I Have Glitter Pens!

 This first picture was an attempt at a technique I saw Here.  Mine didn't turn out as pretty as hers did.  I finished it by stamping the word "Passion" on it.

 HERE ARE MY NEW GEL PENS!  I got them at Michael's with a 50% off coupon.  There are Neon, Metalic and gorgeous GLITTER pens.  I don't normally like glitter but the color on these pens were beautiful and I fell in love with them.

So I had to use them on a journal page and here is what I came up with.

I stamped three different flower stamps on card stock, using black Archival Ink.  The bottom one on the left is a  Hero Arts stamp #H5481, The bottom one on the right is a Penny Black stamp #4313J.  The top one on the left, the one that looks like a carnation, doesn't have a name or number.  I got this one out of the dollar bin at Michael's.

After I stamped them, I used the glitter pens to color them.  Unfortunately, the pens don't have numbers or names.  I am showing the two colors that I chose to color the flower petals.

 I used these two colors to color the stamens of the flower.

This is the finished flower.  Once I had all my flowers colored, I cut each one out.

Then I stamped a Mason Jar (Inkadinkado stamp) on card stock.

I stamped a couple of bees. Stampabilities, Honey Bee, #C1147.

I cut the bees out and didn't worry about the little legs.

 I stamped a butterfly that is part of an inkadinkado set called Insect Amalgam # 60-60104. Again, when I cut it out, I didn't worry about the legs or the body, snipped 'em right off.

 I forgot to take a picture of the leaf stamps that I used but they are also from an Inkadinkado cling set called fossil leaves #65-32011.

This is the final result.  I took two pictures because it was hard to get a good shot with all that GLITTER!

To do the background, I sprayed the paper lightly with water and then used Broken China Distress paint dauber to cover the page. Atfer I had good coverage I went over it in random spots with Antique Linen Distress paint dauber.  I used my finger to smooth and blend the color on the page.  While it was still damp, I flicked water on it then patted it dry with a paper towel to give it a more distressed look. I dried everything with my heat tool.  I used my brick wall stencil and wall Spackle (don't have modeling paste).  I again dried this with a heat gun.  When it was dry, it looked a little too stark white. So I dabbed it with the Antique Linen paint dauber and it softened the color perfectly.

I then glued everything down.  This was a bit complicated because of layering it. I forgot to mention, I did use a blending tool with "Stormy Sky" distress ink around the mason jar before I glued it down. Once the flowers were all in place, I stamped the bees and the butterfly in the locations where I wanted them.  Then I glued the bees and the butterfly's that I cut out, over the stamped image.  That way I was able to get the little legs and antennae back.

After all the glue dried I outlined everything with the brush tip of my distress marker "weathered wood" to give a shadow affect.  I ran the pen around and then stopped to rub it with my finger to blend and continued until everything was outlined.

Oh, I forgot.  I cut a thin strip of white card stock paper and colored it with green gel pen.  I cut this into strips that I used for the stems for the flowers.

I'm not sure the picture gives the full impact of all the glitteriness of the flowers.  I love how this turned out.

What fun I had this weekend!

This page started out by playing with the Tim Holtz Jalopy die.  The jalopy on the right was the first one that I did and was a total experiment.  It was cut using white card stock.  I tried an inking method that I learned from taking the Creative Chemestry 101 class by Tim Holtz.  I used Recollections Aged Silver embossing powder on the fenders, wheels, and license plate.  I used Stampendous Aged Teal on the piece by the door above the fender.  I used my finger to rub black Archival ink from my ink pad over all the metal embossed areas.  It turned out cool but not what I had imagined.

The second attempt, on the left, I cut out of chip board.  I used the same inking method but I went over the whole car.  It came out much darker.  I'm guessing because of the darkness of the chip board. Again, I used Recollections Aged Silver embossing powder on the fenders and wheels.  I painted the license plate with Peeled Paint Distress Crackle paint.  I used some letter stamps to print some numbers on it.

Then I cut out people from "Timeless Type" stack paper and put them in the windows.  I added some acetate from packaging for the windows.  I don't think it shows in the picture

Now I had two jalopies but what was I going to do with them.  I have never done a two page journal spread sooooooo, I thought I would give it a try.


I started out by using a blending tool with Tea Dye ink.  I soon learned that the page on the left had been Gessoed and the page on the right had not.  Ugh, this affected my colors.  Oh well, I wasn't about to start over.  So I kept going.  I used a "chicken wire" stencil with Vintage Photo Distress in random spots.  I used Walnut Stain around the border of the pages.  Then I imagined the cars on a bumpy gravel/dirt road.  I did a little Zentangle dirt road and added some tufts of grass here and there, which I colored with Peeled Paint Distress markers.  I glued my cars in place and thought about what to do next.

I went through some of my stash and found a grunge board oval that I painted with Antique Linen Distress Crackle paint.  Once it dried, I stamped the saying on it and went over it with Vintage Photo and rubbed that into the cracks of the crackle paint.  I went around the edges with Walnut Stain.  I added two brads and glued the sign in place.  I cut the post card and the photo from the same "Timeless Type" stack paper.  I cut the camera and the arrow from Mover and shaper dies,  I painted the camera with Acyrilc paint daubers.  I added the Navigation stamp, star stamps, luggage, bird and bee stamp.  I added some other doodles and now that I'm looking at it I could probably add some to the right side of the page for balance.

There is my page.  Mistakes and all.  It is not perfect but I still love the way it turned out.

This was a Doodle assignment from Joanne Sharpe's Doodle Arts and Letters Class.  I drew this a while ago but I spent a couple hours coloring it in with water color pencils and then going over it with a water brush.

This isn't finished but it is as far as I have gotten and I'm not sure what else I am going to do with it.  I collaged the background with scrapbook paper  Then I cut out a house shape and added cabinet doors and a drawer that are attached using foam core tape.  I added a brad to the drawer for a knob and another brad in the shape of a key hole to the door.  I cut out a clock face from Tim Holtz Ideaology paper.  I attached the clock face to the clock and put some game spinners on for the hands of the clock.

Not sure if I will add a saying or something else to finish this off.  It will come to me and when it does....that is when it will get completed!

This was so cool, I had to blog twice in one day!

 Soooo, I bought the Sizzix Apothecary Bottles die this week end.  Once I got it home and cut some out of card stock, I had no idea how to make them look like the picture on the package.  So I thought about it and had an idea.  I tried it tonight and it worked great!  So happy with the results.

First I distressed the bottle withe vintage photo using the blending tool.

Then I took my embossing ink pad ad dabbed it on the bottle until the whole bottle was covered with embossing ink.

Then I covered the bottle with UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamal)

I heated this with my heat gun until it all melted.

And here are the results.  The first bottle was a first attempt error but I still like the way it turned out.  The middle bottle I distressed using "Peeled Paint" and covering the edge with "Tea Dye".  The last bottle was distressed using "Stormy Sky". 

On one of the bottles, I didn't get enough embossing ink on it the first time. After it cooled I had to redo the emboss inking and covering it with the UTEE and reheating it and it came out great.

Nooooow, how to do the corks and the labels......hmmmmmm.

This Turned Out Really Cute!

 When I started out with this page I had no idea what I was going to do.  I bought some new stencils and some Tim Holtz paint daubers and I wanted to use them and it just evolved!
 

I started out using Weathered Wood, and blended in some Chipped Sapphire and Broken China acrylic paint daubers.  I helped blend them by adding water with a paint brush. This gave me the base for my background.

 

  
 I stamped the background using Stampabilities, Vintage Compass stamp with black archival ink.  I used Dusty Concord (not shown) with a blending tool through the Tim Holtz, Burlap stencil and Wild Honey with the Prima Crackle stencil.  I also used Picket Fence Distress Paint through a stencil of circles (not shown).

Then I stamped the fish on a sheet of copy paper.  I colored the fish using Peeled Paint, Mustard Seed and Fired Brick Distress markers by rubbing them on my craft mat and picking up the color with a water brush.  After it was colored I cut the fish out.  When I placed it on the page it was swallowed up by the background.  That is when I decided to Paint a layer of Gesso, Stamp it with one of Tim Holtz Phrases stamps and glue the fish in place.  He was still a little lost so I traced around him with a Pitt Pen.

The page still looked like it needed "something".  That is when I thought about a technique I had seen on the Internet and it was perfect for using my new "Rain Drop" Stencil.  I used my "embossing dauber" through the rain drop stencil.  I covered it with Recollections, "Sapphire", embossing powder.  I heated it with a heat gun and had my rain.  I drew around each drop with a Pitt pen and added a white highlight with my Signo pen.  I added some swirls using ColorBox, "Royal Blue" (not shown) on a rubber texture sheet (found in the candle making section).

As I wrote this, I noticed that I didn't take a picture of some of the supplies I used ... oops.  I did include the name of them in the description.

For not having any idea of what I was going to do, I REALLY like this page!  The quote is perfect for it too.

I had a lot of fun trying techniques that I found through Pinterest!

Below are five tags that I made today.

 The background on these two tags were done using Inka-gold metallic rubs.  You can watch the video tutorial here.  The colors made me think of peacocks, which is why I stamped a peacock feather and a peacock on each of the tags.

 This tag was using black gesso as the base.   I stamped a flourish with embossing ink and used Recollections "Glacier" embossing powder.  After I heated the powder with my heat tool, I painted a coat of Americana Acrylic paint (Light Buttermilk) over the whole tag.  Then using a baby wipe, I rubbed most of the paint off giving it a shabby chic look.  You can see the video tutorial for this one here.

 This was a Tim Holtz video.  I must say that my attempt doesn't look half as good as the one that Tim did, BUT, I did have a lot of fun following along and doing all the different layers.  You can view that video tutorial here.

I played with Tim Holtz crackle paints.  For this tag, I painted the whole tag with Americana Acrylic Paint "Heritage Red".  I let that dry completely and then painted the whole tag again with Tim Holtz Crackle Paint, "Picket Fence".  I let the tag dry by itself, which is the recommended method rather than using a heat tool on it

The left side of the tag is the effect of the two paints.  The right side of the tag I used "Tea Dye" distress ink with a blending tool.  This is a good way to tone down the white but is not really needed to see the crackle.  Very, very cool!

This tag I did on my own.  I took a vintage photo from my stash and cut out the little girl.  I then painted her with Tim Holtz Distress paint, "Clear Rock Candy.  You can see the effect on the top photo.  Then I added her to a tag that I colored using distress Ink pads added a couple stamps and outlined the photo to help it pop a little bit more.  Sorry, there isn't a video for this one.

A Very Rainy Weekend Produced Three Sweet Photo Art Cards.

Flaunt Your Colors!

I drew this in pencil and then went over it with my Pitt pens.  It is colored with Derwent Intense Colored Pencils.  I used a water brush over the colors and used my white Signo pen to add the dot details on the wings.

I Love Learning New Techniques!

I am taking an on-line mini Workshop by the very talented Valerie Sjodin.  She shows how to create the beautifully creative edges to her art journals as well as fitting words to spaces and painting with fluid acrylics.  Sooooo much information in a mini workshop.  This is my first journal cover that I created.  I have a lot more practicing to do.  I started out using fluid acrylics on the edge but I didn't like the results I was getting.  I switched to markers and liked the colors a lot better.  Valarie is planning a larger Workshop and I can't wait.  The deadline for this workshop is Sept 1, 2013  and is open until November.  It is SOOOOOOOOOOO worth it,

Stamps and Doodles!

So, I'll start off by saying, I don't like how the background turned out.  But I love everything else.  The flowers are from a single stamp that I stamped three times using a mask.  Then I doodled in the rest.  I colored it in with markers.  Now here is where it went bad...I tried to use water color markers for the background.  I don't think I would get the hang of using them even with a lot of practice.

Gelato Background.

 

This page isn't finished but it is as far as I completed before I became stuck as to what to add to it.  I waited a day or two thinking that something might come to me but it hasn't.  So, when inspiration hits me, I will complete it.

I started out by painting the page with Gesso.  Then I stamped the cone flower three times.  I had to extend the stem of the longest one by using a micron pen.  Then I started coloring the bottom flower to the right with H2O paints.  I felt like I lost a lot of the detail of the flower so I used my Copic markers on the other two.  I still lost detail so I went over it with a black Micron pen.  This still didn't make the flowers stand out so I switched to a white Signo pen.  I scribbled blue, turquoise and yellow Gelatos on the background and then rubbed and blended the colors with my fingers.  I took a black Gelato and scribbled around the flowers and again blended with my fingers.  I added the Dylusions leaf stamp to the flowers and then randomly stamped the background with a circle background stamp.  It definitely needs something above the flowers.  A quote or ...something, but like I said nothing has inspired me so this is it until that happens.

Trying New Techniques.....New for me that is.

 I used the acrylic paint resist technique.  I inked a fern stamp with lettuce green acrylic paint and stamped the tag.  I ended up  doing it twice because the first time I did it, I pressed the stamp too hard and smooched the paint.  Then I distressed it with various colors of distress ink using a blending tool.  I cut the bird from Tim Holtz, "Bird And Branch" die and cut off the branch.  I stamped the bird nest with eggs and tried to color them in....it ended up looking very muted and lost its detail.  So I went back in with my micron pen and scratched the detail back.  I added the eggs from some scrap that I had in my stash.  I'm not real impressed with the results.

 This was an emboss resist using Gelato's for the background.  It's pretty simple to do.  I embossed the image and the saying with clear embossing powder.  I rubbed the Gelato's across the background and used a paintbrush and water to spread it evenly over the card.  I guess I should have used a color ink instead of clear embossing ink.  Live and learn.  Still, I think it is cute and has potential.

I love this one but mostly because I love the bird stamp.  I used the ghosting technique with this one.  I covered the tag with distress inks using a blending tool.  I used a background stamp and sprayed it with water.  Then I stamped the card.  I lifted the stamp, let the water sit for a few seconds and then dried it with my heat tool.  If you double click on the picture you can see the results a little better.  Then I stamped the bird and colored it in using my distress markers.  So cute!

This is a tag that I played with a while ago.  I did the background using Gelato's and painting over with water.  Then I used my flourish stamp and rubbed the Gelato's on it, sprayed it with water and stamped the card in various spots.  I took a stencil that had dots or holes on it and ran a green Gelato's over it.  I cut two hearts out of an old dictionary page and colored it with Gelato's and blending it with water.  I glued the hearts on the tag and then to help them stand out a little, I colored around them with a black Gelato and blended it by rubbing it with my finger

Looking forward to Easter.

Awwwww, who doesn't like a little baby peep.  I did the background with Distress ink "Scattered Straw" and "Faded Blue Jeans" reinker.  I put the ink on my craft mat and sprayed lightly with water.  I pressed the tag in and got this beautiful background.  I made the flowers using Tim Holtz " Tattered Floral Garland" die.  I stamped the baby chick on white cardstock with Sepia ink.  I colored it in using my distress markers and my water brush.  when it dried, I went back in and used the fine point of the pens to add detail.  I printed the song lyric, cut it and glued it in place.  Then decided to outline it with a black pen to help it stand out.  I also decided to outline the chick and draw in some of the  detail that I felt got lost after I colored it.  I added the butterfly and called it done

So Excited About How This Turned Out!

 I made a trip to Hobby Lobby yesterday.  I saw these embossing folders by Vintaj, in the jewelry isle.  I hadn't seen these before and didn't know that they were designed to emboss metal.  When I came home and started reading about them, I was disappointed because I don't do jewelry and I thought that I had wasted my money.  I thought about returning them but decided to open the package and see what it looked like.  As you can see above, it looks just like an embossing folder only it is metal.  I wasn't sure how well it would work with paper, would it tear it, would it poke holes in it?  Then I thought, what would happen if I used cardboard and embossing powder to give it a metal look.  I am very happy and excited with the results.  If you watch this video, you can see the intended use of this product.

I cut a 1 1/2 inch square of cardboard.  The kind that comes at the back of a tablet of paper.

 

 I placed the square so that the image of the single bird was centered on the card.   I closed the folder over the cardboard.

 

I placed the folder in my cuddlebug sandwich, A plate, B plate, emboss folder with cardboard sandwiched in, B plate.

I ran the sandwich through my cuddlebug.

 Opened the sandwich to find this wonderful emboss.  The next step was to see if I could give it a look of metal by using embossing powder.

 I placed the embossed card on my embossing ink pad with the raised image facing the pad. I pressed the card and swiped it across the pad to ensure the whole card was covered.

I covered the card with Recollections copper embossing powder.

 I applied heat and watched the embossing powder melt and reveal the image.

 

How cool is this?

 

My next thought was, can I give it a patina look?  I purchased this ink (sorry the picture is blurry) with the embossing folder and thought, what the hech, lets see what happens.   So I squeezed a little ink onto a paper plate.  I dabbed my finger into the ink and rubbed it on the copper.  I used a damp paper towel to remove any excess.

 

 

 I LOVE how this looks and can think of so many ways to use it as an embellishment in my other crafts.

I tried it a second time using my favorite embossing powder Recollections, Aged Silver.  This one didn't turn out as well, due to the fact that the embossing powder was too thick and washed out the dry embossed image.  So I started wondering if I embossed the card with embossing powder first, could I then run it through the cuttlebug to dry emboss it.  I really thought that it wouldn't work because it would crack the melted embossing powder.

I started by cutting my 1 1/2 inch cardboard and coating it with embossing ink.

T

 I covered it with the powder and shook off the excess.  I applied heat with my heat gun.  You have to heat this one from the bottom of the card.  The powder is chunky and if you apply the heat on the top, it blows the bigger chunks off.

This is the result.  Another thing to be careful of is applying too much heat in any one spot.  This causes the pigment in the powder to turn clear.  You can see at the top of this card where I was a little heavy handed with the heat gun.

Next, I placed the card on the raised side of the embossing folder, over the part of the image that I wanted embossed and placed the card powder side up.  I closed the folder and squished it with my hands some because the embossing made it very thick.  I made my cuttlebug sandwich the same as before and ran it through.  I have to say that I was hesitant about continuing because it was hard getting it through.  I thought that I was either going to break one of the plates, which could be replace relatively cheaply, or worse, I would break my cuttlebug, which would be a lot more expensive to replace.  It was a very tight fit but it went through.  I did learn that I should put less of a coat of powder on the card so that it isn't as thick.

This is what I saw when I opened the folder...still not sure if it worked.  I picked the card off and look what I saw.

Sooooo cool!

These are more results of playing with this technique.  The third card on the top is the card that didn't work because the powder washed out the dry embossed image.  I decided to punch it with my star punch and use some of the patina ink on it.  Another nice surprise!  Then I wondered if I could use the same method using my Tim Holtz embossing folders or my Cuttlebug embossing folders.  I cut another piece of cardboard, picked a section of image from the Gears folder.  I ran it through the Cuttlebug and the image embossed beautifully.  I applied the copper embossing powder and heated it and look at the results.  How fun!