design each moment

Six Steps to Alter Your Pages

 

Theme: TIME

In a few short weeks the calendar will say spring has arrived even though the last vestiges of winter will remain for many weeks to come, at least it will around here!  

The first sign of spring for many of us will be that yearly event to set our clocks ahead an hour as we “spring” forward.  I don’t look forward to missing an hour of sleep!

Our thoughts may leap forward to the plans for warmer weather, the end of school or summer vacations. We may also look back at the winter and all we accomplished or survived (if your winter was like ours!) Inevitably our thoughts and plans revolve around one precious commodity…TIME.  

What do you think of when you think of Time? Wasting time? Investing your time? Spending your time? Budgeting your time? Whenever we scrap our photos we are preserving memories…Time…an event frozen in time on our pages, our personal history documented.

With the time change coming March 9^th, I’d like to challenge you to do a piece on Time. I’ll share my project with the theme of Time, and how to take it from a scrapbook page to a piece of altered styled artwork that you can display. And we’ll do it with a combination of six techniques! I hope you’ll try something too and share with us on Journella.com or our Facebook page.

 

Inspiration:

The lyrics of Steve Miller’s song “Fly Like an Eagle” went “slippin’, slippin’” through my mind, followed by Don Williams’ driving rhythm of living on “Tulsa Time” and the haunting ballad “Time in a Bottle” occupied my thoughts as I considered a way to present a project focusing on “Time.” (yes, I know, I’m dating myself) Sometimes it’s nice to have musical inspiration as you plan, but in the end, I chose a poem by Henry Van Dyke, you might find a great quote you’d like to use to represent your “Time.”

Time is too slow for those who wait,

Too swift for those who fear,

Too long for those who grieve,

Too short for those who rejoice,

But for those who love,

Time is Eternity.

~Henry Van Dyke

 

WHAT I USED:

 

I gathered elements that included a variety of rubber stamps with clocks, clock pieces, misting masks of clocks and gears, an embossing folder with gears, brads, glass pebbles, and wire.

I have used a Black 8” x 8” Mosaic Moments Grid, Robins Egg Paper Tile, Black Paper Tile, cardboard leftover from a package insert and a sheet of black/teal Core’dination paper.

Several metallic inks from Encore! in green, blue and purple, Versa Color Lagoon Blue, and Aged Teal Embossing Enamel from Stampendous were selected to use to cover the chipboard letters and edge some of the tiles. For the look I wanted Pewter and Copper Perfect Pearls Mists were essential. 

 

Six Steps to Alter Your Page:

Misting and Dry Embossing:

Apply the metallic sprays to the Mosaic Moments 8” x 8” Grid paper with the use of the masks, alternating the sprays. It wasn’t as clear and crisp as I intended, but the overall misting effect changed the look of the grid paper giving it an aged feel, which is what I wanted. You can use a heat embossing tool to dry the misted page to speed things up. To minimize the curling the page will do, I placed the dried page between two sheets of paper towel and used a hot iron to flatten the paper. And yes, you will still be able to see the grid lines for placement!

 

The cardboard was cut to 5” x 7” and run through the Spellbinder in the Cuttlebug Gear Embossing Folder. Taking the Lagoon Blue ink and direct inking in a few spots for an under layer, then misting with Pewter and Copper and letting it dry a bit. The cardboard absorbs a lot of the mist and the embossed image will relax so you may want to run it though in the embossing folder again before it is completely dry to give it a crisp embossed image and then let it completely dry. Be sure to line up the images exactly. Once dry it is fairly stiff.

 

Inking and Heat Embossing:

When it is dry, cut it into the tiles needed for the layout and ink the edges and a few spots inside the square and dip into the aged teal embossing enamel, the gold flecks really melt nicely for that aged look. 

The chip board letters were inked with Metallic Inks, embossed with the Aged Teal and secured to the tiles with Tombow Mono Aqua liquid glue.

 

Dry Embossing and Sanding:

The Black/Teal Core’dination cardstock was also run through the Spellbinder in the Gear Embossing Folder. The surface was sanded to reveal some of the gears in teal and four of the tiles were sanded on the edges for that teal outline, the other four were used as a background block for the chip board letters and mounted on foam mounting tape for my title.

 

Printing on Tiles:

I formatted my poem in WORD and then printed on a sheet of regular computer paper. I centered my Robin’s Egg MM Paper Tile over the printed poem secured with a strip of dot adhesive and ran it through the printer again. Using the clock stamps and metallic inks I filled in some of the blank space on the tile. Inking edges and embossing powder to finish it off.  (see previous detailed tip on how to print on tiles here: http://blog.tamipotter.com/how_do_i/2006/12/print_journalin.html)

Stamping:

I used the metallic inks to stamp clock images on black cardstock and punched into 1” tiles, and inked the edge; in the end I only used one of these tiles.

 

Finishing Touches:

I inked the edges of the photo I was using in black and mounted it with foam mounting tape. Several other tiles were mounted with foam tape, some on glue dots and some were attached directly to the grid to give the pieces several different heights.

Brads, wire, gears, clock pieces, and glass pebbles were used to finish the piece. The layering on this project really makes it more appropriate for a décor piece, than in an album. How much you add is up to you.

 

All it needs now is a shadow box!

 

So, now that you’ve seen the process, do you have a special moment in time you’d like to remember, a special person, or maybe even a special event? Why not put it on a grid and experiment a bit?  Make your own art!  Don’t forget, we’d love to see what you did!

Thanks for stopping in…

Andrea

P.S. The photo I used was of my late husband on our first anniversary in Niagara Falls, Canada, it was always my favorite. This was done in memory of him, March 13^th, 1952 - September 23^rd, 2005. 

Two Tips to Maximize Your Scraps

Happy Valentine’s Day!

 

 

Two Tips to Maximize Your Scraps

In an earlier post I altered our new Heart Frames with Washi Tape and removed the heart center to use in a later project, today you’ll see a quick way to make a decoration/tag for a gift with that heart and a second item that can be a décor piece or part of a larger ongoing project.     

 

 

First, to make this tag you will need the heart center from the frame.

Additionally, I used scraps to create an arrow point and fletching’s.

For the shaft of the arrow I came across a huge bargain in the $1.00 bins at our Target store. I bought two packs, one with red hearts on white and this striped one that I used.

I layered several bits of paper ( leftovers from cutting the quilt circles used in the second project) for the point and then used an X-Acto knife to create a slit in the straw to cradle the point.

I took a small rectangle trimmed it to fit the end and used a couple of glue dots to apply.

Positioning the arrow in the direction that I wanted it to sit I used the X-Acto knife to slice a line parallel to the edge to slide the straw through at both the top and bottom. 

Finally, a small heart with a rub on message was attached to the front, and just rested it in my jar of pops.

 

 

The second project features Mosaic Moments 6”x6” grid paper, paper tiles and our new corner tiles. I chose the red and white because it was seasonal and bold, and used scraps that I had on hand from recent projects. This can easily be accomplished with any color combination or quilt pattern that you like.

I love quilts, but completing them is often a challenge. I have four baby quilts and one full sized quilt waiting to be finished. It will take time…this paper quilt goes together quickly.  

With outer borders and an inner 9-patch section of Cathedral Window Squares, I created an area for several 1” photos, words or patterned papers to be placed or to be left as is.

 

 

Crafty Cutts Dies ‘small quilt circles’ cut nice circles with a scored 1” square center just fold and score to get the Cathedral Window quilt block look where a 1” paper tile fits nicely inside, or use a photo of your choice.

Line the circle/squares to the lines of the grid. The area in between the squares will be a bit narrower as the folded sides take up space but I think it adds to the quilt look.

Four Corner tiles are placed in the outer corner squares, but you could also use photos in these areas as well. This might make a nice format to do a series of photos of one individual.  

I think I’d like to do four of these in varying quilt patterns and colors to display them in a square pattern on a wall. This small 6” square size makes it possible to create quickly and have a larger project that can make a big impact. It also seems the easiest way to complete a quilt and with no sewing!   

So if you need a last minute gift for that special valentine, look around for all those scraps and create!

 

Have a day full of memories!

andrea

A New TWIST for your Valentines!

I love cards that have multiple folds, pop-ups and other working parts. They are perfect for special occasions and Valentine's Day is one of those occasions.

Like many of you, I find inspiration, patterns and ideas on Pinterest. This card idea began with something I first saw there and thought would be a perfect use of our RTC Grid paper! So let me show you this Twist!

 

I began with one 4" x 12" section of the RTC grid paper. At 4" intervals I scored the strip. Then in each end section I scored the page diagonally top left to bottom right intersecting each of the squares in the path at their corners. Fold each end in towards the middle and fold the triangles so that the fold peak is up. The twist comes as you open the card by holding the corners and pulling outward the card opens into a three section.

 

I chose a heart patterned paper to use on the cover, cut it to 3.25" and diagonally cut it and applied it to the card face. 

Opening it up, on the remaining triangle on each side, I used our new Corner Tiles in red along the fold for a chevron/step like pattern. A black 1" tile was used in the corner of each of these outside sections and 1" photos to fill in the other two. 

In the middle section I created a tic-tac-toe type pattern in black 1" tiles. This could be done in chalkboard tiles, but the cardstock worked just as well with the China Marker. (see previous post:Chalk it Up!) I drew an arrow across three tiles. In the center section a heart from the new Heart Frames became the perfect spot for my stamped message. The remaining black tiles were stamped with x' and o's. (Stamps are from DeNami Designs)

The photos used were of my family, I thought it would make a nice card for my Mum for Valentine's Day. Each photo was cropped into a square before printing on a 4" x  6" then an 1" punch was used to cut them out.

To finish the card off, it needed a pretty ribbon to tie it together and another heart from the Heart Frames was covered in patterned paper and then a few crystal gems for  a bit of bling to finish it off. I placed my adhesive under the ribbon and behind the heart to hold it all securely together. Be careful to leave the top right edge of the heart free to move as you open and close the card. I centered the heart on the tile it would open to to determine where it should be adhered on the front.

This is a quick project to put together and can be adapted with as many or as few photos in the 1" squares inside that you decide how to decorate using the chalkboard areas.

Have fun creating something special for that special someone in your life!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

andrea