Helmar Creative Team

Flower embellished string monogram

Hey everyone!  It's Nicole on the blog today.  I've been drawn to string art for the past several years. I finally decided to try it out myself and I put a little spin on the final project using Helmar to put together my flower embellishments.   

I picked up this wood slice with the natural bark edges at my local craft store.  

I started by painting the inside black with acrylic paint.

 

My silhouette machine did the work of cutting the monogram using Samantha Walker's Par-Tay Thyme font.  I then traced around the outside with a pencil.  

Next up is a little hammering - hopefully you won't be trying to do this while your toddler is sleeping ;)  I eyed where to place each nail making sure I accounted for keeping the nails closer together around the curves.  

I've seen many different materials used, but I decided to use white embroidery floss.  I had it handy and it was the thickness I wanted.  

Begin by tying a knot around a nail and then I went around the whole perimeter before starting the inside.  

I used a haphazard approach when doing the inside and filled in the rest of the C.   Once finished I used a spot of Helmar Craft Glue to secure the ends.  

I pulled my Silhouette out again and cut some beautiful paper flowers designed by Jamie Cripps.   I added ink to the edges of both the petals and leaves.  

To add dimension I rolled the petals using a shish kabob skewer.  

I put the flowers together with drops of  Helmar Craft Glue.  

I used the same technique when putting the roses together, but added Helmar Zapdots between a few of the layers to give a little more dimension and height.  

I love that the Helmar Zapdots come in black and white.  The black worked great for these flowers and the foam dots stay hidden in the petals.  

Once all the flowers had been put together I used more Helmar Zapdots to attach them directly to the wood background.  

Once the flowers were placed I added the leaves and grass pieces behind the flowers with Helmar Craft Glue.  

I just love the outcome and am excited to give it to the recipient.  Have you tried this kind of project before?  If so I would love to see.  Thanks for stopping by the Helmar blog today.  

Happy Crafting

Time 2 Craft! Altered Clock

Greetings, crafters! Don't we all wish we could make time as easily as we make our crafts? This project won't do the impossible and create time, but maybe it'll remind me to make more time for the things I love.

This started life as a simple, inexpensive clock that has moved from room to room as needed from house to house. Most recently it was sitting in the hall, serving no purpose whatsoever, so I absconded with it to the Abyss for a makeover.

I used:

* Helmar Tacky Craft Glue
* Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots

plus...

* a cheap Clock
* Patterned Paper
* Pencil, Protractor, and Scissors
* Letter Tiles
* Number Sticker
* Liquid Leading
* Buttons
* Ribbon

After going old-school with a protractor to mark out 30-degree wedges of my clock face (which is permanently mounted, so I just popped off the cover and hands and got to work), I traced and cut out 4 wedges each of 3 papers and glued them on with Helmar Tacky Craft Glue, and pressed them down firmly with the aid of the spreader. 

Now, the wedges mark the general hours okay, but I wanted to add a little something else to the face before closing it back up, and adhered some plastic letter tiles (harvested from a thrifted Hangman game) with Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots from the 12 to the 6 positions, more or less, leaving space at the 2 o'clock for a number sticker--it's only slightly clever, but it makes me giggle. I also added lines of liquid leading (it was handy) to divide the hour wedges--hopefully they aren't too high to impede the hour hand.

That's the thing you have to watch out for, by the way, if you want your altered clock to function: all the embellishments have to stay out of the way of the moving hands. The second hand is on top, so clear of everything, and the letter tiles are nicely situated between the sweep of the minute hand and the edge of the cover when it's back in place.

Speaking of the cover, once it was back in place I decided to decorate it, some, to balance the letter-heavy first half of the clock.

With one of the printed papers I'd used on the face, I cut 1/2" strips, folded them into dual loops secured with Helmar Tacky Craft Glue, and arranged them with some similarly folded loops of ribbon on a mound of Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots. Another strip of paper got a quick curl from being wound around a chopstick and then climbed it's way up the left side of the clock, ending in a small bow and button detail.

For a finishing touch, the molded ridges on the outside of the clock got a couple lengths of pink ribbon--the Helmar Tacky Craft Glue did a great job of holding the ribbon in place, even on the smooth plastic--wrapped around it.

What time is it? Oh, right, I think it's time to do some crafting!

Wishing you creative days!

Poppies

Hello all Vicki-Ann here today. Well what an honor to be doing my first post for Helmar and they have asked me to do one themed for Anzac Day. This year it is such a special Anzac Day for all of Australia and New Zealand. It is the 100th Centenary of the First World War landings, of our Anzac troops on the beaches of Gallipoli. In case you have not heard of the term Anzac before. Anzac stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as Anzacs, and the pride they took in that name endures to this day.

So to commemorate this special day I thought I would like to do an Art Journal spread. When I think of Anzac Day, I always think of the poppies. So that is what I thought just had to go on my Art Journal pages. 

My first step was to grab my pretty Kaisercraft poppy stamp and stamp them out using Stazon ink. Then I watercoloured all the flowers with 2 different shades of red. I didn't worry about going outside the lines as they are all getting fussy cut out.  

I cut one out to be the main flower. Then I cut petals out of the remaining two sets of flowers. I wanted to layer the cut petal portions of the other 2 stamped and watercoloured flowers out to give my flower dimension. I then inked all the edges of them in black ink. I glued these smaller sections of flower petals on top of each other with the Helmar 450 quick dry Adhesive. I found this was great to hold all my pieces just where I wanted them to be quickly without me having to hold them in place. Then I used more of the 450 Quick dry Adhesive to hold the small black buttons to make my centres and cover the layers of the poppies centre petals. I did the same with the single poppy just added a larger button to the centre.  

Next I did my background. I used 2 pieces of cardstock cut to the size of my Art Journal pages. So on both pages I painted the sky in 2 different blues and then the grass with a babywipe using some DecoArt Acrylic paints. I wanted to get a very muted background. I painted some red splodges of colour with a very tiny brush and popped some little black dots and green stems. Splashed the background with a fan brush in red to look like there was even more poppies going off into the distance.   

 Now it was time to add the Helmar Liquid scrap dots under the petals of my single poppy and to the set of the three poppies. I wanted them to stay up with the dimension and not squash flat in my Art Journal. Awesome how it makes the flower petals just pop up and stay there just where I want them to be.  

At the dawn service, when everyone is saying this part of the poem from 'For the Fallen' By Robert Laurence Binyon.

They Shall not grow old as we that are left grow old;

 Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

 At the going down of the sun and in the morning, 

 We will remember them.

It is always such a memorable moving moment. So felt I had to add that to my pages. So I printed the quote out onto some cardstock and made this into a tag. Added the other single poppy, that is bigger to the top of this tag with Helmar Tacky Craft Glue.  I then added more of the Tacky Craft Glue on the back of my 3 poppy flowers and the back of the tag spreading it around with Helmar Paint/Glue spreader and positioned them where I wanted them on my painted cardstock backgrounds. 

  To add these separate pages to my Art journal. I put Tacky Craft Glue on the back of the pages and pressed them flat into my Art Journal. This technique of adding the separate pages in my Art Journal is working  so well for me. I like being able to add the machine stitching around my pages it adds a finishing touch that I like to do. 

 This is how I have had my Art Journal displayed coming up to Anzac day. I pop my Art Journal on this cute metal bird stand in my dining room. I like being able to display it like this. I can turn the pages and have different pages on display for all the occasions throughout the year.   

 Thanks for stopping by the Helmar blog today and hope that you will give the 450 quick dry Adhesive, Liquid scrap dots and  Tacky Craft Glue a try next time you need some dimension and that super fast hold on your collage Art Journal pages. 

Come and visit me over on my blog at lonelycards.blogspot.com.au. 

Mixed Media Journal with Veronica & Helmar

 

Hi, Veronica here today to share with you a quick journal I created to write down my ideas and sketches. This journal is small enough to fit into my purse or carry around in my art bag.

Below are photos of how I got started.  On this project I used both the Helmar "Craft & Hobby PVA Glue" and also Helmar "450 Quick Dry Adhesive".

I used some light patterned paper to cover the front of my journal

After I folded my cover paper over the flap to the back ... My next step was to cover the inside flap with pretty paper.

Now that my base is finished I started adding some mixed media - paints, stencils, and sprays to my cover.  I also drew some birds to add.

 

 I tend to keep adding layers of embellishments, jewels, some doodling until I feel it is finished.  I enjoyed drawing and doodling.

 

I hope you enjoyed my project today.  For more photos of my process and a full list of  products I used, please follow my blog Kitsnbitscraps

Thank you so much for stopping by Helmar ... happy scapping ...

 

Helmar Product Used:

Craft & Hobby PVA Glue

450 Quick Dry Adhesive

 

 

 

Happy Mail Storage Box

My name is Sharon Estes and I am a new member of the Helmar Design team for the next 6 months. This is my first post for Helmar.  I am know as a steampunk style designer and this is the style I used to re-purpose this Kleenex box into a great storage box for all my Happy mail I get from all my great facebook artist.  I can store them in my studio in this lovely box until I get around to hanging them for display.

Step 1. I cut the top off the kleenex box and gessoed. I used a stencil of gears with modeling paste. When it was dry I used my Mixed Media paints and painted this box.

Step 2. Now it is ready for all the embellishments.  I used paper flowers and chipboard gears painted with the mixed media paints and steampunk washi tape to the top.  When all this was dry I added the flowers and gears with Helmar Glue Products. 

Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots were used to attach each flower to one another to give it some depth and the little gear was added with the scrap dot to stand out of the center of the flower. 

 

In the pictures below i used the Helmar Premium Craft Glue. I glued the back of the flower to attach the 3 gears.

 

Helmar Premium Craft Glue was used to glue the flowers, gears, and butterfly to the project.

 

This is my completed Happy Mail Storage Box. 

Using 450 Quick Dry Adhesive on Metal, Fabric, and Mixed Media

Hi, it's Tracey back with an altered clock project. This is a gift for a dear friend who will be using it as part of her wedding decor to represent the presence of her grandparents whom she was very close with growing up.

Because this piece will be moved around a lot and has surfaces that can be difficult to adhere objects to, I've used Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive, which I know will stand up to the adhesive challenges presented on this project. This strong, versatile glue is the only adhesive I've used on the metal and mixed media surfaces.

Altered Wedding Memories Clock

 

Tips and Techniques

My first step of altering the clock was to paint several coats of gesso onto the metal surfaces. I realized that the back would no longer fit with the extra layers of paint, so I removed the gesso from the inside lip of the clock only to realize that the clock back didn't fit all the way into the indentation, so I had shiny metal showing. My solution was to glue this lace piece around the back edge.

 

Adhering fabric to metal is tricky, so as shown above, I put a nice thick bead of Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive on the edge of the lace (a couple inches at a time) and adhered it to the clock edge. I placed the lace a little closer to the edge than needed, then once it was adhered, I put the back of the clock in place to push the lace into the proper position, so it would completely cover the shiny metal area, but not prevent the clock back from going on. ***I immediately i removed the back again, until the Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive was completely dry, so it wouldn't be glued into place.

 

This is the decorated back piece. There's lots of dimension and layers here, all held in place with Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive.

 

I've framed the edge of the clock with Leaky Shed Studio chipboard and burlap flowers with just a few small dabs of Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive holding everything in place.

 

Mandy and her grandma spent many an afternoon watching and counting the birds in the yard, so I've trimmed the top of the clock with this sweet Leaky Shed Studio Bird Branch. 

 

The gessoed clock was layered roughly with crackle molding paste then brushed with mist for a peeling paint/patina effect. This is a tricky surface to adhere things to, but Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive works perfectly here.

 

One final shot.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

I hope you'll give Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive a try on your

next project involving mixed media and/or metals!!

 

Blessings!

 

 

 

Helmar Products

450 Quick Dry Adhesive

Summer Mini Book

Summer is fast approaching!  Road trips, summer vacation and pool parties.  I always struggle with what to do with a lot of photos from one outing.  When we first moved to Colorado, we headed to Estes.  I thought a mini book would be a perfect way to put all the photos together!

Helmar 450 Quick Dry and Helmar Zapdots were used to create this project.

 

 

Thanks for looking!

Rock on Princess Mini Album

Good morning, Steph Ackerman here today with my first post as a member of the Helmar Design Team and I am just so excited to be working with this amazing team.  

Today, I wanted to show you a grungy princess mini album I created for the little princess in your life.

 

I wanted a sturdy album so I used corrugated board.  Keeping in line with the grungy theme, I tore the front cover then painted and inked it for a grungy effect.  Then I tore silver cardstock and created the cover elements using my Cricut Expression. 

 

The Helmar Acid Free Glue  worked really well on all those the little bits I had to assemble throughout this mini album.

Since I was working on corrugated board, Helmar Acid Free Glue was also perfect for ensuring that the papers adhered well to the corrugated board.  And since it dries clear, there is no residual to worry about.

Adhering glitter to glitter paper (and having it remain in place) can be challenging.  But the Helmar Acid Free Glue takes away that issue.  I used a toothpick to add the glue to the small pieces and then pieced them together.

 

 To finish I ran my ink pad all over the album.

Thanks for stopping by today.

 

Helmar Products Used: 

Helmar Acid Free Adhesive

Other Products Used:

Corrugated Board

Cardstock and pattern paper

Clearsnap Ink

Cricut Expression

 

Steph

Brown Bag Junk Journaling with Tamiko

I have always been fascinated with making my own books.  Not always knowing exactly why I needed to create one.  I mainly slid things between the pages or glued envelopes that were way too thin. This time I decided I needed a journal with slightly bigger sleeves for my notes and  *junk*!  I plan to use my journal for brain dumping and idea jotting and arting.  I remember being in school making puppets and accidentally making my first brown bag journal because I used too much glue and stuck the heads together!! ::smile::  Anyway.. here we go!!

I grabbed 10 brown lunch bags.  The first 8, I folded them with the bottom flaps inward. After I folded the bags I matched them up in pairs and glued the folded short sided ends together with the  Craft and Hobby PVA Glue.  I chose PVA glue because the weight of the papers being used allowed me to apply the  more fluid white glue.  You can use a clamp to apply pressure, but it's not always neccessary.  Just remember to let it fully bond, let it sit for 24 hours. After I did 4 pair (8 bags), I then attached them to each other on the long side with more glue.  Don't forget to line up your edges of your signature or the book will look wonky.

I grabbed my favorite neon acrylics from Deco Art, some of their Media line black gesso and a few awesome stencils by Andy Skinner.  With my newly painted paper casings, I covered the front and back boards and spine joint.  Didn't forget those last two bags, I adhered the short flaps to the boards and the longer sides to the signature.  Cut black card stock for end paper.  Along the spine I did some adorning, with sari ribbon and paper beads. I used a bit of black mesh and Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive  .  Ta-da!!  I like it!!  ::smiles::

 

Here is one picture of the spine yumminess before I go!!

Hope you enjoyed the process as much as I did and that you give Helmar a try with all your adhesive needs!!  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week!!

Perfect "skins"

Recently I did a study on making acrylic skins in a class taught by Traci Baustista by Strathmore. In the class she said that while you could use a decoupage paste it wouldn't be as strong but would make your project be delicate. Personally I took this as a challenge to prove how it would stand up using the "skin application method", feeling confident that it would pass the test with flying colors!

I made 2 skins....here is the first one. This one is still on the sheet of plastic before using the  Helmar Decoupage and Craft Paste. 

I followed all the directions that Traci gave us to create the skin itself. ( Painting on plastic, stamping images and using glitter ) and then, the last step, covering your creation with a medium to seal it and to be able to pull it off the plastic sheet.

I used a nice thick layer of the Helmar Decoupage and Craft Paste  making sure to cover my design completely, spreading it out by using an art spatula and then setting it aside to dry.

This is the second skin I created, again with the methods illustrated in the class. I wanted to make sure that  Helmar Decoupage and Craft Paste  was handling everything that was thrown at it. (This skin has dimensional paint added to the mixture.)

It's easy to tell when the Decoupage has dried because it dries crystal clear. Here, you can see the cloudy area that hasn't dried yet which was thicker than the remaining areas. In the last frame you can also see how easy it pulled up off the plastic sheet too. I had no problems lifting it off.

 

Let me show a better picture of me pulling that skin off...after all that's what this post is about,

how well the Decoupage paste worked!

All in all, I can honestly say that the Helmar Decoupage and Craft Paste rocked this challenge!

Both acrylic skins are strong and durable, easy to handle and absolutely fun to make! Here is a canvas I made using the second skin pictured above and another one that I made later on. I was able to cut the pieces and sew through them. I used my Helmar 450 to glue the pieces on and my Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots to lift the butterfly wings up with.

 

And all my canvases are finished off with Helmar's Crystal KOTE Matte Varnish!!