Painting with Babywipes

This is a background technique that I'm teaching at the atc techniques classes I teach at Scraptivate. It's the final technique for this year and the current technique book, Number Four. In January we start Technique Book Number Five!

I work onto plain white card stock and use babywipes for the painting instead of paintbrushes. It gives a very soft look to the paints and a different look to the normal painting of acrylics on cardstock.

"Delicate"...

"Discover"...

"Envision"...

"What you are"...
"Voyage"...

On another note, I have an atc techniques article being published in the next issue of the Aussie Magazine "Cardmaking, Stamping & Papercraft", Volume 16, Number 10. There should be around 8 or so techniques with pictures. Hopefully the instructions will be detailed enough for you to have a try at some of them.

More Smooch Ink Goodness

I took advantage of one of my students in my Saturday Smooch Ink Class - Mandy, as she's a wonderful artist who does brilliant shading and colouring. She very kindly showed the girls how she gets the best out of her Smooch Inks and below are her samples. Mandy also let me raffle off one of her sample atc's between all the girls who took part in the 3 Smooch Ink Classes. Congratulations to Louise! You're a lucky girl to get this atc as it was coveted by everyone who saw it. These next 5 atc's are all made by Mandy.

"Love and Devotion"... (this was the one EVERYONE wanted - love those Stampotique stamps!)

"Dysfunctional"...


"Shimmer"...

"Untitled 1"...

"Untitled 2"...

"Embrace Life"... (this one was to show the girls you don't have to just colour with the Smooch Inks, you can simply use them to edge a picture and also smudge the ink around the edge of a black border on an atc. It also colours German Scrap and metal as well!)

Now we all have to wait another week or so for more Smooch Inks to come in at Scraptivate, the girls in my atc classes bought just about everyone of them in the store...and we had heaps! Not anymore...lol. The next atc class is Painting with Babywipes, another great background technique.

Smooch Inks!

Smooch Inks come in what would have to be the best looking packaging for a craft product that I've seen in a long time. They look especially great when you have a dozen or so all lined up together and of course the colours are such that you just can't stop at buying only one! For the upcoming atc technique class we'll be using the Smooch Inks to colour stamped images. They blend together beautifully and with the fantastic colour range, there's something to suit every taste...and stamp. I am lucky enough to have Mandy Herring doing a demo on how she colours faces using the smooch inks during my Saturday morning atc class, she does a wonderful job....which is why I asked her to show her talent! Thanks Mandy, much appreciated. :-)

"Blood Night"... (Cherry Pie stamp)

"Muse"... (Lost Coast Designs stamp)

"Unfurl"... (Stampers Anonymous stamp)

"Discover"... (Lost Coast Designs stamp)

"Create Joy"... (same stamp as above but different colours - Lost Coast Designs stamp)

"Enchantment"... (for this one I embossed with gold on a black card, then added the smooch for colour - Stampers Anonymous Stamp)

"Destructionist"... (with faux wax around the edge...love that stuff!!!)

That's it for the moment, might have some more samples after my 3 classes.

Altered Acetate

This class is all about alcohol inks, acetate and the wonderful little machine called a Cuttlebug. The acetate is alcohol inked first, then run through the Cuttlebug with different embossing folders and attached to the front of atc's that have been stamped, possibly coloured, maybe even a soot technique background. I use my little Tim Holtz Stapler to attach the acetate even though acetate for me is usually attached with a xyron. As the embossing folders create depth in areas on the acetate the xyron doesn't work as well for this technique. Stapler to the rescue! Of course, you colour in your little rows of staples using a permanent marker (sharpie or Bic Mark-it) so it's all colour co-ordinated.

Firstly though, here's another couple of Fusible Film/Angelina Film samples from the last class.

"Life is too short"....(this was done with the Watermelon Angelina Film.....SO not my colour so I altered it a bit by dry-brushing with burgundy and lilac paints.....much better colour!)

"Untitled"... (this one has the angelina film attached to a chipboard border, then heated to create the holes)

Now the Altered Acetate samples...

"Soar"...

"Naturalist"...

"Support System"... (this one is the acetate placed over a soot background)...

"Secret of Life"...

"Just live it"...

"Red gush"... "Perverse"...

"Traverse"...

The next class will be Smooch Inks!

Metallic Crackle Background

The technique this fortnight that I'll be teaching at Scraptivate is Metallic Crackle Background using either Lumiere paints or Plaid Metallic Paints (both available at Scraptivate of course!). The Lumiere's work absolutely beautifully on the dark background and it's surprising the difference between the Halo colours (Halo Violet Gold, Halo Blue Gold and Halo Pink Gold) when used on black card stock compared to the white card stock.

"Renewal"... (This is Halo Violet Gold on white card stock)

"Passageway"... (Halo Violet Gold on black card stock)

"Miracles"...

"What you are"...

"Miracles"...

"Essence"...

"Charm"...

I'm not very talkative this morning....gotta get going.....classes await!

Angelina Film/Fusible Film/Fantasy Film

Yes, this particular product has a few different terms. They all mean the same thing, a sheer and shimmery product that produces an awesome effect when you glue it to either black or white card stock, chipboard, whatever....then heat it with a heat gun and watch the colours change! Comes in an array of colours and the effect will alter depending on whether you use a light or dark background. This is the upcoming class for the ATC Technique Book #4 I'm teaching over the next fortnight at Scraptivate.

Remember, this is a product that must be seen in real life to be appreciated. Sometimes it's a bit glitzy for my dark and sombre tastes but you can either use less of it (as in the frame style below - "voluptuous"), or you can give it a light dry-brush with paint (as in "chaos").

"Well behaved women"...

"Voluptuous"...

"Chaos"...

"See, speak, hear"...
"Untitled"...

The last class I taught was Stamping & Beading on Fabric. We used both hand-stitched beading as well as microbeads. Here's the last few samples from that particular class.

"Relic"... (microbeads)

"Life's Blood"... (hand beading)

Scraptivate now stocks the beautiful Smooch Inks. I'll be using these in an upcoming class and below is a sample of what can be done with them. The Smooch is the colouring on the background and the fluid embellishment around the edge is from the Faux Wax class previously taught.

"Destructionist"...

Stamping & Beading on Fabric Class

The next technique that's coming up in the ATC Technique Book #4 is Stamping & Beading on Fabric. We'll be stamping (obviously!) onto calico, then colouring using Twinkling H2O's and Lyra Watercolour Crayons AND some beautiful highlights using the delightful Smooch Inks (all available at Scraptivate of course!), then doing some hand-beading. Some of the girls find the hand-beading a little daunting as they are new to it, so I've relented this time and we'll also be using some of the wonderful Martha Stewart Microbeads as well!

Some samples....

"Fly"... (microbeads and the oft-used Dragonfly stamp from Stampers Anonymous)

"Collector"... (microbeads)

"Pose"... (microbeads and a Stampotique Stamp)

"Dark Night"... (hand-beading, swarovski crystals and smooch ink as the accents on her wings - Angel stamp from Stampotique....so glad Natalie got this range of stamps at Scraptivate, love 'em!!!)

"Glamour-puss"... (hand beading and another Stampotique girl - Prom Queen!)

Tomorrow is the final day for the Art Doll that I'm teaching at Scraptivate. Last class we did the beading and I'm hoping the girls got their homework done in the last two weeks. Tomorrow we're working on the organza burning for the flowers (yep, I said it without a shudder this time....I'm making progress...lol), they will be shabby though. Nothing like a little flame and scorching heat to sort flowers out I say! I'll take my camera so I can show in an upcoming post some of the various ones the girls have made. I'm sure they'll be wonderful!

Marbling Technique ATC's

Coming up on Saturday is the Marbling background technique for the girls in my atc technique book class. This is the marbling that's done with shaving cream and re-inkers. Another old-style technique that's been around forever but depending on what colours you use, it can be vibrant or subtle. Here's the samples...

"What is nature"...

"Portray"... (the chunky looking flourish at the top is new Martha Stewart micro beads in a chocolate colour that we've just got in store at Scraptivate. These come in just beautiful colours and for only $7.95 for a huge jar that will last forever! I used Glossy Accents to go over a flourish stamp and just tipped the micro beads on, flattened them to adhere to the Glossy Accents, tipped off the excess and just let them dry...gorgeous!)

"Big Bad Wolf"... (yeah, had to get some sort of a vampire thing happening...lol)

"Sensation"...

"Temptation"...

"Life is too short"...
"Nothing risque"...

In my next post I'll put up some pics of the marbling atc blanks without any pictures on them so you can see how cool they look before you even to anything to them. It'd also make great card backgrounds too!


Part 2 of the Art Doll Class is on tomorrow afternoon after the atc class in the morning. Tomorrow the girls are going to learn a few different ways of beading, picot, fringing and a freestyle beading technique that I know is going to test their patience but they'll love the final effect. I'm thinking of making some mini-art dolls so stay tuned....might even give some kits away!