Update on my crafting

Worked more on my fun summer and sunshine style mini album last night! I LOVE the way it's coming together! I hope to get it bound today and get started on the outside cover. Then tomorrow finish embellishing everything.  Here is a sneak peak of what it looks like so far! More later...

Shrink Plastic Charm Tutorial

Today i'm going to show you how to make this wonderful Shrink Plastic Charm!

First gather your supplies:

• piece of #6 recycled plastic (I used a washed out food container) 
• a pair of scissors (i used Tim Holtz Scissors)
• non-stick craft mat
• permanent markers (any brand you like is fine)
• StazOn ink pad in the color you choose (I used black)
• Your heat tool
• Hole punch 
• Tweezers or something to hold onto plastic while heating it
• And last but not least your STAMPS!! (I used the bird man by silver crow creations, and the star and word dream are part of the Tim Holtz collection by stampers anonymous)

Step 1: 

  Stamp your image on the plastic and cut out whatever shape you'd like your charm to be 

(remember these shrink to less than 1/2 the original size so the larger the better)

 Step 2: 
       Punch the hole in the plastic wherever you want the charm ring to go through

Step 3:
       Color the back side of your image and allow to dry for a minute.

                                              (I also chose to add more stamps at this point)

(This show my original stamped piece before heating was 4in long)

 Step 4:
       Heat that bad boy up!! Don't panic it will warp, and curl and do all sorts of funny things, but don't panic it will flatten back out on it's own as it heats 
          (i usually leave it laying on my nonstick craft mat while i heat it, i only lifted it for the picture)

 Step 5:
    You did it! Now let it cool for a minute then you are ready to add it to your projects! In my case i made a fun charm dangle clip. (note the new size is only 1 and 3/4 inches!!)

 Here you can see the front and back sides of m charm.

 (note that the metallic marker i used was opaque so it gives a nice 3D affect when compared to the transparent colors)

Well Here you Go my finished Charm Clip! 

It was a dark and stormy ... Day...

Ok well its stormy and gloomy outside. I decided to make a fun stamped hang tag with one of my favorite stamps... He's a crow/man whom i call the "bird man" ... He was originally part of Mary Margaret's personal collection but I fell head over heels in love with him so he now lives with me. :D (the stamp is based off of the art by JJ Grandville, a caricaturist from the 1800's) .

            There are various stamp companies have turned his images into stamps and I know there are at least 4 of them with Viva Las Vegastaps that I also must have!! They are next on my list of stamps to buy! The bird man is created by: silver crow creations... 

   Okay so on with my point... I started to work on a fantastic tag with him and I wanted it to be titled a dark and stormy night to reflect the way the weather has been the last couple of days, and because if you have colored right he can have an awesome your revised to him! Well I hand stamped out each of the words and instead of a dark and stormy night... I ended up titling it... a dark and scary night ...  so my lack of sleep is apparently taking it was going to send me back to the drawing board because I want it to be perfect ... As you can see in the photo preview below it still has a long way to go yet, but I intend on finishing the phone and making it even more eerie ... ( sorry that the photo is not great it is just a quick sneak peek from my phone)

     In other news after going to my eye exam yesterday, I'm officially at 20/20 vision!!!!  on the flip side on the way down there the steering wheel to my car started smoking!? Luckily it did not catch on fire and I only smoked a couple of times. (we made it safely to the appointment and back home). So now we need to make an appointment with mechanic I'm sure that will be fun and expensive.

More Mail Art!

Ok, So now that MM has received her letter this is the back of her mail art envelope (Which was the Skull lady envelope) and the other piece was her inside letter. : D 

Tag You're it!!

Ok, so what have i been doing for the last 3 days? Getting Inky of course!! I have been Stamping, and inking up some super fun and vintage inspired tags. Most of the tags are for the 4 sets i will be listing on Ebay for my groups Christmas in July sale. Some others where just for fun and to play with some of my moms new  stamps from graphic 45's "Steam Punk Spells" line (She made some great tags also, which i haven't yet taken photo's off... maybe i'll remember to go back over tomorrow to get the picks of hers)  

(Ok i just realized i forgot to take a picture of the steam punk spells set... so i'll add it later if anyone wants a close-up)

You can also view some of my Mom's tags on her blog along with the pictures took of mine
http://the-white-witches-cottage.blogspot.com/
(though some of my fave. tags she made she hasn't taken pics of yet...)

Ok so here are the pics... 

 Christmas Set 1

Close-up of set 1 tag

 Christmas set 2

Christmas set 3 

(This Set is supposed to be the Dickens Victorian Christmas set)

A peak from the side so you can see how chunk and 3D they are.  

Christmas Set 4 

This primitive style set is the only set I've made that doesn't have any 3D aspect it

 Vintage set that was just for fun 

(the fact they all have a start officially makes them a set!)

Just so you can see these are all 3 dimensional  

 Tags all together. (oh and the one in the top left was another just for fun piece) 

Big decisions

Just a quick note to touch base... Spent yesterday crafting with my mom and visiting with my grandma. I ended up making some super fun Tim Holtz style stamped hang tags, which i will take pictures of later today (hopefully to get posted tonight).  Also, helped mom with some projects she was working on.

In other news... I made a decision a few days ago to make a goal of trying out for a design team, Which is a very scary thin for me. I missed the deadline for this term, which is fine by me because this gives my 5 months to prepare... My point in all this... I'm stating here and now that in 5 months time (or when ever they list they're taking new members) I am going to submit some pieces, and by stating it here this means i can't back down, and i have to stick to it!! (i'm not going to state which design team just yet, but i'm Very excited about this, and i'm a very determined individual! lol)

Ok my goals for today... make my Christmas In July Tags for my eBay design team (TPHH aka The Paper Hen House) We are promoting our Christmas in July for the full month starting July 1st so i need to get a move on and create some fun Christmas pieces...   Well that's all for now Thanks for listening/reading my nonsense rambling  :D

Just a peak at my going's on... Mail art Zine of Kerri's that's going out today, and my July calender Journal :D

This Awesome monkey is from freubel-art.blogspot.com/

HaPpY HaPpY JoY JoY!!

So lots of new fun goodies came in the mail yesterday!!! (My mom and I split a pound'o rubber from Viva Las VegaStamps) I have already created 2 fun pieces today, and my mind is overflowing with more ideas!!! (It's also dreaming of MORE RUBBER!! ... If i keep it up my hubby may put me in a rubber room soon!!) one of the sets i received was a zetti/zetangle set of characters and i LOVE them!! The little bird was my 1st inspiration of the day starting me off with and ATC (1st one i've done in probably a year...) then he begged to be on a piece of mail art too... and i couldn't turn him down, so what do you know? he is now on and envelope too and the awesome Eye tied it all together.. then of course i doodles and colored them... ok ... ok... I'll just show you!! (more to come soon!)

Oh, yea...one more thing... MM you are so being blamed as my enabler!!! (Thank you!!!lol)

You can click the photo to enlarge for a better view. 

So today i finally broke out my spray inks, (Which i haven't done in ages!) Here are the envelopes i sprayed and the pretty napkins after cleaning the space :D

Ok, i FINALLY finished the back of the bird people envelope, so here you all l go, Nothing fancy but i like how it turned out. Also here are some of the free stamps from i received from Viva Las Vegas Stamps.

I also received my 100 proof press stamp magazine yesterday!!! <3 <3 <3  I was bad and ordered a grab bag from them, a awesome angel man stamp. I am also splitting a pound'o rubber order from Viva Las Vegas Stamps.  

I'll update everyone more later. 

A Sneak Peak layout

A sneak peak at the arrangement for the back of the bird people envelope...

Hope it looks good when colored :D

Mail art madness...

Ok, i thought i'd share a little bit of the mail art madness i've been working on, all 4 of these still need the backs completed yet, but Thought i'd go ahead and share the fronts.( : D )

(thank you to my friend Mary Margaret for the fabulous stamped images of the bird people, brick window  and the wonderful bird address plate!)   

(you should also check out her awesome mail art here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/69262284@N02/    )

 The "top Secret" one may end up with more added to it also... I haven't decided yet...
I hope you all enjoy the pre-view

   Ok, Here we go.. So i Don't have a clue how to start a blog and make it fun and relevant, so if you stumble upon this i hope you enjoy it! My name is Tera and i am a self professed Craft and Sugar addict!! I Love a huge variety of crafts, such as Stamping,Mail Art!!, Misc. paper crafting, scrap booking, painting, metal stamping, photography, clay and what ever else may tickle my fancy for the day... lol
   I also have a huge sugar addiction (which i'm working on...kind of...) I love candy, sweet tea, ice cream and well you get the point...

Q: So what should you expect to see here?    A: all my latest crafty adventures!! Maybe dome tips or tricks along the way, and maybe sneak peaks at items or projects i'm working on... Maybe even some of my pieces for Ebay.

Some of my just for fun works, and swaps can be found on Flickr (Kattera22) if you want to check them out.