Shrink Plastic Class & Tissue Paper Background...again!

Today I had the first of my 3 Shrink Plastic Classses and I was thrilled to see how many of the ladies had never used this product before. It can be a thoroughly addictive little addition to atc's as quotes and small embellishment stamps created on shrink plastic are the perfect size for your atc's. I tend to use more of the white and frosted (ruff'n'ready) shrink plastic though it is also available in black, brown, clear and almond. Though the almond is tailor-made for any face stamps as the colour is perfect for "skin". Some samples...

"What you see"... (The Vision stamp is Stampers Anonymous, the eye-glasses stamp is one I'm not sure of....may also be Stampers Anonymous???) This shrink piece is mounted onto a piece of coloured gauze, which is in turn mounted onto a piece of foil tape adhered to a chipboard piece. It actually looks very mirror-like, which I thought was appropriate for the quote and stamps used in this piece.

"Live in the moment"... (Quote from one of Tim Holtz unmounted stamp sets - I think it's Nature's Moments)

"No distance"... (Hero Arts Vintage Map stamp - unfortunately discontinued)...PLUS black texture paste around the shrink piece.

"Odd"... (girl stamp on the shrink piece is Teesha Moore Zettiology, staples stamp is Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous) I must also tell you I bought one of Tim's new Tiny Attachers with the mini staples. You can see that I've used them on this piece below to attach the watercolour background to the black surround. I like to colour them to match what I'm doing....I simply break one of the refill staples in half, then colour the whole thing with a coloured sharpie before inserting it into the stapler. Voila.....coloured staples!!!

Below are a couple more from my previous class on Tissue Paper Background, these are the ones that ended up in my book. For each class I make 2 atc's that go into my Technique Book with the instructions on the opposite page, also 1 atc for each of the classes I teach to be given away as a raffle, as well as some other samples. As I tend to do one-off original atc's rather than multiples, this can be rather time-consuming as I also type out the instructions for everyone so they can all make their own book. It means that in 6 months time (or 2 years!!!) they can dig the Technique Book out, flick through and repeat any technique they have learnt from the my classes and they will also have a couple of their own samples in their book.

"The purpose of life"...

"Closely lie"...I do have one more tissue paper background atc to show but I'll save that for my next post. It's entitled "Steampunk" and is basically black, grey and silver......with little cogs!!! My current favourite atc!!!

Time for some shut-eye....alarm is set for 4am to take Jarred & Elice to the airport for their trip back home to Newcastle. I'm sorry to see them go as it has been wonderful to have them here but they will be back for good in a short 6 months. I'm sure it'll seem like a long time to them....5-1/2 years down, 6 months to go....not too shabby an effort I must say for a boy who left home at 18 and will return home at 24, most certainly a man! Do I hear "engagement" sounds in the background for next year?????

Tissue Paper Background & another card

The tissue paper background that I've been teaching in my current atc classes is proving really popular! The ease of use, non-messiness involved and the fact that it looks so darned great is impressing the girls so much that they are all chattering away about how they're going to use this technique to make cards, more atc's and even scrapbook pages! Here are some more samples.

"Nocturnal" (a favourite one of mine!) Yes Megan...that's Dimensional Magic on the lips! Private joke, when Megan first started in my atc classes her glue of choice was DM! I was horrified, all that shiny gluey stuff that could potentially ooze out and scream "look at me!!!!". One of the things I tell my students is that because atc's are so small, you have to pay particular attention to detail - like colouring the edge of your chipboard pieces AND having no glue showing! lol

"Perfection"...

"Dream"...

Here's a card I made using some of Julie van Oosten's new Collections range - the transparency is new, as are the hearts and wings. I painted the heart with Ranger Picket Fence (white) crackle paint, then a soft metallic pink over the top. I covered one set of wings with paper and dry-brushed white metallic paint over it and the bottom set of wings have just been painted with the white metallic paint. I stitched the transparency to the pink card using a platinum coloured metallic thread - this sure beats having to hide any glue that you may have used and negates the use of brads or eyelets to attach the transparency. A bit of white gauze, some white scallop German Scrap on the inside right of the card and it's a quick, easy and pretty (did I say that???) card.

The very lovely Di O'Cobhthaigh (weirder than my name!!! - pronounced O'Coffee!) presented me with the Renee Award, which I thank her for (you can read about this award on Di's page). I've not been passing awards on of late as quite a few people have gone all "no-awardy", which is their perogative of course. Do yourself a favour though, visit Di's page as she's new to atc's but is doing an outstanding job with them!

On a personal note for my family that read this blog who live overseas, my son Jarred and his girlfriend Elice are home with us for a 2 week holiday. We don't get to see them very often, usually only once a year as Jarred is stationed at Williamtown, an air-force base in Newcastle over East. But by December of this year he will have done his 6 years and will be trying to get a posting back here to Pearce Air Base in Perth. His chances are pretty slim of getting the posting as there is only 1 position available and 20 people have applied for it. Regardless, he'll be back in Perth though as he wants to be home with his family and Elice is also a West Aussie and is missing her relatives as well. It'll be wonderful to have us all together again as we are a pretty tight-knit bunch. I have a birthday coming up in a few weeks and of the 70 people who are coming, 44 are family!

Tissue Paper Background, Cards, Dichroic & other stuff...

My next set of atc classes is on Tissue Paper Background. I teach a few different ways of attaching the tissue paper to the card stock....xyron, jac paper, gesso, gel medium and I also use both black or white tissue paper, as well as dress pattern. The white tissue can be painted over with washes of paint - of course Golden paints work really well as they are so pigment intense and one drop on a brush with some water will give you plenty of coverage on an atc. When I use the black tissue I don't paint it, hmmmm....having said that I just had a brainwave about using interference colours dry-brushed over the black tissue, must try that! I generally use embossing powders on the black tissue as it stands out nicely against the black background.

I've not had a great deal of time to do lots of samples so here's one to start with...Wednesday I'll get more done and include them in the next post. If you have a look at my class list to the right you may notice I've updated it to include more classes. I'm all planned out right through 'til October this year, super-organised in some areas, super-slack in others! hahahaha


"Di-vin-ity"...





With Mother's Day just gone and a cousin's 21st party also on the same day I had reason to make few cards recently. As I've said before, I'm not a card-maker and I say this to myself so I don't have any expectations about how they will turn out....how slack is that! lol These 3 cards were all done using basically the same technique - cuttlebug a piece of chipboard, paint with metallic paints, some embossing on it, then some Treasure Gold or Dazzle Wax wiped on, a few other bits & pieces layered on top and that's it! Simple but effective....for a non-card-maker!


Two Mother's Day cards... (absolutely shocking picture, sorry 'bout that)

Casey's 21st Card...

There's another Mother's Day card I made earlier using Julie's Collections bits & pieces but that's at work and I'll have to remember to take my camera with me to get a shot of it. It's all pale pink and pretty, not really my style but I CAN do pale pink, just don't get along that well with bright, hot pink!

I bought a dichroic pendant recently and loved it so much I bought one for my cousin's 21st as well! Here's a picture of mine.....absolutely beautiful colour in real life....and here's where I bought it from.

On another note....(excuse the pun!), I'm not into reality tv programs but I have made an enormous exception for the last few episodes of American Idol....purely for the chance to catch Adam Lambert on the show! Oh dear.....has this boy affected quite a few grown women or what!!! So Jen, this next atc is for you....no, I mean this IS for you....come to the shop and collect it.....you Adam Whore you!!! This is meant in a non-judgemental, friendly way.....lol....I'm one too!!!

Lastly, here's the last of the Sheer Heaven atc's I made, this was the raffle one.

"Traverse"...

Lastly, lastly...my friend Barb T recently bestowed on me a Kreativ Blogger Award and I thank her very much for that. I've had this one before, (it's the bright pink & green one in the list on the right) so I won't pass it on again but I'd urge you to check out Barb's blog. She may be all isolated in Wagga Wagga, but it certainly doesn't show in her work!

Sheer Heaven Transfers & Victoria (flower alert!!!)

Today is my first atc class with the Sheer Heaven Transfers, well not actually the first one as I've done this technique before in my classes, but it will be the first time many of my students will have used this fantastic product! It's got to be the most fool-proof type of transfer one can do. All you need is a sheet of Sheer Heaven (available at Scraptivate of course), a teaspoon and some 70% Isopropyl (rubbing alcohol). I also like to use watercolour crayons to add extra colour around areas where the transfer doesn't go so the transfer blends fairly seamlessly onto the background.


It does need to be transferred onto a porous surface, watercolour paper, card stock, scrapbooking paper, book paper or even fabric! Definitely a non-coated surface, though you can use inks to colour your paper before hand if you like, just keep the colours light so you can see the transfer. Jessica is the creator of this product and she has a wonderful website where you can learn about all the different things you can do with it, here's the link.



"Secret of Life"...

"Beauty"...

"Trouble"...

"Accursed"...

"Classic"...

Towards the end of our trip last year we visited a wonderful city called Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. Of course a visit to the famous Butchart Gardens was an absolute must. I DO like real flowers, really I do!!! I have an aversion to flowers that are used in abundance on scrapbook pages as fillers and as I'm not a frilly, pretty type of person (my style I'm talking about...lol) you won't see flowers appear on anything I do. But hey, I'm a Gemini (yep a BIG birthday coming up soon) and I'm quite within my rights to change my mind. You never know, I could end up with grand-daughters one day and I might go all "florally"....but don't hold your breath. ;-)

So back to Victoria, we also visited the Butterfly Gardens before Butchart and was amazed at the beautiful habitat where butterflies flit around in an enclosed (humid) garden and the visitors can walk through to be amazed by their beauty.

The first picture gives you a glimpse of what lies on top of those glorious wings....we followed this one around for ages trying to get a picture of it when it landed but it kept flying away. So we sat for a while, it landed on the seat and Grant put his hand out near it and it opened up it's wings for us. What a tease!!! Fabulous colour!

Butchart Gardens is 55 acres of lovingly maintained gardens, pictures speak louder than words....

I have culled my photo's from the trip and I have 103 of Butchart Gardens alone! That gives you an idea of how fantastic this place is, if you go to Victoria...it's a must-see place.

On a final note, my friend Joan turned 50 last Sunday so we had a little get-together at Michael's place to celebrate her birthday and catch up with everyone again who attended her funeral. Joan was always 2 months older than me which was always a cause for a little ribbing here and there about her being the oldest. I had decided that it wasn't particularly fair she should stay 49 forever so she is going to age every year, as I do. There won't be any more birthday celebrations at Michael's, but I'll be having my own little "happy birthday today Joan" day on the 26th of April each year. It would also have been their wedding anniversary which makes it doubly difficult for Michael. But she's still around, floating somewhere on the edge of my consciousness all the time and occasionally I catch a glimpse of some "thing" at the corner of my eye.....you never know!!!!

Sheer Heaven transfer class & more of the TRIP!

Back in November was when I posted the last instalment about the mega-trip we did in April/May last year. I have all my photo's as my screensaver (about 1000 of them!) and my computer runs fairly constantly so as I come in periodically to check my emails etc, I am constantly reminded of the wonderful times we had. So I'll bore the pants off you for a little longer with a few more stops before I go onto the Sheer Heaven transfer atc's which is the next class I'll be teaching.

After Skagway (previous posting in November) we went to Sitka. I've checked the photo's and they are pretty boring, we went to a wonderful museum there and I took lots of photo's of masks and wonderful eskimo type stuff but it probably doesn't translate well so I won't put any of those up. Next up was Glacier Bay and viewing of the Hubbard Glacier.....what can one say about a 6 mile long piece of ice than constantly breaks off into the ocean....utterly amazing!!! Nothing that photo's can do justice to so I won't put those up either.

THEN we went to Vancouver and this city is absolutely beautiful! We spent a little time at the Capilano Suspension Bridge and the park where it lives. Kinda scarey walking across, for others though, not me, I'm not a 'fraidy cat about heights or wobbly things.

Capilano Suspension bridge in the background, myself, Grant and Joan.

We took the skyride up to Grouse Mountain where we saw fantastic wood sculptures, lots of snow and generally had a great time fooling around on this picture perfect, sunny day. Here's a shot taken out of the window of the skyride, oh for views like this every day!!!

Here's Mike, one of our ship companions doing his "Snow Angel" for us! I'd never seen that before, coming from Western Australia where there is no snow!

Yes, there was a bit of snow up there!!!

One of the large wood sculptures at Grouse Mountain, these things are huge!

This will give you an idea of the size of them, Joan and Mike inside one.

Joan and I also did a foot wander around of Vancouver as well. I was on a mission to try and find a "Nixon" item of clothing for my son, ended up buying a belt and a key-ring. I did run across a shop that had some really pretty glass vases in it that I thought he might appreciate so I took a photo of them for him. Funny thing was, as Joan and I were about to enter the store, we could smell this strange, familiar odour wafting from inside??? We'd only just passed 2 policemen too! Being good tourists, we just ignored it as if it was a common occurrence here in sleepy ol' Perth too! We were careful not to stay too long though, just in case we "forgot" our sense of time and missed the boat! lol

Here are 3 atc's from the next class, Sheer Heaven Transfers.

"Smile"... (flourish stamp from Michelle Ward's Green Pepper Press "Juliet" plate)

"Reactive Scattering" ... I've had this filmstrip punch for years and thought it lent itself rather nicely to this odd atc! The circular lined stamp in brown is from a Non Sequitur plate, Burning Hearts.

"Secrets"...
More to come...

Resin Fresco Technique

At the end of four blissful days at home over the Easter break, I am pleased to present the next atc class samples - Resin Fresco Technique. This technique was first gleaned from the fantastic book by Bernie Berlin - Artist Trading Card Workshop. If you don't have this book, get it! It's a definite must-have for anyone who loves techniques.

"Life"... (Stampers Anonymous Tree stamp in background)

"Specimen"... (Tim Holtz Staples stamp and Michelle Ward's butterfly stamps from "In Vogue" stamp plate)

"Rest in Peat"... (Zetti Graveyard stamp)

"Focus"... (Cherry Pie La Sibilla Delfica stamp, we have a new lot of Cherry Pie stamps arriving soon at Scraptivate!!! Can't wait!)

"Live in the moment"... (Michelle Ward's Curvature stamp plate used in the background with White Stazon - kinda hard to see but if you enlarge it you should be able to catch it)

"Breaths"... The scan makes this background below look like a dirty grey colour, in actual fact it's a beautiful duck-egg blue background with a Golden paint dry-brushed on called Interference Gold - stunning irl! Come into the shop and check it out! YES!!! White texture paste used around the image too! (Also a stamp from Michelle Ward in the background, but this time from the Juliet plate...if you love flourishes, THIS is the plate for you!!!)

Now for a late-comer... this atc was made using Mica Sheet for the last class. I just needed to finish it off before posting so in the vein of "better late than never", here it is.

"Lady Windemere"... (Darkroom Door stamp - Doors Plate).

Quick question for you.....do you like having the stamps that I use listed on each one? Is it necessary or helpful do you think or could you not give a toss? Just wondering!

While at the retreat I met some wonderful people! Yes, I have also booked already for the 2010 Creative Soul Retreat! A real treat for me was getting some quality time with the lovely Eva! I instantly warmed to her and as we had exchanged a few emails doing secret squirrel business about the badges for the retreat, I knew I'd find a friend in her. Eva emailed me to let me know she's bestowed a Friends award on me. I've noticed a trend towards non-tagging in the blogging world so I'll just direct you firstly to Eva's blog, then to all the other wonderful women who appear in my favourite blog list! Watch your postie Eva!!!