Stacked Stones Studio!

Hello Friends... I am really glad to be back with another installment for our Creative Play series. If you are just now joining us...skip down a few posts and  catch up with us...or just jump in where we are...it is all good! *smile* Last time we talked about overcoming the paralysis of perfection by asking the question - "What if...?" and letting your natural curiosity take over. Today's method for helping you find that 5 year old that is hiding inside of you that just wants to CREATE is to spend some time "Creating for No Apparent Reason."  Sometimes the pressure of having an end product in mind shuts down our freedom...and when that gets shut down, we are less likely to create our best art.  So one of my ways of keeping myself "playful" is to take a few minutes when I may not have time to create a whole project - and use it to just make some backgrounds that I might use on another project....or not! Have fun watching the video...and then G...

I love this picture of my two nieces. Lindsey got to go visit her new sister in Guatamala. I wanted a little bit of an edge to the page -- but didn't want to distract for those cute little owls or the picture -- so I stitched close to the edge and then used a bit darker distressing ink and rubbed it into the edge. I like the effect...an instant subtle border. Try it...and let me see what you come up with.

I wish that I could give you a huge list of things that I am currently doing that would be considered "green." But, in reality, I am taking baby steps. A layout that you will see later this week was inspired by a moment of exasperation when yet ANOTHER yellow pages book showed up on my doorstep. It feels like these HUGE books get outdated faster than they can be printed -- and with competitive books -- it just means that the number you are likely to get is doubled. I hate the idea of throwing out pages and pages of paper into a landfill...so I looked at the book a little and decided there were at least TWO uses I could repurpose it for. The first was as a leaf/flower press. I am going to try and do some mono prints with natural materials...and having them FLAT is a key part of that....so now that book is my official press. I took a few minutes and added some wax paper between several spaced out pages...and it is ready and waiting for spring and my mono-printing project. The f...

Similar to the stamping we did on the buttons a few days ago -- you can also stamp on a sheet of acrylic or a transparency to give added dimension to your embellishments or pages. You will need to use solvent ink (like Stazon) and give it a few minutes to dry before handling -- but I love the look of stamped images over other elements on my page. On this page, I stamped the tree and the butterfly in white and then put the piece of acrylic on pop-dots (in the corners -- hidden by the eyelets and twine) to raise it up off of the sheet of butterflies. I also used rubons (American Craft -Jane) to add the word, flutter . Below is the finished page. I saw an ad in Anthropologie that showed a window with this pale blue color behind it -- it was filled with butterflies and was totally inspired to try and recreate it a bit. Journaling reads: It is my nature to worry and when things are not going quite right, my heart begins to flutter with anxiety. I am so glad that my Father in heav...

I am so excited about this Monday morning...I think there is something fresh and new about the beginning of a new week. Hope you are anticipating a great week too. Today's card started from a scrap of vintage wall-paper. I sometimes think I am an "old" lady stuck in a young woman's body -- just because of the things that I love! There really wasn't much needed for this card after I glued the scrap of paper to my card...just wanted to pull out some of that red and green in the embellishments...and chose a couple of buttons to do that. They looked too "modern" on the page...so I decided to stamp a bit on them. To stamp on plastic you need to use solvent ink (Like Stazon or Archiver Ink by Ranger). Because of the rounded surface on buttons, I have found that small stamps work best. You can stamp and turn the button several times until it has been covered with the image the way you like. Just tie a bit of twine through the buttons and add to your page.....

Add stamped images or words to a card or layout by putting them on material. I like the frayed edge of this label (I ripped the fabric rather than cutting it to give it the frayed edge). To get a crisp image don't use chalk or water based inks...they will absorb and blur when printed onto the fabric. I use solvent inks like Stazon on Archival Inks by Ranger.