Great article about Hobby Lobby

Yes, I know they're technically "competition" but I thought some of you scrappers out there might like the read.

http://www.chron.com/business/sixel/article/Sixel-Retailer-boosts-its-own-minimum-wage-3493182.php

Ok, I should back in action some time next week. It's been crazy at home and being a one-man-band is not fun.

Freda

Real Live strikes again!

Yeah, I know it's been a while. I will be back soon with the rest of the smash book pages. And photos of what's been going on in real life. You'll like! I promise :-)

Freda


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Smash Book part 19

This first one may look familiar and that's because there is a similar page, but not with the dictionary paper. I definitely like it much better with dictionary pages. Inked with distress stains, heat dry, and gesso. Sprayed a yellow tinted glimmer mist (very lightly):

More dictionary pages with my tropical colors: pink, yellow, orange and lime (all distress ink colors). I also did it the "old fashioned" way: ink my craft mat and spritz with my mini-mister. Finally, inked the edge of my page for a cool distress look. Your project isn't complete unless you have an inked edge:

Just a page with a bunch of flowers and inked edge. However, stay tuned for another flower surprise (tomorrow) inspired by a man's shirt (of all things!):

First I sprayed the center with brown tinted glimmer mist, then an orange, red, green. Next I took a can of vienna sausage and pressed into my ink pad and then pressed all over my page:

Come back tomorrow for some  more fun! :-)

Freda

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Smash Book part 18

With this first page I attempted some clear UTEE with stamping. The base is acrylic paint. Sorry about the glare but it took me so many attempts with the camera to get a shot that wasn't completely blinded by the flash and it would not come out without a flash. Sigh!:

You might recall a couple of days ago that a table top at my favorite Mexican Restaurant inspired a similar page. Well, Steak n' Shake inspired this one:

With this page I colored with distress stains, crumpled up the paper, unfolded, then rubbed distress ink over the raised parts, spritz with my mini-mister, and iron to flatten and dry:

With this final page for today, I rubbed distress stain on my craft mat, took my paper and did a sloppy accordian fold, and let the paper soak up the ink. Next, I used a craft iron to flatten and dry, sprayed with a brown colored glimmer mist color, heat gun dry:

We're getting there! Just a few more days of photos and techniques!

:-)

Freda

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Smash Book part 17

I'm loving this first page! Acrylic paint with gold embossing powder:

I took an embossing folder and rubbed black soot distress ink using my ink applicator. Then spray gently with a red hue of glimmer mist:

With this one, I went for the plaid look with my distress stains: 

Distress Stains, crackled paint, and distress ink:

Come back tomorrow for more! :-)

Freda

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Smash Book part 16

Are you ready for some more? This one I used my choice of Distress stains and sprayed a little with Glimmer Mist while the Distress Stains was still wet so it would all blend in a little. Then I tore strips of paper and laid one over the other to use as a mask. Next, spray with a darker color in Glimmer Mist. Dry. Stamp (with the paper still on as a mask) with a script stamp of your choice. Finally, give it a good coat of Glim Glam:

I have these Fleur de Lis stamps in my collection so I decided to do something French. The colors are from Distress Stains and acrylic paint. Unfortunately the White Picket Fence Distress Stains did not coat the paper well enough for the look I wanted. So I used acrylic paint instead for the white:

Ah! This one, believe or not, was inspired by a table top at a local Mexican Restaurant. Done entirely with acrylic paint and stamps. Basically the process was paint, dry, stamp, dry, stamp. This photo looks better in close up and even better in person:

I also have a ton of flower stamps. Distress Stains was my background:

Tomorrow I have a couple of surprises for you!

Freda

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Smash Book part 15

Today I played around with my embossing powder a little bit. The photos don't really do the pages any justice;  you really need to see them in person and feel. The first one is with acrylic pain, inked stamp, and using a stencil on the edge with embossing powder:

Remember the bubble wrap? This time I used it with embossing glue and sprinkled with black embossing powder: 

Glimmer Mist and gesso. This was meant to be the "negative" version of a page from yesterday, but it did not come out as well as I hoped. I'm going to try something similar soon, but with dictionary paper. So don't think you're seeing double :-):

Hmm...this one did not come out as well as hoped either. Sigh! :-(: 

Ok, since I had two bummers in a row, I decided to include a bonus page. This one is Distress Stains, my Tim Holtz Stamper's Anonymous stamps, and Distress Ink. I kept the stamps on the card in their original position since the card is almost the same size as the paper I was working with. Remember, Distress Ink is reactive. So I decided to make this page interesting by using my mini-misters to spray water on it. See how the ink bleeds through the paper? It also created some water spots where the Distress Stains are. Dried with heat gun (carefully! The other side has embossing powder, lol) and inked around edges with some more Black Soot (Distress Ink): 

Come back tomorrow for more! They just keep getting better :-).

Freda

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