Altered Egg

Another altered swap on AFTCM. We are to take an egg in any form and alter it. I debated on whether to participate then took on the challenge. I bought a plastic egg filled with tattoo stickers at Shoppers drug and then set about changing it.

A couple of years ago I created some butterfly boxes using a tutorial from Elaine's blog, so I thought I might use this technique for the inside of my egg.

To start off I took some hand coloured tissue paper from my backgrounds box, and put it on the outside of both pieces of the egg using some modge podge type glue, then added another coat over the top.

While these were drying I stamped, embossed and coloured and cut out my butterflies using Elaine's tutorial. I coloured them with Markers, and twinkling H2O's, then added some mica watercolours to brighten them more in the centre. Added some glue around the edges and added crystal glitter. Cut out some transparency strips to attach to the butterflies, which is the media that makes them look like they are flying.

To make a platform for the butterflies to fit properly inside the egg, I punched several circles and layered them together with double-sided foam carpet tape then glued them to the inside of the egg bottom. I die cut a circle large enough to fit inside the egg and attached it to the other circles. Since I didn't paint or change the inside surface of the egg I decided to add a piece of ribbon that I got from a secret Santa last year.

On another piece of a punched out fancy circle which was already coloured I cut slits in various places and inserted the bottom of the transparency strips with the butterflies attached in the slits at varying lengths and taped them on the bottom to make them stay in place.  I glued this to the circles inside the egg.

I decided to make the fancy circle look a little pond, so I added some blue and pearl mica watercolour paints, then some  rose beads, a little frog and a cupid charm with the attachment ring cut off.

To make the egg more attractive on the outside I added some lace trim (compliments of my Secret Santa) to the edge of the top ensuring that it was high enough to allow the egg to close. Added another fancy trim above the lace. I added pieces of Starform stickers trim to the rest if the egg top.

To complete it I attached a jewellery piece to which I had added a pearl embellishment and hot glued it to the top of the egg.

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.

Another Background Noise Challenge

The challenge for this round was paint scraping, which is a technique I have done before, and really enjoyed. This time I am not entirely happy with my finished products, but will share them anyway. I used every kind of paint I had acrylics, pearlized, fabric and even used glass paint on one.

The last Rainbow one I hated so I sprayed it with Adirondack colorwash.

The final one is the printer paper that I had laid my cardstock on while doing the other techniques. I just smooshed it together, then ran the scraper over it to remove the excess paint.

Background Noise Challenges

An ongoing challenge is to create various backgrounds as set out in our group then create pages in a sketchbook with the samples.

I did not have a sketch book to journal in and not feeling like venturing out in the snow and cold to get one, so used cardstock and the KISS principle; nothing fancy, and will put the pages in to page protectors in a binder.


Here are my attempts: Unfortunately the sheen on the Shining Stones does not scan well.
Shining Stones





Glue Technique

Nebula Grunge

Autumn, an online friend in several of my groups invented a technique which she shared with us, so I decided to give it a try. Mine did not turn out quite like hers, but I am still happy with the results. You can view Autumn's at
http://www.autumnlightdesigns.blogspot.com/