EASY BACKGROUND

A while back, a swapper friend sent me a card made entirely from torn and punched vellum. This morning I tried the technique for myself and was well pleased with the results. The entire background, including the sky, is torn strips of vellum. The buffalo is colored with markers and is from the Posh Native American Set available at www.PoshRubberstamps.com

FAUX PORCELAIN ORNAMENTS

A few years back, a friend gave me an ornament that she had bought at a pottery. It's white with a raised wildflower in light pink and green. Every year I put that ornament on my tree and wish I had more. Today I dug out my polymer clay and my Posh Hope & Faith stamp set and came up with these ornaments.

Condition white polymer clay by either running it through a pasta machine or hand kneading it. Role the clay out to 1/8 in. thickness. Cut with a cookie cutter or craft knife into a shape of your choice. I had a diamond shaped cookie cutter that I used. Put a small hole in the top. A coffee stirrer straw makes a perfect size hole.

Lightly tap your stamps with Colorbox fluid chalk inks. They give a nice pastel color like you would see on bisque porcelain. You don't want too much ink on the stamp. Try to pat it just on the surface of the image without getting any into the crevasses. Press the stamp lightly into the clay so that you get a light indentation. Bake as directed on the package

When cool, tie a shear ribbon through the hole for a hanger.

Asian Necklace

I finally got around to making a necklace out of a pendant I had made a couple of months ago. The pendant is frosted sea glass that was stamped with permanent ink and colored with alcohol ink and perfect pearls. A mixture of glitter and tiny beads in red, gold and black was glued around the edges. I glued a bugle bead on the back for the stringing wire to go through. The only thing I like better than making jewelry, is making Asian jewelry.

Gift Idea

Here's a nice idea for a gift for a teacher or a co-worker. Start with a small gift bag. The little 5 by 4 size. You can get them in the dollar stores in packs of two or three. Pick out a design that you like and make a set of notecards to match. I used the Posh crane and purple swirl blank cards from Hot Off the Press. I added a circle in a yellow print to match the giftbag. Add a pen and it makes a nice little gift.

Face Lift For An Old Purse

Got an old purse that looks a little worse for wear? Give it a new paint job. Nylon purses are the best to work with I find. Sponge or paint on some background colors. I like to use Lumiere paints or Decor It ink. Then, using the same paints or inks, stamp on some images. I used leaves to make a fall purse. Foam decorator stamps work well or any kind of bold stamp. You can heat set with a heat gun but only until the wetness of the paint disappears. You don't want to heat too long or have the heat gun too close or the paint will bubble and the nylon will probably burn. When dry, glitz up with jewels, glitter glue or tiny beads. The photos show both sides of the purse.

I have some more Asian artwork for today. A couple of ATC's (Artist Trading Cards). I made a polished stone background for the koi. The koi were stamped on sticker paper that had first been colored with pearlescent calligraphy inks. The letters are stickers and a small lotus charm was glued in the lower right hand corner. A piece of acetate was attached to the front with gold tape. The koi are Posh stamps.

The panda ATC was also made with Posh stamps. The copper background with the stamped cherry blossoms was made by my friend Sandi Longworth and sent to me in a scrap swap. The panda was stamped with black liquid chalk ink on sticker paper. The Kanji symbol is a sticker.

Being technologically challenged, I haven't a clue what I'm doing here so I'll attempt to muddle through this first post.

I started this blog mainly to share artwork. The first piece I'm posting is a triple tag that I did for a swap a while back. The tag was orginally white. Using the direct to paper method, I colored it with yellow and red and Colorbox Liquid Chalk inks. Gold ink was then sponged on. The Chinese writing was stamped with black permanent ink. The two geishas were stamped on sticker paper, colored with markers and cut out. The tree branch with the bird on the center tag is a rub on.