ACRYLIC INK SPIN BACKGROUNDS

 This is a class I've been wanting to do for a long time.  I did get some strange looks at IKEA purchasing 17 salad spinners for the girls that didn't have them!  The IKEA salad spinners work great for this technique.  I know some have used alcohol inks with this technique but I found the fumes from the alcohol inks and the isopropyl alcohol (or blending solution) when you opened the spinner to check your work just about knocked me out.  So acrylic inks to the rescue!  They are fluid like alcohol inks, lots of colours to choose from like alcohol inks, and they work with just a spritz of water to get the movement so no smell.  I found it worked best with a blob of blu-tack pressed into the basket to hold the piece of card in place (about half a walnut-size will do) and depending on how fast or slow you spin, your design is different every time!  The metallic acrylic inks are thicker so may need a little more water to help disburse them.  I worked on the dull side of photo paper for this technique as if you use an absorbent card like watercolour or other normal cardstock, the inks just absorb straight away and don't spin.  Try it out, it's such a fun technique and not too messy as the excess ink is contained in the spinner (just remember to empty it out when you've finished, then it will have to live in your craft space).

"See the World"

"Perspective"

"Fly"

"Never leave you"

"Simplicity

"Bugs"

ALCOHOL INK MARKERS ON GELLI PLATE

 For the new cover class of Technique Book #26, we'll be using Alcohol Ink Markers (like Copics or similar) straight onto a Gelli Plate, then pulled off with the usual thin layer of paint.  This gives a very naive style of print that can be further enhanced by loosely drawing over the design with a fine black permanent marker, stamping or even stitching.  Before I started these samples, I sketched a few ideas onto a scrap of paper so I had an idea of what I'd like to do.  This takes some of the angst away that generally strikes when you have to hand-draw something.  I know some people are quite comfortable with drawing, I'm not, and I know that some of my girls freak out about it too so I wanted to keep the designs nice and easy.  I love the simplicity of the leaf drawings and my other favourite is the Faraway Places atc as it reminds me of a vintage travel poster, as it just came together so easily and I love the colours in it. Hope you give it a try if you have alcohol markers and a Gelli Plate.

Cover of Technique Book #26
(The size of this book cover is 20cm x 15cm, or 8" x 6".
I bind my book at the top with 3 holes so I can fit 3 atc 
samples on each subsequent page.)


"No. 1120"

"3043"


"No. 74"

"Specimen"

"Faraway Places"

"Imperfections"


"Poppies"

"never stop exploring"

"Just one life"

IRIDESCENT/INTERFERENCE PAINTS

 Iridescent and Interference paints work beautifully on black gloss card stock and create stunning die-cut shapes.  You can do these similar black gloss cards (or plain black cards) with Pearlised paints or Colour Shift paints.  The trick to making the most of these paints is to apply them very lightly and now allow them to build up too thick as it will show up with a white caste rather than the beautiful colours that are contained in the paint.  I use a fan brush to apply the whispy looking aurora borealis effect on some of the samples below as the paint won't clump on a fan brush like it does on a normal paintbrush.  Always work with your fan brush dry as well so you don't dilute the paint with water. You can also apply some streaks of colour to a scrap piece of black card (gloss or plain card), then die-cut shapes from these, the insect wings done this way work particularly well, see "Code" sample below as an example of wings created with this technique.  Another way to apply as shown in "I Don't Care" and "Life Looks Better" is to apply a few dabs of paint onto a piece of acetate, then place the acetate paint side down onto your black background.  Gently smoosh the paint around to spread it and lift the acetate up.  It will create little peaks and striations in the paint and produces a colourful background.

"Be a cactus"


"Code"


"I don't care"


"Strange"



"Smiles of nature"

"Life looks better"

"All your heart"

EVERYTHING WATERCOLOUR

It's been a while since we've used watercolours and in this class, we'll be creating both the background as well as the die-cuts with watercolour paper and either palette or liquid watercolours.  Each time I have a play with watercolours I remember how much fun it is to watch the colours bleed and blend into the next colour and the wet on wet technique is so good for this.  It means starting with a wet background (just wet with water) and then adding watercolour to the wet areas to get it to blend and spread.  Of course, you can use watercolours on a dry background and paint with them, then spritz if you like and this will create a different effect.  I certainly don't profess to be a watercolourist at all, but this medium's very nature means it can be a very loose style of colouring. 

"Planet B"

"Negative"

"Load Aim Fire"

"Fly High"

"Chaos"

"Bombdiggity"

WATERLESS WRINKLE BACKGROUND

Wrinkle techniques are a simple way to create a quick background that can be used just as a backing piece, or used to die-cut a shape from.  Normally with wrinkle backgrounds, you would scrunch a piece of plastic wrap (like Glad Wrap) onto a very wet surface that has inks, watercolours or alcohol inks onto it and then letting it sit until the underneath substrate totally dries.  This technique however is very quick and mess-free as it uses no water whatsoever.  We'll still be using the plastic wrap but we will also be using a Gelli Plate as well.  You can do this with just one colour of ink (I used Distress Oxide Ink Pads), or a couple of colours.  I even sprayed one of my pieces with the Distress Mica Spray first before doing the wrinkle technique (Grim outside) so it has a gorgeous bronze-coloured shimmer to the background.

"Organically grown" 

"Grim outside"

"Nothing changes"

"Let it hurt"

"Wander"

"Pray prey"
(I cut the trees from a piece of the wrinkle
background and placed over a Gelli Printed
background from a previous class.)

PRESS'N SEAL TECHNIQUES

 Layering several die-cuts over the top of each other in a pleasing composition can be fraught with problems, until the discovery of Press'n Seal.  Fortunately, this is now available in Australia at Costco as none of the other grocery stores here carry it.  I have found it is also perfect for placing down fiddly and intricate die-cuts, especially if you have cut it out of thin paper, like metallic paper.  Especially if you have added your double-sided sheet to the back because when you peel off that release paper, the die-cut just wants to fold up on itself and stick together.  By placing a piece of Press'n Seal over the top before pulling off the release paper, you have much greater control over placement on your background.  You'll see I have a bit of a floral theme going on here.  The main dies I have that can be layered are the floral/weed/leaf dies but luckily these work perfectly.  This technique however will work with whatever die-cuts you choose to use.

"Cultivate"


"Bloom"


"Specimen"
(The last atc (Season) has the inner
removed pieces of this die-cut used
in a plain shimmer background. This
will work with any die that has pieces
that can be removed and still create a
recognisable shape.)


"Beautiful things"


"Golden Soul"

"Season"
(The inner part of this leaf is from the 
Beautiful things atc above.  By cutting
the leaf shape from both an alcohol ink
piece and a gold metallic piece, you can
interchange them to create two separate pieces.)

DIE-CUT STENCILLING

 I think it's important to try and get as much use out of your chosen products as you can, and in that vein, this technique utilises die-cut shapes and the off-cut waste that you'd normally discard, by using these pieces as masks.  I have used Distress Oxide Inks for all of these samples as I find it to be a more opaque colour. Some die-cut shapes work better than others and sometimes you need to insert the die-cut shape and sponge over that as well as the original outside shape to depict the details.  The two bug atc's below are the perfect example of this.  If you simply used the off-cut waste to create your design, you would just have a big blank outline of a bug.  But by placing the die back inside the outside waste and sponging a darker colour, you'll get all the detail that you miss in the first colour. Both of the bugs also have highlights in Glossy Accents.  I also used some grey markers to create some depth and shadow, mainly noticeable in the windows on the first act and then around the gravestones on the third one.  Another trick is to use a Mono Sand Eraser to gently erase away some of the colours to imitate the light source. You can see this effect, just under the moon in the first one and also around the ghost and the moon in the last atc. Be careful to not scratch away the card!

"Later"

"Easily distracted"

"In memory"

"What the flock?"

"Two weevils"

"No rest"