Stamping on Mugs!

 

Morning! Happy Tuesday!

I’ve entitled the blog post Stamping on Mugs- and by that I wasn’t implying you should crush someone idiotic! Stamping on a different surface and using this lovely CAS-ual Fridays set

Now- the tag is fairly straightforward- I’ve hacked away (or trimmed!) at these lovely dies

If you look closely- I’ve just trimmed away the outer 4 ‘petals’ to leave the smaller shape

The stamping on the cup? A little more tricky- I thought I’d show you quickly….

Stazon inks are crucial- anything else simply won’t dry on the surface. You can create this look using any of the Stazon colours and certainly any crockery.

1.First, clean it – really well- grease and fluff will stop the ink transferring and drying.

2. Use a block or if you prefer, use the stamp unmounted. Clear stamps make it easy to see exact placement.

Before you start getting twitchy about using Stazon on your clear stamps; here’s the info. The ingredient which will damage the stamps evaporates off so quickly that you’re unlikely to do any damage. Ironically, it’s the cleaner that will do more damage.

The Stazon cleaner is a MUST. Unless you’re lucky and manage to stamp perfectly first time- you’ll end up needing to remove the image (or partial image in my case 😉 ). It’s really important that you DON’T leave the Stazon cleaner soaking on your photopolymer stamps. This is the stuff that will cause damage. If you’re using red rubber stamps- it’s not an issue at all. Just make sure you wipe the cleaner off pretty quickly and wipe the stamp with kitchen towel or a wipe to make sure it’s not remaining on the stamp.

3. It works (unless your item is super flat) by rocking from left to right/up and down. Ordinarily you wouldn’t want to stamp this way, but for stamping on ceramics, it helps disperse the ink evenly. Just try and keep a steady hand whilst you’re doing it (or wipe off with cleaner and begin again!!).

4. The beauty of Stazon is that you can heat set it on crockery. Granted, you need to make sure that your dish/mug is oven safe- but about 350F for about 30 minutes should ensure its wash safe (& most likely dishwasher proof- although I need to wash it a few more times to give that guarantee).

It’s a fun way of getting stampy on a different surface and is great to pepping up plain mugs. I decided to stamp the back of mine too.

 

Hope you’ve enjoyed something a little different- go and get stamping! These stamps are in the Make The Day Special Store

I’m also linking this to the CAS-ual Friday’s stamps ‘blue challenge’

I’m not going to tell you any stories today..I think the post has been quite long enough. Just to say that the cool mug is from Matalan & at £2.50 is pretty good for a designer looking container for your non-designer brews!

See you when I’ve finished waiting in for the loft insulation guys. I can just feel a story coming on! xx

Birthday Greetings and Books!

Hello- to all you lovely blog readers. I don’t always get chance to say THANKYOU! for visiting and leaving comments- I really appreciate you popping by.
This card was in last months Crafts Beautiful- and is a great example of a hybrid sentiment. Sometimes you want to say something particular on a card and can’t quite find the right sentiment- well, combine a couple. These are sentiments from CAS-ual Fridays stamps ( & the circle lines too) with a partial sentiment from Hero Arts.
I love the mixed fonts. So easy to do.

Another project I was working on this week was this

The cushion was a congratulations pressie for my eldest on her exam results. That cushion was fun to make and mostly done in an evening. Ably helped by the wonder that is fusible interfacing. I roughly followed a pattern from Tula Pink I just used up fabric I had in. A really economical present and made me happy to be using up some of my fabric.

This week we’ve been lost in books and I’ve lost a book. We reconnected with the local library. The one nearest our home had been shut and only recently what we had thought was a school library was, in fact, a public library. They were rather pleased to see us. I guess as the library system is under threat, any new users help the stats. Well we temporarily removed 28 books from the library which the librarian seemed extraordinarily delighted by. I re-signed up 5 kids which she smiled a lot about too.
They’ve been reading.
And reading.
Even Will has tried to get in on the action.
Except instead of getting lost in a book, I’ve lost one of the books.
I’m hoping their new found pleasure in the family won’t dissipate as soon as I own up to the fact and offer to pay. I wouldn’t mind if I’d actually gotten round to reading it. Alas, it was next in the queue.
It was lovely to read a whole book in one week. That’s been a long time in coming.
I was surprised by the reviews though, talk about over egging a book. What I thought was an ok story had rave reviews from another.
Ah well. Onto the next book.
Any book recommendations for me? I always like a really good book!

See you once I’ve stopped trying to find the missing pages!
Xx

Arrows & Making wishes!

A little post with a quick card. I seem to create better at the moment in response to challenges or commissions. At the mo I’m busy churning out new projects with the latest DoCrafts products that made their way into the house. They just turned up and have sat waiting patiently to be turned into something! Those posts will come next week.
I love making projects with movement- the current challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays challenge blog is all about incorporating arrows- you can find it here

The sentiment of ‘make a wish’ can extend so far..
My wishes would include some of these;
..not ever having to clean a toilet again.
..never having to negotiate a settlement between two warring factions.
..always being able to see the best in whatever situation I’m in.
..always immediately being able to make a project that perfectly fits the bill ( he he!)
..loads more time!!
If any of you can help me out with any of those please let me know 😉

Better dash..
No time to lose!
See you when I’ve made a few more wishes! xx

Big Thanks & Make The Day Special !

Happy Tuesday. I’m so desperate to make reference to the weather; such a Brit thing to do, but instead I’ll make reference to the fact that this is something a little different. You’ll be seeing quite a few new stamps and from some new stamp companies that you might not have heard of particularly if you’re from this side of the ‘pond’ (& I don’t mean by ‘pond’, the River Mersey’!!).

I’ve recently been invited by the lovely Lou to join the team over at Make the Day Special.

Now- if you’re not up on who they are, they are a UK company who have a growing collection of paper, dies & particularly stamps from some of the harder to find US companies. Now,  my soft spot for all things Stateside is well documented on this blog & I couldn’t believe how great their collection was when I stumbled over them just recently. You need any of these?

Some companies have larger stocks than others-the Unity pages are HUGE!

If you want some general inspiration the Design Blog is here & I’m loving being part of it already. Today is my day over at the blog- but it’s the same project so you might just want to peek at the shop instead!

The flower on the card is made simply by cutting out small squares of Lawn Fawn paper, cutting a rough square-ish petal shape & rolling up to give shape. You start in the middle with a tightly rolled piece and simply glue the petals gradually around the centre piece. It’s exactly the same process as you make sugar paste icing flowers. It’s a tiny bit time consuming but worth a little time investment. The stamps are from Cas-ual Fridays and you can find them here

On the family front we’ve been losing hair.

Not from me pulling my own out (which could be quite likely) but simply losing it due to a haircut.

Correction.

Scalping.

I did have to bite my lip & stifle a sob.

Hubby was trimming/clipping the boys hair. He does a pretty good job. I no longer do it since I’ve been banned. (long story- not all my fault. Honest).

Someone moved. The clipper didn’t quite do what the clipper operator intended. The short cut became somewhat uneven.

My little son stood in the doorway. My face was unable to hide my feelings.

‘Mum, please don’t look at me like that’.

I couldn’t help it. I was looking at a miniature replica of a thug.

‘I’m just a bit shocked’ I spluttered.

Oh dear. Dearie dearie dear.

He’s blonde. Someone unhelpfully suggested he looked like boy in the striped pyjamas which made me doubly sad as that film is tragic. I can’t watch it without crying.

It had a marked effect on my boy.

As my teenagers would describe it. The boy suddenly got ‘swag’.

He grew several inches taller in his own estimation & is quite enjoying the notoriety.

His friends haven’t all recognised him. He’s loved that part. One of his mates actually screamed through shock (or at least, that was his version).

Less pleasing was the sudden compulsion of everyone to run their fingers through his hair. Me too. It’s warm and furry & feels nice.

Apparently one little guy in the school told him that it felt like a ‘toothbrush’.

So toothbrush head may need his locks (or lack of them) washing more quickly. The grease of 30 hands rubbing through blonde tufts may need eradicating.

I comfort myself with the fact that it will grow.

Less comforting is the realisation that he’s not so little. That part will not ‘grow back’. Ever.

I talked to my husband after it all.

‘You know how you banned me from the clippers? Well now I’m banning you”.

The problem is, who will now operate the hair trimmers?!

See you when I’ve hidden the offending articles! xx