Under mass construction???

Hello friends,
just a quick note to let you know I am having some blogger background issues. Seems the ones I pick are not showing up, some are some aren't. I am more or less testing some so if the backgrounds are changing constantly it is not me going crazy( well unintentionally) but I am trying to find a Valentine themed one and some I just cannot see. I am not sure if my McAfee is blocking them or what but please be patient with me.
Also, I have this white block now thats says video or picture has been removed. Well I did have to remove a background so now I am stuck with this white box and my latest background is not showing. So probably back to a simpler background for now.
If you can offer any help or reasoning to this dilema I am having I would be glad to receive any help.
Simply copying and pasting a code and removing the previous background code is not working. Oh well Lord give me the patience to endure this task.
Lesley

Time for Charlie ATC

Over at Steff's Stuff this weeks challenge is time. So I decided I was going to do this challenge and what was I going to come up with? I thought and thought and sometimes my thinking gets a little bizzaro but I was on a mission. I stamped my background with Versamark watermark ink with a Maya Road clock stamp then embossed using a clear embossing powder. . Then I used watercolours and blended the colours as I went. Then I ironed the paper to remove the embossing, this helps reveal the stamped image a little more into the watercolours. Then I found a pic of Charlie Chaplin and printed him off. I stamped a clock image and embossed it, distressed it a bit then used Glossy accents on the face of the clock then put that in a huge brad I had and it fit just nicely. I also routed around and found a piece of blank film strip from some pictures that I had developed years ago. That stuff comes in handy now.
And I put it all together and named this Time for Charlie. I hope Steff thinks this will fit into her challenge. Poor Charlie, does anyone even remember him ??? I know the younger generation have no idea who he was. Actors like these made people laugh, they usually did more than one thing than act, they sang, they danced, they were multi talented and not all of them were Hollywood good looking.
Anyways I thought this was a good title.
Time for Charlie is up for trade so if you are interested either leave me a comment or email me.
Thanks for looking.

Inkjet Image Transfer Tutorial

This technique is a much sought after and sometimes difficult to do if you are not aware of some of the little tidbits you need to know.

Here I am going to show you a stress free transfer you can use in your ATC's, journals even greeting cards.

Supplies needed: paintbrush, water container, gel medium (I have read you can use Elmer's glue or ModgePodge) I am using gel medium because I know it works for me, inkjet images from your computer, either B&W or colour, receiving paper(paper image is being transferred to) and a piece of paper towel and heat gun.

Apply a generous amount of gel on your receiving paper. Here I am using an old book page and putting my image in the center because I will later be cutting it to fit onto an ATC.

Next, place your image on top of the gel and make sure you have it positioned where you want it before burninshing (rubbing)  it onto the paper. Make sure it is well burnished, making sure the sides are pressed down as well. If they are lifted a bit, apply some gel. Do NOT put gel over the back .

Using your heat gun and keeping it moving so you don't burn the paper, move it over the image and dry the gel and the what is now the back of the image. Turn the paper over and continue drying that paper.

It is very important to make sure that your image is completely dry before moving onto the next step. If you do not have a heat gun you could use a hair dryer or let it air dry and do something else.

Dip your hand into the little container of water .....

now spread the water over the image making sure you have the paper damp. Don't be worried if you get the paper around the image wet, but do NOT saturate the papers.

As you can see here, the image is now visible but we still need to remove that layer of paper.

Starting at the middle of the image, start rolling your fingers over the image moving from center out and you will start to feel the paper coming off of the image. If you have the paper too wet or rub too hard you will start to damage your transfer so be gentle.

Here you can start to see your image and I let the bits of paper that I rolled off so you know what it is starting to look like. If you feel the paper, keep gently rolling it off.

As mentioned before it is best to start from the center, if you had started at the edges then you are apt to start to peel away the picture and you will become frustrated and not too happy. Been there done that.

Now take your paper towel and gentle smooth off the rolled paper bits and you now have just completed your first inkjet image transfer. Allow the paper to dry completely or hit it with the heat gun then proceed with your arwork.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and hopefully this post will land on my blog. The previous attempt landed somewhere but not here.

If you care to leave a comment I would be glad to hear from you.

Now off you go and lets see some image transfers.

I've been Featured-WOOT WOOT

I just wanted to share a bit of my excitement with you. My " Dancing with the Butterflies" gothic arch has been chosen to be featured over at Inkurable Stampers this week.
All the details of this challenge are over on Sarah's blog. A new theme is chosen every 2 weeks, the first week you make your arch then upload it to the FlickR group for this challenge that Sarah created for us then the 2nd week she features an arch on her blog.  I have always loved the incredible arches I have seen around the web and I hope to expand some of my creativity this year by doing this challenge.
Have a peek over at Inkurable Stampers for details on this challenge. Meet some other like minded and creative artists and just have fun.
Thank you Sarah, you made my day.

2nd post today-Fused Fiber tutorial

Finally another tutorial. I did up a few ATC's a few posts back  and I used this technique to make them.

My ATC for Beginners groups wanted me to show them how I did it so here it goes.

This is NOT my original idea, this is just a visual tutorial for anyone that wants to learn how to make great textural backgrounds using fibers, ribbon, cheesecloth, or any kind of material bits you want .

This tutorial is dedicated to my good friend Jenxo from Australia who loves making fabric ATC's and does wonderful fiber arts.

Lets get started.

You will need an iron, ATC sized chipboard or cardboard sizes for your base, materials, fibers, ribbons,  I have cheesecloth here, or gauze depending on where you live, and of course fusible webbing. You may also use embossing powders although I tried it and didn't really show up for me but you can try if you like. You could even place some sequins here and there if you want some bling.

(Fusible webbing comes in rolls, sheets even tape. It is shiny on one side and has paper on the back of it which after heated comes off quite easily.

 Next we are going to cut 2 sheets for each card offusible webbing just a bit larger than the actual size of the ATC. Doesn't have to be a lot just as you see below.

This is the fun part, cut up some fibers, ribbons, chunks of cheesecloth and choose colours that are pleasing to they eye. Make a nice nest like I have here on top of the shiny side (paper side down) of the fusible webbing. Don't worry to much if you have some bald spots, either cut a few bits more of ribbon or fiber and sort of just lay it in that area. Allow some of this to overhang or touch the edges of the fusible webbing.

Now lay a piece of paper or cardboard or even a heat resistant craft sheet on top of the fiber. Using the cotton dry no steam setting, iron over the paper that is covering your fibers. Flip this over and iron over the paper side of the fusible webbing that the fibers were laying on.

Now carefully remove the paper backing from the fused fibers( keep this paper on hand you will need it again). You can tell which is front and back as the front side is more appealing, you will also notice that after removing the paper the fusible webbing has a shiny surface. Do NOT place your iron directly on this surface. Now on the front side of the fibers which doesn not have any fusible webbing yet, you will use another piece and place it on the top side, iron it again and you are fused on both sides.

Now place the fused piece on top of your ATC chipboard or cardboard base and center is as best as you can.( the back side of your fiber will be ironed onto the ATC sized cardboard base.)  Remember you will have some fiber overhanging your cut piece of cardboard, this is good.

Place your papers that you peeled off from after ironing, overlapping them if need be, and use this to iron  over your fibers on the front of the card. Keep the irong moving do not let it rest on one spot too long.

Flip the whole thing card and all and iron on the back side of the ATC to heat the back of the fused fiber directly to the base ATC.

                                                   

Remove that paper that you placed on the fibers on the front of your card.

Now trim the excess fibers using the base of the card as your guide or if you want the fibers hanging keep them. You decide.

Here are 3 examples of fused fibers. The direct left is the one I just finished on this tut, the green one is green fibers, gold ribbon and some nice yellow thin fibers and some cheesecloth and the bottom is similar chunky fibers, cheesecloth and various other bits.

I hope you enjoyed this fiber tutorial. If you have any questions or want to give me some feedback on my presentation please feel free to leave me a comment.

Watch for my next tutorial on inkjet transfers, done with no stress.

Dancing with the butterflies ATC

I was visiting Inkurable Stampers the other day and found out that Sara is having a gothic arch challenge every 2 weeks for the next year. I said to myself, self, I want to do this. So last night I made this arch and just loved how it turned out.

I used some glossy photo paper and stamped it with Versamark Ink with a Clearly Impressed butterfly stamp from the Fresh Flower Elements collection. I then applied some clear EP (embossing powder) over the stamped images then heat set them with my heat gun. Then using Distress inks I randomly covered the photo paper with Peeled Paint and Spiced Marmalde inks with an ink blending tool. I then cut out  an arch template shape and mounted this arch on a chipboard base for sturdiness. I also inked up some bassill cardstock with the same distress inks and stamped in black dye ink a Technique Tuesday, Flea Market Finds, mini stamp. I then used a butterfly paper punch to cut out my butterflies from my inked paper and applied them to the edges of the arch.
The lady image was placed so that a set of wings were behind her giving the image of her flying about.
The toadstools were then applied and both the toadstools and butterflies have Diamond Stickles applied to them for that little bit of magic.
I have named this ATC......Dancing with the butterflies. It just popped into my head as I was gluing the lady on.
Thank you for looking and please stop by again.

ATC's have been happening

This past week I have been enjoying making some ATC's again. I have not made one in quite some time so now that the holidays are over I can concentrate on one of my papercrats and that is ATC's.

The above ATC's are done with transparency overlays. The For Heaven's Sake is done with some beautiful BoBunny glittery flourishy scrapbook paper, then I glued the smaller image down then I printed off a Graveyard Angel statue on the transparency looking down. I love this image and the composition. The Making Literal Sense is distress inked book page then a woman reading a book printed on transparency and again overlayed on the background paper. I just love this layered look. These cards are up for trade on the ATC for Beginner's group but if anyone is interested the first one to email me will be considered. I don't often make more than 1 of the same card, just something I like to keep as a OOAK but in some instances if someone really likes the card and it has been traded I do make exceptions.

Below is another new technique I tried from Bernie Berlin's ATC Workshop book and it is fused fibers.

You make a nesty of fibers large enough to cover an atc background size then using fusible webbing you fuse the fibers together and with ironing it all eventually lays ftat. I have also cut up some cheesecloth and placed bits here and there and it becomes a beautiful textured background. I added the flowers and thought this was a good clown background. I have named these two...Send in the clowns 1 and 2 respectively since these will be considered a series of 2.

I have some other cards in the making, some just need names or titles and then a few others need little embellishments.

I also have some painting projects lined up and some more challenge cards to make. I was doing well last week but this week I kind of slipped but I can make it up. I have cards precut and some ideas and things to use up so I won't be lacking any ideas or materials.

Thanks for dropping by and stay tuned for some more of my musings.

I am back

Well it wasn't as bad as it was going to be. I made a frantic phone call yesterday to the store I bought my hard drive from , only to find it it was going to be at least a week before they could look at my system. The tech who works on my computers was kind enough to listen to my dilema with no picutres visible, I told him everything had been updated etc. I even downloaded a browser thinking it was the browser I was using. Anyways one more thing to try and I did and it worked. I now can see pictures galore. I was thinking with no computer I would have tons of time on my hands to create, clean, tidy up etc, make more cards for my personal challenge and now I have been online trying to catch up on things and events.
I will be posting some fused fiber ATC's shortly and a few other various types of variations on ATC's soon.
Off to read some blogs then off to lala land.
Good night friends.

Out of commission

Hello my dear friends. I am afraid that I am having computer issues, not being able to see pictures of any kind so I will not be posting much until I resolve the problem. I thought it was Internet Ex. but I downloaded Firefox and I am still having these issues. I have been to the Microsoft website and done all that I can think of humanly possible and I am at a loss. I will probably have to take my hard drive in to see what is up because after 2 days I am at my wits end.
Therefore I will not be able to visit and comment on your blogs til further notice.
Hopefully it is something very simple that can be rectified quickly.
Until then, stay warm, safe and keep creating.

Canvas Remix inspired by Alisa Burke

Hi Everyone,
well it was a nice holiday it came and it went just like that. All that mad rushing around, finding the right gifts, mailing out cards and parcels, baking, planning and all gone in a week. Phew....
I sort of took it easy over the holiday and today I was headed for a day of creativity and I sat down to do a few things and my mind isn't into it. I started to stare at things and decided it isn't working today.
Yesterday I had to see my endocrinologist in another town so a 3pm appt landed me home almost 6pm so needless to day the day wasn't very productive either. Oh and the card a day...well so far 3 cards have been made but last night I got card bases cut so I have a few to really dive into so I have to get cracking on those to catch up. Needless to say today it didn't happen either but it may later or it may not.
I have been a follower of Alisa Burke's blog and I am quite taken with her recent book Canvas Remix. I bought myself the book after my fall craft show and I have really enjoyed the descriptive techniques. Most of them I already know from working with wood and applying some of them to canvas has really opened up some possibilities for me. I worked on these little either makeup bags for your purse or a change purse or whatever you want during Christmas even tho I really didn't do  a lot of creating. These I worked on over several days and finally yesterday I got them finished and wanted to share the finished look with you.

My Mumsy was generous enough to give me a whole bolt of canvas that she no longer needed and I accepted it without hesitation, at the time now knowing what to use it for, either canvas floorcloths or something like grocery bags etc. Take a look at these.....(click pic for larger view)

These little pouches are made from canvas, painted with acrylics. I made my own stamps some houses some flowers and the other graffiti type are my wild and crazy ones all freehand.

I also stitched all edges using a zigzag stitich and used big buttons and instead of using grommets or snaps I used velcro dots to open and close with some added adhesive to secure.

This is a lot of fun and I really like the graffiti ones.

I always thought graffiti was a way of others to either shout for help or just needed a venue to vent frustration or just let it all come out. Well I can tell you after the holidays this is what I did and I really enjoyed the graffiti style, I just slapped the paint on then painted on my letters then went around them with a black permanent marker.

Mum give me a spray can and a wall lets go do some graffiti art now. LOL

My 100th blog post is coming soon and I may just be having a giveaway so keep coming back to see what the prize or prizes might be.

Well off to see what I can get into now.

Not sure the creativity bug has hit yet but it may, one never knows.