Patina Foil

This fortnight's technique is called Patina Foil.  We'll be using the metallic foil tape (which I love to use in case you haven't noticed!), alcohol inks and the Snow Cap Metallic Mixative in the alcohol ink range.  Now I know a lot of people bought this Snow Cap (white) alcohol ink when it first came out and very dutifully placed it amongst their other alcohol inks, and there it sat..... not sure what to do with it?   I've found the lighter colours of alcohol inks don't really take to the foil tape really well, no problem with those darker or brighter colours but the lights just don't seem to cut it.   Enter Snow Cap, if you place Snow Cap as well as your other colours on your piece of felt and apply it as you normally would.  The Snow Cap sort of acts like a base and allows the other colours to grab onto the foil tape so you can actually see them, it's quite opaque so I guess this is why this works.   I don't use blending solution but you can if you want to  -  I just don't find I need it unless the colour is too dark, then I use it to lighten the overall effect. 

 

"Whisper"...

 

"Culture"...

 



 

 

"Pitchfork"...

(yes, I know, it has pink...)

 

 

 

"To become"...

 

 

 

Some more samples from the previous class, Faux Hammered Metal.

 

"Clicking my heels"...

 

"Precipitation"...

 

 

"Enthrall"...

 

 

 

Finally one more from the class before Faux Hammered Metal, Permanent Marker Wash".

 

"Devilish"...

 



 

 

This will be my last post for a while as I'm off on holidays for a month to the USA in a fortnight's time..  Can you say "woo-hoo"..... I can, and am looking forward to a wonderful time.  Going to both coasts to catch up with friends and family.  I'll be doing Sheer Heaven transfers when I get back. 



Faux Hammered Metal Background

The technique for this fortnight is Faux Hammered Metal.  It gives a realistic metal look to black cardstock using clear utee and metallic paints.  It's all in how long you heat the utee for.  Generally utee is heated to the point of a glass-like finish.   Removing the heat before that point gives a more bumpy, textured look which is what's required for this technique.

 

"Mesmerize"...

 

 

 

"Dramatic"...

 

 

 

"Pure"...

 

"Nurture"...

 



 

 

These atc's below are from the previous class, Permanent Marker Wash.

 

"no accounting for taste"...

 

 

 

"Impression"...

(the girls say "thanks Gail for the little mirrors!")

 

 

"washed by tears"...

 



 

 

"psychedelic hallucination"...

 

 

 

My favourite is "Mesmerize"... what's yours?   More to follow.

Permanent Marker Wash

I've used and loved my Sharpie and Bic Mark-it Pens for years now.   Before the Distress Stains came out I used to use them for eding around my pictures in a co-ordinating colour and also to colour in shrink plastic and blending it with rubbing alcohol to get a similar look to alcohol inks....  Now I've found another way to use them to create gorgeous backgrounds on gloss card.   So very quick and easy but like a lot of techniques, you never know what you'll end up with and if you try to recreate something you really like.... well, good luck with that!!!    So here are four samples from my upcoming Permanent Marker Wash class.

 

"Simplify life"...

 

 

 

"Silence"...

 

 

 

"Disguise"...

 

 

 

"Dream"...

 

 

These ones below are from the previous class, Goosebumps Texture.  Love this new "Weed" stamp I got...no, it's not flowers, they're weeds.  I don't DO flowers remember!   lol

 

"Fragile"...



 

"Discover"...

 



 

"Solitude"...

 

 

 

More to follow.....

Goosebumps Texture Spray

Goosebumps Texture Spray is a little bottle of clear texture that also acts as a resist.  It dries quite quickly but can also be dried with a heat gun and works wonderfully when used in conjunction with the Ranger Distress Inks and sponges for application.  In the first atc below, Germinate, I stamped first with Ranger Archival Black Ink and then spritzed with the Goosebumps, then applied some Glimmer Mist in Turquoise.  I then used a damp paper towel to wipe off the Glimmer Mist from the sprayed area of the Goosebumps.  Love the effect!!!  The others were done using the Distress Inks and sponges after stamping and spraying with Goosebumps.  I'm going to have a bit more of a play and see what else this little bottle of magic can do!

"Germinate"...

 

 

"Wringing good out of evil"...

 

 

"Conservative"...

 

 

"Life's moment"...

 

 

Below are some more samples from the last class - Antique Paper.

"Lifetime memoires"...

 

 

"Every second"...

 

 

"Writer"...

 

 

 

Finally, a couple more from the Faux Dominoes technique that was the class before Ancient Paper.

 

"Party Girl"...

 

 

"Oddity"...

 



Ancient Paper

The technique for this fortnight is called Ancient Paper.  We'll be using Ranger Distress Ink Pads, Glossy Accents (or Dimensional Magic) and the base that we're working on is the humble brown paper bag.   This techique makes a surprisingly strong piece of paper because of the addition of the Glossy Accents, strong enough to actually even die-cut shapes out of it if you choose. 

 

"Living Hearts"... (love corrugated card & microbeads together!)

 

 

"Snow White"...

 

 

"Innocent"...

 

 

"What is art"...

 



 

Finally an atc from the last class, Faux Dominoes, "Unique"...

(The corrugated card down the sides is glimmer misted cardstock run through a paper crimper!  Works perfectly if you don't have the right colour of corrugated card to co-ordinate with your work.   Drag that paper crimper out that's lurking in the bottom of a box somewhere in your craft room and put it to use.)

 





Faux Dominoes

The second technique for Book Number 9 is Faux Dominoes.   I have used both the large and smaller sized real dominoes on atc's before but I've found they are harder to get hold of these days so I wanted to do a similar look but with products that are easily available.   So these are made from plain white cardstock, stamps, some form of colouring (distress ink pads, distress stains, distress markers... seeing a theme here???), then covered with clear embossing powder for a beautiful glossy finish.  Raising the pieces on foam tape also adds to the illusion of depth, which is why the backgrounds are not as clear as the raised areas.  As you can see I've used different backgrounds from my various techniques that I've taught over the years and they are mostly covered up but I still like to use handmade backgrounds over a purchased piece of scrapbook paper, unless of course you do something to said scrapbook paper....stamp, ink, emboss, paint etc.

"Certified Freak"... (painted canvas background)

 "Eternal Oblivion"... (corrugated card background)

"Art"... (credit card technique background)

"waiting"... (painted canvas background)

This one below is actually a 4" x 6" card rather than an atc so the domino pieces are made larger.  I occasionally make a card to show my students that you can incorporate the techniques they learn in my classes into cards, not just make atc's with them.  As you can see, this is a perfect example of a particular technique that lends itself wonderfully to a card.  

More samples to follow after my classes.

Antique Faux Metal Embellishments - New Cover!

So begins a new year, which means for my students... a new book cover for our Technique Books.   This class the technique is called Antique Faux Metal Embellishments and it works on chipboard pieces or those laser-cut shapes equally as well.   It's a spin-off from the soot technique but with another couple of steps thrown in and the pieces end up very glossy (that's the Dimensional Magic or Glossy Accents that gives that look) but very antiqued, like old metal jewellery.   The important thing with this technique is you need the pieces of chipboard to be large enough to actually show the wrinkles that the Gilding Wax or Treasure Gold (or Rub'n'buff) highlights.  So no little squiggly flourishes, you want solid pieces.

This is the book cover in it's mid-way stage, it's not finished as I'll continue to work on it at each class over the next fortnight to show my students how each step is done.   Some people are much more visual than others and the demo is, as far as I'm concerned, a very important part of teaching.  You can tell by the size of the wings and chipboard corner piece on this cover that it wouldn't work on little skinny pieces of chipboard embellishments.   This cover is 6" high by 8" wide (or 15cm x 20cm).  The background is a piece of the Glimmer Mist Wrinkle from the previous class.

I took a picture of the cover with my scanner as well as my phone, the colouring is closer to the one on the scanner (the top one) but the detail shows up better in the phone picture.  Just thought I'd include both....amazing how different it looks!   The Book 9 wording is a Cuttlebug letter die-cut set and it's the aluminium foil tape stuck to chipboard, then cut out and a bit of black acrylic paint applied and wiped off randomly to dirty the shiny silver look of the letters.   After I stuck them down with Matte Accents I used a charcoal pencil and a cotton bud to smudge around the edges to give them depth.  The heart in the centre is not done with this particular technique that we're doing in this class, it's simply a chipboard heart painted black, bashed with Tim's texture hammer (not too much though) and then Gilding Waxes rubbed lightly over the surface.

Book cover... taken with scanner

Book cover ... taken with phone

 
Close-up of Antique Faux Metal Embellishments - the wings, not the heart!

"meditating in solitude"...

"new beginnings"...

"truth"...

"truth - close-up of embellishment"...

"take flight"... (these chipboard hearts & wings are from the Collections range!)

"a little bird"... (the egg is the embellishment and also comes from Collections chipboard range)

More to come....