Tim Holtz's Perfect Distress Technique

Loved the new technique video on Tim's blog called Perfect Distress. To see how this is done, go watch the video on Tim's blog. I gave it a play today. Started by rubbing a light blue Distress ink on to a craft sheet, spraying with water and picking up the color with a large tag, then used a heat tool to dry the tag.

Stamped some butterflies on to the tag with the same blue Distress ink and used a dry brush to apply turquoise Perfect Pears. Brushed off the excess.

Stamped more butterfly images with purple Distress ink and used a dry brush to brush on purple Perfect Pearls.

Following Tim's directions, I sprayed water over the purple butterflies to have the ink underneath run, then heat set, to stop further running.

Stamped part of a saying and an image with green Distress Ink, and colored the edges of the tag with the purple Distress Ink.

Stamped three words and another butterfly image with black Versafine ink.

Took a photo outside. Doesn't show the shine of the Perfect Pearls very well.

I want to try this technique some more.

Quilts

This quilt was created using the scraps after making a Butterfly & Dragonfly quilt, which I haven't decided how to quilt yet. It was going to the back, but my friends convinced me it deserved to be its own quilt.
This one is made with batik fabrics. I love the colors and patterns in the fabric so wanted to show them off with this pattern. I rented the use of a long arm machine and did my first free motion quilting. It is all meandering.

Quick Cards

I needed to replenish my Birthday card supply. Attended a workshop where we used a 12"x12" scrapbooking kit to make easy cards. See the link at the CTMH site. for CTMHTV and "crazy for cards". We used 10 sheets of card stock and 5 sheets of specialty papers. I liked using a kit for this. I only needed to take the one paper packet, 4 matching ink pads & black ink, a paper cutter, scissors, double stick tape, some fun embellishments and my Birthday stamps. I didn't need to worry about what colors to use, etc. I ended up pulling out another blank card and make an extra one. I still have background paper left over. If I did it again, I wouldn't cut up the last bits into the smallest pieces as I didn't do that part of the card. Here are my 21 cards.

Quick Quilt

I was surprised how quickly this quilt was to put together.It is for the Comfort Quilters. I've been forgetting to take pictures before turning in the quilts, but remembered for this one.

My first attempt at polymer clay beads

I had lots of painted clay left over after cutting out the stars in the post below.
I think I cut out some 20 stars, amazing how much clay is left over between the pieces.A friend, left me some metallic purple polymer clay to do what I wished with. I added it to the left over black painted clay, and rolled it out. Decided to cut up the clay to mix up the purple and black more, then rolled it out again. Rolled bits of clay into small black beads for an upcoming project. Pierced holes with a bamboo skewer and baked per package instructions. Had a difficult time having the beads keep their round shape while piercing a hole through them. Any hints? Remember, I'm a newbie at playing with polymer clay!

Brocade Polymer Clay Part 2

After making the Brocade Polymer Clay pieces earlier this month, I realized I hadn't followed the instructions correctly, when I saw other's creations. Nothing wrong with Adrienne's instructions (which are excellent), I'm a poor reader LOL!

I'm working on a Black Large Tag for a Rainbow Tag Booklet and need some embellishments. decided to give this another play. These need to read as black, so I couldn't add much in the way of color. After conditioning and rolling out the soft Fimo black clay, rubbed a thin layer of Sparkle Lumiere paint over the surface with my finger and let dry.

Several people mentioned using VersaMark ink instead of cornstarch to keep the stamp from sticking to the clay. Works great!!! Repeatedly stamped a flourish stamp over the surface, making sure to re-ink the stamp with VersaMark ink each time. I wanted lots of detail in the clay, as I'll be cutting out at least 18 little stars.

Rubbed a very thin layer of silver Lumiere paint over the raised surface of the polymer clay and let dry.

Here's the step I missed last time: Rolled the clay out flat, so the different paint appears as a design within the clay. How cool is that!!! This is really striking when doing with various colors, but I need black on black for my project. Used a small cookie cutter to cut out the stars and a pencil to poke holes into my buttons. These were baked on a foil sheet per instructions on the clay package.

I like how these turned out:

Memory Folder for Mother's Day

Have you seen these cute fold-out folders to add pretty papers and photos, etc to? I had fun adding papers to this 6"x6" folder at a workshop. Then came home, developed photos from my Mother's Family reunion last August, to make her a gift (I'm really not late, my folks don't arrive here until the end of May). Discovered the large group photos would not fit on 6" page, as I was unwilling to crop off any family members. So I decided to try making a larger folder with whatever I had in my stash.

I found two black mat board pieces (the parts cut out of mats) that were 8"x10" and cut them down to 8"X8".

Pulled out the thickest card stock I could find (happy to have them in this great neutral color). Cut them to 7-7/8" x 11". Two of the sheets, I made a fold to create a 7-7/8" square with a rectangular fold at the end. The third sheet was folded in half.

Glued the sheet folded in half to the square ends of the other two sheets. Glued the rectangular flaps on the ends to the square mat boards. Inked the edges of the mat board with black chalk ink. Generously inked the edges and folds on both sides with brown chalk ink.

Folders covered with decorative papers, front and back:

Here's how it turned out after adding photos, etc. Front:

One side of folder:

Other side of folder:

My mom will enjoy this reminder of the fun reunion.

Book Study: Softening Detail Stamps with Chalk Inks

We're doing a Book Study as a group on NGS, using Nancy Curry's book "Texture Effects for Rubber Stamping". This week we are looking at her project "Eternal Style". She uses chalk inks to soften the look of detail stamps. Nancy says a wide variety of looks can be achieved by what color inks and how many layers you use.First, I dragged a green chalk ink pad over a piece of cream linen card stock, trying to leave some areas un-inked.
I don't have a lot of chalk inks, so I choose to use some other pigment type inks that I thought would give a soft look, unlike dye inks. Stamped a skeleton leaf in yellow Fabrico ink and in olive Brilliance ink. Stamped Eucalyptus leaves in yellow chalk ink and ivy Brilliance ink. Stamped wheat stalks in a brown Fabrico ink, then heat set.

Over stamped the background with the same three stamps with pearlescent beige Brilliance ink and heat set.

Same piece with photo taken by the window, so you can see the beige images better. Strange how different the colors look under artificial and natural light.

Decided to add more color and stamped more eucalyptus leaves in the olive Brilliance ink, and heat set.

Repeatedly stamped a saying in the ivy Brilliance ink over a light green card. Cut my stamped piece into 5 parts and glued onto dark brown card stock and glued onto the green card.

Margaret's "IT" Gift

Margaret is the "IT" girl for June in the Art-Venturers group. She choose Cemetery Angels as her theme. I decorated a small box for her, and included 3 cemetery angel images that I printed on canvas paper for her to use as she likes (I did fix the edges of the lining before mailing off the gift).
Started by painting a cardboard jewelry box with gesso and let dry. Then sponged on pearlescent stencil paste to a flourish stamp and stamped it on to the box and let dry.

Made a wash of mixed d. purple and p. blue acrylic paint, painted over the box and quickly wiped off with a paper towel. The stencil paste, made a great dimensional resist.

I colored a decorative piece of German Scrap (I think that is what it is, I received it in the mail from Linda Baldock last week), with silver Encore ink. I also cut out 3 words (from a sheet of words from Linda) and glued them into a small silver frame charm. I covered the words with a small piece of iridescent gift wrap.

Darkened a bright shiny strip of silver ribbon with black StazOn ink, and glued to the lid. Printed a cemetery angel image onto a transparency sheet, added this to the lid, along with the charm frame and the German scrap piece.

I wanted something soft and stretchy to line the inside of the box. Started with a baby wipe that had been used to clean some brushes:

Added color by spraying with some home made sprays of blue & purple dye inks in mini misters.

Stamped a flourish in blue and purple Distress inks.

Ran the sheet through a Xyron sticker maker, cut the sheet in half and lined the inside of the box and lid. Later I went back and used Perfect Paper Adhesive to glue down the loose edges to the box. Used black StazOn ink to stamp a saying to the inside of the lid.

Wearable ATC

THANK YOU TO LINDA for a fabulous mail day. A couple of weeks ago, some of the Aussies got together for a class with Linda . She taught: wearable ATCs. Linda offered to make up some packets of supplies for those who didn't have the items on the clas list, then generously offered to send packets to some of us OS (overseas) gals who wouldn't be able to attend. This way, we could take part in the class at out leisure. My packet came today and I was astounded by all the lovely papers and embellishments, enough to complete the project and more. To see the instructions by Linda go here.
I haven't found a white ink pad, that gives an intense white image to my liking, yet. So I sponged this paint onto my text stamp and then stamped it on to the black card stock and heat set.

Embossed an intricate design onto one half with gold detail embossing powder and heat set.

Tore off some of the text paper included in the packet, along with some decorative paper scraps I had laying around, and colored the edges by sponging on purple Distress ink and glued them onto the card stock.

I covered up the image a bit (I'm a very modest dresser, and if I'm going to "wear" my ATC, she needs to be modest also, LOL). I colored on a dress with a blue marker and stamped on a pattern, embossed with black detail embossing powder and heat set. Reminds me of some of the costumes seen on "Dancing with the Starts". Colored the edges of the image with a black marking pen.

Glued the woman to the ATC, added the crown embellishment. Colored the wings and German scrap with black Archival ink, and rubbed some of the ink off to give it a distressed look. Cut out some words, provided by Linda, and colored the edges with blue ink. Glued on some small lavender rhinestones. Added the hanging "thingy" with the decorative brad. Last attached plain card stock to back to cover back of brad.

Thanks again Linda, for giving me a fun play session even when I live so far away!!!