Showing posts with label tutorial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tutorial. Show all posts

Friday, August 1, 2008

Leafing It to Autumn

So much to learn and do and so little time! I bet you can relate to that statement too right?

While at the Artists of the Round Table bash recently, one of the attendees taught us a couple types of marbling. The first sample uses the easiest form aka Suminagashi.
Autumn is my favorite season of the year and tonight’s class utilizes three main dies by Spellbinders that have leaves on them. I am not going to go into how to use the Wizard the instructions are on a DVD you now get with the machine. The three dies are:
S4076 Assorted Leaves
S4011 Harvest 2 Leaves
S3092 Foliage
In this first sample I cut three leaves from the Suminagashi paper I made. I spent an entire day watching all of season five of Smallville and made papers what fun! I have a nice stash ready. I made them in card size.
Encaustic wax technique.
I used regular and pearl crayons on black glossy for this one. The next few show different samples I prepared. I like how when I ran it through it kind of took a little off the edge so I pulled some off the veins on purpose.

This is another easy and fun tech. You will also note I used the oval dies to make the window and one of my new textures to add the dimension to the layered piece. Cindyc loves her textures!!!


This scan looks messy but the card is gorgeous. After cutting out the leaves, I used the discarded paper with the leaf shape holes as a stencil and chalked on color using my Judi-Kins Color Dusters.

I then traced with a Stardust pen. You can't see it in the picture but it is stunning!

You know how Northwoods always has glitter cards that stop everyone in their tracks? They are just the right light touch of glitter. Well this is that look without the hassle! Just trace and you get just a perfect hint of sparkle. They will be great with the new snowflake dies too!

TIP: If you cut your shape from thin craft foam you could use paste for a thick design.

On to 4:
Now Spellbinders does have a nice slim doll type die that they carry but those who know me wouldn't recognize me trim... giggle. So I used the child doll die for me. Much better!

If you looked ahead you will see what I used for her clothes and wings. In this case it was Kroger’s version of Dr. Pepper cans. Yes, pop cans! The thin aluminum in most soda cans works fine. I would guess most beer cans too but can't say for sure. Just cut & emboss like paper in your Wizard. I then added Adirondack alcohol inks.

The doll was stamped and the background made using the polish stone technique then stamped too with a leaf stamp from HIT.


Notice the pop cans in the next pic and then the following pic shows the embossed cans before coloring. A pretty look all by itself.


On to 5!

Now this one is a bit more complicated as I couldn't stop myself. First notice the following pic; it is a scrap piece of butcher paper left over when I made my scarf with the Adirondack color sprays. I have a lot of it and it is gorgeous! Lol

First I die cut some Harvest 2 leaves from fun foam aka craft foam. I then used them as stamps. I decided I wanted some dimension so I traced the leaves with an embossing marker and poured on Ranger Distress Powders and heated. Remember with Ranger Distress Powders you shake, pour on, heat, and rub off excess to get the “grains” out.

Once the leaves were done I added the flowers. Then it needed something down at the bottom. I chose a thin metal charm that comes in a silver color. This one says “create.” I usually use these to emboss into aluminum foil tape.

I wanted color and texture so I used one of my new textures and ran through. It gives it a lot of angles to catch the light. I then did the polish stone technique on it as well.

See that big yellow circle in the large flower? It is a Great Big Brads! The brads are about the size of a nickel and come in colors and metallic! I plan to emboss those.


Ok, see 6:

Just to throw more ideas at you…. Here the leaves and acorns from the Harvest 2 die are cut from wall paper (via free books). After dry embossing I added more color to the veins by brayering ink on. ‘So simple! I then cut strips from the paper for borders to complete the card.


See 7: What do you see?

I’ll tell ya a Dominos pizza ad! Yes, Scoutdogs, I cut a pizza. Lol! Don’t toss those glossy ads... very handy and aren't the colors perfect?

Ok, on 8: I used a technique I had forgotten about, the lost Burnt bag technique! I used cereal cardboard instead of brown bag. After cutting your shapes smear white school glue all over. Then heat the glue over a hot candle or fire starter. Put it in the fire and keep moving. It will get very sooty. Then set aside to be sure glue is dry. Once dry and cool gently wipe off the soot.

You will get a shiny surface that is very cool. Leave as is or add metallic rub-ons or… take it a step further and add the butterscotch Adirondack alcohol ink. It is super yummy! These would make great hair barrettes or other embellishments.

Try it you will be surprised!

TIP: Keep a tub of water handy just in case. Safety first!

See 9:

I made this for CHA (Spellbinders) a couple of years ago. The leaves on the box are copper that have been heated for color. I think Stacey hauled that box everywhere for about a year. It has been places I will never get to, lucky box. Ü

See 10:

The leaves here were done the same way. The bottle caps were flattened in the Wizard and the polished stone letters are from the Vintage font aka spellbinders! (Two fonts in one). The turkey was colored with chalk

See 11:

“Boo” and the “ghosts” were done with vellum, perfect for this. The pumpkins were transferred in the Wizard using an inkjet printer and “Stewart Superior Transfer Medium” to muslin.

The frame was cut and textured in Wizard too.

Samples as well as instructions are copyrighted and may not be used without the owners permission. Thank you.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

The Cat's in the Bag©

By Cindy Cade


SUPPLIES:

Scot-It Board
Movable Parts “Just Cats”
Fishing Line or nylon thread
Glue
Tape
Heart template
Copper Tooling Foil
Stylus
Scissors
10 pieces of cardstock cut to 6” by 10” (five for the back of the pages and 5 for the fronts)
Stewart Superior Memories Chestnut Brown ink pad
Ranger Industries Library Green Dye ink pad
“Hearts” and “Cupid” dies by Sizzix
Wizard Die Cut Machine by Spellbinders
Alphabet Stamps
You can find most of these items available at Terryfic Times great prices and service!

DIRECTIONS:
PAGE BACKS:

I chose to use different colors for the fronts and backs. This is optional.
Simply score in the centers (five inches) fold and flatten with your score tool or bone folder.
TUNNEL PAGES:

Score every two and ½ inches producing two mountain folds and one valley fold. Fold and flatten with your score tool or bone folder.
HEART TEMPLATE:



Free cut a heart shape that is approximately 3 ½” wide by 3” tall. Fold in half and use this to score your heart shape on the tunnel pages.

Simply fold the page in half and lay the heart over the fold and trace the template with your stylus or light pencil. If using a pencil it is best to score on the back of the page. Cut out your heart. Now use this first page as your template for your other tunnel pages. Unfold and lay on top of each page and score. You will get the same placement this way.

HEART CHARMS:



I used a Sizzix die to cut out my hearts. I ran it through my Wizard twice producing 8 hearts. I also used the Sizzix Cupid die cutting two.





Use a strong adhesive (I used my 3m tape in my ATG runner) on the back side of four hearts and one cupid. Add your nylon thread and sandwich the matching shape to the back. Now take the hearts to your Scor-It Board and texture.

Tape these to the back center fold of your tunnel pages just above the cut out so the charm dangles freely in the center of the opening.

ASSEMBLY:



Choose the order you would like your charm pages to be and assemble as shown. Take your time to do this right. I used my ATG runner for this.

COVERS:

I simply cut some brown craft paper to layer on the front and the back and taped in place. Score one of the cut out hearts and add chalk to highlight. Adhere to cover.
Now is the time to add those adorable cats. I used my Xyron to make them stick.
On the back page, I used the “Just Cats” card as a stencil and colored with Chestnut Brown Memories Ink. It makes a great stencil!

Finally, I made a little bag to put my book in. With all of those charms wanting to dangle outside the book you couldn’t use a simple enclosure. Besides how fun it is to say; the cat’s in the bag!

If you wish to make a bag simply wrap paper around your book. To avoid having to measure, I just creased the sides where they would fit around the book, took the paper to my Scor-It Board and scored. Then wrap around your book again and tape to form the bag. Slip a box inside and fold the bottom edge as you would a present. Cut the top with pinking shears and add the “Cats” word cut again from the piece that you cats came on.

You are done.

My tip for you!

If you use your Scor-It as much as I do you may find this helpful. Keep a block of beeswax nearby and rub the groove of your tool on the edge. It will now glide on your paper. Repeat as necessary.

Creatively,
Cindy Cade
cjcmlc@horizonview.net

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Bamboo Purse Tutorial

By Cindy Cade©


This is probably my most popular tutorial. Should you decide to make one expect a lot of compliments and questions.
We begin with a simple bamboo tiled placemat. Do NOT take the mat apart. Depending on the size and shape of your mat you will fold in half either vertically or horizontally.
Some that are longer will not work out to even rows and will not have an actual flat bottom. The ones I carry are a bit smaller and you end up with an extra row at the bottom which is very handy!
Now depending on the color of your tiles, you will either clean them and stamp directly or put down a coat of paint to stamp on.
Once cleaned and dried we are ready.
First take a scan of your mat. You only need the amount of rows that will make up one side of your purse. Print. Take whatever stamps you think you might like in your layout and stamp them onto a piece of transparency. Cut the pieces out. You can move these stamped pieces around on your template to see if the stamps will work well on a tile
grid and where the best placement will be. If you happen to have a digital camera, I suggest taking a picture of the completed layout to use as a guide.

Now, ink up your unmounted stamp with a permanent ink. I chose Stewart Superior India Ink Black. Pick the inked stamp up carefully by the edges and lay on the bamboo tiles. Hold in place with one hand while gently pushing all over with the other until you feel you have transferred the entire image. Lift carefully. Most likely you will make a mistake or two along the way, they are quite slippery. If you do, quickly remove the spot
with a rag. If that doesn’t work use which ever ink remover is recommended for your brand of ink. Finally if it is already set into the bamboo you can sand.

(Side 2)
Heat set after every stamping so as to avoid smearing.
Now to ad color. You can use about anything, Versacraft inks, oil pencils, markers, dye inks, just be sure to dry and heat set. After coloring the images ad lots of color (well I do!) to the background by applying with your fingers. I used both Adirondacks dye and Archival inks.

Once the coloring is complete dry fully. Seal with several coats of Krylon UV protective matte sealer and a coat or two at the end with gloss if desired drying fully between coats.
To build the purse: This next step is very fortunate since my sewing machine is unreachable at the moment. The mats I use are the perfect size to combine with the child size tote bags found in the craft department at Walmart as your liner! They do make a nice size, not too big, not too small, purse too.

Personally I like the addition of fibers. To add them I punched holes in the liner and added eyelets to tie them through. See the picture.
Plan where the eyelets will line up with the spaces left between the tiles in the bag when inserting.
Lace up the side of the mat. I have used both organza ribbon and satin cording for this. Don’t lace too tight as you want to be able to open your purse! You may begin lacing from the top down or visa versa.
I added the fibers to match (ribbon/cording) and tied beads.
Finally, attach Velcro to the purse by cutting adhesive backed strips about the vertical length of the tiles. Attach them to the tiles with the scratchy side facing the tiles and the fuzzy soft side facing the liner. Remove the backing from the smooth side now and adhere to the inserted liner. This way they will line up perfectly. It is the Velcro that will carry the weight of the bamboo and hold the purse together.
I highly suggest that you sew the smooth side to your liner for extra strength.
Your purse is complete. Make a matching key ring if you happen to have bought extra mats.
All rubber stamp images used for this sample are the property of Hearts In Touch.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Flourished Windows

What does one do when they don't have all the going trendy tools? Why they improvise of course! And so I have.

I wanted to use one of my Shakers and Movers die kits, the one with three windows. (I purchased mine from Terryfic Times). Now, I am sure I could have used the window die three times to get nine windows, but I like things easy and knew they would be a great investment so I purchased three of them. Bam, nine windows and the card cut in one run. If you think I am compulsive, you will be sure when I tell you I just ordered two more of these 3-window dies so I can make cards with 15 windows at once. LOL

Okay, on with the card. Having cut the windows, I stamped my chosen image (imagine it has windows too, I see a clear theme here....) called "Scripted Sculpture" from Diva Impressions on an orange/white cardstock. I then added more color with Marvy Matchables #5 yellow, #92 celery, and #9 pink.


Next I wanted some flourishes that are so popular right now stamped on the background but alas I have none. So I took my Sizzix Bigz Die - Decorative Accent w/Flower and cut a piece of fun foam. I slapped that baby on my acrylic block and a stamp was born. I stamped with Stewart Superior India Black. I also cut some doodles from the same die using Prismatics swatch book (also from Terryific Times).

I glued my pieces in place and backed the windows with yellow ochre cs.

Finally I doodled lots of white dots and stripes with my Ranger Opaque White pen.

Is this fun or what? LOL! It was a good Sunday.

Creatively.......

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

My House Dress

I call this card "My House Dress" and I bet you can imagine why. This uses several inks on white glossy just smooshed. Then "paint" on bleach. That is the main background. The dotted one was done with a Cuttlebug folder then inked with black on the raised dots.

The dress: I stamped the Diva Impressions rubber stamp (very cool ya?) with Stewart Superior's India Black and heat set. I then stamped the music note image with Top Boss embossing ink and added clear embossing powder and heated. I then layered on color using Marvy dye inks. Finally I cut out the dress shape using my own designed template.

I doodled on some dots and stamped part of the "house" on to the top of the dress to give a finished look before layering it all.

The Diva Sisters

It has been awhile, I know. This is all an experiment for now. I know I MUST blog, it is the accepted way to share these days, but shoot, those groups are so easy to do!

Let's play just a bit here and see:

Hmm, it is easy to add images! Hey I may just find I like this after all.

So, the main image is from Diva Impressions whom I happily stumbled upon recently. Pink and brown are so yummy together don't you think? Add some great organza ribbon and kapow!