Fantasy Film Embellished Valentines

In February, I will do a demonstration and lead a play time with a couple of Fantasy Film techniques. Thought it appropriate to make my cards for the monthly swap with some embellishments made out of Fantasy Film. Inked a butterfly stamp with red StazOn ink, layered on two pieces of light Fantasy Film, covered with parchment paper and heat with a hot iron. I used some extra bits to do the same with small hearts.
I saw some gorgeous ATCs made with alcohol backgrounds on Fiona's blog, and decided to something similar for my cards. I dropped 3 pink alcohol inks on a craft sheet and dropped on a piece of glossy card stock, swirled it around and picked it up. Each background looks different depending on how much ink I used, how much swirling around I did, etc. I forgot that Fiona added blending solution to her alcohol inks on the craft sheet, so I probably used up more alcohol ink than I needed to. Next, I stamped a swirly image on the background with embossing ink, covered with white embossing powder and heat set.

Layered the alcohol background on white card stock, and added a torn "romantic" black and white tissue paper piece. Folded the wings up on the Fantasy Film butterfly and glued to the card by just the body section. Added some red thread and 3 mini Fantasy Film hearts.

Busy Sewing

When we were in Panama for my son's wedding, we spent most of the time at the beach and I never made it to a fabric store. But, I did buy this gorgeous parrot Mola at a local craft fair. I added a blue batik border to the Mola, then made a patch work outside border to pick up the bright colors in the Mola. Now to buy a dowel, so I can display this wall hanging.
At the quilt shops there are such lovely fabrics to tempt me. I put these to good use, making a jumper and two skirts for my granddaughter.

For my grandson, a quilted carrier,

to store small toy cars and trucks. The original pattern was with more and narrower pockets to store crayons. I think Ian will like the trucks better.

And I finally finished quilting a "Disappearing 9 Patch" out of leftover Oriental fabrics for Comfort Quilters.

Book Study: Cosmos Paper

On NGS group, we are studying Julia Andrus' book "Paper Transformed". Today I had lots of fun playing with her technique "Cosmos Paper".

Julia states that this technique is best done with areas smaller than 4"x4". She uses either illustration board or 3 - 5 layers of card stock glued together. I cut up pieces of mat board to be about 2"x 3". Color the board with inks, markers, watercolors or colored pencil. If you color with anything other than pigment ink, you need to apply Perfect Medium, VersaMark or embossing ink to the surface, then generally cover with UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) over the surface and melt. Julia does this with a heat tool, but I always have UTEE everywhere when using a heat tool, so I heated the board on foil in a "craft only" electric frying pan (this is a s-l-o-w way to melt UTEE). Once the UTEE is melted, sprinkle with another layer of UTEE, melt and repeat with a third layer of UTEE. Let piece cool completely.
One advantage of the electric fry pan is you can do several pieces at once.

Once the piece has cooled, apply Perfect Medium, VersaMark or embossing ink to the surface and lightly brush on Perfect Pearls.

Sprinkle UTEE on top, Julia begins to heat the UTEE from a distance as there is nothing to make the UTEE stick at this stage and you don't want to blow the UTEE off. I heated mine in the electric frying pan again. As the UTEE melts, I used the heat tool to move the Perfect Pearls around.

This piece was colored with Riviera Kadleidacolor ink and blue interference, violet interference and blue smoke Perfect Pearls. The interference perfect pearls are transparent and allow more of the ink colors to show through.
The next was was colored with Desert Heat Kaleidacolor ink and raspberry sparkle, forever green and gold Perfect Pearls.

This one was colored with Royal Satin Kaleidacolor ink and blue, plum and kiwi Perfect Pearls.
The last one was colored with ColorBox Paint Box inks and plum, violet and copper Perfect Pearls.

One World One Heart Giveaway

2/15/10: The giveway is now closed and the winner is Bev Coffery of Altered Paper Arts.
I'm participating in the ONE WORLD ONE HEART annual global blog event again this year. For more information about this event click on the Magic Carpet Ticket Holder logo.
I am giving away this mini-canvas. To have a chance to win this piece of art, leave a comment on this post before Feb 15, 2010 along with a way for me to contact you online. There will be a random drawing to determine the winner on Feb 15, 2010 and I will contact you then about sending the canvas to you. Hope you have fun visiting all the participants!

If you're curious, here is how I created this piece. I took the canvas I stenciled earlier and added torn & sprayed dictionary with matte gel along with a cut out vintage image and some wings I had previously made by inking wing stamps with StazOn ink, lay down two layers of Fantasy Film on top of inked stamp, heat with an iron, then trimming the image.

To add to the background, stamped some words directly on the canvas with black StazOn ink.

Sprayed some perfect pearls over large black fabric flower. Added cut out white letters to a painted acrylic background and topped with a plastic dome. Adhered colored ribbon across the canvas, then added the lettered beads to complete the canvas.

I had fun making this bright cheery piece.

What's New ATCs for swap

The theme for February's 6:5 ATC swap on ccswaps is "What's New?" Metal jewelry making is new for me, so I wanted to make the ATC using some of my new skills. I used an metal alphabet set to stamp some words on to round copper colored metal pieces. Then used the padded side of a small hammer on the back of the piece to re flatten the piece. Distress the pieces by using the "bumpy" side of the small hammer on the front of the pieces.
Added dark green alcohol ink to the stamped words and wiped off the excess, to help the words stand out.

Colored dictionary pages with Distress inks, cut and tore into triangular shapes. Stamped on a collage image with dark brown StazOn ink and then over stamped the same image with black Versafine ink.

Layered the dictionary page to Faux Patent Leather card stock and onto black paper with three black brads. tied on the stamped metal piece with decorative fibers.

Faux Patent Leather

On the NGS yahoo group we are studying Julia Andrus's book: "Paper Transformed". I wanted to come up with a quick, but different looking textured paper and came across this technique in Julia's book. She just has it listed as a variation of Dry Embossing by Machine in her book. It is very simple: glaze paper with a glossy acrylic medium and allow it to dry before embossing. I choose two different card stocks to glaze:
After they dried, I embossed them with an embossing folder in my Cuttlebug. Looks like patent leather to me.

February Charm Swap

When I was at the bead store, I found these mini bottles. I knew I'd use them to make charms for the ccswap bead swap as soon as I came up with an idea. Today was the day!
Added a small amount of Ultra fine Prisma Glitter to the inside.

Inked the word "wanderers" with dark blue StazOn ink on a stamp and rolled the bottles over the stamp to pick up the ink. Heat set.

Stamped an image onto pieces of Film Strip Ribbon with brown StazOn ink and let dry.

Glued on a sprayed paper to one side of the image and behind this paper glued on parts of dictionary pages.

Slipped these into the mini bottles. Added a small blue metal star to the inside of the jar with a piece of textured iridescent gift wrap. Placed in the cork and added a blue bead and jump ring to the top.

Hope the recipients enjoy these as much as I did making them.

January Charm Swap

ccswaps is having a monthly Charm swap this year. We can sign up to three times each month. I made these 3 caged beads with beaded tassels, using 20 gauge copper wire, for the January Charm Swap

Bracelet Swap

ccswaps is having a Bracelet Swap. I picked up Linda Jones book, "Creating Wire and Beaded Jewelry" it's great for beginners like me. Great step by step photos. I wanted to make a bracelet that stood on it's own, but also had room for charms if the recipient desired. I used 20 gauge silver colored wire. Also made caged beads to add on. I added some drop beads to the ends of the caged beads and in between the caged beads. Here's the finished bracelet. Depending on the recipient's wrist size, I may need to make some adjustments.

Valentine Mail Boxes

I found these cute mini metal mail boxes and decided to make very special Valentines for my grandchildren.
I colored the flag and the outer exposed areas with blue alcohol ink on one of the mailboxes. Glued on decorative papers and embellished with stickers and rub-ons.

They are filled with stickers, small toys, socks and only one chocolate heart. Besides enjoying the gifts inside, I'm sure they will have fun playing the mail boxes.

Heart/Valentine Cards

ccswaps has a Have a Heart Swap I want to join. I made a heart out of Iridescent gift wrap paper over a heart image inked with red StazOn ink then heated with a hot iron over parchment paper, similar to the technique using Fantasy Film.
Adhered this heart embellishment to a strip of vellum that had been run through the Cuttlebug with a swirl embossing folder. Attached the vellum to a Luminous Paste background with small white brads and attached to a white card. Words are black rub-ons.

Used the same Luminous Paste background to create a valentine for my DH. I made a multicolored Oozed Friendly Plastic heart for the main embellishment, similar to these ones. I used a multicolored piece of friendly plastic with a piece of gold mesh ribbon. Glued the heart to a piece of gold stamped white paper and layered on black card stock. Glued it to the Luminous Paste background with a multi colored ribbon in between. These words are also black rub-ons.

Book Study: Luminous Paste

On NGS group we are doing a Book Study of Julia Andrus' book "Paper Transformed: A Handbook of Surface-Design Recipes and Creative Paper Projects". I've started with her recipe for Luminous Paste. Julia uses Perfect Pearls and Glossy Accents, but states that Gel acrylic medium can be used in place of Glossy Accents. For the first piece, I choose a piece of shimmery pink card stock for the paper and made a paste out of Raspberry Sparkle Perfect Pearls and the gel medium.
Taped the corners of the card to keep it from slipping and used a palette knife to spread on the paste.

While the paste was still wet, used a trowel to create a textured design (could use a comb or plastic fork or cut credit card or other implement to make texture designs). I spread the extra paste over a dictionary page for future use. Let dry.

How it looks after drying:

Tried this technique with mixing two different mica powders (blue and green) with Gel acrylic medium over black paper, again spreading the extra paste onto dictionary pages.

After drying:

Then tried the technique with a small amount of purple mica powder and a generous amount of copper mica powder mixed with Gel acrylic medium on a yellowish-orange paper:

This is a great technique and you can achieve a wide variety of background papers determined by the basic color of paper, the colored mica powders you choose and the texture design you create. Lots of fun!