Quilling- Hearts for Anniversary

For Mom and Dad, Happy 49th Anniversary.

For some stunning quilling cards, go have a peek at Neli's blog....my goodness what fabulous work. Recently I've given quilling a go, and Neli has given me some great inspiration.

So here's my latest: more practicing needed!

Heating Acetate

Wendy Vecchi has a product called Clearly For Art. 3 different colors to play with. I haven't got any yet, but loved how you can heat the stuff, form it while it's hot, and in 10secs it cools into shape. And it's solid. But, if you don't like the way it turned out, heat it up again and it flattens right back out. Too stickin cool.

You can see her demo it here . Her blog for another use of it is here:

Aaaaannyways, I couldn't wait to try out the technique. So I tried it with plain ole acetate that I had kept from a Texture Trade package. Cut out a Tathered Floral die from it and gave it a go.

First of all, it seems I missed a step Wendy says in her tut. I forgot to add the blending solution onto the applicator pad along with the Alcohol inks. But it seems to have worked out anyways. 

Firstly I covered all the cut outs with Glue and Seal Matt. Let it get good and dry. Then I used a blue color and a metallic silver AI's and just pounced over and over until I liked the look. The next step was to take the heat gun to it and when it's good and heated (watch those fingers) I just bend/mold the petals to shape. In a few seconds it's rock solid. All three pieces are held together with a little brad. Quicker and easier than glueing all three oddly shaped pieces. Then it was just a matter of finding a center piece.

So even tho using acetate seemed to work like Wendy's Clearly for Art....it was a slightly smelly when I heated it, so I had to wonder if I was breathing in toxins. So just be aware of that and don't stand over the piece and breath in, if you're too anxious to try it out with acetate.

The fancy square die cuts are from Nestabilities

Made me laugh

 

Don't yea just love a man who stands behind his artist! Imagine...a receipt that has a list of Tim Holtz's name on it over and over! What he must think then? LOL.    

Saw this on Pineterest

Alcohol Ink and 25

My girlfriend has worked hard and lost 25lbs. And since a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates not the way to go, I opted to make her a little achievement tag.

I used 2 colors of alcohol inks, watered down a bit to make a puddle on my craft mat. Then wiped blue cardstock thru it. I also used the AI's on the daisy flower under the rose. I die cut a scrap piece of acetate then inked it up with various colors. (the acetate was previously coated with Glue and Seal matt. Stamped it up with various background stamps. The 25 is from an embossing folder using a dollor shop piece of metalic paper. Then just cut out the 25...I think it's the bingo folder. The butterfly is a Hero Arts stamp and die set....see previous posts for a link.

Nesting Doves

Today I finally had a chance to take a photo of the nest on my balcony. This is the second year the Doves have come back to lay their eggs. Not much of a nest, but aren't they pretty? For the past 4 years Robins have used the same wall planter to nest in. One of them came back this year and puffed up his feathers trying to intimidate the Doves. The Doves won out. But, like last year, the Robins came back after the Doves where all done and had flown off. So, I await to see what happens this year.

Alcohol Ink and Glossy Accents card

I'm playing with my alcohol inks today. It's on almost everything. I make my own application pads to apply the inks and therefore are somewhat thicker pads than what you buy ready made. Today I didn't switch it out for a new one and it had gotten a bit crusty. Which affected the AL . To a nice effect I think.

I applied metalic silver AI to the punched trim on the bottom and then used 2 colors of AI to tone it down with the same color scheme.  It's dotty/blotchy because the pad is crusty and the ink doesn't spread out so much. Plus used a very light touch. Ontop is a coat of glossy accent crackle paint.

Also on the torn background paper, I simply swirled my applicator around in little circles and got this very fine, almost pen like swirls, again with a light touch. 

Behind the rolled roses, I punched out some regular old, heavy tin foil, and lightly AI'd that too....just to get a hint of color.

 The butterfly is a stamp and die set from Hero Arts. Painted with Pink liquid pearls in the middle of the body, as well as dotted for dimension with the same. Then a coat of glossy accents crackle ontop.

Challenge Simon Says Stamp = Anything Goes

Alcohol Ink experiment

Still playing with my Alcohol Inks, I wanted to use up what was laying on my mat. I had a scrap piece of paper that already had a glossy swirly design on it. Which I figured would resist the AI. And it did to a point. The textured paper behind it absorbed the AI but to some degree so did the glossy swirly design. I quickly wiped off a lot of the AI and in the end didn't turn out to bad. It's just background anyways, and so anything goes.....at least in my world.

So I added some AI blender to my dried up puddles of AI on my craft mat. Used my finger to get all the AI involved, then dragged the paper thru the puddle, over and over until it was covered. Then wiped the piece with a paper towel to remove the AI from the glossy design.

The butterfly is a Hero Arts stamp and die set, double cut, with one bottom layer embossed , the top layer dotted with liquid pearls and completely covered with Glossy Accents to give it that botton feel. The sentiment heat embossed with White .

Rolled roses down the sides all ontop of an embossed ATC card. Here you can see a bit of the glossy swirly designed paper shining thru.

Challenge: Simon Says Stamp = Anything Goes