Punch and Acetate Projects

Hello everyone. I hope your day went well and that your evening will only get better. As promised here are a couple of mock-ups that I did using the techniques from the past few Vee-dios. These won't go out to anyone as each has its own flaw, but they make great samples to work from.

This first one uses the Martha Stewart Corner punch to go around an oval or circle. I just adore the Iron Gate. The quote is from a set of Miss Elizabeth's stickers from the Dollar Tree and is mounted onto one of the Nestability labels cut from watercolor paper. The floral stamp is from Heidi Swapp, I think.

The next two cards combine the border punch with the alcohol acetate technique. I did put the piece through the Cuttlebug with a Sizzix die and then swiped the raised portions with Purple Staz-On.The journaling circle is from 3 Birds Sticky Sparkly letters and shapes.

The final one is using the alcohol inked acetate to make some flowers from a Sizzix die. I layered one on white and two on black. It totally changes the look of the flowers. I attempted to use Perfect Pearls around the center, but even after setting them, it still pulled away from the acetate. I should look for some heat embossable acetate. Anyway, I like how they turned out. The stamp is from Hero Arts and the brads are Hot Off the Press and the punch is Martha Stewart Daisy border punch. As for the paper, did you have to ask? Fancy Pants of course.

Thanks again for stopping by. I realized last night that my two year blog anniversary is fast approaching. Watch this space for some exciting events.
Until then.

Acetate and Alcohol Inks

I feel my mojo coming back. My crafting has been up and down as of late. The motivation is there but the energy has been lacking. I realized that I had not been taking my multivitamins. If you are of a certain age…you really cannot go without doing that for long. If you are of that certain age and are not taking any…GET SOME. It will feel like a new lease on life.

Once you get that energy, you might want to give this technique a try. 

Heather at The Paper Castle posted a challenge to our group to use Alcohol Inks and Acetate. Since I had already done a lot of that on my Zentangle Reloaded, I needed to push the envelope a bit further.

Tim Holtz did this technique with glossy paper, alcohol, inks and canned air. I thought why not acetate? That is exactly what I did. I am showing the results here but the Vee-dio is embedded at the end of the post.

Materials needed:

Alcohol Inks

Cut down your acetate if desired.

Blending solution is great to have on hand for over sprays as this is a great cleaner for Alcohol Inks.

The madness in progress.

This is how the piece came together while using the Pearl Mixative. I am sure that against a dark background those pearlized lightened inks will really pop.

I have great ideas for these pieces and the others I made once I stopped filming. I mean how many times do you want to see someone spritzing a sheet of acetate? I promise that I will post the finished results.That is also added to my to do list. 

I will use the embossing folders/texture plates and then Heather suggested hitting the high spots with a bit of Staz On. I like how she thinks.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I have been up to lately. I had a blast doing what I love most---playing around with inks. If you have not explored the many uses for your inks, what are you waiting on? Crack them open and get inky.

Until then.

Happy Holidays

Hey y'all. In an effort to be better prepared, I started doing a few mock-ups for Christmas cards. I did this one and although I am blown away by the results, I do not think it is one I will make to send to everyone. It is not designed for assembly line style . Maybe if I cut the trees on the Cricut, it would work. 

Anywho, here it is and what I did. You can view the card from either side. I love it.

 

I will try to keep this write up brief...it is close to midnight. So I used the Fancy Pants Holly Jolly and Frosted line for the card base (although you cannot see it---I did some incredible stamp work on it). I created an accordion fold by scoring at 2", 4", 6", 8" and 10" on a 6 x 12 sheet of paper. I cut a 2 x6 piece of Frosted to cover the base and the acetate overlay which is from the Slice line. I punched snowflakes from the Spellbinder dies and did some overlays on the Frosted which was edged with Vintage Photo. 

 

The trees on the inside are chipboard pieces from Fancy Pants Happy Holidays printed chipboard shapes. They are pretty heavy, but the Fancy Pants cardstock is heavy duty and can stand up to the weight. Especially if you cut with the grain and score and fold against the grain. Makes for a nice crisp fold. 

I digress. You can see my Vee-dio on paper cutting to get a better idea of what I mean. 

 

The trees were already decorated on one side and when I removed the adhesive liner I covered the back with coordinating pieces from the Fancy Pants Line. 

On some of them I stamped, embossed and/or used glitter. I went around all of the sides with an ink cube to hide the raw edges. As you can see, I added Skittles/Dew Drops to one of the trees.

 I attached the trees with one of my favorite adhesives--Glossy Accents. 

The acetate overlay was cut to 6 x 12 and scored at the 6 inch mark. I did not want the acetate to go all the way to the bottom of the card.  It was attached using the Glossy Accents. I covered that with the Frosted piece and hid the line by covering it with a piece of really pretty ribbon--reminds me of the Martha Stewart double edge punch---it came in a holiday kit I purchased from QVC.

The journaling is also from the Fancy Pants Happy Holidays chipboard kit and was perfect to work as titles for the card. 

It has been my pledge to use my Cricut more and for some reason I am stuck on the reindeer. So I used it again but this time used some holiday rubons from Cloud 9 for the neck gear and on the white cotton tail. Enamel accents adorn those swirly antlers and black glitter covers the hooves. I also spritzed the reindeer with the Coffee Shop Glimmer mist. It is cut at 2 1/2" and has a shadow.

 

Gosh can you tell that I am gushing over this card? I glued the accordion at the top inside of the fold with the Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive. Here is a side view.

 I LOVE it!!!! Here are a couple more views.

Hope this card provides some inspiration for you and helps you to look at your stash just a bit differently. I was hesitant about the floraly overlay, but it is perfect for this card. Makes it look more like a winter wonderland.

It was a treat for me to envision this card and then bring it life. Getting to use my stamps, inks and sprays was awesome although much of it is hidden in the folds. I know why do the work only to hide it. Its kinda like what our mothers would say: Always wear clean underwear, you never know when you might have to go to the hospital by ambulance. Although you don't see the inside, I know that this is a finished card. 

Keep thinking of new ways to ink during this festive season.

Until then.

Zentangle Reloaded

Hello fellow crafters and those who like reading about what crafters are up to. This has been a whirlwind winter. I have been able to film and upload a lot of Vee-dios to Youtube. If you have not had the chance to check them out, see the Video list to the left. My area has been getting hit with a lot of snow. Being homebound is no fun unless you have lots to do inside of the house. I surely did. The best part was watching everyone try to dig out their cars and leave...to go where? All of the stores were closed! Great entertainment though.

On to the business at hand. I had been playing around with some images from Dover Publications that I receive in a weekly sampler email. There were some that were crying out for glaze and alcohol inks. Then it hit me: Zentangle Reloaded. I am all about finding easier ways to create art work. I printed all of the images onto acetate and allowed it to thoroughly dry. If you have heat embossable acetate you can use your heat gun. This image struck me as a suncatcher. Great crafting to do with your kids or a troop/club activity. I used some of the Sakura Craft and Hobby Glazes. These are available in a wide range of colors and there have been some metallic glazes added to the line that I am anxious to purchase.

Here I played around with the Glaze pen in black and simply traced the circles. I added different pieces of DCWV cardstock to the back to achieve various effects. The middle picture features a heavily glittered green card. The view in person is very striking. I also like the circles and bubbles effect.

This image was accomplished using the Sakura Identi-pens. These are permanent pens and are perfect for acetate because the colors are so vibrant. Again, I just traced over the lines and had a play with the colors. You can make this design be anything that you want. If you are feeling really creative you could go back in fill in some of the white space with the Sakura glaze.

Ok. I can admit and accept when an idea goes wrong. I was getting so carried away with my Sakura and acetate that I pulled out my permapague markers and decided to color in this image using the same method. Well....since the inks are not alcohol based, the colors did not blend as well as I had hoped they would.

I did not want to throw it out, so I tried using some of the alcohol inks on it. Needless to say it went from bad to worse. I still could not say no, and let it go. I saw the Cuttlebug and thought why not? Just cut it up and make it into something else. I used a set of my Spellbinder dies and made frames from the piece. They look much better separated and you can hardly tell that this was a project destined for the trash bin. Looks really art noveau.

Since I had out the alcohol inks, another why not? opportunity presented itself. I used butterscotch and  plum and dabbed these two pieces of acetate. I then turned them over and decorated the front. One I did in freestlye classic Zentangle/Zendoodle.

The other I took some help from some beautifully designed DSWV paisley paper. I laid the acetate over the sheet of card stock and took only the images I wanted. I did a bit of freehand just to give some looseness to the piece. It strikes me as carefree and I did not want to lose that.

Out of all of the projects, I think the garbage piece is my favorite. I like how the pens and inks give this a very funky appearance. You could not buy this in a store, so that makes it a true original. I don't like or do cookie cutter. So, I guess my best advice for making your work stand out from the rest, mess it up a bit and feel free to make some mistakes and you just might be pleased with what results. If not, then trash it and start all over again.

When you do start again, make sure that everything gets inked with love.

Until then.