Tag: Stamping

Sketch for Card

unikatissima Card Sketch

Links of entry

Pages of the heart presented once weekly a card sketch for making cards. Together with the beautiful cards made by others it is always an inspiration for card making.

On the photo you see a card I made following the weekly sketch #9 (but I turned it around).
The card background is stamped with bought as well as self-made stamps and the daisies are hand embroidered just as the paper crazy quilt.

They are re-vamping the website, so it is a little more laborious to reach the articles: Go to the articles site and search there (left navigation bar) for ‘Weekly Sketch’ in the categorie ‘Cards’.
The result will compensate for the trouble :)


Links:
At Pages of the heart: Card sketches
Browse them by going to the articles site and search there (left navigation bar) for ‘Weekly Sketch’ in the categorie ‘Cards’

Here at unikatissima:
Eraser Stamps
Paper Crazy Quilt

Nature Paper

Nature Paper

Once I found a tutorial on how to make paper from vegetables, but I don’t find back the tutorial (it was at ARD-Buffet, but it seems to be too long ago).
On the photo you see a card made with cucumber paper for a friend for the end of fast.

How to make cucumber paper:

  1. Cut the cucumber in slices of about 0,5 cm / 0,2 inches.
  2. Put the slices between two layers of tissue paper.
    They must overlap to form a sheet of paper!
  3. Put everything into the microwave and put several plates as weight onto your paper-to-be.
  4. Heat at a high temperature for about 1 minute.
    (Note: Please be careful when using the microwave!)
  5. After 1 minute the tissue paper is wet, you have to change it. Also air the cucumber paper a little bit.

Repeat steps 2 – 5 until the tissue paper stays nearly dry.
Lay between new sheets of tissue paper and between several layers of old newspapers and put some weight on it.
About once a day you must replace the moist tissue paper and newspapers by dry ones.
After 2 – 3 days your cucumber paper is ready for use.

Cucumber seems to be one of the easiest vegetables to be used for paper. You can also use other vegetables, but I haven’t tried them and can’t say, how thick the slices must be and how long it takes.
The paper is real paper: You can write on it, you can cut it and so forth.

Moldable Stamps

Moldable Stamps

Links of entry

I knew about those moldable foam stamps, but I never realized how versatile they are and what great stamps you can make from them. You can even combine them into stunning collages.
I’m speechless again ;-))

On the photo you see my attempt at stamping a clothespins pattern. Because I don’t have no moldable stamp, I used my kneaded eraser. I think this is a great background for a card.


Links:
Moldable Foam Stamps
Foam Stamping: The Follow-Up

unikatissima’s Eraser Stamps

Faux Silk

Faux Silk

Links of entry

I love to imitate things, so I had to check immediately the tutorial on how to make faux silk for cards.
On the photo you see my results: I took one of my self carved eraser stamps, coloured it with a marker and stamped on tissue paper (the left flower). Then, just to see what happens, I stamped two more times. The photo isn’t so good, but the pale stamps look elegant. On the third I didn’t smooth the paper to allow for more crinkles.

I will use this technique more often.


Links:
Faux Silk

unikatissima’s Eraser Stamps how-to
unikatissima’s Stamping With Markers how-to

Nail File Envelope

Nail File Envelope

Links of entry

Once I found instructions on how to make a nail file envelope, which I embraced, because me too, I never have such a file when I need it and I don’t like to search ‘free’ nail files in the depths of my bag.

I’m not much of a stamper (although I would like to be ;-)), so I made them with my own with markers and a little moist coloured tissue papers, I collaged them from magazines and I made them from doodled coffee-dyed newspaper (see second photo).

Nail File Envelope Because I own 5 cm wide clear packaging tape (a little less than 2 inches), I made the envelopes slender enough to cover them completely with the tape. This way they are sturdier and more robust in the depths of my bag ;-)
The nail file envelopes are a lot of fun to make and a very good giveaway at nearly everybody. Even men took them voluntarily! ;-)
Most fun for everybody is, when I present the whole range of my nail file envelopes and everybody can select their own.


Links:
Nail File Envelope

Watercolor Button Garden

Watercolor Button Garden

Links of entry

Pink Paper Peppermints has a beautiful project: 31 Crafty Flowers.
I checked them all and I wanted to present one of them, although I haven’t tried it yet, because I dont’ have the right markers: the Watercolor Button Garden.
Aren’t they beautiful?
And be sure to check the other flowers too :)


Links:
Watercolor Button Garden

Bargello

Bargello

Links of entry

While working with polymer clay I found a tutorial on how-to make items with a Bargello-look.

Then I made a little research to know what Bargello is (links see below):
It seems, that the first ‘Bargello craft’ was embroidery, but then the quilters worked Bargello-looking quilts, the polymer clay people made those items with a Bargello-look and the stampers and cardmaking people use this technique on paper. And I made my Bargello digitally as you can see on the picture ;-)
What a versatile technique ;-)


Links:
Embroidery:
Wikipedia: English entry for ‘Bargello’

Defining Bargello

How-to make Bargello needlework:
Bargello Work
Bargello needlepoint

Quilting:
How To Make Bargello Quilt

Polymer Clay:
Tutorial on how-to make items with a Bargello-look
Bargello Swap
Tutorial on how to make a Bargello pattern as cane and as sheet

Stamped Paper:
Bargello (English) (with explaining pictures)

Letter stencils

Letter stencils

Links of entry

Rosie showed her beautiful carved stamps and mentioned that she wants to carve letters too.
I prefer to use letter stencils, because I can use them in such a flexible way.
On the first photo you see a page from an artist book of mine yet to be finished. It has the theme ‘Colour’ and I stenciled the word ‘Pink’. On the other photo beneath you can see the stencil.

This is how I did it:
You’ll need:

  • Plain paper
  • Different fonts on your computer
  • Clear tape
  • Sharp knife, like an Xacto knife

What to do:

  1. Print the word you’re interested in in the requested size on paper.
    Note: You can use just one font, but I found different fonts for every letter more appealing.
    Note: Best are big fonts because they are easier to cut out.
  2. Put some clear tape on the print.
  3. Cut the letters carefully.
    Note: The tape makes the paper sturdier, so that the cutting is a little easier.
  4. Stencil your word wherever you want (paper, cardboard, fabric, glass, wood etc.).
    Note: I painted with a marker on the clear tape round the letters and smeared them with my fingers onto the paper.

Letter stencils The tape makes the paper not only sturdy, but also quite waterproof, so that you can use it several times with nearly every kind of colours. If necessary you can put tape on both sides of the paper prior to the cutting.

You can find a similar tutorial on instructables.com for making your own freezer paper and your own freezer paper stencil. I guess it is better for making bigger stencils, but I haven’t tried it.


Links:
Rosie’s carved stamps

Eraser Stamps Tutorials
Photo Stamps Tutorial

My Artist Book

Freezer paper and stencil tutorial