Inchie Swap

I signed up for an Inchie Swap on CCSwaps. I first thought of making a little notebook but Carol is doing that for her swap so thought I would do something different.

I have a stash of beautiful embossed papers and decided to use them instead of hoarding them. I started by punching circles from the various papers and punched small holes for them to be used as tags.

Two of the white ones I coloured with Twinkling H2O's then sprayed with Glimmer Mists. Another one, I coloured with Fluid Chalks and sprayed with the Glimmer Mists. The other two white ones were coloured with Fluid Chalk inks.

One black piece was coloured with Fresco chalk inks the second with Versamagic inks then sprayed with silver Glimmer Mists.

The final piece is a Pinata~ ink background stamped with a snowflake stamp in gold. Thought this one was appropriate for the little girl that I used on the inchie who looks rather angelic.

The inchies were made from scraps of my homemade background papers and various freebie images. The Dragonfly was a scrap of plumbers tape that I had embossed in the Cuttlebug that I punched then coloured with Adirondack pens.

I may add something to the binder ring that I attached to make it a bit more attractive.

More spray starch fun

Had another play with the spray starch technique earlier today.

The right one is glossy black cardstock, which was an embossed piece from my failed frosted embossing, so rather than throwing it out I sprayed the starch then pounced ont some pearlex with a brush. I really like this one as the embossing powder underneath gives it a nice texture.

On the second one I took mica watercolours from USArtquest and painted them on white matte cardstock. I sprayed the starch and added gold and rust pearlex over it.

It is too bad that the photos don't give you the full impact of the nice sheen from the pearlex and other mediums.

Book Study-Frosted Embossing

The latest technique Carol introduced was the Frosted Embossing. Check her blog as she was more successful with this technique than I was.

I did mine on dark green cardstock and one on black cardstock, both were matte.

As directed I embossed the image with clear embossing ink and clear embossing powder and brushed on Perfect Pearls while still hot. On the dragonfly I used forever purple and gold. On the medallion one I used Kiwi. I think these were a bit of a failure, but feel we should share the good and the bad in our art.
I also tried this on white cardstock but it did not work.

To me this does not look much different than if I had stamped the image then embossed it with Pearl Embossing powders such as the ones sold by Stampendous

My thoughts on this:

1. I don't think it would be a technique I would use a lot.
2. You should use a bold stamp with some detail
3. It would be a hard technique to use with a large stamp, as the embossing powder does not stay hot long enough, and if you heat it too much then it embeds the ep into the paper.
4. If using dark card stock I would recommend a very bright/light colour of Perfect Pearls or perhaps an iridescent one.

Now, this is only my opinion; you might try it and have more success than I did and love it. To each his own!

Book Study continued-Garden Walk

The latest technique from the Paper Transformed book study is called Garden Walk.

Julia's instructions are to drip alcohol ink colors one at a time over glossy paper. Finish with a sprinkling of alcohol ink blending solution. She says "do not use an applicator for this treatment".  I found that by following this method I ended up with big circles/blobs, whereas Julias are a bunch of tiny and larger circles, reminiscent of a coloured stone pathway-hence the name "garden walk".

I was determined to get mine at least a wee bit closer to what hers looked like and so I let the Alcohol Inks dry a bit then added more drops of the colours. I also took the AI bottle and just gently hit it on the end of my finger while holding it in my other hand (hope you understand what I mean) and this gave me a bit more of the smaller drops.

I just kept layering on the AI's and held the blending solution a bit higher up from the cardstock when "sprinkling" it on. The one at the top left is about as close as I could get to how Julia's was in the book.

The second techique where Julia suggests putting some of the Metallic AI on then adding the blending solution was a total failure (the one on the lower right ) and looks absolutely nothing like hers in the book. I wonder though if she perhaps let the blending soloution drip and move around by holding the cardstock and moving it about?

I made these on ATC size cardstock so will be using them for some future swaps.  I think I may try this again later on and perhaps let each layer dry completely then add more drops of the AI and see if that will get it closer to Julia's.

Spray starch technique

I had run across a blog where they used spray starch to make a background, but did not disclose how it was done since she used the technique from an issue of the Techniques Junkie newsletter.

Funnily enough right after that,  Deb Lovett who sent the technique to TJ belongs to one of my groups and shared the "how-to" with us. Just click on her name and it will take you to the tutorial.

i experimented with different mediums for this technique. I used walnut sprays, glimmer mists, Posh inks, and memory sprays as well as the pearlex. Some I just sprayed a second time with the spray starch and others I put the scrunched plastic wrap over while still wet. I used glossy cardstock for all of these, but apparently you can use matte cardstock, so I may have another try with that.

April Charm

I decided to use some thing from my stash for the CCSwaps April charm.

I started with some metal tags and covered both sides with some old book page pieces and coloured it with distress inks. I added some gem pieces then covered the piece with Glossy Accents.

Unfotunately the piece did not scan well and it looks like there are a bunch of air bubbles, but it is not at all like that in "real life". It is actually smooth with some colour depth around the maple leaf gem.

I was not really happy with this one so I decided to do something different. I took some clay, conditioned it then stamped into it with a text stamp, then hit the highlights with some Mica Magic Gold ink.  I took a little flower embellishment and coloured it with Cranbberry Alcohol ink, and added a little pearl on a wire in the background.  Much happier with this one and it will be making it's way to my swap partner next week.

A surprise for Autumn

Autumn had signed up for the Mini Memory swap on DCI, but dropped out as her life was a bit hectic. I had gone gung-ho on this swap and had all mine made early on. Since I had made one for Autumn prior to her dropping out I decided to send it to her as a surprise.

She had chosen women's faces and blues/greens and patinas for her theme and colours.

I started by painting a coaster with various blues and greens and copper. I added some embossing powders and stamped into it while hot with a flourish stamp. I took a chipboard flourish and embossed it with  copper and green glitter embossing powder and added some gems.

I stamped the "Woman with a Pearl Earring" from Chapel Road  (one of my favourite stamps) and coloured it with Lyra pencils; attached it with double-sided foam tape.

I took a label holder die-cut and embossed it with distress embossing powder, rubbed some off and added various Patina Perfect Pearls over the top. Stamped a portion of a background stamp on a piece of cardstock coloured with fluid chalk inks and placed it underneath the label holder and attached it to the coaster.

I hope Autumn will enjoy my little piece of art and it will be a nice surprise.

Mini Memory for Mel

April's Mini Memory recipient is Mel on the DCI group. Her choice was any theme with aqua and blue as her colour choice.

I started with a coaster from our Don Cherry's pub, covered it with gesso then rubbed aqua and blue inks over it after embossing it with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.

I coloured a little frame with some blue metallic acrylic paint and attached it to the centre. I added a game piece that my friend Muzzy had sent me on a card a few years ago (used with her permission). I took an old pair of earrings and removed the backs and placed the roses with the game piece inside the frame.

I had some Maple Leaf brads (to continue with the shape of the coaster) and embossed them with some navy blue embossing powder, removed the backs and glued them around the frame. Still needed "something" so put some blue stickles around the edge.

C is for

On CC Swaps we are continuing with the Alphabet for a theme, technique  or medium. the one I did is C for crackle, corners and Cat.

I started by painting the back of a mini canvas with acrylic paint, then crackle medium then a coat of white acrylic paint. I then rubbed it with some distress vintage photo ink.

I cut a piece of acrylic to fit in the "frame" then cut a piece of 130 lb card stock and coloured it with Brilliance Sky Blue ink  and stamped with Ancient Page Coal. I inserted the stamped piece and the acyrlic in the frame portion.

I then took some corner pieces and coloured them with Pinata Burro Brown ink and glued them to the corners.

I stamped the little cat with Onyx Black Versafine and embossed it with black embossing powder; coloured it with a light grey Prismacolor pencil. I colored the bow and added glossy accents for dimension. I placed some thick pop-dots on the acrylic and attached the little cat to simulate him looking out the window. The acrylic has a bit of a glare at the top, so it is hard to see the little bird.