I am SO in love with these new papers! I don't know what it is about paper and all the gorgeous patterns, but silly to say, paper makes me happy! I also love big tags and thought rather than the usual card I seem to make I would change it up and make a tag instead.
Susan Tierney-Cockburn stopped by today as I was creating this and I'm certain she had a good giggle being my studio was a disaster from the last couple days of creating. Oh well - some of you have had the opportunity to see me "unprepared" for visitors as well - LOL!
I had been playing around trying the technique that Trudee shared in her fabulous tutorial and I must admit - I need to get some personal assistance with the whole "slipping brayer technique" I was performing. I am concerned that perhaps the Speedball Brayer may be better suited to this technique vs the Ranger Brayers we carry in the store. I found that my Ranger Brayer would stick when I rolled it across the inked stamp surface and therefore slip and turn into this nice blob of ink in one area. I am most definitely going to need to figure this out and then I will share my findings being I am wondering if the brayer makes a difference! I most certainly don't want to mislead you in to purchasing a Ranger Brayer for this technique if it is not the best to use.
Being I had VERY limited time and needed to create something fun for this blog post I dropped that project and moved on to this one. Yes, stuff spread everywhere Ü Thank goodness Susan was so gracious and told me that she does the same "explosion" technique when she creates.
I quickly selected my paper and an oval die that I thought would really follow the line of the trees on the Gingercake paper. As I was trying to align the die to space it evenly I had a momentary brainstorm. I said to Susan, I wish there was a grid pattern on the top of the Big Shot MultiPurpose Platform to allow me to line everything up more easily. Just by saying it I felt like I was hit by a moment of brilliance - LOL! I quickly grabbed a sheet of paper from my worksurface (yes, I use grid paper when I stamp because it helps me line everything up. Perfectionism? Yes perhaps just a little Ü)
I cut the graph paper to fit beneath the clear acylic mat and voila I could now align my project easily. Sorry it's not aligned in this picture - I feel like a blind bat without my reading glasses and yet when taking pictures I can't use them. Fortunately when I actually cut this out I did get it straight Ü
So here is my tip for the day - be sure to share this little keen discovery with others who are perfectionists - LOL! Create a grid paper pattern in black and print it on cardstock. This will help you cover all the "stuff" that shows through the graph paper from the multi-purpose platform. I will create one and attach a file to this post when I head in to work sometime tomorrow. So keep checking back if you have the patience of a saint and can wait for me to get it done. Ü
A little stamping, coloring, cutting, pasting and sewing, and voila a big tag in less than 30 minutes. It would have probably been less than that if I wouldn't have had to pack everything up and take it home with me in a baggie. Running to catch my daughter Trina's bus everyday adds a lot of excitement to my life Ü I also had to totally laugh at the "staging" I came up with for this shot. Everyone else in the blog world has these gorgeous bags of beautifully baked cookies - do you notice what's in my basket? Fruit, yep fruit. It's all I had in the house for my picture taking moment. Thank goodness my family loves fruit Ü
Thank you for stopping in to the Classroom today! It has been so thrilling to read the many wonderful comments that you are leaving for this incredible team we have here!!! Have a great day!
