Techno Lover

I completed this layout last week and I really like how it turned out. I thought I'd share a few of its techniques with you.

Journaling: I still remember life without the Internet, digital cameras and cell phones. But, now that I have all these things, they’ve become such an essential part of my life that I could never live without them again. I love technology. 10.25.07

Techniques: Dry embossing on sheet metal, using sheet metal as background paper. Painting over dry embossing, altering photographs using paint and stamps

Cardstock: Bazzil; Pattern paper: pages ripped out of an old book; Stamps: Inque Boutique: What a feeling, phantoms, encircled; Chipboard: Heidi Swapp alphabet and heart; Ink: Staz-on black; Other: Sheet metal: EK Success; acrylic paint, Ranger red pepper dabber, stylus, glue arts micro dots

To do the journaling and star border, I took the black pad that comes with Inque Boutique Stamps and placed it under my metal. I used a stylus (which is like a metal pencil with a small immovable ball on top) and wrote my journaling and made stars. Then I took black acrylic paint and painted over the journaling. Before the paint dried, I wiped off the excess paint on the surface of the metal and left the paint in the grooves of my writing. Do not use a baby wipe because it will take all the paint off. Use a dry paper towel. I did the same thing for the stars only with red paint. When I completed this, I adhered the sheet metal to a sheet of cardstock so that it would have a bit more stability.

To alter my photos, I printed them out on my home printer. I worked with one photo at a time until I got to the painting part, then I did them all at once. Soak your photo in warm water face down for 30 seconds. I noticed that some red dye oozed from the photo, but it didn't seem to do any harm so I didn't sweat it. Dry the photo with a paper towel then using a fine grade sandpaper, sand the spots that you want to paint. I sanded around the actual image, as you can see. After I did all of this nap time was over ending my creative time, so I left my photos to dry. When I came back in the evening, I sprayed the photos with a fine mist and used green, yellow and a bit of red acrylic paint. I put on some paint, wiped some off, sprayed more water and fiddled until I liked how it looked. When the paint dried, I got out my Inque stamps and used StazOn and stamped my heart out. This part was really fun. When finished, I adhered the photos to a few sheets of text that I ripped out of an old book and adhered that to my sheet metal using my normal hermafix adhesive.

I used chipboard for my title, I painted it black using acrylic and distressed the edges using a file and sandpaper. I wanted the distressed title to be a bit of a justoposition to the more modern feel of the rest of the layout.

I hope that you enjoy these techniques!