Faux Encaustic Looking ATC and Give-away

Sadly some sort of a computer glitch has caused all of the images in this post to disappear, and I am unable to correct the problem.  Sorry!

I'm participating in an Easter Blog Hop so I thought I'd do a little tutorial on creating an ATC that has sort of a faux encaustic look. This began as an experiment, but I'm please with the results. 

I started with the image of the angel and egg on the sheet music.  I found this lovely image on Pamela's wonderful Vintage Digi-stamp blog.  I opened it up in Photoshop Elements and selected and used some of the colours to create a second coordinating image by using a photo of a collection of gears, over which I put a texture layer at a light opacity to get that coordinating aqua colour while still letting the gears subtly show through.  Wait, don't panic!  If you aren't comfortable using Photoshop or other photo editing software you can easily make an ATC like this with any scrapbooking paper or printed image you may wish to use. The background piece needs to be 2 1/2" X 3 1/2" (standard ATC dimensions) and the accent piece is a little smaller to allow some of the background to 'frame' it.

The next step is to melt some wax (I used soy wax because I had it) in an old electric skillet.  I found this little electric skillet at a thrift store for $3.50.  Once the wax was melted (I set the skillet at 300 degrees F) dip the paper in the wax just to wet it.  I then just held it up to let the excess wax drip off and let the wax dry for a about a minute before I set it down on a piece of parchment paper.  I'd like to try using bees wax next time because I suspect it may give a nicer, warmer look because of the subtle colour of the wax.

At this stage I decided to use an old credit card to scrap off some of the wax (front and back) because I wasn't happy with how thick and uneven the wax surface was.  I kept the scrapings to reuse them for another time.

My next step was to use some distress ink to knock back the starkness of the page.  In hind site, this step would probably be better done before waxing the paper so that the ink is sealing under the wax.  Because the ink wiped readily from the wax, I used a bit of quilt batting to blot the ink to create a bit of texture and then to keep it from rubbing off later I sprayed on a layer of SpectraFix.  This product is sold as as a fixative for pastel, charcoal, pencil, and mixed media.  After a bit of drying time the distress ink was 'fixed' on the surface and no longer rubbed off.

Fortunately this fixative is all natural and oder free so you can safely use it indoors.

Once the fixative was dry I cut the pieces out and then it was on to the sewing machine.  If you prefer, you could use glue at this stage, but I like adding a bit of stitch.  I used a zig-zag stitch to secure the background to a 2 1/2" X 3 1/2" piece of Fast2Fuse.  I like the structure that it gives the finished ATC while still having some flexibility.  I also add a piece of printed card-stock that has my name, etc. on the back of the ATC.

I then used a straight stitch to layer the angel piece over top of the background.

Here you can see what the ATCs look like once the sewing is finished.



The final step was to use some copper coloured acrylic paint to 'guild' the edges.

I always make a small series of ATCs.  In this case, one is for a swap with my GOE fibre arts friends, I always keep one for myself, and this time round, one is for YOU!  That's right, one will be part of the give-away for the blog hop (more about that in a moment).

And here's a closer image of one of the ATCs.


And now for the details of the giveaway...

One lucky reader will win one of these ATCs plus the other bits of 'blog hop candy' as pictured (Cloth, Paper, Scissors DVD which includes all 6 back issues of the magazine from 2008-great for ideas and inspiration; soy wax-so you can try this tutorial; various papers including some wonderful old dictionary pages-again so that you can try this tutorial).  For a chance to win, please leave me a comment telling me what you like to do to express your creative/artistic side.  I will be randomly drawing a winner on Monday, April 9th.  Please be sure I have a way of contacting you if you win.  Good luck!




Don't forget to check out the other blogs on the blog hop.

Happy Easter ~ Happy Spring!

Art is the Answer

 I'm still working on my final journal for my Letter Love 101 class.  Joanne wanted us to do a page with this particular quote, and I decided that since it summed up the class so well I'd put it on the back cover.

Because I love using recycled book pages to achieve that extra layer of text and texture, I wrote the quote on a piece of such paper which I had first painted using watercolours.

I'm especially excited about the flower petals on this piece. Months ago I had used round stickers (cut from a sheet of address labels, using a circle punch ) as masks on fabric when I was doing some surface design.  I loved the random colour that ended up on the paper circles so I stuck them to a piece of freezer paper to keep them for "some future project".  We'll, that day had come! I added a bit of sketching with a Pitt pen to draw in the leaves and stems.

This wonderful quote came from Pippa, one of my Letter Love classmates (and a new follower of my blog).  Thanks Pippa.  I love it.

Take a look at the second line of text on this page.    I had made a mistake so I covered it with another piece of that painted, recycled book and rewrote the words.  When an eraser won't work, figure something else out. There's always a way to 'fix' a problem!  And, because I can't let anything go, the grid lines on this page are the tiny bits of torn off paper left because I had wanted torn edges on the page in yesterday's post.

Thanks for your visit today.

Valentine Hearts

Valentine Art Quilts  8" x 10"

 Thanks to a recent post by Terri Stegmiller I was inspired to make some little Valentine art quilts.  Terri does have a tutorial if you're interested, but I chose not to use it.  I just don't seem to be able to follow patterns - instead, I tend to look at the picture and then just do my own thing. I probably should have read Terri's tutorial because I think I like her's better, but it was fun playing around in the studio for the afternoon, so what the heck.  

My friend Diane sent me a lovely birthday card and there was a wonderful bonus in that the envelop was made with this wonderful 'love' paper (plain on the outside, but the 'love' text was on the inside).  I took the envelop apart, tore some of it into small bits and added it to the neutral fabric I used for the background.  Thanks Diane :0)

Close up of 'love' paper