I tried a little fun foam printing onto fabric. I cut a piece of fun foam to about 2 x 4 inches, then drew my design with a biro - pressing hard to make deep marks.
I used a sponge to apply Stewart Gill fabric paints to my 'printing plate', then pressed it onto the fabric.
I chose some really pretty perle embroidery thread, which I have been hoarding for ages, and started to embroider over the printed design. Only two stitiches - seed stitiches and french knots.
Once the hand embroidery was finished, I backed the lightweight cotton fabric with heavier fabric, and machined a small zigzag stitch around the edge. I like the finished postcard, not at all my usual colour palette, but summery - which is more than I can say for the weather!
More meander pages, these are 4 inches square with a pelmet vilene base coloured by their owners, and this one's for Fiona, on her theme of 'plants/flowers':
Wales had fantastic weather yesterday, so I sat in the garden and did some needle felting. I used a metal cutter in the shape of an oak leaf, and some blue mohair yarn, and felted inside the cutter. I added some viscose roving in paler blue & green, and felted that in, then spent some time beading the oak leaf. I stamped and embossed the page, added the leaf and finished it off with some tied yarn and ribbons. I hope Fiona likes it.
This one had to be made indoors, as it involves fusing fabrics with a soldering iron:
Pauline H's theme is sea and sky, I cut various colours of organza, layered them and used the soldering iron tip on my Versatool to fuse them together in a wave pattern. I painted the fabric with Stewart Gill Galactica paint in holographic silver (it has a lovely subtle twinkle in real life, like the sun shining on the sea). The sun is moulded air dry clay, and the mermaid is moulded Friendly Plastic. I finished the embellishments off with Treasure Gold, to take the high shine off them and integrate them into the piece, and finished the page off by dangling some seashells. I hope it reminds Pauline of summer seas and skies, and that she likes it.
This is Jacqui's page, she has chosen the them of 'vintage', which is something I always struggle with. At least with paper I have learnt that Distress Inks make things look vintage, but fabric is another matter. This is my take on it:
I stamped and embossed the grey/brown background Jacqui sent me, using Moonglow copper obsidian. I created a frame out of purple fun foam - heated, stamped into while hot, painted with Stewart Gill fabric paints, rubbed over with Treasure Gold - and stuck a transparency and the frame onto the page. I finished this page off with a dangly heart. I'm not sure if this is the kind of thing Jacqui had in mind, but it's my take on vintage! I hope she likes it.
Finally, Pauline C chose 'nature' as her theme, and sent me a lilac page. Hmmm. My nature is rather unnatural! I sprayed the back of the page with a deeper colour, using some flower shapes as stencils, but it didn't inspire me, and it was too strong to use as a background. So, I covered the front with lilac organza, and made some flowers and leaves using fusible film. I sewed the leaf and flowers onto the organza, added some bead flower centres, and then took some gold Stickles and added a glittery gold edge and some random dot patterns. I hope Pauline likes it.
I made these metal tape ATCs for a swap. I scanned them and took a photograph and neither came out very clearly! The backgrounds were several layers of metal tape, applied to cardstock, then the whole was run through the Wizard in a cuttlebug folder. I ran round the edges with a herringbone Ten Seconds Studio roller tool.
They looked rather too bright and silvery, and rather than use alcohol inks to colour them as I have in the past, I had a 'grunge' moment and decided to use patina solutions. I painted 2 of the bases with blackened bronze base solution and the other with blonde bronze. While they were still damp, I added the top coat of green patina solution, and... not much happened!
I did get an aged metal look, but nothing remotely like bronze, which is what I'd been hoping for. In the past, I've had lovely distressed metal effects, but in the past I have been applying the solutions to cardstock. I don't know whether my solutions have gotten too old and are not working, or whether they just don't like the metal tape!
Anyway, I sanded over the backgrounds to bring the raised areas out in shiny metal, then added the embellishments. The embellishments are made by heating fun foam until it begins to curl and is slightly shiny, and stamping into it. Hold the stamp down firmly until the foam has cooled, and cut round the image. I coloured these pieces with Treasure Gold waxes in pewter (the outside ATCs) and with a combination of Onyxite and Indigo (the cente ATC), and added keys, hearts and Dymo lettering.
The idea of this swap was to explore how the same stamp can be used to create different 'looks'. We each had to create 3 cards or ATCs using the same stamp in different ways. here's my take on it, using a stamp by Invoke Arts:
Background - Reynolds freezer paper used in a 'spray box', which has accumulated overspray from previous projects on non-plasticised side. Adhere to cardstock using gel medium.
Embellishment - heat fun foam with a heat gun until it begins to curl, stamp into fun foam and hold the stamp down as hard as you can for about a minute, until the foam cools. Remove stamp, cut around image. Paint the fun foam with 2 coats of a paint intended for fabrics - I used Stewart Gill, but Lumieres would be fine. Once dry, gently rub some Rub'n'Buff or Treasure Gold over the raised areas to highlight them. Adhere to the background using glue dots.
Background - cover cardstock with small pieces of metal tape, burnish, then use a Ten Seconds Studio metal roller tool to add texture. Rub with Rub'n'Buff or Treasure Gold to dirty it up a bit, then add colour with a Brilliance Inkpad.
Embellishement - fold a piece of Fantasy Film (ART Glitter Institute) or Glitterati (Stewart Gill) in half and put into a hot laminating pouch. Laminate, then stamp image using Stazon ink. Cut around image once ink is dry, and adhere to background with gel medium. The scan doesn't show the iridescence that is visible in real life.
Background - coat the card with Golden Iridescent Copper paint. make fabric paper - lay a thin cotton fabric (muslin in the US, 'lawn' in the UK) onto a plastic sheet, coat with diluted PVA glue - the cheaper the glue, the better. Add pieces of thin gift wrapping paper, leaving gaps between, coat with more diluted glue, add a sheet of white tissue paper, smooth down, add more diluted glue, and while the glue is still wet, add very diluted Golden fluid acrylic paints (other acrylics will also work, but diluting them until they are the thickness of ink may render some cheaper paints fairly colourless as they don't have enough pigment). leave overnight to dry. Overstamp with Brilliance ink - I used Cosmic Copper and a Stamp Camp stamp. Glue to felt using PVA glue, cut to size, adhere to cardstock and edge with 3 dimensional paint, which gives a 'faux solder' effect.
Embellishment - lightly colour some translucent shrink plastic with pigment ink, stamp image using Brilliance ink - I used Pearlescent Olive. Leave overnight to dry. Cut around image, shrink with heat gun, adhere to fabric paper with glue dot. Take a small metal tile, colour with alcohol inks, edge with copper tape, stamp part of image with Stazon, adhere to fabric paper with glue dot.
I had lots of fun experimenting, playing with techniques old and new, and combining techniques. I hope the recipient likes the results!
Today I made a 5 x 5 chunky book page out of fun foam (aka funky foam). I thought it would travel well, being bendy and waterproof!!! I heated the foam and stamped images into it while it was still hot. I protected already stamped area with a piece of mat board, so I didn't 'warm away' the first impressions while creating later ones.
This started out as green foam, I gave it a coat of Stewart Gill Metallica chestnut, then a coat of Stewart Gill Metallica bronze. Then I gave it lots of Treasure Gold wax rub on, in Olive, Copper and Gold.
I created the focal point by stamping onto a small sheet of mica, and used a piece of fabric paper behind the mica to make the image visible.
For the back of the page, I used the same paints and rub ons, but didn;t dare heat the foam again to stamp into it! So I stamped onto it with Brilliance Galaxy Gold - which you can just about see if you hold it at the right angle to catch the light! The image is a gel medium transfer onto fine cotton fabric, afdhered to the fun foam with more gel medium.
I enjoyed working with a different base so much, that I decided to make my next project out of fun foam, too!!! This swap involved making a set of 4 ATCs, representing the seasons. So, I heated the foam and stamped it withthe most appropriate stamps in my collection, and used Stewart Gill paints and Treasure Gold wax to colour them. Finally, each ATC had an embellishment added, to give a bit more depth and texture. Fun to make, I hope my swap partner likes them!
Life has been way too busy of late, and I haven't really had much time to have fun, but this canvas for a friend's birthday was fun to do!!! The background is canvas painted with white gesso, then acrylic paint, then stamped with white gesso. The heart is fun foam - heated, stamped into while hot, and cut out when cold. A touch of rub on wax in a metallic finish adds something, too.
Here are the other 5 ATCs using the After Midnight lily stamp.
Top left - stamped with versamark, heat embossed with black embossing powder, mounted onto a background made with posh metallic inks, then onto mirror card.
Top right - stamped onto an alcohol ink background with Crimson Copper Brilliance ink, mounted onto textured black card, then textured gunmetal metallic card.
Bottom left is stamped onto an acrylic painted background with Mediterranean Blue Brilliance ink, mounted onto some mirror card texturised with Stewart Gill Lead Patina embossing powder, then onto some more of the acrylic paint background.
Mliddle bottom - 'faux fantasy glass' on fun foam, using Mediterranean Blue Brilliance ink and Krista's Eyes fantasy film, matted onto canvas effect orange card, then textured leather effect deep blue card. Shame the colours don't all show in the scan, the image is green, blur or orange, depending on the angle of view.
Bottom right - stamped into heated fun foam, then highlighted with wax rub ons. Mounted onto a background made form a book page sprayed with colourwashes, overstamped with versamark and gold embossed using a Hearts in Touch texture stamp. This may be the stamp I use more than any other....
For more information about 'faux fantasy glass', see Zeb's tutorial on the After Midnight website:
Please note that I assert myself as the creator of all art on this site (unless I credit another artist) and retain copyright of all artwork posted on this site
