Making Your Own Masks and Primitive Stamps!

What's Kory been up to, for the past week or so?  Well, besides working on the new play that will open this Friday night- I've been playing around at my desk and making my own masks! AND I've been making my own 'Primitive Art Journal Stamps.' 

If you know anything about me, you'll know that I've been making these things out of either trash or stuff from the Dollar Tree. 

First- the masks.  Stencils.  Whatever you want to call them, you know what I'm talking about:  those trendy plastic things you spray yo' Mister Huey's and Dylusions through so's you can put some purty patterns on your paper.

I love these things.  I own a big and always growing pile of them.  They're more addictive than Spellbinders Nestabilities. 

Masks and dies always remind me of that joke:

"You've taken morphine?!"

"Well, once, after my surgery.  And then every day for three years after that..."

Anyways- enough of Kory's Comedy Hour.

Masks.  I love masks.  And I love the silhouette masks that the amazing Ms. Dina Wakley uses-  but I was wanting a 'boy' mask.  Believe it or not, I don't run around in a skirt.  Speaking of 'man silhouette masks,' - Ms. Dyan Reaveley has just released one- the 'Bert' stencil.  But I haven't seen it in a store, yet.  You know I'll buy it the minute I do!  But in the meantime, I made my own.

How did I make my own? 

It's easier than you think- and you don't even need any artistic ability.

There are all kinds of classy designers who are making some amazing graphics.   Go to Google Images, and search for,  "free silhouette vector graphic," or some variation of that-  and you'll find pages of royalty free graphics. 

Pick out your favorite one.  I printed mine at several different sizes- full size, 50%, 35%... just so I could have some options.  I like options.

I traced the shape with tracing paper- you can do this or you can just use the printed shape.  Cut a rectangle of clear plastic product packaging big enough to cover your shape plus a good border.  I used the plastic from the Spellbinders packaging.  I save all plastic.  You can always use it for something!  I don't do this out of some kind of devotion to the environment.  I mean, I do love the earth, really, I do- but when I'm dead, what's the environment gonna do for me?*

*Totally kidding.  Sometimes, I even through a can into the recycling bin at work.

Where was I?  Oh yeah.  So- you trace the shape onto your plastic.  I used a black paint marker.  Not for any specific reason other than it was the nearest marker- but obviously, you want to use something that won't schmear.

Also, I taped the plastic to the tracing paper and my desktop so it wouldn't slip and slide.  Oh! Remember the Slip 'n Slide?   The best thing to happen to childhood in the 80's. 

After you've traced the shape all that's left to do is cut out the inside of the shape!  I tried to cut it with my Exacto, first.  The Spellbinders plastic was a bit too tough.  As if I have to tell anyone who has ever tried to open the flippin' things.  Instead, I punched a hole in the center of the shape with my Crop-a-dile and used scissors.

Ready to see my test result?

WORKED!!!  

Whoooooooo!!!!  Unlimited masks for me!!!

Of course, I won't stop buying them- but now, I've got OPTIONS!!!

But I thought, what a great idea, in case the stock market ever crashes, and I actually had money in the stock market.  I'd be okay.

What else have I been making?   Well, you know I've been on this art journalling jag-  and I've been looking at lots of books from the library about art journalling.  I love looking thru books.  And the library- well,  "I don't know if any of you people read."   BUT-  the thing about the library.  It's like going to Barnes and Noble, except that everything is free.  

Anyways...  In all these books, the writers go on and on about how great and easy and classy it is to make your own stamps.  All you hafta do is buy blocks of carving rubber and carving tools and suddenly become coordinated.

I wanted to make my own stamps.  But I also recognized my own limitations. 

So here's how to make some 'Primitive/Negative Art Journal Stamps.' 

Go to the Dollar Tree and get a package of 'fun foam.'   It comes in a package of about twenty or thirty 5X7 sheets.  For a dollar.  That's a bargain.

Now, come up with a shape or design- and with a fine tipped stylus OR a ball point pen, draw your design onto the foam.

See that?  Just draw the design onto the foam.  It presses in and stays.  My first attempt, I drew a woodgrain pattern.  A bad woodgrain pattern, that is, but I'm fond of it: 

Also, note where I tested out my new Amy Tangerine calendar stamp.  Neat, huh? 

I also like how this method of "makin' stamps" looks like a strange printing/negative look.  Love it!

I did a few more:

and:

and:

Of course, I had to try out another silhouette!   But my 'by hand' version of the shape turned out a little alien-like. 

That's what I've been up to, people!

Oh wait, there is something else I've been up to-  for my theatrical career-  making TEETH! 

There's a scene in this play (that opens THIS FRIDAY, get yer tickets NOW!) where the lead character uses a pair of pliers to pull out a tooth.  Onstage.  So, I've made these fake teeth- and with some Antique Linen Distress Ink and some Picket Fence Distress Stain... they look real, ladies and gentlemen.  Combined with the blood and the stage lights-  you'll be horrified.  I guarantee it.


-kory k

On Shopping: New Tim Holtz Stamps and Other Fun-ness.

I'd planned to share my shopping spree recap with you, on my previous post about making the treasure boxes.  But I forgot ALL about it by the end of the post and wandered off to try to take a nap.  Luckily, the sharp eyes of Bella caught it- and, so-  I'm back!

Week after week, there's a moment during the mid-morning on Fridays when a voice of reason and clarity tries to speak loudly amongst the crazy voices in my head.

"Don't buy more supplies!  Why don't you use what you have?!"

Then, one of my favorite stores (My Heart's Fancy) will post that they have new products.

Well, screw that saving money and living like a monk thang!  I work hard and I'm not serving any prison sentences- so why shouldn't I have all the fun I want?!  

The 'shopping weekend' began at my lunch hour on Friday.  With Holly Busch.  We went to Basket Market- where, EXCITEMENT- we ran into Tanya, of Creative Endeavors.  Do you know Miss Tanya?  She's beautiful, fun, funny, and TALENTED!  Lady can Silhouette!  I didn't find anything earth shattering cool, this time, at Basket Market.  It wasn't the Studio Calico jackpot that it was a couple of weeks ago.  But I did score some great (name brand, too!) 6X6 paper pads and some very nifty American Crafts metallic pens.

As soon as I was able to drag myself out of the house, this morning, I staggered up to 165th and Penn, to check out the new stuff at My Heart's Fancy.  I got some of the new Tim Holtz Halloween stamps as well as the My Mind's Eye Halloween stamps.  I also got their 6X6 Halloween paper pad.  It looks great!

Aren't they great?!  I also bought that little bee stamp.  Why?  No idea.  I *really* wanted the other Tim Holtz stamps, too- especially the cemetery headstone blueprint one- but for some reason, decided to show some restraint.  I *am* going to CK/Tulsa next weekend.

After leaving My Heart's Fancy, I decided to stop in at Tuesday Morning.

Imagine that- a little score!

I found these Tim Holtz ideology thingies-  for 2.99 each!  And that corner rounder with a hole punch thing, too.  I LOVE these metal numbers.  I know I should've bought one more package of them...  The tassels, I don't know what I'll ever use those for... but, just in case: 2.99.

Now, I'm really, for real, super seriously gonna try for that nap.  I need it.  Especially if I'm going to stay up all night again!  Also, this is my last period of 'free time' for what could be a long while.  I start rehearsals for the next show I'm working on- as well as production managing the show following it-  it's gonna be work work and work for ... well, until the theatre season ends!

-kory

SHOPPING HIGHLIGHTS and living in a burning hell

Wow.  Time flies.  One minute it's beautifully cold and you're wearing a classy sweater to work - the next thing you know, it's a hundred degrees and you're miserably wondering what you did to end up in hell.  Was it the liquor?  The sleeping around?  The haircut you had in the 6th grade?  Why have I been forsaken?!  Oh, I'm still alive.  This isn't hell.  It's Oklahoma City.  Or is it?

So what's up?  Besides burning in hell?  Well, I've done a bit of shopping and I'm here to share a few SHOPPING HIGHLIGHTS with you!

Here's some highlights of recent shopping trips:



Found these nifty stamps (from The Paper Company) at Jo-Ann.  All stamps were on sale, 40% off.  As these were rather inexpensive anyways- really- such a low price I wouldn't have cared paying full price- the discount made them an even better deal!  I think they rang up at 4.19 each package.  And aren't they cool?!  I love the vintage label look of these stamps!  I could do without the 'Friends Forever' stamp, as I stopped acting like a 13 year old girl when I turned 30, but who knows- it might come in handy one day. 

Went to MICHAELS yesterday, for a lunch-hour shopping break.  Holly B. not only drove me, but shared a diet pill.  So we shopped in terrific manic style AND didn't eat.  As I was maniacally tearing through the dollar stamp bins, Holly turned a corner and spotted the above display, hidden behind a tall shelf of horrific budget patterned scrapbooking paper.  Seriously- hidden.  If it were a snake it would NOT have bit me.  Luckily, Holly has the eyes of an eagle on methamphetamines.  Budget stamps from 7Gypsies / Graphic45 / Cosmo Cricket / Hampton Art!!!  Most of the display was empty, however- which lead me to imagine that they either hadn't fully stocked this display yet OR other people had already discovered it and bought all of the best stamps.  As this was at the Michaels that's notorious for not stocking things that the other locations stocked a month ago, I'm leaning towards a stocking issue.

Speaking of this Michaels location's stocking issues- they have finally restocked (most of) the Tim Holtz/Sizzix dies (and embossing folders)!  They've been missing for nearly a year.  Well, except for a single, lonely Tim Holtz 'Baroque' die which seemed to migrate randomly around the store of its own volition.  Yes.  After all of Mr. Holtz's fan-freakin-tabulous dies but this 'Baroque' die had sold, I would spot it in different places all over the store.  One day it was in the SMASH Book display, then it was suddenly hanging from a Distress Ink hook.  Another time, I saw it on top of a pile of fabric bolts in the clearance aisle.  Yesterday, there it was again- in the mixed media jewelry display.  While I considered giving the Baroque die a home of its very own, I saw (and gratefully snatched) the On The Edge 'File Tabs' die.  I'd been wanting this one for FOREVER!  Sorry, Baroque.  I'll get you one day.  I promise.  I'll make an honest die of you.

Now, for something not related to craft, but still something that caught my eye:

A 'bunny rabbit mask.'  Spotted at the new and terrific antique shop near downtown, VERDIGRIS.  This thing is horrifying.  And I want it. 

And now, for something even more horrifying than an antique bunny mask:

This ad, spotted in the back of the newest issue of one of the scrap-mags, which excitedly advertises a new line of LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE albums.  Really?  I was pretty sure the LIVE LAUGH LOVE thing was, if not dead already, definitely near death.  Is it being resurrected?  I was pretty sure this fad was completely extinct when I spotted LIVE LAUGH LOVE signs in heaping piles in the home decor sections at Gordman's and Ross Dress For Less and other classy shopping destinations.  But no.  Just when I think I won't be assaulted by this CRAP any longer-  surprise! 

Trust me, people.  It's not inspiring.  It's insipid.  And worse than that, it's overdone. 

Okay

Saturday Happ'nins

I had a ton of trouble waking up, today.  I had crazy dreams of wake up and being fully functional before 9AM.

Well, that didn't happen...

I did wake up for a few moments at 8AM, to a phone call from Holly, who told me that she was already up and awake and at ACE Hardware, to get her free quart of paint, to paint a dresser she'd found at Goodwill a few days ago.  I guess it was free quart of paint day. I think I said something like, "Momma.  Get paint for Daddy."  And then I hung up and went back to sleep.

I eventually made it to consciousness.  And showered-ness.  AND THEN IT WAS TIME TO BUY STAMPS.

I don't know what it is- but I can't get enough stamps.  Not only are they fun, but they look good.  Don't stamps look good sitting on a shelf?  Or hell, don't stamps look good jumbled up in a box?

I went to My Hearts Fancy, the home of the coolest stamps in town.  I had my eye on a stamp I saw last week.  And I bought that stamp.  But it's not the stamp I'm showing you, tonight.  I'm saving it for tomorrow.  Tonight, I'm showing you a different stamp.  But it's just as cool.

I don't know what the stamp is called, I'm lazy and a little drunk and not in the mood to even research it- but here it is, people, feast your eyes on this damn beauty: ((Before clicking PUBLISH, I decided to look it up and he's called "SMILE". You can find out more about him HERE.))

Isn't he cute?  He reminds me of myself, as a child.  Yeah, cute.

While the very classy owner of the shop was ringing up a very random selection of items, she told me of something she'd seen done with another one of these stamps-  the head cut in two and positioned so that it looked like it was 'talking' or spitting out words.  Well, this sounded so cool and fun that I ran home and tried it out!

I used Mr. Holtz's 'Gridlock' Texture Fade with my Sizzix BigKick to emboss a 5X5 piece of kraft cardstock from the classy Jo-Ann, and my Magnetic Poetry Word Stamps.  I found them at HALF PRICE BOOKS.  Nearly 100 word stamps for six bucks.  Check your local Half Price Books, or look online- they have several sets, and they are very worth it- I love these!  I  rubbed the embossed card with some Tea Dye and Walnut Stain- and I colored the little guy with one of my BRAND NEW DISTRESS MARKERS and also some regular Scattered Straw Distress Ink, using a Tsukineko Fantastix Coloring Tool Brush Point.  I pushed it on the ink pad, pushed it on a water droplet that I'd sprayed on my Craft Sheet.  You can't tell from the photo, or maybe you can, but some of the words are 'flat' and some I attached with some foam tape.

Alright- I'm off to drink another classy glass of wine fresh from its classy box that it's calling from and then, I'm gonna play with my stamps.  Yes, the nightclubs are calling, too.  I might be back with more fun, but then again- I might end up at a bar.  Who can say?

-kory

"Obsession is more than just a perfume!"

I got a hot tip from an unnamed source at 11:07am CST.  Mr. Holtz's sanding grip refills were are marked clearance at Michaels for a dollar each.  Yeah, they're just little rectangles of sandpaper.  And I've tried sandpaper and those sandpaper 'sponges' from the hardware store- but they really don't work as well for me,  Or I'm getting the wrong strength/grade/whatever it's called- but I really like these!

So I ran over to Michael's on my lunch break.   Grabbed five packages of Mr. Holtz's fine sandpaper and noticed- oh, Distress Stickles! Three packs! Three bucks!  So grabbed the package containing Vintage Photo, Frayed Burlap, and Walnut Stain.  Those are also three of my favorite Distress Inks.  What a high!

There were boxes everywhere.  And actual, real life employees walking around!  They were (GASP!) STOCKING THE SHELVES!  While I'd love to believe those boxes were filled with all the latest and greatest products from Scraptopia, we all know it's just a bunch of shiny Jolee's crap.  But a guy can dream.

While I'm lost in my sensual scrappy daydream, I stumble upon a new display.  I ain't seen this before!

It's a new (newish?) line from Hampton Art, called Ditto.  The designs were very simple and clean.  Love them.  Really liked the large wood-mounted stamps, priced at 3.99 (?!), especially 'Large Circles' and 'Groovy.'  Really great background stamps, and sized perfectly to be used on a standard A6 card.  And only 3.99?!  They also had an assortment of resist die-cut chipboard shapes, color mists (those didn't look too interesting- but I'm still reeling from my discovery of Mister Huey's), stamp pads, and some packages of masks.  They are also worth looking it- very cool shapes. 

Here's a close-up of some of the stamps.  I feel they give off a young, modern, clean look.  Very decent stamps for this price!

I picked up the large flower shape, third from the left on the bottom row.  But I can already tell I'll be back, soon, for 'Groovy.'

Oh my, why am I being tested so?!  Email from Paper Arts, a great store here in the OKC area: ALL TIM HOLTZ DISTRESS MARKERS ARE IN, buy individually or the entire set with a discount!  Please, please, twist my arm, Paper Arts!!!
-kory