HEAT EMBOSSED INK JET PRINTING .......OR NOT!

Tempted as I am to pretend that everything I try always turns out beautifully, I have to be honest and say that quite often it doesn't.  Not that I mind too much.....its all part of the process.  this is an example of something I really want to be able to do, but just haven't quite managed to master - heat embossing ink-jet printing.  I have seen lots of references in magazines etc. to other folk that have clearly had more success than me, and suspect it may have something to do with paper branding and/or weight.  In this example, I printed out the word "July" on gloss photo paper (as advised by one article), applied copper embossing powder and was happy to see it melting as it should when the top coating of the paper swelled up like a piece of bubblegum (quite impressive), and popped (also kind of funny), leaving the end result rather sad and sorry.  Perhaps if someone out there has tried this with greater success, they might like to offer advice.  Otherwise, I'll keep working on it when time allows until I get it right!!

GIFT CARD SET

I wanted to make a little gift card set for a demo I did some time ago, but didn't want to spend a week of evenings making it, so I came up with this set.  I started with the envelopes as its always easier to make a card to fit an envelope than try to find an envelope to suit an unusually-sized card.  As luck would have it I also found a pre-made box which was just the right size.  The base cards were made of  Bazzill as was the background. the squares were punched from two sorts of Kaiser patterns using my 35mm square hole punch, and the motif was finished with a little red Kaiser pearl.  The whole lot were put together in a sort of "assembly line" once all the squares were folded.  The whole production only took a couple of hours, including the decoration of the box, and I'm quite pleased with the result.

PLAYING WITH PENCILS

ORIGINAL SCAN

PATTERN FILL

2CM SQUARE 

PALETTE KNIFE

STAINED GLASS

I was looking at these pencils lying on the desk and decided to scan them rather than colour in an image as planned (I'm easily sidetracked).  For folks who aren't overly familiar with elements I just thought I'd do a couple of samples of background papers with the result.  If you want to have a try.......Scan something from your craft room.  Remove the background using the magic want tool (using a black paper behind the scanned objects would have made this easier).  Edit the image to 2cm x 2cm then define as a brush (under "Edit").  Open a new A6 document then use pattern fill to "fill in" with your new pencil pattern.  You can then play around with the filters to gain different effects.  In addition to the ones I've included try Bas relief for an "industrial" effect and camera distortion for a nice smudgy look!.

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.