Somthing a little bit....

... more colourful for today's "Pan's" project, seeing as it's sooo dreary outside.

Let's hope it brightens all of our day's!?

Thanks for checking us out.
See you soon.
Andy.

Pan Pastelling....

I know, that's not a word... But it works for me...
Just getting some prep in for Saturday's Pan Pastel workshop...

It's a little bit different from what I normal would do with the Pan's, but a change is as good as a rest eh?... and it really does get the most out of them...
More play time this week.
Thanks for checking us out..
See you soon.
Andy.

I'm melting!!...

No, not the wicked witch of the west....but me!!!
This week's lesson here at Pinnacles is all about Melt Art...
Perhaps not to the depths and degrees it could be taken too, but Andy's way..
We've had a go at making our own little Hearts using the Spellbinders Bezel’s

and Flowers dunked in UTEE which has given them an almost Porcelain appearance...

We've had fun so far this week, and no burnt fingers as yet!!!
Here are just a couple of samples I prepared for the lesson, with some more to follow later in the week...



Thanks for checking us out.
See you soon.
Andy..

Garden Butterfly......

Hi folks...
With any new crafting "toy" I do like to try and get as much out of it as I possibly can!!
So, today, we have a layered Butterfly project..

It does have a little bit of depth to it! Well, quite a lot actually,

but I do love me a little bit of dimension on my projects!!
To start off with, I took two pieces of card stock cut to the same size..

Mine are different colours as I had a specific idea I wanted to try, but in the end it didn't work out as I wanted, so in hindsight, two pieces of card to same colour would have worked!
Lay both pieces of card onto your cutting plate with your die (Tonic Studios Indulgence Semi Circle - 470e Butterfly Lattice) and pass through your machine.

The top layer

should cut as normal

and the second layer should leave an impression in the card,

which you should then be able to line the die up again

and cut all the way through.

This should leave you with two pieces of card, die cut in exactly the same place, so that when you line them up again they match..

You could even off set them to create a nice drop shadow...

With the lower piece of card, I stamped all over it with a VersaMark Ink pad and them applied some Metallic Pan Pastels (Silver, Light Gold & Pewter) and then put it to one side.

Taking the front layer of the card, a Ruler and a Craft Knife,

cut away any of the Flower and Leaf shapes.

Again, apply some VersaMark Ink

and some more Metallic Pans. (Copper, Bronze & Rich Gold).

Don't forget to seal your Pans with Spray and Shine...

Next, lay the top layer over the bottom one

and you'll see the Flowers and Leave show through..

I used foam pads,

just to add a little more dimension.
For the Butterflies, I cut and embossed the Die again,

and then hand cut the Butterflies out of the card.

Covered in Versamark,

Added some Pans and sprayed with Spray and Shine.

Once dry, I went over the embossed area (and some of the non embossed area!) with Black StazOn to highlight the detail on the wings...

before attaching them to the project.

Finishing off with a backing of some Rainbow effect card stock and some complementary Vellum...

Nice bright card for a change with some very effective dimension...!
Thanks for checking us out, see you soon.
Andy.

Double Silhouette...

Hi folks....

So, some new Tonic Dies arrived on Monday, and today I had a chance to play with them!
I've had my eye on this particular one for a while (Indulgence Semi Circle - 468e Butterfly Princess)...

I knew what it could do, and how to do it!!

And, "bada bing, bada boom"!.... Not displeased with it, but not hop, skip and jumping either.. Perhaps it's the colours I've chosen??
There must be more I could do with it??

Oh hell yeah!! Anyone for a double silhouette??
If you want to find out how I did it, read on McDuff!!!

First off, I knew my well used plates were going to cause my a problem in the fact that; to achieve the silhouette facing either way, you are going to have to cut backwards at some stage and there is huge potential for the scratches on your plate to be transferred to your card stock. Having played around a little bit, this will depend on the card stock you use...

So, to take away as much of the scratched area as possible, under my chosen piece of 225gsm card stock I placed a piece of 160gsm card stock as a barrier.

Line your die up as normal, and cut. Remember, you are cutting through 385gsm (225 + 160) card stock, don't expect both pieces to cut

(although they did!)

Turn the whole thing over,

and line up the die as before and cut.

Now, that's pretty cool I think you'll agree?
Admittedly, it's not perfect! (not that you can tell that from the pic. For once, my poor photography skills have benefitted me at last!!!)
There are a few scratches visible to the naked eye, but nowhere near as many without the 160gsm barrier! believe me, I have tried with and without and the difference is like chalk and cheese..
The only other thing is a slight embossing around the hairline on the image on the right. Which, on the left image will be de-bossed.. But I think I can live with that if you can??!

For no other reason other than I wanted to have a play with the new Artiste Spritzing Inks I decided to cover my White piece of card. I used Electric Blue and Ocean Blue... Are they any better than any of the other Spritzing Inks I have tried? So far no clogging of the barrel! So, so far, so good!! They seem to be highly pigmented and have a lot of mica in them, giving quite a pearlised finish, which I kinda like! But think it could do with being set in some way so as the pearlescents doesn't rub off each time you touch it.

I used Crafter's Companion Spray & Shine...

Once dry, the silhouette images were mounted onto a piece of backing paper from the Parisienne Blue collection, and there you go...

Not totally sure what sentiment to put on it, or if it actually needs one? I'll let you decide that...
Thanks for checking us out.
See you soon.
Andy.