A-Z techniques

This month's technique is H. I could not find anything new so decided to do a heat embossing technique which I learned in a class a few years ago.

The main image is a sticker and it is masked off on the outside edges, clear embossing ink and embossing powder is applied and heated. A stencil is placed over the piece and clear embossing ink is dabbed on, embossed with clear embossing powder.

The piece is coloured with fluid chalk inks, then sprayed with Adirondack sprays. The embossing is then removed by placing another piece of cardstock over it and ironing with a hot iron. The word saying was embossed with pigment ink and pearlized embossing powder.

The sticker was masked with a post it note, anti-static powder applied, then clear embossing ink and then covered with sparkle embossing powder, and heat set.

Each one varies as I used some Christmas stickers by Magenta Style and they were all different and I chose ink and spray colours to compliment the stickers.

Note: Should you decide to try this make sure you do not use the see-through stickers. They have to be good quality ones which are durable and can take the heat of the embossing gun.

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.

Fan

The AFTCM group is continuing the apparel swap and this month it is a Fan. I had several ideas for the fan but most of them were disasters and I was getting too frustrated to continue trying to figure out the instructions so fell back on an ordinary fan with folds.

I took some old large calendar pages and fan folded them in two directions. I laid them in a spray box and sprayed them with Adironack Cranberry and Pesto spray. When they dried I stamped images with Onyx Black Versafine ink and a Magenta and Hero Arts stamp to cover the dates and some of the writing on the calendar pages.

I attached the pieces together with Sookwang tape and placed a Popsicle stick in the middle, which I coloured with a black sharpie.

I attached ribbon along the top with some (3M) 465 tape. Since there was a hole at the top of one piece I attached some coloured reinforcements to it to make it sturdier and attached some charms with a piece of light-weight cording and a jewellery ring. To finish the edges I attached some lace with tape.

To cover the rough edges at the bottom of the fan near the "handle", I embossed some tape from the hardware store and coloured it with a gold Krylon pen, and put it around the end. I added a tiny tassel at the bottom of the Popsicle stick.

Angelic Skinny

I signed up for a Tall and Skinny book with the theme of Angelic. I started off by doing the one side with Brilliance blue sky ink; didn't like it so added Big and Juicy over the top. Still was not happy with it so looked through my stash of papers and found some crepe paper with a star motif and decided to use it over the top of the inked piece. This added a bit more texture.

I used an angel image from Dover Art and a punched heart (Dee Gruenig) with stamped wings from Hearts in Touch and a word/saying stamp.

The back evolved too. I originally sprayed it with Adirondack denim and white Memory mists, but it was a bit too dark, so then I painted it with some metallic blue paint. I then stamped the swirly circle with white pigment ink. Still needed something so I stamped a Holly branch with clear ink and embossed with Iridescent Peacock embossing powder. The main image is layers of pigment ink and embossing powder, heated and then the words stamped with gold pigment ink. The angel is another image from Dover Art.

Catching Up

I had a few swaps to complete, so took the time to get them done while Hubby was not around to bug me. Each year I participate in a Calendar swap and this year I chose February. Rather than go with the traditional hearts and flowers, I decided to use a background stamp with a vintage couple and some Ivy. The centre panel was done with Adirondack sprays.

I also had a couple of Artist Trading Cards to complete. One is for an alphabet swap, so I decided to use some feathers that my hubby found in the garden, for the letter F. The background is from a sheet of cardstock with Adirondack sprays and stamped off Opalite and Dr PH Martin inks.

The second ATC background is a candy wrapper glued to the cardstock rubbed with Mica Magic inks and rub-ons. The image is coloured with chalks and edged with leafing.

Pictures of the projects are in later posts.