Saturday, June 22, 2013

Second Tuesday

My great delay in posting....hope to catch up later... This should have been posted just after June 11.....but I  am SO behind in keeping you up to date.

Oh, my...

There were only 6 of us at Second Tuesday tonight. We each did the vignette settings out of foamcore as a learning process THEN we did larger pieces that will be the basis for the pieces for the children`s table at our Show and Sale in September.

Wendy mentioned that she had epoxy residue on her hands from working on her dolls so we discussed barrier hand lotions. You can Google that but one I`m aware off is the is the one from Lee Valley 

This is inexpensive and quick...

FOAMCORE CARD OR VIGNETTE SETTING

This can be used to make a greeting card with a small vignette inside or simply as a setting for a seasonal vignette (such as a Christmas scene).

Made this way, there are no visible seams on the outside of the vignette.

Cut a piece of 3/16” foamcore to the height you want for your wall and twice the width of one wall.
(This particular vignette will be 8” tall with two 5” sides so this piece is 8” x 10”. This is a good size for a card. Where I’ve wanted a larger scene, I’ve used a piece 10” high x 20” wide and a piece 10” square for the base.)

Draw a vertical line down the exact centre of the foamcore. Draw another line 3/16” to the left of the centre line. Then draw a line up 3/16” from the bottom of the piece.

 Using an X-Acto knife with a brand new blade, cut along the bottom line in two strokes: first cutting through the upper layer of cardstock, then cutting through the foam layer, being careful not to cut through the bottom layer of cardstock.  Run the blade of your X-Acto knife between the bottom layer of cardstock and the bottom of the foam layer. Remove the 3/16” upper layer.



Now cut along the two vertical lines at the centre, again cutting only through the top layer of cardstock and the foam. Fold the right hand side back at the centre line and again run the blade between the bottom layer of cardstock and the bottom of the foam layer to release the centre strip.

Run a bead of Tacky glue down the left hand side of the middle strip. Fold the right hand side into that strip.
   
Clamp the pieces at right angles until the glue is dry. ( * have this great angle clamp from Princess Auto but you can use anything in the house to accomplish this: boxes, books, etc._


Cut another piece of foamcoare 5” x 5” for the “floor” of the vignette. Run a bead of glue along the inside angle of the bottom  cut and fit this piece in place.


For our 'class', we did the small pieces with the 5 x 5 inch bases. (Because we could do six pieces out of one sheet of foamcore.) But for the children's table at our September Show and Sale, we did extra pieces that were 10 x 10 x 10 - and those are great because we can get two of them from one sheet of foamcore with only three major cuts.


Because foamcore tends to warp when a water-based glue is used, I generally use rubber cement to attach any large areas of paper (such as a picture on the front of the card or wallpaper to the ‘walls’ for the inner ‘room’) to it.

If you wish, you can glue (using Tacky) ribbon or cord along the edges of the vignette to cover the raw edges of the foamcore.



This wedding vignette is 10” x 10” x 10” 


Hint: If you’re making several of these at once, don’t make the cuts to remove the centre and bottom strips until you have several ready to do. Cutting through the foam is very hard on your cutting blade so if you make all the partial cuts first then remove the strips, your blade will last longer.

1 comment:

  1. I'm so grateful for all the hard work you and the others did, sorting and pricing all those miniatures for the Estate Sale. Stop by my table at the show and sale and if you see something you like I'll give you a discount :)
    XX
    Ruth

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