a quick project

This is a quick and easy project to do but, oh so cute

First I diecut a strip of tickets from cardstock and then I stamped all over them with mini stamps and words using Jet Black Archival Ink

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I added some color using distress inks and an ink blending tool

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I inked th eedges of the ticket strips with JJet Black Archival and the tore a strip of muslin just slightly bigger than my ticket strip.  I glued the tickets down to the muslin strip

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Next I dyed a mini wooden spool with Vintage Photo Distress Stain and added a stamped bobbin image to the top.  I glued the first part of the strip to the bobbin and then rolled everything up.  I secured it with a decorative pin.

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Small but cute project that took about 3 minutes to make.

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Fall Canvas

Although we really don’t have fall in Florida, I really do love the season.

I made this mixed media canvas which can be used to decorate your house or even your Thanksgiving table.


Thankful canvas

Adding some Perfect Pearls mist to the wheat adds just a little elegant shimmer.

Here is a close up of the texture paste mixed with Wendy Vecchi’s Archival Ink refills.

Thankful canvas michelle mccosh

If you would like step by step directions on how to make this please visit the Ranger Ink blog.

 

How to make Gelli Eggs

Here is a photo tutorial for my Gelli Eggs

The supplies I used are:

  • Ranger Adirondack Paint – Sunset Orange, Watermelon, Sunshine Yellow,
  • Inky Roller,
  • Palette Knife,
  • Non stick craft sheet,
  • Heat it tool,
  • Archival Ink in Jet Black,
  • All the Gals stamp set by Dina Wakley,
  • Dylusions by Dyan Reaveley Stencils: Let it Snow and Dotted Flowers,
  • Gelli Arts Printing Plate
  • and of course you will need some eggs that have been blown.

 

ranger adirondack dina wakley gelli arts

 

First, brayer the three colors of paint on a portion of the Gelli plate.

 

ranger adirondack dina wakley gelli arts

Place stencil down and rub off some of the paint through the stencil onto paper.  (the paper can be used as part of another project)

ranger adirondack dina wakley gelli arts

Photo4

 

Remove stencil and roll egg over the wet paint.  Dry with Heat it tool and re roll as many times to cover egg.

ranger adirondack dina wakley gelli arts

Use the palette knife to brayer Sunshine Yellow across the gelli plate.  Add  the snowflake stencil on top.

ranger adirondack dina wakley gelli arts

 

This time instead of removing the paint using paper, roll the egg over the opening in the stencil to add a different pattern.

ranger adirondack dina wakley gelli arts

 

Dry egg using Heat tool.

 

ranger adirondack dina wakley gelli arts

 

Apply archival ink to the stamp.  Roll the egg over the word.  Dry

ranger adirondack dina wakley gelli arts

ranger adirondack dina wakley gelli arts

 

Here are the three eggs I made using this color palette.  Dina Wakley’s word stamps are the perfect size for this project and I love the empowering words.

 

ranger adirondack dina wakley gelli arts

 

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial.  If you try this yourself I would love to see what you make.

 

 

I am on the Ranger Ink Blog today

I am so beyond thrilled to tell you that I have a card featured on the Ranger Ink blog today.

I have loved Rangers products since I started crafting many years ago and to have them place some of my art on the blog is a huge thrill for me.

This is the card I designed.

Ranger Ink Distress Ink Liquid Pearls

Be Thankful Card

I used products from Ranger, Sizzix, Wendy Vecchi, Tim Holtz, Advantus and Coordinations.

The photo does not do the leaves justice.  I used a Liquid Pearls resist technique on them along with Distress Ink and the vibrancy on the leaves is fantastic.  It was so hard to photograph.

liquid pearls distress ink tim holtz

 

Here is the link to see the card complete with directions.

Ranger Ink Blog

I am doing a Make n Take later today at Everything Scrapbook & Stamps in Lake Worth (South Florida near West Palm Beach) showing this technique on the background of the tag. If you are in the area please drop in between 5:30pm to 7:30pm.  It should take about 20 minutes to complete.

Liguid Pearls

This is the Make n Take we will be doing.

See the post below for a short video I made highlighting the technique I used on the leaves

 

How I did not become a Movie Star

When I was a young girl I dreamt, as many young girls do, of being a movie star.  I fantasized about being famous and living an amazing life in Hollywood.  It took me many many years, in fact till four weeks ago to realize that this particular dream is never going to happen.  Luckily I have a lot of other dreams.


I have been saying for three years or more that we are going to start making videos for the store.  I have been yakking, talking and planning and talking some more about doing them but never actually, well doing them.

I even took a class with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer at a trade show (CHA) on how to make interesting videos but there was always an excuse when it came time to start.

I don’t have the right equipment;

I don’t know how to work the camera;

oh no, I don’t even know what software to use and if I knew I would then have to learn how to use the software and I don’t have time

Like I said, excuses, all kinds of excuses.

I think in the back of my mind I was sabotaging myself into thinking it had to be perfect, a blockbuster video right out of the gate, that it had to be absolutely amazing, that would have everyone talking about how fantastic it was.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I was having a conversation with Dina Wakley and she was encouraging me (thanks Dina) to just do it. . . . and I decided to well, just shut up and do it.

I wanted to share with you how the video process actually worked, there are three of us helping to do this video, me, Lisa and Nancy (coworkers) and it took many days to do.

I got a tripod and borrowed a working camera.  We set the tripod up on the desk facing down onto my mat like this.

Shooting our video

Shooting our video

We actually have to stand up on a stool to see into the camera to make sure it is in focus, that we have my non stick craft sheet in the middle of the frame and then someone presses the “Record” button.  Fantastic we are ready to film

Video Take 1.  Finally got all the camera equipment working, sat down to film, Lisa sat in front of me watching me and she talked through the whole video. . . . Not to worry, I can always remove the sound track and do a voice over.  (yeah right, like I know how to do that)   I pick up a piece of chipboard to mask off a portion of the project, only to realize that I had written “Toilet Paper Rolls” on the chipboard and it shows in the video.

Video Take 2:  Sit down, make sure I have all the items around me that I am going to use, start the video and realize I can’t actually speak during the process.  I can’t get my mouth to form words out loud.  What the heck is wrong with me????  This is “IT”, the moment when it finally dawns on me that I will never ever be an actress. I can’t act, I hate having all the attention on me  and I am not at all comfortable in front of a camera. 

Video Take 3:  Sit down, Get everything set up, start filming and working. I am reading off a script and although I sound disjointed and like a babbling idiot I am actually talking, which at this moment in time feels like a huge accomplishment.  Finish the video, download it to my computer to review . . . . and it is completely out of focus.

Video Take 4:  Sit down, start the video, can’t find any of the tools I need as I had not prepared.  Did not know what I was working on, gave up and realized it did not matter as the lens cap was still on.

Video Take 5: Finally realize the tripod we have the camera on, actually extends much more than we thought.  So we can have the camera on the floor, right in front of me and we can see through the viewfinder and turn it on without being on a step stool. I mean seriously, we are that dumb!!!

So much easier to shot like this!

So much easier to shoot like this!

So I sit down, I have everything around me, I have my script and we start.  I talk, I create and it looks good.  We review the footage and it is out of focus again. frigg!

and then . . . . many attempts later we finally get some usable, in focus, well narrated video footage and the next hurdle is editing. . . . . and it turns out that this part is really easy. I do not know why this part frightened me.  I casually transferred the footage onto a thumb drive and give it to my husband to process. Yes, it was that easy.

The video is actually only four minutes in length but if you watch it 30 times in a row it will feel like a full length feature movie and you will have time to eat your popcorn.  Be kind in your comments please it took a lot of sweat and effort to get here.

and this is our video masterpiece, please enjoy!

 

Now I am just sitting back waiting for an agent to call me and thinking of the next video.

 

Tag Tutorial coming

I made this tag yesterday and did it at the store as a Make n Take today.  Sometimes I get into a bright colorful mood, so I made this tag using the new Neon Dabbers by Hero Arts.  It was very hard to get a good photograph, this tag is just so vibrant in real life.

Hero Arts Neon Dabbers

Neon Floral Tag

I am in the process of editing photos and writing a tutorial for this tag, so check back in a couple of days to find out how I made it.