Category Archives: Tuesday Tutorials

Mini tutorial for the kiddies! | photo frame

12 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by in Kid's Crafts, ScrapBook, Tuesday Techniques, Tuesday Tutorials, Tutorials

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I have a home daycare. That means kiddies running around and kiddies mean parents with birthdays. And we always try to do something about birthdays around here!

Last week, one of the moms had a birthday and so her daughter (she’s two) and I sat down to make a gift. And I think it’s one of my faves so far!

Years ago I bought some great frames, I think they’re by EK Success, and of course, I forgot all about them. Such is the life of a crafter, hey? Anyway, I rediscovered them a couple of weeks ago and thought they would be perfect for this type of project. They’re actually primed canvas board frames, ready to alter, and I bought two different sizes – one has a 3.5×5 opening and the other, the one we used, has a 4×6 opening.

I sat Miss I down with some crayons and said,  “Have at it!.” And she coloured up a storm, loving every minute of it! While she was doing that, I looked for a picture of her and couldn’t find quite what I wanted.

So we took a break and had a little photo shoot to get the pic I was wanting for the frame. Then she went back to colouring and I sat down to edit her picture and although I tried not to, I just had to add an Ali Edwards overlay from Designer Digitals. Love those overlays just a bit too much!

Once the frame was coloured, I printed and added the photo and we were done! It was super easy, meaningful for the mom, and a great project for a two-year-old.

Pauline's frame

Isn’t that the sweetest face ever? Love her.

If you want to re-create this and can’t find frames, I’d suggest a primed canvas. All you would have to do is mount the picture to the top after the colouring or painting is done and you have a fabulous gift for aunts, uncles, grandparents – something that would mean so much for those hard to buy people!

Let me know what you do for gifts from kids – I need more ideas!

And remember – today is 12onTwelve and Pancake Day – yummy!

S.

Tuesday Techniques and Tutorials – Embossed Edges, Tin Cans, and Dirty, Faded Ribbon

20 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by in Tuesday Techniques, Tuesday Tutorials

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Are you interested yet? 😉

I had the thought to put people in the car from Road Trip (thanks Krista, for that idea!) and wanted to use the phrase “Enjoy the journey.” And all of that led me to thinking this would make a great wedding card.

The only problem? I have no weddings coming up – nada. zip. zilch. So, I’m going to give it to one of you – hopefully someone else can make use of it! 🙂

If you want to make one of your own, here are the supplies:

Start by inking up a background stamp with Pumice Stone Distress Ink and stamp onto a manilla tag. Then use the ink blending tool with the same colour to ink the edges and soften the stamped image by blending over it.

Now, stamp some flourished with the same ink. Because we’ve blended and soften the background colour, the new stamped image will show up well.

Set this aside to dry – we’ll be doing some heat embossing later and we don’t want the powder to stick to the entire tag.

Ink up the car stamp with black Archival and stamp onto a spare manilla tag, then cut it out.

Using a craft knife and cutting mat, trim out the windows of the car, then use an ink blending tool to colour the edges with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink. If you want, use the Ranger Fine Detail Nib Water Brush to pull the ink from the edges into the centre of the car.

Now, use the Distress Markers in Broken China and Barn Door to colour two small wood veneer people (or whatever colours you want to go with the couple being hitched!). Add a little Glossy Accents and attach them to the back of the car, in the windows, with the coloured side facing out.

The next step is to make tin cans – what’s a wedding car without a little tacky happening? 🙂

Cut three narrow strips from the scrap manilla tag and ink them with Iced Spruce, Faded Jeans, and Aged Mahogany Distress Inks. Add a dot of Glossy Accents to the back on one end and add a piece of twine.

Wrap the paper around the twine until you get the size you want, then trim the end and adhere with Glossy Accents.

Use a piece of tape to stick the three “tin cans on strings” to the back of the car.

Set the car aside for later and get out the stamped tag.

I saw Tammy Tutterow do something similar on the edges of a tag she had on her blog and fell in love with it – now I’m addicted! Here’s how I do it, changed up a bit from Tammy’s:

Add embossing ink to the edges and cover with clear embossing powder.

As you can see, I wasn’t precise about it, it makes it look better this way.

Now flick the tag to knock off a lot of the powder and then heat set the rest. Use an ink blending tool with Gathered Twigs to ink over the embossed areas, then repeat the powder step again. Next, ink with a darker brown, like Walnut Stain. You should see light areas under the powder and dark areas in between where parts of the powder were licked off then inked over. It’s a neat, aged look and effect.

The darker you ink the top and the lighter you leave the base, the more interesting it looks. I left it pretty subtle for this tag but it was a bit more pronounced on last week’s.

You’re going to need ribbon to finish off the tag so run the Aged Mahogany ink pad over some Crinkle Ribbon, then spritz with water to blend. Crumple into a ball and dab with Gathered Twigs. Let dry or heat set – the two colours should give an aged and faded look to the ribbon.

Now, let’s put it all together! Add foam adhesive to the back of the car and adhere it to the left of the stamped and embossed tag. Get some word stickers and add them to the top right corner of the tag. Thread the ribbon through the hole in the tag. If you want, adhere the tag to a card and go party at a wedding!

I really love this tag and it makes me sad that I have no weddings that I can bring it to. So, leave me a comment and I’ll randomly pick someone to get it – if you’re lucky and have a wedding on the horizon, the card will already be done for you (and I will add it to a card before sending it off)!

Link me up if you try out the embossing technique, I’d love to see how it turns out for you!

S.

Tuesday Techniques and Tutorials aka Hello, my pretties!

14 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by in Tuesday Techniques, Tuesday Tutorials

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I had an awesome weekend at The Paperie Fall Retreat with all my buddies, playing, crafting, laughing, drinking, demoing…

The item I demoed is a new one for the Paperie and after my trip to Orlando in October, it was one that I knew had to be in the store! I was super excited when it showed up in time for the Retreat…

This is going to be more of a quick and simple overview introducing you to
Silks than an actual tutorial but I hope you like it anyway!

You’re going to need:

Supplies

Silks, Sticky Back Canvas, Craft sheet, paint brushes, Archival Ink, and stamps.

To begin, Silks are a Luminarte product, as in the people who make my beloved Twinks, so you know they’re going to be awesome and shimmery! They’re a water based acrylic glaze which means they’re not permanent or opaque but really fluid and translucent – and shimmery!

For the first tag (sorry there are no pictures of the process, my camera battery died and my little point and shoot just wasn’t up to the challenge, sad) I simply painted the Silks over the Sticky Back canvas, blending as I went, and let them dry, making a background. The beauty of these paints is that they don’t mix together and make mud colour – they just blend and stay gorgeous!

Once it was dry, I stamped the images in Archival Ink and then painted them in with more colours of Silks. As you will see, no muddy colours, just awesomeness! And great shine!

The second tag I made so I could show you how the Silks act as a resist. I stamped the same images in Jet Black Archival on the Sticky Back Canvas and heat set them…

…then painted them in with the same colours of Silks as the first tag:

This looks all wet and messy because I have found that on canvas the paint covers better and easier if I wet the fabric first. You do want to be careful because if you use too much water (I have 4-5 layers of paint and water on the house) you will get this wicking of the paint happening. Not an issue for this tag, I have plans to disguise it and the style of the stamp lends itself to an imperfect effect anyway.

Once the paint was dry, I misted over it with Dylusions Spray Inks and then misted lightly with water to blend them a bit.

You can already see that the Silks are resisting the sprays and keeping their intense colours – love it!

I’m impatient, so I used my cloth to blot up the excess moisture and then heat set the tag:

You can also see that the shimmer comes through and resists the mist too – so cool!

And a good black mixed media pen disguises the wicking flaws!

I didn’t do anything with the tags except add crinkle ribbon because I really just like them as they are. The ribbon for the first tag was painted with the Silks and it has awesome shimmer plus is just a little stiff – enough to hold some shape.

See the top of the tag? Easy and cool technique that I’ll try to remember to do next week!

Here’s the first tag – painting Silks over Silks on canvas:

I love the softness and overall shimmer of this one.

And the second tag – Silks resist with mist:

I think this is my favourite – I love the contrast of the shimmer paint and the matte mist and the colours are amazing!

Click on any of the pictures to make them bigger and see the shimmer a little better – I only wish I had the skills to really photograph it!

Let me know if you have played with Silks and show me what you’ve done – I’d love to see it! And if you don’t have any, go get some, really, they’re worth it!

S.

 

Tuesday Techniques and Tutorials – Twinkling H2O’s

30 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by in Techniques, Tuesday Techniques, Tuesday Tutorials

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I have a mad love and passion for Twinkling H2O’s.

I admit it – they’re just one of the most beautiful products out there and add so much to a project.

So I had fun today and decided to try them out on a couple of different surfaces using a resist technique. My plan was to see if I could come up with some Christmas Card ideas and I think I have!

All you need (I forgot to take a pic of supplies!) are Twinkling H2O’s, a paintbrush, water, a mister of water, embossing powder and a heat tool, and any surfaces you want to paint on – I used vellum, watercolour paper, and kraft glassine.

First, mist your Twinks with water. These are solid paints and they need to sit a bit to get , well, painty! For this technique I made them really liquidy, like watercolours.

Mist your Twinks…

Next, stamp your image with Versamark ink and heat emboss. I did kraft glassine first:

kraft glassine embossed

As you can see, due to the nature of the coating on the glassine, the image isn’t as crisp as it would have been on paper.

Now, swipe colour over your embossed image, the coating on the glassine will cause the paint to pool a lot on the surface:

painted…

At this point, I pressed my cloth onto the surface and picked up most of the liquid, and so, the colour:

As you can see, it’s very faint but the shimmer sat right on top of the glassine and looked awesome!

glassine shimmer

I tried watercolour paper next, and because of the surface, it took the colour really well but left less shimmer – definitely the easiest surface to work with but not as much final impact:

watercolour paper

It’s still pretty though!

Finally, I tried out vellum. This was the hardest surface, it curled a lot with the water, and the colour didn’t sink in so ran a lot because of the curling, but it had the best combination of colour and shimmer together:

vellum

Also, the translucency of the vellum made a great effect too.

Once  I had tried them all out, I went back to the vellum and held it down so it wouldn’t curl and the colour wouldn’t run as much. Then I heat set the paint until the surface was dry. I like how it turned out but it’s way too much fussy work for quick cards:

I also used silver embossing here, instead of the white I used on all the other pieces – love the extra shine it gives!

I went back to the glassine and thought that the colour might take to the glassine better if I crumpled up the paper and broke the coating, which I did, and then added another layer of paint. It turned out pretty well!

And this turned out to be my favourite card – I love the soft colours.

My favourite effect though, happened when I embossed the stamp on glassine, then crumpled it all up and painted on the broken surface – the darker paint colours stayed vibrant with a ton of shimmer!

And see the flecks of white on both glassine surfaces (you can see it best on the first card)? That’s the embossing powder. When I crumpled the paper it broke the hardened powder and when I painted, the brush and water caused flecks to flake off and stick in the paint colour. I think it looks cool – love that side effect!

I’ll definitely make some more glassine cards – it’s too much fun not to and it’s the perfect thing to do at the Retreat when it’s 3am and my mind no longer functions properly!

Hope you liked the cards, and I really hope you go buy some Twinks to play with – they really are the bomb!

S.

 

 

 

Tuesday Techniques and Tutorials – Distress Marker Resist

23 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by in Tuesday Techniques, Tuesday Tutorials

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Finally, I’m back with another technique, and it’s one of my faves – Distress Marker Resist!

For this one you’ll need:

Supplies

Distress Markers, Specialty Stamping Paper, Distress Ink, an Ink Blending Tool with foam, and a stamp (I prefer rubber).

That’s it! Pretty limited and simple supplies but the specific items are a must. I have tried this out with Stampin’ Up! markers and found that it didn’t work as well, plus, the paper it a definite – this won’t work on other surfaces!

First, colour your stamp with your markers:

This is why I like the Distress Markers and a rubber stamp – I find the rubber holds the ink better, and the Distress Markers don’t become muddy or cross contaminated, even if I decide I want to go in with a light colour after already doing the dark colours.

You can mist before stamping, but for this technique I like a crisp impression so this is one of the rare times where I will stamp without misting it first.

Huff (blow hot breath) on your stamp and press your image directly on the Specialty Stamping Paper:

Allow the image to dry. This only takes a minute but you don’t want to smear the image so make sure it is dry, even hit it for a second with your heat tool if you like.

Can you believe how sharp the impression is with markers? Great definition!

Then, take your Ink Blending Tool and ink the entire surface with the Distress Ink of your choice. You could use any colour you like, but my favourites are Pumice Stone and Weathered Wood, though the browns are nice too – I like how the colour of the markers pop against the greys and browns:

Can you believe how the markers resist the ink? Like magic to me every time!

Now, mist water into the palm of your hand to make a puddle and then flick it on the surface:

Blot away the water drops and you instantly have a multilayered background without lots of time and fuss!

Looks pretty cool, hey?

Finish off your tag and stick it to a card and call it done! Mine hasn’t made it to the card yet, but the tag itself is finished:

If you have Distress Markers and want to learn more fun things to do with them, or are on the fence about buying them, check out Wendy’s demo at The Paperie retreat if you’re lucky enough to be going. She’s going to be showing a bunch of tips and techniques with them and she’s always got something fun I never thought about up her sleeve!

Let me know if you try this one out – you know I love to see what you make so leave me a comment and a link!

See you tomorrow!

S.

Tuesday Techniques and Tutorials

25 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by in Tuesday Techniques, Tuesday Tutorials

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Note: This is a super duper photo heavy post – you might want to grab a coffee before you start! 🙂

A while back I posted this mini album…

Let the fun begin…

…I had made from one sheet of patterned paper and washi tape. That was it. Oh, and I threw on a bit of unnecessary baker’s twine at the end.

I said it then and I’ll say write it again, this is the easiest and smallest kit you’ll ever pack for a trip or crop! A couple of people asked for detailed instructions so here they are!

You will need:

Supplies

A paper trimmer and/or scissors, a pen for journaling, one sheet of patterned paper, and coordinating washi tape – as much or as little as you like.

You could really use any patterned paper you want but I love the sheets full of cut apart elements – they just seem to cry out to be made into minis! This time around, I used a sheet from Echo Park‘s mini line, Toy Box. The nice thing about the “Jump” sheet is that it has great embellishment elements as well.

First of all, just cut everything apart and trim out any elements you need – for example, I cut apart the words and tickets, and trimmed the scallop border.

Next, lay out your pieces in order from front cover all the way to the back, then group them into pairs, with the covers being a pair and adjacent interior pages pairing up.

Next, use washi tape to adhere each set of interior pages to each other, but only use washi tape on one side.

Now, fold the pairs in half, as they’ll appear in the book, and adhere adjacent pairs together. Again, only use washi on one side. Below you will see the “play all day” pair and the “I love you” pair:

Finally, add a strip of washi tape to the front cover, on the exterior left. Add a strip to the back cover on the exterior right.

Now, sandwich your stack of interior pages between the covers and press the two pieces of washi tape together, forming a flap.

Use one more strip of washi to wrap around the whole spine, pressing down the flap you created a moment ago.

That’s it, you’re done!

I did stick in some of the borders but left the words to add once I put in my photos. Obviously, at this point you could make it much fancier and add more details and embellishments but essentially, it’s finished!

I hope you try this out and tell me about it in the comments – I’d love to see your mini!

S.

Tuesday Techniques and Tutorials

18 Tuesday Sep 2012

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So, I’m back with the Tuesday Techniques after a summer hiatus but I’ve decided to change it up a little and have tutorials sometimes as well! Today is going to be a mini tutorial on my Project Life Album cover. Let’s hope it turns out because it’s the only one I have! 🙂

When I went to buy an album for Project Life, I had planned to get a really colourful leather one, but when I got to The Paperie, they had one more of these Amy Tangerine Sketchbook Camera Albums left:

To me, it looked like the perfect album for Project Life!

One small problem, I wanted some more colour – black and white is not normally my go to colour combination!

A little while ago I saw this post and video by Ronda Palazzari and I thought it was the perfect solution to my album cover! I didn’t use stencils, but I did decide to paint the cameras, some of them anyway.

I started by painting a few cameras with Titanium White Golden acrylic paint.

I wanted the colour to really pop so I needed a light layer beneath to cover the black, kind of like using primer on your walls.

It was a very thin coat and, as you can see…

…I wasn’t very particular about covering the whole area neatly. I only did three camera on each of the front and back covers and I liked the look so much that I was very tempted to leave it just like this!

However, I had it in my head that I wanted red cameras so once the white paint was dry, I broke out my favourite Twinkling H2O’s and used the Poppy colour to paint them in.

 Again, you can see that I wasn’t fussy about the neatness.

I like how the pops of red turned out, but I may add some more colour later. I’m still debating whether one colour is enough or not!

I’m planning to do a tutorial on how to make my one sheet, washi tape mini album next week. If there are any tutorials in particular you’d like to see, let me know!

S.