One World One Heart Give Away

I was inspired by Chris Bennett's blog to join in this project. I'd love to be the lucky winner on her blog. You can read more about The One World One Heart project here.
I found more trading card sheets on my table when I went to clean up, and knew I'd make another ATC holder to give away. OR, instead of holding ATCs it can hold a wide variety of embellishments, making it easy to see what you have and ready to be used. You have a chance to win this ART holder:

Front: I used some paste paper I made a few years ago to cover the cardboard. The photo doesn't show the paper well, it has a nice metallic sheen.

Inside front cover: showing how you can hold embellishments, instead of ATC's, or you can fill it with photos, or whatever you choose. There are 18 plastic pages, so 54 compartments in all. (The embellishments seen in the picture are included with the holder.)

Inside back cover: The insides of the covers were done with another sheet of paste paper I made.

Back cover with my signature, well I printed my name, because even I can't read my signature.
Details: Leave a comment on this post stating you're in for the drawing, include your name along with your world location (city/country). To be eligible, you must post your comment by Midnight Pacific Standard Time on Feb. 13th. I will do a random drawing on Feb 14th to announce the winner. The winner will then need to contact me with their mailing information by the end of Feb. 2008 to receive this holder. Thank you for participating, good luck, and I hope you'll join the fun and host a give-away on your blog too.

ATC Holder Booklets

I've been wanting to make an ATC holder for myself that would have clear plastic pockets inside, so I could see both the front & backs of the ATCs without needing to take them out. On ccswaps they have a swap to exchange ATC holders and I want to play! Plus I saw the one Chrissy made on her blog, and you never know, I might be the fortunate recipient.

I bought a package of 12 sheets of trading card holders. I cut each sheet into 3 strips horizontally. I divided them into 3 sets of 12 strips. For the books the covers needed to be 4" x 9" long. I had a paper shopping bag that had a great stripe design on it. I was ready to play:

I swiped a Distress Ink pad over the surface, let it dry. Then wrinkled the paper, laid it out, and just inked the top with a darker Distress Ink pad. Since this ink was very dark, I stamped my main images onto brown tissue paper and pasted it on top. For the inside covers, I stamped some quotes & butterflies on top of some decorative background paper.

Once I assembled the booklet, I added some embellishments from my stash of leftovers. Although I've used thick cardboard for book covers before, they were only 4" x 4". With the longer size, the cardboard bent and I didn't realize it hadn't reached the bottom of the slot on the Zutter binder. The holes were on the very edges of the covers, so I trimmed them off and carefully repunched them. The edges of this book on the end where it is bound are "raw", so this one's for me!!!! I like it, and it will remind me to double check what I'm doing when it comes to machinery. The booklet will hold 36 ATCs. I bound the book with a 5/8" coil that looks great, but if the ATC's have much embellishment on them, this might not be a wide enough coil.

For the second book, I wanted to stamp directly on the paper so I wanted to use a lighter ink color. First I spritzed the same paper with water and wrinkled it. Next, I swiped a Distress Ink over the surface, let it dry, then stamped the main images with a darker color Distress Ink.

For the inside covers, I again choose some decorative background paper. I had received the great travel image from Maggie in the Instant Art Swap on ccswaps, it goes great with the theme I'm developing. I also used the image of the two girls on a transparency sheet (I use them a lot, because I printed them up for one project, but changed my mind and did something else. Waste not, want not......, besides it's a great image.)

I used a very thin cardboard as the base to the covers, so they would easily fit in the Zutter binder. This holder was bound with a 1" coil. Once the covers were assembled, I finished the front with more stamping and some embellishments. I will use this one in the swap, I think someone will enjoy having it as an ATC holder.

For both of the holders above, I deliberately decorated the covers with a monotone color scheme on the left side, and more color on the right. The idea being you're eye travels to the end & you continue on to open up the book to see the great art inside.
I still had one more set of plastic trading cards, and need another holder for myself. I wanted to continue on my resolution of using what I have on hand and recycling what I can. I had a couple of sheets of paper that were used to protect my counters when making messy backgrounds. This first sheet was used when I did the shining stones backgrounds, along with other things. I loved the colors, knew it was for me and said "go for it!"

I cut out some letters form the glue resist backgrounds made earlier this month, added some images from my stash along with extra bits cut out from the same sheet of paper. I loved how this quote was already stamped on the paper.

For the inside covers, I used another sheet that had been to protect my work surface, added some image and stamped a couple of sayings. I'm ready to receive some more ATCs and now have a couple of great places to store them.

Faux Silk Part 2

I realized I better make some cards from my faux silk backgrounds for my demo in Feb, since I'm going out of town to visit my folks this week. I also decided to do two faux silk examples where they are the main image of the card. The card I made last week, was missing something, so made a few additions. I didn't use up all my backgrounds, saved some for another play day. At least now I feel ready to do my demo in Feb. You can see the cards I made in the slide show below:

Valentine Cards

I saw this great way to use up scraps of decorative papers to make Valentine's Day cards on Debby Wilde's blog. Not only do you use up your scraps, but you have the choice of using the positive and negative images of a large heart to be used on the front and inside of one card, or to be the fronts of two different cards. For the first card, I used up some of my huge supply of scrapbooking paper scraps.

I realized my recently made glue resist backgrounds would look great as torn scraps in a Valentine's Card. I made two different cards with this one scrap sheet. I decided to go for two distinct looks with these same papers. For the first one I used a non traditional color of yellow to make it light & fun. I think my daughter will like this one.

For the second one, I choose this rich burgundy paper to give it a more romantic feel, to send to my DH.

Faux Silk technique

I received this gorgeous card from Helen Kwok in a square swap from ccswaps. I asked what technique she used and said the Faux Silk technique. She had gotten the instructions from Splitcoaststampers. And she gave me her take on this technique.

It's my turn to do a demo at my monthly stamp club in February, I'm thinking of doing this technique, and today I had some time to experiment. So I copied off Helen's instructions and got to work er play!

1. 2.3.

1. Cut a piece of tissue paper at least 1/2" larger than card stock base. Stamp images on tissue paper. [note: I used Brilliance ink on my stamp]
2. Wad tissue paper into a ball (be careful not to tear), gently open the tissue. Repeat. The more times you do this, the finer the creases.
3. Liberally apply glue stick to the card stock or run card stock through Xyron, then lay tissue paper (right side down) on table, then lay card stock (adhesive side down) on tissue. Flip over and gently press the tissue into the card stock, making sure the entire surface is glued down.
4. Sponge on distress ink and/or Brilliance ink.
5. Cut and trim the tissue.
I decided to add color by spraying with my homemade color mist. I like how more color and even more stamping can be added after gluing the tissue to the card stock.

And here is the sample card I made with this technique:

Some of the other faux silk backgrounds I made today:

A. B.

A. Stamped image with black ink and ran Brilliance Moonlight White ink over the top.
B. Stamped image with Brilliance ink and then ran a gold Brilliance ink over the top. I didn't realize how juicy the ink pad was. There were big blobs of ink, so I spread it around with a wet wipe. I was using left over linen card stock, the wet wipe brought out those lines from the card stock for more texture.

C. D.

C. Stamped image with blue dye ink and after it was glued to the card stock, realized I did not like it at all. I took a faded denim distress ink pad and generously ran it over the surface. I love how this dark ink highlights the crinkles.
Next, I grabbed some colored tissue paper that came with gifts at Christmas time. (I can never throw away tissue paper and decorated paper bags, they are too useful.)
D. Stamped image with red dye ink onto pink tissue with multi colored confetti in it.

E. F.

E. Stamped bold leaves with green Brilliance ink, and small floral images with gold Brilliance ink onto a green tissue paper with silver confetti in it.
F. Stamped image with Lightening Black Brilliance ink onto silver tissue paper.

G.

G. This is my personal favorite. No stamping was done. This was preprinted tissue that I had accidentally placed onto a work surface that had an assortment of perfect pearls and color mist spills on it when I was playing with the Shinning Stone technique. I love the random color blotches and glitz. Great tissue to use in this technique, so glad I kept it.

Quote ATC

This is for the monthly 10:9 ATC swap on ccswaps. The theme for January is quotes. I don't know why I had so much trouble getting started with this one. I think it was because the stamp of this quote was too big for the ATC and it took me a long time to decide to just type it on the computer. I much prefer stamping to using the computer. For the otherworldly background, I ran purple card stock through the Cuttlebug using the snowflake background folder. I choose a section that looked more like space to me, than snowflakes. I inked the raised areas with Brilliance pearlescent blue ink. I love all sorts of quotes, so I'm excited to see what I will receive in the swap.
Note: I just spotted a typing error in the quote and am off to correct it and reprint it. So glad to see this before I mailed it off.

Using the Glue Resist Background

I signed up for a chipboard swap on ccswaps. A great time to use one of the backgrounds I had recently made with the glue resist technique described in the post below. I hunted through my stash of leftover images and loved these little girls. I decided to use the chipboard frame of the letter B on my card. I thought it captured the girl beautifully, while still looking like a B. I inked the chipboard with Color box wisteria chalk ink to match the color in the background. I stamped the stars with Brilliance platinum planet and added a few yellow rhinestones.

Glue Resist Backgrounds

This is the second background technique in Trish's 2008 Background Noise Sketchbook Challenge. In making my journal page I cut off 2" squares of the backgrounds I made. I still have a good sized portion of each background to use for ATCs, tags & other uses.

I used tacky glue for both techniques, because that is what I had in the house. I followed Trish's advise and made lots of messy backgrounds. The two pictures below are of technique #1. Pour white glue over matte card stock and using a plastic card, spread the glue around, then use one cut up edge of the plastic card to create texture. I found with the tacky glue, I needed to wait a couple of minutes after spreading the glue before creating the texture. Otherwise the glue just ran back together. Better add that note to my journal page!

I was too impatient to wait overnight for them to dry. After 5 hours, I ran Color Box Chalk inks over the glued surface, they were just a little tacky. My red fingers added extra color to the last blue card I colored.

The next day, I decided they needed a little something more, so I sprayed them with either Radiant Rain Shimmering Mists, or homemade mists I had created. This gave them a little shimmer, they don't show well in these pictures, but I can see the difference.

The following pictures are of technique #2. Squeeze the white glue bottle over matte card stock to create random patterns. I did a couple random, but also had fun doing deliberate patterns. I have a hard time doing random. I did let these dry overnight.

It was recommended we use pigment inks to color these, because pigment inks easily wipe off the dried glue, giving the "resist" look. On a couple of the backgrounds I used Color Box chalks, and used Brilliance inks on the rest. I really like how the metallic Brilliance colors looked on this technique.