Digital Paper Piecing

Deb here with you today. Paper piecing is a great way to add pattern and color detail to your images. Check out all the image lines and polka dots on the dress in the project above - I don't know about you, but I could never do that freehand. This project features a digital image from Eureka Stamps . Off the top, I have to apologize for the slant on the photo - new camera that I'm still getting used to.

This will be my last project for the Eureka/QKR Techniques and Tutorial Team. It's been a year since Maribeth accepted my application to join the team - my first design team ever! - and it's been a great experience. I have learned so much in that time. Special thanks are sent to Maribeth for her amazing support of the design team. My appreciation also goes out to Jackie, DT Leader, for her encouragement and support. Thanks also to Tina (DT Admin go-to-expert) for all her efforts, Ruza (fellow team member and a woman who has it ALL together) for all the technical expertise as I learned the ropes of being a DT member. Special thanks also to Joann Burton aka Sassy Raggedy (my original T&T Team partner) for her amazing inspiration and friendship. Ladies of the QKR and Eureka DT Teams - you rock!

And on to how to actually paper piece with digital images. First, print your image on the card you prefer for coloring, in a size that suits your project. My go-to paper for Copic coloring is X-Press It Blending card.

From there, you have two options.

The first option is to print your image again, in the same size, on a blank piece of inexpensive card. Then tape a piece of patterned paper over the printed image ensuring that the paper, but no tape, covers the part of the image you want in the pattern (i.e. her dress). Run the whole package through the printer again.

The second option is to cut a piece of patterned paper in a size that will fit your printer, and print the image again.

Whichever of the two options you chose, now comes the tricky part - carefully cutting the part you want from the image. I try to cut right on the line, so I can line my piece up with the printed image. But it might be smarter to cut just outside the line and thus cover up the line on the image.

Now color the base image with Copics or whatever medium you prefer. At this point, I cut out my base image because I wanted her to pop off the page with pop dots. However, you could shape the image with any die cut frame.

Now spread glue on the back of your patterned pieces and adhere them to the image.

Get as creative as you wish. Perhaps you could print the image on a second patterned paper and have her sash in a different color? I used a bit of grey to shade the folds of the dress, and some blue where the underside of the fabric shows, and colored her petticoat layers in different shades.



Here's a shot of The Boss re-charging her batteries after a long afternoon of supervising in the craft room.

Come back and visit me on my blog often. I'll still be using my QKR and Eureka images, as well as all the others in my stash, to create as the spirit moves me and I hope you'll join me. For the last time, here's my T& T badge....

Blended Butterflies

Deb here with you today. For this Eureka and QKR Techniques and Tutorials post, I thought we'd take a look at blending between color families when using Copic markers. The above photos shows the butterflies in progress, however all the color blending has been completed. The digi stamp used here is Eureka's digi58901 Lacey Butterfly. I've printed it on a piece of X-Press It Blending card at 3.5, 2.5 and 2 inches high, rotating each one.

First of all, I want to be clear that I have not received official Copic certification. I am simply someone who loves Copics, so I read all I can about using the markers to their best advantage and then I practice, practice, practice. What I will share with you, below, is how I work with the markers.

If you use Copics, you are undoubtedly familiar with the concept of blending two colors to create shadows and shading. And you likely use two markers with the same color family designation, the same first number and the second number is usually two or three digits away from the first, such as R24 and R27 to color Santa's suit. What would it look like if you used two markers with different color families, but the same first and second numbers?

Color blending between two color families is easiest if you use two groups that are beside each other on the Copic color chart, such as RV and R. Blending is also easiest if you choose light colors. Let's take a look at how to make this technique work.

First of all, practice your flicking technique. Quickly - no dawdling - touch your pen to the paper at the edge of the image you want to color, and  move it out and up. The result should be strokes that lighten and narrow as they approach the middle of the image. When you add you second color starting in the opposite direction, the two colors will blend where they are lightest. Below is a look at some strokes. The one on the left it not going to give you a good result. The group on the right will give you better results.

Create a practice sheet on some scrap blending card to give you some idea of how the colors you have in mind will blend. Pick your favorites.

Here's a look at the very beginning of the butterfly coloring. You can see the first strokes lightening toward the middle of the section. You can see I've colored heavier the first third of my area, and lighter in the middle third. I'll do that will my second color, from the opposite direction.



Now add the second color.

Looks pretty good, but I want to add a second layer to deepen the color and blend the middle section further.

OK, move on and color the remainder of the sections you want to blend. Hint: not every section of the image has to be blended.

These images were completed with smooth coloring (no blending) around the perimeter.

And here's the completed card, dressed up with a sentiment and sponged with Distress Ink on the edges.

I hope you give color blending between color families a try because you can get some very pretty results. And please pop over to my personal blog for more paper art ideas.

Watercolor Stamping

Deb with you today. There are so many possibilities when it comes to making the most of our rubber stamps that it just boggles the mind. I recently came across the watercolor stamping technique, and thought it would make a good topic for this week's Eureka and QKR Technique and Tutorial post. This project features QKR's Rose stamp. Besides a stamp, all you need is:

• Watercolor paper - I prefer a smooth finish to watercolor paper that I intend to stamp on. Some papers have a noticeable grain, and it makes it more difficult to get a good imprint
• Distress Ink in Frayed Burlap and, if you have them, Re-inkers in Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Bundled Sage and Faded Jeans. If you don't have the re-inkers, just use your stamp pads.
• Water brush or fine paint brush
• Small Palette or a stamping acrylic block

Here's how it comes together:

Stamp your image with Distress Ink's Frayed Burlap.

Immediately after stamping, begin going over your lines with a damp brush. You can see (above) where I started going over the lines in the top, left corner. Squeeze your waterbrush to get the water flowing, or dip your paint brush in some water. Blot on paper towel because you don't want too much water on your image. Then allow your image to dry, or speed it along with a heat gun.

Put very small drops of re-inker in your pallet compartments. Dip just the very tip of your brush in re-inker.

Begin adding color to your image by going over an area with your lightest color, and then adding a bit of the darker color where it would be appropriate to have deeper color or shade. If you get too much color or too much water in an area, just blot it with a tissue. Don't worry if you go over the lines - that just adds to the watercolor look.

Float a little bit of Faded Jeans around the flower. Be very careful here - Faded Jeans is a pretty strong color - you might want to blot your brush on paper towel before applying to the watercolor paper. Encourage the ink to move to the outsides of the paper, away from the image, with your wet brush. You can see the completed look at the top of this post.

Here's a card I made with my rose. I'm not really happy with the completed project. I love the card design, and I love the rose, but somehow the two don't seem to belong together. Does anyone have any advice for what I might do next time? Maybe use a beige/brown or green tone rather than the blue around the flower?

And that's it for this time. Do give this a try - I think you'll love it too! And please come visit my personal blog when you have looked all around the Eureka blog.

Mixed Media Fun and Games

Deb here with you today. The term "Mixed Media" seems to be everywhere these days. It looks and sounds complicated, but it's really just an invitation to have some fun. I thought mixed media would be a good topic for todays Eureka and QKR Technique and Tutorial post. Mixed media simply refers to a project in which two or more different art mediums are used together. To you, that means pulling out all the various materials in your stash and letting your imagination run wild.

The project above is a 12 inch square canvas with 2 inch sides. The main image is a digital Eureka's Gladiola and Hummer. I also used rubber background stamps Filigree and Abstract Flower. Here's a list of products I used on this project:

Canvas
Digi Stamp
Rubber Stamps
Mod Podge
3 coordinated Printed Papers (in black and white, but any paper would do)
Folk Art Acrylic Paints
Stampin Up Watercolor Crayons
Distress Inks
Copic Stamping Illustration Paper
Copics
Smooch Spray

And here's how it came together:

Tear pieces of printed papers and adhere them with Mod Podge. Just paint a bit of MP on enough of your canvas to match the size of your paper piece, and then paint over that paper with another coat of MP. 

Repeat until as much of your canvas as you desire is covered.

Allow to dry. Then apply a thin coat of acrylic paint. Mix up the colors as you desire. I started pulling the blob of paint with a scrap of thick card stock, but soon had my fingers right in there.

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Note: Between these lines is what I did next, but I was not happy with it. You may want to skip these steps or think farther ahead than I did.

I then taped a piece of tissue paper to a piece of cardstock and printed my main image.

Then I colored with Copics and carefully - really carefully - adhered the tissue to the canvas with MP. A light hand with the top coat is essential - pat on the MP with the brush rather than the usual painting motion to avoid tearing the wet tissue.

I completed the canvas, then I stood back and had a look. Hmmm....too dark and too small. Back to the drawing board.

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Next, I printed the image again - larger and in grey tones - on Copic paper. I colored the flowers in lighter colors, cut out the flowers by hand (leaving the bird on the table) and adhered the paper with Mod Podge over the first image. You can still see some of the leaves of the first one.

Better, but now it's too bright. So I applied a thin layer of beige arylic paint and sponged brown Distress Ink over the edges.

Now it was a bit too dark, so I simply wet an old washcloth and sponged off a bit of the distressing. Much better. Was this process stressful? No, it was fun - like a science experiment. I knew I could cover the whole thing with acrylic paint and start over if needed.

Scribbles of Stampin Up Watercolor Crayon were added to the upper corners and blended out with a wet paint brush and my good old stained fingers. You can see here the left is blended and the right is the crayon.

Then I inked up the background stamps with bown and gold Distress Ink and randomly stamped, using partial impressions around the edge. (Sorry, forgot to take photos of these next steps - too excited)

Next, I mixed a little of the metallic acrylic paint with a bit of water and added some to the very top of my canvas. Then I stood the canvas up and thumped it a couple of times on my craft table to get the wet paint  to run.

Then I mixed a little Peeled Paint Distress Ink re-inker with water, dipped a paint brush in it, and splattered my canvas.

Finally, I sprayed the whole thing randomly with Smooch for a little sparkle. Another time I would leave this step out as it creates quite a glare on the canvas.

And that's it for this week's Eureka and QKR T&T tutorial. As always, you are welcome to visit my personal blog for more fun and games.

Concertina Tutorial

Good morning! Deb with you today with a tutorial for a Concertina card. The stamps I have used in today's project are Eureka's Sweet Dreams Werdz.

Maybe I should call this a mini-concertina since there are only three panels. I looked at many other styles of concertinas, but I wanted more room on each panel, so I created the pattern below which uses about half of a 12 inch piece of cardstock. Measure 3" up from the bottom on the left side, and 7" up on the right. Connect those two points and that's the line to cut. Make a mountain fold at 4" and a valley fold at 8", and your base is done.

Here's how your base card will look.

Cut designer paper to fit the panels on both sides. In the sample, the pattern papers are cut 1/4 inch smaller than the base panels in both height and width. Adhere the patterned paper.

Next, dress it up. In the sample, lace strips were cut with Spellbinders and adhered to the base. Next, strips of ribbon cover up where the papers meet on both sides of the card. I wanted to just adhere a 12" piece of ribbon right across, but then the card didn't fold well, so I had to snip the ribbon at the folds. Dots of Liquid Pearls were added to one side and allowed to dry overnight before dots were added on the other side.

Words were stamped with Brillliance Ink on pearlized paper, heat embossed, and cut with Spellbinders. (I had planned to use that pearlized paper for the base card, but it cracked when I attempted to fold it, even though it had been scored - just something I need to keep in mind.) Adhere the words to the appropriate panels on the card, and it's done. Here's how the card looks when it's opened up.



Side 1



Side 2

I hope you'll give Concertina cards a try since they're fun to create and are just a little different from the usual card base. You are welcome to visit my personal blog after you have a look at all there is to offer here on the Eureka blog.

Easter Chicks

It's time for all us chicks to think about Easter. This is one of my favourite holidays each year since, beside the religious significance, it's all about Spring. Spring colors, spring fashions, new shoes, new animal life, green popping up in the grass, tulips poking up out of the bare ground - all of these things make me smile.

Today's collection of images from Eureka Stamps certainly brings this new season to mind. The happy expressions of all these little chicks just have to make you smile inside and out. These are digital stamps, so they are very reasonably priced and you can get the whole collection or just the ones that you like best.

Deb here with this week's tutorial on side step cards. Here's the pattern. It uses a 7 x 10 piece of heavy cardstock. Here are the steps for cutting and folding.

Using a paper cutter, or craft knife and ruler, cut a line as seen in the middle of the pattern at 3.5 inches, running from 2.5 to 9 inches.

With a Scor-Pal, score across the two sides for mountain and valley folds as indicated on the pattern.

On the left-hand side:

Mountain fold at 5 inches.

On the right-hand side:

Mountain fold at 2.5, 6.5 and 9 inches.

Valley folds at 5 and 8 inches.

Make these folds, and press with a bone folder tool. Your card should look like the photo below.

Next, cut two pieces of watercolor paper at 3.25 by 4.75 inches. Sponge with several colors of Distress Inks. If you are using very light colors and you want maximum color, apply the ink pads directly to the paper. Spritz with water. When dry, ink Eureka's Filigree Background with Distress Ink, and spritz the inked stamp lightly with water before stamping on the watercolor paper. Spritzing the stamp will give you a softer impression. Here's a snap of my background, and I apologize for how fuzzy this shot is.

Cut one piece of the dry background paper into pieces the right sizes for your card steps. Adhere background papers to the card base.

Cut 3 strips of grass with Cricut's Plantin cartridge at 1". Use these strips and the negative left behind to create grass for each of your card steps.

Color up your chicks. I've used Copics Y23, 32 and 38. One trick is to color outside your lines. That way when you fancy cut your chicks, you won't have white edges hanging out. Adhere chicks to card as it suits you.

Print Eureka's Happy Easter and sponge some color on the paper. Trim to fit bottom of card and adhere.

Adhere three Paper Flowers and place self-adhesive pearls in centres. Add a ribbon bow and call it done!

Here's a couple more photos of the card from the top and side, which might help you visualize the steps.

Join us next Wednesday at the QKR and here at Eureka for some projects presented by new members of the Technique and Tutorial Team! And do stop and visit my Personal Blog for more ideas.