Monday 10 January 2011

ORCHID CHALLENGE


Well I am on a roll ...I just noticed Claires challenge at Do crafts and thought the thank you card I wanted to make for my Brother's Girlfriend fitted perfectly with the picture challenge.

As Tracy had bought me a beautiful orchid as an extra Christmas pressie I wanted to thank her and show her that it's still alive!!! In fact bearing in mind my fatal touch with plants I am really rather proud of myself.

I photographed the flowers and as an experiment I printed onto tissue to give it a softer oriental feel but still trying to keep to my resolution of "keeping it simple".

Here's a few guidelines if you're thinking of trying it .......learnt the hard way.
  • Check your tissue hasn't got a gloss coating....(I found mine had a matt finish on the back).....the gloss side didn't like the ink and it didn't dry properly .........messy mistake number 1 ....Solution print on matt side!
  • Attach the paper firmly along the top edge...I found it best to run a glue stick along the carrier paper and stick the tissue down ovelapping....then trim off excess...ALSO attach lightly along bottom....disastrous mistake number 2..if not attached properly, printer eats paper.....aaaaaaaaaggggghhhh!
  • If your paper has previously chewed the tissue ...do not put any other proper projects through printer....messy mistake number 3, ink will have been dumped all over roller and will need cleaning and scrap paper run through till clean.
  • Make sure the tissue is much larger than image printed and is printed only on the non- stuck down area..... otherwise expensive waste of ink mistake number 4.

Still despite the learning curve.... I was pleased with the result...I'm not sure it shows but it has a lovely soft fabric look to the image.
I left the image on the carrier sheet while i trimmed it in my trimmer...did wonder if I should have had a torn edge??
I then reattached this to card with a glue stick (apply the glue to card.......tissue too thin...mistake number 6!) then trimmed to leave a little white border. I wound a cord round the image(cut from a blind) and fastened the ends at the back, then finished the card by mounting the image on foam pads (or scraps of glued thick card) and adding a PC printed greeting embellished with my revolting (but great for cards) green glitter nailvarnish.


3 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Hello Diane, found you on Docrafts today and thought I'd take a peek here. I would never have thought of trying to print on tissue because I thought it would be too delicated so your tips are very useful. I so admire your frugal ethic. I've only been crafting for less than a year but in that time I have acquired such a lot of crafting stuff but I'm aiming to buy less this year, only the essentials, e.g. cardstock and adhesive, because I must have enough to last a year. I've made a start by using bits from Christmas cards received. So I'll be taking a careful look through your past posts to pick up other hints and tips and let's see how I get on this year. Kind regards Elizabeth

Laura said...

Hey Diane!
Glad to see you're back with your tutorials. A splendid idea! But to make things easier... I would suggest attaching the tissue to the cardstock and then printing... I have a tutorial on it and I think it might work! (tissue paper tutorial).

Hardly wait to see what you come up with next!

Hugs,
Laura

salamanda said...

This is a great idea and it's good to know what not to do, although I sometimes find that I like my mistakes more than my finished piece. Have just been mucking about with acrylic paints and acetate and having great fun.

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