Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Several Things I Have Been Playing With...

I have worked on a few things over the last couple of weeks and decided to post them all at once.

 First are the magnets that I made for my Dry Erase Board. You can find all kinds of tutorials for these on the Web.  They are the half marbles that you buy in the flower section of Michel's.  You use a 1/2 inch circle punch to cut out any picture or design paper that you like, glue it to the back of the marble with Glossy Accents, wait for it to dry and glue a magnet on the back.  You can use a glue gun for this.  I used the Glossy Accents since I had it out.  The marbles magnify the picture and give them a real cute look.  For these, I used the 1/2 inch punch as a template and drew circles, then drew a simple picture and colored them in with Sharpie markers. After they were colored in, I punched them, glued them and there you have it. It was very hard to get a good picture due to the reflection from the glass.

 Next a couple Photo Art Projects:


This probably looks familiar because I used this same lady and bird to do an ATC.  Here she is glued to chipboard and is a stand up decoration.

This just tickled my fancy.  I thought the little girl was adorable and I thought it was funny to have her holding fish.  I don't know about anyone else but it makes ME laugh every time I look at it.

Onto Some ATC'S:

I did the background on this with the Dylusion inks (Love them).  Then I stamped the image of the house and colored it in using sharpie markers.

 These are to finish out my ATC shelf from 7 Gypsies that I posted a couple posts back. In the one above, I was playing with embossing resist and layering.   I think it's cute but wish I had gone with a different background color.
 You can't see it but this is the word "Dream" from an old Dictionary page.  I did some doodling and used some old lace that I distressed with Tim Holtz "Vintage Photo" distress ink. I glued some black lace and some punched flowers and stuck a bow made of baker's twine.



This was inspired because my sister likes owls. So what better than a whole collage of owls?  Then I used Washi Tape to finish off the sides and give it a border.


While I was doing Google searches for owls, I came across this guy and he just looked like he had bed head and wasn't happy about it.
 
 I love the vintage feel of this one.  I cut out an image that I had of some violets and glued it to a background of some old newsprint scrapbook paper.  I used "Vintage Photo" distress ink around the edges and glued some blue lace down.  The flowers were from some white trim that I had.  I used Tim Holtz distress ink daubers and colored them "Victorian Velvet".

Next Are A Hodge Podge Of Items:


I was simply playing with some new stencils that I had just bought and thought that this came out beautiful.  Unfortunately the photograph doesn't show the gorgeous richness of the colors.


I made this because I watched the following YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP2kGHQGTjU.  It is amazing.  I didn't use the Tim Holtz "Artful Dwellings" die cut, but I did use the brick embossing folder and the Martha Stewart lace border punch for the roof. I cut my own house and roof by hand.  Then embossed it with the brick embossing folder and inked it using the Tim Holtz blending tool and vintage photo distress ink.  I cut the windows and door from some tags that I had inked previously.  I used a black marker to go around the edges and frame in the windows and then a white paint pen to go around the outside of each.  I had a spider web stamp that I used in the bottom two windows.  I love how it turned out.  Now I just have to figure out what project to use it in.

 This is an ATC where I folded aluminum foil around the card and then embossed it in my Cuttle Bug.  I then painted it with black acrylic paint and wiped it off with a paper towel before it dried. This is actually the wrong side of the card.  If you look real close you can see the folds of the aluminum foil.  BUT, the numbers in the upper right corner are embossed correctly.  Below shows my mistake.....



This is the front of the card. Notice the numbers at the top left.  They are the mirror image because I didn't pay attention to which side was going to receive the embossing when I put it in the folder.  Oh well, I still love the metal look to it.

Playing in my journal:


I was practicing drawing eyes and this is what the page turned into.  The eyes are colored with Distress markers and sharpies (the sharpies bled through the back of the paper).  I colored the background in with water color pencils and then used my water brush.


 This journal page was inspired by a picture I saw from Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/repacheco/5508119472/in/set-72157614255985873/ and thought that I would try to draw the flowers.  Although it doesn't look much like the original, I do like how it turned out.


 This is a new Tim Holtz Alterations die cut that I bought.  I just can't seem to put the bird in the cage.  He NEEDS to fly free.  Anyway ,I embossed his wing with a Cuttlebug folder. and then distressed it with distress inks and a blending tool.

Making Flowers:

These are two flowers that I made after watching this video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51xEsr5HtEg  My flowers didn't come out anything like hers but I am still happy with them.  I obviously did not have the same flower punch that she used.  I tried her method with two different punches that I did have and put a button in the center of the bigger one and a brad in the center of the smaller one.  I am sure that I can find a fun project to use these in.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

I Found A Nice Little Surprise In My Tim Holtz Embossing Folder!


 I bought a Tim Holtz Embossing Folder from Sizzix to try in my Cuddle Bug.  When I opened the package I found a nice surprise inside (besides the wonderful folders).

Sorry, I couldn't prevent the glare, but hidden in the packaging is this little foam block.  It doesn't look like much and if you have bought any of these embossing folders in the past, you probably threw it away not knowing the possibilities that it holds.


This is a better picture of what the block looks like.


The magic happens when you heat the block with a heat tool. You don't have to heat it long.  Just a little bit to warm the foam.


After the foam is warm, press the heated side on anything that leaves an impression.  In this case, I chose the numbers on the Bingo embossing folder.


 This is what it looks like after pressing it to the folder.


Then, ink it up and press it.  I applied it several times to show the ink fading.

 After your done stamping with it, simply clean it with a wet wipe or wet paper towel.


Now here is the really magical part, when you reapply heat to the impression on the foam it disappears.

Now you can use it again and again, using anything that leaves an impression.  How cool is that?


These are a few samples of the things that I tried stamping.  The top stamp is the impression from the lid to my Golden's Gel Medium.  The next impressions were using the long side of the block, and are  are from two different shaped paper clips.  The next is ribbon, and lastly, I stamped from one of my rubber stamps.  I can't wait to use these in my Art Journal and ATC's.