How To Carve A Rubber Stamp Using Speedball Speedy-Cut

 I bought some sheets of Speedball Speedy-Cut at Blick. It's perfect for printing with water soluable mediums and carves like butter.

I did a sketch on tracing paper of my daughter wearing a goofy dog hat I made for her earlier this winter. I placed the pencil drawing, graphite side down, on the rubber surface. I rubbed the back of the drawing with a bone folder (a spoon would work) to transfer the lines. You don't want to draw directly on the surface since you could dent it and might not want the lines to show on your print.

 The transferred print. It would have been helpful to stain the rubber with an ink pad so I could have seen the carved lines easier. Excess material can be cut off with a razor blade or X-Acto knife.

The carving was done with linoleum block carving tools. I used a fine gouge, a medium V and a wide gouge for removing larger sections. I carved until I thought it was almost done, inked the stamp, and made a print. This let me know where I needed to carve more. I didn't want to clean up all the lines since I like the rougher, wood block print look.

I had better results laying the stamp flat and pressing the ink pad down onto it rather than pressing the rubber block onto the ink pad. Speedy-Cut is 3/8 of an inch thick and is sturdy enough to not need a wood back. Remember, if you add text, the image has to be backwards or it will print backwards.

Don't undercut the raised areas since it will damage the integrity of the printing surface.

How To Make a Recycled Envelope Book with Scrapbook Paper Instead of Envelopes.

I remembered seeing an envelope book and thought I could use some more scrapbook paper to make something similar. I chose a tropical theme and will use it for my next vacation.

I grabbed a book from the stack that I'm donating to the library and carefully cut the book free from the cover with a razor blade. I'm keeping the pages since I plan to incorporate them into the finished book later.

I measured the spine to see how big to make the insert. This book is 1.25 inches wide.

Now for the math.

I want the insert to be a little smaller than the spine so that it can lay normally when the pages are filled and the "envelopes" are filled. My spine is 1.25" wide so a 1" wide insert will fit well.

I want a 1/2" flange so the larger piece of paper is 2" x 8.75 (the length of the page I want the finished book to have minus .25")

I want to have a .25" space between the flanges so the next 2 pieces of paper are 1.5" wide.

The fold lines are indicated with a dashed line. A scoring board is very helpful but not required.

The center flange is glued together inside. I used Tacky glue since that was what I had on hand and a glue stick would be strong enough.

All 3 folded flanges nest inside each other and are glued along the bottom.

I used scrapbook card stock to make the spine flange.

The book spine isn't stable enough to glue the spine flange to, so I cut a piece of cardboard to size and glued it in place.

I glued on new endpapers to cover the existing ones and cover the cardboard covered spine. I used white scrapbook paper and since the book is wider than 12" I have a seam in the center.

Make sure you fold the book closed to ensure you don't have the paper glued too tight.

I plan to decorate the endpapers with art so the white will suit my  needs but a more interesting end paper would be fun.

Glue the center flange in place.

My finished envelope pages will be 5.5 x 9 inches. Scrapbook paper is only 12" so I needed to piece the envelope sleeve.

I cut the sleeve 5.5 x 9.5 and folded each piece .5 inch on opposite ends.

Glue the 2 pieces of paper together with the folds on opposite sides to reduce bulk at the seam.

Put glue on both sides of each individual flange and slide the envelope sleeve on. Press in place. Check the pages by turning them (like you were reading a book) since they need to have a little space for turning and you don't want the pages too tight.

The finished book. I'll be cutting watercolor paper to size so I can use to as a travel journal. The nice thing is the scrapbook pages are acid free so it won't hurt the artwork.

How To Make A Book With Pockets From A Sheet Of 12" Scrapbook Paper

I have a bunch of scrapbook paper that I don't know what to do with. I thought a book might be good since the paper is acid free and nice quality. This is a cross between a couple of other books I've previously made and I think it turned out cute.

You don't need a Martha Stewart Crafts Scoring Board and Envelope Tool but it sure makes life good. You rest the paper against the guides and run a bone folder along the groove. 

Score a piece of 12 inch scrapbook paper along the above lines. Fold along the scored lines.

Cut along the dashed line but do NOT cut the remaining 3 inches.

Fold the first side accordion style.

Now's the tricky part. When you get to the end of the first side, you fold the uncut edge backwards so that you can continue to fold the remainder of the book accordion style.

You can see the open space where the uncut side was folded.

Glue the back side of the pages together. I just used a glue stick.

To prevent things falling out of the pockets, I taped the edge with decorative tape and trimmed the excess. Washi tape would be great but I used decorative tape that I found at Target.

You can see the backs of the pages are glued and the 3 open folder edges have been taped.

The cover of the finished book.

You can use the pockets for credit cards, business cards, or mementos. The paper is acid free so it would be nice to draw on the white portion and keep small items in the pocket. I think I might glue some of these inside the cover of my artist journals.

How To Make A Glitter Texture In Photoshop

I was going to photograph some glitter to use as a texture but I found this nifty tutorial from ScrapbookBytes.

Here are my notes:
Open a new square document in Photoshop (make sure the color is set to RGB not CMYK, the filters won't work in CMYK. Make the document 8 bit.)
Fill with grey #B3b3b3 (I tired 50% grey and it was too dark)
Filter > Texture > Grain. Select Sprinkle from the drop down menu. Intensity 35. Contrast 50. OK
Filter > Pixelate > Crystallize. 3%
Command J to duplicate the layer. Edit > Transform > Rotate 90 CW. Blend mode Multiply.
Repeat - Command J to duplicate the layer. Edit > Transform > Rotate 90 CW. Blend mode Multiply.
Merge the layers and save the file in case you want to make more glitter. This is the base you work off. I saved mine as glitter_blendModeOverlay.jpg

To color the glitter:
Open the new glitter base in Photoshop.
Add a new layer. Fill with a color. For the gold glitter I used #BC9D20. Blend mode Overlay.

How To Change CMYK To Pantone In Illustrator

There's a few reasons for changing CMYK colors to Pantone. Sometimes you are given a color and need to know the Pantone equivalent or you want to make a tint of a color without losing opacity.

You select the object that you want to change.
Go to Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork

Click on the box underneath the check mark for None in the photo. This limits the color groups to colors in the color swatch library.

Color Books > Pantone solid uncoated. You can choose any Pantone library you like, I prefer solid uncoated.

 Click OK

You can now find the Pantone color in your Swatches panel.

To make a tint of the color, move the slider underneath the color bar (small triangle) or change the percentage.

Now you have a simple tint and if this is being sent off to a printer, it would be a one color job.

You also change the tinted areas back to CMYK for home printing by selecting the image and going to

Edit > Edit Colors > Convert to CMYK.

How To Make An Artistic Colored Gradient in Photoshop

I recently was looking through a magazine and saw a pretty black and white fashion photo with a pink gradient and I had to try to duplicate it.

Place your photo in Photoshop.

To make it black and white go to Image > Adjustments > Channel Mixer
Check Monochrome. Click OK

New Fill or Adjustment Layer > Gradient.
Click on the gradient in the Gradient Fill screen to bring up the Gradient Editor.
Choose a color to fill the little paint bucket. I used a Miami Vice style pink F87a7a.
100% Opacity is too intense so you want click on the box over the paint bucket to bring up the opacity slider. I used 42%.
Adjust the angle so that it looks right.

The image on the left is how it looks after the gradient is applied. The right version had the blending mode Multiply applied.

How To Make A Text Clipping Mask With A Photo Background In Illustrator

Place a background image or photo in a new document in illustrator.
Type over the photo.

If you want the letters to touch.
Type > Create Outlines
Object > Ungroup
Shift the letters until you like the placement.
Object > Compound Path > Make
Move the text where you want to to see the image in the letters on the background photo.
Select both the text and the background image.
Object > Clipping Mask >Make


If you don't want the letters to touch.
Type > Create Outlines
Object > Compound Path > Make
Move the text where you want to to see the image in the letters on the background photo.
Select both the text and the background image.
Object > Clipping Mask >Make

How To Make A Stone Texture Background in Photoshop

Start a new file in Photoshop with a white background.

Channels Palette. Click the Create New Channel icon to add a new Alpha 1 channel.
Filter > Render > Difference Clouds. The dark areas make the crevices and light areas are hills.
Activate the RGB Channel.
Filter > Render > Light Effects. Play with the sliders until you are happy with the effect.

How To Make A Wire Bound Art Journal From An Old Book Tutorial

I like making art journals from old books so here are directions on how to do it. I wanted one with black paper but I usually use acid free drawing paper or watercolor paper. Carefully cut the front and back cover off with a razor blade.































Trim the covers with a paper cutter. You don't want to cut through the thickest part, only cut along it.
















Measure the trimmed book cover. This one is 8.5" x 5 3/8".
















The paper should be smaller than the cover and life is easier if the bound edge of the paper is cut to the closest 1/2". Cutting the paper in half inch increments simplifies putting the holes in since you don't need to do any crazy adjusting. I cut the paper 8" x 5".
















Don't try cutting too many sheets at one time on the paper cutter since you want a nice, crisp line.
















What it looks like stacked up.
















Punch holes using a book binding machine. You can find them online and there is a craft version called Cinch that does a very nice job. The Cinch is strong enough to punch through a book cover but do it slowly since it's a lot for a craft machine to do.
















Now you need to make the holes in the cover. Adjust the binding machine to take into account the book cover being longer. It's a good idea to test the settings with a scrap piece of paper since you don't want to have to toss the cover because it was punched incorrectly.
















You need to punch the back cover so that the end papers are facing up. If you try punching the holes with the back cover facing up it's likely that the front and back cover will not match up. It would be a good idea to test this one as well with scrap paper to ensure a proper fit.
















Count the number of punched holes and trim the wire to the desired length; cutting where shown.
















Put the sheets of paper onto the wire.
















Place the cover on top, facing up.
















Put the back cover on top of the other layers. The end paper needs to be facing up to ensure the closed wire edge is on the inside of the back cover. You'll flip the book to the correct position after the wire is crimped.
















Shift the paper to the center of the wire binding.
















Slowly crimp the binding wire using the binding machine. I like to flip the book after crimping and do it again on the other side. I have a tendency to push harder on one side than the other and this ensures a nice even crimp. Make sure the center of the binding wire remains in the center of the press or it will become lopsided. You might want to practice with a wire scrap.

Flip the book covers to the normal position and if you did everything correctly the crimped edge is next to the inside of the back cover.






















Voila, you are ready to journal.