Moon Phase Garland - Home Decor Project

Hello everyone,

It's Elle here from Empire of the Cat and this time on the blog I have a fun home decor project to share with you.



GSL don't have any Moon phase chippies (maybe they will soon hint hint!) so I cut my own from some ATC coins. I started off with these ATC coins from GSL.  They come in a pack of three, and for this product I used eight of them, so I needed three packs, but it depends on how many moons you want on your garland.

   

 Decide how many full moons, half moons and quarter moons you want to have on your garland and then using scissors, cut the shapes from the coins.  To get the crescent moon shape, place one coin on top of the other, just overlapping enough to give you the crescent shape.  Draw around the curve with a pencil and then cut it out.  You can see how to measure this more accurately in my earlier post when I used these coins to make a moon canvas.

   

Next step is to gesso both sides and the edges of each coin and leave to dry.  

   

To cover my coins, I am using a white and a black Glimmer Paste by Nuvo.  There are plenty of similar options available or you could make your own using glitter and a transparent paste!  I chose to cover all my moons with white paste and then use the black paste to cover the oval shapes leftover from cutting out the crescent moons, just for a bit of interest.  Cover one side at a time and leave to dry before starting on the other side - don't forget to cover the edges too!

   

To make the garland I am using some metallic embroidery thread from my stash.  Spread out all your moons and decide how far apart you want them to be spaced, as this will be the length of your garland, then measure out the thread leaving enough on either end to tie a loop so it can be hung. 

 

Using some strong glue like this E6000 jewellery glue, attach the thread to the back of all the moons by making a line of glue across the centre of each and placing the thread on top of it.  Leave to dry, then if you want to hide the thread, add more glimmer paste on top of the thread.  Once everything is dry - hang it up!

   

So here are a couple of hanging options - horizontal using the loop on each end or vertical using just one loop.

   

I must apologise for how dark these photos are, but all my daylight seems to have disappeared with the good weather. 



Hope you enjoyed the project and will give it a try.  This is my last project for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Design Team, having been on the team for just over two years.  This last year has brought a lot of changes and I have less free time now, and so I must say goodbye. 

Let me know what you think in the comments.   

As always, thanks for reading!

Elle
Empire of the Cat

Ingredients

GSL Artist Trading Coins D81M,
gesso, glimmer paste, E6000 glue, metallic embroidery thread,

Beside The Seaside ATC Coins

Hello everyone!  Today I have a quick and easy summertime project to share with you, and it is this little set of seaside ATC Coins.

 Getting Started

First of all prep your ATC coins by giving them a coat or two of white gesso on both sides and also around the edge of each coin.  I only need four coins but I prepped an extra one just in case.

I am also using these coin covers that have a seaside/nautical theme and they need to be prepped in the same way.

Once they were dry, I got started on the next step.

Ocean Backgrounds

To make the backgrounds, simply drip some alcohol inks onto the gessoed ATC coins.  I used a few different ocean/sea colours of blues and turquoises.



To get the alcohol ink to move around and mix, use a cotton bud to drip some surgical spirit (aka rubbing alcohol) on to the inks and let them do their thing.  You can also add more ink on top until you are happy with the result.  Leave them to dry which takes no time at all.

Heat Embossing

Now it was time to work on the covers.  I used an embossing ink pad and white embossing powder to cover the ATC coin covers, and then melt the embossing powder with a heat gun.

Assembly

Once everything is dry, use some PVA glue to adhere the covers to each ATC coin. Use something heavy to hold them in place while the glue dries.

Finishing Touches

Once your covers and coins are complete, you might want to paint around the outside edge to hide any unpainted chipboard or do any touch ups.  Or you can also heat emboss the edge using the same white embossing powder.

And that's the finished coins ready for use!   Let me know what you think in the comments!

Till next time,

Elle
Empire of the Cat

Project Recipe:

ATC Coins D81M
ATC covers Beach C10S
white gesso, white embossing powder, embossing ink, alcohol inks, surgical spirit, PVA glue, cotton buds, heatgun

Birthday Card Using a Paper Napkin and Metallic Elements

Hello everyone!
Today I am sharing my second post for June and this time, I have a birthday card to share which uses a paper napkin and some metallic embellishments, including one of the birdcages from this post.

 

Introduction and Card Front

This seems to be the busy time of the year for birthdays and so here is my first birthday card of the season.  This one is made using a paper napkin. To use a napkin, separate the top layer from any of the other layers, usually one or two.

Then cut out the part of the napkin you want to use.  I want to use the design on one quarter of the napkin, which measures 6 x 6 inches.

Adhere the napkin to a piece of 6 x 6 inch card using matte gel medium.  The napkin is very fragile and easily tearable so the best way to do this is to cover the card with matte gel medium then carefully place the napkin on the top.  Then to help smooth out the creases without tearing the napkin, place some tin foil or cling film over the top and smooth out the napkin with your fingers.  If you do it this way, you will get a much smoother result.

Make the card base

As the card front is 6 x 6 inches, to make the card base, cut a piece of card that measures 6 x 12 inches.

Fold the card in half along the short side, then using a bone folder, crease the fold.  

Glue the card front to the card base using PVA.

Gold Metallic Elements

As the napkin has a bird on it, I thought I would use one of the birdcage chipboards I heat embossed in this post.  Then to accompany it, I die cut a happy birthday sentiment and heat embossed it with the same embossing powder.

Using tweezers, apply glue to the back of the happy birthday words including the tiny dot above the "i".

At this point, the birdcage can be simply glued to the front of the card but I thought the recipient might want to use the birdcage.  The birdcage is gold embossed on both sides so it could be used as a bookmark or something similar.

Using gold thread, thread the birdcage through and then tie the gold thread around the card front.

Tie the thread on the inside of the card.  Note:  this could be done around the card front instead, before attaching the card front to the card base.  That way the thread would be hidden in between the layers, but I wanted the recipient to be able to remove it easily if they wanted to.

On the outside, the birdcage can be slid up and down the front of the card.

Finishing Touches

I added some gold paint splatters to the front of the card

I edged the card with gold texture paste as a finishing touch.

And that's the finished card ready for posting!

I hope you enjoyed this short tutorial.  Let me know in the comments.

Elle
Empire of the Cat

Project Recipe:

Ornamental Birdcages Shape Set D69C
white card, paper napkin, previously heat embossed birdcage, gold embossing powder, embossing ink, die cut happy birthday words, gold thread, gold paint, gold texture paste, white glue,

Watercolour Painting with Mandala Frame

 Hello everyone!  Today I have my second GSL DT post for March and this time, it's a seed of life painting with metallic elements using these lovely chipboards.  

 

Introduction

The pattern is generally based on what is called the seed of life in what is often referenced in sacred geometry. It consists of seven overlapping circles with the same diameter.  This pattern can be extended indefinitely which is how I have covered the whole page in this example, or if you create one out of nineteen circles it is known as the flower of life.  To make this shape or pattern you will need a compass and a pencil, or something to make circles.  Start by drawing one circle, and then take the point of your compass and place it anywhere on the outside of the circle and draw a second circle.  Now you have two intersecting circles.  Place your compass on the point of intersection and draw another circle.  Keep moving around the original circle in this way until you have six intersecting circles around the original circle.

You could stop here and draw a final circle around the shape to enclose it as shown in the figure below, or continue on until you have covered the page.

If you want to watercolour over the shapes, make sure to keep your pencil lines light so they will not show under the paint.  I plan to draw over my lines with a gold pen so I don't need to worry about that.

Watercolour

It's best to choose your colours in advance so you know what palette you will be working with and can stick to a set number of colours.   Start by painting the petals in the centre.

How you decide to paint this is up to you, but I found it easier to paint all the little petals first, mixing and changing colours as I went, before starting on the hexagonal sections in between.

Take your time and enjoy the experience.

When everything was dry, I outlined all the petals and circles with a gold pen.

Gold Metallic Elements

I wanted to use some metallic elements on my painting and so I pulled out these chipboard pieces - Henna Border D117C x 2 and Mandala Frame 2 C58P.  Note the Mandala Frame has two pieces but I am only using the front piece.

For the heat embossing, I used my favourite gold called Gold Rush, from Wow Embossing Powder.

The henna borders are especially fine and a little fiddly, so if there are any bits not covered in the initial embossing, just repeat the process again.

Final Touches

Glue the mandala frame in the centre of the painting, and then adhere a henna border at the top and bottom of the painting.

 And that's the finished painting ready for framing.  I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, let me know in the comments.

Elle
Empire of the Cat

Project Recipe:

Henna Border D117C x 2 and Mandala Frame 2 C58P
watercolour paper, watercolour paint, gold pen, gold embossing powder, embossing ink, pencil, compass, hairdryer/heatgun

Seize The Night Canvas

 Hello everyone!  Today I have something different to share with you - this 12 x 12 inch mixed media canvas painted in metallic watercolour.  There is a full moon at the moment so it seemed like a good time for a moon project.

 

Introduction 

I had some ATC coin chipboards sitting on my desk and I was wondering what else I could do with them that might be a bit different, and then I was looking at this card that I made recently and that got me thinking about the moon and so, why not a phases of the moon canvas!  There are eight phases of the moon - new Moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full Moon, waning gibbous, third quarter and waning crescent - so I needed to prep eight ATC coins.  If you want to know more about the moon and the current phase, here's a good place to start.

If you want to freehand the moon shapes onto the coins that's totally fine but if you want a more accurate representation of the moon shapes, then here's how I did mine.

First all, you need to find the centre of the circle.  There are many ways to do this, but here's the way I do it when I have to repeat the same steps over and over.  The ATC coins are 2.5 inches in diameter, so firstly draw a square on a piece of paper that is 2.5 x 2.5 square.  Then draw diagonal lines which will give you the exact centre of the square.  Drawing in the halfway point on all four sides can also be useful for lining things up.

Set your ATC coin inside the square and then using a ruler, mark the centre of the circle by drawing the same diagonal lines across the coin that are already on the square and there you have your centre point.  For the next step it's also useful to be able to see the halfway points to line things up, so what I usually do is draw a larger square than I need eg 3 x 3, to give myself extra space.  This is very handy when drawing the waxing and waning phases of the moon.  If you want to try this, then you need to draw one more line on the square.  This line represents the halfway point between the centre and the edge of the coin, which for the 2.5 inch coin is 5/8th inch.  Place one coin in the centre of the square, then take a second coin and place it on top of the first coin, making sure they are lined up along the top and bottom edges of the square, then slide the top coin horizontally until the edge of the top coin meets the line you just drew at the 5/8th mark.  Draw around the top coin from the top down past the 5/8th line and round to the bottom.

This will result in a fairly accurate crescent moon shape and you can now repeat the process three more times for the other waxing/waning moons.

Two of the coins are for the first and third quarter moons which require a line drawn down the centre and the remaining two coins will represent the new and the full moon so they don't need anything marked, one will be fully black and the other will be fully gold.

Heat Embossing Moon Phases

I used gold embossing powder to represent the moons so I covered the moon phases with white gesso first.  All the white parts shown above will be the gold moons and all the unpainted parts will be black.

Using an embossing pen, cover the parts that will represent the moon on each ATC, then dust them with gold embossing powder and melt with a heat gun.

After the gold embossing is complete, repeat the process with the black embossing to represent the part of the moon that we can't see during various phases.

Watercolour canvas

I used a 12 x 12 art canvas for my painting but you could use watercolour paper or some other substrate depending on what you want to do with the finished painting.  Mine is square and so my moons will be displayed in a circle, but the moons could also be laid out linearly using a long rectangular canvas.

My canvas is white and I want it to be black so I first painted it with black gesso.  One coat of black gesso is plenty.  Then I left it to dry.

Once the gesso is dry, start painting the metallic watercolour on top. I wanted a galaxy background for my moons but you can paint it whatever colours you want, here are some ideas for night sky or galaxy.

I wanted to keep mine quite dark so the moons would show up nice and bright.  Set the canvas aside to dry.  Once it is dry you might want to add some spray sealant or fixative or leave it as is, but remember it is watercolour and the colour may shift if it gets wet.

Here's how it will look once it is dry.

Adding the Moons

Making sure you get your moon phases in the right order, work your way around the canvas from new Moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full Moon, waning gibbous, third quarter, and waning crescent.  Use a ruler to make sure they are all lined up evenly and level with each other, then glue them to the canvas using some strong glue.  I used a heavy duty white glue.

Finishing Touches

Once the moons are glued in position, this is a good time to paint around the sides of the canvas if you haven't already.  I painted around my edges with some shiny black acrylic.

And that's the finished canvas... or is it?

After looking at it for a while, I felt like it needed something in the centre of the canvas and decided to hand write Carpe Noctem which means Seize the Night!

I used a gold pen and just wrote it on the canvas very quickly.  If you don't want to write on the canvas, other ways to get words on there are stamped letters, word stickers, stencils, or you could just type something up and print it out on printer paper or card.

And that's the finished painting ready for hanging.   Let me know what you think in the comments!

Elle
Empire of the Cat

Project Recipe:

ATC Coins D81M
12 x 12 inch canvas, white gesso, black gesso, metallic watercolours, gold pen, gold embossing powder, black embossing powder, embossing ink, black fluid acrylic paint, PVA glue, pencil, ruler, heatgun