Behind the Yart, 2016 edition

I've just had some artwork publishing in "Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft" - it's been a while since I've done that, so I'm pretty pleased.

The project features Dina Walkely's gorgeous bird stamps, the ones I insisted Michelle (of Mixed Media Art) get lots of for selling at Picture to Page, the fantastic papercraft show she was exhibiting at. And she runs the whole show too, so, you know, she doesn't have to do what I say. But she stocked upon bird stamps, and wow, were they popular!

So I decided to do a project with them.

The ideas for what project started when I made this birthday card:

The background of that main picture is printed with a Gelli Plate and a stencil from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. The awesome honeycomb background is a die from Sizzix, and I've picked out some of the hexagons to have decorative paper, and text, showing through. Yes, all of that was an awful faff.

So, I decided to make a project featuring the birds. I decided to leave out the gelli plate idea, because that's good enough for another whole project.

Here's on of my play sheets. I cut birds out of this, using the Stampin' Up Project Life dies (nice even rounded rectangles every time). Later switched to adding those background stamps AFTER colouring - the lovely Jane from the magazine warned me that colouring with alcohol-based markers over dye-based ink can be bad news for your markers, so I'm not going to recommend bad methods!

When I'd made my "bits", I spent ages shuffling them around, and had fun taking photos of the arrangements. That turned out to be super practical - I could walk away and review my work on the phone or tablet. It gets you thinking about composition.

Here's one of my compsition tests. There were lots.

And if you want to see you it turned out, maybe you need to grab volume 22, issue 6 of Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft! Here's a sneak preview:

Behind the Yart - punch style!

Who wants to go Behind The Yart? I had a project published in "Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft" volume 15 no 2 (the one you'll see on the newsstands now, I think). And this particular one, I really love! That's not always the case - sometimes I make a project and sent it off, and get a horrified surprise months later when I see it in print. What? I'm THAT messy? Do I know NOTHING about colours? But not this time - I liked it when I sent it, and I like it still.

My title for the project was "Swirly Punching" - the editors changed that to "Marvellous Metallics" - fair enough too.

I had bought the two punches that inspired this project back in October last year, and I even blogged about them. That was a big day for me, 'cos I was still recovering from heart troubles. I drove in, and had lots of rests during the day (yay for STC swapping, such a great excuse to sit down).

When I got home I started playing with the punches, and stuck some of the scraps into my journal. I had some scraps of metallic paper on my desk, and used that.











So that lead to an ATC similar to this one (but not very well laid out - the bird was in the wrong spot). I showed it to Chris, and she agreed. I used this Canson metallic card as my base, because we had scored a whole ream of it at Reverse Art Truck when we went there together once! So no shortage of that particular colour round here! All the other metallic card was quality offcuts from Pedigree Papers. Yes, I'm stingy with materials, so I'll try to be generous with ideas!

The ATC was a real favourite of mine, not least because I got to use the "postage stamp" punch again; but it didn't look finished. Chris showed me her new scallop edge punch, a Stampin' Up product that was coming in a mini catalogue just a few days away. THAT WAS WHAT I NEEDED! As soon as I could make the order I did, and it arrived just a few days after that. So that's why the project is scallops-a-go-go (I don't regret it one bit!).

So, the ATC got edged and mounted onto card, but there was still something... I plundered the ribbon container, and found some wide vintage lace. Real vintage, probably from an op shop. That was nice. So that was how the "Spry" card was made. You'll see I got in another scrap from the dictionary, and a cut out word.

From there it was all variations of the colour scheme - I tried hard to keep the pieces looking like a family, but all nice and different from each other - also like a family!

Very happy with punches that work equally well as positives or negatives, like the cool McGills bird punch. Yes, I did wiggle it around to get good words showing through the holes. You've got to do the extra like that when it's for a magazine! Once I made an art doll with scraps of dictionary on it; turned out the word "dysentry" was fairly prominent. Luckily it was a RAK for a nurse-stamper with a sense of humour.

Didn't waste the punched out bits either. Those tiny flowers were the perfect accent. I was using ordinary PVA glue in a little bottle that I keep refilling - it has a fine nozzle. Yes, it does get jammed from time to time; I have a couple of them. Yes, I get PVA on my work sometimes; I have to discard the pieces I can't make presentable. Once again, little flowers are very good for hiding little flaws!


And here's a final one - the big square card called "Rose Leaf". That ribbon embellishment at the bottom was fun - again, a scrap of interesting op shop ribbon, but I threaded it through a punched circle-with-a-hole-in-the-middle punch by EK Success (it's a nice one). And it looks really nifty!

So that's it for Behind The Yart. I don't think there's any articles in the works for me right now, so it's high time to make another one... good think I have about 100 ideas!

Behind the Yart - Oh, THERE'S the Rooster!

It was months ago I got a message from Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft that they needed a single Fathers Day card - it needed to have the words "Happy Father's Day" on it, but apart from that, go nuts.

Well, it's just appeared in print, so it's time for me to take you ... behind the yart!

I took out some favourite materials and started tinkering. A page torn from a dictionary (such a favourite background of mine!), glued onto some base card, then covered in gesso. When that was dry, I brushed on some Golden paints, kind of dry brushed. I started with Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold (let's call that "gold") and Naphthol Red Medium (let's call that "red"). I punched a rooster (That's a Carl punch, but not one I've seen very often - I pounced on it when I saw it) out of the painted card, and admired it for a while.

Then I went back to the painted dictionary page, and stamped a square frame (from My Stamps- I used Frame Set 2, which you can get from Cathy at a very reasonable $20.50!), and then stamped OVER that with some pretty swirls (from Eclectic Images). When you cut out the frame it looks like it all went together from the start. The photo shows you a little bit of frame.

From there I just went mad with adding bits (and taking bits away when it went too silly). That orange ink is Pumpkin Pie from Stampin' Up! (available at a very reasonable $11.95 pp from - me!).

I decided I needed some kind of border around the rooster - I tried adding a little black pen, which some people do so beautifully, but it looked rotten when I did it. So instead I punched the same shape from black gloss card, and mounted them just off center. Very nice little shadow effect.

The gauzy fabric is old bandage - 'old' meaning from an old, unused roll I got from Reverse Art Truck, not, umm, old. You know. The eyelets came from a garage sale (there's always something recycled on my cards!).

The alphabet set was a cheapie from Studio G, which I think is an offshoot of Hampton Arts. At about $3, you get a lot of stamp for your money, but if you are serious about alphabets, I'd look at better quality stamps. Even here, I managed to get a few dots of extra ink onto the page, from not-very-well-trimmed stamps. Didn't notice it until the card was in print, natch!

The cute thing about this project was that the leftover scraps on the table got me making all kinds of OTHER stuff - see The Rooster Chronicles!

And in case you are wondering WHY the asked me to make something; it's because I've been sending in projects pretty regularly. They don't accept them all - generally for good reason. But a magazine office has to have a list of "regulars", and the only way to get on it is to do the work.

Have a look at Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft, volume 15 number 1 - it's the one for sale right now. It's most unusual in layout - each 'article' is an occasion for cardmaking, and each contributor has just made one card. So it's pretty packed with variety!

Behind the Yart

Today it's time to start my regular series (a series of at least one) of postings that take you "Behind the Yart". Ooooh.

I get a lot of enjoyment out of making projects and sending them to craft magazines, and they even publish some of them. I have a whole box full of "magazines-with-me-in-them" on the shelf. Of recent years, I've slid away from this fun hobby, but I made a conscious decision to do it again. After all, I still love tinkering with making things. Nobody does quite the same as me. And it encourages me to finish things off properly; a motivation I wouldn't otherwise have.

Here we review some pretty little books I made for Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft, which ended up in Volume 14 number 8 (not the latest one but the one before, at the time of writing). You'll have to look at the magazine to see them in all their glory.

So how did these come to be made?

It traces back to the paint, the book structure (they are laser cut card) and the stamps.

The paint is Golden brand, and I learned to love it at a workshop with Michael DeMeng (he's coming back to Melbourne in November this year - he's a great teacher!).

The books are Micro Arts, made by Lisa (who assures me her web site will be up again soon). Her laser cutting machine is a wonderful sight, and she gets it to do clever things. Her book kits have a front and back cover, and a concertina for the inside. The front covers are made of two bits so you can sandwich some arty stuff between them and see it through the window; the back cover is made of two bits so it won't feel left out. You can sandwich the ribbon or other closure in it.

And the stamps are from Pipedreamink ; I asked where they got all those great designs, and apparently Sue and Niamh just doodled a few pages full, and picked the best ones for stamps. Obviously they were being modest, cos these are pretty! I kept the insert from the stamps in my art journal.

Once I was committed to making some little books, and using these stamps, I had to decide how to lay them out.











So, I cut strips of scrap paper the size of the book inserts, and mucked around until I had some nice ones. I kept them in my journal too. That sad puppy is Catriona's work. Cute huh?









Then I tinkered with painting. I made some ATCs at the same sort of time too : I gave them away at Paperific. I could go on and on about how clever the painting techniques are, but basically it's brown on brown. Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold and Mars Black, to be specific.

Oh, and in the end I stuck words cut out from the dictionary onto some bits. Now who saw that coming?

I hope you've enjoyed this installment of "Behind The Yart". I've been busy making some OTHER goodies, which are all in the works - some accepted, some still in the queue. If and when they appear in print, I'll be there to take you "Behind the Yart"! Now, won't that be fun.