Ohhhh { Love these metal birds}

 Before we start...A few words on the rugby...

If you were following me on twitter (@paperartsy) the other weekend you would have seen my blow by blow account of the New Zealand All Blacks playing the English. Yay to the AB's. and yay that Mark and I were able to go along to watch with some other kiwi friends. Getting tickets to go to Twickenham is never easy for games like this, so we got them through the New Zealand Rugby Union verified by our kiwi passports. A great method as the section of the stadium we were in was all black too, so that made it even more fun! Plus a try that was scored (AB's) happened in the corner right in front of where we sat, so we were up and out of our seats with excitement!. We had a great spot: the higher stands protected us from the wind and rain, and the corporate "boxes" we just behind us, so we had the same view as them but way more fun! And of course the icing on the cake was the win.

The best part of rugby is the freindly atmosphere. When the poms scored we clapped, and when we scored they clapped...very sporting of us all and exactly how it should be....oh and the TV ref comes in very handy too!! Fair play all round makes for a great event. Had a few laughs on the train on the way back with other supporters from both sides.  Very very enjoyable.

Spinach Pie Success...

Oh and Patricia emailed me last weekend to say she tried my Spinach pie recipe, and her family loved it...that was funny...I know I put the recipes up there for people to try, but didn't think you actually would! SO I may have to put something else up there soon if you are liking that additional feature! lol Really tickled me that.3 bird roast for Xmas coming soon!!

Gift Certificates......

Mark has spent some time crating a series of VERY cool looking gift certificates. These are perfect for you to give firends or family vouchers that can be redeemed online, over the phone or as a postal order. Check them out here.

Back to the metal working....

After being out and about at a few shows in the last couple of months, I seem to get loads of emails from peeps asking me how I did this that or whatever, or how do they get started, usually that they don't remember a thing of what I demoed and want a blow by blow summary. lol. The shows over here like the NEC are absolutely massive. You are doing well to get around all the stands in a day, and you see soooo much thatit can be a bit of a brain drain. So thanks for taking the time to email and ask for help or inspirational ideas and reminders.

This blog is your first port of call. I do try to put up online the samples I made at the shows and give instructions of how they were made. That way, if you were stood watching, you can remember more easily how it was made. This works well until stuff "walks" off the desk....or people poke your samples so the metal gets crushed before the glue supporting it has set. 

Often I come up with new ideas while demoing, and this time, I had a great idea with some of the bird stamps and the little chipboard arches, and it was all looking awesome, but before the filler had set up, nearly every time I would go to show the sample to the next bunch of people watching, and bang, the blimmin thing was all mangled.  So on the last day of the show i tried to make some samples and hid them so i could blog un-poked items. :-)

I am pretty forgiving - poking raised metal is probably something even I would do lol... I guess we must all have some innate desire to have to just test to see if the metal is supported/strong. And people stood there aren't to know that it's not set hard. The drying process for fillers can be 24 hours, so usually the stuff on my desk is at some stage of drying out, but it certainly isn't fully set.

So let me show you what I was up to. If people are interested in how to stretch metal, then the samples above (fleur de lis) is a classic I do a lot, or maybe I might use a small flower, and stamp with a section that would look good puffed out will work, start with a simple design. 


The process is the same. Here is the same idea using the row of birds from SITT2...love that stamp(above) Or with a dragonfly stamp...this one is from the Squiggly Mini #13 .

1. Substrate. Choose a substrate to work on (this is a mini chipboard arch -we have several new chipboard shapes going online this week) and trace the outline onto a piece of metal and cut out. 
2. Stamp. Stamp the image onto silver, copper or coloured metal in the position you want with stazOn black ink and dry.
3. Outline. Use a teflon pointed tool to gently outline the stamped design on the front. Lean on a wad of paper for this.
4. Puff with paperstump. Flip the metal over, and on the back you will clearly see the outlined shapes. Put the metal onto a soft mat, and use a small paper stump in a circular motion to start puffing the metal inside the design lines. You might find the metal is resistant to you initially, then suddenly the warmth from the friction kicks in and you will feel the metal much more willing to oblige. Don't stop, keep puffing - you need to gradually stretch the metal.
   
5. Refine on acrylic mat. Once you have the image puffed out to the depth you like, flip the metal over (puffy side up) and place it on an ACRYLIC MAT. People forget this bit and its the most important. You need to tidy up all the other bits of metal surrounding the puffed design that got mangled or stretched in the process. Use a large paper stump to gently flatten all the areas up to the edges of the stamped design. Don't press hard. Gradually encourage it to do what you want and again it will eventually play ball. At this point you can also place your refine metal back onto a wad of paper, and gently use a small fine perforated dot tool to outline the birds.
6. Filling Metal. Now you need to fill the metal to support the puffed section. You need a product that will set up hard. Not silicone glue which is a soft flexible glue, even when dry.  You need to use either a glue or a poyfiller type product that will set hard. I use glossy accents for small areas, or polyfilla (plaster-like) for larger areas. There are many polyfillers out there, and some are more lightweight than others...which is good for cards that get posted...so muck about and do some tests to see which products you like the best. Apply the product to the recess and let set overnight. Cut a piece of humungo the same size as the metal. Stick the humungo tape to the substrate, then stick the metal to the humungo. Run a patterned wheel around the edge like a herringbone wheel to finish the edge nicely.
   
7. Stamp again. You can add more flourishes, words etc to your piece, and use texture wheels around the edge.
   

These simple tag-shaped pieces make great tags for presents, and of course you can write a message on the back...do that before you stick the metal down for ease, or if you forget, then place metal side down on a soft mat and then do your writing! The backs would look great with some rum and raisin papers on them!!

Oops...here's a poked one! grrrr...

...and a few more samples so you get the idea...note how once the metal is on the chipboard base, you can still outline the stamped lines as the chipboard with humungo tape is soft enough to accept lines made with a teflon pointy tool.

Love this sample below where part of a flower from SIEN2 or use SIEN4 for a larger one.

Here's one with a difference for those of you who want more of a challenge! Love the added colour which comes from the glimmer mists with a dab of paint underneath.

1. Outline. Trace around the tag chipboard shape onto a sheet of silver metal with your pointy tool. Cut out
   
2. Sand. Use your sanding block to sand the metal in both directions (horizontal and vertical) This will give the metal a stainless steel effect, and adds some 'tooth' to the shiny surface....love doing this before stamping in general...but don't do it to coloured metal ..all you will do is sand off the colour! LOL (you knew that already didn't you!!)
3. Paint. Apply paint to the surface...if you want the glimmer colours to be rally strong, then use a pale kaisercolour like white, eggshell, antique white, blossom, coastal blue, or one of those really ligfht shades. Swipe a very small amount of paint on with Cut and Dry foam, and then wipe off the excess with a paper towel. You still want to see the shine of the metal.
4. Glimmer. Paint and sanding the metal gives 'tooth' so that Glimmer mists can stick to the metal. So now you can choose 2 colours of glimmer to use on the metal. Spray Patina onto part of the metal and then dry. Next spray khaki on the remaining area and dry. If you spray loads, you will get 'watermark' type effects. It's a good idea to heat the metal with your heat gun first, and then spray while its hot, this helps the glimmer to dry faster.
5. Stamp. Now stamp your birdcage image from SINM6 in archival jet black ink on top....DON'T use stazon....why? Because stazon is used onto smooth and shiny NON-POROUS surfaces (eg. metal, acetate, acrylic). We just added paint, and glimmer to the metal, so now you want to use Ranger's archival jet black ink or a black pigment like brilliance would also work. These will give a much better black colour onto the painted, glimmered surface.
6. Emboss the image. Puff out the image as before, so outline the image from the front with a pointy tool, then flip onto the soft mat and puff out the birdcage from behind with a paper stump, or for a lage area like this the round teflon tool is perfect!. Carefully refine on an acrylic mat to flaten the surrounding areas, and to finish, use a fine dot perforated wheel around the edge of the birdcage if you wish.
7. Fill the metal. OPTION A: Fill the recess with glossy accents.  You can also apply glossy accents to the rest of the metal, but only a small amount, and you need to smooch it about with your finger so you have a thin even layer. now stick the metal directly to the chipboard. OPTION B: Fill the recess with polyfiller. Let dry overnight. Cut humungo to fit the substrate and stick to the substrate. Stick the metal to the humungo.
8. Stamp. Add more stamping to the edges of the piece or words like those from SINM6. Also edge the metal with a decorative wheel, like the diagonal. You can also sand the edges of the metal after using the wheel to make a nice frame.

OK so that's your lot for today ..plenty to be going on with... we are mega fast on shipping at the moment, everything is going out within 24 hours, so what are you waiting for!!!

Don't forget that Tim has started his 12 days of Xmas tags today too, so many ideas and techniques to look forward to. I loved his iwred ribbon idea on Tag 1..I'm off to do that with paper!

And please leave a comment with your thoughts on what you will do with these ideas! I love hearing about what you are up to!

Day 10: PaperArtsy 12 Days of Christmas

Day 10: Featuring Jacqui Chimes 

Using Nut and Meg Plates 2 and 3

Jacqui got a brief into on Day 8. Even though Jacqui is kind of new to the DT, she is probably one of the members who I have known since way back before we started making stamps. In fact so long, that I think we first got to know each other form swapping art way way long ago. I remember we used to play in Altered Book Round Robins together a long time back and we had a few Yahoo groups in common.
 
Jacqui has quite a varied array of styles which you can see more clearly on her blog. Most of our Design Team came to us with an Ink & The Dog Style preference, but Jacqui is one of those who can comfortably do Ink and The Dog altered vintage, and she can also do traditional cards, or squiggly ones with Squiggly Ink. Multi talented! 

Jacqui came to a recent ArtsyCrafts event, so now she is adding more metal to her projects too. She is very shy about what she does but we think it's all totally gorgeous, perfectly formed, great use of pattern and colour, and has a wide appeal.... so please post lots of comments to encourage her and let her know how fab she is! Today she is doing lots of cards and tag using some new and other older Christmas stamps. It's all beautiful! Welcome Jacqui!

A Bag Full of Snowmen

by Jacqui Chimes

This project is ideal for a bag of chocolate money or similar small gift at Christmas. Its used the snowman from SINM2 
Template for bag is from Scor-Pal.

Cut out the template from green card and score as shown in the instructions.
 

Stamp front and back with ‘Holly Garland’ from SIEN3 and the sides with ‘Seasons Greetings’ from SIEN4 in green ink. Assemble bag as instructed.

Cut a strip of white paper, distress edges and run through Cuttlebug ‘dots’ folder, then stick to front of bag at base. 

Stamp and emboss in black ‘Snowman’ from Nut and Meg 2 on Basic Grey Wassail patterned paper and colour hat, gloves, nose, buttons and scarf with markers as shown.

Glue onto card, cut out and attach to bag with double sided tape.

Tie top with co-ordinating ribbon.

Mr Snowman Tag

by Jacqui Chimes

Colour tag with wrinkle free distress technique using Faded Jeans, Broken China and Dusty Concord distress inks. Ink edges with Walnut Stain distress ink. Stamp ‘Tree’ from Egg and Nog 1 three times using Faded Jeans distress ink. Stamp ‘Seasons Greetings’ from Egg and Nog 4 with black ink. 

Using Stazon black ink stamp the ‘Snowman’ (SINM2)onto pearl metal. Back the metal with Humungo double sided tape and card. {technique from Lin Brown, LB crafts, or watch Leandra demo the technique in a video here}


Use a Teflon pointed tool to outline the snowman. Colour sections with permanent markers as shown.

Cut out and mount onto tag. 

Add co-ordinating ribbons.

Merry Christmas Tag

by Jacqui Chimes

Cover a large tag with Basic Grey Wassail patterned paper. Stamp and emboss in black ‘Merry Christmas’ from Nut and Meg 2 on Basic Grey Wassail plain paper. Round corners and glue jewels with Glossy Accents. 

Stamp and emboss flowers in black from Egg and Nog 2 and SIEN10 on Basic Grey papers and cut out. Layer as shown and glue jewel to centre. Mount ‘Merry Christmas’ and flower using foam dots. Add co-ordinating ribbons.

Santa's Stocking

By Jacqui Chimes

Stamp words from Egg and Nog 9 randomly in Pesto Adirondack ink onto green card tag. Stamp and emboss in black ‘stocking’ from Nut and Meg 3 and ‘Presents’ from Nut and Meg 8 onto four different colours of card and once onto white card. 

Cut out carefully and paper piece coloured pieces together on top of white card. (NB you could achieve a similar look using markers). Glue presents along bottom of tag and mount stocking using. Add co-ordinating ribbon

Oh Christmas Tree!

by Jacqui Chimes

Stamp and emboss ‘tree and presents’ (SINM3) with black ink onto a rectangle of white card. Mount onto slightly larger black card. Stamp and emboss again in onto green card then stamp and emboss the ‘presents’ only onto five further coloured card scraps. Cut out carefully. 

Mount tree with foam dots over the one stamped on white and paper piece ‘presents’ as shown. Stamp and emboss star from Nut and Meg 3 onto yellow card and cut out. Stick to top of tree. Add sticky jewels to tree. 

Stamp and emboss part of words from Egg and Nog 1 onto white card and tiny tree onto yellow card. Cut out tiny tree and add as shown. 

Use Cuttlebug ‘swirls’ folder to emboss white card and layer onto slightly larger black card. Layer as shown onto white card.

Baubles Tag

by Jacqui Chimes

Stamp ‘holly garlands’ from Egg and Nog 3 and Egg and Nog 9 over cream tag using Archival black ink. Use second generation print so it is not too dark. 

Colour tag with Distress inks in Aged Mahogany and Pine Needles. Stamp and emboss in gold ‘Merry Christmas’ from Egg and Nog 3 at bottom of tag. Use 

UTEE technique (3 coats of UTEE, then press an inked stamp into the molten UTEE) to make a tile in gold and add Pearl-ex powders to add toning colours. 

Stamp ‘baubles’ from Nut and Meg 3 using black Brilliance ink into hot UTEE. Edge tile with black marker pen and edge tag with gold Krylon. 

Mount tag onto slightly larger black card and add co-ordinating ribbons.

Poinsettia Tag

by Jacqui Chimes

Cover tag with Basic Grey Wassail patterned paper. Cut a label shape as shown out of plain paper and create a mask for centre.
Stamp 'Holly Garland' from Egg and Nog 3 onto label in Pesto ink and colour berries red with marker. 
Stamp and emboss ‘Seasons Greetings’ from Egg and Nog 4 onto space created by mask. 
Machine stitch all edges with black thread. 

 Stamp and emboss flower from Egg and Nog 10 in black four times on co-ordinating papers, cut out and layer with red brads. Glue as shown using Glossy Accents. Cover back of tag with card to hide stitching and add co-ordinating ribbons. 


A huge thanks to Jacqui for all her great ideas. We will see more of her another day (yes there is still more to come). Tags like these are lovely for gifts for friends, the postman, or teachers at school. You can't have too many! 

These samples were made before the new Rum and Raisin papers from PaperArtsy were printed. It's nice if you can use a Christmas palette for your tags and cards, and Christmas papers make it so much faster, and you don't have to think about the co-ordination so hard either. There are 14 patterns to choose from in our Rum and Raisin pack! 

You can still create your own papers with Inks or paints, or you can stamp directly onto papers like Jacqui has done. This year I am going to buy a couple of bulk rolls of coloured paper and stamp it up in gold or silver and black ink to have matching paper for the presents. I love it when the bits under the tree all match.  I will add the occasional image stamped an embossed from a patterned paper too, and then use those same papers on the card or tag. All this Christmas stuff is getting me really keen to start playing with these stamps. I hope you are too!

PaperArtsy Blog Giveaway: Please leave a comment and we'll randomly draw a name to win Nut and Meg plates 1, Nut and Meg Plate 2, and Nut and Meg Plate 3 PLUS a pack of Rum and Raisin  paper. All the stamps will come on EZ Mount worth £32.80. This offer ends midnight GMT the day of this posting, 13 September 2009, (lucky for someone)  and is open to all players worldwide.

Day 5: PaperArtsy 12 Days of Christmas

Day 5: Featuring Jo Firth-Young 
using Nut and Meg plate 5 

Yes we do have an abundance of Joanne's on our Design Team, but this is the last one you will meet. This, our 3rd lovely and very talented Jo Firt-Young also writes fabulous articles for Craft Stamper. Yes we do move in high circles here at PaperArtsy.

Jo F-Y has graced the cover, no less, of a Stampington Wedding Publication, and has all kinds of official “crafting and teaching” qualifications. I have known her for over 8 years – she was a regular attendee of the monthly PaperArtsy classes we taught here in Essex way back before we made Rubber Stamps. And back then I was instantly wowed by Jo's amazing way with colour, she would create the most sunning altered books, and I really thought she should be teaching us, not the other way around! 


Jo is also one of our co-teachers at ArtsyCrafts retreats. She has a great sense of humour, and is one of the few on our Design Team who live near PaperArtsy World HQ. I adore her attention to detail and the huge variety of things she produces. She has a really unusual way of bringing her ideas to fruition, far more well thought out, tried , tested, sketched and planned than most of us splodging peeps, so we probably should call her a “proper” artist! (and then she would blush) Jo is a non-tooting crafter, and we need to recognise her talent with a huge booming fog horn. You can check her out on her blog here.

Birds are in the House 

by Jo Firth-Young

Jo was here at PA HQ just as the new Rum & Raisin papers came off the press, so she managed to create this sample and incorporate the new papers into her project. She used the following rom the pack of 28 papers: Blue damask, Green text, Stripe, Red. 

The birdhouse panel:
Cut a white piece of card 8x23cm.  Stamp birdhouse (SINM5) at the top in black ink.  Colour

On a separate piece of card stamp the parcels from the Christmas tree image (Nut and Meg plate 3) 3 times. Colour in and cut out.

Arrange the parcels at the bottom of the white piece of card under the birdhouse (don’t stick down yet) because you need to draw a long post connecting the birdhouse and the parcels. Take the parcels away and around the base of post draw ground grass and tall stalks – run some of them up the post. Colour in.

Rearrange the presents around the base of the post and attach.

The tag:
Cut a piece of chipboard 12.5x26cm. Shape the top to look like a tag.

Cut a piece of the blue damask paper 21cm tall, and a piece of the green script with text 8cm tall. Do not trim the width of the paper at this point, keep it the A5 width , as it comes in the Rum and Raisin pack.


Border punch the bottom edge of the blue panel. Run both of the patterned sheets through a glue machine, or use you preferred adhesive on the back to secure to the chipboard. Position the green sheet at the bottom of the chipboard tag, trim the sides to fit. Centre (widthways) the pattern of the blue sheet onto the tag, and attach to the tag so it lies over the green paper. Trim.

Tie a piece of ribbon around the tag a third of the way up positioning knot to one side.
Punch hole at the top of the tag, add eyelet.
Attach the stamped panel.

  
Stamp the ‘do not open…’  image (Noel Plate 4) onto a piece of the red "Rum & Raisin" paper and cut out. Embellish with a gold pen around the edges. Attach to the card over the top of the birdhouse panel.
Thread ribbons through the holes at the top of the tag.

The reverse of the tag: 
Cover with a piece of white card/heavyweight paper.

Stamp flourishes (Noel plate 4) in gold over the bottom third over the tag.

Cut a piece of striped paper 5cm high and attach to the tag – overlapping the stamped images.

Draw around the edges of the entire tag with a gold Krylon pen.

And here's the finished project ! A huge tag!

A big thanks to Jo for this sample, she will be back on another Xmas day, so keep checking back!

Just time for one more sample with Nut and Meg plate 5.

Copper Birdhouse

by Leandra Franich

Create a background of stamped ferro highlighted with copper precious metal colour accents. Make a chipboard panel with painted terra-texture. Make a tape-metal sandwich of the copper metal pieces, and use a teflon pointed tool to highlight the stamped design. Use a herringbone wheel on the stars to add interest. Secure copper pieces to the background with Claudine Hellmuth multi-medium (Matte). Stamp the lights (SINM1) onto appletini green metal, make a tape sandwich for extra strength, cut out and drape around the frame. 

 

PaperArtsy Blog Giveaway: Please leave a comment and we'll randomly draw a name to win Nut and Meg Plates 5 and Noel Plate 4 on EZ Mount PLUS a Rum and Raisin Paper Pack, making a prize worth £23.40. This offer ends midnight GMT the day of this posting, 8 Sept, 2009, and is open to all players worldwide.

Viva Paint Ideas

I had a lot of fun demoing at the Craft Barn for their June demo weekend, so thought I'd show you a few pics of some of the samples I made before I send them off to Sandy for her to put up in the shop.
I got to demo so many supplies that my desk was a treasure trove of all kinds of goodies. One of the most popular techniques people enjoyed was using the viva decor ferro texture paste. You can use a splodger (spatula/ credit card) to spread it and then stamp into the paste with a damp script or pattern stamp. I used MN44 (french text), and SM08 (squiggly scroll). Leave that to dry (15 mins) and then you can apply Precious Metal Colour paints all over to highlight the texture.

Ferro is available in several rusty colours, so if you want the colour to show, then choose contrasting shades to use on top. I like Gold Iron which is a rusty chocolate colour. Golden orange and Silver Ferro are lighter shades that contrast nicely with pinks and blues. If you opt for a shade like Golden green, it works well with greeny blues like the sample shown here to the left, it's a forest floor type effect.


In this swirly sample you can see more clearly the texture and how I used a few different shades of precious metal colour paints: blue lagoon, green gold, bronze and a touch of violet.

To apply, make sure the paint is well shaken up, place a piece of 'cut and dry' foam over the top of the bottle, then tip the bottle up and back down. Now you will have a spot of colour on the foam and you can easily drag it across the ferro texture lightly. It dries really fast, so you are not waiting around for this at all, it's very instant! I just used a heavy piece of card as the substrate, but you could use grungeboard, chipboard, wood or canvas. The texture is quite flexible, so it won't crack.

This pink sample is on a chipboard base, and then coloured with pink, gold, rose-pink and lilac precious metal paints.

To embellish these samples, I prefer to stamp images from Squiggly Ink Crowns and Castles collection onto copper metal. It's nice to outline the stamped image from the front with a teflon-tipped tool (from the Basic tool set or teflon tool set), then you can flip it over onto a soft mat, and puff out the image with a paper stump. Once you are happy with the depth, fill the metal recess with glossy accents, press onto card stock, and once dry you can cut out the metal image and secure with glossy accents, foam pads or gel medium onto the chipboard as an embellishment.

On this dragonfly sample you can see how the ferro was spread over 3 sections of the card, stamped with the scroll SM08, then painted with precious metal paints in pinks, and highlighted with bronze.

The dragonfly SITT3, and small flowers SITT6 were stamped onto periwinkle and copper metal, layered to card and humungo tape, and then embossed with the pointy teflon tool, and sprayed with glimmer mist. Note how the patterns on the petals catch the glimmer mist. I love how working with metal allows you to give shape to wings and petals. It makes the embellishments so interesting!
On the mini castle sample you can also see the texture of the flowers. The copper was also lightly sprayed with a glimmer.

TIP: If the ferro is too thick when you stamp into it you will get a peaky-frosting effect when the stamp is lifted off. To avoid this, clean your stamp (an old wet toothbrush helps!) thin and smooth the level of the ferro with your spatula and try again. I think it also helps to stamp while the rubber is damp, but the great thing about ferro is you can stamp and smooth until you have the effect you prefer. You do need to clean up that stamp quickly!

This green/brown sample also uses periwinkle metal for the stamped bellies, but they were more heavily sprayed with glimmer, so the colour is less purple and more green/blue. You can also see that I used the croco crackle (gorgeous colours!) around the edges....and I love how once 'cracked' you can see through to the metallic paint underneath beautifully.

Well I am sure you have enough information to give this technique a go! All the paints, stamps, metal and tools are easily found in the shop by following the links in this post.....now all you ahve to do is choose which colours to buy!! My advice, start with 3 shades: a light, medium and dark, and 2 of those should contrast...oh and don't forget to get a metallic accent shade for the peaks.... like gold, silver-gold or bronze.

I still have some other techniques I want to show you with metal and the paints, so I'll post those over the coming few weeks.

Have fun and remember...its more fun to get messy than clean the house!

Leandra

PS. You can now follow me daily on twitter @paperartsy . I promise to tweet interesting facts ... not boring drivvle! LOL .....