In The Neighborhood

I completed a double page spread for my journal exchange. I thought I would use the background I made with paint and plastic wrap, adding some new purchases. It is a bit less busy in person as the pen work did not photograph well. I used one of the new Hero Arts stamps (large house) and paired with Basic Grey's Out of Print paper. I used the On The Edge houses from Tim Holtz/Sizzix to die cut the patterned paper. A few stickers and punched circles were added.

Tuesday's Tip

I was finishing several projects (and making a quick card or two) this past weekend. After stamping an image, I placed my stamp down on my work surface. Actually, I placed it inked image side down on an acrylic block. It left an image on my block. So...I thought, why not try using the acrylic block as a mirror image stamp? The image is not super clear, but it made for an interesting effect. I think that using the larger blocks (stamped) would make for an interesting background!

More Stains

Last post, I applied the new Distress Stains from Ranger onto card stock. For this next experiment, I applied pools of stain on a non-stick craft sheet. I used the same 4 colors as before. I cut my card stock into mat size pieces. I sprayed the cut pieces with water, but I did not saturate them. I then placed them into the stains and gave a slight turn. I wanted to get a fairly covered piece of card stock. The photo below was the result:

These were the panels. (The upper left was slightly different and will be covered at a later date). By wetting the card stock,  the stains flowed and mixed better. I  made the mats into cards.

Here is one of the cards I made with the Stained background. I over stamped the background with one of Club Scrap's newest stamps from the Raku kit. The colors are much brighter in person. Can you tell I am enjoying playing with the Stains?!

Art Journal Fun

This was a playful double page spread I made. The background on the left was created with strips of various background papers and tapes. On the right page, the inner part of the page is a resist - water soluble Pastel over Glaze pen outline. Both techniques could be translated to a variety of projects, including cards and ATC's.

Tags for Christmas

These 2 tags were made from a couple of the background panels that I posted during the past week. For both tags, I used the Sizzix die cut die to cut panels. The tag on the left was made from the panel onto which  I sponged Purel. After stamping Christmas images, I tied the bow and it is ready for use.

For the blue tag, I stamped snow flakes in white ink. The sentiment was stamped in black. It is nice to have 2 Christmas tags completed and ready to use. Having background panels ready to use certainly eases and quickens tag making.

More Background Fun

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! I had planned to complete the series on backgrounds before Thanksgiving, but time has a way of fleeting when you have kids home from college.

The above panels were the result of pigment and dye ink resists. The motif was stamped in hybrid pigment inks (matte and pearlized) and allowed to dry for a minute or two. Once dry, I brayered dye ink over the top (I used Ranger Adirondack Cranberry). I lightly buffed over the areas of pigment ink. I think this is a great background for holiday cards or tags.  Give this a try - quick and simple, and easy to incorporate into your Christmas/Holiday cards.

Painted Backgrounds

 Playing with art supplies seems to be the continuing theme these days. I dug out some acrylic and water color paints and stamps, deciding to wing it. For the above panel, I stamped with Microglaze onto matte coat card stock. I then dumped a couple of colors of acrylic paint on to the card stock and stippled it around. Once the paint was dry, I buffed the areas of Microglaze. It was difficult to get the Microglaze off as I let it sit a little too long. The photo does not show the depth of colors - there are opalescent fuchsia and blue in the mix with black. Next time, I may use a little less black.

These 2 panel were made using the same technique, but with watercolors. Again, the depth and variation of color are not quite visible in the photo.

Have you made time for play yet? Get those creative juices flowing and create some panels of your own. Then, when you need to make a card (and do not have a ready made stash), you can pull out a panel and you are half way to completion.

Backgrounds for Cards

 I made a handful of backgrounds for cards at Mary Jo's class at the Judikins warehouse. We used Microglaze as a resist (create a small flat dab to use to "ink" up your stamp) with chalk inks. Chalk inks are very versatile inks. They are great for basic stamping and embossing. But, did you know that they are the only inks that really do resist themselves?  The color variation that you see in some of the above panels are the result of layering various chalk inks on top of each other.

For the above card, I cut one of my prepared panels to create the central image. I stamped the image in light chalk ink and in Microglaze. I then brayer a darker ink over the top and allowed it to dry. Using chalk inks in this way, really shows the depth of field that can be created fairly quickly. Do you have chalk ink? If so, start playing around stamping it onto matte coat paper, and layer other chalk inks over it. You may be surprised!