WOYWW 354–New Stash, Music and Decorating

Since there is no change in my desk since last week and not wanting to miss out on the fun of WOYWW, I thought I would share the new stash I bought in February. It’s on my desk somewhere under the clutter, and even though it was “posed” for the photos, it’s been there on every Wednesday, so I think it just about qualifies for a WOYWW post!

I have been so busy with other things lately that none of this stash has yet seen the light of day or got its feet wet with ink!

After our wonderful Diana Taylor posted over recent weeks on using things she hadn’t used recently, including some fabulous flower stamps and dies which I quite fell in love with, I got the details from her and ordered them – they are the Heartfelt ones in the pink packaging. I also raided Ebay for some more new flower stamps because I don’t have many. The ones on the right are smaller than I’d hoped but they will still be useful, and the ones at the bottom can be mixed and matched for layering or making 3-D flowers if I want.

The box on the right is Bo-Nash Fuse It. It’s like the glue on the back of Bondaweb, but in powder form. I bought this for sprinkling on fused Angelina fibre so that I can apply it to projects – this stuff fuses beautifully to itself but not to anything else! Centre stage are the final Perfect Pearls to complete my set. Below the Perfect Pearls is a new pot of gold embossing powder.

While looking for new flower stamps, I found the new PaperArtsy Eclectica Collection by Lin Brown.

I also bought the companion stencils.

I was totally blown away by these, particularly after viewing the Youtube video with all the projects people have made using them – I simply couldn’t resist!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn8OdbuEUlA

One day (soon, I hope!) I shall get back into the studio and start playing with all these goodies.

Meanwhile, I am continuing to work hard on my guitar and singing technique. Here are my fingertips today – just over a fortnight on from when I started.

They are less tender now, and they look a lot worse than they feel! You can see that there has been some bleeding under the skin. They definitely feel harder now so I’m almost there!

I have been working on strengthening my left hand by squeezing the rubber ball my hubby used for the same purpose when he broke his wrist. Today I discovered some good exercises online for increasing flexibility, stretch and dexterity in the fretting (left) hand, with some excellent Youtube videos.

I have noticed since I started singing again that there is weakness in my middle register, and looking online again for advice on this, I came across Felicia Ricci, an amazing singing teacher who is enthusiastic and fun, and who explains things which are hard to put into words – I know I am going to benefit from this.

I spoke to my minister after church on Sunday and he said to email him when I felt I was ready to sing, and he’d fix it. It won’t be long now!

We are also about to redecorate our gloomy and cluttered sitting room, which doesn’t get a lot of natural light. At present the walls are cream, and we have far too much stuff in there. The lighting is very poor, so the electrician is coming to see if we can have wall lights. We are going to replace the cream paint with white, with small accents of a nice sunny bright orange. My hubby took me to B&Q yesterday (he said, “I know how to give a girl a good time” lol!) to buy the paint. I have ordered a new storage cabinet/bookcase to replace the ugly white painted shelves and this will be a lot less dominant. We spend a lot of time in there, and it certainly needs a facelift. Photos will follow! Now that Mum is no longer in the flat, we are going to move some of the stuff through there and use it while ours is out of action, which will be nicer in the evenings because it is at the back of house and gets the afternoon sun. Watch this space.

My hubby has been working hard in the garden and it’s all beginning to look lovely. We can’t wait for our rock plants to start growing. The water feature is looking great.

Happy WOYWW everybody and may we all have a fulfilling and creative week, whatever form that creativity may take!

Flightless Angels

Today, feeling a bit better again, I decided to devote the morning to some experimental work in my ARTHaven. EPIC FAIL. However, I decided to blog about it anyway, because I did come up with some interesting results, even if none of them were useable for the purpose I wanted – some may be able to be developed further and used differently, and it’s always good to learn from one’s mistakes!

The other day I made these moulds from the metal angel wings I recently got from Etsy.

I needed to discover what kind of materials would work with these extremely shallow moulds, that would be strong enough and flexible enough not to be brittle. Today’s experiments were mostly with UTEE (Ultra-Thick Embossing Enamel), and also a little with Angelina Fibre and Fantasy Film.

My first plan was to use one of the large wing moulds to make some transparent wings by pouring in clear UTEE. First of all I painted the inside of the mould with some dry Perfect Pearls in Perfect Gold.

Using my melting pot, I melted some UTEE which was already in there, which had been mixed with UTEE Flex (granules which you add to UTEE to keep it flexible). Pouring it into the mould wasn’t a great success. It was hard not to get far too much in. I scraped half of it back into the pot with the spatula.

Once it was set, I peeled off the mould. The UTEE was so thin that it tore, and wasn’t all there! The effect was nice, though.

Here’s a detail, showing the shimmer of the Perfect Pearls showing through the clear UTEE.

It was obviously extremely flexible and unsuitable for self-supporting wings. This technique might possibly work if the piece was being applied to a flat surface as an embellishment, though.

I then moved on to the smaller mould, and decided on a different approach, this time sprinkling on UTEE and melting it with my heat gun. This time I used gold UTEE. I had to hold the heat gun well back so as not to blow the UTEE away, but close enough to start to melt the surface of the granules and make them tacky, after which I could zoom in with the heat gun and melt it easily. Here it is after the first layer had been melted.

While it was still warm and tacky, I added another layer of UTEE and melted that.

The next photo shows the third layer of UTEE having been added, and about to be melted.

Once it was cool, I peeled the mould off, and was surprised to find that where the top surface was bright gold, the surface that had been in contact with the mould was a dull brown! Very disappointing. Maybe this was the result of repeated heating.

It felt fairly strong and slightly flexible, and I was able to trim away the excess with scissors.

However, on flexing it a little further, it broke.

My third test was to use the sprinkling method with the heat gun, but to add some UTEE flex. I painted the mould with Perfect Pearls again and melted a layer of clear UTEE. Once it was melted, I sprinkled on some of the Flex granules and melted it again, and then added two more layers of clear UTEE, melting each separately.

I did find that the melting UTEE tended to creep away from the mould and create holes in itself. I am not sure if the Perfect Pearls were making the surface of the mould too non-stick. Eventually as I added more UTEE, it seemed to fill up OK.

Here is is, cooling.

After it had been removed from the mould.

Again I trimmed this with scissors, and again, managed to break off the tip.

This time I decided to try and mend it, by pressing the broken edge of each piece onto the surface of the melting pot to soften it, and then pressed them together.

I heated the whole thing gently from the top which eventually got rid of the join. I think a piece made in this way would be ideal to mount supported on a flat surface as an embellishment, but I don’t think it would stand up in flight!

Being unconvinced that it was strong enough not to break, I decided to re-melt it, and this time to spread some Angelina fibres over the melted UTEE in the hope that they might strengthen it. This is the back, after it was pulled off the mould. Quite opaque-looking.

This is the front. Quite a mess. You can’t see much of the definition of the wing detail.

The back, after trimming.

The front, after trimming.

Not a huge success.

I decided to try laying a piece of Fantasy Film over the mould and putting UTEE on top of that and melting it, hoping that the Fantasy Film would pick up the detail of the mould, but it just shrank and crept away from the mould, and I ended up with a shapeless piece which was somewhat wrinkled and pitted. It was an interesting effect, though, with iridescent shimmery colours, and I may be able to use this piece in other projects.

While still thinking about Angelina Fibre and Fantasy film, I decided to try a technique I have used before with rubber stamps. This doesn’t always seem to work, and it does seem to depend on what colour of Angelina Fibre you use, for the image to show up nice and clearly.

I spread some Angelina Fibre over the mould and laid a piece of non-stick silicone baking parchment over the top and ironed it.

Very unsatisfactory! All it did was flatten and fuse the Angelina Fibre and no image was visible. Simple stamps without too much detail work best for this technique, I think, and probably much deeper-etched ones than the depth of my very shallow mould.

I tried the same with Fantasy Film laid down first, and then Angelina Fibre. Same result. Total failure!

Here are all my failures together.

Oh well.

I need a new material to fill these very shallow moulds. I am sure that polymer clay is going to be too brittle to use this thin. There is a possibility that Friendly Plastic pellets may work, and when I next cast some things from moulds, which will be soon, I am going to try using this with these moulds, but because this stuff is more like clay in consistency when melted, and not pourable, I think it may be hard to fill the moulds neatly, and difficult to trim them afterwards once they are set. FP ends up fairly hard, and this thin, it may break.

I discovered something called silk clay last night and that might possibly work. This stuff behaves like modelling clay but sets to a lightweight rubbery substance which may stand up if the pieces are not too large. I need something strong enough not to break, and slightly flexible so it isn’t brittle, but not so flexible that it won’t stand up under its own weight.

For the moment it looks as if my angels are going to remain flightless, unless anyone can come up with some helpful suggestions!

Angelina Moth Card

Last week I made a card for a friend’s birthday. I had a plan for it which unfortunately did not work, but I was able to use the pieces in a different way and ended up with a pleasing result, even if somewhat different from what I originally anticipated!

Materials and Equipment

Distress Inks in Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord, Victorian Velvet and Walnut Stain

Distress Stain in Picket Fence

Versamark Clear Embossing Ink

Clear embossing powder

Distress Crackle Paint – Clear Rock Crystal

Adirondack black archival ink

Ranger sepia archival ink

Angelina Fibre (Fantasy Fibre) “Soft and Sweet” in Pink

Fantasy Film in iridescent gold colour

Perfect Pearls: Dichroics – Berry Twist, Interference Violet, Plum

Perfect Pearls: Colours – Blue Smoke

Perfect Pearls: Metallics – Perfect Copper, Blue Patina

2 stamps from the Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection, Bitty Grunge

Tsuki CM-B5 moth stamp from Designs by Ryn

Happy Birthday stamp CHSH 238E from The Stamp Barn

Prepared inked background from my stash

Basic white cardstock

Hand embossing tools (large and small)

Fun Foam

Light mauve mottled paper from my stash

Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive

Pinflair gel glue

ATG double-sided tape glue

Here are some still photos and details of the construction of this mixed-media card. (These pictures are stills from the video, as I forgot to photograph each stage as I did it.)

I began by creating an inked background from one already in my stash, using Distress Inks in Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord and Victorian Velvet, finishing off by distressing the edges with a small amount of Walnut stain.

Using the moth stamp, I heat-embossed a couple of moths off the edge of the card using clear embossing powder. This emphasised the colour of the inks underneath.

I added a little Distress Crackle Paint in Clear Rock Crystal to the opposite corners for a bit more texture.

I then took some Angelina Fibre and spread it over the moth stamp. Laying a piece of non-stick baking parchment over the top, I proceeded to iron this to fuse the fibres where there was contact with the stamp. I have had some success in the past with this technique, but when the stamp is as detailed as this, it does not work very well as not enough definition is revealed, and some colours of Angelina Fibre work better than others. In general, this technique works best with larger, less detailed stamps, or with wooden printing blocks.

I did not reject the piece, even though it wasn’t good enough for my original plan, but set it aside to use later. In the meantime, I tried the same technique using a piece of Fantasy Film (made of the same stuff as Angelina Fibre but coming in sheets rather than fine threads). Although the pattern of the moth was clearly defined on the film after ironing, it was too flat, and didn’t look right. Again, I set this aside to use later, after cutting the moth outline out of the sheet of film.

I took a piece of white scrap card and stamped the moth, using black archival ink. I cut this out with fine scissors.

I experimented with layering this with the Fantasy Film and Angelina Fibre moths but none of it looked right.

I decided to put the stamped moth on the top, with the other pieces underneath and showing around the edges, and used Perfect Pearls to colour the moth image, to provide an iridescent, glowing effect.

Some time ago, I made up a palette of Perfect Pearls by mixing the powder with water in a Tim Holtz palette – this makes them very much easier to paint with, as you just treat them like normal pan watercolours.

I used as combination of three dichroics (which produce two different colours according to the direction of the light) in Berry Twist, Interference Violet and Plum, and Blue Smoke from the Colours range, and finally, Blue Patina and Perfect Copper from the metallics range. Here is the finished moth.

I laid the moth face down on a piece of Fun Foam and hand embossed it using two different embossing tools, one large and the other small.

The completed moth, with the wings slightly lifted, and curled gently over the handle of a paintbrush.

Layering up the moth on the inked background card. The Angelina Fibre moth went down first, after I had pulled away some of the excess fibre around the edges, and then the Fantasy Film.

Finally, the stamped moth went on, so that a narrow border of Fantasy Film showed around the edges, the the Angelina Fibre gave a fringed effect below that. I originally tried sticking down the first two layers using 3M spray adhesive but this did not take, and the layers began to lift very quickly, so I used Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive instead. The top layer was adhered using Pinflair gel adhesive applied with a cocktail stick onto the reverse of the embossed parts, to help it keep its shape.

It shimmers in the light in a very pleasing way against the darker, mottled background which has its own, subtler shimmer from the clear embossing powder and Crackle Paint.

The next step was to mat the piece onto some gold mirror card, leaving a very narrow border which enhanced the sparkle of the piece.

I have some pale mauve mottled paper in my stash, which is obviously not strong enough to support the weight of a card, but it suited the project so well that I decided to use it. I distressed the edges with Milled Lavender and Dusty Concord Distress Inks.

I took a second piece of this paper to use as the card liner, and stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment in the centre, using Dusty Concord Distress Ink.

I then stamped with the moth stamp and Versamark, and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder, with the moth images going off the edges of the paper.

Heat embossing the moth images.

Then I distressed the edges of the paper using Dusty Concord Distress ink, and the clear embossing acted as a resist, showing the untreated mottled mauve card beneath, and adding a bit of shine.

The heat embossing completed.

To assemble the card, I stuck the card liner inside with a line of ATG tape glue, and then added the paper cover in the same way, sandwiching a piece of plain white card stock between, to give the required rigidity and support.

Finally, I stuck the mounted moth piece onto the card using ATG tape glue.

The finished card.

Here is a detailed shot of the moth, showing the painted Perfect Pearls, the narrow Fantasy Film border, and the loose Fantasy Fibre strands projecting from underneath.

A detail shot of the card liner showing the sentiment stamp, and the clear heat-embossed moth on the mottled card.

Here is the video I made of the whole project.

I decided to leave in the failed experimental parts because it’s always good to share one’s learning curve, and it may help someone else making the same mistakes.

This is the first video I have made using my new camera and improved camera set-up in my new ARThaven. It is also the first project I have completed in my new creative space, and it marks a special new beginning for me – I so enjoyed being creative again after such a long break when I had to concentrate my efforts on our house move.

I hope you have enjoyed this project.