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

Haunted Card

 Hi Everyone, 

Today I have my first Halloween card of the year to share with you.  To make it, I used an old alcohol ink background from my stash, a paper bag and a chipboard from Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts. 

Here's how it came together:

I had some dark alcohol inked backgrounds leftover from other projects.  These dark ones were made with black and a lot of silver and they are so shiny.

I think I might have overdone it with the silver as they took ages to dry lol.

So I wanted to use this background for my card and it measures 5 x 7 inches, so I cut a 6 x 8 rectangle from my green paper bag to give 0.5 inch border around it.

I decided to use black cardstock for my card base but as my card was so large I had to make a card base from two pieces of cardstock and glue them together.  

After gluing I left them under something heavy to hold them in place.  

I used a mixture of metallic paints to add some splatters on the green paper and the black cardstock, concentrating on the edges that would be seen. I used the same paint to edge the black card using a paintbrush.  

Since I like it so much and don't want to waste it, I added the leftover paint to my art journal.

 

I gave the chipboard a coat of white acrylic, and when it was dry I added the embossing powder and did the heat embossing.

It's Halloween card so of course it had to be Glow In The Dark embossing powder!

Now I had all my pieces, it was time to put my card together.

Once all the layers were stuck down, I used some PVA to glue down the Haunted word and held it in place with something heavy till it dried. 

Here's a closer look at the heat embossed chipboard word.  

After dark, I attempted a photo of the Glow In The Dark effect and it turned out pretty good! 

If you are using GITD embossing powder, or paint or any other GITD product, it's really important to leave it in the daylight to charge up for a while so you will get a better GITD effect when it gets dark.  

Hope you enjoyed this card tutorial.  If you make any Halloween cards, I'd love to see them.

Elle
Empire of the Cat

 

Project Recipe:

GSL Haunted Title Word chipboard BB2
metallic copper paint
glow-in-the-dark embossing powder, embossing ink
white acrylic paint
matte gel medium, white glue
black cardstock
From stash: alcohol ink bg, lime green paper bag

 

 

Dreaming of a White Christmas

Hi Everyone,

 

My favorite day of the year is coming up.  Each year my mum and my  sister come to my house for cookie day.  We bake all day long, I'm talking like 7am-9pm.  We have our favorite recipes we use year after year.  We keep those in a little notebook.  We do like to try new recipes each year too.  More and more often we are finding new recipes on the internet.  I thought it was the perfect time to make a Christmas themed phone/tablet holder so we don't get baking supplies all over our phones.
 These phone holders are so easy to put together(there are only three pieces). They would make an awesome gift!

Paint the base white.  Make sure the edges and at least one side are really well done since they will be exposed.  Paint the edges of the other pieces white too.  The other two pieces get covered with patterned paper.  I used some of the Tim Holtz Christmas wallpaper to cover the back piece.  This paper looks and feels like real wallpaper.  It's nice to add the tiny bit of texture to the project.

These snowy flourishes are coming to the shop soon.  You get two in a pack.  Paint both pieces white, then cover them with a clear glitter.  

Insert the pieces into their slots. Don't forget to add a bit of glue to hold them in securely.   Technically your piece is completely put together at this point.  But we will embellish this! Glue the snowy flourishes to the back of the piece.  Then cover the base with Grit Paste from Ranger.  While the paste is wet sprinkle on clear glitter.  Leave the space where your phone will sit paste free.  

Paint a tiny resin snowman and cover him with clear glitter.  Add teeny mercury glass holly berries to his hat.  While the grit paste is wet stick the snowman in the paste.  In front of the small piece of chipboard add a Christmas saying.  Again, do this while the paste is wet and it will dry in place.  

On the back add a couple bottlebrush trees, teeny presents, a deer, and peppermints.  Another Christmas sentiment will complete your project. 

I hope you have a great kick off to your holiday season!

Jess

Collector of Curiosities

Hi Everyone,

Jess here today with a little Halloween decor piece.

 

Here's how you can make your own. 

Cover the Miniature Clipboard with a vintage style paper.  Cover the entire piece of paper with a collage medium.  I like the finish it gives and how it takes the various inks and crayons.  Ink the edges and add some splats to look like coffee and possibly slime.  The slimy green is actually embossed so it's raised up a bit off the paper.  I did emboss the clip part of the clipboard, but decided not to use it in my final design. 

Emboss the edge of your Small Canning Jar.  I made a jar similar to this back in February.  If you'd like to check out the tutorial I have linked it here for you.  With this jar, I wanted it to look a bit grungy and murky.  Pounce mushroom alcohol ink onto the acetate and it will muddy up the "liquid" inside the jar.  A piece of cheesecloth stained with blood(kidding, it's alcohol ink) gets tied to the lid. 

Cut a piece of background paper to go behind your canning jar and add your images.  These guys were stamped and fussy cut.  Make sure you play with your placement before gluing anything down.  

You can see here at this point I was still playing with the idea of leaving it as a clipboard.  I also hadn't added the eyeballs.  It's always good to play with your composition before you glue!

 I decided that the jar on the clipboard wasn't enough and I wanted to beef up my project.  A small Tim Holtz framed panel was the answer.  Cover the panel with a piece of worn wallpaper and add Distress Oxides so the paper looks water damaged.   

On the frame, randomly paint on Distress Rock Candy Crackle Medium. Once it starts to crackle you can heat it up to speed up the drying process.  Paint the frame using Art Alchemy paint in Metallique Blackberry.  Once the metallic paint is dry use a thin layer of Distress Paint in Black Soot on the entire frame and wipe most of it away. You just want it to sink into the recesses.  In random areas add metallic waxes in opal colors.  This adds another layer of dimension, but doesn't add a ton of color.  The final step on the frame is to use a fine brush and Dina Wakley Gilt paint to go around the edges.  Perfection is not the goal here.  The frame is supposed to look funky and old.  

Glue the frame to the back. 

Add your clipboard to the frame and add a small quote to the top.

A little metal tag, sticker, and eyeball brad round out the finishing touches. 

I hope you enjoyed this little project.  It was fun to make! I can't wait to pull out all of Halloween decor now.

Jess

Evolve

Hi Everyone,

Jess here today with a masculine project for you. 

 I have been on a kick lately doing more masculine and grungy projects.  This one evolved into one too.   

I used an Extra Large tag and scored the bottom to create the shelf.  I used a piece of mixed media tape to hold the bend since I knew I would be adding some weight to it. 

I used a piece of paper from Tim Holtz that had a blueprint type feel to it and added some stamped elements.

I wanted there to be more wings on it, so I found most of my wings stamps and added them all over.  I liked the man wearing goggles too, just in case my guy is worried about something getting in his eye.  

I used the Butterfly of Gears and cut it in half.  This side I embossed using a metallic gold.  I added different colors by dripping on alcohol inks. 

I added some metal gears and brads.  I used the chipboard gear from the Miniature Guy Things Set too.  

The other side was embossed and backed with paper to make it look like a monarch wing.  

I added a jar of gears for him to stand on and the rest came down to details.  

There are more wings with blueprint details over them.  Tiny blueprints are rolled up.  There are some failed experiments down there too.  

The letters add the finishing touch.  

Enjoy!

Jess