Last post for 2010, sneaking in under the wire

Tonight my son is spending the night at a friend's and my husband is playing a gig an hour away, so my daughter and I stayed home and painted papers (she helped me a little bit).

Last night I tried to settle and do something but was just not able to do that, so instead I made some notes in the new little Moleskines I got for Xmas, did my first read-through of my first Mary Oliver book of poetry, and looked through some of 1000 Artist Journal Pages.  While I read I made notes about many things and ended up having a great & fulfilling evening even though it wasn't what I had thought I was going to do at the beginning of it.

I got a great idea about keeping lists so that I can keep up with my life instead of it getting away from me.  I also think this will help keep my list-making side in check and not let it get out of hand so that I end up just feeling bad about the things that aren't getting crossed off my list--because this book won't have things to cross off!  Right now I don't want to say much more about it, but I hope to complete it within a week and will do a full post/explanation then.

Tonight in preparation for making the book, I painted pages from a Dale Rowney acrylic pad (115lb paper, canvas style on one side and smooth on the other) with Golden Acrylic paints--begain with Cerulean Blue Deep, then some Turquoise (Phthalo) followed by Cobalt Teal and finally Phthalo Green (Yellow Shade) mixed with Acrylic Glazing Liquid (AGL henceforth).  I moved the paint around with various items--brayer, my fingers (in gloves!), a palette knife, a paper towel, or a paintbrush.  Over all that I put a layer of Titan Buff mixed with AGL to tone everything down.  The pages aren't finished yet--I'll still add some circles and patterns, probably with acrylic ink in hopes of reducing the sticky page factor.

I would like to thank everyone who has been kind enough to leave a comment on my blog this year.  There are so many wonderful blogs and artists out there, and it's impossible to comment on everything, so I really appreciate the effort made when someone stopping by does leave a note.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Wooden Tree Ornament

A couple of weeks ago I got a wooden ornament from Archiver's, and today I finally had a go at decorating it.

I began by stamping my Eclectic Omnibus wooden stamp in Archival Ink--Sepia on all sides.

Then I inked the ornament with Distress Ink--Fired Brick, using the tool and foam pad.





After that, I used my Tim Holtz Fabulous Flourish stamp with Brilliance--Gamma Green ink and covered the ornament with flourishes.  This required multiple stampings; just one didn't cover the whole thing.

At this point I assembled the ornament.  Then I used Stickles Xmas Red to add dots of sparkle within the ornament, and Stickles Cinnamon along the edges.  I thought about using Distress Stickles but decided I wanted more sparkle.

The only other thing I might do is to go over some of the flourish with a sparkly green gel pen . . . I'll have to see what it looks like once the Stickles are dry.

It was fun!

Instant Book: "There is a Pleasure . . . "

When the Muse visits, she blows in, makes herself at home, and refuses to leave until she has said what she's got to say. Goodness!

Yesterday I followed Esther K. Smith's instructions for making an instant book; I used a sheet of 8-1/2 x 11" brown kraft paper. So cool! I realized that the acrylic skin weaving I did (that was not at all to my liking) actually looked great on the front cover, so I glued that down with Matte Accents. Then I thought that the skeleton leaf that came packaged with wood-grained chopsticks that I put in my stocking this Xmas (I'm pretty much responsible for my own stocking stuffers and table presents) would be the perfect thing to put over the weaving, and that turned out to be the case. I put a very thin streak of Matte Accents along the spine of the leaf and adhered it to the weaving.

Then I searched for a nature quote and found part of a Lord Byron poem: "There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, there is a rapture on the lonely shore . . . " I quickly decided where to put the words on the pages and wrote them in with a white Bruynzeel pencil. I'm happy with the writing, surprisingly enough. I wanted it to look rustic and as though someone had written with something they'd found on the forest floor.

Then I used the set of leaf stamps by Hero Arts that I so miserably failed at using last night with the Jacquard Castaway stamp pad (don't use Castaway on brown kraft paper) and stamped using Archival Ink Sepia. I had no problems or doubts about which image to put where. I am very pleased with the result.

Finishing Tins with Mini Scrolls

I am finally finishing up a project started a couple of months ago. One item has been done since then, but the other one gave me materials issues. These are a present for a family friend who got married earlier in the year--one for her & her husband, and a companion piece for her parents.

The bride's wedding was very elegant--colors were silver, pearl, cream--no actual color. So I did her tin with glass spheres and silver mini marbles, and the scrolls were edged with silver leafing. For her parents' piece, I wanted something with bold colors, so I thought I'd use Lava Red Roxs, iridescent glass spheres, and gold mini marbles. To my great dismay, the Lava Red Roxs were not colorfast! When I coated the whole thing in Glossy Accents to seal the mini marbles on and provide a finished look, the red ran and tinted everything a shade of orange that I did not find particularly appealing. The folks at Judikins, which makes the Roxs, were very helpful, but basically I was out of luck if I wanted to use red or pink Roxs (all other colors are apparently colorfast). So it was back to the drawing board, but I was at a loss for what to use. Then the holiday card orders went into full swing and the month of October went by just like that.

The good thing about the delay, however, is that I discovered two gels from Golden that I hadn't used before. One was the Clear Granular Gel, and the other the Extra Coarse Pumice Gel. Neat stuff! In the end, this is what I ended up doing:

--coated lid with Perfect Medium and applied a couple of layers of Frozen Opals, then filled in spaces with Kaleidoscope embossing powder; when cool, I poured a thick layer of Diamond Glaze over the entire (top of the) lid

--made a mix of Extra Coarse Pumice Gel, 22 drops Quinacridone Red Fluid Acrylic and 3 drops Quinacridone Crimson Fluid Acrylic, then applied this to the sides of the bottom and the lid

--when dry, I applied some Interference Gold (Coarse) Heavy Body Acrylic over it, leaving plenty of the underneath to show through

--I realized it was too pinkish for my taste, so I applied some Cadmium Red Medium Hue Fluid Acrylic, then another layer of the Interference Gold

--I think after that I mixed up some Interference Red Fluid Acrylic with the Cadmium Red and applied that in patches over the whole thing, sprinkling with gold mini marbles as I went

--finally I was happy with that and let it dry over night. Then I applied Diamond Glaze over the sides and stuck some iridescent glass spheres on as I went. I also used Glossy Accents (a little less runny than DG) around the edge of the lid to place the glass spheres around it.

The scrolls inside are edged with gold leafing. I think I'm almost done! Now just have to wait for it to dry so I can mail it off.

Thoughts on Making my First Pendant

I have learned two important things: you can't reheat Glossy Accents with a heat gun in the hopes that it will smooth out, but you can remove the entire contents of a pendant blank and start again! I poked around the edges with the sharp pin I use to clean out the tips of glue bottles, and it all just lifted out and peeled away, even the paper I'd put on the bottom, and it was as though I'd never put anything in it.

So, what did I like and not like about my first effort? I liked the paper, but it needed something dimensional, I felt, so I sprinkled clear microbeads on the Glossy Accents when it was still wet. That didn't turn out too well. The detail of the picture disappeared, of course, so instead of seeing three red flowers one just saw three red blobs. If I'd had one of those lovely glass red roses from Alpha Stamps or something like that to add, it might have been okay, but I didn't have anything suitable. Also I think I simply put too many microbeads in.

Whether that contributed to how the Glossy Accents dried, I don't know, but it had a lumpy surface on it that was displeasing to me. (That prompted the experiment with reheating it to smooth it out. Works with beeswax--not with GA! It bubbled and probably gave off some horrible noxious gas too.)

When I started over with the newly blank pendant, this time I began with the dimensional accent rather than the paper backing. I found that one of the little armadillo charms I had fit perfectly in the bottom of the pendant, so then I just needed an appropriate background for it. Couldn't find any Texas-style paper (with all the papers I have, I couldn't believe I didn't have the right one) with bluebonnets or cacti on it, but I did eventually find the border to a punch-out card that I got in England last year looked quite nice behind it. I cut it down and adhered it to the blank with a few dots of Diamond Glaze, then I put DG all around the edges and bottom. The armadillo went in next, and out of frustration (couldn't get the tip of the DG unblocked for more than a few seconds at a time) I removed the tip and just poured DG in straight from the bottle. I had to do this carefully and slowly at first so I could prick some bubbles I saw coming out, but I think that may have worked out better than doing it from the tip since it was such a large quantity I needed. It's still drying, but it looks very smooth on top, and I think I'm going to be very satisfied with it.

Note to self: add picture once finished.

Flower Fairy card with new technique

For my cousin's birthday card, I used a technique I had read about in the May/June 2008 issue of Rubber Stamp Madness and hadn't gotten a chance to try out yet.

I took a Flower Fairy outline peel-off sticker that I'd gotten in England this summer and turned it so the sticky side was up. Then I used a small paintbrush to apply dry chalks where desired (I mainly used my shimmer chalk set). Once I'd applied chalk everywhere I wished, I brushed the entire surface with Perfect Pearls (Blush, then Perfect Gold). To finish, I did corners and applied to paper and card as shown.

The whole thing didn't take long, and it came out quite nice as a birthday card for a four-year-old.

11 August 2008

Remember this from Suze Weinberg’s July newsletter:

--Push out the die cut shape from the papers (shown at R)... (there are a few different triangular bead shapes)
--Roll it on anything cylindrical (a pencil, etc), pull it off and glue the tiny end of the paper bead to the now rolled bead. The size of the cylinder determines the size of the bead center.
--Hold with tweezers & roll the Beadle in melted Clear UTEE in The Melting Pot. Never panic....A heat gun can always be used to smooth out any rough edges.
--BTW: if you prefer....you can take the paper bead, coat it with clear embossing ink, dip it into Clear UTEE powder & heat with a heat gun !

Jewelry Idea from Suze Easter Update 2008 newsletter:

"No Glass is needed in this new technique !
--Work on Craft Sheet. Melt Clear UTEE then add 1 drop of To Dye For & stir in color slowly.
--Insert paper image into Memory Frame. Yes it will be a bit loose in there. Be sure frame is laying flat on work surface.
--Pour UTEE into frame to fill. Looks like colored glass when finished. Embellish frame with rhinestones!
I used our sterling silver jewelry bales (attached with Loctite Brush On Super Glue) to attach the extra hanging bale on the bottom of the green frame."

8 July 2008

Oh, I am delighted! Just made Jonathan’s bday card, and with being here in England rather than at home, I was limited in my choice of materials. That can be a good thing!

I started with a pre-folded blank black card that I got yesterday in Wickford. On top I taped a piece of sequinette (sequin waste) and applied Perfect Medium through it. Then I removed the sequinette and brushed on Rust Perfect Pearls.

From a paper of Egyptian panels I cut one out, edged it with black market but decided that wasn’t enough, so edged it with gold Krylon. Mounted with foam tape in upper middle. Along bottom I put a strip of Egyptian adhesive ribbon. Looked good but too raw, so I rubbed some Distress Ink tea dye over the panel and ribbon, and that did the trick. It looks great—even Dale said so with enthusiasm in his voice.

On the inside I put a cartouche, cut out from paper and also edged with gold Krylon, in which I will write “Happy Birthday” in hieroglyphics (if I can find them on the web).


Another technique that interests me is art quilts, and, along related lines, inchies! The idea of taking tiny little perfect things and incorporating them into a larger whole is appealing. What about using inchies to do a mosaic design?

25 June 2008, later

A catalog of what I’ve done since I came home last Thursday afternoon:

--partially decorated one moleskin notebook and figured out, finally, how to adhere the delicate laser-cut Chinese peacocks and butterflies I got from the craft shop in Wickford last summer—not sure how I’m going to finish the cover though, but maybe A. will have some ideas tomorrow evening

--decorated another moleskin notebook with paper that I like, a green river scene rather Shakespearean in feel—this is a self-indulgent project because I just like the paper and have no desire to do anything to it, nor am I going to make myself do so! Got glue on the inside back cover that showed, so tonight I had to glue a further bit over the flap to hide that, but I’m pleased I did so because I think it looks good and I got to use more of the paper. It’s funny how following the path of cleaning up after one’s accidents often leads you to places you could have never arrived at intentionally if you’d planned it out.

--Used a template from Memory Depot to make four little trifold gift enclosures. One is on embossed silver paper and needs no further decoration; two are on black cardstock; one is on pink cardstock. Now I can muse on how to decorate the black cardstock and the pink. I think I will use a black one to enlose the glass bee marbles for Brian, so perhaps bees and flowers somehow, or just bees; maybe tall grass with bees among the grasses . . . Pink stumps me. I’ll sleep on it. But these will be fun little things to decorate and try out techniques on.

--Tonight I generally followed instructions on a MagentaStyle project. I stamped the seashells with clear embossing ink on white cardstock and embossed with Ranger Seafoam White. I did this twice. Then I colored one set of seashells (four on a stamp) with Twinkling H2Os in Sky Blue and Moss Agate and the other set with English Lavender and Blushing Rose (with a small touch of Moss Agate on each one since I started to dab that on the second set before I remembered that I wanted to try another color combination on that set—accidents again). Now I want to put them behind slides, but alas, my 2” square Memory Glass is frosted, and I want clear. Perhaps tomorrow I can grab some. Then I must decide how to edge them (frames? Foil tape? Silver best choice, right?) and whether to add any hangars to them, or attach all to one thing (or to each other) for hanging.

I guess that’s not too bad for five days. It’s been fun.