Helmar Creative Team

Watercoloured Tag with Robyn Wood

Hello! It’s Robyn Wood with you today sharing a colourful, watercoloured tag project. I love the ease of using watercolour for a variety of projects and find that once you have mastered a few techniques, the options are endless.

For this project, I trimmed a tag shape from some cream cardstock scrap and covered parts of the surface with dribbles of masking fluid. You need to allow masking fluid plenty of time to dry so it doesn’t ruin your brushes.

Once the masking fluid was dry, I simply painted over the surface of the tag with watercolour. I’ve used a liquid watercolour to make the process nice & quick. Liquid watercolour can easily be blended or watered down to give different colours and washes. Once the tag was dry, I simply rubbed the masking fluid away with my fingers.

I stamped a greeting and flower stamp using Archival black ink. The greeting was trimmed closely and mounted onto a cardstock layer using Helmar Scrap Dots.

The flower image had been stamped onto watercolour cardstock, making it nice and easy to blend watercolours to create a soft effect. I then fussy cut my flower.

While the pink watercolour was in use, I painted a scrap of watercolour card so that I could punch out a scalloped circle to go on the top of my tag.

The tag was assembled using Helmar Tacky Glue to adhere the flower, greeting and tag top. I then threaded the tag with a short length of pretty ribbon and it was done.

Supplies:

• Helmar Tacky Craft Glue
• Helmar Scrap Dots
• Darkroom Door Fine Flowers Vol 2 & Simple Sayings stamp sets
• Archival black ink
• Masking Fluid
• Liquid watercolour

I hope you have enjoyed learning how this project was created and I’d love to see what you create! Until next time…

Romantic Card - Shabby Style

Hello there, today I am working with the theme of Romance. I love the romantic style. I imagine flowers, hearts, laces and ruffles, dreamy images of yesteryear. So, with my head in the clouds I decided to make a romantic style card.

What I used:

Scissors, Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive, Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA Glue, a fine tipped bottle and a stylus together with a selection of papers and various die cuts.

I started with a piece of tea stained manilla file folder as these seem to be quite popular in crafting at the moment. I folded and cut it to the size of 15cm x 10cm (6" x 4"). I cut a piece of scrapbooking paper 14cm x 9cm (5.5" x 3.5") and then roughed up the edges with an old pair of scissors and inked them lightly with Walnut Distress Stain. The paperline I used was 'Pen and Ink' by Kaisercraft.

Then, using my Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA Glue I glued it to the card base.

Time to play around with the die cuts and find a nice design.

I used the stylus to add a little texture and dimension to some of the die cuts.

Because some of the die cuts are very delicate I find it easier to transfer some of the Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA Glue into a small bottle with a very fine tip so that application is easier.

The original bottle was still used for the larger die cuts.

I included some cheese cloth into the design to soften the look a little.

Lastly, I used the Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive to apply some flat backed pearls, beads and fabric flowers to the card.

Although my card did not end up with any ruffles, I enjoyed the process so much that I decided to make a gift bag to go with it and included some ruffled lace into that design giving it a lovely romantic style.

I hope you've enjoyed this little card making tutorial today. I would normally use the Helmar Tacky Craft Glue with my paper projects but thought it may be interesting to try the Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA Glue to see how well it works. I found the drying time was slightly longer which was a good thing as it enabled me to move things around a little before it took hold and once it was dry, it had a very strong hold.

Thank you so much for stopping by, take care

Jeanette xx

Creating an Art Journal with Tamiko... 1

Hello everyone Tamiko here! I love art journals and I cannot lie!! ::giggles:: Nothing makes me happier in the form of a paper craft then making a book of some sort. Check this one out..

Supplies needed:

Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA Glue

Various papers

Paper cutter

Scissors

Corrugated board

Canvas material

Glue brush 

water

I first grabbed papers, (many kind)  and cut them down to 3 X 5 inches. You can choose any size you want. I decided I wanted a size that allowed me to place the book in my pocket or art bag. I used scrapbook papers of different weights, painted papers, music paper, Chinese language papers, tags and receipts. Once I got a small collection of those, I stacked them tightly and lined up on one edge and clipped them. The clip to hold the papers in place, while applying Helmar Craft and Hobby PVA glue to the one side which will serve as the spine, of the book.  Let it dry, then slather another layer of glue and repeat (for about 3 or 4 layers). Don't forget to dip your brush in some water that has maybe a drop of dish washing detergent in it Helmar's glue is washable, but I just take the extra precautions with my brushes out of habit. 

I used corrugated board to create front and back covers; canvas material and more Helmar Craft & Hobby glue to cover the boards and glue spine. The napkins to decoupaged on the cover and I fussy cut some animals I like and added them, just because I could. I have no idea what I will do with this book.  I could challenge myself to do some 3-5 minute faces or art daily; or I could just give it away in some happy mail. ::shrugs::  I have more fun making them then using them sometimes ::smile::I hope you all like the book I created! I get inspiration from bookmakers like Kiala Givehand and Jeanne Oliver! They both show you pretty awesome book creations ;you can make with minimal supplies we seem to have around the house. Just make sure you use Helmar adhesives in your projects! They will hold stronger for longer and the glues won't eat or age your papers!! Thanks for stopping by!!

 

Alcohol Ink Coasters

Hello, from Tina! Today's project supplies are: ceramic tiles. alcohol ink, 91% alcohol, paint brush, oil based sharpies, newspaper.

My friend and I recently made ceramic tile coasters using alcohol ink. 

First, pour or paint the ceramic tile with alcohol, then  drop various colors of the alcohol inks onto the tile. The colors will bloom and run and blend making cool patterns.

The alcohol dries really fast so I choose to work quickly and missed taking pictures. But here are the few photos I managed to take...

My friend added hand drawing on her coasters

 

Words befitting for a crafter

 

These colors make me happy!

Now to seal the coasters so they  will not fade over time.

Today I am using(Helmar Crystal Kote Fixative) to seal my project. 

 

 

I wanted to spay outside, but it is raining. So I just sprayed the coaster in a cardboard box near an open door and window.

Works great! I look forward to using these colorful coasters. 

Have a craft happy day!