1st Annual Christmas Putz House Swap - Reveal!

 The premise of this swap was to create vintage inspired Putz Houses.
They could not exceed 3"x 4" and had to have glitter somewhere...

There were 5 of us in this swap, so we made 5 (nearly identical)  little houses and swapped them out! 

If you would like to learn more about swap, please join our group here. 

Christmas Card Holder

Create your own Christmas card holder during the Holidays with Joy® embroidered letters!

You will need:

• Joy® Iron-on embroidered letter sheets - White, Bubble
• 2 Glittered felt sheets
• Fancy chenille pipe cleaners
• Web fusing
• Iron and parchment paper
• White paint pen and a paper piercer
• Permanent colored marker
• Bells or other holiday baubles
• Hot glue 

Instructions:

 1. From the felt, cut as shown, the front and back of the greeting card holder.

2. Use the web fusing and a hot iron to seal the sides and bottom of the pouch.

3. Add details to the pouch with the paint pen.

4. Color your letters to look like mint candies. 

5. Arrange your letters onto the pouch.

6. Make sure the iron is set for cotton, then use the parchment paper to heat press the letters.

7. Add the rest of the details with the hot glue. Use the paper piercer to poke holes in the felt when you need to attach some embellishments.

You can find Joy® embroidered, iron-on letters and numbers at your favorite craft stores.  If you need a special color, white letters are custom dyeable with markers, paint, dye and more!

Mexican Folk Art - Miniature Shrine Swap!

 Here  are the results of our 1st Mexican Folk Art- 
Miniature Shrine Swap!

The premise was to use small matchboxes as the base and create little shrines!

8 Artists collaborated on this project, didn't they do a wonderful job?

If you would like to join the next Shrine Swap or see what other swaps are available, 

please join our group here.

Tissue Paper Transfer Cards

One of my favorite things to do when creating cards, is to use common household items!

I love showing people that you don't need to spend much money to making something beautiful.

Ready? Lets create!  

Supplies used:

• Petals and Flowers By: Michelle Frae Cummings
• Medallions Ornate Patterns By: Michelle Frae Cummings
• Ink pads in coordinating colors
• White gift wrap tissue paper
• Saran or plastic wrap
• 2 large pieces of parchment paper
• A iron set to cotton, no steam
• A heat proof surface
• Cardstock paper 

1. Your tissue paper will have 2 sides. A slightly glossy side and a matte side. Place the tissue paper matte side up onto a large piece of card stock. The card stock will absorb any excess ink while you are stamping. 

2. Randomly stamp all over the tissue paper, with the various stamps and coordinating ink pad colors.

3. When you have finished stamping, Place one piece of parchment paper onto the heat proof surface. 

4. Next place your card fronts. If you don't have room for more than 2 cards, consider making a bookmark or small tags instead of wasting the tissue paper! 

5. Carefully lay down the plastic wrap over the cards. Its ok if there are few wrinkles in the wrap- you won't see them in the end.

6. Lay your stamped tissue paper onto the plastic wrap. It doesn't matter the its matte or glossy side up.

7. Lastly, place the 2nd piece of parchment paper on top of the stamped tissue paper.

8. Quickly iron over the parchment paper. Make sure to get all the card corners. 

9. Remove the parchment paper and trim off the excess tissue paper and plastic wrap from the cards. 

10. Trim the cards slightly to fit on a card base. 

11. For good measure, before finishing your cards, sandwich your trimmed cards in parchment paper and iron quickly to set any loose areas. 

12. Adhere to your card blanks and then create some more! 

So much fun, right?

 

Thanks for coming by, I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial and will now try some of your own. 

Feel free to join our Fan Page on Facebook to see what others are doing with our stamps and maybe you too can share your favorite Blank Page Muse projects!

~ Michelle

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Winged Skeleton Halloween Card

Hi Everyone, Michelle here with a card to portray my favorite Holiday...Halloween!

I know it's late, but I could not resist. I hope you'll enjoy and be inspired to create your own!

 Supplies:

• Winged Skeleton and "Dead men Tell No Tales" from Halloween Bingo Stamp Set
• Dew and Diamond drops
• Vintage news print
• Scrapbook Paper
• Assorted washi tapes
• Pumpkin Smooch
• precision scissors
• Black stamping ink
• Adhesive, foam tape, and a pen.

Start by trimming your scrapbook paper to be a card size of 4"x6".

Next attached several torn pieces of the vintage news print. 

Place some decorative washi tape in the center of the card and some pleat a bit near the bottom.

A few more strips of washi tape were placed on the card before I added decorative detail with the liquid smooch.

Stamp the winged skeleton and the saying onto the back side of the vintage newsprint paper. 

Cut out and color lightly with the smooch.

 I added a criss-cross of washi tape to the center of the card before adding the skeleton with foam tape.

Decoratively add the dew drops and saying.

Happy Halloween! 

-Michelle

Don't forget to check us out at all of our social media sites

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Day of the Dead Sun Catcher

Hi Everyone! I posted this tutorial a couple of years ago (when Blank Page Muse used to be called Sin City Stamps) and I thought some you might be interested in seeing it again! Especially with Day of the Dead and Sugar Skulls being much more popular than ever before! 

Enjoy!

Supplies: 

1. Day of the Dead Sugar Skulls rubber stamp set by Michelle Frae Cummings
2. Medallions rubber stamp set by Michelle Frae Cummings
3.  Petals rubber stamp set by Michelle Frae Cummings
4. Black ink- acid free and non bleeding.
5. Acrylic block
6. 12x12 black cardstock
7. White gift wrap tissue paper.
8. Clear contact paper
9. A unique bowl to trace.
10. Scissors
11. Pencil
12. Assorted colored pens that wont bleed.
13. Black permanent pens in fine and regular tips.
14. Zig two way glue
15. Silver craft foil 
16. Double stick and regular tape.
17. Something to protect your work space.

 Begin by tracing your bowl onto the cardstock. Carefully cut the traced shape out and discard.
Trim your tissue paper to 12x12. Tape the tissue paper securely to your work space and lightly trace your design.

 If desired, you can use a ruler and pencil to mark off your traced design into four even sections. This will ensure even alignment when stamping.
Stamp your images with the black ink directly onto the tissue paper, careful not to smudge any wet ink.

 When you have finished stamping and the ink is dry, peel off the tape and flip the tissue paper over. Smooth this out and tape the corners and anywhere else so it will not move while coloring.

Always start with your lightest color first. I started with yellow. Then I went onto pink, orange, red,  green then purple.  

When coloring, always let the ink dry before re-applying or the moisture will tear the tissue paper.  I used a blue highlighter to fill in the rest of my design.

After I had finished coloring, I outlined and colored in what was needed with the black pens. Different ink pads vary, so you may not need to do this step. Either way, I think it adds sharpness and  makes the happy colors more vivid.

 When the coloring is all done, cut (2) 12x12 squares from the clear contact paper.  Peel off the backing from one and carefully adhere it to one side of the painted tissue paper.  Repeat on the other side of the tissue paper. - This is basically a cheap version of laminating. 

 Use the double sticking tape to adhere the black cardstock to the most vivid side of your design.
Then draw a folk art like design with your zig glue pen as shown. 

 The glue goes on 'blue' and turns 'clear' when ready for the foil. 

 Place the foil 'shiny-side' up onto the glue and press down, burnishing the foil into the raised glue design with your fingers.  Peel away the foil to reveal the fun!

 Cut away the excess cardstock.
If desired, add some more glue and this time use colored foil.

 Hang in a window for all to enjoy!

Thanks for coming by, I hope you liked my project and liked my stamps!
Leave me a comment here and let me know what you think. :)

For more Sugar Skull Inspiration, click here!