Recent Cards to Julie

I’m trying to add a new post to the blog with the cards I have received in the last couple of months.  Sorry to be so slow about it.  But here are cards that arrived in my mailbox from Inky Fingers members.  Two from March (from Dorothy and ??? – I’m guessing Pam) and one from April (from Juliene).  Thanks to all of you.  I love getting art in the mail.

Julie

From Dorothy.  I haven’t met you Dorothy.  I appreciate your card.  The lady bugs are so cute!

From Pam????  I am guessing Pam because it has so many layers!!  Love the perfume in the vintage blue frame.

From Juliene…. This is pinker in real life.  Having trouble picking that up.  I love the dots in the shape of the curve on the right.

 

Birthday Card

This is a birthday card for a friend of mine at work.  I got the inspiration from this StampTV video on using a brayer with rubber bands.  On the video, she brayered the rubber band marks onto the cardstock with Versamark and then heat embossed with gold embossing powder.  When I was all enthused to try this technique, I could only find one rubber band in our house!!  So, I dug up a stamp I have that looks like rubber band marks and used that instead.  The stamp is from Rough Lines from JudiKins.  I used coppper embossing powder instead of gold just to see what it would be like.  After the heat embossing, the color is added with Distress Inks.  I used nestibilities to make the scalloped and unscalloped circles.  One of the circles is also embossed with copper embossing powder.  The sentiment is from Inkadinkado.

I’ve also made a set of ATCs with the rubber band technique (actually my substitute stamp).

Thanks for looking!

What I Borrowed from Erin…

Recently, I was back in my home town in Iowa.  I visited my friend, Erin, who always inspires my stamping.  She’s a stamper, painter, calligrapher, seamstress, fabric artist, you name it.  I rummaged through her drawers full of stamps and convinced her to let me borrow a few.  She’s very protective of her stamps, so when I got home, I made this folder for her with images of all the stamps I borrowed.  I wanted us both to have a record of what I had!!  The alphabet is from My Sentiments Exactly.  I made the circles and dots from things around my kitchen. The folder is a pocket folder I bought at River City Rubber Works when they still had a brick and mortar store near Kansas City.  The marbled image is from TOYBOX Rubber Stamps in California Thanks, Erin, for letting me borrow a few of your stamps!!  I’ll keep them clean, neat and all together.

Perfect Pearls and H20s

I’m in an ATC technique swap at RubberStampChat.  On StampTV, I found a technique I wanted to try using Perfect Pearls and gel pens.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t get my gel pens to work very well,  They were too streaky.  So, I substituted H20s, which I liked very much.  For the ATC, I stamped the flower (StampinUp) and the dots ( My Sentiments Exactly) with Versamark and then applied gold Perfect Pearls with a small brush.  After the Perfect Pearls had set into the Versamark, I wiped off the cardstock with a tissue.  (Great thing about PP.  They have their own binder, so you don’t have to heat set, spray or anything else.)  Then I colored the images with iridescent blue, violet or red H20s.  The sentiment is a 2000 stamp from the now-defunct PSX stamp company.

Thanks for looking!

Brilliance Pigment Ink on Black Glossy

I am working on a technique swap for Rubberstampchat.  I was exploring various places for techniques and ran across a technique for markers on black glossy paper at Ginger Snap Creations.  The link to the original tutorial is here.  I loved the photos at the end of the tutorial where she used metallic markers and water to create rivlets of color.  So, I decided I’d try that.  None of my attempts with metallic markers and water worked.  Here are a couple.  Interesting but not what I was looking for.

So, I scrounged around trying to find something that had a metallic sheen that might work on black glossy paper.  I settled on Brilliance archival pigment ink pads.  In most instances, I spritzed the paper with water first.  Then I applied one or more shades of Brilliance ink.  I mostly used Galaxy Gold, Platinum Planet and Crimson Copper.  After applying the ink, I spritzed more water on the paper to see what would happen. On some of them, I used a heat gun to speed up the drying process.  That resulted in the colors mixing together a bit more.  If you leave them to dry on their own, it takes a day or two, depending on how much ink and water you used.  I’ll post my ATCs when they are done.  Here are my black glossy, water and Brilliance backgrounds.

Thanks for visiting!!

Making Fabric Paper

I’m a lurker at Mixed Media Art Friends.  They are running a swap where participants make fabric paper using muslin, a glue/water mix, other papers, fibers, etc. and tissue paper.  I had seen fabric paper tutorials before but never had the chance to try it.  So, I joined the swap, and here are my first pieces of fabric paper.  Basic technique is to mix glue and water roughly 1 to 1, lay muslin on something plastic like a trash bag and cover with the glue/water mix.  Add thin paper, fibers, whatever you want.  Make sure this layer is imbedded in the glue/water mix.  Leave space between pieces where the muslin shows.  The theory is to make it thin, so  you can sew with it. Then add a layer of tissue paper on top and another layer of the glue/water mix.  Let dry (at least 24 hours – maybe longer).  Peel off the plastic bag, and you have fabric paper. Here is a tutorial with pictures from Belinda who runs MMAF.

For my pieces, I sprayed Twinkling H20 Radiant Rain (by LuminArte) while they were still wet – gave them a nice shine.  I think the next batch I make, I might wait to add the color until everything is dry or use less color so you could see more of what is going on underneath.

For this first piece, I used a paper towel that had been a backdrop while I was working on something else. It had lots of blues, greens and purples.  I tore the paper towel into pieces and layered on the muslin.  Then I added some blue sparkly fiber.  I used a Sky Blue Radiant Rain color over the top with a little bit of Solar Gold throughout.

For the second one, I used some wide ribbon with roses in various shades of red and pink, with some green mixed in, as the middle layer.  I put the pieces really close together, so very little of the muslin shows.  Cranberry Radiant Rain on top.

For the third piece, I was going for a vintage look.  I layered torn pages from an old book onto the muslin and then added some black circle stickers with letters on them.  I stamped large numbers in a rusty brown ink on the white tissue paper before I glued it on. (Numbers are hard to see in the photo.) The Radiant Rain layer is Bronze Medallion.  This is one that I would have added less color on top.  It’s hard to see the other layers.  But that bronze Radiant Rain is really nice!  Thanks for looking.  I’ll post whatever I make out of the fabric paper I get in the swap.

 

Wintery Nights

I’m doing an ATC technique swap at Rubberstampchat.  I used the Glossy Gesso technique from the Dec. 2010/Jan. 2011 Technique Junkies Newsletter.   Stamp is Penny Black.  I used white acrylic paint instead of gesso.  Mist is Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Old Lace.  Hope you enjoy!

Kings and Queens challenge…

I’m new Gingersnap Creations but I really like their style.  I’ve been watching the blog, have joined the yahoo group and watch some of the members’ blogs.  They are having a challenge on the theme of royalty, so I thought I would join in.  (Chestnut Theme Challenge, GC89: Kings and Queens.)  I made the flowers in the background with a Martha Stewart set of clear stamps – the kind that has a solid and an outline stamp for each image.  The solid wasn’t dark enough, so I colored  them with colored pencils.  I masked the flowers and created the green background with distress ink, a word stamp and a flourish stamp.  Can’t tell you where the image came from.  I picked it up several years ago.  There is a funny story about the sentiment.  I designed the card around the sentiment stamp, which I have never used before.  I put the whole card together and then started on the sentiment block.  Much to my surprise, I discovered that the actual stamp does not say “There was once a world…” as is indicated on the top of the stamp.  The actual stamp says something completely different!! (“May the moon light your way…..”  Nothing to do with kings or queens.) I laughed.  Haven’t had that happen too many times.  I recreated the Queen sentiment on the computer and finished the card.

Birthday Chicken…

A friend of mine bought me a wall paper sample book she found on sale for a $1.  Her birthday came up not too long after that, so I thought I’d try to make her birthday card with something from the sample book.  She loves chickens.  (I buy her chicken stamps whenever I find them.)  As I was flipping through the book, I found several pages with chickens, and that settled that!  The background is wall paper with ink blended in to make the texture pop.  The chicken is wall paper adhered to cardstock (or chipboard, I can’t remember) to give it some dimension.  I wish I had thought to cut out more of the “grass” at the bottom, so it stretched the length of the card.  Oh, well.  Next time. She’ll get the card this weekend.  Hope she likes it!

Cards created on a snow day

I live north of Chicago, and we had a blizzard last week, resulting in snow days for all.  I took the opportunity to make a quick set of cards for some friends and relatives.  I owed a couple of thank yous for dinners and other things.  And, a friend and a relative are struggling with cancer, so I thought I would send them a note.  Here are the cards.  Nothing fancy but the cards will arrive relatively on time – always a plus.