Friday, May 9, 2008
A Mother's Pride & Joy
How to Mask.
This is a post that had been requested by a friend of mine. She wants to know how to avoid ugly smudges or marks when doing her masking. First of all, whenever I do my masking, I always used a sponge. The sponge that you see in the above photograph is a cosmetic sponge where we would normally use to apply our wet foundation. It's triangular in shape. I've always dab the sponge on one edges into the ink. To mask, I've hand cut a self made simple template, place it on my card stock or paper with temporary adhesive. (I would advise that if your masking template is huge, use a temporary adhesive to hold it in place) (Tip: simply use a normal sticky tape and roll it in circle to create your own temporary adhesives)
To start masking, place the inked edge of your sponge on top of the template. This is to avoid too much ink on the masking. Using the portion after the edge to do the masking instead. This will soften the look of your masking and you will avoid any ugly marks. (Tip: Do not over dab your sponges with too much ink too.) I hope this will help any of my readers who also had the some problems while doing masking.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
"Just for You" Phone Strap
This is just another little altered phone strap for a good friend of mine. The teddy bear , butterfly and the tag are actually "stamped images" sent to me by some of my friends. I just print them out onto card stocks and vellum and later cut them out. I've coloured the bear using my distress ink and add some embellishment and glitter to it. This is a very easy and fast project. Hope she likes it!
Monday, May 5, 2008
Boyish Girl
Add Little Beads on your Stitching
In the past weeks, I've received various emails on requesting ideas on using these small beads on layouts and projects. I've actually used them quite a few times in my work. I've tried using them to make small frames for a necklace, embellishing on flowers and etc. In my latest layout, I've tried to add them into my hand stitching work. I love the effect. It gives a more detailed look. I've also tried the two tones cross stitching technique here.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Love My Dad mini album
Thursday, May 1, 2008
CJ Intoduction Page
This is just an introductory page of my CJ (Circle journal) that I'm part off recently. I've used only "stamped images" in this page. I've used the "Dress Up your Stamped Images" technique to enhanced the stamped images which I've printed out on regular white card stock. I've cut the images out and layered them on the page using some foam adhesives for more dimensions. I've used a doiley to create the masking on the background. I've used the scissors technique to distress all the pattern papers and card stocks.
Sources: Pattern Papers: Paper Pizazz, Basic Grey, Ink: Tim Holtz's Distress Ink, Emboss It, Brads: The Paper Studio, Others: Glitters (Stickles)
Dress Up your Stamped Images
Recently, I've came across lots of swapping of stamped images among COFs and bloggers. I've also received some stamped images from some of my friends too. Of course, there are some limitations as compared to the actual stamps but I guess with a little creativity, there should not be a problem in using them.
I've used some stamped images in my recent CJ introduction page. Here are some ideas to dress it up.
1) Colour it using watercolours, colour pencils, distress inks, or even crayon.
2) Inked the edges for some shades.
3) Print it onto some pattern paper.
4) Add glitter or bling to it.
5) Stamp another image on top of it.
6) Heat embossed it.
7) Add some 3 dimensional accents to it.
8) Embellish it with flowers, brads or even eyelets.
9) To add some dimensions to it, you can attached it to your project using foam adhesives or use a piece of chipboard to layer it.
There are so many possibilities to it and saves you tons of money on some one time stamps. Hope this tip could help some of you who had emailed me regarding this topic.







