I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, we had a nice time at my sister's for dinner and the children seemed to enjoy their presents. I always feel that this time inbetween Christmas and New Year is like being in limbo!
However I got out some of my crafting supplies this weekend and instead of making a whole project decided to have a bit of a play/experimentation. It didn't turn out exactly as I planned but it has given me the incentive to try out some more ideas.
Before Christmas I ordered a new stamp and die set from Sheena Douglass (perfect partners Dragonfly Dance) as I have wanted a dragonfly set for a while and these are a good size and will hopefully complement the butterflies in my stash.
Here is most of what I used...
I bought my Angelina fibres and fantasy film quite a while ago, and although I have used it I have to admit not as much as I should. It is fun to work with but I do find the fibres get everywhere!
My first use of the fibres on their own didn't give the wing look that I wanted so I started again. This time I used baby's bonnet fantasy film to sandwich some of the fibres as well as some glamour glitter from Chloe. This is what it looked like before heating...
To fuse the fibres and film together heat needs to be applied, and I used a craft iron that I have. It is important to remember to place something between the fibres and the iron to stop a melty disaster! In the past I have used baking paper, but as I couldn't find it I used a piece of thin heat proof mat that I had already cut up for using with my melt pot. Here is what it looked like after it had been heated...
I wasn't sure if this would die cut or not, so decided to give it a try. The die is a thin metal die and I used it with my Grand Calibur, it didn't cut through entirely with one pass but it did enough for me to be able to just snip parts, and I was cutting parts away so it was not a problem. If I had put it back through again I think it would have been fine.
Then I cut the dragonfly out again in white card and also embossed it this time. The die leaves a lovely raised pattern which I hope you can see in the photo...
Using frosty sky and frosty aqua colour cloud inks and some smoothies I then coloured the dragonfly. This ink goes on beautifully and blends brilliantly, I have to admit that I spent quite a while deciding whether to buy these inks or not as I have so many different colouring mediums and brushes etc, but in the end I gave in and am just getting some core colours to add to my other products.
The colours do not show up as well in the photos, but you can layer up more colour to make it more intense.Finally I added a bit of silver pebeo gilding wax to the card to highlight the raised lines, and decided that I needed extra bling so sprayed it with some pearl diamond varnish from Crafters Companion.
Originally my plan had been to layer the dragonfly with the fibre layer on top, but I realised that it isn't transparent enough to see the detail of the embossed wings through and so put the card layer on top. I still quite like it and I think it looks better in 'real life', but I will continue to experiment with perhaps acetate or a paler fibre/film to get the look I originally wanted.
Here is the final dragonfly...
My plan is to create some more and add them to either a plaque or a card.
I hope you all have a great new year, we will probably stay at home as my youngest is only 4 and will struggle staying up, but we will more than likely stay awake to welcome in 2016!
See you next year and happy crafting!!
Jane x
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