Removing Color - Gift Boxes

Julia Andrus has a new book, "Paper Transformed", that we are using for a workshop at Latest Trends Mixed Media. One of the July lessons suggested a Castaway pad to stamp the image and then remove the color using a heat tool.

However, I have found if you use your iron you get a much better result and the images are more pronounced.

For the purse, I used Inka's rubber stamps with the Castaway Pad and my iron to remove the color. I stamped the dragonfly a second time on velum with a bright pink Marvy pad and cut out the wings and attached them to the purse.

The tiny box was created in the same manner but the added butterflies were cut from some extra cardstock that was prepared for the box. The image was a design by Great Impressions.

Heat Transfers to MICA

A month or so back someone asked if you could transfer images to mica. That prompted an experiment and I used my heat transfer tool to transfer a couple of ephemera images from Inka Stamps to create a card and ATC. Because of the reflection, mica is difficult to photograph. For the card, I embossed a background card with a Cuttlebug template and then sanded off the top to make the diamonds pop. I added some sticker words and buttons to complete the card.

The darling kitten on the ATC was created in the same manner, but this time I used some spray webbing for the background along with a sticker for "wonder."

REVIEW MY MESSAGE DATED JUNE 12th that was the beginning of these cards.

FINAL - Canvas for Swap

All of the swap participants have received their canvas so I thought it was time to add it to my blog.

Basically, I painted the canvas with gesso (two coats both directions) and then painted on a really pretty blue Lumiere. When dry, I added some other colors to the edge of a credit card and swiped the canvas trying to leave lighter colors in the area where I placed the geisha image.

The geisha image was a gel medium transfer and the pictures had been sent to me several years ago so I wasn't sure if they would transfer or not. I did ruin two in the process but was pleased that the rest turned out.

I also tried a few other things on the canvases. Used a foam stamp with white gesso and stamped some random impressions and then did the same thing using ink from a gold Krylon pen. One of the final things was stamping some chops.

The raised bamboo was created by applying a brass stencil to the canvas and filling in the cutouts with embossing paste which I had colored. I carefully lifted the stencil and waited for the paste to dry.

The silver latice was a product by Suze Weinberg that I found in my stash. It is a neat product because you place it on your project and heat it with a heat gun which melts the plastic to the item. Pretty nifty!

I received some fantastic canvas projects -- all different and one yet to arrive. I can hardly wait!

Hope your weeks have gone well.

Our family has left; so it is time to pull out my craft items and get back to creating. I feel really rusty. Before I start, I need to locate all of the items I moved around to make more usable sleeping space. Before long, my craft room will look normal with stacks and papers everywhere....love it.

Carolyn

Another embossing experiment

I am suppose to be preparing for guests who will arrive in a couple of weeks but when I hear of something new I just have to try it out.

The moderator, Jane, on Spellbinders indicated you could use peel'n stick stickers, stack two together, and emboss by running through your Wizard die/embossing machine creating a custom background.

Well, I just had to see if it would work. I used two large kimono stickers, one on top of the other for added depth, sticking them to acetate. I ran the acetate thru my Wizard using a thin gold metallic cardstock to create two cards. Then I colored the cards with alcohol inks, added some glitter glue to the recessed areas and when dry cut them out. You could create a custom background by using several stickers randomly on a sheet of acetate.

OK....back to what I should be doing.

Quiet but busy

Believe it or not I have been cleaning up my craft area to make room for additional sleeping facilities for family arriving next month. In doing so I came across stacks, yes stacks, of unfinished projects, stamped card fronts and all types of bits and pieces from previous swaps. I am committed to using up some of these "leftovers" and will make more cards for RAKS and projects for other celebrations. Following are the result of my new resolution to use up what I have.






My posts for the next few weeks will be rather sparse as I get the rest of the house in order. And, I will need to use hubby's technique that he threatened to put in place when I was down with heart surgery and he had to do the cleaning...put yellow police tape around all of the cleaned rooms to keep everyone out.

Image transfers MICA

In one of the Yahoo groups that I belong to the question came up, "Can you transfer an image to mica?"

Several suggestions were offered and I thought to myself, "You can transfer an image to glass using a heat transfer tool and mica is smooth and glass-like, why not do a heat transfer."

I used a colored image face down on the mica and heated it with my heat transfer tool; however, the heat merely bonded the image to the piece of mica. If I attempted to remove the paper, the end result was not to my liking. So I reheated the image and while hot pulled back the corners and tore the paper. Then I reheated the piece using the heat tool to adhere the paper back to the mica.

I wanted to try a black image to see if it would transfer more clearly but had the same problem with the image sticking to the mica.

Actually, I am really pleased with the results. I have two collage images by Inka Stamps on mica ready for a project.

Have others tried transfers to mica and if so how did you accomplish them?

Shrink Plastic

I love to stamp images on shrink plastic to reduce their size and have had so much fun today using a custom printed sheet from Inka Stamps. She printed the three "Lovely Ladies" collage image for me on shrink plastic. The original was larger than my card design and shrinking it made a perfect fit. Here is another card I made.