2015 #2 Plumbers Tape {by Keren Baker}

2015 Theme 2: Shiny Stuff

Hi everyone Keren here, joining you this evening with a post about using metal tape with stamps and Frescos. I am a sucker for anything that can be manipulated or made more dimensional. I found a humungous roll of plumbers tape (with a price tag to match) and started experimenting with this lovely 'magpie-attracting' stuff to create a card. 

The tape is adhesive backed but is super-thin so I adhered two layers together to give more 'puffiness' without worrying about the tape tearing. Simply stamp onto the tape with Stazon, leave to dry and then trace around the outer edges of the parts of the image that you want to add a concave or convex part 

You can see I've used a dense foam- however a mouse mat, or anything with 'give' will be perfect. You'll ideally need a paper stump plus an embossing tool (different sizes of tool are ideal). Hopefully you can see where I've begun to press down and rub in a circular motion on her collar. Unless you've X-ray vision, you'll need to trace around the edges and flip the piece open to get the area on the reverse to rub the paper stump on.

Obviously I've taken a bit of artistic licence with the gorgeous Lynne Perrella stamps from Collection 04; I've sculpted her a bit of a jawline and just picked out certain parts to highlight. For the dashed edge, I simply picked up a pencil (because my desk was a such a mess at the time, I couldn't find any of my tools ;-)! and on a flat surface added the dashes- this helped give a contrast to the depth of the face.

LPC004

 

Next, I wanted to add some colour. I toyed with adding a pool of Frescos into the concave parts, but decided to leave her face to 'shine' (pun intended!). So, I gathered up a selection of colours- not worrying about whether they were opaque or translucent as I thought they'd be an interesting combination.

I added drops of different colours in a line across and simply brushed them up and down, gently combining the colours and leaving them to dry.

Now for the fun part; just chop into strips and pleat it. Because it's really gorgeously bendable, it pleats beautifully and once sanded (and do be rough!) it reveals streaks of silver that tie it in with the main metal image.

What else can you do with the tape? I'll show you one of my failures or 'incomplete experiments'! Try painting and stencilling

Add the dried single layer of metal and emboss the metal through the Lin Brown 003 stencil. 

Then sand away carefully onto the embossed parts. Weirdly- only one of the colours wanted to sand- although Darcy (whose brains I was picking at the time) gave some brilliant suggestions using Fairy Power Spray or if all else failed, adding extra stencils or even adding a layer of Crackle Glaze through the stencilled areas and then a contrasting paint colour over the top. I was going to try and complete it for today's post, but lost it (oops!).

Who's ready for a sneak peak!!! 

Below is a peak of ECL03 {available soon}. Using the techniques I've already shown you, here's another idea using the metal and stamps and Frescos. The metal (being shiny) reminded me of a mirror and I thought it was perfect with some brand new stamps (shhh) and the sentiment came to me whilst I was stamping. 

If you use the translucent Fresco's with the metal, they give a fabulous effect whilst not completely blocking out the metal. I've 'sketched' extra details onto the image using a simple embossing tool and the individual letters from another new set are perfect for creating any saying you choose.

Apologies for the reflection in the picture (but you try photographing a mirror surface!!- any tips would be welcome!!).

So- I feel like I've only just scratched the surface of using metal tape- it makes a perfect edging and why not try die cutting some shapes out, adding onto your chosen surface and then carefully smoothing the tape over the shapes. Pick out the embossed areas by dry brushing Frescos over. Because it's adhesive backed, it is perfect for using with PaperArtsy's dies too. Do have a go with the embossing and debossing- it's great fun and very soothing rubbing over metal!

See you soon!  Keren xx @craftstampink

Thanks keren for starting us off on our new theme. You have created a wonderful dimension to the LP image using the faux metal technique and also by using the stencil, it's great you experimented, we like the results. Loving the sneak peak sample :))

If you fancy joining PaperArtsy challenge #2: Shiny Stuff, then you can link up your creativity HERE.  

NB.  you will get 3 weeks to participate in this challenge, as we will interrupt the usual schedule for our New Product Announcements which starts Feb 1st for a week.

All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Shiny Stuff link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Feb 8th, winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.