Paverpol - Altered Element design team

Altered Element sent me some Paverpol fabric stiffener, some Paverplast, and some 'fabric' for use with Paverpol which is made from beaten tree bark (looks a bit like a very large piece of flattened silk rod!). These materials are all way out of my comfort zone, and I wasn't sure what the heck to do with them!

I surfed the net to see what other people had done with Paverpol, and it was interesting to see, but not 'me'. So I had a little play, and here are the results of my experiments.

I wanted to see if Paverpol could stiffen fabric yet maintain transparency. And the answer is - sort of! I covered a glass bowl with cling film, then draped organza over the top. I cut some excess organza away, then applied the Paverpol fabric stiffener with a paintbrush, and left to dry. Once dry, I trimmed the 'brim' into a flower shape. This is the result:


It's sort of pretty, but a bit flimsy. I had planned to add some hand embroidery - maybe some french knots or lines of stitch form top to bottom, but it is too flimsy for that. I may yet add some curved lines of Friendly Plastic all around the outside of bowl sides, to make a sort of supporting framework, and perhaps do some gold stitching afterwards. If I can find time and my mojo at the same time!

My second experiment with Paverpol was to use it to stiffen and adhere fabric to a metal tin - every other glue I have tried has left bubbles or marks, so I was very pleased to see that the Paverpol left a flawless surface. This was very easy to do - just cut a straight edge at the bottom of your fabric, add Paverpol to the tin itself and start wrapping your fabric around the tin, coating with Paverpol as you go. I then took some thin strips of gold Friendly Plastic, heated them in a puddle of water in my melt pot, and squiggled them around onto the tin. The Friendly Plastic adheres to the fabric really easily - which can be both blessing and problem LOL.

I love the fabric I used - I've been hoarding it for ages!


I finished it off by adding 3 turquoise Friendly Plastic 'flowers', made by laying a strip of FP on a non stick sheet, heating with a heat gun, using a cutter to cut the shape, and allowing to cool completely before removing the shape. I laid the flowers on top of the gold squiggles, heated it all with my heat gun and used an embossing tool to make a centre and some depressions in the petals. I rather like this!





I will try to play with the Paverplast soon but that may be more of a challenge...

Oooer and crumbs! Altered Element DT pack

Oh my goodness.

This month's Altered Element Design Team pack is Paverpol.

I have a sheet of Paverpol Reliefdecoration, to 'decorate Paverpol statutes', a bottle of Paverpol Transparent craft medium, and a tub of Paverplast.

I have no idea what to do with this stuff! Off to do some research and thinking about what I can create with it all.

Watch this space!

Button it!

My last Altered Element DT pack included some Grungeboard. I've never used this stuff and was not quite sure how to work with it. I used a Cuttlebug heart die and folder to cut it and add texture. I coloured it with a colourwash spray, and once it was dry I added highlights with Treasure Gold.


I painted a 4 x 4 canvas with several thin layers of fluid acrylic paints and overstamped with Stazon. I used fine brass wire to attach the button, ribbon and Grungeboard heart to the canvas, then sent it off to Fiona.

I completely forgot to sign it...

Altered Element surface design pack - more twisting Tyvek

I thought I'd try another way of working with Tyvek, so I gave one side of this piece a thin layer of watered down fluid acrylics in Nickel Azo Gold, and Jenkins Green.


Once the paint was dry, I cut the piece in half, and turned one piece over so that the painted side faced down. I covered the Tyvek with silicone baking paper, and used my iron to distort it. This is a process where you don't have much control, Kim Thittachai says the secret is to 'kiss and caress' the paper with the iron (definitely don't apply any weight or pressure, the iron should hardly touch the paper). The tyvek always distorts so that the 'creases' are nearest the iron, and the rounded 'valleys' are furthest away.

If you click on the picture below to enlarge it, you can see that the piece on the left is the side where the unpainted side was nearest the heat of the iron, and the rounded areas are more prominent, whereas the piece on the right had the painted side nearest the heat and the creases are more prominent.


My tyvek now had interesting texture and shape, but I wasn't sure what to do next. So, I cut one piece up, using the lines which had formed when the Tyvek was distorting. That gave me some interesting shapes. And then I had a moment of madness and decided to attempt an abstract embroidery piece!


I used my embellishing machine to create a piece of wool and silk felted fabric to use as a background. I then laid one of the Tyvek pieces on top, and used some hand painted silky thread to attach the Tyvek using some irregular cross stitches. The Tyvek was surprisingly easy to stitch through.

I finished the piece by adding some french knots to the background, and some beads tothe Tyvek, to give the piece more texture. You can see some of the detail in the pictures below.


I think I'll use this as a book cover.

Altered Element surface design pack - Tyvek

Tyvek is funny stuff - it is used in the building industry and in textile art. I remember the Guardian printing a newspaper supplement on it sometuime around 1990, anmd saying how it would be one of the materials of the future... but I never imagined I would be making art out of it!

I coloured the tyvek with watered down acrylic paint, applied using a baby wipe. You only need a thin layer of paint, especially if you are going to heat the tyvek, as the paint acts as a resists to the heat - so, lots of paint=difficult to heat & distort. I coloured both sides of the tyvek, you can see the coarse 'fibres' take colour differently to the finer ones.


Next, I cut the tyvek up and laid pieces onto deeply etched rubber stamps with bold designs, added a layer of silicone paper to protect my iron, and used the iron (on a cotton setting) to heat and shrink the tyvek. This process can be unpredictable - my iron wasn't hot enough the first time, so I was left with big patches of unmelted tyvek, and it was too hot the next time, so the tyvek disappeared! This is about right, when it melets soem away completely but doesn't leave you with unmelted areas. I need to fine tune it a little bit more as it is still melting more tyvek away than I'd like, whilst leaving patches unmelted.



Next, I tore the melted tyvek into smaller pieces, and added them to a mask (protected the mask form with greased aluminium foil) covered in Perfect Paper whilst it was still wet. The perfect paper dried and the tyvek is inlaid into it. I think I may add colour to the paper parts, and Treasure Gold to add glints afterwartds. I may even post a pic when it's finished!

Altered Element DT surface pack - Stampboard

I once received a beautiful Stampboard triptych from Trizzy - this is my version, which is very different! I used watered down lettuce and stream inks, stamped with black Stazon, and added Golden mica flakes for a bit of glitz. A couple of paper flowers and a gem or two, and it was finished. I just glued two tiny brass hinges to the back, and it stands up nicely!

Altered Element DT surface pack - shrink plastic

Shrink Plastic. Versatile stuff which comes in black, white, translucent and clear. Reputation for being tricky to use. But is it? If you work with it on a non stick surface, and use a 'hairdryer' type heat tool, I find it behaves itself. Just remember less is more when adding colour - what looks like pastel colour will turn out quite brightly! I use Stazon, Brilliance and Fluid Chalk inks successfully (although you have to leave the Brilliance to dry overnight or shrink the plastic VERY carefully!) Once it starts curling I often aim the heat gun at the underside and it kinds of curls back down.

This is a very different way of using Shrink Plastic - 'distressed shrink plastic', as taught to me by my friend Jessie in New Zealand. Take a piece of shrink plastic, a heat gun, a non stick craft sheet, a texture rubber stamp, and a metal skewer (or use your craft knife, palette knife or similar).

I used a piece of translucent shrink plastic about 2 x 2.5 inches.


Cut the shrinky stuff into irregular triangles and kite shapes. You can also punch holes in them at this point, it adds more texture to the finished piece. Pile them up on the craft sheet.


Have your metal skewer ready, and your rubber stamp. Heat the shrink plastic with your heat gun - preferably a 'hair dryer' type (it doesn't blow things around as much). It will start curling, if any pieces decide to leave the pile, push them back. when it looks as if it's all or nearly all shrunk, stamp into the pile with your rubber stamp - push down hard and hold the stamp there for about 30 seconds.

I wish I had another photo to show you how it looks now, but the one I took was too fuzzy.

Your shrink plastic will look textured, and have an odd shape. It might not look too inspiring at this point. Persevere! Add colour - I use alcohol inks, but I guess acrylic paint or Stazon or Brilliance ink would work.

Once coloured, apply wax rub on to the edge with your finger, then go lightly over the top with the rub ons. I use Treasure Gold (Wendy will be surprised LOL) because of the depth of colour and the fact that it dries to a permanent finish. You can use the 'palette' type, and either use a fixative or wait a week until they have set permanently.

This is what you can expect it to look like at this point.
(sorry about the slightly fuzzy photo)



Here's another.


And this is how it adds dimension to my finished chunky book page - the page had looked too 'flat' to me, but I needed the embellishment to be unbreakable, quick, easy, and in the right colours for the page. This simple 'distressed shrink plastic' element does all of that, and was very quick and easy to make.

Altered Element DT pack

This month's Altered Element DT pack is all about surfaces. It contained sheets of metal, tyvek and translucent shrink plastic, mini canvas boards, chipboard, stampboard, fusible film, glass squares, some tea dyed fabric, some grungeboard and some polymer stamps form Artemio.

Gazing into my crystal ball, I foresee many projects....

I started with a mini canvas which incorporated fusible film and shrink plastic.


Fusible film always looks much better on a dark surface, so I coloured the canvas with the Crafty Notions opaque black colour spray.


I coated the canvas with PVA glue ot hold the film in place, then covered the canvas with a sheet of silicone paper, and ironed the film onto the canvas - my iron gets used more often in art projects these days than it does for smoothing out creases in my clothes!

The more heat you apply, the more colour change you get in the fusible film, but you do have to be careful not to heat it too much or it disappears in patches - if this happens to you, just lay another piece of film over the top and iron more carefully, it will fuse to the layer you've already added without any need for glue. This is how the canvas surface covered with fusible film looks.


Next, I considered embellishments. I punched 5 'inchies' of translucent shrink plastic, and daubed Stewart Gill Byzantia paint thickly on top - using two colours.


When heated, the plastic shrinks as the paint dries, and the surface of the paint forms lovely little shimmery ruffles...


I used some angelina fibres, ironed between two pieces of silicone paper, to make a small sheet of texture, and ironed that onto the left hand side of the canvas. I glued the small shrink plastic and paint squares onto the angelina, then added a transparency and a german scrap 'frame', and here is the finished canvas:

Altered Element design project - polymer clay and circle frame

There was some Sculpey Studio polymer clay in this month's Altered Element Design team package. I haven't used this clay before, and I must say it is very user friendly. To condition polymer clay, so that it is nice and soft so it's easy to use, you need to know whether the brand of clay conditions through pressure or warmth. I ran this through the Wizard and it didn't make much difference, but putting the package into my bra for a few minutes (nice and warm n there!) helped considerably! Once warm, I kneaded the clay for a few moments before pushing it into a Krafty Lady silicone mould. Which is when I discovered the only pitfall with this clay - it's so soft that it is difficult to unmould. Every time I tried the frame distorted as it came out of the mould.

I know could have baked it in the mould, but I wanted to make several frames, and bake them all together. So, I put the mould and clay into the freezer for 5 minutes. That worked perfectly, the clay frame popped out of the mould without any distortion whatsoever. I baked the frame, and found that this clay has a pretty matte finish, but with slight sparkle.

However, the frame looked a little dull, so I gave it a quick application of 'whitefire' Treasure Gold. It looks lovely now, all I need to do is find a tiny image to put in the middle!


In the April design team pack there was some knitted wire tubing, which I couldn't find a use for. I had a little play with it, and found it stretches and shapes in interesting ways. I cut an inch of the tubing, and stretched it into a circle, which you can see in the picture below, along with the knitted wire in it's original state.


I painted the circle frame (from the design team pack) with white gesso, then stamped and embossed the raised 'frame' area with copper embossing powder.


I inserted the stretched and shaped knitted wire into the frame.


Finally, I added a moulded piece from my stash - it was just the right size and colour!



The other side of the circle frame needed to be different. I painted it with the deep turquoise Crafty Notions Spraypaque.

I stamped a texture stamp onto the raised frame, and embossed with gold. I made a dragonfly moulded disc using the Sculpey Studio antique gold polymer clay and a mould I bought in the US last year (Enchanted Gallery?) and painted the dragonfly body with acrylic paint. I gave the wings a quick coat of iridescent medium, then glued the piece into the frame and gave the disc and inner part of the frame a coat of acrylic wax to protect it.



Well, that's all the items in this month's Altered Element design team pack used in a range of small projects. Roll on next month, I'm looking forward to it already!

Altered Element Design Team project

The Altered Element design team pack this month included a gorgeous deep turquoise colour spray by Crafty Notions. I used it to spray a box, and also some of the square beads form the Upcycle pack - I spray everything in a paper lined plastic box, and use the oversprayed paper for other projects - don't want to waste all that lovely colour!


I trimmed the unmounted Karantha stamp form the DT pack, and used one end of it to stamp onto a piece of copper shim from last month's pack.


I then used Ten Studios tools to go over the design on both sides, 'puffing' the design out. I haven't played with this before, and I am sure I'd get much better with practice - it would also help it if I had a paper stump to work with instead of using the same tool for two purposes. Once I was happy with the design, I filled the back with moulding paste and glued it into the top of the box.


You can see the 'feet' made from square beads and also the little painted beads from the broken necklace in the upcycle pack. It was at this point that I remembered that I should have 'antiqued' the copper panel before gluing it to the box.


So, I did the next bit VERY carefully. I added deep turquoise acrylic paint with a paintbrush, then wiped it off. I did the same again, and left it to dry. This takes some of the high shine off the copper and gives a 'verdigris' style finish. All I need to do now is fill the box with some goodies and it will make a nice little gift for a friend's birthday.


I hope she likes it.

May Altered Element upcycle projects

Lynne from the Altered Element sent me 3 broken necklaces to alter this month. So far I have made two upcycle projects, but there may be more in the pipeline!


I took the top necklace apart, and painted some of the beads and have used them as 'feet' on another project. I took the middle necklace apart and re-assembled some of the components to form the basis of a wall hanging. The bottom necklace is made from small seed beads and rectangular pieces of coloured shell, and I have saved the seed beads for another day but used the shell in the second upcycle project.

I removed most of the beads and some of the fixings, and re-assembled the 3 wooden rings with some of the jump rings and decorative rings.


I painted all the metal and wood with the Crafty Notions copper glaze Lynne sent in the DT pack. I 'marbled' the bead using the same glaze, but it doesn't show that well on the picture (click to enlarge).


I made some background paper by spraying cardstock with the Crafty Notions colour spray, then stamping into it whilst wet - this 'clumps' the mica into the patterns made by the stamp.


I cut circles from the background paper, and circles from photo transparencies, and mounted these inside the 'frames' for the front of the hanging.


For the back of the hanging, I punched some flower shapes from the background paper, and added circles cut from Crafty Individuals transparencies.


For the second project, I decided to make a mosaic. I soon realised that the small frame Lynne sent in the DT pack was just the right size to use with the shell pieces.


I used the Crafty Notions gilding flakes in the DT pack to give the frame some glitz and glamour, then glued the shell pieces into the frame. I added purple microbeads to the gaps between the shell pieces.


I stamped a face onto the shell using Stazon, to finish it off. And then I realised the frame was recessed on both sides, so the other side couldn't be left bare!


For the other side, I used a Crafty Individuals image (which fitted the frame exactly), and coated it with gel medium, brushing vertically and horizontally with a fine bristled brush. This gives the appearance of 'canvas'. I then added the tiniest amount of Treasure Gold (whitefire) to catch the high points to bring out the texture.