Sanding Solid stamps

I just learned something new recently, thanks to founder and CEO of The Angel Company Mischelle Smith. I was visiting the TAC Savvy Projects Blog, when I watched this tutorial Mischelle did. Never have I known to sand my solid stamps before using them. Yes, it has frustrated me that I had to use them a lot before they stamped well, but for some reason this tip slipped right by me!

So...I did an experiment and here are the results...

Stamping BEFORE sanding:

Stamping AFTER sanding:

Can you guess which is which? I'm sure you can! The left one is the very same stamp AFTER sanding.

Never too old to learn! :-)

Photo Albums

At all my classes, I try to do one "non-card" project. In August, we did these photo albums. They are plastic and hold 4x6 photos. You can get them lots of places (including Wal-Mart) for $1 each. We just slipped out the decorative pages on the front and back and replaced it with our own creations.


This first one uses Versamark Dazzle on the corner stamps--hard to see in the photo, but a beautiful touch in real life. We also used the new sparkly pen that TAC carries to highlight parts of the main image. Again, lovely in real life!



This photo shows the album on the left and the card on the right by Amy K. It was her Seminar swap card, and I LOVED it so much I turned it into this album!

This photos shows the album on the left and the Seminar swap card by Lori B. on the right. Again, makes a great album!

Inside the cards...

I just realized today that I never showed you the INSIDES of the card in this post. They were pop-up cards! It was fun to make the insides different and surprising.

Coloring Images

I've been playing around with different ways to color images. The photos here aren't an exhaustive list for media with which to color, but it does give you some side-by-side comparisons that I found interesting. I also did the same technique after stamping the image in both black and brown on some of these just to see how different they would look. I wasn't at all happy with how the images using Aqua Crayons turned out, so I'm not even posting those!

Each media has its purpose, and not all are well-suited to the wide open areas of the cow, but it's fun to see them all (or most) on the very same image.


*This photo shows Prismacolor Pencils with baby oil and blending stumps on the left. The image on the right was colored with Tombow Markers scribbled onto a clamshell case, then picked up with a Niji Aquabrush.


*I colored the images below with Watercolor Pencils and blended with a Dove Blender. The one on the left was stamped in Noir (black) and the right one was Burnt Umber (brown).


*Left: Colored with Tombow Markers on clamshell, then picked up with Aqua Brush.
Middle: Used chalks and the little puff balls that come with the set.
Right: Used the same chalk colors, but picked up the color with a Dove Blender.


*Top: Prismacolor Pencils only--no blending other than with the colored pencils themselves.
Middle Row: Prismacolor Pencils and baby oil with blending stump, using Noir and Burnt Umber.
Bottom Row: Prismacolor Pencils and oderless mineral spirits with blending stump. Again in Noir and Burnt Umber.

Sneak Peeks!

Don't faint--three posts in one day! Actually, the first was pre-scheduled. Anyway...I got my Fall Magalogue, Inspiration Avenue, today. Yippee!!!!

Here are some fun sneak peeks in random order (I've never quite figured out the rhyme or reason to the way blogger uploads them). The Magalogue has 42 new stamp sets, as well as a few others that are re-released and no longer in the base catalogue.

I didn't take pix of ALL the pages, but a few that caught my eye or had interesting "magazine" sort of features which I think will be helpful.

Enjoy!

Another Surprise Box photo!

Another customer bought a SURPRISE BOX and sent me a photo of the contents. With her permission, I'm sharing here so you can see what a great value these are. FUN, too!


If you're still not convinced, see my other post for details and to see the contents of mine. You will also want to check out what another Angel (Julie R.) got in hers!

Now that you're convinced, don't wait too long! These are only while supplies last. ;-)

County Fair

At the beginning of August, I looked thru my stash to take some things to the County Fair. In the Home Arts division, we have categories for "stationery/notecards" and "greeting cards" that require three items. You may enter twice in each category. The photos you see below are the entries I submitted and the ribbons I received. It's always interesting to me to see how they're judged and what the judge likes/dislikes--it's not necessarily what *I* know took the most time and/or skill. (BTW, the judges are usually painters, etc.).

I also submitted in the "folded/shaped" category, but don't have good pix of those. In the "misc." category I submitted some jewelry and the second muffin tin in this photo.

All stamps and papers in the photos below are from The Angel Company, though some of the stamps are retired.