In-Color Emboss Resist

Finally playing with some of the new catalog items.  The new in-colors are great for summer projects and are a great compliment to Stampin' Up!'s core colors.  Warning-you may tend to get hungry when you use them though. :)

Using a paint brush and some Versamark refill, I "painted" areas of the white cardstock for embossing.  I decided to use white embossing powder instead of clear to make sure the white really popped against the colors.

After heat setting the embossing powder, I sponged the in-colors over the card.  Starting from the bottom, I sponged Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, and then Coastal Cabana.  I then edged the piece in Baked Brown Sugar and added a little in the center.

Then I took a soft cloth and wiped the ink from the embossed areas and stamped the flowers.  I inked up only half of the sentiment from Feel Goods and then cut it out with the Apothecary Accent framelit; sponging around the edges with Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding and Baked Brown Sugar.

Finally I used pop dots on both the sentiment and the focal point when adhering to the card base.  When stamping over embossed areas be sure to use a solvent based ink like Staz-on or Ranger Archival so that it doesn't rub off the embossed area.

Supplies
Stamps: Feel Goods, Field Flowers
Ink: Baked Brown Sugar, Coastal Cabana, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Versamerk Refill, Jet Black Archival (Ranger)
Paper: Baked Brown Sugar, Whisper White
Misc.: Apothecary Accents Framelits, Big Shot, White Embossing Powder, Paint Brush, Heat Gun, Sponges, Pop Dots

Collage Money Holder

Well, once again it has been a while since I posted.  It's frustrating when the daily grind gets in the way of my creative time.  I have several projects lying around my studio just waiting for the finishing touches, but I just can't seem to get them done.  While I am grateful that I have a paying job, said job has been literally sucking the life out of me lately and in turn my creative spirit.

As my daughter so eloquently puts it, "Life rips the creativity right out of you and repeatedly stabs it to death".  Yes, a little dramatic, but she is a teenager after all.  :)

I did manage to complete a swap for a demo meeting and am extremely happy with the results.  I didn't feel like making a standard card this time so I created a money holder.

I adapted the size of this money holder from previous ones I have made.  We can only use current product for these swaps and since the slit punch has been retired for awhile now, I needed to find another way to keep the money in place.

This holder measures 3 1/4" x 7", and the inside slider measures 3 1/8" x 6 3/4".  I used the 1 3/4" circle punch to make the "holders" for the money on each end.

I used an Aqua pen filled with re-inker and water to make the splotches on the front of the holder.  Lay your project flat.  Make sure that your work area is protected and items that you don't want colored are not close at hand; I use an old lidded box when I do this so that I don't get ink where I don't want it.  I then took the pen in my right hand and knocked it against my left hand, moving it around the project.  For the larger dots, I let the pen drip onto the project. I also used the Spritzer tool to get a fine mist in some areas.

The flowers were colored by rubbing them over the ink pad and then misting them with water for a softer tone; I used Pool Party, Island Indigo and Midnight Muse.  The doily was folded and torn into fourths, then lightly sponged with Island Indigo.


Stamps: That's The Ticket
Paper: Island Indigo, Pool Party, Naturals White, Fan Fair DSP
Ink: Island Indigo, Midnight Muse, Pool Party
Misc.: Fabric Flower Trim, Pool Party Bakers Twine, Victoria Crochet Trim, Paper Doillies, Ticket Builder, Itty Bitty Butterfly, Scallop Edge, and 1 3/4" Circle punches, Basic Pearls, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, Crop-a-dile, Aqua Pen, Color Spritzer tool, Sponges, Mini Glue Dots


ETA:  I started this post a while back, many of these items are retiring.  Today (5/31) is the last day to get items from the Spring Mini and Monday (6/3) is the last day to order retiring items from the 2012-2013 Annual Catalog.  If you are interested in purchasing any of the retiring products, click here.

Still Gluing Away

I am still working with the Distressed Glue technique that I used in the previous post.  It really is a lot of fun and so easy to do.

Since the leaves are already changing here and Fall is my favorite time of year, I decided to use my new Autumn Accents Bigz Die.  I love the oak leaf on the die and this technique gives some great depth and interest to the piece.

Instead of using my finger to move the glue around, this time I used a dry brush which made things a little streakier..  I really like the effect and the detail it gave to the leaves.  I also like using sponge daubers, as you have more control over the depth of color as well as placement, than with a sponge.

To define the acorn a little better, I used my stylus to create definition between the cap and the nut.  The distressed glue technique was used only on the cap and them sponged with Early Espresso, while the nut was sponged with Soft Suede.  I tied it up with some linen thread and popped it up on dimensionals.

The color combos for the leaves are:  More Mustard and Pumpkin Pie, Summer Starfruit and Gumball Green, and Pumpkin Pie and Raspberry Ripple

Since the leaves are so "polished" and bold I wanted to give the card some texture, so I Inlaid Embossed the mat piece.  I stamped the sentiment on Very Vanilla and punched it out with the Modern Label punch using the technique I showed in this post.  I adhered that to the Early Espresso mat piece then ran the whole thing through the Big Shot with the Square Lattice Embossing Folder.  It makes it look like the sentiment was "inlaid" into the Early Espresso.

Supplies
Stamps: Day of Gratitude (sentiment)
Ink: Early Espresso, Gumball Green, More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Raspberry Ripple, Soft Suede, Summer Starfruit
Paper: Early Espresso, Very Vanilla
Misc.: Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Autumn Accents Bigz Die, Big Shot, Modern Label Punch, Linen Thread, Scotch Quick Dry Glue, Sponge Daubers, Dimensionals


I LOVE the background on this card!  This is a piece I created when I was initially playing around with the technique.  I used my finger to move the glue around on this one.

The colors are Pool Party and Midnight Muse.  So awesome together.  I actually don't think I will be keeping this as a card.  I thought about placing a single word sentiment in the upper right corner, but I really don't want to cover up anymore of the background.

I am thinking about framing it and/or using it in a mixed media piece.  What do you think?  What would you do with this background and silhouette?

Speaking of mixed media...I will be sharing some pieces I have been working on pretty soon.  I am very excited about the pieces I have created and how this art form has expanded my creativity.


Supplies
Stamps: Just Believe
Paper: Midnight Muse, Pool Party, Whisper White
Ink: Midnight Muse, Pool Party
Misc.: Scotch Quick Dry Glue, Sponge Daubers

Fun Distressed Glue

I found a cool new technique on SCS a few days ago.  Well, it's new to me anyway.  It's called Distressed Glue and is a lot of fun.  You can use it on small pieces or make really interesting backgrounds.

My youngest niece is very much a girlie girl, and her favorite color is pink.  So, for her birthday card I used Pretty in Pink and Rich Razzleberry to make a background using the technique.  I wasn't that thrilled with it when I was done, so I used the Floral Frames Framelit dies and the Daydream Medallions stamp set to turn it into a flower.  The leaves are from the Autumn Accents die in the Holiday Mini catalog and were colored with Old Olive using the same technique.

This even falls into the quick and easy category.  The technique only takes a couple of minutes to do and the card itself is pretty straightforward. 

After creating the background, I stamped the Medallions in Rich Razzleberry and used the framelits to create the flower by simply layering three pieces and holding it together with a Clear Rhinestone brad.  The leaves were adhered with glue dots.

The flower still looked a little blah on its own, so I jazzed it up a bit with some Victoria Crochet trim looped behind the piece.  The sentiment is from Int The Stars (retired) and is stamped in Rich Razzleberry.  There you go, easy!


Supplies:
Stamps: Daydream Medallions, In The Stars (retired)
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White
Ink: Old Olive, Pretty in Pink, Ruch Razzleberry
Misc.: Floral Frames, Framelits, Autumn Accents Bigz Die, Big Shot, Victoria Crochet Trim, Scotch Quick Dry Glue, Clear Rhinestone Brad, Mini Glue Dots, Sponge Dauber