Dyeing Sequins Part 2!

I have been busy with projects over the last couple weeks. One of the things I have been trying to do is to dye sequins. In my first post about this process, I used alcohol and ink pad re-inkers to dye white and off white sequins with only moderate success. Two weeks ago I gave it another try with RIT fabric dye.

I decided to do it outside because I knew if I made a mess, I wouldn't ruin anything. I bought the liquid Rit dye because it was easier then mixing up powder. I followed the direction on the container and added some salt to the mix. I used two colors-a yellow and an orange. I also tried to dye transparent and white sequins this time. I figured that one of them had to work!!

I was totally wrong, though. This experiment was an EPIC fail. The sequins failed to take on any color after the first hour. I thought if I left them out longer, they might actually change color. I was wrong. All the dye did was become thicker and dry up. I wound up dumping the sequins out and rinsing them with water so I can use them in their original form.

Sometimes being cheap does not pay. I wound up finding a website-ccartwright.com-that sold sequins for a $1.25 a package. I stocked up!!

While I was shopping, I also ordered from Paper Trey Ink. Last Thursday was like Christmas with two packages in the mail!!

Shhh!! Don't tell my husband!!! Now all I have to do is find time to play with all my stuff!!

Thank you for stopping by. Have a great day!!

Nora

National Scrapbook Day Pages

This past Saturday was National Scrapbook Day. I hosted the challenges at Scrapjazz.com and it was so much fun!! I was not able to create scrapbook pages for each challenge but I was able to finish two. I am such a slow scrapbooker so two pages was good for me.

The first challenge was to pick an article from Scrapjazz.com and create a layout or card that was inspired by that particular article. I had a really hard time choosing but finally settled on a sketch article that featured travel layouts from Prague by Amy Sotolongo. Here was my take on the sketch:

I had extra fun creating this page because I dug through all my drawers and used so many products on this page. Chipboard, die cuts, felt flowers-it is all there. I plan to use this layout design again on a canvas I want to make for my entryway.

The second challenge I finished was another sketch challenge. I created the sketch below in Photoshop pretty much copied it exactly.

I had a lot of fun creating the layers and using conversation balloons for my journaling. Again, I pulled a lot of things out from my stash to layer on here.

I know NSD is over but if you need some inspiration, come on over to the Scrapjazz SJ Challenge Central board every month to complete new challenges and win some prizes. The next challenges will be posted on the first of June.

I hope you enjoyed your time here today. Happy Thursday!!

Nora

Papertrey Ink April Blog Hop!

Just a quick post for today. Papertrey Ink had a challenge that I created a card. The challenge was to make a project that had something tilted.

I had a lot of fun using a mixture of stamps, die cuts and flowers that I had to make this card. I have to say, it was one of the quickest cards I have created in a long time. 

Supplies: All Supplies from Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted; Orange flowers-unknown, Walnut Distress Ink, Blue Flower-Prima.

Thanks for looking. Have a great Friday!!

Nora

Dyeing Sequins Part 1

Sequins seem to be pretty hot in the card making world these days. I bought a huge bag a month ago of "shiny" sequins at the craft store but the ones I am seeing are light and iridescent in color. Ellen Hutson had some pretty ones in her store but I couldn't decide on the "perfect" colors so I just bought the plain white and vanilla ones. I started to regret that this weekend.

I decided I was going to do an "experiment" and dye my own. I did a Google search for dyeing sequins and came up nada. I was very disappointed. I didn't let that stop me. I took out some re-inkers from Paper Trey Ink and a bottle of alcohol and decided I was going to make alcohol ink. I figured that might work. (I apologize for the horrible photos. I need to a) learn how to take photos off auto and b) get a light box!!)

I literally just poured the alcohol in the cups and put as many re-inker drops into it as I thought would get results. I put the most ink in the yellow solution, thinking this would make them yellow. My whole room smelled nasty!! I didn't even realize it until Charlotte came in and remarked on it.

I even added a fourth solution of alcohol and pink dye after I took these photos. I used my white sequins and left them in for about an hour. I wouldn't say this was a total success. Below is how they came out.

The lightest sequins are supposed to be yellow but look more ivory. Like I said, I used the most ink in this solution. The green were OK but they did not evenly dyed. They were all flat in the bottom of the container, none on top of each other so that should not have happened. I don't like the effect.  The blue and the pink came out pretty good. So the I guess the result of this experiment was 50/50.

So my conclusion is that alcohol inks are OK for some colors but I need something stronger for others. I did a search on dying buttons AFTER I did this experiment and found a tutorial at the RIT website. I am going to try using RIT dye next time. I will let you know if it works!!

Nora

Simon Says Stamp Challenge

This weekend I was FINALLY able to play and one of the things I did was to create a card for the Simon Says Stamp Challenge for this week.

This weeks challenge is Travel/Cityscapes. Come look at some of the cool cards the designers created here. Here is what I came up with:

This was a huge challenge for me because I have very few travel stamps and almost nothing for cityscapes. The whole inspiration for my card was from a piece of patterned paper from the "Here and There Collection" by Studio Calico. I built my card from there. 

I die cut a tag from green paper and then ran it through my Big Shot Machine again to cut the house out. I combed through my stamps and found a teeny, tiny tag stamp I had from Maya Road. I stamped it over and over again and then punched holes in it using a tiny whole punch. I stamped the "merci" sentiment with stamps from Avery Elle. The finishing touch was to use Stickles Diamond Glitter Glue in the stars and in all the windows of the houses that were inside the die cut. You can see this better in the view below.

The last step was to add the sequins. I am really happy with how it came out since the subject was a stretch for me. Thank you for looking!!

Nora