The weather is definitely sizzling, so I want to remind you that we have special prices on three Starter Packs over at the Online Store. These are the packs we featured in the June 2011 Quilting Arts ad.

The special prices are only good through the end of July. When you take advantage of these offers, you save 20% off the price of buying the items separately.

Rubbing Plate Starter Pack – $57.00
We’ve been talking about rubbings, and here’s your chance experiment with paintstik rubbings at a very special price.

The Rubbing Plate Starter Pack includes one copy of Paintstiks on Fabric, the Iridescent Tropical Colors, and one set of Floral Fantasy rubbing plates.

Stencil Starter Pack – Just $64.00
I know that some of you like stenciling better than making rubbings. For you, we have added a Stencil Starter Pack to our lineup.

The Stencil Starter Pack contains everything you need for adding sensational stenciled images to your fabric or paper projects. You get one copy of Paintstiks on Fabric, two sets of Paintstik Minis (Ir Metallic colors and Matte Classic Colors), two sets of our Theme Stencils (Snowflakes and Celebrate) and a set of brushes.

Design Magic Starter Pack – Just $69.00
Now this is truly the perfect pack for lazy summer days! Create your own designs with a simple 3-step method — or use our pre-cut stencils for instant gratification. (Hey — it’s summer!)

The Design Magic Starter Pack includes one copy of Design Magic for Paintstiks on Fabric, one DesignPack, two sets of Paintstik Minis (IR Sorbet and IR Jewel colors), a set of brushes, and the Bubbles DesignMagic stencils. (You can download the pattern for the Bubbles runner from our Learning Center.)

I’ve been reading articles in Cloth Papers Scissors for several years about embossing designs on metal, and I’ve often wondered if I could transfer the designs from our rubbing plates to metal. Happy me — the answer is definitely “yes!” This technique will definitely be included in my new Rubbing Plate Roundup book.

Here are a couple of quick photos from my play time over the weekend.

Here is a photo of the Fern plate from the Leaves Rubbing Plate set.

I taped a small square of craft aluminum on the plate and used tools from Walnut Hollow to transfer the design to the aluminum. It’s not a perfect rendition — and that’s just fine. The bottom line is that it works quite well! Now I need some alcohol inks to give this a splash of color, and it will be ready for use as an embellishment for a fiber or mixed media piece.

Rubbing Plate Roundup is scheduled for release later this fall. Watch this space for details.

If I understand correctly, we can actually stitch many of the metal pieces with the sewing machine. I’ll have to check that out more carefully before I run this through my sewing machine. (A little research can save a lot of broken needles…)

When I get involved in projects (especially books!), I often forget to take time to play. I’m fortunate to have a couple of friends who tap me on the shoulder once in a while and remind me it’s time for a play date.

I joined two of my friends Becky and Deb for a Friday evening a few weeks ago. We popped open a bottle of bubbly, snacked on delightful (and reasonably healthy) food, and got caught up on each other’s lives a bit. What a nice change of pace.

I wasn’t so sure if beading and bubbly was going to be a good combination, but Becky proceeded to teach Deb and I to make these cut little beaded bracelets. It’s amazing what you can do with a tube of beads, a button, some fishing line and a piece of leather. I sat down and finished my bracelet the very next morning. — so you know it wasn’t too difficult.

I just happen to have this antique button in my stash. It could not have been more perfect for the beads we confiscated from Becky.

Now you know what I’ve been doing this summer… What have you been up to?

Believe it or not, paintstiks are not just for fabric. While painting on fabric is my passion, paintstiks have been around almost as long as I have, and they have most often been used on anything but fabric.

Paintstiks will adhere to any porous surface such as canvas (think fine art painting), metal, wood, paper – you name it. If you’ve got it, you can probably paint it. People have used paintstik colors to stencil images on walls, ceiling, and floor for decades, and they are still popular in the decorative painting world. Skip the glass (unless it it etched) the glazed ceramics and stainless steel – there is nothing on these shiny surfaces for the paint to grab onto.

Given their versatility, paintstiks are great mixed media tools. You can use them to add color and wonderful finishes to found objects, metal washers, wood, chipboard, paper and that very cool stuff called Grungeboard.

Great for Grungeboard

Several years ago, I used Grungeboard letters for one of our Cedar Canyon ads. Before I get 279 e-mail messages with the same question, here’s a quick lesson on painting Grungeboard.

First, I know at least a few of you are thinking “what in the world is grungeboard?” According to the package, grungeboard is a compressed, flexible sheet of dingy material with a debossed texture that can be painted, inked, sanded, hammered or grunged. (Whatever that means…) Grungeboard is from Tim Holtz and you can click here for a YouTube video. You may have seen it referenced in Cloth Paper Scissors or Quilting Arts. It’s big in the paper market and I found a package of grungeboard alphabets at my local scrap booking store. There is one sheet for each letter. Here is the letter S.

Paintstiks on Grungeboard

Painting these letters was an exercise in finger painting more than anything else. I pulled on a pair of latex gloves to protect my hands, peeled the film off my paintstiks and got to work. The letters are textured, so I rubbed the paint directly on the letters and then worked the color around with my fingers. (Using a brush was too slow – can you say ad deadline?) I also wanted to make sure the edges of the letters were painted. Since grungeboard is flexible, I just bent the letters and smeared paint on with my fingers.

After I got a good coat of paint on a letter, I usually added a second color by dragging a paintsitk across the raised portion of the letter.

Now here’s the real test — you have to let it dry. Being the impatient person that I am, I wanted to finish my little experiment the very next day. (Did I mention that I had a deadline looming?) All the time I was stitching my letters to the fabric, I had paint coming off on my fingers. Not a lot, but the paint definitely was not dry after just 24 hours. I finished the piece without making a big mess, and decided to check the sample every day to see how long it took the letters to dry completely. After 3 days, the letters were dry — and I was really happy with my little paintstik patina adventure!

Before I forget, one quick warning about trying to stitch through grungeboard… It’s very easy to stitch through this material by machine, but I found it very challenging to stitch by hand. The needle just did not want to slide through the grungeboard. To make this easier, I un-threaded my sewing machine and took the foot off. I used the machine needle to punch holes in the letters and then stitched by hand. My fingers were pretty sore by the time I finished, but I was happy with the results. And yes, I got the ad done on time.

Are you up for a Grungeboard adventure? We don’t have Grungeboard, but we’ve got more Paintstiks than Heinz has pickles! Click over to our Online Store for Paintstiks, Stencils, Rubbing Plates and more! If you’re set on Grungeboard, do a quick search on Google and you’ll turn up plenty of sources. If you prefer to shop at home, check your local scrapbooking or mixed-media stores.

I recently exchanged a series of messages with Suzanne H., one of our Canadian readers. Suzanne asked me a series of questions about the Colorless and Iridescent Paintstik Blenders that pushed me to think beyond my initial short answer.

Just one quick disclaimer — Suzanne did NOT ask “What the dickens is a blender???” That is simply my headline intended to get your attention — but it accurately captures the spirit of a question I’ve been asked many, many times over the past 5 years.

Here is a summary of our exchange with a few edits for clarity:

Suzanne: I would like to know how and when to use the blender sticks (iridescent or matte). I bought both blenders with iridescent and matte color sticks along with Laura Murray’s book called Starbuilders, but her book does not mention the blender sticks at all. (Visit www.lauramurraydesigns.com to find out more about Starbuilders.)

Shelly: I use blenders to create values of paint. Blenders are not needed for blending 2 colors together. There is a discussion on blenders in the front of my Paintstiks on Fabric book.

Colorless Blender

A colorless blender is paint medium with no pigment. It can be mixed with a paintstik color (on a palette surface) to create a sheer version of a color. For example, you can mix a lot of colorless blender with a small amount of a dark red to get a very pale red.

In the photo, the first swatch is mostly blender with a small amount of red added. The second swatch is about half blender mixed with half red. The third swatch is all red.

My only caution with the colorless blender is that it will yellow over time, so I no longer use that stick when adding images to fabric if a change in the color will bother me.

Iridescent Blender

An iridescent blender is paint medium and “shiny stuff” but no pigment. I have not encountered problems with the colorless blender yellowing over time, so this one is quite useful.

On dark fabric, the iridescent blender appears to be a nice, creamy color even though there is no pigment in the stick. You can use it to create lighter values of colors — it can be mixed with both iridescent and matte colors.

The iridescent blender can also be used to add a bit of iridescence to matte colors, but you may find that the smaller paint particles in the matte colors overpower the “shiny stuff” in the blender.

Suzanne: Thanks for the answer, but I would like a more precise answer about the matte colorless blender. When you say it will yellow over time, did you use it alone or with other colors? Can you explain in more detail what you mean by “it yellows” — does it become brownish?

Since I have the blender, would I be able to use it with colors that have yellow in them (such as deep yellow, orange, lime, greens, etc.) to get softer or paler colors without noticing the yellowing problems? Or, if I want to obtain a patina over time, would the blender help me achieve that?

Shelly: Thanks for the excellent questions. I had to think about this for a while to formulate a good reply. Fortunately, I have some pictures that illustrate my point.

Sample Set 1

We did a set of samples for each of the paintstik colors about 4 years ago. We created a small rubbing and a small stenciled image from each color on white, tan and black fabric. We also used the paintstik directly on the label for each color.

Looking at these samples today, it’s clear to me that the Colorless Blender, used by itself, will turn dark yellow or gold over time. The Iridescent Blender shows very little change. Here are two photos that illustrate this change.

The photo above shows the samples of the Colorless Blender and Titanium White paintstiks from our samples. While the Titanium White is virtually unchanged, the blender has definitely changed color. When we made the samples, the colorless blender was almost invisible.

This photo shows the Iridescent White and Iridescent Blender samples. I’ve noticed a very slight change with the Iridescent Blender, but not nearly as dramatic as with the Colorless Blender. It’s not much different 4 years later. Perhaps a bit more yellow, but still pleasing.

Sample Set 2

About 3 years ago, I made up a series of samples for a segment on Quilting Arts TV. Luckily, I took photos at that time. Here are the “before and after” photos of a leaf painted with a mixture of Prussian Blue and Colorless Blender.

The color adjustment of the two photos is not exactly the same, but I think it illustrates the point. The yellowing of the blender has shifted the lightest portion of the leaf from pale blue to green.

I like your use of the term “patina.” That’s a good description for what will happen to colors mixed with a high percentage of the colorless blender stick. This is a great use of the blender if done in a purposeful manner.

Many thanks to Suzanne for continuing to ask questions until she got a satisfactory answer.

Got an idea? Tell me about it!

I posted this call for entries / submissions in the Cedar Canyon Online E-zine in June. There’s still time to submit your ideas and potentially see them in print.

What Are You Doing With Rubbing Plates?

I’m working on a new book project that will feature a bunch of ways to use our rubbing plates. I know that you are some of the most creative people on the planet (yes, you are!) and that you have probably used our rubbing plates for dozens of thing other than paintstik rubbings.

- Are you using our rubbings plates to make impressions in clay (polymer, paper, pottery…)?

- Are you pouring liquid or spreadable stuff in the plates and letting it dry?

- Are you using our rubbing plates with paints? Discharge products?

- Are you using the rubbing plates for embossing patterns on paper or metal?

- Are you using them to stamp images on fabric or other surfaces? What are you stamping with?

For those of you who are new to our community, our rubbing plates are plastic plates with textures in them. Each set of plates has 6 different designs. You can learn more about them on the Rubbing Plates page. I designed the rubbing plates for the purpose of transferring images to fabric with Shiva Paintstiks, but they can be used in dozes of different ways. About the only thing that’s off limits are processes or materials that involve heat. If the plates get too hot, the design / texture melts away. Not the best plan if you want to use them again!

Submit Your Ideas and Photos

Here’s your chance to show off your stuff! I am looking for two things — ideas for using the plates and images for the gallery pages in the book.

Technique Ideas: Send me an e-mail message with a description of your rubbing plate technique. You are welcome to send a few quick photos showing how you execute your technique, but don’t go to a lot of extra work. I will contact you if I need further information.

Gallery Images: Send me an e-mail message with one or more low-resolution image(s) of finished items that you created that used a Cedar Canyon Textiles rubbing plate to make one of the design elements. Do not send finished artwork at this time. If we choose to use your creation in the gallery section, we will contact you with shipping instructions.

What’s In It For You?

If you submit a technique that is not already part of my book outline, you will receive credit for the idea in the book. (If a bunch of you send the same idea, I’ll figure it out!)

If your artwork is included in the Gallery section, you will receive credit for the work. (Of course!)

Even though we won’t be able to use all submissions in the book, I would love to feature your work in this E-zine and on the Cedar Canyon Textiles website. By submitting an idea or artwork photos, you agree to allow us to showcase your ideas and artwork on our site. We will give you credit for your ideas and link to your site or blog if you have one.

If we feature your ideas and/or artwork in the book, this E-zine, or on our website, we will send you a free copy of the book as soon as it is back from the printer. You deserve it!

Deadline for Submissions

I’m in the process of finalizing the outline and page allocation for the book. I need your ideas and photos of your artwork now! I’ve received some really great ideas from our newsletter readers, but I’m hoping to get a few more.

Technique Ideas: must be submitted by July 8, 2011. That’s just a few short days away, so don’t delay!

Gallery Images: must be submitted by  July 22, 2011 to allow time for photography. If you have appropriate artwork, submit your photos right away. Gallery space is limited.

How to Submit You Ideas and Artwork

Send your ideas and/or photos to Contact@CedarCanyonTextiles.com. Please put the words “RUBBING PLATE SUBMISSION” in the Subject line of the e-mail message. DO NOT SEND ARTWORK AT THIS TIME.

Include your Name, Address, Email Address and Phone Number.

If you prefer to send your submission by mail, please send information to  Rubbing Plate Submission, Cedar Canyon Textiles, PO Box 196, Miltona, MN 56354.

Please Share This With Your Friends

Our community is growing every day, but I know that there are gazillions of people who have not yet joined us. If you have friends that like to play with rubbing plates, please forward this message to them. I’d love to see their stuff too!