Welcome Ian Matthew

Born today at 0029, 7lbs 4oz, 20" long.

Using Messy Papers!

I worked on this project earlier this month, but didn't post these pictures before I left home. I had some time to post this evening.
I have learned to lay paper at the bottom of my spray box, not to protect an old box, but to get some great papers. Here are some of my recent papers.

I cut up the sheet on the right and ran the pieces through the Cuttlebug with an assortment of embossing folders.

To get some contrast, I highlighted the raised areas with Brilliance inks.

I used cold pressed watercolor papers to fill the books. I think they'll be good for deco books. Here are the finished booklets.

Spring in the Midwest

I'm visiting my son & his family in Minnesota. We went for a walk this morning. It was beautiful.
My granddaughter loves the Disney Princesses, but not wearing dresses. I made her a Jasmine outfit. She couldn't wait to put it on. But the top "hurt" her, it was too itchy, she won't wear it. I need to make a liner for it.

Art Quest Challenge Cracked Glass

So excited to squeeze in one more challenge, before leaving on my trip to the Midwest. Trish challenged us to create a page using one of the cracked glass techniques. See her blog for details.
With Easter coming up, I wanted to do an Easter page, and I thought the cracked glass technique would be great with this stamp:
I was concerned that the fine details of the image would be lost under the UTEE (ultrathick embossing powder) and cracks, so I colored it in and darkened the edges:
I used an embossing ink pad and 3 layers of UTEE (heating after each layer):
Then let it cool:
I bent the image to make breaks in the UTEE and dropped a dark distress reinker over the cracks and rubbed it in with my finger, (then wiped off the excess with a tissue):
I wanted more cracks, but not as dark. I bent the image some more and ran a lighter shade of distress ink over the image:
Here is my finished page:
Wishing everyone a Blessed Easter!

More Altered Tins

I was cleaning up my craft space and found two altoid tins I had started to alter a couple of years ago. I painted them with black and gold paint, probably acrylics, and then had no idea what to do with them. They got buried under a stack of supplies until today.I spread Amy's Leafing Adhesive over my stamp with my finger and stamped on the top of the lid. I had to wait 15 min. for it to get tacky. (For some reason, I couldn't get the leafing to stick with the Essential glue pad on the stamp on top of the acrylic paint. No idea why not, so this was plan B.)

I put assorted colors of gold leafing over the image.
I like how the leafing shows up better as it moves around.
I decided to give the sides a mottled appearence of leafing, and used my finger to apply more of Amy's Leafing Adhesive.The gold leafing was too bright for what I was going for, so I ran fine grit sand paper to roughen it up and dabbed on some gold & black alcohol inks.
I was able to use a push pin to make holes for the brads. Here is the top:I used some of the gessoed sea sponge background paper I made earlier to line the inside.
For the second box, I used the Essential Glue Pad and assorted colors of gold leafing to cover the box, similar to what I did yesterday. Because of the acrylic paints underneath, this tin has a very different texture and appearance compared to yesterday's box.I wanted to add some glitter, so I dabbed on more of the Essential Glue Pad added embossing powder and heated it up. It was a bit more glitter that I was planning.

No problems, more glue, more leafing to tone down the glitter.

I wanted more metal, so I pulled out this embellishment. Like the design, but it was not the color I was looking for.

I added gold alcohol ink to change its color.

And a little glue with a bit of gold leafing.

To give the edge some contrast, I applied blue alcohol ink.

In my clean up, I found this sample of adhesive to try. (I can't remember who gave the email to request a free sample or what the email was, sorry.) It works great. Very easy way to adhere metal to metal. I didn't get it on where I wanted at first. But, just like the instructions said, I reheated the metal, and was able to easily reposition the embellishment.

Close up of the top.

Inside, again I used the sponged gesso paper I made earlier.

Altered Tin

A while ago, Fiona offered tins to the Art-Ventures group. All she asked was for us to do was decorate them however we liked, post a picture of the decorated tin and give some instructions. Originally, I thought of turning it into an ATC holder, but it wasn't big enough. The top of tin is about 3.5" x 3" and the bottom part is slightly smaller. I finally decided it would be used to hold the "Little Beauties" I'm receiving in some swaps. Here is what I did:

I pressed the Essential Glue Pad to the top and sides of the tin and applied multicolors of gold leaf with a brush. No heating is required with this glue pad, but you must use the glue while it is still wet. Once the glue dried, I brushed off the excess gold leaf:

Next, I stamped a flourish image on top of the tin with the Essential Glue pad and used some copper foil. I did a rough application, so it would look more antiquey, and blend into the gold leaf.

Close up:
Finished tin top, with one of the "Little Beauties" I received from Maggie:
Inside of tin, holding the lovely "Little Beauties" I have received so far (I couldn't resist doing the inside top of the tin, I like a bit of color!):

Textured Gesso

This is the 5th of the Background Noise Challenges from Trish B.

I didn't have black gesso, so I used white gesso on 1/4 sheets of card stock. I tried to make different textures, and then let it dry.

One two sheets, I used black acrylic paint and on another a mixture of black & red paints.

On one, I painted over with gold acrylic and on another I sprayed on Solar Gold Shimmering Mist.

I painted gold acrylic over the black & red one. I didn't notice until after they had dried, that I used too much gold paint and lost the contrast in the texture.

I painted over the gold with another layer of black acrylic paint and rubbed it down with a wet wipe. On the left, I liked how the texture stood out. On the right, there wasn't much texture, so I spiced it up with some Guatemalan Green Shimmering Mist Spray.

I painted two sheets with red acrylic paint.

On the left, I painted on gold acrylic paint. On the right, I sprayed on Solar Gold Shimmering Mist.

Again, it wasn't until it dried, that I saw it was too much gold. I painted over it with the black acrylic and rubbed with a wet wipe. I really like how the contrast shows up on this one.

On two, I painted on a green acrylic. For some reason, the paint didn't want to stick to the paper on the right.

On the left, I painted over the green with gold acrylic paint and kiwi perfect pearls. On the right, I used metallic gold Luminere's paint.

I painted blue acrylic on two other sheets.

On the left, I painted on silver acrylic paint with perfect pearls added. On the right, I sprayed on Pewter Shimmering Mist.