Transfer Technique

I recently read about another transfer method that I had to try as I'd like to teach transfer techniques at Scraptivate and as we sell the Matisse Gel Medium, I'd like to use that. The technique is by Jonathan Talbot (another transfer technique guru, along with Lesley Riley), here's what I did....

Covered a piece of script scrapbook paper with Matisse Gel Medium (gloss), cut out an image of a girl and coated that also with the Matisse medium - taking care not to get any of the gel medium onto the back of this picture. Let both of these pieces dry. Then I coated the dry script paper receiving surface with the medium again, pressed the image face-down and burnished them together. Let this piece dry. Then using a wetted-finger started to gently rub off the white backing of the image, it rolled and balled up, kept doing this until the image became clearer. You may not get all of the "bloom" (the white stuff) off but most will come off, I then coated it again with the gel medium and this seems to get rid of most of the bloom. That's it! Works a treat! Though you do need an image with some light coloured parts to it - as you can see you can't see the script through her hair as it's black. Try it - nothing to lose - it's only a bit of paper!

Speaking of paper, I use normal copy paper for printing the images but I do prefer using the Nopa paper (from Officeworks) for printing my images. It's around $20 for a ream but it's beautiful paper - very satin-like feel to it and a little thicker than normal reflex copy paper.

Doing Lunch

On Friday I went to lunch with my pals from the Art Tarts Club (get it??? Art Tarts Club - A.T.C.??? - well I thought it was good!). We went to the Marrakech, a Moroccan restaurant in Subiaco, wonderful food and even better company. We exchanged Christmas presents and there was much oooohhhing and aaaaahhhhing over them as each selection was unwrapped. We also exchanged our atc's as this is what we're supposed to do each month - we set a theme and make atc's for everyone in the group.

This month's theme was "paint chip samples" so we all had to visit Bunnings (or similar - though there's not much else BESIDES Bunnings these days!!!!), gather some paint sample cards and using the name as inspiration, create atc's using the card as the background. These are my 2 - Cityscape and Hot Mama. The Stazon works wonderfully on this slippery surface and I love how stylish the zetti buildings stamp look! Speaking of love.....I love this group of girls, they are so supportive and funny and talented and arty! I'm definitely glad that we are all friends and I look forward to our next project for 2007 - an atc book using the letters of the alphabet as themes.

2nd ATC Class

Yesterday I taught my 2nd atc class at Scraptivate, we did a technique that I've called "Flames, Stamps & Alcohol Inks"....it's an oldie but a goodie. It's really fantastic to see the girls in the class so interested and enthusiastic about learning these techniques. It's probably the best thing about teaching - passing on the info that I've picked up and seeing the excitement when they've completed their atc. One of the girls was going to file her two atc's away in the round filing cabinet (the bin!) as she was working on them as they weren't doing what she wanted. I convinced her to persevere with them and with a little guidance from me and a lot of imagination on her part she rescued them and was totally happy with them in the end. Something has to suck really, really bad for me to bin it and think I've probably done this less than 5 times since I've started making atc's nearly 2 years ago. I don't consider there are too many "mistakes", only opportunities to apply a little lateral thinking to remedy a "disaster" ;-}

I also make an atc before the class using the technique that we'll be learning and I do a raffle for this atc.....the girl who won it yesterday was so excited it seemed like she'd won the Powerball Lotto Jackpot all on her own!!! A humbling experience....I was thrilled that she was so thrilled .

The Dream atc is an example from yesterday's class technique.

dire warnings

I received an email today from a dear friend (you know who you are!!!) warning me about lead in my lipstick that would lead to breast cancer. I know that everyone who has email and "friends" in their address book gets these warnings. You know the ones......your hair will fall out, your teeth will turn black and people will be able to smell you from 5 blocks away if you use a plastic spatula on Fridays & Sundays!!!!!! When you get these, you can always check out their *authentic-ness* (not really a word) on this cool little web-site http://www.snopes.com (if you forget it - just google "urban legends" and the snopes site will come up). If you have a spare few minutes you can just peruse their files, some real crack-ups amongst them!!! lol

I thought the above atc sort of goes with the above topic....love that quote!

couple of newies

I thought I'd just put a couple of new pics up of things I made today, two are atc's and the third is a fridge magnet thingo that I've made for some girlfriends for Christmas pressies.....ssssshhhhh.

Love using my old 2nd-hand novels for throw-away lines for atc's...such a great resource - this is what I used on the Medieval atc. The Gargoyle quote I printed out myself - this particular one is a Sheer Heaven transfer with watercolour crayons to colour the rest of it. Easy transfer technique...fool-proof!

The fridge-magnet is the thing with the fishing swivels and that great cemetary stamp from Michelle Ward (http://www.greenpepperpress.com) - think the plate is called "Graven".....my current favourite!

Transformations

Just had to post this atc that I made using the new Ranger crackle accents. It's so simple to use and I love the effect, will definitely be trying this out on a few more!!! The background is a library card that was in a bunch sent to me by a yahoo group pal from the States - they were from the old system pre-computer days when all books were listed on these cards. They were destined for the tip when she rescued them and posted them to all who wanted some...love 'em!

A new technique

The top pic is an atc that I made using the new technique (okay....an old technique that I didn't know about but with a "twist"). I'm going to be teaching this next weekend at the store where I now work. I teach atc classes every 2nd Saturday - I also work there 3 days a week as well. I was looking for more office work when this job fell into my lap, serendipitous! It's a scrapbook/paper-arts store called Scraptivate (http://www.scraptivate.com.au) located here in Perth....great shop, lots of goodies!

I'll also be demo-ing this technique at SAJ's in early December for those of you going, another local stamp store that has excellent get-togethers once a month with a great bunch of girls!

The 2nd pic is another atc that I made using the same technique, but without the "twist"...

KO - OK?

So I've joined the fray... thinking up a name for your blog is probably the hardest part so I thought I'd start there. Earlier this year I was working for a company that required workmates to witness just about all aspects of your work which required you to learn their initials. Using the tried & tested method of "word association" made it much easier for me...so John Dickson became "Jack Daniels" which was JD, Alan Jones was "apple juice" which was AJ, and so on. My initials are KO which I immediately thought should be "knock-out" which was associated in my mind with boxing - as in - flat-out on the floor! But then someone pointed out they might think "she has tickets on herself" so I quickly changed it to "I used to have dyslexia but now I'm KO!" Hence....my blog name is KO - OK?