Saturday, March 23, 2013

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

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

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

Sunday, March 17, 2013

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.

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 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!

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

St. Patrick's Day




I worked on this little tag today by inking the background with  distress ink "mowed lawn"  I put the ink on my craft mat and sprayed it with water and ran the tag through it.  I dried it and did it a couple more times to build up layers and give it some texture.  Then I put the ink on the mat but did not spray it with water and randomly dabbed the tag into it.  I printed the poem  and distressed it with "scattered straw".  I stamped a flourish design by inking the stamp and pressing it on scrap paper first and stamping a second time on the tag.  This made it so that the stamp didn't overpower the writing and appear as the background.  Then I added the lace, which was white, but I colored it with my distress marker "scattered straw".  I glued two buttons on either side and added a punched butterfly from the Martha Stewart collection.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Turned Out To Be A Good Day After All



I worked on this page today.  The House is cut from Cricut "Heritage" Cartridge.  I made this when I was visiting my sister in Florida a couple weeks ago.  I did the background using Distress inks Scattered Straw (The moon) Stormy Sky and Faded Blue Jeans (the sky) and Peeled Paint (the ground).  I stamped a willow tree, which didn't come out very well because the binding of my book prevented me from getting the stamp all the way down).  Then I cut out the stampotique guy that I colored a couple posts ago.  I had a set of little monster stamps that I bought on clearance and I stamped one on white card stock and colored him with markers.  I cut him out and glued him to the page.  Then I thought I would go for it and color outside the lines, which is very hard for me.  I dripped Faded Blue Jean reinker from the top of the page.  I sprayed it with water and let it drip.  What I failed to realize was that this picture was the back page to my tea pot lady and the ink bled through.  OH NO!

This is what my tea pot lady looks like now.  I would prefer that it didn't bleed through but I'm not too upset.  I kind of like it.


I cut the clock frame from Tim Holtz Mover's and Shaper's dies.  I colored the frame with my distress markers and then embossed the handle, the bells, the center of the hands and the feet with "aged silver" embossing powder.  Then I had some Tim Holtz ideology paper and found a page with clock faces on it and they fit perfectly.  So I cut one out and glued it to the back.  I love how it turned out even if I did get the embossing powder on the frame of the clock.  The butterfly was simply punched from a card that I did a while ago using aluminum foil and dry embossing it using Tim Holtz, Rivits, embossing folder.  Love both of these and I will find some project to use them on in the future.


This next project was pure experimentation.  I have been seeing all kinds of posts using the Gelli Plate.  I saw a video where someone used an alternative method here.  So I thought I would try using the Spellbinder's embossing pads that I just bought and see if it would work.



 These are the results.  The first picture was done by spreading blue and yellow acryilic paint on the mat using a brayer.  Then I place a stencil over the paint.  I placed a piece of paper over that and then smoothed over the paper with my hands concentrating on pressing through the stencil.  I then removed the paper and the stencil.  Then I took another sheet of paper and put it over the paint that was left with the impression of the stencil in the paint.  I again rubbed the back of the paper firmly with my hands.  The last print was simply taking the stencil with the left over paint and pressing it onto a sheet of paper.  Three different designs. pretty cool.  BUT, the rubber pads that I have are only 5 X 7.  How could I cover an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper?  I remembered that I had some old rubber placemats tucked away.....


This is the place mat and the paints that I used.


 I squeezed three blobs of paint on the mat.


 I spread the paint across the mat with a brayer.

  
I placed a stencil on the paint and then place a sheet of paper over the stencil.  I used cardstock this time. I rubbed the back of the paper trying to make sure I pressed into all the nooks and crannies of the stencil.


 This is the result.  It isn't the best.  I think there are two reasons why. 1. Using cardstock made it harder to press into the stencil and 2. The placemat wasn't as cushioned as the rubber mat.  I suppose that is the point of the Gelli plate.  It is soft enoght to allow the proper pressure to be applied to allow the paint to come through.


This is what the paint like after taking the stencil off.  I too another sheet of cardstock and placed it over this and again pressed down and rubbed over the back.


This is the result.  So pretty!


 Then I took the stencil that was in paint and placed it on a sheet of cardstock.  It went a little wonky because I was on the phone and working with one hand.


This is the result when I removed the stencil.  It is a way to work around not having a Gelli Plate and certainly adds a new dimension to creating backgrounds.  I took everything to my utility sink and washed them right away so that the paint wouldn't dry on them.  The brayer, the placemat and the stencil all cleaned up very well..

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Organizing My Embossing Powders.

 I was playing with some new embossing powders this morning and I had the brilliant idea to categorize them like I did my Copic Markers.


The first step was to punch some tags from Bristol paper.  Then I punched the holes in the top of the tags using my big bite.  Then I took my Tim Holtz Distress Embossing ink and covered about half the tag with ink by pressing down and the smearing it from side to side.  I checked to make sure the tag was covered with a good coat of embossing ink.
 

Then I covered the card in emossing powder over a piece of paper.  I tapped off the excess and used a dry paint brush to remove the powder from areas on the card where I did not want it.  Then I used my heat tool to activate the powder.






I am so glad I did this because I didn't realize the different textures of embossing powder.  I thought they all had an enameled look.....I was wrong.  The Tim Holtz Distress Powders tend to have a rough patchy texture.  For instance "Black Soot" reminds me of how the roof of a house would appear.  The Stampendous and Recollections brands tend to have an enameled appearance.  Although, Recollections "Silver" had the look of crinkled aluminum foil.  Stampendous "Gold Tinsel" has a very glittery look to it.  The large tag at the bottom is what started this project.  I took a Perfect Medium pen and rubbed a line, added embossing powder and heat embossed.  While I was playing I thought, how am I going to remember what these look like and bam, I remembered the tag system.




I put them on a key ring, sorted by manufacturer.  Now I have a good reference for choosing a powder.  I love it!!!!

Saturday, March 2, 2013

While Visiting My Sister...



 This is the little binder that my sister made for me while I was visiting her.  I added the lace down the side and two rose buttons.  You can see her book HERE.

 This is the inside of the binder.  It holds all of my labels for my Tim Holtz Dies.  Now I have all of them in one nice neat place.  Now I can reference a picture of the dies and go to  my shelf and grab the die I want.  It sure beats keeping them in the original packaging and fighting the packaging every time I wanted to use them.
I was thinking of putting this little lady from the Graphic 45, Ladies Diary paper, on the front of my book.  I cut her out and covered her in Glossy Accents.  She isn't quite try yet so she still looks a little murky.  However, I am not happy with how she looks so far.  There are a lot of air bubbles.  I'll let it dry over night and decide in the morning weather to use it or not.


This is the newly acquired little shelf that I added to my room, the one to the right of the drawers.  They hold all of my dies.  Behind my computer are the wood shelves that my husband made for me to store my Copic markers.  Eventually I will paint them white but I was too excited to use them.  I love them and the top makes more room to store my Distress ink pads.


My sister and I discovered a new method for a faux copper patina look.  We made the clock face and embossed it while I was visiting her.  I added the clock to my journal and made this page.  I gessoed the paper and then painted it with Luminarte Silks Acrylic Glaze, Nutmeg.  I stamped the background using a variety of stamps from my collection.  I stenciled a clock face and clock hands using Ferro Graphite metal.  I glued the clock face to the page and added patches of acrylic paint dauber "Pool" to pick up the patina of the copper clock face.  Now every time I look at this page I will be reminded of the fun I had while visiting my sister.