1.20.2008

Stamping and Other Ways to Decorate Your Card

In my last post, I talked about See D's stamps at http://www.goinque.com/ . Well, they are having a one day sale. Here is what I got in my email:

"January 26 is Everything Inque Day - a day set aside for extra special savings on Inque Boutique products! Scrapbookers, card makers and papercrafters all over the world have been sent 15% off coupons to redeem on Inque Boutique merchandise for this one day only. Inque Boutique members will save even more!" Members save 20% on anything and everything made by Inque Boutique. Membership is free and easy. Go to their website, become a member and print out the special members only coupon to take to your local store that carries Inque Boutique products. They even have a handy store locator feature on the site so that you can find the store nearest you. I believe some online stores are honoring their coupons. You'll want to check to be sure.

Besides stamps and ink, I use the Cuttlebug embossing and die cutting machine, ribbons, charms, pastels, charcoals, colored pencils, watercolors, and embossing powders to adorn my cards. I also use polymer clay.

In all my years of crafting I have never considered polymer clay. I always just figured it was for making beads for necklaces the kids liked to wear. I don't know what happened to make me change my mind but I have discovered I can make some pretty neat looking pieces for my cards with clay. After doing some reading on the internet, I bought a couple of packs of white and one of black. The white was so that I could make molds of things around the house and the black was for making things for cards. I'm really happy I gave it a try. Yet another skill set to learn and ways to experiment with creating "stuff". I do love learning new things!

1.10.2008

Rubber Stamping for Cards

As I've said before, I enjoy making handmade cards. Many years ago I used to really enjoy rubber stamping, but one thing led to another and I moved away from the hobby. As my children grew, my crafting room was dismantled and became one of their bedrooms. We (my husband) decided to donate all of my crafting gear (stamps, inks, embossing plates and tools, heat tools, paints and more) for a tax deduction. Now, 15 years later I find myself inching back into rubber stamping as a way to decorate my cards and possibly some polymer clay.

Times have changed quite a bit. Back in the day, all the rubber stamps you found in the stores were red rubber mounted onto wood. Only the "hard-core" stampers bought unmounted stamps or carved their own. Nowadays, the local craft stores carry unmounted stamps in both rubber and clear polymer. To top it off, they cling via static cling to clear acrylic blocks. Now stampers can actually see where they are stamping. No more close enough guess work! Sure beats carefully cutting around the rubber image, cutting foam pad to match and then gluing the whole think to a wood mount with rubber cement.

My first sets are called See-D's stamps. They come in a nice plastic case with an index page of the images and some extra static cling. They are made of purple rubber - kinda cool. They are deeply etched making a nice, clear stamping. If you don't want to buy acrylic blocks you can certainly use the sturdy case. I think you could construct an entire layout for the front of your card by placing multiple stamps on the lid and then ink them with pads or markers.

Enough talk, here is a link to the company web site: http://www.goinque.com/asp/product/

1.02.2008

More Cuttlebug Love

My taste in card making is more toward the simple & elegant rather than cute or busy. That is why I am so pleased with the new embossing folders and die cuts Provo Craft is releasing this month. I will definitely save my loose change so I can buy a few.

Link to new embossing folders: http://www.provocraft.com/products/catalog.php?cl=cuttlebug&scl=Embossing
Link to new die cuts: http://www.provocraft.com/products/catalog.php?cl=cuttlebug&scl=Dies
Link to new combo dies: http://www.provocraft.com/products/catalog.php?cl=cuttlebug&scl=Combo