UTEE and My Book!

Yes, I'm still going on about my book, in case you missed it in the last post....I have my ATC Technique Book finally finished. (To see the front cover check out my previous post here). It has 40 techniques in it for $35, A4 sized with colour sample pics of each technique. Postage anywhere in Australia in a tuff bag is $4 and postage to the US, the UK, most of Europe and Asia is $14 or less (Asia is less than $14). If you want a copy you can either pick it up from Scraptivate where I teach my classes or if you can't get in there, email me on this link and I can organise it for you through the post. I take direct deposit and paypal.

Onto the upcoming and final ATC class for this year...UTEE. For the uninitiated it stands for Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel, basically it's a thicker, chunkier embossing powder. Great for giving a really metallic look to chipboard embellishments and I'll be using both black and clear in the class. Samples...

To get in the spirit of Christmas...

"Sweater"... (the frame is embossed with UTEE & stamped)

"Alcohol and Calculus"...(the chipboard embellishment up the top is UTEE embossed and looks very thick and metallic in the flesh)

"Bizarre"... (once again, it's a chipboard embellishment that's coated with UTEE)

"Fashion"... (another UTEE embossed & stamped chipboard embellishment with a little Gilding Wax rubbed over the top to show the detail)

"Antique Love"... (yes, it's a chipboard embellishment, coated with UTEE, stamped & Gilding wax rubbed over to show the details of the stamping)

I also did a card using this technique, the gold section in the centre is UTEE that's been stamped into and laid over the top of the same stamp that was done on white card. Make sense?

This next atc is from the previous class, Transparent ATC's.

"Bite Night"...

Lastly, here's one that was from the second last class, Clear Embossing & Gilding Wax. This one's on it's way to you Barb!

"Constipated people"...

I may not be back here until my next atc class in 2012, the first one is Saturday 7th January so it's only a few weeks. Though I do have one more update to do on my naughty blog....sssshhhhhhh..... Happy Christmas everyone!

Transparent ATC's & MY BOOK!!!!!

I've finally done it, my atc technique book is printed and ready for sale! It's A4 sized with 40 techniques in it, colour pics on each technique page....all for $35. (Postage in a tuff bag within Australia is $4, postage to the US is $14). Yes, I can do direct deposit as well as paypal. Email me here to order.

The technique for this fortnight is Transparent ATC's using acetate, stazon ink and alcohol inks as well as chipboard frames. To make a normal atc I have used 2 frames back-to-back so you have a completely transparent atc. For inclusion in the technique book the girls are making in class (or for on a card!), one frame is used and then a piece of white or cream card stock is added to the back so you don't lose the alcohol ink/stamp effect on the black background pages in the book.

"Offering"...

"Clarity"...

"ho ho ho"...

Here's the last of the Clear Embossing & Gilding Wax atc's from last fortnight's class.

"Reflection"...

"Treasure"...

"End of life"...

"Ill-fated love"...

Clear Embossing & Gilding Wax

Seems like forever since I've posted here though I've only missed one fortnight's class while recuperating from a minor operation. I'm fully functional again now so it's straight into the next atc technique that's coming up this Saturday....Clear Embossing & Gilding Wax. I've actually done this technique before but as the girls who attend my classes know, if I've done something before and repeat it, I always put a twist on it so it's new for the old girls and new for the new girls...make sense??? Well it's clear to me anyway.

Gilding Wax is a new product that we'll be selling at Scraptivate. It's like Rub'n'buff, Treasure Gold etc but I love the tins that it comes in. Rub'n'buff has always annoyed me when it dries out in the tube. Not a problem with Gilding Wax. Sometimes these products do dry out but you can reconstitute them easily in the tin by adding a few drops of Mineral Turpentine, not something you can do in a tube! So here's some samples of the new version of this technique.

"Not polite"...

"Recline"...

"Life is the flower"...

"Idiots"... (This is not my opinion of my hubby, I just liked the saying and it matched the crown)

I'll have some more samples of these using stamping in my next post. The above ones are using Cuttlebug embossing folders, but you knew that didn't you!

Here's a couple of samples from the last technique - Texture Paste Backgrounds.

"Change your life"... (I'm waiting for some little handcuff charms to arrive to add to this one!)

"Perfectly Good"...

Finally a couple from the class before Texture Paste Backgrounds - Reflective Microscope Slides. It's extremely difficult to get a good scan or photo of these because of the reflective quality of the foil tape under the glass slide. You'll just have to imagine....

"Laser printer"...

"Opportunity"... (This one's for you Barb, as I said, it's a saying that we can all relate to!)



Now a bit of news about my ATC Technique Book....it's all completed except for the printing. As soon as this last bit is done it'll be for sale through my blog. Will keep you posted!

More Texture Paste, a sneak peek and tag!

The Texture Paste class that starts tomorrow at Scraptivate is the first of 3 Texture Paste classes that I'm teaching with this sometimes smelly, but fabulously textured stuff! I've done a few more samples and have created the ones that are to go into the book. This is how the atc classes will be run this year, you learn the technique, make up some samples in class and put them in your book, I supply the instructions to go on the opposite page. Anyway, you know all that so here are some more Texture Paste atc's.

"Snow White"...(quote courtesy of Mae West)

"Carpe rutila"...(this means "seize the spade"....love that quote too!!!)

"Vulgarity"...

The next set of 3 atc classes is "Coloured Gloss" technique. It's a way of taking plain white gloss card and colouring it, either in a single colour or blended. As gloss card takes stamping so well, we'll be focusing on using stamps to tell a story on the atc's. I try to get the girls in my classes to think before just stamping random images all over the paper....try and think what goes with what so even if you don't use words, the images relate and people can come up with their own story.

"Dwelling"...

"Three things"...(a Dorothy Parker quote....as I've said before, I'm not a man-hater, I just appreciate a good sense of humour, which Ms Parker has in spades!)

I received a blog award from Danielle, she's into cardmaking, scrapbooking & ATC's. Thankyou Danielle for this one that I haven't seen before, but I'm going to be a big party-pooper and not nominate though, I have a lovely list of delightful blogs to the right so if you're feeling inclined and have a few hours to peruse some spectacular work...feel free!

New ATC Technique Book Classes

I've been teaching at Scraptivate for over 2 years now so I figured it was time to recap some of the earlier techniques that I did in my atc classes. I always said I wouldn't do instruction sheets for my atc techniques but now I'm going to as we're going to build up a great technique book full of the atc samples that are made in class. Also, not everyone has a wonderful memory for techniques, (especially if they don't use them for 6 months or more...the techniques, not the brain!!!) so I thought I'd help out by doing instructions so they can refer back to them at a later date. Being my usual wordy self, I tend to "over-instruct" rather than give only sketchy details so I'm hoping the girls are happy to revisit the techniques months after they've been taught.


This is also linked to my goal for 2009. I'm not usually a goal-setter but this year I intend to put together a book with my techniques in it. I'm thinking along the lines of an e-book, mainly because I don't have a spare $10,000 to invest in a professionally made book and also the e-books are instant. I also have more control over how much detail I can go into as well as what pictures I want to include. I may end up making some hard-copies that will be for sale as well, these would be professionally bound and printed on decent paper but still cheaper than doing the whole type-setting thing. Comments??? Suggestions??? Thoughts???


So the first technique we are starting with is Texture Paste (Jo Sonja), also called Molding Paste (Golden) as well as Modelling Paste (Mont Marte) - they are all the same thing, they give texture and are fairly flexible still when dry. We are making the cover of our ATC Technique Book with Texture Paste and the picture below is my front cover of the book. It scans horribly, the colours are all out of whack so I may have to take a picture of it to try to get the true colour. I used Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold as a wash, then a wash of Paynes Gray, then dry-brushed with Interference Oxide Green (Blue Shade). It was this last addition of the interference paint that frightened the scanner.....it made the whole thing look like I'd also dry-brushed it with white paint, the reflective properties of the interference was that bad!!!

Inside the book will go either 2 or 3 atc samples that the girls make in each class and over a year, they should have a wonderful reference book full of their own work to look back on.

This first atc sample is made by using the texture paste with a cuttlebug waste piece as a stencil. I do love this scroll die-cut by Cuttlebug, it's my absolute favourite of all the die-cuts!

"Fable"...

For this next one I lightly scraped the texture paste on and used a foam stamp to get the texture, then spritzed it with glimmer mist when the texture paste had dried. Usually I paint over the texture paste but wanted to try the glimmer mist - perfect!!!

"Memory"...

Lastly, I used the black texture paste (Jo Sonja) that comes in a tube. This is a little difficult to get, but if you can get some, do! It's wonderful stuff! It has a nozzle so you just pipe it out. This is how I did the tree below. Piped the tree out, let it dry overnight, then did a wash of Nickel Azo Gold, dried it, another wash of Paynes Gray, dried it again, then dabbed on some Quinacridone Crimson in places, dried it again and finally a light wash of Titan Buff and dabbed some of this off with a paper towel. Rub'n'buff in gold rubbed lightly in certain places finished it off. Love my Golden Paints!!!

"Tangled Branches"...

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year. It was a first for me without my Dad and Joan but it was very busy socially with birthday parties as well as the usual Christmas lunch and New Years Eve party. A fine time was had by all and we remembered our loved ones who weren't with us, but tried not to feel too sad as they wouldn't have been happy about that!