The Worst Invention Since the Pinto & A Tutorial

I bet you can't wait to hear about the domestic equivalent of the Pinto - but you're gonna have to suffer through my Cuttlebug Batik tutorial first!!!

I learned about this through SmilynStef's blog - she had the most amazing post of some cool finds, among them, Stamping Mathilda's incredible technique!!! She calls it resist, but to me it looks like batik, so my apologies to that talented woman for liberties with the name.

I tried it, and tested it for you, and found it to be so incredibly brilliant and easy I thought I'd share!

So here we go. I used a very modified Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge for my inspiration.

First, cut a piece of wax paper about the size of your Cuttlebug embossing folder. I chose the pumpkin one that I got recently and didn't have time to use before Halloween.

Place the piece of wax paper carefully in the folder and run it through your machine.

The finished product is actually really pretty all by itself and would probably be cute on a card.

But we need to shrug off the stamping ADD I get all the time and just soldier on.

Next, carefully place this embossed wax paper between two pieces of Whisper White the same size as the wax paper. It's important that it doesn't slip around, so once you put the sandwich down on your mat, make sure the top piece and the wax paper don't slide.

Now - and I know this will horrify people who know me and my proclivity for purchasing knits and other alien fabricated materials which do not wrinkle PRECISELY to avoid this implement, but *gasp* - you are gonna need an iron. I went and bought one. Geez - irons are EXPENSIVE. No wonder I don't like them.

Anyway, after you read the manual because you've never used one before, fire that puppy up. Mine was on cotton or something I think - the important thing is that it NOT be on steam.

Gently iron the sandwich until your inner voice tells you its ready - 20 seconds or so - but just iron the whole thing.

When you pull it off you will see the faint design on the paper. This does not photograph well.

However, grab your brayer and stand by for magic! I used So Saffron Ink for mine. You will see after you brayer both pieces that one is a positive and one is a negative - incredible!!!

This one is the other half of the one I used on the card. (So, it's from the opposite side of the wax paper.)

You can really see the difference in the two looks.

I love techniques that let me get multiple useful pieces!

I give this technique an A+ for easy, quick, stunning results!

I'm going to share another technique with the dreaded iron very soon.

But now, the domestic Pinto.

For you young 'uns, the Pinto was a car made by Ford that had a less than desirable feature - namely - it exploded. When you think you are buying a car and you find out it's actually an IED, you tend to be a little snarky, to say the least.

Well I'm here to tell you, I feel exactly the same way about so-called "select a size" paper towels!!! If there were a bleep machine in my house on the days I realize I have mistakenly purchased these, dogs for miles around would be howling for hours at the high pitched sounds coming from my residence.

Those %#^& thing are like a practical joke!!!

#1 - You don't get to "select" a size! Every time you reach for one of these you get a little shred of towel that is EXACTLY the size of the piece that's stuck to the glue on the inside of the roll when you're done with it.

#2 - The only people who could POSSIBLY want one of these little shreds are people WHO DIDN'T WANT A PAPER TOWEL ANYWAY!! So sell them something else - like a cottonball or a bandaid or an eyepatch!! But those things are not paper towels, and should not be sold as such!!

#3 - I'm pretty sure they are just factory seconds that some freak headed person decided they should just sell in a meeting where some really stupid and greedy executives decided he/she needed a raise and promotion to supervisor of TPS reports. And we wonder what's wrong with Wall Street. - IT'S SELECT A SIZE PAPER TOWELS.

And if they think I haven't noticed how they HIDE the fact that they are shreds on the packaging they are WRONG. They make it impossible to tell.

I have no use for 1/10th of a paper towel, and any person who does, like maybe Sheryl Crow, who said we should all use ONE SQUARE OF TOILET PAPER to save the cave spiders or prevent global warming, should have to hand cut them with their hemp knives or burn a piece off with their bongs!!

I feel SO much better now!

Hope you are all having a great Saturday and have homes filled with full size paper towels. I fell asleep at about 6:15 yesterday, so I was peppy enough to cook a fabby meal, which I hope to have soon!

CU L8R