Altered wooden heart

For a recent swap, I was sent a wooden heart to alter. I painted it black, and stamped some texture pattern in gold Brilliance.  I then gave one side a quick coat of PVA glue, and laid some Fantasy Film onto it.  I heated it with a heat gun until the colours changed, and holes started to appear.

I did the same thing to the other side, making more holes, and then cut strips of Fantasy Film for the sides.

Once the heart was all shiny and bright, I decided it was too bright, and added impasto paste to dull it down.  I stamped into the paste, and also applied some through stencil waste.  Once dry, I rubbed Treasure Gold all over the impasto.  Finally, I put black polymer clay into a face mould, then brushed it with PearlEx powder, and cooked it in my melt pot for about 25 minutes. I stuck it on with heavy gel medium.

I rather like my heart, I hope my swap partner does too!

Fantasy Film canvas

 So, a Fantasy Film themed swap.  I've used Fantasy Film many times, right? So why did I prevaricate for a month?  Who knows, but today the inspiration finally arrived - in the nick of time, it's the deadline for posting.

I painted a thin canvas with a mixture of micaceous iron oxide and purple fluid acrylic paint.  I coated it with PVA glue, and stuck two pieces of Fantasy Film down. Then I hit it with the heat gun, until it bubbled and changed colours, and started to become holey. It's hard to photograph, but the 3 images below give you some idea.

This is taken at an angle where no reflected light is visible.

This is taken at an angle where all you can see is reflected light.

I used impasto paste and a stencil to add texture down the left hand side.

I made a keyhole using air dry clay, painted with black gesso, coated with interference violet fluid acrylic. I rubbed copper Treasure Gold over the impasto and the keyhole.

I made a key from friendly plastic, painted to match the keyhole. I added a sticker ribbon, then used Brilliance inks to colour some paper, and stamped the words onto it with black Stazon. Hope my partner likes it!

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:

Meandering away

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.

Fantasy film canvas

Apologies in advance for the picture quality - this stuff isn't easy to get good pictures of! I am hosting a fantasy film swap on CC Swaps. We each made an 'item of choice' for our partner. I decided to try making a fantasy film canvas, and this is the result:


I fused several layers of the palest colour of fantasy film onmto the canvas, wrapping it arouind the edges and back, and using an iron to shrink and fuse. I took 2 more layers of the same colour and inked up a large stamp (Stamp Camp) with Stazon, then laid the fantasy film on top, covered with some paper (just to protect the iron) and fused the layers together on the sytamp. I peeled the image off the stamp, trimmed it, and decided the body of the angel needed t stand out a little more. I painted a layer of gold paint on the back, then fused it onto the canvas with the iron.

I hope my swap partner likes it!

Angelina ATC

I am making some ATCs without paper for a swap on CC Swaps. I decided to use a range of fantasy film and angelina fibre colours. I inked up a leaf and a flower stamp with black Stazon, then laid 2 layers of fantasy film/fusible film/angelina film on top, a layer of silicone paper on top of that, and ironed for a few seconds on the silk setting of my dry iron to use the layers together and heat set the image onto the film. I cut around the images and found myself the pleased owner of some very shimmery flowers and leaves.


I cut some fantasy film out, and layered 2 pieces with a thin layer of angelina fibres between them. I laid the silicone paper back on top, and ironed it all together to fuse it into one sheet. I ran the sheet through my Wizard, using the ATC die cutter. Finally, I laid my leaves and flowers onto the ATC shapes, put the silicone paper back on top, and gave another few seconds with the iron to fuse the leaves and flowers onto the ATC background.


I like the way the angelina fibres give texture to the background, while the different colours of fantasy film stand out from each other.

Queen of the extreme

I made a gift for a friend who set the theme as 'queenly'. So, here is the 'queen of the extreme' paper quilt, which will be whizzing round the world as soon as I can work out how to package it safely (thinking it might be packed with foamboard as a lightweight stiffener).

The paper was torn and sprayed with several purple colorwash sprays, and I added gold embossing powder down the torn edges. Some paper was cut into fancy shapes and run through the Wizard in cuttlebug folders, and applied some Treasure Gold to highlight the pattern, and some self adhesive gems before adding these pieces to the very top and bottom of the quilt.


I ironed some fantasy film onto dark cardstock, then cut that into squares and ran those through the Wizard in the cuttlebug folder, and highlighted the pattern with Treasure Gold. I mounted those onto larger plain squares with buttons, and added them to the top and bottom, layered over some purple organza ribbon. I added some punched flowers between the squares.

I sprayed some small tags, and added brads and embellishments, then layered those over some chiffon down the right hand side, with punched flowers in between.

The main image is a transfer onto fabric, and the 'frame' is lutradur, with puff paint stamping, sprayed with colorwashes, and foiled on the high points, before small holes being amde with a fine soldering iron. the little crowns are brass charms, the larger crown is german scrap.

Ironing and recycling

Household chores are getting to be more and more fun! I recycled this soup tin into a pencil holder using fantasy film and my iron.... I used about 3 layers of fantasy film, just dabbed some white glue onto the can to hold the first layer in place while I ironed it, the other layers just bond to the first layer.


The Green Man embellishment is a moulded piece, made from Friendly Plastic in an Enchanted Gallery mould, and rubbed over with Treasure Gold to take some of the glitz off.

Doing the ironing

Have you ever ironed a pear??? I have!

I was inspired by Zeborah's fantasy gourd and 'dragon eggs', so decided to try my hand at 3-D fantasy film.

Using a combination of a fake pear, pva glue, fantasy film, an iron and a heat gun, I transformed this life sized fake pear into a shimmery other-worldly fruit! It took a little patience, but I got there in the end.


I did try stamping & embossing the pear, but I foolishly chose an interference embossing powder which didn't show (and I thought it was going to show in a deep iridescent green!!!). All this process did was take a lot of the shine away, and I didn't like the pear quite as much. So I ironed on some angelina fibres:



It's still not quite as pretty as it was with just the fantasy film, and you can't really see the texture or colours very well in the photograph, but I rather like it!!

No paper no card ATCs

A challenging swap - make a set of 3 ATCs without using paper or card. I did consider fabric, but working with fabric never goes smoothly for me (not even if I iron it!!!), so I went for plastic. The bases of these ATCs are thin translucent frosted plastic.


I daubed some micaceous iron oxide onto the plastic, then put 2 ATCs together, squidged the paint around and pulled them apart, to create a textured, organic look. I painted the backs with gesso so that you could see the textured iron oxide more clearly, then coated the front with some transparent fluid acrylic paint.

I added small gold mica flakes in a random stripe down one side, and a couple of spots on the other side. The images are made by inking up stamps with Stazon ink, laying 2 layers of fantasy film on top, covering with baking paper (to protect the iron) and ironing for a moment or two on a medium to high heat. Trim, and adhere. The 'frames' are cream dimensional paint, highlighted with Treasure Gold once dry.

An interesting swap

I've been involved in an interesting swap over the last 2 weeks or so. We were divided into groups of 4 players. The idea is that each player made 4 ATCs using their own stamp, then mailed the stamp onto the next player, who made 4 ATCs then mailed the stamp on to the next player, and so on. Once we had worked with all 4 stamps, we mailed a set of the 4 ATCs we had made to the other players. I was in 2 groups, and here are the ATCs I made.

This was made using a Home Impressions stamp provided by Rosie - I used half of the stamp, rotated and stamped 3 times. The background was 4 Radiant Rain interference colours sprayed onto black card stock. I stamped with versamark and embossed with Moonlight Bronze Obsidian embossing powder from Lindy's Stamp Gang, and punched some small flowers from plain black card and glued them on. I mounted the image onto a striped silver metallic background, which I coloured with Brilliance Pearlescent Crimson ink.


This was Mawgan's stamp - made by Paper Artsy - background was made from Amaeretti de Soronno biscuit wrappers glued onto cardstock and coated with gesso, then stamped with Ranger archival ink in sepia. The 'ribbon' down the side is self adhesive paper ribbon, which I coloured with distress ink. The heart was punched form a hand made background paper, embossed in a cuttlebug folder, and highlighted with Teasure Gold. A few tiny copper coloured peel offs finished it off.


The background for this ATC is stamped with Brilliance Coffee Bean ink onto some glossy cardstock coloured with alcohol inks, using a Madjac stamp. Liz's stamp was the inkspot and text stamp, which I stamped onto shrink plastic, texturised while still hot, and attached with a brad. There is a face behind the shrink plastic 'door'.


This was Carol's stamp. I struggle with Victorian images, and had trouble with this stamp, which didn't 'grab' me. Eventually I stamped it onto a Twelve x 12 paper using purple ink and green iridescent embossing powder, then stamped some faint scrolls in the corners with a chalk ink. I added a polymer clay butterfly to finish, and mounted it onto purple pearlescent cardstock.


Annie was mean to me, she knows I love this stamp by Cory Celaya, but find it hard to use. Well, I had to use it this time LOL. I stamped the background by stamping the stamp 3 times in 3 colours, offsetting it each time. I stamped the image onto 'mother of pearl' fantasy film using blue Stazon ink, and cut round the image and used this as the focal point. I made a sheet of 'paper' by fusing angelina fibres together with inclusions of fantasy film, and cut small squares out and added them to the ATC with wire, threading small beads onto the wire to add interest. Finally, I mounted it onto dark purple pearlescent card.


This was an interesting stamp, by Queen's Dresser Drawers, again from Annie. I had some 'wrap around' cardboard ATC holders, so daubed them with several colours of Radiant Rain, then embossed them inside and out with 2 texture stamps and Moonglow Bronze Obsidian embossing powder. I made polymer clay embellishments as 'closures'. These were black clay pushed into home made silicone moulds which had been brushed with PearlEx, and 'cooked' for 15 minutes in the Melt Pot. The ATC inside was stamped onto 'waste' paper which has overspray of Radiant Rain from other projects, and embossed with the same embossing powder. I punched holes down the left hand side and mounted onto deep red cardstock.


This was my own stamp. I stamped it onto a hand made background, layered some of the paper 'ribbon' which I'd coloured to match on top, and mounted it all onto some dark green textured card stock.


This was also my stamp, by Queens Dresser Drawers, stamped onto a background paper made by spraying gold colourwash spray from Outside the Margins onto watercolour paper, then stamping the image and embossing with Moonglow Bronze embossing powder, and adding a black Hearty air dry clay shell moulded piece coloured with Treasure Gold.

I will ask the other players in the swap if I can add their ATCs to this post so that you can see how we each used the same stamps. Watch this space!

Experimental ATCs

An ATC for a swap with the theme of 'Experimental'. I made some background paper by laying a nappy liner (brands which work are Gerber in the US or Boots own brand in the UK) onto a sheet of non stick baking paper, the sprinkling small pieces of Fantasy film and snippets of Angelina fibre all over it. I then sprinkled Opals embossing powders in pinks and blues onto the nappy liner, covered it all with a second nappy liner and another sheet of non stick baking paper, then ironed it all with a hot dry iron. You can see the Opals melting, and can 'move' the liquid embossing powder with your iron. Wait until cool, peel apart. you can add more embossing powder, fantasy film or fibres at this point, and re-iron if you do.

The Opals melt into the nappy liner and the nappy liner will start to melt into holes, so be careful not to iron it all for too long! When you peel it apart it may not look too inspiring, but if you give it a quick blast with your heat gun, the surface will become shiny. You end up with a flexible sheet that you can use in a variety of projects.

I adhered this Opals paper to some lilac pearlescent paper using gel medium, then cut it up and layered onto ATC sized card.

The butterflies are made form tyvek. You can get tyvek 'paper' and tyvek 'fabric'. They both work, but the fabric is much easier to use for this technique and gives a more flexible result. I took a butterfly stamp, painted a piece of tyvek with watered down lumiere paint, cut it into pieces, and laid each piece on the stamp, covered with non stick paper and ironed it. The tyvek melts quite quickly so you have to keep a careful eye on what you're doing!

I peeled the tyvek off the stamps, and cut around the butterflies. The body is gold dimensional paint, left to dry overnight, then coloured with Treasure Gold in Royal Amethyst. I made some tine antenna from gold wire, and added those before finishing the ATC with a gold sun charm, and a stripe of Golden's gold mica flakes small.

Stamp versatility swap

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!

Deco book page

This is one of the pages I am doing in a round robin of deco books. There are 16 of us and this is the seventh page I have done, the 8th is drying as I write!


Page is painted with Stewart Gill Byzantia paint, no name for the colour, it was a sale item! I gave it a coat of Jo Sonya Opal Dust to add glimmer, then painted the chipboard letters purple and adhered those. The image is fantasy film, using an Enchanted Gallery stamp inked with Stazon and ironed. Don't forget to put a layer of greaseproof or silicone paper between your iron and the fantasy film!


Another fanatsy film embellishment, on a stamped background. I used Pearlescent Crimson Brilliance Ink and a Stampcamp stamp for the background.

Iridescent gift wrap background

I have been in a fantastic 'angelic' skinny page swap which involved quite a few Australians. Some of them had used fantasy film in an interesting way on their pages. They had stamped and embossed an image onto their backgrounds, coated the page with gel medium, added fantasy film and heated. The embossed pattern shows through the fantasy film - a really neat effect. I tried it with a couple of chunky pages I am making and it was a complete disaster - the fantasy film shrank and distorted the pages beyond any possible flattening out. I wondered if I had done it wrong, or should try again using much thicker cardstock.

While I was thinking about this, I remembered some other 'stuff' - a year or two ago, Zeborah (see blog links) was playing with some iridescent gift wrap, trying to make 'faux dichroic glass'. I couldn't get any of the giftwrap here in the UK, and 'Legs' (http://www.picturetrail.com/queenoftexas) very kindly sent me some. I have since discovered fantasy film, which is thicker, has better colour, and stands up to heat better. However, for this technique, I think the thinner iridescent gift wrap has the edge.

I painted some cardstock with Stewart Gill Byzantia Aegean paint, then embossed it with a Stampcamp stamp which looks like the veining in rock, and a deep green iridescent embossing powder. I coated this with some gel medium, laid the gift wrap on top, and zapped with my heat gun. This is how it looks:


I then used the background to make some ATCs - for this one, I stamped onto heatproof acetate, and embossed the image in white. It is adhered to the ATC with Glossy Accents.



For this one, I stamped and embossed the image on acetate, then added some embossing to the background so that it is hard to tell where the acetate begins and ends.


For the final ATC, I dumped a small pile of 'Macquirie' Opals embossing powder onto a craft sheet, heated until melted, then stamped into it using this stamp from Cre8it. Once it was cold, just peeled it off the craft sheet and stuck it onto the ATC.

A deco book

I haven't had a deco to work on for a little while, then this one arrived. It was completely bare, i was the first person to work in it. Daunting, or what. I looked at the blank page for nearly a week before I managed to put some paint on it.

Finally, I coated both sides with Stewart Gill paint, then adhered a piece of fantasy film (mother of pearl) with gel medium, then ironed the page between 2 sheets of baking paper. It has left a kind of mother of pearl effect on the page.


I stamped over the fantasy film using Ranger archival ink in grape, and used the same ink to stamp the words above.


The back of the page is also 2/3rds covered with fantasy film, and the purple piece is a piece of glossy cardstock, stamped with an image (Diva Impressions) in Brilliance, dried and rubbed all over with purple dye ink. The Brilliance resists the dye ink.

Time tip in page

The theme for the CC Swaps monthly tip in page is 'Time'. I am still playing with fantasy film, so thought I'd make my page embellishments shine. I used 2 colours of film, and inked up some time themed rubber stamps with black Stazon ink, laid 2 layers of fantasy film on top, a layer of copy paper on top, then ironed with a dry iron on the cotton setting. This fuses the fantasy film layers together and heat sets the ink into the film. A quick trim around the edges, and you have gorgeous shimmery embellishments. Stamps by Non Sequitur and Invoke Arts.



The backgrounds of the pages were plain cardstock, painted and daubed with Stewart Gill Pearlise paint in Mermaid and Paua Shell. They are all shimmery. I stamped the 'time' background and embossed it with 2 different embossing powders - and interference one (which doesn't show up because the background wasn't dark enough), and a gorgeous pearlescent one from Simply Craft in Cardiff. The owner has had her own range of embossing powders made to her own specification, and they are gorgeous. They are a little more expensive than the ones I usually use, but I think they are worth it. Finally, I stamped the 'time spiral' using turquoise Stazon ink.