stencil and embossing paste

after a recent (and much needed) cleaning/reorganizing of my studio I unearthed some supplies I had not used in a long time...brass stencils and embossing paste.  One of my fav stencils is one with a Celtic knot design.  Since St Patty's day is around the corner I thought these supplies would make a great St Patty's day card.  I am using Dreamweaver Pearlescent Embossing Paste.  The brass stencil is also from Dreamweaver and is called Celtic Hexagon.

The first thing to do is create a hinge with a piece of removable (or low tack) tape on one side of the stencil one your paper.  The hinge just makes it easier to lift up and remove the stencil when you are finished.  Removable or low tack tape is important so it won't leave marks on your paper.  I am using Scotch Low Tack Tape here.  The paper should be a thicker paper or light cardstock weight to handle the paste. 
After one side is taped then cover the rest of the paper and sides of the stencil with more tape or scrap paper.  The goal is to just have the stencil open for the paste and not to get any paste on other areas of the paper.

I had to stir the paste since the jar hasn't been opened in awhile.  The paste has the consistency of frosting.  The paste gets spread over the top of the stencil to fill the areas then the excess gets scraped off.

The scrap paper or tape gets removed and then (using the taped hinge side) the brass stencil is lifted up and taken off. Set the image aside to dry.  I usually like to wait a few hours or overnight. The brass stencil should be cleaned immediately with soap and water.  If you can't get to it right away then drop it in a container with soapy water until you can gently scrub it clean.

Then I put the brass stencil over the dried image and colored the pear surface with inks.  I used daubers and a variety of ink pads.

It may be hard to see in this photo but the raised image shimmers with different shades of green.

And here it is applied to a card with some rubber stamping and extra shimmer from gel pens. 


Happy St. Patty's Day!

happiness jar

Life isn't just one moment...it's a journey of a thousand of moments, some good and some bad. I don't know about you but sometimes I tend to focus on (without really realizing it) the bad moments that have made such an impact (sometimes a huge crater of an impact) on my life. 
So in an effort to focus on all of the good things/blessings (big and small) I created the 2015 Happiness Jar.

I didn't come up with this idea but loved it so much I had to make one for my own.  Thanks to Laura P. for the inspiration!

Throughout the year if something good happens or makes me smile I'll write that on a slip of paper and put it in the jar.  It could be something small like listening to my cat purr, or bigger things like seeing my beautiful niece dance on stage or hit a home run in a softball game.

Next New Year's Eve I'll empty the jar and read all of the papers.   I think it would be nice to start off the new year by remembering the good stuff... and as you can see I already have some paper in the jar!

However your year has started I hope you find time to find the little joys in life and remember them.

alcohol ink demo and card making class

If you're in the Milwaukee area I invite you to stop by Artist & Display on Sunday January 4th.  I'll be doing a demo of alcohol inks from 1:00pm - 3:00pm.

Alcohol inks are permanent fast drying inks that work great on non-porous surfaces.  The inks are translucent and can be blended to make wonderful vibrant background papers. The demo and class will work with alcohol inks on glossy paper.

Then on Saturday January 10th I'll be teaching a card making class using alcohol inks.  It's a one hour class starting at 10:30am.  This will give us plenty of time to make a few cards using some different techniques of alcohol inks.  We will even use metallic heat embossing powders on some of the alcohol inked papers. 

Alcohol inks are easy and fun to use.  There's nothing like a cold winter day to make you want to work on some art projects. Hope you can stop by and have some fun learning about alcohol inks. 

Artist & Display is located at 9015 West Burleigh St, Milwaukee, WI.  Phone 414-442-9100

altered ornaments with alcohol ink

I was looking for outdoor ornaments (a.k.a. plastic!) for an outdoor wreath and wanted them to be a cranberry or burgundy color.  But all I found was red ornaments.  So I thought I could make my own and purchased plastic silver ornaments (already in the sale bin if you can believe that!) and added color with alcohol inks.   The silver tinsel was a wire glued in the ornament.  I decided to leave it and color it as well.  I ended up using it to wire to the wreath.

For this color I experimented a bit and ended us using Cranberry, Eggplant, and Currant to get the desired cranberry color. The color may seem red in the photo but it really did turned out to be a deep cranberry color (which matches the ribbon and my front door).

Then I started looking at other pieces I had wondering how they would look when altered with alcohol inks.

Decided to do the same with this silver sparkly  "Joy" ornament.  Cranberry alcohol ink was used here.  Note - it's a good idea to use gloves when doing this technique.  I didn't have any gloves and my hands were stained with LOTS of cranberry ink for a few days :-)  Also, let pieces like this dry overnight after all the ink is applied. The ink did not dull the ornament at all...it still sparkles!

I forgot to take a "before" photo of this metal star ornament.  It was originally silver and I colored it using Purple Twilight, Sailboat Blue, and just a bit of Raspberry alcohol inks.  Really liked how this turned out.  Perhaps I'll hit the after Christmas sales to look for more silver (or white) ornaments to alter!

Halloween inspired tag

I'm posting this in connection with Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2014 challenge.  This is my inspired Halloween Tag.  I used the Tim Holtz Apothecary Die to make the bottles.  The die was used twice - once with patterned paper and next with vellum.  The vellum was added over the paper to give them a glass bottle look.  Had fun making the labels of the jars.  The mini bottle at top is from Tim Holtz Idea-Ology and is filled with little green beads and labeled Newt Eggs.

Design Adhesives...all that glitters...

I'm doing a demo at Artist & Display on Sunday May 18th (1pm - 3pm) on Design Adhesives so I thought I'd do a post on what these are and how to use them.

Design Adhesives are double sided adhesive patterns.  A bit like rub ons. Some are intricately cut.  They look wonderful with glitter and foil tape. The glitter I am using here is from Martha Stewart.

Peel away the backing from the paper.  You can just see the image as you take off the paper. Pull the sheet off carefully.  If you go too fast the design can pull and distort.

 

After the backing is removed place the paper on your paper and press down gently to make sure every piece of the design has transferred. Then remove the clear piece of plastic. The adhesive shape is now glued to the paper and awaiting some bling!

 

I'm adding various colors of glitter.  The tool I'm using is just a piece of a plastic straw with the end cut at an angle.  It's great for controlling how much glitter you are putting on a piece.

 

 

When all the glitter is on then turn it over and gently tap the back of the paper to remove the excess glitter.  Don't wipe across the front of the paper or you'll brush the glitter off the design.

Perfect for a gift tag, small note, or a card.  These design adhesives are great to use as an embellishment for cards.

 

so if you're in the area I invite you to stop by Artist and Display for this hands-on demo and make a design adhesive piece.

Martha Stewart glitter colors used here: yellow barite, copper, lapis lazuli peridot, and tourmaline.
Design adhesives by Clear Snap - flower design.

 

 

 

think spring votive candle

It's March but it feels more like January.  My garden is still under feet of snow. I desperately want to see the pink tulips from bulbs I planted last fall but who knows when that will happen.  It seems like boots and sweaters are a permanent part of my wardrobe.  I'm even having a hard time getting into any art project.  yep, it's official.  I have the winter blues.
To try and shake it off I started to clean my studio.  Cleaning my studio is something I do whenever I get "artist's block" and don't know what to work on or how to start a project.  It's also done when the workable space on my table has shrunk down to a tiny area! That happens a lot :-)
When cleaning I generally come across some art supply that give me an idea and before I know it, I'm creating something. 
And the cleaning did the trick. First I uncovered some rolls of washi tape. Washi tape originated from Japan. This tape feels and acts like masking tape - but it's very thin and printed with lots of colors and patterns.  These washi tape rolls were purchased from Artist & Display

Near my table were several boxes of household items that we organizing to give to a local thrift store. I rummaged through and found a small juice glass.  The rest of the set was long gone.  But when I saw this I had an idea to cover it with washi tape.

 

 

The juice glass is now a spring inspired glass votive.  I used a border paper punch (Martha Stewart-Garden Rail) to create a paper lace-like trim.  I adhered this to the glass with Scor-pal tape.

 

and now the only bad thing is I never got around to really cleaning the studio!  Oh well, it'll happen one of these days.  Work stuff is taking priority now but I'm looking forward to the next project...