Sara Jane's Studio

Elegant Ornaments

This past week I taught a class a couple of times, once to kids and once to adults, on making beautiful glass ornaments.

We started with plain, clear glass ornaments, such as the ones you can pick up at Michael's or other hobby stores.  After you remove the top, the inside is coated with dilute glue, and then you add mica-based pigments.

Sometimes the pigments flow, and sometimes they just stick.  It depends in part on how wet the glue is when you start, but also on the particular pigment that you are using.  But you keep adding pigments in your choice of colors until the whole thing is covered on the inside surface.  Add a pretty ribbon, and you have a very elegant ornament indeed!

For this class, we used a kit from Luminarte, made especially for this project.  It includes  what they call "Simple Solution #1" to use as glue.  (I'm not certain whether this is anything more than dilute white glue....)  And each kit includes a mixture of "Polished Pigments" in complimentary colors.  These "Polished Pigments" are dry powder pigments that are mixed with mica, in beautiful jewel tones that result in an incredible radiant glow.  You can see details of the Luminarte method by clicking here, and the "Polished Pigments" by clicking here.

I was pleasantly surprised that the 8-year olds who signed up for the class did very well with this project.  Now, they were pretty messy, in spite of the instruction to be careful and work slowly!  So it is very important, especially when working with younger children, to have newspaper (or kraft paper) down on your work surface, and to wear old clothes.  Because the pigments do stain.  The pictures below show some of the work in progress.

        

Click on any image to enlarge.

  

Here is a close-up of the star ornament, shown above.  (The star-shaped ornament was also purchased from Luminarte-  click here for details.)

This particular ornament used a combination of blues, greens, and turquoise.  When I had added the color to my satisfaction, I finished by adding in large scoops of gold pigment, and shaking vigorously.  The gold filled in whereever no pigment already existed. 

I think the overall effect is just gorgeous!  So rich looking.

And, you can add a bit of glitter, too, for additional sparkle, if you like.  Just add it first, before any pigment.  AND, make sure you add it grain-by-grain (well, almost!).  You want to avoid dumping in a big scoop and having it all sit in one place.

Below are a few more ornaments in different color combinations.

    

   

      

If you are a nut about color, like I am, then you will love this project!  Once you make your first one, you get the feeling for how the pigments behave.  And you can crank out 4 or 5 ornaments in an evening!  Add a pretty ribbon bow on the top, and they are ready for your tree, or to give as a gift.

What do you think?  Have you ever tried this technique?  Let me know and share your results!  And, as always,

Keep Creating!

Classes with Croptopia

If you are interested in a great weekend of scrapbooking, check out Croptopia Getaways.  The next event is in Newport, RI, Friday, November 21 through Sunday November 23.  And I'll be there as a vendor of Stampin' Up! products as well as an instructor. 

Not interested in spending the entire weekend?  You can sign up for single days.  AND you can even sign up for the worshops without registering to scrapbook at all!! You can see the schedule of workshops by clicking here, and you can register through this link as well. 

I am teaching two classes.  The first is my Masterboard Class.  You will decorate a piece of cardstock with rubber stamps and a brayer technique, and then cut this into pieces, following a template.  The pieces are used to decorate 10 greeting cards.  It's a great way to get introduced to stamping and card-making if you are not yet familiar with this great hobby.

My second class is on "Pockets, Pullouts and Hiding Places" for scrapbooks or other artwork.  We'll make the Tag Pullout Book that I highlighted in my own scrapbook page honoring my standard poodle, Truman.  And as a bonus we'll make two other projects as well:  a tag pouch pullout, and an envelope to hide journaling or special sentiments.

Come join us!  Croptopia puts on a great event.  And I'd love to see you there!

Introducing Your Private Class

This is the inaugural piece in Sara Jane's Studio's  newest offering: 

Your Private Class.

If you can never seem to make it to a class because the schedule just doesn't work for you, or if you don't live locally, you can still enjoy a papercrafting class from Sara Jane's Studio.

These are home-based classes based on the ones that I teach in person.  Each class consists of:

• 3 or 4 projects;
• material and supply lists for each project;
• detailed, step-by-step instructions;
• description of any special techniques or tools used;
• and multiple, close-up pictures. 

Purchasing the class also gives you access to me, via telephone or email, if you have any trouble whatsoever with the instructions.

You can purchase the detailed instructions alone, or together with pre-cut cardstock and supplies. 

The first class is "Cards of Love":  Four greeting card projects suitable for Valentines, or any other occasion where you want to give something special to that special someone. 

Click here to see a sample of the instructions.

Click here to purchase.

And enjoy your Private Class!

Be My Valentine

Here is another card inspired by very sweet images from Inkadinkadoo.  The stamping is really simple, but you need to pay a little attention to make this version of a "Suspension Card".  Not a lot, it's not ridiculously hard.  But it takes a couple of minutes.

The card is a standard A2 size (4-1/4" X 5-1/2"), held in "landscape" view, with the fold on the left side.  I cut a rectangle out of the front using my regular old Paper Cutter, leaving 3/4" at the top, bottom, and sides. You can also use an Xacto knife and ruler for this, but I found the cutting tool to work just fine.  Simply place your cutting blade 3/4" down from the top and 3/4" in from one side, and apply gentle pressure straight downward to punch through the cardstock, and then you can start pulling to cut.  Just go slow so you don't over-shoot the spot where you want to end your cut.

A piece of Pink Passion (Stampin' Up!) cardstock was cut to 4-1/4" X 5-1/2", and the same rectangle was cut out of the center.  It's not a bad idea to make this rectangle a scant 1/16" smaller - meaning you leave a slightly larger border than 3/4".  But it's not required.   Before you do any construction, though, lay the pink on top of the white card front, and make sure that no white is showing through to the front.  If there is, this is where I would use my Xacto knife and a see-through ruler to trim.

The heart image is stamped 6 times with Pink Passion ink on white cardstock, and then embossed with Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder.  (Note: if you use Stampin' Up! Whisper White cardstock, you'll want to use Craft Ink, so it will stay "wet" long enough to emboss.  OR, if you don't have Craft Ink in every color, here's a way to cheat:  Ink your stamp first with Versamark Ink, and then with the classic Pink Passion dye ink.  Then stamp and heat emboss the image.  The Versamark gives enough "juiciness" to allow the embossing powder to stick.)  Of course, you don't have to emboss at all, but I liked the contrast of the shiny hearts against the matt background and frame.

Cut out the heart images close to the edge, leaving a tiny white frame.  Cut three pieces of 1/8" white double-faced satin ribbon and plan your layout.  The hearts are too wide to sit side-by-side, so you have to offset them.  When you are satisfied, put a line of SNAIL adhesive down the center of a heart, and lay the ribbon down on it.  Then put more SNAIL adhesive all over the back of a second heart, line it up with the first, and put the two together, back-to-back.  Repeat for your other two hearts.  You should now have three hearts, suspended on the ribbon, with a stamped image on the front and back of each.

Line up your suspended hearts on the outside of the white card (the rectangle should already be cut out).  Attach them with SNAIL adhesive, and then attach the Pink Passion frame with more SNAIL.  Stamp the sentiment repeatedly on the inside of the card, and you are done!

A sweet sentiment for your favorite someone on Valentine's day!

Keep creating!

All things grow with Love

Such a nice sentiment, and great stamps, too!  These are Inkadinkadoo stamps that I am highlighting in a local class at The Art Emporium in Needham, MA.

The finished card is 3-1/4" X 6-1/2" so it fits nicely into the Small Open End Envelope from Stampin Up!  The white card is mounted on a piece of Real Red cardstock that is the finished size, and since it frames the images, the card itself is 3" X 6-1/4" finished size.

I used the very punchy combination of Pink Passion and Real Red inks (both from Stampin' Up!).  The flourish was stamped multiple times in Pink Passion on the white cardstock to create a background.  I stamped both the heart and the sentiment in Real Red on white cardstock, and embossed both with clear embossing powder.  The sentiment was mounted on a piece of Real Red cardstock, and then on a piece of bright pink mulberry paper.  (Do you know the trick to getting a nice feathered, torn edge to your mulberry paper?  "Draw" a line using plain water and brush on the mulberry paper.  Then gently tear along the wet line.  Works every time!)  The heart was cut out leaving a narrow white border, and then was mounted on Real Red, which was also trimmed, leaving a fine red frame around the heart.  I punched a small 1/16" hole at the bottom of the sentiment and the top of the heart, and ran a 1-1/2" piece of 3/8" pink grosgrain ribbon between the two.  I used a teeny amount of adhesive to attach the ribbon to the back of the sentiment and the heart.  The sentiment was mounted on the card with copious amounts of SNAIL adhesive (sometimes the mulberry paper can be uncooperative...).  You could leave the heart hanging free, but I chose to attach it using Stampin' Dimensionals. 

Of course this card is perfect for Valentine's Day (and I'm teaching this card as well as others at the Art Emporium in advance of Cupid's day- check out my class offerings).  You could also modify the color scheme slightly to make it suitable for anyone special in your life- try pastels, or even neutrals with only a punch of color in the heart. 

Keep creating!

Christmas in July!

A group of us celebrated "Christmas in July" last Thursday, with a class devoted to making two unique Christmas greeting cards, and also a tea light candle holder.

The cards were very fun to design, again using my new resource at Split Coast Stampers.  (Of course this site has been around for years, but I've only just discovered it this year.  Where have I been??)  I decided on two stamp sets that I wanted to use, and browsed the Split Coast galleries to get some inspiration.  As usual, I found numerous designs that I loved, I picked one for each stamp set, and then made it my own. 

Below are the cards that we made.  I prepared kits for everyone so they could make 5 of each card.  Now they have something on hand when the holidays roll around- and don't have to panic when they want to send a holiday greeting to someone special.

The blue card used "Solemn Stillness", a terrific Two-Step Stamping set.  This is a classic stamp set that can be used in a million different ways for different looks.  I understand why it keeps returning in the catalog.

The card on "Wild Wasabi" green (one of the great new InColors) was made using the wonderful old stand-bye set "Frosty". This set has also been in the catalog for a little while, and I can see why.  His cheerfulness is contagious!

If you click on my Christmas Card Gallery (at the left) you can get more information on the supplies that I used to make these cards.

We also made a tea light candle holder with a winter theme.  You can purchase these small glass containers at your local craft or dollar store; I saw them at A.C. Moore, as well as my Dollar Store down the street.  You start by stamping an image multiple times on tissue paper- we used snowflakes.  The image was stamped with Whisper White craft ink, and then embossed with "Star Dust", a transparent embossing powder that also contains silver glitter.  The snowflakes were torn out of the tissue in about 2" size pieces.  It's important to tear and not cut- and it's also easier and faster!  With a small sponge brush, white glue was applied to the inside of the glass container, and then the torn pieces were applied, gently smoothing out wrinkles.  The edge was finished with a silver Krylon pen.  Isn't it lovely?  I think a pair of them on the mantle will be great.  And one of my students said she was thinking about Halloween themed candle holders- just think of the possibilities!!

Keep creating!!

Masterboard Class

Last night I had a terrific time with a group of women who attended my Masterboard Class.  In this class, we used alcohol-based inks and a gold Krylon pen to decorate a tin using the Polished Stone Technique.  We then created a Masterboard using a resist technique on a single sheet of cardstock, and cut up the cardstock according to a master template to use as background papers on 10 cards.  The result is a lovely box which contains a set of coordinating greeting cards, suitable for gifting!

With Polished Stone method, you apply the alcohol inks to your surface using an old-fashioned wooden-handled stamp that has the hook part of velcro where the rubber stamp die normally is, and a small piece of felt over the vecro.  A few drops of multiple colors of inks are applied to the felt, and then you tap and twist to apply the color to your surface of choice.  If you add a dot of gold from the Krylon pen to your surface, it will mix with the inks, and yield a beautiful veining and sheen.  Keep tapping and twisting until the entire surface is covered and the colors are blended.  Don't overdo, though, because you will end up blending everything into one uniform color, and lose the beauty of the technique.  This technique works on non-absorbent surfaces, like glossy paper, dominoes, metal, shrink plastic and glass.  We practiced the technique first on glossy paper before applying to our tin.  The two favorite color combinations were Butterscoth/Terra cotta/Espresso, which yielded a lovely, earthy glow, reminiscent of late fall; and Lettuce/Bottle/Stream, which moved and shimmered like the Caribbean ocean.

When the inks were dry (which was within minutes!) the window on the lid of the tin was framed with gold, embossed paper, which I've heard referred to as "paper charms" or (more fancy) "German foil paper."

And this was not the end of the evening!  The next technique was a resist technique.  Using a background stamp, the Stampin' UP! Whisper White Craft Pad (item #101731) is used to stamp on white, glossy paper.  This is dried thoroughly with a little help from the embossing gun. (Hint: With the white-on-white, it can be difficult to tell when the ink is dry.  Hold it under a light and tilt back and forth.  If you see two shades of white in your stamped design, it is not completely dry yet.  The white ink should have a matte finish, and appear uniformly slightly off-white.)  When it's dry, get out your brayer, and a Spectrum ink pad.  Load up the brayer, and roll it across the page on top of the white background image that you have stamped.  It's okay to roll back and forth a couple of times, but try to roll in a straight line so you don't start mixing the colors too much on the page.  As soon as you have completed one pass, take a paper towel and vigoruously rub the colored ink.  You will see your white image appear before your eyes, as the white resists taking on the colored ink.  Repeat the brayer step and the buffing step until your entire sheet of cardstock is covered with color.  This piece of cardstock can then be cut into pieces to use as background paper, and can be supplemented with colored cardstock to provide accents.  (Note that the photo above does not represent this technique!  I have not yet gotten a photo posted, but I hope to soon!)

This is the template for cutting the masterboard.  Contact me if you want more info on how to use it. 

A good time was had by all!  Everyone learned two new techniques in addition to coming away with a beautiful tin and a matching set of greeting cards.  As always, I was impressed and delighted with how different everyone's projects come out, even when they start with the same materials.  It is truly a testament to our creativity!