Fun Foam!

The second technique for book #3 is Fun Foam. Some of the girls thought it was the same technique as the magic stamp from before....no....this is different! Here are some samples...


***Warning*** FLOWER ALERT!!! (lol)
"Life's journey"... (the "life's journey" is stamped into the fun foam)

"Home"... (mica pieces used where the glass panels would be on the door and "home" is the fun foam)

"Organically Grown"... (the whole atc is fun foam! I wondered if this would work and yep, sure does! The wording - organically grown - is stamped onto shrink plastic.)

"View discretion advised"... (The hand is fun foam and once again I stamped the wording onto shrink plastic. This particular wording comes from the wonderful 7 Gypsies huge word stamps. Love that sheet!)

More to come later...

Final pic for today is one of the atc's from the last class - Moulds & air-dry clay. I used melted utee for this cross mould, the advantage is it was dry within minutes and it takes paint really well!

"Sacred Soul"... (the background is the text/gauze/paint wash background that I used on the cover.)

A New Beginning...Mouldy Cover

Today starts the beginning of a new ATC Technique Book. We've just received a re-stock of the fantastic Krafty Lady Moulds at Scraptivate and in conjunction with Darwi air-dry clay, these two items are perfect for atc's and other paperarts/mixed media work. Of course you can use melted utee or melted beeswax if you want a faster drying time (literally minutes!) or you can use polymer clay too. I prefer the air-dry clay, gives me time to think about what colour I want to paint it and what to do with it.



Once again the book is 8" wide x 6" high, giving enough room on each inside page for two atc samples on the right and printed instructions on the left. I used torn book pages and gauze for the cover to add extra texture.



Cover.....

Cover close-up...

Now some atc's using moulds.

"Resplendence"...

"Resplendence close-up"...

"Remnant"...

"Measure"...

"Antenato"...

I also made these beaded brooches a few years ago when I had the beading bug...

"Beaded face #1"...

"Beaded face #2"...

"Beaded face #3"...

Hope the girls have fun today playing with the clay and moulds!

Something else exciting that one of my students pointed out to me was the site where you can have your blog made into a book!!!! So I've had my 3 years worth of blogging made into 3 books, a tradition that I intend to continue to do at the end of each year. The cost was reasonable considering the books are larger than A4 format, glossy covers, beautiful colour pictures throughout and very well made. Here's the link if you're interested in having your very own book of your blog.

Last of the Inkjet Transfers

So starts a New Year! At Scraptivate we've kicked off 2010 by getting a Ning site going where there'll be lots of wonderful eye candy of all types, challenges, helpful hints as well as lots of discussions on all things papercraft. If you want to join, click here. There's also a button on the top right of my blog, roll over it with your mouse and click "join", it'll take you to the home page.

I have to give you 2 more Adam Lambert atc's.....I know, it's a BIG effort to have to look at him but what a great way to start the New Year off!!! The first atc came together really quickly, it's very simple so I thought I'd explain it in detail.


I did an inkjet transparency transfer (Dataline Transparency) onto a piece of book paper, actually a page from a book called Love Bites, all about love throughout the World. This was taken from a small excerpt from the Kama Sutra...hence the name on the atc. Don't worry, there's nothing explicit in the writing, check it out by enlarging and read for yourself.

So after doing the transfer and tearing the bottom of the page for added visual interest (like he needs it!!!), I used a bit of Walnut Stain Distress Ink for colour over the page, then added a torn piece of walnut stain coloured chipboard up the top with Tim's Tiny Attacher (coloured the staples with a brown sharpie first). I then used Tim's little screw brads down the right, flicked on some Bronze Golden brand paint with a spatter brush (I used a piece of scrap paper to cover his face before flicking the paint). Then added the Kama word from the book onto some chipboard and edged it with Gold rub'n'buff to finish the word off. All in all a very clean-ish looking atc with a little bit of grunge thrown in.


"Kama"...




Yep, loved the picture so much had to do another one. I also used Tim's stamps on this one as well, grunge alphabet for the A & L and one of his texture stamps as well as some round metal snaps, beaten slightly with Tim's texture hammer. I sure love my Ranger stuff!!!

"A L"...

Finally, another inkjet transparency transfer using the other well-known hottie, Johnny Depp in all his Cap'n Jack glory. For this one I used texture paste patted on with my finger and then painted to add the extra texture, gold rub'n'buff helps to highlight the texture. His face isn't all that clear, it's the foam pieces under the chipboard/mica doughnut piece that causes all sorts of problems for the scanner. The texture on the chipboard/mica square is also made by Tim's texture hammer...don't know why I put off buying one for so long! Love it!!!

"Jack"...

I've started the ATC Technique Book #3 cover and am ready to add paint today. Some of the moulds are ready but I think I need to have a bigger choice so I'm going to hassle my friends to loan me their moulds. Some peope don't like too many choices as it confuses them....me?...I love choices!

Hope your headache's not too bad, start 2010 off by doing some art.

....and the WINNER is....

No art to show yet, son and future dil (daughter-in-law) are in the throes of moving furniture into our house for their extended stay....well, maybe 6-12 months anyway. Planning on spending the day in the studio tomorrow to get started on my book cover for the ATC Technique Book #3 so maybe after that I'll have something interesting to look at here....possibly.....

Anyway, thought I'd better post the winner of the Twinkling H2O Altered Postcard from the previous post.......congratulations to Judy SheaRT from Massachusetts who was #10 as drawn by random.org. Now all I need from you Judy is your snail mail addy and I'll get it posted to you asap.

As a foot-note....my son proposed to Elice on Christmas morning at breakfast amongst the rellies which caused tears to flow but a "yes" followed. So the engagement is set for "Lover's Day", February 14th and a possible October wedding. Of course, I'll be doing the invitations for both the engagement and wedding but there won't be a flower in sight! Sadly, no skulls or anything to do with my usual macabre tastes, nor anything else that my 2 grown son's find weird about me....I'm sure they'd prefer hair rollers and a house-dress! Sorry boys, not going to happen! lol

Enjoy New Year's everyone and here's to a fabulous and arty 2010!

Another Giveaway & More Inkjet Transfers

The postcard above started out as a blank watercolour postcard which I then stamped using Cherry Pie stamps and coloured with Twinkling H2O's (it was made for a swap with 3 girls from a yahoo group that I'm on). I knew I wanted to do another giveaway before Christmas so I made an extra for this purpose. So if you want this, leave a comment at the end of this post (remembering to include your email please) and I'll do the draw on Christmas Eve. It is true postcard size, 14-1/2cm x 10cm (or 5-3/4" x 4") but it will be mounted onto another piece of watercolour paper so it'll end up slightly larger than that. Just leave me a comment on this post to be in the draw. ;-)

Now, a few more inkjet transfers using the Dataline Inkjet Transparency...

"Throb"...(the delectable Ville Valo from my #1 favourite band - HIM. He's also wearing a little shrink plastic heart, a real heart rather than the usual love-heart shape...so guess you could say "heart-throb")

"Family Tree"...

"Pensive"... (the girls in my classes love their Johnny Depp pics!!!)

The inkjet transfer class is my last for this year, in mid January I'll be starting book #3 with a Mouldy cover! As I work on this project over the break I'll be posting pics of how it's going.

On a personal note, my son who's done his 6 years in the airforce now, comes home this weekend to stay....with a girlfriend (soon to be a fiance!) and a dog in tow. They'll be living with us for a while as they get their feet under them, find jobs and somewhere else to live. So as my youngest son gets ready to move out of home for the first time, we lose one son, gain another back with extra's!!! Should make for a very festive Christmas season. I am looking forward to it, believe me....please!!! lol All banter aside, family IS what it's all about (not the hokey pokey!), remember to be extra nice to those closest to you at this stressful time of year and remember....patience and a smile plastered to your face will get you through most situations.

Inkjet Transfer Class

Aaaahhhh...so we come to Inkjet Transfers, or should that be "aaarrrggghhhhh.... inkjet transfers"!!! The inkjet transfer technique can probably be described as one of the most bothersome of just about all of the various papercraft techniques. Some people persevere and push through that pain barrier and actually end up enjoying this technique...others, well they give up after a couple of attempts and say it's not for them. I'm a "push through" type of person though I must say it helps if the first few times you do them they turn out okay! lol


So in this class we'll be using Dataline Inkjet Transfers and either Isocol rubbing alcohol or Matisse Matte Gel Medium as our transfer method. They both work, with different end results and feel. For years I used the Apollo Transparency, but as that is becoming rarer than hen's teeth, I've searched for another alternative and Dataline is it! It's a UK product (good news for those Brits!) and is available at Scraptivate by the sheet.


Before showing you this first picture, I have to admit that I'm such a total Adam Lambert whore (in a nice way of course!). I have his new album - For Your Entertainment, and it's such a great cd to listen to in the car, volume cranked up and singing at the top of your lungs. Of course, only do this if you're the ONLY one in the car. Husband's do not like 50+ women (especially their wives), squirming in the seat while belting out the words to an S & M song by a singer who obviously does not swing "their wive's way"....frankly, he just doesn't get the attraction. One hot boy!!! (That was only one song....don't judge him 'til you hear the rest of the album!) Now you all know WAY too much about my predilections....here's the atc.


"Sticks & stones"...

"Human Salvation"...

"Awaken"...

"Pain and Pleasure"...

More inkjet transfers to come, only managed to get these 4 completed today, have another few in the works. All these Christmas lunches are getting in the way of my art time!

Smoosh & Magic Stamp atc's & Quotes For Sale

The last class for the Smoosh & Magic Stamp technique was held yesterday and I was surprised again at how many of the girls hadn't done the smoosh technique before! It's right up there with credit card technique for creating unique and beautifully coloured backgrounds for all your papercrafting needs. If you check out Tim's on-going 12 tags of Christmas on his blog, his very first one of a couple of days ago had his smoosh technique. Tim's mind must work in overdrive with all these techniques he comes up with....very inspiring! The instructions for doing the magic stamp method is a couple of posts ago, or here if you can't be bothered scrolling down. ;-)

"Art"... (Danielle, this is the "terrible" background that you did and threw in the bin, did I not say I would resurrect it for you! See...there's nothing wrong with it that the right coloured picture couldn't fix. As they say, one person's trash is another person's "must-have"! lol)



"Temptation"... (The German Scrap scrollwork embellishment - available at Scraptivate - comes in several colours. I used the Iridescent White and then coloured it with the same colours of Distress Inks I used for the background for this atc - Faded Jeans and Pine Needles. I simply used a sponge and applied the colour direct to the scroll....it still retains a shimmery iridescent effect though it's coloured perfectly to match the background.)

"Organic"... (The ripply stuff down the bottom is wave board that we sell at Scraptivate too! Gorgeous stuff that comes in white so you can colour it how you want - though I'd recommend against using Glimmer Mist - it separates the top layer of wave board from the bottom flat piece but I did manage to resurrect it enough to use the wavy bit. Better to either paint or ink it. There's also some stitching in silver metallic thread on this one - to represent seaweed...I think?)


"I Hope"... (Just love retro pictures and they suit my plethora of snappy quotes that I have just perfectly!)

Speaking of quotes, I have 13 A4 pages of printed quotes to use on atc's for sale. I've sold these for quite a while but have never mentioned it here...never got around to it. Postage for all 13 sheets within Australia is $1.10 and the sheets are $1 each, so a total of $14.10 for about 260 quotes. They are printed on satin-smooth 100gsm paper. Be warned, there is some quite risque quotes in there but each sheet has a mixture of deep and meaningful as well as the more "questionable in taste" ones. If you have been following my blog for a while, you'll have seen my sense of humour and if it speaks to you, then you'll love the quote sheets! lol You can email me at the link up the top right and yes, you can direct deposit or paypal me. I also post overseas though the postage is a little higher.

Inkjet transfer class is coming up next, the final class for this year.