Oh baby that's what I like!

My name is Tracy and I'm a Youtubeaholic. There I said it! I go through phases of watching all kinds of crap, conspiracy theories, funny dogs, dog rescues, talking cats, funny babies.......But my viewing is interspersed with some fantastic crafting gems and I want to make them ALL. Well last weekend I was so inspired that I tore myself away from the screen and made this lovely album. The original idea came from My Sisters Scrapper but I adapted it to allow for Kathy Orta's Hidden Hinge binding. This gave me an extra pocket on the back of each page. I love how it turned out, and most important, the recipient is thrilled.

Gelli Plate 2 The Resurrection

The gelli plate's first incarnation sort of worked, in that it didn't work! It set - good. It stank - bad. It split - bad. I needed more gelatin to hopefully sort the problem. The only gelatin I had though was leaf, but I had quite a few sheets. I don't know what the powder / sheet equivalent is, so I melted the lot! Remelted the first gelli plate and added all my gelatin. This time, it set REALLY well lol. Still stinks. Didn't split. But not all the sheet  gelatin was fully dissolved and I had a few air bubbles. Anyway I had a play - I used copy paper rather than card, just to try it out, and some cheap acrylic.

 I think in all, it does what you'd want it to do, the paint stays open long enough, and goes on quite smoothly, The only real drawbacks are the smell, from the surgical spirit (rubbing alcohol) and it has a slightly oily transfer.

Gelli Plate...maybe

The new toy on the block seems to be the Gelli plate, and I've kind of avoided it so far.... but then with most things crafty, resistance is futile and I really want to play! So I've asked for one for my birthday... but I want one NOW. Then I heard that it's possible to make your own - weh hey! I did some research, got my stuff together and alacazam, here it is. It's still a bit liquidy (technical term) and cloudy (which the ones on Youtube weren't) but I'm hoping tomorrow it will be fine - 'after all tomorrow is another day' Scarlett O'Hara was clearly a crafter too!

So fingers crossed, and if all goes well, I will share my efforts. If it doesn't, we will not speak of this again lol.

Love

Hi peeps. Today I have another tag to share, this time it's my first ever Tim Holtz '12 tags'. I really don't know why I'm so late to this particular party, I never did the christmas ones because I never seemed to have the stash or the time. I have no excuse for not doing the monthly ones, shame on me!

So here it is, completely different colour scheme to Tim's, but the technique is the same. The flower is a late addition, I'd stuck it all down and realised that the heart was stuck in such a way  that it showed the lettering 'UGH' on the washi tape from the work 'laugh', so it read as 'UGH LOVE' lol - not good. Anyway it gave me an opportunity to use a flower from my handmade flower mountain.

Layered Embossing

Apart from DT stuff, I haven't done much craftyness for a few days - for a start it's too hot! But I saw this technique in Craft Stamper magazine last month and thought I'd try it. I used three shades of blue embossing powder, plus white and silver. My first attempt was 'practice'; I might see if I can do something with it, but my second attempt turned out well, so I added some homemade texture paste and voila!

Inkoid Goodies

Just over a week ago, a happy parcel of DT lushness arrived. The brief was to make anything other than a card (just because Sheena already has enough card samples) using the stamps and paints provided. We've all risen to the challenge and come up with very different work using the same ingredients.

My first piece is a canvas - the background is DI, stamped with Sheena's crackle stamp (fantastic stamp) and spritzed with a mix of Luminarte Primary Elements (PE) from the fairytale set. I then mixed some PE with clear texture paste and applied it through a stencil. The violets were stamped on a book page and coloured with PE mixed with glaze and water. Finally I used the last of my PE spritz to colour the ribbon.

Whilst I waited for my paints to dry on the first project, I started playing with shrink plastic. I used the violet stamp once again - this is a lovely big stamp, perfect for colouring in after shrinking. My first attempts were disappointing, I think due to the size of the piece I was shrinking, they kept turning out less than perfectly shaped, so in the end I used a spellbinders die and shrank the pieces in the oven. I think using the oven is key to a good finish. I coloured the image with PE mixed with glossy accents, then applied book paper. I also shrank and painted a bee and put them, together with a brass leaf, onto a swivel clasp. To make the charm into a more finished gift piece, I made a tag. Book paper coloured with inks and stamped with the crackle and border stamps.

My third piece turned out exactly as it was in my head! I cut the mountboard and die cut the top and bottom with a Tim Holtz on the edge die. I made a glaze with each of the three PR colours mixed with matt medium. I applied plenty of medium and then covered them all in crumpled clingfilm until they were almost dry. I used various stamps over my base glaze, then added decoupaged flowers coloured with a PE and glossy accents mix.

My final piece almost didn't make it - I had an idea how it would look, but the idea didn't quite make it to my hands, so I gave up, then felt guilty, disassembled it and started again! The base had gone fine - that's a mix of PE and rock candy crackle, the cracks are highlighted with vintage photo and gold rub n buff. The rest just went wrong on the first attempt, the flowers were too dark and got lost on the base, and my first bee was on Clearly for Art film and was barely visible. I remade the flowers and this time kept the colours light, limiting the darker glaze to the trumpet, the bee is card coloured with alcohol markers. I glazed the flowers and bee with glossy accents - a little too much GA because it took forever to dry. Sorry about the photo quality on the last one, I was in a rush for the courier to pick them up, and I couldn't get a shot without glare.

Sheena will be demoing on Create and Craft on Tuesday 16th July at 1pm and 6pm, so tune in to see what the rest of the DT have been up to.