Tutorial Tuesday: Get All Taped Up!

Good Morning, Everyone!

Welcome to technique/Tutorial Tuesday!

I'm sure you've seen one of the hottest new trends in scrapbooking and cardmaking - Patterned, printed tape! They're sooooo much fun to play with, and look great on scrapbook pages or cards! More and more companies are coming out with thier own versions, to entice us to spend our money!

Well, today is your lucky day, because I'm going to show you how to make your own! (This is my first attempt at making them and I'm still learning, so I did make a few mistakes - Please be gentle with me! LOL)

Ready? Okay, here we go:

Supplies Needed:

Paint Daubers, Alcohol Inks or Distress Stains (I used Paint Daubers)
Non Stick Craft mat or large piece of acetate
Rubber Stamps for making your background
Masking Tape

First, lay down your craft mat or acetate, for a work station. You want to use only acetate or a non stick craft mat, so that the tape can be easily removed.

Here is a pic of my paint dauber bottles, and some strips of the tape on my craft mat.




Now, take your paint daubers or other coloring medium, and color in your tape strips, then set aside to dry.






Once your strips of tape are dry, use the same inks to ink up your background stamps and then stamp then onto your tape. Set aside to dry. Once dry, you can peel off the tapes, flip over your craft mat or acetate, and put the tapes on the back, so that you can clean the access off the side you worked with. They will need to stay there or on a spare craft mat or acetate piece, for storage, till you use them.

Here is a pic of a few of the pieces of the self made patterned tapes:



How's that for a money saver?! These are awesome to use on your cards or layouts and the possibilites are endless - Only you are the limit to the possibilities!

Hope you enjoyed today's tutorial! Come back Thursday for our new challenge!

Always something fun, here, at Shelly's Images!

TTT Challenge Winners - Show us what you got!

WOW!  116 Entries from so many of our talented friends.  When I am looking for inspiration for my projects I always visit our challenge entries to see the amazing creations entered.  Thank you all!
The Gold Medal Award winner is Karen from Feline Creative!
Karen we loved your project this week.  Just amazing.  I think by this time everyone has heard how much I love stitching on projects.  And your zig zag stitching is so great.  The double ribbon under the image is so interesting too. Congratulations!

Our Silver Medal Award winner is Janiel from Scrappyjan Designs!
Janiel, we loved your altered book.  It is so beautiful and so creative.  All of the elements really come together on this amazing project.

And, Our Bronze Medal Award winner is Kathy.  Kathy, your basket project is just wonderful.  Thanks so much for entering a project using our Shelly's Images basket.  Your gray basket is so unique and pretty.  I love the sentiment tags.  And the flowers in your basket are the perfect addition.

And the Top Hat Award (first name out of the hat using random.org) is Olga from Elephant Fairies.
Olga, this card is so perfectly Easter.  The colors you used just scream Spring.  And thanks to you for also using the basket image this week.  I love the basket used here with another stamp.

Our Gold Medal and Top Hat winners both receive an image of their choice (up to $3 value) from www.shellysimages.com. Just email Shelly at shelly@shellysimages.com to let her know which image you would like. And our Silver and Bronze Medal winners both receive a "Buy One Get One Free" voucher to our store. To get your voucher just visit the store and register.  Once your registration is complete Shelly will add your voucher to your account.  Email Shelly once your registration is complete.

All medal winners this week can find the medal badge to display at their blog *here*. We hope that all of our winners this week will proudly display their winning badge.

Thanks for the beautiful entries this week everyone.  We can't wait to see what you create for our new challenge.

Terrically Thrilling Thursday - Color Challenge with a TWIST

Time for another fun challenge here at Shelly's Images!
This week we are featuring another digi that would be PERFECT for the upcoming Easter holiday.  It's called "1 Bunny Trail Lane" and you can purchase it TODAY ONLY at a REDUCED PRICE.

1 Bunny Trail Lane

And, our challenge theme today is:

 COLORS:  Kraft, Pink & Orange
* AND *

USE EMBOSSING (wet or dry)

You say you need a little inspiration on using these colors!  Well, look no further than below at the fabulous creation the design team has come up with.

STEPHANIE

 PANDY

SAMMIBUG

JEN

AMANDA 

DARLENE

Now it's YOUR turn to join in the fun!

 Just by playing along, YOU could be this weeks WINNER!!

Please follow these simple challenge rules:
1. Link directly to your blog post entry, NOT your entire blog.
2. Shelly's Images are NOT required (but we'd LOVE to see them).
3. New projects ONLY ... NO back linking.
4. Your entry must follow the theme.
5. Only FIVE entries per challenge PLEASE. Any additional entries will be deleted in an effort to keep our challenge fair for all participants.
6. Challenge entry ends at 12:00 Noon (CST) on Wednesday.
7. Prizes are awarded through store vouchers.  You must be registered at the store to get your voucher so be sure to head over and get your registration in.   

Ready, Set, Link It!

Inked Embossing Folder Background Tutorial

Hello Everyone! 

Today on Shelly's Images Tutorial/Technique Tuesday, I'd like to share/remind you of an easy, fun technique to use in making your background paper panels.  It is simply INKING your EMBOSSING FOLDERS and running it through your Cuttlebug, Big Shot, Vagabond ... whatever embossing machine you may use.  Here are the easy steps:

For my card creation, I am using SU River Rock cardstock, White cardstock, SU River Rock ink and a Cuttlebug swirls embossing folder.

 

 Simply add ink to the 'UNraised' side of your embossing folder (usually the side with the name on it) by either sliding your pad across it or for more coverage, patting your ink pad on the embossing folder.

 Once you have your embossing folder inked up, place your white card stock inside the folder and run it through your embossing machine.  Below is a sample of what it will look like.  Of course, the end result varies dependent upon how much ink you apply to your folder. 

 

Here is my card creation using this panel as background with Shelly's "Hen" digi image. 

I hope you'll give this fun, EASY technique a try the next time you're looking for that background panel that is subtle, yet STRIKING!!

 * * *

Here are two more cards using the same technique with different colors / embossing folders.

 Recipe:  SU Soft Sky ink, Cuttlebug EF, Sizzix Snowflake Dies, Shelly's 'SnowLady' digi stamp

 

Recipe: SU Old Olive ink, Sizzix EF, Shelly's 'Pot of Gold'

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and give it a try.  It's really very easy and looks great!

Happy Crafting!

Sooo exciting!

I have SUCH exciting news for you today!

Shelly's Images has a brand new store and website! The website address will remain the same so not to worry.  Your Shelly's Images.com bookmarks will continue to work. We have been hard at work for the last 4 weeks to get the new site and store ready for all of our friends.  

There are lots of great new features that come with our store.  We hope you will drop in and take a look around.  If you haven't signed up for our newsletter be sure to do that.  And be sure to click on the Store tab and then register for your Shelly's Images account.  There are so many great benefits to registering! Oh...and you still have time to enter for our March Digi Stamp Giveaway.  Enter once each month for your chance to win. 

We would love to hear what you think of our new home.  And to celebrate we are offering a 30% off coupon from now until April 15th.  This offer can not be combined with other sales or vouchers.  

Please leave us a little comment to let us know what you think of our new home.  We think you will find it much easier to find exactly what you are looking for.  And it is loaded with inspiration to help you with all of your projects.

Spotlight On...

...Easter

I love making special little crafts for holidays.  The kids always look forward to the special little things that I make.  Hopefully they look back on holidays and remember those special touches.  So Darlene's Candy Bar holder using our Easter Bunny digi stamp is definitely on  my list of things to make.  Of course this candy bar holder would be wonderful for any holiday or even birthday.

Darlene has some wonderful instructions at her blog on how to make these fun candy bar holders.

TTT Challenge Winners - Green and Gold

Well, our Green and Gold challenge has come to an end.  And the DT and I have worked hard to choose 3 medal winners from the amazing entries we had this week.

The Gold Medal Award winner is Jill from Jie Craft!
Jill this is an amazing project.  And the DT and I LOVE it!  The shape is amazing and we love all the additions.  Congratulations!

Our Silver Medal Award winner is Donna from Popsicle Toes!
Donna, we absolutely loved the colors, embellishments and additions.  This card is everything we were looking for in a green and gold challenge.  

And, Our Bronze Medal Award winner is Ginger from Ginger's Stamping Spot!   Ginger you did an amazing job with our Beary Lucky image! We love the shape of your card and that you chose to use the image that we featured this week.  Thanks so much and congratulations!

And the Top Hat Award (first name out of the hat using random.org) is Karen from Karen's Kreative Kards!
Karen, we loved the project and your shamrocks!  So cute!  

Our Gold Medal and Top Hat winners both receive an image of their choice (up to $3 value) from www.shellysimages.com. Just email Shelly at shelly@shellysimages.com to let her know which image you would like. And our Silver and Bronze Medal winners both receive a "Buy One Get One Free" voucher to our store (buy one image and get a second image of equal or lesser value free). Just add the words "silver" or "bronze" and your free image choice to the comment section when placing your order.

All medal winners this week can find the medal badge to display at their blog *here*. We hope that all of our winners this week will proudly display their winning badge.

Thanks for the beautiful entries this week everyone.  We can't wait to see what you create for our new challenge.