Gilded Paper

"Gilding is the decorative technique of applying fine metallic-leaf or powder to solid surfaces such as wood, stone, or metal."

Gilded Paper is one of my most favorite techniques. Very easy to do with very elegant and fun results. Results will vary based on thickness of inks used and drying time before applying your "metallic-leaf" (embossing powders).

First, I cut a few pieces of kraft cardstock.

Crumple the cardstock and unfold it but don’t flatten out the wrinkles.

Rub your black ink using direct to paper across the cardstock. Thick inks work best for this.

Cover or dip into black embossing powder and completely melt the powder.

Allow to cool and apply your gold ink across the wrinkles using a slightly lighter hand than with the black ink. Don’t completely cover the black embossing.

Dip or cover cardstock with gold embossing powder and heat until melted. You want to over melt the gold powder so it melts into the black embossing powder. I recommend wearing a mask if you are senstitive to embossing powders.

This makes a great background for a card or a great embellishment for cards and scrapbook pages.

Playing with paints and inks for my image. I first dabbed gold paint on the image, rubbed off a bit with a paper towel and then added black ink on top. This added a great subtle gold highlight to different parts of the image. If you do this, be sure to clean your stamp and brushes immediately.

My final piece, using some gilded paper as a background. Have fun playing and do share your creations!

Supplies used:
Papers
Paper Temptress Brown Bag Cardstock
Paper Temptress Nero Incandescent
Embossing Powders
Stampin’ Up – gold and black embossing powders
Inks
Brilliance Graphite Black
Brilliance Galaxy Gold
India Ink Black
Adirondack Gold Acrylic Paint Dabber
Embellishments
Prima
Stamps
Hearts In Touch #135 Love

GC36: Random Redhead Challenge - Resolutions

It's that time of year when people take stock of the year that was and the year that is about to be upon us! That's why we have a special inspiration for you for this Random Redhead Challenge:

R E S O L U T I O N S

You can make a creation with resolutions as a theme or depict your own personal 2010 resolution in your art!

Our December sponsor, Hearts in Touch, has graciously donated some blog candy!


One randomly drawn winner of this challenge will receive an unmounted single from Hearts in Touch's fabulous Song Titles plate. Here's a little peek:


For your chance to win this fabulous blog candy, just follow the simple guidelines below:

1) Make a papercrafting or mixed media creation using resolutions as a theme or showing your own resolution for 2010;

2) Post your creation to your blog or online gallery with a mention and link to this post; and

3) Come back to this post and leave a comment including a link to your creation or use Mister Linky below. Remember to make it a link to the specific post or picture and not just a general link to your blog or gallery. We need to be able to find your art!

For more information on our challenges and directions on linking, please check out our FAQ page.

One winner will be chosen at random from the qualifying submissions on January 26, 2010. You have until January 23, 2010 to enter!

Now, let's get to the good stuff - the samples from our fabulous Design Team!

Debby Boltman

Lynn Stevens

Elina Koutsouradis

Laura Liddell

Sharon Briss

We can't wait to see what you create!

Wrap Up: GC32 - Frames

Your beautiful frame artwork took our breath away this month - it was awesome! Thanks so much to everyone who participated in the challenge. Before we share this beautiful work, let's find out who the lucky winner of the PaperTemptress paper package. It's....

Gerrie
The Queen of Grunge

Congratulations, Gerrie! Please email your contact information to gingersnapstamp@gmail.com before January 22 to claim your prize.

On with the show.....

If you would like to visit an individual artist's blog, click on the slide show and you will be taken to the photo album, which contains their links.

Collage Corner: Paste and Paper

To get over my initial angst over doing some actual collage work, I took a wonderful course a couple of years ago with the fabulous Kelly Kilmer.

Not only did Kelly get me over my anxiety, she made it all so much fun that my creative spirit overcame my analytical mind and shouted out some collage fun right onto the pages of my then brand new workbook.

Here are a few pieces I made in Kelly's class with just a few gentle prompts and easy exercises.

This piece started with a goal of just getting lots of paper down on the page and seeing how different combinations changed the final product. After the page was covered, we added touches to make it our own.


This exercise was a great way for me to just get into the fun of ripping, gluing and placement. I had a ton of fun figuring out how different visual textures worked together.

The purpose of the next exercise was to show us how elements work together.


I loved this picture because she looked, to me, like she is in deep thought about something. I love her focus into the distance.

For the next piece, we were given the idea of making stripes and then ran with it. I wanted to get the feeling of play into this piece so the playing cards were a natural addition.


Once, I had finished the class, I was completely jazzed about doing lots more spreads. I took Kelly at her word that collage was completely portable and packed up my papers, magazine clippings, embellishments, brushes and glue and brought them to my mom's house for a vacation over the New Year's weekend.

Here's the two pages I created:

Over the summer, I took another course with Kelly where we made a fabulous handmade book. It was great fun and really pushed my comfort zone which is always a good thing!

Next week, I will have the pleasure of interviewing my personal collage hero, the fabulous mixed media artist and instructor, Kelly Kilmer! Please visit us on the 28th when I have a chat with the woman who opened up the joy of collage art for me.

Chanukkah tag a la Tim by Hetty

So for the last day of Chanukkah, I went back to the blog of Tim Holtz for some more inspiration and I found tag #9, just the right one. Even though I do not have all the right tools, I came up with this variation for Chanukkah.

The filmstrip was made with a piece of black paper and a border punch. It looks just like the real thing. For the pictures I used my picasa photo program (it is free to download HERE) and printed the pictures contact size. I took a small square punch and punched out the pictures and glued them to the filmstrip.

The dreidl stamp is by Club Scrap. And the money coins you need when you play the dreidl game.

The 8 stands for the 8 days of Chanukkah and is made of wood. I added a silver crackle finish on top.

Chanukkah Gift Card Box by Hetty

This box is a different way for giving money. Inside this box is a little envelope where you can put either money or a gift card. I did not come up with the idea myself, but I got the idea from Club Scrap. Today I made a box for Chanukkah. It is a costum to give money - or gelt as we say.

The lid of the box is done with the now so popular herringbone technique. In the Club Scrap Cinema, you can see a video tutorial about it.

On the outside, I have four dreidles with the four different hebrew letters you see on the dreidl game that children play on Chanukkah.

All papers and stamps you see here are by Club Scrap. The stamps are still available, but the papers have been sold out for this was a special release in 2006. I am glad I still have some left.

On the lid, I made a handle with a Star of David eyelet and some beads to lift it. I added some beads on metal wire, made it into a circle and put it through the middle hole of the star, then made the ends split like a brad.

Would you like to see a variation? I have another one on my BLOG. And I am sure some of you would love trying this box to, so I have a template for you HERE.

GC35: Color Challenge - Purple, Gold & Green

Let's warm up these cold winter days we have ahead of us with some rich, jewel colors. This month's color challenge is to use

Purple, Gold & Green

Artwork by Joanne Wardle

Our December sponsor, Hearts in Touch, has graciously donated some blog candy!

One randomly drawn winner of this challenge will receive this unmounted single from Hearts in Touch's fabulous Song Sheets plate. Here's a little peek:

For your chance to win this fabulous blog candy, just follow the simple guidelines below:

1) Make a papercrafting or mixed media creation using sandpaper to create your project or as an element in your creation;

2) Post your creation to your blog or online gallery with a mention and link to this post; and

3) Come back to this post and leave a comment including a link to your creation or use Mister Linky below. Remember to make it a link to the specific post or picture and not just a general link to your blog or gallery. We need to be able to find your art!

For more information on our challenges and directions on linking, please check out our FAQ page.

One winner will be chosen at random from the qualifying submissions on January 19, 2010. You have until January 16, 2010 to enter!

Here's some fabulous work by our Design Team to jump start your creativity!

Artwork by Debby Boltman

Artwork by Erika Taylor

Artwork by Jo Capper-Sandon

Artwork by Ali Manning

Artwork by Jackie Kalchert (HIT Design Team Member)

We can't wait to see your creations!

Wrap-Up: GC31 - Monochromatic Creations

We had a bumper crop of monochromatic creations for the last color challenge - thanks to everyone who participated - we love all your work! Before we see the slide show, it's time to announce the winner of the PaperTemptress variety pack. The randomly drawn winner is.....

Jodi
from My Creative Expressions

Congratulations, Jodi! Please contact us at gingersnapstamp@gmail.com by January 12 to claim your prize.

If you would like to visit an individual artist's blog, click on the slide show and you will be taken to the photo album, which contains their links.

Blog Hop Winner

We got so many wonderful players for the Hearts in Touch Blog Hop! Thanks to all who entered! You are all so smart. Everyone got the correct answer for the quote! It was a favorite of mine from a New England writer, Henry David Thoreau:

"The world is but a canvas
to our imagination."

While everyone got the right answer, there can be only one winner! We randomly drew a name from the qualifying submissions for the blog candy, the Christmas 2009 plate from Hearts in Touch.

Congratulations to

Tiffany W.

who we will be contacting by email shortly!

We had so many lovely comments about the blog hop! Thank you so much. Hope you all come back and play in our next one!

Clean, Simple and Quick Note Card Set

I have a last minute gift idea to share with you today that's clean, simple, quick and inexpensive - a set of note cards with matching envelopes.

As a card maker, I like the 6" x 6" pads of patterned paper from Basic Grey and other companies, but only use a few favorite sheets and then am left with the remainder. And I just can't throw them away! I decided to use up some of this excess paper for some gifts sets to save money and give me a little more breathing room in my studio.

To make this gift set, I reached for Basic Grey's Stella Ruby pad and paired it with a stamp set by Hearts in Touch called #91 Hit Patterns.

A lot of the plainer sheets were left in the pad - the ones that have no specific pattern, just a nice texture and I figured they would be a good surface to stamp these great collage images on.

Once the images were stamped on the patterned paper, I trimmed and matted them onto black c/stock. A punched sentiment and a button embellishment finished them off. Very quick and easy!

To make the gift a little more special, I decided to line the envelopes with some of the patterned paper (this also helped use up more of the paper pad!). Here's how I did it:

Here is the final gift all packed up inside a clear card box and ready to go. I hope the recipient likes it!