life . I also cut out some of the flowers I had stamped and embossed and colored with Twinking H20s-the edges were too white so I used a black Copic marker to color them in.  I also used some stmaps to create the embellishments. All stamps were ones I had made with the Stampmaker.

 

Mixed Media Canvas Board Wall Decor

 

I created this mixed media wall hanging using stamps I designed and made with the TC Stampmaker, inks, paint,gel medium,some old book papers, a few scraps of patterned paper and lots of drawing and my own handwriting. I will share more details on the Photocentric blog sometime this week.

Oh and I can't forget one of my favorite standby tools-the Crop-A-dile by We R Memory Keepers-so easy to punch through these heavyweight canvas boards.  I have tendonitis in my wrist and this tool saves me every time.  I have about 4 other various punch tools but they all require too much pressure to punch through more than a few sheets of paper. (Yes, I have both the original pink one and the larger Big Bite!)

I thought I would share a few of my favorite paper crafting tools besides the Crop- A-Dile.

Ok I cannot forget my Stampmaker-I use it almost everyday

Wescott paper trimmer and the little teeny tiny Wescott scissors(I use these to trim all my stamps)-I do need to find somewhere that sells the refill blades for the trimmer.

Craft knife-I can actually use this now without a trip to the ER

metal edge ruler

Milwaukee Heat Gun

Huge Cutting mat and Tattered Angels large craft mat-the TA mat fits on top of the cutting mat.  I think they are each 2 ft by 3 ft and they sit on top of the 10ft' countertop in my office/studio.