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

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

Celebrate Banned Books Week With These Book Inspired Bookmarks

Hi there, it's Elle (Empire of the Cat) with a gift for book lovers.This week is Banned Books Week and to celebrate I made some bookmarks for my book-loving friends.

Here's how they came together:

I started with this set of XL tags, they are a really good size and will make perfect bookmarks. I used this stamp set for my GOT obsessed friends (and myself!) but you can use any book-themed stamps you have on hand.

Paint both sides of each tag with black gesso and leave to dry.

Gel Printing

For these tags we are going to make a monoprinted background using a gel plate and some metallic pigment inks.

Using the ink pads, cover the gel plate with a thin layer of ink, making sure to keep the colours separate to avoid contaminating your ink pads, and then use the brayer to spread and mix the colours on the gel plate.

Before the inks dry, use a large background stamp to stamp out a pattern all over the gel plate.  Then quickly take a print by pressing a sheet of Bristol paper down with your hands and smoothing it out.  Please note, it is also possible to print directly onto the tags themselves but for these tags I wanted to stamp on top of the printed background and wanted a smooth surface for that, so Bristol paper is perfect for that.

Choose the parts of the print that you want to use, and using the tags for placement, draw around them and then cut them out.

Stamping

I used two stamp sets, one for the GOT imagery and a book border stamp to stamp along the bottom of the tags using Versamark Onyx Black archival ink.  I used a stamp platform to position the throne image and the word stamps to make sure they were in the same position on all three tags.

Embossing

Now for the fun part!  Using an embossing ink, cover the entire tag and the dust with a translucent or clear embossing powder.  I am using this mixed media powder that gives an aged, waxy look.  Heat the embossing powder with a heat tool, then repeat the process 2-3 times. Here's a close up of what the tag will look like with three layers of embossing powder.

Finishing Touches

To finish off the tags, make a tassel from some baker's twine and loop it through the hole at the top of each tag.  I used a gold and white twine to match the gold in the backgrounds.

Bonus Project - Pirate Treasure!

I also have a little bonus project for you, since it was also Talk Like A Pirate Day on the 19th and I made these "pieces of eight" for a pirate treasure chest.  This project also uses embossing powder but slightly differently and and lots of fun to do!

Take a pack of Artist Trading Coins and some scrapbook paper, preferably one that has text on it.  Draw around the coins and then cut out the circles from the paper - enough for both sides of each coin.

Glue the papers on to each side of the coins and leave to dry.

Next, cover one side of each coin with clear or translucent embossing powder.  I am using the same powder here as I did with the bookmarks, so it gives an aged look.  Melt the powder with a heat tool, then repeat the process on the other side of each coin.  Each coin should now have one coat of embossing powder on both sides.  Next, you will need a rubber stamp to turn your ATC into pirate treasure.  I have this Tim Holtz skull and crossbones stamp that seemed appropriate for pirate booty!

Ink up your stamp with archival ink, then apply another layer of embossing powder onto one side of your coin and melt it with a heat tool.  While it is still hot and melting, quickly press the inked-up stamp into the hot embossing powder and lift it off.  It will leave the stamped impression and look like this:

I only stamped my coins on one side but you could stamp on both if you wish, just following the process above.  Then to finish it off, make it look more aged, and hide the chipboard edge, roll the edge of the coin along the embossing ink pad and then into the embossing powder and heat it with the heat tool to melt it.  Do one section at a time, holding the coin between your fingers or with tweezers to avoid burning your fingers with melting embossing powder.

For this stage, I used a mixed media powder that had a mixture of gold and green in it, so it made the coins look like they had been found at the bottom of the ocean.

It is possible to add the embossing powder to the rim first and then the sides and you are less likely to burn your fingers, but the effect is better if you work on the flat sides first as the powder from the rim will spread over the sides, making them look crusty and corroded.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and if you have any questions please let me know.  

Elle - Empire of the Cat

PROJECT RECIPE for Book Lover Tags:

GSL Cuts Decorative Tags XL - Model D92B
Black gesso
Embossing ink and embossing powders (clear or translucent)
Heat gun for melting embossing powder
Gel plate, brayer, background stamp, metallic pigment inks to make background (or use a background from your stash)
Book-themed Stamp set and black archival ink
PVA glue
Baker's twine or ribbon to make tassel

PROJECT RECIPE for Pirate Treasure Coins:

GSL Cuts Artist Trading Coins - Model D81M
Scrapbook paper with old text or script pattern
Embossing ink and embossing powders
Heat gun for melting embossing powder
Stamp Set and black or brown archival ink
PVA glue