The RIT Dye Experiment

The computer and I just had a fight, it won. It loaded my pictures in the opposite order, despite repeated arguing. Hmmph!!
I did an alcohol ink experiment today, with some success, although I found it to be a little more work than using alcohol markers. A few strong words of caution: 1) RIT Dye stains, everything. 2) RIT Dye is very poisonous, do not allow any utensils used to ever contact food.
I mixed 2 ounces of 99% rubbing alcohol with 2 Tablespoons of dye powder, stirred and let it stand for 10 minutes. The dye will not completely dissolve and leaves a residue. I used a small screen (harvested from my mother's tea kettle, shh!) and put it in the base of the funnel before pouring the mixture into a mini squirt bottle. I am happy with the colour, but would add more dye and let it stand longer next time. I paid a whopping $0.99 for the box of dye and $4.00 for a huge bottle of rubbing alcohol, so this batch of ink cost about $0.60 to make. I didn't include the $0.99 I paid for the plastic jug at the Dollarstore. Bottom line, a little messy, but I would try this again and will post the results:)

How to Convert Wood Mount Stamps to Unmounted Cling Stamps

I love this stamp, but I found it very frustrating to position properly. I either had to use a stamping jig or stamp the image and cut the cardstock to make the image straight or centered. The other problem I'm having is storage space in my craftroom. I have a fairly big workspace, but I have a lot of craft stuff! The solution? It's a snap to change wood mounted stamps into unmounted cling-style stamps! Here's how you do it:
1. Use a metal spatula, I use a large icing spreader type tool, but any tool you can slide under the stamp without damaging it will do, to gently separate the stamp from the wood. If the stamp is older and the glue has hardened, pop the stamp into the microwave for 10 to 12 seconds to soften.
2. Once the stamp is separated from the wood, gently peel the sticker with the picture of the stamp off the wood block. There is more than enough 'sticky' on the stamp and the label to stick the label directly on the foam backing of the stamp. Trim with scissors to remove excess label.
3. Apply Aleene's Tack it Over and Over with a small foam brush to the back of the stamp. This will insure the stamp sticks to your acrylic block, or my new fav tool, the Fiskars Stamping Tool. Done!
Try this tip, the stamp sticks and releases very easily, you can control the placement of the stamped image much better and best of all you can make room for new craft stuff!!

The Baker's Twine Experiment

After fretting over my poor injured squirrel all day, and not getting a thing done or made, I decided to do something not to taxing and make some Baker's Twine. To make your own twine you will need some good quality cotton 'twine', I used a light vanilla coloured DMC embroidery floss and a permanent marker.  I wrapped the twine around an empty bottle and taped both ends securely. Using a permanent marker draw fairly wide diagonal stripes, spacing them out by about 1/2". I allowed the marker to 'bleed' into the twine and coloured quite heavily. By chance I used a clear bottle so I could see the underside of the twine and how it was absorbing the ink. Let the twine dry for several minutes before removing it and wrapping it to store. I was a little nervous that wet ink might transfer to the uncoloured areas if the ink was not dry. I am very pleased with how it turned out and plan to use it this evening for card making. Total cost $0.33! (The total would be $0.51 if I included the cost of the Dollarstore marker). Either way pretty inexpensive Baker's Twine!

Distressesed Over Distress Inks? Don't Be!

Those of you who know me, know that I am lovin' my new Distress Inks! They are made by Ranger and the designer behind the idea is my Guru, Tim Holtz. I have been introducing this line of Distress Inks and Distress products to my card making students and would like to share some of my 'budget-wise' ideas when purchasing and using them.
When I made the decision to invest in this line of ink, I did some research on where I could buy them at the lowest cost. As we do not have a craft supply store that stocks these items I ended up ordering them online. I price compared online suppliers and ended up buying them through two different suppliers, http://www.trinitycrafts.ca/ and http://www.simonsaysstamp.com/. Both suppliers have every day low prices and shipping costs, Trinity Crafts is a Canadian Company and Simon Says Stamp is American. I recommend both. The inks are priced at $4.99 and $4.95 respectively which is low compared to Michaels $8.95 per package.
The next investment was to purchase the necessary tools to use these inks.  Ranger/Tim Holtz makes a 'vintage-looking' applicater tool which sells for $8.95 EACH at Michaels. Not in my budget! So I got creative and went to my local Disabled Adults Woodworking Shop and had them cut 24 wooden blocks to which I attached self adhesive, 1" wide, velco, and have been more than happy with the results! I found the velco on the 'real' tool came off too easily and was told by the company to "staple gun the velco to the tool', which I paid $8.95 plus tax for. Tsk Tsk!!  Total cost of my version $12.00!
The next tool required is the "craft mat", which is a sheet of teflon, and retails for $17.95. Again, out of my budget.  So, I went to my local Dollar Store and bought white MacTack for $1.00, and adhered it to a piece of white cardstock and made my own craft/splat mats, which work beautifully! I purchsed 8 1/2" x 11" glass picture frames of the type that has metal clips holding the glass to the backing. This is important as this type of glass already has the edges ground smooth, which prevents nasty cuts! To be extra sure of not cutting anyone, I applied masking tape to the edges and store them in the original Styrofoam packaging to protect them and prevent chipping. I then purchased, online at Trinity Crafts, the necessary foam blending pads at their everyday discounted price of $4.99 for a package of 10. I did attempt to make my own foam pads, but without success so far, I'll keep trying!
To use: Apply Distress Ink to glass plate directly from ink pad in a pouncing motion. Apply foam blending pad to blending tool and pick up ink from glass plate, loading the foam pad. Apply ink in a circular blending motion to cardstock, using your homemade craft/splat mat as your work surface.  Clean up is a snap with a baby wipe. You guesed it, I also make my own babywipes!!

Homemade Rubber Stamp

I really wanted a Tim Holtz Distress background polka dot stamp, but it just wasn't in my budget, so I did the next best thing and made my own! I checked out Youtube.com and found a great video showing how to make your own stamps. The video is called,"Homemade Foam Background Stamps:Part 1" by Luvleescrappin.  I followed her directions and am more than pleased with the results! It took me about 15 mins to make and the total cost was $1.25!!
I punched Fun Foam dots with my Fiskars punch and used a piece of dot paper as a guide which was recommended in the video, and glued the dots to a Dollarstore glass picture frame. This type of frame contains glass that has already had the edges ground smooth, so no sharp edges to worry about. I layered the dots two layers deep to give a nice crisp stamp and used Ranger Glossy Accents as the glue. I tested the stamp and I love it and plan to make many more! Give this a try and definitely watch the video, it's amazing. She makes a beautiful scrapbook page with her stamped image. Let me know how your homemade stamps turn out!!

Glue Dots on a Budget!!

Ok, are you ready for this? I bought these two boxes of Zots and paid $5.95 plus tax, bringing the total to: $6.73 EACH box!!  That means that each of the 300 glue dots cost $0.03 a piece. And I spent $30.00 on gas for the trip to Ottawa to the craft store to buy them! Crazy. As many of you already know my New Year's resolution for 2012 is to reduce the amount of money I spend on craft supplies. I bought this bottle of Aleene's Tack it Over and Over at our local craft shop for $4.00 and can now make glue dots for next to nothing!! I tested them and they work just as well if not better than the expensive ones and if I waste 1 or 2, I'm not throwing my money away. One important tip; you have to squeeze them out onto paper that will release the dot. Wax paper doesn't work. I used the backing off some Mactack that I made craft/splat mats with and that works great! You could also keep the paper backing from glue dots that you've used, after all you paid almost $7.00 for them. Give this tip a try and let me know how you did. I love them and I can control the dot size too!! This glue is available in an acid free formula as well. It just gets better and better.

Homemade Rubber Stamp CLEANER!!!

No picture, but I have something really important to share with all of you!! I've been on a budget kick lately trying to see if I can reduce my craft spending a little bit and I found the gem of all gems!! I was searching the internet the other night and found a Youtube video that explained how to make homemade rubber stamp cleaner.  Well, I tried it and the stuff WORKS!!!  I go through a bottle of stamp cleaner about every 3 months and I paid $5.95 plus tax for my last bottle, never again!! Here's the recipe, you gotta try this stuff, it works better than the store bought cleaner and it smells nice too!

Rubber Stamp Cleaner:
This receipe can be doubled or tripled

1 cup of warm water
1 to 2 Tablespoons of Glycerin, which can be purchased at any drugstore, I paid $4.00 for a bottle
2 or 3 drops of Baby Shampoo (Any brand, but I used Johnson and Johnson because I love the smell!)

I figured a whole bottle costs about $0.20 to make. I tested it and it works beautifully, give it a try! I'll be posting more tips and tricks for the budget conscious crafter over the next few weeks.

Alcohol Ink Butterfly Card

I made this card today out of, you'll never belive this, dollarstore fake Sharpie markers!

Step 1. Pour about 1 oz of good old rubbing alcohol into a glass container

Step 2. Wearing gloves, take apart a 'Sharpie-like' marker, remove the ink tube and nib, cut tube into 2 or 3 pieces

Step 3. Soak the ink tube and nib in the alcohol for about 10 mins, remove them, and give them a squeeze so you get all the inky goodness out!

Step 4. Transfer ink into an air tight storage container and it's ready to use!
I used my Distress Ink blending tool and a felt blending pad, both of which are homemade, I'm getting cheap in my old age, to apply ink by dabbing and swirling onto background. I stamped the border with Hero Arts Tree Flourish background stamp in Vintage Photo Distress ink, then blended the same ink around the edges. I stamped a Martha Stewart butterfly in Vintage Photo and inked it with Peeled Paint, Broken Dishes and Concord Grape Distress inks.
I cut the butterfly out, flocked the body in Reflections brown flock and mounted it on card after stamping image on card in Vintage Photo. Whew, that was a mouthful, now, I'll be up all night taking dollarstore markers apart!!