5 ideas with... Embossing Paste

"5 ideas with..." is a new monthly series on our blog. Once a month in this blog post we are going to share some basic techniques and ideas with specific products. If you are a beginner and you don't know how to start your mixed-media journey this is the perfect thing for you. We hope that our simple tips will inspire you to create and experiment with products you don't know much about.

April is our Wendy Vecchi month and that is why we would like to familirize you with Wendy's Embossing Paste.

Studio 490 Embossing Pastes are smooth and light acrylic emulsions designed to add texture and dimension to your projects. They come in many varieties but for our "5 ideas..." we used translucent and white paste.

1. Paint you background with water based paints (Ecolines, Silks, Distress Paints or sprays) and let it dry. Using a palette knife apply some Translucent paste through the stencil. It will dry clear - then you can paint with other colours and it will resist allowing your background to show through.

2. Mix translucent or white Embossing Paste with your favourite pigments, powders or mica. Add some colour and shimmer to it and paint just like with acrylic paint.

3. What about Embossing Paste and liquid watercolours? Mixing them together isn't as easy as with powders but after few moments you can get smooth paint in your favourite colour. Do this with translucent paste to get a glossy finish.

4. Cover your base with a thick layer of a combination of white and translucent pastes. Grab your favourite tool (maybe Catalyst?) and just draw - have fun! Drying will take a few hours, but you can also use a heating tool to make it faster. Then cover your texture with Treasure Gold using a cloth or even your finger. Try to layer a few colours of Treasure Gold and you'll get a heavy, metallic effect.

5. Mix Translucent Embossing Paste with your favourite Art Ingredients. It will work like glue and seal at the same time. Then apply your paste on paper, wood or metal and let it dry. Later you can start playing with colour - how about Treasure Gold again, or maybe Silks? Have fun and experiment!

Products used:

Studio 490 Embossing Paste - White	Studio 490 Embossing Paste - Translucent	TCW552s - Kasia Krzyminska - Daisy Splash Template - 6"x 6"	RGM Palette Knife 53	Art Ingredients - Mica Powder - Green
Primary Elements - Artists Pigments - Springtime	Catalyst Silicone Mini Blade Tool 05	Ecoline Watercolour Ink 30ml - 237 - Deep Orange	Treasure Gold - Ruby	Treasure Gold - Rennaissance
Art Ingredients - Glass Glitter - Gold Rush	Art Ingredients - Glass Beads - Licorice	Sakura Pigma Micron 05 .45mm Black Pen

InLinkz.com

Have a lovely

Kasia

Altered Triptych on a hot day !

Hello, it's Sue here and after a few technical hiccups (thanks Windows 8!) I'm here to share the Altered Triptych class that I took on Saturday. It was a very hot day here in the UK but the  6 lovely ladies, and helper !, soldiered on regardless !

The ladies soon got down to business and lots of Fresco Finish paints were swapping hands on the table.

 Then it was time to do some stencilling !

 You can just see Elaine's fabulous project coming together on the above photo.

Once all the stencilling and stamping was done it was time to put together the embellishments including a metal rose.

 Things are really starting to come together now !

Unfortunately, time did beat us but Ruth managed to add all of her embellishments and I grabbed a quick snap ! The colours everyone used were gorgeous !

A really fun day despite being a little on the warm side ! A big thank you to Jamie for keeping us watered throughout the day.

Sue
x

Catch up and a Happy New Year

Hello everybody and Happy New Year to you all.

Now that Christmas is over I am trying to get back into the swing of things, and I am sure it's the same for most of you.

Because I have not blogged since November I am going to try and do a short recap, we have had some fantastic workshops and also special guests Sue Carrington and Finnabair to show us how to create some super projects.

Here is the box we made with Sue;

This is Ruth's box the colours were very rich brown's and greens, my photo does not bring out the colours.

This is the sample made by Sue.

Here is Sue and you can just see Pam and Marilyn busy at work.

Sheila and Ruth.

The inside of the box, lined and stamped. Sue did a brilliant job of cutting and scoring the liners for the box's before the workshop and they all fit really well.

Here is my box, I really enjoyed being able to take part in the workshop, thank you again Sue and I am looking forward to the next one...

After that came the biggest workshop we have ever organised but not the last, this year we hope to host a few big ones so keep checking our website for more news.

Anna trying to say goodbye to Jack, but he wanted to play more football.

The start of the weekend was made even more exciting with Leandra from Paper Artsy kindly demonstrating at our shop, here is Ann and Helena watching the process of building up layers with chalk acrylics, stamps and stencils.

Onto the Finnabair workshops and this is the start of my picture before any gesso, paint or sprays. you may wonder why my picture is of Finnabair, well my pictures did not turn out so Anna came to the rescue and let me have one of her photo's, Thank you Anna.

Here's Anna going round the class showing her sample of how it should start to progress.

Here is the start of mine, we had to decide what colours we wanted to use and I choose the same colours as Penny because our base colours were very similar. But the end result was completely different. We used Luminarte Primary Element Pigments and the effect it creates will always be different. 

Here are my completed pictures.

Then we had a Paper Artsy workshop, using as much PA products as possible. So there was 

Electica Chipboard Shapes ES06

Lynne Perrella Stamps no 22

Lin Brown Stamps no 1 and 3

Paper Artsy Paints and Treasure Gold

we also used 

Sizzix Vintage Valise and Sized Arches to make the inner frame.

Route 52 Half Tree Trunks to make the outer Frame along with Kraft Cardboard (greybeard)

The Crafters Workshop Stencils 

TCW280 Blazonry and TCW363 Diamonds.

And here is Jamie enjoying his trifle at Chatsworth House where we had our works christmas meal.

New workshops are being added to the section now, with Sue Carrington coming up first on Saturday 22nd February with a wonderful altered Pink Pig Landscape Sketchbook class called Sketchbook Magic

Thanks all for your patience and hope to see you soon x

Altered Photo Canvas Workshop

I have had a fantastic day with some super ladies doing the Altered Canvas Workshop.

The idea was to Print onto Claudine Helmuth's sticky back canvas from a black and white photo then paint it or tint it with Paper Artsy paints. Some ladies brought there own photo's on a disc and Jamie printed them or they choose one from Jamie's collection.

Here's the room before the fun begin......

And during the fun........

Here's Mel's Super canvas, I think she has got the Treasure Gold bug as well, it works so well on Ferro and Metal oh and wood the possibility's are endless.

This is Sian's dream like picture, you can just make out the fairy dust in the photo's. So beautiful and it is her first time at crafting, she must be naturally talented.

And Jill's who brought along her own photo of a blue bell wood again a lovely picture.

Wendy chose to have a coloured photo printed. These are her beautiful grandchildren and the course was a Birthday present from her husband so she now has something to Cherish.

Shelia has a passion for Beach Hut's so it was easy for her to pick one of Jamie's photo's which was taken in St James in South Africa. Look at the waves at the bottom made from Moulding Paste and Treasure Gold. Fantastic.

We had a visit from a very special lady called Carolyn who could only stay for a couple of hours and as I left my camera at home we don't have a photo. 

Here's the group photo of all the lovely ladies and me. 

Our next workshop is called Take It Make It the premise is that we will learn how to use a digital camera, and be taught tips on framing, focusing etc and then go out around Wirksworth and take some pictures using the knowledge we have learnt, our favourite picture will then be used to create a canvas, with paints, inks, stamps, mediums, and more. Its a two day course and promises to be a lot of fun. So if you have had an SLR camera bought for you and you want to learn how to use it, this could be the workshop for you.