Backporch: August 2017

Thursday, August 31, 2017

Ironing Foil

I was attempting to find a new Technique to share this week, but I wasn't able to get this one to work as well as I wanted it to. I decided to share my card with you anyway, since I still like it very much.

Honestly, I never liked ironing all that much, and this attempt did not change my mind. I have heard that this technique works for others, it just didn't work well enough for me. Maybe my iron wasn't hot enough?

I first cut out a panel of 80# Neenah solar white cardstock using the largest die from the Lawn Fawn LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables. This gave me a stitched panel that is 5" x 3.75" Then I cut the Poppy die 1737 Floral Stem Collage (I really love this die) out of the center of my panel.

This gave me the floral cut out

This die comes with a second piece that you can cut out and place on the flower. I die cut the second petal piece out of toner paper.

The second petal piece gives you a piece that has some detail and is very pretty.

The way that foiling with toner paper and heat works is that you place the foil over the toner cut out and then get it hot enough for the toner to melt, which makes the foil stick to the toner. This works super well when you sent your piece through a laminator or Minc machine.

I chose Deco Foil Amethyst Watercolor for my petals. I really like Deco foil because it's thicker than others I have tried and seems to work best. I cut a piece out and placed it on top on the petal die cut, and placed them inside a piece of wax paper.

The pretty side of the foil should be up.

I ironed it for some time, trying to get the toner hot enough to melt.

When I removed the piece it looked like this. You can see the imprint of the die cut petals.

When I peeled off the foil, a lot of it had stuck to the die cut. I will say though, that the foil is not as shiny as it gets when it goes through the laminator. I added the foiled petal to the flower on my panel.

I made a background on Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock, using Distress Oxide inks in Wilted Violet, Broken China, Fossilized Amber, and Cracked Pistachio. I flicked water and additional Wilted Violet mixed with water onto the panel and die cut it with the large stitched rectangle die in the Die-namics MFT-463 Blueprints 13 die set.

This is the flower panel placed onto the background, checking to see if I liked the colors, and I did, so I adhered it and put it onto a base card. I added some small beads to the center of the flowers, and stamped the Magenta sentiment "Thinking of You" 07.869.D in Distress Oxide Wilted Violet.

I tried this with a second die-cut and a different color of foil and a lot less of the foil adhered to the toner die-cut. I'm not really sure why, and so I didn't feel good about using this as a Technique of the Week, since I couldn't get reliably similar results. I really do prefer the pieces that have gone through the laminator. If you do not have a laminator or Minc machine, you can get one fairly inexpensively, and if you like the effect that foiling gives you, it's well worth investing in one.

We have foil and toner paper at Art 'n Soul now, and we have more of the Distress Oxides on the way. You can check out my previous posts using Deco Foil, toner paper, and a laminator here and Deco Foil, the Minc toner pen and a Minc machine here.

Products Used:

Poppy die 1737 Floral Stem Collage

Lawn Fawn Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables

Die-namics MFT-463 Blueprints 13 die set

Toner paper

Deco Foil: Amethyst Watercolor

Magenta 07.869.D Thinking of you

Distress Oxide inks: Wilted Violet, Broken China,

Fossilized Amber, Cracked Pistachio

Scor tape

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Technique of the Week: Nuance Spin Art

One of our customers at Art 'n Soul, Sue Wright, brought this technique to me, and agreed to let me use it for Technique of the Week. Sue brought in a salad spinner and we made some backgrounds then and there. Here's one card I made, and this card is also on the Magenta blog today.

This is a perfect fun art project for kids and grandkids. It's fun and the mess is contained pretty well.

It's a good idea to obtain a used salad spinner from the local thrift store. I preferred not to use the salad spinner that I use for food. Some of the spinners don't have an enclosed bottom to them. If you get one like this, you can place it onto a paper plate or bowl so that the mess would be contained.

To begin, Sue said to get some poster putty, make a donut from it, and place it in the center of the spinner basket.

This serves two purposes: first it levels the center which usually has a small bump; second is that when you place your watercolor cardstock into the basket, it will stick down to the putty.

In playing with this technique, I used several different papers, including Bristol and Strathmore watercolor paper. I liked how the color moved the best with the Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock.

I tapped Nuance powder onto the cardstock after placing it into the basket and pressing it down not the putty.

I then sprayed the cardstock liberally with water. You can use plain water, or water mixed with Perfect Pearls powder.

I put the top on the spinner quickly and spun it as fast as I could.

At first this is what I got, and it's pretty, but I wanted a little more color in the center. I tapped more of the Scarlet Nuance into the center, sprayed and spun it again.

I love this! I like how you can keep adding powder, spraying and spinning until you get something you really like. This panel said "celebrate" to me.

To make my card, I let it dry naturally, although you could hurry the drying with a heat tool. I die cut the panel with the Die-namics MFT-483 Blueprints 13 die. I stamped the Magenta Graceful Poppies stamp and the Happy Birthday sentiment with Versafine Onyx Black ink. To accentuate the "celebrate" look of the card, I stamped the Magenta Flowery Ink Spot stamp several times on the panel with Distress Barn Door ink.

I mounted the panel onto a piece of Black So Silk cardstock and then adhered it to a base card of Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock.

This was the second background I made, and then I made a few more.

I shared this technique with the staff, and we got together and had a great deal of fun spraying and spinning.

One of the things I did when the staff got together to make these is to wipe out the spinners on many of the staff's panels with paper towels.

I got these paper towels from doing that.

Some of you may remember what I do with beautifully colored paper towels. You can make gorgeous patterned cardstock with these. You can look at how to do this here on my blog on a technique called Upcycled Paper Towel.

Here is one more card I made using a panel from the spinner technique.

I made this card using one of the new 2017 Holiday Collection dies from Memory Box, as well as a beautiful Magenta stamp. I cut the Memory Box Snowy Cabin die from white cardstock. Then using the Die-namics MFT-860 Inside/out Stitched Squares die, I cut the blue and purple panel AND the Snowy Cabin die cut. I wanted the Snowy Cabin die cut to just fit onto the bottom of the panel.

I used the same square dies to cut a frame from silver glitter paper, and the inside of the frame is the size of the panel and Snowy Cabin die cut. I adhered these pieces to a base card, and stamped the Magenta Peace on Earth sentiment with Versafine Onyx Black ink.

I think these spinner panels are great for lots of kinds of cards, but especially for a celebration. I loved doing these and I hope you will give it a try. I will try to make some cards with the paper towels and show them in a later post.

Card #1:

Magenta Products Used

(If you are local, please look for products at Art 'n Soul. If you are not local and wish to find Magenta products, you can click on the link in the stamp or product name below each image, or you can visit the Magenta online store here).