Stamp Embossing

So I recently learned about embossing stamps. I've never been real into stamps because they seem too... unoriginal, but I've learned that stamps can be used in really creative ways, particularly in card-making and decorative crafts.

To experiment with embossing stamps, I created this picture.


I started with three cards I got in the mail. The Red Cross sent me three identical cards reminding me that it was time for me to give blood, one from each of the donor centers I have visited. All this waste needed to be reconciled somehow, so I decided to use it as art. I painted the cards black with acrylic paint and then stamped them with some stamps I liked.

To emboss the stamps you need pigment ink, embossing powder, and heat. You basically dump the embossing powder on the wet stamp so that it sticks. Pigment ink dries slower, which means more powder sticks. Then when you add heat, the powder sort of melts, leaving a nice embossed image. I read that a hair dryer would generate enough heat, but this was not the case for me. You can buy special tools designed for stamp embossing, but that isn't really my style. I was able to get the same effect by holding the powdered image over the stove. Just be careful with the paper.

And that's it! I bought a frame already matted for three images because I was feeling lazy and found one for a really good price at Joann's.

Now I'm working on my first altered book, which pays homage to one of my all-time favorite Tori Amos songs. This will be a longer-term project, so a post may not materialize for several days... maybe weeks. It's pretty fun, though.

Quicky Love Picture

It's true, I'm in love



So for a quicky craft, I made this little visual ode. My boyfriend won this shadow box for me at bingo. There's actually a little clip glued on the inside of the glass under the terrible glare from my flash. That's what's holding the little picture in place.

I started with a picture of me and my boyfriend from a while ago. This was after coming home from a bingo night, which seemed appropriate. I messed around with it in photoshop to give it a more artistic touch, but you can't really tell from the photo.

I printed this image on card stock. Then I added the blue heart image, which I just cut out of a magazine. I framed our heads with microglitter (which is extra sparkly) and glue.

The little metal love thinger is something I had hanging out in my craft clutter. I added that last to go over the glitter frame.

Flowery Shadowbox

This was a fun craft I did on a lazy weekend afternoon.

First, I found a cardboard box that would work as a shadowbox and then spray painted it.

Then I cut out flowers and leaves from origami paper I had. The flowers are very simple, four-petal flowers with a dot of glitter glue for the centers.

Then I found a background I liked. I used a page from a biology text book with tree leaves, but anything would have worked. You can actually see that it says Unit Four, which I thought added a little character. I used a regular spray adhesive to affix the background into the box.

Then I gathered some sticks. I just picked some off of a forsythia bush on a walk around my neighborhood. I got a general idea for a layout and then I hot-glued the sticks into the box. Then I just hot-glued the flowers and leaves where they fit best.

The biggest problem I have with the finished product is that I don't have a way to hang it, but it would be simple enough to add something to the back so that it could be hung on a small nail. The good thing is that because it's so three-dimensional, it actually just stands on its own, as you can see in the photo (which is not a great picture).

I hope you all are staying cool and enjoying your summer! I know I am!

Googly eyed Jesus

Much like the word 'monkey,' googly eyes have the ability to make anything funny.

Menacing picture of Jesus? Instantly hilarious.

Trash to Treasure: Old Window

I have a really fun craft for anyone who happens to find an old window in their possession (it happens to the best of us). I got my old window from a freecycle list. If you still haven't checked out freecycling, I would seriously suggest it. Even if you don't want weird junk like old windows, there are very useful and practical things on there too.

Here is my window:



I left my window as is in terms of the chipping paint because I like the way it looks. I just washed it really well. You could repaint, spray paint, sand down to wood, whatever.

There are about a million and a half interesting things to do with an old window, but I decided I wanted use it like a picture frame for one big picture... kinda like you were looking out of a window. To get a picture large enough to put the whole thing behind the window pane, I found an image on the internet (any size is fine) and then I used the Rasterbator to make it the size I wanted.


The Rasterbator rasterizes your images and turns it into dots. You can decide what sized dots you want. This is a really fun tool that you can use to make large wall posters out of any image without loosing quality. It's very easy to use, but you should follow the printing directions closely so that your image prints seamlessly. I also suggest printing these at work or school so that you don't have to use your ink.

You're going to want to measure your window, so you know how many pages you need to print. Careful planning and measuring will save you a lot of work later.




So you can see that I have a straight ruler and a tape measurer because I wanted to be as precise as possible. The image prints onto several sheets of paper and then I taped them together and cut out the right sizes for the panes.

And then I hung it up.

Walk... you know, outside

I found this interesting thing on the internet that I wanted to share with you. It's a tool that allows you to map walks and view other people's walking routes. Well, I say walking because that's what I'm doing, but there are all kinds of routes: running, hiking, uh... other things. Anyway, to give you a preview of what these things look like, I mapped a route I actually walk in my neighborhood. It's an especially good dog walking route, which is what I labeled it.



Unnecessary internet tools are actually one of my guilty pleasures. I know that more often than not, they waste more time than the minuscule benefit you receive by using them, but somehow I feel more productive if I've used a computer in the process. It's dumb, I know, but I'm a product of my generation. What can I say? I am not above the influence of media.

I also wanted to say that I am not advertising for mapmywalk.com. I sort of think it's neat even though I'll probably never go back to the site. I have this tendency to sound like an advertiser when I blog, but I swear that's just my natural enthusiasm.

This is a pretty lame post, but I've been averaging about 1 blog a month, and April is slipping away faster than I can bring myself to blog, and with finals around the corner, I was afraid I would miss the opportunity entirely. I plan to do lots of fun stuff this summer, so just hold on to your hats.

So get off the internet and take a walk, run, or hike already! It's beautiful out there (unless you're reading this in the winter, in which case you're too late. You missed the nice weather!).
If at any point while reading this you asked yourself if I had some less-fun task I should be doing (like, I don't know, writing a paper), the answer is yes.

Take care!
Shanna

Trash-to-Art Project

What could be more beautiful than turning trash into art?

Today I made some coasters out of CDs. It probably took about 1.5 hours, not including drying time.

I used CDs that were otherwise trash. I primed and spray painted them.

Then I found some tiny pictures in a magazine to put in the center holes. Since these will be used as coasters and will probably get wet, I laminated the pictures with some laminating sheets I had. You could probably just use packaging tape, though. You could also skip the pictures all together. I find them entertaining.

I covered the backs of the CDs with duct tape. This added a little more structure to the pictures, and it gave the backs a little traction, so they won't slide all over the place.

Here's an action shot:


And here are close-ups of the centers:


These were all t-shirt designs in a catalog we got in the mail. The top, middle one is two frogs drinking beer, and the top, right is a woman standing on top of a mountain.

I'd love to see what kind of projects you guys are up to. Feel free to post a link or description as a comment. Thanks for reading!