I had to skip last week's WOYWW as I was super busy and I wouldn't have been able to visit everyone back. Hope you're all doing well. Where did summer go? Back in June, autumn seemed so distant and here we are in September! My son's starting Sixth Form tomorrow - scary!
Despite being busy with other things, I still found time to create and experiment in the last two weeks. Here's a desk shot from yesterday.
You'll notice the new TH media mat and heat tool, both of which I had been able to resist up until recently before giving in. That's the travel size mat - I hope it will allow me to keep at least that small area clear so I'll always have somewhere to create, even if the clutter overtakes the rest of my desk - that's the idea anyway - and so far it's been working! The heat tool is fantastic too - it's a gamechanger for me. The reason I hadn't got one before was because I already had a heat tool for embossing and I used a hairdryer to dry my layers (both on my head and on paper) but I always had to do those things away from my desk as everthing would get blown off - but not with this little tool! It's so quiet and I can use it sitting at my desk. It dries paint and melts powders much quicker too! Both came from Craft Stash and at much lower prices than I had seen elsewhere, so I'm happy!
I've created a few bits and bobs in the last two week, but mainly I've been experimenting with rusting, bleaching, image transfers and embossing. I'll show you some of my results:
First off is a rusted and bleached piece of fabric - the bleach was stamped on a still wet surface and created this cool pattern - quite an unexpected and unintentional result:
More recently I've tried stamping bleach on my previously eco-dyed papers - it also works with stencils! I got more definition from my stamps on these surfaces:
The image transfer experiments below involved matte laminating sheets. Basically, if you laminate just one side of a laser print or a magazine image, you can remove the paper from the back (rubbing with water) and the image stays on the film with a semi-transparent background. And it works with inkjet prints too, if you print them on photo paper - this way you don't even need to rub off the paper, it just peels away. I'm sure it works with gloss lamination as well, but I prefer the silky feel of the matte finish. Here's a little visual summary of my results (with image credits to maremismallart and medievalmirage):
And finally, though not in this order, I've tried an embossing technique that involves stamping into melted embossing powders to create this metal effect (I also added some gilding wax to highlight the textures):
You can see some of these used in the projects below:
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There were a few other things I've made, but I'll post those next time! Happy #639! xx
