Three Tilda's, links and a video

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend and are ready to take on the coming week with energy, happiness and joy : ) 

Last Monday I went to my local Michaels armed with a gift certificate and a coupon for 20 percent off my entire purchase, including sale items.  While I was walking through one of the aisles two ladies stopped me and asked if I knew anything about scrapbooking.  They were shopping for a daughter/grand daughter and did not have any idea of what was needed. An hour later I had helped them pick out a "starter" packet of goodies for the lucky young lady, and I warned them both that scrapbooking was very addictive and that they should watch out because the next time they end up at Michaels it could well be for themselves!  (We all know how easy it is to get pulled into the world of papercrafting.)

While I don't do much scrapbooking, I do a whole lot of stamping/card making.  Stamping, to me anyway, is a sort of therapy.  I can go into my corner (yes, going to your corner can be a good thing sometimes), take out some paper, stamps, ink, embellishments and forget about everything except the card in front of me.  This weekend I managed to play some more with the distress inks, and I have to say the more I use them the more I absolutely LOVE the way they bring the stamped images to life.

Here are the three cards I worked on this weekend:

From 2010-02-21

From 2010-02-21

From 2010-02-21

And here are a few more tips for using the distress inks as paint:

1.)  Use a heavy watercolor paper, at least 120, I bought some 140 lb cold press this weekend that was on sale at Aaron Brothers, 15 9 x 12 sheet pads for $4.49.  I still can't find any "hot press" paper in my area, but I will keep looking and may order some online.

90 lb paper is not heavy enough in my opinion, the paper starts to pill and warp as you add layers of color.

2.)  Experiment with the effect that you want:  putting water on the paper before you add color will give you a softer, more muted effect, applying the paint directly to dry paper gives you a brighter color, but you have to work to feather out the color so you don't get a harsh line.

3.) Make sure you have an assortment of paint brushes, I use a round 5,4,2,1 and 0 for my coloring.  The larger brushes I use to put down a light base of color, the smaller brushes for adding deeper amounts of color and soot black to areas for shadow.

While I have lots of copic markers, colored pencils, chalks and other coloring mediums, I am becoming ever so partial to the distress inks, especially since I am still experimenting with the technique.

How about some links and a video this week?  Lots of wonderful things are going on in the stamping world, and here are just a few things you might find fun and interesting:

More flowers:  Easy, easy, easy, and ohhhhhh so cute!  I loved this project, and thought the flowers were amazing!  Nothing special is needed beyond a scallop circle punch and your imagination.

Flourish stamp set:  Good price on these stamps, and a great set to add to your collection.  Flourish styled stamps are so versatile, no stamp collection is complete without a few of these stamps. And check out this link on how you can use these stamps to make other images.

Paper Reference Deck:  While I do not have a large amount of SU paper, I do have all sorts of other solid paper that this reference deck would work well with.  Having your solid colored card stock in a reference deck is a great help when trying to match designer paper.

And yet MORE homemade flowers: These are quick, easy, cute and inexpensive to make.  Buying flowers can add $$$ to your budget, so why not make as many of them as you can, adding fewer store bought and more homemade flowers to your projects.

Crafting the Web:  Wow!  Amazing cards, lots and lots of copic step by step coloring and an overall great blog to bookmark and visit often.  You are going to love the cards that Theresa Momber creates.

Make the Cut:  I thought this looked interesting, and given that I do not own a Cricut am not in the market for this product, however I thought some of you with Cricuts would find this product useful.  If anyone has this product already please post a comment and let us know what you think.  And here is one review I found with a number of comments about this product.

DoCraft TV:  Lots of great videos from this fun UK website. 

Video, video and more video!  Yes, lots and lots for you to view here, over 1,300 stamping/crafting videos.  Many of these videos are basic in nature, so make sure to save the link for anyone you know who is just getting started with stamping.

And here is yet another Jennifer McGuire video (she does the absolute BEST videos!).  This time she is showing all sorts of ways to use alcohol inks with glass and transparencies (I have to try some of these techniques):


Thank you for stopping by!  And thank you for all of your nice comments, I love hearing from you.

Cyber Monday Sales and other fun links

Good morning, happy Monday and happy last day of November!  I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, we visited my Dad in Bodega Bay, CA for a relaxing time.  My Dad's place has some amazing views of the ocean, it is quiet and the perfect place to finish stamping projects. 

Here are a few pictures of our getaway this last week:

From November 29 2009

That is my 81 year young Dad, he is amazing! 

From November 29 2009

My Dad's wife just had the fireplace redone, and I love how the project came out.

From November 29 2009

One picture of the view from his window, to the right is Bodega Bay, directly in front is the Pacific Ocean. 

From November 29 2009

And I finally finished my xmas cards!  Last year we didn't send out any cards, so this year I made sure to get them done and all ready early, just packed up what I needed and took it with us to my Dad's.  Today I need to seal the envelopes and put stamps on the cards and out they go!  I think this is the first time I have ever gotten my cards done before December 1st : )

And here is a picture of a Tilda card I made for two challenges, the home page challenge of the Magnolia Yahoo group and the Magnolia Blog challenge:

From November 15 2009

Now, how about some Cyber Monday sale links (with a few other things thrown in as well)?  Today is the online version of "Black Friday," so get ready to find some great deals, but be mindful that some of these sales are only for a short time:

Wild Ivory Memories:  Use the code "cyber30" for 30 percent off of your entire order.

My Favorite Things: Great deals in their Bubble Bin, don't wait though because once the stamps are gone they are gone forever.

Stop and Scrap: Use the code "Turkey09" for 20 percent off of your order (only until today).

Scraplovers:  Check out these great deals for one day only, Monday November 30th.


Jacksonbelle Embellishements:  Entire store is 25 percent off, today is the last day.

Stampers Dream Blog:  All sorts of great deals here, sale ends on November 30th.

Kitchen Sink Stamps:  More deals, but hurry! And don't forget to use the promo code LISA15KSS" to get 15 percent off!

Sweet Pea Stamps:  Great deals, including 50 percent off of many stamps, and some freebies if you order certain amounts.  

Joann:  Great Cyber Monday deals. 

Ellen Hutson:  Many deals on some wonderful supplies.  

JustRiteStampes: 20 percent off the entire store.  

And here are a few links you might enjoy that are not "Cyber Monday" related:


Ink Stains: The link takes you through to sketches, make sure to visit the home page of the blog as well, some great sketches and ideas here. 

Time for Crafting:  Link takes you to a treasure trove of tips and techniques, a great site to bookmark. 

Stamp Out Online: Great site for personalized stamps, and their prices are reasonable as well.  Good gift for any crafters on your list : ) 

Pretty Pressings:  What an amazing collection of paper crafts!  You are going to love all the projects you see here, one very talented lady. 

Sunflowers and Dragonflies:  A great collection of links to projects that use Pearl  Ex, and what better time then Christmas to use all the shimmer and gleam you get with Pearl Ex?

That is it for today everyone!  Time for me to get going to work, hope you liked these links and please don't forget that I love to read your comments, suggestions and ideas for more links in the future.


Have a great day.

Blog Candy!

Hi again, yes I am posting twice this week because I wanted to find out if my feedburner is working.  I actually added the new url (afterhoursstamper.com) and left the old one in place ( I hope that is what I did : ).  If you are signed up for email updates and received this then all is good.  If you are reading this on the blog and did not get the post in your email then you will have to re-sign up (in the top corner of the blog, just enter your email) if you want to continue to get email updates when I update the blog.

As a way of thanking all of you for following AfterHoursStamper for so long I have arranged some GREAT blog candy for you!  When I attended my local rubber stamping show I met an amazing person, Nicole, who is the owner of "Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps."  Nicole also has a great blog where you can see some wonderful creations using her stamps.

Here is a picture of Nicole at her booth (I apologize that the picture is blurry, was having some problems with my camera that day):

From Stamping Convention in San Jose, September 26,2009 (sponsored by "A Stamp In The Hand)

She designs her own stamps, like this ferris wheel (my picture isn't the best, here is a link to the stamp in her store):

From Stamping Convention in San Jose, September 26,2009 (sponsored by "A Stamp In The Hand)

And I love this stamp, this one and this one, actually I love almost all of her designs : )  Nicole's stamps are very affordable, they are made of high quality, deeply etched rubber and you can choose mounted or unmounted for many of the stamps (I am an unmounted girl).

Nicole has provided all of you with the chance to win some blog candy today.  Here is what you can win:

From October 1 2009

The blog candy consists of 2 transparency sheets, eight unmounted stamps and a package of prima flowers.

So, how do you win this fun blog candy?   Go to the Prickly Pear Rubber Stamps Store, view her stamps and then come back here and post a comment naming one of her stamps that you really like.  Make sure you include your email address in your comment so I can contact you if you win the blog candy (make sure to use the word "at" instead of the "@" to prevent any spam).

You will have until next Wednesday night,(October 7th) at midnight (PST) to post your comment.  Next Thursday, October 8th, I will announce the winner (picked randomly).

So, don't forget:  Make sure you are still getting my emails, if not please re-sign up to get emails every time there is a post on the blog, and don't forget to leave a comment on this post for your chance to win the blog candy.

That is all for now, I hope you have a great rest of the week and don't forget to stop by Monday for some more fun links and other goodies.

Tim Holtz ROCKS!

Before we get to today's stamping topic (basically gushing over Tim Holtz), I thought it would be fun to share some pictures with you.

First, here is a picture of "Pops" and his girlfriend Gladys, from the other day when I met them for lunch. Pops is doing much better, but he is having a great deal of trouble breathing (just walking back to the car made him out of breath) and remembering words. He knows what he wants to say, just can't remember what word to use.

From Drop Box

And here is poor Roxy. She had to be stitched up again on Saturday (I took a picture of the wound but decided it was a bit graphic to post), and I now have to give her pills twice a day. She seems to be healing better this time, and will have just another week with the cone.

From March 4 2009

So, onto the topic for today, Tim Holtz (and some Judikins too).

Has anyone gone over to his blog lately? I did today and was amazed at the new products he has, as well as the new videos on his site. All of the Ranger products are high quality, versatile, and must haves for the serious stamper/scrapper/paper crafter. And what new product am I dying to try? His new alcohol ink fillable pen (and there are new alcohol ink colors as well, lights and brights.)

Here is video he did to demo these new pens:


The pens are just hitting the stores, so far the best price I have found online is $4.80 at Page Additions.

And Holtz has also updated his video section with new videos, and all of them are worth a watch. I especially liked this one on the dauber paints:



I really love the Holtz products, and have just recently bought the distressed embossing powders, they are very unique and add a very interesting element to your stamping. Here is a sample I did today, haven't decided on how to use it in a card, but the powder was fun to work with:

From March 4 2009

I used a green distressed ink, then a brown distressed powder, then added some more green, then some blue. The distressed embossing powder sticks to some but not all of your image, and you need to take a few different steps when you use it. For complete written directions click here, for a video click here. The distressed embossing powder is a matte finish, and it is also pretty "rough," sort of like sand paper. So far I am just loving it for trees, it really adds a unique dimension to your image.

You can click on the image with the trees and you will go to my picasa album, click on the little magnifying glass to see the image in more detail and you will see how the powder allows your ink to show through.

And I also purchased some really neat paints from Judikins at a rubber stamp show I attended a few weeks ago. These paints are called "Mica Gloss" and WOW are they ever amazing! They cost about $6 a bottle, and though the bottle isn't very big, a little goes a long way with these wonderful paints. I have searched for tutorials on how to use these paints, haven't found one yet, but will post some tips on how to use them in the next few days.

One thing that is GREAT about these stamps is how they blend so easily, and the sheen they leave on your cardstock is amazing.

Here are two examples of what I did with the paints:

From March 4 2009

The stamp is a music sheet background stamp that I inked with dauber paint, embossed with clear embossing powder (I have a drawer full of embossing powders of all colors and almost always use the clear) then added green and gold mica gloss paint, then covered the whole thing with a bit of the white mica gloss paint.

From March 4 2009

This was a Tim Holtz image, stamped and then embossed with clear powder. Then I started with the gold ink, then slowly added a little of the other colors and blended, the picture doesn't really show how wonderful the mica sheen is, but it does at least reveal how easy it is to blend the colors.

And last, but not least. I broke down and bought some Tilda stamps, and here are two cards I made using them. The Tilda on the orange card was done using OMS and Twinkling H20's, the Tilda on the green/yellow card was colored with copics.

From March 4 2009

From March 4 2009

Ok, that should keep you busy for a few days.

Have a great rest of the week, and an even better weekend.