Stamp of Excellence, Inc. Imagination Destination through Creation

Creative Minds Upcycle

    One of the very first quote stamps I created for Stamp of Excellence, Inc. 20 years ago was "Creative minds are seldom tidy" 304A. 

 You can find this on our web at stampofexcellence.com.
     These words are never more true than when we have a table top destroying class like yesterdays! For me, some of the most fun classes for everyone to play with is when we pull out stacks of old magazines and search for the perfect pictures, words and graphics to collage our art project. Our Go Green Tag class was an experiment in Upcycling. What is upcycling you ask? Upcycling is taking an existing item, like our magazine pages, and turning it, or them, into something better.  Take a look and see what some crazy fun ladies idea on upcycling looks like.     

    The first project followed closely to my blog spot from April 6, 2011, Flowers for a Special Day 3025G.  If you go back and look it up you can get the "How 'to's" and create just like all of us yesterday. I have several pictures to let you see what these amazing women came up with.

    This pooch on his back cracks me up!  And I loved the gold/yellow rose paper Bobbie found for her tag and Tim Holtz® butterfly.

    Sabrina's lavender tag and ribbon was over the top in color, and her bright yellow/orange poster fit her personality perfectly! But, what do you think of the pup Carol found to go with her word Seriously?    

    Our second project was open to whatever each of the ladies wanted to collage; a card, tag or poster. It is so much fun to see what everyone comes up with in a class like this.  One of the best parts of collage art from magazines is that there is so little expense to create these upcycled works of art! The main supplies you need, except lots of magazines, is adhesives, glue or tape, and a base card stock, bag or book for applying all the treasures you find.    

    This poster Pat layered looks so much like our Autumn in the Rocky Mountains here in Southern Colorado. Her colors where wonderful and warm plus the card stock she found to frame this beauty was perfect!

    One last look into our expressive upcycling.  These are Jackie's two projects.  Even though the "S" on Special Day didn't emboss perfectly, not enough heat time, we were able to go back with a pigment ink pen and redraw and emboss it to all most good as new perfection.  We say in stamping, "all mistakes are happy mistakes" because this is how we learn new tricks and ideas.  Jackie didn't know about an embossing pen before yesterday and now everyone does!

    Thanks for taking a peek into our creative mess yesterday. I hope it will inspire your own "upcycling" adventures.  You have nothing to loose, and I'm guessing you will get as hooked as we are on reinventing new and better from old and about to be thrown away!

    Look inside yourself for your own creative bliss ~ I promise you'll have fun!

                                                                        Judi
 
 

A Little Encouragement

    Some days we all just need a little encouragement ~ am I right?  That is what my Large Caterpillar/Butterfly 3215F quote is all about, helping someone see past today into a better tomorrow.

    I have to tell you, I personally use this quote with these two lovely butterflies, Royal Monarch 4050J, and Side Monarch 4051G all the time!  When my beautiful niece Melissa and Travis got married years ago my sister Jacksie and I made several hundred of these gift tags above.  The good news, when you are doing a project this large, you figure it out quickly and it starts going very fast.

    Let me tell you how we created all those tags.  We first sponged purple and lavender ink directly onto a size 8 shipping tag blending and mixing the shades as we inked. We set them aside as we worked and I'm here to tell you after a few hundred inkings you know the first tags are dry! Next, we imaged the butterflies and quote with black ink.  Moving on, with all the layers of ink dry, we used a VersaMark clear pigment ink directly from the pad to cover the entire front of the imaged tag. VersaMark was coated completely with my favorite ever, Psychedelic Embossing Powder PSYEPD.  Shook off the excess and heated until melted.  What is so awesome about Psychedelic Embossing Powder is that the darker the card stock, or ink color you melt it onto the more the iridescent shimmer becomes. This awesome powder is available from stampofexcellence.com, but there will be no picture of it available until the start of next week as my son Beefy has our camera this weekend for his best friends, Danny and Christy's wedding this afternoon. (That is another blog I promise to bring you next week ~~ can't wait!!!)

    Add some luscious matching fibers and your "support a friend" tag is ready for a warm personal note on the back. Helping some one else through a rough patch quite often helps us personally as much as our buddy in need.  Give it a try.  Making art is guaranteed to brighten everyones day!

    Have a great weekend!  I'm off to see one of my favorite kids marry his best girl!  How special is that?!!!

Be blissfully happy for any other choice is just not as good!

                                                                            Judi

Tattered Florals

    Even though I have created, built and run a successful rubber art stamp store, Stamp of Excellence, Inc. for 20 amazing years, sometimes perfect art just doesn't need a stamped image.  Can't believe I just typed that for the entire world to read!  But, the proof is in the pictures.  

Take a look. 

    There is just no need for words on the outside of this bright greeting.  Now, on the inside, that is another matter all together!  This beauty screams for a bright pink sentiment stamped inside.

    This Sizzix Tattered Florals THS656640 by Tim Holtz®, is one of my favorites to use in card making, tags art and books. What I love about Tim's die cut is that the petals are just like God grows them, uneven and well, tattered.  Because it is a steel rule die cut it will not only cut paper but is also great on heaver products like the rubbery white shelf liner I used for the largest base flower.  

    One of my "good idea" tricks on this type card is; decide where your ribbon will rest, at that spot, make a slit the width of the ribbon on the fold line at the top of your card. Now, just thread your ribbon through your slit and tie a perfect knot in the center of the card.  This way you don't need any glue or tape to hold your beautiful ribbon in place ~ there is no way it can fall off!  I love this trick.  Another suggestion is when die cutting flourishes, leaves, words, etc., use a card stock with a subtle pattern.  It softens the look.  For this Vine with Leaves die cut from Sizzix I used mistletoe card stock.  Who knows, maybe this card comes with a kiss or two as well.

    Here is a second take on the same Floral die cut.           Looks like a completely different flower doesn't it?  Did I mention that I love this die cut?  It is so extremely versatile. To get the look above I cut each flowers from both the dotted card stock as well as some off white tissue.  Smudged the edges a bit with black ink and carried off the color pattern with the glossy black brad to hold it all together.  When it was time to teach this class I didn't have enough of the off white tissue, so, I die cut an old dress pattern that I picked up at a second hand store.  Almost the same exact color.  And, it only cost 29¢ for enough tissue to make hundreds of flowers! 

    Hope you got some blooming ideas from these pictures. But, I don't want to mislead you about stamping.  There is plenty of room inside the card to stamp any number of greetings which you can find on our web site, stampofexcellence.com, under the product heading, Quotes.

    Kathy I hope you, and everyone, will try some of these patterns and get back to me with your results. No two blooms look the same when you switch up the materials to create these lovelies.  Be sure to try all textures of fabrics and card stock mixed.  I know you will come to love Tim's florals as much as I have!

    Always follow your heart to creative bliss,

                                                              Judi