Friendly Plastic cleans stazon ink off stamps!!!

Peg and I were playing with Friendly Plastic today. I have numerous red rubber stamps with tons of stazon ink on them.....and no matter how much cleaner or what kind of cleaner I use....the ink won't come off. But here's something for you to try.....

Cut a square of white Friendly Plastic, put is on a silpat sheet on the baking pan and heat at 180 degrees until it is soft. While still on the griddle, press your stamp deep into the plastic and let it set for 1 minute. Then take the entire pan and dip it down into cold water for 5 minutes.

Remove from the water and pull the stamp off the plastic. The stazon will transfer to the plastic and your stamp will come out exactly like it was brand new.....not a trace of ink!!! I did part of this stamp in plastic so you can see the difference:




So, with the ink in the plastic, you have a great opportunity to take alcohol inks and use them as paint. For this one, I simply put a dot of ink on my non-stick craft sheet, then using a tiny round #00 brush, I painted it directly on the plastic on the image. Let that dry. Then using 91% rubbing alcohol, paint the edges around the image and immediately add little drops of alcohol ink and watch them run. Use your paint brush to pull the ink through the alcohol and get some wonderful designs. I then covered this piece with one of Tim Holtz fragments and wrapped the edges with silver tape. It's ready now for me to turn into a pendant!



Did the very same techniques for this cute little princess stamp. Oh, I used the new "Brights" AIs.



And I LOVE how this one turned out. We are just doing little 1 1/2" squares of white Friendly Plastic for these. I used a Brush20 for my 91% rubbing alcohol and let it drizzle over the plastic. And I did press the stamp quite deep as I wanted depth for this piece....but you can get some equally great looks with a faint impression.



Check back tomorrow night for even more pieces. A whole day of just experimenting with Peg - I think it's going to be an addicition I have to keep!

D'Art

Domino Art. Working on samples for one of the classes I'll be teaching at the retreat. Oh my....are we just going to have a blast or what??? So, these are just about 2" x 1".....not very big at all, but ever so cute! My good friend, Linda Moore, is the originator of this idea. She lives out in Poway CA and if you ever get a chance.....take a class from her! You can find her at Stamping Details - a fabulous store!!! Just click on the link to their classes.

I used a stamp from Stamp of Excellence in Canon City CO



and for this one, my fav stamp from 100 Proof Press



so, ummm....I guess I'll be teaching a bit of wire wrapping as well! LOL! I think we scheduled 2 hours for this class...might have to rethink that one!

Make your own mica!!!

OK, I think you will love this technique! Faux mica! I'll post the photo first, then all the instructions for the different kinds of mica that I've come up with. Just click on the photo and it should open in a separate window so you can have the photo up as you read through the techniques




Faux mica:

1. Cut pieces of laser transparency into the shapes of mica
2. Place 1 drop each of Ranger’s Sepia, Crackle and Glossy accents on the mica
a. Finger paint or paint it with a brush across the surface, blending all three drops
b. Works best if you leave a faint design horizontally across the transparency
c. Bubbles are great…makes it look like faux vintage glass!
d. Let dry
3. Flip transparency over and apply Ranger Latte Alcohol ink on the other side.

The end result is a piece that looks very much like mica…and a whole lot cheaper! See “A” in the photo.

Mica Opals:

Using the above technique, instead of latte AI, use a polished stones technique and apply color to one side.

1. Place in heated level melting pot (just place the lid under the top of the pot and it will be level)
2. Let heat just a few seconds and place a small piece of frozen opals (After Midnight Stamps) on the piece.
3. Let melt, remove from pot

Gorgeous enough to wrap and wear as a pendant…or you can stamp on this, too! See “B” in the photo.

Faux Mica Opal Pendants:

Photographs just do not show the glimmer and shine you can get from this technique. For these pendants, I just used 2 pieces of faux mica. Did the technique above then placed a piece of Faux mica over the piece of Mica Opals. Either wrap wire around them, or edge with Ranger Memory tape and then wrap with wire (Amaco Fun Wire). Photos “C”.

And for photo “D”, I simply did the above and sandwiched in between 2 pieces of Memory glass in a Memory frame.

©2006 JenLoweDesigns

Happy Mother's Day!

Another acrylic word book. I need to remind you that you these run between $11.99 and 14.99 each and you can custom order any word up to 15 letters. "Mom" is a standard generic one that the store has in stock. I did the polished stones technique on the back of "mom, backed it with white paper so it would show and added chipboard cutouts on top.



Created my photo mounts on the back...then decided since I don't have photos with me, I'd stamp and use my Ranger white pen. The girl and the flourish are 2 separate stamps.



The next 3 pages are all clear acrylic. I painted on these and stamped with acrylic paint. Then drew my "photo mounts" with a black pen. I also used the white pen....but look closely, you can see through to what's on the 2 pages behind this page. The best way to "watch" this is to look at th epink flower on the far left side.



Now you see 3 flowers...pink paint in a smaller area than where the white paint was. Another "photo mount" squared off in black



and here you see the whole flower. This was a really fun project. The "M" on this page is done with pale pink embossing poswer...just be careful not to heat the acrlic! It will melt!

Just ask me how I know this! LOLOL!



Should have said I'm using a few MSE stamps on this one...but the girl here is from 100 Proof Press, with an MSE swirl from her had. More Ranger white pen.




I love these little girls from CI Stamps. More MSE swirls and chipboard on this page. Note, for this one, I used black pen against the light background.



Finally, a Stampin Up stamp and an MSE swirl repeated with white pen. Totally fun!



I'm only blogging one project per day....and there are so many more that I haven't posted yet. This has truly been such a fun time out here in San Diego.

So I must end today's blog with a shout out to Liz and Kristal. Today, I walked into the store and they surprised me with a Revolution (die cut system)!!! I spent the whole evening playing with it and I'll have it with me Tuesday so you can come play with it, too!!! I really didn't think I wanted to learn yet another diecut system...but you know what? It's just another way to spend my time playing!!!