Claudine Hellmuth is featuring an easy-peasy transfer technique on her blog today, using Ranger's Foil Tape Sheets. The Foil Sheets come in two sizes and I'm picturing the smaller size here—which includes six, 4.25" by 5.5" sheets.
Do we have them at Stampassion.com? Yes we do! First, check out Claudine's tutorial via the link below:
Next, check out the Foil Tape Sheets by clicking here. Transfer techniques are generally tricky and messy. I'll be trying this one because it doesn't appear to be either of those.
One of the exciting new products just introduced at CHA is Distress Markers. This Canister Set has 37 markers, including 36 to match all the Distress colors plus...White Picket Fence (which I'm anxious to try on black Zentangle tiles!). The set is available now at Stampassion.com. Plus, we are offering them at a discount with free shipping!*
Distress Inks are among my favorites, for two reasons: 1) they are extremely versatile, working well with tons of fun techniques; 2) the color does not shift or change; 3) although they are water-based, they are also fade resistant. I've been looking for a marker I can use right on the stamp and here they are!
These water-based inks are for coloring, journaling, stamping and much more. They have a dual tip and are ideal for many coloring techniques:
use the brush tip for coloring, stamping and shading
use the detail tip for journaling and drawing
use to color directly on rubber and clear stamps
markers are acid free and non-toxic
Watch Tim's demonstration video below and you'll be as excited as I am! Distress Marker Canister Sets are shipping NOW. Our regular retail price is $114.95 for the Canister Set, but you will pay just $105.95, plus we will ship them to you free of charge*. That's crazy good—just $2.86 per pen!
We have a limited number arriving in the first shipment (and eligible for this special), so order soon! If you would like to order anything else with the Canister, please note it will all ship free (to the Continental USA).
We have been shipping out stamps and dies like mad from the new Memory Box collection,Love and Kindness. Dave's new designs are beautiful, as always. So much so, I placed another (huge!) order almost two weeks ago as I knew these would sell quickly. We've been shipping to every corner of the country. If you are looking for something we don't have at present, please know that we will be restocked soon!
With my recovery from some minor surgery, I have not had any creative time. However, Dave and his team have been hard at work, so take a look at Dave's blog.
Dave has made some great videos about using Memory Box stamps and dies also. Look on his blog for the latest, Tuckaway Heart Card. For the video showing how he made the Paper Rose card to the right, just look at his post on January 3. Everything is from Love and Kindness collection. Enjoy!
I'm sorry to have been away for so long, with no communication. I wasn't feeling too well in November and December and after Thanksgiving, found I needed some minor surgery, to take place at some point to be determined, in January. Needless to say, it made planning for the New Year difficult at best, so no classes or projects could be planned. That said, every Stampassion.com order was sent out on time (actually super-fast!), as we always do : )
The surgery was on January 6, I'm doing fine and am looking forward to getting back up-to-speed—almost there—and back on schedule with Zentangle classes, card kits and creativity! Here's an extremely attractive photo Dan took of me before surgery. I wanted to Zentangle on my pretty blue hat, but they wouldn't let me (hospitals are so picky). Actually I was at Bellevue and they were great, as is my super-surgeon, Dr. Debbie Youngelman.
The latest card kit from Stampassion includes this pretty stamp from Unity Stamp Company, Candi Vintage Berries embellishments, velvet ribbon, a dozen cards and lots of yummy layering papers. To see a larger image, click on the photo at right.
Our card kits always come with instructions for multiple projects, as well as color copies of them. But... I always enjoy seeing the cards our customers come up with that are not like the samples—so fun. The kit also includes a second stamp from Memory Box. It's a pretty saying image, shown below with a Candi dot.
Here's another of the three card samples I came up with for the kit. Instead of the smaller note card, shown above, this one uses a True Red A2 size card and the velvet ribbon included in the kit. It also shows a different way of using the focal image, by cutting and separating the different elements and, one of Tim Holtz' Texture Fades embossing folders, Sheet Music, to texture the background paper. Click on the image to see a larger photo of the card.
This beautiful stamp, Follow The Star, is from Penny Black and I loved it on first site, just as I knew my friend and neighbor, Sharon, would too. You get to know people's likes after awhile. As predicted, she did "need" the stamp, so off to Sharon's house it went (but I do have more : )
This is the lovely card Sharon created and agreed to let me share with you. It's extra cool, because she used a quick background technique she saw on Hero Arts' blog, along with one of the gorgeous Memory Box dies she got from Stampassion, called Piestra Tile, on the left edge. The ribbon embellishment is a Mini Spiral Clip.
Hero Arts' video, called Layered Stamped Backgrounds, by the super-talented Shari Carrol, shows the technique Sharon used right at the start of the video. She basically used an acrylic mount as a shadow stamp, combined with Distress Ink and water to create a quick, colorful background. The rest of the video shows how Shari builds up layers and texture for a stunning card. Clever Sharon used the first technique to lay down color on her watercolor paper and then stamped Follow The Star on top in black.
You will note that Shari, in the video, and Sharon, in real life, used Distress Inks. For those who may think any die-based ink will do, I would ask you to try the Distress Inks. I'm certain you will see that Distress Ink delivers quite a different result with no color shifting. These inks are designed to be highly reactive with water and really are superior for watercolor techniques or just for stamping. Lots of great colors too!
I have, yet again, "lifted" a photo from Tim Holtz' blog. After all, Tim is the Master of Distress, so who better to show the lovely palette of Christmas colors available in his new Limited Edition Seasonal Distress Inks for Winter, 2011.
This beautiful ink set is in stock now at Stampassion.com. As the name suggests, they are available for just the season and when they are gone, they're gone.
Evergreen Bough and Festive Berries are bright and happy traditional Christmas colors, though different from other Distress Inks. The third color, Iced Spruce, is a nice, mellow blue/grey. Tim's video will show you more about them — take a look here.
I completely stole this photo from Tim Holtz' blog - yes, I did. In my defense, it perfectly shows how gorgeous these new Limited Edition Distress Inks actually are - much better than Ranger's photos. At this exact minute, the ink pad set is in stock at Stampassion.com, but... they are selling like hotcakes on a cold winter morning!
Because of the enormous demand, Ranger has decided to make more of this ink set - yeah! So, if we are out-of-stock when you go to order, please know the Autumn inks will be back in stock soon.
Tim has also come up with the next set of seasonal Limited Edition Distress Inks, this time in Christmas colors. They will start shipping on November 1st and you'll be able to find them at Stampassion.com. Can't wait!
I loved both of these Impression Obsession stamps the moment I saw them—they offer so many creative possibilities. I came up with three examples for Stampassion's latest card kit and am quite happy with the results. Here's the first one, featuring the Flower Tub stamp and an embossed layer done with one of the two Tim Holtz embossing folders included in his Damask & Regal Flourish Set; so pretty. The Flower Tub is colored with Copic Markers, art tools I've fallen in love with this year after unsuccessfully attempting to resist their lure. They blend so beautifully and are delightful to work with for that reason, like my beloved PrismaColor Pencils (which are feeling a little betrayed).
Click on the the image below to see a larger close-up:
The tub reminds me of an old copper wash tub we had by the fireplace while growing up, which my parents used to store extra firewood. I'm happy to have 'inherited' it and it holds, you guessed it, our firewood and kindling also ; ) Love it.
The inside of the card above, is stamped with the friendship saying you see here. It's such a beautiful sentiment, I wanted to use it as a focal image. However, it was a bit ho-hum until I stamped Flower Tub as a background and edged the oval with Bundled Sage Distress Ink and an Ink Blending Tool. All the die cut ovals you see, scalloped and not, are included in the kit. No punching or die cutting for my customers (at least, not this time!). No coloring on this one either, so it's easy-peasy and quick.
In addition to 30 die cut ovals and two cling-mount stamps, the kit includes 10 cards and envelopes, two types of pretty ribbon and lots of layering papers.
I finally got Zentangle's delicious new Artist Trading Cards, also known as ATC's, up on our web site. Switching to a new web site host and aching wrists and fingers (don't want to hear the 'CT' phrase please!), have slowed me down. Still... I managed to find time to Mooka-up this baby: And... it was fun, relaxing, invigorating. As mentioned, the tangle is Mooka, with a little Flux thrown in because I wanted to. Also, some doo-dads. Next up, one of the new Black ATC tiles and my trusty White Gelly Roll Pen ; } Stampassion.com also carries ATC's from Ranger, including Manilla and Glossy White papers and... ATC's made from Claudine Hellmuth's fabulous Sticky Back Canvas. Lots of options for creative opportunities!
