A 100% non-profit Art Publication                                                Click on any of the Menu Buttons
located on Route 66                                                                                            on the left and cruise
in the Galaxies of Cyberspace!                                                                   to your favorite hot spots.

Rubber Road
Scenic Byway:

Cardboard Recycling

By M. Elizabeth Lee
Trailblazers, Multi Media Design Team
Publisher/Editor/Designer/Writer 

Corrugated Cardboard is plentiful and can be found anywhere such as packing, behind the glass in frames, and in grocery store boxes.  Make plans for recycling cardboard as it supplies contrast and texture to art work along with other enhancing qualities.  It accepts inks and other mediums favorably or can be used as is.

Another handy tip included here is creating your own custom colored card stock.  Make endless color coordinating cardstocks using Clearsnap Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink Pads on white glossy cardstock.  Just pat the stamp pad face down on the glossy cardstock in a direct to paper approach.  Once the glossy cardstock is completely covered with ink, take a Viva paper towel and buff the ink out.  Like magic, a custom color is created instantly.  There are no more worries about being out of a certain cardstock color!

This project incorporates Formica Chips into the design as well.   Formica Chip Art remains one of my all-time favorite rubber stamping techniques.  These chips are the countertop samples made by Formica or Wilsonart companies available in hardware stores everywhere.  There are several approaches on how to incorporate these Formica Chips into artwork.  They can be covered with paint, collaged, or decoupaged.  I prefer to allow the dazzling design of the chip to show through.  I have been working in depth with these chips for a few years now.  My most important research dealt with trying to achieve permanency while heat embossing with embossing powders on the Formica Chip.  The heat embossing tended to pop off, scratch off, or cracked shortly after the application was made.    By the year 2000, I had tested a product called Folk Art Glass and Tile Medium as a base coat for the embossing powders.  It provided the base element (or tooth) needed for giving permanency to heat embossed powders on the Formica Chip.  Heated embossing powders no longer popped off the chip when prepping first with this medium.  I was quoted in Vamp Stamp News in January 2002 for my research and approach with this process.  It is my greatest pleasure to share it with you in the following project.

Supplies:

• Menephtah Bust stamp (Lasting Impressions of Panache)
• Peach Pastel Fluid Chalk stamp pad (Clearsnap Colorbox)
• Ginger Adirondack Stamp Pad (Ranger)
• Chestnut (brown) Crafter’s Ink (Clearsnap Colorbox)
• Countertop samples of the same kind (Wilsonart or Formica Chips)
• Denatured Alcohol and cotton balls
• Glossy White Cardstock
• Recycled Brown corrugated cardboard
• Connoisseur mahogany colored picture frame~outside dimensions: 6¼” x 5¾”
• Complimentary fibers in coordinating colors~brown, rust, and peach colors
• Viva Paper Towels
• Foam Tape
• Golden Gel Mediums Soft Gel (Matte)
• Folk Art Glass and Tile Medium (Plaid)
• Sanding Block (3M)
• StazOn Cleaner (Tsukineko)
• VersaMark Ink Pad (Tsukineko)
• UTEE~Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (Suze Wineberg)
• Black Versacraft Marker (Tsukineko)

Instructions:

1.    Cut the glossy cardstock into two 5½”x4¼” sheets.  Lay the Peach Pastel stamp pad face down and stamp the surface of the glossy cardstock.  Buff out color with Viva Paper Towel.  Repeat steps #2 and #3 for second sheet of glossy card stock.  Heat set ink with a heat tool. 

2.    Ink up the King Menephtah image with Ginger Adirondack Stamp Pad and stamp the glossy cardstock.  Repeat this process for both pieces of glossy cardstock.   

3.    Cut out circle image of King Menephtah from the one stamped cardstock.  Closely trim the rectangle imagine of the other stamped cardstock.   

4.    Cut the corrugated cardboard to 5½” x 5½”.  Ink up the stipple brush with Ginger Adirondack Stamp Pad and stroke over the corrugated cardboard.  Keep drying brushing color on until the desired shade is achieved.  Apply Golden Gel Mediums Soft Gel (Matte) all around the backside edge of the corrugated cardboard and glue to frame.  The opening of the frame will now be covered.  

5.    Rough the surface up with a Sanding Sponge.  If there is factory printing on the front of the chip, remove it easily with StazOn Cleaner and a Sanding Sponge.   Clean Formica Chips with a cotton ball saturated with alcohol and dry with a Viva paper towel. Apply one thin coat of Folk Art Glass and Tile Medium to each Formica Chip and allow to dry.  This preps the base to accept embossing powders for permanency. 

6.    Freehand hieroglyphics onto the Formica Chips with a Black VersaCraft Marker and heat set.  Consult the internet, encyclopedias, or the library for hieroglyphic sources.  Lay each Formica Chip Face Down on a VersaMark Ink pad and lightly press until the surface is coated with ink.  Dip the inked chips into UTEE and melt with a heat tool.  An optional method would be to stamp a small Egyptian stamp on the Formica chip instead of applying hieroglyphics freehand. 

7.    Assemble, cut, and larkshead knot fibers all at once onto all the Formica Chips.  Apply foam tape to back side of the Formica Chips and arrange around the frame over the corrugated cardboard.  Apply foam tape to the backside of the rectangle stamped King Menephtah image and center it over the framed piece.  Apply foam tape to the backside of the circular King Menephtah image and attach over the rectangle image.

If you would like to print this technique, click here.  Once you've saved or printed the technique sheet, use your browser's back button to return.

Note: You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to obtain this file.  If you do not have Adobe Acrobat, click here to download and install.