Love Wishes and Dreams card

I had a big clean up on and around my art desk...I even spent 2 hrs sorting my chippy shapes into themes...then I wondered why the heck I bothered as I use chippy  in pieces when I make mixed media cards/work. Sure I may start with  say a tree branch but you would never know it by the end LOL I'm thinking I need to contact companies and ask for their off cuts!! My biggest\ stash in chippy is cogs and watch faces etc.......hhhmmm those of you whom know me well would know I am a steampunk fan with a passion for cogs, light bulbs and wings etc.

While I sorted my chippy stuff I left some out to use. Then I found one of my fav vintage child images, some white gesso unearthed under some card stock and then found my gel medium and a few small flowers and trinkets....and before I knew it I was making another mixed media card called "Love, wishes and dreams". I used Dylussions spray as the red/yellow colour and then Perfect Pearls Mist gold on top so its lovely and shimmery. First photo is with flash off.

Flash on

Closer look at the details. Cogs, buttons, zippers, press studs, light bulb, wooden peg, lace, chippy, flowers, watch parts etc etc

This last shot I tilted the card so you can sort of see the shimmer when the light hits it :o)

The card is large...just a bit bigger then A5. Hope the person I had in mind for this likes it :o). Don't forget I'll draw the winner of my Give Away below tomorrow so please enter if you want a chance to win. Sheesh...off to colean up my desk again and I'll try to not get distracted this time LOL
hugs
Annette In Oz

GIVE AWAY-Luminarte Primary Elements Polished Pigments

                                               GIVE AWAY
Just bumping this back up to the top post in my blog. 1 day to go till I draw a winner. Now to a treat for some one I hope. Luminarte Primary Elements Polished Pigments are highly pigmented powders with built in binders and shimmery mica, that can be mixed with Luminarte Simple Solutions or other art mediums or even with water to make your own shimmery sprays.

I had recently bought some Luminarte Primary Elements Polished Pigments from some one on Facebook. Prior to this I had owned mainly blues, greens and purples. I had no idea what colours were coming my way but when I got them I was totally blown away as there were yellows, oranges, pinks, more blues, greens and purples I didn't have and a black!!! Woot Woot was I happy and then some. So yesterday when I pulled my Polished Pigment stash out and organized the colours I had and the ones I had just bought I realized I had 8 colours that were identical.

So I would like to do a give away of the doubled up colours I have which are three shades of green, three shades of blue, a pink and a purple. You only need to add a tiny bit of powder to your medium of choice for a wow effect so they last for ages!!. As I have used some of my colours I had and the ones I have bought are second hand too I can't guarantee all these are totally full but they look close to full.

This is Lemondrop Yellow (not in the 8 to give away) that I have mixed with water...you can't see the shimmer in photos but it is there and you can see the intense colour effect you can get!! You can even mix colours to create custom colours.

I'll also throw in a doubled up plastic Kaiser mask/stencil I have..

AND I'll put in some simple solutions and the instruction sheet for the Luminarte Primary Elements Primary Pigments. I'll cover postage and I don't mind sending this little gift anywhere in the World :o). To be in the draw just link my blog to your Facebook page, Yahoo group or other group, your blog or whatever and leave a comment HERE with your name (I'll accept comments even if you can't share a link :o)). If you don't have a Google account and don't wish to create one just drop me an e-mail (address is at top right of my blog) with your name and "give away" in the subject line to go in the draw.  After 2 weeks I'll use a random generator to pick a winner. :o).

So you can see the intense colours you can get I made a mixed media card using Luminarte Primary Elements Polished Pigments from the left over colours on my palette when I decorated my journal...

And the next two images are the journal covers I made in Finn's class but decorated at home using Polished Pigments...

Of course you can water the effect down so the colours are not as intense if you like. Again its a shame the camera can't pick up the glimmer and shimmer on the card and journal. See below this post for a how to make home made Christmas Baubles using the powders too :o)

I think I may have forgot to say why I do a Tuesday tip or technique...I was rearranging some draws to try to make more space and come across three draws of past paper crafting tips and techniques that I had collected over my paper crafting years but I had forgot about. I had also recently rejoined one of my paper crafting yahoo groups and thought I would randomly pick a tip or technique each week and share it on my blog and group. I guess at some stage I shall run out of tips and techniques but not for awhile yet LOL On all other days of the week I am usually playing with metal and making funky jewellery :o).

Good luck all.
hugs
Annette In Oz

Luminarte Primary Elements Polished Pigment Background Tutorial

As I said before there are LOADS of ways to use Luminarte Primary Elements Polished Pigments and as I have some to give away this coming Sunday I'll show you how I make shimmery textured looking  backgrounds to use in your art work. All photos were taken with flash off as the powders have mica in them so kept reflecting. Hence they look a little washed out sorry

You will need 

• 1-3 colours of Primary Elements or other richly coloured mica powders like Pearl-Ex
• A small spoon or Popsicle sticks
• A plastic tray
• Card stock-I have used both Matt and gloss but prefer gloss for some reason
• Gauze or Muslin 
• Water spritzer bottle
• Floor polish. You can substitute floor polish with watered down PVA glue (white glue that dries clear like Elmers glue in the USA) or Acrylic paint medium
• Newspaper to protect your work surface and gloves if you don't want pretty coloured fingers :o)

1) Place gauze in tray

 2) Pour in just enough floor polish to wet the gauze. I added too much so ended up using 2 pieces of gauze to soak it up a bit

3) Sprinkle on Primary Elements powders and do a light spritz of water to help the colours mix and blend

 4) Gently press card stock on top. Lift it up and leave it to dry on the newspaper. The gauze will print onto the card stock in a shimmery gauze pattern.

When the liquid decreases use the coloured gauze and lay it on card stock

 Then place another sheet on top and press firmly or use a roller over the top and the gauze print will be on both sheets

 At first the colours are really mingled with not much gauze print and as the liquid decreases the gauze print becomes more prominent.

Even when you have finished and there is just dried up shimmery colour left in the tray, spritz it with water and press card stock in the mix and you will get something like this...

This is how I made a card using the back grounds. I stamped the dragonfly image on top with black pigment ink. While the ink is wet sprinkle on black embossing powder and use a heat gun or hold above a toaster turned on (heat from underneath) to melt the embossing powder till it looks glossy. I also stamped and embossed the same image on Vellum. I coloured the images with Luminarte Twinkling H2O's in similar colours to the back ground. Cut out just the wings from the Vellum.

Place a small blob of clear sealant on the wings on the card close to the body of the dragonfly. Sealant is the  stuff you use around sinks and in the bathroom to seal them and prevent leakage when using water taps.

 Place the vellum wing on top and gently press it in place so the wings look raised up.

I then realized I wanted to use brads in the cornesr but I had no brads that matched the colour of the card so I mixed some Primary Elements with Simple solution, lightly sanded the brads and painted the colour on.

I added some rub on letters and layered the card on coordinating card and then to the base card. Lastly I glued some small green metallic seed beads on the dragonflies as eyes and TADA its all done.

The colours I have used on the gauze print back grounds I made above are the same as three in the Give Away I am having which is here. If anyone else would like to enter you only have till Sunday to do so and please look further down for more ways to use this fabo product :o)
hugs
Annette In Oz xxx

Swing Panel Card / Tipnique Tuesday

Into my folder of tips/techniques for paper crafting my hand went and pulled out a simple but effective card with movement. The central panel swings to show either side. Hence a "swing panel card"

               Materials

• A4 sheet of sturdy card stock
• Craft knife, pencil, ruler, bone folder, cutting mat, eraser and scissors
• Images or decorative papers and elements of choice

               How Too
1) Either use this template

or measure and cut out a 25cm by 19cm piece from your A4 card stock. Measure and mark at top and bottom at 10cm, and 15cm along the 25cm sides. At the 10cm and 15cm dots measure down/up 3.5cm (use above template as a guide). Then measure and mark a line across from the 3.5cm dot 3cm long. Use ruler and pencil and mark a solid line up/down to meet other 3cm line. This line will be 12cm long

2) Cut solid lines using your ruler and craft knife

3) Use bone folder and score all four 3.5cm  lines. Use bone folder to press the left hand 3.5cm scored line into a mountain fold and the right ones into a valley fold.

A mountain fold creates a peak like the one below and a valley fold creates a dip.

4) Your card should now look like this and the inner panel can swing back and forth as you pull the card open,.

 Of course you can decorate the card first but as I wanted to show you the folds I did mine afterwards. This time I used some Lindys Stamp Gang Starburst sprays

 Once it was dry I ran it thru my Cuttlebug several times and highlighted ares with gold metallic rub on. I then glued on two previously made background panels at the front and back of the swinging part. On the main panel that would be seen the most I painted on white gesso in the centre, dried it with my heat gun and then stamped my image with black Stazon ink and coloured my image. Lastly I added some pearl dot bling swirls.

 On the other panel which does not fully show I used white rub ons and put "Dream" down the side. The whole card is VERY shimmery due to the Starburst sprays and the background panels!!

As I am so late today after dinner I shall put up how I made the two background panels too. They were done using Luminarte Primary Elements Polished Pigments so its another way to use the ones I am giving away in the post below this. Only 5 more days to enter for your chance to win. 

hugs

Annette In Oz

Steampunk and Mixed media cards

Just a few more mixed media cards to share :o). The first two were a friends birthday and for her hubby who is sick in hospital..

The last one I made with colours still on my paint palette from when I added the colour to my journal covers made in Finnabair's class in posts below this.

hugs

Annette In Oz