New GuyStampin Site

Hey all,

Its been some time since I posted here. I just wanted to let you know that I will work to update this site over time, but will be focusing more on my new blog at

http://guystampin.com.

Please take time if you can to come over and visit this site as well and become a follower. You can even subscribe to site updates there.

Thanks again and I look forward to staying in touch with all.

My from scrapbook room to yours.

Stefen

CKC Nashville Was Awesome

Creating Keepsakes Convention Nashville officially ended today and I had a ball. This was my first scrapbooking convention in my days of being a paper crafter. I was so involved with this convention that I almost didn't get the chance to enjoy it.

I really wanted to volunteer for the convention but no one would hire me it seemed because I was a guy. So on Thursday the day of setup, I just showed up and said I want to be a volunteer for a vendor since this was a chance to get to meet everyone. Thanks to the folks of S.E.I because they hired me on the spot. I worked for a totally of 4 hours but wanted more. So just across the aisle was Scrapperz Outlet with an awesome owner named Josh who hired me to work their booth the next day. I walked around and met the ladies from Rusty Pickle, and gosh these ladies were the bomb, almost as good as the product the company puts out.

I spent Friday at Scrapperz outlet, demonstrating the Big Shot and all the awesome dies and embossing dies from Sizzix. I met so many wonderful ladies that came by the booth. Josh was great to work for but I was so tired after that I went home without even shopping.

Saturday has arrived and I show up to pick up my free product for working the booth and end up sellling even more Sizzix stuff but ended up going over to the Rusty Pickle booth where the ladies asked me to sell mystery bags. I sold over 100 bags in about an hour and gosh I was almost hoarse from all the hawking but I did it, I sold them all. I ended up with free product from them too!! Off, I went to see other booths. I met some wonderful people like Ben & Brandon who were running the the cheap deals booth. The couple running EZ laser cuts were great too.

One of my great finds at the convention, was the opportunity to meet Cricut Dan, Dan Summers, co-founder of Scrapbook Corner. Yes another guy in the scrapbooking field. Dan conducted some awesome tutorials on the Cricut and yes I learned some new tips on the product that I never knew and got a cool monogram in vinyl too for my guy scrapbook.

Closing out the day, I found what was probably the neatest and innovative products from a company named PK Glitz, owned by James and Janelle Marshall. They have this new product called Wonder Film. It is embossable film that you can use embossing poweder or glitter on. I just had to buy some of this and I will feature them in the next blog post.

Now its the end of day and convention has closed but I met some great people and look forward to its return next year to nashville.

Thanks Creating Keepsakes from your Scrappin Guy and thanks from our Nashville paper crafters for bringing this convention to our town.

Making Your Own Embossing Powder to Match ink

You need an embossing powder to match a particular color of ink? Place clear UTEE in mixing (disposable) container. Add several drops of alcohol inks. Mix with a craft stick until alcohol evaporates and mixture is smooth.

Okay, Tim Holtz demonstrated this but if I'm not mistaken, Suze Weinberg has done something similar when using her melting pot. She melted clear UTEE then put drops of ink into the liquid UTEE, swirled them together to marbleize then dipped small cardboard squares, face down, into the mix.

Suze used Colors To Dye For inks (a dye based, heat safe ink). The colors can be blended for custom colors, too. I've looked at both Suze's website and Ranger Industries and see nothing listed as Colors To Dye For...only dye based inks.

Here's the link to the show where she makes the marbleized things.

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/crafting/article/0,,HGTV_3352_2248447,00.html

A New Blog For Me: Guy Stampin & Scrappin

Hey all,

Since I have now evolved from being just a scrapbooking guy, I now will have 2 different blogs for you all to follow. Guyscrappin will still be used for showcasing new scrapbooking projects, thrifty ideas, and my everyday life.

My new blog Guy Scrappin & Stampin will be used to showcase my new Stampin Up business. Please if you follow come visit both of my blogs. I really appreciate all your feedback that you may have.

Stefen Brock
Scrappin & Stampin Guy

The New Stampin Up 2009-2010 Catalog

Wow, what a fantastic day of sharing the Stampin' Up! 2009-2010 Idea Book and Catalog release on-line plus rolling out exciting new promotions.

Here are a few announcements that you might want to look at:.

Download new 2009-2010 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog

Download Stampin' Supply List (supplies used in the new Catalog)

Download new Definitely Decorative Brochures

Stampin' Up! Deal of the Week (Scallop Edge Punch on Sale)

Updated Dormant (not in the catalog) but Available List

Starting at $85 for the new Mini Starter Kit

Standard Starter Kit Summer Bonus. Free In Color InkPads and In Color Assorted Card Stock.

Today in celebration of the new catalog I am offering up to 30% off new catalog prices.

Please contact me via email or (615)260-7265. Sorry Nashville TN metro area only.

A return to the land of Scrapbooking & Stamping: Scrapbook reboot

Hey all,

Well it been sometime since I updated my blog and I thought now is better than ever. Its the dog days of summer when it is to hot to go out so what not to do but stay in scrapbook. I have not been as active this past spring in my scrapbooking and stamping that I should have been. Gosh so much has happened since my the winter and I hope to catch everyone up.

I am so glad to finally have a reboot. I got so overwhelmed that I kinda took time off since Feburary. I was so burned out but like most I was not going to be to call it quits. After all, I have a ton of stuff that I have collected. I just needed a little down time from being so overwhelmed with everything going on around me.

So what else has this guy been up to? Well I actually just got back from Europe. I spent 12 days in Barcelona,Spain, Malta, Rome, Florence, and Cannes France. I will have tons of scrapping & stamping to do.

Lastly, let's go on to tell you that I finally and am officially a Stampin Up Rep. I am probably one of the few of us guys out there to sell Stampin Up. So please if you can help me, send me orders from you and your friends. I will be bringing more details in future posts.

All I am so glad to be back and look forward to hearing from each and everyone of you. Lets make this summer one of the best of all

Your scrappin friend & Stampin Up rep loves ya!!

Being a Guy in a Girls Scrapbooking World

Hey all,being that my blog is about scrapbooking from a guy's perspective, I think its time to post something more about my life. I entered the scrapbooking world about a year and half ago as a way to adopt my newly adopted twin boys heritage since they came from an orphanage and had no history. I logged onto www.meetup.com and found the Nashville Scrappers and Stampers group. Well I knew kinda going in that alot of women did this so I was kinda worried about attending one of the local meetups. Finally after much deliberation, I found out that at this event they were going to have a yardsale, so I decided go and see what it was all about. Being new I had no idea what to even get but I arrived and introduced myself to a lady named Karen and she showed me to the yardsale table and told me to look around to let her know if i needed anything. Well being a social butterfly, I decided to look around in addition to yardsale shop and spoke to some of the ladies there. They were totally nice to me and begged for me to come join them sometime.

Well fast forward, and I am home and I get a message from this lady named Nicole, who was intrigued by how a guy would be interested in scrapbooking. She told me to feel free to email her and that I was welcome to come over to her house and she would teach me the craft. Nicole became my best girlfriend and my scrappin mamma almost instantaneously. She is one to the best friend that any guy scrapbooker could have. She encouraged me to come to the first crop of the meetup group and I finally broke down and went. Everyone was super friendly. They accepted me no matter what and offered help.

Well almost two years have pasted now and these ladies have become some of my best friends. They are intrigued still yet as to the things that I talk about. I can go into the local Hobby Lobby and craft store and have a group around me talking in minutes about the do's and don't of both beginner and advanced scrapbooking and guess what!!! Paper Crafting and rubber stamping. They want to know how i got into this and where I hang.

I have since become one of the assistant organizers of the Nashville Scrappers and Stampers meetup and am constantly bringing new members to the crops. I host with Nicole's help a locally monthly crop at my church and we always have a waiting list of people that want to come. If i show a new product at these crops, ladies are really fast to listen and gosh I feel on cloud 9!!!

All this being said, I really am a paper crafter and scrapbooker now and this goes to show that MEN CAN BE IN THIS WORLD!!! Spread to the word to all and share this blog with others, that there in no shame in being a guy in a Girls Scrapbooking World.

FYI, I am now working on being a guy Stampin Up Rep. If you know anyone out there that is looking for an excited guy to promote their product, send them my way.

Make Your Own Glimmer Mist

This week I have been researching Glimmer Mist that is used to spray on your cards, tags, and layouts to give them a cool effect. Being that these little bottles of spray can be expensive if your buy them, about $7, I wondered a way to make them on my own. I found out there are 2 different ways to make them using a product called Perfect Pearls or Pearl Ex.

Method #1: Made with Perfect Pearls

Supplies needed are a Package of Perfect Pearls, Bottles of Re-inker, small spray bottle, popsicle stick and water.

Pick Your favorite color re-inker and add to spray bottle. The more you add the more intense the color, then take popsicle stick and dip out a small amount of perfect pearls on the end and add to the spray bottle. Next add water to fill about a 3rd of the way up. Shake all this up and you have the instant glimmer mist of your choice. Remember you can mix and match re-inkers and different colors of perfect pearls to make your own assortment of glimmer mist products. FYI: I use the small travel size empty hair spray bottles from Wal-Mart and Hobby Lobby to mix mine up.

Method # 2: Made with Pearl Ex

Supplies Needed include a package of Pearl Ex, small travel size bottle of hairspray,optional food color.

Take a popsicle stick and dip out a small amount of Pearl Ex and add to travel size hairspray and shake it up. You can add food color or re-inker to make the color change more but they are not needed if you because Pearl-Ex has its own color. You now have your own glimmer mist.

These are just two ways that I found to make this product and I hope it helps you to me more frugal and save some money with your paper crafting. Let me know if you have any other methods or try these with success.

Make Your Own Glue Dots

You can make your own glue dots by dropping blobs (any size you like) of Aleene's Tack It Over and Over glue onto parchment paper.I did this and folded the excess waxed paper over top, once they were 'dry'. All I have to do is open up the parchment paper, pick off one of the blobs and use like regular store-bought glue dots.

Here is what a bottle of it looks like at the store and it only costs about $4.

Here is a video and detailed instructions to show how it is done from Stampbusters Site that I found on the net.

The Aleene’s Tack-It Over and Over dried almost clear, with a tinge of yellow.  I tried wax paper, freezer paper and parchment paper.  The wax and freezer paper did not release the dots as easily and I had to pick them off with more effort than I would want to put up with.  Parchment paper worked great!

You can make all sizes of glue dots, which is a real bonus of making them yourself.  Using the 1″ strips of parchment paper I cut, I used the glue to ‘draw’ long, skinny dashes for holding ribbon on a stamped project.  I made jumbo dots, itty bitty dots and even little “corners” that looked like an upside down V, perfect for corners of a card!

To store them, I tried 3 methods.  You know how you can buy glue dots on a square piece of paper?  I made some on 4×4  parchment.  I really didn’t like using them off of the sheet as I kept getting them on my knuckles, which was giving my twitches.  I like them on a roll MUCH better!   I cut 1-1/2″ off of an empty paper towel roll and used Scotch tape to fasten it to the roll and piece the strips together.

My favorite solution was to use an empty 1″ribbon roll.  It kept the exposed glue dots from landing on things that shouldn’t be glued and there is good amount of depth to roll on lots of dots!

Do they hold as well as store bought glue dots? I put them to the test with buttons and wide ribbon.  The homemade glue dots seemed to have a bit more play in them when I tried to wiggle the button but held on well.   Even under a hot light and against gravity, they still held the ribbon to the card.  Note:  Aleene’s glue does not say if it is archival, so I wouldn’t use it for scrapbooking or anything like that.

Would I make more of them?  Actually, I think I might.  Especially for swaps since I can make so many of them so cheaply and in any size I need.  A bottle is around 3 or 4 bucks and I barely made a dent in it to make 500 dots!  Of course they aren’t exactly the same as the store bought, but if you are in a pinch or on a budget, give ‘em a try!

Also the dots can be moved before they 'set' so, if you get a wrong placement, at first, you can pick them off and move them."

The Power of Scrapbooking Friends

Its a new year for me and finally things are starting to to turn around in my scrapbooking and rubber stamping world. As many of you may or may not know, I went through a tough end of the year with my newly adopted twin 8 year old boys. Their adoption was to finalize on December 11, 2008 and just about 3 weeks prior my boys started the process of trying to push us away. They started acting up in school, melting down, crying and everything from punching to rage as they knew their adoption finalization was coming soon. They had been in this same place over the last couple of times they were placed in a foster home to be adopted and were worried that we would not adopt them. They were trying to push us away to see if we would. But we stood our ground and endured through it all with tears and frustration.

As many of you know I started scrapbooking and stamping as a way to build a heritage for my boys because they were adopted from an orphanage where they had been since age 2. During all this time, I total lost touch with my scrapbooking friends especially those on Fiskateers.com. I felt so down over all the issues that we were going through. But it was the power and friendships of each one of my scrapbooking friends that in the end help me get through it all. I was shown how my true friends were and as it was all about to finish packages starting arriving with Random acts of Kindness from friends. Many of my friends kicked into gear and I was not alone, fiskateers rock!!!! I know many may think scrapbookers and papercrafters are a bunch of women who waste time and just like to get together eat and gossip. Well I stand to tell you they are not.They are loving and supportive beyond everyone I know even my church.

Thanks all for what you do and have done. I look forward to being able to pass along this great empowerment you have given and the acceptance I get in this all girl world as a guy

A Cake Recipe for every Crop

Hey all, I figured this week that I would change up the pace and share another love I have, the love for cooking. As we have gotten through the holidays and into the new year with our resolutions, we have valentine's day coming. We have calendars packed with upcoming crops and we wonder what can we make for these that everyone will like. I tasted this recipe recently at family get together where one on my in-laws Tom made for dessert. This cake was so moist and rich that you could barely eat a small piece. It was great so I wanted to start off sharing a recipe with you for it. I hope you like it and please feel free to share it with everyone. I hope to put more recipes on my blog in the future. Let me know what you think. Leave me a comment

Decadent Jam Cake

4 cups flour 6 eggs separated
1 cup butter 2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup Crisco 1 tsp. cinnamon
2 cups sugar 1 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup buttermilk 1 tsp. allspice

2 cups blackberry jam
1 cup strawberry jam
1 cup pineapple jam or crushed pineapple
1 cup nuts

Mix all ingredients as listed, using egg yolks first. Mix well and then fold in egg whites. Bake at 350 degrees. Makes 4 or 5 layers.

Buttermilk frosting
1 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 stick butter 1/2 cup buttermilk

Cook to soft ball stage, beat until thick enough to spread. YUM

I didn't use pineapple and instead used 2 cups strawberry jam.

Etching with Cricut

Okay all, I post recently about etching with the Cricut machine. There is one thing I have found to be a problem and that is materials costs. So i have looked for a way to bring the cost down to practically nothing. First of all lets go over materials needed for etching that you will have to buy in addition to everyday regular supplies. These would be Etching Cream, Vinyl, and Transfer tape.

Etching Cream:
Lets just all say it. Armour Etch is really expensive but a little bit goes a long way. It runs about $10 for a real small bottle, and about $25 for a large bottle. To get this cheap, use your Micheals, AC Moore, Hobby Lobby, or Joann's Coupon.

Vinyl: (Use Can use Contact Paper):
Yes you see it, you can cut cheap contact paper on your cricut machine instead of using expensive vinyl. You can buy contact paper cheap at big lots or Walmart. Doesn't matter what contact paper looks like as you are using it as template. Just lay on your Cricut Mat, don't remove adhesive backing.

Vinyl is another solution that is used. I found a great deal ther other day with product sold at Lowe's called Wall Pops. Wallpops is vinyl that comes in packs of 5 sheet or rolls of 15 feet. It is the same stuff as vinyl and costs only $3.00 a pack. FYI: They are clearance so selection will be limited. If you can't get to Lowe's, a great place online to look for Vinyl is Printonit.com. They run really good deals on vinyl that is compatible with Cricut machines.

Let me know if you know of any other cheap ways to get these supplies.

Cricut: A Machine for everything

Hey all, welcome to the new year 2009!! I am hoping that everyone will have a great year and that our economy will do a turn around. As many of you may have done, I finally broke down and bought the Cricut Expression for Christmas. I got a wonderful deal on this machine on Black Friday and after all was said and done, I paid $150 for it with 2 great cartridges.

Cricut machines are a must have for anyone out there that scrapbooks, stamps, or paper crafts. They currently have 2 different models available: the baby Cricut a.k.a babybug (Oldest), Expression (12x12), and the Create (a mix between the baby Cricut with features of the Expression). These machines have become so versatile over the years that you now practically cut anything with them and there are tons of things you can do with them. One thing to note is that all the cartridges and software is compatible with all the machines and most of the all of the accessories with exception of mats work with all them too.

You can do paper cutting, chipboard cutting, fabric cutting, vinyl cutting, make your own stamps, and etching. Etching has become my favorite new thing to do with the machine. All you need is a machine, a favorite cartridge, vinyl or contact paper, a cutting mat, and a bottle of Armour Etch which you can buy at any hobby store.

Here is a quick tutorial for etching with any Cricut machine:

Step 1: Gather supplies. You will need something glass (Christmas ornament for the this tutorial), glass etching cream (Armour Etch), your Cricut machine , a cartridge of choice, a vinyl scrap or contact paper, a paint brush, and a paper towel. You will also need to be near a water source.

Here is the etching cream that you will use for this project. DO NOT TOUCH THE CREAM!!!!

Step 2: Put your vinyl scrap on your mat and cut your stencil as you would cut anything on your cricut machine.

Step 3: Remove your stencil from the Cricut. You would use what is normally left after cutting and taking the shape out - stuff you often throw away. This is called the negative of image.

 

Step 4: Remove the backing on the vinyl and apply to the ornament (or whatever your glass is). Note: if you are using lots of individual letters. You will want to lay them down on flat surface, arrange them how you want them, and lay down a piece of transfer tape over the layout to keep them in place. Transfer tape will also allow you to position your cut items on the wall in the exact place you need them.

Step 5: Coat the open areas of your stencil with a thick coat of the etching cream. Be careful not to get the cream in any place you don't desire etching to occur.

Step 6: Wait. With this etching cream, you have to wait for at least 60 seconds.

Step 7: Rinse with water. Just take your project and hold it under a running faucet. Again let me repeat ... DO NOT TOUCH THE CREAM. You may want to 'help' the cream off of the ornament..... Don't do that. Just keep rinsing it until the cream is all off of the project and stencil. You may not notice the etching at this time. The area that you etched may look like it's covered with plastic wrap or something. It looks odd .... but it's just fine. :)

Step 8: Wipe it off with a cloth and take off the stencil. You will start to see the etching at this point.

Step 9: You can lay your stencil on something slick like glossy photo paper to reuse it if you can take it off with tearing it. Allow the Armour Etch to dry for 10 minutes and finally enjoy your finished product!

I hope you enjoy this machine as much as I do. Please let me know what you think and if you own one yourself. Thanks to the Shellspot blog for resource pictures.