IMAGINE Crafts & ClearScaps Team Up

IMAGINE Crafts is proud to feature projects created by our Artists In Residence this week using products from ClearScraps.  We hope you enjoy the creativity our team shares with you this week!

I love projects that take me outside the box and uses lots of beautiful ink colors. Working with the clear acrylic book from ClearScraps was more fun than I anticipated, especially using the new colors in IMAGINE Crafts/Tsukineko's StazOn Midi's solvent ink line.

by Debbie Gaetz
Artist-in-Residence for IMAGINE Crafts

SUPPLIES USED:

• ClearScraps
• Mixable Album Acrylic and Chipboard
• Clear Borders in Scallop Clear (used as a stencil)
• IMAGINE Crafts/Tsukineko
• StazOn Solvent Ink in Sunflower Yellow; Mustard; Cactus Green; Teal Blue; Hydrangea Blue; Vibrant Violet; Opaque in White Cotton
• StazOn Midi Solvent Ink in Spiced Chai; Gothic Purple; Emerald City; Cherry Pink; St. Valentine; Blue Hawaii; Cloudy Sky; Orange Zest
• StazOn All Purpose Cleaner
• Memento Luxe Mixed Media Ink in Wedding Dress
• GlazOn Layer Protectant in Original
• IMAGINE Crafts
• Embossing Powder in Clear
• Creative Medium in Clear
• InkBlushers
• Craft Mat
• Magenta Stamps
• Snowflake 35.074.I
• Life begins at the end of your comfort zone 07.867.I
• Leaf Branch 0683.P
• Papyrus - Flowers 0682.N
• Peel-Off in White -- Hinges POM751W
• Hero Arts Stamp
• Nicest Thoughts K5878
• Stencils
• Prima Donna Downey Studios Irregular Dots (6x6)
• Prima Raindrops (6x6)
• The Crafter's Workshop - Word Arrows TCW 446
• The Crafter's Workshop - Zen Flower TCW 466
• Pink Paislee Mistables - Mask 00520
• May Arts' Ribbon
• Strathmore 140 lb. Cold Press Watercolor Paper
• Blue Tissue Paper

I used only the clear acrylic pages from the album kit. Perhaps at a later date I'll add the chipboard pages.

Page One -- Front Cover

 

1. Starting on the backside, apply StazOn colors of your choice with the InkBlusher in layers starting with the lightest color and work to the darkest color. Apply the first layer of color and allow to dry. Apply a thin coat of GlazOn over all colored surfaces; allow to completely dry. Apply the next layer of color and allow to dry. Apply a thin coat of GlazOn over all colored surfaces; allow to completely dry. (You'll use the GlazOn between color layers so the colors are able to retain their integrity and the combined colors do not become muddy.) Repeat these steps until the entire backside of the acrylic page is covered with the colors of your choice. When applying the color, do not 'wipe' but, rather, dab with a heavy to light touch depending upon what you want to do. Heavy touch for color concentration; light touch for blending out to avoid abrupt color edges. Try to allow a few of the vibrant colors to show by themselves. (When dabbing over another color, too much pressure will pick the color off the acrylic which is what you want to avoid.)
2. Using the Pink Paislee Stencil and ClearScraps border as a stencil, line up where you'd like the patterns to show on the page and with the InkBlusher, use contrasting colors of StazOn. I used the Opaque in White Cotton over the Pink Paislee Stencil and Gothic Purple over the ClearScraps border stencil. Allow to completely dry.
3. On the front side, stamp the snowflake stamp in 3 places and the word stamp with the Memento Luxe in Wedding White. Apply the white embossing powder and heat emboss; do not hold the heat tool too close or the acrylic will warp too much.
4. Use the small white dots from the peel-off sheet as centers to the ClearScraps border stencil pattern, as well making a line continuing out from each snowflake.

Page Two

1. Using the Creative Medium on the backside of the page, apply a thin base coat to a small area, add pieces of torn tissue paper on top, and recoat the tissue paper with the Creative Medium. Continue on the entire page until the entire surface is covered. (You want to work in small areas because the Creative Medium dries quickly.) Make sure the entire surface is smooth and not very bumpy. A few flattened wrinkles are encouraged to add a small amount of texture and dimension. Allow to completely dry.
2. Using the Zen Flower Stencil, apply the design randomly on the page with the desired StazOn color using an InkBlusher.
3. Add additional colors lightly around the various sections of the page, leaving small spots of the blue tissue paper color showing. Allow to dry.
4. On the front side, use the Word Arrow Stencil with desired StazOn ink colors. I applied the arrows individually because I didn't necessarily want to follow the order on the stencil.

Page Three - Back Cover

1. On the back inside cover side, apply StazOn color of your choice, preferably a lighter color. Allow to dry.
2. Using the Irregular Dots and Raindrops stencils, apply desired StazOn colors down the page. (Towards the bottom, I wanted to add a 'wash' of a brighter color by applying the color lightly with an InkBlusher over the stenciled design, trying not to smear or pick off the designed ink application.)
3. On the back outside cover side, use the Spiced Chai StazOn with your stamped images. The leafy branch and papyrus flower stamps are repeated 3 times. Allow to completely dry.

Inside Pages

1. Measure the page panels to cut appropriate sized pieces of watercolor paper to fit behind each panel. (When I look at the album, I didn't want the watercolor papers to hide the other acrylic pages.)
2. Punch the papers to match the acrylic pages and put inside the album.

Using ribbon, tie the album pages together at each hole. If you're using a lot of pages, I would suggest that you use rings instead of the ribbon. I know that in the not too distant future I will change the binding to rings because I plan to add a lot of watercolor pages to my new "Watercolor" Journal. Thank you, ClearScraps, for making this happen! I hope you'll challenge yourself to make a similar project using one of the many acrylic products from ClearScraps and the beautiful StazOn inks.

Here is today's other project:

Taylor Usry

Debbie Gaetz -- That's Me!

If you've missed the other projects this week please visit the IMAGINE Crafts Blog.