Tag Archives: The Crafter’s Workshop

Index Card A Day – #6

07 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by in ICAD2

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

Two more for you today – one from me and one from M!

For mine, I wanted to play some more with my Dylusions Ink Sprays and the ghosting technique. I misted 4 different colours on my cards then heat set after letting them blend for a minute.

I laid down two different stencils and sprayed water through one and Perfect Pearls Mist through the other. The image is really faint, I don’t think I sprayed enough water, but IRL you can see it and it’s pretty cool!

Then I stamped some Dylusions stamps and an Ali Edwards (of course!) sentiment in Archival Ink so they would be permanent.

I misted my non stick craft mat with Kiwi Perfect Pearls Mist and used a small brush to paint some leaves and tentacles. That’s how I got the bleached but shimmery effect.

And then I called it done! 🙂

M carefully painted a border with watercolour paints around her card then filled it in with increasingly smaller borders until the whole card was painted. She kept her brush super wet so everything blended.

Then, I was called upon to heat set it because, “Mama, it has to be dry before I can add another layer!” I think she pays more attention to me talking about crafting under my breath than anything else!

Once it was dry, she soaked it with Interference Red Perfect Pearls Mist which I had to heat set again. After a close look over, she called it done!

See you all tomorrow – I love looking at everyone else’s cards at Flickr!

S.

Index Card A Day – #2

03 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by in ICAD2

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

Day 2 for ICAD and I went bright and cheery – the complete opposite of the RDF (rain, drizzle, and fog!) that’s happening outside my window!

if you believe…

I covered my index card in Ranger Tissue Tape – love that stuff! – and then added blobs of fluid watercolour to the left side. I only have a few so I had to mix the orange and purple and I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. Once all my blobs of paint were lined up, I used the side of my hand to swipe them across the card. 🙂

I’m still kicking myself for not taking a pic of my hand, it was pretty cool with all the colours!

Once the paint dried, I laid a Crafter’s Workshop Stencil down and swiped light molding paste over it, which I then heat set to cause bubbling and that velvety finished look. Because the molding paste is wet, it mixed with the watercolours beneath and added some colour to the paste – it looks pretty neat IRL and it has a lot of texture and dimension!

The stencil actually reads, “if you believe you can you will” but I wanted to just use the first part so you can fill in the rest. For example, if you believe it will be warm and sunny, it will! Wishful thinking?

Once it was finished, I felt like the words didn’t stand out enough so I used my black fine tip Sharpie to line the letters and add a little doodling around the edges.

Here’s hoping my bright, cheery, and hopeful card brings brighter days…soon!

S.

Index Card A Day – #1

02 Saturday Jun 2012

Posted by in ICAD2

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

So I’ve decided to do a quick post everyday with my index cards – let’s see how long that lasts!

Here is day #1 – June 1:

I had planned to use the map prompt, even had some little circle map pieces from Studio Calico’s Abroad collection cut out. As you can see, it just didn’t happen…and I’m ok with that since I like how this ultimately turned out.

I stamped white tissue paper with Olive Archival ink, then smooshed it onto the index card with Claudine Hellmuth Studio Matte Multimedium – the multimedium made the red line on the index card run a little which was pretty cool too. I made sure to get wrinkles in the tissue paper for more texture.

Once that dried, I broke out my watercolours (finally!) and painted purple, turquoise, and lilac in stripes over the tissue paper. I really watered them down to make a wash of colour.

Then I broke out my Mini Herringbone stencil from the Crafter’s Workshop, some light modeling paste, and my new liquid watercolours. Lesson learned, liquid watercolours make your modeling paste too runny and so the stencil impression wasn’t as clean as I would have liked. Still a neat look though, so it’s all good!

I stamped a camera in Cobalt Archival ink, cut it out, distressed the edges, and adhered it to the tag, along with a wood veneer Studio Calico bird that I painted in shades of purple.

Finally, I broke out my teeny tiny cheapo letter stamps and added the words in Jet Black Archival ink.

I love the colours, and how there are bits of tissue overhanging the edges of the card, giving it a slightly tattered look. I even like the messy modeling paste – it worked with the look of the whole card.

Now…. What to do today? 🙂

S.

Something New…

30 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by in Art Journal, Week in the Life 2012

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

I’m going to try my hand at Art Journaling. Not anything personal, like a daily, write your thoughts, dreams, wishes, type of art journal, just one where I get to play!

And I’m a lucky girl because I have two friends, Cathie and Tina, who are doing this with me (though they already art journal, I’m the newbie!) If we’re super lucky, we’ll actually get together once a month too!

Here are the things I have to begin my Play Art Journal:

1. A mixed media album and some watercolour paper:

The album had the most heinous cover ever so that got gessoed and moulding pasted over immediately. It already looks better! Love the dimension, can’t wait to see what happens when I get around to adding colour:

2. The Crafter’s Workshop Stencils:

These are the Dylusions by Dyan Reavely – I’ll get more of these for sure! I love the patterns, the size, and that they come with a border too!

And these ones are mostly Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. Great designs, I have new ones of these already on the way!

3. Paint, Stain, Mist:

These are super cheap watercolour paints and I have some big plans for them! Also, aren’t they pretty! 🙂

I have a bunch of Claudine Hellmuth’s Studio Paints, all the Adirondack ColorWash and Dylusions Ink Sprays, Distress Stains and Inks, and more. These are going to be fun!

4. Gesso, Moulding Pastes (my friend Marg gave me a couple to try out that are amazing!), and Multi Medium.

5. Stamps:

I think my faves are going to be the Tim Holtz and Dylusions from Stamper’s Anonymous, but I have some Ali Edwards ones that I know will make their way in too. And there are some Dylusions stamps with people that are going to have to be mine very soon!

6. I also have the basics – a water mister, paint brushes, Archival Ink (need more colours there too!).

To help me along my way, a few of us are doing ICAD through Daisy Yellow. This is where you make one Index Card A Day – it can be written on , or painted, or gessoed, or whatever you want. The point is to do one a day. I see this as a great place and media on which to experiment!

In the past, I have only done one thing that has mixed media stuff going on – at The Paperie Retreat in May, I had fun with my Week in the Life album:

front cover

back cover

Yes, I know I haven’t posted the album yet, that’s because it’s not quite done. Almost though, and I will post it then, promise!

Want to join in the fun? I’m planning to post my Art Journal stuff on Wednesdays, once I actually start and I’d love to see your stuff too! Even join me for ICAD, it’s easy and anyone can do it, even if you only want to doodle everyday!

See you all tomorrow, maybe with a colourful Art Journal cover in tow! 😉 And if anyone has some suggestions for this new adventure or links I should check out, please let me know!

S.

Tuesday Techniques – Dry Embossing with Wafer Thin Dies

29 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by in Tuesday Techniques

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

It’s our final dry embossing day! I thought I’d show you how to use your wafer thin dies to emboss, rather than cut – use them for double duty and really get your money’s worth!

You will need:

Supplies

A die cutting/embossing machine, wafer thin dies (eg: Spellbinders, Hero Arts, Papertrey Ink, etc.), and a tag.

First, line up the die on your paper, cutting edge facing up. Next, I find it easiest to adhere the die to the paper. I normally use washi tape as it is low tack and there’s no problem removing it once the die has been run through your machine. I temporarily adhere it so it doesn’t move and I can be sure it will emboss right where I want it to!

Next, make your sandwich – for the Cuttlebug I use the A plate, B plate, then a piece of cardstock as a shim (and you can then get a die cut piece at the same time as you’re embossing!):

Then put your paper with the die facedown so the cutting edges go into the cardstock shim.

Over that goes a rubber mat and another B plate. If you want a really deep impression, you may want to use another thin shim for more pressure. Just be sure not to make the sandwich too thick or it won’t go through your machine.

After you roll it through, you get this:

Nicely embossed! I happened to use an open die here to get a frame, but you can use solid dies as well, and you can deboss if you prefer, just flip your paper over!

I like the subtlety of this embossing, and how it picks up ink really well to make it stand out more while still not being super dimensional. Excellent for cards you’re going to mail because they won’t be too bulky.

In the same vein, you can also use stencils and chipboard to emboss. I won’t cover those since they are very similar to what I did here today but if you want to see those in action check here and here. I used the stencil technique on the smaller red heart for my finished tag:

As always, leave me a link in the comments if you try this technique out – I’d love to see how you use dies for embossing!

S.

Some crafty goodness…

04 Friday May 2012

Posted by in Cards, Classes, ScrapBook, Techniques, Yearlong Album

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

…as promised! Here it is!

Last weekend we had a birthday party to attend and I had to teach the Yearlong Class at The Paperie that day as well. Unfortunately, I had no card made for the party before hand. Oops! Luckily, as I was teaching one of the two bonus cards we made…

… Cathie mentioned the Distress Stain splats would make good monsters. Ummm, yes, they totally would! And I had coloured googly eyes at home – awesome! Here’s how that 3 minute card turned out:

Monsters!!!

So yeah, I totally *love* it! And I think Pine Needles might be my new favourite colour – see that fantastic greeny blue guy? He makes me happy… 🙂

The other card we did on Sunday was made using The Crafter’s Workshop Mini Fragmented Flower Stencil and mists.

I get a lot of people asking me how to mist properly and I always say to press on the nozzle. Seriously.

It seems to me that a lot of people are scared they’ll get too much colour or spray in the wrong place or something and they gingerly press down on the nozzle. Slowly. And that’s guaranteed to get you splats and drops, not mist. So just give your mist a good, solid press, people – go for it! And if you’re worried about too much colour, place your paper in a box, aim the mist at the back of the box, press down, and just let the mist drift down on your page. It’s much finer this way, but you’ll have more control about the intensity but since it’s mist, it will go where it wants, for the most part – you have very little control there, my friends!

All that being said, I thought we should have some misting practice in class! I used Adirondack Colour Wash in my sample – I love the colours and intensity of these. The trick with mist and stencils is to go light. The more mist, the more liquid, the more seepage under the stencil. So, go light and get a great impression! And use colours that will blend nicely together! And if you don’t think you have enough colour down, trust me, you do – do not spray again, it will be fine! 🙂

Anyway, simple cards, both done in about 5 minutes each, but fun techniques that can be used for a bunch of different things! If you want to see more techniques with Distress Stains, check out my Paperie Picks post from last week.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone – I’m at the Retreat and I know I’m having a great time!

S.

Layouts, Sneaks, and Randomness…

07 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by in ScrapBook

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

We have a snow day morning here – about 25cm down overnight and it’s still blowing around a bit. Messy, messy, messy.

While waiting for their friends to show up for the rest of the day, my kiddies are sitting at the table doing stickers, which may be their favourite thing to do. Seriously, I could go broke just buying stickers – and I get them at the dollar store!

M & G

And since they’re otherwise occupied, I can take a couple of pics and get this post done!

Saturday was a fun, daylong crop at the Paperie, and it was a productive one for me! I’ve noticed that I’m doing more LO’s for me, but they’re becoming much simpler.

And while I’m ok with that, I feel that they’re lacking something. That means I need to find a happy medium between this super simple style and the “take 10 hours” style that I was doing.

That being said, I did add a little more to the two LO’s I did on Saturday – some misting, embossing, detail cutting, etc.

I can show you this one, made mainly using one of the Paperie kits, with a few Jenni Bowlin Studio plastic flowers from a Studio Calico kit and a Balzer Designs for The Crafter’s Workshop stencil thrown in:

trust your heart

And some detail of the October Afternoon mist, Ranger Clear Rock Candy Distress Stickles, and Kaisercraft wooden flowers:

I still feels like this needs a little something so I’ll leave it out and see what happens. This was one of the pictures from our wedding day, on the deck of our family cabin in Salmon Cove. Love the spot, loved the day, love the pic!

The second LO I did has a touch of product from the new March Paperie kit on it so I can only show you a corner. I get the kit early because I photograph it for their blog.

My Whole Heart sneak peek

Have I mentioned I love Amy Tangerine? The stitched paper and camera stamp are the best! And Studio Calico Shine over the camera? Awesome!

I also did the cover for my Happy Little Moments Class but again, it needs something more so I’ll share that later. I was hoping to be further along in that journey but a seized up and very old Singer sewing machine put the kibosh to that idea. Stealing mom’s tonight so I’m hoping more progress will be made soon!

And finally, an update! All the kitting for the Canvas Class on Sunday is done – whew! That was a major one! I think there may be two spots left if you’re interested, call The Paperie and they can hook you up. This is definitely a great class – it’s based on the Inspiration Showcase Canvas Chris and I did in Houston with Jennifer McGuire and Shari Carroll from Hero Arts. If you’re looking to take your scrapbooking up a notch, or want to learn some new techniques, or just want to be inspired again, this is the class to do!

Hearts

Stars

I know the stars look unfinished – I have another plan for them! 😉

Enjoy your snow day, if you have one!

S.

Tuesday Techniques – Cracked Glass

21 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by in ScrapBook, Techniques, Tuesday Techniques

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Today’s technique is one I learned from Heather Nichols that she calls Cracked Glass.

Remember a couple of weeks ago during the Faux Metal technique I mentioned that sometimes you want the embossing powder to crack? Well, this is that time!

(Sidenote 1: Kristina Werner recommended trying white embossing powder for the faux metal technique to get the look of porcelain. It’s pretty cool!)

Faux Porcelain

Moving on….

Once again, you only need minimal supplies: VersaMark Ink, Clear Embossing Powder, a heat gun, and a stamp of choice.

supplies

(Sidenote 2: I keep all my embossing powder in lock and lock containers. They don’t open and make a mess, they’re big enough to hold a spoon so you can easily coat  a piece in powder, and you don’t have to try to get the powder back in that little bottle – you just do it all over the container.)

Now, I think this technique looks best with a flower, or something that would look good as vintage, but for fun, I chose an old October Afternoon favourite – the monsters from Night Light!

Seriously, could they be any cuter?

Anyway….

Stamp your image.

Stamped Image

As you can see, I just stamped him on some scrap paper, you only need a little space so no need to cut into a new sheet!

I stamped mine in Memento Tuxedo Black as I coloured the monster in with Copics. Please forgive the colouring – a Copics master, I am not, but I love how he turned out, with his teal spots and little dots all over him!

Coloured Image

I then masked the image and stamped a text background around him, but that isn’t necessary and, in this case, didn’t really show up in the final product anyway.

Punch or cut out your shape and we’re ready to go!

Ready for embossing!

Press VersaMark onto the image and clear heat emboss. I only had regular embossing powder, but UTEE would be best if you have it – less time and thicker coverage. I think I used 4-5 layers but UTEE would probably only need 2-3. Keep layering untill you get a thick, even, smooth coating.

Lots of embossed layers

If I was to do this again, I would leave the monster just as he is at this step. I liked him better uncracked – again, flowers and things that look more vintagey work best for this technique. I used Stampin’ Up! A Flower for All Seasons (retired) before and they turned out awesome!

Now let it cool. Technically, it cools in a few seconds but I find the crack happens best if you *really* let it cool down. Give it a half hour or more while you’re working on the rest of your project.

Now gently crack the embossing and rub a light brown ink, like Old Paper, into the cracks.

Cracked and Stained

You can see the wet ink below the embossed surface here – that will absorb into the paper in a minute so don’t worry about the splotchy puddles!

Now, you just have to add it to your project! I had a little lovefest with October Afternoon and used 3 different lines to complete my tag – Night Light, Rocket Age, and Sidewalks. The stick pins are from My Little Bit of Whimsy and the stencil from The Crafter’s Workshop – Herringbone.

Finished tag

Lots of dimensions with foam adhesive, the rubber charm, the stick pins, and the cracked glass piece.

Close up!

Try this out and let me know what you think! Can’t wait to see what you make with it – leave me a link in the comments!

S.

The Trip of a Lifetime

27 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by in Classes, ScrapBook

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

This past October the owners of The Paperie offered me the trip and experience of a lifetime and sent me, along with one of the owners, Chris, to Houston for the Collins Group Rep Show. To say I was overwhelmed and way too excited the whole time would be an understatement! I took classes from Tim Holtz, Jennifer McGuire (who publicly announced her pregnancy today!), Shari Carroll, Candy Rosenberg, and Cheryl Mezzetti, to name a few. The techniques I learned, the people I met, and the fun I had were just over the top.

In return, I came home with a promise to teach classes based on what I had picked up. And I had more ideas than I knew what to do with! We started the series of Houston Classes a couple of weeks ago with a full weekend of workshops. I taught 3 classes on Saturday and a full day Tim Holtz Class on Sunday.

Saturday morning was Hero Arts – Stamp and Emboss where we made 3 cards – a faux watercolour, a faux letterpress, and a trapped embossed resist.

Trapped Embossed Resist

Next up was Impression Obsession – One, Two, Tree (my personal favourite) where we again made 3 cards – one with alcohol inks, one with acrylic paints, and one with Distress Stains.

Distress Stains and Sparkle Embossing Powder

Finally, I taught a tag workshop with The Crafter’s Workshop Stencils. We made 10 tags, full of different techniques and everyone went home with the recipes on the back and the two stencils so they could recreate the fun we had!

Balzer Designs Stencils by The Crafter's Workshop

The Tim class on Sunday was the Holiday Artful Journal, one of the exact classes Chris and I took while we were away. The big treat in this one was all the product everyone took home – stains, mists, paint, Glue n’ Seal, and a finished mini album!

Tim Holtz Holiday Artful Journal

There was lots of laughing, a bunch of giveaways, and some great projects made. I can’t wait to do the next class in the series – Kraft Glassine Mixed Media Mini Album. That’s coming February 12, 2012 at The Paperie – and here’s a peek!

Glassine Album Sneak Peek

We’ll be playing with Distress Stains, Alcohol Inks, Cork Paper, Sticky Back Canvas, and more!

Have a good one, everybody!

S.