Background Technique and a Give-away!

Last Tuesday, our ATC group got together at the LSS for our monthly get together.  We had our best turn-out attendance-wise, so far.  So hopefully we will continue to grow and collect new members and new art to swap.


  I brought along my ever growing collection of Glimmer Mists to share with the group, and do kind of a mini class on the Cling Wrap Background Technique.  The PDF handout for the class can be found here.  We had a great time doing this technique, and everyone created some beautiful backgrounds.  This was a good time for this mini class because this month, one of our swaps on the group, is for hand made background papers.  So I signed up for that one of course.  Can't wait to see what I get in the swap.


Here is a quick run-down of the class I did:


Supplies:
Cardstock (I used white) or Water Color paper, Glimmer Mists-2 or 3 colors, Cling Wrap, Paper Towels, Craft Iron, Brown Paper Bag or Craft Mat (to protect your work surface)


After gathering the supplies listed above, decide what colors you want to use for your background papers you will be creating.  I personally use two or three colors that work well with each other.  You can go for colors that compliment each other or contrast each other.

1. Cover your work surface to keep it clean.  I used my graph pad from Stampin' Up.
2. Place your cardstock or paper in the center of the surface.  Tear off a piece of cling wrap that is a few inches larger than your entire sheet you will be spraying.  Set the cling wrap aside for now.
3. Mix the bottles of Glimmer Mist that you have chosen to work with.  Do this by "swirling" the bottles until the mica is mixed well throughout the liquid.  Uncap all of the bottles you will be working with.
4. Randomly spray the Glimmer Mists over the entire surface of the paper, careful not to muddy the colors.  You want to completely cover the sheet with color, but spray so that your colors just barely meet or overlap.

*please note that the white areas on this sheet are the color "Marshmallow"  which is white in color.





      5.  Quickly cover the sprayed sheet with the cling wrap that you set aside in step number 2.  You do 
           not want the cling wrap to be smooth.  The more texture on the cling wrap, the more interest to
           your finished product. This is why you want a piece of cling wrap larger than your paper you are
           spraying.  This will allow you room to "smoosh" and wrinkle the cling wrap.

     6.  Keep the paper covered with the cling wrap and leave to dry.  You can set it aside and work on
          another set of backgrounds or you can go work on something else until your paper is dry.  The cling 
          wrap must remain on the sheet as it dries. 


     7.  Again, if you are not the most patient person, like myself, you can dry up the last little bit of stubborn
          dampness by aiding it along with your heat gun.  Make sure you remove the cling wrap first!


     8.  Once the page is dry to the touch, you can smooth it out and prepare it for trimming down to size to
          use on your project of choice.  I smooth mine by covering it with a couple of paper towels and and
          iron it flat with my craft iron.


(here is a picture of a finished sheet.  I did not have the patience to dry the sheet for the tutorial for a photo.  The gold lines are the mica that is channeled into the wrinkles on the cling wrap.)

 Now the give away!  Who doesn't love free artsy stuff?  I went a little crazy one afternoon and made a whole bunch of different color combos using this technique.  So now I have a bunch in my stash.  I will give anyone who leaves a comment on this post a chance to win one of two bundles of ATC size backgrounds.  I have two bundles of 12.  I will give anyone who becomes a follower on my blog a second entry in the drawing.  I will use random.org to pick the winner(s) on Friday, May 21st.  Good Luck!

Beautiful Dreamer Layout

 I made this layout on National Scrapbook Day,  during the crop portion of the evening.  I love the way it turned out.  This is one of my favorite layouts that I have ever done.  Estella looks so sweet when she's sleeping.  The journaling is a portion of the Dutch lullaby, "Wynken, Blynken and Nod" by poet Eugene Field.

 I knew I wanted to create a collage of photos for this layout, but after looking at all of the bright, clashing colors of Estella's various pajamas and bedding, I decided to print them in black and white.  Now the photos look even sweeter, and the colors do not clash with the pallet of my layout.

Here is a detail shot of the upper left corner of my layout.  This shows some of the details of my journaling strips, as well as some of the patterned paper and embellishments I used.  I created the JUMBO scallops by using a 1 3/4" circle punch, and then cutting those in half and lining them up along my border.

Here is the upper right corner.  More scallops, more journaling, embellishments and you can even see some detail of the embossed patterned papers I used.

Detail shot of my title.

Lower left corner with the remainder of my journaling.  Thanks so much for looking!

National Scrapbook Day Projects

I am finally getting around to posting some pics from my National Scrapbook Day fun.  My LSS (Scrapper's Edge) hosts an awesome day every year for NSD.  The first half of the day is usually a smattering of classes, followed by a crop in the evening from 3pm to midnight, with food, games and prizes for 25 crafty ladies.

The first class I attended in the morning was Pixie Stick class, which is a childrens class,  taught by my very talented friend, Saundra James.   We made bottle cap charms.  Estella made an awesome fairy collaged pendant, and I made a super-cute magnet.  I have no idea where Estella has hidden her necklace away, but I do have pics of my magnet that I made.  

How cute is that!?  It's a little french bulldog wearing a crown.  Too cute!

Saundra also taught a class using the new Tim Holtz dies.  We made a beautiful flower with his flower die and some used books and glimmer mists.  

And we made a very cool looking ornament out of grungeboard with the bird and cage die.

In addition to these projects, I took two classes taught by Ranger Certified Instructor,  Sondra Kirtley.  Every year for NSD Sondra designs a layout all about NSD.  Last year, I got a chance to preview the layout she had designed for NSD 2009, and I dressed myself and my daughter in clothing that would coordinate with my layout! 

This is such a great idea, Sondra actually takes photos of all of the participants throughout the day, and prints them for us to use on our layouts,  so we could actually have a photo of ourselves working on our layout-to put on our layout!  How great is that?  This year Sondra even emailed me a preview peek of her design so I could plan my wardrobe accordingly.  I tell you-it doesn't get any better than that!

Here are two cards that Sondra K. designed for us to make on NSD also.  I love anything with dimension, bling and kraft card stock!