Friday 3 July 2009

Mermaid Seashells Starburst Stains




Had a brilliant workshop yesterday, the ladies were lovely and enjoyed themselves too even though I did work them hard, it was too hot for embossing yesterday really, but we managed to get loads of techniques done. I don't know about them but I was really shattered last night, hence no blog again!

Starburst Stains - Special Offer! Were £24.90 now £19.99!!

As we have a special offer on these at the moment I am going to work through all the Starburst Stain sets over the next week or so with colour charts and also show ideas of the colours used in projects. Visitors to the shop have been able to see these colour charts and I know they have shown them on our Create & Craft TV shows but hopefully this will be an easy reference for you, and help those that haven't got Sky TV. The top left hand panel shows all 5 colours in the set stippled together to give and idea of how the colours works together.

The first picture is of a panel from a concertina book I made and the 2nd picture a card both made using the fusible webbing.

Today's set is Mermaid Seashells, this set contains the following colours:-

Azure Sea Asters, Cockle Shells Coral, Glory of the Seas Gold, Opal Sea Oats, Sea Mint Green

The card idea shows the Fusible webbing that I've mentioned before. This is the best way I have found to use the webbing. There are 5 pieces in a pack for £2.50, they are approx. 5" x 6". For the first attempts try cutting a piece in half as it will be much easier to manage until you get the hang of it.

Place the webbing over a coloured piece of card, whether a created Starburst Stain background or plain coloured card. Stretch the webbing between 2 large acrylic blocks so that the webbing doesn't move when heating.

Heat the webbing with a heat gun all over until it is all stuck to the card, do not worry about making lacy patterns at this stage, just ensure the piece is stuck down, it takes a bit longer than heating embossing powder, and tends to look clearer when it is heated. When you are happy that it is glued down completely, remove the blocks and then start to heat to create lacy patterns.

Once you have the lacy effect showing all over, keeping heating and ensure the webbing is really hot all over. One thing I noticed at the workship yesterday is that people thought it would be like embossing powder and were afraid of overheating it. It isn't the same so keep heating, even if it seems to take longer than you think it should.

Once you are happy it is hot all over, quickly add embossing powder, it can be any embossing powder, so try experimenting with different colours/types. Tip off of the excess powder and emboss as you would normally, start one end and gradually move over the piece as it melts. If you find that the powder hasn't stuck to parts of the webbing then it wasn't hot enough, it is worth adding more before you heat to emboss as you may have tapped off too much and sometimes it still sticks.

Allow to cool and trim for either a complete background, cut up into smaller pieces to add as textured elements, or punch/die cut into shapes. I tend to save any trimmings and even use thin borders so that none is wasted!

2 comments:

  1. Ooooooooooo Jill, are you tempting me to be 'naughty' again. Will have to look online.
    Love your cards and your tutorial on using Fusible Webbing.
    Hugs
    Christine xx

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  2. Just lovely cards Jill. I already have a huge store of starburst stains so it's great to see them being used by the expert. That fusible fibre is very tempting though, I shall have to be coming to visit you!

    Lisax

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Your comments are always really appreciated!