Father's Day Card

Yes, I know that Red Rubber Designs has other stamps and other new releases, but for some reason, this month, I  keep going back to the Hey Life Stamp Set.  This just goes to show you how versatile this stamp set is!  Today, I'm using the golfer from this set to create a quick Father's Day card.  After all, Father's Day is all about golf at our house.  Actually - Mother's Day was too this year...hmmmm....Anyway, the argyle patterned paper from the "Just Like Dad" paper stack reminded me of a golf shirt with navy trim.  I created "buttons" from Mulberry Meadows Hardware.  "Happy Father's Day" is from the Contemporary Greetings stamp collection (another MUST HAVE) from Red Rubber Designs.

Happy Father's Day!!

Four!!!

Patriotic Bangle

With Memorial Day coming up and Flag Day and 4th of July not too far off, I thought I'd create a bangle bracelet with some of Red Rubber Designs patriotic stamps.  I started with a wooden bangle blank and used Palette Cognac Ink on a dobber to warm up the color of the wood.  Then I used Palette Moulin Rouge and Beaux Arts Blue around the edges and again used a dobber get bring the color just into the edges of the bracelet face.

Now....let the stamping begin.....I used the Liberty Rubber Stamp and Cognac Ink to create a background - stamping at a diagonal around the bracelet so that the detail of the face and crown show.  Then I added "Bless the USA", "United we Stand" and "Some Gave All" from the United We Stand Stamp Set in black.  Both Liberty and United We Stand are from the New Releases for May at Red Rubber Designs.

Stamping on rounded surfaces can be a little challenging.  It works best to have your stamp on an acrylic block.  Hold the bracelet steady and set one edge of the stamp on the bracelet.  Then slowly roll the stamp along the curve - applying steady pressure to get a clean impression.  Don't try to roll it back up to darken the stamp because the odds are your stamp has shifted and your impression will be blurry.

Once the ink was dry, I used a gloss acrylic sealer to protect it.

Connie Crystal and Shell Candle Holder

If you've ever been to a beach, especially if you have kids, then you probably have a box, bag, jar or, in my case, ketchup squeeze bottle full of shells.  I ran across our collection the other day and thought it would be perfect for a fun summer candle holder.  This project is super quick, easy, inexpensive and functional....what's not to love?!

You will need the following:
Small glass votive candle holder
Med glass votive candle holder (I got both of these at Hobby Lobby - at 50% off, the pair was less than $2.00)
E6000 Glue
About 1/2 cup of small shells
30 - 40 Connie Crystals in various sizes, colors and shapes.  (I really love the octagon crystals in this!)
I also added some pearls I had leftover from a previous project.

Step 1 - Remove any price tags or labels.  Run a bead of E600 around the bottom of the small glass and place it inside the larger glass.

Step 2 - Begin filling the area between the glasses with shells - filling about 1" up the glass.  Shake the glass gently to get the shells to settle.

Step 3 - Once you have a fairly solid layer of shells, begin adding crystals in a random pattern.  Add pearls, if desired, and some smaller shells.  You want this layer to be primarily crystals so that they catch the light of the candle.  I used a mix of purple, blue, aqua, amber and clear.  The various shades of blue mixed with gold reminded me of a sunset on water.

Once you are happy with the arrangement, add a votive candle and enjoy.  The crystals throw beautiful sparkles of light. Also, since none of the beads are glued in, if you decide you need a bead for a project, there it is.  Why keep your beautiful crystals in a box or drawer, when you can have them displayed in a candle until you need them for something else?!

RRD - Tutorial Tuesday

It's Tutorial Tuesday on the Red Rubber Design Blog!  I'm happy and excited to share my first tutorial for the Red Rubber Design Team.  Here's a little teaser of a before and after photo for the project and technique featured in the tutorial:

Want to see more?  I KNOW you do!!  Head over to Red Rubber Design's Blog too see the full project!!

Or head to Red Rubber Designs website for a FREE downloadable version and pick up this stamp and SO MANY MORE while you're there!

Fairy in a Bottle

 

I have a thing for bottles....I like to melt them in my kiln and I have been known to buy wine because I like the color or shape of the bottle.  So when my husband saw a very nice blue bottle of a particular adult beverage, he thought 'I bet my wife would like that bottle'.  (sure, that's what he was thinking... ;)  Unfortunately, this bottle design does not work well for melting, so I wanted to find another way to reuse it.  I had seen "Fairies in a Jar" on the internet and decided to make my own version....Fairy in a bottle.

The first step was to cut the bottle.  I have an old fashioned bottle cutter.  There are new ones on the market - I'm not sure if they are easier or not, but if you go to diamondtechcrafts.com, they have lots of information on cutting bottles.  Once the bottle was cut and sanded it was time for the fun part.

First the fairy:  The fairy's body and head are made from white polymer clay. Roll the clay thru a pasta maker on the thickest setting and then trim it to be about 3" square.  Cut the square in half and place an eye pin in the center of one piece of clay, so that the eye is about 1/4" from the top edge and the shaft extends up beyond the clay.  Place the second piece on top so that they sandwich the eye pin - pressing slightly to adhere the two pieces.

Coat the clay in Art Glitter Blue Angel Ultrafine Pearlescent.  Cut a long teardrop shape in  the clay and cover the newly exposed sides in Art Glitter Purple Lame Ultrafine Opaque.  Then gently twist the teardrop into a spiral - the Fairy's body.  Use some of the excess clay to roll a ball for the head - coat it in Blue Angel glitter and put it on the pin.  Spin the head a little bit at this point so that it is lose on the pin - you'll want to be able to slide it off the pin after baking.  Bake the head and body according to clay manufacturer's instructions.

After baking, I didn't feel that there was enough glitter - I wanted the purple to really pop - so I ran a little Designer Dries Clear Adhsive down the edges of the spiral and coated them with more of the Purple Lame glitter.

Art Glitter Bellflower Fantasy Fiber was used to create the hair.  Set a clump of it on a teflon sheet and cover with another teflon sheet and then iron just in the center to bond the fibers.  Glue to the top of her head then put the head back on the pin.  Pull the "hair" back to form a lose, low ponytail and glue in place using more Designer Dries Clear Adhesive.  I just wanted the fiber to create the look of hair and a sparkling aura, so lose and messy is fine.  Trim the pin and round it to form a loop at the top of her head that will be used to dangle her in the bottle.

The wings were made with Sunkissed Fantasy Film from Art Glitter and glittered with Blue Agnel UF Pearlescent, Purple Lame UF Opaque, Crystal UF Transparent, Horizon UF Transparent.  There are links to great youtube videos on the Art Glitter website for working with Fantasy Film and Glittering butterfly wings.  I'll post the links at the end of this post as well.  After the wings are dry, bend them slightly and then glue them in place with more Designer Dries Clear Adhesive.

The bottle was decorated using Stazon Silver Ink and a flourish stamp.  When I stamp on rounded glass, I like to use clear stamps without an acrylic block.  After inking the stamp, I carefully place it on the bottle - holding it in place with one hand, while I tap it to go around curves with the other hand.  The nice thing about stamping on glass, is that you can remove it if it looks bad.  But don't stress too much about getting perfect stamps, because this flourish becomes a background and you don't notice it as much once you get the glitter on. Paint Designer Dries Clear Adhesive on the neck of the bottle and then sprinkle Crystal glitter onto that.  Then begin a free-form dotted scroll pattern by making dots of 3D Embossit on the bottle.  After each small section, stop to coat the dots with Crystal Glitter.  You want to be putting the glitter on while the glue is still white and looks wet.  Then make a simple dot pattern at the bottom with little trios of dots going around the bottom of the bottle - again using the Emboss it and sprinkling with Crystal glitter.  Once this is dry, use a soft brush to brush off the excess glitter.

Dangle the fairy inside the bottle by poking a hole in the bottle cap.  Tie clear beading wire to the loop at the top of the fairy's head and then bring the end of that that wire up thru the top of the bottle.  HINT:  tie a bead or something to the wire so you can drop it down the neck of the bottle from inside the bottle.   Once you have the thread coming out the top of the bottle, you can remove the bead, thread the cord thru the hole in the bottle cap and then put the bottle cap on the bottle.  Tie a crystal at the top to hold the thread in place and send the excess thread back thru the hole in the bottle cap.

NOTE:  If you don't have a bottle cutter but wanted to try this project, you could do this in a jar, or make your fairy small enough that you can put her in the bottle from the top.  Since the wings are Fantasy Film, they could be wrapped around the fairy to drop her into the bottle and they would fluff back out once they had room to unwrap.  (Make sure you have her tied onto the bead wire and don't let go, because once she's in there I don't think you'd be able to get her out!)

Supplies used:
Bottle
Bottle Cutter (see Diamond Tech Crafts)
White Polymer Clay
Eye Pin
Art Institute Glitter:
#183 Blue Angel Ultrafine Pearlescent, #157 Purple Lame Ultrafine Opaque,  #85 Crystal Ultrafine Transparent, #269 Horizon Ultrafine Transparent
Art Institute Adhesives:
Designer Dries Clear Adhesive
3D Embossit
Art Institute Fantasy Film and Fantasy Fiber:
Fantasy Film - Sunkissed
Fantasy Fiber - Bellflower

Helpful Links:
How to glitter a butterfly: http://artglitter.com/retail/Rrainbowbutterfly.html
How to make a Fantasy Film Dragon Fly:  http://artglitter.com/retail/rfantasyfilmdragonfly.html

Get your Summer On

My daughter is not your average 8-year old girly girl.  In fact, we are redecorating her bedroom in a Chicago Bears theme.  She would not be caught dead in anything pink, purple or the slightest bit frilly.  So this "Get Your Summer On" canvas is for her.  The stamps used here are from the "Hey Life" stamp set that was featured in yesterday's blog hop.  When she saw this stamp set, she couldn't wait for me to get it mounted so that she could do something with the skate boarder.  (I did make her wait until I got my project completed)  But stamps like this - that have a little bit for every taste - are even getting my little tomboy into stamping!!

For this canvas, I started by painting a sun-streaked background in various shades of yellow, orange and a little red acrylic paint - working from the upper corner and fanning out.  Then I dabbed some paint in the top corner and sprinkled with gold embossing powder while it was still wet.  I heat set the embossing powder to create a little glitter and texture.  Then I stenciled a white pattern around the border.  The stamps were done in Black so that I could go over them with a fine-tip black marker.  The texture of the canvas makes it tough to get full coverage with your stamp, but by filling in with marker, you can still create a nice sharp design.

After the stamps - the rest is just embellishing....Some swirled black "pearls" to create movement for the skateboarder and cyclist.  Stickers for the letters - with the "SUMMER" covered in Art Glitter.  Finally, I added the flowers, bugs and acrylic "sun".

To see this stamp and the other May releases from Red Rubber Designs, visit the New Releases page at Red Rubber Designs.

New Stamp from Red Rubber Designs!

The Red Rubber Design team is Hoppin' again! Beginning today, we will introduce new stamps on the first Thursday of every month, with a blog hop and PRIZES. It's a fun way to see what's new at RRD and see what the team is doing with some of the new stamps. For today's project, we were all to use the bicycle lady from the "Hey Life" stamp set. Now, let me start by saying that the bicycle lady is not nearly as scary as Almira Gulch (A/K/A the Wicked Witch of the West), but I thought it would be fun to use her in this Oz inspired canvas. (Fun fact...while looking up the character's name, I discovered that you can download that bicycle lady's theme song for your phone. I can think of several people I might want to assign that ring tone to :)

But, back to the project...This is a 5 x 5 canvas. The background was done by sweeping Charcoal Palette ink across the canvas to create the dark sky, the horizon, the tornado and antique the edges. I used a little (very little) alcohol ink on a dobber to brush in a little green for the grass areas and a little greenish tint for the sky. The dirt path was done with Copic markers and a blending pen.  The bicycle lady was then stamped in black ink.  A little about stamping on canvas....#1 dainty, highly-detailed stamps don't work well on canvas because of the texture.  #2 be sure to put a block or something behind the canvas to provide a hard surface to stamp on as the canvas will give in the middle.  Acrylic stamp blocks work nicely for this.  #3 if you are looking for a sharp impression, you will need to fill in the voids caused by the canvas texture.  In this case, I went back and filled in with a fine point black permanent pen.  The bicycle lady has a nice flourish pattern on her dress, but since I had done the background first, it showed thru the dress and looked a little odd, so I filled that in as well.  Then I used the black pen to add "rotation" to the tornado, some trees and grass along the path.

Now - for the blog hop info - please visit all of the design team posts to see everyone's project with this stamp.  You'll also pick up valuable information that you'll need to enter for the prize package.

The Bicycle Lady needs a name - and we need your help to find it! Each blog on the hop (except the Red Rubber Designs Blog) has one of the letters of the Bicycle Lady's name somewhere in their blog hop post. Once you find all seven letters (that's a hint!) put them together to form her name. You may have to rearrange them a little bit!

Note: The letter you need from each blog will be obvious if you read carefully.... it looks just a little different from the rest of the letters!

Once you figure it out, email the name to contest@RedRubberDesigns.com and be sure to put yourname and email address in the email with the Bicycle Lady's name. Every correct answer will be entered into a drawing for the featured stamp set - "Hey Life" - and one winner will be chosen at random. Good luck!

Contest ends Sunday, May 6th at Midnight (US-CT).

Red Rubber Designs is releasing EIGHT more stamp sets for May's First Thursday! Here is one of them

                                                                  "Just Bee-Cuz"

Want to see more??  Visit each of the blogs on the hop!  And...come back to this blog tomorrow to see more from the Hey Life stamp set!

Red Rubber Designs
Sarah 
Paula-Kay
Louise
KC  (You are here)
Kate
Diana
Debra