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.

April Charm

I decided to use some thing from my stash for the CCSwaps April charm.

I started with some metal tags and covered both sides with some old book page pieces and coloured it with distress inks. I added some gem pieces then covered the piece with Glossy Accents.

Unfotunately the piece did not scan well and it looks like there are a bunch of air bubbles, but it is not at all like that in "real life". It is actually smooth with some colour depth around the maple leaf gem.

I was not really happy with this one so I decided to do something different. I took some clay, conditioned it then stamped into it with a text stamp, then hit the highlights with some Mica Magic Gold ink.  I took a little flower embellishment and coloured it with Cranbberry Alcohol ink, and added a little pearl on a wire in the background.  Much happier with this one and it will be making it's way to my swap partner next week.

Dream Destination - Africa

For this month on CCSwaps the dream destination is Africa.

I used some leaf stamps for my background as they were the only thing I had to simulate the type of background I had in mind. I used Clearsnap fluid chalks in bisque, tangerine and Burnt Seinna on two pages and on the others I added dark moss.

I stamped the image from Coronado Island on a kraft coloured piece of card stock and cut it out. I added the frame then attached the image in the centre. The words are from a large Sandi Miller Art stamp that I cut out after I stamped them. I took some chip board letters from the dollar store and coloured them and stamped over them and attached them with Sookwang tape.

The inside images are from a UK site and the words are from the same Sandi Miller background stamp.

To attach the two pages together I cut two pieces of cardstock that I had coloured and stamped, scored them and attached them with double-sided foam tapes. It then added a couple of little faux rivets that I made from clay and coloured with Mica Magic ink.

The back piece is a picture framed with a slide mount which I covered with some scapbook paper, then stamped a PSX Pixie Expressions stamp around it.

Brocade

Over on CC Swaps Adrienne is running a Mystery swap. She broke down and gave us the instructions early, and the Mystery is Brocade using polymer clay. You can get the directions here

As instructed I conditioned and rolled out the black clay, then added 4 coats of metallic paint to each piece. I chose to use Lumiere paints for the base coat, copper, gold and silver.

I used some embossing mats to imprint the clay after dusting them with my anti-static pad.
I added some cheap acrylics over this, and rolled it out again. I cut them into shapes and baked as directed.

For this first batch, I think I was too heavy handed with the acrylics and was not really happy with them.

The second batch, I followed the same procedure, but used large background stamps to imprint the clay. I used Winsor Newton Finity acrylics and Luna Lites after imprinting. I think the better quality paints and a lighter hand definitely made a difference in the final outcome I rolled out another piece of clay, imprinted it with a text stamp, added some Pearlex and baked it then adhered the tree piece to it. After making this I saw an idea on a blog and thought I would make a little book since I have some small chipboard book cover pieces.

I took the embossed chipboard and coloured it with yellow gold and burnt orange Mica Magic. I adhered the Brocade piece to this. I took some index cards and cut them to size and rounded them with a corner rounder punch and punched a hole in the corner. The back is also coloured with Mica magic and a saying stamped in Versafine onyx black. These are pics of the book closed and open.

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.

Spoiler Alert - 12 Days of Christmas

I recently signed up for a swap that Sweetpea is hosting for 12 Days of Christmas. I signed up once then decided to join a second time, jumping in with both feet as usual!

The the first set of gifts that I made were done on chipboard squares with dye inks, mica watercolours  and edged with leafing. Then I coloured microscope slides with alcohol inks and inserted a picture underneath it. The image I used is from http://www.old-picture.com/

The second set are stamped Clay Necklaces with a colourwash over them; the back has a leaf stamped on it.