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

Faux Marbling with Shaving Cream How Too / Tipnique Tuesday

Morning everyone
so yesterday I put my hand into all those tips and techniques I have collected over my paper crafting years and I pulled out "Faux Marbling" and smiled. This is an old old technique and brings back fond memories of playing with this with my children when they were small. As my eldest is now 22 that was way back LOL.

MATERIALS

• Shaving cream-any brand and in fact cheap brands seem to work best
• Re inkers, spray inks, thinned paint etc or even food colouring works
• Gladbake or other protective surface paper
• A plastic tray big enough for Q6 or even up to A4 paper size
• An old credit card or palette knife
• Skewer or end of a paint brush
• Paper towel
• Gloves or you don't like ink stained hands
• White or pale coloured mat card stock cut big enough to fit in your tray. Gloss will work but comes out with a paler effect. Sturdy 300gms card stock works well

HOW TOO

(1) Place a sheet of Gladbake on your work surface. Place tray on top. Shake shaving cream and squeeze about 1cm deep into the tray. You don't have to fill the whole tray base just enough for the size of your card stock.

(2) Use the old credit card or palette knife and smooth over the surface.

(3) Add drops of colour. In this one I used Alcohol inks by Ranger. I use 1-3 colours only and think about your colour theory as they will mix and can get muddy looking.

 

(4) Now drag the skewer back and forth and in circles thru the mix to make a marble effect. What a colourful mess LOL. I'm sure I have seen paintings that are considered fine art that look like this :o).

(5) Place card stock on the surface. I find the best way to do this is to gently bend the card stock in the center upward to make a "U" shape and place the bend on the surface first and then gently press the two ends down as well. Gently press card all over at the back to make sure it has full contact with the surface.

(6) Slowly peel the card stock back up and place it on the Gladbake. It looks good enough to eat!

 (7) Scrap off excess back into your tray with the credit card and then blot off any remaining shaving cream with a paper towel. Tada beautiful marble looking hand coloured card stock. If you haven't got full coverage you can place the card stock back on the shaving cream and try again. Card stock will bend up and then flatten once dry.

(8) Flatten the shaving cream and repeat the above steps. Each print will be lighter and the colour more mixed. When you don't like the effect anymore rinse the shaving cream off  and start again.

Well that's it and then you can stamp on top or layer images etc and have the marbled bg showing thru. As I had all the stuff out to do this I decided to go all out and try things with any colours within reach. The next two I have used two Adirondack dye ink re-inker colours and the yellow was a Colorbox pigment ink re-inker.

I even sprayed gold Perfect Pearls spray on top of the shaving cream before I put the card stock down for this one.

This next batch I used Vivid dye ink re-inkers.

This is the first pull up colour on the card stock.

See how the colours are less intense with subsequent pulls of card stock?.

This patch I used Radiant Rain sprays. I shook them, took the lids off and splattered the colour around.

Its hard to capture the glimmer in photos but the effect was pastel coloured shimmer!!

After a few pulls the base colour was mainly pale blue so I added some more drops of the Radiant Rain on top but didn't mix them in this time and placed my card stock straight on top.

And got this.

My last pull of colour was very pale so I jazzed it up. Where my Radiant Rains had been sitting some of the ink had puddled around the circular bases of the bottles...so I used the base of bottle to twist into the settled colours and stamped coloured rings on top.

This one is done using just one colour of ink only

This is a finished card made from one of my faux marbled back grounds

So there you have it faux marbling. I would love to see what anyone makes with this. Positive thoughts to all my family and friends in QLD. I'm hoping the weather improves soon for you all and you are all safe and not affected by flooding. Oh dang sorry if you read this earlier with all the spelling mistakes LOL...I type looking down....I think I have all the errors fixed now :o).
hugs
Annette In Oz

Types of Inks and how they differ-a brief guide/ Tipnique Tuesday

Hi all
well my puffy steam punk heart is still awaiting time for me to play with it...one thing lead to another and I just never got back to it. Last week I was trying to make some space to have a go at playing with the heart as my desk had been swallowed up with Christmas papers and colours. In doing so I rediscovered three draws of old paper crafting how too's and techniques. I've put them all in a folder now and was thinking of revisiting some at regular intervals this year and sharing them here. Some will be VERY simple and easy yet just maybe new to others. Some will be just a tip and others a technique.
I remember when I first started playing with paper crafts being overwhelmed by which type of inks did what so here is a brief difference description of a few commonly used ones. There is a vast amount more then the ones I shall talk about but this is just a taster...

Pigment-Based Inks
Pigment inks are slow drying, which makes them the perfect ink to use when you want to emboss with powders. Embossing powder is sprinkled on top of the stamped pigment ink, shake off excess and heat with a heat gun or over a toaster till the powders melt...it leaves a shiny raised surface. Be careful if you don't emboss as they can stay wet and easily smudge for days. Stamps will slide easily if you try to stamp on a gloss card with pigment inks. Clean up is with water/wash up liquid or a stamp cleaning solution. Examples of pigment-based inks include Adirondack Pigment Inks by Ranger Industries, ColorBox by Clearsnap, Craft Stampin’ Pad by Stampin’ Up!, VersaColor and Brilliance inks by Tsukineko
Versafine Ink by Tsukineko is an oil based instant dry pigment ink. It is water resistant so can be used on water colour papers and will keep a well defined stamping edge when you add colour to your image. It dries too quick for embossing well.
Versamark ink pad by Tsukineko is a very thick ink. The ink stays wet longer when stamped and chalk, pearl ex powder etc can be dusted on top. They will stick where the ink has been stamped and you just gentle dust away the excess with a soft brush. You can also stamp on gloss card and brayer or stipple on coloured inks over the top and the stamped image will resist the colour applied giving a ghost effect. Stamp on coloured card to create a watermark effect. Its also an excellent ink for applying embossing powders too.
 
Dye-Based Inks
Dye-based inks dry quickly and are heavily pigmented. This makes them ideal for quick stamping on card stock, paper, and many other surfaces when you don’t want the ink to smear. Best used on porous surfaces. They are water soluble though and will leach out if water is dropped on top. Generally they dry too quick for embossing powders to be added on top. Cleaning the ink of the stamp is easily done with water and paper towel or even a little dish wash liquid, water and a paper towel. You can tap a paint brush on top and dip it in water and paint with them. Smoosh the pad on a craft mat, spritz it with water and press card stock on top for yummy bgs etc etc.These are the types of inks you will find in most ink jet printers.
Examples of dye-based inks include: Distress Ink and Adirondack inks by Ranger Industries, and Vivid dye inks by Clearsnap and Memories by Stewart Superior Corporation
There are fast drying dye inks that are more resistant to water. They are water resistant or waterproof when dry so can be used on porous and non porous surfaces. They can stain stamps and you will need a stamp cleaning solution to clean stamps. Examples of these sorts of pads are Ancient Page Dye Ink by Clearsnap and Memories India Ink Black Dye Ink by Stewart Superior

Solvent-Based Inks
Solvent-based inks are designed for stamping on nonporous surfaces, which makes them ideal for projects involving metal, acrylic, glass, glossy photos, Vellum and transparencies. It will stain your stamps and must be cleaned off stamps using a solvent based cleaner. It's what I use when I want an ink resist for etching metal. An example of solvent-based inks include StazOn by Tsukineko and the ink in Sharpie markers.


 Then there is the whole world of types of paper and card stocks. Generally paper crafters use 180-300gms card stock. It depends on how sturdy you want the base card. The higher the grams on the card stock the thicker and sturdier the card will be. Gloss card is used for printing photos on, stamping photo stamps on and making bgs with inks and sprays etc. Gloss card can be very cheap(inks sit on surface and doesn't sink in well which is good for doing ink jet transfers) or expensive which lets the ink sink in more and making the images less likely to be affected by water and other mediums. Watercolour paper comes in different grams and will be rough(cold pressed) or smooth (hot pressed). Its absorbent and there are many many ways to use it.
Then there are coated papers, Valiums (films), tissue papers, hand made papers and so on...the list is really endless. A lot of the time with paper and card stock its more about getting some and have a play and see what you can do for yourself with them. The same is true with the vast amounts of inks and ink pads out there. I've only mentioned a mere few. All usually have info re the ink type, its use and how to clean up afterwards on the back as a guide. There really is no right and wrong and many techniques using inks have been discovered simply by people playing outside those guidelines. My little guide is the tip of the iceberg so just Google away if there is more you want to know.

I've always bought the re inker at the time I buy a new stamp pad and that's a BIG tip I pass on. It's darn annoying when your ink pad runs dry and you have no re inker!. To re ink you just add drops on the surface of the pad and gently massage in the ink with the nozzle of the re inker or re ink as per manufacturer guidelines. You can even buy blank stamp pads and make your own ink pads if you want. Not everyone does but I also store my ink pads upside down so the ink is more likely to be on the surface when you need it. ALSO if your ink pad comes with a covering film or plastic cover on top of the pad KEEP IT. Remove it for stamping and then put it back on. If you get sick of removing and reapplying it just place some double sided tape under the lid to attach it in place and you want even have to think about it. My last tip with ink pads is if they come loose from the base you can glue them back down with Super Glue even if they are wet with ink. Hope this helps someone :o).
hugs
Annette In Oz

Steampunk card-Just playing

I had a play with some mixed media things tonight and using a photo stamp called Maribel by Stempelglede that I had but had never used. As I've been playing with jewellery a lot more then papercrafts the hardest part for me was remembering how to get the right amount of ink on the stamp! Eventually the Brayer and my Stazon ink were the answer. My photograph is a bit lop sided sorry :o)

The details closer...

And a closer look at the image which I think is modern and gorgeous!

Must get that steam punk heart out next which I haven't touched since my last post despite good intentions. Having an absent hubby makes me very busy and some days I just don't get "me" time.
hugs
Annette In Oz