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

Making Ribbons

Hi there, everyone!

What a weekend.  Yeah?  One thing you know, it's Friday and the next thing you know, it's time to lay out your clothes for work and watch THE WALKING DEAD on TV...

Speaking of work, I'm not gonna be in the mood to get up and go tomorrow.  Why?  Because of the stupidity that is the time change.  I hate Daylight Savings Time time.  My internal clock is screwed up.   I'm gonna be crazy and mean at 8AM tomorrow.  I promise you.

But now- it's time to talk about making ribbon!

Why make ribbon?  And is this really ribbon?  I call it ribbon, so there- it's ribbon.  I've used this on lots of projects.  It adds a great touch, and you can adapt it to make any kind of ribbon 'look.'

First, cut a strip of plain, unbleached muslin.  This stuff is cheap.  And versatile.  And looks good.

One of my favorite things to do, when 'makin ribbon,' is to stamp the muslin. My favorite stamps to use when doing this are Distressing Stamps from Glitz.

Here is the stamped muslin.  Looks cool, doesn't it?  The muslin takes the ink very well.  It looks like the fabric 'came that way!'

Let's look at that close up!

I also like to color the strips with some Distress Stain, then cut it into smaller strips.  Here, I've used some Weathered Wood and Vintage Photo Distress Stains.  I usually mist the fabric with water before applying the stains- it seems to both help the fabric take the stain and gives it more of a worn/streaky look.  Which I like.

I really liked how the strip from the 'numbers' stamp turned out.

I decided to make a few strips without any stamping.  Misted with water, put on some stain.

Wrinkled it up into a ball and dried it with my heat gun.

And SURPRISE!

Cool lookin strip of fabric!

Which I cut into smaller strips and tied to a mini-book that I've been working on for months.  Yeah.  Months.  I keep doing a little bit at a time.

I like how they look on the side of this book, but not sure what else I'll do to them or tie to them or..

So, make some ribbon!

I'm going to relax for a little bit and then try to go to sleep as early as I can, so that I don't feel like too much nasty when I try to drag myself to work.  I think it'll be a Benadryl night.

Oh yeah!  Remember my little contest?  Well, besides from makin' ribbons, I also used one of your ideas and made something with my cool little stamp!  I'll show it to you tomorrow!

-kory

Lazy Lazy Sunday

I don't want to start sounding like a broken record-

BUT.

My plan for Sunday morning was similar to my plan for Saturday morning.   I planned/hoped/wanted to wake up and be ready for the day early in the morning.  I wanted to have a  full, productive day.  Did that happen?  Nope.  Not even close.

I didn't get to bed until a little after 6AM.

Was I running wild, barhopping and falling in love?  No.  I never left the house.  I was drinking wine, playing with stamps, playing with/learning iMovie on my new MacBook, and watching random stuff on Netflix Instant on the Wii.

What?  Kory?  You have a Wii?!  I didn't think you would play video games!

Well, I don't.  I use it to watch the Netflixes.

I do have one game for it-  Super Mario.  I've loved Super Mario since the 6th grade.  It's a love that shall never die.

So, thanks to Netflix, I didn't get to bed until 6AM.  I slept until about Noon.  The day was ruined.

I did finally sit down and play with some stuff.  Here's what I've got for you!

Yeahp, that's my brand new sexy Octagon Spellbinders set!  Yeah- I had my heart set on HEXAGONS- but everyone is doing hexagons and I want to BE ORIGINAL- oh, who am I trying to impress?  They only had the octagons at Jo-Ann, and the set was marked down at 14.97.  

I didn't have any plan in mind-  I arranged the dies as I did in the above photo, thinking that I would use the negative as a misting template, or maybe as a frame-

But then I saw all those cute little shapes laying there:

I  sanded and roughed them up a bit with my new distressing tool (more about that new wonder, first thing tomorrow morning!!!).  Then, I inked the edges with some Tea Dye and Walnut Stain Distress Inks, stacked the pieces up, largest to smallest- using some foam tabs, for a little dimension...  (I found these boxes of foam tabs at Tuesday Morning for .99 each!)

AAAAAAAAND SURPRISE!!!  A flower!   A more abstract, clean looking flower, actually.  I like it.  

I didn't have any plans for where to go from here-  I made a flower.  Now what?  Well, I needed lotion and soap, so I went to the grocery store.  But my brain must've misfired, because I forgot the lotion and bought cookies and ice cream.  So I had to go back out to buy the lotion- and yes, it was a matter of life and death to get this lotion.   I was out.  Like, sticking my finger into the empty bottle, hoping for a just a drop to take the dryness away.  My skin is sensitive.  It has to be non-scented, sensitive skin lotion.  I was drying up and looking my age.  I HAD TO GET LOTION!  And, since I was going right back out, why not stop in at the nearest Michaels, just in case there was something on clearance?  Well, there was.  Do I have instinct or what?  I found some nice packages of plain 12X12 chipboard marked down to 2.49 per package.  Score!  I love chipboard.  Almost as much as I love lotion.  I was also tricked into buying more Smashbook accessories.  I love that entire line.  More than I love lotion.

I came home, drank my Kool-Aid (yes, I still drink, and love, Kool-Aid) and made this:

Is it a card?  A cover for a mini-book?  A big page accent?  I don't know yet.  But I love it.  Yeahp, I'm still pushing the OCTOBER AFTERNOON doily stamp from the FARMHOUSE line.  And I just bought that nifty Martha Stewart 'Monarch Butterfly' punch.  Don't they look great?  The flourish was cut with my Cricut Expression 2.   

I hope everyone had a great weekend- and come back tomorrow morning, to see what it is that has changed my life for a better!

-kory

An Infomercial! Or: A blogomercial?

There you are, with a racing heartbeat and endorphins flooding your bloodstream.

Your face is glistening with sweat.  That's right!  You just returned home from another trip to the Scrap store!

You sit down at your scrap table, trying to clear a 12X12 space, pushing as much as the clutter away and BAM! It hits you.  Hits you like a beer bottle in a bar fight.  You're SCRAPBLOCKED!

What do you do when you're blocked?! 

Well...

You can cruise the gallery at http://www.scrapbook.com/.

You can read Frank's blog, Haus of W, and gaze at the amazing work he does...

You can search Google Image for sketches...

OR!

You can pull out KORY K'S NOT SO PATENTED POST-IT NOTE SCRAPBOOKING LAYOUT PLAYSET!



Kory K's NOT SO PATENTED POST-IT NOTE SCRAPBOOK LAYOUT PLAYSET!

But KORY, what's that?!

It's a fun, handy way to experiment with ideas, developed while sitting at my desk while I should've been doing something a little bit more productive!

But KORY! How does it work?!

Thanks for asking, Judy!  It works easily!  (I love pretending to be in an infomercial.)

You get a stack of POST-ITs from the office supply cabinet.   The regular, well-known, classic POST-IT is 3 inches by 3inches.  A nice, perfect little square.  That's going to be your regular piece of 12X12 cardstock.  Or your fancy piece of scrapbook paper.  You decide, it's your imagination!

SO- since we've decided that a 3X3 POST-IT equals a 12X12 cardstock, that means a fourth of an inch equals one entire inch.  How'd I figure that out? No, I didn't just know the measurement.  I'm artistic, not mathtistic.  I used my handy "Say No To Drugs" ruler to count!

Why do I have a "Say No To Drugs" ruler?  Once a year, we hold a thing for school kids, called "Camp Red Ribbon."  I thought you’d ask.

A ton of excited, screaming kids come to the office.  Kids so young they don't even know what drugs are, but start telling them early is the idea, I guess.  We have games and a fire truck and a giant slide and bouncy-castle, and over their shouts of excitement, we shout "DON'T DO DRUGS, YOU WILL BE POOR AND DIE!"

And then we give them gifts.  The item I decided our department would order are these classy, multicolored rulers WITH alphabet stencil built in-  I picked these out because I wanted a ruler with alphabet stencil.  I'm smart that way.  Wow, long story just to explain why I have this ruler.  Where was I?

Oh yeah!  Our scale measurements! 

To review: 1/4 inch equals 1 inch.  Using this scale, you can then cut out little squares for different sized photos and embellishments.  A brightly colored Christmas pencil that you boss put in your Christmas stocking is helpful for marking the cutting lines on your paper.

I made a few generic squares, 4X6 and 3X3 'sizes,' and some random sized 'paper pieces,' such as a long strip, some border shapes, a couple of circles, and a bracket-y shape.  Just cut out any shapes you can think of- these are going to be our little 'placeholders' on our POST-IT layout.  Once you've made a nice little set of little shapes, you're ready to start arranging them on your full square POST-IT- remember the full square is your base piece of cardstock. 

Peel off a few POST-ITs and line them up in front of you and write TITLE in random places on each one.  Then, just start placing your 'picture' sized square pieces onto the big square.  Or lay down some long strips and place a 'photo square' on top of those- and SURPRISE- your layout will begin to take shape!  Fun, easy, and amazing- huh?

Now, that you've got your very own Kory K style POST-IT NOTE SCRAPBOOK LAYOUT PLAYSET, you're ready to let inspiration grab you by the weave and shake you around a bit!  Keep all your pieces together in an envelope, and next time you're standing in line for forty-five minutes at Michael's, behind a lady who SWEARS there was a sign over that item that SAID it was a dollar, so they better sell it at that price- no worries!

Pull out your 'Layout Playset' and dream up ways to put your stash to work!

As Brini Maxwell used to say, “Now why didn’t you think of that?!”

Have fun, and let me know if you try it out!

-kory

Paint Chip Party!

WHO doesn't love paint chips?  I understand you might not love them as much as I do- but I'm sure there's a part of your little black heart that loves them even a tiny ounce.  They're COLORFUL.  They're FREE.  What's not to love?  Yes, there have been a few paint-chip-craft related bickering about the ethical concerns with using these 'free' paint chips.  I do not feel it is stealing.  Why?  Because I've asked the people at Home Depot.  That's all you have to do for paint chip crafting with a conscience.  The Home Depot conversation went something like this:

Kory:  Hey, is it okay if I take a few of each color of these ones?
Home Depot Guy:  Yeah, sure.  Take all you want.  I might have a box of some that we picked up on the floor that you could have, if you want.
Kory: Why thank you, you're too kind.  You're going to go far in life!

Yeah, so that isn't verbatim.  But you get the idea of how it went down.

So, again- what's not to love?

Oh, I can think of ONE thing!  The tiny printing that labels the paint chip with it's descriptive information.  But you can get rid of that!  Yes!  An answer to prays!  So what is this little miracle worker? Yeah, it's an eraser.  A 'plastic eraser.'  A WHITE, plastic eraser.  It can be found nearly 'anywhere fine art products are sold.'  (Doesn't that sound like a commercial?  Love it!)  And it's cheap. 

I cannot claim to be the sole originator of this technique.  But there doesn't seem to be much about it, out there- and in a way, I came up with it one my own.  How?  Well, I was sitting at my craft table, thinking.  As I was thinking, I was rubbing my pencil with my thumb.  No, sickos.  'Pencil,' as used in this sentence, is alluding to nothing but an old fashioned No.2 PENCIL.  I glanced down, and saw that I'd rubbed whatever advertising was written on the pencil.  I began thinking, as one does, and wondered if I could somehow 'rub' off the text on a paint chip.  I'm often heartbroken when I find a nice, big, perfectly colored paint chip which I hafta cut up to remove the paint name and product number. 

So, I try a couple of erasers that I had in my craft arsenal.  And it works.  Crazily elated, I dream up all kinds of ideas and feel on top of the world- then I think- I'm not THAT original.  Someone has surely come up with this idea BEFORE.  SURELY, there's plenty of PAINT CHIP PIONEERS who've come up with a way to do this- so I google.  Yeah, it's happened- but not as much coverage as I'd thought.  So here ya go- and check back soon- I'll be sharing some exciting Paint Chip Valentine Crafts!