Sunday School - Acetate 101#2!

Hello and welcome to yet another nail-biting instalment of Sunday School.....will she or won't she manage to achieve anything useful?

I'm happy to report that, this week, things have gone much more smoothly.  You may remember that last time I was trying to die-cut acetate with variable results.  It's here, if you're interested.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

So this weekend I have had a go at altering some pre-cut acrylic shapes.  I think I probably referred to them as acetate last time; this is simply because I am losing my marbles.  Here are the shapes I started with - I thought some boy-orientated ones would be nice.

 

Love that robot!  (These are from an album/die cut set by Fancy Pants which I've had for rather a long time; similar products include Heidi Swapp's Ghost shapes.)

The first thing I tried was stamping.  Quite simply, I stamped up one of the frames using a stamp from the Ecogreen Steampunk set with Stazon.  And here it is:

 

I think that looks really nice, and so easy.  Normally I would stamp on the back of the acrylic but that would reverse the text so this is stamped on the front.  (There's no real reason to stamp on the back, it's just what I do.  Might offer a bit of protection, I suppose, on a page.)

Apologies at this point for any duff photos.  Yesterday I dropped my camera on the floor and the back cover dislodged itself a bit.  I put it back, but when I couldn't select 'macro' I knew I'd broken it....sob.  Except that I hadn't, I'd just put it on 'landscape' and forgotten.  Duh.

Next I got the alcohol inks out and did this frame using some Brights:

 

Again, I think that's very effective - particularly on a white background.  For this the inks were squirted onto a craft mat and the frame dragged through them.  I did a couple more passes after I'd added Blending Solution.

Another technique which I find works well with acrylic is using rub-ons.  This is really good for smaller shapes as you can use just part of a rub-on - maybe one that's damaged, or one you don't like much any more!  Look what happened to the robot!

He's had alcohol inks smooshed on his back, and then the rub-on added to the front.  I can see all my sentiment rub-ons being used up like this.  He's been stamped as well, with another stamp from the steampunk set.

I also went round the edges of the shape, and the eyes and mouth, with a black marker pen to add definition.

So far, so good!  Now it gets a bit experimental.  I bet you can all think of loads more stuff to do with acrylic shapes...maybe you'll see something here you like, or maybe I'll put you off some of these techniques completely, lol.

I had some arrows left, and since I rather fancied covering the backs in something, I got out the pearlised glue I bought recently, reduced in a local craft shop.  After some fiddling about I decided the best way to apply it was with a brush; it was difficult to hide the brush marks, but after I'd done this

(It's a beautiful summer day here and this morning at six thirty I was sitting in the middle of the lavender field with a cup of coffee and Craft Stamper....)

...I came home to find this:

The brush marks are much fainter and they have a really lovely sheen to them.  I also bought this glue - after much dithering - in gold and pearl, so I'm looking forward to using them too.

So, this is what I ended up with after I'd stamped and outlined the other frame:

I thought these would be good for a vintage LO

And here are the boy ones.

Now, if you're still with me (wake up at the back there!), next up were some girlie shapes

Sticking with the alcohol inks to start with, I thought I'd try dropping them onto the back of the acrylic. 

At this point I went and had a look on Google because I was a little concerned that the alcohol inks were remaining somewhat sticky on the acrylic.  Maybe you're not supposed to combine the two?  But no, there's a tutorial from Ali Edwards here, where she does just that.

So I carried on.

I'll tell you what doesn't work, though, and that's the Stazon cleaner technique I blogged here.  I tried it on the butterfly and it looked very nice, but the ink just wouldn't dry.  Maybe if I'd left it for a day or two before adding the cleaner, it would work.  I'll try that and let you know - but maybe the inks never dry as completely as they do on glossy card?

Anyway.  I did this:

It's the front you're looking at, with Sailboat and something Yellow and Silver Metallic Mixative dropped onto the back, in that order.  I blew them around with a straw.  I love the glossiness of this, which you can see even better on that bit of the scalloped frame showing at the top.

As you can see, I've added rub-ons to the bracket shapes. 

I thought I would see what happened if I also dripped some Silver Metallic Mixative onto the back of the brackets, and all I can say is...

Don't.

Probably.

It just looked like I'd dropped it in some metallic paint by accident.  However, the Stazon cleaner got it off very effectively - it was a very messy process, though!

Now, see that crown?  Well, this is the bit I got most excited about, and when you've read what I did, you're going to wonder why you bothered....lol.  No, not really, it's fabulous, honest!

That crown has been pressed onto a Brilliance Galaxy Gold metallic ink pad.  You can't swipe it because nothing sticks, you have to Press!

But - the ink wouldn't dry.  I tried heating it, but the acrylic started to buckle so I stopped.  For a little while I sat there thinking, and then decided to add some clear embossing powder and heat set it.

Yes, you read right.  After deciding that heating the acrylic wasn't a good idea, I then set about using a technique that involves heating the acrylic.  *Sigh*.

But.....BUT.....look at this!

That's quite sweet, isn't it!  If you're wondering how I got from a gold-inked crown to an aqua flower, let me explain...

After heat embossing the crown, I discovered that making acylic hot and bendy doesn't cause one to be struck by lightning.  Nothing awful, or requiring a visit to A&E, occurred.  And whilst having a bendy crown wasn't particularly useful, I thought bendy flowers might be.

I inked these up with Pearlescent Jade Brilliance ink:

...And after I'd sprinkled on some embossing powder and heated them they were bendable.  Not sure that this would be a substitute for the modelling medium that's recently popped up in the shops, because what happens is that the acrylic becomes very bendy, and then, while you're manipulating it, it very suddenly goes rigid again.

On the plus side, however, the embossing powder (which has been mixed with some Cosmic Shimmer powder) didn't re-melt when I reheated, so it doesn't make a mess.  And it doesn't get too hot to handle.

A mould of some sort would have been useful; there is currently an egg on my desk, sitting in a discarded glass of (clean) painting water...it didn't work but an egg-cup might have!

So, there you go.  At this advanced hour on a Sunday afternoon, Sunday School.

I really hope that there's something of interest in here - I certainly had MUCH more fun doing this than I did with the die-cutting the other week, although I'm thinking of cutting up the packing from these shapes, which is made of the same stuff, just to extend my supplies.

Something else I'm thinking of, is using those shapes on some layouts.  And hopefully they'll be appearing on here some time soon!

Have a lovely day/evening, wherever you are.

 

Comments

[Jules]

Some great ideas Helen, and lots of chuckles while I was reading them too, so thank you! I've got a set of Fancy Pants acrylic shapes that I haven't really known what to do with, so I'm going to have a go at some of your techniques :D

[emilie.c]

Love hat you did with those acetates! especially the flower! thanks for sharing those great ideas!

[Helenb]

Love reading about your experiments - these look great - esp like that robot!