A-Z techniques Yellow Melted Crayons

We are now up to Y on the ArtVentures A to Z techniques.

This round I decided to do a wax crayon background and was going to do the usual technique where you rub the crayons on a hot iron then onto the cardstock. To be honest I am not crazy about that method as you have to be sure to clean the iron thoroughly in case you need to iron clothes and the dyes seem to be hard to remove.

While browsing for something else I came across a tutorial for the crayon background which is incredibly easy.

I cut a piece of wax paper large enough to fold over the ATC blank. I placed the cardstock piece on it using a crayon sharpener, shaved several shades of yellow crayons, including a pearlized one on to the ATC. I then sprinkled some Sunflower Yellow Perfect Pearls on top.

I folded the wax paper over the top and heated it till the wax paper and crayons melted. While heating it I moved the cardstock around so the wax spread.  I used a scrap of folded cardstock and pushed it over the top of the wax paper to  move the wax into areas where there were gaps. The Perfect Pearls add a nice dimension to the background.

I stamped a large Hero Arts Y stamp on embossable acetate and embossed it with black embossing powder, then cut it out leaving a small halo so the embossing doesn't rub off.  Rather than leaving it clear I stamped the embossed side with clear embossing powder, added Stamp and Stick embossing powder, (this is a sticky embossing powder which acts like a glue) then added Yellow Glitter Ritz. I adhered this to the background with some Judikins Diamond Glaze.

I then stamped a Stampendous Image on the acetate and coloured the embossed side with markers, cut it out and attached it beside the Y with the Diamond Glaze. The stamp is actually Queen Ann's Lace but I am calling it Yarrow for this technique as it looks close enough!!

To complete the ATC I added a little gem embellishment to the Alphabet.

This ATC is Y for Yellow Melted Crayon with Sunflower Yellow Perfect Pearls and Yarrow.

circus wagon

On AFTCM there was a swap to create a circus wagon.

I had many ideas but finally settled on using some chipboard pieces that I had on hand, which are the front and back. For the bottom I used some heavy cardboard and for the top and sides, I cut out pieces of chipboard to fit.

I used some scrapbook papers from my stash, but felt they did not convey the circus theme well enough. However, I was able to get a few sheets of the Le Cirque Graphics 45 papers from the Inked Stamper, which had lots of great images that fit the theme perfectly.

After adhering all the various papers and image to the piece I wanted to add more embellishments to make it look more authentic. When putting away some rubber stamps and dies that I had bought at the the Great Canadian Scrapbook Festival, I realized that the window and door die and stamps from Heartfelt Creations would be perfect for the wagon.  I cut them out and used the coordinating stamp on the door. I also stamped the lanterns from the Decorative Metal Fixtures set, coloured them, added glossy accents and attached them to the side of the door. To complete the doors and windows I printed off some freebie images from Gaby's and Belinda's blog and placed them behind the dies with some acetate.

After completing the various elements, I glued it all together with wood glue.

For the roof I added some metallic coloured dew drops to simulate lights on the wagon. I found an old bottle lid on my desk and covered it with some of the Graphics 45 borders, then added the whirly piece at the top and glued it to the top of the wagon, thinking that it looked like a fan. I did not glue the lid in place, as I thought that the wagon could be used to store items inside.

I wanted to add some wheels on the base and to add stability I attached a clear acrylic lid from an old candy box. I cut up some wine cork and glued them to the base, then attached bottle caps into which I had inserted cardstock pieces and stickers, gears (coloured with inks and Perfect Pearls) and more Dew Drops.

As a final touch I made a tiny fortune teller sign to sit on the step.

The wagon is at it's new home, and I am pleased to hear that the recipient was very happy with it.

Creative Chemistry day 9

Day nine - only one more day to go and I am feeling a bit like I may go into withdrawals when the class is over.

Today we learned about Perfect Pearls. Tim discussed the properties of the powders and also introduced us to Perfect Pearl Mists and how they react on different papers. He went on to demo techniques using Perfect Pearls Powders with Inks.

The stamp used on my version in the middle is by Stampington and Co.

The techniques Tim taught today were: Perfect Distress Mist, Perfect Distress and Perfect Splatter Distress.

Unfortunately you can't see all the glimmer and shimmer in the pictures, but they are wonderful background techniques. Great "perfect" inky fun!

I is for

This month's alphabet for our A-Z techniques on the ArtVentures group is I. I could not think of anything so just got some supplies out and played around. I am calling this technique, Irridescent interference.

I started with watercolour paper and and stamped a Hero Arts stamp with Versamark. I coloured the image with Perfect Pearls. I then painted the piece with Dr. PH Martin’s Radiant watercolor inks, and heat set it.

When it was dry I stamped the image again with Tsukineko Opalite ink and applied interference Pearl-ex over the image.

To complete the ATC I added a flower and a leaf which I die cut, embossed with pigment inks and embossing powders, then stamped onto it while still hot to make a pattern.

Because I was experimenting, I made several different cards. For each one I started with the same colour family of Perfect Pearls and watercolor ink, then the same palette of Opalite ink and tried to used the same interference Pearl-ex, however with that I only had red, green, blue an violet.

The interference background is hard to see in the pictures, but it is really nice when held up to the light and the original Perfect Pearls also shows up through the inked background.

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.

Steampunk Watch

The AFTCM group is running a swap for an altered Steampunk Pocket Watch and as usual I jumped in with both feet and joined.

The watch I bought is quite small so I had a hard time finding things to place inside. I used a small cog, a spiral circle, a star  stamp, square embellishment, a washer, a small spinner and a page pebble that had words underneath. I coloured some cardstock and stamped and embossed some script in copper embossing powder and glued it to the watch back.

I coloured the washer with some Perfect Pearls and the cog with alcohol inks. I glued all the pieces to the cardstock. To finish the piece I added a little bird charm to the outside.

The spinner and the bird kept falling off even though I tried almost every type of glue. I even tried super glue which was a bit of a disaster. The bird still fell off and left residue all over the top of the glass piece. I tried rubbing alcohol and Goo-Gone but no luck. Since the glue bottle suggest soaking your fingers in hot water if they get stuck together, I decided to place the watch in water. Again, another disaster!! It removed the glue but also removed most of the finish. Sot this is "what not to do" when creating!

I do hope my partner will not be disappointed with the watch and will think of the outside as being well loved, used and worn.

One of a Kind Dimensional Door Swap

Carol S is  hosting a swap on Art-Venturers for a One of a Kind Dimensional Door Swap. The rules are:

1.  it must have a door/gate/arch that can open,
2.  reveal something behind the door,
3. and be so thick that it can not fit in a regular envelope with normal postage

As usual, I jumped in with both feet an joined the swap!! For my first attempt at getting the depth on the ATC I did the base with my picture, then I added the top using a piece of foamcore. Now this might have worked for the thickness, but I had trouble trying to figure out how to attach a door or window and also how to conceal the ragged edges of the the foamcore.

Back to the drawing board; I retained the base picture that I was originally going to use, which is from Ceremony-Share, but instead of leaving it "as-is", I added some colour to it with Stabilo Chalk pencils. Printed and cut out an image from ArtbyJean, and mounted it with double-sided foam tape. I added a wee circle "thingy" and a part from old jewellery at the top.

 I started thinking about what to do to make this thick, so I took some popsicle sticks and cut them to size to fit on the edge of the base ATC and attached them with some Sookwang tape.

For the top of the ATC I took a piece that I had coloured with some Perfect Pearls and some other mediums, and measured out the door and cut it on the top and middle. I embossed some columns on the sides and some small stamped images at the top and bottom.

I added tiny screw brads along with some faux metal pieces for the edges on the door. To hide the back of the brads I added an embossed piece of cardstock to the back of the door. For the door closure I chose to use string clasps, but instead of string I used some stretchy metallic thread and adhered a couple of flat beads.

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-Corossive Effects

We are continuing to play with the techniques in Julia Andrus' Paper Transformed book. This time around Carol chose corrosive effects. You can see step-by-step photos on Carol's blog. Her choice of colours were different from mine so you can see the different effects you can achieve using other paint colours.

For this technique you mix an acrylic medium (such as gel medium), acrylic paint and sand or embossing powder together and paint it on wood, chipboard or layers of cardboard/cardtsock die cuts.

I took a mixuture of orange, red and brown acrylic paint, gel medium and some mixed embossing powders and painted it on a heavy cardboard frame and heart, a wooden flourish and some layered pieces of cardstock. I added some metallic paints over the smaller pieces and on the larger ones I used Perfect Pearls.

Just to see what would happen I used my heat gun on the flourish and the heart. It embossed a bit of the embossing powder that I used, but I rather like the effect as it made me think of some old pieces that were by the sea and corroded with salt.

Book Study continued

Carol is continuing in leading us in trying the techniques from Paper Transformed by Julia Andrus. This latest is Luminous dusting and Luminous Lifting. See Carol's blog for step-by-step instructions with pictures.

For the Luminious Dusting I followed the instructions by stamping an image with Perfect Medium on black cardstock then dusted it with perfect pearls, then sprayed lightly with water to set them. The top two are very open (colorbook) images and the second is a stamp that I never used which somone gave me, but I quite like it with this technique (done on navy cardstock).

Personally, I think this technique works much better with a bolder stamp, as you can see by the last two that I did.

The Luminous lifting is done by covering the cardstock with Perfect Medium, Versamark or clear pigment ink. You then dust the entire piece with Perfect Pearls, and then stamp directly on to with your stamp which has been inked with clear embossing ink, Versamark or Clear Perfect Medium. This lifts the Perfect Pearls and leaves the image you stamped.

Nesting Tags

We are swapping a set of nesting tags on CC Swaps.

I took a couple of ready made tags and coloured the smallest with the Stamp Smoosh technique which I learned from Cathie Allan . This technique was featured in the September 2005 Scrap & Stamp Arts magazine where Cathie is a regular contributor. The Second tag was done using a technique I found on the Ranger website by Wendy Vecchi  where you put your inks directly on the cardstock, then rub one of the inkpads on a craft sheet, mist it with a mixture of perfect pearls and water,  stamp into the mixture then onto the cardstock. When the tag dried I stamped an image on top.

The third was a tag I cut out from some background paper that I made that was coloured with Clearsnap Fluid Chalks inkpads, overstamped with Alabaster Fluid Chalk, then sprayed with Glimmer Mist.

I placed the tag in my stamp positioner and stamped a Magenta Poppy with with several layers of pigment ink. I outlined each of the tags with a marker.

 I completed the largest tag by cutting a piece of the handmade background paper and stamping a saying (Serindipity Stamps) outlined it and attached it with brads to coordinate with the colours of the poppy. Finally added some fibres. The picture on the right is the three tags "nested" together.

Dream Vacation

One of the current swaps on CCSwaps is Dream Vacation, where we make an item based on a country chosen by the swap hostess; this month it is France.

I had an extra address book so thought I would alter it for this swap.

I started by covering the book with some scrapbook paper,  then stamped some text (Tim Holtz) postage franques (Hero Arts). I stamped on a piece of cream cardstock using an Inkadinkadoo stamp by Jill Meyer and lightly covered it with distress inks. I added a tag that I bought at my local scrapbook store. I stamped the Eiffel Tower stamp (Inkadinkadoo) twice and embossed the second one, cut them out and layered them. I then applied distress ink over the top and coloured the Paris part with twinkling H2O's.

I colourwd some Fleur-de-Lis chipboard pieces with ink and Perfect Pearls and attached them to the side. I was worred that the hinge part of the book might start to crack with use, so I inked a piece of self-adhesive hinge tape with distress inks and covered the edge of the book.

Necklace

I am in a swap where we make necklaces and send to a partner.

Thinking of the postage cost I decided to make the focal point of my necklace from Paperclay. I conditioned and rolled it with a brayer then cut it out with a heart shaped cookie cutter. I then imprinted it with a stamp from Hero Arts. Coloured it with various Perfect Pearls and Pearlex. In the instructions, it says you can bake the Paperclay to dry it (275 degrees for 15 minutes) so I did since I was being impatient to get it finished!

I took a Jewellery charm thingy that I got at the dollar store and added some "gems" to it then glued it to the heart.

I strung some beads in coordinating colours and attached the heart with a little ring.I also attached a clasp although I don't think it was really necessary.

Book Study - Cosmos Paper

This is the third technique that Carol has introduced in our book study of Julia Andrus' book Paper Transformed.

Julia states that this technique is best done with areas smaller than 4"x4". She uses either illustration board or 3 - 5 layers of card stock glued together. You can colour the substrate with inks, markers, watercolours or coloured pencil. If you choose anything other than pigment ink, you need to apply Perfect Medium, VersaMark or clear embossing ink to the surface, then generally cover with UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) over the surface and melt. 

I did the base of mine using various inks and 130LB cardstock cut to ATC size (3½” X 2½”); you can also use chipboard as your base.  

I used Versamark to add the UTEE on all but the one that were covered with pigment ink and heat embossed them, then repeated this same technique twice. 

When cool I tapped them with Perfect Medium and brushed Perfect Pearls over the surface, covered them with UTEE and heated them. In this step the UTEE likely won't stick to the surface because of adding the PP's (Perfect Pearls). so if you use a heat gun to emboss, start by heating it well away from the surface to prevent the embossing powder from flying away, then slowly move in to melt it completely. (Carol used an old frying pan to melt hers then applied the heat gun.)  On a couple of the pieces I got a bit too thick a coating of the Perfect Pearls, but this just gives it a different look.

These are the colours and inks I used on my pieces:

Top Row: 

(L)-Mint & Sky Blue Pigment Inks/Forever Blue & Forever Green PP's

Middle- Canary & Pink pigment ink/Lemon Sparkle PP and Carnation Pink Pearlex

(R)- Apricot & Peony pigment ink/Heirloom Gold & Raspberry Sparkle PP's 

Middle Row: 

(L)Rose Mauder & Vermillion Lacquer Nick Bantock dye inks/Heirloom Gold & Rust PP's 

(R) Green, Sky Blue and Spring Green Vivid Inks/Kiwi & Blue Smoke, heated cooled then added some Kiwi PP and UTEE and heated again.

Bottom Row: 

(L)-Tangerine Colorbox Fluid Chalks, smear of Mica Magic red; Green Patina, Forever Red PP's, heated cooled then added some Fuschia Pearlex and UTEE and heated again.

(R)Tsukineko Brilliance  Lavander and Purple overstamped with Brilliance gold/Forever Purple & Pewter PP's.

One tip I have when using cardstock is to apply double-sided foam tape such as Mactac carpet tape to the back before embossing with the UTEE as this prevents the cardstock from buckling. 


If you wish, you can also stamp into the piece by heating it again then stamping into it with a stamp covered with clear embossing, coloured craft or Brilliance inks. Be sure to let it cool before removing the stamp. 

Book Study

On New Generation Stampers  we are doing a Book Study of Julia Andrus' Paper Transformed, led by Carol S .

The first challenge was Luminous Paste. In the book Julia uses Perfect Pearls and Glossy accents, but has stated that gel acrylic medium may be used instead.

I did the first piece with Glossy Accents and Lemon Sparkle Perfect Pearls. Julia suggested that you could add glitter, so I did.

The other two pieces were done with gel acrylic (I thought), however I think I grabbed the wrong jar and may have used molding paste by accident as there is not real "luminous" effect to it. I am thinking I might add some PP's over the top and see if it makes a difference. I also think I got a bit "heavy-handed" with the amount of  medium I applied.

Not sure that this is a technique I would use a lot except perhaps on a canvas or something similar where I wanted texture. To each his own-it would be a boring world if we all liked the same things.!!

Inchie swap

I have signed up for a swap on the Dream, Create Inspire group where we are using a frame from Blumoth Crafts. Eleven people joined the swap, and we create the inchies using a colour scheme and and in some cases a theme chosen by each person. We have two inchies, the centre and the frame to complete our own when we receive our inchies in the swap. I have decided to wait until I receive my inchies before completing the frame.

I coated the inchies with gesso then used Acrylic paints, Metallic Paints, Lumiere paints, Perfect Pearls, Pearlex, and some of my stamps and stamping supplies such as Smooch inks, and pigment inks to do the bases. On some I used molding paste, others I used papers and even some netting type paper.

The embellishments are scrapbooking pieces, old buttons, old pieces of jewellery, brads and other "doodads".

I am really looking forward to seeing all the tiny works of art that everyone makes and the completed frames.

Quote of the Month - January and February

I am participating in a swap on CCswaps where we create a piece of art using a quote for that month, which must be displayed somewhere on the art. The quote is: "Great art picks up where nature ends."

For January I used a piece of cardstock and did the Stamp Smooshie technique (you use your stamp as an applicator and smoosh the ink around on the paper-usually 3 different tones of the same colour ink). I then added some mica magic ink over it. I stamped the Safflower Script stamp (Stampington) on a piece of acetate with Stazon black ink and attached it with vellum tape.

I had a piece of cardstock on which I had rubbed off some Mica Magic ink while doing some stamping and liked the look of it, so I chose that to stamp the Magenta butterfly image on and attached it to the middle of the acetate.

I mounted the piece on another piece of Mica Magic coloured background. The final touch was to add the maple leaf brads and the quotes. This is now at it's new home with Maggi.

The February quote is: "Feet what do I need thee for when I have wings to fly." I decided on an altered book board. I used some techniques from Kelly Rae Roberts book Taking Flight. I am really pleased with the book as it has great inspiration and some step-by-step instructions and not just a bunch of "pretty pictures".

The background is similar to one that I learned in an Altered Diva class, where you paint gesso on the substrate, add one coat of paint. let it dry then add another coat and while wet spray it with water, let it sit for a bit then dab it with a cloth. The little circles in white were made by dipping the end of an adding machine roll holder thingy in paint and stamping on the book board.

The body was a stamp (PSX) of a seamstress mannequin which I stamped into polymer clay and baked. When it was ready I rubbed it with a wash of brown acrylic paint, then painted the flowers, heart and ribbon and body with acrylic paint and brushed some Pearlex and Perfect Pearls over the top.

When it dried I coated it with Poly Glaze, then when that set I rubbed some "Goldfinger rub-on paste over it and glued on the gems.

The head is an image from a magazine advert which I cut down and glued into a flattened bottle cap and filled with Glossy Accents. The gold wings were left over from when I was making some Christmas Angels years ago; cut in the middle to reduce the bulk and glued behind the body and added some gold Stickles to enhance them a bit. The seagull was a found item in my stash. This will be going to it's new home at the end of February when the partners list is announced.

Tim Holtz style

Sweetpea has just recently started a monthly swap where we use a style of various artists. Last month was Misty Mawn and this month is Tim Holtz. Luckily, I have a lot of the mediums he uses, and I signed up 3 times.

The first piece is AI (alcohol inks) on glossy cardstock, stamped with an archival black inkpad.

The colours of AI's I used were Wild Plum, Butterscotch and Stream.

The second technique was the Wrinkle Free Distress Inks on a tag. I used Worn Lipstick and Mustard Seed Distress Inks. I stamped the images from Stampington and Inkadinkadoo in Versafine Onyx Black, and added the little washer to one of the flourishes. The grungeboard key was painted with Old Patina Perfect Pearls.

The third technique is using Distress Embossing Powder. I stamped the image with Fired Brick Distress ink and embossed it with Vintage Photo Distress embossing powder. The Distress EP is totally different from others, and it only changes colour a bit when embossed and has a "sandpaper" feel to it.

I then coloured it with Old Paper, Tea Dye, Fired Brick and Old Burlap Distress inks. Finished it off by colouring the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink.

The Grungeboard embellishments were coloured with Peeled Paint and Fired Brick Distres inks. I attached the vintage buttons (courtesy of Annie Mackay) with some thin wire.

July Tip-In

This month the tip-in theme was time. I had some ideas brewing before I started on this theme, then I found a stamp which fit into the theme, when I took a class at my Rubber Stamp store on Thursday night.

The front page is a digital background. I stamped the main Image (by Stamp Oasis) three times. I added the clock part twice then the central part 3 times to give it some dimension. The other clock pieces are from PSX.

The back page is a version of the Faux Leather technique on Trish B's Art Buzz (http://artbuzz.wordpress.com/) background noise challenge. I used gesso to cover the tissue paper after adhering it to the cardstock with glue. I started off by colouring it with Distress ink in Frayed Burlap. I added Denim distress ink and let it dry. I added a little bit of Distress Vintage Photo over the high areas of the creases. I went over it again with Broken China Distress Ink.

I added the stamped images from PSX and Magenta using Fluid Chalks, printed a quote and added it. After putting it on my desk and looking at it, I felt it still needed "something".

I rubbed Colorbox Parchment pigment ink around the edges, then added Blue Smoke Perfect Pearls over it, then buffed it with a paper towel.

I am finally happy with the back and will be sending it off to Sweetpea.

Tyvek experiments

I am participating in a Chunky Book swap where we have to use some Tyvek on one of the pages. Today I decided to play with some of it, but only did a couple of pieces as I don't have a lot of Tyvek. These started out as approximately 3"X3" pieces.

The top one was coloured with Perfect Pearls then stamped with green pigment ink, shrunk with a heat gun; then I punched holes in it and added the beads. 

The second one was coloured with pigment inks, sprinkled with glitter, shrunk with a heat gun, then stamped into it while still warm.