April 24, 2014 By Design Team 6 Comments

Unity faux-quilting stamps Celebration Card

Happy Friday everybody! This is Roberta and today I am sharing a cute card I created using Ann Butler Design 2″ square faux-quilting stamps and inks! I LOVE the 2″ size of these borderless cling stamps; being borderless means that I can stamp a seamless, continuous line or large area!

I plan to make several cards today and tomorrow using these stamps and because I am not

Crafter’s Ink Flavors!

yet sure what shapes and designs I will be using I like to make the best use of my time and supplies by creating large worksheets from which I can cut or punch out later. I started my card by taking 4 different stamps and stamping them on a 12×12 white cardstock.

I chose to work with ColorBox Crafter’s® ink by Ann Butler in Berry, Aquamarine, and Lilac. Ann Butler Designs faux-quilted stamps I used were from the Leaves all Over and the Diamonds & Plaid collections.

Other supplies used

Banner die-cut card from Studio G (Hampton Art)
18 gauge wire
Makin’s Clay for the balloon
Rhinestones- Darice adhesive back acrylic gems
alphas – Basic Grey Mint Julep
ribbon – Maya Road
Adhesive – Beacon 3-in-1 Advanced Craft Glue
pop dots
Glossy Accents

: clay base for my balloon before I stamped it

: a little dimension and texture never hurt anybody, right?

: Just cut stamped cardstock to fit!

i cut 3/4″ strips to peak through the banner. I actually wound up gluing them onto a separate piece of cardstock, trimming them to be flush, and then re-gluing to the actual card

Thank you for stopping by today ~ Roberta

April 23, 2014 By Vishu Reberholt 1 Comment

Ann Butler Design One Stamp Backrgounds

Hello all, Vishu here again and I am very excited to share my projects with you today and hope to show you all the possibilities, versatility and different looks you can get with just one stamp.

How amazing don’t you think, you could never tell all these backgrounds are made out of just one 1″ stamp. I tried to use the same colors and style so you can really compare.

Below are the main products I used for this.

All the three looks are very easy to create, The stamp I choose was from the Ann Butler Designs 1″ leaves all over stamp set. These are great stamps and especially the no edge design make the possibilities endless.

For the first card background I just stamped the lines vertically on a white cardstock with Ann Butler’s Crafter’s Aquamarine ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder and then went back and covered the cardstock with black ink, then just wiped it off with a baby wipe.

For the second background I made a checkered board pattern using the same stamp and ink. I went back and added some glue lines and stuck glitter to give the paper shine, I think the background looks great.

For the thrid background I again stamped the lines vertically on a white cardstock and heat embossed with clear embossing powder, then using the same stamp stamped the lines horizontally with Ann Butler’s Crafter’s Berry ink, let it dry and then wiped it with a baby wipe.

I hope I have inspired you tap into the great possibilities with these Ann Butler stamps by Unity Company. Crafty good bye for now but don’t forget to stop again to see some awesome projects by our Team.

April 21, 2014 By Design Team 4 Comments

Faux Quilted Card

Hello, Ava here to share a faux Quilt Block that I made for my card. There are lots of quilting resources on the web; pinterest, you tube, blogs, websites and google all of which can bring you plenty of inspiration.

Start with gathering your supplies and of course you are allowed to change your mind at any time through the quilting experience.

Step #1

Using 2 different stamps from the Ann Butler 1″ Doily Picnic stamp set; stamp 1 row of each of the different stamps onto a 10 inch by 4 inch strip of 110 lb Core’dinations Cardstock.

Step #2

Trim your 2 stamped strips to 3/4″ wide and then cut your squares 3/4″ again. Cut 8 squares measuring 3/4″ x 3/4″. Do this again with the other pattern stamp strip as well as your plain cardstock strip using the same measurements. So, before you start, pile up your 3 types of squares, (2 different stamped patterns and 1 regular cardstock)

Step#3

Have your quilt block template pattern that you have decided to use for your project in front of you. Using an adhesive tape runner, place plenty of strips of glue onto a 3″ x 3″ cardstock square. Follow your chosen Quilt Block pattern and start repeating the pattern for your card by cutting and placing your papers onto your cardstock block.

Step # 4

Once you have everything figured out and in place, mat your 3″ Quilt Block and assemble your card elements onto your card base.

Step # 5

Stamp your card with a sentiment of your choice.

Ann Butler Designs Supplies

1″ Doily Picnic Ann Butler Designs, Unity Stamp Co. Stamps

Clearsnap Ink, Ann Butler Colorbox Crafters Ink, Lilac & Shineshine

Other Supplies

Core’dinations Cardstock, Core Essentials Pastel Collection & 110 lb Cardstock

Tombow Stamp Runner Adhesive

Westcott Brands scissors

May Arts Ribbon

Viva Pearl Pen, Ice White

April 17, 2014 By Design Team 1 Comment

Mixed Media ART Panels

Happy Friday! Paula here to show a fun little Mixed Media Art. I now share my creative space with my teenage daughter. We are in the process of adding some new pieces. Here’s one that I just finished.

Start with a few supplies.

I had a 3-pack of 4×4 Burlap Panels that I purchased at a local craft store. I wanted a little texture, so I used Liquitex Modeling Paste and mixed a bit with Aquamarine Iridescents from Earth Safe Finishes.

After achieving the color you like, take a spatula and spread the paste on opposite corners of one of the panels and set aside to dry. The time will depend on the thickness of the paste. As you can see from the photo, mine was not too thick, so by the time I finished some other stamping, it was dry.

Please note the following steps can be pretty much done is any particular order. When doing a project like this, I will start a specific task, then come back at a later point and add additional steps. So, if you do choose to create, please read through before (just so you don’t get to a step and realize my image looks a bit different) 🙂

Using EZ-De’s Flourish Alphabet Stamps, stamp all 3 panels with A, R, T. You may have to work around wet paste.

Next, use 2″ Stripes.Dots.Hearts Faux Quilting Stamps by Ann Butler for Unity Stamp Company to randomly stamp on panels. I used only the Dots, but any of the patterns would have been an excellent choice! After stamping the dots, I used a dot stencil, a brush and the modeling paste on random areas of the tiles.

At this point, I put everything aside and let dry overnight. When returning, I used my Earth Safe Finishes Aquamarine Iridescent Paint around the edges of the panels. Using the same dot stencil as above, I stenciled the actual Aquamarine paint over the lighter paste/paint mixture, just to give a bit more dimension. I love the shimmer of this paint. The photo below shows it a little, but it really is gorgeous in person!

I used 3D Crystal Lacquer on top of each of the letters, as well as random other places on the panels.

Hang onto the wall with VELCRO® Brand Removable Picture Hangers.

That’s it – my happy Burlap ART panels! Thanks for stopping by and taking a look!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

April 15, 2014 By Design Team 5 Comments

Faux Quilt Stamped Quilt Block

Hi everyone.

It’s Connie and my turn to post on the blog. My Project this month is a Faux quilted block. I used the cube from my Design team package and I stamped the images onto some pastel cotton fabric. I used the 2 ” Diamonds and Plaids Faux Quilting stamps. I also used Colorbox Crafter’s Ink by Ann Butler. I will be using the block as a Stick Pin holder/Pin Cushion.

I created the pattern by using the traditional Ornament technique. My grandmother made the quilted ornaments at Christmas. I used 2 ” Squares. I stamped the quilt images onto the fabric and let them dry. I added the Dress pins to the center of the fabric and added pin to center of Cube and folded the rectangles into triangles. I added several layers until I was happy with the look. You use more fabric squares on this block compared to a round ornament. I used 16 -2″ Squares per side. I used 250 pins. After making the sides I used crochet trim to decorate the edges. I also added buttons to the center of the squares.

Here is a close up of the pink side. I used the Berry Crafter’s Ink. I used the 2″ Bold Diamond pattern from the Diamond and Plaid stamp set.

Here is the yellow side. I used the Limelight Crafter’s Ink.

I used the Outlined Diamond pattern from the Diamond and Plaid stamp set.

Here is the Green side. I used the Aquamarine Crafter’s Ink. I used the Plaid stamp pattern from the Diamonds and Plaid stamp set.

Thanks for joining me today and Happy crafting.

April 14, 2014 By Ann Butler 31 Comments

Create ART Everyday – Stenciled, Stamped and Inked Canvas

Today I am pleased and honored to be part of my Creative Girlfriend Rebekah Meier’s 1st Blog Hop for her Brand New Stencil Line with The Crafter’s Workshop.

These stencils are wonderful and I am happy to say that they work beautifully with my line of Crafter’s Ink from Clearsnap. I created this Art Canvas for my studio by stenciling, stamping and inking it up!

Here’s how I created it:

I started by painting 2 canvases from Canvas Corp, (one 8″ x 10″ the other 5″ x 7″) with Berry Iridescents from Earth Safe Finishes.

I used Crafter’s Ink in Aquamarine, Lilac and Bark with Rebekah’s Rosetta and Stain Glass Stencils, layering with Earth Safe Finishes Gesso and more of the Berry Iridescents covering up a bit of the stenciling in the process. I also heat set the Crafter’s Ink once I was happy with placement, the cool thing about this ink is that if you ink something up and do not like how it turned out just take a baby wipe and remove it before heat setting….now that is cool!

I stamped out “Create ART” and “Every Day” with EZ-De’s 2″ Flourish Alphabet Stamps onto tissue paper to fit the canvases with Bark ink and heat set.

I applied the stamped tissue paper to the canvases using Earth Safe Finishes Decoupage bringing the tissue paper down over the edges of the canvases, let dry.

I stenciled in several move places onto the canvases to give more depth. Then I put the two canvases together and stenciled over the two two of them where they would meet when hanging for a continuous pattern, heat set.

I had these great metal photo corners I wanted to use although they were different colors….

So the solution was simple, I used Crafter’s Ink in Berry to color the photo corners, then I heat set, applied some Berry Iridescents on the top to highlight and added some Crafter’s Ink in Bark to the edges and heatset again. Then I glued them onto the corners of the canvases with Beacon’s Adhesives Quick Grip.

I also stenciled the sides of the canvases and inked up the edges.

I drilled holes into the bottom of the “Create ART” canvas and added eye screws then I drilled two holes in the top of the “Every Day” canvas added open ended eye screws so that they will attach easily to each other.

I hung them onto the wall using VELCRO® Brand Removable Picture Hangers…

Layering the stencils and using several colors of ink gave this project depth and I loved how it turned out

April 11, 2014 By Larissa Pittman 3 Comments

Home Decor Canvas: We are Anchored!

Good Friday morning everyone! How are Y’all today?
Larissa here to show you what I recently created using
Ann Butler Designs products.

I started out hand drawing this anchor.
I stamped a little of Ann Butlers Sunshine ink pad
on my glass mat and sprayed some water on it.
I then took a paint brush and filled in the anchor.
I took the Aquamarine ink pad and did the same
but added more water to it. I brushed over the entire
background. Sort of washed it out a little.

I used Ann Butlers EZ-De’s Flourish 2″ ABC’s
and with the Aquamarine Ink Pad stamped the words WE ARE.

I wrote out the word Anchored and joined all the
letters together. I also filled them in with the Aquamarine
ink using the same technique of putting some ink
down on the glass mat and spraying it with water.
I wanted it just as dark as the words I stamped
at the top so I didn’t add much water.

I also used Ann Butlers 1″ Dolly Picnic and again the
Aquamarine ink pad and went around the entire edge
of the piece.

I added a a few white dots on the yellow anchor and
the letters.

It does look simple but a little time
consuming.

Hope you enjoyed my post today.

I will be back soon with a new project.
Until then be sure to check back daily to
see what the other Design Team girls
have created. You won’t be sorry.

Have a great Friday!!

ColorBox Crafter’sÂ® by Ann Butler Sunshine	ColorBox Crafter’sÂ® by Ann Butler Aquamarine	Ann Butler 1â�³ Doily Picnic	EZ-De’s Flourish 2″ ABC’s
*SSS White WATERCOLOR PAPER 6 x 9

InLinkz.com

April 9, 2014 By Design Team 4 Comments

Faux Quilting- Stamping Over Patterned Paper

Hi Everyone,

For today’s post we wanted to share a fun and easy technique with you on over stamping on your pattern paper to give it a different look altogether! So, grab yourself something to drink, sit back and enjoy the video!

April 7, 2014 By Steph Ackerman 5 Comments

Happy Easter with Ann Butler Stamps and Inks

Hi everyone Easter will be here before we know it, so it’s time to get started on those Easter projects. Steph here today using Ann Butler’s stamps from Unity and Kellycraft along with Ann Butler inks from Clearsnap.

I came across this wood basket and thought it would make a great Easter centerpiece, so I first painted the basket yellow, then pulled out my stamps and inks and got to work. Alternating stamps and colors around the basket, I created a fun and bright centerpiece. The Unity 1″ Stripes. Dots.Hearts stamps and the 1″ Doily stamps were stamped on the rails in alternating colors – Tangelo, Limelight, and Berry. The 1″ Rail Fence stamp from Kellycraft was stamped on the side panels in Limelight.

Several Easter eggs were stamped with 1″ Stripes.Dots.Hearts stamps and 1″ Doily stamps using Limelight, Sunshine and Berry.

Happy Easter was die cut and then stamped with EZ-Des 2″ Checkered Woven Hearts in Limelight.

All items were die cut using my Cricut Expression. The chick was inked with Sunshine and Tangelo. Additional eggs were stamped. All items were attached to picks and then inserted into styrofoam.

Robin’s Nest Dew Drops were added as finishing touches to the eggs and the eyes of the chick and rabbit.

This was such a fun project to create and will look lovely on the Easter table.

Thanks for stopping by today.

April 4, 2014 By Design Team 5 Comments

DIY: Gift Bag Envelope Transformation

Hello all. I decided to do a fun and easy gift bag for my post! I love that you can go from a FLAT white mailing envelope and make a personalized gift bag! Lets get started.

The Materials:

1) Flat White Mailing Envelopes 2) Connie Crystal White Sheets 3) Ann Butler Designs from Unity Stamps 4) Ann Butler Designs Crafter’s Ink 5) Adhesive (Beacon & 3M) 6) Buttons 7) Stipple Brushes 8) Pencil 9) Scissors 10) Ann Butler Designs EZ-De’s Alphabet Stamps

Step 1. Place letters for the name you want to use. (You may also use initials) Apply ink and stamp on the front of the envelope centered. I like using several colors to make it festive. I then place the name/monogram where I want on the envelope front.

Step 2. Figure out the configuration of images you want to use and stamp those images under the stamped name/monogram. I used squares and 1/2 squares to make my design. Ink the image and stamp. (This image already has the stippling added.)

Step 3. Make a fold on each side and the bottom of about one inch. Then cut off the top of the envelope to about two inches above the stamped name.

Step 4. Where you have made the folds, manipulate the folds to make a bag side and bottom. Use a little tape or glue to tack the bottom flaps down.

Step 5. Start attaching the Connie Crystal Sheet pieces to represent the faux stitching.

The handle was made with the top of the envelope that was cut away and then stamped.

The back of the bag was faux stitched using a simple black pen and ruler. Buttons were added to the back of the bag as well. This makes the bag different, yet pretty from either side. I love the versatility.

A Closer Look at the side fold.

Hope you all enjoyed this project. I had a fun time creating this one! Make sure and check out my blog with more of Ann Butler Designs!

Happy Creating!