Art Doll Class & Soot technique

Yay, I'm back online and it sure makes you realise how much you rely on the internet to keep you in touch with everyone! So I now have my art doll finished and the pics are ready to be shown......

I'm teaching this art doll at Scraptivate and I'll probably be repeating this class another couple of times - once during the day over 3 sessions and another weekend series of classes. This doll is made over 3 classes of 2-1/2 hours each. The girls will be doing everything from scratch, from tracing the pattern to freezer paper, ironing it to the fabric, stitching the body, turning, stamping, colouring then stuffing - all this on the first day! The 2nd class is beading and the third class is all about the organza decoration.

This is the back view of the "hair"...

I'm also teaching the soot technique again tomorrow morning at the ATC Technique Book class. Another of those old techniques that have been around forever but is just simply spectacular and oh so simple!

"Haunt"...

"Gaze"...

"Blossom"...

"Fragile"...

Hope the girls bring a good dose of patience with them for the art doll class tomorrow as well as their sense of humour....which I shouldn't worry about as we usually have a pretty fine time with lots of frivolity and a little naughty humour. ;-)

A quick update...the art doll

Just a quick update....the art doll class starts on Saturday (4th Sept) and I have loads of photo's on my camera but unfortunately, my internet connection is down and I can't upload them. Hopefully it'll get sorted tomorrow (Friday 3/9) and I'll be able to put the pics up before the class. I also have the soot atc class in the morning so will be posting the pics of those too! But it was the art doll that I was most excited about.....stupid internet..... ;-( I'll probably be running the art doll class possibly another 2 times - one again on a Saturday afternoon for 3 Saturday's and then again on a Tuesday morning for 3 in a row. Some girls just can't DO weekend classes because of family/sport etc commitments so we have to try and accommodate them when we can.

Back soon....hopefully!

p.s. I'm accessing my blog from work...thanks Natalie. ;-)

Shrink Plastic Revisited & Faux Wax & a cake!!!

Addition.....scroll right down the bottom for a 5 minute microwave cake recipe.....

I'm revisiting Shrink Plastic for my class tomorrow. I have had a bit more of a play with it since I last taught this class back in early 2009 because I like to do something fresh for the girls who've done previous classes with me. It's also nice to introduce the newer girls who've not been amazed by some of the older products and techniques that have been around for a while.


For this first one I've combined 2 different new techniques that I haven't shown before....I coloured a piece of white shrink with one of the Tattered Angels Glimmer Chalks - of course it won't dry as shrink is a plastic surface but by the time you've heated it, all is good and it dries wonderfully. The second thing I did with this particular piece was no stamping beforehand, just spray with the glimmer chalk, shrink it down and then while it's still hot and soft, stamp into it with a stamp with black stazon. Gives a wonderful textural element as well as a soft matte finish.


"Post-script"...





"Enter"... (this is a terrible scan, it's because there's the shrink plastic door on top of foil tape on chipboard, on top of flyscreen, on top of the background....too much height for the scanner to cope with, sorry)

"Vision"...

"Doors"... (the stamped words are Stazon silver metallic ink on black shrink - you can actually read the wording irl but because of the silver ink, it's throwing the scan off)

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WARNING!!!! Naked male backside coming up.....if you don't want to look, scroll and close your eyes....

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"Work in progress"...

Below are the last few Faux Wax atc's from the last class.

"Kiss"... (the background of this one is from the Metallic Cardstock class, technique described in the previous posting)

"Dance"... (the gold sparkles on the background is Jo Sonja Gold Dust. I've described this product before but this is the first photo where you can actually see it!)

"Bloom"...

Dreams"... (this background is from the upcoming Soot class)

"Weird Desire"... (another soot background)

I've also been working on my fabric art doll. This will run over 3 classes of 2-1/2 hours each at Scraptivate and the girls will be making it from scratch - from tracing the pattern, stitching (on a machine) around the body, turning, stamping, colouring, stuffing, beading and embellishing. It will certainly be an exercise in patience for them. The head alone has about 90 small burnt organza flowers on it....yes, FLOWERS (though they are shabby ones). I'm about half done with the embellishing and when it's complete I'll post pictures. The class is in 2 weeks time (4th September is the first class) and I may run it a second time if the numbers warrant it. This is certainly something out of the norm for most of these girls and I hope they enjoy it as much as I think they will.

I may even have one of these for a give-away on my blog....all things going to plan!

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

4 tablespoons S R flour

4 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa

1 egg

3 tablespoons milk

3 tablespoons oil

3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)

A small splash of vanilla extract

1 large coffee mug (MicroSafe)

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. EAT ! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous).

Instructions for Metallic Cardstock

As promised in the previous post I'm detailing the instructions on how to make Metallic Cardstock. First, the last few samples...

"Delicate"...

"Entwined"...

INSTRUCTIONS - metallic card stock

To make the metallic cardstock you'll need one of those clear plastic sleeves that are found in display books, also some metallic paint - I use Folk Art Metallic and Jo Sonja metallic colours, a brayer and some plain white and black unpatterned card stock.

First slit open the right hand side and bottom of the clear plastic sleeve so it will open up like a book with one side still attached. Open the plastic sleeve and put a few small drops of a couple of different colours of metallic paint on the right hand side in the centre of the plastic sleeve. Don't put the colours on top of each other, leave a couple of centimetres between them.

Close the sleeve and gently brayer the paint so it smooshes together slightly, leaving some distinction between the colours - don't blend it all the way. Then open up the plastic sleeve and place two pieces of plain cardstock - back to back - on the smooshed together paint. Close the sleeve again carefully and then brayer again (gently) on the front side of the cover. Open up the cover again and take out your two pieces of beautiful metallic cardstock!

Lighter colours of metallic paint work wonderfully on black card stock and darker colours of course look great on the white. Though do experiment.....this is one of the things I love about teaching my classes, my students do experiment and as I can't possibly try ever little permutation of each technique, they do and there are some wonderful results! Let the card stock dry and use as required. A thinner coat of paint looks better than too much by the way.

FAUX WAX
The next class is called Faux Wax. This is an embellishment class using black glue. It gives great texture and depth to your work. I really like atc's that have layers and height on them as it encourages people to run their fingers over them....a wonderful tactile experience!

"Dance"... (Unfortunately you can't see the sparkle on this background. It just comes up as flat looking yellow spots on the computer but is actually very sparkly - in a good way!. It is a product by Jo Sonja called Gold Dust - a shimmery, gold, larger than normal sized glitter that is trapped in a matte finish suspension of glue. It means you don't actually see the shimmer until you tilt the object to the light, then it sparkles!!!!!)

"Home"... (This looks much darker than it is - the background is Frayed Burlap, Gold Perfect Pearls & water mixed in a spritzer bottle....lovely and shimmery.)

I'll have more of the faux wax to show as I get some more samples made. Hope you try the metallic card stock, if you do, let me know how it goes.

Metallic Cardstock

Surprise!!!!.....another post DAYS before the actual class!!!!! Technique #2 in the ATC Technique Book #4 is Metallic Cardstock. Another of those background techniques that just lose all their impact on a computer monitor....oh well, the girls in the class will see how awesome it looks when they've made their own and when I've run all the classes for this technique, I'm going to describe how to do it so you can try it for yourself!

Onto the samples...

"Music"... (the strange misty effect over the picture is Golden Glass Bead Gel. It's a gel medium with glass beads trapped in it so when the medium dries it becomes transparent leaving the glass beads to show in all their glory. Feels wonderfully textural as well. Love it!)

"Lord Darlington"...

"Home"...

"O Lord"... (forgive the nudity...but it is arty nudity! Thought the quote really suited it.)

"Lather Rinse Repeat"... (As I've said before, I tell the girls in my classes to "tell a story" with their atc's....this one says to me "Another Saturday night at home!" Well, I do tell them that even if you are the ONLY one who understands the story, that's ok too! lol)

Promise to do an explanation of this techique when the classes are done with towards the end of next week. Very simple technique but beautifully shimmery backgrounds will ensue.

Rinse Aid Resist Cover

Here's the pictures of the Rinse Aid Resist cover for ATC Technique Book #4, as well as a few more samples.

The cover page is 20cm x 15cm (8" x 6")...

A close-up of one of the small tiles which has been cuttlebugged for texture, painted black then rubbed with Silver rub'n'buff to bring out the texture, then a fuse wrapped with metallic thread around it.

"Sanctuary"...

"Remember"...

"Wife/husband"... (at the top of this atc is a piece of the new 10 Second Studio metal that we now stock at Scraptivate. It has been run through the cuttlebug and then sanded to reveal the silver - it started out as a beautiful mocha colour).

"Dream"... (this one also has some of the 10SS metal down the left hand side - same treatment as the one above - cuttlebugged then sanded back. The word "Dream" was stamped onto the right side of the metal, then I used a stylus to impress the word into the metal then sanded it back so the depth of the word keeps the aqua blue of the metal while the remainder is silver.)

The previous class was Mosaic Embossing and this was an atc that was made using that technique. I sometimes like to do a card as well to show the girls that they can take any of the techniques learnt in my class and apply it to whatever else they want to do. So below the atc is a card using the same image and the same technique.

"Ethereal"...

Card...

Tomorrow I'm planning on spending the day doing up my samples for the next class - Metallic Cardstock BUT I'm also going to make a start on the art doll for the class that I've been promising the girls I'd run. This art doll will be stitched, stamped, stuffed, beaded and generally embellished within an inch of it's life! I'll also be showing them how to make ~shudder~ "flowers" to add as embellishment - maybe hair??? Don't fear girls, they will be shabby, grungy flowers. Might make this first art doll up in vintage white/cream but there will definitely be a darker version as well.....have to have SOMEWHERE to put my little silver and black skulls that I bought! lol

Rinse Aid Resist - Book #4

Today's first class is the cover for the Artist Trading Card Technique Book #4 that I'm teaching at Scraptivate - Rinse Aid Resist. It comes from one of Claudine Hellmuth's fantastic books....wonder how she figured out that simple dishwashing rinse aid can act as a resist for paint? Maybe she accidentally spilled some on a canvas that she was working on in her kitchen and realised the properties of the rinse aid would cause the paint to resist where the rinse aid was placed?


So of course I don't have a picture of the cover yet, it doesn't scan well and I'm running short of time this morning to upload the photo's from the camera but it will be in the post in the next few days. Here's some samples of atc's done with the rinse aid resist as the background on canvas paper.


"Plain Lust"... (the corner pieces up the top are my faux metal technique)





"Make-believe"...

"Paper Queen"...

"Love Hate"...

"Make no mistakes"...

Because this particular technique looks as good as it does (much better in the flesh!), I don't like to cover it up too much. You'll see how little I've covered up when I post the pictures of my cover....just a few chipboard tiles with bits & pieces on them but the background is the star and I like to keep it that way. Check back in a few days for more pics. ;-)