CRAYON MELT BACKGROUND

I have previously done classes where we've used either a mini craft iron or a Clover quilting iron to melt both beeswax as well as wax crayons to create a background.  Several people wanted to revisit this technique so I tried to work out a way to do it without the use of the irons.  I think I was successful!  All I used was cheap wax crayons, not watercolour ones though, just ordinary Crayola kids ones, a heat gun and a small, metal palette knife.  It wasn't always necessary to use the palette knife to spread the wax, sometimes I could do it purely with the heat of the heat gun to remelt the wax and get it to drip and run.  But other times if you want specific swirls or more definite strokes, the metal palette knife worked really well.  I even used my metallic crayons with great success.  Like all of these techniques though, viewing on the computer screen just does not do the backgrounds justice, amazing texture, satiny shine and metallic shimmer when gold, silver or copper was used.

"Scars"...

(gold & black crayons)

"Tequila"...

(citrus & pale grey crayons)

"Salty"...

(green-blue & copper crayons)

"Psychic"...

(orange & purple crayons)

"Demons"...

(red & dark grey crayons)

GLUE EMBELLISHING

Several years ago I taught a class where we used black glue sticks in a glue gun to create embellishments on atc's.  Type in "faux wax" in the search box down on the right hand side to see these earlier samples.  I'm doing this class again as I have new students who have never used black glue sticks.  To prevent my older students who have been with me for quite a few years don't get bored with doing the same thing again, I've thrown in a little twist to keep it interesting.  You can use clear glue sticks to make little embellishments and when they are cool, simply paint them with black acrylic paint and then rub over with a little Gilding Wax or Treasure Gold or Rub'n'buff to pick up the highlights!  

Just to clarify, I'm talking about glue sticks that go in a glue gun,

 not glue sticks that you stick paper to other paper.

Of course, the dribbling method around the border of an atc can only be done with a black glue stick but the mini embellishments using stamps can be made with the clear glue gun stick.  A hint here though, always ink up your stamp with *clear embossing ink before stamping into the melted glue and let it dry COMPLETELY before trying to remove the stamp.  I can't stress how important this is, you'll ruin your stamps if you don't do this step and I wouldn't recommend using clear stamps, the good ol' red rubber ones work best, oh and don't press hard or you'll push the stamp right through to the bottom, just rest it on the glue and the weight of it will make a nice impression.

"Dramatic"... (the black glue is the leaf shapes)

"Ravish"... (clear glue with metal screws

placed in hot glue and left to cool

before painting black and

rubbing silver gilding wax on them)

"Imagination"... (clear glue puddle melted on

non-stick craft sheet and *inked stamp placed on

top, left to cool, then painted black and

rubbed over with gold gilding wax)

"Pursuit"... (same method as above with clear glue stick)

"Alcohol & Calculus"... (black glue dribbled down sides

then rubbed with silver gilding wax)

"Twilight"... (black glue stick dribbling again, but with

copper and gold gilding wax on top)

Here's the last sample from my eggshell mosaic class from last fortnight.

"Love & Stuff"...

 When I originally started playing around with this eggshell mosaic technique, I found the brown eggs didn't take the lighter colours of alcohol inks very well so I painted the eggshells white and that solved that problem.  This sample below originally was very dark as it was the brown eggshells with a couple of green and blue colours of alcohol inks on it, I think Stream and Pesto.  So in the spirit of "no such thing as a mistake", I rubbed over gold and silver gilding wax to hide the darkness of it.  Even though you can still see some of the green through the centre sections of the eggshells, in real life it's very metallic looking and shimmery.  Good save!!!



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.

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"...

Shrink Plastic Revisited & Faux Wax & a cake!!!

Addition.....scroll right down the bottom for a 5 minute microwave cake recipe.....

I'm revisiting Shrink Plastic for my class tomorrow. I have had a bit more of a play with it since I last taught this class back in early 2009 because I like to do something fresh for the girls who've done previous classes with me. It's also nice to introduce the newer girls who've not been amazed by some of the older products and techniques that have been around for a while.


For this first one I've combined 2 different new techniques that I haven't shown before....I coloured a piece of white shrink with one of the Tattered Angels Glimmer Chalks - of course it won't dry as shrink is a plastic surface but by the time you've heated it, all is good and it dries wonderfully. The second thing I did with this particular piece was no stamping beforehand, just spray with the glimmer chalk, shrink it down and then while it's still hot and soft, stamp into it with a stamp with black stazon. Gives a wonderful textural element as well as a soft matte finish.


"Post-script"...





"Enter"... (this is a terrible scan, it's because there's the shrink plastic door on top of foil tape on chipboard, on top of flyscreen, on top of the background....too much height for the scanner to cope with, sorry)

"Vision"...

"Doors"... (the stamped words are Stazon silver metallic ink on black shrink - you can actually read the wording irl but because of the silver ink, it's throwing the scan off)

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WARNING!!!! Naked male backside coming up.....if you don't want to look, scroll and close your eyes....

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"Work in progress"...

Below are the last few Faux Wax atc's from the last class.

"Kiss"... (the background of this one is from the Metallic Cardstock class, technique described in the previous posting)

"Dance"... (the gold sparkles on the background is Jo Sonja Gold Dust. I've described this product before but this is the first photo where you can actually see it!)

"Bloom"...

Dreams"... (this background is from the upcoming Soot class)

"Weird Desire"... (another soot background)

I've also been working on my fabric art doll. This will run over 3 classes of 2-1/2 hours each at Scraptivate and the girls will be making it from scratch - from tracing the pattern, stitching (on a machine) around the body, turning, stamping, colouring, stuffing, beading and embellishing. It will certainly be an exercise in patience for them. The head alone has about 90 small burnt organza flowers on it....yes, FLOWERS (though they are shabby ones). I'm about half done with the embellishing and when it's complete I'll post pictures. The class is in 2 weeks time (4th September is the first class) and I may run it a second time if the numbers warrant it. This is certainly something out of the norm for most of these girls and I hope they enjoy it as much as I think they will.

I may even have one of these for a give-away on my blog....all things going to plan!

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

4 tablespoons S R flour

4 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa

1 egg

3 tablespoons milk

3 tablespoons oil

3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)

A small splash of vanilla extract

1 large coffee mug (MicroSafe)

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. EAT ! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous).

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.