Gina K. Stencil FLowers

Hiya, First, apologies for being slow in returning visits. I have to remember to go check the Awaiting Comments (as I'm sure a lot of you are having to do as well) to publish. I have a backlog of visiting to do, and I promise I'll catch up. We've been having some rainy days most of this week, with intermittent thunderstorms. Even though the computer has a good surge protector, I still power it down when the thunder starts.

Anyway, enough with the excuses. Recently I got 2 pretty stencils from Gina K. I decided to try using a dauber and some pigment ink over a dark cardstock to see how it would look. Here's the result:

Used a pale & darker yellow (don't remember what brand, but it was pigment ink) and then Hero Arts Unicorn white - daubed with a finger dauber, trying to do a little shading. A light green was used on the leaves and probably should have been a darker green to show up better. The cardstock was a navy blue, no texture. After finishing all the inks, went back using versamark on a finger dauber, covered all the stencil design. Then sprinkled some clear embossing powder. It has quite a nice shine IRL.

Did the same with the simple sentiment. Inked with the Unicorn white, used a WOW pearlized EP over it. Decided the bottom corner needed a little 'something', and these little embellies were in my line of sight. So there you go. I always need a card of this type, so I'm trying to build a little stash of such. Gina K had done a video using this stencil with a beautiful Gold ink & white card stock, and I hope to try that one of these days.

Recently read a post by my blog pal Loll  with a technique she calls Embedded Brusho technique (and she has a link to a good video, so check her post for the vid). Now I had seen another Youtube on this technique, tried it, and it didn't turn out well at all. (Trash offering). After reading Loll's instructions, I tried again, with much better results. (I did check out the video link first though).

Here's a couple of the results:

This used some Nuvo Shimmer Powder, Violet Brocade & Cherry Bomb and a WR Memory Box EF.

 

 

#1 was the first impression. (Shimmer Powder is rather similar to Ken Oliver Color Burst - powder rather than crystals.) Sprinkled it on the watercolor paper, then embossed & spritzed the w/c after this came out of the Big shot, but still in the folder. The folder had picked up some of the powder as it embedded into the w/c paper).

 

#2 (bottom example)  - 2nd pull after spritzing the product that got on the folder and it's much lighter.

 

#3 (top example)- 3rd pull, as there was still some color droplets left on the folder, so spritzed it again, got the color on the w/c paper; used a brayer to try to get most of the droplets off, but also since #1 was still quite wet, I pressed this piece into some of that color.(hope this makes sense).  #1 was quite vivid. Decided it was brighter than I wanted it, (a bit garish actually!) so I sprayed some pearlized mica spray over it, and that softened up the colors. I've made a card, which I'll share later.

 

This set was actually my first try with the EF, and used Brusho Turquoise and a Ken Oliver Color Burst in one of the newer orange colors that just came out. Didn't like this color effect too much. I tried swiping an old colorbox cats eye pad in a popcorn white over it (as the lady does in the video to tone down the colors). I couldn't really see much effect - but I didn't want to perhaps ruin one of my good white inks. Decided to spray the iridescent pearl over it, and I'm liking it better. Now what to do with it? The 2nd piece is just from dabbing (or smooshing - if you will!) this w/c piece over the wet on #1 before I put the spray on it.

I used another folder with some turquoise and Lime Green Brusho- and got about 5 pulls off it. Will show that in another post. This is a great technique when it works right LOL!

I had fun! My problem is I don't always know what to do with my results? You ever have that problem?

Will be trying to catch up visiting in the new few days. Don't give up on me. Thanks for joining me this afternoon, and Big hugs to anybody who might need one today.



 

Ducks for May Rudolph Day

Hi, and it's time for Rudolph Day for May 2018. In case you don't know about this challenge, it's a Christmas Challenge hosted by Scrappymoi (Maureen). It starts the 25th of each month and runs until month ending. The only rule is that the card must have a Christmas theme ...of anything you wish. There's always some good prizes, and lots of participation & inspiration from the Design Team. So I urge you to check it out, if you're not familiar with it.

Now my card was started for a previous Christmas Club Challenge but I didn't get this one finished in time. Brilliant idea: save it for Rudy Day. It's an old Penny Black image, which I think was an eBay purchase. Just cause I think these silly ducks are adorable. But...the image is long, so it was a challenge for me to think of how to use the finished image as I normally make card sized 5.5x4.25.

Colored, of course - with copics and some WoS. Die cut & dry embossed with a S/B long rectangle and did some antique distressing along the edges while still in the die so there is a white outer frame on the image.

Cut mats - each one successively larger but trying to keep it from growing way too large. The mat closest to the image was edged with double stick tape, then applied a Rose Copper Glitz Ritz. Burnished and thought that looked pretty ok with the colors in the image. Next mat did the same, using a gold Ritz, etc. The outer mat was cut from white (as were the other 2 mats), but then used the same copic reds in the Noel letters to color the edges. Inked with WOW embossing ink, and applied 3 coats of Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE). Heat the first application, and immediately re-ink and add another coat of UTEE, heat emboss. I did 3 layers to get the shine I want, and the gleam that is visible in the top right corner - is from the UTEE, and the light reflection. Actually I think it looks quite nice with the enameled mat combined with the glittered mats. The card base is white, and it WILL fit into a size 10 envelope (a business size). It's not quite as long, so I may choose to make an envie that it fits better.

Please do look in at Rudolph Day, it's a great way to build your Christmas card stash, and who knows, perhaps you'll win the prize Mo has on offer for this month.

Take care, God Bless and come again when you have time. I've been MIA on the posting & blog visits of late. Just been busy. (Oh, yes, for all those who were kind enough to ask about all the medical tests...they are finished - we hope! - and all went well. Thank goodness).


NOTE:  Today it seems I'm having the same problem with comments coming into my email. I just happened to think to check the Awaiting Modification section, after I'd done the Christmas Card Club post, as no comments were being notified as of late evening. No biggie, I was late with my post; just thought nobody had seen it to comment. Then when I was getting ready to publish this draft I'd done earlier, I thought to double check the awaiting section, and there were about 13 to be published. Not sure why this is happening again. I've changed nothing. I'll call my provider tomorrow. I did already check to be sure I've not blocked anything. I think it's Blogger, as another blog pal had asked me how I fixed it last time. Don't think I fixed anything, honestly!!! I just don't want to miss returning visits to someone who was kind enough to spend time looking at my post :-).

Christmas Card Club - Challenge 11

Hello and welcome to another Christmas Card Club post - Challenge 11 for 2018. Today our Shaz selected the theme of "Trees - Indoor or Outdoor". I'm a bit late with my post, but we've had guests this past week (one exciting visit, more about that later!) So let's get started: 

 

 

- Memory Box die - 6x6 paper from stash. The tree design was cut from the DP, then cut the tree shape again from white snippet, and gold snippet. Adhered the stripe cutout with the white snippet, then had the gold on top. Inlaid, although the photo does not show the dimension all that well. There's lots of gleam and shine on this card, so hard to photo well (even if I were a good photographer!)

 

A black snippet was heat embossed with Gina K white detail powder. The black snippet was a piece of textured paper, but still the embossing showed up quite well. This is the first time I've used this particular white EP. 

- More snippets (from this card) using the Memory Box Oval Master frame. The silvery oval rim was white, just like the oval inlay shape. Used a Pentel silver slicci pen to color it. Adhered this to a white backing, which the edges were colored black with a Copic marker.

- Tree is cut from 2 different Dee's Distinctively dies, one does the green tree silhouette, one did the silver overlay.  Adhered the tree over the oval, added a vellum sentiment, embossed with WOW platinum ep.  This topper was placed on a purchased pale gray card base.

Apologies to Shaz for being late with my post. I hope you'll take a few moments to check out my teammates' inspiration for this challenge. Their blogs are listed on the right side bar.

Now for my exciting guest: My sweet blog pal Brenda was visiting some relatives on the east coast of South Carolina, and was able to get over to my part of the state for an overnight visit. Her son, Bret, who just graduated very recently, was kind enough to spend his time driving her about 5 hours  off their route home, so we could finally meet face to face! We'd tried once before when we were traveling through her state of Pennsylvania, but things didn't work out for a meeting. I was so looking forward to it. As you might guess, we had a delightful time, yakking away. (I felt bad for poor Bret, having to listen to us gabbing away. Thank goodness young folks have their phones and Ipads to keep them amused). Got a call yesterday evening, that they had arrived safely back home. It was a big blessing to finally meet somebody with whom I've grown to known via blogging and emailing for many years, gotten very attached to. She was just as I thought she would be.  Makes one thankful for taking up blogging, I can tell you! You meet such wonderful people.

Anyway, I'll be back later with a post for May's Rudy Day...  so ya'll have a good day, and thanks for visiting. God Bless and Hugs.

Happy Birthday Flower

Hi and thanks for joining me this evening. I've been a little missing on blogging the past couple of weeks. We had things going on - some medical, some family obligations - and you know...just life. Hopefully most of the medical stuff is in the past, just going for checkups and stuff like that. It's getting pretty hot in our area, and our air conditioning had to go on over the weekend. We did have some lovely porch times, as we had nice breezes to cool; it was so nice to open up the house and air out the winter's mustiness.

Anyway, I'd seen a youtube showing a stamp that makes 'stained glass' effects using any stamp image in your stash. It was DRS Designs Large Stained Glass, so tried the techniques used in the video.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_Bv9adZ2a0.

Sparkle n Sprinkle Dahlia was embossed with a sparkle gold, then colored with copics in yellow shades. This would have shown up better had I used black to emboss it.

Background was colored with copic BG colors - which is not showing up great in the photo either. Then the Stained Glass stamp was inked with Versamark black, and stamped using the Misti. It took quite a few efforts to get it stamped thoroughly, especially at some of the corners and along the bottom edges. Good thing I had used the Misti. I'm hoping the next time it's used, it will stamp a bit better. Think it would also have looked better had I colored in some of the 'pieces' with a darker blue shade to emphasize as done in the video.  Used 3 coats of UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) - inking with Versamark, then sprinkling UTEE, heat, and repeating this process 3 times. Let it cool well, then bent the piece to cause crackling.

- used the same glitter gold EP to create the gold outer frame.

- white c/s was embossed with a floral EF, then sponged with DOX colors of Peacock Feathers, Spiced Marmalade and Wild Honey.

- old wooden stamp with a calligraphy font for the sentiment, embossed using the same gold used above, die cut with a pierced die, then edged with the gold again.

This is a pretty floral, but it just doesn't show up well with the way I've used it here. It's hard to see the flower details. Lesson learned!

There's a new card to enjoy on the Cards by Friends page, which I hope you'll take a peek to see.

Thanks for visiting, and take care. God Bless, many hugs.

Christmas Card Club - Sentiment as the Focus

Hello and welcome. Also a big Happy Mother's Day to all of you Mothers who might visit today.

It's time again for our Christmas Card Club to share our cards for Challenge 10 - and today's challenge theme was chosen by Carol ; Carol wanted our cards to be geared to having the sentiment as the main focus. I hope she'll like what I am sharing today.

- Northwoods Stamp - Colored with copics, WoS on the letters and some slicci gel pen on the 'doodles' - with some gold highlights on the pine branches.

 - Memory Box Oval Master Frame (99357) cut in red c/s and white c/stock. Used the red for the framing, and white for the holly embossing.

- Holly embossing folder - dry embossed, then used versamark to ink generously

- WOW Atlantic Seaspray WS99R embossing powder

Thanks for joining me today. I hope you'll take time to check out my team mates' cards to see their interpretation of this challenge. Their blog links are on the right hand sidebar.

Ya'll have a lovely day. Blessings and Hugs

Thank You

Thanks for coming by for a visit, and to share this Thank You card with me, that I've been forever finishing. Pieces of it have been on my desk for some time, and each day I'd plan to finish it, something would interfere. Isn't that the way life goes? My life goes that way, anyhow!

So here it is:

- Memory Box die, cut from white cardstock. Heat embossed first with Ranger's Princess Gold, & I didn't like the look. Re-versamarked it, then used an SnS EP (can't remember the name of it) but looked much much better. A similar size piece of previously created background - from sprays or brusho-s I don't remember that either, as it came from the background box! - was cut to size and glued to the circle to create a background

6x6 card pack had some paper that I thought looked ok with the circle motif. A Hero Arts Infinity circle die embossed a frame for the circle before it was adhered to this DP. (you use the tan pad that embosses instead of cutting...if you are lucky! I have sometimes cut through if it's a thin paper like this was, instead of the thicker card stock. Placing an extra piece of c/s on top of or below the thinner paper is helpful. If you think to do it, which I usually do not, until I ruin the first piece of paper!!!

Stamped the sentiment on a snippet of vellum, heat embossed with the same color used on the circle die. It looks quite different when on the vellum. A few yellow pearls to trim - that's it!

Ya'll have a nice Wednesday. God Bless.