Hello everyone, I'm baaack!! No, I didn't go away, just have been super busy with work and life. I can't believe it's almost September, but it's still soooooo HOT! At least here in California in Silicon Valley. Yesterday temperatures reached 101 degrees, and today it's supposed to reach a high of 103. Eeeeksss!
In honor of this long and hot summer, I have three cards to share. I have to say, I've been having a lot of fun making these summer cards. I used sponges and regular dye ink pads to gently sponge the color on for all three elements: the sand, water and sky. You want to sponge the ink on these types of *scene* cards so it gives a soft muted look. The water on the vertical card was made by adding touches of white gel pen to make the look of waves, bubbles and foam. I really enjoy doing these beach scenes! Oh, I also tore scratch paper and used the edge to mask off where the sand meets the skyline. This fun stamp saying is from Heart & Soul Rubber Stamp Company, and it's called *Summertime Blues* (item # 1649). Thanks for stopping by!!!
Here is my long-awaited Fragments Travel Scrapbook that I finally recently finished! I'm really happy with the way it turned out. This is one of those projects that could have turned out looking really bad if I wasn't careful, lol!
I began with an older kraft chipboard scrapbook by Making Memories. (I don't think you can get it anymore - I kind of stash and hoard things for a while). It's made with blank chipboard covers and a beautiful canvas spine that's been embossed with travel words and logos. Other than being undecorated, it's a regular 2-ring square scrapbook that takes 8" x 8" pages.
You can see the rings here:
I took my favorite designer scrapbook papers that I've also been saving for a while and measured and cut to the same size as the scrapbook cover. I cut out 4 sheets - 2 for the front and back and 2 for the inside covers. I also cut out a couple of other smaller pieces of fun travel papers from Making Memories to collage onto the front of the album. Using my foam brushes and archival glue by Lineco, I thoroughly coated the backs of all the papers and adhered them to the album. I like using Lineco glues for my scrapbooks because they're conservation grade, which means it'll help conserve the album for many years by not using harmful ingredients.
I waited a couple days to make sure the glue had completely dried and settled into the album to add the fragments and stamping. I didn't want to add them while things were still damp because there was a chance it might warp and bubble the papers. I decided to use all rub-ons and stickers for the fragments this time, since I had already tried alcohol inks last time (on my mini album 2 posts below).
After applying various travel-themed stickers by Making Memories on top of the fragments, I flipped them over and applied Ranger's Glossy Accents glue on the back. Since fragments are by nature glossy, you want to use a glossy glue to adhere them (a glue that dries shiny and clear), and not a matte glue. Ranger's glues are made to work with the fragments and the glue is acid-free. I started out slowly to see how much glue was going to come out.
I wanted to put a lot of glue on since these fragments were going on the cover of the album, I know that they're going to get a lot of knocking and bumping.
Here's how much glue I ended up putting on each fragment. For a smaller project like a card or something that's going to be protected you could use a lot less glue. IMPORTANT TIP: Before I glued these fragment pieces down to the album, I had already placed all of them where I wanted them to be, then snapped a photo of it and printed it out. That's how I was able to confidently and quickly glue the pieces and stick them on without much fuss!
On some of the fragments I used travel rub-ons by Basic Grey - they were extremely easy to rub-on because the fragments are hard, they went on very easily! I glued them down on the side where the rub-on was to protect them from being scratched off. They show through the fragments beautifully, as you can see on the album cover.
The final touches were stamping and heat embossing the word *travel*, which I embossed with Tim Holtz's Distress Powder in *Tattered Rose*. The reason it looks pinkish-brown is because I used dark brown craft ink! It's amazing, the combos you can come up with!
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed my new scrapbook album! Stay tuned for more fun stuff!
Tracy is a total Tim Holtz-technique expert. She can basically make anything that Tim can make -- she could even teach Tim Holtz a thing to two! A few months ago she showed us a bunch of tags she made by following the steps in Tim's *12 Tags of Christmas* (2007 and 2008). and his *technique challenges* on his blog. Marian got to keep the one Tracy made with FRAGMENTS and I immediately snatched it from her (to borrow, of course)! Keep reading below the video!
I'm trying this for the first time. I hope this video gets embedded correctly. It's Tim Holtz himself showing the different ways to use FRAGMENTS:
HERE ARE THE DIRECTIONS TO MAKE THE TAG: THE STEPS TO MAKE THE TAG WERE COPIED AND PASTED DIRECTLY FROM TIM HOLTZ'S BLOG: AUGUST TECHNIQUE CHALLENGE **********************
step 1: apply a piece of felt to the ink applicator tool.
step 2: ink up the tool by placing the nib of the alcohol ink bottle into the felt and squeeze for about 2 seconds.
step 3: repeat with any additional colors you want (*tip: be sure not to overlap colors to avoid making mud).
step 4: ink up one side of the fragment by tapping the inked tool on the fragment completely covering it with ink (*tip:be sure to just ink ONE LAYER AND STOP!)
step 5: wait about 5 seconds and then you can apply additional layers of color (*tip: you can add as many layers of ink as you wish just wait 5 second between layers).
step 6: allow inked surface to dry completely.
step 7: ink up a stamp with jet black archival (*tip: stamp selection is key here - you want an image with a definite shape, not words, and not faces - you'll see why...).
step 8: place stamp inked rubber side up and press fragment inked side down over image.
step 9: immediately lift off of stamp and LIGHTLY blot wet ink off of fragment with a soft cloth (*tip: you need to work quickly as archival ink is a permanent ink and will dry black on the fragment if you wait too long).
step 10: working from a clean area of the towel, wipe off remaining archival ink to reveal image. wait a minute! what just happened? did my image disappear? it sure did...
step 11: place the fragment over a piece of white glossy cardstock INKED side down - WOW! the jet black archival ink actually removes the alcohol ink underneath when you remove it while it's still wet - a weird chemical reaction, it works every time. (*tip: now do you see why we don't want to use words? they would appear backwards at this point {well there is a way to stamp in reverse, but that's a whole other technique} i have to say i don't mind backwards numbers for some reason though?..).
step 12: apply a small amount of glossy accents around the inked side edge of the fragment and place down on to glossy cardstock.
step 13: trim excess cardstock to size of fragment with non-stick scissors (*tip: glossy accents bonds to paper in about 7-10 seconds!).
step 14: repeat above steps to create enough mosaics for tag of project (*tip: be sure to change felt between colors).
step 15: (variation) - you can also do this technique on anything smooth - heidi swapp ghosts, memory glass, dominoes, transparencies, metal, mica, and more...
******************************* ~ all these products can be found at Creative Play Stamps!
I'm excited to share about Tim Holtz's *Fragments* and this little mini book I made over the weekend - it was my first time working with Tim Holtz's new (semi-new) FRAGMENTS, and it was so fun! Fragments are a very cool tool/embellishment you can use on just about anything.
--They're a part of Tim's Idea-ology line by Advantus, and come in three different varieties. The first one that came out is simply called *Fragments* which contains square and rectangular pieces of clear acrylic tiles in different sizes. The largest is a 3.75" x 3.75" inch square, and the smallest is 5/8" x 5/8" inches. There are also various rectangular pieces, and they're all approximately 3mm thick. You get 48 pieces in one package - it's actually a LOT, and goes a long, long way. You can ink them, stamp on them, drill through them, and glue patterned paper to them! All of these supplies are available at Creative Play Stamps.
More recently Tim has released two other varieties: *Charms* and *Ovals & Circles*. The charms are cool because they're shaped like tags and have holes at the top of each charm. They come in many different shapes - square, round, etc...
Here's a photo of the package:
And a description written on the back of the insert:
For my book, I used 2 of the largest square pieces (3.75" x 3.75") and decorated them with Adirondack alcohol inks (Cranberry, Butterscotch, Red Pepper). (See tutorial on the previous posting). Then I measured and drilled 2 holes in the fragments using a drill bit made especially for using on plastics and acrylics. (If you use a regular drill bit it will crack the acrylic and won't drill through correctly.) Then I just fiddled around with my other new goodies: Tim Holtz's *Sprocket Gears*, *Swivel Clasps* and Keyholes, and pushed them around until I liked how it looked. I also rubber stamped 2 more fragment tiles with permanent *Timber Brown Staz-On* ink and shuffled everything around and around until it looked good. The final step was gluing everything down with Ranger's *Glossy Accents* which Tim Holtz recommends for using with Fragments and his metal embellishments.
close up:
I left the bottom right-hand corner empty so I could place a photo or stamped image on the paper behind it and have it showing through. Neat, huh?!?
top view:
The hot orange rings are by *Junkitz* - I bought them about 4 years ago before they went out of business, and the metal button is also an old one by *7 Gypsies*. I custom-made my own half-pearls by soaking them in Adirondack *Espresso* alcohol ink. The pages of the book are thick paper coasters which I cut down to fit the size of the book.
I'm going to post 2 more projects made with FRAGMENTS over the next week. Stay tuned!
***I'm currently trying to fix my blog so that people can leave comments - I didn't realize the template I chose doesn't allow for comments!!!
inspiration for today: *We need the freedom to discover how God wants us to grow, for his design will not look quite the same for everyone.* - John Ortberg
This blog was created by and is maintained by Maxene Choi. All Images on my blog are my original handmade creations, unless otherwise noted. Please do not copy or use any of my work without asking permission. These creations are shared for personal or non-commercial use only. Designs may not be copied for the purpose of publication or contest submissions. Please be respectful, thank you!
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