Technique Tuesday ~

Hi, Judy Cantrell here; this is something I made and only requires a few supplies; small canvas, Golden gesso, a little bit of acrylic paint, paint pen and a little bit of Tim Holtz tissue tape. You will find all supplies in club; see link below. 

Paint canvas with two to three coats of gesso, apply a thin coat of watered down acrylic paint to color background including edges, when dry, draw three flowers, stems and leaves with black Copic or black paint pen. Paint flowers with acrylic paint. 

When dry, use black pen to add print, and then add Tim's tissue tape.

Shop and Never pay retail again on scrapbooking, stamping, art supplies: http://ididitcreations.com/club/

Friday Feature - possibilities

Hi friends.  Melody here with your Friday Feature.  May is always a special month for me.  I have an anniversary, mother's day, and a birthday all within a week's time.  Among the gifts I received were some distress paints. 

I put some mowed lawn, salty ocean, and vintage photo distress paints on my craft sheet, and swiped a piece of white card stock through them.  After heat setting, I spritzed some water on the paint on the craft sheet and put the card stock in it again, dabbing a couple of times till I was satisfied.  I dried it and then die cut an arch with Arch Frame die and trimmed off the outer edge.  I also die cut a navy arch with the same die. 

I used some Tim Holtz stamps as well.  Two are stamped in jet black archival.  The third was stamped several times on the card base with salty ocean distress ink. 

I added some doodling on the card base with a black Pitt pen. 

I then inked only one of the pen nibs and stamped it next to the men.  I used a craft nib holder & nib to color the pen nib with salty ocean distress ink.  Then I painted some mustard seed distress paint on a piece of white card stock and cut out a candle flame.  I hightlighted the flame with distress markers and made the pen nib into a candle.  

Most of the products I used can be purchased from Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium. 

Thank you so much for stopping by. 

Friday Feature - making stencils

Hi, Melody here with the Friday Feature.  I'm a little late posting, but late is better than not at all.  I really love stencils.  I would love to own every one that is available, but since I can't, I decided to try making some of my own.

I started by sketching the design I wanted on a piece of scrap paper, and then cleaning it up until I was satisfied with how it looked.  Then I placed a piece of stencil plastic over the drawing.  (What I use is some type of film that I rescued from the trash.  It's blue, which makes it easy to see.  You could also use any clear plastic packaging.)  I then trace the design onto the plastic with a ultra fine sharpie marker.  Then it is time to cut the stencil design.  I first worked with a craft knife, cutting out the design, but my index finger that was pressing on the knife started to go numb.

I know there is such a thing as a hot stencil burner, but since I don't have one, I decided to try my wood burning tool instead.  I picked the smallest pointed tip.  I worked on a piece of wood with my small craft mat on top, but I wouldn't recommend using the craft mat if you don't want to mess it up.  Apparently the wood burning tool is too hot and it left marks on the craft sheet, making the surface rough.  I'm thinking a glass mat would be better.  Other than that, the wood burning tool worked great for cutting through the plastic without much effort.  It was so much easier than using the craft knife. 

I made some flowers, all pretty much the same, but in different sizes.  I also made a leafy vine.

Another way to cut stencils is to use your die cutting machine.  The Sizzix bigz dies work especially well to cut through plastic.  I made some using those, and then I pulled out a few movers & shapers and my base tray from Tim Holtz, and cut some with those.  I wrapped duct tape around the edges on the stencils I made with the bigz dies, since you don't get a lot of margin on those, because only a 6" piece of plastic will fit through either of my die cutting machines, a cuttlebug and a Sizzix big shot. I learned that tape trick from Julie Balzar. 

Then I made a card using one of the stencils I had made.

First I sprayed a piece of watercolor paper with some adirondack color wash ink sprays in red pepper and sunset orange, as well as mustard seed made using reinker, water, and perfect pearls in a mini mister.

After that was dry, I used one of the flower stencils with modeling paste.  This was my first time using modeling paste.  I really like the texture you get with that.  After cleaning the stencil and letting the paste dry, I put the stencil back over the flower and applied acrylic paint to color the flowers.

I stamped a sentiment from stuff to say (Tim Holtz) in jet black archival ink.

I placed the watercolor paper on a bright blue card base.

To finish off the card, I drew some black around the flower and leaves, and then added some grungy lines along the edges with a black Pitt pen. 

Many of the products I used can be purchased from Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium.

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Friday Feature - faux birch bark

Hi friends.  Melody here with another Friday Feature.  I have always loved the look of birch bark in crafts, but hate to hurt the trees to get pieces big enough to use.  So I thought I'd see if there was a way to make a look-alike.  I checked online for tutorials and didn't come up with much.  Although there are a few, I wasn't really thrilled with the final product, but I did get some ideas. 

I started with some brown paper bag.  Since birch bark has a very matte finish, I decided to use my snow white paint dabber.  But rather than using the dabber top, I simply opened the cap and poured some on the bag and used a foam brush to spread it, keeping my strokes all in one direction. 

Once the paint was dry, I sponged on some tea dye and gathered twigs distress ink, and then proceeded to add LOTS of little black lines with a black Pitt pen. 

I then inked up two stamps from Nature's Moments (Tim Holtz) with distress markers, spritzed with water, and stamped them on the 'bark'.  The sentiment was stamped with jet black archival ink. 

To give the bark an even more realistic look, I snipped the edges with a scissor and curled them with my bone folder, allowing some of the brown from the underside of the bag to show.  I also used a distressing tool and mess the edges up even more.  I really love how much it looks like real birch bark. 

I glued it to a pacific point (SU) card base that matched the faded jeans really well. 

Almost all the products used can be purchased from Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope you'll try this technique. 

Friday Feature - live in the moment

Hello friends.  Melody here with another Friday Feature. 

This is a 4"x6" page for a book I'm putting together.  I started with my base (made previously) of cereal box chipboard, covered with reused coffee filters and coated with gesso.  Then I tore some newspaper and glued it on with matte Mod Podge.  When that was dry, I brushed some gesso over it. 

Being impatient, I used my heat gun to dry each layer. 

Next I used some distress ink sprays, made with reinkers and water, and sprayed my page.  I used mustard seed, barn door, and faded jeans.  Some I blotted away with paper towel. 

Next I did some stamping with Nature's Moments (Tim Holtz/Stamper's Anonymous).  Flowers were colored with distress markers and stains, and the bird and sentiment were stamped with jet black archival. 

I added some washi/tissue tape from Tim Holtz & 7 Gypsies, as well as some that I made myself.  A couple of them were brighter than I wanted, so I rubbed some gesso wash (watered down gesso) over them with my finger. 

Finally, I added a couple of black mini flourishes (Sizzix), but I again decided there was too much contrast, so I blotted some more gesso wash over the flourishes with a cotton ball. I like how that gave a mottled look to the flourishes. 

Many of the products used can be purchased from Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Friday Feature - winter arch

Hello friends.  It has been awhile since I've posted here.  Shame on me.

The OWSE Yahoo group has a monthly arch swap, with a new theme each month.  Although I didn't join the swap, I was intrigued by the arch shapes and wanted to try my own.  I thought I would follow the theme that the swap group is using.  January's theme was winter wonderland, so my first arch is a winter scene.  I searched online for arch shapes, because I wanted a different shape for each month.  I found some great arch shapes, but settled for the less elaborate shapes, since I had to cut them by hand. 

My arch base is cereal box covered with recycled coffee filters, and then coated with gesso.  This one I painted with white acrylic paint.  I created snow covered hills by cutting white card stock and lightly adding some tumbled glass distress ink on the top edges.  The one in the foreground is raised on dimensional tape.

The trees and bird are all Tim Holtz Sizzix dies.  I added some details with a black soot distress marker and added white paint with my finger to create snow covered branches.

The word winter is an old retired SU stamp, stamped with jet black archival ink.

As a final touch, I added star dust stickles on the snowy branches and on the hills.

Most of the products used can be purchased at Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium.

Thank you so much for stopping by. 

Friday Feature - bloom with joy

Hello friends.  It's Melody here with another Friday Feature.  I've been working on a monthly challenge at Motley Soul Mixed-Media Art.  The challenge is to make 21 (4"x6") cards.  This is actually my 21st card, although I do plan to make more, since I'm having so much fun doing them.  I've been making mine two-sided, so the back side of this one is still blank. 

I recently made an Inspiration Jar for myself.  Although the idea is not original, I tweaked it to make it work for me.  I've been reaching into my inspiration jar for ideas to get started on each card.  For this card, I pulled out the words, black, stencil, and chipboard.  I didn't use the word chipboard other than the card is made from cereal box chipboard covered with recycled coffee filters. 

I started by painting the surface black.  My paint dauber top is all hard and dried out, so I just opened the bottle and used a brush to spread the paint.  Once the paint was dry, I used my mini bricks stencil (Crafter's Workshop) and, since I don't have any texture paste, I spread some light spackling through it.  I've never used this stuff with a stencil before, so I guess I was a bit heavy handed, and some pushed underneath the stencil.  The bricks are quite as defined as they should be, but that's OK.  It dries very fast, so I proceeded to add color with a sponge and a number of different distress inks (tumbled glass, mowed lawn, mustard seed, spiced marmalade, picked raspberry, barn door, and seedless preserves), working gently, since I have no idea if the spackling is going to flake right off the card.  So far, it seems to be holding.  I hope it continues.  I'll just have to handle it gently. 

I stamped a bunch of flowers from Heartfelt Creations on a piece of white card stock with jet black archival ink.  I heavily sponged several with spiced marmalade distress ink, cut them out, and then sponged the edges with picked raspberry distress ink.  On three of the flowers, I removed some of the petals, so that when I placed them over the full flowers, the blossom looks fuller.  Two flowers were sponged with mowed lawn distress ink.  I cut the petals apart to make leaves.  After figuring out an arrangement I liked, I glued the flowers and leaves onto the card.  I then added some white dots in the center of the flowers with a white gel pen. 

The sentiment was handwritten with a white galaxy marker. 

Some of the products used to make this card can be found at Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium. 

I'm really happy with the bright colors over the black background. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Saturday Special - Index Cards Backgrounds

Hi everyone I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas.. Now back to doing Artwork and Journaling..

I wanted to show you all these Index Card Backgrounds. It's a great way to do some backgrounds and have them all done and ready for Journaling or even creating cards or tags.

First take some plain index cards and put them on your work space. I used the sides with the lines showing.

Use three or four colors of Acrylic Paint. I used pink, orange, yellow and blue.. put dots of these paints onto your cards and with a credit card, piece of cardboard or anything like that scrape the paint across your cards. Some vertically and some horizontally. You don't need to get every color on every card. 

Grab some stencils once your index cards are dry and with spray inks spray some stencils

randomly on the index cards.

With some paint get some punchinella (sequin waste) and some alphabet or number stencils and work the paint through 

the stencils.. Once again doing this randomly..

Empty any of the paint that's left over onto your cards..

You can see the red paint from the Alpha stencils I put on the other cards..

Now use some contrasting colors of paint and with your fingers smear it onto the cards here and there..

Let this all dry..

Now once it's dried add some Emphemera to your cards.. You can do this either now or wait until

you glue the cards into your journal..

I waited and with some Matt Medium I glued the Index Cards into my Journal

Fitting it all together like a puzzle..

Next to make my pieces somewhat cohesive I stamped randomly with a bunch of different background

stamps

  

Your Done with your Background..

The next step is your focal point and more stamping or painting if you want..

I took some index cards that were left over and cut out some hearts

placed them on my Journal and drew some stems..

Then I added a whole bunch of rub ons..

The Last thing I did was drip some ink down the page..

woops I went over my saying.. duh

It says

"The Biggest challenge in life is to be yourself in a world that is trying

to make you like everyone else"

This was a rub on I had..

The very last thing I did was to take my Black Archival Ink pad and run it around the edges..

These cards are so much fun to create. It took me about an hour and I had my background!!

Now it's your turn.

Give this a try and if you do send it to me at 

owse@ididitcreations.com

I'd love to see it..

Robyn