A couple of little things after a long break

Hi everyone! At last I have come out from under my rock, tidied up my scrapping space and started creating again! I must say I needed the break though - work got hectic, life got in the way and I just couldn't think!

I started in a small way - first with some ATC's for a swap group I've been involved in for several years, and secondly with a mixed media embellishment experiment that I've been wanting to try.

First the ATC's.

The criteria for this swap are different every time, but are open to any interpretation you want - the sky's the limit. This time it was ''Fibre and Feathers'' and this is my slightly tropical contribution.

There are a whole lot of my2angels products here....first the ATC base itself - these ones are Inkssentials Kraft - with a simple gold heat embossed border. I used a swipe from my Emboss It Dabber and then dipped the wet edge of the card into some Zing Metallic Gold embossing powder (sadly out of stock right now, but I need some more soon, so I guess maybe Tracy will get some in ...please when the exchange rate gets better).

After adding a slightly smaller piece of background paper and stamping with a palm frond and Peeled Paint Distress Ink, I added a bit of something sandy with Ferro Metal Effect Texture Paint (gold again) pushed through a stencil and a scattering of Golden Crunch Sugar Beads.

The first of my ''fibres'' was the curly frayed bits you can pull off the edge of an old white elastic bandage...NEVER throw these things away LOL! 

The embellishment on top is made up of a few simple elements. A Mulberry Flower painted gold using metallic acrylic paint, a Frangapani Flower (slightly cut down to fit better on the card, a piece of raffia - tied and frayed - the second ''fibre'' I used - a small Green Mulbery flower and my nod to the ''feathers'', a silver Parrot on a Flower Swing charm. After I'd finished painting the gold flowers I watered down the remaining paint on my palette and flicked some gold spots around on the bottom of the card.

I hope the ladies in the swap will like them :)

After making these cards and sending them on their way in the post I sat down at the still tidy desk (!!!!) and had a play with altering some leaves. 

I used two Large Green Leaves with Cream Edges, several White Mulberry Paper leaves and a piece of an old Prima Vine that was hanging around in the bottom of my Flowers box. Later I added a metal flower made up of several Filigrees...available here.

First paint all the leaves with a base colour - I used blue. Don't forget the stems.

Add a very thick coat of Clear Crackle, some Blue Lemonade Sugar Beads and a scattering of Micro Beads - mine are Silver and Multi-Coloured.

Put more crackle over the beads and wait AGES for it to dry :)

Add a bit more crackle or beads if you like....wait AGES for it to dry.....again 

Use a dry brush and some metallic paint to highlight the edges and the cracks. Did you know that if you mix Inca Gold with a little bit of water you can thin it out a bit and use it just like a paint? As well as ordinary metallic acrylic paints I used various colours of Inca Gold - the bright Gold one on the leaves and also the Turquoise, Cobalt Blue, Steel Blue, and Aquamarine on the flower.  my2angels do have Kaisercraft Metallic Gold paint in stock which will work as well.  When the Aussie $ is more in line with the US$ Tracy will be doing a huge restock of products at the moment it just isn't worth her ordering anything as she will lose so much $$$

Here's how it all came out. I think they turned out to be really pretty and will definitely use them on a layout or card in the future.

A bit of this and a bit of that

We have a mixture of Yellow and Gold today ...

Colouring Charms

Using our Silver Evening Dress Charms as an example (after all, what woman doesn't want a variety of looks for her eveningwear?), we have coloured our charms with the following products:

Sunflower Yellow Stazon 

Yellow Stickles.

Mustard Seed Distress Paint

Inka Gold

Stampendous Aged Gold Embossing Enamel

They are also in order of how well they coloured, with Stazon being the best, but this does only apply to these smaller charms.  I have used the following products on larger charms and the Stampedous came out on top of some of the tests.  I think it is a personal choice and can often be up to what affect you want to create. You can also combine mediums - how cool would the Stazon and Stickles look together?? Experimentation is the key and playing with the various mediums is half the fun.

 Let's get started on play time ...

Embellishing a Filigree Flower Border

First, paint the Filigree Border Flourish Flower with Mustard Seed Distress Paint and when dry, add Yellow Stickles. 

Cut up a small 23cm yellow mulberry flower into individual petals and place behind the main flower for a layered look.  The flower had to be cut up, as it was too small to be placed behind in one piece, and the other mulberry flowers in stock were too large.

Finish with a dark brown pearl in the centre of the filigree flower

A quick easy way to jazz up our Butterfly Filigrees is to add a small yellow rose in the centre and trim half of the stem off.  Attach other piece of the stem to behind the butterfly and fold both stems to create the antennas.

 

For those of you who subscribed to my "A Year in the Life" subscription kit back in 2011, you may remember the Christmas Tree we made from a circle .... well this dress works on the same principle!

Grab a chipboard mannequin and cover (using your finger) with inka gold.

Take a 11cm doily and fold like so:

 

then turn with the point upright.

 

 

Paint the layers with Mustard Seed Distress Paint and spritz with water.  Adhere as a skirt to your mannequin. 

Cut a piece from another 11cm doily (see below) and again paint with Mustard Seed Distress Paint. Again, attach to the mannequin.

Cut and attach a small piece of Gold Fibre Ribbon and Gold Cup Chain for the belt.

 

Lift up the layers of the skirt and add some cream tulle underneath and then trim to shape.

As a final touch and to add some sparkle, wipe some Yellow Stickles over the doily dress.

 

 Now for one more mannequin ...

 Add a thick layer of Stampendous Aged Gold Embossing Enamel and heat from underneath.  

DON'T heat from above, or you will have a nice mess to clean up! 

Once it is melted (this will take about a minute because of the thick layer), you can then heat from above and press a Kaisercraft Script Stamp into your melted embossing powder as you do so.

 (Don't worry if you miss some bits, it does stay warm long enough for you to take the stamp off the stamping block and hand stamp the remaining areas.)

Had to show this photo that DD took, the wrinkle is the embossing powder moving - you probably had to be here, but embossing powders are cool to watch.

(I think I have said this recently - I need to get a life!)

Okay while the mannequin cools down,

cut up strips of cream tulle and black tulle to make a dress and centre it with a gold poinsettia,

before attaching it to a card (that is still in progress as I am typing!).

So far I have lightly painted a Twiddlebitz Black C6 Card with Mustard Seed Distress Paint

and again heat embossed with the Kaisercraft Script Stamp

 and Stampendous Aged Gold Embossing Enamel.

 

Hope that has given you an idea or two for adding gold/yellow to your projects or

perhaps given you a new technique to add to your next creation.

Don't forget to pop over to the 20% off Yellow & Gold Section to grab a bargain, but only until Wednesday.

Create your own Masks

Create your own masks with Idea-Ology Mask Sheets.  You get 2 sheets in the packet, which gives you 4 dies if you are using sizzix dies (like I am for this post).  It has a sticky back, so you can re-use them over and over and they will hold their position due to the sticky back.

Plus you get 2 storage sheets, which your masks stick to for protections when not in use 

Before you go crazy die-cutting - First, read the instructions on the packaging.
(not that I talking from experience!!!)

A customer asked me to order them in a Tim Holtz Alterations Weathered Clock Die and I thought I would get one for myself (and for in-store customers to use during Classes and Time Out Tuesdays). So of course I had to play with this as soon as it came in.

After reading the instructions, I put the die through the Cuttlebug and now I have an instant mask. Yipee!!! 

DON'T THROW OUT THE OUTER PIECES - good lord don't - imagine using the positive image of this die and putting all those little bits on your creations!  I have kept the middle circle and outer pieces just for this reason.

Now for a Grunge / Male Birthday Card!

Grab a Twiddleybitz Black 13x13 Card and place die in the centre of card.  Using Spiced Marmalade Distress Paint , paint over the mark LIGHTLY then dab with a tissue - because there are thin shapes on this die and if you use too much paint it will bleed, thus distorting the numbers (not speaking from experience of course!!!).

LEAVE template on while the paint dries.

 

Once dry, which is approximately 10 minutes - because you only painted a LIGHT coat of paint remember, get a stamp which is great for backgrounds - like the Kaisercraft Numbers or Kaisercraft Alphabets (actually lots of the new Kaiser background stamps are perfect for this technique) and get stamping.

On this card I have dabbed Brushed Pewter Distress Stain onto the Kaisercraft Grafitti stamp and then stamped it all over the card (over top of the template).   

Now peel your template off and you are left with this - pretty cool ah?

Now cut out the clock hands from the die, using Bazzill Metallic Silver Cardstock 8.5"X11" 

 (the light was fading when I took photo, it is a bright shiny metallic silver card I promise)

Pop them in the centre of your clock with a silver clock charm.  The hands and clock both a swipe of Black Archival Ink and Spice Marmalade Distress Paint to tone done the "brightness" and add abit of grunge

  
with a scrap piece of orange cardstock I put it through my cuttlebug using the Tattered Banners Die.  Stamped the word party using Black Archival Ink, stickers for Time and added a silver arrow charm

To finish I distressed the edges with my craft knife, added a bit of Spiced Marmalade Distress Paint and ta da 

one card using the positive of a mask.

As I've mentioned many times, I don't do cards! 
 No reason why these techniques can't be applied to layouts or OTPs though.

I've cut myself a set of masks using the tattered flowers and gadget gears die as well,
 but that's for another day...

 

Design Team Angel Jennifer has used the Idea-Ology Mask Sheets for this next card - but used the 'negative' of her die cut.   

Taping the edges of the mask down with tape was unnecessary as the mask is sticky backed BUT as the mask did not have a large border, the washi tape protected the card a little like masking tape on walls when painting!

First colour of distress ink - Milled Lavender, sponged on top:

 Then the second  - Dusty Concord; and third - Seedless Preserve:

Black Archival Ink from Ranger on the Kaiser Stamp for a lovely crisp image:

And then again on a 'verse stamp' - removing the mask first and stamping outside the inked area creates another focal point:

Use a section of your mask to use the same inking effect to tie-in your envelope, BUT ink with the central colour first and then you can blend the colours either side into the middle and you will avoid the colour "halo" you can see through the top colour on the card.

 And the finished card - inked around the edges with the three colours too!

Jennifer :-)

and then,

 DT Jen couldn't help visiting our Tuesday Ladies today while on her lunch break, and couldn't resist getting all creative - with a lolly bag!!!

Grab a paper bag (eat the lollies!!) 

spray with Key Lime Pie Glimmer Mist 

then with a stencil cover a thin coat of Blackberry Ferro

sprinkle purple passion sugar beads while wet. press in with a sheet of chippy and a heavy book lol

add small daisy flower charm to pin and curl end over - attach with glossy accents

spray the green gardenia with olive glimmer mist and attach with glossy accents over the same place as the pin

add a bit of claudine hellmuth multi-medium on the flower and sprinkle over with diamond dust.

add white opals liquid pearls to centre of flower charm

Now I hear you asking why can't I just use my chipboard as a mask?

Well, first you can WASH your mask and reuse it.  Chipboard will eventually give way to the amount of fluid it has been given.

Masks are thin, so you won't get a build up of paint, ink or stains in the edges and thus allowing you to add more medium if necessary.  And handy if using your ink blending took, many types of chipboard are too thick to be able to use your tool effectively

Why not give some mask cutting a go. We have the Idea-Ology Mask Sheets available here.