Apparel Swap continued

The latest apparel swap on AFTCM is a Pretty Parasol. I had several "brilliant" ideas for this one, mainly because I wanted to make something practical and not just decorative, however, I just could not figure out the logistics for what I had in mind.

As a result, I printed off a template of an umbrella and transferred it to some 130LB cardstock twice, and glued them together. To reinforce the handle I had some thin Popsicle sticks and cut them to fit and glued them between the two layers.

I  stamped and embossed a Judikins background stamp on the umbrella in clear embossing ink and powder, then coloured it with some vivid inks, then buffed it with a paper towel to remove the ink from the embossed areas. I added some fringe and "gems" to the bottom edge of the umbrella, and embossed the top portion in with gold embossing powder.

I coloured a scrap piece of cardstock with dye inks and stamped the Hero Arts sentiment in dye ink, and cut around it and glued it to the umbrella. I covered the centre of some roses trim with Stickles; when dry attached it to the umbrella.

I added some glittery foil paper to the front of the long portion of the handle and some plain gold to the back. On the handle I added some  flocking with glossy accents.

I also wanted to decorate the back of the umbrella and unfortunately I had tried to emboss it but at the time I did not realize that my inkpad need to be re-inked, so the embossing powder did not adhere to the ink. Instead I coloured it with chalks and it has a bit of a watermark look. I stamped a Tim Holtz sentiment stamp in Versafine black, then added small butterfly and tulip stamps by Magenta, then a tiny one by Stampscapes in various colours. To finish it I embossed the top in gold, and outlined the edge with a gold marker.

Altered Gum Box

On AFTCM I joined a swap to alter a gum box. My first prototype worked out fine, except I slit the portion where the lid closes and it was too bulky and did not close properly. Luckily I had another gum box and by then I knew who my partner would be and chose some decorative paper in a colour that I know she likes.

The box is fairly simple as all I did was cover it with the patterned paper and added some nailheads along the edge. (In hindsight, I should have just glued the paper to the box then cut it out, but I cut out the paper then attached it to the box). To have it close I attached a piece of ribbon with a fancy paper clip and a brad.

On the inside I put some hand decorated cardstock pieces and some pictures, and hope the recipient will be able to use them on some projects, as they are quite small due to the size of the box.

A-Z techiques

Continuing on with the A-Z techniques in ArtVentures the latest letter is F. Mine is F for Foiled background, Fresco inks and Faux Pressed Flowers.

For this one I did a foiling technique on the background. I covered an ATC blank with some text paper from an old book, then sprayed it with walnut ink spray. After it dried I swiped a glue stick over it and when it was tacky I applied different colours of transfer foil over it.

For the main image, I had some ovals that I had punched out of left over cardstock and I applied various colours of Fresco inks to them, to co-ordinate with the flower colours. I then stamped a floral stamp on each one.

I took some paper flowers and attached them with a glue stick, then embossed the piece with the brocade Cuttlebug embossing folder, then added it to the ATC. To complete it I added some glitter to the centre of each flower. Some of the flowers were not in the colour palette that I liked so I coloured them with some Smooch ink.