An autumn tag tutorial

For our annual Club Scrap retreat, we were asked to create six tags to swap with the group.  It's a fun way to meet people and share techniques.  I took a few pictures along the way to show you how I created this tag.

I wanted embossed leaves of different colors to mimic the beauty of the fall leaves where I live.  I used Autumn Splendor (October 2004) stamps to random leaves with versamark ink.  One of the stamps had some spots around it, which I thought would add a little "noise" and cover up any stray embossing powder that might stick to the tag. I put each color of embossing powder on a separate piece of paper.

I sprinkled each color on the tag, shaking off after each color. You want to sprinkle sort of randomly and lightly - you don't want to try and coat the whole tag with each color.  I started with purple (Paul's idea!) in this tag.

Next I did yellow.

Then I did a red.  I tried to make sure there was a little blank space left over on each, but as long as you lightly sprinkle, there will always be a few spots that are open.

Finally, I generously coated the tag with a copper embossing powder.  I wanted to make sure the entire image was embossed.

This is the result after embossing.  The leaves all look a little different on this tag, and on every tag.  I really liked how this looks!

Next, I used ash ink from Club Scrap to stamp this stitched image from Wild, Wild, West (October 2005).

I then used distress inks (mustard seed, barn door, and peeled paint) to apply color to the entire tag.  I used different ways of doing this on all of the tags.  My favorite was to spray the tag lightly with water and swipe through the colors.  At this point, I have to admit that I didn't love all of the tags.  Some of the colors were quite dark, and the leaves disappeared a bit, but I kept on going!  Ash ink is supposed to be waterproof, but I did see a little bleeding on some of the tags - there was a lot of water here!  I liked this look.

After all of the tags had dried, I used this noise stamp from Science (September 2005) in Earth ink to create more texture. After stamping, I wiped any ink off of the embossed images.

After that, I used an ink applicator to ink the edges in earth. After doing this tag, I did switch to mahogany ink. I liked both, but the mahogany was a bit richer.

 To finish the tags off, I stamped a sentiment from Autumn Splendor on vellum paper, and taped it on the back.  I did put all of the tags in my book press overnight to flatten them out.  I then added a heart brad, and some ribbon or fiber to complete the tags.  I just love how no tag is identical.  I've shown a few of them below.

I hope my swap partners love receiving these as much I enjoyed making them!

Swapped Puzzle Pieces

As much fun as it is to make altered art, it's even more fun to receive it!  Here is a quick post featuring the lovely art work from the artists at our Club Scrap retreat.  If one of these is yours, please leave a comment so others can get in touch with you to find out more!

A few of mine at the end.

By Judy Y.

Altered Jigsaw Puzzle Pieces

One of the fun things to do at a Club Scrap retreat is participate in a swap. This year, we swapped altered puzzle pieces. Some google searching did not yield many ideas, so I struggled a bit with this. I really like to add paper to altered objects, but couldn't imagine cutting around all of the pieces. I finally decided to work with inks and embossing. To start, find a puzzle with fairly large pieces - I thought this child's puzzle would be great (I found mine at Goodwill).

Next, I sanded the pieces a bit to rub off some of the paper, and provide some "tooth" for the next step.

I then painted each piece with two coats of gesso. I like to start with a white surface when I alter items. I do the same thing when I alter board books.  I used a mini-file to round off any bumps and to lightly sand the worst of my brush strokes off of the surface.

Each piece then got a coat of ink. Pigment ink worked great for this, as did brilliance ink. I'm showing one of my pigment ink samples here. I let these dry overnight. You could use a heat gun, but it takes a while with 20+ pieces.

To add a bit of texture (and fit with the Club Scrap retreat), I used a stencil from a kit and a mist to spray. Interestingly, I got super sharp transfer when I tried this out the day before, but some of these bled and really faded a lot. I'm wondering if my pigment ink was "wetter" when I did it the day before.

Since some of them were too light or monotone for me, I used some different inks with the stencil to apply another dimension to the background.

Finally, I embossed a background stamp on the puzzle piece with Stampin' Up! silver embossing powder. By far, they make the best embossing powders in my opinion. I also did a quick coat with acrylic sealer to give the overall surface a little shine (this is before the coat).

Some tips for altered projects:

• Make a lot.  I always start with more than I need so I can experiment and try some things out.  This puzzle also had some damaged pieces, so those made great test pieces.
• Test your techniques.  I used a piece of chipboard and gesso coated it to see what inks would dry on the surface.  It turned out that all of them did (eventually) so that made the options pretty open.
• Set aside lots of time.  I messed up with this one this time around!  The pigment ink dried nicely overnight, and the mist would have dried nicely overnight if I had the time.  Your heat gun can speed things up, but at a few minutes for each piece, this was a lot of time I could have used for other activities.
• Dye ink and gloss medium do not mix. Some of my stenciling was with dye ink, and I tried to put some glossy medium on top.  I loved the way this look, but it caused all of my dye ink to bleed.  (This is why I make a lot!)
• Be flexible.  My misting worked one day, but not the next.  My pigment ink pad went a little dry.  I improvised by using other ink pads, and adding some stenciling.  It's altered, so it's all good.  It makes each piece unique!
• Have fun!  I stressed when I couldn't find a lot of examples to guide me, but it is fun to experiment and try something a bit different.

I'll post the items I swapped for later and a few more pictures of my favorite pieces I made.  By the time you read this, I will have done the swap, and can't wait to be inspired by their creativity!

Paper bag goodness

This is a project I made at the 2009 Club Scrap retreat. If you're interested in attending the 2010 retreat, registration is now open. This is an experience I look forward to every year. We make the most fantastic projects, and we have such a fun time. This was our opening project - it's made entirely of paper bags and butcher paper. Since the materials are quite hardy, I decided to embellish this for my nephew for Christmas. We got a bunch of pictures from our trip this summer, and Paul and I both journaled in it. I hope that he loves looking at the pictures now, and appreciates the memories later. I had a heck of a time getting great pictures of this, and was in a bit of a rush to get this mailed to him, so I had to settle for what I could get.

The majority of the embellishments are from the Concrete Jungle kit by Club Scrap (yes, I'm addicted to Club Scrap). The blue was a perfect accent to the brown paper bag, and the graffiti nature of the designs fit well with a little boy.

I also loved the swirls of the Be Still stamp. I can't believe I didn't want this stamp initially. I've learned to love it and its versatility.
These pictures below are from my favorite parts of England (so far) - Devon and Cornwall. We didn't have great weather, but the sights were still beautiful. I loved the ruggedness of the country. If you want to read more about our vacation, take a look at Charlesworth's Adventures.

I love creating books and giving them as present. I hope you enjoyed a peek at it, too.