ORIGAMI BOXES

I've fiddled around with origami since I was about 8 (which was a very long time ago) and was delighted to come across a site (www.origami-instructions.com) that had quite a few models I hadn't encountered before. These boxes are both pretty, and practical for holding those little bits and pieces like paperclips and split pins etc.  There were instructions for lots of different folded flowers too (which I'll be trying as soon as I have some spare time) and lots of other fun things.

TUNNEL 3D

This technique was inspired by the little piece of Kaiser paper at the bottom.  I began with a white card with a circle cut-out then mounted a piece of red lightweight card with an extra-large star cut out with a hole punch behind it, using double-sided foam tape to add dimension.  a yellow layer with a circular cut out was added in the same way.  This was repeated using smaller punches, and finally the scrapbook paper with the yellow star on the red circle was mounted under a final red star cut out.
To make this fairly thick 3d fit into a regular aperture card, second fold lines need to be scored a few mm away from the existing ones to make a thin "box" enclosure.
This will work with any shapes as long as you have punches or dies in several sizes.

PEN ON EMBOSSED DIE CUT

I've combined a few leftovers from previous posts in this little ATC sized card - the left side is printed with paint on hessian, the leaf is a crayon rubbing from an actual leaf and the middle of the paper flower is a stamp pressed into paper clay.  The "new" technique is a bit of a no-brainer but I honestly haven't bothered to do it before.  The scrabble tile letters are from a set of Spellbinders dies by Donna Salazar.  I wanted a very distinctly black colour on the letters so instead of chalking or inking the embossing I just coloured them with a fine black pen whilst they were still in the die with exactly the result I wanted.  I'm going to try some more with a permanant pen on an ivory card and then add a thin layer of dimensional magic - hopefully to achieve the effect of a real scrabble tile.
As I was using left-overs, the colours were a bit um....yes, well......, so after I scanned the card I converted it to black and white and the "colourised it" with Elements.

EMBOSSED FAN

Another result of playing with embossing powders is my post for this week.  This fan stamp is from Rubbadubbadoo and is another example of why the simplest stamps are often the most useful.  It can be dressed up in all sorts of ways.  I've used Kaiser paper to "fill" every second panel, then "coloured" the in-between panels with Versamark and added copper embossing powder before setting with my heat gun.  I applied a little heat after each application to hold it in place, before heating all over when all of the embossing powder was in place to melt it properly.  I wanted to avoid over-heating any of the sections.
The supports (actually I don't know what the long skinny bits are called but this will do) were coloured with a gold pen.
Finally I cut out the "in-between" bits at the bottom.  I'd like to experiment a bit more with colouring using embossing powders so there may be some multi-coloured efforts coming up in the future.

PRINTED VINTAGE CARD

I was lucky enough to find a lovely illustrated children's book from the 1920s at Evandale Market a few months ago.  It wasn't in brilliant condition but I scanned a few of the pictures, cleaned up the marks using Elements, and brightened the colours, and was amazed at how well the pictures emerged.
(I believe the coypright should have expired by now).  I resized this image and printed it onto a textured singlefold ivory card.  You can't really see the texture in the picture but it really adds to the overall effect.  I added a little version to the back and as strip of Japanese paper inside.  Best of all there are lots more pictures left to play with!!

FAUX TILES

There are lots of ways to achieve faux tile effects.  this is one of them.  I stamped a daffodil stamp (from Rubbadubbadoo) onto white card, cut it into four.  I then stuck onto a backing square of white card in with a little gap between each tile, using fairly thin foam tape.  Finally I dabbed Versamark over the tiles (being careful not to drag it and risk smudging the ink below), and added a couple of coats of clear UTEE.  I was quite pleased with the result but when I do it next time I will use thicker card.  There was a lot of fiddling with heat to the front and back of the panel to make it lie straight. (This might also have been because the card was a bit damp to start with).

BUBBLEWRAP PRINTING

I actually have a "bubblewrap"  background stamp which is great, but when I was cleaning up my craft room (yes, it does happen occasionally) I found some bubblewrap and as I had the paints out to do the hessian and onion bag prints that I posted a few weeks ago, I thought I'd have a go with the real thing.  Although I had no particular end in mind, the yellow on yellow reminded be of honeycomb, so I added an acetate overlay with a beehive stamp from the Flourishes range. Now that I've had a play with paint over the last little while, I think I'm ready to embark on some more thoughtful projects.....not that you'll see them here....this is just for the first step of the process, and I have a list of things a mile long that I want to try,,,now if only there were 48 hours in every day!!!!!!

WHITE GESSO ON BLACK CARD

I'd never really used gesso until the last few months but now I'm a real convert, as there seems to be so many ways in which it can be used.  If you want a similar effect to the one in the photo, cover black card with a thin layer of white gesso.  When it's dry sponge on two or three different inks (I've used red, green and gold, and to be honest, just applied it straight from the pads)  I've then just run it through my Cuttlebug, using a folder from Craft Concepts.

RANDOM PAPER STRIPS

This is an easy but effective background.  Stack up three or four different patterned papers and secure with a couple of paperclips, then cut into randomly angled strips.  Carefully unstack the papers and, using one from each pile in turn, reassemble the strips on a pieces of backing card, leaving a little gap between each.  If you are just using up paper scraps these panels are great for backgrounds.  If, on the other hand, like me, paper is your favourite supply, you might want to use the technique to show off your collection, and the panel can stand alone and complete "as is".

STAMPED PAPER CLAY

Paperclay is a good medium for adding large components to cards as its very light so even little cards like this won't overbalance.  It air dries as well.  I've made this gift card from corrugated.  The edges are inked with silver and a couple of strands of silver thread are wrapped around as a border.  The greeting is a cuttlebug die.  The button is paper clay, rolled flat and cut out with a biscuit cutter, then stamped with black ink, using a stamp from Abi's Crafts.

FLOWERSOFT WATTLE

The wattle was out in July, when I made this little panel......The Kaiser stamp really has nothing to do with wattle but I wanted to do a post with Flowersoft and the only colour open was bright yellow............but it looks OK.  I added a bit of Dimensional Magic to highlight the bird.

VERY EASY PAINTED BACKGROUND

Two postings in one day!  I was asked to put this background up after the recent demo I did.  So here it is!!

Its a super easy one - I wanted some background paper on which to mount my pictures of the Pilbara, and so just blobbed some silver, gold and copper straight onto light card (directly from the tube of acrylic paint), and spread it with a brush so that areas blended and the whole page was covered.

For something that took two minutes it turned out exactly as I had hoped, and I'll be making some more.

I scanned it and used it to make up a title too.  (Just open another layer over the top of the scanned painted paper, type in your title, select it using the magic wand tool, then cut out the selection to reveal the painted "filling" underneath before collapsing the layers.

LEAF RUBBINGS

Original Leaf Rubbings

"Stamp"

Color Burn, Diffuse Glow

I thought I'd do a couple of leaf rubbings for this week's blogpost....so I did.  Unfortunately, as you can see from the picture, the results were a bit "ordinary".  I scanned them anyway, and had a little play, and am pleased to show you the results of the application of a couple of the filters in Photoshop Elements.  The original rubbings were just made with crayons onto thick paper but the results with the filters have made me think of all sorts of other ways in which this technique could be adapted for my digital pictures............

OVERSTAMPING

I'm doing a demo for work that involves ATC styled cards and made this one for that reason.  Its about as simple as you can get in this regard.  All the stamps came from a Stamp-It uncut sheet, and the technique was just to stamp them, each on top of the other, using a different colour of ink for each.  I did have to experiment a bit to get the colours in an order that I liked but all in all its a very quick technique that looks a lot better than I had anticipated i.e. I plan to do this more often.  The word "Free" was made with Kaiser alphabet stickers - I didn't have any that looked quite right so I just smeared some black ink over some cream ones.  As mentioned, I was doing this for a reason, and I think if I was just making something for myself I'd probably substitute a stamped word for the stickers

PAINT AND PRINT BACKGROUND

Hessian Print

Onion Bag Print

I've been printing with paint......nothing too difficult, basically just painting on some Kaiser acrylic paint straight from the tube and then pressing the object onto some light card.  The green sample is hessian, the red print was made with an onion bag.  Both were a bit hard to press down on "as is" so I covered the painted item with a piece of scrap card and lightly brayered over the top to apply the pressure to print.  The rose stamp is from Rubbadubbadoo and was stamped with Staz On onto acetate.  The image was then coloured in with a red Sharpie pen.