Sprays, Paint, Baby Wipes and the last Wednesday in May

What do Sprays, Paint, Baby Wipes and the last Wednesday in May all have in common?

My last post as guest designer for May.

Hello again, Ruby Craft here. First thing I want to share is how much I have enjoyed this month on the eP blog. I enjoy challenges, they bring out my crafty, creative side. Kim has given me the opportunity to work with some new products that I have not used before has made this a fun challenge. When I started thinking about my final project, I knew I wanted to make a scrapbook page and try a few things I hadn't tried before. I've seen quite a few designers using baby wipes to apply product and decided it was time to give it a try. I usually don't use sprays and paints on scrapbook pages either, so I wanted to try them too. When I first saw the Alphabet Stamp from Catherine Scanlon Designs,  I thought of my grandson, Jasper, and how much we enjoy reading together. So naturally I wanted to use the stamp again too because that is what my scrapbook page is about. Reading with my grandson, Jasper.

First I started with the Prima Finnabair Elemental Stencil  and Color Bloom Spray. Always shake the spray well. The stencil I used is Weaving. I placed it randomly around the page and sprayed the Vintage Metal Gold Foil Color Bloom Spray through the stencil. This left some spray on the surface of the stencil. So I flipped the stencil over and pressed it down on the page. Then I removed the stencil and randomly spritzed the page. In a few more spots I pointed the sprayer down and just lightly squeezed the trigger repeatedly to get splatters instead of a spray. (You have to be very patent with the splatter part, if you squeeze too hard it sprays instead of splatters.) After the some of the splatters I tilted the page so I would have a few gold drips too.

The next step was to use embossing ink to stamp part of the Catherine Scanlon alphabet stamp in the upper left corner of a cream color piece of 12"x12" cardstock. I used white embossing powder to heat emboss the letters. Then I stamped the letters in the lower right hand corner and heat embossed them too.

By barely dipping a baby wipe in the Dylusions paint I was able to get plenty of paint to make swipes of red across the page. I also place the stencil back on the page and used the baby wipe to make a patterned stripe across the bottom of the page then added two more patterned stripes on the right top of the page. It is amazing how much paint you can get from the baby wipe after just a tiny dip in this full bodied paint.

Working in small areas at a time I used a small pointed paint brush and painted the inside of the letters with Postbox Red Dylussions Paint.  I lightly misted the paint with just enough water to make it start to move on the page. After a few seconds I tilted the page and let the paint drip down the page. Working 3 or 4 letters at a time gave me a little more control.

I matted my photos and wanted to get an idea of where I would place them. Since I was using Red paint I decided that I would go with primary colors, using gold as my yellow that left blue for my mat. I used the gold foil spray again with the same spraying and flipping then printing effect with my stencil on a piece of 12"x12" blue cardstock. My main photo is 5"x7". The smaller photos were cut apart from a collage print. I moved the photos around on the altered cardstock, lining them up with the grid where I thought the pattern worked best, then trimmed out 1/2" from each side of the 5"x7" photo and 1/16" border for each of the smaller photos.  Once the photos were matted, I moved the photos around on my page until I found a layout that worked with the background I created, keeping in mind I would need a space for my title and an area for journaling. I didn't attach them to the page yet but knew where they were going. Now I had an idea of where my Title would go and how much room I had for my journaling.

Hand lettering is a popular trend right now and  Dina Wakely's fine tip applicators made it easy to add a handlettered title to my page. This was the first time I had one of her tips. It screwed right onto her paint tube and allowed me to write with her paints. The first thing I did was practice. I was amazed at how easy it was to get the look I was going for. Large loopy letters. When I drew faster it skipped like stitching. If I drew slower the lines were smooth. By slowing down more and the lines went from thin to thicker. After just a few practice tries I was feeling like a pro, so I went for it and wrote my title on my page. I loved it! After a little drying time I was ready to adhere my photos to my page, add my journaling and put captions under my photos. But I wasn't finished yet.

Where did those adorable little hearts come from?

If you saw my first guest post you might remember a little red flower I made for my journal cover. I had so much fun working with Wendy Vecchi's Clearly For Art Modeling Film, I had made quite a few extra flowers. So I took a large flower and cut it up into hearts. They were already painted with the Postbox Red Dylusions  Paint but I used Dina Wakely's fine tip applicators and paint to add the black outlines for a fun touch. Then I heated the hearts up with my heat tool and shaped them into little waves and sprinkled them around my layout, attaching them with pop dots.


Of course I was having so much fun with Dina's fine tip applicator I had to add a fine line dotted and dashed border around the sides and bottom of my page as a final touch.

Handwritten journaling is always a wonderful personal touch in scrapbooking. Jasper will always know how much I loved reading with him. My journaling reads:

{You and I Love to Read! We always have. Your favorite book right now is "Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type" When I point to the words "Moo", you read them for me. "Moo! Moo! Moo!"}

When working on my projects each week, I tried to use mostly what Kim sent me along with things from my stash that she carries in her store. This was for two reasons. First, I know that when you show someone a new product and they like it they want to be able to find it. Second, Kim was very generous and sent me products to use for my guest designer posts. She also encouraged me to create anything I wanted and is she is super easy to work with. So of course, if you don't already shop there, I want to encourage you to check out the eclectic Paperie store. If you like you can use the links above to make it easy to find the products I used.

Thanks Kim for giving me a shot and if you ever want me to be a guest designer again just let me know. It's been fun.

Memorial Day Sale

Today only save an additional $5.00 on any eclecticPaperie purchase, $20 or above, placed until midnight tonight (EST)! With our already discounted prices of 10-25%, this is a great opportunity to save a little extra on your favorite craft supplies! Use code MEMORIAL15 when checking out.

Enjoy and Happy Memorial Day!

This offer is good until midnight today (EST), May 25, and may not be combined with any other coupons or offers. Offer not valid on Clearance items.

Distress Paint, Gelatos, Glitter Paste and Stencil Fun

Hello Everyone! Ruby Craft here and welcome to my 3rd week as guest designer on the eclectic Paperie blog. I wanted to share a card today. I started with my favorite of Tim Holtz newest stamps from Stampers Anonymous Botanical Sketch CMS216. One thing I love about this stamp is it is a beautiful 5"x6" stamp that is a line drawing of flowers with an open space in the middle allowing room for a sentiment and this stamp set includes several. The image is beautiful to water color but I wanted to use Cracked Pistachio Distress Paint to give me a delicate green and white background to compliment but not compete with my butterflies.

Distress Paint is very fluid and this stamp has very fine lines and intricate details. First I shook up the Distress Paint until I could hear the ball inside rattle to make sure it was well mixed. Then I used the dauber top to add the paint to my non-stick craft mat and a brayer to apply the paint to the stamp. If I used the dauber to apply the paint directly to the stamp, it would quickly fill in the stamp, but by using the brayer, I only applied paint to the raised stamping lines. Working quickly I rolled and lifted the brayer on the craft sheet to spread out the paint and "ink up" the brayer then roll the paint onto the stamp. I had to do this several times to cover the whole stamp. Immediately I stamped the watercolor paper and then cleaned the paint off of all my tools before the paint could dry on them. I put my stamped background aside to dry.

The next step was to create some butterfly embellishments. I wanted to be able to color and shape my butterflies so I used Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 Clearly For Art Clear Modeling Film, mixed media paper and Faber-Castell Gelatos along with the Butterfly stencils from the "Love" set of BoBunny Stickable Stencils and BoBunny Glitter Paste. First, I cut a rectangle from the film large enough for the Butterfly stencils I wanted to use. I used the applicator brush in the Glue N Seal to cover the entire piece of film and laid a piece of mixed media paper on top. To smooth it out I used a straight edge tool to make sure there were no air bubbles and the paper was flat against the film and then set it aside to let dry.

Once the paper and Glue N Seal was dry I applied the stickable stencils to the side of the film that was covered with the paper. With  a blending foam I applied the gelatos, starting in the center with Chocolate for the body, then added Butterscotch, Cotton Candy and finally Blueberry. I gave the Gelatos a little time to set then used a spatula to apply BoBunny Glitter Paste to the stencil.  Glitter Paste is available in different colors, but I used Sugar which dries clear. My colors showed through and the iridescent glitter shimmers beautifully. As soon as I finished applying the glitter paste I gently removed the stencils and applied them to an acrylic block long enough to clean them. Then gently lifted them and moved them back to their acetate backing sheet and thoroughly cleaned my acrylic block.

I made sure the glitter paste was completely dry before cutting out my butterflies with scissors. I cut the butterflies out loosely at first and then trimmed them leaving a white border around the stenciled areas. Next I used a heat tool to heat and mold my butterflies working in small areas at a time until I had the look I wanted. Wendy's modeling film is fun to work with.

The Botanical Sketch stamp comes with several greetings.  I choose Hello and Friend and lined them up on a grid block, inked them up with Jet Black Archival Ink and stamped my greeting in the open space in the center of my background. Since the Botanical Sketch stamped image is larger than a standard size 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 card, when I then trimmed my background down to size I was able to repositioned the open space up 1/2", giving me an additional 1/2" at the bottom of the card to allow for the larger butterfly. Then I mounted the background on a piece of yellow cardstock to pick up the yellow in the butterflies and then mounted both to a white card base. Finally to complete my card I added the butterflies using foam adhesive.

If you click on the small pictures they should pop up bigger. Hope you enjoy the card. If you have any questions or just want to let me know what you think please leave a comment.

Idea-ology Altered Trophy Fun

Hi! Ruby Craft here. This is my second Wednesday as guest designer on the eP Blog and I'm having a great time. For this week I wanted to use one of the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Trophy Cups to create a desktop photo holder for pictures of my Grandson, who I think just happens to deserve a trophy for anything he does. The photos I am using here are Fuji Instax Mini instant photos and are about the size of a credit card. They already have a white border and are heavy weight so they don't need a frame. They remind me of the Polaroids my Dad had. Tim Holtz Trophy Cups were the perfect size for this project.

To start I used a mini blending foam and Cracked Pistachio Distress Paint to colorize the silver trophy. The blending foam allowed me to get into all the crevices and get a nice thin coat which allowed the flourish around the top band of the cup to shine through. The cup looks almost pearlized thanks to the silver finish acting as an undercoat. Since the trophy has a slick surface I decided to add a coat of Ranger Ink Glue N Seal. It gave the paint added protection and a nice sheen.

The next step is to create the Laurel Leaves. I'm using Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 Clearly for Art Modeling Film, BoBunny Stickable Stencils and BoBunny Glitter Paste in Sugar. The stencils have repositionable adhesive on the back which made it easy to apply them to a sheet the Clearly for Art and then spread on the BoBunny Glitter Paste with a spatula. Once I had the glitter paste like I wanted it I carefully lifted the stencil and stuck it to an acrylic block to clean and then reapply it on the Clearly for Art repeating the process until I had the number of stems I wanted. Then I set them aside to dry.

Once the glitter paste was dry I was able to trim out around the stem of leaves with scissors but cut off the bottom two leaves. This made the stem portion longer at the end. Heating them with a heat tool I shaped them into Laurels. By working in small sections I was able to mold the film into the shape I wanted. I used Glossy Accents to attach the glitter side of the film to the stem at the base of the trophy cup and the back of the trophy handles. I had to hold them in place till they were dry enough to hold. It didn't take long but it might help to use some type of clamp to hold them until they are dry.

I placed the Flourish Tim Holtz Layering Stencil on a piece of watercolor paper and sprayed it with Prima Color Bloom inVintage Metal Gold Foil. Once it was dry I cut out a square, applied some Micro Glaze with my fingertips to seal the surface and lightly inked the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I used Ranger Multi Medium to glue the paper to a square coaster I wanted to upcycle.

acrylic block as weight

I weighted the paper down with a large acrylic block to help it dry flat. After allowing time for the multi medium to dry, I glued the Trophy cup to the center of the base. The coaster is small enough that it won't take up a lot of room on my desk but large enough that I won't have to worry about the trophy and photos toppling over.

I already had a pack of Tim Holtz Idea-ology Memo Pins in my stash. I took a good size clump of moss (I found my moss at a dollar store) and stuffed it into the cup of the trophy so that it would be thick enough to hold the photos in position. I placed 2 photos into memo pins and stuck them into the moss with the laurel leaves going behind the photos. I thought the memo pins were perfect. but you could use some mini clothes pins on little dowels or little clips on wires. An alternative for the moss could be a cork stopper.

I created a banner by cutting a thin strip from the scrap of the flourish paper, snipped the ends with the scissors. Each end was then folded twice once back and then a space about 1/16 of an inch folded forward.  The edges were then inked to match the inking on the base.

I hand lettered #1 Kid and drew the little heart then folded the banner ends and put it in a memo pin to place in the moss in front of the photos.

My daughters really liked my desktop photo holder and I had fun making it. Tim Holtz Idea-ology Trophy Cups are 3 to a pack so I still have 2 left and can make them both one for their desk too.

Post Box Red Flowers for May

Hi, Ruby Craft here. I’m so excited that Kim has invited me to be guest designer for May. She asked me to share a little bit about myself. A little over 10 years ago I had taken early retirement but had a little too much time on my hands. I decided I needed a hobby so I started Scrapbooking. Then I took a part time job at a local scrapbook store and a co-worker showed me Tim Holtz and Alcohol Inks. When Tim started his blog with a tour of his workroom and then began posting 12 Tags of Christmas I was hooked on inky fingers and multi media. I began blogging so I could post my tags for Tim’s challenges. I still scrapbook from time to time but enjoy challenges, making tags, cards and the occasional 3 dimensional project. I'll be here every Wednesday this month with something new for you to see.

For my first project I looked through my stash and found a naked spiral book I had bought a while back. I used 3 different stencils along with paints, so I worked on a non-stick craft sheet. It made clean up easy and also made a great pallet. The first thing I did was to carefully open the spiral and take out the covers. I then laid them face up on my work surface and placed the first stencil, Weaving for Prima Finnabair Elementals, on the front cover. I used Prima's Color Bloom Spray Mist in Gold Foil. This was the first time I used it and I loved working with it. It has a trigger sprayer which allows you to get quick solid coverage but also allows you to get a spatter effect if you want. I sprayed through the stencil onto the cover front. Instead of wiping off the beautiful mist that had beaded up on the stencil, I flipped it over and placed it on the back cover. This gave me the same beautiful shimmery gold but a negative of the pattern on the front.

I used a fun stamp from Catherine Scanlon Designs called Catherine's Alphabet. This is a large one piece stamp that has open letters that would be perfect for water coloring. I thought it would make a terrific illustration for my cover. I used a brayer to "inked it up" with some Post Box Red Paint from Dylusions and stamped the front cover. I didn't get a perfect impression but it was perfect for the look I was going for.

I decided I wanted to add a Flower border along the sides and bottom of the front cover and along the bottom of the back one.  Tim Holtz Wildflower Stencil was perfect for this and the second stencil I used. I used a couple of mini blending tools to apply the Post Box Red Paint to the stencil flowers and then Cracked Pistachio Distress Paint for the stems and foliage. Distress Paints have a dauber top but the paint is very fluid and would run under the stencil if you tried to apply it directly from the bottle. The mini blending tool works great with the stencils and paints. The thin stems can be a little tricky with the blending tool. Once I removed the stencil I used a fine detail water brush to pick up some Cracked Pistachio from my craft sheet to touch up the stems. The water brush allow me to keep the color soft.

I also used the water brush to paint the inside of the  letters with Post Box Red at the top and Abandoned Coral Distress Paint from the bottom of the letters fading the color out before reaching the middle of the letters. This allows the Gold Foil Spray to peek through. Another thing I liked that the Gold Foil Spray as a background is that once it was dry it was not disturbed by the water or paint.

Along the very top and bottom of the front cover I used the third stencil, the hearts from the Love set of BoBunny Stickable Stencils. Again using the blending tool and Dylusion's Post Box Red. Once I finished the hearts I felt they needed something else. BoBunny Glitter Paste in Sugar! I used a palette knife and the stencil to apply it. These stencils are sticky and reposition-able making them easy to use. I finished off the edges using the blending tool and some Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

I decided I wanted to make a band to hold the book closed. I painted a piece of white elastic with Cracked Pistachio Distress Paint. Using the dauber top made it easy. Distress Paint does not effect the elasticity or stiffen the elastic. Once dry I attached the strip to the back cover with eyelets.

I die cut a flower from Wendy Vecchi's Clearly for Art Modeling Film from Tim Holtz's Tattered Floral die. Clearly for Art Modeling Film is NOT shrink film. When you heat it you can bend it to what ever shape you want and when it cools it will hold the shape. It comes in clear, white or black. Before you mold it you can paint it, stamp on it, or glue paper to it and then stamp on the paper if you like. If you don't like the shape you can reheat it flatten it and start all over again. I used clear and painted one side red by simple spreading the Post Box Red paint on with my fingertips. Once dry I flipped the flower over and used the spatter stamp from Wendy's Faux Graniteware starter kit and some Jet Black Archival ink to stamp the black spots. After the ink dried I attached the flower to the elastic band with a black eyelet. Then I was able to heat the flower with my heat tool and shape it. I just wanted the flower to have some subtle modeling since it was on the cover of the journal. I slipped a pencil under some spots while heating to get a little lift and did the rest of the modeling with my fingers.  You don't have to heat the whole flower, just a small section at a time. Once I had my flower shaped the way I wanted it, my cover was finished and I put everything back together.

I want to thank Kim for inviting me to be the May Guest Designer. She generously sent me quite a few fun products to use and she is wonderful to work with. She has designers for June, July and August, but if you are interested in being a guest designer in the future send her an email. I included a little information about myself and a few links to projects on my blog that I thought she might like and she got right back to me.

Here are a few quick links to some of the products I used from eclectic Paperie.
Dylusion Paint, Distress Paints, Stencils, BoBunny Glitter Paste,  Prima Color Bloom Spray Mist,  Tim Holtz Products,  Wendy Vecchi, Catherine Scanlon Designs 

I Hope you enjoyed seeing how I created my first project as guest designer and that you'll be back next Wednesday.