Friday, May 20, 2011

Dollar Find Friday with Tammy

Join us tonight right here in the TSG Forum for our weekly Friday Night Chat!
Everyone is welcome and we love to meet new people :)



Hey everyone, it's me Tammy and I'm back today to share my Dollar Find Friday project with you! I have had a box of plain white votive candles and cups in my alterables stash for forever, and while they may not have come from a dollar store, I know they were really cheap (or I wouldn't have bought them! LOL) So I decided to pull out Torico's awesome "Lighten Up" stamp set and, well..... lighten things up!
Each of my candles have the three small solid-image lamps from the set stamped on them in colors that match my "Blossom Soup" papers from Jillibean Soup. I used Ranger Distress inks in Broken China, Fired Brick and Peeled Paint.
Just stamp your image on a piece of white tissue paper, and cut around the image. Then lay the tissue paper on the candle, wrap a piece of wax paper around it, and heat for a few seconds with your heat gun!
Super easy to do, and you will quickly have a great little gift for someone!
I hope you enjoyed my week as the TSG Trendsetter as much as I did! Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Hey everyone! It's time for the Trendsetting Spotlight! Each Thursday we feature a card made by someone who has participated in a previous week's TSG challenge. You can find this week's inspiration challenge from Tammy HERE.  This week the spotlight is shining across the pond to ROMANIA where we found.....ALINA!
This card was so gorgeously done with the embossed tag and elements.  The best part of her post was how the inspiration photo....
reminded her of a vacation city she likes to go to!
Now that is a great way to live....OR vacation! You can see more of Alina's artwork at her blog, Flower Power Designs.


Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Wednesday Trends - Tammy

Hey everybody! It's Wednesday and that means it's time for a little tutorial on the latest trends out there in the papercrafting world. I don't know about you but one of my most favorite trends of late is using seam binding instead of ribbon in my creations! Whether the seam binding is something I purchased that was already hand-dyed (from an Etsy store) as shown here...
or some seam binding that already comes in a rainbow of colors, as I used here...
or some plain white seam binding that I dyed and crinkled myself, as seen here...
this stuff is HOT, HOT, HOT! Below, I'll show you a quick photo tutorial of how I dye my seam binding.


I use Ranger distress inks for dying, and use one dropperful in a Ranger Mini-Mister bottle...

...then fill the Mini-Mister the rest of the way with water.

I usually dye 3 yards of seam binding at a time. However, I forgot to get some more for this tutorial! So what you're seeing here is a much smaller piece of white! But I can usually dye 3 yards at a time with one full Mini-Mister.
Lay your seam binding on a non-absorbent surface, like a Teflon craft sheet and just start spraying the seam binding with the water/ink mixture.
Keep moving the seam binding around and spraying....
until you have a desired color. The color I'm using here is Spun Sugar, so it will end up fairly pale. Remember, in most cases the seam binding will dry a lighter shade, so don't be afraid to lay on the color. (And if you're doing darker colors be sure to wear a glove! I did 3 yards of Forest Moss once and ended up looking like Shrek!)
I then put my dyed seam binding down into the corner of a plastic baggie, and...
tie it shut with a good knot.
Then I just sit that bag aside for anywhere from 12-24 hours. Afterward, I remove it from the bag to air dry. It will still be pretty wet when you take it out of the bag, but will air dry within a day. I just keep fluffing it up every so often until it's dry. If you have a warm, sunny day you can even set it outside to dry! (But here in Northeast Ohio, we're doomed to never see the sun again!) You can also use your heat gun to quickly dry it, but you will lose some of the wrinkly texture when you do this. Another option is to tightly wrap the seam binding in tin foil and put it in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Depending on how tightly you wrap, it could get really crinkly. Because the seam binding dries so much quicker in the oven, the color can tend to be splotchy as well.

So I hope you'll give dying your own seam binding a try! You can buy spools of it on Etsy as well as buy it already dyed! Just search "seam binding" on the Etsy site!

Have fun!

Trendsetter Tuesday - Tammy!

Hey everyone!  Today I am thrilled to introduce you to one of the newest trendsetter...
First let me say, I ADORE Tammy! She is one of the kindest, sweetest stampers I've ever met.  She is a prolific commenter and always around if you need her. She is a terrific artist too!  Here are some samples of her gorgeous cards.  This gorgeous card is one of Tammy's very first TSG creations (from 2009)!  She used the TSG You're so Punny stamp set and colors from the Color Throwdown Challenge where you can see her work every week. 
 This gorgeous card is so representative of Tammy's bubbly and happy personality.  Here she used the newly release stamp set Lighten Up!  Her color selection and patterns are perfect, aren't they?!
 And here is a beautiful card with gorgeous coloring.  This card using the Tulip stamp set is so inviting and soothing with her layout, embossing, sweet pearls and butterfly. 
  To see more of Tammy's gorgeous creations, you can hop on over to her blog, Stamp Happy! 

Monday, May 16, 2011

TSG107 - Spring Inspiration


Hello everyone! I am your Trendsetter this week and I have chosen a beautiful photo as inspiration for this week’s challenge. The beautiful, bright colored flowers surrounding the soft, subtle bluebird makes for a winning combination!

To be eligible for the giveaway, you are to create a card inspired by the photo, and then come back to the TSG Blog to add your name and a link to your project in the InLinkz that is located at the bottom of this challenge post. This challenge is open until the winner has been announced on the following Monday. The winner will get a $5 gift certificate to use in the TSG Web store!
By participating in this challenge, you may also find yourself in the Trendsetting Spotlight that shines on the TSG Blog every Thursday. We will be on the look out to find challenge cards that stand out and show Trendsetting qualities. TSG stamps are not required to participate in the challenges but are appreciated :)

You do not need to have a blog to be able to participate in the TSG Challenges! You can simply add the URL link from your project after it has been uploaded to your online craft gallery. If you upload your card to an online craft gallery, please use the keyword TSG107 so we can check out your beautiful work!

Need some inspiration to help you get started? Check out these great cards made by the following Trendsetters...\
~Theresa
~ Christine

Winner from last week's TSG106 Inspiration Challenge: Alina
Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:9
Timestamp: 2011-05-16 05:38:21 UTC

Congrats Alina! Email me to collect your prize :)

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Week In Review (May 9-15) & Card Give Away!

What is Week In Review (WIR)?- WIR is where we showcase cards made by the Trendsetters and myself throughout the week. Not only to you get to see gorgeous projects made using TSG stamps, but you also have a chance to WIN one of these cards! Leave a comment on this post and next WIR I will choose a winner using a random number generator. That person will then get to pick out their favorite card and the Trendsetter that created it will send it to them :)

Week In Review (April 25- May 1) winner: Kim Y.
Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:6
Timestamp: 2011-05-15 02:57:28 UTC

Jessica

Jessica
Jessica
Jessica
Corinna
Corinna
Corinna

Iwona


Iwona


Iwona


Jessie



Jessie



Torico

Torico

Danielle
ASpecialGift_Colorful_DLounds

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Stampbook Saturday with Ann

Hi All!! For Stampbook Saturday today I was inspired by a super cute card from our talented Tammy Hershberger. I just love these colors and I was glad to use this BG Marjolaine pad of paper again. Here is my inspiration:
And here is what I created. I like the way Tammy popped up the layers on the tree so I layered my flowers in a similar way. I used the stamp set Blossom by Blossom for my layout today, and yes, I did cut out those tiny little chicks above the sentiment panel!! Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope you enjoy your day!!!