Peeled Paper and Magic Stamp Peek (& Giveaway)

I have my final Peeled Paper technique atc class this morning at Scraptivate and if the previous 3 classes are any indication, the girls are going to have some "oh no!" moments that will turn into "oh...yes!!!". lol Some techniques are like that, you think it's all turned to cr*p, and then finally it just comes together and looks fantastic.

"What we see"... (The bamboo stamp is by Hero Arts. This atc is for the WTA - Winner Takes All, sort of like a lottery - that's held each month on the Paperarts Yahoo Group)

"Pilot Light"... (I can't remember who the flourish stamp in the background is by, it's not very clear anyway so guess it's a moot point! This is the raffle atc for this mornings class)

My next technique class is called Smoosh & Magic Stamp! This has had a few of the girls stumped and I've told them I'm not going to tell them what the magic stamp is until the class. The smoosh technique is Tim's one of using Distress Inks direct to craft sheet, spritzing with water, laying down a piece of paper, twisting then lifting to reveal a beautifully coloured piece of background paper. The colours in the atc below in the background are Scattered Straw and Vintage Photo. The magic stamp bit is the stamped background....for that info, you'll have to wait until after the classes! But I will come back in around a week or so with some more samples.

Just for fun, if anyone can guess what I've done to make the background, leave a comment and the first person who guesses correctly will get some atc's from me, including a magic stamp one! Remember to leave your email addy please. (No cheating from any of my girls who know already what it is!!! hahahahaha)

By the way, see the lovely German Scrap on the bottom of this card above? It's new from Scraptivate, click here to see more new ones - click on Scraptivate German Scrap in the left hand column, then New Nov '09. This one started out white and I painted it with Burnt Umber Light to alter it to suit the atc.

Peeled Paper Background atc's

I have just three samples so far for the Peeled Paper Background Technique, more to come after Friday. This is a technique that comes from the talented Claudine Hellmuth. I have all three of her books as well as her video's and even though her style may be different than mine (or should I say, MY style is different than hers!), I can still absorb her wonderful techniques and apply them to my own work. I think this is something that some people tend to forget, even though you may not like a particular "thing", be it a card, an atc or even a scrapbook page, there may be some technique included in it that could be adapted to your own particular style. You just need to learn to look beyond what you actually see, to see possibilities that you never realised were there. Enough talk....

"Temptation"... (Hero Arts Bamboo stamp embossed with Copper Dreams embossing powder. This is one of my own recipes, 4 parts Copper embossing powder mixed with 1 part copper glitter. Adds a little sparkle in real life! If you want more embossing powder recipes, check out the post here).

"Illusion"... (Wrought iron stamp found here)
"Work backwards"... (Circular stamp from Non Sequitur, Burning Hearts Plate #56)

More to come over the weekend. ;-)

Peeled Paper Technique & gift

This is the raffle atc that I've made for tomorrow's class on the peeled paper technique (learnt from the very talented Claudine Hellmuth).

The next two are a couple of just plain backgrounds using the same technique, the first using a page from a dictionary and the 2nd one is using plain copy paper. I wanted to take undecorated atc backgrounds to show the girls as once you start adding pics or stamps, you don't see as much of the background.

Quick description of this technique. Using gel medium, apply a layer to a piece of cardstock (atc size) then adhere a piece of book page, dictionary page, plain paper or any other thin type paper to the gel medium. Let dry for only about 30 seconds and then place a piece masking tape on the paper, say in a diagonal direction from one corner to the other. Burnish the masking tape, then pull up and you'll remove some of the top layer of paper. Repeat this a couple more times in different areas - of course depending on the size of what you're working on as to how many pieces of tape you do. This works on canvas as well as smaller atc sized cardstock (& lots of sizes in between).

If you are using book pages, you'll find as some of the top layer peels away it reveals some of the text back to front, as it's the other side that you'll be revealing. Then you can do a wash of paint, nothing too dark at this stage as you don't want to totally obscure your print. Because the paper is in different layers, sometimes even showing the underneath cardstock, it will absorb the paint in varying degrees which will result in a varied background. You can then add more glazes if you want, or different colours even, just remember to dry between the layers with a heat gun (carefully!) or a hair dryer (not so carefully). I make sure any other layers I add to this, ie pictures, I use gel medium to make sure they adhere well.

I received a wonderful gift through the post from a girl I've met a couple of times now through stamp camp, a very thoughtful and generous person who has a delightful blog. Thank you so very much Julie for the beautiful door hanger that arrived very carefully wrapped in fabric that has tape measures printed all over it! Will definitely be using THAT wrapping paper!!! lol

Also in the post came a parcel from Michelle Ward that contained some rubber plates that I'd ordered for some friends, none of these for me at the moment, I'm still waiting for her new ones to come out!!! But Michelle sent me some absolutely awesome plastic zip-lock bags....oooooo.....how exciting.......zip-lock bags I hear you say......but these aren't any ol' normal clear plastic zip-lock bags.......nooooooooo.....take a look here! She sent me some small ones & some large ones....these are just too cool to use....think I'll just "look" at them! Thanks Michelle, you're a gem!