Saturday, March 14, 2009

My Art - Birth Announcements

I am a grandma for the second time!!!!! Yeah!! This little guy was born on February 25th. I will be traveling west to see him this week!!
I created this birth announcement for my daughter to send out. It fits in a #8 envelope. It took me a while to figure out in Corel Photo Paint how to make the soft edge oval with the picture of him only days old. The birth info is below his picture and is revealed when the blue panel with his name on it opens up with the short piece where the button is. The short panel is embossed with the CB Swiss Dot embossing folder. The button is a Sizzix die I just recently acquired from a local posting on Kijiji.com. Well worth checking out this site for crafts supplies!! I glued the button die cut to the round ribbon slider die cut and tied them together with white fiber. This is attached to the card front with a ribbon!! His photo and birth info is laser printed and layered onto yellow cardstock the same as the buttons and his die cut name.
If you are a grandma who lives close to her grandchildren you are blessed!! We will be closer once DH husband retires in a few years. Until then, we have been blessed with children who think that grandchildren should know their grandparents and have made the effort to let us see them as often as possible. The other grandchild will be visiting in April with her mom just before her second birthday!!

May you all enjoy your spring break! May you be safe if you are traveling!! Enjoy your children and share a little art with them over the week and celebrate all that is good about them being the ages that they are!!

Therese

My Art - Numbers ATCs

Participated in a Numbers ATC mingle in one of my groups and decided to use my CB numbers embossing folder. Having played with metal in my classes with my students I decided to use metal foil from my latest chocolate treat!! If you need justification for your chocolate consider it buying art supplies with the chocolate being a total bonus!!
In this case, the bar comes with a silver foil liner which I glued to a piece of cardstock - use scrap or mistake cardstock because it will never see the light of day again. I cut the piece into the right sized layers for the ATCs and then ran them through the CB with the Numbers embossing folder!! I used alcohol inks to add colour to the embossed metal layer! Used printed transparency images under slide mounts as accents. Added some vellum beneath the transparency to make the images more visible. Added quotes around the edges using gel markers. Sent off a couple and offered the others to the students in my class as a little gift from me at my last class!! Still have a few leftover for trading!!

Therese

My Art - Embossed metal ATCs

Artist Trading Cards using embossed metal!! Several different techniques in this set.
Row 1 - two on the left: I decorated lengths of metal duct tape using ink and alcohol sealed with an acrylic finish. These were glued to cardstock before they were embossed. These have to be left at least over night or more to be completely dry before you put them through your Cuttlebug embossing folders to add texture. In the end, the finish washed out of the embossing folders with soap and water with a tooth brush but it was a bit time consuming. The quotes were printed on transparency, mounted below the bookplates and trimmed. The bookplates were attached to the ATC with brads. I did add a layer of vellum between the two to make the quote more legible. Really like the look of this embossed metal!!
Row 1 - one on the right: This one used the same tape as above but instead it was applied over elements that were glued to the blank ATC. In this case, from bottom up - a strip of fiberglass screening, a scalloped circle, a circle punchie with a snow flake punched out of the middle. I glued the tape down the center of the ATC over all the layers and applied pressure with my finger to bring out the texture of the layers below. Rubbing with anything other than a finger removed the finish and gave a bit of a distressed look to the metal which was cool. To distress the snowflake even more I laid a piece of wax paper over it and traced with with a pencil. I found the wax paper nicely pick up the finish and left no residue of finish on the piece. Neat little trick that I discovered by accident.
Row 2: I used a red aluminum (Christmas baking arrived in this one) container which was straightened with pressure and a wooden spatula handle (wood works the best for not marring the surface and giving a smooth finish). Once it was reasonably flat I cut out the smoothest areas and cut hearts using a Sixxiz die and my Cuttlebug. These were provided to the students along with pencils and a little pad of newspaper. The front was embossed with any markings made on the back with the pencil. The pad of newspaper had just enough give to get some decent embossing. The more pressure applied when making the markings the deeper the embossing. So everyone made their own markings and attached their hearts to the layered ATCs with 3D foam tape. Added words or quotes which were printed on labels to make them like stickers using fonts from the internet or their own hand writing. For very affordable aluminum for embossing consider buying an aluminum pizza or cookie sheet from the $$ store. I expect you could add colour with alcohol inks or inks, alcohol and acrylic sealer like I did with the duct tape above.
Row 3: These two were embossed with the same technique as Row 2 using stamped images on the one side instead of free hand markings. It does give you much more options for creating images which you cannot draw yourself. You could, of course, draw your own images with a Sharpie marker and emboss them. Just remember that all the images are reversed on the front side so words need to be written backwards. I added a bit of colour with Sharpies to the embossed metal on these two.
The students enjoyed embossing their metal hearts and choosing words to go with them. They fit perfectly in their Chunky ATC boxes though I expect the boxes maybe be used for several other purposes - apparently just the right size for small electronics like I PODS and cellphones!!
I will use this technique again for creating fun elements for my cardmaking!! Experiment and try something new!!

Therese

My Art - Chunky ATC boxes!!

I created these boxes with the Chunky ATCs in the following post!! I cut and scored a panel of poster board to which we (students and I) Modge Podged tissue paper and/or napkins. On the lower one I wish I had used a more neutral and lighter tissue paper as the bottom layer which would have been a better canvas for the flowers I glued over it. I had not fully realized how transparent the napkin images were going to be after being applied with Modge Podge over the tissue layer. Live and learn!!
The panel is attached with thumb tacks to the sides of the chunky ATCs to create a box with a lid!! Glued beads onto the bottom to create feet. Added two brads with circles to create a quick and easy tie to keep the box closed. Of course, the box is the perfect size for storing ATCs which is what the students and I were creating this week!!

It has been a total blast to come up with interesting and creative art projects for these students and they have been great at getting into it and working with the supplies to make the projects their own.

Therese

My Art - Chunky ATCs

Chunky ATCs!! I read about these in Somerset Workshop - Autumn 2008 recently. (Purchased for me by my DH - love him!! He picked it up because the cover looked like things I would enjoy!! Love him more!!) Audrey Hernandez talks about listening to her SO speak of 2x4s and later measuring a scrap to find out it was 3.5"!! Needless to say she ordered one 2x4 cut into 2.5" pieces which gave her 40 chunky ATCs for $2.75!!!

With my DH being a woodworker I thought I would ask for scraps of 2x4s cut to 2.5" and have a go with this for a class with my students. In the end, he had 1x4 scraps instead of 2x4 scraps which I said would be fine!! I am blessed that he was careful to pick only ones that were smooth and power sanded them for me!!!! (love him more!!)
So I primed these great little canvases for art and had my students create chunky ATCs with them using Modge Podge and tissue paper/napkins images which were quick and easy! We added the dimensional elements the next day with hot glue. You can check the previous post to see the boxes we made with the ATCs we made!!
Therese

My Art - Thank you cards

I created these for all the people who attended my Stampin Up party in February!! It was a great afternoon with my SU demo, Catherine. We did two make and take cards and she demonstrated the Big Shot with texture plates and dies. What a machine!! If I did not already own a Cuttlebug I would be buying one of those. She offers a free die if you buy a machine - a sweet deal! It was a great day and I got a few free goodies as well. That is one of the great things about Sale-a-bration!!

The cards feature a transparency printed with a daisy photo which I took last year!! I added the word "thanks" using Corel Draw and printed them four to a page. I used small pieces of double sided tape to attached them to decorative paper which I created myself using gesso, Modge Podge and acrylic paint leftovers from my classes!! I placed the ds tape in an area where it was quite dark so it would not show on the front of the transparency. The ribbon is added to this layer and taped to the back. I glued this to the front of a white card, added my double daisy punch accent with a brad and an insert!! Love the way they turned out!!
Decorative paper: I used white copy paper and painted on my gesso and Modge Podge leftovers in an all over pattern. Once dry I used my acrylic paint leftovers to add colour washes over that. It makes for very interesting paper because the gesso and glue resist the acrylic paint leaving you with a wide variety of hues and texture in your decorative paper. Very unique papers!! I was sure to scan these papers before I used them in my cards so they can be used digitally in other works of art later on. I am starting to build a body of digital elements which are my own work which I can use without any restrictions in my future work. It will be really nice later on to have no copyright issues when I am creating collages or multi media art.
Therese

My Art - Collaged Art Canvases

Loved doing these canvases!! These are 8x10 canvases which I first treated with gesso and in the process added some tissue and embossed paper for texture. Once that layer was dry I added some colour using (pink and blue & yellow and brown) colour washes with acrylic paint. The elements (hearts and B letter) were created using book pages coloured with acrylic paint. These were collaged onto the canvas using modge podge. Not sure this was the best option because the edges wanted to roll up. I did add a bit more acrylic paint to blend in the collage elements into the over all design. Using Sharpie markers I added my quote - all handlettered. The whole surface was then treated with a coat of Modge Podge to seal it including the edges. Found inspiration for these on several blogs including this one: Lost and Found. I would highly recommend this process for creating art for your craft space, home or work place!! This was one of the projects I did with my high school students and they really got into in and enjoyed the process of creating their own art and using art as a form of self expression. They all did a great job!!!
Therese