Scrap365

Mixed Media Bottles Featuring WOW! Embossing Powders

| Marsha.

Marsha Valk | Embossed mixed media bottles

Ever wondered if embossing works on glass objects? Well… It does!

I’m going to share with you how I created these embossed Mixed Media Bottles, using WOW! Fab Foil and WOW! Embossing Powders:

Marsha Valk | Embossed mixed media bottles

Tip 1: Make sure your glass objects are clean and dry. Also make sure the glass object is going to be able to handle being heated by a heat tool. Drinking glassware is way too thin, jam and spaghetti sauce jars are perfect.

I used the Fab Foil as my first ‘mixed media’ layer. To be able to apply the Fab Foil, you need a sticky surface. I stamped my image onto my glass bottle with VersaMark first:
Marsha Valk | Embossed mixed media bottles

Tip 2: A curved, slippery surface can be tricky to stamp on. It helps when you refrain from mounting your stamp on an acryllic block. That way you’ll be able to shape it round the curves with you hand. Sometimes laying your stamp flat, inked side up is helpful too: that way you can roll the curved object over your inked stamp.

Next I sprinkled WOW! Bonding Powder over the VersaMark image, removed stray particles with a soft brush and melted the powder with a heat gun:
Marsha Valk | Embossed mixed media bottles

And then I applied the Fab Foil over the still hot powder:
Marsha Valk | Embossed mixed media bottles

Be careful, the glass is hot too! I used a cloth to gently burnish the foil.

I needed to repeat the whole process a couple of times until all the sticky parts were covered.
Marsha Valk | Embossed mixed media bottles

The result wasn’t perfect, but that just adds to the mixed media character of the project. I also found that some images give better results than others!

I continued by adding a second ‘mixed media’ layer: regular embossing. This time I used a stencil.

I taped the stencil to the bottle with masking tape. I also masked off parts of the image:
Marsha Valk | Embossed mixed media bottles

I applied VersaMark through the stencil, removed the stencil and sprinkled sparkly WOW! Embossing Glitter on top of the partly stencilled image. I tapped off the excess, removed stray particles with a soft brush and heat set the embossing glitter with the heat tool:
Marsha Valk | Embossed mixed media bottles

Tip 3: Parts of the glass are really hot now. Please leave it to cool before you go on to the next step. If you don’t, you will risk damaging the already embossed parts and more importantly: new embossing powder will melt immediately when it comes in contact with the hot glass.

Reapply the stencil and mask off other parts. Alternate the colours:
Marsha Valk | Embossed mixed media bottles

Marsha Valk | Embossed mixed media bottles

Because I had to wait for the glass to cool after each embossing session, I had time to work on three bottles at the same time. It was fun to experiment with the different kinds of WOW! Embossing Powder (Glitter, Metallic and Primary). Each one gives a different effect!

Tip 4: If you want to be able to clean your embossed glass objects, I would advice to protect the images with a waterproof varnish.

Materials used: WOW! Fab Foil Bright Copper, Dark Blue, Glitter Gold; WOW! Bonding Powder; WOW! Metallic Brass, Persian Indigo, Primary Bark, Totally Teal, Vintage Jade; VersaMark Ink Pad; Stamps and Stencils: Carabelle Studio; Nathalie Kalbach for Stampendous

This tutorial previously appeared on the Scrap365 blog.

Hello Autumn

| Marsha.

141003_MarshaValk_S365_BirgitStamps1There was one more blogpost on the Scrap365 blog that I haven’t shared here yet: Product review – Art Stamps by Birgit. Riikka and I each created a project featuring Birgit’s stamps with Carabelle Studio and modelling paste.

The results were interesting because Riikka and I not only used the same technique and the same stamps, but without knowing we had also chosen a similar colour scheme for our individual projects!

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Check out the post on the Scrap365 blog if you want to know more about the modelling paste technique we used!

Craft space

| Marsha.

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I shared my (updated) craft space on the Scrap365 blog a couple of weeks ago and I thought you might like to see it too!

I started scrapping at this table more than ten years ago. The table was in my living room back then and it was just our dining table. All my scrapbooking supplies fitted into a plastic container that was moved into a cabinet when I was done scrapping.

The situation lasted about three years and by 2006 I was ready to move into a corner of our attic. There was no heating there, but there was room for a desk and even better: enough space to house all the supplies and tools I had collected. I was scrapbooking right next to my washer and dryer, which of course meant that I always managed to stay on top of the laundry!

We had a separate room that we called the study, which was where we kept our desktop PC. I started to spend more and more time in there, to edit and print photos, type journaling and to check out the online scrapbooking forums.

My scrapbooking stuff was on the other hand spilling over to the rest of the attic… I clearly needed more room and the thought of central heating was kind of appealing too. So about two years later we moved my scrapbooking corner into the study.

Fast-forward to the current situation:

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I have somehow managed to get rid of all the home office stuff in here. We no longer own a desktop PC, which makes things a lot more flexible!

My old dining table got replaced and found a new home in my craft space. My husband elongated the legs because I like to stand while creating.

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The table recently moved to the centre of the room. I’m slowly trying to minimize the amount of stuff that is stored on these shelves.

It’s where you can find my packaging materials, pencils, crayons, punches and bigger tools, photo gear, 6×6 paper pads, canvases, printed photos, die-cuts, embellishments, tags, chipboard, envelopes, coloured cardstock, memorabilia, printer paper, photo paper and sewing materials…

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On the other side of the chimney is an Expedit:

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This is where I keep magazines, works in progress and… even more memorabilia:

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My memorabilia hoarding habit is a problem that honestly needs to be fixed!

I have made progress in sorting it all out and now I need to do something with it. Some of it is tied to the works in progress, some of it is tied to potential projects, other stuff I keep for nostalgic or emotional reasons.

I have promised myself that this is it. I have to finish a project or decide to chuck things out before I can accumulate any more. I also need to decide what to do about the potential projects. Use it or lose it… That’s the question!

I know you can hardly see it here, but left of the Expedit sits a vintage record case. I keep my entire collection of 12×12 white, kraft and black cardstock and patterned paper in that record case!

On the opposite side of the table is another Expedit, that functions as more of a mixed media station:

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Most of my inks, adhesives, special paints, pan pastels, embossing powders, watercolour mediums, washi tape, pens and markers are in those drawers, but you can also find roller and alphabet stamps, enamel dots and wood veneer in there.

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This Expedit houses collage material, acrylic paint, spray inks, stencils, UTEE, clay, mediums, clear stamps and… my waste paper bin:

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And last but certainly not least, there is a wine box on the window sill that contains my essential tools:

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Here I can reach for my paint brushes, attacher, several pairs of scissors, hole pokers, craft knives, palette knives, foam brushes, several rulers, craft sheets, baby wipes, spray bottle with water and a bottle of rubbing alcohol.

I love that this is a moveable feast: I can take out what I need, or I can just move the whole box to the worktable if needed.

I spend a lot of time in this room. This is where I paint (and splatter), cut, paste and sew. It’s also the place where I do my photo editing, writing and other computer work. It’s my room, I don’t have to share it with anyone else and I can leave unfinished projects out on the table if I want to.

I assure you that it isn’t always this tidy. I tend to pull out all kinds of stuff while creating. But I do try to put everything back once a project is finished. Having a place for everything really does help a lot and I consider myself very lucky to have a space like this!

That’s it. That concludes the tour of my room. I hope you enjoyed it!

Scrap365: CSI is back!

| Marsha.

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Just in case you missed it: the Scrap365/CSI challenge is back on the Scrap365 blog! Check out the new Case file here!

From the ‘Evidence’ part of the challenge, I chose: leaves, mist, watercolour, metal, scatter something and string.

And from the ‘Testimony’ part, I took: Document a trip/adventure, Handwrite on your background and Thank you note.

The series of photos were taken by Liesbeth during our trip to Berlin in 2012. The journaling is a thank you note to the clouds, parting just at the right time so we could witness the beautiful fall colours of Groβer Tiergarten.

Pencil the Page

| Marsha.

This post was previously published on the Scrap365 blog. It’s all about having fun with coloured pencils!

Hello, hello!

Last month I enjoyed a fab four-day live illustration course. I was re-introduced to a couple of materials I hadn’t used in years, just because I don’t consider them regular scrapbooking supplies.

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I’ve been sketching and creating patterns ever since and I’ve been dreaming and scheming of how to incorporate my new found drawing and sketching joy into my scrapbooking.

I have to be honest: I’m not the biggest fan of coloured pencils. I never have been. I think this stems from my childhood: I’ve always preferred bright vibrant colours and felt tip markers just provide a brighter, more saturated result.

That said: I’ve discovered that good quality pencils and the right choice of paper really does make the world of difference! (Structured) cardstock and drawing paper result in different effects and I’ve found them both interesting.

The easiest way to use coloured pencils on a scrapbook page is to just start doodling some kind of pattern without great rhyme or reason. Be mindful of composition for the sake of photo placement later on, but for the most part: just have fun!

Stumped for ideas? Basic zentangle patterns make fab background patterns!

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For this page I grabbed one of the coloured pencil patterns and added vibrant spray ink on top:

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You can also use coloured pencils to add texture to basic (die-cut) shapes. Grab a plain paper scrap, roughly add colour with a pencil and then (die-)cut the scrap into shape.

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For the second page I decided to keep things clean and simple, because the tone on tone pattern is quite subtle and I wanted it to be as visible as possible:

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Thank you for stopping by! I hope you give pencilling on your scrapbook pages a try. It’s great fun and very relaxing!

Inspired by: Scrap365 magazine

| Marsha.

inspired1

Hello, hello!

Yes! It’s that time again! Riikka and I challenge each other each month to create something with a particular theme or thing in mind. This theme or thing can be anything and for this Inspired by Riikka and I agreed that the June/July 2014 issue of Scrap365 would be a brilliant source of inspiration!

As it happens, there’s a brand new issue coming out this Friday! So just to be clear… This is the new Aug/Sep issue:

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But for this Inspired by we used this issue:

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Riikka and I are both contributors for the magazine. I’ve been on the team right from the beginning. I love working for this magazine and I love reading it. There’s a great mix of styles in there and there is always something that blows my mind. Now you know I’m biased, but I think this is the best scrapbook magazine around and I’m proud to be a part of it!

My Inspired by project was a no-brainer: I’m in the middle of my summer break and although I had planned to finish ALL of my deadlines before the break… I did not. But I figured (before summer break started) that I needed something to document my summer break adventures. So… it had to be a summer break mini album.

I decided to use a Snap! album as a foundation. I’m not sure if I will keep everything in there for good, but I figured that I could always choose to bind the pages in another cover later on.

For the inner pages I cut about 15 sheets of mixed media paper to size and I thought that the Hello, hello Studio Calico scrapbook kit would provide me more than enough papers and embellishments to last me my 14 day break.

And then my summer break started…

And I played around with paint and had some fun scraplifting from the magazine…

But the summer break weather wasn’t that good…

And we ended up doing a lot of cleaning and purging…

And not doing anything particularly noteworthy…

And when we did, I didn’t have time to document…

So…

All I have to show for this Inspired by are a couple of foundation pages!

I had a lot of fun making them though! One of the things I’ve done in the past week is organize my craft supplies (again) and it was extremely satisfying to use some of those supplies in the process of creating the foundation pages.

Unfortunately I’m not allowed to publish photos of the magazine’s pages… If you have the June/July issue at hand, it might be fun to grab it and see where I got my ideas from!

I didn’t really think this through beforehand. I just started with the first article and I went on from there, skipping to fun background ideas first:

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Inspired by: Inspiration Station – Doodling by Emma Trout

Zentangle and doodling is so on trend right now. And it’s so relaxing to do! I love the way Emma combined it with scrapbooking. Her pages look fab! My doodling still needs a bit of colour, but I’m a bit hesitant because I don’t want to ruin things!

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Inspired by: On the Bright Side by Sanna Lippert

This was a step-by- tutorial. At first I thought my page looked terrible… But I just continued to follow Sanna’s directions and I had the best time creating these backgrounds. I was happy to use Nathalie Kalbach’s Stampendous stamps on these along with Distress Stains/Ink (hadn’t used them in ages!!!) and embossing powders!

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Inspired by: Stash Savvy by Birgit Koopsen

Birgit makes brown paper look sophisticated… I dug out one of my self-carved stamps to create the background paper, just like Birgit did in the article!

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Inspired by: Jazz it up with Gesso by Ali Parris

Just followed Ali’s directions and then left my pages to dry for a looong time… That’s why these are still quite bare.

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Inspired by: Viewpoint by Kristin Tweedale

I’m a big fan of Kristin, not just because of her simple scrapbooking style, but also for her choice of subjects to document. So I just had to include her! I liked the idea with the alpha’s so much that I basically scraplifted her page.

And that’s all I have to show for now… I keep all pages in the Snap! binder until I figure out where all the photos and stories are going to go:

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I plan on printing the photos next week and then finishing the mini album soon after. I have a serious habit of not finishing any vacation album if there isn’t a deadline attached, so wish me luck!

I’m beyond curious of what Riikka has created with the huge amount of inspiration that can be found in this issue of Scrap365 magazine… You can see for yourself on her blog!