March 7th - Gilding Flakes

This month we played with Gilding Flakes and Sue Wilson's 'Fire and Ice' technique.

The first card involved stamping onto a double sided adhesive sheet, applying gilding flakes on one side  and ice snow on the other.  The stamp is from Chocolate Baroque.  Important that the gilding flakes used for the cloud has a little bit of colour in it - so it looks like leaves blowing in the wind off the trees. 

 

 

The second card was modified after sending the email out with the class details, as I was not satisfied with the centre topper greeting.

 

Modified version.


Here is another card, instead of use ice snow for the ice part, an adhesive glitter sheet (from Little Claire was used), and everthing was below the die cut.





November 3rd - Slap It On

The projects this month were inspired by a swap project I had done earlier in the year.

The swap project was done of a piece of mountboard measuring 13 cm by 13 cm.

As the latest trend seems to be decorating MDF pieces measuring 6 inches by 6 inches, the pattern had to be scaled up and modified for the first project.

 

 

The second project.

The third project.

 

Each piece of wood, for projects one and two. was initially Gesso'd, then painted with neutral emulsion.   Then given a second coat of the neutral emulsion, and while this was still wet, a dark colour was blended in.  Then the wet paint was splattered with water and allowed to dry for about 30 minutes, when it was blotted with kitchen roll, creating a distressed look. and then was allowed to dry thoroughly.

 

Then the music and cog patterns were stamped on tissue paper (the blow your nose type, not the wrapping paper type), and these were then ripped up and stuck onto the boards using wet glue (Slap it on, mod podge, etc).

 

For the third project some floral serviettes were cut up, and the flowers applied around the edges using wet glue.

 

It is important that the whole board is given a coating of glue, so that you don't get dull and shiny bits.

 

Then the boards were stamped on and embossed, shapes etc cut out and applied to the boards.  For projects one and two, gilding flakes where applied around the edges.

 

So a lot of different techniques were used.

 

 

April 14th - Magic Motifs

We did not just play with Magic Motifs, but Sticky Sues, Double Sided Peel Offs (various brands), Foamies, Double Sided Transfers, and created these concertina books.  We tried out various things to adhere to the Magic Motifs etc, like Fine Glitter, Gilding Flakes, Craft Flock, Micro Beads, Mica Flakes, Transfer Foil, Craft Sand and Mica Powder.

2012 - January 7th - Gilding Flakes

I was first introduced to gilding flakes via using black peel-offs and double sided adhesive sheets. The black peel-off is stuck onto the double sided adhesive sheet and the gilding flakes applied over the top. This caused me a couple of problems:- • The adhesive sheets were not very forgiving if you did not get the peel-off on straight on the first attempt. • If you scratched the finished item, you could not buff out the scratch. • Fingernails when buffing would also permanently mark the gilding flakes and that area would not be as shiny as the rest of the gilded area. Then I realised you could incorporate acetate, as this would help solve some of these problems. The thin craft ordinary acetate is best. I have found that dark coloured peel-offs work best with gilding flakes, however check that the wrong side of the peel-off is a dark colour, as some peel-offs are white on the wrong side. I have found that for matting and layering, I have found copper mirror etc, to be the best.

Double sided peel-offs are another way in which gilding flakes can be attached to a project. I like these are they are more dimensional than double sided adhesive sheets. When cutting shapes with a die from the double sided adhesive sheet, the more intricate shapes are harder to remove from the die and harder to remove the first backing sheet without ripping and destroying the shape you have cut out. I like to apply wide DSST around the edges of a mat and covering with gilding flakes. You have to make sure that the DSST strips butt up against each other, as you don’t want a gap line to show through and ruin the effect. Gilding flakes can also be applied to Magic Motifs, Sticky Sue and other similar types of transfers. However I have found that the pure line art motifs do not work as well (look as good) as the ones that have solid blocks in the image. You can use ordinary clear peel-offs, but as these are usually foiled in gold or silver, you need to be careful with your choice of peel-off and choice of colour of gilding flake.

You can also use PVA white glue to apply gilding flakes to chip-board shapes or as a border. Spread the glue thinly and allow it to dry for a little while before applying the gilding flakes and pressing. When the glue is completely dry, buff with a tissue.