Hydrangea Blues

I wanted to save the best for last. Before I took the embossing paste class from Lynell Harlow at Dreamweaver Stencils, I had played a bit with the stencils and paste but was never happy with it. Guess I had to learn the finesse ideas. I was more open to dry embossing with the stencils and even that wasn't all that. I am a convert! If you can't take a class, buy the DVD. I saw it at Joann's. There are several quality brass stencil companies (and even some stainless steel) but Dreamweavers is, in my opinion, the most versatile and grown up of the ones I have used.

So here is the last one I made. I am taking a break from crafting and posting for a few weeks. Been reading a lot of computing and code books and perhaps will be doing my own website (I need to reserve the domain) so the possibility exists somewhere down the road, this blog will go and the actual domain will take its place. I haven't decided as it's a pretty big endeavour. But I do want to save the domain name anyways. Paper Tango is taken-it is owned by Gartner which you may have noticed is sold by Target in their card department. I often pick up clearance items to use such as plain card fronts and stickers. Never pay retail!! It isn't where I got the name tho. I imagined the ink pads and stamps dancing and put it together.

When I made this card front, I didn't know which way was up. So I photographed it both ways. It works either way. The hydrangea stencil is huge! So the resulting card is very large,too-it would definitely take extra postage to mail. I placed the stencil on the watercolor paper and oil colored the image after swirling the colors on wax paper as a palate.Use a small stiff stencil brush for this. When you have your "look" place the stencil back on, swipe the transparent paste across and remove excess and before it dries, add your transparent micro glitter to the flowers. I did not put glitter on the leaves and branches-not on purpose, only the blossom. You know how glitter is, right Allison? It was very easy to variegate the oil colors on the individual blossoms and I was even able to make leaf veins, using a curved edge.The oil crayons come in 5 packs and 20 packs that I know of. I bought seasonal-so this is spring. Before adding to the card front, I distressed the edge of the watercolor paper and added a bit of brown ink on the edges to bring out the color of the branch.

My card base color was pulled from the embossed flowers. The same went for the green of the leaves. All eventually was layered on a plain black card. When I did the green layers, I didn't have much paper left, so I did L's. It all gets covered up so no one knows. I am anal about not wasting paper. Maybe that isn't always a good thing but it's who I am-a heartfelt recycler and hoarder.

You can see the embossing paste better with this photo. When you look flat on, the paste can look flat and you won't see that it's quite substantial and this card is heavy. I didn't want to use ribbon or stamped words, so I dug a bit and found some mini brads that captured the colors of my oils and added sets of two in the same color on each corner except the middle one. I pop dotted the layers for more dimension using teeny poppers. I think these are from All Night Media and I have had them for forever.

I would like to thank all the independent stores I visit especially Stacey . I may not leave the ideas the way they started out but the ideas multiply and I usually get carried away, which is what happened with all this embossing samples recently. Who knows what may happen next?! Today I bought some metallic paper, so my head is full already. I just need a break and some extra arms or hands to do the crap stuff so I can do the craft stuff. See ya later peeps.

The Autumn Leaves

I made myself leave the house today. Even tho my jaw felt like Rocky popped it and the Vicodin was making me toss my cookies (well, I hadn't eaten anything so I tossed the imaginary cookies I wish I had eaten), I got out into the sun for a while. I had to feed my rubbah addiction. It had been cold the last time I saw Stacey's place and she is in the middle of a massive redo of the store.

Stacey has three kids-boy girl boy and they are all beautiful but that little one Chase! OMG-I hope I am around to see him when he is in college. I told Stacey he is a mini Brad Pitt right now. I hope when I am in my 70's, I can still say hubba hubba!
Here is another embossed and gold leafed card. The same idea as before using a brass stencil and gold embossing paste. When the paste is dry, tamp on heat and stick glue, heat til tacky with a heat gun and then tamp on with a stiff stencil brush the gold sheets or pieces to your design. Round swirl the image to remove any extra flecks and save for later.

I then just added several layers to a plain card in colors of card stock I felt were pulled from the gold leaf. I used a small awl to punch tiny holes in the corners before attaching so the under layer color would show thru. It just didn't very well. That odd circle you see in the upper left-not an illusion. It's just my time honored tradition to spill something on at least one of the cards I make. I have a bad habit of not closing the pop topper on my water bottle.

You could add a rub on or stamped sentiment on the lower part under the tree or leave plain.

I have one more embossed card for you this weekend and then I am taking a long break. I need to refresh and get some actual work done in the next few weeks AND recover from this jaw surgery. I am only a third way thru it and it's been more than I bargained for-and the worst one is next time.

Raise The Red Lanterns

I almost forgot I promised one of my favorite cards ever. Well, I got distracted adding map links to Wikimapia. Sadly some of the items I wanted to add don't exist except in my memories. For the Flint area, the former site of Buick Motor Division AKA Buick City is noted on the map but is now gone to the great brick conservatory in the sky. Check out that Buick City link-a terrific blog and worth spending some time with.

I had a hard time deciding which one to show you-so I chose this one. Have any of you seen the wonderful movie Raise the Red Lantern? As soon as I started to make this card, I knew what my title for it would be. You have to see the movie to understand but it's so worth your time to do so. Most good rental shops have it as does Netflix.

I had already done the embossed piece. It used metallic embossing paste-silver in fact. If you go back to my other recent postings, you will find the directions for wet embossing-this is a Dreamweaver stencil and I used a variegated package of gold leaf flakes. I saw how the flakes took on the colors of orangy red and gold and knew I had some scraps left over that would go so well as mats. I almost just added that and matted to my card but I knew this card needed something special. I remembered having a textured 12 x 12 piece tucked away that I wanted to use with an Asian stamp set so I had to go digging. And I found it! The back is plain brown on this gorgeous sheet of blossoms.

The base card is simple black and when the layers were added, I tied some metallic Christmas ribbon (it has wire in it) into a flat bow and after using a Trio to lay a piece across the top, added it. I think this is my most goose bumpy card because of the reference to the movie. Sadly, there is an odd connection too. Just the fact that Buick is so popular in China (and not coming from here!) made me quite nostalgic tonight. Both my dad and hubby worked for Buick on opposing ends of the plant system (and polarizing sides of the picket line)-but I myself haven't owned one since 1980 (I am a Chevy girl now.)

I hope you will visit the history lessons above. And maybe just smile remembering your dad's old Buick.

Loopy Glitter Tree

I found something rotten in my cabinet where I keep the potatoes, onions, and other root type veggies. It smells so bad and honestly I can't remember what it was other than I got it at Whole Foods in May. I have washed and sprayed the shelf and it still stinks. Time for some baking soda I think. And a spray from Glade too. I have a very sensitive nose and smell things that others don't so if you walk by me and fart, I WILL know!

This is another embossing paste card and I think it was the first one I made. Not one of my favorites for sure. I was super messy and moved the stencil a bit while scraping the excess off. I just don't like to throw anything away, so tried to salvage it. I used white embossing paste and sprinkled it with sparkly fine glitter and then let it dry.

Then I just added several layers under the finished embossed piece-a thin silver piece on top of a remnant of home made cream, on which I distressed the edges and these were layered on a golden textured card. This is bigger than an A2, maybe an A5. I tied a golden grosgrain ribbon on the side and made it lie flat with the Trio.

I added some varying sizes of colored crystals but wish I had used something different. If I had filled each dot with a crystal , it would have been too much. I don't know what to add here-maybe dots of less fine/chunky glitter in another color? Any suggestions?

I really don't want to think of snow, Christmas and gloomy sunless days-give me the heat! OOOH-I hear thunder. Again. But the roofers are finally gone and good riddance to the noise!

Together Forever

I would like to thank all of you who stick around thru my ups, downs and sidles. I have a lot of things going on sometimes, and don't always feel like creating or even posting what I have created. Now I have several messes complicating my days and some are open for photographing and adding here. I just don't know how to create with sidewalk spittle and write about it. I think it was spit-maybe a looggie. Maybe a dead leaf. You decide.

This was at the Art Festival in Detroit on Saturday. Maybe this is urban art.Eww-maybe a flattened frog?

Oh, so now you really want some paper art? Okay. Below you will find another of my embossing paste and gilded flaked cards. I also used many a scrap in this. If you saw my scrap bucket-you might smack me for not giving you some. I just cannot throw anything away-even a piece of junk mail goes into this.

The dark teal card is a 5 x 5 square. It's textured as are all of the pieces I used for this card. I took the dark blue piece from a junk mail car ad (it was a non-GM car ad, so it was not something I was interested in at all). I used a brass stencil and translucent embossing powder. After it was dry, I used a glue and heat glue pad (again use the stencil as a guideline) and then heated til tacky. Take the flakes and tamp on using a stiff brush. Swirl the brush and it will take off the fly aways (save them!).

This blue piece will be your center image. I then picked scraps to highlight the colors that emerged from the flakes. Two were squares and two were oblongs. Distress the edges with a razor (do the blue piece too). Arrange them on the card in a manner you find balanced then pop dot that main blue image to the center. I added a rub on to the lower right-you could stamp here. To add a little more sparkle, I added some flower crystals I found in the dollar bin at Micheal's.

I imagined this as a wedding or anniversary card but with a little adjustment, could be birthday or thank you-it's not overly feminine, so play with it.

Now I am going to see whatever other weird photos I ended up with from my day in Detroit. I do have one almost creepy one-of a tree that reminds me of an octopus with one eye. Maybe it will show up here.

Merry Gold

Christmas in June? Well, I tend to post them as they line up, so that is what you are getting today. I really really love using embossing paste and stencils now that I know how to do it correctly. If only I could learn how to tie a bow better. This one looks screwy.

Take a stencil and tape to a piece of card stock. You can use textured card too as it just fills in when you swipe the knife across the stencil (always make sure to clean your stencils right away-keep a water bath to soak them nearby as you finish your project). Swipe a swath of translucent embossing paste across the stencil and scrape off any extra for a level playing field. I bought my scraper in the kitchen aisle. It's from Wilton and made for icing a cake! 2 bucks. If you go into the art aisle, you will pay a lot more. Same danged thing too.

When the paste is dry, take a glue pad and place the stencil over the design again and tamp on the glue. Remove the stencil and clean. Heat the glue until tacky and place the gold leaf on it and press down to stick. Let cool and using a stiff stencil brush, and using circular motions, rub the leaf flecks off (save them for later) and ta da-there is your image.

I mounted it to layers of scraps that I felt were prominent in the leaf. Gold and teal here-then I layered to a plain textured folded card. It was a bit plain, so scrounging thru my ribbon stash (like others stash chocolate, I stash stuff I can't eat) I found this metallic ribbon and laid a straight piece using the Trio. I then tied a bow in the middle of the piece and fiddled with it to sorta be straight.

As a finish, I found some small pearls in the dollar bin and added them at the bottom. I do need to work on the ribbon deal a bit so that may change but this was pretty quick (other than the paste drying which took about 20 minutes) so you could do this assembly line if you needed to-the first would be dry as you finished the 20th maybe?

Amazing Wahoo

I was not going to blog tonight but when I couldn't sleep (the 4 legged creatures are uptight with the storm coming and the two legged slug is crabbing about his allergies), I started my cooking routine. Sometimes I wonder if I should get a late night diner job that would let me be creative but I would get too pissed off at the drunks at 4 AM. They only want greasy crap anyways. I certainly remember the frat guys (of which hubby was one) wanting Rancheros. This was a greasy burger, topped with hot hot chili and a runny fried egg on top. Every Saturday night. I doubt any of them tasted it tho-those tequila shots were nasty on the tongue and the psyche.

Here I present what could be a graduation card or just telling someone they are terrific any time at all. I used translucent embossing paste on a black piece and when it was dry, I used the oil crayons again. There is a nifty trick to using the crayons-they have a scum to seal them after each use and last forever. So just rub off the end with a paper towel and scribble on wax paper. This will be your palette. Using a stiff brush, swirl the color around on the wax paper and apply it to your dried image using the stencil as a guide for the placement.

I then cut out the butterfly. Using a dark blue base card and layering it with silver, I then put a medium green piece thru an embossing folder (I used paper with a white core so that is why it looks odd). The paper cracked as it went thru the embossing process, and at first I thought of bubbles but now I like to think its fuzzy dandelion tops. I applied that and placed the butterfly using pop dots. I then embossed a piece of metal for the greeting. This metal I think might be from Making Memories but it was in blog candy a while back and I was not sure what to do with it. So I used mini embossing plates and made up a bunch for later, then cut to size.

This was fairly simple while using a lot of fun techniques. And versatile for giving purposes. Now I can't get the lyrics out of my head-I'm wide awake at 4 AM without a friend in sight-I'm hanging on a hope and I'm all right. This after expunging Cole Porter from my humming tune book.

The Masks of Africa

I wonder if Indiana Jones ever came across these archaeological artifacts? At least they "look" as old as he did tonight. I have always been enthralled with African images-both modern and old. Sometimes it's the simplicity of some of the photos or art and that is why I did not add anything to this piece. I wanted the image to stay centered and not have to compete with anything around it.

This was done using a Dreamweaver stencil (this was the one I chose free with my class). The base layer of card stock is white! Yes, white. I sprayed it with 3 different colors of Memories Mists to achieve what looks like it's sand blasted. I have had people run their fingers over this expecting a rough finish. It's very smooth.

The embossing paste I used is black. When it was dry, I tamped the image (still using the stencil so as not to over paste) with a heat and glue pad and a stiff brush until tacky then laid metal leaf over the image and tamped down with the stiff brush. When this was finished, I swirled the brush over the leaf to remove any extra flyaway bits and in doing this, the edges of black appeared around the masks. I think this is what really set it up perfect.

I then used some textured cardstock scraps for layers, finding colors that emanated from the leafing. Each package of leaf is different with some dominating colors. I found the teals and golds were the main colors in this. One layer is distressed. I then added to a simple black card. You could add some small artifacts to this-bits of whatever to give it more depth maybe.

Wild Horses

Allison has a challenge going on for masculine cards-I am not sure if they need to be stamped or what, so if this doesn't qualify, it's okay. It's the next one in the queue. When I made this card, I thought of the book I read when I was in 2nd grade-Misty of Chincoteague. I was not into horses like many young girls were/are but I loved to read anything I could get my hands on. I would just pick a shelf and go down the row until I had read them all.

This card was made using a brass stencil from Dreamweavers and embossing paste (see above link for more items, including videos).First I colored the image using oil paint sticks and a stencil brush, shading here and there. Then I used the translucent paste over the oils. When the paste was dry, I took a stiff brush and burnished the image. To give it more dimension, I used the heat and glue pad and then added very fine glitter. I just loved how the edges of the image seemed to bleed out a bit, almost giving the illusion of movement.

Here is a better close up of the horses. The colors I chose remind me of deserts in the southwest. I left room to add a sentiment or other embellishments but I think the image needs to take center stage, so here it is. I have become hooked on using brass stencils since taking a class from Lynell Harlow last month, so watch for more to come in the coming weeks. And if she comes to your town, try to take one of the classes-they are well worth the money and you get a free stencil included!