Little Houses

These were the last of the little houses. The one on the right has grass and flowers around it. The one on the left also has flowers. I used a combination of liquid pearls and flower soft. Some of the flower soft was dyed using a green re-inker. Re-inkers are great way to change the color of many embellishments!

Tuesday"s Tip

Today's tip is an oldie, but bears repeating for newer crafters. I was reminded of it while making background panels. A couple of my lighter colored ink pads became cross contaminated with darker colors. It is easy to clean them up a bit. I use a plain paper towel to gently wipe off the color. For stubborn stains, I wet the paper towel a little and wipe/pat. It works great. Afterwards, you can re ink the pad.

Ink and Microglaze

While I was down in Southern California, I stopped in at the Judikin's warehouse for some playtime with one of my favorite people, Mary Jo McGraw. For those of you new to paper arts, Mary Jo has written a number of books and is THE expert on all things ink, stamp, art material related. Even if you think you have heard it all, I guarantee you will learn something new every time you talk with or take a class from Mary Jo.

Monday, we played at the warehouse with chalk, mica, dye inks and Microglaze. We made a variety of backgrounds, and explored various Microglaze techniques. I have a number of older posts in which I use Microglaze as a resist and as a stamping medium..  The above is an example of some of the master boards we made while playing. Unfortunately, the photo does not do this 8 1/2 x 11 sheet justice.

Playing with inks and materials helps fuel creativity, particularly when you do not  have a specific goal in mind. Chalk inks are great to apply direct-to-paper as they are the one ink that resists itself. The variety of layering effects and very interesting. Throw in some mica and dye inks and you will get a variety of depth's and textures. The panels I made will be cut up and used for cards. As I post, I will let you know what I did to make the background.  If you are further intrigued, visit Mary Jo's blog (see my side bar of blogs I follow). She has a variety of uses for Microglaze, as well as Diamond Glaze.  Then, get out your re-inkers and ink pads and make some discoveries for yourself!

Tuesday's Tip

In my post on November 12th, I used Flower Soft as moss for the embossed tree (here). It comes in a variety of colors and color combinations. Did you know that you can change the color by adding dye re-inkers? I used an Autumn mix and added a drip or two of Olive Green re-inker. I liked that the different colors in the mix (yellow, orange, rust) absorbed the dye re-inker differently. Thus, there was an interesting variation to the Flower Soft. If you do not have the exact color you need, get out your re-inkers and make your own!

Tinted Gesso

I was able to take all my boxes to the flea market site today. It is wonderful to be in my studio and not trip or have to move boxes out of the way.

I was playing with re-inkers and gesso. I added Hot Pink re-inker to gesso and applied it to blue card stock. I then stamped into the gesso. A quick and easy background to any card.  For the focal image, I colored the stamp with Tombow markers.

Card stock and stamps (other than the mini tag stamp and punch by Stampin' Up) are by Club Scrap.