design team

Imagine That: Naughty or Nice Reversible Stocking

In The Studio

Shall I add another voice onto the fire of “where did the year go” lamentations? I suppose I shall–dude, this year is flying by! I have no idea where it went and not nearly as much as I would have liked to show for it, but I have a cute craft today that can help get you on the way to holiday preparedness.

Two sides of the same stocking–which side you flip is between you and Santa!

Holiday prep was another of our prompts and, combined with the color of the month (Sangria), I decided to go with a classic Christmas stocking with a twist. One side of the linen cuff reads Naughty, with some prickly holly leaves, while the other says Nice, paired with a pair of pretty poinsettias. Both feature a bit of heat embossing, which is the real highlight of this project (I think).

In preparation, I tested several Imagine mediums to see which would give me the result I wanted.

  • Versamark (pad and marker): definitely held the embossing powder but became part of the fabric rather than sitting up on top like heat embossing on paper.
  • Delicata (and other pigment inks): Also sunk into the fabric a bit more than I wanted, wicking through the fibers in some cases–this was problematic for details.
  • Creative Medium: Great through a stencil but I think you’d really need a good mask (like freezer paper ironed-on) to hold the integrity of finer details in a design. Did maintain it’s raised quality after heating.
  • On Point Glue: Perfect for fine details! This was what I used to embellish the Memento Marker and All-Purpose Ink words and art on my stockings.

Because of the heat embossing, you definitely want to make sure the fabric you’re decorating can take the heat without melting. Mine was felt (wool felt) and linen and I made it specifically for this project. If you’re purchasing one to decorate, make sure you test in an inconspicuous place before starting.

The full process can be seen in the video over on the Imagine blog!

Imagine That: Trumpet Flowers Card

In The Studio

One of our prompts this month over on the Imagine blog is the color Sangria. I love a good, deep red–there’s lots you can do with the color. While the holidays are coming up, and I had another project that scooted into that territory, I wanted to do something more general for this prompt.

I’d recently seen a picture of trumpet flowers and for whatever reason that gut stuck in my head and I was desperate enough to try my hand at carving my own stamp just so I could create the card I saw in my head.

I’m actually really pleased at how it turned out, and if you’d like to see the carving process I’ve posted it over on my own YouTube channel: Stamptember: Carving a detailed flower cluster stamp! It was a good 4 hours or more of work, spread out over three nights, but totally worth it!

After putting in so much effort into carving the stamp and then coloring the image, I didn’t feel like the card needed at lot of extra bits added to it. Does this count as a CAS (clean and simple) card? Maybe?

At any rate, make sure to head over to the Imagine blog to check out the video of how the finished card came to be.

And if you’d like to make your own version of the card but aren’t quite into carving your own stamps, I made a digital stamp set from the finished image–complete with separated elements as well as the finished arrangement–and put it up over in the Crafty Branch Etsy shop. I’d love to see what you come up with!

While I was add it, as a thank you for reading this far, I took those digital elements and made a wreath image you can download now for free! Make sure you tag @scrapsoflife and @thecraftybranch on Instagram when you make something with it!

Download it by clicking this link: TCB_JLV_TrumpetFlowerFreebie

 

Imagine That: Faux Metal Stamping

In The Studio

Lately I’ve had puzzle pieces on my mind. Not so much the desire to put together an actual puzzle, but more their use as a metaphor for life.

  • Picking up the pieces
  • Missing piece
  • Piece of my heart

And so on…

Puzzles make fairly inexpensive crafting materials, since you can usually find some at the thrift or dollar stores. It doesn’t matter what’s on them, because you’re going to transform them into something else.

I have a whole list of projects planned for puzzle pieces (watch the blog and, more often, my Instagram feed for works in progress), but today I’m sharing a fun faux finish project over on the Imagine Blog–faux metal stamping. The metallic silver Creative Medium is pretty much perfect for this technique, and I hope you’ll give it a try!

Imagine That: We’ll Always Have Paris

In The Studio

Or, if not, we can make a memento of it in about an hour and a half!

Longtime readers may have a sense they’ve seen this project before, but that’s because the inspiration came from one of the pieces I did as decorations for my 40th birthday party. I used the same basic techniques, this time in a smaller (8″x8″) format with strictly Imagine products and, of course, filmed the process so that you can follow along and see exactly how I used the wash tape to “draw” the figures.

Head over to the Imagine Blog for the full supply list and the video of the project. Enjoy!

Imagine That: Backgrounds to the Forefront

In The Studio

Background stamps are, by their very nature, excellent as a foundation for a project. But some are just so gorgeous that I hate to cover them up!

For today’s project over on the Imagine blog, I used a white embossing powder resist technique with a very detailed Joy Clair stamp and highlighted it with three ink colors from a Kaleidacolor pad.

The result was a really pretty blend of colors and pattern that reminds me of a color fabric that I could not bring myself to cover up with more than a simple button-and-brad embellishment.

Head on over to the Imagine blog to see how quickly this card came together!