December Technique

A brief introduction (subtitled It's Not All My Fault)

Its not just me.  Most of us have arrived at the 'art' we are doing now via a long experimental road through a myriad of crafts. In our excitement over the new craft we went out and bought all the whiz bang supplies to go with it - then eventually tired of it in time and moved onto the next big thing.  Problem was we still had copious supplies of our previous addiction that sat and gathered dust as we went out and purchased new supplies for our new addiction.

Over the years I have given away all my porcelain doll supplies, fabric and lace from sewing, quiliting and cloth dolls - but still have boxes and boxes of threads from counted cross stitch and dyes from the cloth dolls.  In one of my many studio re-organisations and clean ups I came across the dyes and a light bulb went on only and 8watt one mind, but a glimmer of an idea nonetheless.

Nothing was done about it for a few weeks till a friend came to stay and I mentioned it to her... we spent a very enjoyable (and very messy) day playing and ended up with some gorgeous papers which I then glued to ATC blanks for future use.  This tutorial is borne of that day.

SUPPLIES FOR PAPER BACKGROUNDS

• Assorted blank paper (copy paper, watercolour paper, cartridge paper even white adhesive labels work)
• mica pigments (pearlex, luminarte, perfect pearls. Moon Glows)
• fabric and/or silk dyes
• fine mist spray bottles
• water
• gloves (not a good idea to do this with bare hands!)
• newspaper for your table top (again not a good idea to skip the newspaper  LOL)
• baby wipes or paper towels for cleanup

Note:  you can also use mica sprays if you have then on hand.. I had some Starburst Stains, Glitz Spritz and Moonglow mist that I used as well

Mixing The Colours

Into an empty spray bottle add some mica pigments - how much you add will depend on the size of the bottle.  For a 2oz (60ml) bottle I added a goodly slightly heaped teaspoon.

Next I poured in some liquid fabric dye - enough to about 1/4 to 1/3 fill the bottle.  Then top it up with warm water, cap it and shake it like mad to mix it all together. It needs to be warm water to get the pigments mixed together  so they don't clog your spray bottle

If you are using Ranger mini mister spray bottles go for the same quantities Tim suggests (one scoop on the end of paddle pop stick, and eyedropper of dye (instead of the ink) and then top with water).

How concentrated you want your colour is all in how much you add... if you want a softer  colour - add more water less dye.  If you want a really rich colour add more dye less water - the 'recipe' above will give you a rich concentrated colour.

With the fabric or silk dyes you can also mix the colours just like in the primaries.. a bit of red and blue dye will give you purple, yellow and blue = green and red and yellow will give you orange.   Orange dye with copper pigments was super yummy, and purple dye with green pigments looked great too.  I also loved the green dye with copper pigments.. YUMMY!

Spraying The Paper - Step One

When you spray the paper, don't do a light coat all over and then add more other colours on top - it will all meld into a turgid solid sort of goopy colour (very technical term).

Choose two or three or four colours that you like and spray the first one (doesnt matter which) into patches on your paper... then on 1/3 of the remaining white paper spray your second colour and on the last third spray the third colour. If you have chosen four colours work in 1/4's

Dont worry if it 'beads' on the paper, it will settle and soak in.. I find its best too be quite liberal too - more is def better than a light mist.. you need it WET.  Let the spray pool on the paperand put aside to soak in and dry.  If you are in a hurry you can use a heat gun - it will give you interesting effects as your push the pooled spray around the paper with the force of the heat gun.

For the paper to the right I sprayed first with green, then with orange and lastly with yellow (all with the gold or copper mica pigments in them.
When it was at the stage in the fourth pic, I picked it up and let the edges of the pools run into each other around the page, floating one colour over the other, then I put it aside to dry.

From here you have several options:  You can consider it finished and do more on it when use it as a background or:

Optional
Once the dye is no longer in pools on the paper, take a mask, punchinella or the like and lay it on your paper, press down firmly or roll with brayer (you dont want the spray under it) then spray some  more with your darkest colour you used, over the mask and lift off.  Dont introduce a new colour - just use the darkest of your three colour already used.

Note:  Your paper MUST be totally dry before you do this, if its still damp you will get blurred, blotter paper type edges on the mask. Best to make the paper one day and mask it the next.

In these pics I used Tim Holtz Mask and oversprayed with green, When you lift it off the mask retains the colour it was masking and the area around it is just a darker green.

Another option is to stamp on it randomly with a stamp in either gold or silver inkpad, depending on your chosen colours in the paper.

The papers themselves are much more shimmery than they appear here too - unfortuneatly the mica pigments dont photograph very well.. the pics to the right are actually of paper that is very shimmery emerald green and purple.. the dotty look you see is the mica on paper.

Once your paper is totally dry you can adhere it to cardstock to use as ATC or card backgrounds. I'm not a card person.. so I played some more and made up a batch of ATCs... I will upload pics of them in  a day or two

P.S You REALLY should wear gloves :-)

BRITE SHINE TECHNIQUE

My apologies folks...I am a little late in getting my tech tute up this month...life has turned hectic here since I returned from over-seas and I have had to dig deep to find my muse...then put a tight rein on her to keep her with me...vbg.
However, I hope you find this month's tute worth having a go...you could save heaps on buying those special papers with this technique!

This technique can be found in Bernie Berlin's Book "Artist Trading Card Workshop". However, I have done it a little differently on a couple of them.

The ATC on the left has the basic Brite Shine rubbed back-ground. The right one has been stamped and rubbed over with an Oil Pastel and on the lower one, I used a glue stick to select shapes AFTER I used the Brite Shine, where Bernie suggested to do it before-hand.

I was also going to do the Citra Clean technique as well as the Brite Shine one, but I have misplaced my bottle of same and our Woolworth's no longer stock it. Again, my apologies to those who were looking forward to seeing it done.

Requirements.

For this technique you will need the following items.

1.Tin of Brite Shine (available from Big W or other car parts suppliers)
2.Images from a magazine with shiny pages. (I used a Woman's Weekly.)
3.Oil Pastels
4.Stamp and Ink of your choice.
5.Glue Pen of your choice.
6.Cardboard ATC Frame Template
7.Images for the finished ATC.
8.Transdermal Applicator.

Apply Brite Shine

Brite Shine consists of polish infused wool. It is a metal polish, used for polishing chrome and other metals.

Simply pull out a small wad of wool and begin rubbing over the area. You will see it blurs the images. You can rub as much or as little as you want  until you have the effect that you like.

Outline Shapes

After rubbing with Brite Shine to your liking, if you can see shapes still on the paper, you can go around them with a glue pen. If there are no evident shapes, you can simply make some of your own anyway.
Here I was able to select the leaf shapes.
Let the glue dry completly, then rub over the entire area with an Oil Pastel and smear with your "transdermal applicator". Use a darker Pastel to go over the raised shapes. As you can see here, I also used the yellow to pick out some lighter areas.

This is the ATC I made using the above paper. Unfortunately you can't see the effect of the glue shapes. I found the mouth and the cake "hat" in a magazine, as well as the stripe strip and the star strip. The stripes are taken from the Puzzles area and the stars from the Psychic Advertising area of a Woman's Weekly. She is finished off with dots using a white Gel pen and some text.

Stamp and Colour

After selecting the area you want to use as your finished background by placing the ATC frame template over it, stamp using your choice of stamp and colour ink. Then, using an Oil Pastel in a contrasting colour, scribble some shapes onto the stamped area. Rub with your "transdermal applicator" to smear it over the area.

Cut to ATC size and adhere to an ATC back, then add your images. Here is my finished ATC. Unfortunately the copper coloured stamping doesn't show up in the picture, but it is on the top right hand side.

I added a scrap of music sheet to the top and bottom of the ATC, distressed with Ranger Distress Ink, added eyes from a face out of a magazine and both sets of the wings are 3D mounted. I finished it off by adding the dots with a black Pitt Pen and some text, which is also distressed.

October - Fairy Garden Frame

Bit of a change of pace this month... a Fairy Garden  using  a stretched  canvas as the frame...

Its the swap on PaperArts next month, and I have the Grand Neice here for the weekend, so it was a good opportunity to make it and give one to her as a gift to take home.

Requirements:

• ONE STRETCHED CANVAS needs to be the recessed type not flat.  One thing to bear in mind is the deeper the frame the more difficult to get your background paper in there.. I made a shallow depth 6 x 4 inch and a deeper 8 x 8 - the deeper one was a bit of a challenge on thicker paper lol
• PRINTED IMAGES - I have added a zip file of images but you can use any.. for the great neice I actually added her head to one of the faeries...  It works best if you print your faeries and trees on stronger matt photo paper, and the background on regular copy paper. Scroll to bottom for download link of images
• STRONG GLUE
• ACRYLIC PAINT AND BRUSH
• MOUNTING TAPE to give your images some depth

Step One:

Paint the outer sides, inside edges and back of your canvas with your chosen acrylic colour.







Step Two:

While your canvas dries, cut out all your images, trees, fairies, butterflies etc.,  Be sure to cut out the white 'inner' bits on the trees and fairies, as well as go around all your edges with a dark marker.  This covers over the white cut edge on the thicker photo paper and gives you a much better appearance.

Step Three:

Cut out your background, add some glue to the white inner canvas area and push your background paper into it.  You have to roll it and push it in to go under the edges, dont just cut it to fit the centre or you will end up with a disconcerting white border all around your print...

Step Four:

Cut your tree down the centre and glue one half to each side of the frame

Step Five:

Add the fairies with a mixture of glue and mounting tape.. standing faerie is glued down, reclining faerie is attached with mounting tape.

Add the butterflies with just a small square of mounting tape in the middle so the wings can be bent to sit up a bit.

Your pack of images (trees, background, two fairies and a some butterflies) can be downloaded free from www.creativesoulretreat.com.au/Fairy Garden.zip

Ellah's Garden... This is the bigger 8 x 8 stretched canvas I used.

I printed the tree out twice and cut it into a couple of clumps of leaves, adhered them with the mounting tape to give a bit of dimension to them and some more butterflies.

Ellah is also added with mounting tape....dancing down the path to the faerie glen

Slight Delay

Hello to all our lovely followers.... just letting you know there will be a day or two delay with the project this month.

The lovely Barb is heading off overseas for a ten day holiday and I will be doing the October project with you in her abscense.

It should be up by Saturday 2nd (Australian time) which is the day before in the US...

see you then :-)

.......................Bevlea

SEPTEMBER - TEN MINUTE CARD BY BEVLEA

This month we have a variation of the 'Take Ten' cards.. its a 10 minute card OR an ATC.

The main images of the bird backgrounds were made using Photoshop and PS brushes, the sheet is a free download at

www.creativesoulretreat.com.au/2cre8art.pdf

It contains 3 ATC sized and two card sized images ready to print on transparency

Supplies

• Transparency sheet (you can use the free sheet and print from your computer or use a prepurchased one)
• 6" x 4" glossy photo paper
• 2 sheets of cardstock to suit the alcohol ink colours (I used Black and Rust)
• Alcohol inks - 3 colours that work well together, I used Adirondack Rust, Lettuce and Gold
• Alcohol ink applicator
• Blending Solution in fine spray bottle
• Craft mat
• Krylon Pen
• Double sided tape
• Eyelet setter (I used my crop-a-dile)
• Word to go on your card.. I used the Tim Holtz Adage tickets but you can use anything.
• distress ink to age your word

Squirt the Inks

Lay your craft sheet down and squirt the alcohol inks onto it.

give it a good spray with the blending solution... if using the Adirondack alcohol inks you do need to use the Adirondack Blending Solution - but if you are using Pinata Alcohol inks then good old Methylated Spirits works just as well for a fraction of the price!

Next, place your photo paper, glossy side down on top of inks and press and 'smoosh' the card around.

Smooshy

When you lift the card up you end up with a lovely mottled effect. This is great as a background behind transparencies, but you can also stamp on it if desired

Apply tape to transparency

Cut out the transparency leaving a border around the black edge.

place double sided tape on the back of transparency in this border. This excess will be cut away - the tape is to postion it flat so that the eyelets can be applied

Attach To Background

peel the paper from the tape and place it on your pretty alchol ink background.

Being transparent you can position the image where you like to make the most of your background.

Press down to secure.

Eyelets and Trim

Now that your transparency is sitting flat, you can add an eyelet to each corner to secure it permantly.

Once secured trim your image along the black border line

Mount on Cardstock

Cut a peice of cardstock a quarter of an inch bigger all around than the transparency and attach your transparency card to it with double sided tape.

Optional:

Go around the edge with your Krylon pen

Attach To Card Blank

To create your card blank, cut a peice of cardstock

9 1/2" x 5 3/4" and fold to create a card 4 3/4" x 5 3/4" (hamburger fold).

Place double sided tape on back of card front, and attach to card blank.

Add the sentiment

Finally, add your chosen word or sentiment. (Age the edge of your word with the distress ink)

If you are making an ATC the principle is the same, just on a smaller scale. The transparency for the ATC are slightly smaller than ATC size so that when you mount it on your ATC blank you have a narrow border

Enjoy! dont forget to post a comment and leave the link if you do this project, would love to see what you all come up with :-)

Bevlea

PS.. the bird image I used on the ATC can be snaffled below :-)

AUGUST'S TUTORIAL by BARB

This month I have used a background technique that a lot of you already may know and use, but as there are always "newbies" to the field of PaperArts/ATC making, I hope it will be helpful to them.

I have also used one of my favourites subjects so here is the crow image I used that you can save to your computer and use yourself.

Don't forget ...there is a prize drawn from the list of those that take up the challenge of making art using this technique and leave a link as to where it can be found.

REQUIREMENTS

For this tutorial you will need the following...














Aluminium Foil, cut to ATC size.
ATC sized cardstock.
Black Matt Board, also ATC size.
Crow/Raven Image.
Alcohol Inks, either Pinata or Ranger.
Alcohol Ink Extender, brand matching Inks or "Isocol" rubbing Alcohol or Metho.
Fine spray bottle for extender - I used Ranger's.
Fine Embossing Powder - Silver preferably.
Clear Embossing INK, either "Ranger Big & Bossy" or "Versamark".
Chicken Wire Rubber stamp - Available from "Lost Coast Designs".
Heat Gun.
Egg shell- saved from your cooking day.
Black feather.
Golden's Acrylic Paints, Burnt Umber, Quiacridone/Nickel Azo Gold,& Micaceous Iron Oxide. (if you don't have "Golden" you can replace them with brands you have)
Krylon Gold Pen.
Ruler, fine blade paper scissors and sharp cutter.
Good strong adhesive.. I use "Welbond", available from "Bunnings" in Australia.

PREPARE IMAGE

Cut out Crow image ,Sharpie the white edges and using the Gold Krylon pen, add a teeny dot as an eye for the crow.

ALCOHOL INK FOIL

Randomly drop the two colours of Alcohol Inks onto the foil and then spray with the extender to spread it around. You can employ the use of the heat gun to speed up the drying process but I found that it takes the depth out of the colours and causes a "bloom" which dulls it.

ADD IMAGE & EMBOSS

Add the crow to the foil, using a suitable adherent. I like to use Weldbond as it will adhere to almost everything. Allow to dry...using your heat gun to speed up the action.Then adhere the foil to cardstock to give it strength.

Stamp foil with crow on it and emboss with the fine embossing powder.

CUT FRAME

On the back of the black board, measure in 1cm (1/2") from each edge and rule lines to follow when cutting. Using a sharp blade, slice along lines thru' board. Remove and discard from centre.

PREPARE FRAME

Using the black Sharpie, cover both inside and outer white edges.


Coat frame with the Micaceous Iron Oxide (OR replacement paint of your choice)then when dry, dry brush on a small amount of Quinacridone/Nickel Azo Gold (OR your replacement paint of choice).This will give a rusty appearance to the Iron Oxide.

Distress Eggshell

Adhere frame to foil and add a feather and the crushed eggshell on top of it
Mix a very small dot of Burnt Umber paint with water and wash over the egg shell embellishment. Here you see the results of before and after.
I apologise for the bad images....the flash and foil didn't like each other.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me and ask.

JUNE TECHNIQUE CHALLENGE

Seems there has been no entries for this month so there is no winner.

And as Bevlea said previously, she is not able to prepare a tech for the month of July, but I shall be back here in August with another one for you.

Thanx to all who found time to view our blog.

July Challenge

Good morning all... due to some minor surgery for Bevlea requiring a day or two in hospital there will be no July technique... we will be back in August with a challenge/tutorial by Barb Thomas...

May Winner

Well the May winner of the e-pack of collage sheets and ephemera was an easy one to do.. only one participant so there is no confusion over the winner lol.. the e-pack will be on its way to Marojlien shortly.....

Congrat's!!

June's Tute Free Images

There will be a e-pack zipped file of images awarded to the winner of our draw at the end of the month.


Feel free to use these images.
The image of the little girl was taken from one used in a Zine that I believe to be now defunct.
You are not obligated to use these, nor do you have to use the exact brand of products that I did. They are only a guide-line but remember , your finished work may look different if using different products.However, you must be able to use the same technique of assembling the work.

The wings are not the same ones that I used but will do the same job.You could actually use only the larger top ones for this ATC.

JUNE'S TUTE CHALLENGE-By Barb

Good Golly Miss Molly!!! ....June is here already!....at this rate it won't be long until we are putting up the Christmas decorations!
This month I decided to have a relatively easy technique challenge for you in the way of how to give your ATCs that "finished look".
Some of the techs can be utilised in any other form of paper-art too.
I must apologise for the colour of the images being a little on the orange side but the flash didn't go off on the camera.
This image is as close to the true colours as possible due to the scanner not liking the gold glitter.

REQUIREMENTS

For this tute you will need the following items...

An ATC sized card with a background of your choice already done.
Images-Girl and Wings.
Gold German Scrap.
Glitter Glue.
Rub-ons.
Felt tipped pens to match image colours.
Scrap of mat board to mount text onto.
Double-sided foam mounting tape.
Your favorite glue.
Distress Ink pad.
Sharp Scalpel.
Scissors.

TEXT

Adhere your chosen text to the mat board ,then cut out.

Cut Out Images

Cut out the image and wings. MOST IMPORTANTLY, don't forget to cut away any bits between the body and arms, or where ever else may need to be cut away. The lack of doing this can spoil the appearance of your entire ATC.
Using the matching felt-tipped pens, go around all the cut edges...and don't forget to do those inside bits where you cut away.



Then cut the gold German Scrap Sunburst in half, slice it as shown and slide it onto the head of the fairy, using a little glue to adhere it.

Add a piece of mounting tape to the back of her head and glue to the rest of her and place in position over the wings.
Using the felt pen, go around edge of ATC and text, then distress the inneredge of the card with the ink pad.

ALMOST DONE

Adhere the text and add some gold Kindy Glitz to her wings ,sash and around the crown where it meets her head.
When the Glitter glue is totally dry,add some scrolly rub-ons to the background,over-lapping the bottom ones over the image to make it look like she is
dancing amongst them.

AND THE APRIL WINNER IS........

SUSIE !!! Susie's artwork is the left one of the images.Sheila did the other one.

Your name was drawn from a hat by my darling hubby....so the nominated prize will be on it's way to you as soon as you send me your details.

Thanx heaps to both of you for participating in the challenge..you both did well.

May Technique

Hi All,

Our May project of the slide accordion book is now up (below)... if you are playing this month, please to leave a comment here on this post - linking back to your blog so we can include you in the draw for the next prize of an e-pack of collage sheets. It helps us having all the comments in one spot and we wont miss your post if you are playing...

The images for this month to go with the book is a Music Sheet and the Grecian 'Muses' - available in PDF format ready to print (they are also included in the project printout so you dont need to download them twice

Love to see what you all do with this and look forward to your art candy and comments :-)

May - Accordian Slide Book with Credit Card Technique

This little book is made  incorporating the Credit Card Technique  and cardboard slide mounts cut on the Sizzix Die #38-1106. .. But you could also use any purchased slide mount and simply adapt the size. 

I need to state first up this is not my original design, it is based on a little book given to me some years ago and I adapted it to suit myself.  I have no idea who originally came up with the idea—so am unable to give them credit.

What you need......

· Cardboard slide mounts - you need an odd number - at least three but five or seven would work better if cutting your own you need sizzix red die # 38-1106

·Few sheets of copy paper (if you can get A3 you wont have to deal with a join in your piece later on - no biggie but its a bit easier for you further down the track.

· 3 colours of cheap acrylic craft paint - my personal favourites for this technique is a lt and dk of the same shade e.g. lt and dk green, lt & dk brown etc. Plus a gold such as Jo Sonja Rich Gold

· Water spray bottle (NOT a fine mister)

· Old credit card, store card or ATM card. Really needs to be a plastic card - cardstock cut to size wont work as well

· Brown and Gold ink pads

· One large printed serviette.. Soft floral or text/script print on it.

· Stamp  - something swirly or a collage type one.. It needs to be bigger than the  slide mount so you don't get a perfect full impression of the stamp on the mount

· One ATC blank (cut from stronger cardstock - needs to support your slides)

· Your printed images (I printed the ladies onto transparency but you could use paper)

· Baby wipes for cleanup

· Newspaper for your desktop

· Glue stick

· Double sided tape for transparency

· Pritt Power Glue or Weldbond

· Scissors

· Scalpel

 Optional

· Swirly rub ons

· Gold Krylon Pen

· Some chipboard letters to spell out your ‘word’

 

Credit Card Tech

Cover your work surface with newspaper and lay down one sheet of the copy paper.  Get the credit card, water bottle and your paints ready.  

Place one sheet of paper handy for the discard of paint on your credit card.

 

Laying the Paint Down

Next lay a line of the darker coloured paint along the same top edge.  

This time you don't want a full line - you want some of the background showing through so you aren't going to completely cover the page.  Drag the paint across as you did with the first layer of paint. 

Next lay another layer of paint - but this time using the gold, across the edge and drag it across the entire page. 

You can drag harder in some parts to semi scrape it off and leave lines for effect - as it dries and while you work if you keep dragging here and there it adds more interest. (sorry the gold just doesn't photograph well)

Watery Blibs n Blobs

Now, straight away - spray the surface with the water bottle.  You want blibs and blobs of water but not huge patches of it.  This needs to be done straight away before the paint isn't totally dry. 

Now count the one potato, two potato, three potatoes till you get to twenty, then scrape the water off the same way you applied the paint. Wherever the water fell will come away giving you a lovely splotchy effect showing up the light colour you started with

Repeat these steps until you have 3-4 pages of paper and place all aside to dry.  If you are cutting your own slide mounts, do this while the paper is drying.   You need to cut these preferably from ‘chipboard' or strong cardboard.  If you don't have any of the thicker stuff you could glue two sheets of cardstock together and then cut them.  If you have purchased your slide mounts you can skip this step.

Stamping the Paper

When your papers are dry, take your brown ink pad and stamp and randomly stamp over the paper. Then take the gold ink pad and repeat the process. Bear in mind you are stamping twice so don't make your first layer of stamping too heavy.

Take two of your pages and cut them down into squares to fit the slide mounts.
If using the sizzix die they need to be 7cm x 7cm if you are using purchased slide mounts—just make them 4mm (¼”) bigger than the slide mount

Covering The Slides

Take your glue stick and glue each slide mount to the centre back of your pre-cut paper

Now fold each corner of the paper inward to the back so the point matched the inner centre corner (see pic) open the fold back up and cut along the fold line you just created. Fold each side back in and glue down

When they are all covered - go back to the first one and cut corner to corner on the diagonal across the inside. 

Snip the top edge of each triangle, (to ensure that the paper you are folding back isnt wider than the slide) fold back and glue down.  Do the same with all your slides.

Cover your ATC using same method.

Cut from one corner to the other across the centre of each slide mount. Snip the top one third of each point off so that when you fold and glue them down - they aren't wider than the slide mount edges.

Take the glue stick and glue down. Continue until all your slide mounts are covered.

Method 'A'

Place a piece of double sided tape at the back of each slide mount on the top and the bottom. Place your first slide over an image aligning it to your liking and press down onto the double sided tape. 

Now cut it off the sheet using scissors or scalpel. Trim the transparency back a little so its just a tad smaller than the slide mount. Repeat until all your slides have an image.

Print out the music note paper and using your glue stick glue a printed serviette over the music paper. The notes will still show through the serviette, but it mutes it down and gives depth to the background. I used one with soft writing and flowers on it but you can use any serviette that's ‘soft' and muted... don't go for sharp precise patterns...

Place your slide mount with image over the paper, choosing where you want to place it over the music etc so it works well with the faces.. You don't want big black music notes right over her face ;-)

Trace around the edge and cut out just inside the pencil line so your paper will be smaller than the outside edge of the mount. With strong glue such as Weldbond or Pritt Power Glue, run a fine line of the glue to the paper and adhere to back of slide mount. Repeat this procedure until all your slides are complete

Method 'B'

Take your chosen serviette and using glue stick, adhere to music paper

From the sheet of images, cut out one image for each slide mount.Don't forget to trim off all the inside bits from bent elbows etc.,  Take a dk brown pen, and working from the BACK go around all your cut out images so that there is no white edge showing.

Measure your slide mount and cut out your background ¼” smaller e.g. If your slide mount is 2”square - cut your background 1 ¾” square. With your glue stick adhere each image to your pre-cut background.

Run a fine line of Weldbond or Pritt Power Glue around the edges of your image/background and adhere to the slide mount.

Putting It All Together

Firstly you need to work out how long your accordion will be. .. To obtain the length of paper backing required you need to do the following (trust me I am maths challenged so its not hard vbg)

Multiply the width of your slide mount x the number of slide mounts plus 1/4" for each gap. You will have one less gap than your mounts—7 mounts = 6 gaps, 5 mounts = four gaps etc. 

So for example; 7 mounts of 2” wide each would be 2” x 7 slides = 14”+ ¼"  gap x 6 times = another 1½"  would make it  15 1/2" in total for 7 slides - add another couple of inches to allow for it becoming shorter as its folded - any excess can be trimmed off the ends when you are done

Taking the credit card paper you made—cut one piece the length you have determined and triple the height of your slide mount.  Fold this in half lengthwise (hot dog fold) and with the glue stick glue it together so the front and back are your credit card paper, raw white to the inside. If you used A3 one piece will be long enough but if you used A4 or ‘letter' size paper you need to join two pieces together overlapping them slightly - when joining you need to make it about 2” longer again so you can position the join under a slide mount.

When your paper is glued together trim the strip back at the cut edge so its the height of your slide mount plus 1/4" extra top and bottom (2 and half inches for a 2" slide mount) this will give you an nice edge at the bottom

Position the Slides

Butting the first slide up against the start of your painted strip of paper, position all your slides along the paper strip leaving ¼” between each slide to allow them to bend.

Secure their position with pegs till you have it set up right - then glue each of them down with the Weldbond or Pritt and allow to dry completely
When dry, crease the gaps between the mounts and fold into the accordion shape. The first slide front becomes your front cover which, due to the odd number, will give you a flat back on the last one.

Glue this flat back to the covered ATC. I glued mine on in landscape format so the booklet will sit nicely when open - but you could do portrait aspect if you like. Secure with a rubber band while it dries

Final Touches

All it needs now is a little embellishing you do this is up to you... I added some gold and black rub ons, plus diamantes for a bit of bling to it...I also then cut out the word 'cherish' using one of my cuttlebug alphabets (‘Who's the Boss) and coloured the letters with a gold Krylon pen before gluing one letter to each slide.

If you want to add a word you need a word with the same number of letters as your slides so that you have one letter on each slide...
Once you are finished with the embellishing you're done!

APRIL'S CHALLENGE WINNER'S PRIZE

This bundle of art goodies will be sent out to the winner of the challenge draw.
So ladies..ya gottta be in it to win it ya know ...LOL

March Winner

I have put all the names of the players into the random.org list randomiser and we have a winner!

Congratulations Fiona!!  I will email you your e-pack of collage papers etc. shortly.

Dont forget in April has a PHYSICAL POSTAL prize - (see above pic) so we will need your postal address if you are our winner (we will email you and ask you for it - no need to list it on your comment)

APRIL'S TECHNIQUE CHALLENGE

By Barb Thomas

Oh my!!! Can you believe it is April ALREADY!!!!...the months are just flying past and seem to do more so as I get older!

With that said, I guess I'd better hurry and get this month's challenge up so you can all get stuck into it...before the month slips away and May knocks on the door!

I have made up a Canvas Beeswax Collage using the following requirements.
The entire collage is done using ONLY BEESWAX as the adherant.

I have also added a pic of Harlequin paper that you can right click on and save to your pooter then print and use.
It will fit on A4 size paper or you can reduce it in Publisher or Word if you want smaller shapes.

Those of you that decide to take up the challenge, please let us know in the comments section that you have done so and place a pic of it on your Blog or site so we can all see your wonderful work.

On May 1st we shall draw out a name and the winner will receive a gift in the mail from me.

SOME OF THE REQUIREMENTS

Canvas board ( I used a 25x20 cms (93/4 x 73/4 inches)

Chipboard Shapes-Hearts, Stars and a Frame, in 2 different sizes("Collections" Brand)

Co-ordinating paper scraps,either scrapbook sheets or magazine pages. I used both.
(you can use up Scrapping papers you no longer like as long as they co-ordinate.)

Eye image, large enough to fit into the chipboard frame.

Gold paper doily

Harlequin paper

White tissue paper with some gold pattern on it. I used one with cherubs on it.

Ranger Distress Inks (Co-ordinating with papers)

Sponge applicater

Sharpie pens (Co-ordinating with papers)

Beeswax block (or candles)

Clover Iron ( or heating tool of your choice. An old flat iron (no steam holes) will also work or, if you are lucky and have a mini iron, use it. Do not use a heat gun as it will only blow your papers around)

Black German Scrap Wings (optional)

You will aslo need scissors and a scalpel.

And.... last but not least... a pair of hubby's old Y-fronts (you will need to read ALL instructions to find out what these are for...vbg)

MORE REQUIREMENTS

Here we have two papers for covering the chipboard stars and hearts, and a frame for the eye image. (I forgot to photograph it before adding the the eye image)

You will also need co-ordinating Distress Inks to distress the top edges of the shapes and Sharpie Pens to go round the actual edges of them as if left "raw" they will show up and spoil your work.

EVEN MORE REQUIREMENTS

Here you see the CLOVER Iron tool and three choices of Beeswax.

Two are candles and the other is a block, which is more creamy coloured than the candles.

WAX THE CANVAS

Using the Clover Iron , or your choice of melting tool, melt and spread wax over the entire canvas.

This doesn't have to be too thick, just ensure that there are no gaps.

You can see here that I used a yellowy coloured beeswax candle.. the colour wasn't a problem as the torn papers covered it all.

ARRANGE TORN PAPERS ONTO WAXED CANVAS

Arrange your papers in a pleasing mix onto the waxed canvas base.

Try not to have the same patterns next to each other.

ADHERE TORN PAPERS

Trying to leave the papers in the position you placed them, run the iron over each one, adding more drops of wax where, or if, necessary, until you have completely covered the waxed canvas base.

COVER WITH TISSUE PAPER

Place the tissue paper over the waxed paper collage and rub the hot iron over it to adhere it together, adding more wax if necessary. You really shouldn't need to melt wax ONTO the tissue paper...there should be enough come up thru it from the under papers.

However, if it doesn't appear to be sticking, melt a few drops of wax UNDER it and iron OVER the tissue again.

Because you will adding the hearts,stars and rays, there will be more wax to spread around to the top layer anyway.

As it dries, you will see how the tissue paper "dissolves" into the back-ground papers, leaving the gold images showing up nicely.

Trim off any over-hanging papers.

ADDING GOLD DOILY & STARS

Cut the doily to fit into the bottom right corner, removing the solid bit from below the lacy part of the doily and wax-adhere it into position.
You can add the small stars to where the cut-out solid gold part of the doily was at this time too.

CUT & ADHERE RAYS

Using the Harlequin paper, or one of your choice, cut long triangular shapes and place them onto the collaged canvas in a position that will be lined up with the eye frame.

To ensure this will happen, place the frame onto the collage where you want it to be, then arrange the rays under it so their ends will be covered by the frame.

Carefully remove the frame and melt a drop of wax onto the bottom ends of each triangle to hold it in place while you fully wax-adhere them all.

ADHERING HEARTS

Cover the large hearts with two different patterned papers, using the melted wax method.

To ensure they lay flat, lay one partially over the other and draw around it. Then using a scalpel, cut out the marked shape. Position and wax-adhere them in place.

FRAME THE EYE

Cover the frame and a star with your choice of paper... I used the Harlequin one to tie in with the emanating rays.

Adhere the Eye image to the frame with wax, then adhere the frame to the canvas and the star to the doily the same way.

ADHERE TEXT

I added black German Scrap wings to my text strip before adhering them with the wax to the hearts and the bottom of the frame surrounding the eye.

You may decide not to add text to your work... it is entirely a personal choice.

FINISHED COLLAGE

Here it is ...all finished. Unfortunately the photo doesn't do it justice because the scan makes the wax look milky, and the gold angels on the tissue paper do not show as gold.

Oh...!!! I nearly forgot what hubby's old Y-fronts were for!!! LOL. Use them to polish the finished collage when it is dry. This will remove the milky appearance and add a nice sheen to the work. (make sure you use his "fave" ones as they will be nice and soft.... LOL)

I will now sit back and look forward to seeing other artist's work based on my technique.

March Players

February Winner

Our February winner is Melody Zahara...congrats Melody!

This month's prize was a zip file of collage papers....  March Prize is also a collage pack that will be emailed to the winner of the March Jigsaw Challenge...

On March 30th, we will add a slideshow of everyones work on the Jigsaw Puzzle Pin, put names of all those who joined in into a hat and draw it - winner announced here same day...the next day April 1st the fourth technique will go live.. (April will be by Barb Thomas)

March Project - Altered Jigsaw Puzzle Pin

By Bevlea Ross

This month is an altered jigsaw puzzle piece.I  made mine from a piece of a child's jigsaw puzzle (because the pieces are a lot larger than 'grownup' jigsaw puzzle pieces), but you could also use the commercially available blank chipboard puzzle bits.

I added a pin on the back to wear as a brooch - but it could also be a fridge magnet if you added one of the heavier magnets (not the flat sort)

These make great gifts as you can make a batch of them up at once and have them handy for unexpected occasions - as well as using up odd bits and peices and beads etc., that you only have one or a few of....

Requirements:

• Child's jigsaw puzzle bits (you can usually pick these up cheap in the Oppies... (Thrift shops)  
  
• 2-3 acrylic paints (I like Lumiere  but you can use any paint)
  
• 1/2" Flat brush
• Black Ink pad (doesnt matter if its dye or solvent ink)
• Collage type Rubber Stamp
• Beading wire in a colour to match your paint
  
• Jump Rings
  
• Charms
  
• Beads
  
• Pin back or magnet
  
• Micro Beads
  
• Dimensional Magic
  
• Strong Glue
• Darning Needle
• Needle nose pliers
  

Step One

Rummage through your box of puzzle bits and choose a few shapes that appeal to you. Consider how they will look when you put them 'right way up'

Step Two

Paint the right side of each piece with two coats of Gesso. You just need a couple of light coats to give the paint something to stick to - doesn't have to totally cover the image...

The 'right side' is the image side.. the image side will always have the nicer, smoother edge to it because of the way they are die cut when manufactured

Step Three

Take your Lumiere paints (or whatever you have chosen) and with your flat brush 'pounce' one colour of the paints onto the jigsaw bits in a couple of patches.  It needs to go on a little heavier than normal...and you do need to pounce it on.. just painting in strokes as you would normally would make it streaky.. pouncing it gives it a bit more texture and ensures a good solid coat.

TIP:  When painting or glueing I use an old phone book under my work - then I can just rip the sticky/messy page off and have a clean palette to paint the next ones.. no transferring paint from one job to another...

Step Four

Now just wipe the excess paint off the brush and dip it into the second colour and pounce that in the remaining white areas. 

Step Five

Next, WITHOUT cleaning or wiping the brush off, dip the tip of it back into the first colour and dab/pounce where the two colours meet to blend/mottle the edges.

Step Six

Paint all your peices and allow to dry thoroughly.

I have used all Lumiere's here:

Citrine with Sunset Gold

Rust with Burnt Orange

Purple with Turquoise

Step Seven

Next, take your stamp and black ink and stamp on each peice.

I have used a collage type stamp that is a mix of swirls and text.  You need one that is bigger than your puzzle bit so you dont get the entire design on it - just a section of it.

Step Eight

When all your peices are stamped, decide which way up they are going to be.. and with your Japanese Screw Punch or Crop-a-dile, punch holes in the bottoms of each peice.  

You can see here that some have only one hole, while others have two or three.  You can also punch a hole in the sides that stick out if you like.  Where ever you punch a hole, we will be adding a charm and jump ring later.. so visualise where you want your danglies :-)

Step Nine

Next, take your dimensional magic and go all around the edges, then fill in the middle.

You can use a glossy varnish but the dimensional magic does look a lot better.  One of the good things about the Dimensional Magic is it stays exactly where you put it.. doesnt run over the edges like varnish would and doesnt clog up your holes, but sits nicely on top.

NOTE:  Never shake Dimensional Magic.. that will puts little bubbles in it that are hard to get rid of.  If you do get a bigger air bubble when you are using it pop it with a pin.

TIP: I have two bottles of Dimensional Magic on the go at a time.. one of them I have snipped the top down a little to allow it to flow faster, I have marked the bottle with an * so I know its the bigger opening and use this for bigger jobs like this.

Step Ten

Now, gather your beading wire, charms, beads,jump rings,  metal bits etc., 

I cant give you step by step here.. you have to go with the flow of what works for the peice you have vbg.  The only main rule is bear in mind where you are going to put the pin or magnet, and dont have wire going across this spot.. it needs to be flat to give you good grip when you add the pin/magnet.

NOTE:  The pin is best placed as high as you can get it on the back... don't make the classic mistake of positioning in the middle as this could cause the pin to tip forward when worn.  Its best placed right at the top on the back and it will then sit flat

Step Eleven

Some things I like to do:

1. Wind the wire around a couple of times and on the last pass add a bead.
   
2. Thread some seed beads onto beading wire and add them across a corner
3. Wind some wire around a darning needle to create a coil, then thread some beads onto the straight end, add to the puzzle peice and send your wire ends to the back

I have used one long peice here..

I did the coil,  taped the wire to the back (coil end) with some masking tape, added the beads, passed it to the back, wound it a couple of times around the right hand top corner, added another bead, wound it to the back again, came out on the other side, threaded some seed beads on and went to the back again.  Then I lifted the making tape off, twisted the two ends of the wire together with the needle nose pliers and added some fresh tape over the ends so that it wouldnt catch on clothing.

Lastly

When I had added beads, wire etc., to all my peices, I added a few micro beads here and there (with Dimensional Magic as a glue).

When your beads are dry, hang the charms off the peices with a jump ring.

And finally... with good strong glue (I use Weldbond its brilliant) glue the pin or magnet to the back of your peices, as high up as you can position it.

Tip:  open the jump rings with your needle nose pliers by twisting the ends apart, one end towards you, one end away from you.  Never PULL them apart.  They will close up much neater if you just twist them apart.  Once they are pulled apart with a gap in the centre, its hard to keep them round.

February Quiltie Players

FEBRUARY TECHNIQUE

Thank you to all those who have visited our blog, left comments and plan to join in the fun by making the technique and posting a link from their blog to ours.

On February 28th, we will add a slideshow of everyones work on the FABRIC QUILTIE , put names of all those who joined in into a hat and draw it - winner announced here same day...the next day March 1st the third technique will go live.. (March will be by Bevlea Ross)

TECHNIQUE # 2 - FABRIC QUILTIE

By Barb Thomas

REQUIREMENTS.
*Image printed or transferred on fabric.

*Two pieces of co-ordinating fabrics, 5" X 7"

*Heavy weight interfacing or Pelon ,5" X 7"

*Medium weight wadding (optional)

*2 OR 4 pieces of Vliesofix or Heat'nBond", 5" X 7" (optional if using wadding)

*Lace,Lace motifs,beads,ribbons,braids etc

*Beading thread and needles.

*Sewing tools (needles,pins,scissors etc.)

*Teflon Applique Sheet (optional but handy)

*Iron (use dry)

*Jaquard Fabric Inkjet Printing Sheet
OR
*White fabric ironed onto Freezer Paper and cut to size suitable to go thru' you printer
OR
*A TRANSFERRED image onto plain fabric using your preferred medium

*It would be possible to use T-Shirt Transfer paper for this too.

GATHER YOUR MATERIALS

This is an ALL FABRIC project,
no paper is to be used.

Print or transfer your image onto the plain fabric.

Go thru' your stash
of fabrics,lace
and lace motifs,
beads,ribbons,
feathers,buttons
and charms and
gather together
those that co-ordinate.

You may not actually use them all but it is good to have several to choose from.

FREE IMAGE

This is the image that I used.

You may like to use it for this project
or save it for use later.

Right click and select "Save To" or
"Save Target" then select
where to save it to.

I printed it onto a paper backed fabric sheet made by Jacquard.

You can also iron fabric to freezer paper cut to a suitable size to go thru' your printer,I usually make it A4.  If you know how,you may choose to transfer an image onto the fabric.

TRIM off EXCESS

If you are adding wadding to your work, layer it between the interfacing-backed fabric front and back,using Vliesofix to adhere to each other and to stop movement whilst sewing.

To avoid marking and messing up your iron and ironing board, use a Teflon Applique mat between the fabric and the board and iron.

Set your iron to high heat and place the layered fabrics onto half of the Teflon mat and fold the rest of the mat over them, like a sandwich, so that both your ironing board and the iron are protected from the melting Vliesofix.

You should have....

A layer of fabric.(the back)
A layer of Vliesofix.
A layer of interfacing.
A layer of Vliesofix.
A layer of wadding
A layer of Vliesofix
A layer of interfacing
A layer of Vliesofix.
A layer of fabric.(the front)

If you are using either Pelon or interfacing, you may choose whether to use Vliesofix or not in-between the layers of it and the fabric. However,it does help to hold the layers in position when sewing.

If not using wadding, you should have...

A layer of fabric(the back)
A layer of Vliesofix
A layer of Interfacing
A layer of Vliesofix
A layer of fabric (the front)

If you choose NOT to use Vliesofix, pin and/or baste the layers together to make it easier to add the rest of the items.

After layering materials, measure your work and if necessary, trim off any excess fabric,interfacing or wadding, making the edges nice and straight.

PLACEMENT of IMAGE

Decide where you would like your image to be.

This is not set in stone as you can play with
it when positioning the fabrics around it.

Pin into position and either hand or machine stitch into place.

PLACEMENT of MATERIALS

This is where you have fun.
Place your chosen materials onto the fabric base and around your image asthetically.

You may decide not to use all of the bits and pieces that you first chose or you may even add more as you go along.

I often find that the work needs "just THAT something extra " as I stitch it.

Pin into place and sit back and look at it for a few minutes to see if it is a balanced arrangement.It sometimes helps to turn it upside down..or mirror image it.

When you are satisfied with the placement of your materials and or lace, either hand or machine stitch into place.

I find hand stitching very relaxing, and you can also change the position of pieces without much trouble too.

FINISHED WORK

When placement of the fabrics is to your liking,either hand or machine stitch them into place on to the main background fabric.

If you added the wadding between the layers, "quilt" around some part of the image to give it dimension.

Add beads,charms etc where required.

As you can see, I added more beads and pearls to the original fabrics and laces.
The blue trim down the left side is the actual rouleau loops from the back of a silk brides-maid's dress...the same one the lace motifs came from, so recycling has paid a large part in my work....vbg.

It is entirely up to you as to how much you add to embellish your
Quiltie...but if you listen to it...it will tell you when it has enough...vbg

CLOSE-UP

This is a
close-up of
the printed
image area.

I hand stitched around
the face and her
features to give
it dimension.


To finish the back off neatly,
I added a layer of the fabric
and hand-stitched it on,
turning under the edges.
I also printed my name
etc onto a small piece
of calico which I attached
with hand stitching and
small mother-of-pearl buttons.

Peeled Paper Technique Players

Below is a slide show of the players for our first technique... and the winner of our first draw is ....drum roll........KLAARTJE!! CONGRATS!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Thanx for Playing

Thank you to all those who have visited our blog, left comments and plan to join in the fun by making the technique and posting a link from their blog to ours.

On January 31st we will add a slideshow of everyones work on the Peeled Paper, put names of all those who joined in into a hat and draw it - winner announced here same day...the next day Feb 1st the second technique will go live.. (Feb will be by Barb Thomas)

Technique #1 - Peeled Paper

By Bevlea Ross

Requirements:

* 4 or 5 papers in various text types. e.g. dictionary pages, foreign text, crosswords, music, technical etc.,
* glue stick
* 7.5" x 5.5 inches of cardstock or chipboard (this will make one large card background or 4 ATCs)
* Distress inks in three complemtry colours (I used Spiced Marmalade, Shabby Shutters and Marigold)
* Sponge
* Masking Tape
* Bone Folder
* Paper Towels
* Water spray bottle (not a fine mister)
* Images and embellishments to finish your ATC
* Scissors/Trimmer

Step 1 - Papers

Choose a nice mix of papers

Step 2 - Rip

Take your papers and tear them into strips and squares.. random shapes you dont want them all the same.

Place each page in its own little pile.. dont mix them up.

Step 3 - Adhere

Take your Gluestick and begin glueing the papers down. Keep the straight edges to the outide edges of your cardstock. All edges to the 'inner' should be torn. Overlap as you work and use different texts beside each other - try not to have two the same close together.


Turn the papers so that they dont all run the same way - have them upside down, sideways etc.,

Step 4 - Mix It Up

Keep working around the board till you have done all the outside edges. If you find that you are forgetting to turn and twist the papers, give the board a turn to the right before you place each peice down, that way they will all be mixed up at the end

Step 5 - Add Some More

When you have completely done the outside fill in the centre... no straight edges at all now, they should be all torn edges. Once you have covered the whole cardstock, add a second layer in parts for extra depth.
Check that you have no large areas of the one text - if so place a smaller different one over it to break it up.

Step 6 - Masking Tape

Take your masking tape and tear it into strips.

Place this on your papers and burnish down firmly with a bone folder. (I have used the green painters tape here only for photographic purposes - you need proper masking tape)

Step 7 - Rip n Tear

Pull the tape up firmly and sharply tearing some of the text with it

Step 8 - Add Some Colour

Now take your distress ink pads and sponge and randomly sponge the colour across the surface

Step 9 - Spritz

When you are satisfied with the colour - take your water bottle and spritz ... not too wet or it will lift the glue.

Leave it sit for a few minutes and then blot off with paper towel exposing the paper and giving it a mottled look.

Step 10- Trim

Leave the paper to dry and then trim 1/4" off each edge giving you size of 7" x 5". Now trim down to four ATCs of 3.5" x 2.5".

Optional: at this point you can spray with Mica Sprays if desired.

NB: I forgot to add when I first posted this... that also at this stage you can stamp them with rubber stamps and/or emboss them using embossing powders.... both look terrific

Free Image 4 You

I have included the image I photoshopped here for you too... feel free to use it however you like

Welcome

I must apologise first up for the 'simple' tutorial this month (will be up first thing Jan 1st).

Because the idea to do this blog came about quite quickly we didn't give our self much of a lead in time to start with Jan 1st as our grand opening... and while the techniques will become more interesting and involved over the year.. we have ended up starting with an old favourite of mine which I hope you will still enjoy and find interesting...this will make the backgrounds for 4 ATCs that you can finish to your liking.

Each month on the 1st we will publish a step by step tutorial - your challenge is to do the technique... upload an image to your blog and link back to us here. Leave a comment in the comments section so we can go look at what you made.
 
As an opening special we have a prize of a Crafter Companion Enveloper Pro.
The Enveloper pro has the capability to make nine different shape and size envelopes and comes with its own double ended scoring and embossing tool and a full colour four page booklet detailing how to make the various size envelopes and tricks of the trade such as achieving a professional finish by lining the envelopes and is valued at $34.95AU.

On the 1st of Feb we will put all the names of those who have left a comment linking to their blog into a hat and draw the winner!