Spellbinders Paper Arts at The Ink Pad in New York City

While I was in their neighborhood this week, I thought I should pop in on The Ink Pad in New York to spread little Spellbinders Media Mixage love in the big apple.  

Every square inch of this store is packed with creative, crafty goodness...there's so much inspiration...they have a stamp for everything you can imagine!  And they carry Spellbinders too...they have Spellbinders demo days occasionally with Seth Apter.  

Here's a quick look inside the store before we got busy.  

They've been written up in the New York Times, been featured on TV in Japan, Hong Kong, and in Europe ...I am telling you it's the crafty place to be in New York.  

Barbara Briskin and Anna Chiang are always there with crafty advice on everything they carry...they are a wealth of stamping knowledge.  Barbara taught me how to mount rubber while I was there.  

I love spending time with them...and Bonita is trying to hide behind her coffee cup...she teaches and she is one of the best stamping artists I have ever met.  She is a pro at Spellbinders die cutting and even offered me a few tips I'd never thought of before.  

If you are ever in New York and you love to craft...put this place on your "must visit" list...you will be enchanted...they have so much to offer.  And make sure to hang out in the store for a while.  It's a hotbed for celebrity siting.  Last time I was there, I got to craft with Katie Holmes, and this visit Robin Wright (Jenny) from Forest Gump and ex of Sean Penn) spent half the afternoon in the store looking at stamps.  

It was really busy all afternoon and everyone loved the charms and bezels we created.  

It was so busy that I didn't get too many pics of the projects we created and people we visited with...but we had an amazing crafty time.  

At the end of the day, I had an inky blotter and a metal bird blank, which looked kind of cool.  

Thanks again Anna, Barbara and Bonita...it was great to see you again and wonderful to spend time in the creative zone at The Ink Pad.  

Ken

Journaling from the Heart with Spellbinders Media Mixage: Textured Metals

Art journaling can take many forms, and lately I've been thinking of ways to tell stories and preserve memories that are unique and utilize materials and techniques that are not commonly used in scrapbooking or card making.  Today I created another heart journal with textured metal.    

I started this little exploration last week when I shared a heart journal that has textured metal covers and embossing powders. 

Today, I used the same materials,  Spellbinders Media Mixage Hearts Three Blanks, resin paper made from Spellbinders Media Mixage Ephemera Papers One

and Susan Lenart Kazmer ICE Resin but texturized the metal heart blanks with an embossing folder. 

The embossing folder added deep texture to the metal blanks.  I treated them with a patina solution, then sanded to emphasize the really cool viney texture.  

I added transparent vintage photos: I'd created them earlier by printing photos on transparency film.

The photos I chose today are of my grandparents on their wedding day. This little journal was simple and fast to make, and also preserves a memory in a way that is both meaningful and symbolic. When you create a little journal like this, try to tell the story with simple imagery and few words.  Images or pictographs are the vocabulary of art, we communicate through the images we choose.  The vocabulary here was simple, a heart tangled in vines and photographs of two people whose lives would be entwined for the next fifty or so years.  

I love how this little journal looks and feels.  Texturing the metal makes the journal feel like a little antique photo charm and it will make a great little gift or package tie on for someone in my family.  

When I started, I just wanted to practice some metal embossing techniques, but ultimately I shared a family memory and preserved it in a tiny heart journal.  I hope you'll be inspired to incorporate textured metals into your vocabulary of work...it's easier than you might think and the "pay off" is big...it looks great.

Thanks for stopping by today...go create something beautiful!

Ken