Went down to Olympia with some friends today, to take a class at the Art & Soul Stamp Store called "Lovely Layers". The teacher had made gorgeous papers and taught us her technique. First she taught us about color theory and other art stuff like values, intensity, saturation, positive/negative space, etc. It might sink in for me at some time. LOL I had lots of fun playing with the stamps, inks & embossing powders that were provided. Here are the four sheets (8-1/2" 11") I made in class, it will be fun to cut them up and us them in projects. And look forward to making more at home.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Blue ATCs 2
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Here's a close up of the finished ATC:
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Even though I used the same blues in these ATCs, it has a totally different look from the first set.
Blue ATCs 1
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These are for a ccswaps 10:9 ATC swap, the theme is blue/purple/turquoise, using some or all of those colors. I had these in mind when I made the blue version of the Black Pearl Paper Backgrounds. I adhered the background to card stock, then cut it into ATC sized pieces and used a silver leafing pen to do the edging. I used some of the Luminous Paste Background Paper to cut out and emboss the large hearts. I ran a Distress ink pad over the top to make the embossing stand out.
I used the left over text paper from this project to punch out the butterflies. Here's a close up of the finished ATC:
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Swirls & Birds Deco
Another NGS deco book (all three books came in the mail yesterday: almost as good as Christmas!) I had lots of black acrylic paint on my sponge while making the Black Pearl Paper Backgrounds yesterday, so I sponged it onto this swirly stamp and covered some paper. (Remember to wash acrylic paints of your stamps right away.)
Felt like bright & shimmery colors, so I ran some Twinkling H2Os over the paper.
This deco owner likes birds. I had a large chipboard bird, colored it with Distress ink, ran it through a Cuttlebug embossing folder and then highlighted the raised area with a Brilliance ink pad.
Here is the finished front:
And the back:
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Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Black Pearl Paper Backgrounds & Deco
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This is the tenth background in Trish's Background Noise Challenges. Check on the link to her blog for complete instruction.
I made two sheets, one with black acrylic paint and another one with dark blue acrylic paint.
I didn't have any pearlescent colors of acrylic paint, so I mixed turquoise with metallic pearl white and sponged that on both sheets, after wrinkling then straightening them out. Then a sponged on metallic gold acrylic to the black sheet and metallic silver acrylic on the blue sheet.
Trish is right, it's hard to show the glimmer of these in a photo, plus the texture is so cool, very thick. Here's a close up of the black sheet:
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Deco for Denise Rand
Denise is another Art-Venturer participating in the "Art" deco swap. Denise requested we make pages with people and animals combined. I started with a piece of paper that had picked up extra spray from other projects and ran a brush of watered down Distress ink over the entire surface.
I ran it through the diamond Cuttlebug embossing folder and ran Brilliance ink over the raised areas to tone the color down a bit.
Added images & embellishments, including the word "art". Here is the front:
I hope this is what Denise had in mind. LOL
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Here is the back:
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Sunday, May 25, 2008
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Envelope Please Swap
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I have some blank open envelopes just waiting to be used. I like the buff color of the envelope, so I embossed the numbers Cuttlebug embossing folder and inked the raised areas with a VersaMark pad and heat set.
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I re-embossed the envelope in a different embossing folder and inked with a Distress pad.
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Tag Deco
One of the Next-Generation-Stampers, sent out a deco book made of tags. What a fun idea!
I highlighted the edges with Distress ink and stamped a saying in the middle of the tag with Archival ink,which will be semi-concealed with an image.
I did the packing tape transfer of a magazine ima
ge to add to the tag. Stamped the word "play" around the edges in brick red & black soot Distress inks, added metal letters to spell "play" and a dragonfly charm, darkened the edges with black soot Distress ink and a
dded fun fibers, I got with Adrienne when we met up art Art & Soul last October.
I started out with some paper I had sprayed with home made color mist sprays and then watered down. I cut out a piece to match the tag in the book.
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Post Card Deco page for Maggie
Maggie is another Art-Venturer participating in the "art" deco round robin. She sent out watercolor postcards, wanting us to put our name, city, state, country in the address blanks. What a great idea, love it. Decided I wanted to make it a personal letter to my friend Maggie.
Next, I watered down a light Distress ink and brayered it on both sides and used a heat gun to speed the drying.
I stamped an image, and added an "A" sticker over some tissue paper I'd colored some time ago.
I find tissue paper easier to cut and adhere, if it's run through the xyron before trimming the image down. Then I remove the xyron backing from one edge, and slowly pull back the backing, while sticking the image down. This helps to prevent tearing.
I stamped a saying with the same Brilliance ink I used on the image and edging of the card.
I wanted the back to look worn, used and sent. Added an image of a French stamp, stamped multiple French postal cancellation images with Brilliance Lightening Black ink and heat set it. Then I stamped several sayings with Black Archival Ink.
Hope Maggi enjoys this as much as I did making it.
I started by stamping a flourish stamp with silver acrylic paint on both sides. (Make sure to always wash acrylics off your stamps right away.)
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I did the same with a darker Distress ink, but sprayed a lot of water on it to lighten it up.
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Friday, May 23, 2008
Margaret's Deco page
Margaret is one of the Art-Venturers participating in a deco swap where the word Art must appear somewhere on the page. Margaret mentioned she liked what I've been doing with the Cuttlebug embossing folder, so I used one on the page for her deco. I used Brilliance ink to highlight the raised areas on the front of the page,
and on the back of the page. I placed the area of overlap of embossing on the page where I plan to add other elements.
For the contrast on the page, I sprayed Shimmering Mist over both sides and dried with a heat gun.
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I thought it was fun to obviously change the word "attitude" to "artitude" for this piece. I used the same stickers as the words "play" & "create". I wove this multicolored ribbon through the page.
Here's the back. I ran a piece of gold paper through the same Cuttlebug embossing folder to create a contrasting stripe. I used a piece of the red Textured Gesso backgrounds I made in March to use behind the large A and to punch out the butterflies. I edged the butterflies with a gold leafing pen. I brought the ribbon ends from the front around to the back and threaded them through a large gold colored bead.
It doesn't show up in these photos, but the pages have a delicious shimmer to them.
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It doesn't show up in these photos, but the pages have a delicious shimmer to them.
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