Faux Tin Type Technique & last of the Dominoes

I'll start off the with the last of the Domino atc's from the previous class.

"Flagrant Desire"...

"Mother Nature"...

The Faux Tin Type technique is trying to replicate the old tin type photo's using modern materials that most paper-crafters have...foil tape, transparency & a xyron machine. They are notoriously difficult to scan or photograph because of the reflective nature of the foil but you'll get the gist of it.

"Illusion"... (yes, I've used the black texture paste to create the border around this)

"Spectral"... (same image but with a cuttlebug frame made from chipboard)

"Liberation"... (another cuttlebug frame but with foil tape over the chipboard, thanks Ness for the great image, though I feel the word "Liberation" should have a question mark at the end of it! lol)

"Hex"...

"Twilight"...(yeah, I know....can't help it though, I've been a vampire fan since I was a kid with all those Bella Lugosi films & the original Nosferatu. Of course I've read Twilight, then went onto the more adult books of Laurell K Hamilton, the Anita Blake series. I've finished the series, 16 books in total and was reading 3 of them a week, just couldn't put them down! (Thanks Mandy for the loan but I've now ordered my own set). Now I have to wait for #17....darn it, I hate that! I do the same thing with Lee Child, he brings out only 1 book a year in April and I buy it and read it in a few days then have to wait another year for the next one.

More to come after I've done some demo's in my classes.

If you want to see a REALLY, REALLY, cool haunted house, take a look at my friend Julie's blog here. I think from memory she told me it was around two feet tall and she lists all the Collections chipboard products she's used to make this. Gorgeous!!! I told her I wanted to live in it. lol

More shrink plastic atc's & Tim's crackle paint!

Below are more of my shrink plastic atc's....

First up is the raffle one for the girls tomorrow at the atc class - canvas paper background (rinse-aid resist), plus one of Julie van Oosten's new houses (available here) - this I've coated with Ranger Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink then the Rust Antiquities embossing powder....gorgeous rusty colour and quite matte too...not shiny at all! The shrink plastic is white, coloured with alcohol inks (less is definitely more!) and then stamped with Timber Brown Stazon.

The reason I said earlier about going easy on the alcohol inks on shrink plastic is shown below! This atc is another ERROR ALERT!!! ERROR ALERT!!! If you use too much alcohol ink then the piece of shrink plastic is really, really, REALLY, dark when it shrinks down. I loved the colours in this piece with the words on it though, so I decided to cut a little window in the back of the mat board. So if you are looking at the atc in the palm of your hand you can see it fine, it just looks quite muted. But when you hold it up to the light...oh my!!!! Stained glass effects galore!!! I used the ruff'n'ready (pre-sanded) shrink plastic for this top piece with the word stamp and alcohol inked the back of it, then stamped in Timber Brown Stazon on the front. The bottom picture is another ink-jet printed image on shrink plastic. Yep, did a whole page of images!

Okay, we just got the new Ranger Crackle Paint in at Scraptivate and I decided to try out the Antique Linen on some chipboard. Can you say G O R G E O U S or what!!! I'm definitely going to be trying out the other colours, so simple to use, slap it on, walk away and come back amazed! I used Walnut Stain Distress Ink to further enhance the cracks. This piece also has an ink-jet printed shrink plastic picture (surprised???). We also have just got in store the Ranger Stickles, these have been around for a while and I've had Diamond (which I love) but I bought the Platinum and smeared it over the shrunk picture before doing a coat of Dimensional Magic. Turned out quite nicely. I'm happy with it anyway. A little more "glitzy" than I usually do but I AM a Gemini so I'm allowed to be change-able.

So the door bell rings at 8am this morning, a parcel is waiting. OH MY GOD!!!! The fabulous Belinda Schneider sent me some awesome stuff!!! A magazine with the very delectable Ville Valo (lead singer of HIM) on the cover - article inside. A whole book of that wonderful Germanic Script that I sooooo love (now I can stop photocopying the 6 pages I have!!! lol). Also, ta-da!!!!! I now OWN one of Belinda's amazing Gothic Icicle Dolls with the very cool bat stitched to her back.....I coveted these as soon as I saw them here.....might sleep with it tonight! Also included was a gift wrapping sheet with more script and Gothic-type pictures. Talk about spoilt!

Thank you Belinda....you're a......DOLL! ~groan~

Poppet canvas & raffle atc's

Okay, so it's been a while.....been busy.....so what else is new!

I was talking with a girl I work with the other day (Melissa - no, no blog....yet!), she does scrapbooking (very well I might add!)...anyway, she was saying she was going to do a Poppet layout and I asked was it a la Claudine Hellmuth Poppet style. Melissa hadn't heard of Claudine Hellmuth so I told her I'd take my 2 books in to show her.....great stuff in them! Claudine's Poppet style is very whimsical and fun. I relayed to Melissa a story about a little girl who I knew quite well who's father had died a few years ago when she was only 3 or 4. She was the daughter of a close friend of my Auntie, so my Mum and I, both being sewers, used to enjoy making costumes & clothes for her at Christmas time as gifts.....tutu's and little summer outfits and the like. So when her Dad died (he was in his early 30's), I made Aisha a Poppet style canvas called "The Angel and the Princess" which hangs in her room and I'm really happy that it's such a positive reminder of happier times with her Dad. This is an 8" x 10" canvas.

I've been asked why they only have one arm each....my reply?....you only need one hand to hold another's hand, but if you can keep a secret......it's because hands are darn hard to draw and I was happy to do one, didn't want to do another! lol No, really, it's the first reason, honest!

My atc class that I'm teaching on Saturday is the foil tape technique and this is the atc that I've made to give away as the raffle prize. Sorry it's so blurry but the heart is a 3-dimensional wooden heart that is covered in the tape and it just throws the whole scanner into conniptions! Can't handle the depth!

This next one is the raffle atc for Tuesday night's "smoosh" technique class. It's using the fabulous Distress Inks for the background as well as Julie van Oosten's wonderful little Collection tiles. (which we sell at the shop in case you were wondering! hehehe)

Only another week plus a bit 'til we have Michael de Meng, Lesley Riley & Nina Bagley down to Perth for a fantastic Art Retreat!!! Can't wait!!!