ChiLLi's Tutorials

Creating paper beads

This tutorial is for making the paper beads  that i have used for my arms and legs on my pretty  ballerina.

Materials

Paper, Straws, mad podge or Gel medium Scissors

First step Decide how wide you want your beads  and cut strips that width by about 3 –4 inches, depends on how thick you want you beads ,  a Bit of trial and error may be required

Then cut your strip like those shown in this picture depending on what shape you want your beads to end up, you can see the beads underneath the shape required to make that bead.

Then stick your paper piece to the straw and wind it around the straw to form the bead shape and coat the outside in the medium you have chosen ( Mod podge or gel Medium) this seals it and sticks it together .. I had four of five beads on each straw.

leave them to dry over night.

Once dry, the bead may slide off the straw, but if then don't , use the scissors and cut the straw close to the end of each bead.  hey presto … you have beads.

Which can be used on your projects , or to make some really cool  jewellery.

Creating a corner Bookmark

Creating a corner Book mark

Step 1 take a Piece of Cardstock 8 by 3 inches and put an eyelet on the ege around the middle of the piece

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Step 2

Turn the piece over and fold the edge down as shown in the picture so that the edges are 90 degrees .

Step 3

Fold the other side in as well to create a triangle Shape

Step 4

Trim of the excess across the bottom

Step 5

Cut out 2 coordinating pieces of Card into triangle to fit just inside the triangle shape.

Step 6

Ink the edges of those coordinating pieces, and add some stamps and or words.

Step 7

Adhere those triangles to the base of the book mark.

Step 8

Add some jump rings to the eyelet ( you can make it just slide through the join on the back of the bookmark .)

Step 9

Stamp Some images onto Shrink plastic and punch a hole in them, using the heat gun shrink the pieces and flatten them using an acrylic Stamping block while still warm.

Step 10

Add some Jump rings to the shrunken charms and fix them to the eyelet on the book mark.

The shrunken charms can be used for other projects like here I have used it for a Phone charm.

Altering a Paper Mache Shape

I have had this Paper mache shape for ages, but wanted to do something different with it, I know I sa one done something like this somewhere, but i cant rememebr where.. Thanks for the inspiration who ever you were :)

How did I do it?

Step 1 . Pencil your cut lines onto your Paper Mache piece.

 

Step 2 Using the piece you cut out of the paper Mache item, trace a back for your Shadow Box, and enough chipboard to go around the edge of that piece.

Time to create the shadow Box.

Step 3 I started by gluing the pieces together , then Using Mod Podge and paper (I used Music paper)   I created the box., then covering it in paper making it paper Mache as well.

Step 4 once you have created your box and let it dry. Try fitting it into your paper Mache piece. You may need to trim more from the edge of your hole. 

Step 5 Once you have it fitted into the hole, you may also need to trim the edges of the box to make the edges meet the shape of your piece.

Step 6   Once the box fits inside your paper Mache piece, then you can add more paper to cover the edge. Once it is covered you can paint over it all or leave the paper as a feature of the piece like I did.

Batman Canvas Step by Step

 

Take a piece of cardstock slightly bigger than your canvas, and rule and cut out the pieces to make the rays.  I numbered the ones i wanted to keep before i cut them out, so i knew which order to place them in when i laid them onto the canvas. Stick the pieces to the canvas using double sided tape( it doesn't need to be stuck down well just well enough so the texture paste can be added without it moving.

Find a Colouring that you like, I found a free online  colouring and printed it out 5 times. I cut it out and stuck it down where i wanted  it to be.

Now its time to add the texture paste, in all the areas not covered by cardstock or the colouring.

Don't worry about going over the card and colouring they are only being used as a template and will be discarded afterwards.

once you have the texture paste added and while it is still wet, carefully remove all of the template pieces , being careful not to touch the texture paste.

Then send your child to the local park with an empty jar , and ask them to fill it with white sand, They love this involvement in your craft :) 

Sprinkle the sand over the wet texture paste, and shake of any excess.  Now let the canvas dry over night.

Oh I know too impatient to wait overnight to do more, well let start the paper Piecing of the colouring .

What i do is find the cardstock in the colour I want, and lay the colouring over the cardstock, and cut through both pieces  with a scalpel, or craft knife.

keep cutting out the pieces  until you have all the pieces needed for the character. then glue the pieces together. I then added an outline to each piece using a black marker pen, and added some extra lines in white and black where they were needed ( check your colouring. )

Its the next day already .. Geez that was quick! … I sprayed the whole canvas with  Glimmer mist, this makes the sand in the texture paste look like glitter ( very Pretty)

Then I painted the canvas with Gesso, only the sections with no Texture paste on them.

Then i applied Lots of coats of paint , Lots of coats because I chose yellow paint and it didn't give a very good coverage.

See in this picture Batman is checking out my work.. Has to be superhero worthy LOL  I didn't worry to much about the areas that I knew were going to be covered by the paper piecing

My Notebook

I have spent a few .. well lots of time on this over the last couple of days ..  Sorry i didnt take step by step pics , but ill try to describe what i did.

i set of to make a notebook.

 

I started with two bit of book board, covered them in patterned paper,  then  stamped them with the brick stamp from prima and embossed them. then i painted over the embossing, and rubbed off the execs..left me with a cool resist brickwork pattern.  then i used the Prima newsprint stamp and some black ink , and jut touched the edges all of over.

Then I  joined the front and back together with some book binding tape  have had forever I'm pretty sure its 7 Gypsies.  and  then added some German scrap.

Now it was time to embellish.  I wanted to use houses but they looked a bit naked raw, so i cut my own houses from grunge paper, painted them applied Jo Sonja crackle medium and painted them again, they all had a different base coat , so appear to be painted different colours.

then i added the raw chipboard roofs. using the collections chipboard scallops, and reverse scallops.  the other house got rooved in  German scrap.  I made the little door from some raw chipboard , and added the little screws.   then i embellished the houses  with some other bits and pieces  and finally added the collections alphas  again in the raw.

that's the cover of the note book done.

I found a note book i bought on sale YEARS ago for 25c, Ripped out the pages and tore them up, soaked them in a tea solution to age them. dried them and stacked them. I alternated the pages with some sheets of a music book  to witch i gesso’d the centre of the pages to allow for writing  in the future. I bound the pages together , and then attached to the inside of the cover . and now i have an awesome notebook. which i love!

Flat flowers are boring!

I’ve never been much of a flower girl, and I think it’s mainly because I thought float flowers were boring!

So it’s time to get all those flowers out of hiding and turn them into 3d work of art we can use on our layouts proudly!

You will need

• · Flat boring flowers
• · Beads
• · Florist wire
• · Mod Podge

1. Thread a bead onto the florist wire and bend and twist,

 

2. Thread both ends of the wire through a set of three or four flowers

3. Paint a little mod podge between the layers of the flowers

4. Now scrunch the flowers up around the bead and squeeze and pinch till your happy with how your 3d flower looks. The Mod podge will help to hold you flower in place in their new, much more appealing look.

5. You now have a a 3d flower on a wire stem that you can use to create a Vine like in my vine tutorial.

Have fun using up all those old and boring flat flowers!

Paper and Wire Vines – make your own!

 

We all love the ones you can buy, but they are expensive, and make for expensive layouts so today I'm going to show you how to make your own

• You will need
• Florist wire the thin stuff
• Lunch bags or tissue
• Die or teabags
• Mod podge
• Leaves on wire
• Flowers.

1. rip your tissue paper of lunch bags into 2 inch strips. I used paper lunch bag because they are a bit stronger when you put them in the die.

2. Mix up a die solution according to your dies instructions, or place a couple of teabags in a tray with hot water.

3. Put your paper strips into the water and colour them.. it should not take long

4. Lay them out flat to dry ..or if your impatient like me dry them with a heat gun

5. Take a piece of your paper and coat one side with Mod podge.

6. Wrap the paper around the wire trying to keep it as tight as possible.

7. Once you have the desired thickness rip the paper away and start on the next section.

8. Create different branches for you stem, and keep adding till you are happy with how it looks.

9. Curl the tops of the branches around an Awl, to get them curly

 

10. Now to add the leaves, you can either lay the wire down the stem and add some more paper to cover the leaf wife, or you can just wrap the wire around the stem like I did.

11. Keep adding leaves till you are happy with the look then do the same for the flowers

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12. Hey presto your own Wire vine and for a fraction of the cost.

An introduction to Ink

Water based dye Inks

This is a common ink, some examples of this type of ink are Tim Holtz Distress inks, Stampin up Inks (except Black), these inks are terrific for stamping on paper, and have a quick drying time. Many brands are acid free but can fade, especially if exposed to direct sun. Being water based, means that they will run if they come into contact with water.

Dye based inks (water proof)

Stampin ups Black and Ancient Page are examples of dye based waterproof ink pads. These inks are good if you are planning to use water colours to colour a stamped image. They are waterproof, but not permanent, so are not so good for stamping on glossy surfaces, shrink plastic of fabrics.

Pigment ink pads

Colorbox, Versa Color and Brilliance inks are all examples of pigment inks. Pigment inks are thicker than dye inks and usually come in a spongy pad. Pigment inks when stamped dye on top of the surface, and don’t soak in like dye inks.  Pigment inks don’t do so well on Shiny or glossy surfaces, they just don’t dry. These stamps are terrific for using with embossing powders, because they take longer to dry, giving you time to get the powder on the wet ink.

Embossing pads

Embossing pads are made just like the pigment inks, but are not used for colour (although a clean pad can give a terrific watermark effect on plain coloured card.) They are used for their wetness and slow drying time, giving you time to add the embossing powder.

Permanent Inks

Stazon comes to mind when I think Permanent ink.  This type of ink is terrific for stamping on non porous surfaces such as metal plastic, glass and acetate. Therefore making is terrific for stamping on Shrink plastic. These inks can be hard to clean of your stamps and will probably stain them.

Storing Ink pads

Most people recommend storing your ink pads upside down so the ink flows to the top of the pad, making it wet for the next time you use your pad.

Always make sure your stamp is clean before inking it, otherwise your ink pad may turn out another colour, especially if you are using a lighter colour ink than the last time you used that stamp.

What to do with Glimmer Mist

 

It’s new, it’s exciting, and it is sooo much fun! You can use Glimmer Mist to alter just about anything.
Before starting make sure you shake your glimmer mist thoroughly so that all the settled ‘glimmer’ on the bottom is mixed in.
Then seriously just go to town!
Colour your flowers

Your lace

Paper clay Pieces

Painted surfaces - I painted onto the Wood canvas with white paint, heat embossed some stiched flower images, then glimmer misted in several colours for a really cool background on this little canvas. Stay tuned to the gallery for this canvas finished!

Chipboard pieces or Grunge board

Cardstock
Puddle sprays of GM and then tip your paper for some interesting effects

Spray puddles of GM onto the card and use a scrap piece of card, or an old credit card to swipe across the card, to give it a clean look finish instead of a sprayed finish.

Use Stencils or Chipboard negatives and spray onto cardstock. For this example I have used the glimmer screens, simply lay the screen onto the cardstock where you want the image, spray and remove the screen.

Now before you clean that screen off, place it wet side down onto aother piece of cardstock, to give a stamped type image!

for the below example I use left over plastic ivy leaves from my wedding boquets .. sat them on the cardstock and spraed over them. You can used any shape to create this sort of effect.

Some more uses for the GM include Fabric, or hessian

Use it like paint, spray a puddle onto some scrap card, and use a pain brush to doodle or paint Dont you just love my flower LOL

you can also use it to soften a Pattered paper or to give it a completely different look.

And lastl i wanted to show ou a little fairy o made using white flowers, some ric rac a bead and glimmer mist

Isnt she cute !

Exploring Shutter priority /TV Mode

So last month we played with the ‘p’ mode, this month, we are moving onto shutter speed, TV mode. TV stands for time value.

The shutter speed is the time the cameras lens is left open when taking a photo, and changes the amount of light that hits the sensor.

So move those dials around to TV, and lets get started.
Shutter speed is measured in seconds, and on my camera appears in digits such as 5, 20, 100, 200, etc and all numbers in between. What that means is that the higher the number the quicker the shutter speed, the Lower the number the slower the camera shutter speed is. My camera ranges from 30 seconds ( displayed as 30’’) to 1/8000 ( displayed as 8000) that is pretty quick, and to take a photo at that speed you would have to have a lot of light because it’s not letting much light into the sensor, therefore your picture will be very dark.

Slow shutter speeds, when using a slow shutter speed you will need to use a tripod, to avoid camera shake, I also recommend removing the camera strap from the camera as well as it can catch the breeze and move the camera. Slow shutter speeds can work for pictures when you are trying to catch the movement, those images of car lights at night where the lights stream across the picture, are done using shutter speed. Slow shutter speed can also be used when photographing a waterfall, it will give you a soft furry look to the water.

Fast shutter speeds are good when you want to capture the action. Stop the image dead. In this example you can see the difference in the water fountain at my local park, the slower shutter speed gives a furry soft look to the water, the higher stops the water and captures its droplets I could have done a quicker shutter speed, to get a more still image of the water, but the light was pretty bad.

Here I have a picture of one of those spinning things you find at the park, I spun it and took the pics at different speeds to show the difference in the speeds.

So that is the TV mode on your camera, once again any questions please ask