H is for....

On Art-Ventures we are continuing on with our monthly alphabet swap, where the letter can be a technique, theme, medium or colour.

Since I had just finished making a bunch of hat pins and had a hat template from a previous swap, I decided to make a hat.

After cutting out my cardstock in the shape of a hat I was going to do the heated oil pastels technique, but it did not work well, possibly due to the type of oil pastels I was using. Therefore, I changed it and did the heated pearls technique. I covered the cardstock with cheap glue, flicked on several colours of Pearlex till I liked the look and heated it with my heat gun. I heated it until all the bubbles laid flat.
 
For the brim, I punched out a border in lilac cardstock and cut out a piece of holographic paper, and taped them down. I punched out several daisies and placed a brad through the centres and attached them to the holographic paper.
 
I stamped and embossed some butterflies with red pigment ink and pink embossing powder and cut them out, and attached them with double-sided foam tape.
 
I added a little piece of a flourish gem to the centre of the hat. I stamped a ticket stamp then added a portion of a word stamp in the empty area. I attached this with double-sided foam tape, leaving the overhanging portion clear of tape. 
 
To complete the hat, I added one of my hat pins which has a butterfly bead on it. My H is for Hat, Heated Pearls, Happiness, Hole punch and Holographic paper. 

Hat Pins

On AFTCM the list Mom proposed a fast swap - Hat Pins.

I managed to find some corsage pins at Michaels and I have lots of beads on hand, so I started creating.  I chose to colour the heads of the pins to match the bead colour families, and did it with alcohol and Pinata inks.

I unfortunately was not thinking about the fact that we are to send 6 the same to the hostess and just went on my merry way creating and enjoying the process. Here is the selection I made, but I have made another batch to send for the swap.

These are easy to make and I had fun looking through the beads and deciding what to put on each one.

Apparel Swap

on AFTCM we are continuing the apparel swap and the next one is a dainty evening glove.

The only template I found had no thumb so I used that with the idea that the glove is placed face down with the thumb underneath.

After cutting out the template I adhered some blue cardstock and a piece of vellum which has roses on it.  I added some lace to the bottom of the glove. I took a piece of Sookwang tape and added Glitter Ritz to both sides, placed a piece of tape at the edge of the lace and scrunched up the glittered tape.

I attached a portion of a gem flourish and added a home made flower made out of used dryer sheets coloured with Glimmer mists. I added a left over piece of the glittered tape to the centre.

Clay Charms

On AFTCM we are doing a monthly charm swap and for April the charms were to be stamped clay and two were to be sent to our partner.

I couldn't decide what I wanted to do so I made four charms. After conditioning my clay I stamped some images into it then coloured them with various mediums.

 The charm on the left is done with copper paint, a small circular embellishment added and a flower gem. The Green one is done with Mica Magic inks. The blue one was coloured with pearlex and gems added to the butterfly body. The little maple leaf one is air-dryed clay and was coloured with markers and watercolour paints, then painted with some clay sealer.

Only two of the charms were sent to a partner.

A is for .....

On Art-Ventures we are doing a monthly Alphabet ATC swap, where the Alphabet denotes the technique used. We have started with A in April.

I chose to use Adirondack color wash sprays for the background on my ATC's. I soaked a sheet of cardstock with water and sprayed Lettuce and Denim across the page. The colours wick and blend into each other. After it dried I cut it into ATC's.

I stamped four different stamps on the background with Onyx Versafine ink. I printed off the image of the Woman from Moonlight Journey and attached it to a piece of scrap cardstock to give it body, cut it out and adhered it with double-sided foam tape.

To complete the card I coloured some clear gems with Pesto alcohol inks and glued them along the side.

I added two of the ATC's to show the variation in the spray.

In My Easter Bonnet ATC's

The latest swap I joined on AFTCM is to make two ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) with the theme In My Easter Bonnet.

I printed off a couple of images then went from there in creating the cards.

The first one is fairly simple: I took a piece of maroon cardstock and stamped a Hero Arts background stamp in Tsukineko Versafine Onyx Black ink. I cut out the image and mounted it on a piece of black cardstock and adhered it to the ATC. To finish the piece I took a piece of Sookwang tape, covered it with Merlot Glitter Ritz and burnished it well; removed the backing and added more Glitter Ritz to the opposite side. I added it to the card on top of another piece of Sookwang tape that was placed on the card (this idea is one that I learned from Cathie Allan). I had a nice brad in my stash that I added to the "ribbon" and placed a tiny bead in the centre.

The second card is a background that I tried that which was on the Hero Arts site. I am certainly going to try this one again as I love the effect. Because I liked the background so much, I decided to be very sparse with the amount of items that I added to the card. Therefore all I added was little girl  and a basket of Easter eggs mounted on scrap cardstock and cut out.

Criss Cross Card

On AFTCM group we are doing a criss-cross card swap in a vintage theme. I usually only make cards for special occasions, but this seemed a bit different so I decided to join.

I took a piece of cream coloured cardstock and stamped a Hearts in Touch stamp and coloured it with Lyra pencils. I stamped and embossed a couple of Hero Arts stamps at each side. I then went over the whole piece with clear embossing ink and dabbed smooch ink and worked it in with a Clearsnap stylus applicator. I placed it on a piece of pink cardstock and cut a little edge around it.

For the criss-cross "envelope" part I started with a light tan cardstock, and cut out the flaps that fold over. I then put the flaps in my Cuttlebug and embossed a paisley pattern. I coloured this portion with distress inks. It looked unfinished after I glued the flaps down, so I added some paper lace to the edges.

I stamped a long piece of white cardstock with creamy brown and warm red fluid chalk inks and added another piece of paper lace over the centre, then attached it around the envelope portion.

To complete it I added a paper flower, some embossed punched leaves and a couple of small paper roses. I hope my partner will like the card since I don't really "do" vintage much.  

Ezee Pzee Design for March

This month's Ezee Pzee project was planter. I started by sealing the pieces and painted the inside of the box. I then attached some Mariposa Scrapbook paper to the outside of the pieces and glued it together.

I coloured some of the flowers with acrylic paint then embossed them and added washers and stickles. The large daisy type flower was coloured with smooch ink and H2O's. The centers of the flowers are some little embellishments I found at my local stamp store and others are washers that I coloured with alcohol inks, and some are some coloured reinforcements for 3 ring binder pages.

I stamped the Pedlars Pack butterfly on cardstock that I coloured with various shades  of green, two in black & two in gold. I added some of the strings of beading to the centres. All of them were attached to the box with double sided tape after bending the wings a bit.

The large flower from Ezee Pzee is done with pigment ink, fantasy film, clear Utee and Opal embossing powders then stamped into with a turquoise pigment ink while hot. I glued one of the embellishments to the centre and added a leaf that fell off one of the other flowers.

For the opposite side I found a saying that I liked and printed it off. I then took a chipboard label holder and covered it with green acrylic paint, embossed it with two colours of distress embossing powder then with Perfect Pearls. I placed the saying behind it and put two screw brads through the ends; attached it with double- sided foam tape.

Inside the planter I scrunched up a plastic bag and then cut a piece of corrugated cardboard to size and put it on top. I decided to place the flowers in little flower pots that I had on hand and to make them stay in place I glued some sea glass to the bottom of the stems, put some foil wrap around them and place them in the pots. i added some Indian Moss over the top to cover the foil.

The pots stood up quite well and I added a little butterfly, some ladybugs and a wee frog.