BAD BAD BLOGGER CHICK - Catching up with a few tips and cheats

Sorry it's been awhile folks ...school holidays here are just winding up and the sun, after two weeks is...just coming out! Can you believe it! LOL We've all had a good unhealthy dose of cabin fever! Oh and me `a nice one of sinus infection...and kermits right ...it really aint easy beening green!  SORRY!!! LOL
Anyway I know I have been AWOL in the Technique Tuesday's but I have been writing a couple of things to go on various forums recently. So if you have a hundred years to read or would like to print this off and read it with you coffee and weeties tomorrow here are the tips...

disclaimer - I am a learner in this area, but I love to share what I learn along the way...

all care but no responsibility for the content of the following topic!

Still I hope it helps LOL

ALCOHOL INK - HINTS & CHEATS

You can use a fine paint brush to paint designs in alcohol inks ESP handy if you cant outlay the $$$ for the pens all at once. I have been doing this on transparency, colouring in existing commercial overlays if the colour match to my layout isn't quite right and for painting swirls etc onto transparency . Dont panic about cleaning it, just use your stazon cleaning solution while its wet and it will clean up normally.

Also I use stazon cleaner with a fine paint brush to "draw" designs into dried alcohol inks on transparencies. It acts like bleach and removes the colour and leaves behind your design. ( says the queen of swirls!) Be sure to have paper towel on hand to blot off the colour your brush picks up so it doesnt make the design messy. Also be sure to blot the transparency, dont wipe, so you do not smudge you design.

Lastly you can also use this same technique with stamps.This trick is like bleach stamping.

Paint your background colour(s) onto your transparency film and wait till they dry. Then you are going to cover your stamp with Stazon cleaner and stamp it onto the dry alcohol ink background wait a minute or so then blot with paper towel. Its abit tricky and takes abit of practice to work out what looks best and to get the timing right.

If you dont clean your stamp and you work quickly you can also get an image from what lifted with your stamp. This looks especially cool is you background transparency had a rainbow effect, as your stamp will now stamp its image in rainbow. Great for a watermark effect on transparency. You do get a better image onto flat cardstock. These tricks are best done with bolder images and my rubber stamps seem to work best. Finer more detailed stamps are not as effective. Then when you finished "playing" ( and it might be a while! LOL I have spent many long exciting nights playing with Tim Holtz!) just add more Stazon cleaner and clean as usual! Long term no guentees on what will happen with these but its fun!

Stazon ink is not recomended for use with alcohol inks, some reaction with the blending solution so the experts say. I have used mine with just straight inks on transparency minus the blending solution and have had no problems. I think with transparency if you are using you blending solution maybe use the Stazon ink on the reverse side...that'd work, I'd imagine!

MORE VERY IMPORTANT INFO TO DIGEST...

I was watching Tim Holtz utube and he has his own nonstick wipe off mat. I looked into it and it was a bit hard to find and xxxy. That combined with the need for something that was heat resistant as I have been playing with a hot wax tool, I came up with this and so far so good (this its perfect for opals )

Its a nonstick teflon BBQ cooking sheet. You can get them at homeware shops This one came from BBQ Galore. It was about $20 and I got this sheet which is about 40cm x 20cm (perfect for "playing") and a bonus.... I traced around the lid of our large fry pan which had lost its non stick ability and cut the circle out.These are BRILLIANT, non stick and we already used one on our BBQ and seriously NO oil required!!!

So out of the one sheet I saved the fry pan, made the family dinners healthier and got this great craft mat . So when I use my wax or opals and it spills you wipe it up when cool and reuse/re melt it! Great for the waxes, which arent too messy but they are expensive!

oh oh  added bonus!
you can use it under your misters, inks, paints and it wipes clean with a baby wipe or abit of the stazon clean and a rinse under water. oh and you can put it in the dishwasher...oh if you cook with it I mean! LOL Best investment this year!

 oh oh oh added added bonus!!!. see the overspray on the sheet here. Rather than waste that beautiful mess, I am currently mopping it up with white cotton lace that I hope will become colourful lace to be recycled onto a layout at some later stage....I hate waste.

EMBOSSING

Here's a couple of things I have recently found handy...


1) Messy embosser's raise your hand and I'll wave back with my raised one! I recently found a natty idea instead of those tiny little embossing trays or if you have a huge item to emboss try a oil pan. You can pick them up at auto shops or deptment stores for under $10. They have a funnel to pour back any loose embossing powder too. Just watch your hubby doing try to talk you into "lending" it to him, like mine! LOL ( although I too will resort to a sheet of paper if in a hurry! LOL)

2) Use overhead transparency sheets to create your own overlays out of your favourite stamps. Stamp your image with a watermark or glue stamp pad and sprinkle with embossing powder as you normally would, use a small paint brush to brush away the excess powder or image you dont want. Then with all care, moving constantly, take the heat gun to it. Overhead material is a bit thicker than other films so can take abit of heat. If you keep it moving you should be okay. I tape mine occassionally to the back of the cutting mat to make sure it doesnt flap about and it keeps its shape.

3) Never blow off the excess embossing powder. Trust me it will go everywhere! ( I found some in my cleavage one night...oh that might not be an approprate story share! LOL) (Using my sternest mother voice ) just...don't do it!!! Tap it lightly on the side of you tray or back onto the paper.