Bloom Girl post!!

Hello Everyone…I have ANOTHER post (HOORAY) on the Bloom Girl Design Team blog.

I have been so thankful this month for the exposure of there.  Working with Jamie’s art, has been such a fun, fun job!!

Here is a sneak peek at my project..

I have a full tutorial over on the Bloom Girl Design Team blog.  So, I’d LOVE for you to head on over there and check it out.

If you are so kind to visit of there, be sure and tell Jamie, Jeannie sent you!

I hope you like what I have done with a very unusual product you probably have lying around your house!

Go check it out!

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My first Gel-a-Tins Project

Today I get to share my first project that I have designed for Gel-a-Tins Stamps.

I am using the set called Sweet Cakes.

I am having so much playing around with Shrink Film lately, I am going to show you how to use it for your cards and other projects.

Here you can see I have already stamped with a solvent ink and colored in with various permanent markers and colored pencils.

Here you can see that the film is somewhat see thru.

Now I have bubble cut around all the images.

The thing about shrink film is that you really have to plan ahead and know how and where you will use your images once they are shrunk.

 Since you need to attach them somehow you need to punch the holes with a normal size paper punch, before you shrink the plastic.

Planning ahead will help you know where you want to punch out those holes.

I have punched all my holes now I am getting ready to bake them.

I place them on a cookie sheet on top of a piece of cardboard covered with parchment paper.

I place another piece of parchment over the plastics to help keep them somewhat flat.  They will curl, but I like to have the slight added weight to flatten them.

When they are shrunk and cooled off, I spray the pieces with a fixative.  Even though I will use the side opposite of the side I colored, I still want to protect the colored surface.

Moving on to my card base, I have this paper from a DCWV  pad.  I love the pattern and will mimic it for my card base.

Here you can see my card base done, next to the sheet of paper I have mimicked.

I like to punch a little notch off the card base when attaching ribbon and twine to avoid the twine/ribbon from shifting.

Here is the twine all attached.

After that, I attached the rest of my card embellishments.

 To attach my shrunk plastic images, I put some decorative wire and beads through my punched holes.

After I have them all done with the beads and wire, I attach them with a really strong adhesive.

Here is a close up of how cute these little trinkets are.

One last look at the final product.

I hope you have liked my card today.  I am so happy to be working with Gel-a-Tins stamps, I will be here again next week.

This has been Jeannie from The Polka Cabana with today’s post.

Thank you again Grafix Arts!  I am having so much fun with my Shrink Film!

Sweet Stamps Red, Green & Gold Challenge

Well it is time for another Sweet Stamps challenge.

This one is pretty easy!

Red, Green and Gold.

I used the Strawberry Border Large  and the Flower Tree embossing folder for this card.

You might wonder if the Strawberry Stamp is really so small?

The Strawberries you see here are at about 50% of their actual size.

I stamped the image on to some Grafix Arts Shrink Film and then shrunk the images after I colored and cut them.

The shiny red and green metallic papers are also from Grafix Arts called Metallic Foil Board.

I also made this adorable ring with the Strawberry Border Large and Shrink Film.

This is my little 4 year old’s hand.

The ring is a bit tricky to make..but isn’t it the cutest thing?

Here are some different angles.

See the tiny Strawberries?  Remember these are about 50% of their actual stamped size.

I hope you have enjoyed today’s post.  I love trying to create things that will inspire you.

Be sure to check out the Sweet Stamps blog to see the other Design Team Members Red, Green & Gold projects.

Join our challenge and be entered to win a $20.00 certificate to the Sweet Stamps store.

Have a great day!

Very Thankful for this Altered Canvas with Authentiqe Paper & Grafix Arts

I am so excited to share my creation with you today.

I have made an altered canvas!

Incase you are wondering why I am calling this a very thankful altered canvas, it is because I am thankful to many people who have contributed to this design.

First, the makers of the canvas base.  Canvas Corp. makes all these fabulous products to alter.  Not only do they have awesome paper, they have a whole line of canvas and twine and home deco stuff.  I swear they have everything!  So thank you Canvas Corp for the awesome Canvas.

Second,the makers of the plastic I used for the charms and tree, Grafix Arts.  Have you heard of this company?

They have a ton of specialty paper and plastic products that take crafting to a whole new level.  I have been focusing on working with their Shrink Films and wow, I can’t begin to tell you what a blast I have had with their things!

Lastly, but not because of any reason , just the order my fingers chose today…I need to thank Authentique Paper.  They are of course the paper company that is the star of this canvas.  I am so grateful for the entire staff at Authentique Paper.  Beautiful people making beautiful paper products.  They have been beyond kind and generous and I truly love them all for so many reasons.

All three companies have been extremely generous and I have to say how humbled I am to have them allow me to put my name on things while representing their companies and products.

Ok, I hope you can understand why I feel a need to say a big thanks and why I am very thankful for this project today~!

I have been playing around with some different shrink films from Grafix Arts.

I had this image of doing a tree and having different charms dangling off of it.

The tree is cut from my Cricut.  I colored it with permanent markers before I baked it.

For all my charms, I scanned some of the Uncommon Noteables and printed them on to the Ink Jet Shrink film.

Although the color is not exactly the same as the real Authentique Paper colors, I liked how they look slightly antique.

I am still playing around with the coloring since the colors get more intense as the shrink film bakes.

To finish the canvas, I added lots of dangling glass beads and things.

This was so much fun to make, I loved the entire process.

I would love to hear what you think.

Well, that is it for me today.  I hope you have enjoyed my altered canvas.

This has been Jeannie with The Polka Cabana with today’s post.

Products used today:

Authentique Paper – Uncommon line

Grafix Arts Shrink Films

Canvas Corp – Canvas Base

Glass Beads

Jewelry findings

Wire

Lace & Trim

Adhesive Pearls

I Heart {ippity} & Authentique Paper

Today I am sharing with you a card I made using my {ippity} stamps and some paper and products from Authentique Paper, specifically their Splendid line.

The {ippity} set I used is called Flowers + Friends = Priceless and can be purchased here:

Here is a close up to see all the fabulous colors in the SPLENDID paper I used.

What I did was to stamp on my green background paper first.

I used white acrylic paint, they I distressed the heck out of the paper!

The tag is a from the SPLENDID TABLOID sheet.

I stamped the sentiment right onto the TABLOID piece.

Here you can see the little “SHRINKY DINKS” made from GRAFIX ARTS SHRINK FILM.

Before I put them in the oven, I punched a hole out in the centers.

 When they were cooked and cooled, I used that hole to insert colorful wire and attach glass beads for a finishing touch.

Then I took and cut a FANCIFUL FLOURISH from Cheery Lynn Designs out of some more SPLENDID paper and attached everything to the card front.

Last step was to add some green craft wire as leaves and VOILA, card is DONE!!

Now, do you like this card?  Instead of doing the contest like I normally do..I will give this one away…and all you have to do is say, you love it…and you want it!

I will tally all the wants up and pick a random winner and post it next week!

If you really, really love this card..then send a friend and tell your friend to mention your name and you both get double entries!!  SIMPLE..right?

Now as long as we are talking about AUTHENTIQUE PAPER, let me share some news!!

I got chosen to be part of the new Authentique Paper Design Team!

Here is the post about it!!

http://www.authentiquepaper.com/?p=1010

So tomorrow..come  back and visit and I will share some cards I made with AUTHENTIQUE PAPER supplies over the weekend!

Here is hoping you have a great Wednesday!

Ta ta for now!

It all started with this little guy…..

Once upon a time…there was a little ADORABLE alien, that I found online.

I was making some cards for THE RONDALD MCDONALD HOUSE for boys, and I happened upon this little guy.  I found him on my Jamie Lane’s blog, BITS OF PAPER.

The alien is based on a drawing by Jamie’s sister.  Her  blog is called ART BY J. M. RUSH, oh please treat yourself and look at her art!!

Here is the original  NON, CUT FILE alien!!

Here is the card I created, with this alien of Jamie and her sisters.

Here is the ALIEN!!

I think I must have read on Jamie’s blog…if we use the file..she’d love to see what we did with it.  So, for some reason, I took a picture of it and sent it to her.

At that point..I was only creating sporadically, I had not blog…no time, etc.  Jamie really liked the card and we got to emailing back and forth and really, she IS the reason, I have a blog.

Maybe she saw some potential or something in my little ALIEN card or something, but she has been a true inspiration and mentor to me in this BLOG world.

She has given me leads, advice, ideas and let’s not forget, she has given my my all time FAVORITE paper punch in the world.

We did a trade of sorts…and this is one of the things she sent me, along with some of the most fabulous and fun products ever, have I said thank you Jamie, I mean thank you, enough, yet?  I don’t think so.

Jamie creates for lots of wonderful companies..to name a few…

• Creative Charms
• Glue Dots
• Momenta
• PK Glitz
• ScrapbookPal.com
• Scrap Tales
• Scrap Within Reach
• Design Team Details

I am certain this list will continue to grow, she is so talented.

You can look at the wonderful assortment of freebie patterns Jamie has on her blog.  Once again the link is http://jamielanedesigns.blogspot.com/

Her files are located in the RIGHT HAND COLUMN and are under the title;  Free SCAL & SVG Files

I had asked for ideas on things to see on my blog, Jamie mentioned she’d like for me to show the process of how I edit some of my pictures.  So today, let me give you a brief overview on my favorite things to use in  Photoshop Elements.  Todays subject..two ADORABLE little kids that belong to a really wonderful person!

Here is a BEFORE PICTURE!!

Really, there is not a lot to do to this, this is a WONDERFUL picture!  But..we can still play right?

With this one, I just did some basic adjustments.

I saved this one as GLOW, so I must have diffused some glow on this one. 🙂

This one, here I applied a TTV frame to and also I mimicked an action that I love from Paint Shop Pro called the GLAMOR effect.

 

This one, I did a lot to.  It is fun and would be a great picture for a special occasion or scrapbook page.

 

Here is my Final…and my favorite.  I will attempt to tell you how (the recipe) for this one.

 

With this, I started with my original photo, and immediately duplicated the layers of this photo 2 times.

The 1st layer (the 1st copy – not the origianl background layer) I applied a Gaussian blur to this layer.

The 2nd layer (again not the background layer) I applied a blending layer called Color Burn and left it at 100%.

Next I applied my TTV frame.

I sized it to where I wanted it to fit the picture and dropped my opacity down to 21%.

I this duplicated that layer (set at 21%) and set that layer’s opacity to 13%.

Lastly I duplicated that layer (set at 13%) and set that layer’s opacity to 2%.

I have noticed that when I start editing pictures, I never or rarely take the same path twice.  It is all about playing.  You never copy or save over your original, so there is really nothing to lose!

Today’s FREEBIE, in honor of JAMIE, will be and EDITED picture of your choice by me.

I will take you picture and do these kind of effect to them and send you back your files to print or use digitally.

Remember it has to be a high quality pixel picture and not 72 dpi or something like that.

Please visit Jamie and if you do let her know that Jeannie sent you over!

Leave a comment and on next MONDAY’s post, I will announce the winner!  Send you friend over and they mention your name..you get an EXTRA ENTRY!

• Leave a comment = One Entry
• Send a Friend = One Entry
• Follow my Blog = One Entry
• Visit Jamie and leave a comment = One Entry
• Fiskateer’s post your Fiskateer Number in comment = One Entry

Be sure to let me know HOW MANY entries you qualify for and what photo technique is your favorite.

 

Lastly, Jamie gave me some wonderful tips on things to make with SHRINK FILM.  Remember SHRINKY DINKS???

GRAFIX ARTS’s is re-releasing their BLACK shrink film.  I had so much fun playing around with this stuff.  Let me show you some things I made using this film.

Be sure to check out BOTH SMILE BOX videos as they are of different projects using that FABULOUS film.  You can purchase from GRAFIX here:

Thanks for letting me introduce Jamie to you…I hope you have enjoyed my TRIBUTE of sorts, to her!!

JAMIE..YOU ARE THE BEST!!!

 

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