if you’re seeing this post, or getting it via email it means somehow you’re subscribed to http://www.mayflaum.wordpress.com aka the blog I used to have in 2011 and earlier. If you’ve recently been getting odd email “updates”… this is likely why.
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Know what my holiday needs? Some website work.
So I’m moving… But not. A back-end deal that is gonna help http://www.mayflaum.com ‘s 2012 ROCK. So when my blog has its new host, I’m not sure if the email subscriptions will keep on truckin’, so if I disappear come back & resubscribe please! 🙂
If you use an rss/google reader and you sub to mayflaum.wordpress.com that’s not gonna work anymore. Please update to mayflaum.com
Thank you!!
When the move happens I will post again, So you know it is done.
In the meantime, off for coffee. Tech words make my brain hurt.
Mama is working on computer things and paperwork and COOL ideas to share soon.
So our resident elf is taking over today’s crafty quota…
Note: I came up with the PERFECT December daily page design. Stay tuned. It’s coming atcha real soon…
 
 Pink Persimmon is a stamp company that is locally owned, and they are such great ladies! When they asked if I’d like to try out some of their new Lisa Pace designs I said of course! So today I want to share with you a tag technique I’ve been using a lot this holiday season – and you can see the tags I’ve made with the perfumery set.
First use distress stain (a light color) all over a manila tag. Then stamp text image with SAME COLOR of distress, but the ink pad (not stain). It is faint, but there is a slight color difference that gives you a great watermark-like effect.
Then stamp in a darker color the bottle image, stamp the entire tag with versamark ink, coat in embossing powder, and heat until the powder is set into a glossy finish. (and that’s it!)
Aren’t they lovely? My plan is to use these on some packages for the holidays – just adding a monogram sticker or something simple, and a note on the back perhaps. I jus adore these bottle stamps. So fancy and the coordinating text stamp is going to be used a lot around here as well I’m sure…
 I just love this process for making quick, sturdy, fabulous tags that could act as page embellishments, adorn gifts, or even be for a card. What’s even more fun? I’m going to give a set of Pink Persimmon stamps away!
Aren’t they so vintage chic? I love them – but I’m going to share that love and give this set (shown above) away to one of you darling blog readers! Just leave a comment here, winner will be drawn around the 21st…
Happy Crafting!!
This morning the girls woke up to find unadorned wrapped gifts, holiday shirts, chocolates, and even the Christmas dog “Jingles” + book (which is AWESOME, by the way) they had been dreaming of on the stairs. Who could be responsible? Credit was given to Buddy (their elf on the shelf) who was hanging from the garland overseeing it all.
This afternoon I was working on videos for my new BPC class, and I found out that my Scrapbook Update article (link) about the new 2012 Hero Arts stamps + their debut parties was up.
how are these things in any way related?
I multi-tasked! I created a tag with two of my new (beloved) Hero Arts stamps while talking about my Big Picture class and made it a tag for one of Elizabeth’s gifts that clearly needed something fancy.
I LOVE the green tulle I purchased (craft store, wedding aisle) on a whim. I’ve been using it tons. I also use cardstock as a base ‘strip’ around my packages a lot lately too.
If you want to read more about my experience with the Hero Arts party and see all my favorite picks then check this out: http://www.scrapbookupdate.com/2011/12/13/hero-arts-debuts-2012-stamp-catalog/
The two stamps I used on this tag are the leaf & flower background (link to simonsaysstamp.com) and the four hearts (link to simonsaysstamp.com) set.
If you’d like to see some of my process on this tag, and hear about the A-Z library that is 26 videos, available on day 1, and just one part of my new Big Picture class (registration/info page link)- check out this video I made this afternoon:
Have an idea for something you’d like clarified, talked about, or ‘sneak peeked’ about my class? Let me know! I hope you’re finding some crafty happiness somewhere in the midst of the crazy that can be December. I need to go journal today’s elf-capades and edit videos for Field Guide too…
Have you seen the MyBooks? they’re so super neat. In fact here’s a great deal. Use the coupon code MFMB5 for 50% off 2012 MyBook Planners! this is good through 12/18/11
Here’s a link: http://www.perannum.com/mybook/mb_index.asp
Want something else cool? Per Annum sent me one of the large MyBooks to give-away right here!! Want to win it? Just leave a comment here…Â winner to be drawn around the 20th…
While not everyone’s favorite person, I can not give anything but mad props to Martha Stewart’s creative team for the holiday products that they release. They are simple, useful, and have really accented my holiday preparations this year! As I wrap, wrap, wrap gifts for my family & friends, I thought I would take a moment and share the products I’ve purchased that are helping make things merry & bright!
Some of these things will come in handy with baked goods, and some of the containers meant for baked goods I think will be fun for gifts of the un-edible variety too!
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I will be sure to take photos, and keep on sharing my adventures… 7 more posts in this series are still coming!! 🙂 Hope you’re making merry in your own ways…
I don’t have a ton of share-able pages in my December Daily album at this point. There are a lot of text-only, printed recipes, and visually BORING things at this time. There are no photos, as I’ve not developed any. Up until now, not a lot of craftiness either. Ah, but yesterday’s trip to San Francisco and our visit with Santa made me want to play.
I took the photo and scanned it first so I have a digital back-up in case something happens to this one, or the paper (which I can’t belive is super high quality) fades and the photo is ruined somehow. In doing so I realized that the top of the red paper frame has a slit, and that the photo can come in and out of it. So I removed the photo, mounted the red frame onto kraft cardstock, and got to playing…
I cut out some foil (mounted on grunge paper + embossed) and painted it with my new precious (Jenni Bowlin paint dabber in seed packet) a-la-Tim Holtz ‘enameled metal’ technique. Then? Well then I got greedy, added other colors, and generally made a muck of it. But that is OK! I just die cut a deer and stuck that over it a bit to cover for my craptastic effort. It works.
I took my new embossing powder (just plain clear) + snowflake Tim Holtz stamp for a test drive. Since I do NOT want anything messing with this photo, I put plastic into the photo frame when stamping/emboss powdering so that none got in the photo area and gunked it up. A little heat later…
I did 3 snowflakes + some green patina mist. I also stitched around the very edges – because this is all about the creative play.
Then I just attached some trim, felt shapes, and my die cut (and ink edged) reindeer + foiled (heh) embossed foil and it was done. A 30 minute crafty session, and yesterday’s visit to Santa is already in the books. NO adhesive is touching the photo, so it can still be removed if I so desire or need.
Oh, and I edged the red frame + kraft edge with gold dabber paint (I swear – I use that on EVERYTHING these days)
supplies:
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On a separate page I plan on writing about our trip, perhaps put more of the iPhone photos I took, and ask Elizabeth to write about the trip as well. Details like what we did and what favorite parts were. But that page will be more utilitarian. No fancy stuff or embellishing. That’s what I am LOVING about this project – and the way Ali inspires me with her own. Some pages are PLAIN, others fancy. Let the day, amount of time, and mood decide…
come check out my new class at Big Picture- class starts 2/7/2012 [registration now open!]
Yes, I went all caps on my title. I pitched this class back in April/May, talked to Stacy about it in June, and have been working on it since then. Will be working on it still through the time it starts. What is it?
The info is here: http://tinyurl.com/mayf-field-guideÂ
I will be posting more about it, and I’m happy to answer questions about content, class, etc…
One of the best parts? Big Picture let me give everyone a break off the usual $99 price a class of this size would be. That’s right – no code needed it’s just $89 for 12 weeks, more than 50 videos, more than a dozen handouts, more than 40 new projects (that’s my CONSERVATIVE figures! it’ll be even more!!) and of course all the hands-on instruction you’re used to from me and my classes.
I’d love you to check it out, let me know what you think, and let me know what kind of “insider peeks” you’d like to see me post here! I’m *SO* excited to finally be sharing about this class, and that registration is also open now!!
I *ADORE* the Tim Holtz 12 tags of Christmas. It’s like taking 12 mini “Tim” classes in awesomeness. I always come away with new ideas and techniques I’m reminded to do more often.
That said, as I mentioned in yesterday’s post this is a time of year when multi-tasking is a good idea, and time is as short as daylight is! SO! My solutions are several, the first being that I wanted to play so I mixed & matched some techniques from Tags 4, 6, and 7. Mix & match works great as well because I don’t have a lot of the things Tim uses, so it allows me to play without frustration of wishing I had the ‘right’ thing to make stuff happen.
True story: I am AWFUL at remembering “how-to”. What happens EVERY SINGLE TIME is that I think I remember it right, set off on my own, then end up changing things because I mixed up ideas or products. Whoops. Sometimes (ahem, my attempt at tag 5) it ends in disaster and frustration. Other times, I end up with something unique and made of awesome. My snowman falls (luckily) into the awesome category.Â
I wanted to do the painted foil technique Tim did (tag 6), because I LOVE that foil sheet stuff, and I thought I could combine that look with the die cut within a die cut (tag 4). So here’s what I did/how it went down:
foil placed face down on cutting mat, grunge paper set on top and pressed firmly onto it. Then die cut in snowman shape. THEN I ran it back through the die cut machine using my brick texture fade. I wanted to use snowflakes or something Christmas-y… but alas I do not have any that would work!
Ok, I love it JUST LIKE THAT. ah I’m such a fan of the foil… anyhow! I wanted to do that AWESOME enamel paint thing, so I pulled out paint. Err… except my paint is pretty much all neutral colors. SO I did pearl + silver (which is a darker silver than the foil), but I also dotted a bit of blue alcohol ink on.
As you can see it ended up blending, becoming a bit too subtle too. That’s ok, I have a plan. First I die cut a snowflake out of him, then I sanded him lightly to get some of the foil showing back through. The sanding block worked fine for this – will be totally doing the technique again!
Ah but here’s where I wanted to keep kicking it up more notches. What I really wanted was more BLUE… but distress ink really ain’t gonna stick here. Oh wait – but I could cover it with UTEE and then it would be sealed in. (I know Tim talked about this in one of the tag posts)
But it wasn’t enough, so I did it again with distress stain and re-coated + re-embossed. Above you see the “before heat gun gets involved” version…
Now we are talking!!! I added some kraft paper + glossy accents inside/behind the die cut area and set frosty aside to dry…
Time for the tag. I just did the usual ‘put inks on craft mat, swipe damp tag through’ classic Tim Holtz technique. I then stamped a flourish with pearl dabber paint.
There wasn’t quite as much color on the background as I wanted so I “splatted” my distress stains a bit on there. Roll with it…
Bam! there you have it – my finished tag! The snowflake that got die cut is up at the top along with a metal charm I used snow cap + blue alcohol ink on (and then sanded). My trim was white – I used faded jeans stain + water to dye it.
Three tags into one, and in a way that is uniquely my own. *LOVE THAT*
I can’t suggest enough that you read up www.timholtz.typepad.com for ideas, tutorials, and videos from this series. It’s a seriously awesome Christmas gift from him that I enjoy every year now.
I just LOVE the color + texture I wound up with on this tag. Here are links to the supplies I used:
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Happy crafting + creative play time!!
confessions of a chocoholic 