Unmounted Stamps

I have quite a large collection of unmounted stamps. I know that some people shy away from these treasures because they don't know what to do with them. My biggest problem has always been how to store them. For me, its "out of sight, out of mind". When I go to look for a stamp, I look in my stamp trays for the theme I am looking for, and I forget all about my "ums". I have tried several ways of storing these. For a long time I had them in binders, thinking that I would go for the binder when looking for certain themes.


I even kept the binders beside the trays of like-themed stamps when I could. I found that they were still forgotten. I need the stamps up front and centre! The only ums that were used regularly were the few that I kept right in the stamp trays. They were usually ones that came with their own little package, like Paper Artsy. I saw a demo online a few weeks ago that made a lot of sense to me - putting my ums in CD boxes. My daughter had left a CD tower behind when she moved out, and My um's would be right out where I could see them. Perfect. So this is what I've been doing:




Start with a normal (NOT thin) CD case (I bought 3 for a dollar at the dollar store. The normal ones are getting harder to find, though). Take out the black insert. Turn the case upside down and open it. You want the realtively flat side on the bottom, and the side with the lip at the hinge on the left side. Put your ums on the flat side, fitting as best you can. Most of my ums have sticky spray on them (a tacky spray glue that I sprayed on them), some come sticky already, but many of them have nothing. For the ones with no stickiness I just use double sided tape. For tiny pieces or alphabet letters I place a long strip of double-sided tape across and just stick the stamps on. Easy!



Then you will need to cut a piece of paper 4 1/2" by 5 3/4" for your cover. Stamp your images the same way that they are in the CD box (remember - right is left), write the name of your stamps, and the company they are from, if you have room. Mount this paper on the left side lid, with the name on the lip at the hinge, so that when you close it, you can see the name of the stamps in the CD case. Use tape or double sided tape to mount the paper.




I don't mount my stamps on foam anymore, I just use bare rubber. To stamp an um you need an acrylic mount, you can buy them online, and I think Michael's have them. I think you could get scraps from places that use acrylic as well. I've even found them in dollar stores. If i am using ums that I haven't sprayed with sticky glue, I usually use UHU glue to stick them to the acrylic, and stamp away. I usually stamp with a mouse pad underneath to give the cushion needed. I just wash the glue off afterwards, it comes off easily with a baby wipe.



This is how I am storing my CDs, right in my stamp trays, bordered by mounted stamps. The tray will hold 6 CDs, which is a lot of stamps!




I am also putting some in the CD tower that my daughter left. I think these will probably all end up in my shelves, though with the like themed stamps.



So I hope this method will finally work, and I that I will get lots more use from my ums! And I hope that this has helped at least one more person to organise their own ums, or to start buying ums!

Beautiful Day

I think today (June 9,2007) was the most beautiful day so far this year! the temperature was perfect, not too hot, not too cold. As I was wandering around outside just before sunset I decided to take some photos of this perfect day. Everything smelled wonderful, there were no bugs, the birds were chirping. Perfect!




See the cat? Picture a deer here instead! On Thursday my husband found a deer in our backyard. Awesome! Too bad he didn't think to take a picture!






ALSO---Happy Birthday to Johnny Depp! 44 years old today. Just saw Pirates of the Carribean 3-awesome movie - best yet!!

Garage sale find!

It's getting quite warm these days, and even with the threat of big thunderstorms, the garage sales were still going strong. I found this big box of coasters, every size and shape you could think of, and bought the box for $1.



There are hundreds and hundreds of these things! Reminded me that I had made a book using Fosters coasters in 2005, which I will share with you.










It was great fun making this book, and I can see making lots more. I will share these with my friends and see what we can come up with.

Happy 21st Birthday!

My daughter's 21st birthday was on Saturday! It just seems like yesterday that she was a tiny baby. I made her card from a birthday photo of her when she was 3 years old. We spent the day with my Mom going on a House Tour, looking at 9 beautiful houses , and wandering through the rooms. Some were fairly plain, and some were outstanding. My daughter's favourite was an ultra-modern house, with a kitchen imported from Italy. It was pretty impressive! We had lunch at a very popular local restaurant, Pan Chanchos, that was owned by Zal Yanofsky from the Lovin' Spoonful, who also started the restaurant called Chez Piggy. He died a few years back, but his daughter is now keeping them both going. We were on the patio, and though it was a bit chilly at times, the sun came out and warmed us up. Her birthday dinner was at an Italian restaurant called Gustos, fabulous food, and great ambiance. I got my birthday kiss! All in all a wonderful day for both of us!

We started like this...

This is the second technique we tried at our get together (see next full post). It is a layered technique called "Inky Layers" page 20 (Get the book!!). We all loved this technique, even though it was a lot of work. We started with bits of scrap paper...

Some ink...

Some glaze...

i don't have any of this pre-made glaze at home,I will try mixing paint with my clear glaze...

More ink...

Last stage...

Just a few drops of this pearlescent stuff and wipe. I don't have any of this at home, I will have to try something else.

...Finished

Here are the finished ATC's

More ATC Fun...

Once again my friends and I gathered at Marg's house to try some more ATC techniques from Bernie Berlin's book: Artist Trading Card Workshop. We tried 2 techniques this time. The first was called Tissue Paper, on page 43. I won't give the instructions, but urge you to get Bernie's book! I will show you the results, though! This was an easy technique, involving gel medium, tissue paper and paint. Here are some photos. The first is the background finished, the second is the ATC I made with it. The next two were made the same way, but painted different colors. I really liked this technique, and it was very easy! The wine poster was from Altered Pages, and the ribbon from Michael's. The violin tage is a Dollar Store sticker, the background clock is a dawn hauser stamp from Inkadinkadoo, and the boy and his dog is a Tim Holtz stamp.

Some finished ATCs

If you remember last month's experiments with ATCs, we were ironing off embossing and using some cs to pick up the ironed off embossing. Then we rubbed ink over the cs, and the ink stayed on the cs and not on the embossing. These 2 ATCs were made from those "seconds". Both images are from Altered Pages.

Garage Sales

I love going to garage sales this time of year. Last week I got 2 Hero Arts stamps for $1 each, some tassle earrings (for the tassels of course) and some elephant earings (for the charms). This week I found this neat holder for cards or photos for $1, and I'm using it to hold all my Johnny Depp ATC's from a swap last year. Finally, I get to show them off!

GPP Street Team Crusade #8

The Green Pepper Press Street Team has crusades, or challenges, on their blog. This is Crusade #8, to show a cheap tool or trick for art. This is my first time answering a crusade! This pen came to me from my grandmother when she passed away. It is silver, beautiful, ornate and I love it. But it didn't write, it was out of ink. Rather than get new ink for it, I started using it to score my cards. So for the past several years, this has been my scorer for eveything! Works great, the tip is sharp but rolls because it has a ball point pen nib. And I feel so elegant using it!

ByHand Artists May Mingle

This is my contribution to the May Mingle for my ByHand Artists Yahoo group. We each chose a special day in May, I chose Edward Lear's Birthday. My Dad loved limericks, and would say them from memory every once in awhile, when the time was right!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my wonderful Mother, who is always there for me. She is also an awesome artist, working in acrylics on masonite-very large paintings! You can see her work here. She has been a wonderful mother to me and my brother Ken, supporting us in whatever we decide we want to do with our lives.

This is the first time my daughter has been away on Mother's Day, usually we get the 3 generations together, but I guess that's what happens when they grow up. We talk everyday though, and she says "something's in the mail"!

I made this card for my mother from my new Green Pepper Press stamps from Michelle Ward. I love them! Her stamps are the swirls, the letters and the eggs. I made a pink egg for me and a blue egg for my brother. The doors open to reveal a photo of my brother and me when we were little (below). The shrine stamp is from Tin Can Mail (Inkadinkadoo). I used a thin gold Krylon marker for all the intricate celtic designs.

My Mother's Day gift to my Mom this year was a donation in her name to CCFCanada, some items to help third-world families. I know that Malaria is rampant in Africa, and the best defence is mosquito netting, so I donated two mosquito nets, and also a food hamper for a family of 5. I know my mother will be pleased to know that her gift will make a few other mothers very grateful. Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful mother's out there!!