Faux Tin Type Finale

A quick post as I'm off in an hour for a weekend down south with hubby for a break....mmmmm.....driving in the beautiful South West of our State, might even get all the way down to Albany! No plans made, no bookings made, just drive and stop where and when we like. This does SO not sound like my husband!!! lol Plan, plan, and if there's extra time...plan some more! But not this time. ;-)

Here's the last 2 Faux Tin Type atc's I made for the last ATC class at Scraptivate, think the girls really loved the look of this technique. Making the frames takes way more time than the actual technique, but it still doesn't photograph or scan any better than before. You'll just have to imagine the reflective quality of the images.

"HIM"... My homage to Ville Valo, lead singer from my favourite band, HIM. The bat stamp is one of Cherry Pie's fabulous stamps! The tree is a clear one that I don't remember the name of. It did have a little girl swinging on a swing, didn't like her so I cut her off the stamp...permanently! hahahaha


"Fashion Plate"...The frame has been run through the Textile Cuttlebug embossing folder, gorgeous folder that one! Pity she looks so bad, this one is going to a friend over East so she at least will know it looks better in the flesh.

That's me, I'm off! Next class is Peeled Paper and just for Tracey...some Christmas images (I'm really going to struggle with this one!). lol

Faux Tin Type Technique & last of the Dominoes

I'll start off the with the last of the Domino atc's from the previous class.

"Flagrant Desire"...

"Mother Nature"...

The Faux Tin Type technique is trying to replicate the old tin type photo's using modern materials that most paper-crafters have...foil tape, transparency & a xyron machine. They are notoriously difficult to scan or photograph because of the reflective nature of the foil but you'll get the gist of it.

"Illusion"... (yes, I've used the black texture paste to create the border around this)

"Spectral"... (same image but with a cuttlebug frame made from chipboard)

"Liberation"... (another cuttlebug frame but with foil tape over the chipboard, thanks Ness for the great image, though I feel the word "Liberation" should have a question mark at the end of it! lol)

"Hex"...

"Twilight"...(yeah, I know....can't help it though, I've been a vampire fan since I was a kid with all those Bella Lugosi films & the original Nosferatu. Of course I've read Twilight, then went onto the more adult books of Laurell K Hamilton, the Anita Blake series. I've finished the series, 16 books in total and was reading 3 of them a week, just couldn't put them down! (Thanks Mandy for the loan but I've now ordered my own set). Now I have to wait for #17....darn it, I hate that! I do the same thing with Lee Child, he brings out only 1 book a year in April and I buy it and read it in a few days then have to wait another year for the next one.

More to come after I've done some demo's in my classes.

If you want to see a REALLY, REALLY, cool haunted house, take a look at my friend Julie's blog here. I think from memory she told me it was around two feet tall and she lists all the Collections chipboard products she's used to make this. Gorgeous!!! I told her I wanted to live in it. lol

Faux Tin Type ATC & Final Credit Card Technique ATC

I belong to several Yahoo groups online and my favourite one would have to be the Paperarts Group! The girls come up with an amazing array of swaps each month, both atc's and mixed media though because of my work commitments I don't get much of a chance to participate. But I'm always interested in what the other girls are doing and like to support this group when I can. June's ATC swap is the Poe inspired "The Raven" and I couldn't pass this one up! So here is my Faux Tin Type technique ATC based on The Raven poem by Edgar Allen Poe.


"Nevermore"... This is a shocking scan but Faux Tin Type does not photograph or scan well, it's a must-see-in-the-flesh type of technique. I'm hoping the girls that receive these will be impressed by how much better it can look irl!

My next set of ATC classes is based on the Faux Leather technique using masking tape. I have yet to work up the samples for this class so they'll be in my next post, but here is the final Credit Card Technique atc from the last class on Thursday. This was won by a new lady attending my classes....I want to say "Deb" is her name and I'm hoping I have it right?

"Extremes"... (Non Sequitur circular stamp, CCT colours used were Burnt Umber, Fawn & Opal - all Jo Sonja paints)

I've added a link up the top right of my blog to the Creative Soul Retreat 2010 that I'm teaching a class at. So if you're interested in checking out what should be an awesome 4 days of classes, just click on the Vintage Technique Twinchie picture that will be part of my class and it'll take you to the CSR2010 website.

Tonight is the big party for my equally as big birthday! Turning 50 is no biggie, just another number and I'm really looking forward to my 80+ guests having a great time tonight.....even though we are forecast to have increasing rain and the possibility of a thunderstorm by this evening! The only thing I don't want to happen is to have a power failure....have I jinxed it by mentioning this??? lol I've even made name tags for everyone as I have such a large family that I'd like my friends and workmates to know WHO they are talking to.....like "Kellie - Kelsey's Cousin", "Brady - Kelsey's Brother", or "Michael - Kelsey's Boss's Fiance"...thought it might help to break the ice a bit. ;-) Photo's to follow.....

Mega ATC Post!!!

I've been going a little ballistic with the atc's in my studio over the last week or so. Some of these are also being sent to some friends (& new friends) as "surprises", they'll just have to see what they get! When I teach my atc classes I also end up with half finished atc's from doing the demo of the particular technique for that class. So feeling particularly inspired to create of late, here are a slew of atc's....I wonder if there is a particular word for a grouping of atc's....maybe an "attack of atc's"??? My favourite would be "a murder of crows", wonder why I like that one??? lol

These first 3 are the Faux Tin Type technique with the wonderful borders made with the cuttlebug embossing folders. Love using this with the foil tape, looks fabulous in real life and unfortunately because of the reflective nature of this tape, you can't really get the full effect of how this really looks like a Tin Type picture unless you see it with your own eyes. One cool technique!!!

"Solitude"...

"Madam Lash"...

"Repose"...

This one below is from the Peeled Paper Technique background class. Another cool product I used on this particular atc (that you also can't see!) is the Ranger Antiquities Frosted Crystal embossing powder. I used it to completely cover the image , it makes the image appear like it is behind frosted glass, also with a similar knubbly (???) feel to it. Nice stuff! I just used an clear embossing pen to colour the image and then dumped the embossing powder over the top.

"Reflection"...

This is another of the Webbing Spray Resist atc's from the last Saturday class. I also used the NEW METALLIC BROWN GERMAN SCRAP that we sell at Scraptivate..... this stuff is a beautiful colour and I've lightly rubbed Patina Rub'n'buff over the top to co-ordinate with the beautiful blue of the background colour. (I also used the metallic brown German scrap on the atc above too but rubbed a little renaissance gold rub'n'buff on that one!) Gotta love that shrink plastic too - the quote is on shrink plastic.

"Inside"...

Resin Fresco technique, "Prettiest"... (more shrink plastic - the quote again)

Last Tuesday night was Watercolour Crayons & Watercolour Tube Paints atc class. Here are some samples of that class. The first one "Soul Seeker" was the raffle atc which was won by Charmaine. Charmaine commented that she never used to do dark-style art before she came to my classes.....hehehehe, another convert!!! lol What??? More shrink plastic??? The heart!!!

"Create"...

"Weird odd art"... (no shrink plastic on this one below, just fun foam)

Last couple coming up...this next one is one of the atc's that's gone postal today, hope she likes it and I hope she doesn't think I'M weird!

"Voyeur"...

Finally, a foil tape background atc for a special friend. I used Jo Sonja black texture paste in the tube to go around the edge of the image and then a little silver rub'n'buff on it to highlight the texture, I was happy with the effect and will definitely be doing that again. Of course I've used black texture paste plenty of times in the past but never to just go around an image - I like it! Also, fun foam heartagram (HIM) with silver rub'n'buff.

"Love hex"...

The End!

Assorted work - canvas, card, atc's & how to track your blogs!

At the end of this month (August) I'm going to be teaching an inchie class using a 4" x 4" canvas as a base. As inchies are notoriously small I've decided to cheat a bit and make mine 1-1/4" in size so I can fit 9 of them onto the 4 x 4 canvas. We have an absolutely wonderful example of a MEGA-INCHIE canvas in at the store (Scraptivate) that just shows how fabulous a whole lot of little inchies can look when all grouped together. It was put together by Audrey after both she and I had participated in an inchie exchange with another online group. I have yet to do anything with mine as I'm a little over-awed at how Audrey's has turned out, a hard act to follow! I'll take my camera to work to get some pics and post them soon....promise!!!


In the meantime, here's some shots of my smaller canvas. If you're in Perth and want to learn how to make one of these using all sorts of techniques, give us a call at the shop (9444 6626) to book in!

The whole thing with all 9 of the inchies...

These next 2 are raffle atc's for a couple of previous classes that I forgot to post earlier. First is "Regal" for the Textured Backgrounds class - Svetlana "won" this one.....hahaha....sorry, private joke. ;-)

"Serene" was won by Mel at the Faux Tin Type class last week, yay Mel....she pulled her own raffle ticket out! No, not rigged at all, just a lucky pick! That's our story and we're sticking to it, right Mel??? I've used the Ranger Crackle Paint in Tattered Rose on the background of this one.

I've been lucky enough to be the recipient of several on-line awards recently, so I'm going to list them all here together. It's very, VERY hard to narrow down single blogs for awards so I nominate everyone who's listed in my favourite blog lists to the right. I learn something from virtually every blog that I visit and I think that it's important to remember to share, share, share what we learn. Kind of a "pay it forward" type thing with our collected art knowledge travelling the globe and infecting (in a good way!) other unsuspecting blog surfers who stumble across our sites with the love of art in all it's glorious forms! Man, what a long sentence!

So a HUGE thankyou to the following talented people for bestowing these awards...

Thankyou Audrey and Jenny (Crozza) for the Brilliante Weblog Award...

Thankyou Nancy for the Kind Heart Award...

and Sam for the BFF Gold Card Award...

On another note, I've had several conversations with friends about the unfortunately demise of Blogarithm, a neat little program that helped you keep track of all your favourite blogs and sent you a daily email when they updated. Alas, it is no more. Darn it when they try to fix something that isn't broken and then it's REALLY broken for good!!!

So now I use bloglines. You simply input your favourite blogs, then you can keep track of who's updating easily on one page. The easiest way I've found to do this is by adding your bloglines page (after subscribing, so it links to YOUR bloglines page) to your links (in favourites), then when it opens up it has a list of your blogs you've subscribed to and if they are in BOLD, then that blog has been updated. Click on the blog and it'll open up on the right hand side of the screen and if you want to leave a comment, simply open the blog by clicking on it from this right hand side. I've also added a "sub with bloglines" link to my links bar so if I happen to come across a blog I really like, within a couple of clicks I've added it to my bloglines list. Easy! It's actually easier to DO than to WRITE. Confused? Questions? Ask me and I'll try to be a little clearer.

Onto more pictures...my cousin Corey and his wife Kellie are expecting their first child. I attended Kellie's baby shower last weekend and I made a card for her. As you know, I'm not really a card maker at all, I tend to just try to think of them as BIG atc's. I used a picture of an unborn child and printed it on transparency, xyroned (that must be a word!) it, also printed the quote on transparency and gave that the same xyron treatment and attached them both to some nice pale green paper. I also used a couple of cuttlebug chipboard corner embellishments which I painted using the new in at our store Twinkling H2O's Radiant Rains in a dauber. The colour was Olive Gold (I think? it's the only olive green one), beautiful olive with a sheen of gold shimmer just like the fabulous Twinkling H2O watercolours but much easier....dab, dab, dab. Here's the front and then the inside with the quote.

The West Wing is about to start....bye....

Columbia & raffle atc for Faux Tin Types

Our first port of call on our vacation was Cartagena (pron. Cartahaynia) in Columbia. There were dancers and a group of musicians to welcome us on shore.....or rather, our tourist dollars which I'm sure flowed freely! Woo-hoo.....my pics enlarge too!!!

We did a tour of a Fort, I'm no good at remembering which hordes they were trying to fight off, my hubby is the one who has the perfect memory for all of that sort of information. I just try to look for good picture opportunities! These people came to greet out boat as we pulled into the shore of the little Island where the fort was in the bay. It costs them $5 each every day to buy water to drink as the Island has none and they support themselves in part by selling hand-strung beads to the tourists that come for the Fort tour.
Here's the fort as we approached it...

This statue below was inside the Fort and had an interesting story attached to it. Apparently it was a giver of miracles and several had been performed and witnessed when people came to pray to it....until someone painted the toenails on the statue....she stopped performing miracles then. I noticed as I was listening to the guide's story about this that she actually has no feet now, obviously they felt if they broke the offending painted toenails off, the miracles would start again....wonder if they did???
Here's a pic of my girlfriend Joan and my husband Grant in front of the ship we were on, Celebrity Cruise's Millennium.....just a little dinghy....90,000 tonne with 2000 passengers and 1000 crew. A nice intimate little vessel!
I taught my Faux Tin Type class today and the girls commented on how much better this looks in real life as several of them had checked out my previous post with the couple of pictures of this particular technique. The flat computer screen does it no justice at all. This atc was the Scraptivate raffle atc won by Maureen, yay Maureen! She's been coming to my classes for 18 months and this is her first win!!!

Simple really, take a sepia or black and white transparency image, run it through a xyron to add adhesive to the back of it, then attach it to a piece of foil tape. Add a frame of some sort, the cuttlebug frames are perfect though you have to complete your frame first - either emboss it or colour it with paint or sharpie and then maybe rub some treasure gold or rub'n'buff over the frame to finish it off. Then add some double-sided tape to the back of the frame, attach to the transparency image, trim away excess transparency and foil tape, peel off the backing of the foil tape exposing the adhesive and attach to your atc or whatever. An excellent Faux Tin Type - perfect for all those old family photo's!

Panama Canal is next.....

THUD!!!

Back to Perth with a definite thud! The holiday is definitely over and I've been back at work this week and today have been preparing for my next atc class this Saturday - Faux Tin Types. Currently I'm burning a disc with all of my holiday photo's, there was 2000 of them but I've culled it significantly.......HOW many pictures of snow covered mountains does one actually need, I ask you! I'll definitely be including some happy snaps of our time away but as you are not blood-related to me, I won't bore you to death with every little detail and captured image, this is reserved for those who are unfortunate enough to have familial blood running through their veins. Just checked my lap-top, there is 1,083 pictures which is 2.4 gig in total and I'll be getting some hard copies made so I can include them in my journal.....when I get to it!

So onto the Faux Tin Types, these are like the old fashioned photo's, not pretend metal embellishments....there was some confusion at work over this as I didn't leave any samples for the girls to show those who asked about the class while I was away. A very simple process which I'll go into after the class, if I give all the guts away now, the girls won't turn up, will they! Suffice to say they look pretty good and are especially wonderful for those vintage sepia pictures of your long departed relatives.

First sample...."eternal love" (my Grandparents on their wedding day in 1936)...

Second sample...."Classic Mona"...

Another class that I'm going to be teaching in July (I think???) is a Technique Class, this is 4 hours showing 5 different techniques. It's for the girls who just can't get their head around atc's and ask "what do you do with them?", but they'd still like to learn the techniques so they can apply them to scrapbooking or altered books or other mixed media. It'll be done in a book form and I have a 2nd Technique Class forming in my head too as 5 techniques just ain't enough! This first one will cover credit card background, sheer heaven transfers, peeled paper technique, alcohol inks and faux leather.

I'm still waiting for my laptop to download the pics onto a disc so I can then put them on my desktop pc....so next time I post I'll have some pics to show of the mega holiday. ;-) I know, you can't WAIT!!! lol