OCC: Bakin' Beauties

I just can't believe it's the day before July and the summer Olympics are just a few weeks away! I'm not particularly glued to the tv during the games but I do love to hear the stories, see the perseverance and root good ol' America on! Go Team USA!

This week, Kristen is following up her anniversary challenge with another fun one she's called "Bakin' Beauties". (Makes ya smile, doesn't it?). The theme this week is to use something from your baking cabinet in your project - food coloring, baking papers, foil, sprinkles, even flour or sugar! I tried the food coloring but here's something I learned. Red food coloring on white card stock looks like someone cut their finger and bled all over your card. Not good. So I swiftly ditched that idea and moved to my little mini cupcake papers from Martha Stewart. I just love these dainty little pink and dark pink scalloped cuties.

The funny thing about these papers - I bought them just for paper crafting. They haven't seen my kitchen! (They're just too cute!) I decided on a tag this week. This paper from BoBunny is so fun and summery and goes well with the colors of my paper flowers made from the cupcake liners.

After I cut the bottom off the papers, I cut in at each scallop so the flower "petals" could spread out a bit. The fun thing about these kind of flowers, the more you smoosh them, the better. I ended up making a smaller flower from the light pink and just glued it into the center of the larger one.

 For a little asymmetry, I added a little shoot of some white tulle ribbon. I think its a phase. I've been adding it to everything lately.

So take a peak in your kitchen, find something to test your paper making skills with this challenge. To get your mind baking with ideas, take a look at what the other DT members have constructed:

Linda Coughlin The Funkie Junkie

Vicki Burdick It's a Stamp Thing

Sue Butler Scrumplescrunch

Anita Houston The Artful Maven Haven

Anne Marie Hile Stampin' Anne

Wendy Janson It's All About Stamping

Marcy Kaminski En Papillote Arts

Irena Kowalczyk (aka Rudlis) Love, Life and Crafts

Meihsia Liu Simply Paper Crafts

Tui Nathan Stampin Time

Lori Rider The Diva Stamper

Kristin Tierney Lilly Beth Boutique

Sharon Wheet Designs by Sharon 

And while you're getting crafty, don't forget to catch some of the Olympics. Maybe there will be some inspiration there for you too!

Holly

OCC: Time for Tim!

Happy Saturday!

I hope you have some relaxing/exciting/fun/productive things lined up - whatever it is that makes you happy.

This week, our fearless OCC leader, Linda has an interesting challenge for us - to use a Tim Holtz technique in your paper crafting this week! Don't be fooled! Tim's techniques aren't just for the mixed media, eclectic, grungy style that you might think of initially. These techniques can be used for any type of papercrafting.

I use some of his techniques often and have watched several videos. (Admittedly, I spent some time at Jo-Ann's cruising through his book "A Compendium of Curiosities" and found some new and interesting approaches I'll have to test out on my own). 

The one thing to keep in mind about these techniques - they take some practice and some tinkering. You will probably not get it the way you see it in your head the first time. But that's ok! That's part of the fun of papercrafting. Enjoy the journey!

I'm going to share a step-by-step of how I made this card using a paint resist technique.

First I gathered up my stamps, ink, paper and  paint. I did test my colors on a test sheet to see how they blended together because I wanted to be sure I liked them all together before I got going.

I trimmed a piece of white cardstock to 5" x 3.75". Then taking the paint dabber,  I covered my large peony stamp. The paint dabbers by Ranger are perfect for getting stamps inked up - no mess with even coverage and not a lot of waste.

Immediately after I stamped my image, I took my stamp to the bathroom and ran it under water while running a foam brush over it. One thing about paint - you want to get it off your stamp as soon as possible otherwise it will dry in all the little crevices and will make it hard to stamp good clean crisp images in the future.

After the stamp was clean, I ran my heat gun over the stamped image to get the paint dried completely.

When it was completely dry, I got to inking. I started with the darkest color in the lower right hand corner.

Then I layered with the medium shade moving up and to the left.

And then the lightest color in the upper left hand corner.

To blend the color even more, I lightly sprayed some water over the top of the whole thing. Since I didn't use watercolor paper, I had to make sure I didn't add to much as to keep the paper from getting bubbly and warped. This mini mister from Ranger is perfect for these little misting techniques.

Then I broke out the heat gun again.

I decided at the last minute my sentiment was too long so I cut it apart so I could stack the words. The picture shows them together but I ended up stamping the THANK and then the YOU afterward so I could have more control over the spacing.

One thing I like to do when I stitch cards is to leave the ends sticking out a little. I just like how it looks.

And the way the Pearl metallic paint picks up some of the ink is just beautiful. I love this technique - especially with the pearl paint. 

So watch some Tim Holtz videos, visit his website, peruse his books, check out some of his product at your local craft store. There's a lot there to try. And remember, trying some of these techniques is some of the fun. Don't get frustrated with it if it doesn't come out how you want it to the first time. 

Get inspired! Check out what the rest of the OCC team has worked on:

Linda Coughlin The Funkie Junkie

Vicki Burdick It's a Stamp Thing

Sue Butler Scrumplescrunch

Anita Houston The Artful Maven Haven

Anne Marie Hile Stampin' Anne

Wendy Janson It's All About Stamping

Marcy Kaminski En Papillote Arts

Irena Kowalczyk (aka Rudlis) Love, Life and Crafts

Meihsia Liu Simply Paper Crafts

Tui Nathan Stampin Time

Lori Rider The Diva Stamper

Kristin Tierney Lilly Beth Boutique

Sharon Wheet Designs by Sharon 

I hope you really challenge yourself this week and play along!

Holly

New Product in Etsy Store

Hi All!
Just popping in to let you know I've loaded up my Esty store with some new product. I hope to be adding much more in the coming weeks. Please take a look!

If there's an occasion you'd like to have something made for especially, please let me know. I'd love to support you!

Holly

OCC: Frame It Up!

Hi papercrafting pals!

I hope your Saturday weather is starting out better than ours today. In the Puget Sound area of Washington, its raining but warm the perfect combination for a bad hair day. Guess that's my cue to stay inside and do some papercrafting!

This week Susan is our host and is throwing down a fun challenge - Frames!

At first I didn't think this would be too hard but as I started sorting through my ideas, I realized it would be more of a challenge than it seemed. There were so many options to consider and so many different ways to create a frame. In the end, I settled on a sweet little box with two layered chipboard frames as the focal point for the top. 

I've made this box a few times and one of these days I'll actually take photos of the steps along the way but the process I used to make this box is roughly based on this video from Tresa Black. A few of Tresa's videos on YouTube were ultimately how I began this life in papercrafting.

I stamped the box base with a Martha Stewart flower clear stamp set called "Camilla" using Versa Magic Dew Drop ink in Pretty Petunia.

For the top, I used Adirondack Metallics paint in Pearl with the same stamp set. They've made it really easy to stamp with paint by adding a dauber at the top of the paint bottle. You just dab the stamp evenly with paint, stamp and then clean right away with water. The result is this beautifully subtle silvery impression. You can see it here on the top. I stamped the "Live Your Bliss" first with a dye ink, let it dry and then stamped the flowers over the top.

A little paper flower and some tulle shoved in between the two frame layers and there you go!

So take a stab at it this week and create a project with the frame as the focal point. I think you'll enjoy the process as much as the result. Take a look at what the other OCC designers have come up with:

Linda Coughlin The Funkie Junkie

Vicki Burdick It's a Stamp Thing

Sue Butler Scrumplescrunch

Anita Houston The Artful Maven Haven

Anne Marie Hile Stampin' Anne

Wendy Janson It's All About Stamping

Marcy Kaminski En Papillote Arts

Irena Kowalczyk (aka Rudlis) Love, Life and Crafts

Meihsia Liu Simply Paper Crafts

Tui Nathan Stampin Time

Lori Rider The Diva Stamper

Kristin Tierney Lilly Beth Boutique

Sharon Wheet Designs by Sharon 

I cant' wait to see what you come up with!

Holly