Category Archives: techniques

Nov28

Simple and Sublime

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Simple and Sublime

Raisin Boat’s class on brayering during last winter’s True Stamp event was truly inspiring. However, I don’t have any of the re-inkers they used on hand. So what to do when you want to try a technique, but don’t have the supplies?

You improvise!

brayered poppies

Rather than using a re-inker, I spritzed a puddle of Dylusions misting ink onto my non-stick craft mat. I then rolled my brayer into the puddle, and began rolling the ink onto the paper. A few die-cut poppies from Memory Box later, and a card was born.

Don’t you just love the ombre effect on the background? The lines that you can see in the ink? That’s because I used a soft brayer rather than a hard one, I think. I had the soft one on hand, so used that rather than buying the hard one. I’m cheap!

Which brings me to today’s point: Say you want to try a new technique, but don’t have any of the supplies recommended by the instructor. Rather than going out and buying a whole bunch of new stuff, go through what you have on hand, and think about how you can make what you have work. Don’t have re-inkers, but do have spray mists or liquid watercolors, or acrylic paints? How could you use them to approximate the technique you want to try? That’s how you discover your creativity: by experimenting and playing. It’s really fun, you should try it some time!

To all my US readers: Happy Thanksgiving! I hope your day is filled with joy and peace! Actually, how about a little joy and peace for everyone, no matter where you are! Thank you for being here!

Nov27

Getting Grungy

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Getting Grungy

Are you making anything yummy for Thanksgiving? I’m hosting this year, so that means the cooking starts today. Since I am guaranteed to be making a mess today, how about a grungy card?

grungy tower

This one was fairly quick to make with a brayered background, a couple of Tim Holtz stamps, a little additional inking around the edges, and some patterned paper. The background was inspired by this class taught by Bobbi Lemanski and Kim Ziehr of Raisin Boat for True Stamp. I didn’t have the exact supplies as used in the class, so I experimented with what was on hand. This one is a bit blotchy. But, it works for a grunge style card, don’t you think?

Don’t forget, if you want to get a card in the mail from me, you need to be on my mailing list! I’d love to send you one!

Nov26

Happy Accidents

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Happy Accidents

One of the things that will really make you happier as a crafter is learning how to let your mistakes marinate, and figuring out how to use them as a creative catalyst.

As I may have mentioned on numerous occasions before, I make a LOT of mistakes. Many of those mistakes are the result of simple user error. I either was not paying attention, or was fumble fingered, or just plain careless. It happens. It’s no big deal when it happens, unless I decide to let mistakes and errors stop me. Where’s the fun in that?

Today’s card is one of those mistakes that’s become a happy accident. I really like how it turned out, but you may not like it. The effect is very subtle. It’s really pretty hard to see in person, let alone in a picture.

subtle wheat

As I was making the background for this card, I was aware that I might have trouble with it, simply because I have been using different types of inks on different surfaces for ages. I experiment! It’s fun. 🙂

This is mirror cardstock. It has a very smooth, coated surface that resists most inks. Alcohol inks or solvent inks work fine on this. Other inks? Not so much.

Since I haven’t tried Memento ink on this surface yet, I decided to give it a whirl, and see what happened. Memento says it will dry on most surfaces, although some surfaces may require heat seating the ink. So I stamped this stamp in Memento black ink on the alcohol marbleized cardstock.

It wasn’t a perfect transfer (stamps tend to slide on super smooth cardstock like this) but it worked. I set it aside to dry and worked on other projects. After awhile I came back to it, and it wasn’t dry, so I heat set the ink for a little bit. Set it aside, and after waiting a bit more, checked to see how the ink was. Rubbed a tiny corner, and smeared a bit of ink. So I set it aside again, this time for a few days while I got other things done.

I find letting troublesome projects rest allows me to come back to a project with a fresh, optimistic, and creative eye.

In this particular case, I decided to just try to remove the still tacky ink with a paper towel. First I blotted it, and then I gave the background a quick rub. As I did so, I noticed that the spots where I had removed ink, had also taken the alcohol ink underneath off as well. The result? Ghostly wheat grass all over the background.

Cool!

A quick embossed, colored and matted wheat stamp, and the card was done.

What do you think? Can you see the ghostly grass? I’m having a hard time getting a good shot for you.

ghostly grass

Ah! That’s better!

 

Nov25

Simple and Gorgeous Technique

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Simple and Gorgeous Technique

Most stamping techniques aren’t hard, but they can seem intimidating until you try them. This is one of those techniques. Let’s break this down into steps, so you can see just how easy this can be.

shadow block technique card

1. Start with the shadow stamp. (This is a stamp with a solid shape like a square or rectangle or circle on it.) Choose a pigment ink that’s very light. Do a test stamp first to make sure the ink is light enough to stamp over. This particular image was stamped three times, reversing top and bottom each time. If you have a bigger stamp, you won’t need to stamp it multiple times, but this was the effect I was looking for.

2. For the main image, choose a stamp with a solid surface, not an outline.

3. Choose dye inks for the main image stamp. If you have small ink pads, that will make it easier to keep the colors separate, but the normal sized ink pads will work as well. If you turn your stamp upside down, you’ll be able to see where you’ve inked, and where you haven’t more clearly.

4. After you’ve applied your dye ink to your stamp, very lightly stamp in onto a piece of scrap paper, and then stamp it firmly onto your shadow block image.

5. Finish up the image however you want. In this case, I trimmed the image, inked the edge, and mounted it onto a couple pieces of patterned paper, with a piece of ribbon and rhinestones to finish it off.

It really is that easy to do. Try it! You’ll like it!

Don’t forget if you want to get a card in the mail from me, make sure you’re on my email list!

 

Nov24

You Are a Superstar!

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You Are a Superstar!

You really are! Thanks for joining me on this crazy card making frenzy.

superstar card

 

This was a quick and easy card to make. The background is Heidi Swapp color shine mists spray over a stencil that was laid on top of the background paper. Do you see how some droplets cover up the white lines left behind by the stencil? That’s because spray mists are very fluid, and will travel underneath stencils if you spray too heavily. The stars are kraft stickers from Studio Calico, and a punch from Fiskars. A few rub-ons and a label from a label maker, and voila! A card!

Today’s quick tip: If you use spray mist on a regular basis, you need a place to spray it. Re-using a shipping box gives you a place to contain the over-spray, and a safe place to let your project dry. Just make sure the box is big enough to let your project lie flat.

Don’t forget, if you want to get a card from me in the mail, make sure you’re on my email list!