"Glass" beads

I made these beads!!!

While surfing Craft Gossip this morning I found this post about making beads from soda bottles and thought they looked very interesting so I checked the recycle bin for supplies - NONE!!!!!!!! All the plastic went out last week!! So, on my way home from my walk this I was on the look out and found three empty bottles which I promptly washed and disinfected so I could play!!

These are so cool!! They look so much like they are made of glass. I made all these beads from one center section of a medium plastic bottle. The ones I found had #1 in the triangle on the bottom. I cut the flat mid section into strips about 3/4" x 4", coloured them
with permanent Sharpie markers, rolled the strips around a pair of long needle nose pliers, tied them off with wire and used my heat gun on medium to heat the plastic to form a bead. The plastic shrinks and becomes thicker and in the process forms a bead. After this little bit of experimenting, I prefer to roll the bead so the inside of the bottle is on the outside of the bead. I applied colour to one side, the other side and both sides - they all look good. If you use a lot heat, the plastic will bubble and create a completely different looking bead - check out the top left light green bead in the first photo.

I expect that some of these cool beads are going to end up on a mixed media charm bracelet!! Starting to collect a few interesting charms that will look wonderful together!!

Thrifty Tip: Make cool beads using what is in your recycle bin!! If you don`t have Sharpies - any alcohol based markers will do like Copics. You could also use alcohol inks, liquid acrylic inks or acrylic paints though I would apply them to the side that will be inside the bead to leave the outside shiny and clear.

These would be great on book bindings, make great charms for a bracelet, or be very cool beads for making jewelry. You can customize the colours to your project or outfit!!

Have fun!! Leave me a comment and a link if you make some beads!!

Therese

Thank you cards

I had a Stampin UP party a week ago and I am expecting the goodies we ordered to show up this week so I made thank you cards for all those who came and participated in the fun afternoon and for those who placed orders, as well.

The decorative paper is my own creation - a mix of acrylic, fabric and glitter paint. I layered the decorative paper over white cardstock that had been laser printed with the greeting.

I added a bit of ribbon which I tucked behind on the left and overlapped with a 3" embossed scallop (Nestibilities) on the right. I added a die cut butterfly (Sizzix) over the scallop which has been embellished with stamping and an iridescent finish - nail polish!! It was the perfect blue/green colour and gave the butterflies just enough bling without being overwhelming. I layered this accent on the card front which is just 4.75 wide. These will be accompanied by #8 (6 3/4) envelopes.

I have taken a closeup of the butterfly to let you see the details and hopefully some of the shimmer!!

Thrifty Tip: Consider using nail polish when you are looking for a durable finish on accents! It comes in a million colours, can be purchased inexpensively and stays wet long enough to add glitter or other embellishments and and in some cases can be somewhat translucent which allows a lower layer to show through. In this case - the stamping was done first and the finish applied afterwards . When you paint it onto an absorbent surface like the cardstock I used here it will be less glossy but a couple of coats fixes that.

Therese

Christmas Cards - monochromatic challenge

Christmas cards!! I have started on Christmas cards so I will have the amount I need in November!! I started in January last year but for some reason I have had a slow start this year but I am planning on catching up!! I created these for Sylvia's Christmas Card Challenge for March - Monochromatic!!

I started with the ribbon, found cardstock to coordinate and auditioned my stamps to see what would work. I had originally wanted to use the stand of trees from the Lovely as a Tree (SU) set but it was a bit too long to work well. I am happy with the fir tree. I stamped it in white pigment ink and embossed it with a mixture of white embossing powder and Iridescent Ice (SU). Added a little greeting and embossed it the same way. I layered this element onto a white layer with distressed edges.

I added the ribbon, a green punchie with a small white snowflake sequin and attached it with a tiny white brad. I embossed the background green layer using the Swiss Dots embossing folder (CB), ran my white pigment pad gently over the bumps and embossed them with the same mixture of embossing powders. Added a couple of pieces of ribbon and mounted it to a white card front. The image layer is attached to the card front using 3D foam tape to raise it from the surface for a bit of dimension. I made six of these cards!! I do plan on adding inserts and envelopes yet before I store these away because that will finish them off completely and they will only require addresses, postage and a newsletter to be on their way!! I had not prepared inserts last year for most of the cards I made and it just took more time to get them out the door!!

Have you started your Christmas cards?? I highly recommend doing them monthly!! There are so many benefits including spending a bit more time to make them special, having a variety of designs and they are ready to go when you are ready to send them!! I have several Christmas card challenge blogs listed at the top of "Places I like to visit" on the right hand sidebar. Go check them out and see if you can get inspired to start your Christmas cards early this year!!

Therese

Beeswax collage - Home

Another technique I have been wanting to try for a while - a long while. Today was the day!

I used half of a game board (6"x9") as my substrate. For beeswax, I melted sheets of beeswax normally used to make rolled candles. For melting, I used a small crock pot in which I placed a small metal can (salmon). It took about a 1/2 hour to heat everything up but it worked perfectly. I used a utility natural bristled brush for applying the wax.

A few photos of the steps I went through while working on my collage.

#1 - The substrate - The game pieces have long been incorporated into collage bins and the boards have been just sitting so I decided to use one of them. I cut it in half and sanded the design off the paper of the playing surface so I would not have it showing through my collage and to keep the back of the board - a nice pebbly black surface - as the back of my collage.

#2 - I laser printed my collage images - vintage world map, neighborhood of houses, a large house and a woman standing - and trimmed them close. I downloaded the images from this Flicker Collage collection. The link is also on my sidebar under Online Resources - Collage Images. I referred to this video by Suze Weinberg to get started. All of my pieces were large so I applied beeswax to my substrate, laid my images down and used my heat gun to apply heat which melted the wax and incorporated the images into it. I added wax with the brush when needed. It is best to have something that helps spread the wax evenly over the surface. I used a crumpled piece of wax paper which worked reasonably well but was not ideal. I will try a skewer next time, using the pointy end for the fine work and laying it over to work the large areas.

#3 - I have collaged all the large images and have temporarily placed the red foil heart and the lace at the bottom.

#4 - All the words have been incorporated. The words were handwritten - black sharpie or white gel pen - on white tissue paper, dipped into the wax and positioned. It was more difficult than I thought to keep them straight and positioned correctly because as soon as I applied heat they were prone to moving around in the melted wax. It might have been more practical to use printed words from books or even laser printed ones.

Here is the finished collage. To attach the lace I applied wax to the bottom section with the brush, dipped the end of the lace in the wax and put it down on one edge and proceeded to position the rest of it by heating small sections and laying it down. I added some small hydrangea flowers to the collage which required more wax than I expected to keep them in place. I punched some holes in the top corners with my Cropadile and inserted and set large eyelets. Tied in a black ribbon to create a hanger.

I am pretty happy with my collage and look forward to trying it again with other materials - magazine images, paper napkins and adding some glitz like Suze did in her video!!

Therese

Charms ready to go!!

I have managed to embellish some of my polymer clay charms by adding jump rings and some sort of little embellishment from my metals drawer and for some, bling as well. Most of the embellishments I added to the jump ring so that they would stay loose and interactive. For a few I added them using large glue dots. Seems to work very well. I was not able to pull them back off so I am expecting they are there to stay.

To the beads I made, I added a few commercial beads and a fancy little end. I am not very proficient in wire work so the ends are not as pretty as I would like but reasonable. Not sure what else I could be putting on the ends of the wire to keep the beads from falling off. Will have to do some on line research and see what I can find.

Now the question will be - Which ones do I use for the swap? and What will I do with the rest of them?? Maybe a few RAKs are in order!!

Therese

Charms!!

Clay charm swap - that is what started this flurry of activity!! I dug out a set of polymer clay - Sculpey - that my sister gave me four years ago for Christmas and started making shapes to use in the creation of charms for swapping. It was totally fun and my first time using polymer clay. I added Pearl Ex to some of them before I baked them - worked pretty well. I created a bit of a container for baking my clay charms by covering a metal pie plate with foil in hopes of not contaminating my oven too much!!

I looked up some basic instructions on the internet and then just started playing. So will have to see how I can embellish these into charms for the swap. I impressed them with some of my CB embossing folders. I really liked how well that worked and the Pearl Ex nicely highlighted the designs.

Therese

Cardmaking - March - scallops & flowers

Just to change things up a bit I created these cards to fit in #8 (6 3/4) envelopes!! I used letter sized cardstock and cut the card 11" x 3.5" and folded it at 6 1/4" which leaves a 4 3/4" flap on the front. I added a 3" scallop (Nestibilities) that overlaps the edge of the front flap by half and creates a neat place to add an accent on the front of the card. In this case, I layered silk flowers, added a sequin and attached them together using a brad. I used a glue dot to attach this element to the scallop. When gluing the scallop to the front flap I applied glue to the flap to ensure that I did not glue the card closed. The single layer insert is hidden behind the front flap. I added a printed greeting to the red one and a stamped greeting to the yellow one.

Quick & easy meets Clean & Simple!! You gotta love it!!

With Daylight Saving time we have more hours of daylight!! Have a great day!!

Therese

Cardmaking - March - flower images

These cards feature colour printed flower images - I had a bunch of them in my stash and do not clearly recall where I bought them. Certainly, stickers or 3D card elements could easily be substituted for the images. Cutting images from junk mail, seed catalogs or commercial cards would also work.

I colour printed the greetings onto white cardstock to coordinate with the image and mounted the images at the top. Added a piece of wider ribbon just below and glued both ends to the back of the element using double sided tape. The slim ribbon is tied to it using double knots which creates a nice dip making a perfect little accent for this card. The bottom edge is trimmed using decorative scissors but could be torn instead for a different look. This accent element was mounted to the card front which had an embossed layer glued to it.

Keep your eyes open for interesting images that can be used for cardmaking - there are all kinds of places to get them and sometimes even for free!!

Therese

Cardmaking - March - tulip card

Some tulip cards for spring!! Was inspired by a card that featured a tulip created from ovals when I was creating my exchange card a few days ago so I played with the concept and came up with this tulip using the large oval punch (SU). I hand cut a stem and leaves for my tulip from a scrap of green cardstock. I chalked the ovals and the greenery to give them more dimension. For this card I layered an embossed (Swiss Dots - CB) white cardstock rectangle over black and mounted that to my card front. To create the tulip, I glued my three ovals to each other. After placing the elements on my card to make sure everything fit I glued the stem, leaves and tulip to my card front. I brought some cling mount greeting stamps (SU) and each person could add a greeting if they wished.

Tulips say "Spring"!! This would make a lovely Easter or Mother's Day card!!

Therese

Cardmaking - March - waterfall card

We made waterfall cards at cardmaking last night!! They are fun!!

I loosely followed this tutorial at Splitcoast Stampers. I modified the waterfall strip to 8.5"x 2" which I scored at 2", 2 5/8", 3 1/4" and 3 7/8" to create steps that were 5/8" instead of 3/4" to make better use of letter sized cardstock. I left out the extra layers on the waterfall images as well which gives the card a different look. On the samples here I used stamping and a cut out element on the black and caramel card and a stamped serendipity technique (One Sheet Wonder) on the other. I also created ones with colour printed letters (baby and bday) and stamped images (flower and butterflies). The waterfall images are 1 3/4" square. A stamped greeting can be added to the back portion of the waterfall.

If you have not tried making one of these you should. They are so dimensional when the waterfall is activated!! Check out the video link on this post a few days ago to SEE how cool the waterfall is!!

Tulip card

Made this tulip card for the card exchange at my get together with my crafty buddies!!

The tulip was created using three large oval punchies (SU) which were chalked to add a bit of dimension before they were glued together. I cut a stem and two leaves from a scrap of green cardstock which I also chalked. I layered these elements onto white cardstock that was stamped with a word definition stamp (SU) that I inked with several different colours. Added a green rectangle which I had punched with a scallop border punch (SU) and embellished by piercing a hole in each scallop using a push pin. I layered all the elements onto a yellow card. I stamped "Happy Easter" (SU) in green on the lower right hand side of the top layer which finished it off perfectly!!

Spring has sprung here - only a bit of snow here and there and temperatures above the zero mark!!

Therese

Waterfall Card

Made a waterfall card this morning!! It is for a swap on one of my groups. We needed to use purple & white and include at least one bunny! Amazingly, it is the first time I used this bunny rubber stamp. I have used all the other stamps from this Stampin UP set and finally got around to using this one! I followed rather loosely this Waterfall Card tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers!!

Used decorative paper on the card front and added my strip using eyelets. I don't use eyelets very often so it was fun to include them on this card. I added eyelets in the middle of little punchie flowers which helps add some dimension. The other images I used on the card are also from this set - the little dragonfly, the flowers and the "Just for you" saying which is on

the last panel. I chose to put the waterfall to the side a bit so I could add a little butterfly embellishment to the left of it. I added the flight trail with a fine tipped black Sharpie marker.

These are fun cards to make!! I found some very cool ones on Splitcoast especially this one that uses hot air balloons!! Follow this link to her blog and watch the little video to see how cool it looks when it is opened!!

Therese

Zentangle cards!

Our final day the students created these clean and simple cards with Zentangles they had created over the course of our art sessions. I think it is important that everyone know how to create cards for themselves using their own art! These are quick and easy - simply trimmed zentangles layered onto black and then onto a coloured square and mounted onto the embellished card using 3D foam tape. I provided word templates so they could trace greetings onto their cards using fine tipped Sharpie markers if they wished.

As always, I am delighted when students branch out and do their own thing with the supplies I provide and the techniques I teach them. I so do enjoy teaching and feel blessed that I get opportunities to do so!!

Thanks for dropping by!!

Therese

Handmade Paper Art book - charm

I stamped some shrink plastic with this cool quote about art!! I do feel that art has a restorative effect on our lives - it certainly does in my life!! The students added colour with coloured pencils and shrunk the plastic to create these cool little charms which were tied to the binding of their books using fiber!!

The books were bound using large brads through a black spine cover which helped to neaten the look of the book and provide some stability to the handmade paper. The back of the spine was covered with a strip of black cardstock to hide the tang ends of the brads. Makes a nice looking binding and finishes off the book very nicely.

The students always love playing with shrink plastic so creating charms in one of our last sessions after our books were bound worked very nicely and gave them some time to play.

Therese

Handmade Paper Art book - paper weaving

This page features a panel of woven handmade paper. I cut a piece of white cardstock 5"x5" and added double sided tape to each side. I did not remove the carrier from the tape right away. To start the weaving, the carrier was removed from one side and strips of handmade paper were placed side by side over it adhering them to the square. It was then fairly easy to weave strips into them using just a simple over and under pattern. Once the weaving covered all the white cardstock the carrier from the last three strips of double sided tape was removed and the paper weaving pressed into them to secure it. Any pieces overlapping the edges were trimmed, any ends that were flapping were glued down and the weaving was glued to the handmade paper sheet. Both the quote and the trimmed embossed handmade paper (from the first day) were coloured and layered onto the page overlapping the weaving and attached using brads.

I like this quote because it emphasizes that our life is the accumulation of days!! It seems more manageable to make changes in your life when you can start with making changes only for one day!!

Therese

Handmade Paper Art book - patchwork

This quilt was fun and easy to do!! I cut quarter sheets of label and we laid strips of decorative paper down on the sticky side leaving space between all the pieces. Once the piece of label was completely covered we trimmed the decorative paper to its edge and sprinkled gold embossing powder on the front which was caught in all the places where the label's adhesive had been left exposed. A run under the heat gun and we had gold threads running through our patchwork!! They looked great!! We glued them to the handmade paper sheet, added our embellished quote by overlapping it onto the patchwork and attaching it with brads which nicely attached all the pieces together. The dragonfly die cut (cut from sheets made the first day) was stapled on and the black body part nicely covered the staples.

I chose this quote because as our lives get busy we need to be sure that time with friends is woven in into our days!!

Therese

Handmade Paper Art book - metal embossing

This page features metal embossed flowers in a garden on some light blue handmade paper!! I die cut some silver foil (pie plate) into flowers shapes and we used pencils to draw designs using light pressure which embossed the metal. It is best to place the metal on a giving surface - in our case, we used folded newspaper which works really well. I added a flower garden using a black Sharpie and coloured the flowers and stems with chalk. Glued down the fence die cut (made longer by folding the cardstock in the same way I lengthened the film strip) and added the embellished quote with brads. The handmade paper butterfly die cut (cut from sheets made the first day) was embellished with chalk or pencil crayon and details were added using Sharpie markers. The butterfly was stapled to the background in its body area and the black body shape was glued over it nicely concealing the staples. The embossed metal flowers were embellished with yellow centers and attached to the page with brads.

We always have choice to make the best of the circumstances of our lives and bloom!!

Therese

Handmade Paper Art book - colouring with paper

This page was fun because we used tissue paper to "colour" our page! It is cool to see the colours that are created as the tissue paper strips are glued down in an overlapping pattern. Each student cut out a house shape, added details using marker or gel pen, stapled it to their tissue paper background, coloured and trimmed their quote and added it with brads and finally glued on their embossed red hearts!! I laid my tissue paper strips to create a rainbow. Each student was provided with a variety of colourful paper strips to choose from so each background was somewhat different. One student glued hers vertically for a really different look!

Chose this quote as a reminder that when we choose to love it has a transformative effect in our lives!!

Choose to think, speak and act more lovingly today!!

Therese

Handmade Paper Art book - cover

The cover of our books!! Each student chose a set of four sheets of handmade paper for their covers. We used two sheets of handmade paper (5.5"x8.5") for each cover/book page which allowed the backs of our brads and staples to not show in our book. After adding our art/instructions to each sheet we glued it to its coordinating sheet to create our pages. We glued a small black circle over the edge of the joined sheets, punched a couple of holes and tied on some colourful fiber - a decorative element that was added for style & function!!

In our second art session we created Zentangle designs!! These nice bold letters (A, R, T) are a font printed with only the outline and perfect for filling with zentangles. It is wonderful that the student's personal work is so prominently featured on their books!

In the next session we glued our decorated letters behind the holes of this film strip die cut (SX). The die has only two holes in it, so to create a continuous strip for our letters I folded over one section of the black cardstock strip and placed the fold very close to the cutting edge of the die before passing it through my Big Kick - voila! - a film strip with three holes!! I gave them a large silver star die cut, a small round tag for the year and some brads to add them to the front cover.

The back cover features a small silver star punchie attached with a brad. They all added their "rock star" signature next to the stars!! It took a little practice to make sure that art was not placed on the binding edge and to keep the pages upright to each other but with a little vigilance on my part we managed reasonably well to have all the art and pages properly oriented.

This quote ended up on the inside of my back cover because we required a catch up day to ensure that everyone's pages were ready for binding at the same time which eliminated one of the pages I had planned and left this quote without a page of its own. I thought it important enough to insert into their books at some place or another!!

We all need to remember that the trajectory of our lives is affected by what we think, what we say and what we do. It is always best to choose these wisely!!

Therese

Handmade paper - small sheets & embossing

We made these handmade paper sheets the first day of my sessions with the students!! They made plain white sheets, embossed white sheets and, at the end, we added some blue pulp to make some coloured sheets!!!

The embossed sheets were created using "moulds" I created several years ago for creating paper casts. I used hot glue to trace a hand drawn image I had placed under small sheets of handiwipes - kitchen wash up cloths! Both sides are affected when creating the sheets - one side is embossed and the other is debossed (sorry I should have flipped one over so you could see the difference). I love the contrast and texture of these pages which are most effective using a solid colour plain paper pulp - I really like them in white!!

I always use waste paper for making handmade paper, so in this case, I used white paper/cardstock that had no printing or stamping on it. As I am creating, I always put my scraps that are plain white in a special container so I can use them to make these nice clear sheets of white paper!!

These were used later in the creation of our Handmade Paper Art books!!

Therese

Envelope book swap

On one of my groups we are having an envelope book swap!! I thought it was a great idea!! I choose to use the theme - from our house to yours - referring to the communication between families that is done through the postal system - we all love to get mail!!

I used walnut ink to distress my envelopes and added coffee cup stains to most of them!! Cool effect!! I created art on the front and the back and included fun stuff inside too!!

The front of the A2 sized envelope features a road stamped on the bottom using an unmounted distressed wheel (SU), a bare tree stamp (Applachian Arts), some mountains (Applachian Arts) and words stamped with my set of magnetic letter stamps (Making Memories) - all in dark brown ink (Memories Chalk). I used an old funky book, drew houses with a large black permanent marker on the pages and cut them out to embellish my envelopes. Colour printed the mail box onto label, cut it out to make a sticker and placed it by the road near the house. I stamped the little envelope on label as well and cut it out as well. I placed it near the top of the house and used a fine tip Sharpie marker to create a line of movement from the words to the mail box.

On the back of the envelope I stamped the unmounted wheel stamp of houses (SU) across the bottom edge and added a bit of colour with coloured pencils. I dug through my postage stamp collection looking for an appropriate postage stamp. Found enough of these that feature flags and were similar in colour to my mailbox so added that to my flap next to the my words along with a line of movement with a black Sharpie.

To the inside of the envelope I added a little petal envelope cut from brown paper embellished with french script (SU) that has postage stamps inside it. They all feature houses of some kind. I also included one of my 3D house ATC!!! These little ATCs actually can be unfolded and make a three dimensional house!! Very fun!!

I have mailed them off and am looking forward to the little stash of envelopes I will be getting back!! I will make myself some interesting covers and bind them all together using my Bind it All!!

I am starting to have a little collection of interesting art books that are all my creations!!

Therese

Vintage love letters postcard

This is my creation in response to a challenge to create a vintage love letter postcard. It was totally fun to put together but gathering the supplies took a bit of time. The background is colour printed - a vintage postcard with music on it - front and back. I downloaded them from Jack and Cat Curio - they have great art and occasionally some images for download - very cool stuff!! I downloaded the handwritten letter from a collage Flicker group where people upload stuff for sharing. The rose I downloaded from the internet - not sure where from.

I printed the postcard - front and back and glued it to cardstock and then colour washed the edges with walnut ink so it would look like it was only one piece. I colour washed the handwritten letter with walnut ink as well and then cut a piece the size I needed for my project, from it. The rose I colour printed and cut out close to the edges. I cut the little envelope using the petal card die (SU) from gold vellum which had heart swirls on it and put a vintage heart tag on the inside closing it off with a brown seal. It is a reuse item - can you guess where it came from - leave me a comment if you figure it out. The ribbon is brown vintage seam binding and I dug a gold heart embellishment from my metal stash. The postage stamps are used stamps I have collected along the way.

After preparing all of my elements I started laying them out and seeing how they all worked with each other. Once I had all the items laid out the way I wanted them I glued everything in place starting with the lower items and finally adding the seam binding and the metal heart!!

I love the way it came together!!!!

Therese

Pop UP Card

On one of my groups we were challenged to make a pop up card that featured flowers!! Wanting to be a little more creative, I did a search on Splitcoast Stampers for some inspiration!! After finding several interesting cards I came up with this design. It is somewhat like a Diorama card - you push in the sides and flatten the card before inserting it in the envelope and it pops when it is taken out.

I used my rectangle Nestibilities to cut the opening in the cardstock and the decorative paper. Love the way they cut perfectly!! I added a couple of five petal punchies (SU) to the front along with a little gold sequin flower and a laser printed greeting.

On the inside I added some decorative paper and two cardstock rectangles - one white and one red (cut out of the front). To the cardstock I mounted several layered silk flowers with a gold brad.

Very happy with the card!! It stands very nicely and looks so dimensional!!

Therese

Handmade paper!

Another stack of handmade paper!!

Over the last month and half I have been teaching art to high school students - we have been working on creating a handmade paper art book - one page and technique at a time!! The book pages are all handmade paper - hence a stack of handmade paper was needed!!

I love making paper though in this case I made paper that was a bit more subtle than usual because we were going to be adding our art to the pages and it worked better if the paper was not too busy.

Any size of paper scraps can be used for making paper and I am fortunate to have several Stampin UP demos who save the scraps from their workshops for me to reuse!! Stampin UP cardstock makes really nice handmade paper!!!

Therese

I am back!!

I am finally back to posting to my blog!! It has been a busy month with having the flu, teaching 2-3 classes a week and having a death in the family and therefore a trip out west!! I have been making art so I will be posting my creations over the next week or so!!

Therese

Cardmaking - Feb - kraft magic

I love these decorative papers!! I purchased them in London, England last year - where they sell paper by the piece displayed gently folded over a dowel!! These two feature flowers and butterflies in muted colours on kraft paper so I combined them with a black layer which highlighted the black elements in the papers. Added a black laser printed greeting on kraft cardstock which was also combined with a black layer!! Because I was really appreciating the grungy look of this paper I added two staples as an accent on the greeting!! Pretty much the end of this paper but the joy has been in using it and making some cute cards along the way!!

We have a stash - not to have a collection of "stuff" - but to have just the thing we need when we need it!! So use up your cool collection so you can replace it with yet more cool stuff!!

Therese

Cardmaking - Feb - paper napkins

This card was the result of challenging myself to use some supplies that were donated to me by a fellow card maker - paper napkins!! I stripped the napkins down to one layer and then started playing with how they could be applied to a card. In the end, I cut a piece of white cardstock to 4" x 5.25", applied glue generously to the front and placed a piece of paper napkin over it. I started smoothing it down from the center and if little wrinkles developed I just let them be - it adds texture. With that done, I had the choice to fold all the edges to the back and glue them down OR trim them off. Either would have worked but I decided to turn the edges over to the back and glue them down. The paper napkin gives almost a fabric feel to this layer which made it very tactile. To prevent overwhelming the whole I added a simple colour printed greeting attached with brads and looking at it now it might even have been better to add a greeting printed on transparency so as to avoid hiding any of the beauty of the paper napkin design. I layered these onto coordinating cardstock. A quick and easy design!!

So at the next party you attend, consider collecting two paper napkins - one for your food and fingers and one for your crafting pleasure!! If you are buying napkins for your next event considering adding a few to your stash and share the leftovers with your crafting buddies!!

Therese

Cardmaking - Feb - filmstrip

I have owned the filmstrip die (Sizzix) since last summer and have been gestating on how it could be used in Cardmaking!! An idea emerged this week and I love it!! I cut one film strip and applied two strips of double sided tape to the back of it covering the little holes at the top and bottom, turned it over and added silver glitter!! Just the right amount of bling!! I added more tape to attach my transparency greeting into the right hand side opening and glued the whole thing to a layer of white cardstock and then to a coloured card front. I added a large die cut accent on the left hand side - hearts, flowers, happy faces and butterflies!!

Very happy with how this card turned out!!

Therese

Cardmaking - Feb - quilt card

Have been wanting to make a paper quilt card for a while and when I discovered a tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers I checked it out!! It was beautiful but I anticipated that cutting squares into triangles might be too much for Cardmaking so I started searching for patterns that were a little less complicated and decided on the log cabin design which just uses strips!! To keep the square within the 4.25" of a regular card I had to modify the design a bit to allow for the use of 3/4" strips. The 3/4" strips are easy to cut with my cutter as that it the width of the cutting blade support - just tuck in and cut!! So in the end, my quilt square is a quarter of the log cabin design. It uses darks and lights to each side of the "hearth" - in my case the yellow or red square on the lower right hand side.

I started by emptying my bin of decorative paper scraps onto the table and started sorting them into colour families and within each of those a stack of each - darks and lights. Patterns like gingham which were too much of each I just eliminated to make the task easier. Then I cut a LOT of strips and started piecing squares!!

You can see on the top one that I used lights and darks of four different colours - green, blue, purple and red and made my hearth yellow. For the lower one, I used the same colour family and used lights and darks that coordinated and a little red square for my hearth. Both options work pretty well.

It works best to use a piece of scrap paper as the support for your paper quilt - in this case I used a 3.75" square. I glued the longest light on the left hand side first - even with the corner and the outside edge. Then, I glued the longest dark along the top just butted up against the light one and even with the top edge. Next, another light one - butted into the corner created by the first two and just kept adding light, dark, etc until I finally glued on my little hearth square. I left the strips hanging off the edges which also meant that I did not have to measure anything - too easy. Once everything was glued down I just took the whole thing to my cutter and trimmed the overhanging ends to be even with my hearth square on both sides. I embossed my quilt using an embossing folder which added texture and helped unite the pieces into a whole - like hand quilting would.

I layered my paper quilt square onto black which helped make the colours pop and then onto my card front. I added a layered greeting and a little paper button!! Also added some paper piercing along the edge of my quilt square!!

So if you have been meaning to try paper quilting give this one a try. I found this pattern fairly easy to manage and though it isn't as pretty as the one on Splitcoast it was a good choice for my first paper quilt.

Therese

Technique book pages - emboss resist

Emboss resist!! Yet more fun making backgrounds!! I investigated what could be done using embossing ink and powder to provide a resist when creating backgrounds. The one on the left was created on glossy paper using clear embossing ink (Versamark) and clear embossing powder with several layers of acrylic paint colour washes over it. It took a little elbow grease to remove the acrylic paint from the embossed area though I found it easier if the paint had not dried for too long. A slightly damp tissue on the heavily embossed areas cleaned them up nicely.

Here are all the pages I created for the swap using clear embossing ink and clear powder! Top row - a rubber stamped image with acrylic paint colour washes, an inked stencil stamped on white tissue paper with an acrylic paint wash, a rubber stamped image with an acrylic colour wash. Row two - rubber stamped image on yellow cardstock covered with brown dye ink, rubber stamped image with acrylic paint colour wash, rubber stamped image on white cardstock with watercolour washes. Row three - decorative paper inked through a stencil and an acrylic colour wash, rubber stamped image on a book page with watercolour washes, rubber stamped image with acrylic colour washes.

I found that when using watercolour it was best to let the colour dry well before removing the colour accumulated on the embossing and using a damp cloth reactivated the colour and often removed much of it, so was not helpful. I have quite a few rejects that did not give me look I was going for but were interesting in their own right. Glossy calendar pages were very challenging and in the end I just gave up because even acrylic paint wiped off that glossy surface - who knew!!

So after a week of doing research and playing with background techniques I have my pages complete and ready to be mailed out!!!!!!!

I hope you will consider trying a few of them and making a few cards for your stash!!

Therese

Technique book pages - dryer sheets

My next foray into backgrounds was to delve into the possibilities of using dryer sheets!! After some internet research I would caution that some believe that the chemicals contained in dryer sheets are dangerous and should be avoided.

I worked with used dryer sheets - ones that had been used in the dryer many times but would consider washing them before using them the next time around. The techniques really work best with depleted sheets so if you choose not to use the dryer sheets you should launder them before you proceed. You may be able to obtain what you need by asking friends and family to save them

for you or to post to a Freecycle group and ask for what you need.

The basic idea is just to apply colour to the sheets to make them interesting. I used acrylic craft paint, glitter paint and acrylic ink on my pages. I attached the backgrounds to cardstock by capturing them between two layers using double sided tape. I attached the butterfly sequin using a glue dot which secured the butterfly and background to the cardstock.

For colour, you can also consider tea, coffee, dyes, liquid acrylic, textile paints, fabric dyes, reinkers, alcohol inks, spritz and mists - even Koolaid (no sugar)!! I lay the dryer sheets onto plain bond and used a brush to apply the paint and in some cases used several different colours on the same sheet. Because the dryer sheets are so thin the colour medium will soak through creating yet more background paper as you decorate the dryer sheets. Lay them out on a protected surface to dry. You can also consider soaking the sheets - plain or tied - in containers of colour medium, removing them later and laying them out to dry. Either way it is recommended that you iron the backgrounds to heat set the colour. To protect your iron it is best to press them between two sheets of bond paper. Once ironed they are ready to be used in your art!

Some people have stamped or stenciled them to add yet more dimension. Many textile artists are using them to layer into their mixed media art, quilters use them for several different techniques and they can be used to create embellishments in the same way that fabric or ribbon would be used.

There are two techniques that I read about while doing online research that I would like to try. One recommended layering the dryer sheet on a plastic or resistant surface (silicone) and painting it with white glue and sprinkling on glitter. This created a beautifully transparent material which was used to create dove and snowflake ornaments. I expect you could colour your glue with ink and get a coloured version. This may have the feel of fabric.

The other is to used dryer sheets to create "fabric paper". Lay the dryer sheet on a resistant surface and brush on thinned glue (1 part water to 2 parts glue). Then start layering on thin papers with thinned glue between each layer. Add cut out elements, paper napkins or even items such as lace and ribbon for colour and texture. Finish the piece with a layer of neutral tissue paper and a final layer of glue. I have been wanting to try this for a while though was sort out of the scope of this project so I have put it off yet again.

There is also a technique called "Dryer sheet technique" where you coat a colourful image with adhesive, layer on a dryer sheet and add glitter! Great for Christmas cards!! You can check it out here on Splitcoast Stampers.

Technique book pages - metal embossing

So here is what I created while playing at embossing metal!! I have done this several times before and found it such a cool way to add interest and personality to a project!!

This one features metal tape over cardstock and embossing in an embossing folder to which transparent acrylic paint has been added. The heart is die cut and hand tooled with a design and letters which have to be inscribed on the back - backwards - to be right reading on the front. It is attached with 3D foam tape.

These are my pages featuring embossed metal. Top row - metal tape over cardstock and embossed with an embossing folder, four different metals (yogurt, applesauce and nut can seals) embossed using texture plates using silicone mat in a die cutting machine, metal tape over cardstock and embossed with an embossing folder with a hand tooled foil pie plate heart diecut. Row two - flower aluminum can die cuts embossed in embossing folder and layered, flower aluminum can die cuts embossed in embossing folder, aluminum foil pie plate hand tooled through a stencil. Row three - aluminum can die cut flower embossed with embossing folder and a hand tooled applesauce foil seal, hand cut aluminum can seal hand tooled, yogurt container seal hand tooled with a circular design. The colour was added to all using transparent acrylic paint.

You can buy metal for tooling but I find there quite a few options for reusing foil that is readily available such as seals from yogurt, applesauce, cans of nuts and tea. Certainly, foil bakeware can be purchased locally and provides a heavier metal for working with. Aluminum drink cans are yet a little heavier and also readily available though I would caution being careful of sharp edges when cutting cans apart. The metal foil tape can be purchased at hardware stores and depending on the weight may need to be supported by cardstock. Be on the look out for metal items that can be embossed such as copper plant tags, etc.

I have used a pencil for tooling my designs. Consider a pen, knitting needle, crochet hook, blunted skewer, paper or wood stump. Almost any object with a blunt rounded end will do the job. Of course, embossing folders, texture plates and crimpers do the job in a heart beat. Consider using a rubber mallet to emboss the metal in the embossing folders.

You will need a soft surface for embossing - I use just a small stack of newspapers. You want something with just a little give so you don't pierce your metal. A foam placemat, mouse pad or stiff fun foam would also work.

I used a homemade acrylic paint for adding colour. You could consider any of the transparent window paints recommended for suncatchers. Alcohol inks, glass paint, Sharpie markers, acrylic inks, fluid acrylics and thinned acrylic paints would also do the job.

If you would prefer not to tool your own design onto the metal consider using printed clipart, a stamped image or a stencil. Stained glass designs work well to start because of their bold style.

To get started, place your metal right side down on your soft surface and use your tool to create a design. Turn it over to see how it is coming along. There is no such thing as an eraser per se but I have used a wooden spoon or wood handle from a spatula for removing all the embossing and started over. You will see that there is an embossed and debossed side to each piece. You can choose the one that you like best. You can create backgrounds, embellishments and focal elements using metal!!

There are coloured foils which can be embossed and then sanded for a great look. Check out this video for a really cool project!!

So save a few pieces of metal from your daily life and see what you can create using what you have on hand - a newspaper and pencil at the very least - a put a little more of yourself in your next project!!

Therese

Technique book pages - alcohol inks

For these pages I was playing with alcohol inks!! Again, after some on line research had a few new ideas to add to my repertoire of techniques.

Alcohol inks are suitable for non porous surfaces which makes them good on glossy, metallic, pearlized or foiled paper or cardstock, vellum, acetate, foil, plastic, glass, metal and for such 3D items such as dominoes, fragments, stickers, metal embellishments, etc. Just a note though, photo paper is glossy but is designed to absorb inkjet ink and therefore is not suitable for this technique.

You can see all my technique pages in this photo. Top row - glossy paper, dye reinkers with alcohol and StazOn ink, acetate, alcohol inks and StazOn ink, glossy cardstock, dye reinkers with alcohol and Palette ink (swipe technique), Row two - glossy cardstock, alcohol inks and Palette ink, glossy cardstock, dye reinkers with alcohol and StazOn ink (swirl technique), glossy cardstock, alcohol inks and Memories ink. Row three - foil tape on cardstock, alcohol inks and StazOn ink, vellum, alcohol inks and StazOn ink, acetate, alcohol inks and Brilliance ink.

You can buy the metallic fixatives to go with the alcohol inks though I have successfully used Krylon metallic pens for creating the "polished stone" look which features metallic veining.

I have found that dye reinkers and alcohol work really well on paper to create alcohol ink backgrounds. Unfortunately, they will not work on other surfaces such as acetate or metal.

Blending solution is colourless and is used to dilute and spread alcohol inks. I have personally used rubbing alcohol (70% or more) for 98% of my alcohol ink work with no problems and I read on line in several places that others are doing the same thing. A very cost effective option. In some cases, 90% rubbing alcohol was used as well.

As a substitute for the applicator I have been using a strip of felt attached to a small wood block (3" x 1" x .75) with two thumb tacks. I have a handy DH so a small block of wood was easy to find but you might consider using a wood block from a rubber stamp or one from a Jenga game. You can also adhere velcro hooks to the block instead of using tacks and that will keep your felt in place.

I used Staz On, Memories and Brilliance ink on my pages. I also used Ancient Page ink on one of the pages that did not make the cut for other reasons. Several online also suggested Archival and Versafine for stamping over alcohol inks. You can certainly use pigment ink and embossing powder for a different look. Some dye inks may also be suitable for use on paper but not on other surfaces.

You can use alcohol inks to colour embellishments like brads, rhinestones, metal or plastic tags or letters, dew drops, hot glue, etc.

For a very creative option consider using PVA glue to seal regular cardstock - you can incorporate bits for texture. Once completely dry, apply a quick coat of alcohol inks for very dramatic backgrounds.

I found some places on line where alcohol inks were combined with spray starch or acrylic floor polish (Future - Klear (UK)) to create interesting backgrounds.

Sharpie markers are alcohol based markers so you can scribble them on acetate and use alcohol on a Qtip to move them around and create some unique looking backgrounds and/or embellishments.

Lots of fun playing with alcohol inks!!

I would certainly recommend at the very least trying dye reinkers (StampinUP) and alcohol on glossy cardstock!!

Therese

Technique book pages - moldable foam

I have joined a Technique Book Swap on AFTCM. I signed up for five techniques and this is my first one - moldable foam backgrounds. I did some research on line to see what others were doing and tried the few I had supplies for. I have some Penscore which I used for some of these backgrounds. There is also a product called Magic Stamp which is very similar and works the same way. This foam can be heated and impressed with any texture so the sky is the limit for what is possible.

This next photo shows all the pages I made for my swap using moldable foam!! Top row - PS, cedar sprig imprint and multicoloured dye ink, moldable foam packaging (packaged with a unmounted stamp to be used as a stamping surface), embossing folder imprint and blue dye ink, PS, heart buttons imprint and red dye ink. Row two - fun foam heart, part of a rubber stamp imprint and blue dye ink*, PS, cedar sprig imprint and brown dye ink, moldable foam packaging, part of a floral rubber stamp and blue dye ink. Row three - PS, lace imprint and pink dye ink, moldable foam packaging,

part of a floral rubber stamp and blue dye ink, PS, pressed leaf imprint and green dye ink.

You can see here the little fun foam heart I used to create the blue background* in the previous picture!! It turned out very cool and made a very interesting background. Who knew that fun foam could be used so creatively!!

To create the stamp, heat moldable foam about 10 seconds with a heat gun until it gets soft and smooth and immediately press it into your texture! Hold for 30 seconds or so and you have a new stamp!! The fun foam works pretty much the same way - the thicker fun foam is better for creating stamps this way. Just use a bit of double sided tape to hold the fun foam to a solid surface - piece of wood or thick plastic works well - which you can use as a handle for impressing it onto your texture. Now just apply your ink and stamp away!! They can be cleaned and reused many times if you choose to keep the design you have created. To impress a new design - simply heat again and apply to new texture!! A new stamp!! I have kept a few of the ones I have created in the past because I really like the look of the stamp and how well it makes backgrounds. You can also use foam trays in the same manner but there are warnings on the internet about health risks to heating the foam. It solidifies much more quickly so you really have to be ready when using this type of foam.

If you don't have a heat gun you can use another source but you will have to experiment to see what works and how long it takes to soften the foam. I do not recommend any sort of open flame!!! Consider using a light bulb or electric stove element.

Be on the look out for moldable foam that is disguised as garden kneelers, visors, etc. Anything that has feels like fun foam (spongy) will probably work. The thicker fun foam works better - 1/8" or more.

There is a lot of die cut fun foam available so buy the shapes you want. Otherwise, buy sheets and cut with a die cut machine, scissors or an exacto knife. You can create your own shadow stamps for any of your regular stamps by just stamping the image on the fun foam and cutting out the shape. If you have a Cricut consider using a deep cutting blade to cut out shapes!!

You can use a wide variety of colour mediums with these stamps - ink pads, acrylic paint, textile paints, etc. You can also stamp on wide variety of substrates - paper, cardstock, fabric, wood, etc.

As for textures - the sky is the limit!! Consider rice, pasta, rubber bands, pressed botanicals, rubber stamps, shells, buttons, lace, fabric, placemats, plastic canvas, beads, combs, texture plates, embossing folders, etc. Consider that the image will be reversed so in some cases writing or numbers is not your best option.

Foam trays and fun foam can not only be impressed with an image but you can also add details by using a pencil or pen and scribing the surface. Consider though that this may damage the surface enough that it cannot be heated and reused but a great way to add details to a basic shape.

Foam stamps need to be neatly stored so their surfaces are protected from contact with hard edges which over time will impress their surface and possibly ruin their impression. Thin fun foam ones can be stored in CD cases.

So buy yourself a few sheets of fun foam (craft foam), start playing and make yourself a few stamps!! Enjoy!!

Therese

Hands of Time ATCs

I created these three ATCs for a Hands of Time swap on AFTCM!! I used photos I downloaded from The Morgue File - a great resource of photos for free - and added some elements to make them work. The left hand one - I used a dandelion photo, added a clock face and a quote - You only have n o w. Choose wisely. I added some 3D hands with a brad to the middle and added the n and the w with a white gel pen to spell the word n o w. The middle one - I used a photo of a watch, added a quote to the top and bottom and a clock sticky border to the side of it. The right one - I used a photo of a clock mechanism and added a quote with white gel marker.

One swap down - several more to go!!

Therese

Anniversary cards

Created these as anniversary cards but they certainly would do very nicely for Valentine's!! They feature two white die cut hearts (white serendipity technique) with a red fiber heart sandwiched in between, all tied with a silver cord. I added ribbon and red lace to the embossed layer, tucking the ends in behind before I glued them to the red card front. I added three heart rhinestones which was just the right touch of bling!!

Therese

Paper flower card

Made this card for an exchange with my stamping buddies!! I was late getting started so I used items that were close at hand - a paper bag flower I had received in an exchange on AFTCM, background paper that had already been clear embossed, at greeting from my stash of class leftovers and a ribbon just sitting from a past project!! I washed the embossed background paper and the greeting with walnut ink and let them dry while I found some red cardstock. It can together fairly quickly after that - cut background paper to size, glue to card front, add ribbon and glue to inside of card, mount flower with double sided tape and the greeting with 3D foam tape!! Done!!

Therese

Cardmaking - Black Magic

Love the look of this technique - Black Magic!! Again, discovered a tutorial at Splitcoast Stampers for this technique! It is so easy!! Stamp a solid style stamp on black cardstock using white pigment ink, heat set and colour with coloured pencils or chalk!! I am amazed at how great this image looks - the colours pop a little!! I outlined the black cardstock with white gel pen, layered it onto an embossed layer and then onto white cardstock!!

This one is a "quick and easy"!!! Enjoy!!

Therese