Stamps, Paper, Scissors

Tool Time - Paper Lantern Technique

Welcome back to the next installation of Tool Time! We're still talking about the paper crimper. An interesting note: the first crimpers used in paper crafting were actually small ones made for squeezing the last paint out of tube oil and acrylic paints. And if you want to get the last toothpaste out of the tube, you can use your paper crimper to do that too!

Someone asked how I adhere crimped pieces down. Usually, I use my ATG, which seems to hold very well, but if I wasn't using my ATG, I would probably go for Tombo Mono Multi. I put the ATG adhesive on the cardstock to which I'm adhering the crimped piece...it's too easy to squish the crimping by running adhesive on the back AND having the adhesive on the layer below makes sure there is still adhesive if the crimped piece shifts.

Today I'm going to show you one of the techniques I "unvented". I like to use the term "unvent", which was coined by Elizabeth Zimmerman, a famous knitting maven. She had tons of knitting tricks she came up with, but she hated to say she invented something because it was always possible that someone else had done it before, so she always said she "unvented" something. I feel the same way about a lot of my techniques...there is no guarantee that I'm the only one that ever came up with a particular technique. But since I did the grunt work and sent it in for publication, I have claimed it as one of mine. Your mileage may vary.

I submitted this to Technique Junkies a few years back. I call it "Paper Lantern":

Ingredients: Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps 3 Step Hydrangeas, Never a Loss for Words; Paper - Rose Red, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Confetti Cream; Ink - Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Elegant Eggplant, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Lavender Lace, Lovely Lilac, Chocolate Chip,  Adirondack Espresso; Other - Magic Mesh Gold (SU! Retired), gold brads, Fiskars Paper Crimper, Gold gel pen

Isn't this GOJUS?!?!?! (YILM!) To do this technique:

• Stamp the focal image.
• Crimp.
• Turn the focal image face down on a dark colored ink pad, pat gently to transfer ink to the top of the ridges.

You don't want to make the ink on the ridges really heavy or even...the unevenness adds to the oriental feel. I thought it looked a lot like the paper lanterns you can hang outside when you're having a party, hence the name.

Today my children have a half day and now they are off until Tuesday. Four and a half days to listen to arguing, watch my house slowly slide into dishevelment and wonder why I ever thought it was a good idea to buy Webkinz, let alone let my children on the computer to play. Four and a half days to see the same episodes of Sponge Bob and iCarly over and over again...good thing there is a stamp room to escape to in my basement! But somehow, I must get some chocolate first. Ta!

Tool Time - Getting the Most Out of Your Paper Crimper

A while back my BFF Mary left a comment on one of my cards that, among other things, said this:

Keep with the spring colors.  You were getting a little dark there I was getting worried. 

Well, this card ought to make Mary very very happy. In fact, I know it will:

Ingredients: Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps 3 Step Daisy, Never a Loss for Words; Paper - Whisper White, Lovely Lilac (SU!), Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White; Ink - Yoyo Yellow, Only Orange, Real Red, Pixie Pink, Lovely Lilac, Green Galore, Glorious Green, Versafine Onyx Black; Other - Fiskars Paper Crimper, gold brads, Basic Black marker, sponge wedge.

Is this GOJUS or what?!?!?! (YILM!) This card is part of a new feature on my blog called Tool Time. I'm going to show you some of those tools you may have sitting in your drawer that you don't really know what to use them for! For this post and a few others, I'm going to be showing you a few different things to do with a paper crimper. I love mine and have invented a few techniques using it and have explored a few other ones I've found online.

Here I've just used it to crimp my focal image; one of simplest, yet most effective, ways of using a crimper. It's a great  way of toning a bright focal image down just a bit. Uncrimped, this focal image would probably burn your eyeballs right out of your head...well, maybe not quite THAT bad, but it would be almost painfully bright. But by crimping it, I've essentially added a grey stripe to the focal piece. It adds texture and it's just plain FUN. Plus, it dressed up the card enough that I really didn't have to add much to it to make it look great!

Some tips about crimping:

• There are no mistakes in crimping because you can always put the paper back in if it comes out crooked and recrimp it!
• The trick to getting the paper to go in straight is to close the crimper almost all the way before you put your paper in. You want to snug the edge of the paper into one of the ridges on one of the rollers. That will give you a straight start. Then tightly squeeze the crimper and slowly roll the paper through.
• Remember that you are shortening the length of your paper when you crimp it. A 5 1/2" piece of cardstock will come out of the crimper 1/4" shorter!
• A crimper and a few pieces of scrap cardstock will keep a child happily occupied for probably 30 minutes (as long as they are old enough to be able to hold onto it!) Unfortunately, it's too big to really throw in your purse and take with you, but it's great for moms who just want a few more minutes to finish a card.

This Kitchen Sink set was perfect for this card...I always have fun using KS's 3 Step sets! And speaking of Kitchen Sink, did you know that there is now a monthly contest called "What's Cook'n with your Kitchen Sink Stamps?" You can find out all the details here.

Thanks, everyone, for the great comments on my post yesterday. The truth of the matter is that I haven't gotten published before because (here's my deep dark secret) I had not ever sent anything in!! So, yes, there is plenty of hope for those who haven't gotten published yet...you just have to do the work of sending in pictures of your creations and detailing what you used to make them. It's a lot easier than the old days where you had to send the actual project and most of the time, you might not get it back.

Well, I'm off to stamp some more...stay tuned for another great crimping project!