Techniques to use on chipboard

Good morning

A week or so ago on the Facebook Chat page Jane asked 

"Re: chipboard 

Do some of you paint it/ colour it in some way and if so how?" 

so today I want to share with you six ways I change

 the appearance of my chipboard to suit my layouts or cards.

Lets start with this one

The dragonfly chipboard I have used is from Memory Maze - Linda's Scribble and Butterflies

I have coated the dragonfly with glue and then sprinkled Dress My Crafts Frosted Sugar Powder all over it.

The arrow is from Memory Maze - Follow Your Dreams set. I coated it with white acrylic paint and then glue before covering it with white iridescent glitter.

The white paint certainly makes a difference to the finished look.

You could, of course, use any coloured paint under the Frosted Sugar Powder or glitter for a completely different look.

No. 2

Once again I have used a dragonfly from the Memory Maze - Linda's Scribble and Butterflies set.

This time I have given the chipboard a coat of black acrylic paint.

Once it was dry I used Uniquely Creatives Wavy Words stamp and Gold Ink

to stamp on top of the black paint.

If you liked you could add a coat of Glossy Accents or similar to give a high gloss finish to this technique.

No. 3

This chipboard is from Dusty Attics Mini Captions #2 set

I applied a solid cover of black acrylic paint and then a coat of Glossy Accents.

I love this technique for words and titles, it gives a high gloss domed look and 

looks fantastic on top of metallic paints too.

No. 4

The chipboard for this technique comes from Memory Maze - Card Sentiments 2

I used my Versamark Ink pad and white embossing powder to colour this piece. I actually gave it two coats of embossing powder so I got that nice smooth finish to the piece.

Once again this could be done in any colour.

Very fast and simple to do.

No 5

This chipboard comes from Memory Maze - Criss Cross Hearts

I applied a coat of Deco Foil Transfer Gel Duo, let that dry and then laid a sheet of 

Fab Foil in Gold on top of it and rolled over it with my brayer.

The foil did not stick to the whole surface but it has a very grunge modern look to it.

No. 6

The chipboard for this technique is from Memory Maze Wire Butterfly set.

I painted the butterfly with white acrylic paint and when it was dry I sprayed it with Glimmermist's Pumpkin Spice spray.

It has a beautiful shimmer in real life 

You could also add a layer of stamping between these two layers for added interest.

So there we have 6 way you could personalise your chipboard to suit your project. 

There are, of course, many many more.

I would love to hear or see your favourite ways of changing the look of your chipboard.

My process video is below.

Till next time

Stay safe

Hugs

Julie

How do you store your dies?

Today I have a question for you

Seeing as how the product of the month is dies and they are 20% off for the month I would like to know how you store your dies?

Currently I store mine in the Avery Elle storage pockets

They come in an assortment of sizes and the ones I use are, 

Extra Large - 6 3/4" x 9 3/8" (50 Pack)

Large - 5 1/2" x 7 3/8" (50 Pack)

Small - 5 1/8" x 5" (50 Pack)

I cut a piece of white cardstock that is slightly smaller than the pocket and put that inside the pocket.

I attach a piece of magnetic sheet that is large enough to hold the die/dies.

I use my label maker to add a label to the pocket.

I write on the cardstock how many pieces are in the die set so I know I have got them all when I am packing up.

I store all of my packets in clear containers.

I have made category labels to fit into the containers so I can sort my dies 

and hopefully make them easier to find.

I always try to cut one of each die when I receive it and place it in the packet.

 I use this to try for size when I am trying to decide what to use on my project.

I store any un-used die cuts from my projects in the back of the appropriate packet.

If the die set has matching stamps I store these in the back of the packet.

I currently store these in with my die storage but not sure whether I should keep them with my stamps. 

In fact I think I have some in the stamp storage bins and some in the die storage bins.

Perhaps they should have their own bin?

I store my stamps in the same type of bins, sorted by type.

I would love to know how you store your dies and die/stamp combinations.

Looking forward to seeing your systems

Hugs

Julie

Four of my Favourite Techniques to use with Stencils

Good morning

Today I have a quick post to share with you four of my favourite ways to use my stencils

There are dozens of ways to use stencils but these are the ones I enjoy and seem to use the most. I love adding texture and dimension to my projects.

I have made samplers to demonstrate these techniques. 

I cut a 12" x 12" piece of smooth white cardstock into 6" squares to use as my base. I will probably cut these up and use them on card projects in the future.

I clean my stencils as soon as I have finished each project because I do not want any of the product to dry on the stencil and make it harder to keep my stencil flat on future projects. 

To get a nice clean edge to your stencilling projects it is very important to make sure your stencil sits flat on your cardstock. 

I use a soft scrubbing brush and warm water in the sink to clean them. This could cause blockages in the plumbing if you are using your stencils continuously but I figure that for the number of time I use them I can probably get away with it. Time will tell I guess.

Starting from the left hand sample I have used Matisse Impasto Medium, which dries clear, and put that through my Kaisercraft "Textures" stencil. While the paste is still wet and in place I sprinkled Dress My Crafts Frosted Sugar Powder over it and pressed it into the medium using my brayer. The excess was tipped back into the bottle and the stencil removed. The Frosted Sugar Powder will not come off once the medium is dry as it has been firmly adhered. You could also use glitter, confetti and glass beads in the same way.

The second sample is using Colour Blast Colour Pastes through the same Kaisercraft stencil. The stencil is one of those that has 4 designs in the one 12" x 12" stencil.

This technique shows that you can use any paste with a stencil. Mostly I use Modelling Paste which I colour with acrylic paints to suit the project I am working on. Some other products that fit into the "Paste" category are Viva Inka Gold, Shimmerz Textures, Faber Castell Texture Luxe, Stencil Magic Paint Creme and BoBunny Glitter Paste, really anything that has a paste texture.

The third sample uses Deco Foil Transfer Gel Duo through Cadence MU-03 stencil.

I have applied the gel through the stencil and set it aside to dry. The gel goes on white and when it is dry it is clear. Once it is dry I laid Fab Foil, patterned side up, on top of the cardstock and ran my brayer over the foil to transfer the gold to the gel. There are lots of different colours and types of foil so the effects are unlimited really.

The final sample used Distress Oxide inks in Blueprint Sketch, Salty Ocean and Speckled Egg which I have applied through a Stencil Girl stencil using my blending brush. Once this had dried I stamped on top of the stencilling using StazOn Jet Black ink and a Kaszazz Stamp called "Reason Season Lifetime" before I removed the stencil. You could use any stamp here.

So there we have a few tips for using your stencils.

Here is the video that shows my process.

I hope you have found this informative and you try some of these techniques on your next project.

I would love to see or hear about your favourite stencil techniques. I love trying new things so leave me a comment.

Till next time

Stay safe

Hugs

Julie

 

How I kit... part 1

When I am heading away for a weekend retreat I like to sort out a bunch of pages ahead of time paper wise for a few reasons.

1. It helps me use up my stash.
2. It means I don't have to take much more than I need- and will only need to buy a few papers- and can use my spending money on embellishments rather than patterned paper (which I have a lot of already).
3. Batch tasking like this saves a HEAP of time. A big part of any LO is choosing the supplies- If I can go through and choose the papers for forty layouts all in one session then I only have to go through my stash once- not forty times!!
4. Having all sorts of choices already sorted for me means I can do what takes my fancy and I can get into it fast.

*************************************

When I kit like this I start from two different places depending on my mood.

Option One: This is the stash buster option I go through my patterned papers and find the ones I have had for quite a while, as well as some that I absolutely love and really want to scrap with and lay them out ALL over my lounge room floor.



Option Two: I go through my photos and find some that I am 'in the mood' to scrap then I lay them all out as below.

(Option three is a bit of both- in which case I do the papers first).

Step two in both processes is to match 'this with that'. So if I have paper all over my floor I will pull out my envelopes of enlargements, and my albums of photos waiting to be scrapped and find the matches.

I am looking for colour matches contrasting or complementary- not the same colour. Or thematic matches. If I find more than one paper option I will add them both. I may or may not use them both in the final LO but at least I have the paper with me to chose from and not back at home where it's going to be useless.

Here are some examples...

 

 The brown tones in this image is a good match with the greens in my photo and a few of the butterflies pick up the red of the table. This works thematically because the butterflies go to fun and outdoors.

The spooky paper is great with the witchy photos- the tan is neutral and will work with most things and the orange highlights are also found in my pictures.

The colours here work with my photos and the circles echo the ball in the image. You can see a similarly toned paper in the background which has chevrons- these will give the illusion of movement- I'll point them in the same direction the ball is moving in.

Arrows work with these images for the movement theme again. There isn't too much bright colour or bust details in my photo so this relatively colourful and busy paper with pair nicely.

A science-themed paper to match the science experiment in the photos.

This one is all about the colours.

This one is about colour too- I can see that these colours will work with my sons green shirt because that green is already in the paper. The pictures are quite bold so I have chosen a soft paper so there's no competition.

This is a paper I have had for ages and really like but found hard to match- but it works well with the sheets and picks up the pinks in the quilt cover. It contrasts nicely with my daughters green top.

Once I have complete sets of paper and photos I have a think about what I know is in my stash that will work well with what I have going on and go grab it...

I knew I had these Pirate Stickers from the same paper range the flag paper came from.

I knew I had some paper with cereal boxes for my baby eating cereal page.

The next stage is to go through my scrap paper drawers. These are sorted by colour and I pull each one out in turn and go through them to see if I have some papers to co-ordinate with what I have going on. Once again I am looking for colours and patterns that compliment or contrast...

Here's the final result. I didn't find matches from the scrap drawers for all of the pages but some of the offcuts from what I have already might work- because it's pretty unusual for me to use a full 12x12 sheet on a LO. Or I might buy a sheet or two while I am away. (I scrap at Country Paper Craft in Bruce Rock- it's a store and a retreat.) 

The final stage before I put it all away is to add a sheet of cardstock to each set. 98% of the time that will be White or French Vanilla. Very rarely I might use Black (Raven), Kraft, Chocolate, or Grey. 

Then I slip it all into, what ends up being a very full, Work-in-Progress Album- if you don't own one I highly recommend them. When I get to the retreat I flip through and pick the page I want to work on and pull all my bits out and get straight into it. When the page is done I slip it back into it's spot in the album for safe transport home.