Last Minute Father's Day Project Ideas

We took a blogging hiatus but we're back - just in time to post some Father's Day projects. These Father's Day gift ideas are inexpensive. You can customize these projects to match the interests of the lucky man who will be receiving the gift. And if you want a project to do with a child, these gift ideas are easy to make.

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To make this project you will need a photograph, a picture frame, a photo mat, a set of word stamps (in this case Big Mouth) and 2 or 3 inkpads.

To help you figure out how best to position the stamps on the photo mat, place several clean clear stamps along one edge. For example, for this project, Eileen (the freakishly Creative Director at Technique Tuesday) placed the "Simply the Best", "Dad", "Ever", and "You are Incredible" stamps along one edge to determine the stamps' positions. Once you've figured out a stamping plan, you can either mark the stamp positions using a pencil or just remember the stamp positions relative to the edge of the photo mat. You may also want to start by stamping on the back of the frame to make sure everything will really fit.

One of these picture frames will make a great gift for your husband, dad, grandfathers, uncles, a stepfather, or even big brothers. If you have children, each child can create their own picture frame. Or let each family member stamp one or two sides and sign their name next to their artwork. No matter how you do this project, the man who receives it will cherish this gift forever.

To see a bigger picture of this project or to see the products used to make the Happy Father's Day Picture Frame, click here.

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When Eileen went looking for a cube of sticky notes, she couldn't find any. Instead she bought a package of eight thinner stick notes and stacked them together to make a cube.

Start by removing the slick backing sheet on all but one of the pads. Then stick them together to make your own cube. You can use your ribbon (or masking tape) to provide extra stability. Lay the cube on its side so you can stamp straight down onto it and then flip it over to stamp the other open side. Move your ribbon (or masking tape) to expose the two un-stamped sides and finish stamping.

Eileen used the Grid Iron and Big Mouth stamp sets to make this sticky note stack. If you'd like to see a bigger picture of this project, click here.

Here are some other stamp sets that that you might want to use to make a gift to match the interests of a man in your life:
· construction or woodworker
· world traveler
· soccer fan
· Vegas enthusiast
· military man
· rocket scientist
· farmer
· sports car lover, pilot, or heavy equipment operator
· zoo keeper
· or simply a man who is loved.

Dad's going to love it! Who else can you make one for?

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Celebrate Mother's Day and Get Free Shipping!

Here in the USA Mother's Day is May 11 - just 3 weeks away! Although Mother's Day is celebrated on different days throughout the world, in every country it is a time to honor and give thanks for mothers, to take time to reconnect with the woman who cared for us as a child, and perhaps to give her a sweet, handmade gift.

Let your mom know how much she means to you by giving her the gift of Technique Tuesday Clear Stamps. When you place an order from now through April 25 on our website and enter the code "Mom2008" at checkout, you'll receive free shipping within the USA on your order.

Click Here to learn more about the products used to make the Mom tag book.

Place your order soon - free shipping is only available for 1 week!

New Stamps!

Our newest flower stamp set is called Pocket Full of Posies. If you prefer a simple style, you can stamp these beautiful flowers and leaves directly onto cardstock. For a more embellished look, like the "Delight" layout, stamp the flowers and leaves onto a transparency using black ink. Then apply acrylic paint to the back side of the transparency to add color. To attach the flowers, we used pretty brads to mimic flower centers. To learn more about the products used to make this layout, click here.

The large flower in the Pocket Full of Posies stamp set is 3-inches across and makes a beautiful accent on a layout or card. The smaller flower is just under 1-inch wide and can be used to create a petite bouquet or fill in around the larger flower. Check out the card gallery on our website for additional projects made with this new stamp set.

As with all our stamp sets, a Pocket Full of Posies is made in the USA using environmentally friendly processes. For only $9.99, you can be confident that you are getting the best quality stamps in the world.

If you'd like to see more of our Spring 2008 new products, ask for them at your favorite store. Or go to the "New for Spring 2008" page on our website.

World Autism Awareness Day

Today is World Autism Awareness Day.

Autism Speaks was our Tuesdays Child Foundation charity for 2007. We will be continuing to donate 50% of the proceeds to Autism Speaks from the sale of two of our products:

Pieces of the Puzzle Stamp Set

FUNdamental Pieces Technique Tiles

To Autism Speaks through the month of April 2008.

A note from our owner Bev Grey:

In 2007, our Tuesday’s Child efforts were focused on autism. I've seen our creative director, Eileen Collins, search for answers, challenge the status quo, and share quiet moments of joy with her son
who has autism. Through her, I learned that autism affects 1 in every 150 children. It is more common than pediatric cancer, diabetes, and AIDS combined. There is no known cause or cure for autism. Based on these statistics and the impact that Eileen and her son have had on me, I decided to try to help change the future of children and families who are affected by autism by focusing our first Tuesday’s Child program on autism.

In April of 2007, we released two products—a stamp set called Pieces of the Puzzle, and a set of 12x12-inch Technique Tiles called FUNdamental Pieces—in support of autism awareness. Although we designed these products to include some images and words associated with autism, these products were also intended to appeal to those who may not even know what autism is.

We asked our customers to join us in this fight by sharing their stories about how autism had impacted their lives, by supporting a friend who has a child with autism, by raising awareness in their communities, by donating directly to a charity of their choice, or by purchasing these two Technique Tuesday products. We have been thrilled with the response.

Numerous scrapbookers sent layouts to us that we highlighted during 2007 in a gallery on our website. People from all over the world called us, wrote email, and tracked us down at scrapbook conventions to tell us about how autism has touched their lives. A number of our wholesale customers had fund raisers in their stores or events to promote autism awareness. The response has been astounding. We are also thrilled that we were able to donate thousands of dollars to Autism Speaks so far and we’re not done yet. We will continue our commitment to this cause through April (Autism Awareness Month) 2008.

New Products for Spring!

We hope that you had a very HOPPY Easter :)

These new stamps were released a few weeks ago and should be arriving in your favorite store now!

We are SO-Eggsited about this little treasure. Perfect for capturing the joy of the Easter holiday at only $2.49 MSRP, this stamp set is sure to be a hip hoppity hit!

























Most scrapbooker's and paper crafter's stories begin at home. Our new Home is Where Your Heart Is stamp set will help you celebrate your family, your stories, and your home.























Fresh off our victory for the best journaling tool in Creating Keepsakes Magazine’s Ultimate Product Guide, we’ve added another journaling stamp to our collection. Today is a great little journaling spot is the perfect addition for just a dab of details.

From the Mailbag!

I just love to open my email - it is so much more fun than the bills and junk mail that I get in my snail mail!

We received this STUNNING layout from Tamera in Valencia, CA.

"I used some stuff we had at my LSS for demos and made a page based on some of the pages I had seen in your gallery. It is a display LO for use near our TT stamp area."

Tamera used Technique Tuesday Petal Tiles, and Loves me Loves me Not Large image stamps.

Thanks so much for sharing Tamera!

I would love to see your favorite project using Technique Tuesday stamps too! Email me any time at challenges at techniquetuesday.com

Angela @ TT

Do you receive our monthly newsletter?

If not sign up today! We have a new one going out soon and you don't want to miss it! We pack them full of new product announcements, layout and card ideas, tips, tricks and more! And we never give out your information to anyone - so no spam! :)

To sign up just go to our website: http://www.techniquetuesday.com/

And type your email address into the little box on the left side of the page - and follow the directions from there!

Make sure Technique Tuesday is on your "safe senders" list if you have a strict Spam Filter to make sure not to miss a single issue!

Angela @ TT

Happy Saint Patricks Day!

No pinches for us! We've got our green on! :)

Spring has sprung!

The signs of Spring are all around us! The daffodils and crocuses are peeking through the dirt, green is slowly replacing all of the brown, and there is a sweet smell in the air. We know it won't last though - here in Oregon we have two more months of rain to go, and more snow isn't even out of the question for many of you!

So lets celebrate the beauty of Spring together here on the blog - no matter what the weather actually looks like outside your window!

We've chosen a few of our favorite flower clear stamps and Technique Tiles to feature over the next few weeks! We hope you play along and capture the beauty of Spring on all of your scrapbook pages.

Sam created these adorable flowers using Technique Tiles Scalloped Circles.





This is another page of Eileen's that I have scraplifted many times over! I love how she stamped Irony images with orange ink on the orange cardstock to create her own tone on tone patterned paper. The title was created with Serendipity Capital and Lowercase Extra Large and Savannah lower large alphabet stamps.

The flowers started as Petal Technique Tiles, she first stamped the solid flower image in yellow, then then stamped over the top of that in either orange or teal ink with other petals from the Loves me Still Stamp set. Before adhering the petal tiles to her page, she used a light green ink to stamp images from WhispyGigs directly onto the white background paper.


Jamie Harper really took her stamping to the next level with this page!

Using Petal Tiles, Loves me Still, and the curly bracket from Read All About it - she stamped onto the white Cardstock, leading your eyes to the picture of an adorable Tee Shirt, which was stamped with Serendipity Capital Extra Large!

So cute Jamie!

Whatever the weather is in your neck of the woods - we hope you are inspired to bring Spring to your pages!

Angela @ TT

Organized and Inspired!!

Its not just the name of our stamp set its a way of life! :)

If you are like me - Organizing your scrapbooking supplies is almost as much a part of scrapbooking as the actual page creating is!!

Thats why I love one of our newest sets: Organized and Inspired! We love to label, organize, and arrange everything from photos to craft supplies.

We were inspired to create these organization word stamps by the book The Organized & Inspired Scrapbooker published by Simple Scrapbooks™.

These practical stamps will play a key role in keeping you organized and inspired.

These 43 Clear stamps will help you label everything from cardstock to adhesives to stamps!

Eileen Collins used the Organized and Inspired set along with the Loopy Labels set to make the tags on this adorable shelf.

I usually say "Happy Stamping" but I think I will sign this off with "Happy Stamping AND Organizing!!"

Angela @ TT

Spotted on the web!

Way back in the early days of Technique Tuesday there was a store that really gave us a step up. That store is Portland-based Scrapbook Attack. In 2003, Bev started bringing these new fangled clear stamps into their store to test out and teach classes (back in the days when stamps were red rubber, and most scrapbookers didn't stamp). They were the first store to give us a shot, and for that we are so grateful! The rest, as they say, is history.

Now, two of our design team members (Samantha Kangas and Crystalyn Thorsen) work and teach at this great store, and they have featured Technique Tuesday in some pretty great ways. They teach a monthly Technique Tuesday class, and as a direct result of their commitment to featuring the highest quality clear stamps and accessories, they have a large and loyal Technique Tuesday following. If you're lucky enough to live in the greater Portland Metropolitan area, we suggest you check out the great selection of Technique Tuesday products, as well as their monthly classes.

As a customer of theirs, I check out their blog regularly, and love their recent suggestion about innovative uses for FUNdamental Swanky Frames. You can check it out >>>here<<<

If you're proud of your lss for the ways in which they feature or promote TT, I'd love to hear about it! Maybe we'll feature them next!

Angela @ TT

Textile Challenge!

Firstly, I want to say thank you for all of the beautiful entries!! There were so many stunning submissions that it would take me a week to post all of them! It was so hard to narrow down just a few to feature here - but we want you to know that we poured over the entries and thought each one was beautiful!

Megan from Texas sent us this fabulous layout! Here is how she did it:

From Megan:

"The background paper is created from plain tan cardstock that I customized with the Botanika stamps and Distress Inkpads.

The title is stamped with a mix of TT fonts--Provence and Main Street. I hand cut the letters and coated them with Glossy Accents.

The quote is stamped with Underground Caps Small stamps.

The Textiles were personalized with stamps from Borderline: Live for Today.

I used a circle punch and created a reverse mask to stamp the dates in the textiles, then outlined the date with a black marker. I hand sewed french knots in the scallop edges of all the textiles, then added accents of a clear acrylic butterfly outlined with a paint pen and prima flowers layered with a stamped flower from the Kabloom! floral set with brads in the center.
The entire layout has stamped zigzags from the Hanging By a Thread set, then I punched holes along the stitch marks to give them more dimension.

I really enjoyed this challenge and I look forward to more of them in the future!"

Erin was inspired by the video tour of the CHA booth to create this adorable card:

"I used the little doggy from 'Dog and Pony Show' and stamped directly on the textile. I colored him in with Copic markers.

I have to admit that after watching your video from CHA, I decided to use the doggy because Eileen said he was her favorite and wished she had a dog that looked like that! :)

The inside of my card says, 'Thanks for being such a loyal friend.' Goes to show that the stamps don’t have to be used for animal themed projects."

And finally - I love the simplicity of Julies layout.

"Here is my page I did with the textiles.

I inked the edges of them lightly and stamped my journaling spot onto the bigger one and used the two smaller ones as part of the flowers."

Thank you again to each and every person who sent in a card, page or project! I loved getting all the fun email!!

Each of the participants featured in this post will receive the entire line of textiles and our new stamp set "You've Got Mail."

Even if you didn't get your entry in to me in time to be considered for the challenge - I hope you continue to create with the Textiles and I would love to see what you create with them. Please keep your creations coming to me! Email any time: challenges at Technique Tuesday .com

Angela @ TT

Last Minute Textile Inspiration

The Textile Challenge deadline is quickly approaching! Email me your entries by the end of the day Friday February 29th - which is also Eileen's son Griffin's birthday (he is going to be 2!! Ok - really 8, but I love the whole leap day baby thing!) You can email me your entries to challenges @ techniquetuesday.com either as a .jpg picture or scan or a link to where you have posted it online. I will reply to your email that I got it, so if you have sent something and not heard back from me, then I didn't get it!

On this page Jamie Harper used the Textile Squares, Big Timber Line Tall, Extra Large and Large to design the border down the left side of the page. She stamped the letters first, then colored them in with a red watercolor pencil. She accented along the letters in the title with Borderline: Straight and Narrow.

Eileen used blue paint to change the color of the textiles. She used Key Lime Tsukineko VersaMagic ink to color the green Textile Scallops. She stamped on each textile to add texture and dimension using Metro Squares, Swiss Dots, Hanging by a Thread and Backgrounds Medium.


Jamie really went above and beyond for this page!! On the picture Jamie printed 2 of the same photo, adhered one to the layout and the second she cut around the adorable little girl and used it as a mask to stamp over the background with the word background stamp from Olde World Squares.

Jamie used ink to change the color of the Textile Scallops and layered them to add depth to her flowers. She used Boulder Skyline for the title. Finally she stamped the butterfly from BoHo Buzz onto a piece of paper and then cut it out to add the adorable embellishment to the top right corner of the page.

Textile Challenge Inspiration

We know you are all working hard on your projects for the Textile challenge!! I have received some fabulous stuff so far - keep them coming!! We will be awarding prizes to more than one entry - because there are so many great ways to feature these textiles that it will be too hard to choose just one winner!!

So - we decided to go through our samples to provide you with a little inspiration for your textile project.

On this page Sharyn Tormanen used the Textile Circles both on their own directly onto the page and also mounted on the Circle Technique Tiles.

She used ink to change the color the textiles by just wiping them across the textile while it is still attached to the backing sheet. She used images from the Hanging by a Thread stamp set and the "B" from Savannah Capital Letters Extra Large to decorate the textile embellishments.

On this tag - Eileen stamped the Savannah Large letters individually in orange to create the Script look onto a Square Textile. While keeping the textile on its plastic backing sheet, she cut around the words, then peeled them off the backing sheet to adhere to the tag.

I LOVE the technique Heather Binnie used on this page! For the title Heather stamped with the Brooklyn Bridge large alphabet onto the Textile Squares and adhered them to their corresponding size of Square Technique Tiles.

For the little embellished squares - she stamped the bubble image from the Metro Squares stamp set onto the textile and then adhered it onto the square technique tile.

And finally (the coolest part!!) First she sized her picture in her photo editing program to match the size of the largest square textile. Next, she sent a piece of paper through her printer to test the placement, then she adhered a Square Textile to the piece of paper over the top of the printed photo and printed the photo again through her printer to print the photograph directly onto the textile!! Great job Heather!!

Angela @ TT

From the Mailbag!

One more Valentine!! This adorable card was in my email while I was at CHA from Laura O'Donnell. She wrote:

"I saw on your blog that you are looking for Valentines cards using Technique Tuesday stamps. I've attached one I made using Savannah XL alpha stamps (love these!) and the hearts from Love Notes. Other supplies used are 7 Gypsies papers and a border punch from Martha Stewart Crafts. The card measures 4"x8"."

Thanks so much for sharing Laura!


Angela @ TT

Tour of the CHA booth!

The great folks from Nth Degree and Creative Express stopped by the booth and posted all of the raw footage online here:

Technique Tuesday Booth at CHA

I think Eileen did a great job with the tour! Thanks to Creative Express for stopping by!

Textile Challenge!!

It's that time!!! A couple weeks ago we sent out samples of our Textiles. Hopefully you should all have them by now. And - just in case you were wondering - I also included the "Getting Started with Clear Stamps" guide. I know if you are reading this blog you probably have some idea about what clear stamps are and how to use them - so pass it along to someone who would like it if you can!

Now - in the future our challenges will be more "challenging," but, since this is our first one on the new blog - this one is going to be easy.

Are you ready?

Make a project using the Textiles.

Thats it.

Really.

We will be doing a drawing for the complete line of Textiles and one set of stamps from the eligible entries. You need to either send me a picture of your project (please resize to 500 pixels wide) to: challenges at technique tuesday dot com or post your creation to your favorite online scrapping community and send me an email to the above address with the link. Deadline for entries is LEAP DAY February 29th.

Easy Peasy!

We can't wait to see what you create!

Angela @ TT

Happy Valentines Day!

From all of us at Technique Tuesday :)


More details on the Textile Challenge coming right up!


Angela @ TT

Love pages, FUNdamentals of Love

What better time to focus a page on the one you love than today? Technique Tiles FUNdamentals of Love are a great way to get both pages and cards done, quickly and easily.

The first page is designed to be a complete 12x12 page. the pieces all fit together like a puzzle, allowing you to pop out each piece, decorate however you like, and then pop the pieces back together, add pictures and viola! Finished page.

This is one of my all time favorite pages from Creative Director Eileen Collins. I have scraplifted elements from this page more times than I can count!! First, she covered the inside of the frame background with velvet polka dot paper. The outside edge was created by stamping with the largest stamp on the Irony set in red, then very lightly dragging a Seabreeze VersaMagic ink pad over the top.

You really don't want to know how she made the title - lets just say she really lived up to her unofficial title of "Freakishly Creative" Director. SO - the more sane way is: stamp Serendipity letters individually onto pink cardstock and cut out. If you would like the letters to stand out a little more, mount with pop dots.

On this page - Eileen left the middle of the background blank - the best part of the Technique Tiles are the fact that they are a beautiful Vanilla white color - equally nice blank as well as embellished.

The outside edge is the same concept as "My Funny Valentine." She stamped images from the Casablanca set in black, then swiped Tea Leaves VersaMagic ink over the top.

The title was stamped first with Savannah letters in Tea Leaves, and then stamped over the top with Serendipity in black. Using the phrase "With all my Heart" from the Small Talk Word set, she
stamped along the edge of the heart.

On page two of the FUNdamentals of Love - there are not only a ton of little hearts and swirls, but there is also a really cool Curly Bracket Frame! Tiffany Tillman painted the frame black and then used Whispygigs on kraft cardstock to create her own patterned paper!

The title was stamped with Big Timber Line Lower Letters - Tall, Big Timber Lower Letters - Large and finished off with a heart from page two of the FUNdamentals of Love and an arrow from the Stars and Arrows Technique Tiles set.

CHA Day 3!

Another fun day in the booth!

Cathy and Chrissy from Treasured Memories in Reno stopped by to place their order and reminisce with Mary about her time teaching a class at an event last year.

I told them they could join our 5' 10" and over club :)










Fellow Oregonian Ali Edwards stopped by the booth as well.







We had an interesting dinner at the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney! Our waiter Nathan "Tramp" was quite the character. The manager told us that we might be the very first customers to ever blog about our waiter - so here you go Nathan! :)

Just one more day!