Sunday, October 28, 2012

Nothing Spooky Here!

Can you believe Halloween is next week? The weather is turning (and creating problems - all of those affected by Hurricane Sandy are in our thoughts) and summer is now just a recent memory.

Next week is a new month at Red Rubber Designs, too. Our First Thursday falls on the 1st of November and we have lots of fabulous stamps to help with your winter holiday preparations.

Until then, we're still very thankful here for all of our customers who choose to purchase from the Red Rubber Designs store. This month's specials are still good through Wednesday, October 31st, so don't delay if you want to take advantage of them:


As I have time, I continue to put more product into the store, all at prices well below the MSRP (Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price). Here are some new stamps added this past week which continue with our Thankful & Grateful theme:







Don't forget - you have several chances to win a Gift Certificate from the Red Rubber Designs store just by participating in our October Just Because challenge. We'd love to see your work with our rubber stamps! Deadline is November 1st.

Also the Hope You Can Cling To event is still going strong over at SplitCoastStampers. Lots of prizes from the sponsors (we are also a proud sponsor of this event) are available for participants - plus you have until mid November to submit to the challenges. Check it out and spread the hope!

We hope you have a delightfully spooky Halloween! See you next week!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Tutorial Tuesday: Technique Review


Today I am going to review 12 ways to make that white piece of cardstock more interesting.  They are all basic techniques that can easily be done with products that you probably have in your stash. All samples have been done on ATC size blanks.

On the left is a clean and simple style. It is a script background stamped on plain white cardstock.  On the right a more vintage look achieved by adding distress inks.

By adhering crinkled white tissue paper to your cardstock and then stamping with your background, you add a little texture. 
The sample on the right uses dressmakers tissue for a vintage look.

On the left is the faux linen technique. This look is achieved by taking glossy white cardstock, stamping your background image then sanding both horizontally and vertically then adding distress ink. 
On the left a simple misting with two different colors of spray then stamping.

Another fun technique is the resist method. Stamp the script with embossing ink, add white embossing powder, heat emboss then add your choice of ink color with a blending tool. 
On the right I have stamped the script with embossing ink and then added chalks giving a soft pastel look.

Both of these samples use the same colors of distress inks. On the left is the wrinkle free distress technique. This look can be achieved with your choice of colors. Simply apply Distress Ink directly from the pad to your non-stick craft sheet, spritz with water until the color beads. Drag paper through the ink, dry, repeat until satisfied, stamp with script.
For the wrinkled distress technique, carefully crumple paper, flatten out, apply your choice of Distress Ink directly to the creases. Iron out the paper and apply another color of ink with a sponge or blending tool.

On the left you see the fossil stone technique. Apply ink to two separate pieces of acetate, put the pieces ink to ink and squish. Pull apart and put 2 pieces of cardstock back to back between the two pieces of acetate, squish again. Open and pull off the cardstock from the acetate, dry and stamp. (A clear report folder works nicely for this technique).
The sample on the right shows the results of playing with alcohol ink and blending solution.

There are many more techniques out there for you to try and they come with different degrees of difficulty and some with a longer supply list. Hopefully this little review has sparked your creativity and will coerce you to pull out some of those long neglected supplies in your studio.

Supplies from Red Rubber Designs:

Monday, October 22, 2012

New Stamps, A Virtual Convention And More!

There is so much going on this month, I don't know where to start!

SplitCoastStampers' Hope You Can Cling To event is still in progress. If you make cards, considering blessing the woman and their families faced with a breast cancer diagnosis with your handmade creations - and you can win prizes while doing it! Red Rubber Designs is one of the Pink Ribbon Sponsors for this event.

To help celebrate Awareness, we have some special things going on here, too (through Oct 31):
  • A PINK Big Deal - 40% OFF anything in the store that is PINK or has PINK on it somewhere (including the packaging)! Be sure to scroll through all of the goodies here, as you never know what you'll find at a fabulous price.
  • Also, I'm putting in a FREE stamp set with every order this month. "Awareness", a set of 11 stamps:
You don't have to do anything, I automatically put it in your package
 when I ship your order. (It won't be listed on your order or receipt.)
This is in addition to the free gift I always tuck into your order!
  • Our theme this month is Thankful & Grateful  - and our Featured Stamps help you express those sentiments to those you care about.
  • We have a special "Just Because" challenge this month - be sure to play along, because you can earn up to THREE entries to the random drawing for a Gift Certificate to the Red Rubber Designs store!

And if all of that isn't enough, here's some more:

If you're not already a member, go sign up for RubberStampChat.net which is a fun place for rubber stampers to learn new techniques, share ideas and meet new friends. Registration is free.

And the reason I'm urging you to become a member of their community? Besides socializing with other stampers and participating in the swaps they always have going on - they also host a Virtual Convention, usually every spring and fall.

The next convention is this week - Thursday, October 25th through Monday, October 29th. Red Rubber Designs is just one of the vendors participating in the convention and you are sure to find lots of good sales! For more information, check out this post: What is a Virtual Convention? Come join the fun!

Okay, time for the new stamps that are now in the Red Rubber Designs store!









A reminder for our international customers:  We now ship our rubber stamps internationally! Please check our Shipping Information page for more details.

That's all for now, folks - have a wonderful week!

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Third Thursday Just Because Challenge


In keeping with Breast Cancer Awareness this month, we want you to "Think Pink" for this month's  Just Because Challenge. Since Red Rubber Designs is one of the sponsors for the "Hope You Can Cling To"  challenge event going on over at SplitCoastStampers, we are offering you a chance to have three entries in our drawing this month. Here is what you have to do:

     1.   Upload your pink challenge entry to the Red Rubber Designs Flickr Group using the tag JB1012.

     2.   Submit your challenge entry to one of the SCS challenges in the Hope You Can Cling To     challenge event. You should upload your entry to the SCS HYCCT gallery and post that link in a comment on this blog post 

     3.   Post your challenge entry on your blog and link back to the Red Rubber Designs store.  Please  post the link to that blog post, not to your entire blog, in a comment on this blog post


You are not required to do all of these, of course - but you do earn one entry for each one that you do which means you can earn up to 3 entries for the challenge.

What can you win?  The prize is a $10.00 gift certificate to the Red Rubber Designs store.

Contest ends November 1 at midnight.

Here are a few designs by our Design Team to get you going. Enjoy!

  
Sarah

Paula-Kay   

Louise

Kate

See our Challenge Information page for details.  You must use at least one Red Rubber Designs stamp.
We hope to see lots of  PINK!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Tutorial Tuesday: Stamping In Molding Paste

Today's tutorial shows you how fun and easy it is to create texture on your projects by combining your rubber art stamps with molding paste.



Items Needed:

Red Rubber Designs Ancient Map Background Rubber Stamp
Red Rubber Designs Miss Moxie Patterned Paper
Molding Paste
Palette Knife
Heat Tool
Gesso 
Acrylic Paints

 

1. With the palette knife, spread a thick coat of molding paste randomly over your paper. (The molding paste is blue on top of the pink patterned cardstock.)



2. Dry the area with the heat gun until a thin film forms over the top, about one minute. You should be able to touch the top without the paste sticking to your finger.



3. Spray your stamp with water to keep the paste from sticking to your stamp.



4. Firmly stamp into the molding paste. (Clean stamp immediately! Do not allow the molding paste to dry on your stamps.)  Allow the stamped paste to dry overnight. 



5. Once dry, layer acrylic paint and gesso to achieve desired look. 



6. Add embellishments and/or paper over top the molding paste to tie the page together.



7. Finish off with a picture and some flowers. This technique can be used on almost any surface and adds great texture to a project.



Monday, October 15, 2012

Hope You Can Cling To

Have you heard?

Red Rubber Designs is a proud sponsor of SplitCoastStamper's Hope You Can Cling To event! Each October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, SCS partners with the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center for a month long card drive to benefit those affected by breast cancer. Click here to find out more information about what SCS is doing.

As part of our sponsorship for this event, we are contributing FOUR shopping sprees of $25 each to some lucky winners! But you can't win unless you join in the fun challenges at SCS. Check it out and see what YOU can do to spread hope to those affected directly or indirectly by breast cancer.

And there's more - did you know that we have TWO Spotlight Stamps this month? That's right! We're offering two beautiful stamp sets (at 40% OFF!) to help you in your card making. Our theme this month is Thankful & Grateful  - and our Featured Stamps help you express those sentiments to those you care about.

But wait, there's even more! (I know, I sound like an info-mercial, right?!) We have over 75 PINK products on sale this month at 40% OFF their already-low price! If I found pink in it or on it (even on the packaging!), it went on sale - visit our Big Deal section in the store and see what you can pick up for a great price.

And as a special thank you this month, we are putting a free pink ribbon stamp set (Awareness) in each order. No need to do anything but place an order with us - it's automatically included. This is in addition to the FREE gift that we always include with every order you place with us.

Before I get to the new stamps in the store, I need to tell you about our special "Just Because" challenge that's coming up on Thursday:  Be sure to join in as each participant is entered into a drawing to win a $10 Gift Certificate to the Red Rubber Designs store. And this time, you'll have multiple ways to put your name in the hat - stay tuned right here on our blog, we'll explain it all on Thursday!

Here are the latest stamps NEW in the store:






(Our second Spotlight Stamp - 40% OFF this month!)



Red Rubber Designs now ships rubber stamps internationally! Visit our store and see all the stamping goodness that awaits you!

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Tutorial Tuesday: How to Make a Pop-up Card



Pop-up cards have become so popular that die cuts are now being designed to do the pop-up for you.  However, I want to show you how 
simple it is to make your own.



Let's begin with the supplies.  I've gathered an olive green card (5 1/2" x 8 1/2"), a cream colored inside card (5 1/4" x 8 1/4"), some stamped and 
colored images to cut out, and scissors.

The stamps I have used are some of the Red Rubber Designs
October new releases, Filled With Blessings.

  

On the fold of the inside card (cream colored one), cut slits for the pop-ups.  The deeper the cut, the more the image will pop forward.  The shorter the cut, the closer back the image will appear.  Depending on how many images you want to pop up, cut the appropriate number of folds.  
Probably 2 or 3 will fit nicely on one card.



Next fold the cut tabs to the inside and use a bone folder to 
crease the folded edges.



Open the inside card to reveal the pop-ups!  It is as easy as that.




Now we are ready to complete the card.  The inside card with the pop-ups will fit inside the base card.  But before you adhere it to the base, first finish any stamping or decorating of the inside card.



I used a cloud template and a Palette Seascape ink pad and a sponge to make clouds on the top part of the inside.  On the bottom I used a Spellbinders Flora M-Bossabilities folder to emboss leaves.  Also I cut out each of my stamped images to use as pop-ups.


I completed the inside by placing my images on the pop-ups as desired, gluing some leaves on the foreground and a saying from this same stamp 
set above the images.


To finish the card, I decorated the front by using some of the background stamps from Filled With Blessings, more leaves and another of the sayings.  The background pieces are stamped with a variety of Palette inks.  All images on the card are  colored with Copic markers.

You can download a free PDF of this tutorial at the RRD Store.
 

Monday, October 8, 2012

October Blog Hop Winner

Mr. Random.org was certainly having fun this morning as I tried to come up with a winner for the blog hop contest.  The first 3 picks were members of the Design Team and pick #4 was Pam, the owner of Red Rubber Designs. Finally after 4 tries, the 5th attempt gave me a legitimate winner.  Keep reading to see who won.

The contest this month was a random draw from all of the comments on the "mystery" blog.  The "mystery" blog is that of Diana - Wordbirds Nest.  The winner will receive the Lovely Peony stamp set that was featured in the blog hop.

This stamp set is available at a 40% discount this month only. Go here for details. Did you know that we have a second spotlight stamp this month? No? Well check it out:

This timely set Support the Girls is also available at a 40% discount. How can you pass up a deal like that!

Okay, now that you have made it through the infomercial, it is time to announce the winner.

~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ Stacy Rogers ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~

Congratulations, Stacy.  I know that you will be making beautiful art with your new stamp set.


Thursday, October 4, 2012

First Thursday: Blog Hop and Contest

As the year moves into Autumn and the Harvest season, we all have cause to be grateful. This month at Red Rubber Designs, our new releases and our designs will focus on our thanks and gratitude.

Also, this month we are a proud sponsor of the 3rd annual Hope You Can Cling To event at SplitCoastStampers! Each October, SCS partners with the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center for a month long card drive to benefit those affected by breast cancer.

"Whether your stamps cling to acrylic, wood, or to your hard drive, they hold the power to convey hope and lift the spirits of anyone who sees what you create with them. That is the inspiration for our “Hope You Can Cling To” stamping campaign for Breast Cancer Awareness Month." 


Join us during the month for our own challenges and specials as we THINK PINK!

The beautiful Spotlight stamp set that our Design Team is featuring today is Lovely Peony.

Lovely Peony
Spotlight Stamps are always 40% off with any order. What a great deal that is!  Want to see all of the featured releases for October?  You can find them here.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

With World Card Making Day coming up in a few days (Oct. 6th), the Design Team will be showing off their card making skills today. As an added touch, they will be decorating the envelopes, too. You might want to consider decorating your envelopes to make your presentation really special.  It doesn't take much time to do but really adds a lot of visual impact.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

I guess you are wondering what the contest will be today. Okay...here it is. One lucky commenter will be chosen from the mystery blog to receive the spotlight stamp set (Lovely Peony). So to have the best chance of winning, be sure to comment on each Designer's blog.  The winner will be chosen by random draw. Good luck and happy commenting!

Contest ends on Sunday, Oct. 7 at midnight CDT.

~*~  ~*~  ~*~  ~*~  ~*~ 

Here is the blog roll:
Red Rubber Designs - you are here
Louise - Kard Krazy

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Tutorial Tuesday: Inspiration Challenge

Welcome to our third Tutorial Tuesday Inspiration Challenge.  For the last several months, our Design Team has been bringing you some wonderful tutorials to help with your stamping and crafting projects. Occasionally (usually about once a month) we have a Tuesday open and decided it was the perfect time to have a challenge and invite you to play.

Our Inspiration Challenge is easy: It's an open challenge - you can create any project in any medium you like, as long as it's based on one (or more!) of our Tutorials. The only requirement is that you use a current stamped image from our store.

You can find all of the Tuesday Tutorials here on the blog or you can download them free from our store.

Please use at least one image from the Red Rubber Designs store as the focal point in your project. Upload your challenge submission to the Red Rubber Designs Flickr Group using the challenge tag TT1012 (that's TT [as in Tutorial Tuesday] 1zero12 [as in October "10" and the year "12"]). Also, please tell us which Tutorial you used as inspiration!

See our Challenge Information page for details on the general challenge rules and how to upload your challenge submissions to our Flickr Group.

Deadline for submitting is Tuesday, October 16, 2012 at Midnight CDT.

A $10.00 gift certificate to the Red Rubber Designs store will be awarded ONE randomly chosen participant in our Tutorial Tuesday Inspiration challenge!

Can't wait to see what our tutorials inspired you to create!


Monday, October 1, 2012

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Red Rubber Designs is turning PINK! October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and we're doing our part to Support the Girls.

This month we are a proud sponsor the 3rd annual Hope You Can Cling To event at SplitCoastStampers! Each October, SCS partners with the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center for a month long card drive to benefit those affected by breast cancer.

"Whether your stamps cling to acrylic, wood, or to your hard drive, they hold the power to convey hope and lift the spirits of anyone who sees what you create with them. That is the inspiration for our “Hope You Can Cling To” stamping campaign for Breast Cancer Awareness Month." 



Join us during the month for our own challenges and specials as we THINK PINK!

Don't miss our upcoming First Thursday as we kick off our new Featured Stamps and a new Big Deal. We'll offer lots of ways you can support those who have been affected by breast cancer, either directly or indirectly.

Until Thursday, we're still all about VINTAGE. Check out the new stamps we have in the store:














You can always see what new product is in the store, too - just click on the "New Arrivals" link at the top of the store page.

At Red Rubber Designs, we ALWAYS have something on sale! And we have an easy "On Sale!" link at the top of the store page. Check back frequently, because this changes often!

Have a good week and remember to THINK PINK!