My First Demo!

Quickly, I'd like to say thank you to all the new followers! Welcome! I appreciate you immensely! 

Last weekend I was honored to be asked by Carolyn Ross of The Crafty Scrapper to come demo for the store at the Scrapbook Expo held in Grapevine, Texas, at the Gaylord Texan Hotel. I have done a few make and takes for a few people at a time, but NEVER a full on "DEMO". I was a little nervous to say the least, but then a rescuer showed up to relieve my nervousness...Jim, The Gentleman Crafter! 

 

Oh that Jim made me laugh and laugh! We had the best time tag teaming! And after about, oh I'd say 5 minutes, I felt at home, lost all shyness, told my life story to Jim and the fabulous Cesar, and even sang a little! YUP! I was comfortable! I was home! was in my element! I love improvisation! It was like I was teaching school again before the days of having to read from a basil reader, when you could have teachable moments and thematic units...when I loved my job...before testing, lobbyist, politicians, and the like took over public school. Whoa! I can't go there! Anyway....Jim and I really helped people, and they were genuinely happy and willing to learn, and they loved it (Really, they just loved Jim!). We even learned a little along the way! It's amazing that when you have time to just "stand" and play and thoroughly love what you are doing, how much you CAN do and experiment with and what you can learn yourself! I LOVE to demo!!!! And, I never want to demo without Jim! ;0) Thank you Carolyn for giving me the opportunity! I hope I did your store justice.

Even when no one was around, we just taught each other or just played! FUN!!!

Who is that wearing Jim's hat?

It's Carolyn! That hat made the rounds! She is adorable!!!

Now, the important part...what did we demo? Carolyn wanted us to answer questions and show what Tim's new Distress Paints from Ranger, Wendy's new Embossing Pastes and Stencils from Stamper's Anonymous, and Dyan's new Dylusions Ink Sprays and Stamps from Ranger, could all do and how they can all work together. WOW! A big job with the best products arounds...no problem!

 

 

Here are all my demo pieces, with individual pics to follow and a tutorial as well. I was definitely in an Easter/Spring mood.

These two and the one below are only items I made with just the Distress Paints. The coaster also has a Crafter's Workshop Honeycomb Stencil used with the paints. Everyone really loved that you can alter the paint while still wet.

This tag is also only Distress Paints and then a white and black pen was used to doodle on it.

This tag has all the new Dylusions new Ink Sprays on it...very cosmic looking. It also has a little of Wendy's Embossing Paste in the center from a Dyan circle stencil.

This was a Crafter's Workshop number stencil used with Distress Inks and Dyan's guy image colored in with Dylusions in Water Brushes. The lady I showed this to did not know how to use Distress Inks or an Ink Blending Tool, and I thought she was going to pass out from excitement! If you can picture how excited that made me and how big my smile was to be able to show her this in person, then you will be able to understand why I love to demo! My heart truly grew from this experience...truly! I wish I would have gotten her name, but several women were there and were talking and she walked away, although very satisfied. I asked around, but no one knew. Maybe she was an angel sent to make me feel good...........nah! I had to draw in a face with a little scruff. My kind of guy!!!

This tag is colored with Distress Paints and stenciled with Wendy's White Embossing Paste through a Dyan stencil. I colored the flowers with Dyan's Ink Sprays, and after and used a pen to doodle. I wanted the centers a little brighter so I brought in the Distress Markers on this one.

The circles are made with Wendy's Silver Embossing Paste and Dyan's stencil, and the flowers with the White Paste and a Dyan stencil. When I sprayed Dyan's Ink, the Silver resisted it for a very cool effect. This was the first time I got to play with it. I loved it! I added a little more color to the flowers with Distress Markers.

I used a Crafters Workshop stencil and Wendy's Black Embossing Paste with this. When dry I added Distress Paints and blended with water. I love the effect. The Black Paste is wonderful as well!

I used Wendy's Brick Stencil and White Paste for the bricks after coloring the background with Walnut Stain Distress Paint. When I smooth the Paste out with a serrated knife it made the lines and Jim and I liked it, so there they stayed. More Distress Paint and Distress Ink colored the bricks. For the leaves, I used another Wendy Stencil and White Paste again, but this time I colored the paste first with Bundled Sage ReInker to prevent color problems blending together. It worked well, however, I had to clean it up a bit due to thick bricks and the Paste spread underneath...no biggie though. It cleans up easily when still wet with a pointed object...I used a paintbrush to clean mine up. Then, I tried to pull a Wendy and layer the Embossing Paste three times with this one. Epic fail with the gold as you can see! And it mixed with the Barn Door Distress Ink causing an orange tone, so I had to refanagle it into an ornate plate of sorts. After it dried I tried again, and layered more Embossing Paste onto it, which worked although a little sloppy. I had to clean up the HOME a little, but I liked the way it turned out.  This tag caused a stir though, and between this one and one Jim made, we sold out of Wendy's Brick Stencils in the first few hours of the show. Yay us!

Another sell out using Claudine's Home and Fence Stencil images and Wendy's White Paste. The blue background is Distress Paint as is the Honey Comb and ABC Stencils and the house is painted with it as well. I journaled with a Sharpie.

Here is my favorite of the show, the one I took the most time with, and the one I made a little tutorial for. I learned a HUGE technique with this as well...glad I did, because I was literally fretting about ruining it.

Using a jumbo tag I stamped Dyan's Lady from Behind image as well as her Bonnet and Bow using Jet Black Archival. I was picturing a lady in her Easter finest couture on the way to services. I also stamped the image on paper to use as a mask later if I needed to...glad I did.

Using three of Dyan's stencils and Wendy's White Embossing Paste, I made a Sun, Hanging Leaves from a tree, and an Easter Egg looking border. The reason there is a little color on the tag is because the stencils had not been cleaned very well the last time I used them....looks good though.

I hadn't used the Distress Paints with a paint brush yet, so everything you see here was colored in with a paint brush between demo mini takes. Talk about good relaxing therapy! I loved doing this. Wendy's Paste takes the Paints perfectly, and there was no need to be precise. I left open spaces on the dress on purpose for the background color to fill in to.

Here's where I was scared to pieces, but Jim wasn't. I knew that so far, Dylusions seemed to be resisting some of the Distress Painted things (Not on the coaster material though.) but I didn't want my dress to be colored up after all that work so I was afraid to spray Dyan's Ink on the dress, but brave Jim pushed me on!  I laid the paper mask over her, gave the tag a fine mist of water and began to spray the Inks on. I began to dry and lifted off the mask. She still looked perfect, and the areas with the Paste that were painted with Distress Paint resisted Dyan's Inks! Hallelujah! It worked beautifully! I was so excited, so that became my telling point for well...he rest of the show, "When you have used Tim's Distress Paints over Wendy's Paste it will resist Dyan's Inks." Yay!

I added some stamped Maya Road flowers using the White Dylusions to stamp! Yummy! Next came some doodling! I love this tag, and she was quite popular in teaching the technique!

The wonderful Shelley Hamilton, another Crafty Scrapper gal who is super talented!

This is Tammy from Colorado. She visited my demo table and asked for advise and we became fast friends! She made this gorgeous project and that FABULOUS palm tree with fuzzy coconuts.

To sum it all up...Distress Paints, Wendy's Pastes and Stencils, and Dyan's Stamps and Stencils are fabulous by themselves! That is a given! But together, they are a force to be reckoned with Crafters! They are like Peanut Butter and Jelly...better when mixed together in my opinion. A creative menage a trois if you will! Am I allowed to say that? Yikes! 

It was an absolute pleasure and blast to demo for The Crafty Scrapper! I will be doing it again next month and I can't wait! I'm on creative cloud 9! Hugs to Jim and Carolyn...and Nolan, Cesar, and the Crafty Scrapper Gals too! 

Supplies:
Tim Holtz Distress Paints from Ranger
Tim Holtz Distress Stains from Ranger
Tim Holtz Distress Inks from Ranger
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Reinkers from Ranger
Tim Holtz Distress Markers from Ranger
Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 Art Embossing Paste by Dreamweaver Stencils from Stamper's Anonymous
Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 Art Stencils from Stamper's Anonymous
Dyan Reaveley Dylusions Ink Spray from Ranger
Dyan Reaveley Dylusions Stamps from Ranger
Dyan Reaveley Dylusions Stencils from Ranger
Claudine Hellmuth Studio Stencils by The Crafter's Workshop from Ranger
Balzer Designs Stencils from The Crafter's Workshop
The Crafter's Workshop Stencils
Maya Road Stamps
Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black
Ranger Inkssentials Water Brush Detailer
Ranger Inkssentials Water Mister
Ranger Inkssentials Ink Blending Tool
Uniball Signo Ink Pen in White
Sharpie Permanent Black Fine Marker

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Extra! Extra! Stamp All About It!

Almost every stamper has at least one stamp that they love but don’t use. Or, it could be a stamp that they haven’t used, don’t know what to use it on, or otherwise aren’t really using. Maybe it’s brand new, maybe it is years old. If you are one of those stampers then now is the time. The challenge this week at Simon Says Stamp & Show is "The Stamp I Love But Don't Use". So grab that stamp, and use it some way on a project.

I love wood mounted stamps. There is just something about them. Perhaps it's the wood, or the ease of holding them, or the decor factor of them, or the ease of seeing them, all of the above probably, but I do just love them. However, I don't have many due to space and price, so the ones I buy I definitely have an affinity for. I have a handful, armful that is considering their size, that I haven't used yet, one being Tim's Best Friends image. I think this one is just so precious and innocent, and perfect for a card for my Godson. He and his wife just had a beautiful baby boy! I did tweak the number though to reflect the number of the day of the baby's birth.

I stamped the image in Jet Black Archival onto watercolor paper and heat embossed it with Ranger's Black Embossing Powder.

I colored in the image with Distress Markers and used a water brush to blend them. I also had another image just in case of a mishap and used it to cut up and make a few 3D parts, like the hat and hand of the boy. I tore this out carefully and stitched around the edges.

I cut pieces of Metal Foil Tape to fit around into Fragment Charms. I applied Alcohol Inks in shades of blue of some and shades of green of the others.

I adhered the letters on the Metal and then adhered the Fragment Charms onto the Metal and trimmed around them. I also applied the blue Alcohol Ink onto the numbers 2 and 4. I cut out a piece of Kraft Resist for the base of the card, and stained it with Tumbled Glass. I inked around the edges of the torn piece with Bundled Sage Distress Ink, and mounted it on Kraft cardstock, and inked around it with Walnut Stain. I attached the number to it.

I attached the image to the base card. I tied twine through the balloons and through wooden buttons and adhered all this onto the card.

 

Do you love to stamp, and have so many to use but can't quite get each one inked up? If so, pick one of those newbies, ink it up, create your work of Art, and enter it into our challenge. You just might be the lucky winner of a $50 voucher to Simon Says Stamp. You can also be named as one of the "Top Three Picks" for this challenge. Good luck, and please visit the other DT member's blogs to check out their fabulous newly stamped up projects from this week. You might see some stamps you've never seen before!

 

Supplies:


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!