And now for Something Completely Different...

I am taking a card and scrapping break this weekend, and participating in a series of art journal classes taught by my friend, Kelly Kilmer. She always has great classes, techniques and loads of information packed handouts. A fun little technique I learned is illustrated in the page (in progress) below:

The focal image on the above page is from a retro comic book (I think it was Millie the Model, or something similar). After cutting her out, I used a stencil and a Sakura Glaze pen for the yellow dots. Once it was dry, I colored with water soluble oil pastels, blending with a damp paper towel. The Glaze pen resisted the pastels for an interesting effect. Cool, huh?! (Thanks, Kelly!)

This next page also uses a couple of different materials that I had not combined before today.

The bird image was cut from a bird book. I added some sheet music for much of the background. There rest is tape (you know how I love tape!) and transparencies. I really like the combination together - particularly the clear background tape!

You could use both of these great ideas on cards and scrapbook pages. Something different can be quite fun.

Tuesday's Tip

A little bit of bling can go a long way. Glitter and glitter glues have always been a popular staple of crafting. They can be used to  highlight images or parts of images, color in images, or as accents. I will also use glitter to highlight other embellishments. On a recent Christmas layout, I added glitter to snow flake buttons. Subtle but fun! Squirt a little bit of glitter glue on a craft sheet or palette, using a slim paint brush, apply the glitter where you will(painting it on). You will have more control over the placement - and reduce the likelihood of glitter glue blobs that can occur when squeezing the bottle.

Crackle and Grunge

Yes, I have finally been scrapping some photographs. Thank goodness for PSL - it gets me to put some time into scrapbooking photos for my kids albums. Since the challenge was to use art mediums on layouts and cards, I decided to play with some grunge cut outs and paints.

On this 2 page layout, I used grunge skull and crossbones (on left) and hearts on the right. The little skull and crossbones was painted with Glimmer Glaze (I am determined to use this stuff!). The hearts were painted with Distress Crackle paint in Aged Mahogany. I have been using both of these items quite a bit.

This is a closeup of the hearts. The thing about Distress Crackle - it is difficult to get a good photograph. The effect is always better in person. Just remember to put a fairly thick coat on your item.                      

Usually, I see Grunge board and Distress products on, well, distress style pages, cards, decorative items. I wanted to give you ideas that they can be used effectively in your average, minimalist type of scrap book page. They are fun to play with - both together and separately. Give it a try next time you scrap.

Club Scrap Blog Hop

Happy Valentine's Day! Many of us Club Scrap members are sharing the love of Club Scrap. I chose to showcase out recent special release kit - My Funny Valentine. I love the colors of this kit. Not your typical valentine colors of red and pink, I love the black, teal, red, and fuchsia.

I used a couple of Technique Junkies techniques on 2 of the cards. The flowers are from my studio, but all ribbon, card stock and most of the stamps (exception - "hugs..." from an older Club Scrap kit) are from My Funny Valentine.

I thought the colors and images would work wonderfully for these very mini treat boxes (think mini M&M's!). I stamped and stenciled the designs onto the card stick, and popped up some of the images.

Below is the list of blogs participating in the blog hop; the link in red is the next blog on the list:

http://www.capecodscrapper.blogspot.com/
http://crzymomstidbits.blogspot.com/
http://www.jujusfolly.blogspot.com/
http://liftbridge.blogspot.com/
http://chrissiecreations.blogspot.com/
http://tlscrap.blogspot.com/
http://orezonia.blogspot.com/
http://www.pagesofpictures.com/
http://scraphappysistersink.blogspot.com/
http://squirrelyart.blogspot.com/
http://wbellino.blogspot.com/

I finally scrapped some photos. My usual MO is to scrap during PSL. I started scrapbooking Christmas cards photos back in the 1990's. I felt guilty tossing them out, so I started saving them. When I started scrapbooking on a regular basis (well, sort of regular basis), I thought it would be fun to scrap the photos I received every holiday. I do very simple 8 1/2 x 11 layouts for this Holiday album. The above photo is of a 2 page layout for 2009. Most of the photos are of family - but I wanted to show you the 2 punched embellishments. On the left side page, there is a punched star. On the right is a punched scalloped circle. A close-up of the star is below.

The shapes were punched from Christmas cards. I go through the cards I receive, and punch a variety of shapes to use as an accent on pages and cards. Check out the cards you receive - there may be some wonderful possibilities for embellishment.

Stencil Play

Club Scrap's Pro Scrapbooking League (PSL) is in full swing. This week's challenge involves the use a stencils. I thought I would make some cards using a couple of stencils, ink and Technique Junkies Millefiori technique from this month's edition.

On a 12 x 12 piece of white card stock, I inked a variety of flowers from Club Scrap stencils.

I trimmed the card stock into square panels to add to cards. In the photo below, I used 6 of the 9 panels to make 6 cards. On some of the panels, I added additional images to the originals.

Brads, ribbon, and Dimensional Pearls were used to embellish the completed cards. All card stocks, stamps, and stencils are from Club Scrap.

Blog Love

                                           
My friend and fellow stamper, Nancy Young, sent a little blog love with the Liebster Blog award!  Nancy's blog, http://www.squirrelyart.blogspot.com/, always has fabulous cards and projects.

A couple of blogs that I always check in on are http://www.craftchaos.blogspot.com/, Hetty is a busy crafter in the Netherlands; Diana is often involved in Technique Junkies blog hops; my fellow Club Scrap Crafter Julie always puts her won twist on a variety of projects; and my friend Kelly Kilmer, who does the most amazing journaling.

Give them a look!

Tuesday's Tip

Since I have been busy with Artist Trading Cards, I have been using a variety of coloring mediums. Even with owning a variety of paints, inks, and markers, I will still have a problem finding the exact color of which I need. So, I will mix my materials. I have used chalks/pastels over inks and markers etc. I recently read in Vamp Stamp News another possible combination to try. One stamper dotted water based marker into Radiant Pearls, and blended with a small paint brush. Just be sure to clean your brush marker immediately.

What combinations of  art mediums have you used? Share them in the comments!

Artist Trading Cards

Post was edited, corrected measurements are given (Thanks, Teresa!).

Artist Trading Cards (aka ATC's) have been around for quite a long time. They are baseball card sized works of art made for trading. (Originally, they were made for trading - I have found out that someone I was in a swap with actually sold a couple of my cards on e-bay...) I am currently in a fun little  (geek) swap of creating ATC's of the Periodic Table of Elements. I have Californium and Einsteinium....

I thought a little refresher on cutting an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of card stock might prove helpful, if you have not participated in making ATC's.

In the above photo, you can see that you can get 9 cards from one sheet of cardstock. The dimensions are

 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 . The scribbled areas indicate non usable space (that can saved for punches)                       

This is the completed ATC for Californium. The lifeguard image was cut out and popped up with mounting tape. Card stocks are from Club Scrap and images are from Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers.

If you have not made an ATC, use the simple cutting instructions and give it a try!

Club Scrap's Winter Pro Scrapbooking League is about to begin. The discussion has been whether or not to join a scrapbook and/or a card making team. There has been a bit of a categorization - stamper or scrapper. As I have been working on a variety projects, it is obvious I am a stamper. My ATC's, calendars, cards, even my scrapbook pages, are stamped.
I joined both scrap and card teams because I like the variety. Plus, I tend to get bored very quickly when scrapbooking. Not sure why that is...
I started stamping in 1991 - stamping on envelopes and invitations. Once I retired from consulting and we relocated to Alaska, I began card making - because you know you can save money by making your own cards! Or so we all thought...I have seen a number of companies, techniques, and tools come and go. There have been many changes, but the stamp has always been my primary tool.
How about you - scrap or stamp? Or both?

Tuesday's Tip

I was working on some ATC's for a swap, when I remembered this golden oldie tip. I like dimension in my art work, be it cards, ATC's, scrapbook pages. So I will stamp images and cut them out, and then mount them with dimensional adhesive/mounting tape. When an image is cut out, the cut edge is white and can be distracting and visible depending upon the background to which it is attached.

You can see some of the white edge on the image on the right. On the image on the left, I ran a gray marker along the cut edges, including the inner arms. It is a subtle difference, difficult to capture via a photograph.
However, it really makes a cleaner edge when added to the final piece of art (these images were added to ATC's). I strongly recommend a medium gray over black - black is often a little to dark and distracting. Next time you cut out an image to add dimension, give this tip a try!