Oh if you’ve never played with a microscope slide or mailer I HIGHLY suggest giving it a try!! I signed up for a swap using them. I ordered the mailers/slides and thought how cool…can’t wait UNTIL they arrived! Here was a pile of ugly grey chipboard microscope mailers…they are made out of that nasty stuff with flecks of who knows what in them and a not so enticing yucky grey color that screams BORING!!!!! This is a photo of what I started out with….not very neat huh? LOL!!

Well, now what had I gotten myself into ~ how am I EVER going to make these look like something other than a recycled piece of chipboard! So I got out my Distress Ink Reinkers and started playing! It was so much fun…I had read where Tim Holtz loves “old paper” distress ink so I started there…I added vintage photo, walnut & a bit of black soot. It was so much fun I did it to some smaller single mailers as well - LOL!!

Next I went collage crazy ~ as you all know, I love love love collage I am so pleased with how these turned out!

This is the cover…

It started out as a plain ol’ mailer and ta-da! can’t tell it was the yucky old grey thing it started out as huh?

The inside….

Key 2 Happiness….. Family/Ancestors & Always Live, Love & Laugh!

Close up of the memory glass slides

I made each of the slides by first printing out a vintage image/poem/definitions on some cream cardstock. I then distressed them with old paper distress ink. I layed a piece of memory glass over each one of the images and carefully cut around the edge with my exacto knife. I put just a dab of glaze on it to adhere it to the slide. I then went around the edge with the metal copper tape. I stamped each word on with black Staz-on ink.

Well, I was working on a microscope slide case and wanted it to be very vintage. I had a bunch of lumpy stuff that would work but it was all different colors ~ gold, silver, bright copper but I wanted it to go with the vintage feel so I decided to age it with my alcohol inks.

NOTHING worked ~ I first tried the felt applicator and it looked like stone ~ well, that’s fine but I didn’t want my key to look like a stone key ~ I was going vintage but not back to the caveman days LOL!!!

Next I had heard that some people were using cotton balls with their inks…well, that didn’t give the look I wanted either ~ it was so blotchy and the fuzzy stuff kept sticking to the key/plaques! I don’t have a clue how they do it but it so didn’t work for me!

I tried the cut & dry foam that TH uses for many things. This worked but not real well for getting a natural metal look. It was a smoother finish than what I was looking for.

BUT, I had a thought ~ Stipple Brush!!!! I gave it a try and it LOOKS GREAT!!!!!!

This is the copper plaques I had…

I took bright copper and toned it down by adding the lightest colors first and working towards the darker colors. I started by coating the plaque all over with Ginger AI, then I added Espresso AI here and there and finally just a touch of Pitch Black AI which gave it that vintage touch!

Since that was such a great sucess, I moved on and tried it on my gold & silver items. In order to get the copper tone I again worked from lightest alcohol ink colors to the darker ones but I started with Terra Cotta AI to give it a coppery tone then I followed with Ginger, Espresso and Pitch Black. This is the gold key I worked on ~ It doesn’t show up very well in the finished photo but it really does look like a copper key worn with age & use!

I know everyone has different opinions on their stipple brushes as far as cleaning goes but I thought I should warn you that this DOES stain the brush. I tried to clean it with the blending solution but it just soaks into the hairs or whatever it is in the brush. So before you try it you might want to set one aside to be used for just alcohol inks. The end look is well worth having a seperate brush though!

I got my order from LS and it contained the mini craft iron. Let me tell you, this iron is just too cute. Guess I didn’t really pay attention to the title, I thought it was going to be the size of a travel iron. It’s actually half the size of a travel iron. It is about 4 inches and hardly weighs anything. Perfect for taking to a crop…or just sitting on a shelf in your scraproom looking cute LOL

Gemiel

I had no idea crackle medium was so easy!!! I used chipboard and painting aqua on it, painted crackle medium and came back the next day. I painted with MM paint and could see the crackle immediately. I will be using this alot!!! The L is a rub on and the tokens are attached to the chipboard and stamped with Stazon. The piece has a lot of great dimension but isn’t too bulky

I actually finished 8 pages this afternoon! None of them are anything to brag about, but they have dates and enough journaling to tell the kids twenty years now what’s on the page. Maybe if I keep up this pace some day I’ll even get caught up! I’m currently 2 yrs behind in both kids’ albums, so I am doing a lot of fast pages, using swap items and digging into my stash, not getting caught up making each page perfect. Keep it simple and get it done. Blasphemy for the person many of you call the Lumpy Lady, lol. But I got 8 pages done, neener neener neener.

My whole layout was monochromatic, green on green, so the plain acrylic accents got lost on the page. I colored them using my nibs and alcohol inks. It only took a few minutes and it made all the difference! Now they pop. And if you mess up, blending solution will take it off just as quickly.


I’ll get a picture of the full layout when the glue dries! Glossy Accents is the best I’ve found for invisibly attaching clear embellishments. But you can’t put it on the scanner bed the minute you’re done, lol, or you may find it permanently stuck there. Ask me how I know.

This is possible my most of use of Lumpy Stuff product ever. I took a magnet canvas frame I found for a dollar and altered it beyond recognitions. Tim Holtzs Distressing inks and walnut spray altered up the canvas and then was stamped over. I layed papers to my hearts content. Then came the Michael Miller fabric. I wanted something to be crumpled but sturdy. I used a curling iron to heat it up and shaped it to my delight. I inked it up, heated it more and attached it with glossy accents. I used layers of twill and ribbon and an assortment of Go West Products. Sand paper and walnut ink helped bring the whole piece together in color. For me, in collage I hate when one thing stands out too much but it has the right image or saying. The walnut ink spray helps that.
I made my walnut spray with a walnut ink reinker and rubbing alcohol for a lighter spray with a quicker dry. Pieces of mica gave dimension to the background without taking away from the piece. The whole piece flows well and isn’t too heavy to take away from the magnet use for the refridgerator.

I’m in a circle journal group right now and it’s been so much fun! Most circle journal groups are so narrow in scope, describe yourself, photo, etc. I get so tired of doing the same thing over and over…I mean, it’s not like I hate myself but how much and how many times can one talk about yourself. It isn’t any fun after a while. I think that’s why some CJ’s end up taking forever…people just loose interest in themselves.

This group is different…everyone has a different theme to work with and it’s been lots of fun. My own theme was Life Lessons…things you’ve learned and want to share. Some of the others are ~ My Fav. things (just got this one, can’t wait to get started on it!!); Soul Collage; Words of Wisdom; Favorite Quotes; etc…

Here is the one I just finished…it’s the Soul Collage cj….

This was a journal about your soul…what has shaped your essence…I chose to go with “What makes me..ME” I really like how it turned out and it was fun working on it cause it made me think about why I am who I am today. I think that is also something that changes constantly with your new experiences & time it’s self. It was a very thought prov. & int. journal to work on.

The next journal I have is My Favorite things!!! I can’t wait to get started on it, I already have LOTS of stuff collected for it ~ it’s going to be hard to narrow it down LOL!!

You know, I wonder how many circle journals you can have….like for ex….I was thinking of a recipie cj ~ you know, your fav. family rec. not nec. pics, just the rec. & why it’s your family fav….maybe a story about where it originated or whatever.

I also thought about a funny story journal, tell about something funny that happened in your life ~ there are so many that come to mind in our own family and I’m sure that lots of people have had odd/funny things happen to them that they could share. Again, not nec. w/photos but it would be neat to read

That brings up another interesting thing about CJ’s…most don’t have page prot. to worry about so you can use so many more tech. than with a standard scrapbook. When I worked on my best friends album, I had all sorts of little things that opened and flipped and hinged, it was so much fun cause when you initially looked at the page, there wasn’t that much to it ~ but when you untied the ribbons or opened flaps, it was packed with stuff! I was able to use some not so great pics of me that I normally wouldn’t share with others (like pics of me in the a.m.) I enjoyed that and I think she did too!

Well, I guess that’s it for now…I will post more when I get going on the next journal

Last night I was reviewing alot of materials I had printed for my upcoming “Inky Fingers” class at Lumpy U. and I came across a formula for making your own color wash out of dye reinkers and alcohol. I used a spray bottle I got for about $1 at Michaels, filled it less than half with rubbing alcohol and added 10 drops of dye reinker. Voila! It was a little light so I just added more ink. So much fun for so little effort! I had to make more. By the way, my white sewing machine is now stained rust and yellow from overspray. I love the speckled look I got from misting 3 colors of homemade colorwash on this tag.
On this one I used color wash to color the tag(also splattered on some walnut ink), both ribbons and the flower. How fun is that?!

I am sooooo hooked on twinkling h2o’s!!!!! I love watercolors anyway, what a fun twist! In case you didn’t know, h20’s are watercolor pots with mica in them so they have a gorgeous sheen when dry. I’ve been playing around, trying to get the consistency just right for stamping with them. I know it can be done but I mostly just made a mess at first. It’s taken a few tries to get it so that the impression isn’t a big smear of color but it’s so worth it!

I was using too much water and not being patient enough. So, the first trick is to squirt it ONCE with a sprayer, then let it sit a few minutes. Then squirt it again, ONCE and wait again. Two squirts is too much… I said once, right? I waited once and I did not want to wait again, second mistake!!! (stomping my feet like a proper three yr old) But if you wait patiently after that second squirt, you are rewarded with a lovely, creamy consistency that is perfect to paint on to a rubber stamp. The results are bee-oooo-teeee-ful! Right now all I have are sheets with sample stamps all over the place. I’ll try to get something worth posting!
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Ok, here’s a very lousy scan of a very simple card! The shimmer doesn’t show at all and the white is just a glare. But hey, it’s a sample, right!?!