Domino atc's

I taught Domino atc's yesterday at Scraptivate, basically the various ways of colouring them and incorporating them as an element on atc's. Of course, I only touched the surface of what you can do and I'm sure as the girls in the class will continue to play with these at home they will come up with their own ideas. Personally, I think that's the best thing about coming to a class, it's a jump-off point for you to create your own little "aha!!!" moments.

I showed the girls how to use that much under-rated pen, the humble sharpie, for colouring the domino, then use some of the Ranger blending solution (that's normally used with the alcohol inks) on the little felt pad and also a touch of colour from one of the Krylon Metal Leafing pens. You are virtually doing the same thing as you do with the alcohol inks except instead of adding the drops of colour to the felt pad along with the blending solution, you merely scribble on the surface of the domino with the sharpie, then use the blending solution (& Krylon if you wish - optional), to blend the colour. Like the alcohol inks, the more blending you do, the lighter the colour becomes.....perfect for stamping on then!

Alcohol inks are also perfect to use on dominoes for adding colour and images can be stuck down with a little DM (dimensional magic) then coated with the DM for protection and gloss. Wire or metallic threads can be wrapped around them. As I said, I just touched the surface of what can be done with dominoes.


Here is the raffle atc......





As you can see from the close-up above, I coloured the domino in an aqua colour sharpie, stamped with Stazon black (another of Michelle Ward's gpp stamps), then wrapped silver metallic thread around the domino, attached it to the atc with double sided tape, then a coat of Dimensional Magic was applied to give it a shiny finish. I don't always use DM, sometimes I use a coat of Pledge One Go (yes....floor polish), this is the Australian equivalent of what is used in the States called Future Floor Finish. Great little product, it adds a shiny finish to your work without the really high layer of the dimensional magic....sort of like the "magic" without the "dimensional" bit....hehehe....okay, so it's early Sunday morning.....what did you expect....Robin Williams????? By the way, the image was added to the book page using a transparency transfer and matte Golden gel medium....love that stuff!

Remember I said we had issues with Netta and the raffle atc? By issues I mean the person sitting NEXT to Netta has won each week for several weeks. Well yesterday made the 4th week in a row where it happened again.....absolutely unbelievable!!!! I was prepared this time though, I made an atc to give to Netta just in case it happened again....not expecting it would though! Here's Netta's atc ....

Going into the studio now to do some work on the 2 canvases I should've already finished by now.....promise Barb.....you'll have it soon!

First & Last scrapbook layout!!!

Well, guess it had to happen, you work in a scrapbook/papercraft store and eventually you'll succumb....though I do have a REALLY GOOD excuse for making my first (and last!) scrapbook layout page...really I do! A girl I have worked with since late last year is leaving to have her 4th baby so the girls in the shop decided what a great idea it would be to do a baby-themed scrapbook album for her so she has something to remember us by. We all were to contribute a double layout (2 pages), including me! Those of you who know me, know I don't do cute and I did tell them I was only going to do the one page and there was going to be no place for a photo on it....hehehehehe....did I get "around" the whole scrapbook thing or what!!! Are ya proud??? lol Anyway, the album was 8" x 8" rather than the normal full size of 12" x 12" so THAT was a bonus to start with....just had to convince myself it was a "double-chunky" (a chunky page is 4" x 4") and to start work.

I had an image in mind that I wanted to use (a woman with a cabbage in her stomach and baby in the cabbage...how non-cute can you get!!!), I even had a rubber stamp of a baby in a womb...it was in a grab bag that I got ages ago and always wondered why on earth I kept it, not my style at all, but as things go, it worked fine for this page. So the lady/baby/cabbage image was added to some watercolour paper via a Sheer Heaven transfer, as well as another image of Venus up the top left by the same method. Some watercolour crayons next with some water spritzing for colour, some stamping in a soft grey, then some Moon Shadow Mist sprays, a couple of crosses stamped & embossed in 2 different colours were added, as was some copper german scrap and some swarovski crystals.....almost finished! I wanted to have somewhere for the baby's details so I printed out a sheet with Baby's Name, Date of birth, Baby's Weight, Baby's Length....all in Italian (just looked better and suited the Renaissance feel a little more). I'm going to ask a friend (are you there Charmaine B????) to write the details in calligraphy after the birth, a nice touch to finish it off. Stop typing and stick the pictures in.....okay.....

So now this one is out of the way, next project for me is to finish off my Forensics chunky pages and make a canvas for a swap with another good friend....hiya Barb.....then think about the next chunky pages, think the theme is gothic??? Going to love that one too!

Take a look at a fantastic little atc that the very lovely Dot sent to me this week. There's so much texture & dimension in it with the little crystals, the fluffy fibre bits, the bulgy eyes, the black german scrap wings.....gorgeous....and I LOVE that tree image on the egg body, just wonderful!!! Thanks Dot, it's very much appreciated ;-)

Fold-out atc's & Collections arch thingy (???)

Finally getting myself out of the illness doldrums...feeling a little more "normal" now. Why is it when I hear the word "normal" I immediately think of the B & W movie Young Frankenstein with Gene Wilder & Marty Feldman and Marty's collection of a brain for use in the Frankenstein that Gene Wilder (as Dr Frankenstein) was building. Marty dropped the correct brain...a Dr or something, and chose one with the label "abnormal". When questioned about this acquisition AFTER it was put into the monster, he admitted it wasn't the correct one, it was called...."Abby, Abby something???"...."Abnormal?"..."yes, that was it"!!! lol So I'm abby-normal now ;-)

Tomorrow's atc class is on Fold-out atc's. Not a normal sort of style that I do but something I think the girls will like as it gives them a bigger area to work on - normal atc's are 3-1/2" tall by 2-1/2" wide, fold-out atc's are 3-1/2" tall by 5" wide. Below are a few of them that I've made for samples and one for the raffle. There's two different styles, one that opens up with doors on the front and the other two have the right hand side that fold outwards to reveal the full size.

First one - closed...

..now open...

Second one - closed...

now - open....(don't you love Dorothy Parker's quote on this one!)

Third one with the "doors" - closed...

Third one...open...

Today was our atc (Art Tarts Club) monthly get-together day. We decided to do a little mini project and settled on the mini arch pack from Collections (Julie van Oosten). Not sure what to call it....it's not really a book as it's just a cover and a back but it's also not an atc, so it's just an "arch thingy". It's using the same product that the lovely Sulea made for me that was pictured in a previous post from the stamp camp thread.

Here's a close-up of the transparency that's on the front cover.

Inside....
Below is the back cover....you can just see some of the texture but you really need to feel how lumpy & bumpy it is. This will be another future technique coming up in the atc classes....sssshhhhhhhhh!!!!!

Another Sheer Heaven class

I dragged my sick, sorry self off to teach my regular Tuesday night atc class last night and must admit, did feel better for being there with the girls, having a laugh as usual. Something about being with others and even if you're not creating yourself, just watching others have fun and turn out some arty stuff that they are chuffed over is really good for the soul. It was the Tuesday night girl's turn to learn the wonders of Sheer Heaven transfers and think I have some more converts. I did tell them they learnt the more difficult transfers first, gel medium transfers and transparency transfers (though the transparency one is only 2nd in ease-factor to the Sheer Heaven technique!). So the Sheer Heaven transfers were a hit! Here's the raffle one that I made....congrats Megan....did your Mum mind you winning??? lol (Megan's Mum, Netta, comes to the Saturday atc classes and the last few weeks in a row has sat next to the winner though hasn't won herself for an age.)

This next one is also a Sheer Heaven transfer but I also used one of the chipboard shapes (my favourite!!!) from the cuttlebug, which I first painted with Linen coloured acrylic paint, dried, then rubbed embossing ink over the whole thing and embossed it in a colour called Antiquities. Loved how the embossing turned out! I also coloured the diamond-shaped brads in this embossing powder too.

I had a play with some of the Helmar's 2-step crackle medium the other day. Wanted to see how it compared to a couple of other crackle's I've tried (Jo Sonja 1 step crackle & the Ranger Crackle Accents). I was quite happy with how it worked, though being impatient as I am, I forced the 2nd layer to dry with the heat gun and probably over-heated it a little. Will try to have more patience next time....yeah...right!!! I know that crackle medium is dependent on several things, your paint stroke style, thickness, drying time etc so I'd be happy enough to recommend this particular one, though I will have more of a play with it in the future.

Hmmm....you can't really see the crackle well on this atc as the suits are so dark, might have to try it on a lighter image and see if it scans better. Trust me, there are cracks there!!!

I thought I'd post some pics of my previous obsession....fabric art dolls. If you call them "cloth dolls" people think of cabbage patch dolls or raggedy ann, but these are more "look at, not to play with" type dolls. I have posted a few pics previously but I have loads of them so it'll take a while before I run out.

Meet Fabio....(a pattern from the fabulously talented West Aussie designer, Rhonda McGinnity)

Next one is a Patti Culea pattern (US pattern designer). See....I CAN do cute if I put my mind to it!!! hahaha I should clarify, I made these dolls, I didn't buy them and the faces are hand-drawn with watercolour pencils, gel pens & zig pens. These dolls can take 25 hours to do, now do you see why I switched to paperarts???

No art done today, chest infection and bung leg (just a pulled muscle) so my muse is taking a break....probably holidaying somewhere warmer than it is here! lol

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!

7 Random Things

Nat B has tagged me and I'm supposed to tell 7 random facts about myself. Being such a "wordy" person (read.....blabberbeak!), think it's going to be hard to do this, but I'll try and surprise a couple of you ;-) But first I'd better stick a picture in so I don't seem to just "talk" at you...to prove comment #6 this is one of my cloth dolls I made a few years back, she stands around 2 feet tall.

1. I spent some time in my youth hitchhiking around up the North-west of Western Australia and did a variety of jobs - including brickies labourer, car wash attendant and also spent some time living in the single men's quarters at a mine-site.....THAT was a secret....a big no-no! Did I care??? nope!

2. When I was 15 I owned a snake, I was heavily into Alice Cooper and I even have a tattoo of a snake "where the sun don't shine". My parent's didn't find out 'til I was about 18 because of it's location, another highly illegal thing to do - have a tattoo done when you are 15!

3. I met my husband through a local bike group (no, not a bikie gang!!!). Still love the sound of a Ducati roaring off....mmmm......Italian bikes do it for me! Ducati's & Laverda's!

4. Unusual fact.....hubby & I didn't live together until after we got married AND we waited 3 years to have our first baby...who is now 22. (Thought I'd better throw something in that reeks of conservatism & normalcy, considering my 3 previous enlightening comments....lol)

5. I started work at 15 as I did my Achievement Certificate & a secretarial course all in the same year. The Achievement Certificate was like a mini-high school certificate for 3rd year high school kids.

6. I'm a long-term sewer, started by making a complete baby girl's wardrobe when I found out I was pregnant...of course, I had a boy so I gave it all away. Falling pregnant 3 years later, sew the girls stuff again....another boy....give it all away. But it started me on the sewing buzz. My Mum who is a wonderful dressmaker/costume designer/maker still, always told me - "When you start out sewing, try to learn something new each time you use a new pattern, you'll build your skills quickly that way". It works.

7. I love watching gory stuff on Fox, like Autopsy and the Crime & Investigation channel. Grant reckons I should've been a detective. So we fight over the remote, he's a History Channel sort of guy and I'm into crime. Favourite author: Lee Child. If you like great action filled books with a REAL man as a hero and fantastic writing, Lee Child is your author du jour. Try him, you just might like him and you'll have heaps of books to catch up on. He only writes one book a year, I buy them as soon as they come out, read them in 2 days and then wait (impatiently) for another year!

Okay, one more pic....another of my doll pics, these are called "The Ancestors" and are about 3 feet tall. Funny that I'd put these pics in as I usually preferred making much smaller dolls, between 3" to 12"!

That's all folks! (I'm really a nice person, not a tattooed, bikie loving, immoral, uneducated person like I sound....hehehehe).

Gothic Arch & chunky page

....WARNING....WARNING... NUDE PICTURE BELOW!!!!!

The chunky swap theme for this month for our Altered Book Club (ABC) is Nudes. This in itself causes no drama as there's plenty of vintage nude images around and you have plenty of scope for what type of "imagery" you want to create to go with the nude....or nudes. While spending some time perusing different sites I happened across a little known "National Day". You know, those holidays that are obscure, weird, maybe a little funky but still great for the altered arts field....like "National Talk Like A Pirate Day" (September 19th). Well I discovered "National Garden Naked Day"....September 10th so it'll be a little chilly down here in Australia but think the States should have lovely weather!

My chunky page also contains a neat little library card that you can make up for yourself from this site. You put in the info that you want, including scribbled notes but just make sure you put a catalogue number otherwise it won't work (ask me how I know!). The words on the front of the chunky are "Carpe Rutila", which means...."seize the rake"! hahahaha Thought I'd throw a little Latin humour into it. The background on the front is embossed but I'm thinking now that I'm looking at it on screen, it might need some more "stuff"? Might have to do a.......shudder......groan.......shrink plastic FLOWER!!!!!!! I'm soooooo not into flowers but think this might actually call for one....though it'll have to be one of Michelle Ward's from the In Vogue plate....that'll make me feel a little better ;-) So here it is, front & back.

the back...

The other item....okay, 15 items, I finished today was my gothic arch pages for a swap with the lovely Natalie Briney. This was a bit of a long drawn out project, had the background pages ready well over 6 weeks ago but then hit a brick wall as to what to put on it! HIM to the rescue, same image as I used on the canvas that I made at stamp camp and I also used the big gothic script stamp (Michelle Ward again....Printed Matter plate) stamped with Brilliance Platinum Planet....LOVE that colour! Also used my new cuttlebug machine and a borrowed die (cutting thingo), this is the wonderful scrolly looking thing down the centre. There's also some webbing embossing in silver as well. Title? GOTHSTRASIZED....try and say THAT one 3 times fast!!!