Tammy Tutterow

CHA in review: My new Claudine Hellmuth love!

Wow, so many amazing moments and amazing things at CHA this year.  I am not sure how to even share them all, it may take a couple of posts to do it. I think, maybe my most favorite product was one that wasn't really new at all: Claudine Hellmuth's Studio Paints and Sticky Back Canvas.  I consider myself very paint illiterate.  I have no idea what makes what paints better for one project or another, I just kind of grab whatever I have on hand, which is usually what was a good deal at the craft store.  As I have been working to make some of my decor projects a bit more classroom friendly (watching paint dry is seriously not too exciting in a class), I knew that would entail finding the right paint for the right application, not just using whatever.  That is where Claudine comes in. Claudine was at CHA demoing her products.  My mom and I happened along as she was sitting up and I decided to ask her about paint and see if she had suggestions.  She was so very sweet and spent time with me talking about what I was making and what and why the paint made a difference.  She had tons of examples of her work out and told me how to do every single technique I asked about.  She made quick samples for me and gave them to me to help me remember what she shared with me.  I know she says it is her job to explain the products and share about using them, but still it was so kind to help me the way she did.  She totally opened my eyes and inspired me to a whole new avenue of creating as well as helping me find the solution to the paint drying part of classroom projects.  It is phenomenal what you can do with her line.  I can not wait to have it all in my hands and put into practice so much of what she shared with me. Huge thank you's to Claudine!  I truly appreciate your sharing!

You can find Claudine's products through Ranger.

Her website is-  Collage Artist

She shares tips and ideas here- Hip Art for Playful Hearts

Her blog is- Diary of Claudine Hellmuth

BasicGrey CHA-W 2010: Origins Butterfly Shadowbox

Origins is a newer line from BasicGrey that debuted in November.  Since it hasn't been to a show yet, I got the opportunity to use it in a show sample as well.  I really loved the mix of greens and yellows in this line.  I started working on this project with no real direction other than knowing I wanted to incorporate the lace paper in some way.  I ended up with something that I think is full of cool details.

This is a wooden key holder cabinet salvaged from the clearance aisle at Michaels.  I should have taken a before photo to give you an idea of what it was and how you could take something similar and make a fun display case from it.

For a handle to open the door, I combined a chipboard element with some old school BG fibers and and vintage key.

Both the top and bottom surfaces got a new face as well as the front and sides.  I cut the bottom piece to fit so that the pattern is continuous as it goes around the corner to the side of the box.

I wanted to create something dimensional with the chip butterfly elements so I used the negative space of the chipboard sheet after they were punched out as a template for making matching butterflies out of vellum.

I hope that you can begin to see here that the lace paper is actually floating out from the back of the box and that there is another pattern of paper in the back of the box showing through.

What I did to create that was to cut a heavy clear piece of acrylic (from Clear Scraps) to fit the inside of the box.  I applied Therm O Web's Mounting Adhesive to the front of the acrylic and then laid the lace paper in place.  I stacked two adhesive foam squares together and placed those on the back of the acrylic in areas where the lace had big patterns.  After the acrylic/lace paper piece was in place inside the box, I poured microbeads all over it.  Since Mounting Adhesive is like sheets of double sided tape and since it was sandwiched in between the paper lace and acrylic, that meant all of the openings of the lace had exposed adhesive.  The beads stuck to the exposed adhesive wherever I poured them.  I pressed on them a little to make sure they stuck good.  Some fell away, but most stayed leaving a very random effect.

For the flowers, I layered the dimensional sticker elements on the chipboard flowers and placed them with adhesive foam squares.

In bright sunlight you can see a little more of the randomness of the microbeads and the extra sparkle they add.

This project brings to close my week long run of BasicGrey show pieces.  I had such a good time creating these, it makes me wish for trade shows more often than just twice a year!

Oops! Bad link!

If you tried to download the Bingham Groceries free image and couldn't, it was due to a bad link. It has been corrected so if you wanted it, you should be able to get it now. Sorry about that!

BasicGrey CHA-W 2010: Green at Heart

I was in Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks ago looking for things to alter for the show and this little wooden wheelbarrow caught my eye.  I knew the name of the line but hadn't seen it yet.  With the name "Green At Heart" I kept thinking about gardening and earthiness.  I wouldn't so much say that is the focus of the collection, but it kind of stuck on that with me.   What could fit better with what I was thinking about the line than a garden wheelbarrow, right?

Altering the wheelbarrow in my mind at the store was easy, altering at home was a bit more involved.  I generally disassemble pieces as much as I can to recover them.  Unfortunately, the box part of this piece doesn't really come apart.  I knew I wanted to make each slat a different color so I measured and cut each piece to fit onto the still assembled box.  It took a ton of time, but I think in the end, looks really cool.  It reminds me of really old time farm stuff that people made from whatever they had on hand including mismatch re-purposed lumber.  The pattern to the paper really has that kind of old and weathered paint feel to it to me.

I was actually able to get the wheel out so it got a new paper face and a fun chip element at the center.

A fun wheelbarrow is cute, but what do you do with it?  I decided the project needed a purpose, so I decided a recipe card holder would be really fun.

I used the fun little note elements on each tab for the labels and as fun flowers paired with the delicious fabric covered brads.

It is always funny to me that the collection I don't instantly connect with when I first see it, usually ends up being a project I really love.  That happened with this collection.  I liked it, but I am drawn to much softer colors.  Bold colors sometimes stump me as to what to do with them.  I ended up saving this project to last, which is what I do with the one that doesn't click for me.  The more I worked with it, the more I fell in love with the bright distressed solids and the vivid patterns.  Once again, the one that didn't click instantly became a favorite project!

Tomorrow's project is my other top favorite project and features the Origins collection.  I can't wait to share it so be sure and come back tomorrow to see it!

BasicGrey CHA-W 2010: Cappella Photo Frame

I know I already said it before when I posted my other Cappella project, but I really love this collection.  I love the blues, browns, and greens.  sigh.  It is just a perfect collection to me.

These flowers and leaves were painted and Mod Podged like I described the other day on the post about the Capella Canvas.

For the embellishments on this frame, I layered rub-ons, chip elements, and the dimensional sticker elements along with some bling and flowers with fabric covered brads.

I also added a chip element heart on one of the canvas tags.

It is hard to tell in the photo, but each section of this frame has a large groove at each corner.  The pattern on the paper I used is all straight lines so I cut, matched and mitered each side to match up at the corners to make the square effect.

I really wish I could get a better photo of how the flowers turned out, they look so amazing in person.

Okay, tomorrow is another BasicGrey post and a fun project that looks deceptively easy.

BasicGrey CHA-W 2010: Kioshi Photo Frame

I love any collections that come out that focus on soft pastel colors and florals, so of course the new Kioshi collection sparked for me.  I have always said that no one does pattern paper solids like BasicGrey and this collection is packed full of great distressed solids.  This collection has absolutely awesome pastel solids!  Just look at the green on the frame below, I love it!  This collection also has really gorgeous florals too, so be sure and check those out too.

I layered the fun chip flowers with the felty elements to create lots of depth and lots of texture.  I sanded the edges on the chip pieces a bit to add a little bit of distressing.

Lots and lots of adhesive foam squares.  You can see on the tallest flower, some of the petals have extra lift with adhesive squares under them to keep the flower from just laying flat.

I also added a foam square under one of the wings of the felty dragonfly do give him some extra dimension.

For tomorrow, I think I will share the second project I did from Capella.  Be sure and come back tomorrow to check it out!

BasicGrey CHA-W 2010: Max and Whiskers Photo Frame

I think this release from BasicGrey will make some of my pet loving friends very, very happy!  It is absolutely adorable and has a little something for every kind of pet.  Since I have a dog, I went with a frame that would show off a favorite photo of the old man (as we have taken to calling him at 9 years old).

I really love the combination of colors in this collection.  I love the browns and oranges with the turquoise.  Even if you aren't a pet owner, you will want to check out this line anyway because the colors are so rich and there are patterns that are must haves that don't have anything to do with pets, like the fun check and dots above.

Is that canvas you say?  Why yes, yes it is!  I was thrilled to see canvas tags, love, love, love them.  For the tag above I layered a chip element on the canvas tag, which is on an epoxy sticker, which is on a chip tag.

The chip shapes in this collection are really fun.  I loved the puppy in the set! Okay, check back tomorrow for another BasicGrey project featuring another new line!

BasicGrey CHA-W 2010: Cappella Canvas

When it comes time to share my trade show projects and I know I will be planning them out to post over several days, I can never decide whether to share my favorite project first or save it until last.  This time that turned out easy, since I have two favorites- one gets to be first and one gets to be last.  I have six projects to share and will be posting one each day until I share them all. Let me say, this new line, Cappella is absolutely 100% what I would design a line like if I had the graphic design skills and artistic ability to design paper.  It is packed full of colors that I love, shabbiness that I love, bit of vintageness that I love. . . simply put, I absolutely love this line.  It really pained me to cut into it. I actually go to do two projects with it for the show.  The first is a canvas with words that are very important:

This project combines lots of layers and textures and tons of foam adhesives square, which you know I just can't create without!

On the "do" letters I had a fun discovery.  I painted the raw chipboard letters with Shimmerz new Pearlz paints.  They gave the letters a really cool silvery metal look.  I decided that I decided I needed some glittery bling, so I painted a layer of Shimmerz Blingz over the Pearlz.  It looked great but the more I looked at it, the more I decided it needed shine since there were several epoxy elements on the project.  I grabbed my Glossy Accents, but since I was going for the vintage distressed look, I grabbed the Crackle version.

As the Crackle Accents started drying, I noticed that it was flaking up.  Evidently, because Shimmerz paints are water based, the crackle pulled some of the water out and kept it from binding normally.  I had a definitely "oh, no" moment because the letters were already stuck on the project and the last d and o I had in that size.  As it flaked up I noticed that what was left was pretty cool.  It looked like rough metal.  It was still glittery like, but not really shiny.  The Crackle Accents also took on a silvery opaque color.  Some bits of the crackle came off, but others hung tight so I left it as it dried and decided that it was a very happy oops result.  The blue letters were already blue but got a light coat of regular acrylic paint to give them some variation and then a coat of Crackle Accents.  No weird reaction for it, just yummy vintage crackle.

Another fun touch was my experimenting with the paper flowers.  I wanted them to have a sparkly and shiny finish instead of the mat paper finish.  I first brushed on some Shimmerz paints with a stipple brush and then painted each flower and leaf with a coat of Mod Podge.   The end result was sparkle, light shine, and almost a waxed or plastic look that looks very pearly.

Okay, enough photos and talk about this one!  Be sure to check back tomorrow to see my next BasicGrey piece!

Teaching News: Media Kits

One of the things that has been keeping me super busy getting ready for CHA is putting together my medial kits to give to retailers who might be interested in booking classes with me.  I wanted to present them with something that would help them get to know me, my style, my available classes, and printable and web materials they could use to promote my classes with  and some of the other details involved with bookings.  I decided to burn all of that info on a CD and package it in a CD folder that hopefully represents my look and brand.  I am really pleased with how it all came together.

I will be handing these out to retailers at CHA while I am doing my make-n-takes at Prima.  If you are a retailer or know of a store that you would love to see me visit, please feel free to send me an email, I would love to put one of these into the mail to you or your favorite store!

From my studio: Glimmery-Shimmery Crinkled Ribbon and Lace

I had a fun discovery the other day.  .  . I discovered how to layer color upon color of different colors of sprays to create a multicolor watercolorish effect on seam binding.  I am thinking I will save the details until I get back from California and then share a more thorough tutorial.  I wish I had taken a photo of the vintage seam binding and lace before I started so you could see a before and after.  Both started out white and ended up vintagey and distessed and watercolorish and crinkled! If you are stopping by the Prima booth for a make-n-take with me, this is the ribbon and lace you will be using on your tag project.  If you can't make it to California, stay tuned, when I get back I will share how I achieved this effect.