Copper Angel
Stamp VAS Madonna image with staze-on ink. Emboss Med. weight copper sheet with wooden dowel (pencil like on one end and blunt angle on the other) or any means you have at your disposal. One full image for angel and 2 lower portions for wings. You need to work the copper from both sides to get a very high raised image. Once you are satisfied with your angel use powder metallic pigments like Pearl-Ex or Moon Glow mixed with rubbing alcohol and paint some of the areas you wish to look like patina, clear coat to seal.

Hand paint and stamp the inside of the shrine. Mine was painted with a dark acrylic paint first then powder pigments were swirled on then I stamped on one of the Madonna Textures in Dye Ink. Then you need to map out where you want the gold foil applied and ad your Mona Lisa (more info on this below) adhesive let dry and apply gold leaf, burnish and brush of the excess. Glue in the Madonna with hot glue, fill in the depressions first to give you a flat surface then glue in place from the waist down ONLY ... then glue in the wings & halo the same way. I added brass wire to the halo which I found at a surplus shop here in Albuquerque.

For the halo and the shrine door I used a mix of powder pigments and gold leaf to give it a very old world look, this was done by hand. You could also distress it later if needed. The glue for the gold leaf was brushed on, I used "Mona Lisa Metal leaf adhesive size" by Houston Art Inc. www.houstonart.com For the doors I first painted them a dark purple/red color then applied the pearl-ex and gold leaf.

All of my supplies come from Michales, or Hobby Lobby or if I need something in bulk like copper I will start looking in the yellow pages for sources, under metal or check out your local surplus store you can find great stuff at even greater prices, however if you can't get something I have used let me know and I will try to get it for you.

If I didn't cover all your questions please e-me back, good luck
Lou with Very Artsie Stuff

Wet Wipe Stamping
Supplies:

• One solid (reverse) image stamp
• Kromekote Cover or other white coated cover stock
• Dye Ink pads, and one Red Dye Pen any kind I use Marvy
• LOTs of Wet Wipes, not to wet

To achieve this process you must coat the entire heart stamp with bright yellow, then ,as quickly as you can, work in the red dye pen, as an accent and stamp in the center of your paper. Now grab your not to wet wet wipe and bunch it up into a fun wrinkle using your index finger. Start out dabbing light colors on to your wet wipe from your pad, I usually start and end with yellow.

Note: If your dye pens are new you can get enough ink from them, or reinkers but the color might be overwhelming.

Stamp your wrinkle in a circle around your stamped image. Try to get as close to it as possible, and gradually spread out. As you change to darker and darker colors refold your wipe to make a different pattern, but try to retain that fold for an entire color circle. Continue circling until you have covered most of the white space. Then come back in with the yellow or other light color and obliterate the rest of the white except in side your rubber stamped image, leave some white there.

The trick to this process is massive layering, keep going until you think it is so ugly you should throw it away, then go a little further because you’re almost done.

Note: Dye inks are transparent and will change colors when crossed, some great and some not so great, so pay attention for those great color combinations.

Cut out with decorative scissors and mount.

Chile Ristra
Supplies:

• Outline and or solid chile stamps, about 3 1/2”
• Chile colored card stock, Reds, Purples, Wine
• Coated Card Stock like Kromacoat
• Permanent Foam Mounting Tape
• Dye Ink Pads, I prefer Marvy
• Embossing Liquid & Gold Embossing Powder
• 8X17” Piece of Black Matt Board
• Scissors
• Awl
• Raffia, just a little to tie

1) The sample provided has both solid image chiles and outline image chiles.

2) Pick 1 or 2 solid pieces of color card stock some version of red. Stamp at least 10 of your outline chiles in an ink several shades darker than your paper.

Note: it is not vital that you have the exact color of red, as you can simply dye the paper. Dying the paper can be done by rubbing an ink pad like Marvy all over your embossed chile, I do it after I emboss so I don’t have to line up the stamp. If your Ink pad is not raised like Marvy you can brayer it over the embossed chile image. I have done entire projects like this with all colors of paper, you just need to know a little about mixing color. Example : dark paper will just get very dark, light color paper like yellow, pink, and beige will mix nicely with the inks. Medium brown when dyed with an orange ink will give you a great terra-cotta, much prettier than any store bought paper and what a money saver. Just remember you can always get darker, so start with your most pastel dye inks first.

3) For the brilliant multi colored chiles, use a white coated card stock like Kromacoat, swipe all of your red, yellow, orange , lite blue and even some lite purple dye inks on your paper. Cross and swirl the ink pads across the coated paper. Dye inks are transparent and will make more colors when crossed, some great and some not so great, so pay attention for those great color combinations.

4) Now you can gold emboss outline chiles over the best sections of color you achieved on your coated paper. Cut out your chiles, you will want several different sizes or shapes of chiles to add interest to your finished piece. You will need approximately 30 to 40 chiles total.

5) If you are using solid image chiles, simply apply the dye inks directly to the rubber stamp. There are several way to do this, with dye markers, several colors work best or try using the dye pads one solid color for the entire chile and come back with markers or ink dabbed wet wipes to blend in extra color. Cut out your solid images and ink the edge of the cut chile with a dark color like black, purple or brown. For the darkest chiles I first stamped a bright red (Marvey #2 Red) solid chile then on top of each I stamped small & medium curl images all over (also from Very Artsie Stuff) with Marvey #5 yellow, I cut them out, then I took a really dark purple pad ( Marvy #8 Violet, I also did some in #96 Jungle Green) wiped it over the cut chile and wiped off the color before it could dry completely. You will be amazed at the outcome.

6) Attach a small piece of permanent foam mounting tape, found at any office supply store, to the back top of all your chiles. I used this tape as it will raise the piece up and give it a 3-D effect. Note: save you three best chiles for the top as that is the only place you will see the whole image.

7) To attach the chiles use an 8” x 17” piece of black matt board. YOU MUST BUILD FROM THE BOTTOM UP. Start at the bottom with one single chile remove the tape backing place center and about 2” from the bottom of your board . Then start making your ristra wider as you go up, your widest point should leave you with 1 1/2” on each side making the ristra 4 1/2 to 5” wide. Stay at that width for about 4 to 5 inches and start bringing it back in, ending with three chiles gathered at the top but flared at the bottom. The whole ristra should be about 13 1/2“ tall. Intermix the colors, sizes and shapes to add interest and if you don’t like your placement or there is to much of one color in one area, simply slide another chile in between to break up the space.

8) Punch two holes with an awl at the top of the ristra where the three chile stems are gathered and thread the raffia through and tie to the front.

Note: I have a really hard time keeping my black matt board clean and un-scratched, so my solution is before I start my project I take a texture stamp or simple image like a curl and stamp a random all over pattern using black dye ink. The imperfections are covered and it gives a subtle texture to the backing, but does not detract from the main art work.

Scratch Art Technique
Supplies:

• Kromekote Cover or other white coated cover stock
• Dye Ink any kind that can be used pad to paper (Raised Pad)
• Embossing Powder (I use Gold)
• Matt Black Spray Paint
• Speedball scratch nib #113 and holder

Using any coated card stock, the kind that looks polished on one side, take any brand of raised pad DYE inks and using pad direct to paper cover all your white space.

Start with lighter inks , crossing and swirling the inks over your paper as you go to darker colors. This technique will start to make more colors as dye inks are transparent and will appear to mix.

As you become comfortable with this technique, you will have a lot of control over your color combinations. Brayering will give you a great effect but is much more subdued, my direct to paper inking will give you a knockout effect you can not get with brayering.

I work up a dozen 1/2 sheets (8 1/2 x 5 1/2), so I have plenty to work on at one time, as this process can become very addictive. My most successful sheets are very colorful and the colors are as strong and direct as possible. DYE inks are transparent and the colors may look really great or really bad when they cross. This is definitely trial and error. Try several small pieces to get the hang of it.

When you are satisfied with your inking , make sure it’s dry. This should happen almost immediately. Now take your beautiful colorful paper to a well ventilated area and spray paint it with matt Black spray paint. Any Matt Black spray paint will work, but spend a little more for a better brand, it seems to scratch easier. Make sure you have completely covered the entire piece with spray paint and that it is coated evenly. You can do two coats if you need to.

Once your black paint is dry, this should only take a couple of minutes, you are ready to emboss your image. Be careful not to over heat your piece, as this will make the paint harder and more difficult to scratch.

Now use your scratch tool and carefully scratch thorough the black paint down to the color layer. There are a couple of tools available for this. What works best for me is a scratch nib by speed ball. You can find it in the calligraphy section of your craft or fine art store. There are two styles the first is very sharp and pointy, (not for me) the second is rounded like a tiny shovel #113, just pop that thing into a pen staff and you’ll be scratchin in no time. You could also try a Kemper #K23 clay clean-up tool, this works well for some people. Don’t waste time using a craft knife, it is much to sharp and will scratch down to the raw paper. The idea is to scratch through the black paint to the base color but not beyond. However, should this happen, just repair it with a touch of matching color dye ink.

When you start scratching, you can remove as much or as little of the black paint as you like. I like to leave a lot of the black paint and have fun making patterns in it.

Tips
Any color spray paint will work, but it MUST be MATT. Gloss paint will not scratch off. Try matt white, and camouflage/sage green I have had excellent results with both of these.

I take the same pads I used on the front and quickly mark the back with a line of color just so I have some idea of what’s under the black paint when I go to do my project.

The fresher your prepared paper is the better it scratches, the older it gets the harder the paint gets.

Please feel free to call me with any questions or e-mail me, I will try to help in any way I can.

LA Thompson,
Very Artsie Stuff, 505-248-1239, Sprint Cell 505-463-4664 or or simply click the e-me link

I fell in love with this technique the second I saw a very impressive sample by David Epstein, shown at the Stampers Pad in Albuquerque NM. I already knew the basic procedure, but try as I might I could not find the right scratch tool. I took David’s class and he showed me a couple of tools and how to use them properly. Some of the stamps I use are just not big enough, or maybe the paper is just so gorgeous I need to expose as much as possible. My solution is to exaggerate the outline. I also scratch lots of patterns around my embossed images to enhance the piece as a whole.

See full color page write up on this technique in Somerset Studio Jan/Feb 2005 page 64

Floral Technique
This extra Large (8 inches) Flower is made with the double leaf stamp, done in a 2 T direction as shown, making an 8in. diameter flower . The single leaf does the same thing and will give you yet another size (7inches) of poinsettia which can be grouped or strung together along with the formed poinsettia stamp #FL100, and the Med. Poinsettia #FL101. That gives you 4 sizes to overlay. Make sure you watch your paper width as you will need all 8.5 inches to make your flower.

The entire flora line from VAS will over lay all other florals in the line, so your possibilities are endless.

Once you have made all the flowers you can stand, cut them out leaving some color around the edges. Overlay them for cards, which I hope is self explanatory, the garland and bag topper are also overlaid but instead of gluing to a flat surface and finishing with a button center, you will need to make a ribbon center. This is done with 3 to 4 pieces of wired ribbon and a pipe cleaner.

Take 1 pipe cleaner fold in 1/2, now cut 3 or 4 pieces of 1.5 or larger wired ribbon approx. 5 inches long. Fold in half and cut at an angle from the edge to the fold. Gather 3 to 4 pieces together and fold in 1/2, looping the ribbon through the pipe cleaner twist to hold. Fan out to make your center as full as possible. Depending on your paper, it is possible to curl the cut out petals to give the whole project a 3-D effect either up or down. You curl paper the same as you curl curling ribbon, with the blades of a pair of scissors. Arrange your flowers double taping the centers as you go then simply pierce a single hole through the center of all the overlaid flowers, the hole should be only large enough to tightly fit the doubled pipe cleaner through. Should the hole become to large simply arrange the flower like you want it with the ribbon center and seal it on the back with hot glue. Then for the bag topper that's it, just stick it in the top of your gift bag (hopefully you will make your own custom bag from the VAS bag template) once your gift is in the bag and it is stuffed with tissue it will sit in place nicely.

For the garland simply attach several finished flowers with the pipe cleaner tightly at appropriate spots on your 2" to 4" wired ribbon cut the pipe cleaner short, then use the garland on your Christmas tree, down a banister, on a wreath, the possibilities are endless.

Bargello Snippets
1) Run three 1/2 sheets and 9 strips of 1” x 8” Glossy card stock... through a XYRON. Run 1-1/2 sheet and 3-1” strips through at one time

2) Using dye inks color entire surface of all strips. Use the pads to create pattern, dotting, swirling, stamping until satisfied. Pieces must be busy & well filled.

*Tip use a small texture stamp to fill in and cover your paper

3) Using your 1” strips, decide on arrangement ...NOW one at a time REMOVE the xyron backing and apply to freezer paper... NO SPACE* between the strips.

4) *T-Square up 2 sides T-up means...using your top already straight strip as a guide cut right side straight. You should be using a reliable cutter for this, cutting by hand would be very hard.

5) Cut strips Crosswise* from 1” to 1/4” all the way across, also cut some of your 1/2 sheet pieces in to varying strips from 1/16” up to 3/8”

6) Now for the fun part... Arrange anyway you want using your pieces like home-made sticker tiles, add gold or white edging, colored pencils work great on this. Embellish anyway you like.