Coasters...

It's just a short post today. The family is getting ready to go away for a week, so everything here is very hectic to say the least. In my down time though I have finished several sets of coasters. And I have to say, I am pretty proud of them! Especially since they were the only thing that sold at the recent show... hahaha :) The mom that I work for even bought two sets to take up to Maine for the family. I thought that was very nice of her to support my crafting. Below are a few photos of some of the coasters. Have a fabulous day and always smile :)

~Jennifer :)

New Project and Kids off for the Summer

I know I haven't been on here in over a week, I have just been super busy with my job (kids are out of school so I now have no free time) and I have also been working on a new project. I have started making coasters out of tiles with either using stamps on them or doing gel transfers.

Jonny's last day was this past Tuesday... He was done at noon. When I walked up to get him I was surrounded by Jonny and his friend Lachie. Jonny wanted Lachie to come over for the a playdate. And how could I say no to him on the last day of school. I took them to get pizza, then water ice to keep them happy. I had to go to the market after that and they were great helpers. I would tell them what I needed and they would go find it. It was like a treasure hunt for them! Then when we got home, they played outside, went swimming, designed and made a coaster set, went and played tennis, made cupcakes, and finally watched a little tv while having dinner. They spent 6 and a half hours together and got along the whole time. It was a good day for those two... hahaha. And apparently Lachie told his mom it was one of the best days ever... That's a pretty big standard I now have to live up to for a playdate... hahahahaha.


The coasters/tiles have been a challenge for me. First let's go with the stamping. I read a lot about stamping tiles and coloring them in. Everyone said that you needed to bake the tiles after stamping to heat set the ink. I did that. Then I went to color in the image with chalk. Well, apparently heat setting does not completely dry the ink, because it smeared on my first tile. Into the trash that one went. On my next try I colored the whole tile with chalk, then stamped over it and baked it. The ink was still a little wet to the touch so I sealed it with one coat of an acrylic sealer. The seemed to set the ink and still allowed for the tile to absorbed some of the moisture from anything set on top of it. So I think I have figured those out. I just need to figure out how to make the chalk darker when I am coloring in the stamps. Any suggestions?

The second type I have been trying is doing a gel transfer onto a tile. Over the weekend I tried it with a print from an inkjet printer and one from a laser printer. Everything I had read said that the laser printer would work best, and well it did. I have also read that using photo paper and an inkjet printer works well, so maybe I'll try that next week. Since I do not have a laser printer, I decided to try using some of my scrapbook paper to do a gel transfer, and what do you know, it worked out really well. After rubbing off all of the pulp until just the image was left I covered the tile with epoxy resin. They look really good and once I get the edges all smoothed down they will be ready for the show on Saturday.

Jonny is done entertaining himself so I am needed to come up with something for us to do... hopefully he doesn't say no to every suggestion I have ;-) I have included a couple of pictures I took this morning of the two tiles I used the gel transfer process on. They are still a work in progress :) I hope you are having a wonderful Thursday and have something fun planned for the weekend!

~Jennifer :)

Trials and Errors of a New Project...

Can one ever start and try a new project and have it come out perfect? Have a piece of work turn out how they see it in their head? My answer to these questions is usually yes, but today it is a loud NO! Hahahaha

I typically use paper on wood or paper on paper for my projects and love how they turn out. Recently I decided to try something new. I went out and got some canvas with the idea that I would paint or ink them and then apply different papers, images and mediums on top creating a collage. The first two I did with ink and I liked them, but felt they could be better. The third one I just finished, I had such high hopes for. I painted the canvas three different colors with a glaze, then applied a patterned paper on top with butterflies cut out so the painted canvas showed through. It was looking good... But then I had to go and put mod podge over the top... that was my mistake. The canvas stretched too much from being overly damp and having the paper pushed down on it which caused there to be air bubbles under the paper. I was able to push most of the bubbles out, but some are there forever. Should I just say that the bubbles add character? Are part of the design to give the piece texture? Or should I just call it a mistake? I haven't decided yet what to call them... hahahaha.

Here is my question that I'm putting out there... had I just attached the paper with a permanent spray glue and then sprayed a latex sealer over the top of that, would it have been enough to keep the paper in place and protect it? Any answers or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! :)

Here's a photo of the finished work. The flower is a combination of paper and fabric and the stem is felt, both are from Prima. Let me know what you think...