Guest Designer Tracy Ware Crafty Blocks~Anything But a Card Challenge

Hey Blank Page Muse fans!  Tracy here with our March challenge, 

which is "Anything But A Card." 

 I’m going to be honest here any say that this one scared me a little.  Why? 

 Because I always tend to stick with cards.  

With a card, I know the size of my canvas and I don’t feel overwhelmed 

with something other than those 

four by five inches!  So let’s get in to it!

For my project that was not a card, I chose to do wooden blocks.  

I happen to remember that I had these three blocks in a box in my craft room, 

so I dug them out and got to work

I really had fun making this project and have already started another set!

You can find these blocks in different sizes at your local craft store in their wooden section.  

These blocks measure two inches.  

To begin, I rubbed the edges of the blocks with a Distress Oxide Ink, 

only because I didn’t want to see

 the raw edges of the wood.  You don’t have to use Distress Oxide ink.  

You can use whatever you happen to have on hand.

  Dye ink or even cheap acrylic paint would work well too. 

 These were taking a little while to dry, so I did use my heat tool on them to speed up

 that drying time.

Next, I cut some strips of cardstock down to two inches and did some ink blending 

with Distress Oxide inks.  

I’ve been in a green and blue mood lately, so that’s what I chose. 

 Choose any colors that make you happy or colors that go with a scheme that

 you might have in mind for your own blocks. 

 I spritzed my strips with some water to activate the ink and get those cool spots.

Now comes the fun part!  

I trimmed my strips of cardstock down to squares that are just under two inches each.  

I cut them that way so that the cardstock wouldn’t hang over the edges of the blocks.

I then stamped my squares with all sorts of fun images in dye ink from Blank Page Muse  

I even did some doodling and added more color in some areas, 

as well as stamped some cute little inspirational phrases.  

Some of the stamps that I used are from the Dandelion Wishes with Butterflies set, 

a few stamps from the Scribble & Scratch Mixed Media Set 2,

 the Butterfly Art Stamp, 

the Flower & Leaves Border,

 and the Diamond Repeating Pattern Background stamp.

Once all of my squares were stamped,

 I adhered them to the blocks with liquid glue and cleaned up around the edges 

where some glue oozed out.

Another view of the blocks.  This really was a fun project and I thoroughly enjoyed it!  

For the phrases, I just used a tiny alphabet set that 

I found at the local craft store and stamped those in dye ink as well.

  I like the idea of having a fun inspirational quote here and there on the blocks.

Once my blocks were complete, I painted them with a matte gel medium on each side

 just to keep the Distress Oxide inks from smearing, smudging or bleeding.

Another view of the blocks with different sides displayed.  

They look great stacked this way, or even all three stacked on top of each other.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this project!  I know that I certainly have. 

 As I mentioned earlier, I have already started on another set of six blocks which are 3 1/2”

 that I’ll display in my craft room!  They already look so cool and they aren’t even finished!  

Thanks for joining me on the Blank Page Muse Blog today. 

 If you decide to make any blocks or any other project for this challenge, I would love to see them! 

 Follow Blank Page Muse on Instagram, and tag us using #blankpagemuse and #blankpagemuseblog.  

You can tag me and find me on Instagram here.  Stop by and say hi.

There’s still time to join us for this March challenge," Anything But A Card."  Get those stamps out!

Until next time, stay awesome!

Supplies Used:

Blank Page Muse Dandelion Wishes with Butterflies Art Rubber Stamp

Blank Page Muse Scribble & Scratch Mixed Media Set 2 Art Rubber Stamp

Blank Page Muse Butterfly Art Rubber Stamp

Blank Page Muse Flower & Leaves Border Art Rubber Stamp

Blank Page Muse Diamond Repeating Pattern Background Stamp

Wooden Blocks

Distress Oxide inks from Ranger Ink

Neenah 110lb Solar White Cardstock

Memento Tuxedo Black dye ink

Studio G Alphabet Set

Lineco Neutral PH liquid adhesive

Golden Matte Gel Medium