It's been one of those days...

Getting experimental

I've had fun with molds, resin, mixed media and trinkets lately.  The mixed media and steampunk look is so hot in scrapbooking right now, the metals, trinkets and other bits and pieces might not be incredibly acid free, but as far as creative play is concerned, there is nothing better.

But because I love to experiment, and because I always have to take things one step further, I couldn't resist trying to make my own molds.  Now Pinkysil has been around for a while but I was ignoring it.  I was hoping not to find another cool thing to add to the list of already cool things I need to try.  I have a lot of molds, right?  I don't need more.  I think I need to make my own, the devil on the shoulder whispers in my ear.

And so I gathered all the supplies - the Pinkysil, the disposable cups, the container (which just happened to be a lid off something) and I created. 

And I sat back.  Incredibly proud that I'd just made my own 'gears' mold. 

And then I started looking around at what else I could make molds of.  And I saw this angel wings with heart trinket that I've been sending out in the trinket bags.  And I made a mold.

And then I saw a cool decorative bookplate in my bits drawer.  And it became a mold.

Although Pinkysil does take a little experimentation (like learning that whatever you place on the bottom of the container has to have a flat surface ), once you get going, you can't stop.

Nothing is safe.

Not even the biscuit jar. (No Cameo Cremes were harmed in the making of this tutorial.  No wait.  Three cameo cremes were hurt actually.  In fact, they are gone.  I don't mind the sacrifice in the name of art.)

What I did create was a super cool art deo piece to use in my mixed media art. 

If you can't find me I'll be in the bottom of the kids wardrobes (or the pantry) looking around for more stuff to make molds of...

Laters

 

Down my street...

This time last year I was waiting for two big events.  First was my second trip to South Africa, which remains my nearly-most-favourite-place-on-earth, and the second was for the blossoms on our cherry tree to make their appearance. 

 I say 'our' cherry tree, but really it's the street's cherry tree.  It's in the front garden of the first house we built in this street, Paul & I planted it back in 1997.  After we sold that house we became good friends with the new owners and they carried on the care for the tree.  It's grown into a huge spring blossoming tree which hangs over the pathway.  We've placed a community seat underneath which has seen many happy children playing and many late summer evening drinks as the neighbours get together to chat.

Waiting for a cherry tree to blossom doesn't sound like a big event, but it is.  It marks the end of winter for me, and there is a competition riding on when the first blossom opens.  A friendly neighbourhood bet... winner gets the coveted 'cherry tree trophy' and the title of "getting the date of the first blossom right". 

There's no South Africa for me this year but there is the wait for the first cherry tree blossom.  Every morning this week I've been walking along to the cherry tree to see if the blossoms are out yet.  There are a few that are very close, I'm hoping they'll hold out for a while though, as I chose Sept 8th as the day they would make their appearance. 

Don't you love when traditions just happen, kind of like this one?   Don't you love them even better when they are shared with neighbours as fabulous as the ones we have down my street?

(Interesting things I notice in the pics below.. Autumn has Jess & Abby playing with chalk.. something they still do, our road is often covered in chalk drawings... Winter has Jacob holding Molly, Abby's kitty.  Molly went missing 11 Feb 2011 and we never saw her again.  Summer has all the guys in the shade but Lucy in the sun.  I'd probably been sharing a drink right beside her before getting up to take the pic.

Most interesting of all though - my kids are in T-shirts and shorts in all 4 pics.  I love NZ :)

Laters

 

 

A little Prima Goodness for a Friday...

Some Friday goodness from the Prima Educator blog, this article featured on Wednesday, so I thought I'd share it here today.  Hot on the heels of colouring my own resin pieces are colouring pre-made ones. Enjoy the little tutorial and don't forget to check in at the Prima Educator blog.  A LOT of people know the regular Prima Blog is there, but there is an equally awesome Educator version too!

Hey there, Nic Howard checking in with my first post for the Prima Educator blog.  I really wanted to show you the Prima product I'm most in love with right now, so choosing a topic was easy - I love the Prima Shabby Chic Treaures! 

The Shabby Chic Treasures are gorgeous as they are, they have a lovely vintage look that makes them easy to add to any page.  However, they are easy to colour as well, so I thought I'd show you one way how!

One of my favourite ways to colour them is to paint and add a metallic sheen.  All you need is some acrylic paint, a paintbrush, your favourite Prima resin piece and some metallic rubs of some kind.  I've got some Ranger Perfect Pearls powder but there are many different options you could use.

Paint your chosen piece and let it dry.  I could have used a lot of different colours on here, I could have painted the leaves green and the heart bright red, but I love how metallic rubs look on black, so I chose to paint the piece dark in colour. (I kept the heart really dark in colour by painting it black first, then adding the red on top).

Add your metallic rubs. These Prima pieces are so intricate and the Perfect Pearls catch on the highest parts, leaving an amazing looking embellishment!  (I'm seriously in love with this heart piece from the La Couer set).

There are already a whole lot of ways you can incorporate the gorgeous embellishments into your artwork, but once you colour them the options open up even further.  I've used a La Couer  frame which I have left plain, along with my coloured piece on this mixed media tag which is displayed in a frame in my home.  The metallic colouring looks great as the light catches it, I'm always so happy with the result when I colour them like this.

(Spot the other Prima products I've been colouring too, the canvas pieces, flowers and leaves!)

These Ingvild Bolme Resin Shabby Chic treasures come in all sorts of designs.  From frames to hearts, to angel wings and other vintage images.  My desk is constantly covered in all manner of paints and other colouring agents, sprays, metallic rubs and other mixed media goodness as I work with them.  Including them in tags, layouts or artwork for your home is so easy to do - have fun with it!

Let me know if you have a play, I'd love to see what you do with these treasures!

Products used:

• 891442 Shabby Chic Treasures, La Couer
• 561031 Canvas Pieces, Swirls
• 556273 Pixie Vine, Almanac
• 539337 Belle Artes Novelty Flowers
• 920982 Flowers Sculpture Pieces
• 539689 Autumn Leaves, October
• Other: Tag, Ribbon, Paint, Coloured Mists and Sprays, Metallic Rubs,

Just like that

I found this funny graphic the other day and I felt like it was downloaded straight from my current mindset.

Anyone else?  Hands held high?

This winter has been so flippin hard and I've hated going to the gym.  Being the super-athletic sportswoman - spot the scarcasm- that I am, you'd not thing you'd hear me say things like that but oh.my.goodness. I have hated these past few months.  I had a friend ask me the other day "Don't you hate getting out of bed that early to go to the gym every day? "  Well actually.  Yes.  I do.

Anyway, this morning I sat in the car for 10 minutes listening to the radio before I went into the gym. You can imagine the battle going on in my mind.  I finally relented and wandered in, kicked some ass with the weights and left.

On my return home I got a text from my gym.  "Congratulations on your 400th visit to the gym this morning, keep up the amazing work". 

And then the day today has been warm.  I slept on the floor in the sun.  I got too hot.  I started to remember summer.  And dread the shorts, perhaps.

And then I looked up and saw this layout above my desk.  And I remembered why I do it in the first place.  Essentially if I didn't like the gym, or perhaps just the results from going to the gym, I wouldn't be going.  Never let it be said that it's easy or that I always like it.  I guess it comes down to it being something I can do compleetly for myself.  And that's kinda cool.  Even at 5.30am.

Laters

 

Five for Friday (it's still Friday somewhere, right?)

* I've been invited to a 40th.  There's a wake up call - my friends are turning 40.  This latest party I've been invited to will have many friends I haven't seen for 25 years.  It can't be 25 years.  I'm not that old.  Apparently I am though and I'm feeling the pressure of catching up with people I haven't seen since I was a teenager.  Things can't have changed that much.  Can they?

 

* Someone in New Zealand successfully started a campaign to bring back the 'Chocoade' biscuits they haven't seen since the 1980s.  If one person can do it, surely another can?   Let's bring back Blue Hawaii wine cooler.  You know.  In the casks.   You do know, right?  I want to bring it back so I can take a cask down to the local park, wait for the sprinklers to be turned on the cricket pitch and lie in the water and drink the cask with my bestie.  Just like the old days.  Is that something that 40 year olds do?

 

* I just realised my Mum & Dad will be mortified when they read the above.  Mum. Dad.  It was 25 years ago.  And it was just lemonade.  And we were studying.  True.

 

* Dear the maker of skinny jeans trends.  Clearly I didn't suceed in getting skinny jeans banned despite my enthusiastic efforts last year.  I still believe they don't have a place in our society,  they are clearly dangerous, circulation being cut off, body parts being squeezed far too tight, not to mention the accidents that could happen if they need to be taken off, you know, quickly, at any point.  So not only are they still trendy, but they are now coming out in ridiculous colours.  Green, tomato red, yellow, indigo blue.  It's like one last laugh at those of us trying to hold on to the last threads of our youth.  Please.  Stop. with. the. skinny. jeans. trends. Or at least bring back Miami Wine cooler so we don't care how we look.

 

* A share.  This layout was published in Issue 94 of Scrapbook Creations in Australia and was also part of my 'SongBird' Kit.  Dangit, we might be old but we are still cute, right?  Right?

Laters

Supplies: Prima Songbird & SunKiss collections.

 

 

The Happy Accident.

Once I fall in love with a style, there is no stopping me.  Which is why when I saw this palette, released by The Color Room, and saw the sketch that went with it, I knew another mixed media tag was in order.

And so I created. 

White cardstock.  Perfect Pearls sprays.  Prima papers.  Music washi tape.  Canvas.  Prima flowers.  Lots of homemade resin pieces.  Metal trinkets.  Lots of colour sprays.  The Cult playing on the radio with a bit of old Taking Heads thrown in.  Lot of adhesive. 

This is what it ends up like.

The bottom heart wasn't meant to come out that way.  It was a happy accident.   It's one of my homemade hearts , made using a mold and resin.   I tried playing with putting alcohol inks straight into the mold before pouring the resin in.  This does not work.  The liquid resin pushes the alcohol inks to the outside and it doesn't mix or dry.  So I pulled out the failed resin heart piece and cleaned the mold with a baby wipe.  But I couldn't get all the red alcohol ink out of the little bitty pieces.

So I decided to make several molds with plain resin in the hope that it 'picked up' the colour out of the nooks and crannies.  I did this several times and it cleaned the mold.  It also created the cool coloured heart .  See, happy accident. 

BTW you can use alcohol inks to colour the resin.  When you mix the 2 resin parts togther you add a few drops of alcohol ink, mix it through and pour.  It works beautifully.  Not nearly as much fun as experimenting though, right?

(If you want more info, I have a step-by-step resin article in my next newsletter, being sent out to my database in the next few days.  Email me nic.paul (at) xtra.co.nz and let me know you want to be added to my newsletter database!

Laters