CKCB Hop: Vellum Stamping and Tea Lights

Here's my offering for today's Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Hop.  You probably came from Jessica, and the next stop is Bethany. 

Next month I'll be hopping on the CKCB Master Forger team - Whoop Whoop!! Can't wait to officially get started!

This month's hop theme is to use a stamping technique on a project. I went about this assignment sort of backwards.  I stamped my project, realized I really should show a technique first, went looking for a tutorial, found fantastic instruction for a project much cooler than my original idea, and then made that other project to add onto this post.  And so it goes with attention deficit crafting.....

My initial technique is a simple one, but something I haven't used much in the past.  I used Staz-on ink to stamp onto vellum.

I won a set of "Hardware" Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets from Shirley (It was part of a huge prize that included all sort of Basic Grey Lauderdale stuff, too - thanks, Shirley!). As soon as I saw the stamps I fell in love with the ruler in the set. It was perfect for a page about our household facelift from earlier this year.

I used this week's sketch from Shimelle for this page, too.  For my background I used a piece of vellum over a piece of patterened paper. I thought the pattern (Basic Grey) looked like measuring tapes and contruction plans, but I needed to mute the colors for this project.  The vellum toned it all down.  I wanted to journal right onto the vellum, so I used the Staz-on ink to stamp the ruler for my journaling lines.  It stamps on the vellum with no smudge problems, so it's the perfect ink for that type of paper. Then I wrote my journaling with a vellum marker. 



Journaling: We started 2011 with several big projects in mind.  We had our room painted and updated with new fixtures, we created a new scrapbooking/guest space, and we upgraded my closet with new paint and cabinetry.  The closet was a lot of work for us, but I'm glad we decided to do the project ourselves. It took months to complete it all, but now that it's mostly done, we're enjoying all of our updated spaces.


I still get a little giddy when I walk into my new closet each morning :).  I did a blog post earlier this year where I talked about the project here.

So, that leads me to the vellum tutorial. Rochelle at I Stamp, I Create, I Have Fun  showed how to make a tealight lantern using stamped vellum inserts.  So cute!  Her tutorial (the link above goes right to that post from 2008) shows how to cut the cardstock for the lantern and how to stamp onto the vellum.  I modified the process a little bit to work for me.




I sat up my template on the Gypsy, so I could easily duplicate it. My template is 8 1/4 x 5 inches. The windows are about 3 x 1 inches.  You could draw out your own template and cut it out by hand, too - it's not an exact science. After I cut the template, I scored the folding lines at 2,4,6, and 8 inches on my score board. Another under-utilized tool makes an appearance on my desk :). 



I stamped my fall leaves with brown ink and a Martha Stewart leaf stamp. 



I cut the vellum pieces just slightly larger than the size of the windows.
While the ink was still wet, I coated it with UTEE and heated it with a heat gun. 

I used my ATG to tape the vellum pieces to the cardstock and the cardstock edge to form the box.  Of course I will only use a battery operated tea light with this project - I wouldn't use a real candle inside this all-paper project.

And here's the finished project:

I can't wait until this weekend when I have some time to make more.
Add some ink to the edges, scallop cut the top edge, etc.  Cute, cute, cute!

I've had a busy work month - it's just part of the cycle of my job to be extra busy during September on a college campus - and I ran out of time for a lot of things around the house.  I have a friend coming for an overnight visit tomorrow, and it fell to Crystal to do most of the household cleaning to get ready for that visit.  Nothing like company coming to whip you into housekeeping mode!  I worked a lot this past weekend, and I didn't even have the energy at home to bring out any fall decor.  So taking a few minutes to make a couple of these tealight holders last night was the perfect stress reliever for me.  Now I have a bit of fall in the house, and we're ready for a fun visit. 

Hop Order: You probably came from Jessica, and the next stop is Bethany.  Take a second to go back to the beginning, too, and leave a comment on today's blog hop post on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog for a chance to win a stamp set from this month's sponsor, Ippity Chick Sherri!