Instructions for Metallic Cardstock

As promised in the previous post I'm detailing the instructions on how to make Metallic Cardstock. First, the last few samples...

"Delicate"...

"Entwined"...

INSTRUCTIONS - metallic card stock

To make the metallic cardstock you'll need one of those clear plastic sleeves that are found in display books, also some metallic paint - I use Folk Art Metallic and Jo Sonja metallic colours, a brayer and some plain white and black unpatterned card stock.

First slit open the right hand side and bottom of the clear plastic sleeve so it will open up like a book with one side still attached. Open the plastic sleeve and put a few small drops of a couple of different colours of metallic paint on the right hand side in the centre of the plastic sleeve. Don't put the colours on top of each other, leave a couple of centimetres between them.

Close the sleeve and gently brayer the paint so it smooshes together slightly, leaving some distinction between the colours - don't blend it all the way. Then open up the plastic sleeve and place two pieces of plain cardstock - back to back - on the smooshed together paint. Close the sleeve again carefully and then brayer again (gently) on the front side of the cover. Open up the cover again and take out your two pieces of beautiful metallic cardstock!

Lighter colours of metallic paint work wonderfully on black card stock and darker colours of course look great on the white. Though do experiment.....this is one of the things I love about teaching my classes, my students do experiment and as I can't possibly try ever little permutation of each technique, they do and there are some wonderful results! Let the card stock dry and use as required. A thinner coat of paint looks better than too much by the way.

FAUX WAX
The next class is called Faux Wax. This is an embellishment class using black glue. It gives great texture and depth to your work. I really like atc's that have layers and height on them as it encourages people to run their fingers over them....a wonderful tactile experience!

"Dance"... (Unfortunately you can't see the sparkle on this background. It just comes up as flat looking yellow spots on the computer but is actually very sparkly - in a good way!. It is a product by Jo Sonja called Gold Dust - a shimmery, gold, larger than normal sized glitter that is trapped in a matte finish suspension of glue. It means you don't actually see the shimmer until you tilt the object to the light, then it sparkles!!!!!)

"Home"... (This looks much darker than it is - the background is Frayed Burlap, Gold Perfect Pearls & water mixed in a spritzer bottle....lovely and shimmery.)

I'll have more of the faux wax to show as I get some more samples made. Hope you try the metallic card stock, if you do, let me know how it goes.

Metallic Cardstock

Surprise!!!!.....another post DAYS before the actual class!!!!! Technique #2 in the ATC Technique Book #4 is Metallic Cardstock. Another of those background techniques that just lose all their impact on a computer monitor....oh well, the girls in the class will see how awesome it looks when they've made their own and when I've run all the classes for this technique, I'm going to describe how to do it so you can try it for yourself!

Onto the samples...

"Music"... (the strange misty effect over the picture is Golden Glass Bead Gel. It's a gel medium with glass beads trapped in it so when the medium dries it becomes transparent leaving the glass beads to show in all their glory. Feels wonderfully textural as well. Love it!)

"Lord Darlington"...

"Home"...

"O Lord"... (forgive the nudity...but it is arty nudity! Thought the quote really suited it.)

"Lather Rinse Repeat"... (As I've said before, I tell the girls in my classes to "tell a story" with their atc's....this one says to me "Another Saturday night at home!" Well, I do tell them that even if you are the ONLY one who understands the story, that's ok too! lol)

Promise to do an explanation of this techique when the classes are done with towards the end of next week. Very simple technique but beautifully shimmery backgrounds will ensue.

Rinse Aid Resist Cover

Here's the pictures of the Rinse Aid Resist cover for ATC Technique Book #4, as well as a few more samples.

The cover page is 20cm x 15cm (8" x 6")...

A close-up of one of the small tiles which has been cuttlebugged for texture, painted black then rubbed with Silver rub'n'buff to bring out the texture, then a fuse wrapped with metallic thread around it.

"Sanctuary"...

"Remember"...

"Wife/husband"... (at the top of this atc is a piece of the new 10 Second Studio metal that we now stock at Scraptivate. It has been run through the cuttlebug and then sanded to reveal the silver - it started out as a beautiful mocha colour).

"Dream"... (this one also has some of the 10SS metal down the left hand side - same treatment as the one above - cuttlebugged then sanded back. The word "Dream" was stamped onto the right side of the metal, then I used a stylus to impress the word into the metal then sanded it back so the depth of the word keeps the aqua blue of the metal while the remainder is silver.)

The previous class was Mosaic Embossing and this was an atc that was made using that technique. I sometimes like to do a card as well to show the girls that they can take any of the techniques learnt in my class and apply it to whatever else they want to do. So below the atc is a card using the same image and the same technique.

"Ethereal"...

Card...

Tomorrow I'm planning on spending the day doing up my samples for the next class - Metallic Cardstock BUT I'm also going to make a start on the art doll for the class that I've been promising the girls I'd run. This art doll will be stitched, stamped, stuffed, beaded and generally embellished within an inch of it's life! I'll also be showing them how to make ~shudder~ "flowers" to add as embellishment - maybe hair??? Don't fear girls, they will be shabby, grungy flowers. Might make this first art doll up in vintage white/cream but there will definitely be a darker version as well.....have to have SOMEWHERE to put my little silver and black skulls that I bought! lol

Rinse Aid Resist - Book #4

Today's first class is the cover for the Artist Trading Card Technique Book #4 that I'm teaching at Scraptivate - Rinse Aid Resist. It comes from one of Claudine Hellmuth's fantastic books....wonder how she figured out that simple dishwashing rinse aid can act as a resist for paint? Maybe she accidentally spilled some on a canvas that she was working on in her kitchen and realised the properties of the rinse aid would cause the paint to resist where the rinse aid was placed?


So of course I don't have a picture of the cover yet, it doesn't scan well and I'm running short of time this morning to upload the photo's from the camera but it will be in the post in the next few days. Here's some samples of atc's done with the rinse aid resist as the background on canvas paper.


"Plain Lust"... (the corner pieces up the top are my faux metal technique)





"Make-believe"...

"Paper Queen"...

"Love Hate"...

"Make no mistakes"...

Because this particular technique looks as good as it does (much better in the flesh!), I don't like to cover it up too much. You'll see how little I've covered up when I post the pictures of my cover....just a few chipboard tiles with bits & pieces on them but the background is the star and I like to keep it that way. Check back in a few days for more pics. ;-)