Tips & Tricks - Simply Pressed Clay

Remember plasticine as a kid and I think a lot of us had our Fimo phase. I remember working with my Mum when she made bead necklaces with Fimo.

I've also tried air dry clay in the past but it always seemed too dry & never that easy to work with and the ones that were easy to work with always needed to go in the oven to dry.  There was one memorable occasion when I messed up Farenheit and Celsius and yuck burning clay does not smell good. 

Received as a Swap from Shirley Fisher.

So I am back in my plasticine phase with the Stampin' Up!® Simply Pressed Clay, it's so therapeutic to smoosh between your fingers and I'm loving how easy it is to get out of the moulds. I've made up a lot of flowers and a few buttons now so I don't have to wait 24 hours for them to dry.




If you've got the Simply Pressed Clay or want to find out a bit more about it before you buy it have a look at the video  featuring Bonnie Thurber from the Stampin' Up!® Home Office.

Bonnie mentioned popping the clay in it's mould in the freezer for a few minutes for the buttons.  I find it helpful if I do this for the blossoms as well.  

Tips & Tricks - How Important Is Your Stamping Surface

I was reminded quite by accident just how important the surface underneath your card stock layer is.

I'd had a fabulous morning out with a friend and came home and decided it was time to make up some spare make & take kits to have on hand for thank you cards.  The afternoon had turned cold and I found myself moving everything I was doing closer to the heater and ended up with my cutting mat, topped with grid paper on the carpet in front of the heater.

I stamped away as usual and this is what happened.  You'll always get some halo effect (gaps in a stamped image across layers) with the Triple Time Stamping technique but wow this was huge.

Realising my error and cursing a bit because I should have known better I moved over to my glass topped coffee table.

Still some halo effect because of the layers but a big difference having a solid surface.

 

Having the layers hides the missing part of the image and creates the Triple Time Stamping technique popularised by Dawn Olchefske.

Everything used to make this project can be purchased through me. Click on the 'Shop 24/7' button below to place your order. 

Tips & Tricks - Changing a Snail Refill

What's the first thing you pack when you go out crafting?  For me it's my Snail tape runner and a refill.  Even if it was a brand new unused snail I'd still pack a refill.  I think if I ran out of snail my crafting would just grind to a halt.

So how to you change the refill?

With your thumbs pull the snail apart at the point indicated by the arrow. 

Throw the clear piece away.

Take the new refill out of it's packaging and remove and throw away the piece of yellow spacer card.

 Snap it back together and you're done.  All ready to use again.

Big Shot - Scalloped Background/Foreground

 Get together: -

-     Big Shot and Tasteful Trim Die

-     Designer Series Paper Scraps  - at least the length of an A5 Card

-     Cardstock for card base and other decorating

-     Stamp Set, ink pad and other decorating items of your choice.

 

Just as an extra tip before we start, I found this great idea for storing DSP scraps in a magazine.  For paper packs in pads like the DSP Paper stacks I’ve stuck a plastic file pocket in the back to hold all the scraps in place.  The magazine tip used an envelope but I liked the idea of being able to see what I had.

I chose to use paper scraps that were the full 12” long as that is the length of the die.  I cut them to 5cm wide, wider than the die to make sure the strips didn’t slide of the side of the die.

I had eight strips of DSP and as the Big Shot is able to cut up to nine placed them in a pile on top of the Scallop section on the side of the die.  I chose to use the scallop because it had one straight edge.

Run the die through the Big Shot as normal.

Choose your cardstock, any colour will do as it won’t be visible in the finished project.  Cover in adhesive.  I used a Multi Purpose adhesive sheet.  

 

Lay your strips of DSP on the cardstock in a pattern that suits you.

When you’re happy with how it looks cut into the size needed for your project.  Mine were cut to 95x138mm for use as a background on my card.  Although not a lot of embellishing was needed with these bright colours so maybe it’s also the foreground.

Add embellishments and finish off your card.

Tips & Tricks - Sharp Creases

There are lots of different ways used by card makers to get a sharp crease in their card bases.  I prefer this very simple method that just uses one very inexpensive tool.

To start I fold my card base in half lining up the corners and crease the fold line with my fingers.  As you can see from the photo it's not a very sharp fold and it's very difficult to work with a surface that isn't flat.

 

Next I grab my bone folder and run the edge along the fold.

 

This is the nice flat surface I now have to work with.  It also makes sure that your finished card stands nicely once it's been received by your recipient.

Bone folders are also great for running down the track in a paper trimmer to create a score line, burnishing punched/die cut shapes to create dimension and sharpening creases in 3d items such as boxes. 

 

 

Tips & Tricks - Filling Cellophane Bags

The smallest cellophane bag size is great for quick and easy gifts such as workshop door prizes like these ones.

At just $5.50 for a pack of 50 with the flowers using up scrap cardstock the most expensive part of the gift is the jaffas. 

However being only 2.5cms wide they are a bit fiddly to fill so I was very pleased when Sharlene, my team leader, told me about this trick.  Thanks Sharlene.

Clear cellophane bags never photograph well so I hope you can see that I've taken another scrap of cardstock about 2.5 x 7 cms, folded it in half and used it to both hold the bag open and to act as a funnel to get the Jaffas into the bag.

These are the products I used to make this project: - 

2.5x20cm Cellophane Bags - 124134
 
Scraps of Whisper White and Pumpkin Pie Cardstock

Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad - 126949

Mixed Bunch Stamp Set - 128442 (wood), 125537 (clear)

Blossom Punch - 125603

1" Circle Punch -119868

3/4" Circle Punch - 119873

MDS - Launch Bag Tag - Rotating Text

Going to MDS I chose my project a 2 1/2 x 4 1/4" tag and chose the 'designer' option instead of 'create your own'.  Scrolling through it was the very last option that caught my eye - 'A  Little of This - thanks'.

 
I selected the following options to remove the bleed area, which also removed the mark for the hole.
 

I wanted to add a name to each tag so used the text options to do this and to colour it to match the colours in the tag.  I chose to use 'Taken with Teal'. 

However the text really needed to be the right way up so used the rotate bar in the 'text' menu to select the number of degrees to move it by.  I found I couldn't select -90degrees exactly so adjusted it afterwards using the box to the top right of the slider.

Here's how it looked attached to the bag.  I managed to print 20 of these for my launch very quickly.  The ladies asked did I have a fancy printer because it printed so nicely.  I put that down to the Whisper White cardstock that I used in my cheap little multifunction printer. 

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