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,

Make a Rainbow Background Card

 Hello everyone! 

Today I have my first GSL DT post for June and this time I have this rainbow-coloured card to share with you.

Introduction

For this card I wanted a bright rainbow background and also to use some of the metallic embellishments I made a few weeks ago in this post. I cut a piece of watercolour paper 6 x 8.5 inches - the width is necessary to accommodate the width of the chevron words.

I used these Mijello Mission Gold watercolour samples to make this rainbow background.

I started with the magenta, then yellow and then used the magenta and yellow together to make orange.  Next I added the green, then the blue samples, and for the violet part of the rainbow, used the same blue and the magenta together. 

Make the card base

To make the card base, a piece of card measuring 12 x 8.5 inches is needed.  I do have 12 x 12 inch white card but since this card was so colourful, I wanted to use yellow card which is in the standard 8.5 x 11 inch size.  So the card base had to be made from two pieces, but if you have 12 x 12 inch card, just make a card base as normal.  If you need to make it in from two pieces, here's how:  cut one piece the same size as the card front - 6 x 8.5 inches - and one piece that is 0.25 inch wider - 6.25 x 8.5 inches.

Score the card at the quarter inch mark and then run some white glue down the score mark and glue the front to the back.

Make sure to glue the overlap on the outside as this will hide it when the card front is in place and you won't see it in the inside.

Gold Splatters Card Front

Add some gold metallic ink splatters to the card front and some gold ink around the card edges.

Once everything is dry on the front, add some PVA to the back of the watercolour paper and adhere to the card base.

Adding the Sentiment

Using a pencil, mark the centre of the card to make it easier to line up the chipboard words.

Mark where you want the chipboard words to go, spaced evenly down the card front.

Mark out some pencil lines to help keep the handwriting straight, then in waterproof pen, write the words to go in between the chipboard words to make the overall sentiment.  When the ink is dry, remove all the pencil lines.

Glue the chipboard words in place using PVA glue and the card is finished!

I hope this project inspires you to make your own rainbow card. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Elle
Empire of the Cat

Project Recipe:

Chevron Words
watercolour paper, watercolour paint in rainbow colours, gold acrylic ink, black waterproof pen, card base, gold embossing powder, embossing ink,

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