An Arch and a Valentines Card

Well it's been a little busy at Harmony Road studio as of late.  Lesley's a busy gal with challenges, keeping house, and trying to keep sane and not stressed. To begin with hubs just got notified he is laid off as of Friday but hopefully it is just til spring picks up in hopes that he will be called back. With the economy the way it is seems this word Lay off is more often spoke of than finding a good job. When you reach a certain age you get looked at a lot differently too. Anyways we hope this is just temporary but the way things go nowadays you must be prepared for just about anything. So we pray and hope that either something else comes along or there will be more business in the spring and hubs will be called back.
Now onto a more pleasant subject, ART.
I have been busy working on my challenge greeting cards and I wanted to show you one in particular I made using my fused fibers. Love that stuff and so many uses for it. Here I have made a Valentine card from it, added some buttons and beads to the heart and then on the card I used a border punch to make a faux lacey edge. I have also cut  out some very easy 4 petal flowers and sewed around them with a random stitch like the heart and then place a button in the center as well. I applied a couple to cards and they are darn cute.

The next thing I want to show you is my February Inkurable Stampers Arch Challenge for 2010.

I haven't named this one yet, it hasn't jumped at me so if you can help me out I would greatly appreciate a title for it. It has to really speak to me and well it hasn't done so, but it will.

I had a piece of burgundy cardstock, I stamped it with this no name acrylic block heart filigree type stamp using Versamark watermark ink, then used clear EP and heated it.

Then, I used my waterpen and filled it with good ole bleach, make sure you have good ventilation when doing this. I spread the bleach over the whole paper and watched as the colour bleached out . I dried it with the heat gun then I proceeded to do the bleaching out again.

Now as you can see the results are stunning. The only part of colour remains is in the stamped area as the embossing resists the beach. I have also stamped using bleach and it is very beautiful as well.

This was better than I expected. The Arch Challenge this month required lace and that is one thing I did not have so I used some ribbon that looked a bit lacy on the edges and I used that on top and bottom with a plain strip of the non bleached out cardstock running through the ribbon and a piece of gauze.

Simple yet very effective I think.

Thanks for looking and when my camera returns to me I will take a photo of my bin of greeting cards.

Good night all.

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.