A Mini Tutorial - Grid Borders

Hi everyone,

I have fallen a bit behind on my blog posting and I apologize to all my readers....and to those who stop by to see what's new, on their way to somewhere else!!  I've been recovering from some health issues caused by some serious flooding where I live that occurred in mid August and for the past couple of days our area has been bracing for the effects of tropical storm Nicole and that passed through last night and left the area in a mess again!!

Now, throughout these past several weeks I've been working on a condenced update of the "etched glass" part of my book and will be uploading that as soon as I can finish putting it together, but meantime, here is a mini tutorial I made quite awhile ago on how to properly place your VELLUM GRID TEMPLATE around your image printed directly to parchment paper.  **Please click on the "tutorials" tab for a refresher tut on printing on parchment and making grid border templates to work from.**

Now, there is one thing I believe (and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!!!) is being overlooked when working with any of the steps in my Parchment Craft "Etched Glass" Technique.....and that is this:  you absolutely MUST emboss on the back side of your printed image!!  Find the areas on the image you want to further highlight and give texture to.  That is what you would be doing if you were making a totally 'traditional/pure' parchment project.  The ONLY thing different we are doing with my technique is printing the image on a sheet of parchment paper!!!!  Please pretend the image was created by your own preferred 'pure' parchment technique and you will then always know you MUST emboss on the back to make things look just as they do when working on a 'pure' parchment project.  It is NOT acceptable to simply print out the image...then make a grid border around it and call it an "etched glass" project that has been completed properly. 

Okay peeps, this is my 'lecture' for today and I promise I will continue to work on the tutorial I've been promising for awhile now, as I know there are some who are waiting VERY patiently for it :))

Hugs to all,
Vickie

Papercrazy's Place

Papercrazy's Place:  I have updated and added new items to my web site!!  Please stop by and see what's new....

Hugs,
Vickie

Parchment Craft - Bobbin Lace Conversion

Hello everyone,

It's been a short while since I've posted....and I think everyone has had their fill of Christmas in July so I'm ready to move along.  Anyone wishing to send a project created with any of the Christmas images can still do so and I will add your work to the collection for readers to enjoy.

It's been several months since I made my first attempt at converting lace to parchment paper. 

You can see a few of my Vintage Borders on my web site.  Although converting a crocheted lace pattern to something workable on parchment paper is a bit intimidating I was determined to figure out how to make it work!!  Well, only three of all the border designs I made were good enough to upload to the web site, but the lessons learned would come in handy in the future!!

After seeing some drop dead gorgeous lace conversions  to parchment recently by Bruno Piechota I had to give this another try...but on a bit larger scale!!  I had seen some bobbin lace works a long time ago and I set out to relocate those sites once again. Click here to go to one of the sites and you will see the magnificent bobbin lace that will absolutely inspire you to try converting this ancient art form to parchment craft!!!  On the sidebar of the site are lots of links to members sites (all within this bobbin lace association) and see works by many, many others....some of which  have a pattern for bobbin lace that has the possibility to convert to parchment craft.

These are the two pieces I challenged myself to convert recently. They are both suitable for framing to an 8X10 inch photo frame (as shown) and make a very nice beginning to a collection of bobbin lace ladies converted to parchment craft!!  Of course, this technique is not limited to silhouettes of vintage ladies but they are what I chose to tackle first!!


Okay folks, here is a very basic bobbin lace pattern, along with a sample image, that I hope will inspire you enough to challenge yourselves to give this a try.  If you keep things simple the first time around then you shouldn't be tempted to not try at all because of difficulty.  Anyone wishing to challenge themselves to give this a try can send your works on to me (papercrazysplace@gmail.com) and I am happy to share with my readers!!  HINT:  Choose another deep color, other than black, to mount your work on, and see how different your work will look. 

Converting bobbin lace to parchment consists of lots of embossing and lots of cutting.....in other words, what we already know as parchment white work!!  We're simply using patterns for another craft....bobbin lace. 

Best wishes with this new challenge and don't forget to share what you have made with those who read this blog, but might need a wee bit of inspiration, from others  who are also trying this for the first time :))  Oh and HAVE FUN along the way!!!!

Hugs to all,
Vickie

 

Skype for Windows Gets Ten-Way Video Calling

Hi everyone,

Oh my goodness!!!  I was interrupted while writing this post earlier today and when I returned to my desk I thought I had finished so I hit the 'publish' button!!  OOPS...I wasn't done and I have just realized I needed to finish what I started earlier....lol


The reason this news release excited me so much is because I have used Skype to teach my own Parchment Craft Etched Glass Technique and it worked very well.  When I taught though, Skype was set up for one on one video calling and that prompted me to wonder why there didn't seem to be anybody out there that offered conference video calling that would allow more than one person at a time.  I wanted  the option to teach more than one person at a time online parchment classes via video calling!!  Well, after some research, there are indeed places that conference video calling is available....for a healthy fee!!!  Anyway, long story short here, and getting back to the topic at hand....Skype released some news today and the article follows below.  

Do you think this would be a nice way to have parchment classes?  Considering all the things that could make it quite difficult (like language/time differences/internet availability, etc.) do you think it might work best within ones own country?  Please share your thoughts, and/or concerns, as I'd love to hear what others think of this great opportunity. 

Skype released an update to Skype for Windows, which allows you to make group video calls with up to ten people. This is in beta.

There is also a new design. Skype's Peter Parkes writes, "You'll notice that the new-look Skype is sleeker, neater and crisper than before, and we're proud of the work our interface designers have done to refine and mature the interface for this version. We've also added Skype Home, where you can follow your contacts' mood messages, set your profile picture and mood message, receive account notifications and learn more about using Skype."

Other improvements include:

- Skype Home experience

- Offline instant messaging

- New contact search and add experience

- Enhanced call experience under problematic conditions

- Post call experience

This version of Skype can be downloaded here. Remember, everyone participating in the video call has to be using this version.