Scrapbookers Can Etch Too - Etched Glass Mugs

I continue to work on my creativity, and since this is a year to frugally gift, I decided to try my hand at etching some glass mugs for my parents. Many of my sisters on the Cricut messageboard have been doing glass etching for awhile and I was intrigued. Last month, my interest was peaked again when I went to visit my aunt and uncle's new store The Caribbean Experience at Barnaby Street Shoppes (at Bell Mar Shops) in Surprise, AZ. While there, I visited the store, B & B Etching Products, of a lovely lady named Barb who was offering "make and takes" using her Etch-All Etching cream. Both my son and I etched a cute little hummingbird on a glass tile. The process was much easier than I thought it was.

So a week or two ago, I went back and purchased her kit which included the etching cream, a tool to use for weeding, a stencil of the hummingbird, and explicit directions on how to do the etching. I also purchased a pack of her Etchmask Stencil Vinyl which came packaged with the needed transfer sheets. I visited Dollar Tree and purchased two of the glass mugs for $1 each.

I used my Cricut to cut out the stencils. It took me a minute to figure out what to do with the transfer paper and how to put the stencil on the glass, but once I remembered I was good to go. After cutting the vinyl, I weeded it, and then put the transfer paper on top of the vinyl. I removed the backing from the vinyl and then placed the vinyl (with its transfer paper) on the glass mug. I removed the transfer paper and then I was ready to use the etching cream. What you see below is the result. If you are interested in my observations and what I learned, you will find those below my pics.

I was very pleased with the way these turned out and the quality of the etching. I did realize the following though:

1. I had trouble seeing where the designs were going to fall on the glass and so they ended up being placed too low and in one case, slightly crooked. My thinking was that if I left a wide margin all the way around the stencil, then there would be less covering needed of the parts I didn't want etched. I should have trimmed the stencils to about 1/2" to 1" all the way around so that placement would have been easier.
2. Barb suggested that when etching on a curved surface that one should use white contact paper to put around the stencil to make a sort of well to catch the etching cream as it dripped a little. I decided to use blue painters tape instead which worked okay, but the contact paper would have done a better job of catching the drips. While the cream was setting, I had to be mindful of the dripping and often had to wipe away cream as it dripped towards areas that I didn't want etched.
3. My designs probably could have been made a little smaller.

I enjoyed doing this much more than I thought I would and may end up becoming a "mad etch artist!" With my Cricut to cut stencils, the sky is the limit! Thanks for looking and Happy New Year to all of my followers!

Scraps of Color Kwanzaa Giveaway

One of my favorite websites, Scraps of Color is doing a FABULOUS weeklong Kwanzaa Giveaway.  You can check it out right here. Check in each day because you won't know what the challenge is or the prize.  You've got to play to win.  Please note: all prizes will be mailed at the end of the giveaway, because each day you enter you could win and I just want to send 1 package to each winner!  Also, due to the cost of shipping, this giveaway is limited to US & Canada Residents only.)  

BONUS!!!  Create a card, layout or altered project with Kwanzaa as your inspiration/subject and be entered to win an additional prize!  That's right at the end of the week someone will win a wonderful prize just for getting crafty!  Just share a link to your creation below and you are entered.  Entries must be shared by Saturday, January 1, 2011 11:59pm eastern time.  

Make Time for Peace and Relaxation - Pat and Cali Card

I can't believe it's been so long since I've updated my blog. But then, I guess it would make sense since it's been about that long since I've done any kind of papercrafting. Finally though, I sat down to complete a request that my aunt made to me in August. Some of you may remember me going on and on about a class called "52 Card Pick-Up" over at BigPictureClasses (formerly BigPictureScrapbooking.com). In this blog entry, I shared some of the techniques I had learned. One of them involved placing a photo with high contrast into a Word document, converting it to black and white, and then adjusting the contrast to create this kind of retro Andy Warhol look. I sent a picture of the original project to my dear aunty and she fell in love with it requesting approximately 25 note cards made with the same picture. That request was made in August. I FINALLY finished the cards during Thanksgiving weekend and you can see a couple of pics below. Life (and the need for printer ink cartridges) basically got in the way. I hate it when that happens. Sometimes it's just stuff you have to do and other times when there's no stuff to do, the mojo's not there. I've missed my mojo and have to constantly remind myself that I must make time to do those things that restore peace and relaxation to my life, like papercrafting. So that's the lesson for today...if you really do enjoy papercrafting, make time for it, everyday if possible. You don't have to devote hours and hours at a time. Sometimes, all that's needed is a 30-minute session to remove the stress of the day and get those creative juices flowing. Hope I take my own advice! Thanks for looking!

There's Hope for Unfinished Layouts - Standing Tall Together

This is the last layout I completed at the Crop Re-tweet. Believe it or not this layout has been sitting in my unfinished pile for well over three years. My best friend sent me these pictures and I just knew that I had to create a layout. So...I turned to my Pagemaps binder found a sketch for a two-page layout and got busy during a crop I attended when I was a CM consultant. From the start, I had trouble pulling it together, and over the years pulled it out over and over again, only to put it back in it's protective envelope. I couldn't figure out why it wasn't coming together, especially since I was starting out with a trusty sketch, which as we know can be turned and tweaked to make it fit your pictures and ideas.

Well while pondering this layout yet again last weekend, my friend and co-cropper said to me, maybe you should try a one-page layout instead, because it seems that you have too much space to make it a two-page layout. Light bulb moment and a big 'ole duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! Why didn't I think of that? It's just been in the last couple of years that I've actually done one-page layouts, having always done full albums or at least two-page spreads. So why NOT do a one-page layout instead? Permission was all that was needed for me to move in a different direction, permission that I could have granted to myself had I been thinking outside of the box.

The layout is very simple and in my opinion it doesn't need lots of "stuff" because the pictures tell a story all by themselves. I am so glad that pictures are finally seeing the light of day on scrapbook page. The lesson learned was of course "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again!"

P.S. As I look at this layout onscreen, I am contemplating changing the journaling box from pink to same color used in the photo mat and then matting that with the pink. But...if I don't ever get around to doing it, that's okay too.

Don't forget YOU in your pages! - Back to School, Old School

Another layout I completed last weekend was based on the September Challenge over at Scraps of Color.  The challenge was to scrap BACK TO SCHOOL...OLD SCHOOL!   And...we don't mean your kids...we mean YOU!  The layout was to include: one or more of my school pictures from any grade, have at least one cardstock and two patterned papers, a journaling block, and shabby chic techniques (anything to age the layout...inking, tattered edges, old lace, etc.). The layout had to be new as of September 8th. This is the first time in ten years of scrapbooking that I did a layout containing old photos of me.

If you've been following my blog (and thank you to all of you who do!) you know that I am "patterned-paper challenged." So, I turned to my recently acquired DCWV Hittin' the Books stack. Using the stack made matching up pattern-paper easy peasy! For my shabby chic technique, no exciting stuff there...I just inked around the edges of my paper. I originally numbered my photos with glaze pens, using white on the dark corners, and black on the light corners. I didn't like the way it looked...kind of after-thought looking....so I found some stickers, punched some small circles and adhered them to my pictures.

Lessons learned this time around? DCWV paper stacks and other coordinating paper lines are a must have for those who are patterned-paper challenged! They are on sale at Joann's at 40% to 50% off more often than not. Boo boo's can always be fixed...just think outside the box! And finally, when scrapbooking, don't forget to capture your "early years" in your pages. Your family will love looking at them and seeing what you were like way back when. Thanks for looking!

Stuck Ideas - The Polar Express

The next thing I worked on at the retreat was a layout I began in June while taking SDU at Joann's. If memory serves me correctly, we chose the pictures first and were then instructed to do a split complementary color scheme layout. As they are Christmas photos I was glad not to be doing the traditional red-green color combination. I chose blue-green cardstock for my background, and the split complementary colors for that are red and orange. I seem to remember having trouble weaving in the orange and changing my color scheme. I went with a red/yellow-green/blue-green combo which are also split complementary colors.

This layout sat for awhile because I had envisioned something totally different with respect to the title and embellishments, but couldn't translate what was in my head to my Gypsy and Cricut. I originally intended to have one letter per train car for the title, but size-wise it wasn't working for me. So the letters ended up by themselves on the train track. I also envisioned an entire Santa's Village scene on the right side of the page, but that didn't come together either so I settled for the gingerbread house. I hadn't brought anything to color my embellishments with and so borrowed my friend's Smooch inks to color in the different elements on the house. They never dried. When I came home, I had the bright idea to use my Stickles and what a difference they made.

So this is what I learned...if an idea gets stuck in your head and won't come out, it's okay to make a shift and try something else. Also, Smooch inks don't dry on DCWV glitter cardstock. I probably could have set it with a heat gun, but I didn't have one with me at the time. Chances are, they won't dry on any other kind of slick cardstock either. And now on to the layout! Thanks for looking!

Preserving the Past - Grandma and Grandpa

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to attend a weekend crop retreat in Tucson, my very first! I was invited by my friend Helen, whom I met through the Sistas Scrap Too MB over at cricut.com. To say that I had a wonderful time with the Scrapbook Chicks at their inaugural Crop Re-Tweet is an understatement. Had I not had a child and a job to return to, I might not have come home at all. Scrapbooking really is cheaper than therapy, but I digress.

I took everything with me, including the kitchen sink, and yet only got six or seven pages done. I have to do better. I'm on a quest to organize all of my embellies so that they're accessible at home, yet easy to grab for a crop. So yesterday, I purchased one of these at Michael's (with a 50% off Joann's coupon) in pink and purple. But again I digress because this is not the reason for my post.

I decided to pack layouts that had been in various stages of completion and work on those first. I began with two pictures of my grandparents and a sketch that was posted in April over at the SST Cricut MB. You can see the sketch here. So I got paper and embellies together and took them to a crop I went to in May I think it was. That kit never got touched, so I brought it with me to the retreat and am quite pleased with the results. This is the first time I have EVER done a layout about my grandparents and I have been scrapbooking for ten years.

I made an unintended slice through my grandmother's photo but was able to cover it with the embellishment and journaling tag. I was also drinking a bottle of water that had begun to sweat and a drop or two fell on my grandfather's photo. I decided that it didn't show and made the decision not to reprint the photo.

So before I end this post and share my pictures, let me tell you what I learned this time around. First, while it is important to scrap the everyday moments and events, it is equally important to preserve your history. Don't forget to tell those stories from the past. Second, if you make a mistake on a layout or damage a picture, it can often be repaired or disguised. Take this opportunity to see where your creativity will lead you. And finally, don't drink water over your layouts! Thanks for looking!

Celebrate You

So I finally decided to try another challenge over at Scraps of Color. I decided that it was simple enough that I could get it done in one evening (remember...I am a very slowwww crafter). The challenge was to use kraft cardstock, eight squares of patterned paper, a verse/sentiment (stamped or rub-on), and a piece of ribbon (didn't specify how much). Easy enough, right? When I sat down to work, I actually had a totally different design in mind; one that came to me while I was on the freeway yesterday and which I sketched out on a piece of scratch paper in the parking lot at JoAnn's. When I got home and tried to make it work, I couldn't...so this is what I resorted to. For some reason in the scan, the colors don't look very true (or like they even go together) even though all of the paper came from one paper pack. I assure you that the colors are much more vibrant than what you see.

I had something totally different in mind with the ribbon that would have used much more of it, but the ribbon that I had in the right color was too wide and would have tampered with the balance of the card. So what I learned is that starting with a sketch or idea in mind is great, but it's okay to switch up in the middle of creating. The results just might surprise you. Oh yes...and that I also need to add more ribbon to my ribbon stash! TFL.

52 Card Pick-Up - The Last of My Favorite Techniques

So...here we are...the last of my favorites out of the 52 cards created during this class.

Used a strip of patterned paper to create a pleated border. Finished the look of with a white torn ruffle on the bottom and a strip of coordinating paper on the top. Buttons finished off the look. Yes, that little cool kid belongs to me. Ahhhh.....the baby days.....

Not too long ago, I saw a card that someone did using the following technique and wanted to learn how to do it. So it goes without saying that when Technique #52 arrived and this was it, I was thrilled! A series of "v's" were cut into two-sided patterned paper and then every other "v" was folded back. I decided rather than turn the card into a mini-layout, I would put both attempts on one card with notes about how to make it come out more uniform. This technique is very simple yet it makes a great impact.

Would you believe that the next card began as a piece of white cardstock? I love, love, love how this came out. Another easy peasy, lemon squeezy (in the words of my 7th graders) technique. A makeup sponge was used to sponge a coating of dye ink on the cardstock. Then I used my fingers to flick droplets of water onto the inked cardstock. Like I said, easy! I added the rubber stamp and journaling just so the card wouldn't be naked.

And finally.....placed a photo with high contrast into a Word document, converted it to black and white, and then adjusted the contrast to create this look. When I emailed this to my dear aunty, she loved it so much she asked me to make her 25 note cards using the same picture.

So there you have it. My favorites out of the 52 Card Technique class. If you are intrigued by this class, taught by Tena Sprenger, I encourage you to keep a look out for it at Big Picture Scrapbooking. Because it is one of their longer workshops, it probably won't return until sometime next year, although I hear tell she might be doing a sequel. If she does, I'm in!

If you've made it this far, I thank you so much for following my 52 Card journey. It is my hope that this will not be my last post for a long time. Although work and life sometimes get in the way, it is my goal to continue to carve out time each week to be creative and continue to share the things I learn along the way. TFL!

52 Card Pick Up - Even More Techniques

I'm back with a few more techniques to show you....

If you've been following my blog since I began this class, then you know that one of the earlier techniques called for the use of a Clorox Bleach pen! Well, our teacher had us pull it out again to alter photos. I attempted this technique twice with two different photos. I was too lazy to reprint the first one. The bleach pen was used to write on the darker area of the photo, and then removed with a damp paper towel. On my first attempt, things were going fine but then the pen started bubbling and coming out watery. (I probably should have re-shaken it a few times.) So I pulled out my trusty glaze pen and added the blue writing to the bleached out portion.

Here is my second attempt with the bleach pen. Almost made it again, but then the pen started coming out watery again. I know many would question using bleach on photos, as well as whether its acid-free and will affect the picture in years to come.   While I think it is a cool way to journal on photos, I'm not sure that I'd be brave enough to use this technique on a project that's going into an album.

This textured transparency frame was created by using Staz-on ink and embossing powder. I applied the ink (I used black) directly from the pad to the transparency. It was immediately covered with embossing powder (I decided to be brave and try blue) and then heated with an embossing gun. A window was then cut out so that the frame would fit around the picture.

And lastly...a photo mosaic. I was supposed to cut the photo into five equal vertical strips, and then cut each strip into five equal pieces. My photo was too small (I think it was 3 x 5) and I didn't want the pieces to come out too small. So I cut three horizontally instead of five. I really like this technique and have seen layouts where the results are stunning. I think though that this is best used for landscape or scenery shots. Not too sure how it would look with lots of people in the photo.

Thanks for checking out more cool techniques. Stay tuned...I think I'm going to put together one more techniques post!

52 Card Pick-Up - Want to See More Techniques?

Here is a brief look at some more of the wonderful things we did in this class.

To create this look, alcohol ink was applied randomly to a transparency one color at a time. Then rubbing alcohol was spritzed over the alcohol ink to create the look. 

I was very skeptical about this next techinique (I mean really...deface a photo???), but surprisingly I love the way it came it.  And it was oh so simple!!! Simply sand around the edges of the photo and then use a paper piercer to journal on the photo.

Have you ever used vaseline in crafting? Neither had I until we were challenged with this technique. For this one, my patterned paper was coated with Mod Podge. Then Vaseline was randomly applied. Acrylic paint was applied over everything. Once it had dried, a paper towel was used to wipe away the Vaseline and resisted paint!

Easy peasy....created using a piercing tool and a template.

Thanks for looking! Stay tuned for more!

FINALLY! 52-Card Pick Up is Done!

It has been some time since I've updated my blog. That's one of the perils of being a teacher. When summer ends and school begins, our laid-back life as we know it comes to a screeching halt. Then everything becomes about lesson planning, test scores, NCLB, classroom management all while trying to find some balance in your live so that you can continue to do those things that you love that bring you joy. So...here I am trying to catch up.

Back in June , I posted about a class I was talking over at Big Picture Scrapbooking called 52 Card Pick-Up. You can find the original post here. The class ended August 11th, but I didn't finish until about two weeks later (ahhhh...the joys of online learning).

I wanted to share the before and after pictures of my little card deck. Over the next few days, I will share some more of the cool techniques I learned while taking the class.

Here is the BEFORE picture, my card deck created at the beginning of class (please ignore the "watch cat!"):

And here is the FINISHED product...2 1/2 months and 52 techniques later.

Thanks for looking and stay tuned for more cool techniques!

Having My Work on Display

I'm so excited! My SDU instructor asked to make a layout to post in JoAnn's to use as advertisement for her class. I thought about making a new layout, but wasn't sure that I would be willing or able to part with a new layout...especially since it takes me so long to make one. So I decided to basically re-do a layout that I had already done for her class.

The problems began when I realized that I didn't have two sheets of the original color I had used as the background. I also didn't have enough paper left used in the first layout to make the water, which by the way wasn't 12 inches wide anyway and necessitated me trimming my background and layering it on another piece of cardstock.

So...off to Michael's I went for more cardstock. Here is the original layout posted several weeks ago and blogged about here:

Here is the new...and [I think] improved layout...

Thanks for looking!

A Different Direction

Have you ever started a layout with a specific outcome in mind, and as you begin to work, you realize it is taking a totally different direction and you feel powerless to correct it? That's what happened with this layout.

I made this layout to satisfy two challenges; the first was from a sketch posted on the Sistas Scrap Too messageboard over at cricut.com. The sketch was one done by Valerie Salmon and posted over at Got Sketch. You can see the sketch here. The other challenge I decided to satisfy was one from Stacy Julian sent to the LOM Community over at BigPictureScrapbooking.com. We were to create a layout using seven pictures from our Storage Binders.

Since this layout was about my son's birthday, my intent was to use colors and patterned paper to create a layout that projected a happy day. Now remember, I am "patterned paper challenged." So, I decided to pull some paper from my DCWV -  Fun in the Sun Summer Stack a stack that I bought on clearance a year or two ago. While the colors and the patterns go together well, I ended up with an unintended result. Despite the yellow background, my layout started to have a decidedly "4th of July" feel to it. So I chose another pattern to use for the title to kind of offset that feel. Not so sure that I succeeded, but it is what it is.

What I learned with this layout is:

1. I really need to work at not pasting things down as I go. I have tendency to do this which means it becomes very hard to make changes if you're not happy with the result.
2. The paper was not cardstock weight and usually when I use paper this light I adhere it to another piece of cardstock. I was lazy this time and didn't do so. Consequently there was some buckling in some of the pieces that I adhered and a little warping in the layout.
3. I should have made the frame for my title a little narrower from top to bottom, or placed the letters a little higher within the frame. The current placement gives the look of trapped white space.

Thanks for looking!

52 Card Pick-Up - More Fun Techniques

Well...it's been more than a minute since I've posted new techniques from my 52 Card Pick-Up class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking; the reason for that is, I got behind. I spent Thursday through today catching up with ten or eleven assignments I had missed. Because I was so far behind, it was simply a matter of trying the technique and getting it done (without being particularly "artsy") so that I could move on to the next one. I'm not going to post them all because I don't want to bore you; rather, I'm going to post the ones that were the most fun and that I see myself using on a card or layout in the future.

This first one probably jazzed me the most! I know it is kind of hard to tell from the picture, but the entire photo of my DS is covered with clear glass microbeads. It gives it the coolest kind of texture. Very easy too...you use that Terrifically Tacky tape on the picture, pour the beads on and voila!

This next one ran a close second.... we used a mixture of a really strong glue and a tiny bit of water to add glitter to chipboard accents. Those paisley chipboards are some Maya Road. I bought them a long time ago (I think when Recollections closed) and I had no idea what I was going to do with them other than paint them. I KNEW I wasn't going to cover them with paper...it would have been too much of a bother to trim them. Now I need to find out if some kind of fixative can be applied to glittered pieces to keep the glitter from migrating off.

This next one involved plain old ordinary white tissue paper, Mod Podge, and acrylic paint. We put the tissue down first, then painted with our darker color (mine was black) and then caught the ridges with our lighter color. Unfortunately, when I went over it with the white, I didn't realize there was still some water on that foam brush so the white kind of bled past the ridges. But you know me, I got the general idea, and was too lazy to do it over again...c'est la vie. I see this as a great way to make landscapes on layouts or cards.

Here was a really simple one...paint on the back side of a transparency and then use Glaze pens to journal on the unpainted side. I also used my rubber stamps and some solvent ink to make some flowers from the same transparency. Please ignore the messy handwriting.

Another easy one! Have you ever thought of printing a photo on card stock to use as a background or even as an integral part of the layout? This photo was changed to a watermark, and then some of the brightness and contrast was put back in before printing. Don't know that I'm gonna want to drive over that bridge the next time I travel from Arizona to Vegas!

And finally....using clear embossing ink and powder to make a tone-on-tone design. I really like this technique but so far, with every heat-embossed project I've done, I've gotten stray ink or powder all over the piece. Gonna have to work on that. I took this opportunity to try a small mosaic cut with the picture. That's something I've always wanted to try, but haven't had the guts to do so. I hear this technique is best used with landscape type photos rather than those with people in them.

Thanks for looking at my latest installment of 52 Card Pick-Up.

Birthday Card using Inchies

A few weeks ago, a challenge was posted on the Scraps of Color group to create a card using at least three "inchies" and a flower. My soror's birthday was coming up so I decided to use that challenge to make a card for her. The first thing I had to do was get some "inchie" stamps. I'd never heard of them before...they're simply rubber stamps that are approximately one inch square. I went to Michael's where they really didn't have much of a selection, so I ended up with Fiskars Squarely Sentimental clear stamps, which thank heavens were on sale for 40% off. I also ended up with the flower stamp (also 40% off) and for the first time tried my hand at adding a little color to a stamp using some very old EK Success pencils that I have. Pulled out my trusty Forever Young cartridge for the image and some old Creative Memories paper. I just could not tie a nice, neat bow so ended up tacking the ends of the ribbon behind the background. The ink used was Studio G and Technique Tuesday. Note to self: Start a Copics collection and learn how to tie ribbon! Thanks for Looking!

The Problem with Patterned Paper

For as long as I have been scrapbooking, I have always loved looking at layouts with patterned paper. As long as I have been scrapbooking, I have been stockpiling patterned paper. And, as long as I have been scrapbooking, I have been intimidated by patterned paper. So you know what? On my last day of SDU when our instructor asked us what else we would have liked to learn, I said "I need help combining two or three different patterns on a layout."

So...our instructor went to a drawer full of paper, pulled out several sheets, turned them face down on the table and then told my classmate and I each to pick one. Just by chance, we ended up with the same pattern. Then she took some other patterns, cut them into smaller pieces and gave them to us. We discussed why, even though the patterns were vastly different and seemingly unrelated, they worked together...looking for commonalities like colors and shapes (swirls, circles, stripes, etc.).

She had us move the paper around and use solids to help separate the patterns and give the eyes a resting place. As class ended, she challenged us to take that same paper home, and make a layout with it. So I did.

As I was working on it, my original design changed drastically. I couldn't quite remember the layout I had come up with in class, and I don't think I came home with the exact same pieces of paper, because a couple of my patterned pieces were much smaller than I remembered and one even had folds in it! I swear they weren't there in class.

The title was intended to be vertical on the left and horizontal on the top. But when I put it that way, the word "Cousins" was lost on the patterned paper. I refused to cut it again and so decided to try turning the photo mat instead. My dear son loved it that way and told me to leave it like that. I then decided to hand cut two birds from the patterned paper. Those tails were hard to cut! Then I decided the birds needed a shadow! More hand cutting. Why not add some Stickles to the tail? Oh Stickles aren't enough? Let's put some old Prima flowers on there. They looked too plain. But wait! I had two bottles of Glimmer Mist that I had never tried! Mist the flowers...and while we're at it, let's add some to the birds too! Finish it off with a piece of ribbon and a quote from Alex Haley, and voila! So here is what I came up with....

A Sketch Challenge and Scrapping in Four Colors

The following layout came about as a result of a sketch from Everything About Scrapbooking that was actually posted as a challenge last week over at Sistas Scrap Too on the Cricut MB. Here's the sketch:

I decided to also use it as my third assignment for SDU, an assignment we never began in class, but one for which I had already selected paper and photos and so figured, why not kill two birds with one stone? Work smarter, not harder, right? This one was based on a Tetrad color combination, which means using a combination of four colors on the color wheel that are two sets of complements. My colors came from the following families: Blue-Green, Red-Violet, Red-Orange, and Yellow-Green.

One of the things that I love about using sketches is that you can follow them as is, or as your creative juices start to flow, rotate it, flip it, switch elements or whatever your heart desires. They are a great starting point when you're staring at photos and paper and can't quite figure out where to begin. While I didn't follow the sketch exactly, I did try to keep the various elements as close to intact as possible. This time, I managed to remember to do some inking and also experimented with chalking my die-cuts: Here is what I came up with:

 And here is a closer look at the left and right pages:

Thanks so much for looking! Now repeat after me..."sketches are my friend, sketches are my friend!"

52 Card Pick-Up = More Cool Techniques

I fell a little behind in class and so took the time during the last two days to finally get caught up. I've done all the assignments so far, except for one. I had trouble with it, became frustrated, and decided to try again at a later date.

I'm not going to post everything; rather just some of my favorites from the last two weeks' worth of assignments. Get this, bleach is involved with one of them! So here we go...!

 A mosaic border using scraps of patterned paper and some twine.

 Embossing ink and chalk....

 Acrylic paint mixed with sparkle glaze. I think had I used a little less paint and a little more glaze, the wash would have appeared more sheer and allowed the patterned paper to show through, as was the intent.

 Image stamped on photo paper using solvent ink, followed by dabbing it with alcohol ink.

 Stamped images on paper using solvent ink, and then colored them in with a wet paintbrush dipped in chalk.

 And finally...This technique involved using embossing ink, a heating tool, and of all things a Clorox bleaching pen. The white portions were created by using the bleaching pen. It was suggested that if you are worried about whether this process is safe from an archival standpoint, use it only with cards or layouts that do not contain photos. There does appear to be a question as to whether the paper will break down [from the bleach] at some point.

Thanks for looking!