Miscellaneous Tips

• Run out of nice mulberry paper right when you are desperate for a piece? Color a used dryer sheet with markers or a brayer. It's not as nice as the real thing, but will do in an emergency. -- Raven
  
  
• I have made my own boxes for years using just a ruler and a hobby knife and scissors and glue. Just have to remember to make the bottom of the box a tad smaller than the top so the top will go over the bottom. The boxmaker is $20 at most stores and you can buy a lot of material to make a box with for that money. I also make boxes out of old Christmas Cards for small gifts. Very simple to do. I never throw out an empty cereal box or detergent box. You can use them with or without your stamps and the detergent boxes make fine carriers for your stamping stuff if they have a handle and a top. If they don't have a handle you can make one out of a plastic milk jug and your staple gun. Sure beats buying all those plastic storage cases. -- Carol
  
  
• Have you all thought about using the containers from your light bulbs? It makes great corrugated paper for using on cards. -- Aleta
  
  
• I find the need to use acrylics in my stamping sometimes. I like to stamp and emboss on black and very deep colored backgrounds. Then, if I want certain colors, like the red on this year's cards, I use my acrylics to lay down a more opaque foundation. Then I use pencils or chalk over it to add dimension or texture. Another way to integrate your acrylics into your stamping is to paint a background. An Example: Start with a blank white card... maybe a winter scene, at night. Do your deep blue sky with mounds of drifted snow and pine trees to each side. Keep in mind to fade everything out to the area where you will stamp... say... a snowman... so you have a white oval left in the focus area of your picture where the stamp will be... your background blends softly into this area with no sharp edges. When you stamp in the snowman he appears to be "glowing". Next paint his details and shading. Of course, you can use watercolors instead, but I like to use acrylics sometimes. Okay... my only point is that there is no need to put your acrylics aside! -- Raven
  
  
• Aluminum Tape: Hey, this is really cool stuff... There is backing paper on the tape I have, but I've also seen it without. If yours doesn't have the backing paper, peel some off and put it onto a piece of sticker backing paper or waxed paper. From there, you can easily cut it into shapes with a regular pair of household scissors. I do a lot of metal tooling so this stuff was irresistible to me. It's too thin to take a lot of form in tooling but for simple lines, "quilting" or "punched tin" pieces, it is great. Here are a couple of card ideas for you. Cut off a piece about 4" long so you have a rectangle. Draw (or use clipart, or a stamp) a shape to fit within the tape... something "country" like a heart or a hand print on thin paper or a post-it... mark dots every eighth inch or so on the outline. Lay that on the tape and punch holes with a small nail through the pattern and tape. The result is a country looking punched "tin" piece. Leave it as is or antique it with a little acrylic paint, or tint parts of the design with transparent paints. Remove the backing paper and stick it to the cardstock and layer frames over it. Another idea is to "quilt it by laying a pattern over it again... a quilt square or a line drawing and trace over the lines with a stylus or ballpoint pen. Leave it as is or again, antique it or paint parts in with the transparent paints. Again, layer it on the card. Cut star shapes or hearts and use as focal points on a card.. You'll have fun experimenting with it! -- Raven
  
  
• Tiles: All right! Here's my way... there are many others! I'll explain my "easy" way and after that I'll tell you the "right" way! Cut squares of matte board or illustration board to the size you want... one inch is good to experiment with but still big enough to use in your card collage and layering. (You can use cardstock but it warps some and causes the EP to pool at the edges... oh, and it will crack if you flex it. Splotch some colors onto your squares.) You can use paints, inks, markers, a stamp... anything you want for color on your tile. I smooth a piece of foil onto a cookie sheet for the toaster oven and lay my tile on that. With a very gentle touch and steady hand, I sprinkle a layer of clear or clear-based sparkle EP onto the tile. Careful near the edges... you don't want to waste valuable EP and you won't be shaking off excess! I gently place the sheet into the toaster oven and turn it on... as the coils begin glowing, they will melt the EP... keep an eye on it and take it out as soon as it's all smooth and glossy... then repeat. Doing it this way, you usually have enough on in just two coats for a good smooth finish. Variations... when you pull it out of the oven the second time, gently imprint the hot EP with a rubber stamp, let it cool and remove the stamp. You can rub a bit of highlighting wax on the surface if you want or pearl-ex or rub a bit of paint down into the impression and clean it off the high spots. Experiment. Also, you can make the impression with an inked stamp. (Metallics work well.) I came up with a great marbling technique by "accident" while experimenting... After the first embossing cools, draw a couple of lines across the glaze with a black, permanent marker. Do your second coat, and when you take it out, you'll notice that the marker lines have run and separated and turned into "veins". Now the other way... Color your matboard tile as before and then dab the surface with clear embossing ink. Sprinkle with EP and pour off the excess. Melt the EP with the heat gun or whatever method you usually use. Repeat several times until you build up the coating into a smooth glaze. I really like the effect of deep, jewel like colors as the base and then clear EP with just a tiny sprinkle of one of the sparkle EP's thrown on, then followed up with the next coat of plain clear. Have fun and experiment... lots! -- Raven

Do you have a frugal stamping tip that you would like to add to this webpage? Then send an email to Dana Marshall at dana.marshall@danawheels.net.

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