The 2012 Winter CHA started today and Tweets and pictures are slowly tricking out. I am sure this evening, after everybody has packed up their booth for the night, there will be lots of pictures flying through the Instagram and Twitter-verse. My friends over at Things Crafty are there checking everything out. They will be posting videos on Things Crafty at some point. I sent Ilysa a list of all things I wanted her to check out for me…if she has time…I'm hoping she will get some samples and some great videos of my favorites like Tim Holtz, Heidi Swapp, Rhonna Farrer, Janet Hopkins, Christy Tomlinson, and anything Swarovski.
I blogged about Heidi, Rhonna, and Janet's new collections but I haven't shown you Christy's. Christy owns Scarlet Lime. She's a mixed media artist- and a mom to 6 kids- among other things. Her work is very distinctive and she is now in the midst of a full-on licensing bonanza.
To start with she has stamps coming out with Unity Stamp Co
***Excuse me for a moment while I thank the crafting universe..I am so happy that scrapbooking and stamping have finally merged. For years, I said they needed to be one and the same because as a stamper I was using lots of scrapbooking supplies. I wanted to go to the scrapbooking or stamp store, find something inspiring and find a new stamp or supply that coordinated with it-intentionally or not- all at that one store. The marriage was a bumpy road for sure as nobody was sure how to do it in the beginning. Stamps were traditionally wood mounted making them expensive and bulky. Scrapbookers weren't used to paying that much for a supply- those were the old days of stickers and eyelets- and the idea that there was value in that a stamp is reusable didn't catching on at first. I remember for the first year or two the stamps sold in scrapbook stores were all alphabet stamps. When the acrylic-unmounted- stamps really took off we were in business because they are cheaper and much easier to store. I think the other thing that happened which helped bring stamps into the scrapbook and paper crafting universe was the polarity of collage. Suddenly, it made sense to get fun images which could be used over and over whether in mixed media, scrapbooking, or card making. Today, almost every scrapbook collection includes at least one coordinating, unmounted, acrylic stamp set.**
We now return you back to our show already in progress..
that are perfect for mixed media projects as they are texture and background stamps. The long, skinny rectangular shape is perfect for working on canvases and make her designs fresh and exciting. I can't wait to get ahold of them. Here's hoping Ilysa can snag one or two for me….
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| This hodge podge of "border" stamps is super cool for mixed media canvas work. I would stamp it as is on my canvas but you could also stamp it on card stock and carefully cut the borders apart |
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| Other companies have designed backgroud stamps with printed words or book pages, but I've not seen this long, thin, rectangle shape before. I love that the words fade off the page rather than ending in a neat "justified" line. |
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| She made a doll to color anyway we want..how fun! |
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| The Chevron-another big trend right now- with lots of texture. |
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| Lots of people have done background/texture stamps like this…. I recognize this as punchinello aka the waste when sequins are punched out. However…..I love this stamp for two reasons: 1: Again the size ands shape is very fresh and perfect 2: I can't find punchinello anywhere where I live. |
You can't stop at just stamps when you are a crafter like Christy. She also teamed with Pink Paislee to produce a line of papers and ephemera. While the line looks like a scrapbooking line and is made by a scrapbooking company, it isn't a traditional scrapbooking line. There are no buttons, ribbons, brads, flags, journaling boxes etc. It would make a beautiful page or card for sure, but I suspect it was made with more mixed media or art journaling projects in mind….
The rub-ons make me swoon. I love rub-ons. I can't draw and don't like my handwriting so rub-ons to the rescue! I like to use them in places you might doodle, write a word or two, or maybe a single number. Rub-ons add texture in a way that stamps can't because they are more opaque and the edges are always crisp. Rather then use them as they are, I usually cut them up using a portion of the image. I've noticed that over the past year or so rub-ons are fading from the market. Noooooooo, say it isn't so…. There are a few companies that still design them-Kaiser Craft and Hambly both have a very large selection. Basic Grey, was my go-to company for great rub-ons for…well...ever. They seem to have fallen out of love with rub-ons. I see the last few collections contained the highly detailed and very specific-to-the collection "rub-on books". While the images are beautiful, they aren't what I like to use…in fact they are really more like a sticker (see Basic Grey's Indie Bloom Rub-On Book below). I prefer to use something like the Hambly silver lace (left) or the older Basic Grey purple Wisteria rub-ons (above left). Lucky for me I bought 200 Basic Grey rub-ons- of the older designs- from Ebay for something ridiculous like $36…these are $6 retail. 
Christy has designed one sheet of texture rub-ons (more punchinello, a hand carved heart, and some netting) in basic shapes and one sheet of border rub-ons depicting stitches and lace for her first release. I love that she did the texture set in multi-color.
She only released one mask/stencil with this line but I know she uses them a lot so expect more in the future. I love that she went with the doily as it is a big trend right now.
You can follow Christy and all things Scarlet Lime on her blog. You can check out and purchase her monthly Kit Clubs , order from her mixed media shop, and check out and/or sign up for her online workshops as well. I've take several online workshops from her and she does a great job.
What do you think about Christy's first collection?
Laters….
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