3D Pull Tab Card How Too / Tipnique Tuesday

Tuesday is here way too fast. Today I thought I would share how I made the 3D Pull Tab card I made from last Tuesdays Tipnique

                                MATERIALS

• 1xA4sheet of card stock
• Contrasting card stock of your choice
• Pencil, ruler, craft knife, cutting mat, scissors and a rubber
• Double sided tape
• Eyelet setter, eyelet and fibers of choice
• Image, stamps or rub ons of choice

                                HOW TOO

1)  Cut A4 card to measure 29.5cm long x15cm high. Keep cut off part to make the pull tab.  Place it in the landscape position. Mark with a pencil from left side on top and bottom edge, at 10cm, then at 20cm so you have two 10cm areas and the last one is 9.5cms.

2)  Score and fold to make a three fold card with the 9.5cm panel folded into the middle.

3)  Open up in portrait position(length wise) and turn it over so you are now working on the inside with the 9.5cm panel at the bottom. On inside middle panel measure and mark a dot 3cm up/down from the folds on the left and right side of the panel. Draw pencil lines across. (I'll use a metallic pen so you can see what I mean better.

4)  On the right side measure and mark a dot 2cm in on both drawn lines. Then do the same from the 2cm dots but make the next dot 3cm in. Repeat 3 cm dots 2 more times. Score vertical lines on marked areas.

5)  From left side cut along both horizontal marked lines up to the 2cm marked area on the lines

6)  Turn card to the front, bend and score the vertical lines so first line is a valley fold, then next two mountain folds and last one a valley fold. This will make a step like structure.

At the front it should look like this

7) From piece cut off from the A4 card at start measure and cut a 14x3.5cm strip. 

8)  On inside of the card place some double sided tape just prior to first valley fold at left .

9)  Remove tape backing. Adhere the strip you just made where the double sided tape is (the squiggled area in the picture) so it sticks out over the right  edge at other side.

10)  Use double sided tape and adhere a 14cmx8cm rectangle of contrasting card stock to the 9.5cm panel while still working on the inner card. Place it so its at the left and upper edge on the 9.5cm panel.

11)  Apply double sided tape to the 3cm horizontal area above and below the step and pull mechanism. Remove the backing from the tape. Fold bottom 9.5cm panel up and adhere it in place. 

12) Turn card to front again so pull tab at left. Pull the tab and stamp, use stickers or rub ons to apply a sentiment of your choice to the exposed area.

13)  Stamp or use image of choice and make a square panel to go on the raised up area when you pull the tab. Don't make it any larger then 9cm square.

14) Apply double sided tape to the raised area. Push this part flat down again. Remove backing from tape and adhere image so it sits evenly.

15) Pull tab at left. Punch hole on pull tab and set an eyelet in place. 

16) Add some fibers thru the eyelet hole. Further embellish card as desired. Add a card insert and you are done :o).

Sorry the post was a bit late today but I had sinus trouble in AM and just couldn't get motivated till after lunch. Hope someone finds this of help someplace. Tonight I shall go a etched copper puffy heart making woot woot.

hugs

Annette In Oz xxx

Steampunk puffy heart necklace-"The Aviator" ...$4 a ride anyone?

Hi all
Recently I discovered another amazing steam punk jewellery maker out there and was totally floored when I went to her website and realized I had evolved with my puffy heart necklaces and arrived at a look that was similar to hers. My problem was that she had been doing this a lot longer then me and she is apparently well known in the steam punk world of creativity and rightly so. Also her designs are copyrighted, polished and down right gorgeous. This all caused me so much anguish as I have always tried to respect others creative licence and copyrights yet here I was making a design I loved and didn't know if I could make them anymore.
It was worrying me and making me so sad that I eventually contacted her via e-mail explaining I create similar puffy steam punk hers to hers, that I respected her as an artist, acknowledged her copyright and that I would try to make my puffy hearts different to hers from now on, now I knew of her. I sent her an image of my recent necklace that I have called The Aviator. To my relief she sent me an e-mail yesterday giving me her blessing to keep making my puffy steam punk hearts, to sell them if I want and said she loved my Aviator necklace!! What an amazing response and I feel so humble by her words. So its with great pleasure I can now show you my latest steam punk heart called "The Aviator"...$4 a ride anyone?

The cogs and propeller have small spacer beads between then so they can move even though they are soldered in place on the inner side of the heart. The man is an old tin type image and the gold toned washer has "Hope, Faith and Love" on it. I'm still in love with those tiny acrylic LED's so I had to add one here as well. My hands still shake but I am finding soldering is easier the more I do. The copper etched puffy heart I had an image of in a previous post is now currently getting adorned and I shall show you all soon.

I think having had a very stressful week with a beloved pet dying, some hard shifts at work, feeling gut wrenched about the other jewellery artist and elation of my dear hubby Grant coming home for good again at last made this one hell of emotional week indeed for me. Life certainly is full of ups and downs but in the end one always has to be honest and true to themselves and their art :o).

hugs

Annette In Oz xxx

Bubble Print Backgrounds How Too / Tipnique Tuesday

It  is a lovely day here in the Northern Territory. It's overcast and I can hear distant thunder. We have had a very hot humid Wet season and we are all ready and wanting a huge rain. The temperature is much cooler at the moment as well.  Todays tipnique is another from the dinosaur days but its cheap and easy to do. It's also a fun one to do with kids around...or not LOL.

                     Materials

• Container such as a bowl or plastic food dish
• Water
• Washing up liquid
• Water based colour mediums such as Acrylic paints, food colours, die inks, powdered colours like Lumiarte Polished Pigments etc. Rich or heavily pigmented colours work best. If all you have is paint then that's ok too
• Card stock-I used both mat and gloss in white but shades of different colour would be nice too
• A drinking straw
• Newspaper

                    How Too
1) Place newspaper over work area to protect it. Gather your items

2) Put paint in your dish. Dilute it with water so mixture is runny but has a good intense colour. This is not a precise technique and varying the paint to water ratio will give different end results and intensity of colour. I changed from a square dish to round as I found it easier to blow bubbles in.

3) Add some dish wash liquid. Again this is not precise in how much to add. By trial and error I liked more dish liquid then less as the bubbles sustained their shape longer so I could work with them.
Use the straw and blow bubbles into the mixture so they bubbled up above the dish edge. If you blow heavily you get large bubbles and smaller ones by blowing more gently.

4) Lay card stock on top and then lift it back up. Repeat till card is covered. The bubbles burst on contact and leave coloured rings. Put card stock on newspaper to dry. Use both hands to lay it on the bubbles. I had my camera in the other hand in the photo.

5) Experiment. I added layers of bubble print backgrounds going from light to darker bubbles. Try your different medium and just have fun with it all.

This first one is yellow and then orange bubble prints on mat card

Green blue on gloss card

Plain black on gloss and then mat card.

Orange on gloss and then black bubble print to edges only.

Purple then black on gloss card.

The last one was gloss card that I randomly added colour layers of bubble print to finishing with a metallic gold.

Now stamp, layer and embellish as you like. Here is a pull tab card I made with mine

Oh and a warning don't get distracted and suck the mixture up or put used end of straw in your mouth like I did last night...it had to be the black mix I did it with too...hence the fine splatters of black on the orange/yellow background bubble print as I splattered it about from my mouth!. Sorry for the gross details.

hugs

Annette In Oz

Lattice Spine How Too / Tipnique Tuesday

Gosh Tuesday comes around fast LOL. So into my big book of paper craft tips and techniques my hand went and came out holding a how to make a lattice spine effect on the edge of your card. OOHHH I love this effect. Here is what I am talking about:

Both cards were coloured with twinkling H2O watercolours. The second one is done over a faux marbling back ground.

1) Fold your card stock in half. I use a A4 sized piece usually as I am hopeless at working out the dimensions of the finished card till its finished LOL. If you have card stock that is a different colour on the back to the front this looks awesome too. Use a bone folder and run it along the folded edge.

2) Place folded card so folded edge at left. Measure and mark a dot at top and at the bottom at 1cm and at 2cm from the folded edge. Mark a line with a pencil and ruler at each dot all the way down from top to bottom

3) On the lines and on the spine mark a dot with a pencil at every cm from top to bottom. Sorry this one is blurry but you get what I mean.

 4) Draw a line diagonally from the upper 1cm mark on the spine across and down to the 3cm mark on the second line. Then draw a line from the 2cm mark on the spine to the 3cm mark on the middle line. Score the little space between the 1cm and 2cm lines. Repeat this all the way down the folded card.

5) Use ruler and sharp craft knife to cut thru the folded card on the marked lines only. Do not cut scored lines. Once lines are cut turn it over and score the spaces between each cut line as you did on the front.

6) Rub out all the pencil marks. Open card and lay it flat so outer card is upright. To make the lattice neat I usually cut off the bottom most ^ across both score lines and put it aside. Starting at the bottom bend the ^ shape down. Place a dab of glue under the point and under the "legs" but only at base of the legs and press the ^ in place. Repeat all the way up and then glue in place the first ^ that you removed at the start in the space that is now at top. (See top two cards for reference)

7) Once all bits glued down refold card and use a bone folder to press all scored areas and spine firmly in place. Tada card with lattice spine is done. You can do the same effect under or at top of the card by drawing lines horizontally but not all the way to the edges. You can even make circle patterns like this. On this spin bg card I stuck the removed bottom part inside at top.

hugs
Annette In Oz

Steampunk Puffy Heart Necklace

Have you ever had to make something for someone you think is hugely talented artist, someone you look up too and making it scared the heck out of you to do so for fear it would not work or what you make would be inferior ? Well that was me in making my second puffy steam punk heart!. I procrastinated about it so much I just couldn't even start. The first one was full of mistakes but I wear it like my own badge of honor because I problem solved and got it made in the end. Because the first one HAD been hard to make that too was playing on my mind.

Then two days ago I had the time...my desk was clear and the puffy heart I had puffed months before was sitting there waiting for me on my fire brick...so  butane alight in one shaky hand and plumbers lead free solder in the other shaky hand I started...and guess what I made no mistakes and the whole thing came together easily!! I didn't burn my little acrylic light or file the back off it like I did last time, I remembered to leave tabs for the wings to attach too, I drilled holes exactly where I wanted them, I used all solder an no glue to hold all the components in place and it all only took hours (even though time for me to free to work on it took 2 days) rather then weeks like the last one. Even I am impressed with myself LOL.

Here is my second steam punk heart necklace at last. Instead of a moving arrow I used moving gears and a cute moving propeller. It has proved hard to take photos off...too dark with flash off but colour not quite right with flash on plus little shadows here and there. 

This one is flash off and room light on and the shadows were less evident.
.

Under the propeller there are two cogs. All three components move as I have a small washer between each.

A bit blurry sorry but that shows the gorgeous little brass keyhole filled with tiny watch parts and sealed in place with Ice Resin.

Now all I need to do is get brave enough to give it to the person it was made for at the end of the month. HINT she is from Poland and will be touring Australia and New Zealand teaching mixed media art classes. She loves things that are steam punk!

hugs

Annette In Oz