More Fun with Art Anthology!

I just finished my post for Scrapbooker`s Paradise and I just had to quickly do a few more samples to show another fun technique with the Art Anthology product.  I did this on my `Garden Page` but the detail didn`t show in the picture.  The top right pocket actually has a wood grain effect showing on the paper under the word `Wild`.

I still have to add my journalling to this page.  I`m just going to add a pull-out tag that will fit in behind on one of these pockets.  I have to tell the real story because I don`t grow `Wild`puppies in my garden.

(My husband told me that the rabbits were eating the heads off the flowers and I discovered while I was out with the puppy taking pictures that he was the wild one taking the heads off the flowers.  It was really quite funny watching him.)

Here`s the technique that I want to share for you:

I just used some Art Anthology Velvet Paint and brushed it on my page.

 I then used a stamp and stamped immediately into the wet paint. 

 This is when I discovered that I hadn`t really cleaned my stamp last time I used it but I love how that turned out. Because of the dimension that the paint creates, the stamped portion looks debossed.

 Here is the effect that I was really after.  When I stamp quickly (with a clean stamp) into the wet `Velvet` paint, It actually removes the paint from my page.  This turned out quite well as you can see.

 Here is another experiment that I tried.  I`ve done this many times before but I wanted to try it with this product. I used my `Velvet`and just brushed onto my stamp directly and then stamped it on to my page.

Here is the effect that I get then.  I also spritz my stamp with water right after this and it also worked well.  The effect was lighter in color since I never added any more paint to the stamp.

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial.

Later,

Long Overdue!!!!!

I started Scrapbooking after my children were born so I just never got around to doing anything with my wedding pictures and for years they`ve been sitting in one of those old magnetic albums.  I know how bad these albums are for my pictures and for the last few years, I`ve slowly been working at prying each one out.  The Undu has been working well for this and I finally have most of the pictures pried loose.  

Here`s the old album:

And here`s what I`ve done so far.....in less than half an hour!

I don`t have any of the journalling done yet but you can see how easy that`s going to be.  I can`t believe that I`m saying this but I can`t wait to get up tomorrow and get more done.  

I bought the Becky Higgins `Project Life`Cinnamon Collection for myself and I thought that it would take me at least a month or so to really get into this but I was hooked in less than an hour.  This is so fast because you really don`t need anything except your pictures and your kit.  No scissors, no glue.  We have four of these kits available at Scrapbooker`s Paradise as well as the `Baby for Her and Him`and the `Wedding` kit.

Neither of my daughters Scrap but they`re each going to get a kit as a gift and I`m pretty sure that this is something that they`ll both be able to keep up with and actually enjoy.  

And here`s my Mack update.........

These two actually have fun playing together!  Koen is so used to playing with a much bigger dog that nothing Mack can do to him will hurt.

Koen definitely has the most energy of the two.

Isn`t he adorable!

And below is the rare shot of me with my baby that Katie insisted on taking!

Thanks for stopping in and have a great week!

More Melt Art Fun!

Here are some of my Hearts that I made for Scrapbooker`s Paradise and they were fun but I really don't like how the second one turned out.  I used some bronze Brilliance ink on top of metallic bronze Perfect Pearls and there just isn't enough contrast.  

Below is the original way that it turned out and above is after I was messing around with it trying to make it better.  That was a failure and I disliked it even more after that.

I was just going to get rid of it when it occurred to me that I should be able to just start over.  I remelted my entire heart and just stamped it again but this time with the Gold Brilliance ink and a different texture tread.  My etchings were so deep in the previous version that I decided to use a different tread to move things around.

Now I really like it and you can see that the colors still came through.  I used the exact same tread as my sample that I made for Scrapbooker's Paradise last week but the texture is completely different.  The underlying colors are different products and last week I used Clear Utee vs the Black Utee this week.  The biggest difference is the texture and this is because one was done with a melting pan and this week I just used a heat tool.  I can get a much thicker, even layer of Utee with the melting pan.

For all of the step by step instructions for these techniques, just check the Scrapbooker`s Paradise Blog.

And here`s a quick peek at the puppies.  This is how I caught them napping today.  They don`t see each other very often but they sure do love their time together.  They`re so adorable and funny together.

Until next time,

All Geared Up....

I thought that I'd use the pictures from last week's adventure and make a page right away.  I still have a bit of tweaking but here it is:

I used almost the same technique that I showcased on the 'Scrapbooker's Paradise' Blog to do the word "Geared".

Here's how I started:

I tend to stockpile any kind of chipboard alphas.  I never really buy any alphas based on their color.  I buy them if I like the size and the font.  I can always change the color to match whatever project I'm working on.

I have a large drawer 4' wide by 3' deep and 3" high filled with all kinds of chipboard alphas.  There are some that I really like that I have triples of.  The following picture shows how I started with a bunch of mismatched alphas followed by a picture of all the letters painted with the 'Black Sorbet.  

I obviously used different colors for my page but the process is the same.  I would also like to suggest that you wipe your stencil right away or it will stain for sure.  It will stain anyways but the paint won't be transferred to you next project if you wipe it down first.

This is what the letters look like after they've been stenciled.

 These next two pictures are also obviously not of my letters but again the process is exactly the same.

In order to smooth down the edges of my alphas after I cut and filed them.  I did dip all of my easily reachable edges and to add a little more sheen and to even off the edges, I quickly turned my project rightside down into the Utee and removed them right away.  Since the new Tim Holtz metallic paints had just arrived, I rubbed the copper color over my alpha  at the end and then wiped it off.  I love how they turned out.  As soon as I saw the 'Gears' texture plate from Ranger I knew what I wanted to do.

This is how they look when they are done and put through the melting and stamping process.

Yee-Haw!  Calgary Stampede has begun.  This is the 101st year of the stampede.

ps.The puppies are growing so quickly.  I'll have to add some recent photos of them this week.