Summer Of Colour 5 Week 4

The heart theme continues and this weeks colours lend themselves very nicely to it - 2 reds and 1 metallic.  I chose to use a primary red and cadmium red deep hue with gold accents.  The heart was cut made using some oriental text paper onto which I stenciled some gold flowers and added some red gems to the center.  I've stamped some random abstract designs around the edges of the canvas and added some red stars to finish off.  I may come back to this one at a later date as I feel it's still unfinished but for this project it serves it's purpose.

Want to see what other artists have created using this weeks colours?  Then head on over to TwinkleTwinkleLikeAStar's blog.

How to make bookmarks or gift tags from scraps of paper

Gather your ingredients - scraps of paper, glue and a sheet of card to stick your scraps onto.  I used an A3 size card you can use A4 which is what most crafters have in their stash of cards.

This is what I call the "eww" stage because it looks like a 5 year old's work.

Next start adding paint - I used acrylic paint and added it using a crumpled up piece of bubble wrap - randomly.  You can use anything you like to paint with fingers, crumpled up paper towels, an old credit card etc.  

I then used a stencil with white acrylic paint to sections of the background.

  Over this I added spots of gel medium (with my fingers) and sprinkled some embossing powder (the turquoise bits) into it and heated it with a heat gun - on top of this I did the same again but this time I added some gold embossing powder.  

I also added some fibres which added texture but lost its sheen as I went over it with paint and glue - so you may want to leave it out or add it at the end.

These 2 pictures show a close up of the embossing powder and the texture it creates.  The more I heated it the bubblier it got - just make sure you have a good ventilated room - embossing powder is meant to be used with embossing pads to adhere the embossing powder but I like to experiment and gel medium worked really well (didn't give off any smell but just to err on the side of caution make sure you don't over heat it).

After the background has dried you can cut them to any size you want.  I cut mine to 12cm by 6cm.  I then mounted these onto coordinating card and cut around them so the clean card showed around the edges - you don't have to do this I just think it finishes the tags/bookmarks off and it covers the back of the original background - mine got glue and paint in parts.

Now you don't have to do this stage but I added some embellishments just to make them that more interesting and unique.  I used some odds and ends I've had in my collection box - you can use images out of magazines, text from newspapers in fact anything you like. 

To finish off I punched a hole at the top and added some fibres.

I hope you enjoy the tutorial.

Anita

Accordion Card

I've been wanting to make one of these cards for some time now and finally I had the the time today to sit down and play.  The idea and design isn't new to me it's just that I've not made one in a long time.  Don't you think it would make a lovely Valentines gift?  

I made this lovely lady again as she always proves popular when I make her.

Christmas Card Designs for 2012

New designs for Christmas 2012.