Pastel Goth Girl

This image probably doesn't appeal to many but I love it! I have been wanting some of these "goth" type stamps from Stampotique now for 2 years. I saw them in a catalogue and knew that oneday I'd snag a couple of my own. They are very Tim Burton-esque. One of my all time favorite movies is Nightmare Before Christmas!

This is also my first image I've used with my Copic markers. I didn't go too crazy with blending, I stuck to pastel pinks, blues, purples and greys. She's also got frosted lace stickles in her hair and on her dress. I also tried out the new memento ink by Tsukineko. I didn't heat set it or wait long for it to dry before i started coloring with the copic markers. I'm pleased to say NO smudging at all. I grabbed tuxedo black, london fog (grey) and a dark brown.

I am the worlds worst blogger!

Here's some pictures from this past weekend. Every April I look forward SocalStampmania!
This year we had 125 girls show up. what a blast, good friends and stamping :)

So I'm gonna try to start posting at least once every other week. We'll see if it works with my crazy life! lol. Wish me luck.

Frozen Hot Chocolate

I love hot chocolate! But it's too darn hot here in socal for it right now. I made this card for my sister and inside is a recipe for Frozen Hot Chocolate.

This Layout is from the Dirty Dare Callenge today. I kinda messed it up but it was a fun layout to play with.

The card and colors are inspired from the Penzey's Hot Chocolate Mix. (they have the BEST hot chocolate mix! try the mint too.) The label is chocolate with retro funky swirls and snowflakes in red. There is a super cute heart shaped rhinestone at the base of the peppermint stick.

Frozen Hot Chocolate

• 3oz dark chocolate
• 1 Tablespoon Hot Choclate Mix
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons Sugar
• 1 1/2 Cups Milk
• 3 Cups Ice
• Whipped Cream

Chop chocolate into small pieces and place in top of double boiler over simmering water, stirring occasionally until melted.

Add chocolate mix and sugar, stirring constantly until thoroughly blended. Remove from heat and slowly add 1/2 cup milk, stirring until smooth.
Cool to room temperature.

In blender, place the remaining 1 cup milk, room-temperature chocolate mixture and ice.

Blend on high speed until smooth and the consistency of a frozen daiquiri. Pour into a giant goblet and top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.
Enjoy with a spoon or a straw.

I have totally cheated with this recipe and added 5 rounded Tablespoons of the Mix into heated milk instead of melting the chocolate. The melted chocolate version is much better though!

Beautiful Hands

It's been forever since I've posted or made anything. It's been a rough for many months with my little one recovering from surgery.

Sometimes I really hate photographing my projects! The paper is much brighter in person.



This is a photoframe that I made for a friend of mine. The picture is of her and her daughter's hands over the side of a pier. I made the photo sepia since there are alot of browns in the project.



The frame is one I found at Michael's, it's a dense matboard plain frame that is ment to be altered. This one is a 12x12 inch. I first painted the back and all the edges with broze and gold acrylic paint. I used a piece of scrapbook paper from my mind's eye, adhearing it with Crafter's Pick Ultimate Glue. I could have used modge podge but me and M/P never seam to get along that well. After it had dried a few hours i cut out the center of the paper where the photo goes and sanded all the edges. i also sanded lightly here and there to give it a distrested look. Then I sprayed MANY layers of clear matte acrylic spray paint over the paper. I wanted it sealed well and hate the streaky modge podge finish.



The next day I took watered down gold and bronze acrylic paints and brushed it lightly over the whole surface of the paper. I don't mind brushtroke marks as long as I want them there, lol. I then adhered brown fabic ribbon with Scotch Permanent Glue Stick. It is made for fabric and paper. After coating the back of the ribbon, placing on the frame and using a brayer to make sure it was even adhered there was NO seeping through the fabric!!! the fabric is still soft to the touch and stuck on there good (i even tried to pull it off a little to check).



I took apart and painted an orange silk flower with different shades of brown craft and chalk inks. I flattened a bottlecap, punched out a circle piece of paper, stamped LOVE on it, stuck it in the bottlecap and then filled/sealed it with glaze. After all the pices dried overnight i reassembled the flower and stuck it on the frame.

I may add some finishing brads or more embellishments but I haven't found the "right" ones yet.


I really hope my friend will like this!

How to Drill a Glass Block

*IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED TO DRILL GLASS BLOCKS*

The glass block contains a slight vacuum, you have to be careful that when the drill bit breaks through the inside of the block that a minimum amount of lubricant (water) and glass dust gets sucked inside of the block. The glass can crack or shatter if you aren’t careful. OK, disclaimer out of the way let’s go drilling!

I used a Diamond Core Bit. Carbide bits may be used but the diamond drill bits last longer and are easier to use. I used a one inch bit. Use half inch or larger so it's easier to get your lighting inside the block later.

Please use a drill press instead of a hand drill, this insures a safer drilling experience.

Another disclaimer. Please be careful using any electrically powered tool near water. Water or another lubricant should be used to cool and lubricate the tip of diamond bits. Lubrication reduces heat build-up. Water is what I used, because it is free! Machine oil may also be used.

Recommended Drilling Speeds are….RPM, rotations per minute.

4 MM - 14 MM = 1600 - 2000 RPM
16 MM - 25 MM = 1400 - 1600 RPM
27 MM - 50 MM = 1100 - 1400 RPM

Drilling faster increases friction, burns up the bit and causes and causes the colorful drill tips. Everyone repeat after me: if your drill bit develops yellow, brown, blue or black “burn marks” around the tip, slow down. *borrowing some words from my dad*

When you use diamond drill bits it is very important to use light to moderate pressure and to let the bit *drill at its own speed*.

Increasing the drill pressure will only increase the friction and heat. This not only burns up the bit, but also increases your stress level, causing your face to turn red and steam to come out of your ears. Heat will also fracture or crack the block you're drilling.

Once through the glass retrieve glass plug from the inside and wash block thoroughly, inside and out.

I used acrylic paints and paste embossing as the decorating medium for the above block. I am looking forward to decorating more!

Ode to the nightmare!

This card was made possible by Emily and her Scooby Snack challenge. A couple of weeks ago at the SOCAL MiniMania gathering Emily gave us all these wonderful treats. She challenged all of us that attended to make a card or project with the tag she made. This is mine. It’s inspired by The Nightmare before Christmas movie. There is a thematic use of spirals throughout the movie and the pumpkin was altered to have sharp pointy teeth. I used the curlicue wheel with black embossing powder on shimmer black paper. The paper is so fun to use but HARD to photograph. The orange in the ribbon is the same as the orange paper in real life. The punched out tag says “be merry”. I took a swirly clip and took a green glaze pen and then dipped it in green glitter while the glaze was still wet.

Baby got Back!

BACKground stamps that is......

A little over a year ago I went on a mission to help a fellow stamping friend. She had background stamps that she had great difficulty using do to a neck/back injury. Getting that nice even pressure over the large area of the stamp and getting good results every time. This printer's press by speedball was what I found. I ordered one for her and she liked it so much that's what I got for Christmas last year from her. It never gets put away! I LOVE my press.

There are many ways to try to get even coverage using backgrounds stamps and I'm sure you've tried them all! I know I have. Even the mysterious butt stamping method. Here is how I get perfect images every time using this contraption....


*Ink up stamp. I prefer using a brayer for this step.
Lay stamp rubber side up inside press (inside the area where the top metal part comes down). I marked the outside of my press with a silver sharpie on both sides for accurate placement every time. Can be used rubber side down but I find I have better control this way.


*Place paper that you want the image on gently on top of rubber.
Place scrap paper on top of the stamp and cardstock layer so you don't get ink all over the press!


*Hold the metal plate part on top with one hand and press down with the lever with the the other hand. The metal plate can swing a little too much so it is important that you hold it steady while lowering the plate on top of the stamp. Once it's laying on top you can let go completely.


*Remove scrap paper and pull off cardstock that you have just stamped. I prefer using tweezers with versamark, pigment inks and solvent based inks.


This works for all background stamps but were it's true quality shines is with canvas, linen, lace ect type stamps. You can also use UNMOUNTED rubber stamps with this! Just ink up and lay inside and press. When ordering from many companies I get unmounted rubber now, it saves both money and space. This press will pay for itself after 6-8 unmounted rubber stamps :)

Pumpkins Rule...

I absolutely LOVE pumpkins. It started as a child the first time I planted a pumpkin seed and watched it grow. It fascinated me that a seed the size of my thumbnail could grow into a 20 foot plus sprawling vine and months later beautiful pumpkins that I could carve or eat came of it. I think my love of gardening came from that first pumpkin seed as well.

Today was the first day that my air conditioner didn't come on!!!!!!! I also got to wear a sweater. I guess fall is finally here in southern California :) So today I celebrate pumpkins and fall.

I have had this stamp for almost a year and had yet to break it in *gasp* Some of my favorite stamps come from Lockhart Stamp Company. The colors used are pumpkin, burgandy and articoke. I used flannel plaid as the background, watercolor crayons to color the main image, distressed and tore some of my layers. The pumpkins have stickles, a type of glitter glue, to give them an early morning kissing of frost.

As an added bonus here is one of my favorite pumpkin recipes....


Pumpkin Dip

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

PREPARATION:
Cream together pumpkin and cream cheese. Add in all other ingredients until well blended. Refrigerate overnight. Serve with gingersnaps and graham crackers....YUM!!!!!!!!

U Suck!!!!!!

The only fitting way to start my blog has to be with a U Suck card. Weather I like it or not, I am the U Suck Girl. It started quite innocently enough one hot night in August 2005, I went to bed and just couldn’t sleep. So I got up and decided to play with some new rubber. Well, this is what happens when I can’t sleep. I get snarky!!!!! This is a remake of the first U Suck card with the same sets and colors. The original was sent to DYU in Texas where it survived hurricane Rita although not all parts of the house were so lucky. Since that night in August I have made a plethora of these! I’ve played with many different colors and embellishments. The requirement (for me) when I make this card is that I have to use shimmer paper and I have to use the alphabet that one friend pointed out to me looks like ransom letters! Oh, please no hate mail here ;) But if you truly feel the need to do so, go ahead, just remember I have to power to erase it!!!!