Colour Perceptions - Black

For the month of February the colour perception is Black in the ArtVentures ongoing swap. My emotion/perception for this is elegant and classy.

I decided to do a "little black dress" as my focal point but thought I might have to scrap that idea since everyone of my printers are out of ink. Then I remembered that someone had sent me a dress stamp years ago, so I dug it out.

I stamped the dress on some white cardstock and coloured it with a Copic black marker, leaving a couple of areas white for contrast. I felt it still needed something, so I added some black Puffs over the top of the skirt portion.

To make the background, I wanted a bit of dimension so I stamped a Tim Holtz (Stampers Anonymous) stamp on some glossy black cardstock and embossed it with black embossing powder. Then I attached the little dress with double-sided foam tape.

To finish the card I cut out a border from the Cuttlebug Ornamental Iron die, applied black pigment ink and then Black Christmas Mix embossing Powder and heat set it. This was placed on the edge of the ATC.

Altered Pringles Can

On AFTCM we did a swap where we altered a Pringles potato chip can with a steampunk theme.

For mine I covered the can with some scrapbook paper. For the top portion I embossed some flashing tape then added some alcohol inks to give it some color.

 I had some Graphics 45 steampunk papers and cut out several images and attached them with double- sided foam tape. I added some tiny roses to the two ladies heads.

Glued some cogs, a watch face and some other items around the can. Stamped a ticket and a sentiment and attached it.

I covered the lid with the same scrapbook paper that I had used to cover the can.

I had discovered a video on Youtube using the Tim Holtz movers and shapers mini clock die ( sorry can't find the link right now) and decided that I would do a steampunk version to put on top of the lid.

I cut the die 6 times out of some medium weight chip board then painted the outside portion black. Colored the hands with a silver paint pen and embossed the "bells", top and legs with copper embossing powder.

I cut the legs off two of the pieces and sandwiched them in the middle. I inserted a piece of acrylic and some scrapbook paper behind the front piece and another piece of acrylic and a pocket watch face on the back piece. Then I glued them all together. I added some tiny cogs on the outside of the front. I glued a large cog to to a piece of popsicle stick then atached the clock. I then added some large gears to hide it and help keep it in place and finished it with a couple of gold dewdrops on the side.

A-Z techniques Z For Zig-Zag

We are finally at the end of the alphabets for the A to Z techniques in ArtVentures.

The only Z techniques I could think of were Zentangles and Zetiology, but I don't really enjoy  doodling unless I happen to be on the phone and then I sometimes doodle.

I decided to do a zig-zag pattern using coloured text weight papers that I had on my table. I cut them into strips (trying to make sure they were all the same width), then braided them together. When each piece was long enough I glued them to an ATC blank.

I then cut out a frame from some coordinating coloured cardstock and stamped a line of Z's around the perimeter and embossed it with Queens Gold embossing powder.  I attached the frame to the base with Sookwang tape.

I then took some chipboard letters and embossed them with Stampendous Embossing Enamel. I used Aged Wine and Aged Rose. I was thinking of adding some other embellishments but decided against it.

I also decided to try another way of doing the Zig-Zag pattern and experimented with a photo corner stamp. I used pigment ink and stamped it in two different colours across the base, then embossed with clear embossing powder.

A to Z techniques- V for Vellum-tous

A- to Z on Art-Ventures I used a technique that I learned from Cathie Allan a number of years ago called Vellum-tous.

The technique was originally done on a card but it worked for the ATC.
I cut a piece of White vellum a bit larger than the ATC base and stamped and embossed an open image with white pigment ink and embossing powder. I coloured the image with markers on the front of the vellum,  colouring the portions that I wished to be dominant.

I flipped the vellum over and took a  background stamp and stamped it with with a clear embossing pad and embossed with clear embossing powder. Make sure you hold the vellum up while heating, as the embossing on the other side gets hot and melts.

Using a stipple brush and dye ink colours I stippled around the stamped image on the back of the vellum. If you also want to colour the open areas of the stamp as it could change the colour tones that you used with the markers.
When satisfied with the stippling, I bent the edges over and attached the vellum  to a white ATC base with vellum tape. ( You could also use glossy accents). You can also try it with pastel coloured bases for a different effect. I stamped a V on Vellum scraps using white pigment ink and embossing powder and glued it to the ATC.

I chose different colours of Dye ink for each of the ATC's, to show the different looks. I forgot to scan the other two which were done in yellow and blue.

Butterflies and Dragonflies Easel Card

On AFTCM I joined a swap to make and easel card with the theme of Butterflies and Dragonflies with heat embossing on it.

I started with white 130LB cardstock and colored two pieces with fluid chalk inks using Cathie Allan's "stamp smoosh' technique.

On one piece I stamped the Stampendous dragonfly with green pigment ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder. Cut around most of it leaving an area on the bottom right, flipped it over, then traced around some chipboard letters to spell out the word "FLY". I cut around them, ensuring that there was areas joining the dragonfly and letters to the panel. I edged it with a green marker, and stamped some corner stamps at each corner.

I embossed the chipboard letters with green pigment ink and clear embossing powder and attached them to the front of the card panel.

To hold the front in place and create an easel, I cut a piece of embossable window plastic and folded it in half, attached it to the back panel and then to the front. I attached a little 3-D butterfly at the corner of the front panel.

To complete the inside I stamped a saying and attached it over some butterflies wings.

I colored a piece of ribbon with pigment inks to coordinate with the colours I used on the card. and attached it to the back (covering it with another piece of cardstock to hide it) then tied it in place to keep the card closed.

A-Z techniques - P for Polished Stone

Continuing on with the A-Z techniques, this month is P. I chose to do the polished stone technique. Instead of using the dye inks and metallic acrylic paint, I used alcohol inks and Lumiere paints. The other "P's" are parrot and paint pen.

I covered a piece of glossy cardstock with some rubbing alcohol then dabbed three colours of alcohol ink over the surface. I then dabbed on some copper coloured Lumiere paint.

For the P image I used a parrot from Dover publications, printed it, cut around it and pasted it on the ATC.

I used a chipboard alphabet P and coloured it with a Marvy Metallic paint pen.

To complete it I die cut a Cuttlebug Corner die and embossed it with copper embossing powder.

A-Z Techniques Alphabet N

This month the Alphabet technique is the letter N. I chose to do the Northern Lights Technique.

I  used black cardstock as the base. I diluted Gold, Raspberry Sparkle and True Blue perfect pearls with a bit of water then brushed it on in lines across the cardstock. I spritzed it with water and let the colours run together.

I chose an image of a Nutcracker bird and printed it on glossy photo paper, cut it out, and attached it with double-sided foam tape. To complete the ATC's I used a die cut N and some punchie flowers. I inked them with Versamark and "Heat and Stick " embossing powder which becomes sticky after heating, then applied Navy Glitter Ritz over the top.

Creative Chemistry Day 7

Day seven is about Embossing Basics. Tim covered techniques on embossing with Distress Inks and Powders and discussed various embossable inks and powders.
Although I am familiar with the types of inks used for this purpose, I still learned a number of things about the different properties of the supplies.

Again, some of my colour choices in the supplies are limited but it did not stop me from being able to try the techniques.

I used stamps by All Night Media, Magenta and Hero Arts,

The techniques we were to try are: Nostalgic Batik, Rusted Enamel and Distress Powder Resist. Great fun revisiting the first technique which I have done numerous times, and enjoyed the other two which I have not done before.

4 X4 Puzzle Swap

On AFTCM we are doing another 4X4 swap. This time we are to use jigsaw puzzle pieces on the item.

I started by colouring a piece of 130LB cardstock with various colours of pigment inks. I then stamped it with a Hero Arts  stamp then embossed it with the matching embossing folder, colouring the flowers with Smooch ink. I adhered a picture from moonlightjourney.com in the centre of the wreath.

 I took some puzzle pieces and embossed four with Opals embossing powder and two with blue pearlised embossing powder. I reheated each one and stamped on them with silver metallic ink. When they cooled I glued them around the image.

A card for a special friend

A dear friend of mine who has been widowed for a number of  years is getting married this month, and I decided to make a wedding card for her and her groom.

I first stamped the couple (Inkadinkado)  and coloured it with Lyra colour pencils. I made a mask and covered the stamped image with it, the did the background.

The background was done with Fluid Chalk inks, then I stamped Mica Magic Yellow Gold with a heart stamp in various areas.

I just bought a gorgeous flourish stamp by Hero Arts, and decided to use it on the card. I left the mask in place on the cardstock and stamped the flourish with Pigment Goldrush ink and embossed it with Ancient Gold Embossing powder. After heat setting, I removed the mask.

I played around with various ideas to put at the top left corner to finish the card. I tried various stamps using my stamp positioner to see how they would look, but did not like any of them. I finally decided on using die cut letters, (cut out 3 times and glued togehter to make them thicker) to spell out LOVE. Again, I fiddled with various mediums on them, and finally settled on embossing them with the same Ancient Gold embossing powder.

I edged the card front with a marker and adhered the panel to a card base in a mustard yellow colour.

Accordian Artist Trading Cards

As usual I jumped in with both feet and joined a swap for an accordion atc. Was not sure if I was on the right track but I sat down and made it.

The theme was architecture, so I used stamps of buildings, houses and other related items as well as free images I had saved on my computer. So her is what I ended up with after playing around for a few days. First pic is the cover.

The back cover just contains my name and email addy as well as the group name, with a little stamped piece on the edge to cover the accordian binding.

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!

Mini Memory for Mel

April's Mini Memory recipient is Mel on the DCI group. Her choice was any theme with aqua and blue as her colour choice.

I started with a coaster from our Don Cherry's pub, covered it with gesso then rubbed aqua and blue inks over it after embossing it with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.

I coloured a little frame with some blue metallic acrylic paint and attached it to the centre. I added a game piece that my friend Muzzy had sent me on a card a few years ago (used with her permission). I took an old pair of earrings and removed the backs and placed the roses with the game piece inside the frame.

I had some Maple Leaf brads (to continue with the shape of the coaster) and embossed them with some navy blue embossing powder, removed the backs and glued them around the frame. Still needed "something" so put some blue stickles around the edge.

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.

I have embossing powder..

The swap using various mediums is continuing on CC Swaps. This month it is-"I have embossing powders and I know how to use them".

I decided to revisit and old technique that I had learned a few years ago. I took a piece of light grey cardstock and stamped with a Hero Arts stamp in white pigment ink and winter white embossing powder. After heat setting it, I went over it with purple fluid chalks using the Clearsnap stylus and foam tips.

I took another piece of cardstock two inches longer and folded it over at the 2 inch mark, embossed and coloured again with a different Hero Arts Stamp. I attached the two pieces together with double-sided tape.

I stamped and embossed an image by  About Art Accents and a fan image by Inkadinkado and attached them to the front. I then took a piece of the same cardstock and stamped the word stamp by  Above the Mark and coloured the piece with the fluid chalk ink and outlined it with a marker. I cut out a slot and added a piece of purple metallic cardstock behind, then adhered it with double-sided foam tape.

I stamped, embossed and coloured the inside of the front page. I then took some text weight paper and attached two pages to the inside and added another stamped embossed piece to the front of the pages on the inside. So far there are only two of us signed up for this swap and the other player loves Oriental images so I am sure she will be happy with this.

My Favourite Stamp

Another swap I chose to join in CCSwaps was making something with a favourite stamp.

Well, that was a hard choice as I have quite a few favourites. I chose to use one image and one word stamp that are both favourites.

I placed a piece of  handmade mono-printed background paper in my stamp positioner and stamped the image using Clearsnap Ancient Page Coal, which is a permanent dye ink. I then coloured the image using Tsukineko  Brilliance Gamma Green, Ranger Archival Tangerine and  Clearsnap Ancient Page Primrose inks using Ranger Cut n' dry Nibs.

With the piece still in the stamp positioner I stamped it again with the Ancient Page Coal. It still needed more depth, so I stamped it again with Clearsnap Mica Magic Burnt Orange.

I then edged this with a crayola metallic marker. I stamped the "Believe" word and embossed it with copper, and cut around it. Both were attached to the front and I added a couple of extra strips of the mono-printed paper.

I took some printer paper and made a background using Cathie Allan's stamp smoosh technique with 3 fluid chalk colours. I attached this to two pieces of cardboard and punched the holes and bound it with the Zutter Bind-it-all .

I attached some ribbon around the back and inserted a Phone Message pad inside which I got on sale at Michaels.

B is for.......

We are continuing on with the Alphabet swap on CCSwaps so this month we make something starting with the letter B, for theme, technique or medium.

I came across a blog with some beautiful exploding boxes on it (http://magic-boxes.blogspot.com/) and the lady was kind enough to provide a tutorial on how to make them. I thought I would give it a try and use butterflies as my theme.

The only problem is that the measurements are in millimeters and I am still not too great at the conversion from metric to inches!! I did fine with making the box but wasted quite a few pieces of cardstock getting the lid to the right size. My boxes certainly need more practice but I am happy with my first attempts. The first one I tried was my "protoype" for the technique. I used light weight blue card stock for the box and the lid and 130Lb for the inserts. I got a bit heavy handed when scoring and ripped a bit on one of the sides but left it as I knew I would be keeping it.

I stamped a leaf stamp (Magenta) and added some little die-cut flowers. The butterflies (Stampendous)  were stamped in black pigment ink and embossing powder and coloured yellow and green then added some glitter.

The next box: I stamped the butterflies on both sides using  Christmas Night glitter embossing powder and coloured them with markers and glittered the top with some Stickles. I stamped a leafy scroll on the side and bottom pieces after doing direct-to-paper with pigment inks and added some "jewels". I then cut slits in the bottom insert and attached the butteflies with pieces of acetate, and glued a butterfly to the lid.

The picture of the lid is fine (oops! I think the edge piece was a bit loose-will fix that!)  but the others are not the clearest as of course I had to take pictures of them with my camera and I am not that familiar with our camera since I don't take a lot of pictures. The colours are more intense in real life.

I have a brayer

I joined a swap in CCSwaps called "I have a brayer and I know how to use it!"  For this swap we were to  make a card for our partner, but I missed that part and started off by making a large tag. I realized I had goofed later on so back to the drawing board.

 I brayered yellow Vivid ink (Clearsnap) on glossy card a bit more than halfway. I punched out a circle and laid it on the cardstock. I brayered on butterscotch Vivid over the yellow, but lightly over the circle area. I then brayered raisin Adirondack (Ranger)over the top portion.

I tore a piece of paper and laid it on the bottom portion of the cardstock and brayered with aqua Vivid then removed the paper and brayered Big and Juicy Hydrangea (Ranger) over the very bottom.

I stamped the trees (Stampin' Up) and the geese (Stampscapes) with Ancient Page Coal Black (Clearsnap). I added some red Marvy Matchable ink over the top portion with a sponge, for more depth. I outlined the edges with a dual marker.

I brayered another piece of scrap cardstock with the yellow and butterscotch Vivid and stamped and embossed the saying (Stamp Oasis) with Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko) and black embossing powder), outlined the edges and attached it with double-sided foam tape.

I had some brayered and stamped pieces left from another project that I did not like so I cut them up and added them to the inside of the card. I stamped another saying(Wordsworth) on yellow cardstock and attached it beside the scrap pieces.

     

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.

Have a Heart

Another swap I am participating in is to use hearts on a project. I was trying to think of something a bit different and decided to make a mobile.

I used 3 different stamps and stamped them twice, the smallest one was done with Colorbox Fluid chalks, then I stamped it again and cut out the tiny heart and coloured it with Mica watercolours and attached it with double-sided tape to the heart.

The Middle one was stamped with Colorbox pigment ink and embossed with red embossing powder, and the small patterned pieces cut out.

The third one I stamped with dye inks using Cathie Allan's Stamp Smoosh technique. I stamped a quote on each side using a different stamp relating to friends.  I added heart sticker, then embossed both pieces with glitter embossing powder.

I strung all the pieces together using nylon thread (the kind that looks invisible) and added beads to give it a little more dimension. The thread was a great idea until I accidently cut it and then tried to tie another piece to the end..... Believe me it really is Invisible!!! I used a dental floss threader to put the beads on the thread, which is a great and cheap tool. There are 25 in a package for about $4 it makes it so much easier than struggling with the beads (see picture below).  The picture of the mobile is not the greatest, as I hung it in my craft room and put a piece of craft paper behind it but if you click on the picture you will get a better view.