Gracias

It’s time to freshen up the artwork displayed in my craft room so I’ve been going through baskets, boxes and bins and finding so many treasures to share with you and to inspire me!  Here’s a sunny thank you card from my friend Miss Yvonne.

If Yvonne were to have “signature colors” these would definitely be the ones!  And if she were to have a “signature beadnique” this would be it!  First Yvonne covered a piece of Basic Grey “Color Me Silly” swirly paper with O’So Sticky Tape.  Then she printed the text onto acetate and cut it about a half inch smaller than the swirly paper.  The acetate was laid in the middle of the O’So Sticky Tape and clear mini micro beads were pressed into the exposed tape around the edges of the acetate forming a beaded frame.

With the micro beads, Cuttlebug background, scalloped edges, fiber and flowers this card has a lot of fun texture!  Dankeschoen for the Gracias card Miss Yvonne!

Hugs, Suzanne

Beaded Love Shadow Box

  Once in awhile I host little “Migraine Parties” at my home.  They were dubbed that about 7 years ago, and the name just stuck.  All it means is that you call in sick to work (possibly with a migraine) and then come over and play for the day.  I love having friends over to craft with me because their energy fills my craft room and the laughter and creativity lingers in the space for days after they’ve gone home.  It’s fabulous!

 

Last time I had one of these parties, Julie Imsland was over working on her shadowbox – the one that NO ONE wants to win, even though they don’t have to DO anything other than take a picture and send an email …….for shame…but I digress….. 

So, another PWA designer happened to be there that day, I call her Miss Yvonne, but her real name is Yvonne Grimes.  Miss Yvonne was so inspired by Julie’s box that she actually drove HOME to look in her own craft stash and then came back with a box to work on!

Here’s what Miss Yvonne had to say:

“I was inspired by Michele A-Z’s shadowbox and Julie’s $1 spot find to look through my $1 store frame stash and came up with this shadowbox that was perfect for collage images.”

Beaded Love Shadow Box   By Yvonne Grimes

Materials:

Wood shadowbox frame

Acrylic paint in desired color

Lumiere paint in desired colors

Tim Holtz Grungeboard letters, heart, and flower

PWA Opaque Micro beads in desired colors (I used red and pink from my stash)

PWA Bubble Beads

Assorted seed beads in desired colors

PWA Collage Sheet “Be Mine”

Cardstock (to back collage image)

Handmade or textured paper, contrasting color to paint & beads

Thick foam tape or dots (or layer thin foam tape to desired thickness)

Gold ‘german scrap’ borders

Small dried or other flowers

SureTac Glue

Krylon gold pen

 

How To:

Paint the entire frame with a base color in acrylic paint. After it dries apply one or two colors of Lumiere paints over the base coat. Apply with an almost dry brush so that you don’t entirely cover the base color. Set aside to dry.

Paint the grungeboard letters, heart, and flower with the same colors.

Apply “bead soup” (Suzanne’s word for it!) to the grungeboard letters and heart after the paint is dry. Apply a thick layer of SureTac glue to each piece of grungeboard. Then drop seed beads, bubble beads, and lastly micro beads onto the glue to entirely cover each piece and then set them aside to dry. (I put mine on a non-stick craft sheet or piece of foil so I can pick the whole thing up and move it.) Once the glue is dry, gently tap off the unstuck beads.

Use your finger or a dauber to apply a very thin layer of Lumiere paint directly to the grungeboard flower. I used contrasting colors so it would stand out against the frame.

Attach german scrap borders using SureTac glue around the outside of the frame and around the two sections where the collage images will be mounted.

Attach small piece of german scrap border using SureTac glue to bottom of each section where the collage images will be mounted.

Choose your collage images and trim to fit in the desired section of your frame. Mount each collage image onto a piece of cardstock cut slightly smaller than the image to add stability, and use foam tape or dots to mount each collage image into its niche.

Cut pieces of homemade or textured paper to go behind each grungeboard letter and the heart. Outline with gold Krylon pen if desired.

Mount the beaded grungeboard onto the background paper, and use foam tape or dots to mount each letter and the heart into its niche.

Use SureTac glue to attach the grungeboard flower and other flower embellishment onto the frame where desired.

Attach ribbon to the frame hangars.

I love to watch how we all inspire one another!  I think I’ll be saving this one to award as blog candy for the blog hop that is coming soon! 

Something Fishy Here

Funny thing about this post is that it’s not formatting like it normally does….. something is definitely fishy and it’s not just this spotlight card from Yvonne Grimes! 

 

Here’s how she did it:

Alcohol Inked Spotlight Card By Yvonne Grimes

(stamp by Peddler’s Pack)

1. Use Stazon Jet Black ink to stamp your image once on clear acetate, and once on white cardstock.

2. Use alcohol inks to color the back side of the stamped acetate. (Alcohol ink will lift the Stazon ink right off the acetate if you apply over the inked side)

a. Attach a felt pad to the wood handle and apply 5-6 drops of each color next to each other in the center of the felt pad.

b. Use handle to repeatedly “pounce” the alcohol ink onto the acetate. Turn and overlap while pouncing until the entire piece is covered as desired.

c. Apply 1-2 drops of blending solution onto same felt pad and “pounce” all over to lighten color and add spots.

d. Set aside to dry for couple minutes.

3. Cut a piece of O’So Sticky tape sheet to the size of the white cardstock and apply tape to white cardstock over the stamped image. Use the “tape trick” to line up tape before sticking it down.

a. “Tape Trick” – peel and fold back just one corner of the paper backing from the tape. Lay entire piece of tape down letting the turned back corner keep exposed tape off the surface. Get your edges all lined up and then stick down the exposed corner.

b. Remove rest of the paper backing and use your fingers to burnish the tape down good over the entire surface so there are no air bubbles.

4. Take your colored piece of acetate and trim to edge of image. Then cut several sections of whatever size and shape you desire from the colored piece.

5. Use the “tape trick” again to place your acetate over the matching areas on the cardstock.

a. Lift just a corner of the red liner and fold back to make a flap. Lay the acetate over the matching area with the flap holding it off of the exposed tape. Get it lined up and then stick down onto the exposed tape. Pull the red liner off far enough to stick the rest of the acetate piece down.

b. Repeat as desired for each acetate section.

c. Use the red liner to burnish the acetate sections onto the tape.

6. When done applying acetate pieces, remove red liner, dunk entire piece into the Mini Micro Beads to cover the exposed tape, and burnish with the brayer.

7. Use double-stick tape to apply image to mat, and mat to card.

Embellish card as desired and you’re done!

 

At Pennywise Arts we’ve become world famous for our shoebox parties!  Last month we had a mini shoebox party in North Bend and Yvonne shared this fishy project there.  Artist Vicki Chow put her own spin on the technique by cutting out the fish!  Pretty cool!

Here is the same technique used on another card by Yvonne:

Birds Beads and Butterflies

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to take a class from my dear friend and PWA designer (formerly our office manager), Yvonne Grimes and oh what a wonderful class it was!  Yvonne went wild with Memory Box papers and Outlines rubber stamps to create this gorgeous mirror (from Ikea):

Each package of 6” by 6” Memory Box paper came with 30 sheets of paper in ten different coordinating patterns.   Yvonne embossed NINE different sheets of paper for every student so that all we had to do was cut and color.  Sweet!  Layers and layers and more layers are her secret to creating these fun mosaic blocks.  Here is my bee:

Can you see the micro bead layer?  It’s the outermost square in white and blue.  I love how just putting the clear beads over the paper distorts the image and reflects the colors from underneath!

I’ve always teased Yvonne for being a “fussy cutter” because she’ll cut out the tiniest details for her artwork.  (And she teases me for liking to color things so it’s all fair!)   In class it was neat to experience her world of  “fussy cutting”!  With these amazing results, it really made me reconsider my previous aversion to it!

Here is my birdhouse and butterfly together:

It’s hard to see the dimension in the photos but several pieces are layered up one, two or even three thicknesses of foam tape.  Our 1/8” foam tape strips really came in handy here!  All of the blocks are colored with shimmery watercolor paints (any brand will do!) and finished off with lots of gems and jewels.

Yvonne even sent every student home with all the extra papers from the kits and we got to keep all of our leftover embossed pieces!

Using her technique and my leftover pieces I was able to make 20 ATCs and still have enough papers to keep on going!  WOW!!!

If you’re on the PWA ATC 1-4-1 swap list, you’ll be seeing one of these ATCs  in your mailbox before the end of the month!  Ü

Yvonne is currently employed at Friends and Company in Issaquah, WA.  Be sure to look for her on the class schedule!  Yvonne is an awesome teacher and I have no doubt that you’ll have an excellent experience!

P.S.  I’ve seen what she’s been working on for this fall and it’s gonna be FUN!!

Where Flowers Bloom

Pennywise Arts is so blessed to have many very talented designers creating just to inspire you!  This month we’ll be featuring the artwork of Yvonne Grimes and Jean Sunderman. 

Yvonne

Jean

 

Yvonne will start us off with a fun technique she calls “Beaded Paper Lace”.  She wrote excellent instructions to go along – so grab your supplies and give it a try!

Beaded “Paper Lace” Card By Yvonne Grimes

Supplies:

· “Paper Lace” - Scrapbook paper that has a die-cut design with open spaces

· Contrasting paper for background

· Coordinating papers for stamped sentiment, matting, and A2 card blank

· Rubber Stamp with quote, sentiment, or other focal point

· O’So Sticky Tape Sheets

· Clear Mini Micro Beads

· Foam tape or squares

· Embellishments such as rhinestones, pearls, paper flowers, etc…

1. Cut the background piece of paper to 3-3/4”x5”. For best results choose a paper that contrasts with your “lace” paper as it will be covered with beads.

2. Cut a piece of O’So Sticky tape to 3-3/4”x5” and cover the background paper with it, but leave the red liner on for now.

3. Cut a piece of lace paper so it is just a little smaller than the background, and figure out your placement before removing the red liner and attaching the lace paper to the background. Use the red liner over the whole piece to press the lace paper down well.

4. Remove red liner and dip the whole piece in clear Mini Micro Beads. Press the beads in well with either a brayer or your fingers.

5. Attach the beaded piece to a coordinating paper layer cut to 4”x5-1/4”, and then attach to the cardstock blank.

6. Create the stamped image, layer with coordinating papers and attach to the beaded background with foam tape.

7. Embellish as desired.

 

Here’s another variation Yvonne did using the same technique:

 

Won’t you share YOUR Beaded Paper Lace creation with us???